We're So Stuffed!

I'm typing this after 9 pm with a very full belly. Andrew and I just returned from visiting two Newton favorites, Apgujung and Cabot's.

As Andrew's sister Amanda was in town for the weekend, she drove up with Andrew's parents Tom and Charlotte to have dinner with us. We headed to Apgujung, a Korean restaurant located around the corner from my place.

After placing our orders, the waitress brought us our banchan dishes, which consisted of kimchi, pickled radish and carrots, some sort of fish strips, cooked bean sprouts (one of my favorites) and what appeared to be coleslaw:



Charlotte gave kimchi a try and decided it wasn't to her liking. I'll freely admit that I wouldn't like kimchi if I didn't grow up with it. Andrew and Tom were the only ones at the table that were eating kimchi with me, as Andrew demonstrates below:



This came out a bit blurry but shows Charlotte and Tom getting their chopsticks ready for their barbecued meal - beef short rib and spicy pork, cooked at our table:



Amanda went with the sushi - From what I recall, she had some sort of tempura asparagus and cucumber roll, a king crab roll and a California roll. I had two of the asparagus rolls and they were tasty:


Andrew was excited to have beef bibimbap, even though I made him stop eating it to take a picture:

Here's Andrew mixing the layers of rice, meat and vegetables together in the bibimbap:

Charlotte and Tom caught on quickly to the technique of cooking their dinners at the table, although I must admit, the waitress and host were quick to jump in and help us cook our meat as well:

My meal of chicken katsu was the last to arrive at the table, and I was hungry enough to start eating it without taking a picture. So you get a shot of katsu after I was done eating it. Since they give such generous portions at Apgujung (two whole chicken katsu cutlets for me), I had plenty left over even after sharing it with everyone at the table:

I didn't check my watch but I think we easily spent two hours at Apgujung eating and talking. Whether it was coincidence or not, no one was seated at any of the tables around us even though the restaurant was packed, making me think we were one of the loudest ones there! It was laugh-out-loud fun hearing stories about Andrew, Amanda and Adam when they were young.

Sharing all of our dishes left us room for dessert, which worked out well since Andrew and I had been meaning to introduce the rest of his family to Cabot's. This visit deserves a post of its own!