FatManSeoul

Fatman would like to welcome guest blogger Gomushin Girl. Although she’s normally found roaming ’round Seoul, this expat has volunteered to be our first food diarist – she’ll record all she eats for the duration of her holiday home in the US. Welcome, Gomushin Girl!

Gomushin Girl here! I may be a Seoulite most of the time, but every once in a while we must all make a pilgrimage to the homeland. For the next few weeks I’ll be posting a record of everything I eat while back in my hometown  in the Pacific Northwest. I won’t pretend that this is in any way a good representation of the general American diet, but I do think of it as an ethnographic exercise in eating that will show a little bit of the diversity of how Americans eat while also giving a glimpse into the way local tastes and preferences show up.
Although I’m a happy camper with Korean food most of the time, my first day stateside is a chance to catch up on some of the foods I’ve really missed. Western-style breakfasts for the most part are easy to rustle up wherever you are . . . after all, cereal can be found in any Korean grocery store. Unless you want Weetbix, that is. I’ve been a fan of this British cereal for years, and while some people dismiss it as flavorless blocks of fiber, I figure that if it’s good enough for Elizabeth II then it’s good enough for me. It starts out crispy, then becomes soggy, and finally porridge-like as the milk slowly turns the bricks to mush. Trust me, it’s much tastier than it sounds, especially when washed down by English Breakfast blend black tea with milk and sugar.

Getting hummus in Seoul is hard, and getting good hummus is even harder so I insisted on having a big tub on hand when I got home. A piece or two of toasted flatbread were needed to facilitate eating.

What says “Welcome to America!” more than macaroni and cheese? Macaroni and cheese with petite pois. Frozen peas are pretty new in Seoul, so I’m happy to be back where I can stir them into dishes with abandon.