Not another food post!

On this day last year I had one of the most memorable food experiences of my life.  But that day I was sleep deprived, dehydrated and jet-lagged.  I need to explain-->

Last year I went to Nicaragua for the third time for another week-long short-term mission with members of my church.  No, I didn't do traditional/(stereo)typical mission work like the kind that's been satirized by the multiple Tony Award-winning musical Book of Mormon.  No, most Nicaraguans are Christians-- Catholic, in fact-- and our aim was not to convert.  But I digress.

The flight I had to take left at 5-something a.m, so I had to meet the others at the airport by 3 a.m, so I had to leave my house by 2:30 a.m., so I basically got very little sleep.  Luckily there I slept a little on the plane but not until I got my complimentary beverage (Mr. T's Bloody Mary mix, I think).  Landed in Miami International Airport for a second hobbit breakfast before catching the connecting flight to Nicaragua (we ate some egg salad sandwiches and clementines while waiting to board the first flight).  Slept a little on that second flight but again I was determined to stay awake to get my second beverage (Dr. Pepper) and unfortunately the combination of caffeine, nervousness, and sunlight streaming in from the window made it hard to get some shut-eye.

Finally we arrived in Managua, the country's capital, at noon their time (making up for our Daylight Savings Time). Lord, I was hungry.  And confused.  Going through immigrations and customs was a pretty simple, straightforward process, except I was tired and hungry and my brain was not functioning at it's Typical Performance Level.  Somehow I got separated from the group for a few minutes, and in that time I started to panic slightly.  But it worked out in the end, and before I was fully aware what was happening we were in our missionary-coordinated pastor's van and headed to what is probably the only Korean restaurant in Nicaragua.

And the food! Best Korean food I've ever had!  I ordered kimchi jjihgae, which is this stew that has kimichi n it-- spicy, fermented, pickled cabbage, aka Korea's national dish (and rumored reason why the SARS epidemic never touched that peninsula).  It looked like the only vegetarian thing on the menu,  and I knew I'd like it, so I that's why I ordered it.  Oh, but the menu...so confusing...it was in Korean and Spanish.  Mind you, I am only fluent in English and prefer to use it to speak.  Ah, but my poor little brain was still recovering from all the events of the previous 12 hours, and while I could read and understand the menu I was starving to read and hear some English.  I know, I sound like a crass, typical Stupid Ugly American who Wants E'r'one Ta Speak English, Ya Hear?! Eh, but consider the fact that I had been drifting in and out of sleep and had little to eat at that point.  It wasn't that I was upset about the fact that the menu had not been in English, but that I was too exhausted and wanted everything to be a simple as possible until I had recovered.  Man, but the food was just what I needed.  It was warm and filling and woke me up (and made my nose run like the river Nile).  Oh and also...it had meat in it.  Darn!  I suspect that the soup was cooked with that beef, and so I was partially drinking beef broth, and had inadvertently veered off from even my own rather liberal take on vegetarianism...but it tasted good.  And I needed food.  And that was the best choice I could've gone with.  And I know I will never have a more satisfying food experience that was so appropriate, so just-what-I-needed-at-the-moment meal, never again in my life.  So I choose to savor it, despite all these factors that indicate that it probably was special only due to the extraordinary circumstances.

Oh, also: best iced coffee I've ever had.  I usually like mine with lots of cream and just enough sugar for it to be just a little more sweet than bitter.  But this coffee was cooler than cool (ice cold!) and very sweet but not so sweet as to create that feeling that I simultaneously killed my pancreas and gave myself a few cavities.  When I (finally) read Watchmen this year and read the description of how the Silk Spectre/Laura or Laurie something likes her coffee (something like, "Black as the night and twice as sweet!"), I thought about this magic coffee from this Korean restaurant in Managua, Nicaragua.