A few weeks back, I had the pleasure of hanging out with Amanda, Ellyn, and Rachel from Dogeared Books for their podcast Bubbles and Books.

We talked about all sorts of things: about living in Korea and how I ended up there, thoughts on writing, books, The All-American, and more which you should listen to.

But one of the fun, and surprising things about this podcast, is that each episode features a different cocktail that matches the book. For ours, I suggested Somaek, a simple mix of Korean Beer and Soju, because it’s decidedly working class.

This old article by Ju-min Park (over at Reuters, which surprises me because I only knew them for their reporting) describes it very well. My humble opinion is that a third of the glass should be soju and the other two thrids beer.

But something that has been fluttering in the back of my mind is, does the label of the food/drink/establishment set guardrails to the register of our conversation, as much as title or dress? Does bucking against those rails make the conversation more pleasurable?

For example, having philosophical debates about the morality of forced gluttony of geese for foie gras at a Wafflehouse/Shari’s/Denny’s at 2 am while staring at a burnt cut of Spam always felt more impactful and memorable than the same discussion with foie gras on little silver plates at a reception with champagne flutes.

Would relishing crude jokes while sipping nice Champagne and Caviar do the same?

Anyways, a late evening thought I thought I’d share.

Some other things I’ll be up to:

• I’ll be in Wisconsin! La Crosse, Friday, 7/21; Green Bay, Saturday, 7/22; and Madison, Tuesday, 7/25. Details on the Events Page.

Some things I’ve been up to:

• “The best coming-of-age books while Asian.” Over at Shepard.com
• A buddy of mine, Gord Sellar, wrote about The All-American. He’s very generous and insightful.