Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Eat! Eat!
Koreans must be Jewish.
Or at least the Korean ladies who serve food at Korea House in Concord. Just like yesterday, I thought I was playing it smart ordering only an entree and no appetizers. I’m here in the East Bay by myself, after all (it’s a call weekend and I have to stay close to the hospital), so I have to be careful not to order too much food. Once again, the restaurant had different things in mind.
Have you ever been to a Korean restaurant? They set out lots of little dishes of treats:
I had nine dishes in all, not counting the entree, the bowl of rice, and the dish of noodles: soup, seaweed, bean sprouts, steamed broccoli, my oh so favorite little fishies, fried tofu, and a variety of pickles. No kim chi, sadly. I think they’re trying to be unique. “We are a kim chi free Korean restaurant,” something like that.
I could have finished it all, too, along with my entree (fried king fish), but the Korean gals, you know the Jewish ones, kept coming by and with their best Yiddishe accent saying “eat, eat,” they would refill my bowls as fast as I could drain them of food. “OH, you like the fishies?” She brought a bowl with four times as many fishies. “You like the omelet? You like tofu?”
AAACK! NO! NO MORE!
Eventually I understood their devious plan. They want their customers to take home leftovers. That way, you’ll remember them longer. I know I will.
Do they treat all of their customers this well, or just me? One of the nurses who works in our area recognized me and chatted me up on her way out. I suspect she gave the waitresses the Secret Korean Wink that meant “stuff this one silly, he’s a good guy.” Then again, maybe they stuff everyone silly.
Good thing I ate early. I always tell my patients that the three-hour rule* can easily become the four-, five-, or six-hour rule if you come away from the dinner table stuffed. Last night I finished dinner late, and oh boy was my stomach griping about it.
SO — have you eaten anything fun lately?
D.
*Nothing to eat or drink except for water for three hours before bedtime. That’s rule number one for refluxers like yours truly.
I’ blad I’m not a reluxer then. I have to eat evry 4 to 5 hours whether I’m hungry or not. (yay for diabetes and insulin that only lasts 3 to 5 hours.) That frequently includes something right before bed.
I used my homemade curry pasts tonight. VERY mild compared to how it tasted when I made it, and it’s missing somthing. Maybe I’m missing the preservatives…
On Friday I ate a meat pie with dried tomatoes and olives from a local bakery. A taste triumph.
I can’t help getting snarky at shop assistants who offer tomato sauce (ketchup) with every pie. How can people do that to the delicate taste of mushrooms in a pie? But they do.
My daughter is learning how to convert Imperial into Metric. I figured the best way to show her this was to have her convert my American chocolate muffin recipe into metric. See – there’s a tasty prize at the end. So as an extra bonus, I bought Rolo candies so we’ll put those in the middle of the chocolate muffin (S’pose it’s really a cupcake, huh?) and have the gooey goodness. So we’re having Rolo Chocolate CupcakeMuffins. (I got dairy free chocolate buttons for the allergy child.)
nox: Cayenne! More cayenne!
Microsoar: mmmm. I wish folks here in the states would make meat pies. Guess I could do it myself . . .
Lyvvie: chocolate cupcake/muffins with Rolos inside. More reflux food!
Went to The Boat Friday and pigged out on red cabbage salad and their cheese bread (both eaten at 4 p.m….a Nexium dose in the morning, and I was good to go).
Here’s an interesting taste I was recently introduced to by a colleague: dried Trader Joe’s cherries and chocolate chunks added to any good brownie mix you can buy in the store. Yum-o!
My brownie-eating days are over. Unless I eat them very early in the morning, I get terrible reflux.
Meanwhile, I’m snacking on last night’s pickles. Yum, spicy little fishies . . .
The curry turned out to be like any other stew – it really needed to sit longer. It was much better tonight. 🙂
That is an interesting thing about stews. As a once-upon-a-time chemist, I don’t understand it. Dehydration concentrating the flavors, perhaps? More complex chemical reactions occurring during the reheating phase?
Stews – it’s probably a kinetics things.
Had a tasty veg plate at a restaurant in East Village – but didn’t get a samle of the cardoons that were on the menu. Deviled eggs with lots of dijon, which got better with more bites. Yummy Spanish goat cheese with lightly sauteed red onions on buttered brown bread. Dessert – chocolate peanut butter semi-frozen mousse thing.
For Valentine’s day had a Purple Cosmo, which is a Cosmo with syrup de violette in lieu of the Cointreau.
BTW, I love NYC. Am sitting here with a view of the spire of the Chrysler building gleeming in the sun…
Cosmo as in the drink, Cosmopolitan? Sounds interesting!
What are you doing in NYC, btw?
Yes, Cosmopolitan. Last night also had a Metropolitan (like a Cosmo but with Cassis instead of the Cointreau and a lemon instead of a lime), which wasn’t as good as a Cosmo. Interestingly there’s another Metropolitan recipe with brandy.
Am in NYC at HQ for budget discussions. Am sitting here listening to the outraged howls of pro-Tibetan protesters chanting (not cool Buddhist stuff, but the usual protest outrage) – audible even here on the 15th floor (supports the need for the coming very expensive renovation, since the windows are so crappy). OK, they’ve switched to cool Buddhist chanting, so I can forgive the bullhorn invective.