pyongyang naeng myun yum

I had a pretty action-packed day off. I read an article in the nytimes about naeng myun (sometimes called Pyongyang naeng myun, try to say that three times fast, or even once), a Korean cold noodle soup dish and I had to have it. Scott and I went to Oz on Bradshaw. This was my first visit there. I was surprised at how fancy it was inside, and there were pictures of the owners with Rick Adelman, various news anchors from around town, and with Bobby J. I love Korea House, but this place is more spacious and pleasant inside. Well, I take that back because I just remembered that it had flatscreen TVs tuned to the food channel everywhere you look, which is obnoxious. But I don't think you can see them very well from the BBQ tables, so it might be nice to take a big group there. We were there between lunch and dinner, and the place was pretty empty. The dish wasn't on the menu and of course I had forgotten the name, but as I started to describe it the guy instantly knew what I was talking about and said they had it. Even though I've eaten Korean food a lot, I had never had bibimbap, and neither had smiller, so we got the cold sirloin bibimbap. The little dishes they bring you beforehand is one of my favorite things about Korean food, and every place brings you something different. This time they had regular spicy kimchee and unspiced kimchee, which was really good. They brought out the bibimbap first and I loved it! The yolk of the fried egg mixed with the rice in a delicious way. I kept stealing bites from scott as we waited for the naeng myun. I had not read the article very closely so I was astonished that the broth was an icy slush! This is the perfect dish for a sweltering day, even though it's really weird eating savory food that is this cold. It has a slightly sour, slightly fruity and sweet (from the pear) broth, buckwheat noodles, a small chunk of beef brisket, slices of daikon, and a hard boiled egg. The served it with extra vinegar if you like it more sour, and a horseradishy mustard. So good! Everyone there was very nice, and even rushed to the table with concern when I had a choking fit from a hot pepper I accidentally ate, and they finished the meal with a complimentary cool drink that I'm not familiar with. It seemed to be some kind of rice drink that was slightly lemony and had a single pine nut in the bottom. Has anyone else had this? This was one of the best meals I have had in a while.

We also went to the viognier tasting at 58 degrees. They had one French viognier and 5 Cali ones. The Cali ones were pretty much oaky and nasty. I liked the French one, but not really enough to buy it. Maybe I just don't like viognier.

Later, we went to Davis for the Parenthetical Girls show, which was fun. That band is very intriguing. They were stoked on the turn out and will probably come back to Sac sometime. They are one attractive band!

Then back to Sac, where I was given a parking lesson by the hooker on scott's corner. I felt that if I didn't take her advice there could be some kind of altercation so because I happen to know she used to be a Marine I took it.