Helen's Birthday Dinner

Last Friday we all went out for Helen's (Kerri's teaching partner) birthday. She decided that we should have spicy shabu shabu and mandhu (steamed pork dumplings) for dinner and it was a lovely choice. The food was pretty yummy.

I sympethize with Kim, kimchi is really hard to bite into sometimes and you end up with a massive, spicy piece of fermented bok choy in your mouth. I believe kimchi is best eaten little by little (with a little rice to soak up the sourness).

This was different from the shabu shabu I usually eat. Instead of a plain, clean tasting beef broth we got a broth more similar, I think, to the broth you get with ramyean noodles. Red, spicy, and a little thicker than your average broth. It was delicious. The mushrooms, thinly sliced beef and noodles were the same, although they also gave us a bowl of rice to add to the pot when all the beef and noodles and veggies were gone.

The wasabi they gave us with our dipping sauce was going a little overbaord. The broth alone was quite spicy, and even though I enjoy really spicy food I didn't think wasabi and red pepper broth went particularly well together.

Here we all are! Well, I'm taking the picture so obviously I'm not in it. Just imagine a pretty, smiling face and you can imagine me in the picture.

The mandhu was massive, I have never seen them this big! Speaking of mandhu, a new mandhu place just opened in my neighbourhood and it's awesome! A big serving of gogi (or meat) mandhu is only about 3000 won and they really fill you up. Mandhu guk (mandhu soup) is also highly recommended.

Michelle is pregnant! We just found out recently. There goes one more teaching partner... but we are happy for her, she was wanting a baby.

Remember how I said the rice was to be added to the pot at the end of the meal? Well, Tracy thought it wouldn't be a big deal if she just added it to the soup. Neither did I, it actually tasted better in the soup. But our waitress freaked out! Here she is scooping out the rice...

And here she is pouring the remnants of the soup into a seperate dish...

And then she put the rice back in to suck up all the remaining moisture... honestly, what a faux pas we made.

Live and learn, Tracy. It was a rookie mistake.