Jul 2 2019

Coffee Walks, Kimbap Class, & Ice Cream Cones

Category: Uncategorized

What are: the components of a satisfying Saturday.

The weather was SO GOOD on Saturday and I had this big urge to walk to Orbis Cafe in Mt. Lebanon so of course I dragged Chooch along with me. It’s only about a 25-minute walk and he gets to pet lots of dogs on the way, so he accompanied me with little resistance.

We ended up walking nearly the entire way there in a small, accidental group that included us, a young Asian couple, and a girl/lady in a dress and silver sequined Converse high-tops who we found out later, as she was helping a random guy in a wheelchair cross the street to his doctor’s office, that she was going to a bridal shower that she would have been perfectly fine with missing.

Aside from  that, none of us had actually spoken to each other, yet in my mind, we had all become pedestrian pals over the course of the 8 or so blocks we had traversed together, so when we all went our separate ways as Orbis Cafe loomed ahead, I felt empty inside.

IS THAT WEIRD OR IS THAT WEIRD.

In my head, I like to pretend that I belong with a group. Sigh.

Anyway, at Orbis, I had a very refreshing cinnamon latte and Chooch had a banana muffin and iced tea which I knew he wasn’t going to like because it was unsweetened and I was right because I know everything about that kid. He wanted to throw it away but I made him carry it all the way home and put it in the fridge for his unsweetened tea-obsessed dad to chug later.

This is a church that has a nice roof. I’ve never been inside though. It might be a dump.

Later that afternoon, I went to Jiyong’s apartment to learn to make kimbap! Kimbap, in case you don’t know, are rolls filled with things such as eggs, sweet pickled daikon, pork, cucumber, etc. It’s similar to sushi in that they’re completely customizable, one-shotters wrapped in seaweed (kim) and always filled with rice (bap). It’s a popular picnic food and parents will usually send their kids on field trips with a roll or two.

Henry makes it occasionally but I have never once sidled up to him and asked him to teach me his rice-rolling ways so he was kind of like REALLY when I told him I was going over Jiyong’s to learn just that.

It was so much fun! She put on Winner and did all the prep work while I just stood there like a useless cardboard cutout which is what I was born to do. Literally my greatest talent.

She had me watch as she made the first one and I’ll tell you what, she made the Spreading of the Rice look so goddamn easy but when it was my turn, I was like “oh.” The struggle!

“It’s like doing crafts,” she mused, as I frantically peeked at hers to see if I was on the right track. I thought I was doing alright but then she reached over and rearranged my rice–mildly offensive!

J/K – she just wanted to salvage my roll because we had to eat it at some point so I wasn’t too hurt, I guess.

Omg the rolling process was no joke. She kept helping me with it and I would have been totally OK with her just rolling all of mine for me to be honest because wow, push-ups have made my wrists weak I think.

Here I am with my first roll of Kimbap!

I like that Jiyong will sometimes suggest that we take a picture because I’m still in that awkward getting-to-know-you stage where I want to be snapping away but I’m unsure.

Jiyong made one roll with ham in it too. “For Henry,” she said. Everyone always thinks of Henry!!

Jiyong also made a veggie-laden 떡볶이 (tteokbokki) which is an insanely popular street food / comfort food in Korea. Basic tteokbokki consists of rice cakes (not like, those dry discs of puffed rice that you eat while dieting, but stubby, chewy rice tubes that are the exact opposite of a diet food), fish cakes, and a sweet but intensely spicy sauce made primarily from gochujang, a Korean red pepper paste. I really liked Jiyong’s version of it because it was loaded with carrots and cabbage and green onions. (“파!” I blurted out to show her that I know what it’s called in Korean, lol.)

While she was preparing to set the table, she asked me if I could use chopsticks and I super causally said yes because I was afraid if I answered her too eagerly, I would give away the fact that I use chopsticks to eat my mostly-Asian dinners every night and I have a set of five animal design chopsticks that I could at work to eat my fruit or whatever.

“You can tell which ones you made,” Jiyong said as she examined the array of kimbap while we ate and I’m not sure if that was a compliment, or…

Anyway, what a great afternoon!

Later that evening, we went to some soft serve ice cream by where Henry works because I just wanted a plain vanilla cone with crunchies, nothing fancy.

Carousel Crew, back in action!

Henry’s a poor substitute for Janna though.

While we ate our ice cream, I made them walk down the street with me because I saw a HELP WANTED sign on some store we drive past and I needed to take a picture of it for my Job Spotter app.

“Where was it?” henry asked skeptically, because we weren’t in the best area.

“I dunno, down by that laundromat,” I shrugged, forging ahead.

“I literally just told you that someone was recently raped behind that laundromat but ok…” Henry sighed. Whatever – I got my Job Spotter entry and it was worth 96 points! THAT IS NINETY SIX CENTS IN MY WALLET, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Came home and just chilled the rest of the evening since we had to get up early on Sunday and drive to Toronto. Speaking of, my liveblog was trash (not that it’s usually treasure) because I got so sick after eating lunch, to the point where Henry was worried I had suddenly developed a gluten allergy or something. Something I ate clearly disagreed with me and my stomach honest to god puffed out like I was pregnant with rocks. It was so awesome. Especially when I had to go to a three hour long concert that night.

But that’s another story!

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