Kimchi, not for me

Last Wednesday, on the spur of the moment, I decided to have a kind of dinner party at my house. I set the date for the next Wednesday (which would be today). Recap (for those of you who didn't see the pictoral tour of my apartment a few posts ago): I have two chairs, and one plate. I have maybe five or six sets of chopsticks, three forks, and two spoons. How many people did I invite to said dinner party? Seven.

So that's eight people total, counting myself...then came the inevitable dilemna: what will I cook? I have no oven, only a gas range. Hmm....not to mention that some people aren't eating chicken because of the bird flu (even though you can eat meat from an infected bird so long as it's been fully cooked...high enough temperatures kill the cooties). I decided on taco salad. The plan was to go grocery shopping Tuesday night, and clean the house totally Wednesday before work. Then something came up/happened Tuesday night that rendered me unable to go shopping. Kylie helped me do some cleaning. So I had to go grocery shopping this morning. Ah wait...I forgot. No taco seasoning or sour cream are available to me. But I press on with the taco salad idea. Then I get to the store and see that about half a pound of ground beef is about 9 US dollars. (They only use Australian beef here because of mad cow.) Umm...chicken taco salad? I only had time to get the groceries, bring them home, and put them away before I had to go to work. So I had a lot to do after work and before people arrived. However, I only had a thirty minute window between one and the other. Again, Kylie to the rescue. I defrosted the chicken, cut it up, and started to cook it while she swiffered. I cut up the lettuce and tried to grate the cheese with a really bad cheese grater (not entirely sure that's even what it is). Then I tried to cut one of the tomatoes and found out that they were rotten. Yuck. There were a few surprises in who ended up coming, but my boss was kind enough to order two pizzas, which was a relief to me...as I wasn't sure my chicken kind-of-taco-salad was going to cut it. I borrowed Kylie's two chairs, and then moved the table so my bed served as a bench. I ended up standing the whole time (I take after my Grandma like that). I foolishly assumed taco salad would be self-explanatory, and just set the chips, salsa, cheese, and lettuce on the table. Kylie (again) noticed everyone's utter confusion and lack of understanding and said, "So are we supposed to mix everything together?" (I love having a friend that notices enough to ask a question she knows the answer to to help you out.) I had a good time, and I enjoyed spending time with the Korean teachers outside of work. And ah yes, the rotten tomatoes? They weren't even tomatoes. They were a special kind of Korean fruit. I'm just glad I ruled them rotten and didn't use them, rather than mix a sweet fruit in with taco salad.