THE FLIGHT

Oct 13^th – The Flight

Short delay in flight with Korean Air. Sat for further 45 minutes. Got an aisle seat next to some middle aged Korean man. He was traveling with some other behind him. Based on their stares and body language I came to the conclusion that they thought I was Korean. They must have thought I was rude or something. Anyway, all came to light when the food trolleys came and I told the heavily made-up stewardess, “ I am not Korean. Do not speak Korean. English please”.
And the man next to me gave me a smile finally. :)

Boy, it was strange in-flight food. For breakfast, we had a choice of omelette or Green Tea porridge. I picked the latter since it sounded more interesting. And it was served in one of those plastic convenience food containers that resembled stuff you buy from 7-eleven, stick in the microwave and then wait for it to go “TING” ! I suppose that's probably what they did anyway. But it tasted good! Plain porridge with pickles, and seaweed strips. Very “cheng”. Ideal food if Mama were to see it, especially when I hadn’t slept so must have a lot of “huo qi”. Liver fire, if you know what I mean.

Slept and then watched a Korean movie called The Big Scene. It was one of those criminal stories that had a twist. Even had exorcists. Good movie and of course, cute prosecutor made it even better. :)

When it came to lunch, it was even better! It was BiBimPap and it was so cute. They serve the shredded veg and meat in a bowl, nicely displayed in the traditional Korean way and again, a 7-eleven looking container with hot steaming rice in it. And check this out, the hot pepper paste comes in a tube like toothpaste. How cool! But they ran out of BiBimPap when it got to me. Shucks. Wonder if they could even serve Dolsot BiBimPap, hot-pot style on the plane, or steamboat but 7-eleven style….that would be really innovative. Hehehe.

Actually, the Japanese and the Koreans all eat the same way. Tokyo and Seoul are both such busy cities where no one has time for anything as mundane as food. That would explain why their convenience food look-a-likes still tastes so good! And to make the flight even better, the landing at Seoul Incheon Airport was so smooth and gentle. Credit to Korean Air pilots. Good job!

PS: I think you can sense the bias by now. I am pro anything Korean. :P