GOOAAAAALLLLL!!!!!

Not a mirage!

After a 7 hour round trip bus ride to Chennai yesterday, we now have Brie, Emmental, and goat cheese, Bonne Maman apricot jam and real bread! Thank you thank you IT boom and rise of the Indian middle class!!!

Similar to what happens on a hiking trip, much of our thoughts and discussions revolve around food -- memories of food, stories about food, lists of desired foods, and strategies of how we could procure these foods. We even talk excitedly of how exceptional airplane food tasted on our trip to Japan, and have spent time longingly browsing pictures of airplane meals on the internet.

The establishment of Hyundai and Samsung plants in Chennai may be the most fortuitous events to have occurred in modern Indian history, at least to us. We became aware of this during a book-procuring trip to a Chennai mall a couple of months ago. Like apparitions, we caught sight of ACTUAL KOREAN PEOPLE. It was unmistakable. All men, there were short ones and tall ones, happy ones and brooding ones, all wandering about with that characteristic Korean Man Gait: half stomping-half trudging their feet on the ground with toes pointed outward, lower body moving slightly ahead of upper body, in white socks and flip flops, or sneakers with the back part crushed down to render their sneakers into slip-ons.

We were fixated on them, and started salivating because of the one cardinal rule that governs Korean people -- Korean people cannot live without Korean food, and these beacons of hope would lead us straight to glorious mounds of it. We asked them where to find it, and sure enough they told us where it was.

Also not a mirage! Pan-chan, including Kim-chi, at In Seoul Restaurant. We ate in disbelief.

With this information in hand, we headed back to Chennai a few weeks later to find "In Seoul" restaurant. We entered and found the most glorious sight -- Korean men bowing to each other or huddled in groups over Korean food, sweating and slurping and holding chopsticks in the air as a flatscreen Samsung television aired a Korean reporter barking the Korean news. Score! We practically high-fived each other in glee. We sat down and ate until bursting. We learned from the owner that between Hyundai and Samsung, there are about 1500 Koreans living in Chennai presently, so business is booming.

After a month, we were due for more Korean food, so we returned yesterday for Round 2. We wanted to come home with some booty, so prior to our trip we Googled "gourmet food Chennai" and discovered that there is a small but emerging market for higher end Western foods, offered by the store "Maison des Gourmets." It was a small but impressive store filled with, as The Hindu paper describes, "exotic" items such as European cheeses, crusty breads, and real chocolate. Also on their pristine shelves were "exotic" items such as French's mustard and cans of Heinz baked beans. We bought enough cheese to last us for a month, loaves of bread, apricot jam, a bar of Lindt chocolate, and best of all, the owner's phone number and arrangements to have these items delivered to our home in Vellore in the future.

After the long and crowded bus ride home, we sat down to dinner at 9pm with what may have looked like a simple picnic, but to us looked fit for a king.

Eating happily and heartily among groups of Korean men. Three cheers for Hyundai and Samsung!

Ladies who lunch. Most likely, wives of Hyundai or Samsung staff stationed in Chennai.

Brie Cheese, we award you with an honorary mustache for faithful service to our tastebuds and bellies.

"My dearest Monsieur Brie, how I longed for your touch."