Flash Memoir #26_ "Countryside Visit" Photo Caption: My sister Marina and I with our Korean hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Pi. My mom wrote: "The Papa has such a twinkle in his eye and Mamasan Pi was as lovely as a queen as you can see in the photo." On the penultimate night of the Pyeongchang Olympics 2018, NBC’s Primetime Olympic Host Mike Tirico and visiting American race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. discussed the adventure of eating in Korea. Dale said at dinner the night before he'd only recognized three of the four dishes he'd eaten. This brought to mind of one my mom's letter's detailing a visit to the countryside during our residence in Seoul, Korea (1970-1972). She wrote in a Nov 18, 1970 letter: "It is about two hours away over increasingly worse roads until one finally runs totally out of roads . . . The Pi family really put on a spread for us . . . They served us all of their traditional dishes and we ate for three hours! "The food is difficult to take although many people like it very much once they become accustomed to it . . . Most of their food is very highly seasoned with very hot red peppers, etc. and the consistency of many foods is strange and hard to get down. I think the saving feature was the rice wine they served. At first, we thought it was Korean pear juice, but it had a bite, and was actually their home-made rice wine. It is very good and helped to wash down foods that were difficult to swallow . . . " She described another cultural difference: "While we were eating, Papasan brought their water buffalo into the house to his stall to eat . . ." My mother had the greatest respect for the peoples of the countries we lived in. She was not one to become mired in American superiority. She finished: "We then took a nice walk to see his pig and chickens and his rice fields and the surrounding area . . . Papasan is considered the wise-man of the village and is considered to be quite well off. . . they gave us a huge bag of rice, potatoes, cabbages and turnips . . . you should have seen us with all of our goodies . . . the car was so loaded down we could not ride it in places . . . "What a lovely day we had, they were such lovely people."
