Sunday, January 18, 2009

Back from the inaugural concert, and kim bap!

Today, my friend S. and I spent six continuous hours outside, on our feet, in near-freezing temperatures.

Along with, I've heard, over 700,000 others - we were all at the Lincoln Memorial for President-elect Obama's inaugural kick-off concert.



It was pretty amazing to be a part of such a huge and energetic crowd, although we didn't get to see the concert continuously. Even with 6 Jumbotrons placed along the reflecting pool, it was often hard to see with so many (taller) people in front of us. Additionally, speakers placed at various locations produced a "phasing" effect of the sound being broadcast from the Memorial. I probably would have gotten a better viewing of the concert if I had watched it at home on our computer.

However, we still enjoyed ourselves (wouldn't have wanted to miss it!), and one of the highlights, at least for me, was enjoying the Korean-style rolled sushi (I'll call it kim bap, which literally means "seaweed" and "rice" in Korean) that I made with leftovers from yesterday's bi bim bap lunch.



Kim bap contents:
-rice, seasoned with sesame oil, vinegar, sugar, and salt
-carrot kinpira
-ground beef soboro (for a similar recipe to what I did, see Maki's recipe at Just Bento)
-egg ribbons
-pea sprouts
-kimchee

The kim bap sustained us through the entire afternoon out in the cold! At least one person commented on the fact that I had sushi with me, and I even shared one with a fellow concertgoer. It saved me from having to purchase one of the over-priced, foil-wrapped items from the vendors that dotted the mall (and losing our spot in the process!). Another plus: We also did not produce any trash (the scene on the ground was pretty chaotic afterwards - the garbage cans could only hold so much...).

Now I'm looking forward to the challenge of packing a lunch for two people that will fit in a container of these dimensions for the inauguration on Tuesday! All I know is that it will at least contain spam musubi in honor of our new president's Hawaiian background. Not healthy for Week 2 of the Just Bento challenge, but so appropriate that I couldn't leave it out!

3 comments:

Mosaica said...

Wasn't it fantastic?! I watched on TV here from home, but oh oh oh it was wonderful. I was in occasional contact with my pal Jay who was also at the mall in DC --he was actually right up near the front, and it was really neat to hear the noise from his phone and the noise from the TV all at once.

I'm hoping to do a themely bento on Tuesday. Spam is a great idea!

Jamie said...

Yeah, it was a lot of fun! I think we did really well with our location considering that we left our neighborhood shortly after noon - I wasn't die-hard enough to want to make it down there at 8am or whenever the gates opened to get a prime spot up front...

Curious to know how your Tuesday bento turns out. I'm interested to see how many inaugural/Obama-themed bento lunches end up in the Flickr pool...

Anastasia said...

I wasn't there but did take a walk downtown later in the evening and even then the energy was up, up, up! Are you going tomorrow?

Kimbap looks delicious. You need to show me how to make it.

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