Oh! O Bal Tan!

Guess what fellas? no seriously guess, and no its not I've finally gotten a life, and no its not I've finally moved out of home- though it is something similar I suppose...

IM IN SYDNEY! (insert happy dance here) 

oh yea thats right, I've journeyed out from my baby city of Perth and ventured into the decidedly adult city of Sydney, triple the population and quarter the space- it feels like your in a moshpit just walking down the street. 

Sadly however this trip couldn't be chilling out for a week, i'm a student, there's no such thing as chilling out for a week straight, I've brought all my novels and history books and text books with me (no shit, one third of my suitcase was made from trees D:) BUT I have found some time to enjoy myself by 

1) omfg there's a cute little puppy sitting on my feet right now!! :3 

Don't you just wanna die!!

2) Being with the sis and her new hubbie-to-be and 

And they call me immature... 

3) going out to eat.

It seems that Korean food is a new thing for my now, Ninniku Jip and now O Bal Tan across the freaking country- its obviously a sign, someone hook me up for a Korean language class! But anyway, in contrast to Ninniku Jip this was one of those grill-it-yourself places, except with legit charcoal, none of that pansy gas/hot plate shit- this was the real deal.  (also note: copper conducts really quickly) 

LEGIT CHARCOAL OMFG!!

However first things first, alcohol was to be provided (and not to be shot back, but to be sipped), this was soju (sojo?) something similar to sake, only Korean.

Then comes the food- we got the beef and pork combo, plus all the sides and sauces. 

Sides and Sauces->

<-Beef and pork 

The mushroom salad thing (as seen on the far right) was amazing! usually I'm the biggest fan of mushrooms, so this might not mean much but man, so tasty. And the tauge was itself very good. My sister was telling me that she had made it herself once with an online recipe, that it was real easy and the flavours simple to combine, told me I should give it a try some time, I think I'm gonna believe her... the only time she's lead me astray was when she told me your meant to eat the paper at the bottom of the Char Sew Pow... *glare* 

But seriously I think the main flavours of Korean cooking are as follows: Garlic... Chilli... that is all... maybe a bit of sesame seed oil.. THAT. IS. ALL (probably not)... but its so good!  

Then came the grilling bit- I believe this was the beef ribs, on the bone, like a cave man (they must have had massive calluses on their fingers cause meat off the bone off the grill was effing hoooot!)

Effing Hot!

But yes it was a wonderful experience, the food was not as good as i've had in other Korean BBQ restaurants (and they didn't have beef bulgogi (I mean whaaaat?)) which was disappointing and you did kinda have to hack at the beef until you got it to bite size pieces, and when it wasn't your turn with the scissors you kinda burnt the roof off your mouth trying to bite it into bite size pieces (maybe that was just me...) and price wise it wasn't to bad $35/head (and there were seven hungry eaters) BUT it was lovely I would definitely go back there again for the atmosphere, probably even just for the legit charcoal (and the missing fire blanket, no shit, the sleeve was empty :S)

taxi xoxo

Ninniwhat now?

Rejected by a full Sebastian's, wandering the streets of Victoria Park, cold and starving me and my fellow ravenous companion stumbled into the lovely restaurant of Ninnikujip (pronounced Ninny- Coo- Jip), where we went to more for the novelty of the name then anything else...

Ninnikujip is a Japanesse/ Koren restaurant, leaning more to the Korean side of things. It was a tasty restaurant, a bit more expensive then I thought the food called for, but the service was comfortable, in that wow-I-just-want-to-hug-these-people-they're-so-earnest kinda way, and the atmosphere was chic and slick, bright colours and music videos in the corner- and we can forget the kiddies playground- thats right a KIDDIES PLAYGROUND in the corner O.o!!

I got the Ishiyaki Bibimbap- Pork, which (if you don't know your Korean food) is rice, vegetables and sliced pork served up in a stone bowl, there is chilli paste, kimchi, tauge and miso soup on the side/ to mix into the rice as one gigantic delicious pile of protein, carbohydrates, glucose and fat. 

And my ravenous companion (pronounced Fa-th-ur) got the Ishiyaki Bibimbap- Beef, raw egg york included (and yes they really wrote it like that)

And the Father had a preservative free beer, Cape Bouvard... (I wish it were pronounced Cape Boulevard)... sadly I didn't try any, Dark Ales were always a bit too thick for me..  

However I did have the Calpis water (not pronounced cow-piss) it was... interesting... milky and water at the same time... with a taste i can't quite describe- though one of the adjectives would be 'sweet'.  

An interesting restaurant that I am excited to go back to, even just to try and sneak into the kiddy playground that I am far too tall to even worth putting in the effort to not get a concussion.

Taxi xoxo