Dinner Dates

Months after being on my no-food diet, I still find myself being a bit cautious about the spice, alcohol, and/or seafood quotient of meals.  Cooking for myself has proven to be enjoyable, especially as I share custody of a toaster oven with Hilary, but as of late I’ve been looking for a change up.  Over the past two weeks, it’s been made a priority to try out some new places, new dishes and integrate some variety into my culinary consumption.  

Last week, Paul and I visited this place called PhoMein in my city of Gwacheon that specializes in Vietnamese dishes while seeming to dabble in Thai food as well.  We ordered egg rolls as an appetizer (which ended up being the smallest egg rolls I have ever eaten), Cashew Chicken and Pad Thai.  My Pad Thai was beyond tasty and felt quite gratifying to eat as I selectively swerved through the cooked egg, chicken, sprouts and noodles with my plastic and seemingly clumsy chopsticks.

Cashew chicken, egg rolls and complimentary side dishes.  Wasn't sure what the yellow stuff stuff was, so I left well enough alone.

The wonderfully delicious Pad Thai and green tea.  This is also a great view of the illusive plastic chopsticks.

As an aside, I’ll take this opportunity to describe the kinds of chopsticks that are available here.  At work, there are metal chopsticks that are quite thin (like a metallic linguine) and come to a fairly narrow end.  I have the most practice with these chopsticks, and I’m proud to say that my eating dexterity has improved enough for my hands to naturally fall at the back half of the chopsticks.  My apartment came with a couple of wooden chopstick pairs to eat with that are cylindrical and come to a point; there are also a couple of take-out style wooden chopsticks that float around my utensil drawer that are ideal for a grab-and-go meal of ramin.  I think back to the day I saw a 100-pack of these one-use wooden chopsticks in No Frills and thought to myself “this will make my asian-themed meals more authentic and exciting” –thank god for my seemingly small sense of adventure through the use of changing up my utensils because that practice has prevented me from starving.  

However, all the practice in the world (yes, I am referring to my almost 5 months here and my previous enthusiasm about chopsticks in Canada) has not really prepared me for the use of the plastic chopsticks that some restaurants give you.  The logical side of me realizes that these plastic chopsticks are probably chosen because they are cost-effective and dishwasher-friendly, but I swear the owners give some kind of consideration to how silly people (mostly of the non-asian variety) will look trying to use these chopsticks and THAT is the deciding factor.  Surely enough, the combination of sauce, noodles and plastic cylinders-of-failure will turn a well-cultured meal into a dine-and-dash from embarrassment.  No, I would never stiff on the bill, but while I am slurping away on my noodles in an attempt to suction my meal into my mouth, I ponder how quickly I could get the heck outta thurr.  

Luckily, my hands make a couple of adjustments through my first couple of attempts, and the plastic chopsticks end up being like an old friend –roughing me up a bit at first to reminisce about the playful moments, and then easing up on me when they’ve recognized a dedication to the relationship that’s never wavered.  I become one with the plastic chopsticks and all is well in the world.

With such successful and delicious attempts at asian cuisine earlier in the week, Paul and I ended up at a Chinese food restaurant last Saturday.  I must clarify: when I say Chinese, I mean legitimate Chinese food –I have yet to encounter a battered chicken ball since being here.  Also, most dishes that you order in Korea are communal, so you usually end up going halfsies, thrice-way or quartering the meal.  In order to get a couple different flavours going, we decided to split Beijing-style Sweet and Sour Pork and an order of Potato Noodles stir-fried with vegetables.  

Sweet and Sour Pork

Stir-fried potato noodles with vegetables... and rice.  Rice is an integral part of almost any and every Korean meal.

Once again, the combination of tastes and texture was terrific.  There was a lovely blend of sweet, sour and crunch from the Pork, the potato noodles had a slightly different flavour than the noodles I have had lately, and the veggies were a terrific tender-crisp that had both of us leaving happy with the quantity and quality of the meal.  In fact, I left so satisfied by the meal that (dare I say it) I felt too full to finish the movie theatre popcorn when we went to see Sherlock Holmes II shortly after dinner.  Now that’s when you know a meal is good.