Friday, October 30, 2009

Late Night Munchies

Sorry for the delay on posting. Evidence mid-terms aren't as pleasant as they sound. Anyway, after slaving away on cite checking and writing my mid-term, I got very hungry. The only trouble was that it was 1:30am when the hunger hit. Since I have not been to the store in a while, I realized that I had to go out to get something. Since no restaurant nearby was open at 2:00am, I had to find something that I could drive to. I remembered my ex-boss (did I mention I'm looking for a job...anybody? no? ok then) told me there were some Korean BBQ places that are open all night on Western Avenue. I poked around the internet for bit, and found one that is near Western and Foster that was open until 5:00am. I threw on my cape, and off I went to San Soo Gab San. San Soo Gab San is located at 5247 N. Western.



I arrived at the place, which is in a strip mall just north of Foster.  I've never been to a Korean BBQ before, so I was completely unaware of what to expect.  The tables had a large metal piece in the middle with a hole in the middle.  I didn't know what the hole was designed for and I originally thought it might have been a table for ritual killings.  I quickly learned that they place a big bowl of flaming hot coals in the center and you grill food over it.  Have you ever noticed how most Asian restaurants have a particularly large amount of typos on their menus?  Well, I would have had an easier time reading this menu if it were solely in Korean.  After several minutes of discerning the menu, I finally arrived on the #40.  A #40 is sliced pork belly with kim chi in a spicy sauce.


Suddenly, and without warning, the waitress sprung upon me with somewhere around twenty bowls of additional side dishes.  She put these small bowls down and departed without any explanation of what they were.  Some of these dishes were veggies, some were meats, others were something undetectable. 

The pork belly dish had a very nice flavor to it, even if the spiciness did build exponentially as I ate it.  On the plus side, it cleared out my sinuses and possibly healed a cold that I didn't even know I had.  The one problem (besides the tofu, which I am predisposed to hate), was that the pork belly had many little rounds of bone in them.  This made eating very unsightly and somewhat unpleasant.  Of the twenty bowls of food that were brought out, I only mildly enjoyed about two of them.  One of them I described as gelatinized water, and I am still unclear on what exactly it was. 

Overall, I'm glad I went out and tried something totally new.  I'm not sure if I would go back, but perhaps if I ordered meat to grill on the coal hole, it would be better and more fun.  If you have any tips on Korean BBQ, let me know because I'm willing to give it a shot again.

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