Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Buzzing with excitement

K: I emailed my brother Sang Kwan to let him know that the tickets are bought and we will finally get to meet. His email back was so touching and his excitement is so apparent.

"Kim; That's a really good news for me .souds like you will be coming as soon as possible .oh MY GOD ! I can"t control my felling! I hope that the day is tomorrow. Maybe we can spend it in New year 's Day ! Now my best wishes is study english .if i can't speak it .i can't talk to you more .so iam so afraid! that's a imporint things for me this year !you bless me OK ? sang kwun"

Mark and I also need to start our Korean lessons ASAP. We have decided that we will commit to lessons every Sunday (at least). Though it's hard to stay on top of this, the ability to communicate with Sang Kwan will make it worth it! And he's making such an effort to learn English, I'd love to at least say a few things to him in Korean also! Can you imagine the surprised look on his face when we walk off the plane and say "Hello, nice to finally meet you" in Korean?!?!?

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Korean Food: First Impression

K: We decided to celebrate our purchasing of the tickets by going out to eat this past Saturday night. What better time to try our first Korean meal? Our choices for Korean restaurants in St. Louis our somewhat limited, but we were advised to try The Korean Restaurant (not kidding, that is the actual name of the place) by a Korean friend of ours. It is supposed to be very authentic and is located at Olive and Fee Fee.
Well we ended up trying it and really liked it. We took some pictures of the place --- for you guys. And of the food --- for us, so we can remember what we liked/didn't like. We highly suggest trying it!

This was the outside of the restaurant - not overly impressive. But Mark and I have decided that the shabbier many Asian restaurants look, the better the food.



Though we didn't sit at one, you can request to sit at a table with a hotplate. They also bring this wok-like grill to the table to cook your food and keep it hot. From some of our Korea research, this seems to be a very popular style of eating over there. We'll be requesting a table like this next time.


Koreans typically serve a bunch of sides with their meals. This restaurant brought out these six side dishes, which we found very tasty. Mark especially liked the two middle dishes, although we still aren't sure what the one in the middle-right was. The one closest to us is Kim Chi, which is a staple dish served with every meal.


This was the appetizer we ordered. It is the Korean version of a sushi roll, only it had meat in it and wasn't served with soy sauce. We can't remember the name, but think it was Kim Bop?


Finally, the entrees. Mark got the Korean spare rib dish. I got the Korean BBQ (which I liked so much I forgot to take a picture). The meat was already cut off the bone so you could use chop sticks to eat it.
We were very impressed. We think we chose "safe" dishes this time, and will try to be a little more adventurous next time around. If anyone would like to go with us, just say the word!