First Korean Food, First Hamburger, Insomniac database

In Japan, food seems priced more based on availability than it is on anything else. In America, a healthy chicken sandwich will run you about as much as a a beef sandwich. Prices with chicken and beef, as a good example, are generally close in price in America, depending on the cut. Here in Japan, I can get about 3 times as much chicken for my money as beef. Sometimes $1.50's worth of Yen will give me about as much chicken breast as I can eat as a meal unto itself (alot), and the best price for Beef that I have seen has been 99 Yen/100g, which comes out to around $3.90/lb. So I've been eating ALOT of chicken! It is one of the cheapest forms of sustinence around, and it is of about the same quality as in the States. I also bought my first box of "Strawberry Collon" which I could not resist after taking the pictures. It is, of course, delicious and not in the slightest reminiscent of a the dozens of jokes about its name that could easily be devised.

Over the last 2 weeks, I have eating Chong Do Woen's cooking twice, when he has cooked too much. Both times it was Korean food, and both times it was excellent. So now I love Korean food, or at least, what he makes. After the first time I told him that I would have to cook something for him, but due to the heat, it would probably have to wait until Summer was over. Then he cooked again and it was even better, so I told him I'd immediately get underway on making him some "American" food of some kind. I knew he'd had McDonald's and Mos Burger (it's Japan-only clone) but I figured it would be simple enough, yet due to the quality of beef in the area, that it would be pretty good. I hunted down the cheapest ground beef that I could find, the best I could find (they don't seem to sell real cheese, processed is what you can find in the grocers), some bacon, brown sugar (to make it brown-sugar bacon), and the closest thing I could find to buns, unfortunately the size of McDonald's buns and not the right shape or size or abilty to come into two parts. Our freestanding stand-on-the-counter stove cooked the meat in about 1 and a half minute, leaving me scrambling between bacon, unwraping pre-sliced cheese, and trying to get the rest in order. Sweat from the further ridiculously increased heat was dripping fast enough that I didn't have time to wipe it away with my hands so busy, and I literally couldn't see through most of my glasses because of the streaks of moisture from 3 minutes of cooking or so.

When I set out Chon Do's for him, his first bite was follow with a suspiciously fast "delicious!" before he had even finished chewing. He finished both of his by the time I could get to my seat and take my first bite! So I was happy, but I knew he could eat anything fast, so I wasn't about to make any bets on the quality of my burgers. Sure enough, mine was better than one from Red Robin, but not quite a Hudson's, although the brown sugar bacon helped. The buns weren't right, but Chon Do didn't know the difference, or care, apparently. Chon Do had carefully watched me prepare it, as if throwing a hamburger together were some ancient and refined, tried-and-true traditional cooking art like Wok or Sushi, which I found only vaguely humourous during the heat, but I found much funnier in reflection once I was back into air conditioning.

The next day I went out and returned, looking in the fridge for my giant bottle of refrigerated tap water, and I noticed something strange: Our normally sparse fridge was full. When I looked at what the pink-reflecting containers were in our lower fridge (slightly warmer than an American fridge), I saw that it was ground beef. There might have been enough beef to feed my family of 4 for a day of beef dished in there! I looked up into the upper almost-freezing fridge out of habit after that and discovered that it too had had all extra space filled with ground beef! Apparently his first REAL hamburger (minus the strange bun) was a hit! Within a day and a half the rest of the buns and were gone and only one container of ground was left in the freezer, and Chon Do was all kittens and roses, as he remains now after his 2 days of binge hamburger-eating.



Another thing I came across, thanks to Sean Simpson, my pal from Alaska, is from "The Sweetest Sound" on PBS. This is a surname-frequency search. The top 55,000 were collected for this research. Surprisingly, my own surname, "Frank" is fairly high in frequency for last names in the USA! I guessed the #1 and #2 on my first 2 tries. See if you can't. I'll post what they were at the end of the blog if you don't want to spoil it for yourself playing the guessing game.

Here's the link, and a few names you might find familiar, including their frequencies (after a selection of the more important ones, there is also a list of ones strung together by subject and insomniacical craziness. Since there are so many, don't feel obliged to read them all, but they ARE wonderful social commentary in raw data form You can really see values of America as a whole in these 55,000 most common last names in the US, starting with the ones I've already categorized for your thoughts):

http://www.pbs.org/cgi-registry/pov/sweetestsound/poirot?name=Frank

Relatives or close-enoughs:
Frank is surname number 443 in the USA.
Kephart is surname number 6244
Webster is surname number 409
Klim is surname number 37293
Fitzpatrick is surname number 758
Tallman is surname number 3525
Warwick is surname number 6406
Hale is surname number 314
Cavilla, as a surname, does not exist in this database, because it is not among the top 55,000 most common names in the US.

Esteemed friends:
Tyrrell is surname number 5041
Warren is surname number 148
Simpson is surname number 142
Gardener is surname number 17744 (Gardner is surname number 160 in the USA.)
Hall is surname number 26 (Congratulations! You're name is pretty common!)
Mielke is surname number 6391
Countryman is surname number 7517

Professors:
Hunter is surname number 133
Huntington is surname number 3998
Savage is surname number 614
Colour-related names:
Brown is surname number 5
Chalk is surname number 10798
White is surname number 15
Gray is surname number 70 (about half way between White and Black)
Black is surname number 150
Green is surname number 35
Moss is surname number 339
Olive is surname number 5095
Leaf is surname number 11300
Blue is surname number 1289
Sky is surname number 49890
Navy is surname number 42582
Tan is surname number 2130
Rust is surname number 2998
Buff is surname number 9457
Orange is surname number 6306
Red is surname number 17505
Pink is surname number 10725
Rose is surname number 162
Violet is surname number 27392
Shine is surname number 4717
Luster is surname number 5058
Hue is surname number 39417
Shade is surname number 4774
Tone is surname number 27354
Light is surname number 1795
Dark is surname number 12234
(Materials, Elements)

Copper is surname number 11740
Silver is surname number 1312
Gold is surname number 1680 ^
Diamond is surname number 1667 (similar in # to ^, note the general increase in proportion to value)
Steel is surname number 4925
Rock is surname number 1771
Stone is surname number 145
Wood is surname number 73
Tree is surname number 31028
Grass is surname number 7381
Ground is surname number 33324
Waters is surname number 417
Lake is surname number 983
Stream is surname number 22978
River is surname number 35796
Pond is surname number 3701
Creek is surname number 8375
Crick is surname number 10643 (silly, made-up, hick words!)
Falls is surname number 4373
Moist is surname number 45641
Ice is surname number 9034
Frost is surname number 727
Snow is surname number 677
Hail is surname number 14446
Sleet is surname number 43152
Match is surname number 42386
Fire is surname number 41627
Burn is surname number 20027
Storm is surname number 3762
Shock is surname number 8022
Thunder is surname number 54585 *
Bolt is surname number 4117
Strike is surname number 25422
Man is surname number 13094
Many is surname number 39775 (there are very few Fews)
Times is surname number 54595 (similar to * in rank)

Sensations:
Chill is surname number 47446
See is surname number 3642
Touch is surname number 26353
Love is surname number 316 (lots of love)
Fear is surname number 14703
Joy is surname number 2476
Anger is surname number 9657

Morality, Judgement, Worship:
Good is surname number 965
Pretty is surname number 30773
Holy is surname number 23374
Faith is surname number 11928
Pope is surname number 451(that's alot of Popes!)
Christian is surname number 308
Christman is surname number 2626
Christmas is surname number 5324
Jesus is surname number 21351
Christ is surname number 4138
Tao is surname number 17567
Mohammad is surname number 8684
Allah is surname number 28579
Goat, as a surname, does not exist in this database, because it is not among the top 55,000 most common names in the US.
Bob is surname number 26527
Miracle is surname number 6195
Bless is surname number 43917
Blessing is surname number 6465
Bible is surname number 7713
Book is surname number 6840
Pray is surname number 9063
Cross is surname number 340
Temple is surname number 1395
Church is surname number 848
Sin is surname number 11179
Priest is surname number 2307
Pastor is surname number 6496
Monk is surname number 2499
Servant is surname number 43080
Lord is surname number 1343
Life is surname number 25984
Evil, as a surname, does not exist in this database, because it is not among the top 55,000 most common names in the US. (the same is true for ugly, plauge, disease, catastophe, dead, and bad)

Others
Space is surname number 20966
Ball is surname number 328
Goodyear is surname number 9893
Bull is surname number 2823 (No Cow, Sheep or Pig)

Take one person with each last name to the Battlefield (Battle is surname number 1109), in order:
Justice is surname number 1159
Honor is surname number 26851
Pain is surname number 49295 (Paine is much more common a surname number 3795 in the USA. )
Long is surname number 91
Sword is surname number 10592
Grand is surname number 18642
Tower is surname number 7237
Shield is surname number 19869
Armor is surname number 24706
Helm is surname number 2107
Shoe is surname number 29591
Or is surname number 45802
Short is surname number 503 (notice there are less Shorts than Longs)
Boots is surname number 13656
Swim is surname number 18892
Shorts is surname number 10071
Million is surname number 10162
Story is surname number 1675
Six is surname number 8185
Tall is surname number 20994
Spear is surname number 2312
Reach is surname number 37870
Farr is surname number 1715
Sheer is surname number 24515
Blade is surname number 12403
Sharp is surname number 352
An is surname number 8452
Edge is surname number 2804
Board is surname number 7250
Shake is surname number 17543
Small is surname number 612 (Big is not in the top 55,000 even!)
Super is surname number 13169
Point is surname number 20338
Stick is surname number 36001
Staff is surname number 18871
Bow is surname number 14646
Spell is surname number 5244
Rod is surname number 30831
Cast is surname number 23959
Pain is surname number 49295
Spells is surname number 20411
On is surname number 35621
You is surname number 11703
Date is surname number 44292
Off is surname number 42637
Rich is surname number 616
Baron is surname number 2080
Money is surname number 5005
Cash is surname number 1000
Dollar is surname number 5078
Pence is surname number 2536
Go is surname number 11601
Place is surname number 4198
In is surname number 22656
Castle is surname number 1557
Score is surname number 35888
Wax is surname number 13615
Troop is surname number 18018
Strong is surname number 670
Captain is surname number 30022
Young is surname number 29
Just is surname number 8586
Knight is surname number 188
Wake is surname number 10466
Weeks is surname number 740
Old is surname number 26124 (Many more babies come from Young than Old)
Dragon is surname number 14419
Well is surname number 50359
Running is surname number 20922
Horse is surname number 52360
Butt is surname number 4493
Doctor is surname number 8654
No is surname number 28152
Furr is surname number 3788
Dress is surname number 28874
Kill is surname number 25914
Blood is surname number 5352
Foe is surname number 41637


Top 3 most common names in the US:
#1=Smith
#2=Johnson
#3=Williams

I didn't find the 4th, but I did find the #5 name (Brown)

Thanks to all you readers that made it through!