“Miguk” is the Korean word for America and means “the beautiful country”  – or something like that. “Bap” is the word for cooked rice but generally means food or a meal.Together, the two words mean “American food” which has been sorely missed around the house.

We haven’t made a trip to Daegu’s Costco in a while and I was completely out of anything resembling American food. All I had left was a box of instant oatmeal and I had grown tired  of it. I tried variations of oatmeal with raisins, bananas, walnuts, cinnamon, raisin and walnuts, walnuts and bananas and various other combinations, but my palate longed for something else.

Yesterday, I stocked up on cheese – real cheddar cheese. Not the single-wrapped, plastic-tasting, inner-tube texture, orange-colored pond scum they try to pass off as cheese in the markets in town. And some beef jerky – yum. And real bacon – not the tasteless strips of fatty pig meat sold here. Other things I brought home included bagels, granola cereal, pasta, some American brats (jeez, you wouldn’t believe the vile things they sell posing as sausage or hot dogs here) some ceasar salad dressing.

And I got some real corn tortilla chips – made in San Antonio! Last night I made a big-ass bowl of fresh salsa (no lack of tomatoes, garlic, peppers and onions in town) and we chowed down on a favorite snack while watching a movie.

Today, its bagels for breakfast and tonight I’ll make some bean and cheese nachos. Or maybe spaghetti. My mother-in-law, still here and cleaning ferociously everyday whether it needs it or not, likes my nachos.Who cares if they’re technically not from “Miguk?” They taste like home.  The Koreans think they’re exotic.

It must be obvious to the casual reader how big a deal food is here. Almost everything else available in America I can get here, but not food from home easily. Sure, I like Korean food. And I eat it once a day if not more. But a man’s got to have something from home and my biggest dilemma now is to decide what to eat when.