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Vietnamese restaurant in Chungmu-dong. Menu: pho, broken rice with pork chop, (Chinese) yangchow fried rice, Hanoi-styled bun cha, (Korean) sirakguk and fresh spring rolls.

Besides me, there were seven other customers, all men. Five had a group meal of dishes not on the menu, so they were regular customers, more or less daily. In Vietnam, this arrangement is called cơm tháng [monthly rice].

Two women were in the kitchen. When there were only three of us, one woman looked out and blurted, "It's so funny. Three men sitting in separate corners!"

Second woman joked, "I wonder if they're related?"

All the men spoke with a Hà Tĩnh accent.

I have no idea of their legal status, but South Korea does have 380,000 illegal immigrants, with most of them Chinese.



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