I Ate Lunch With a Korean Rapper in K-town

This large tree stood before us with ornaments as big as your head.

     Ok I didn't exactly share the same table with said rapper, more like same restaurant. It was actually the greatest surprise of the day. I planned a day out to explore the holiday markets of Manhattan with my two friends, Bow and Lils, and it seems like every year that I go, the weather is always freezing cold. This year was actually a little better, but the weatherman lied about the day being 47 degrees. I could see my own breath and there was chilly wind. Overall on this day, all three of us reaped some great benefits of our own.

We started off with the holiday market on 42nd St Bryant Park. Honestly this market was disappointing. It wasn't the prices that were upsetting, but the actual stands themselves didn't interest us too much. I don't remember anything that particularly stood out and I recognized a lot of vendors from last year like the leather journals stand. Probably the most memorable thing was seeing the stand that sold olive wood kitchen utensils. They had expensive cutting boards for $70. Even the smallest cheeseboard was $25. Being that it is hand carved (I'm pretty sure they cheated with the spatulas) and is made entirely with olive wood, the value lies in the material and handiwork. Some items relied on the shape of the material itself resulting in an irregularly shaped cutting board or a fruit bowl. We got some chocolate samples from "No Chewing Allowed". Their chocolates were not overly sweet and did slowly melt in your mouth. There were a couple of food oriented stands, even a sushi stand which I don't remember seeing before. Overpriced however and all three of us remarked, "We could make it ourselves."

After browsing the shops for 45 minutes, we made our way into K-town for lunch. I had originally suggested Muk Eun Ji as a choice, but we took a look at all the menus of Korean restaurants. A lot of them had good lunch deals and in the end we still settled on Muk Eun Ji. It was perhaps the best choice we made. Walking into a warm restaurant was very inviting. Our waitress was very friendly and Lily added that she had a really cute personality (hence the heavy tips in the end). After Bow's long pondering on what to get on the menu, we settled with a kalbi box ($13.99), a muk eun ji budae jigae ($14.99), and a muk eun ji deungppyeo jjim ($14.99). Our banchan that day was kimchi, a fish cake, potato salad, kimchi daikon, broccoli, spinach with sesame oil, a sweet braised black bean, and spicy cold tofu. I really loved the kimchi and kimchi daikon and pretty much was the one that ate all of it. The braised black bean was a treat to have. I found out later that it is a banchan called "konjorim". Depending on what you have available, you can use soy beans or black beans. The ones at Muk Eun Ji weren't soaked long enough so they had a very tough center. Otherwise it should have been softer. I still enjoyed the taste though. Lils thought the potato salad served was a disappointment. It wasn't really mashed and it was simply steamed and somewhat mixed with a  mayonnaise. I'm going to agree. It wasn't too flavorful.

When our food came, an amusing thing happened. The kalbi box came in a box shaped tray and the rest of the order came in metal pots with a fire underneath. The pot has been used so much time that you could see the remnants of multiple boilings in the form of different colored metals. Our stews were boiling hot and bubbling nicely. The waiter who had the order was very confused. He didn't know who ordered the muk eun ji deungppyeo jjim and seemed to have questioned whether this table had ordered this dish. It was actually I that ordered it and the look on his face was like "Are you really going to finish this?" The customer in the table next to ours also had an extremely surprised look, "Did this skinny looking person just order a muk eun ji deungppyeo jjim?" What is this muk eun ji deungppyeo jjim you ask? It is an aged kimchi casserole with pork spine. In total there are ten huge pieces of pork spine and a huge piece of muk eun ji (the aged kimchi) that is then cut by teh waitress. It looks intimidating, but it can be finished. The reality is that pork spine is mostly bone and the meat wedged between the crevices. It takes a lot of time to eat it because I have to retrieve the meat politely out in public. If I was at home, it would be an entirely different scene. Having muk eun ji for the first time taught me that kimchi has a variety of tastes. Muk eun ji is acidic which I didn't like so much, but it made the stew itself very tasty. I ate the stew with the bowl of rice it came in.

I was up to my seventh or so pork spine when things started to get interesting. Lils spotted a table of five Korean guys with one white girl that looked awfully suspicious to her. I don't give a damn about these kinds of things. They caught her eye because she recognized the highly expensive clothing they wore and all of them carried an iPhone 6. Muk Eun Ji is a fairly humble setting and it wasn't very busy too. The next thing you know, one of the members of the party stood up to use the restroom. The guy that just stood up was Beenzino, a Korean rapper and MC. Lils asked the waitress to confirm his identity and then went ballistic. The two girls that sat at the table next to us also started fangirling because they recognized Beenzino as well. Lils and Bow went to get a picture and a signature from Beenzino before the manager started cutting people off since everyone in the restaurant found out a rapper had just appeared. I just remained at the table finishing up the last pork spine. I'm not a fan and I didn't have interest to get a photo or signature. Still it was pretty cool to know that I shared a lunchtime with a celebrity. The girl we later found out was a model named Stefanie Michova. The named looked familiar and I googled it. She had previously worked with Yoshiki this year with a music video. What a fun tidbit to know. I guess I indirectly came into distant contact with Yoshiki. We stayed another half hour so I could finish my lunch which I did except for some pieces of muk eun ji. Muk Eun Ji gives their customers Yakult as an after meal treat and we left the store very happy. Lils wouldn't stop fangirling and Bow said she took a photo because Beenzino was a celebrity even though she didn't know who he was. When will I get a chance to see Yoshiki?

Our next stop was Trader Joe's between 21st and 22nd. I needed my Oatmeal and Honey soap that was always out of stock every time I visit. This time I got lucky. We each stocked up on necessary groceries and headed to Union Square. Before entering the holiday market, we went to the farmer's market first. I went to Tremblay Apiaries' stand for honey and got a 5lb ($20) and a 2lb ($10) of fall floral honey. Boy were those jars heavy to carry. Seeing that I suggested this stand, my friends also got honey. A plant stand caught our eye and we entered the tent to see what was available. Succulents were sold at $2 per plant and Lils picked up two of them. We entered the holiday market itself and saw that it was much more abundant than the one at Bryant Park. It felt more festive and had more variety of things. There was a stand that sold tagua ivory carvings. It is not actual ivory but rather a kind of nut that looks like ivory when carved. There were very beautiful carvings of animals using just tagua made into hanging ornaments and paperweights. A couple of stands had some interesting artwork and prints for sale. The prices were slightly less than the ones at Bryant Park, but I find it a bit more reasonable for the holiday season.

A window display outside Lord and Taylor's depicting fairies and moving butterflies in capsules.

It was a really good day spent with friends seeing so many things. We had walked into a department store only to be chased by saleswomen to try on perfume. There were some overly-friendly vendors trying to sell their products to you. A lot of people on the street tried to get tourists to visit the Empire State Building. Man, do I look like a tourist to you? I'm a local!