The Prodigal Son Returns to Be a Father to His Sons, a Grandson to His Grandfather, Day 3 (see previously 6.018 Bok Jeongsik).

In town for a few days, arrived this evening, flying back Monday night.

3 tasks on the agenda : (1) attend Z’s daycare pageant (his first) (maybe his last)–done; (2) ski with D–done; (3) engage in shamanistic ritual for the grandparents.  No task today.

Nogari is a Korean pub.  All about nostalgia*.  Decor = minimalist/shabby, intentionally.  Menu = cheap/quick/convenient, stuff that would’ve been found in a hole-in-the-wall joint for poor college students back in the day.

Now that the country on the whole has attained a certain degree of socio-economic stability, Koreans seem comfortable enough to appreciate aspects of their culture from a time when they didn’t have it so good.   Up through the 1990s, everything had to be overly modern and slick, preferably western, seemingly expensive, from architecture and decor to food and fashion, just to show everyone and each other how far they’d come–textbook nouveau riche.  These days, the trend has taken the opposite extreme, reverse ostentation.  Someday soon, hopefully, it’ll even out until only the good stuff remains, regardless of new or old.

Korean has several words to describe cod/pollack in various forms: “myeongtae” = the fish itself; “nogari” = baby/young; “saengtae” = fresh; “dongtae” = frozen; “bugeo” = dried (see for example 1.339 Bugeo Guk); “hwangtae” = freeze-dried (see for example 4.020 Hwangtae Miyeok Guk); “meoktae” = semi-dried.  (Until I started drafting this paragraph, I hadn’t ever made the connection between all of these terms.)  Whereas pop lexicology holds that the evolution of diverse onomasiological nomenclature in a language to convey the esoteric nuances of a thing proves the profundity of its significance to the culture**, this species of fish isn’t particularly popular/prized/prestigious.  Certainly not compared to others, such as croaker/corvina (gulbi) or mackerel (godeungeo/samchi/ggongchi), which all claim but one term each.  I don’t get it.

**Not really.  The most famous example is that eskimos, allegedly, have many words for snow, a widely held belief that is now referred by some linguists as “The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax.” Koreans all believe that Koreans are prodigiously expressive because the language supposedly has so many different words for a given color, when in fact the words are merely reworkings of the same root word, sort of like “black … blacky … blackish … blackity … blackity-black”).  Sounds right, as most pop science does, but isn’t.

The meoktae was amazing.  Semi-dried, the flesh retained just enough moisture to keep it juicy, like good beef jerky.  Subtle pollack flavor, briny but not salty, fishy but not fishy.  In itself, a solid 3.5.  But elevated to perfection with the dipping sauce–mayonnaise + garlic + soy + chilies + something else that I couldn’t place–which smoothed out the texture and provided kick and heat and sweet.  Never realized that something like this could be like this.