Festive Regardless

This one is long overdue....I start a few blogs, get carried away living, working, exploring or (most recently) recovering, then subsequently find pieces a few weeks expired but still feel compelled to finish them, regardless of the time that's passed since it's inception. I suppose this could be blamed partially on the improved weather - i.e. I can get out & play more frequently! 

Either way, here's one from nearly a month ago:

St. Paddy's Day has always been a rather lucrative day for me, given my chosen professional side job as a bartender, especially in recent years at MacDinton's Irish Pub in Tampa where the word insanity fails to adequately describe the severity of the debauchery amongst patrons or the sheer hours working behind the bar instigating said debauchery.

This year, however, was a far cry from the 18+ hour days of recent memory & was certainly a far less lucrative endeavor financially speaking. Rather than attempting to hunt down an order of corned beef & cabbage, I feasted on a couple very non-Irish meals.

Two of the girls from the Otae-dong school (Tues/Thurs) called me in the morning to see if I wanted to have lunch, as my social calendar was pretty wide open, they made their way to Sangmo (my neighborhood) and the hunt was on for a sufficient place to dine. Oddly enough, I'm literally surrounded by dozens of little restaurants but apparently nobody eats out for lunch. After wandering around for probably 30 minutes, we were finally able to find a place. Not surprising, it's menu consisted of traditionally Korean food w/pork & a various assortment of vegetables being the popular favorite, as expected.

I get a kick out of many of the restaurants, since many still 'allow' smoking in them. It's not especially common to have people lighting up regularly but regardless, it happens occasionally & seems to be no big deal, even though the girls did make a point that the culprits in this case were students (college) and simply didn't have much respect for the other patrons or the restauranteurs....wait till touchy, feely, PC really takes hold here, then they're in for it! Either way, the food was pretty good & something I've become more accustomed to consuming regularly.

James, had recommended we all have dinner together that night, so it seemed like another opportunity at fumbling through a chopstick endeavor but to my surprise, we wound up at a place downtown, near the train station that served pizza & pasta; a couple of my favorite entrees. There was a slight Korean influence to the food but overall a solid 'Western' meal. Most of their pizza's are either cheese or cheese and abstract veggies but they also have one with pepperoni's, so I was a pretty happy cat!

The pasta was, well, pasta. Spaghetti to be more specific. However, in both the pasta dishes, they had infused it w/clam shells & it wasn't bad but I don't see myself becoming a regular fan of taking my Italian favorites this way, it certainly offered a unique flavor, though! It's become customary, apparently, for the Director's to pick up the tab for these staff dinners but the restaurant had a wide array of delectably enticing desserts, so I grabbed a chocolate cake & brought it to school the next day for all to enjoy. It seemed to be a huge hit & it I've come to realize chocolate, in any capacity, is a favorite treat for Koreans any day!

As I have mostly forgotten my intended purpose of this blog from when I started it nearly a month ago, I do know that St. Patrick's Day isn't necessarily a world wide phenomenon yet but I did wear my green & threw out a few random Happy St. Paddy's Day to some confused natives who mostly nodded & smiled.

Who knows where & with whom I'll be celebrating next St. Paddy's day but I'm certain I'll enjoy it, as usual!