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Soju update

Tonight, la Bête Chenue fixed his awesome Chinese-style chicken lettuce wraps that always remind me it's too long since we went out for Korean BBQ. To complement them, we had baekseju. After dinner, we pulled out the bottle of Andong soju we'd picked up months ago during our last trip to one of the Korean liquor outlets I've listed. Unlike the soju Mollpeartree raves about, it's distilled from rice, so we weren't expecting it to be particularly smooth.

All the same, we sure didn't expect it to taste like gin.

And not just any gin, but Steinhäger or genever--that is, German- or Dutch-style, which has a markedly different character than the more familiar London-style. La BC was very pleased and asked if the soju was flavoured with juniper berries. According to what I've found online, the only flavouring agents are malted wheat and steamed rice. It never ceases to amaze me how completely different suites of ingredients can produce similar sensations on the tongue. Baekseju is another good example: It's rice wine flavoured with as many distinct agents as Bombay Sapphire (in fact, they have at least two in common: Chinese licorice root and cassia bark), yet it ends up tasting remarkably like a dry Southern French white wine.

Bars update

welcomerain tells me that she can no longer pass by the Russian-Turkish Baths without thinking of me. Tee hee! For my part, I've never quite believed that they're still functioning. Unlike, say, most German cities I've been in, Chicago seems to have no non-sex-club sauna tradition worth mentioning. spookyfruit (whatta gay-ass name!) assures me that they're in operation, but why would I care since they're filled with "old Russian guys"?

And here I thought I had someone who understood my fetish.

He clarified that they were old straight guys, so it wasn't what I was hoping. My reply was, "Straight guys need blow jobs, too!" But I think there's a more serious misunderstanding at work. The general American definition of "gay man" is "a man who has sex with men". ("Lesbians", by contrast, are "women who never have sex with men". Note the asymmetry, not to mention the androcentrism. But what else is new?) However, this definition--actually, the whole concept of "gayness" generally--is culture-specific. There's a reason why my buddy Zompist included it in his American Culture Test, along with how late you can show up to an appointment before you're considered rude and what most Americans will and won't eat.

I'm not actually sure what the Russian or Turkish definition of "a gay man" is, but I wouldn't be surprised to find them quite different from ours. For instance, my starting assumption for the Turks is that they share either the general Mediterranean view--only the passive partner is gay--or the traditional Arab one--screwing boys is acceptable in moderation. I also expect men from more conservative cultures--whether they live in Moskva, Ankara, or Texarkana--to be much more likely to be married and gay. (For men from more liberal regions, e.g. the Left Coast, this is more likely to correlate with age. I'm surprised to find anyone under 50 with a beard.)

I'd still be S.O.L. as far as getting any action goes, since I won't accept the limitations attached to sex with a man who identifies as "straight" or remains hypocritically married. But, luckily, we men are simple-minded and visually-oriented (or so I hear). It's doesn't matter to me if someone is actually available if I can imagine that he is.

I still have an affection for those poor married men, which is why, if I really ran the Beard and Belly, I'd have a promotion called "Bring Your Beard Night". Any man who came with a female companion would get a free beer. If he could demonstrate that he was legally married to her, he'd get free beers all night. How's that for tolerance