There was a time my days would simply blur together. I was never much one for TGIFs, nor did I mind Mondays. The weekends were great for taking my longer rides and going to a good restaurant with my wife. Sometimes it’s Saturdays, sometimes it’s Sundays. Either way we usually get one good day in to do some exploring. I find that now though I’m enjoying the weekends a bit more.
Today it was supposed to rain by noon, so the ride would be the first thing. Winds out of the SSE so the general direction was set. Some kind of idea of where I wanted to go but nothing solid. See an interesting road? Make the turn. Pick a landmark in the distance and weave your way through country roads to get to it…unless you see another interesting road. End up a little wet and a little dirty when you turn down a road that turns out to be unpaved up ahead.
A good enough ride though. Just about all of them are.
Home for a shower and lunch, then fall asleep on the floor watching Property Brothers on HGTV.
But of course, we can’t forget about part two. And much like the ride earlier in the day, I’ll just pick a direction and head out. I wander around the countryside then decide to take a few of the more obscure roads I have ridden and that’s how I ended up west of Yongin City going up one of the hills I’ve ridden a few times in the past. That’s also how I found a restaurant that makes some incredible pork galbi.
I’ve written about Korean food being one of the reasons I love Korea, and it’s always a pleasure to find a restaurant that I can add to my growing list of restaurants I’ll recommend. I’ve been to plenty of these galbi restaurants before. There’s one not far from my apartment, and it’s pretty good – good enough that within the past three years they’ve opened two other locations. But this one was beyond any that I had experienced. The meat was tender and perfectly marinated and the wait staff was well-presented and helpful. Most interestingly, they had a particular combination of flavors that just worked – a kind of marinated salad and some unidentified spicy crisp root mixed with shredded squid. The combination of the three (salad, root, and meat) was really quite delicate and wonderful. Add into that the ability to go more conventional with lettuce, sesame leaves, garlic and samjang and it was still as good as any I’d had elsewhere. Even better, the garlic was all full-clove and petite (as opposed to large-clove and sliced) with very good flavor both raw or cooked in sesame oil on the grill.
Finish it off with the post-meal naengmyeon (buckwheat noodles in a cold broth to which you add vinegar and mustard to your liking), and you’re walking out feeling pretty good for the drive home.
And that, it turns out, is how to have a pretty good day.