Beef & Kimchee

When I came out and met my first boyfriend (the psychotic one), I got absorbed into his group of friends; DC & JEW, Beef & Kimchee, Filipino guy Sal, Ex-Marine guy, and one or two other Asian guys that come occasionally. I have a strong affinity with DC and since we have become good friends despite his unavailability when his boyfriend JEW is in town, but due to the nature of JEW's job he travels to Europe and Asia often.

Beef and Kimchee have a whole different mindset, they live in NYC and by definition, they have a tendency to think that they are better then anyone else. Beef is in his early 50s now, white, a successful real estate agent who lived large on commissions in the past economic boom, you can see his picture in New York Times as one of the advertised agent. Kimchee is, of course, Korean, in his mid 40s, an interior designer and painter. They have a decent loft in the lower east side and enjoy cooking and holding parties fro friends every weekend.

Whenever there's a big holiday, like Thanksgiving, X'mas or for labor day weekend, they come down to Bucks county where DC & JEW's mini-mansion is and we'll have a big cookout. Beef and Kimchee love to cook, and so do JEW & I, They'll planned the gourmet menu, cook, while DC and I will prep and learn from them. Ex-Marine guy never minded washing and cleaning, it's usually a great time. The thing that irked me is Beef and Kimchee's portrait of class. It's fine that they like to brag about going to Paris every now and then (I've lived there for 7 years) or go to antique shop, but the unnecessary that everyone else have to follow in a casual friendly setting is awkward. (If I'm expected to serve your soup bowl from your left hand side and remove it from your right then a expect a tip at the end of the meal.) After seeing the Memoirs of a Geisha together one X'mas, I was criticized by Beef for being snobbish to find the pedophilia undertone of it disturbing, it's actually amusing for the biggest snob I know to find me snobbish... lol



After a few drinks bottles of wine, which is often, the attitude can be felt more unfiltered. Since everyone there is a decade or two older than me, I was given the role of the pretty young thing. Kimchee had uninhibitedly chastised me for dating my exboyfriend even in front of him at the time in which I asked him why is that any of his business, he replied "I don't want you to leave him later and break his heart." But now I think about it it might have been for my benefit as well. I didn't have a good report with Kimchee, mainly because I see him as obnoxious, fake, annoying, and a puppet imitating Beef with no personality of his own. Shameful, but I took pleasure hearing that he has burned his face from opening an oven at another friend's party. (I'm horrible, I know.)

Last week, I caught up with DC during Dim Sum and I found out that after yet another night of drunkeness, Beef couldn't wake Kimchee up the next morning. He took Kimchee to the hospital and they found blood in his brain. Kimchee had become a serious alcoholic throughout the years and he could have cracked his head without knowing. He is relatively ok now, but he needs rehab become his eyes can't focus anymore and DC said his sparkly personality is gone and he looks much older and skinnier than before. Being not that close to them, I have no clue on where his rehab is located, so I can't send them anything to show my support.

DC told me that after years of observation, Beef and Kimchee are not such bad people as we've originally find them as. Deep down inside they need friends and validation, the attention to details and their pursue of class is just their hobby much like tennis is for DC and video games for me. Since DC have seen them a lot more often than I had, I'll take his words for it. Anyhow, even DC seems doubtful, I wish Kimchee godspeed in his recovery. After all, they did provided me with some of the most memorable holiday meals.