Eating ala Orient Express

A weekend adventure in eating, Asian style!  

Friday's shopping was momentarily paused for lunch at Sushi Nami Royale.  We all started with green tea, and the 3 bento box meals also included Miso soup.  (First time for me, and I loved it.)  The bento box meals came with rice, salad (with a delicious ginger dressing) and your choice of tempura or sushi, which was my choice.  I had shrimp teriyaki (yummy);  Natsumi and Chinatsu had unagi (eel) which was very tasty (1st time taste).  Elly had udon which are noodles in a soup-type base with veggies.  

I refused the offered spoon & fork and attempted chopsticks; and I'm proud to say that I did not go hungry.  And although I love wassabi, this stuff should have come with a warning label!  Whoohoo baby!

We continued our shopping and picked up a picnic-style dinner for back at the motel from Pete's Frootique in Bedford.  We had delicious spanokapita & chicken samosa, spicy pakora, an ok crab cake and a so-so Scotch egg; we also had 3 very good salads.  Desserts included deep, dark chocolate brownies, a raspberry coconut square and my choice -- the decadent domed beauty!  

It had a chocolate cake base, mocha mousse with a passion fruit centre and was covered with a citrus glaze and the cutest little candy flower.  As pretty as it was, it was certainly not too pretty to eat:  it was delicious!  (And I was hardly haunted at all that night by the Ghost of Weight Watchers Present!)

Breakfast the next morning was also a treat; we ate at Cora's.  Elly and Natsumi shared an egg & bacon crepe with fruit on the side; Chinatsu was the owner of that huge waffle with vanilla coulis, strawberries & whipped cream.  That tiny little Japanese girl made a very big dent in her meal!  
After last night's debauchery, I was sensible and had a poached egg and one lonely pancake which was made better by the girls sharing some fruit and my sharing half of my 4 strips of bacon.  Cora's is always delicious!  



Fortified by our huge breakfast ... and my 2 cups of REAL coffee (watch me buzz and zip through those shops!!!), we continued our shopping and said goodbye to Chinatsu who was staying in the city with friends.  


Before we headed back home that evening, we had dinner at Seoul Restaurant in downtown Halifax.  Elly was so excited!  And I must say, this meal was my favorite of the trip.  Everything came with Korea's version of Miso soup -- again delicious.  Elly had bulgogi deopbab, marinated beef on a bed of rice (and some lovely looking veggies which were ignored).  (But she always eats her veggies at home; what a good little girl!)  Natsumi had galbitang;  the beef ribs were removed to a side plate and the rice was put into the broth; the dish also included seasoned soy sauce, seasoned, cubed potatoes and kimchi on the side.

My meal was beebimbab and OMG!  It's served in a very hot stone bowl so the rice on the bottom gets brown and crispy; on top of the rice there was tender, delicious marinated beef, very thinly sliced & stir-fried carrots & zucchini, spinach and kimchi (1st time taste); and the whole thing was topped with a fried egg. You add gochujang (spicy red pepper paste) to your own taste and mix it all together.  A lot of Korean dishes seem to include an egg; and I've often though "Why add more protein when the dish already includes beef or pork?"  But now I understand why.  It tastes gorgeous!  I tried the kimchi before I mixed it, and I liked it quite a lot!  But mixing everything together created this gorgeous melange of flavors and textures.  I added the perfect amount of gochujang -- just enough to make my lips burn and clear my nasal passages!  And although I was ready for it, this time the meal was to be eaten with a spoon.  It was soooo good!  Just telling you about it now is making me drool.

How fortunate am I, huh!  Two wonderful girls living with me who like to thrift shop and eat exotic meals.  We had a weekend full of laughter, great food, good purchases (check out Thrifty Thursday) and tired feet.

We can't wait to go again!