Brace yourselves for a longer (than usual) post…I’m reviewing two restaurants at once, because I don’t want to review LA restaurants while I’m overseas.

First of all, let me give praise where praise is due…PRAISE the LORD! Oh…em…gi…I did not divulge this in the blog yet, but I did express my distress through Twitter: All the way until last afternoon, I was kept on the waiting list for my plane flight from LA to Korea. All other flight was confirmed, but every seat was full for this one most important flight.

It’s the most important flight because I have to be out of LA by May 12th. It’s the day of my final final exam, and also the ultimate move-out day for on-campus housing. Thus I’d have to have everything packed up and gone that very day. Also, it takes 2 days (with a layover in Korea) to get to Singapore, which is all over across the globe. I have to arrive in Singapore by May 17th, because I have a Hong Kong trip already planned and fixed with my best friend.

Needless to say, I was at the edge of my seat. I called my parents every single day asking if any seat was open. And every day, their reply was: No.

No.

No.

No, no, no, no, NOOO!!!

At first, I was rather relaxed. I thought that a seat would open up…I even thought maybe they were holding out on me because they wanted to reserve available seats for paying customers (I was using my dad’s mileage). Then as time pressed closer and closer, I started to panic. Just a little bit. And then, about just 3 days before the deadline for confirmation (in which case all my other flights would be cancelled = NO trip at all), I thought was going to hyperventilate with frustration and anxiety.

And then, about a couple days before, a funny thing happened. I was suddenly rather calm. I thought back to the day God performed a miracle in the airport. I thought back to the day God provided housing for me. And I knew—I had 100% faith— that God will provide again this time, too.

Of course, He did. Not only was I able to score a seat by my dad’s mileage, it was the only single seat available…in the business class section! Wow, God. This is how you work. You not only send me on my trip in peace, you send me in style. I won’t have to squeeze in between two equally cranky passengers and spend 16 hours cramped up and miserable. In the business class, I get to stretch out my legs, and feast on multi-course meals.

God is freaking wonderful. This must be the bazillionth time I’ve said it out loud. Get used to it, because I’ll be saying this for the rest of my life.

Another reason why I knew I would make this trip was because this trip itself…is an extremely significant trip for me. It symbolizes God’s restoration of my life. Because just a year and a half ago, I remember anticipating the same trip to Singapore and Korea. But that anticipation was deeply tainted by fear, anxiety, and depression. I was eager to see my old friends, but not eager for them to see me. I was excited to be back in my childhood country, but scared to death about the unknown calories, the greasy, carby food, and the unpredictable mealtimes.

The last trip I made to Singapore and Korea, I was…less than 60lbs at a height of almost 5’6. Let’s just leave it at that. The proof is in this picture:

 That was the way I greeted my relatives in Korea. That was the way I met my old school friends. My grandpa burst into tears the moment he saw me. It was, to say it nicely, an entirely humbling experience.

As you can see, I wasn’t exaggerating when I said I looked like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings. And I certainly wasn’t exaggerating when I said I was hovering at the line between life and death. My parents really, really did not want to take me to Singapore. Which parent would?

But my dad is a man of prayer, and so he prayed. And he received a strong conviction from the Holy Spirit: “Let her go. I will take care of her. She is more so my daughter than yours.”

And the rest is history. You can read it from the very beginning of my blog. In fact, Burp and Slurp was started on the first day of my arrival in South-East Asia. I cringe when I read the disordered thoughts and behaviors from my past entries, but I keep it, all for the sake of documenting how far I’ve come.

The real purpose for my return to Singapore and Korea is to be a testimony of God’s amazing work on me. I left my relatives worried sick about me. I left my friends in Singapore praying hard and fervently for me. Now, when I return, I want to put my relatives’ worries to rest. I want to show them how great my God is. And I want to prove to my friends in Singapore that God have definitely answered their prayers in the most miraculous way.

To be honest, I still have more work left to do on reaching my goal weight (which is higher than my pre-ED weight, just to be on the safe side). But mentally and spiritually, I feel confident enough to show that God has indeed healed me. Besides, I’m pretty damn sure that with all the food I’m gonna stuff myself with this summer, I’ll have no problem reaching my goal weight by next school semester. Wish me luck, eh?

So…will you join me? I will most certainly be blogging throughout my trip, as often as I can. Hello? With all the amazing food I’m gonna eat, I’ll die if I can’t share it with you guys.

Let me give you a slight glimpse of what I’m gonna eat. For example, my Hong Kong trip. The last time I was in Hong Kong, I was a 8-year-old brat who thought nothing in the world is better than McNuggets. I complained bitterly when my parents tried to take us to a good seafood restaurant. This time, I’m gonna spend the most marvelous time with my childhood best friend by eating through Hong Kong the proper way. And that means lots and lots of dim sum, seafood, and dumplings, of course.

Just a day ago, I had the privilege of tasting authentic Chinese dumplings since forever with a blogger friend, Yao. Look at how cute she is!
Yao is a graduate student in USC, and I’ve been running with her each week. She’s also Chinese. With a car. You know what this means. I begged her to take me to an authentic Chinese restaurant. So we did.
We went to 101 Noodle Express (What is up with Chinese restaurant names? They have the most random names ever) in Alhambra, a town mostly dominated by the Chinese community:
Look at the line. What’s weird was how freaking hard it was to locate this dingy place. Yet, the Chinese smelled it out like a rat. Nobody knows how to seek out good food like the Chinese. Nobody.
Gosh, I loved this place. I’m not Chinese, but I feel at home among the Chinese. Some civilized people might find the way they eat uncouth, but I find it delightful. It’s simply the way you express enjoyment of your food!
Look at the guy gleefully gnawing at his chicken! Tee hee!

I came prepared. I knew exactly what I wanted. I also took absolute pleasure in being able to order my dish in Chinese. I haven’t been able to speak Chinese for ages!
I ordered the pumpkin/pork/shrimp dumplings:
Yes, you read that right—Pumpkin! In dumplings! With juicy ground pork and real whole shrimp! Oh my Lordie!
You can actually see the freshly-grated orange pumpkin in there! It was fabulous! The sweet pumpkin accentuated the natural sweetness of the shrimp as well, and even though the dumpling was meaty, the pork flavor was tamed to a perfect balance of meat, veggie, and seafood.
I had about a cup of vinegared soy sauce with these.

Yao can’t stomach meat very well, so she stuck to the vegetable dumplings:
She was kind enough to share one with me. What’s nice is that they added vermicelli noodles in there. It tasted a bit like Korean dumplings.
Now, what’s the difference between Korean and Chinese dumplings, you ask? Well, I’m about to do more than tell you. I’ll show you. This is a Chinese dumpling:
And these are Korean dumplings:
If you look closely, you’ll notice that the skin is different. Chinese dumpling skins are much thicker. Also, Chinese dumplings usually are meat-centric, while Korean dumplings tend to pile on the veggies.

And yes, I also had Korean dumplings not so long ago. This time, with a Korean friend. Who also had a car. And yes, I was the one who begged to go to an authentic Korean restaurant.
We went to Olympic Noodle in Koreatown. No specific reason why it’s called Olympic, other than the fact that it’s on Olympic Boulevard (The sign reads “Olympic Hand-cut Noodles” in Korean, by the way).
The second we walked in, my friend and I both gasped, “It feels like Korea!” I don’t know why and how I felt that way; I was just washed by this overwhelming sense of nostalgia.
Maybe it was the flashy yellow lights. Maybe it was that comforting stink of fresh kimchi. Maybe it was the soft background noises of Korean drama from the old-fashioned TV. Or maybe it was the loud slurping noises of Koreans enjoying their noodles. Whatever it was, it felt…home.

Service was quick and fast. The server immediately brought out a dish of pickled radish:
And also a fresh pot of kimchi:

Oh MY GAWD!!!!! THE BEST KIMCHI EVER!!! Ahhhh! The stink, the wonderful stink of shrimp paste and fish sauce! The real, authentic 100% made in Korea red pepper! The refreshing, natural sweetness of the cabbage! HOLY FREAKING KIMCHI! I’m so pissed off that I spent $9 on that crappy jar of kimchi from the market, because this is the real shitz, folks!

Sorry for acting like a crazy person, but you have to understand—I’m Korean. I was weaned off my mother’s breast with kimchi. I cannot, cannot, cannot wait to go back to Korea and just pig out on all varieties of kimchi. I’ll come back with kimchi-breath, finally smelling like a true Korean!

Back to the food. As I mentioned, we ordered dumplings:

Filled with chives and pork, and of course vermicelli noodles:
These little jewels were gone in a flash. They come sitting on top of steamed cabbage, which we devoured, too.

We also ordered the specialty of the house, the seafood hand-cut noodles, called Kalgooksoo in Korean.
The bowl. It was three times the size of my head. And my head ain’t that small, guys (It does contain my magnificent brain after all).
Lovely, authentic, hand-made noodles. They were of inconsistent thickness and length, which proved that they really were hand-cut.
The only way to eat this is to sluuuurrrrp it up! We got full by the end, and I had to leave behind one lone cockle:
Sorry I had to leave you swimming, little fella…

I hope I’ve got your appetite all revved up for all the better food to come. Singaporean, Malaysian, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Taiwanese, Korean, and everything in between…loads and loads to come. Yes, there is a difference between all those cuisine, and I’ll try to explain them as much and accurately as I can through my burps and slurps.

Now, all that is in between that and me is that one final stupid exam.

P.S. I’ve been debating whether to post my old ED picture for a very long time. I’ve left off the body, in fear of triggers (who knows how the sick mind of the eating disordered works?). But I think the face itself is expressive enough. But I wanted to show the true ugliness of Anorexia. And the testimony of how God preserved my life. I am still alive and breathing, only through the prayers and love of my family and friends.

Question of the day: What is your favorite kind of dumpling? It doesn’t have to be Asian!

 

Related posts:

1. New Year Self-Reflection Part I: Thanksgiving
2. The Parents Service and Fried Sauce Noodles
3. Who Needs Popularity When You’ve Got Travel-Mates?
4. Luckiest Brat in the World
5. New Year’s Self-Reflection Part II: Dreams and Goals

Tagged as: chinese, dumplings, kimchi, Korean, noodles, pork, pumpkin, seafood, shrimp