saved by an unexpected garden

I left work a bit early so I could take The Beau to our favorite car-repair shop to pick up his car, which wouldn't start for him but gave the mechanics no problems at all. On the way to Ray's Garage, over on N. Lamar, we tried to figure out where we wanted to eat.

"Are you in the mood for Asian food?" I asked.

"No, that horrible meal I had at [restaurant name deleted] last week has made me not want any Asian food anytime soon."

"Oh, that's too bad. What about a hamburger?"

"What about a poke in the butt?"

"Seriously. We could get some steak. We could have steak and ice cream!" [pronounced just like Nancy Olsen in Pollyanna, not that my husband would know this.]

"We could get a steak shake."

"Ewwww. That's not funny."

The problem is that we eat out way too often. The logical place to eat would have been Threadgill's, which was right down the block from the mechanic, but we'd eaten there the night before. We both work late a lot and have erratic schedules and the idea of buying groceries ahead of time and then cooking food seems like an entirely unattainable fantasy. He made us spaghetti earlier this week; I did steak last week. That's probably a cooking record for the last six months.

We still didn't know where to eat when we got out of my car. We chatted with the shop owner for a bit, paid the bill and picked up the keys, and then walked back out to the cars. We decided to leave my car there and take The Beau's car to dinner, then swing back by to pick mine up.

"Where can we eat?" he asked.

"I dunno. What kind of food are you interested in?"

"I can't think of anything."

"Quality Seafood is near here. And Texas Land and Cattle, although it's loud. I'm not setting foot in the Carrabba's again." [We had a kind of gross Carrabba's experience.]

"Okay."

Silence. The silence of two people who are so very sick of trying to figure out where to eat.

"I could be okay with Fuddrucker's," he noted.

"Okay. But then I should take my car." (We live right by the restaurant.) Even though we were making a right turn, the traffic was miserable at 6:30 pm on Lamar. I sat. And sat. And The Beau was right behind me. Then I noticed him getting out of his car. I rolled down the window.

"There's a restaurant right next door. Wanna try that?"

"Sure."

So that's how we ended up at Korea Garden, a little restaurant where we'd never been before. The Beau is not usually a Korean food fan, but convenience won out. I figured even if the meal turned out to be not so great, we'd have had a food adventure.

The food turned out to be delicious. The Beau had some teriyaki salmon, which I tried and agreed was very tasty, and which was accompanied by lots of yummy vegetables. (I got all the mushrooms.) I had a gigantic plate of sushi, which seemed very fresh and was well prepared. The pieces of nigiri sushi were huge. The sushi came with a side of seaweed salad, something I didn't much like the last time I tried it, but here it was yummy and full of sesame goodness.

And I'd forgotten the thing I like so much about Korean restaurants -- all the little bowls of food that are placed on the table. The Beau wasn't much interested, but I sampled all kinds of stuff and liked everything I tasted. I love loads of small portions of different things. The Beau was persuaded to taste some potato chunks in a teriyaki-like sauce, and then tried a corn dish. (A short search on Google teaches me that the dishes are called banchan. The internet is so darned educational.)

We had an unexpectedly nice meal at Korea Garden -- it was fairly quiet, the waitstaff were attentive and pleasant, and all the food was wonderful. And we just walked back to our cars in the Ray's parking lot when we were done, by which time the traffic was much less scary. The Beau only had one regret, which is that there's a certain immature pleasure to be taken in going to Fuddrucker's if you've seen Idiocracy. But I told him we could get the same effect by driving by the restaurant on the way home and snickering at the sign. Meanwhile, I'm hoping to try Korea Garden again soon ... when do we have to take a car to the mechanic for maintenance again? Hmm.

Posted at December 8, 2006 10:55 PM