The American Way

Our lunch was not exactly as shown - it was better. The chicken breast was grilled,not breaded and the salad had cucumber, tomato, onions... with a huge serving of blue cheese dressing on the side.
My colleague D. is a very resourceful guy. He's the one bound to know where you can find anything, from miniature battery operated drills to fish tanks. Yep. One day, at lunch, he said how swell it'd be to have a fish tank in his office. I thought he was just saying it. Whaddya know? The next day, I walk into his office and see him lovingly feeding a couple of small fish, a big turtle and two tiny turtles. He had ordered the fish tank online after lunch the day before and had it delivered a couple of hours later. He named the big turtle Godzilla and aske me to suggest the names for the babies. I chose Kim and Chi. He liked the idea, so now he's a true Korean who keeps KimChi in even in his fish tank.

Today we wanted to have lunch together in the cafeteria, but after seeing squid tentacles entangled with strings of cabbage and onion, we both made faces and left the cafeteria. "No problem," D. says. "I know a perfect place in Hyewhadong, if you like chicken and salad."

I do, so we hop on the little village bus and go down to the main drag. He hails a taxi, and minutes later we are in front of Bennigan's. Shoot, I think, I wasn't planning to have an expensive lunch and I have only 4000 won in my pocket. "No problem," D says. "That's more or less all you need." What?, I think, a lunch at Bennigans for 4000won? Which planet does he live on?

When the menu arrives, he points to the side dishes: garden salad with a choice of dressing (2,500won), grilled chicken breast (3000won). Glass of water = free.
When the dish arrives, I am surprised at the size. It's just about enough to fill you up nicely without stuffing your face. The salad is served in a regular-sized plate, topped with tender sliced chicken breast. As an appetized we were given a big bread roll with butter.

So, for about 5000w, we enjoyed a really nice lunch, in pleasant surroundings, and we paid much less than we would have, had we ordered from their regular lunch menu that starts at about 12,000 won. I thought that the waitress would be raising her eyebrows at our order, and I was slightly embarassed, but she seemed perfectly unperturbed. D told me that Outback is even a better place to have a good quality yet cheap lunch, if you stick with the side dishes.
D is American, and I couldn't help but admire this "No problem" attitude. Most Americans I know are really cluey, they know how and where to get what they want. Not a bad thing.
I think I'll become a regular lunch muncher at Bennigans, except I won't take a bus. I'll be walking over Naksan - this way I can eat my lunch and burn it off, too.

Speaking of burning it off: I really must get serious about it. The super-detailed medical exam I had recently has shown that I am at a high risk of developing serious cardio-vascular diseases. Pretty soon, my arteries will start clogging, according to the good docs. I would think so cuz, apparently, according to this exam, I am 156% overweight. Although the only way I can interpret this result is by the way of some weird mistake in translation, I fear that in the country where a 175cm woman should weigh 48kg, it's quite possible that I am 156% over my 'normal Korean weight." Aigoo.