I had an impromptu dinner at the H Mart food court the other day with some fam. Here’s my mom’s dolsot bibimbap. It’s a perfectly respectable bibimbap from a fast food joint. However, there is a distinctly heavy mushroom flavor to it. I do not care for mushrooms, so I’m not too into this one. They are very powerful mushrooms.
Here’s my aunt’s yukgaejang. This is one of my favorite korean dishes of all time. It tends to be super spicy, and is a soup with shredded beef. You can dump in the whole thing of rice if you want, or do what I prefer, which is to take individual spoonfuls of rice and then dip that into the yukgaejang, grabbing some goodies into the spoon. I miss my grandma’s version though, she always made a really good one. She has mad yukgaejang skills, and she can’t use them or any of her other cooking skills anymore now that she’s in a home. Oh the ravages of old age!
So then here’s where it all goes downhill. I wanted ddukpokki, sort of, but also not so much. But I was in the mood for something spicy. So I saw this haemul ddukpokki on the menu, which is a seafood ddukpokki. I love seafood, so how could we go wrong? We could go wrong by having to wait 45 freakin frackin minutes for this thing. Seriously. At a food court. My mom and my aunt had gotten their food and were done eating. We asked probably about 30 minutes into it, which was probably about 15 minutes too late to begin with. Everybody else was getting their food. But for me, nothing. So after we asked, they probably realized that they completely forgot about the order. But instead of admitting it, they kept saying oh, we’re making it right now. And of course I was thinking of course you’re making it right now, you’re going to go start making it right, you f!cks. My mom even had some cross words with them, which she hardly ever does, because she’s the nicest little old lady! But see, this even drove my mom nuts. We should have just said screw you and gotten our money back. But because I was so starving, we waited. Luckily, it was pretty damn good. But nothing is worth waiting 45 minutes for. Seriously, nothing. It’s not like I was waiting in line. I’d ordered it already and then had to wait 45 minutes to eat. So… much… frustration. I’m not going to order from that little shop ever again. They’ve always been probably the slowest vendor in the entire food court there, but this just went way too far. So never again!

I had just gone to Sampan for a regular meal, but after finding out about their happy hour, I decided to go check that out as well. There are a number of small plates for $2 and drink specials too. What’s to lose with $2 appetizers?
One of the cocktail specials… fruity… tasty… We got some seats at the kitchen bar, so you could watch all the action.
Up top we have the scallop with haricot vert, mustard, and almond. Delicious, and well cooked. Bottom is the chicken and shrimp spring roll. They serve it with mustard, but I really wish they just gave me duck sauce. I’m terrible that way. The roll it self was really good though.
The chicken dumplings with soy, sesame, scallions, and radish. Meh.
The chicken satay. This was bland. It was beyond bland. The peanut sauce was fine, but the chicken tasted like nothing. And the chicken had crunchy bits in it. I did not enjoy that. What was it, knuckle or something? Please skip this.
The korean bbq rib, which I got before, and liked before. I still like it! It’s still great!
The lamb chop! I’m not even into lamb, but this was my favorite dish of the night. For real! It’s got a little panko breadcrumb action going on with ginger and yakitori sauce.
The kobe beef hot dog! So yeah, I paid $2 for a hot dog. But the hot dog was made with kobe beef! But it still tasted just like a regular beef hot dog. It was a good dog though, don’t get me wrong. They serve it with mustard but I wish they would have just given me some ketchup. I know ketchup on a hot dog is for weenies, but that’s what I prefer! They broil these little dogs so the outside of them bursts when you bite into em and the rolls also have a bit of crunch. I would get this again! As far as happy hour deals go, this is a pretty darn good one! Get it while it lasts!

My uncle’s brother was in town, so we had a little bbq in Delaware. It’s usually my uncle’s job man the grill, but for whatever reason, my mom was womanning the grill this time.
Before we started cooking outside, earlier in the day, we had a little snack. It was fairly simple really, just some raw fish. I can’t really call it anything else, because that’s all it was, a plate of raw fish. There was some spicy kochujang to dip it in, some sliced raw garlic, and some red leaf lettuce or perilla leaves to roll it in. But any way you looked at it, it was just sliced raw fish on a plate. Delicious raw fish, at that.
Once we started our proper dinner, we kicked things off with a noodle dish. This isn’t the first time my aunt has made this. But what’s not to like? We have soba noodles as the main starch, and cucumbers, watercress, and shredded perilla leaves for veggies. Then we have squid, shrimp, and imitation crab meat for seafood.
Everything is mixed together with a spicy kochujang sauce, not unlike the dip that we were using for the raw fish earlier. That’s all there is to it! I hate perilla leave, with a passion, so I make sure to get a batch without it. It’s that gross to me. But without the perilla leaves, I just love this stuff. And for a hot summer day, cold noodles with veggies and seafood are perfect.
Here’s the galbi that my mom, the griller of the day, cooked up. I prefer pieces that are nearly, if not actually, burnt. I’m odd that way.
My mom also marinated up some dried file fish and grilled those up.
Here they are after they’ve been cooked. They were a bit too salty for my liking.
She also marinated some large pieces of squid. My mom always scores the flesh with crosshatches on one side, so they can curl. I’m not sure if it’s necessary, but it’s fun watching them curl up. It was another lovely, lazy, and food-filled day!