Tater Tots & Octopus
October 07, 2005

Open 24 hours a day baby!

I recently went on a midnight excursion to the local Wal-Mart.  I was loosing my mind for food that I could read the labels on or at least understand the contents.  Starrlite said they had everything there...and she was right.  The place had 3 floors.  The top for the registers & toiletries, the second for clothes, books, & electronics, and the third for food.  Lots and lots of food.  I decided to walk up and down every isle to see what struck my fancy.  It was a cornucopia a plenty.  Pretty much any food item you could imagine was there, albeit Korean, but still there.

I was able to understand the contents of some of the items, but not all.  There was a whole isle dedicated to rice and another to oil, and another to noodles.  Those three items are huge here.  Every store I go into, the places are full of them.  Which reminds me, you know how Americans will go into a 7-11 and have one of their hot dogs?  Well at the 7-11 here, I've seen people go in and have a bowl of microwave noodles instead.

One side of the store was dedicated to meats.  Since it was past midnight, the counters were empty, but the sections still had meat out.  I don't think they really do "steaks" or "pork chops" here, because I couldn't find anything close to that.  It seems like most of the meats are normally chopped up into small sections and stir fried.  I need a steak and a double pepperoni pizza badly.  If you hear of a crazy fat American that went nuts in South Korea and got lost over the border into North Korea, mumbling & loosing his mind, it's because I haven't found a steak or a double pepperoni pizza yet.

In the meat area they did have tons of fish, I means tons.  I can't imagine how much would be out during the daytime.  Not too long ago I asked my interpreter why there were so many seafood places and so many fish dishes at normal restaurants.  That's when she reminded me that South Korea has kinda got a lot of ocean around it...I knew that...yeah...I knew that.  In the fish department they had a large aquarium with live fish staring at you pleading for their life.  Only a few feet away were their cousins with their frozen eyes staring at you saying "Maybe I should not have gone after that shiny hook thing after all."

A first happened for me in that fish department.  Besides seeing a lot of frozen fish with their heads still on, I saw big frozen octopus legs...suckers and all.  I remembered eating their little live friends on my first night here.  You haven't lived until you pick up big frozen octopus legs wrapped in plastic.

I didn't take this picture, but this is pretty much what they looked like.

After walking up and down almost every isle, I was beginning to get slightly disappointed.  I guess I was nuts to think that some of the items would be in English.  Man I'm retarded...I'm in a South Korean Wal-Mart!  Why would anything be in English!  On the very last isle I went down, yes, the very last isle...utopia!  I found corn dogs, frozen pizza, and TATER TOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh...my...God!  Yes...tater tots!  I was elated beyond belief.  I never thought I'd be so happy to see corn dogs and tater tots in my life...but I was.

What I learned today about Korea:  1)  They eat a lot of seafood and fish...lots and lots.  2) Tater tots make me happy.