08. 30. DINNER

grilled clams

As usual, seminar weekdays consist of a bit of agonized venting over the untranslatability of particularly sexy phrases and a whole lot of musing over what we will eat after the agony is over. Today we were scheduled to go to a traditional fish market because them hickory shads is in season and I’ve been going on about them for ages. Unfortunately we spent a little too much time agonizing and by the time we decided it was enough, we were too tired and hungry to put in the effort to pick out fish at a market. So we put that off for another day — which we didn’t actually end up doing, but that was fine the way it was, as shall be seen in a later post. Anyway, instead we suggested grilled clams, which you usually have near the sea, of course, but the other girls in the seminar are angels and since they know the neighborhood, they mentioned a place very close by called “Auntie’s Clams” or somesuch. Snicker, snicker, yes, but honestly, it was so great. Maybe “clams” isn’t right because you also get a couple mussels and conches along the line, but hey, bivalves or not, it was all equal in excellence.

바지락칼국수: handmade noodles with clams

Jesus God this was legendary. The general consensus was that this was even better than the grilled clams. I won’t go that far because I am passionately in love with grilled clams, but whereas those are usually excellent, this is definitely the best 바지락칼국수 I have ever had. The restaurant our family used to love a couple years back that closed down while we were abroad, that was good, but this was unbelievable. It’s got so many clams in it, and the broth is phenomenal, so rich and inexplicably complicated and just perfect. Also it comes in a ridiculously huge bowl as evidenced by its contrast in size with the top of a bottle of soju. Ugh seriously, Auntie. You go girl.

assorted fruits

The fruits are self-evident so I won’t caption them. This is a bit of a famous place in this college area, apparently, it’s a tiny fruit store that lets you order as little of the fruit as you like, then they cut it up for you and you can take it home if you like. What a stupidly good idea for a college town. Also the fruit was amazing, you wouldn’t think it would be anything so special but everything was so sweet and we were all so full from the clams but we couldn’t resist polishing off half of what is pictured above. Still we felt a little ashamed about not being able to demolish the entire load. I love this seminar.