I had a really nice weekend.
Tamika went out on a date on Friday, and went to The Charles Theater in North Baltimore. We went to the Juong Kak Restaurant a couple blocks north of the theater. And the food was AMAZING. I am officially jealous of my Korean friends Mipa Lee and Sujy Yoon for having been able to eat this wonderful food their whole lives.
The restaurant, despite it’s unassuming outside appearance, is beautiful inside… all rough hewn wood furniture. Every table had a grill built into the middle of it. Tamika and I ordered variations of the same dish, and in 10 minutes our waitress brought us a platter with about 25 tiny bowls of vegetables, fish, and things I had never seen before, and two heaping slabs of meat, and scattered them all over the table. Then she slid open a section in the middle of the table and proceeded to barbecue our food in front of us! She was extremely open and friendly, and patiently talked us through the various ways we could eat our food.
And everything was delicious. I ate everything, and I loved everything. The meat was the best I’d ever tasted, sweet and slightly salty, with spices and herbs that made you feel like you were in heaven. If you ever have the remotest chance to ear Korean food, GO.
We then walked back to the Charles and decided to watch Nuovomondo (the Golden Door). It’s an Italian film that follows a rural family’s journey to the United States in the 1950’s. It’s a very strange movie, that flips between reality and fantasy… but it’s very well done. And it’s very relevant, given the struggles this country with immigration. If anything, it helped me to better understand what it must have been like for my Polish and Irish ancestors to come over to the “New World”.
On Saturday I had a big wedding with my good friend and photographer extraordinaire Jocelyn Mathewes; I assisted her in shooting the wedding of Jason and Kuren Morgan in Baltimore. I’ll post up pictures from it once I get them back from Jocelyn.
Sunday Tamika and I went to church with our old college friend Twi. Twi was in gospel choir with the both of us, and since he hails from Baltimore, we joined him at his church and then went out for lunch together.
I hope we get to hang out together more.