Mul Rae Bang-A

christmas day and were in between movie outtings. weve just seen benjamin button and are rushing further west into koreatown by way of our trusty metropasses. i am excited to return to Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu
which i reviewed not too long ago but theyve got better things to do then be open christmas day. bastards.
turns out we passed a korean restaurant during the first few steps outside of the station. all thanks go to the keen detective wife for remembering. we go back there, make sure that they can scrounge up something for a vegetarian besides korean bbq, and after a couple of attempts at explaining (no really no meat… no, chickens meat… ya nothing) i get the thumbs up and we retire to a booth.
the booths were cozy, in that, as you entered the booth, the seats themselves were sheltered from the other patrons by two panels. in between the panels was only enough room for a server to drop something off. so there was a bit of privacy. cool. but also a bit strange.
we ordered fried tofu. that produced about 5 little cubes, each resembling a mildy toasted and unusually shaped marshmellow. though they were pretty good as far as medium soft tofu goes, we should have not ordered it nor any other appetizer, for the portions of our mains were plentiful. moreover, it seems as though no matter what main you order you have a series of different korean salads that are brought to you before your main dish arrives so you can snack on them. there are bean sprouts, pickled cabbages (kimchi), other pickled things, sometimes soy beans but not here. this place had some kind of seaweed.
those items held centre stage for only a brief prologue and then with a flourish the server places one steaming stone pot with rice, egg and veggies before my wife and an equally intense bowl of pork bone soup before carnivore. its the most famous dish in these parts no?
we are both enjoying each and every little dish and dashes of the red bean hot sauce. my wife waits periodically as eggs cook within the fury of her bowl; i ask her for her napkin after having demolished mine and the one that was sitting underneath the fried tofu a few minutes earlier. this is when i remark to my wife how great it is that were not on a first date. at the sight of my fingers, face and broth stained pants, she might have had good reason to have second thoughts in going forward.
we try to finish what we can; its great but theres so much of it. we get the bill AND A PINK ROSE. well, she did. my wife.
so it was pretty perfect, you know? quick. cozy. romantic. and most of all tasty.