Anyways....Don't you just love the weather these days? (Well...in Maryland that is...)
The weather is just telling me to come out and enjoy !
So, I decided to start walking around my neighborhood.
Haven't been working out for so long...and my body is not doing so good. Hah hah...need to get back into shape...

Although...I feel like I always SAY that...

Our neighborhood is up and down hills so probably a good workout zone. Hah.
As I was walking around I took a snap shot of some berries...(what kind of berries...no idea...)
Can you find a stink bug in this picture?? LOL.

UGH!! those Stink Bugs are EVERYWHERE!!!!!!
Last time, I captured like 7-8 in my room in one hour. I'm always the last one to go to sleep and they just gather around my room! Sigh....Always have fly swatter in hand. But outside is THEIR territory so let them be...Ha ha.

For those of you who didn't have to know what Stink bugs are...here you go...

And...as I was walking, this cute kitten(?) blocked me and started to meow at me. Looked at me...meowed and meowed...

So cute but can't touch...(bad allergy) I didn't know what it wanted but kept on meowing and started to scratch its back. Never raised one so can't understand the cats well....hmmm...

Tried to get the face...but it would...just turn away...had a such a cute face...awwwww...

That was my morning walk... hungry now...very hungry and sweaty...
Just getting some rice with bean sprouts soup + Kimchi for a quick meal.
Have a great day everybody!

While I was sleeping I could hear the thunder and the wind clashing on our house...(our house is on the top of the hill too..) I thought our roof was going to crumble down or something since I heard this large THUD! But I was still alive so I went back to sleep.

In the morning...my mom, Young, woke and and as always opened the back door to the deck for Nine for his um 'morning ritual'...and realized the back yard somehow 'looked' wider and brighter than usual...Hmmmm

We had two trees right by the deck which covers our house from other neighbors (and birds used to nest there too...sorry birds) It wasn't there...

It was over there...lying around...poor tree...

Completely rooted out. Nine sniffing around the poor tree...after his morning ritual. Guess he knew something wasn't right too.

These are our poor trees...ex-home for our pretty birds and their eggs...(and some squirrels too)...sigh

One thing we should be thankful is that those trees didn't hit anything else. One tree almost fell on the fence but we flanked it so it wouldn't fall down to the neighbor's. Whew...lucky it didn't come into our deck too.

So basically our house is so bare now...years ago when Maryland had very bad storm, all three trees on our front yard fell. That was kinda amazing that every tree avoided hitting our 4 parked cars and just managed to fall between cars. I wish I could show you! Our neighbor came out and was so amazed at how trees were nice enough to not dent...err..damage our cars. But very hot summers now...whew...

So in the future...note to myself...don't buy houses on the top of the hill....!!!

I'm still here...been taking pictures but got slower with the weather getting so cold~Brrrrrrrr
Radio stations are reminding us constantly that it's going to be one of those coldest winters with lots of snow and strong winds...
So~ Cold!

Every morning I fight my desire to just stay warm in my bed just a little bit more...just a little bit more...please...
BUT! I do like "watching" snow! It puts you in the mood for the Holiday season!
Maybe...White Christmas??????? Didn't have one for a while....hmmm..did we ever???.....

Our first snow was here last weekend and it was a really nice amount? of snow. I was worried that the road would get to nasty but... Thank you snow!
It came down like a real (?) snow and melted away nicely.
I'm sure everyone doesn't like snow or ICE (yuck) on the road right? Or clearing snow on your driveway or your car......

So hope you enjoy this snow if you haven't seen snow for a while...if you are suffering the cold winter (or even worse) like me...just turn away from this picture...heheh

I just took pictures from my house...didn't want to go out...

I'll be back again!

At first I thought it was construction going on or something... but then they blocked off ALL lanes and made all cars to take a detour through Snowden Exit and so many police cars. Something happened but I didn't know what was going on. I'm not high tech or anything so I had to wait till I come home and found out that there was a really bad motorcycle accident that killed a guy and one in shock trauma. Both were riding motorcycles and collided. It must have been a really bad scene since they blocked about a mile of Rt. 100.

If you are from Maryland living around Rt. 100 area (I'm sure it happens everywhere though...) so many motorcycles are out there just zooming by 'between' cars and we have to do defensive driving whenever the weather is nice. I mean there are people who are cruising by which I don't mind, but some motorcycles really do drive dangerously. I get tense if I'm anywhere around those reckless ones.

One of the guys who got in an accident was 'ejected'...EJECTED!
I think everyone seems to know at least one or two lives lost by motorcycle accident...especially young lives...that's why I am against anyone close to me riding a motorcycle...it's just so sad...

I hope at least the other guy is okay. People say motorcycle accident survivors...it's not that pretty at all...but hopefully he's okay. I know it's all for thrills and all but hopefully motorcyclers would be less reckless for everybody including themselves.

I love this park! I had to take some pictures...Let's see...

Busy, busy. I wonder what they were up to?

Can you find birds here?

Geese...

Geese...

more over here...

Geese...Geese...Everywhere!

Up there too!

Amongst geese I spotted some short necks too...

I 'met' these four ducks. Of course, they weren't afraid of me. They came closer to me wanting 'something' but I wasn't prepared...sigh...

They must be very close friends since they were the only four doing something together away from others and acting funny.

So had to take a vid of them.

OR...were they just eating??? They just stuck their beaks like that the whole time they were swimming...looked funny and cute.

It was a nice stroll at a park during crisp but sunny winter day.

Wong Gal Bi Korean BBQ Restaurant has been through rough times and lots of changes. But I'm not sure how many changes were there for the management.

1.They tried charcoal BBQ but didn't work. I think they had a safety problem or something.
2. Then they started BBQ buffet (which wasn't really buffet) and this didn't work either. I didn't like it because they would bring a default meat combination which included meat I don't like and we had to ask the servers to bring more meat every time. I love to eat and I mean I can eat and my friends can eat too. After asking them more couple times servers started to pressure us to stop. What kind of buffet is that? So I stopped going there.
3.Then I heard they changed into different Korean BBQ buffet style AGAIN. (I'm not sure of the change in management though.). The good news was that it actually became a real buffet style with lower price of dinner around $12.99-$15.99 (?). However, I guess some people still didn't like it since they only had pork, chicken, and bulgogi and no GALBI. Korean BBQ is all about Galbi if you want to get your money worth for BBQ meat. I didn't mind that much though since it's cheaper than other Korean BBQ and pretty good Samgyupsal (like bacon.)
4.And I guess many people complained? They changed one more time! They added marinated Galbi, Ssang Galbi (not marinated/plain), and Joomooluk (marinated short steak) with increase in price to $17.99. I think it's still good price with what's all included since if you go to regular Korean Restaurant you need to spend more than $20 per person for BBQ. However, different restaurants have combo meal of their own. So you have to investigate some more and choose your favorite I guess. It's All-You-Can-Eat BBQ after all, which means it's more quantity than quality. If you are looking more of quality, I suggest that you go somewhere else.

So enough about their changes. I went there last weekend and liked it a lot. (I liked it since change number 3 LOL) Shall we look into it?

They now had more included complimentary food that servers brought out as well.

Servers bring this out for you. It's scallion strips and lettuce slices mixed with sweet and hot pepper paste (Restaurants have different dressings.) You can ask them for more! I think we (4 people) ate like 4-5 bowls of it. I always eat this with my meat instead of wrappping meat with lettuce since the salad already includes all of it.

Nice addition is this Steamed egg and Daenjang Jjigae (Bean paste stew). They go really nice with BBQ. Yummy. I'm not sure if this is unlimited too, but if you smile nicely enough your server might get you an extra one. Ha Ha.

And unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of Nangmyun (cold noodle soup.) When you are about done with your BBQ, they will ask you if you want your small Nangmyun (included!!) You can pick from two styles: Mulnangmyun (cold noodle soup) or Bibim Nangmyun (Spicy cold noodle-hot pepper paste sauce.) I always get Mulnangmyun since I love soup!

Now shall we go get some food?

The first station you'll see is the rice and noodle station. You can get some rice there, but my strategy? is to not eat rice. I don't really need it to eat BBQ. If you must, please eat rice. They have two different kinds. They also have Soojungwa (Dessert drink) there. On the left of this station are the plates.

I don't know what kind of station I would call this. It has different banchans. Far left is sliced radish salad. I always get this and eat it with scallion salad and meat together. Not scientifically proven but it seems to help me digest BBQ better and makes me eat more! White gelatin is Mook. I talked about it in my new year post. There are white ones and there are brown ones. You need pour sauce over it so look for it around the station (usually made of soy sauce and scallions etc.) And feel free to explore other stuff too.

I guess you can call this part a condiment station. Unlike other restaurants you need to get your own. The green basket is for the lettuce and smaller bowls for garlic, green peppers, and dipping sauce. Dipping sauce is made with bean paste and other vegetables mixed in. Oh but sesame oil dipping sauce is brought out by the server. Mine was little too salty so I asked for extra sesame oil.

Now to the main course! Yay! I labeled main meat for you.
On the far right are the unusual BBQ stuff. Gopchang is beef tripe. The other marinated meat there is pork marinated like Galbi. That's pretty good too. There's also spicy squid bulgogi. I'm not sure what the other one is but I saw this in a vietnamese pho too.

And on the other side are some more kinds of meat. Most of them are pretty good! When you get some Samgyupsal just be careful not to get too fatty ones. Not good for you.

There are sushi rolls there also. To me, they seem to be all very similar rolls. We ate these rolls instead of just plain rice.

Finally, some BBQ tips for you:
Start with plain, non marinated meat first. In that way your grill won't burn so easily that you don't have to ask your server to change it too often. But when you need to ask them right away! They will gladly change it for you. Also if you eat non marinated meat first you'll eat more! LOL.

Wong Gal Bi Korean BBQ Restaurant is located:
1111 North Rolling Rd
Catonsville, MD 21228
(410) 788-5678

I hope this helps.
Enjoy!

For years after long hours of shopping in Columbia Town Center in MD, whenever I have no energy to go on anymore, I find myself automatically going to the food court and get in line for chicken teriyaki. It's like part of the routine in Columbia Mall for me. They always ask double meat and fried rice. If you are not used to English in asian accents, you might just say "ok" (or you really might want that.) I don't really like fried rice so I usually just say what I want. I always get "Chicken Teriyaki with steamed rice and veggies." Yum Yum!!! I also always ask for some hot sauce (to the cashier) and teriyaki sauce over the top (to the cook.) They used to have "Sriracha" hot sauce but now they give you some prepacked hot sauce that's milder and more vinegarish? I still like their hot sauce though... as long as I have some kind of hot sauce I will be alright. Ha ha. And judging from the long lines I always see. I think it's a routine for others as well. Good price and filling too!
So...Are you one of us?

Oh! And be aware that there is another restaurant right next to JongKak. I've never been to the other one, but Jongkak is the left one.

Jong Kak servers were very nice and they actually smiled at us! They constantly changed our grill whenever it got too burnt, kept on refilling our veggies and sidedishes. The food was great too. Galbi marinade wasn't too salty and just right for me. I think we ate three bowls of scallion salad, couple refills of banchan, and couple refills of pickled radish. And at the end the servers STILL smiled at us.
So overall, I recommend this place for a BBQ night. I wanna go back for more! Mmmmmmmmm...!

This time we wanted to do some Galbi BBQ. We ordered 2 servings of marinaded Galbi. The price was around $20s per serving. It may be little expensive, but you'll know that it is worth eating when you see that you get the following:

Yum, Yum, Yum!
I just love that steam-cooked eggs. I usually eat this dish as my appetizer. Good dish to start! So soft and good! Bean paste Jjigae was good too. I eat Jjigae with rice and meat. It's always nice to have somekind of soup.
I couldn't take picture of all the sidedishes. These are seasoned tofu, bean sprouts, spicy cucumber salad, Korean style seaweed salad, and Japchae (noodle with veggies). The greatest thing about Banchan is... the unlimited supply of banchan. You can always ask for more of what you like!

They also give you scallion salad, lettuce, pickled radish, green peppers, sliced fresh garlic, Ssamjang (sauce to put in your wrap). All of these are for you to wrap together to eat.

What I like to do with my wrap (Ssam) is to get a slice of pickled radish, a piece of Galbi, sauce, and scallion salad and wrap it up and EAT!
It was so good. I would definitely go back for more!

Jong Kak is located @18W. 20th St. Baltimore, MD 21218 (410)837.5231

Other Restaurant Reviews:
Allgreen Market Food Court-Poongnyun ,  MD
VietGoel/LightHouse Tofu House Korean Restaurant , MD

Other Recipes:
Bulgogi-Korean BBQ beef
Spicy Chicken Bulgogi
Korean style Pickl (Oiji)
Fresh Spicy Cucumber Salad
Fresh Tofu Salad
Stir Fried Eggplant
Mini Ground Turkey Pancake
Zucchini Jun

Kimchi Recipes:
Traditional Whole Napa Cabbage Kimchi
Quick 'n Easy version Kimchi

I went to Tian the first week they opened. As soon as I walked in, I realized that they did spend some money in interior design. Compared to other Korean restaurants interior was better than any other except that the seating arrangement was too tight and felt like one giant cafeteria table. Other customers (total strangers) were only about a foot away from me. That was uncomfortable.

Servers, whew... wasn't trained at all. But it seems like all the Korean restaurants don't emphasize in training their employee about the importance in customer service. No one smiled, no one was being nice. They were all confused and weren't providing customer service. They were just 'delivering' food.
Enough about the service. This is not the first time I had problem with service in Korean restaurants. I also took some pictures of food I ordered.

So we ordered, Jjamppong and Jjajangmyeon Combo called JjamJjamyeon (First word of each dish combined to make a name) Jjamppong is a spicy seafood noodle soup and Jjajangmyeon(or Jajangmyeon) is a noodle dish with black bean paste (Chunjang) sauce stir fried with veggies and meat. The menu said that they use No MSG, which turned out to be the first good thing about this restaurant since other Korean-Chinese restaurants are known to use a lot of MSG to make Jjajangmyeon tasty. The taste was OK and NOTHING special with noodles (some places make their own hand pulled noodles-if you hear pounding sound back at the Kitchen, they are making your noodles.I don't think Tian makes its own.)

And we ordered, Sachun Tangsuyuk, which was supposed to be a spicy sweet and sour beef (You can choose different meat for this dish. Pork or beef. We chose beef.) We also asked to have sauce on the side so our meat won't get soggy and if we have a leftover, we can take it home. Sweet and sour pork/beef is fried, crispy meat and veggies served with sweet and sour sauce. The price was lower than Hanjoongkwan in Ellicott City, MD, another Korean-Chinese restaurant, but it turned out that the serving was smaller too. Only thing I can say about this dish is that I'll NEVER going to order this dish again!!! It wasn't spicy. It wasn't sweet. It was just sour. It didn't have usual veggies in it. Only thing 'floating' in our sauce was some cucumber and scallions?!? I've never seen any restaurant serving sweet and sour sauce with scallions... It's usually cucumbers, some seafood, pineapple, carrots, peppers, onions...etc. Not scallions... I urge you not to order this dish. Please don't.

My first impression of Tian was not good at all. Too busy with untrained servers, who were obviously confused, and weird dishes that failed to impress me. However this was MY only first experience. I've heard better things from other people. Some people say that the regular Tangsuyuk is OK and that some people actually like their noodle dishes too, because Tian doesn't use MSG. Maybe I'll go try the regular Tangsuyuk next time too. I hope they don't have scallions floating around again...

If you want to try it yourself, Tian (티엔) is located near Lotte in Ellicott City, MD. If you go, please tell us what it was like.

Thanks to all the little guys devouring our worms we got our nice 'workout' of hooking and unhooking baits and little guys and got hungry. So the best thing about outdoors...Korean style picnic! Outside means Samgyeopsal BBQ! Samgyeopsal is pork belly meat like uncured bacon. You can BBQ it marinated or as it is. I usually like it as it is. Samgyeopsal itself is too greasy to eat alone so I usually love to eat it with scallion salad, onions, lettuce, and pickled radish. Other people also eat it with fresh or roasted garlic and green peppers and wrap it altogether with a lettuce. It's however you like it. But since we were outside just quickly trying to fill our stomach, we just took some whole garlic, peppers, and hot pepper paste, Enokitake mushroom, and red leaf lettuce. We brought a portable gas range and a BBQ grill pan and started grilling. Everyone passing by stopped and looked at our late night 'snack'.YUM! It was a great BBQ day.