"Kon-bae."

Last night my boss, Mr.Shin, insisted on taking me out to dinner. So around nine o'clock he picked me and Kelly, the other American teacher, up. We went to a local Korean restaurant. He was excited by the fact that I eat meat and drink beer because Kelly does not. He ordered us some beer and Kelly a really sweet, peach soju. They bring to the table complimentary starters. A very hot metal plate with two eggs and kimichi with acorn jelly. The acorn jelly was not that tasty at all. He prepares the eggs for us by cracking them over the plate and then he sucks out the yolk left in the shell. The egg starts to sizzle and cook and before we really get to enjoy it ,the first dish comes out. Delicious tofu with spicy kimichi hits the table and already it's time for a second beer. He was surprised I did not want an American like Budweiser, but instead opted for the Korean Cafri. Kelly and I devoured the first plate and then came this egg dish. It was basically a large rolled omelet with ketchup. It was delicious and I probably hadn't had ketchup and eggs, since I was five. It also came with a side of coleslaw that was dressed in a strawberry flavored cream sauce. It was probably my most favorite thing.

At this point I switch to the overly sweet soju because Kelly is hardly drinking. And another plate hits the table. A butterflied, grilled fish with the bones still in. It's served along side a soy sauce and wasbi. After picking at the fish and drinking a few more shots of soju, Mr.Shin decided to order some more food. It was between chicken feet and pork. I didn't care, so ordered the feet.

As the chicken feet came out he said they were boneless and you can eat the whole thing. "Kon-bae!" we cheered and another shot of soju was drank. I picked up a foot with my chopstick and put the whole thing in my mouth. It was rubbery, almost gelatinous. And as I chewed and bit through cartilage, I realized there were pieces I just couldn't bite through. They felt like bone. As I picked them out of my mouth, I realized they were chicken toe nails. I seriously hated this dish. So I picked out the spicy onions and ate them. I even ate another foot just so I didn't seem rude and picked out more nails. 

I was done with it. By this time Mr.Shin was hammered. He drank way more beer then me and his English was getting worse.We got on a conversation about religion and he kept calling the pope, pop. He kept saying how he loves us and wants to hangout more. He admitted he didn't even like chicken feet, as he took his chopsticks and pick up a mound of feet and acted like he was going to eat it.  Ridiculous!

I couldn't finish the soju because it was so sweet, so he finished mine and Kelly's. At one point he dropped his lighter in his beer. We asked him if he was going to get it out and he replied,"No, it's to deep." Moments later he chugged his beer and when he was done, he caught the lighter in his mouth. It was impossible to get him to leave. He just kept ordering more beer. He was wasted and when we finally got him to leave, we refused his ride home. When we walked out the bar, we had to show him where his car was located. We suggested he should take a cab, but he refused and made a joke about it. He was suppose to come over today and fix my heater today, but he is probably so hungover or his wife, my other boss, probably killed him.