Meat Jun and Ice

There is nothing in this world I'd rather eat that a big plate of meat jun from Soon's Kal-bi. Without question, it is the greatest food on the planet.

This poses multiple problems for a guy living in Wisconsin.

Meat jun is considered Korean food in Hawaii, but it really is "local" Hawaiian Korean food. Koreans from outside Hawaii consider meat jun Korean food to the same degree that Japanese think Spam Musubi is authentic Japanese food. In other words, not at all.

And thus while there are Korean restaurants in Wisconsin, they serve only authentic Korean food - not the stuff we Hawaii folks love.

That is problem one.

Problem two is that if you are a true meat jun aficionado, you know that the version from Soon's is truly unique. It is crispier, thicker, and comes with a spicy sauce that is, quite simply, perfect.

So even if you should happen to find a restaurant in the Midwest that serves a Hawaiianized version of Korean food, and meat jun is on their menu, it will probably be too soft, too eggy, and too sweet. Even in Hawaii, Soon's meat jun is different than that which you will find at all other Korean restaurants.

In other words, living in Wisconsin, I'm pretty much screwed when it comes to finding my most favorite meal in the universe.

So over the last few weeks I've been toying with ideas to come up with my own version of Soon's meat jun. And here is the product...

I put a business card in the picture because Cari thought that no one would believe that I actually made this!

Here are my food models, Alyssa and Nalani, displaying my best approximation of Soon's meat jun...

It was really, really good.

I will admit, though, that I got a bit carried away. Even after our stuffing ourselves, we still had all this left over...

My recipe for Soon's meat jun is perfect, but my version of the sauce still needs work. And the sauce is the most perfect part of the meal at Soon's.

Oh well, the quest continues.

While a lack of meat jun is a major problem of living in Wisconsin, snow sculpting is one of the "cool" things. This is how they celebrate Valentine's Day in Door County - with snow sculptures...

Yes, those are made completely of snow.

David's favorite was the pointy eared Spock...

It wasn't until I got home and downloaded the pictures from my camera did I notice what was going on in this picture of Spock...

That's Nalani on the left side of the picture sticking her hand in Spock's ear.

She said she was cleaning his ear out.

I guess that makes Nalani a giant Q-tip.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Call me Papa...

Not Tatinek. Call me papa.

So went one of my lines as Mr. Shimerda in Scott Schwartz's play adaptation of Willa Cather's classic novel, My Antonia. We performed last week to a full house in Ephraim.

While I've spoken to rooms of just a handful of people and convention halls of more than a thousand, I've never been as uncomfortable as I was last week. I think it's because in a play, your wedded to someone else's words - and goodness knows that I like using my own. When I speak to a crowd about charitable giving, I am in absolute control. The ideas are mine, the words I choose are entirely my own - and if a lady in the back of the room isn't connecting to what I'm saying, I can feel it. And I can change accordingly until I have her as well.

In a play, you have to place your trust in a playwright, in a director, and in the others who are on stage with you. You have to be faithful to the words on the page because the other performers are expecting you to. Interestingly, the way I overcame my discomfort was to completely ignore the audience because they're really irrelevant - which is exactly the opposite of what I do when I'm giving a speech.

I will admit, however, that I think most of the audience would be real pleased if I'd go back to giving speeches about philanthropy.

As for our daughter Alyssa, on the other hand, everyone kept telling me how terrific she was.

I was Mr. Shimerda, but Alyssa played my daughter Antonia Shimerda - as in the namesake character of Willa Cather's My Antonia.

Here's the playbill from our little production...

Immediately after the play, and for days afterward, I had people coming up to me or calling me to say how impressed they were with Alyssa (and they politely said little of my performance). For someone so softspoken, she blossomed on stage.

Here is a short video of Alyssa at the music rehearsal where we were working our cues to the music for the first time (note that this video was taken on my phone so you have to turn the volume way up)...



And a little more of Alyssa...



Here we are the night of the performance taking our final bow. Alyssa is in the middle of the picture and I'm in the brown sweater two to her right (blocked by the lady in the green sweater)...

And here we are walking off stage...

Oh, and the wildest part is that I had to speak with a think Bohemian accent. I have no idea what Bohemians sound like so my accent consisted of half a Filipino accent and an elongated Russian accent.

Basically I just imagined what my Filipino Grandpa would sound like if he were drunk on vodka.