Weekend Update

No, sadly I am not pretending to be Dennis Miller or Jimmy Fallon, or the lovely Miss Tina Fey. Just re-counting this past weekend's activities. You know, for posterity.

The weekend started off nicely. Picked up Girlfriend at Penn Station on Friday around 6:00pm. She came in earlier than usual so she could leave earlier than usual on Sunday in order to spend some time with her Mom on Mother's Day. The weather was beautiful, so we decided to walk somewhere rather than just hop on the subway home. The idea of walking somewhere is usually fun, especially in cases like Friday when "somewhere" is as specific as we get.

A few paces away from the station Girlfriend asked if I wanted an early dinner. I gave her my standard response when offered food - "I could eat" - and we agreed to find some food. I'm a big boy, so I have two responses when asked if I am hungry:

Response 1: "I'm starving" (given when I have even the slightest feeling of hunger)
Response 2: "I could eat" (given at all other times)

Anyway, we thought it would be fun to try one of the Korean restaurants on the stretch of 32nd Street between Broadway and 5th. There are lots of good places there, and we hadn't been there to eat in years. We tried to find the place we went to the last time, but it must have closed. Not knowing any better, we decided that Kun Jip looked busy/good and decided to give it a try.

They sat us at a table for four, in the back near the kitchen. We were hoping that the menu would have pictures, given that we don't know the first thing about Korean cuisine. Alas, it did not. We decided to pass on the table-top BBQ or hot-pot dishes. They are better for big groups. Instead we each ordered a regular entree. Girlfriend chose a comfort/peasant dish that consisted of ground beef, a fried egg, and some other ingredients over rice, served in some sort of crock over a flame. The idea was to mix it all up and then eat it. I went with a fish dish. Chunks of cod in broth with tofu, clam, and veggies. We thought we ordered well, considering we were flying blind.

After our order was in our waiter brought over eight plates of kimchi. The portions were generous, the variety was wide, and the flavor was abundant. We were both impressed with the quantity and quality of this complimentary/included course. After that, the waiter confused my by bringing over a casserole in a crock over a flame. Apparently this was complimentary as well. It was very light, and quite good. By the time the main courses came, we were almost full. Well, as you could have guessed, "almost full" is not really a problem. We made quick work of the entrees, and then enjoyed sipping what must have been persimmon punch - also complimentary.

The meal was good, fun, and inexpensive. Might have been better if we knew what to order, but we did okay. And we certainly had a good time gazing at the various delights on all of the other tables. We decided that next time we'll simply point at other tables and tell the waiter "we'll have what they're having...."

Also, I made a comment during the meal about wishing I had my digital camera with me to capture the loveliness that was in front of us. Girlfriend responded "why, so you can post food-porn?" I had never heard that term before. Didn't know that's how people refer to foodie-picture-postings. Very funny.

This turned into a long description of our dinner. I'll split the weekend update into multiple posts....