I was walking to work the other day and saw a sight common enough for Korea – even in such urbanized and upper-middle-class locations as Ilsan: hot red peppers drying in the sun. People grow them in balcony planters and in community gardens, and then set them out to cure in the sun in the fall.
This time, however, some pigeons had decided the peppers might be delicious. I didn’t know pigeons would find peppers edible, much less delicious, but they seemed to be enjoying their capsaicinated feast. They were flapping and dancing around, and fighting with each other over bits of red pepper.
I have to say that this makes me somewhat wary of the idea of consuming home-grown red peppers – no one seemed to notice or care that the pigeons were slobbering all over the peppers, and I can imagine an oblivious halmoni gathering up her peppers at dusk and chopping them into her kimchi or stew, clueless that they included pigeon detritus.
[daily log: walking, 6 km]