{new fare, new fun}

Last night (yep folks, I mean on Valentine's Day), my roomies and I went on a triple date.  No boys allowed.  Just the three of us, Korean food, and a whole lotta floundering.

Throughout the course of the evening, I tried no fewer than 10 new dishes, took no fewer than 25 pictures (do you think my camera flash ruined the romantic atmosphere for the patrons around us?), and accidentally snorted from such intense laughter that those same patrons turned and stared no fewer than five times.  But more on that later.

I can honestly say it was one of the best V-days I've had in years.  Props to teacher roomie's half-Korean co-worker for providing us with happiness challenge #3.  We arrived feeling immensely challenged, and went home feeling happier than ever. Yo go, girl.

As soon as we pulled the card this weekend, we promptly realized that with our powers combined, we had exactly zero knowledge of local Korean restaurants.  Maybe less than zero.  Well, a few hours and an iPad later, we had yelp-ed our way to a location and a last-minute 7:00 reservation on the 14th.  Guess Korean isn't a popular genre on the most romantic of all days?  No worries, that fact worked in our favor (meaning there were fewer people there to witness our utter bewilderment with every aspect of the meal).

We showed up, we sat, we ordered wine (hey, we could do that successfully on the moon).  Then it came to food.  In the words of Scooby Doo, "Ruh-roh."  Thankfully, half-Korean co-worker didn't leave us totally out to dry - she provided us with several suggestions of what to order.  So what did we do?  Ordered exactly those dishes without giving it a second thought and without really reading the menu.  I did, however, take a picture of it (shocker, I know):

{only needed the wine list}

We were first presented with pretty simple salads (think iceberg lettuce, shaved carrots, a few rings of onion, and a ginger dressing reminiscent of type you'd get in any good sushi restaurant).  It was delish.  And bonus, it didn't raise my blood pressure.  Granted, watching roomie #2 eat with (and I use that term very loosely) chopsticks was beyond funny.  I reminded her at one point that, generally speaking, you hold the pair in the same hand, not one in each.  I'm practically giggling right now just thinking about it.

{salad, wine, and mystery sauce}

Now is about when things started to get really Korean (aka unfamiliar and awkward for us). Our waitress brought out bowl after bowl of nuts, beans, vegetables, etc. until the whole table was covered.  Each time she plopped something new in front of us, I peered across the table at my friends, hoping for a glimmer of recognition from one of them.  No dice.  Other than kimchi, we couldn't identify a single thing.  And wouldn't you know, we were 0 for 3 on liking that.  So began the "you try that one and I'll try this one...okay...ready...go" game, until at least one of us had tried everything (kimchi excluded).  During this time, teacher roomie took several covert cell phone pics, sent them to half-Korean co-worker, and provided us with some second-hand text message knowledge of what we'd just eaten.  For the most part, things were tasty (or at the very least edible by my uber-picky-eater standards).  Check out our table with all the goods:

Next up: main dish(es).  As I mentioned, we didn't veer very far (okay, at all) from half-Korean co-worker's suggestions.  Three girls, three dishes, one great gamble.

First dish: Chap Chae (meaning vermicelli noodles stir fried with beef and vegetables in special seasoned sauce).  Verdict: amazing.  Not too spicy, not too sweet, but just right.  The noodles gave chopstick-challenged roomie a little trouble, but in the end, we all got our fill, literally, and were more than happy with the schmorgasboard of veggies (carrots, onions, spinach, mushrooms) that is Chap Chae.

Dish #2: Dolsot Bibim Bap (meaning grilled and marinated beef and vegetables topped with a fried egg and spicy bean paste). Verdict: also scrumptious, although for me, not as good as the Chap Chae.  I have to admit, my stomach churned a little when I saw our waitress pop the fried egg over the whole bowl.  In 24 years, I've only ever eaten eggs hard-boiled or scrambled, and I'm not sure I ever mentally got over the yellow gooey yolk explosion.  However, all in all, I did somewhat savor the "mixed meal," which is precisely what bibim bap means in Korean (according to my good friend Wikipedia).  Sidenote: I think I said "bibim bap?!" two hundred times throughout the two hours, each time in an increasingly higher-pitched voice.  What a fun word to say.

{dolsot bibim bap, pre egg explosion}

Final dish: Bul Gogi (meaning thin slices of tender beef).  Both teacher roomie and I had eaten some form of this before and loved it, so we made an executive decision to save it for the end of the meal and pig out in case we didn't like anything else.  Is it just me, or does watching food cook in front of you make it taste that much fresher and more delicious?  I'm fairly certain I drooled at one point.  As one Rachael Ray has said a time or two (or ten thousand), "Yum-o!"

{open flame}

{bul gogi}

The final course was smooth sailing for us.  We were in our groove and were feeling good.  But hold the phone.  After we had plucked every last shred of Bul Gogi off the grill (we abandoned our chopsticks at one point and just went at it with our hands), our waitress presented us with one bowl each of a light yellow liquid.  So you have the visual:

{to drink or not to drink?}

				Teacher roomie immediately poises herself to daintily dip her fingers in the bowl (as if she was getting a manicure).  Considering we had just forsaken our forks, she figured this was like a palate cleanser, except made of soap and for your hands.  As this finger-dipping was occurring on one side of the table, I proceeded to cup the bowl in both hands and prepare to drink the contents.  Only when the liquid was about to hit my lips did teacher roomie and I lock eyes.  It took about .2 seconds to realize one of us was about to make the error of a lifetime.  Cue an eruption of laugher from all three of us.  Yep, this is when I snorted.  Several times.  We sat there for a few minutes (which felt like an eternity), paralyzed in fear and totally unsure of what to do.  Wide-eyed, we looked around, desperate for help from other patrons, but no one else had made it past main course, and our waitress/only beacon of hope in the situation was nowhere to be seen.  Crap. In the end, we pulled ourselves together, stopped the snorting, and summoned the courage (thanks roomie #2!) to ask the waitress what exactly we were supposed to do with our bowls of bubbles.  She mocked us with her eyes a little bit, but then politely let us know we had sweet water in front of us and not Palmolive.  Phew.  Crisis averted.  We resumed eating, drinking, and being merry. {my valentines} We had a great night.  Lots of laughs, and lots of love.  Thank you again to half-Korean co-worker for the excellent idea.  Here's to hoping our other challenges this year are as much fun as your was.  I'm thinking they might be.  And hey, I'll drink to that. {cheers}