A Day of Food with Mom

some vegetables at madangsui

TIA HERE with a post all about my day with my mom, who came by to visit. Her hotel was in K-town (Koreatown) so we stopped by a Korean barbecue restaurant called Madangsui. Although everything was well-made, I discovered that I'm not really a huge fan of the style of eating. I think part of it may have to do with the fact that I'm not that into eating meat in general (except for salami and fish/shellfish) so I don't get as excited about it as I think I'm expected to.

korean bbq meat at madangsui

It was fun to see them thrown the meat down in front of us, onto the little grill (pictured above) and there was a good mix of noodles and veggies to go along with it. While it wasn't my favorite meal I've ever had, by far, I think my lack of interest in it had more to do with my own personal eating preferences, rather than anything they had done wrong. Give it a try and see if you like it! I think I'll be fine without Korean BBQ in my life.

noodles at madangsui

For dinner that night, my mom and I stopped by a restaurant and bar right outside of my dorm called The Smith. The intrigue of The Smith has more to do with its apparent popularity than anything else. It has a clean, modern-meets-rustic aesthetic that anyone can appreciate with a bar on the ground floor and downstairs, where the bathrooms are located. Every time I would walk past the place to go home, it would be swarming with customers, every table packed with excited young people (young as in 20s and maybe early 30s), which always had me wondering what made the place so popular. Now that I've eaten there, I think the huge number of customers is due more to its aesthetic and bar scene rather than the restaurant portion.

dessert at the smith

That said, I had a decent meal (some kind of pasta with red sauce) and an even better dessert. Who doesn't love the creative combo of glass jars and food? Talk about a hipster aesthetic--not that I'm complaining (that's a bandwagon I'm willing to grab onto). The food was pretty--just look at that banana cream pie in a jar--and pretty tasty, although I won't be throwing a culinary award down for them any time soon. Maybe when I turn 21, I'll have a greater appreciation for the bar part of The Smith. We'll see.

water bottles at the smith

Mostly, it was just fun to spend the day with my mom. She's always hiding an interesting conversation up her sleeve and wants to see and try everything in the city, so she encourages me to get out of my comfort zone and enjoy the sights. I like to spend time with her and I'm sure that if I ever move to Manhattan, I'll be seeing her face a lot, since she adores New York City and would visit as often as she could. Even if the food doesn't excite me sometimes, it's nice to be able to sit down to a meal with her when I can.

For more, check out Tia's new blog!

Much love,

T.