A Korean Meal Remembered

Posted on January 12, 2021 by vanbraman

In the past couple weeks I have been watching a Korean Historic drama on Netflix. This has made me think of Korean food so I thought I would share something that I wrote about eight years ago during a trip to Seoul.

I warned you that the first part of my trip may be heavy on food posts. Working and eating are of course the main things that happen during a training trip :-).

Yesterday I shared information about the dak galbi that we had for lunch. I mentioned that I also had a good dinner.

For dinner last night we went to a restaurant that served Korean BBQ.

Korean BBQ - Small dishes - Korean Food - Charcoal BBQ - Side DishesThe meal started with the waiter bringing a bunch of small dishes to the table. These are all items that complement the meat that will be on the charcoal BBQ.

Korean BBQ - Charcoal Grill - Meat on Grill - Korean FoodNext comes the large pot of hot charcoal and the grill that is place on top of it. The waitress started placing strips of meat and mushrooms on the grill. Also the small black bowl is filled with cheese that slowly melts.

Korean BBQ - Grilling meat - charcoal grill - Korean Food - grilled mushroomsThe waitress turned the meat and when it was done would move the meat to the side of the grill so that we could pick it up and eat it. I thought about taking pictures of the whole process, but it was more important to partake of the wonderful tasting beef instead. I have been to some Korean BBQ restaurants where you do your own cooking, but at this one they did the cooking for you.

Korean BBQ - Charcoal Grill - Baked Egg - Korean Soup - Korean FoodAs the dinner progressed, more items starting showing up on the table. Here is a nice spicy soup with tofu and also a nice baked scrambled egg. They both complemented the meat that was being grilled. We also had some nice sweet pork and some ribs on the grill.

Korean BBQ - Small Dishes - meal finished - Korean Food - Remains of the MealHere is a shot of the small bowls near the end of the meal. You can see that they are slowly being emptied out. Also, some of them have been replaced or refilled several times.

One of the most interesting things about Korean food is the large number of small plates or containers that end up on the table. Today at lunch, our table was almost completely covered by plates and bowls. Maybe more on that later :-).

In any case the dinner last night was really good. It was also spent in good company which is a very important component of a meal.

Steven

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Returning the Cart

Posted on January 11, 2021 by vanbraman

I had been thinking about what to post about tonight and then at the grocery store my mind wandered to one of my pet peeves.

Winco, Covid 19, essential trip, grocery store, shelter in placeWhen I go to the grocery store, I usually park in about the same place each time. I find a place that is a bit away from the entrance and is also close to one of the cart returns.

This is for a couple reasons. One is that the spots near the entrance are used a lot more and I would have to hunt for a spot. Then, I would have to be more careful when leaving because of people driving up and down through the area and also people walking by. I would rather park a little further away and get even more exercise walking into the building. In the long run it doesn’t take much more time or effort.

Also, being close to a cart return makes it easier to return the cart.

cart return, grocery store, grocery cart, curb, pet peeveOf course for a large number of people returning the cart is easy. You just pop it up over the curb or better yet just leave it in an empty parking spot where it can roll away and hit something.

If you weren’t thinking and parked far away from a cart return this is definitely much easier.

cart return, grocery store, grocery cart, curb, pet peeveEven if you park close to the cart return you can still be lazy and not put it in and take up a parking space.

cart return, grocery store, grocery cart, curb, pet peeveIs it really easier to pop the cart up over the curb than to push it over to the cart return? Of course late in the evening taking up that parking space is not a big deal. There are plenty of spaces available for people to park.

Isn’t it the job of somebody who works in the store to bring all the carts back into the store? However, leaving carts all over the place makes the job for this person harder and keeps them from doing other tasks. I remember well working in a grocery store during college and being on cart duty was not fun. We didn’t have the motorized cart movers that many big stores use today. It was hard work.

I was looking for a picture tonight and couldn’t find it. It was a picture of the mechanism where you have to use a coin to release a cart for use and then get it back when you return the cart. Of course, people would still leave carts around, but at least you would probably have groups of kids who would return the carts for the pocket money and keep the parking lots safe from rouge carts.

I know that Aldi uses this system. I see it more often in other places in the world like Germany, UK and Canada. It is not surprising that Aldi uses it since they are a German company.

Aldi is expanding northward in California and with the opening of another Fresno store later this month will only be about 110 miles away. Perhaps one will open here in the next couple of years. This however would disappoint people who would rather have a Trader Joe’s which is also owned by Aldi.

What do you do with your cart after you finish shopping?

Steven

 

 

Posted in California, Culture, Food, Local | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments