Toilet Reading

Space is at a premium here, and in our small house it is hard to find a place of retreat where I can go to read. For now, most of my reading takes place in short spurts while on the toilet, and I have a stack of books in progress above the can.

Books in progress:

Foreign Studies, Shusaku Endo

The Memory Book, Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas

Early Childhood Development: A Multicultural Perspective, Jeffrey Trawick-Smith

The Essential Kierkegaard

Books I have read recently:

Deep River, Shusaku Endo

Church—why Bother, Philip Yancey

Language Shock, Michael Agar

The Girl I Left Behind, Shusaku Endo

The Broker, John Grisham

I really enjoy the works of Shusaku Endo, which I started reading on the recommendation of Philip Yancey in his book, Soul Survivors, which lists Endo along with one of my other favorite authors, Annie Dillard, as recommended reading. I have 9 of Endo’s books now, and I have read 6 of them so far.

Endo is a Catholic writer from Japan, a country which has resisted western Christianity with resilience (in contrast to Korea, which has embraced and synchretised it.). Most people who have critiqued his work focus on this theme in Endo’s works, but I am more interested in the characters he creates. Nearly all of his books contain a character who finds themselves being pushed towards the edge of society, and in this marginalization they come to identify with Christ in some manner. In his most famous book, Silence, it is in the act of rejecting Christ that grace is encountered. Often the grace of God in Endo’s books mirrors that of a mother’s unconditional, unrelenting love, contrasted with the stern, provisional, fatherly love found in orthodoxy. Another theme is that of encountering the darkness hidden within one’s own subconscious soul. In these characters, however dark they may be, I find hope that here might be salvation for hapless fools such as myself.

A bird in the mouth is worth . . .

bird in mouth
Originally uploaded by skindleshanks.

We saw this statue at a rest stop in Gangwon province.

Goat Soup 흑염소탕

Ponam-dong, Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do

My wife was suddenly taken ill with appendicitis and underwent an emergency operation at the Dong-in Hospital in Gangneung last week, and I spent a good part of last weekend with her there as she was recovering.

Just down the road that leads to the hospital is an attractive two-story log restaurant with a dish I had never tried before—black goat soup (Heuk yeom so tang). My brother was involved in goat farming for a few years, but in all that time I never had a chance to taste it, so I thought I’d give it a try.

The interior is warm and attractive, decorated with Buddhist-themed paintings, prints, and wood carvings. Smaller groups dine on the first floor, while larger groups eat upstairs. The restaurant was nearly full when I went in for supper, mostly with well-dressed businessmen. Goat meat belongs, along with dog and other exotic animals, to the category of Korean health foods believed to give “stamina” to men in particular.

The menu features two main goat dishes, 흑염소들전골, a “casserole” or stew that simmers in the middle of the table, and 염소탕, a soup that comes bubbling in individual clay bowls.

The soup was not spicy at all but was pungent, heavily seasoned with wild sesame (my wife says it is to mask the goat taste) and tasted very similar to the duck soup at our favorite roasted duck restaurant in Sokcho. Next to the soup was a bowl of red pepper sauce and ground roasted wild sesame seeds for dipping. The dish came with an impressive array of delicious side dishes (kimchi, kakduggi, pickled garlic, etc.) and rice, all for 8,000 won.

I expected a flavour something like lamb, but the goat meat was actually quite different, a little chewy, a little greasy and a little gamey. It was good, but I wouldn’t categorize it as “comfort food” (as I would kalbi tang or seollang-tang). It’s something worth trying at least once, and perhaps more often if you find yourself lacking “stamina.”