Regardless of how it actually tasted, I grew up with the concept of free meals with plane rides. So it's still hard for me to stomach that airlines charge for basic food items in domestic flights. Especially if it's a 6-hour flight. Even then, sometimes they run out of 'food for purchase' and you're left with a choice of limited beverages to hold you over until the plane lands.
So here is my passive protest of 'screw you, I got better things to eat' in my recent flight from NY to LA.
We are starting with two kinds of rice today - seasoned forbidden rice with tiny anchovies and bulgogi (불고기) gimbap (김밥) made with sweet brown rice.
Then for dessert, you have a classic combination of mugwort-red bean rice cake or steamed buns with red bean-chocolate filling. Or you can have both.
Just about the time the beverage cart rolls around, grab your free coffee and enjoy it with sesame mugwort biji (비지; soy pulp) butter cookies. What can I say, I'm going through a mugwort (쑥; ssuk) phase...
It's important to eat fruits. Oranges give you vitamin C and refreshing smell in the middle of a drab flight.
Of course I don't do this everytime I fly. It was part of planning my vacation with much excitement and anticipation.
Ah - my vacation. The word vacation allows me to sleep late, but actually gets me up earlier than usual. It allows me to walk slower, think slower and stare at the sunset for a few minutes. I turn each page of 3 newspapers, enjoying the crisp sound of actual paper as much as reading any article, instead of clicking through headlines. I savor each sip of my coffee and miss the taste of the last sip instead of gulping a whole cup to force myself to wake up. More than anything, I love the luxury of letting my mind plop down and stay still.
KOREAN WORDS
vacation 휴가 (hyu ga)
newspaper 신문 (shin mun)
