A Matter of Perspective, Perhaps

We've been getting ready for one of our two big annual exercises here recently, and I've been trying to get over the cough that remains from my run-in with Korea's version of a cold (which I suspect is a mutant cousin of the bird or swine flu) and finish up some chores before the madness begins. In addition to burrowing in the Kleenex box I've been buried in PowerPoint for the last couple of weeks working on a couple of briefings for the exercise. It's a pretty massive event, and although our part in it is relatively small, it still gets a lot of attention.

This is what our Commanding General said about the event:

“Exercise Key Resolve is an annual training event designed to ensure readiness to defend the Republic of Korea and sustain the capabilities that strengthen the ROK-U.S. Alliance,” said Gen. James D. Thurman, Combined Forces Command commander. “It is based on realistic scenarios, using various assumed threats. The training enables us to train on our critical tasks and work through crisis management with a ‘whole of government’ approach.”

North Korea's government had a different take:

Pyongyang, February 4 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea issued a statement on Saturday denouncing the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean warmongers for officially announcing their plan to stage Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises [...].

The U.S. and the Lee group is oft-repeating the stereotyped sophism that Key Resolve is to cope with "possible provocation" from someone and "annual exercises for defense" and the like, but no one would believe this claim. [...]

All facts go to prove that the chieftain of escalating the tension on the Korean Peninsula, the ringleader of deteriorated inter-Korean relations, and the prime mover of a war is none other than the U.S. and the puppet group and the Lee group is the shock-brigade and culprit of the aggressive war of the U.S. imperialists.

 (Read the whole thing here.)

And, just to make sure the point was clear, this one:

No one can vouch that the above-said saber-rattling to be staged in the peninsula and waters around it would not lead to a new war. The service personnel and people of the DPRK are watching with vigilance the highly disturbing moves of aggressors in the peninsula and waters around it and, when a chance presents itself, they will never miss it but root out the very source of national misfortune and regional instability through a merciless punishment.

When aggressors trumpet about "defense," they precisely mean a declaration of a war.

You can't make this stuff up, folks. I could tell the "Eunster" though, he doesn't need his soldiers for "merciless punishment"--all he'd need to do is introduce a computer virus that takes out Microsoft Office.

Cooking Lessons

A couple of weeks ago Komo made mandu dduk guk--dumpling rice cake soup.  I like this soup anyway, so with Komo's cooking magic added in I was in heaven.  She thought it was funny that I praised it so much; I guess it's not one of the hardest dishes to cook.  She offered to teach me how to make a simple broth to use as a base for many Korean (and Western) dishes. 

So we came over a couple of hours before dinner that weekend, and Komo showed me how to make a simple broth with anchovies and seaweed.  She packed up a baggie of Korean salt (not sure how it differs from salt bought at the commissary) and sent me home with a container of broth.

What to do with it?  I wandered around the commissary picking out ingredients.  Beef is usually good, a couple of potatoes, green onion, a little regular onion...if I had gone to the Korean market I would have grabbed a turnip, but for some reason they never stock them at the commissary.  So I wandered over to the cabbage.  The regular green cabbage looked wilted, the baby bok choy looked good but was way too expensive for cabbage, so I settled on some red cabbage.

I like red cabbage.  I like how it tastes, and I think it's really beautiful.  When I buy red cabbage I always want to do something fun and creative with it, like create a veggie bouquet, or a landscape, or do a photo shoot.

I didn't think about how it would do in soup.

My soup turned out violently purple.  I was kind of expecting it to taste as strange as it looked, but amazingly (perhaps because some of Komo's magic was left in the broth) it was really pretty yummy.

The next weekend we called Komo and Unnie to see if we could come over for dinner, and Komo offered to show me how to make samgyetang--one-pot chicken stew, usually made with ginseng.  I was excited! Samgyetang is really yummy--we ate it at a famous restaurant when Mom was visiting, and it was the only meal where she cleaned her plate.  Or pot, in this case.  I was surprised and excited to learn that it really isn't that complicated to make.  I mean, I think Komo's magic adds something beyond what the ingredients alone would add up to, but watching her cook I was feeling kind of confident that I could kind of reproduce the sequence of events.

photo from iamkoream.com

I haven't tried it yet, even though Komo gave me all of the ingredients I needed.  There's just something about cooking a whole animal that scares me a tiny bit.  Not that I'm opposed to eating whole animals--I'm actually very much a fan--it's just that I've never cooked a whole critter.  Ever.  Not a chicken, not a fish; I even buy shrimp with the heads cut off.  I think I might be a little afraid that I'll forget to take something out that will make the whole dish taste bad, or that I'll accidentally eat a shrimp head...oh wait, that was Daniel in Incheon.  Anyway, I'm still working up the nerve.

Tonight I made myself a reuben sandwitch with rye bread that Jihyun Unnie bought me and an apple cobbler with apples that Kyoungmin Unnie gave me.  (Noticing a theme?  Our family here spoils us tremendously.)  Not as impressive as samgyetang, but pretty darn yummy.  Perhaps I'll tackle the scary whole chicken the next time I cook for Mike.

Snow

When our resident weather guesser Staff Weather Officer told us all at the morning brief on Monday that we'd be walking through snow to our cars that afternoon we chuckled.  When lunchtime came and went with a clear sky, some scoffed at his prediction.

Well, Weather Guy had the last laugh.

So after work I decided to forgo washing the dishes in favor of taking a stroll downtown with my camera.

When I got home and flipped through my pictures I was happy with a few of them.  Then I pulled up the National Geographic photo of the day, and was suddenly much less satisfied with my efforts.  Still, it was a fun (if cold) way to spend the evening.