We finally went to check out Jeong Won, the all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ on Convoy. Sometimes I just like to remind myself that Buga is my favorite.
I don’t know if it was an off night or what, but I didn’t leave very happy. There was a regular grill table open, but we were seated at a table with a propane burner and iron “grill” pan. I know we were only a party of 2, but there were two other couples at the grill tables and none of the other tables were even occupied. I would have preferred a grill table because I think you get a nice finish on the meat. With the pan we had, sometimes the meat ended up steaming instead of grilling and the scallops (so small!) kept rolling down the sides. This is the first of my complaints.
Next, they ran out of rice. I know! What kind of Korean restaurant runs out of rice?? So, we essentially ate half our meal without rice. Or lettuce wraps, since we had no rice to wrap in the lettuce. It is worth noting that there were no visible Korean folk working in the restaurant. Maybe they were on vacation? In any case, running out of rice is just ridiculous.
The condiments and dipping sauce dishes are small. Ridiculously small if you consider that you are expecting people to eat a lot of food because of the, you know, all-you-can-eat aspect. I want more sesame oil and bean paste, please.
The meats are okay. T liked the bulgogi because it was sweeter and more heavily marinated than Buga. The marinated pork was tender, at least. The shrimp was tasty, but we would have liked it to have been de-shelled. It’s kind of a pain to get all dirty for 4 shrimp in between eating other things with chopsticks.
By now you’re wondering if I liked anything or if I was just feeling grumpy. I like that you can have a lot of variety. We tried their seafood combo (the squid was too thick and crunchy but the scallops were okay, if small), marinated pork, beef sirloin (boring), bulgogi (we got 2 orders of this), shrimp (4 shrimp per order), and brisket (tasty but sometimes had stringy fat). The portions are perfect for tasting all the meats, and if you don’t like it there isn’t much to choke down. You can definitely stuff yourself silly here, and there is soft serve ice cream as a nice dessert.
Even though the place was mostly empty when we went, the service was so spotty. Sometimes we wouldn’t be able to catch anyone’s eye (to ask for the rice, to get more water). Sometimes we would have two people in a row stop by to offer the same thing.
I prefer Buga. We probably spend the same amount of money there and leave just as full, but full of better meat and tasty, tasty ribeye. Plus, every table has a regular grill. I just don’t get that. In a restaurant where the only thing on your menu is all-you-can-eat bbq, why wouldn’t you equip every table with a grill?
So, there you go. If you want to just stuff yourself with Korean bbq, you can go to Jeong Won (4690 Convoy St), but if you want to enjoy your meal, I still recommend Buga.
T wonders how I have time to sit and read books when there are so many other things to do at home. He doesn’t even mean fun things, like sitting in the hammock or running around with the dogs. He’s talking about bill paying, checkbook balancing, laundry, putting dishes away, brushing the dogs, vacuuming… stuff like that. Sometimes, I put off laundry for a day. Sometimes I just take the dogs outside and pet them vigorously and hope their fur lands in a neighbor’s pool. Sometimes I cheat and just suck up the visible stuff off the floor with the hand vacuum. Usually, though, I read while I’m waiting for T to finish brushing his teeth. Or instead of taking a nap with him. Or while he’s puttering around doing something that doesn’t require me.
I love books. Total fiction, not-learning-anything books. I like having a few on the bookshelf so when I feel like reading, one’s available. Otherwise, I would consider getting them from the library. Instead, I go to Costco and browse their new arrivals. Now, books on things like building a chicken coop or how to raise chickens, those I request from the library and wait for them to show up. Sometimes, the books I read are coming out in movie form, but I don’t want to wait for the movie, so I go read the book. My Sister’s Keeper is coming out soon, with Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin. It looks like a sappy movie, so I figured I’d read the book and not have to wait for the movie to come out on DVD. It’s written by Jodi Picoult, who also wrote Handle With Care. Two books about a family with a really sick kid. Apparently, they also have a crazy one-track-mind mother, too. It’s almost like she wrote the same story twice (using the same one-chapter-per-character rotation) but with a different illness. Really, that’s the only difference I could see. There’s a kid; she’s sick. The mom is so focused on caring for/curing the sick kid that she kind of overlooks the other kid(s). Other kid(s) feel like they deserve some individual attention, but also guilt because, you know, they’re not sick. Dad kind of just works to a) try to get away from the mom-crazy and b) try and keep up with the huge medical bills. At some point, there is a lawsuit. Household erupts in more emotional craziness (with mom trying to keep it all from the sick kid) and then mom and not-sick kid are on opposite sides of the lawsuit. Just when you think the not-sick kid will cave into the mom’s dominating pressure, Dad decides that Mom is not thinking clearly and perhaps not-sick kid has a point. Now the parents are on opposite sides of the lawsuit, each wondering how they got to this point and missing the easy, loving relationship they once had. Lots of emotional back and forth happens, then the lawsuit ends. And then, when the lawsuit ends and the family comes back together and they all love each other and are now looking forward to moving on with their happy lives, Jodi Picoult decides that the only way to write a really good book novel is to take the ending and slam it into your heart while laughing fiendly. Ha ha! You thought you might get a nice ending but real life isn’t nice and so I have thrown your emotions into the garbage disposal and now you can tell people that I write really touching and heart-wrenching stories novels.
So, my recommendation to you is to stay away from her books. Or, if you’ve read one, you’ve probably read them all. Unless you like reading about the same story with different character (names) and thinking the story will wrap up nicely but then having the tragedy shoved in your face all of a sudden.
While we’re talking about similarities, let me also tell you that we went to see The Proposal on our “date night”. And it was cute. It was a total romantic comedy, but we like Ryan Reynolds and think he’s funny and there was a really cute puppy in the movie that made us think of Cassie. So, I was enjoying watching this silly movie, eating my overpriced Reese’s Pieces (because you should always buy your date expensive theater candy if you want to show her how cool you are), and then Sandra Bullock starts her I-love-you-all-so-much-I-can’t-lie-anymore speech. And, if you’ve seen While You Were Sleeping, you will recognize this speech and marvel how she managed to do two separate movies that have such similar speeches! What luck!
In all honesty, though, it was a cute movie. Maybe not theater-price worthy, but definitely rentable.
I suppose if I want to be thorough in my warnings and/or announcements, I should also tell you that Luc’s Bistro is not open on Sundays. Don’t forget this! They have very good food (my mom thinks they don’t give you enough food for the money; I say it’s plenty of food and along the lines of Urban Solace in portion size, if that helps you) and delicious cupcakes and you should definitely go there so they can pay their rent and not get evicted like Miami Grille. But don’t go on Sunday. If you go on Sunday when you are hungry and looking forward to some braised chicken or gooey mac ‘n cheese or perfectly moist salmon and a cupcake, you will be sorely disappointed and then you’ll have to go to Poway Sushi Lounge and spend more money thatn you ever planned on spending at Luc’s Bistro. I’m just saying. (more…)
I had a bunch of neat picture-posts of road trip iPhone pictures that I had taken while on vacation, and I tried to post them, but I also upgraded my iPhone to 3.0 and this apparently is not compatible with whatever version of the WordPress app that was loaded. So, all my phone posts disappeared into thin air.
Since it seems like I hardly have any time at all to sit down at a realy computer, much less transfer photos from my camera to said real computer, being able to post a few notes here and there from my iPhone seemed ideal. Until it stopped working.
In the meantime, we had a lovely vacation with our friends and I stand by my claim that they may be the only two people I would consider spending 10 days in a car with.
Before we left, I haphazardly started a batch of kombucha using half a bottle of GT’s Kombucha, citrus flavor. I wasn’t sure if it would actually work, but I came home to find a nice SCOBY (or whatever it’s called) in the jar and then blended the resulting sour tea with strawberry puree. It’s a little tart (okay, it’s way tart), so I’ll be looking into some sweeter fruits for mixing, perhaps?
There was also a nice harvest of lemon cucumbers and cherry tomatoes waiting in the garden, and I turned it into a tasty chopped salad. The corn didn’t really pan out, and the eggplants aren’t producing as much as the ones last year did, but I think it’s still going to be a tasty summer.
T seems a little more endearing to the chicken-keeping idea, although I don’t think he’s willing to build a coop. I’m actually waffling over whether to try and build one myself or just buy the really cute (but so expensive) Eglu Cube tractor. I ran the numbers (seriously, I made a spreadsheet) and determined that 2 chickens could pay for their Eglu in 8 years, if you compare it to the cost of supermarket eggs. If you factor in the cost of organic, free range eggs (like $4/dozen!) then the chickens will have earned their keep in only 4 years. I also discovered that adding a third chicken drastically reduces the cost recovery time, but I think that may be pushing my luck.
Filed under: road trip
We’re on a road trip to Chico for vacation! Here we are just north of Bakersfield.
T is out at Phileas Fogg’s having a beer with his buddy, so I’m taking the rare night alone to just sit and be lazy. I watched the Tony Awards from Sunday (I was given an evil look when I turned it on in his presence and then I had the remote taken away from me!) Then I watched a taped Pushing Daisies and got sad that there’s only one more episode left. How will Emerson ever find his daughter?
Now that the kitchen is all put back together, I’ve been itching to do some serious baking. But we keep going out of town so I haven’t had the chance! So, I’ve just been cooking meals when we’re home. Last Sunday we had soy chorizo from Trader Joe’s with potatoes and eggs. I love chorizo but it’s so greasy when you cook it that I can’t bring myself to eat it. I read that the soy chorizo was pretty good, especially for being non-meat, so I figured we’d give it a shot. I’m not sure how the nutritional values compare to regular chorizo, but the texture was pretty similar. It was a little dry, but that also meant it wasn’t swimming in grease! It was well spiced and quite tasty, so now when we’re in the mood for chorizo, it’s definitely going to be soy.
Speaking of the kitchen, I have a beautiful new range hood that I bought from Sears.com. And it has no grease filters. You know, those things at the top of your hood that get all gunky and sticky and disgusting? Yeah, I have none of those. But I’m supposed to have four. Four! They weren’t in the box when the hood got installed (by Sears). I keep getting bounced around, leaving messages, and getting ignored by the Carmel Mountain store. Customer service tries to help, but apparently they have to go through the physical store to do anything? So, I keep having to make phone calls. It’s a bit of a pain. Anyone know of a good way to actually get results?
Something else I picked up at Trader Joe’s (at the new Mira Mesa store! It’s so huge!) is a bag of their Five Seed Almond Bars. They taste like pumpkin cookie bars, with flax seed, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and… uh… two other kinds of seeds. I thought it would be a nice grab-n-go thing in the morning, but they’re actually really good and I’ve been eating one for dessert. They’re moist, not crunchy, just slightly sweet, and nutty from all the seeds.
And… the dogs are going crazy, so T must be home. Time to wrap up!
We’ve been in Philadelphia the last few days for a wedding and visiting T’s family. No scrapple on this visit, but we did go to a HUGE smorgasbord, the Penzey’s spice store, and a tasty crab place. Hopefully, we’ll sneak in a trip to Rita’s and a cheesesteak before we leave. We’ve also been playing with the new kitty. She’s a biter, but she’s real cute!
Also, happy birthday, Cami!
We checked out the Food & Wine festival at California Adventure today, including a beer session.
Filed under: garden
It’s the first harvest from our garden! Four little green beans! There’s also corn growing on the stalks, tiny tomatoes emerging, and (finally) little cucumber flowers blossoming. Aside from the mysterious crater that keeps appearing in the raised garden, I think we’re off to a good start.
Filed under: dogs
This is my cousin’s dog, Chloe. She’s a long-haired Chihuahua mix, but her fur is so soft. She’s a cutie and an absolute lap dog. I had a lot of fun visiting her over the weekend.
