It undermined everything I had felt only a few nights ago. Disrespected, even. It made me feel vulnerable to being hurt again. Asking this question was putting my ego into a grave way lower than my already lowered standards. It was humiliating, and virtually accepting defeat.
but for the life of me, I couldn't shake it. Letting go was hard. There's no way that getting over something like this would be simple, so the only choice left at this point was to take the dive and see where things landed. As much as I wanted to put it behind me and forget the disappointment, it wasn't that simple. It's complicated.
I asked ...
"want galbi? :("
"But the meat selection isn't going to be better" he replied.
my heart racing, but not wanting to give up hope, I hesitated... "we could order a medium"
"what if it's all back rib though"
He's right. Oh god what then? The drive up there, the massive bill, the hope- it would all be for nothing but heartbreak all over again.
But it occurred me that there is something worse than 3 huge bricks of back rib in my large spicy braised beef short ribs with cheese. There's the fear and distrust of my favorite Korean food place. I don't wanna just give up so easily because the other night was .... upsetting. It can't go down like that. I need closure. I need to face my fear and BELIEVE IN HOPE because I really fucking love this place and I don't want the new addition of annoyingly massive and hard to cut back ribs to drive me away.
With that... I sent the text.
So he drove up to get me, and even drove us up there. I was gonna drive us, since it was my heartache that dragged us out into the world so late. But in my most dire hour of need, he was the best support system a hangry smol bean could ask for. And I was so hangry. Not just agro, but resentful. I promised him I wouldn't complain if we got giant bricks of back rib again.
wonk uoy naht noitceffa erom deen I
I told him though, if we decide not to go with the galbi jjim, we could always try their soups. I've had them before and they're really good. But galbi jjim is where fears and lies mmhelt awayhehehheeeeaaayyyyyay. Splatters in flight. My sanctuary. My sanctuaryyyyyah
also just... for the record... I don't yelp places when I'm emotionally compromised. So no, there's no bad review from our last visit. Also that's goofy, who does that.
We get there around midnight. (This place is 24 hours) and are greeted immediately. We can sit anywhere. We get comfy and then banchan is set out like, instantly. This was cool, because it was still busy, and we don't mind waiting on stuff if other people are trying their best. Earth signs. (lol just go with it). That's not to say that we experience long wait times when we go. More often than not, it's the total opposite and everyone working there is chill.
So we deliberate for a few minutes, until server dude comes over. That's the moment of truth. There it is. Do we (bf literally doesn't care) risk going through the pain and disappointment again or just get soups?
We go with the medium portion.
This was strategic on my end. You see...
While the stoneware that the food comes in is the same size, the amount of meat is what's different. In the large portions, it would make sense to put monumentally sized pieces of back rib. And only a few pieces of short rib. Short ribs take up less real estate. And how else to give large portions of meat than to give literally large bricks of rib? So now....
Now that we got the medium... there's no need for huge anything. Incremental short ribs would be the most efficient. We shall see.
They brought our plate out
I'll never get tired of this part. It's so cool. And just like that, I could feel myself falling for it again. Wanting everything to be okay. Safe. Delicious. The amazing food experience I know it could be.
Once the cheese was sufficiently blasted, bf measured the height of the "mound" of food. He could see it didn't come up as high as it did last time. And as far as I could tell, I didn't spot huge bricks of anything under that sexy melted layer of mozzarella.
We dove right in. I probed into the cheese with my chopsticks, grabbing nothing in particular. And pull out a generous piece of meat, webbed in mozzarella and dripping with spicy sauce.
I probed some more, expecting the worse. Expecting to go and turn over one of the bigger lumps beneath the cheese only to find it's connected to 5 other lumps and it's all one giant piece and what the fuck why WHY
I gently lifted the lump under the cheese, and beneath it revealed the adorable underside of a short rib. Just chillin on the top. A smile was comin on. Then I went for another lump. And to my surprise.... another short rib. And then another. And then .... I found a piece of back rib. But it wasn't a giant brick... it was a cute little proportional piece to the other cuts of short rib. It... it.... it made sense. And .... there was no tearing, no yanking. Just.... tenderness. And... it was at that moment
that
my dopamine went into full blast. Hyper, giggly, talkative, wiggling around in my chair after every bite. The elation was almost too much because I couldn't shut up. About anything. I was stuffing my face and talking about everything ever. You know what else melted with that cheese?
My fears...
My lies...
I KNEW this place couldn't let me down. It couldn't! We have a relationship. And it was too hard to just give up. I also couldn't give up the moment when a burst of happy came over me and I decided to take a picture of the short ribs and proportional back rib all nestled in a cute little pile. The way we were. The way we are.
We devoured this. The only thing left over was the sauce and all the veggies that thickened perfectly because the potatoes were cut SMALL ENOUGH TO COOK ALL THE WAY THROugh :)
We got that to go.
And the icing on top of the cake... our favorite server was working that night. He loves us, it's totally mutual. I make sure to smile and send him love vibes from afar when he helps us out. He also asked bf if he worked at Blizz and he shared his enthusiasm for Starcraft. He mocked himself for it but he's basically our best friend and we love him and he's great and I made sure to tip him well. He always take good care of us. He was the one who initially explained why back ribs were added to the dish when I asked about it. An has gone out of his way for us before, so yeah.
I was SO happy. This was the greatest night EVER.
and in this... I learned....
1. Never go to Sun Nong Dan early evenings/during the day. The cuts suck.
2. Our best friend works at night
3. The medium is the way to go (we got a lot of meat imo. We still left full)
4. Don't give up on something that you love
Let me just remind ya'll that these plates are meant to serve 4-6 people. Both medium and large. So the medium isn't bad, we're just snobs. Medium easily can feed 4 people.
The last time, I was so bummed and entertained the idea of just not going back. In the grand scheme of things it's not that deep, but I really love this food lol. And when it gets presented so differently than what you're used to and expecting, it's a bummer. It would be less of a bummer if it wasn't so expensive maybe, but it was. Was really lame.
I love food lol. And going back potentially risking to lose time, gas, money, and my love for this place was not easy. It's like going somewhere you were super unhappy with and then going back hoping it's better.... on the hope that it goes back to how it used to be.
This could be applied to people too I guess lol.
If there's someone out there who you had a falling out with or they let you down or whatever, but they're your galbi jjim, try reaching out. They could turn out to be like our amazing best friend server and everything is okay. Or... they could just end up being giant bricks of boney back rib and disappoint you, but at least you know not to go there anymore. You get that closure.
Even if our plate came back the same way it did the other time.... I think it would've been fine. I would've ignored the big pieces and focused on the rest of the entree. It wasn't all bad. There's still some good there. It's overshadowed by the giant annoyances, but it's there. Just gotta keep that mindset strong when that happens again. POSITIVE SHIT. GOTTA STAY POSITIVE
All I fear means notheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnn
eeeennn youuu and I there's a new laaaaahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayaaaaaaaaaaaEEEIIIND
this post was so unnecessary lmao
No comments:
Post a Comment
*aragorn voice* WHAT SAY YOU