All I want is Breakfast

OK I know we have a lot going on here but I really have to make a comment on breakfast in Korea. The fact is I like a good rice dish with fish, beef, pork, vegetables, and spices, just as much as the next guy. I just don't like it for breakfast.

The other day I went to a little restaurant with my parents where not a lick of English was spoken, but they had pictures of what looked like an omelette on a sign outside. We went inside and tried to order three of them, but the way to get service is to mark your order on a paper order sheet that's written entirely in Korean. We had to walk back outside and try to match the characters on the picture with the ones on the menu; but it was complicated by the fact that the sign said "omelette" under the picture while the menu said in effect stuff like, "western omelette," "three-cheese omelette," "seafood omelette." But all in Korean. You get the idea.

We managed to order three of something. While waiting for our order to be cooked, my dad got up to get us some water - because they don't bring you drinks, you go get that for yourself. He came back with four glasses of warm, murky liquid. "I think this is tea," he says. That's fine. It tasted nothing like tea. Later we found out the warm tea was in fact soup. We were supposed to pour that into the soup bowls, not the water glasses. Who eats hot soup for breakfast? I didn't care, I was waiting for my omelette.

But it turns out that "omelette" is completely misleading. The dish was essentially a scrambled egg wrapped around a bunch of rice. More rice! Agh! I like rice, but three meals a day??? I'll come right out and say it: I want some pig! Dead pig! Does anyone in Asia know how to fry up some bacon, ham, or sausage? Even as I type this I'm sitting in a Dunkin' Donuts, one of the two U.S. franchises that appears on nearly every corner of the city of Seoul (the other being Starbucks). I've just polished off two of their egg-and-bacon-with-cheese english muffins which appear to be made with uncooked (but slightly warm) bacon. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

My adventuresome eating spirit is withering without the ability to start the day with a decent breakfast. Everything is complicated by the fact that we're still waking up every morning about three hours before the restaurants open (six hours early on weekends!), and of course by Robin's pregnancy. She has pregnant-lady cravings, and they are not for rice or fish. Fortunately Robin is able to satisfy her hunger at our hotel restaurant which has a bunch of western chefs who know how to make stuff like, well, omelettes. Unfortunately, eating there comes to about $30 a plate. For breakfast! A Denny's would transform this place. What I wouldn't give for a Grand Slam breakfast right now...