Last night we had dinner at a pretty kick ass Korean place on 32nd St. which is either called Gam Mee Ok or Gahm Mi Oak — the door and the menus say different things. Either way, the food was quite dynamite. I had the house speciality, an oxtail soup called Sul Lung Tang, Ann had the Bibim Bop. They cut the Kimchi right in front of us and it was the most kickass Kimchi I ever had. The waitstaff was very friendly. They quickly caught up that Ann and I didn’t know what the hell we were doing and told us how to eat our food. (Korean food can be baffling.) There were some slices of cabbage on the table that I thought were for decoration — actually, you are supposed to dip them into this green, spicy bean dip. Awesome.
Then there were some peppers on the table. We were told they were for dipping, too. We bit into them and they were terrific. So I started eating more. Then I hit the seeds. And I nearly died. They were the spiciest peppers I ever ate. The waiter said, “Oh, sometimes you get a hot one. They’re not always hot.” I couldn’t respond because I had ice in my mouth. I was completely defeated by the mighty Korean pepper. I had to get up and steal a whole pitcher of water from the wait station. I tell ya — that pepper made me Kim Jong ILL
Then, something embarrasing. The restaurant is attached to a mid-level hotel (the Sanford.) A woman walked in through the side door to see if she could order a bowl of Wonton Soup to go. She was then informed that they didn’t served Wonton Soup. (No Wonton Soup? What kind of a Chinese restaurant is this?) The only soup they had was the delicious oxtail Sul Lung Tang. (This restaurant, thankfully, has a small menu — less to get lost in for us Westerners.) She didn’t want that. She wanted chicken soup. Could they make her chicken soup? No dice. She left in a huff.
Then it was off to Symphony Space for the World Music Institute‘s presentation of the Seoul Performing Arts Company. They did a lot of 2000 year old traditional dances in some dazzling costumes. There were ladies with fans and men dressed as white cranes. Some of the music was prerecorded, but an old dude in a crazy hat did come out and jam on a wood flute for a while. There were a lot of really blaring, bleating, dissonant horns and smashing cymbals that I thought was just awesome. So noisy!!
In the second half, things got a little more razzle-dazzle. Everyone was banging drums and two dudes were spinning plates like they were on the Ed Sullivan show. Then these men and women came out with hinges attatched to their heads with giant paper streamers on them. They would rattle their necks around and make designs in the air with their streamers. One guy had the paper attatched to a long cord that was attatched to his hinge, and he could actually jump rope with the tissue paper swinging around from the top of his head! Anyway, they did this, madly swinging their necks around at top speeed, for like twenty minutes!! I tried it for thirty seconds and gave myself a headache. These guys are hardcore!
I bought a CD which is pretty kick ass.
