Cycle 15 - Item 226 18 (Sun) August 2024 Mapo Soft Tofu with Chaofan 3.5 at Sichuan House -Sinsa, Gangnam, Seoul, Republic of Korea- with the Family, EL's family, HJ's family, KS's family Lunch with cousins on my father's side. Writing this rem…
with the Family, EL's family, HJ's family, KS's family
Lunch with cousins on my father's side.
Writing this reminds me with both fondness and annoyance that I hadn't seen ES since Manila - at the start of the pandemic, when her dumbass husband flew in from Korea (a hotspot at the time) and insisted on coming over for lunch (see 11.048 Shrimp & Scrambled Eggs with Wood-Ear Mushrooms). The very next day, we received a notice from the boys' school that any student who'd been in contact with someone from Korea had to self-quarantine for 14 days (see 11.049 Cheese Pizza). They missed 2 weeks of school then returned for 2 days of classes, only for the school to be shut down (classes held on-line) for the rest of the semester (see 11.064 Stir-Fried Watercress and Shimeji Mushrooms).
In descending order of age [from left]: Dominic, Bradley, Ian (copycat), Ian (OG), Sarah, Sabrina, Adeline.
But then I met KS's daughter Adeline for the first time today, and she became my favorite within seconds. Amazingly, her birthday is also December 28. And we were both born in the Year of Rat, 4 cycles apart. (I also met KS's wife for the first time.)
Incidentally, ES's husband (see above), HJ's husband, and KS did not join (they're all in the States).
Sabrina looks almost exactly like HJ.
To simplify matters for our party of 11, I ordered a combination of the White and Red course menus, but failed to consider that 4 of the combined 6 main dishes were deep-fried. Midway through the service, ES suddenly ordered an additional plate of sweet and sour pork, which was among the items already on the table - "That won't be enough for my kids" - but of course, it was left virtually untouched. As a result, the meal got kinda heavy/greasy towards the end.
On the bright side, the Red course menu included Mapo Soft Tofu with Chaofan, easily the best dish of the spread. Balanced sauce with just a touch of mala. The "soft tofu" turned out to be sundubu, which is actually closer to the soft doufu used in authentic mabo outside of Korea - I'll be trying this at home. The "chaofan" was a simple fried rice, though steamed rice would've sufficed. A very nice end to the meal.
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