The Only Acceptable Excuse to Eat at a Bennigan’s

Is that a wing or a nub?

Originally uploaded by manusevil

Though it directly contradicts my principle of good taste, I reluctantly subjected myself to a meal at a Korean Bennigan’s recently.

I had a good reason though, hear me out. It was 4th of July. Mike and I really wanted a good American meal to celebrate and battle some of the homesickness. And TGI Fridays was closed. (You know that you are in a bind when you are disappointed to not eat at TGI Fridays).

While realizing the none-too-subtle irony of eating an Australian “Texas-style” steak at an Irish restaurant in Korea to celebrate American Independence Day, the flavor explosion of the bloody Aussie heffer (apparantly you need to order it well-done if you want the steak to be fully dead before they serve it to you) certainly took me back to America with each bite.

Of course, no Bennigan’s experience is complete without a story of complete and utter disappointment before the check comes. Apparantly, chickens here run way small. As you can see from the picture, the drumsticks are maybe slightly wider and longer than my thumb. (At the time I was convinced that my disdainful stare could possibly shame it into growing up to a reasonable size). As a wing connoisseur, I felt just a tad jilted by the fact the 12,000 won plate of wings (13 dollars) only came with 9 of these puppies.

But anyways that misses the point. The point was that 4th of July takes on a whole new meaning when you experience it in another country. What was before just an excuse to drink Budweiser became to me a sobering realization that as fun as Korea has been, my home is really back in Atlanta, GA and I am nothing more than a traveler here.

Be that as it may, I’m glad I did my part on the day our nation declared independence 231 years ago to import the American dream of mercilessly slaughtering big, stupid animals, shipping them 3000 miles across the equator and finally feasting on their delicious, chain-restaurant prepared carcasses. Damn it’s good to be American.

~ by David Ogles on July 12, 2007.