yesterday my brother was sick enough that we didn't go to dinner, or so he says. hey, i'm not judging. we went tonight instead. korean restaurant, the kind where they (you) cook the meat at the table. as a vegan who doesn't eat spicy food, this is about the most appetizing thing i can think of. i try but i realize that korean and indian food just isn't for me. the same goes for twiddle thumbs. neither of us are very keen on the side dishes of japan or korea either. (at least everything isn't spiced to death with garlic and chili in japanese food that i can eat some of it.) what can we say, we are sooooo american. we were kind like, uh, what can we eat?

we had 2 waitresses. the first one didn't even speak english, i think. which is manageable as my brother speaks korean (we are complete opposites). however, we really wanted to know what we could eat and what the hell was going on and my brother isn't the best at translating to keep everyone informed. we did understand the silence though. my brother asked if there are any vegetarian dishes and the waitress went silent. ok, we'll have just to pick something and say no meat, no eggs. (bibimbap for twiddle thumbs, rice porridge for me, and we shared half and half.) our second waitress surprisingly spoke japanese because she once lived in tokyo. so the table was going back and forth in korean and japanese and poor twiddle thumbs had no idea what the hell was going on.

i eat bibimbap plain. my brother can't stand it. he always gets mad and says you have to put the sauce, you have to stir it, etc. i don't mind experimenting at times or eating traditionally, but if i know i can't eat something as is or as is supposed to be, i'll modify it so that i can eat. hence, i ate my share plain and twiddle thumbs let him do the sauce and stir. i think she regretted it. it was too hot for her to eat. my brother swore it's not hot but he eats hot food all the time so the hottest thing we can eat without dying will not even tingle on his tongue. when my brother first got into korean culture, i could no longer eat my mom's cooking because the spice factor went up so greatly. knowing this, i made funny faces to twiddle thumbs that she shouldn't do it but she didn't listen. well, life is all a learning process isn't it? after tonight, i seriously think that i'll lay off indian and korean until i can find a vegan restaurant so that i start off on the best possible foot. it's such a shame that the one korean vegan place i knew of in los angeles closed down before i could try it.