Cell 6 Dinner Date

Tonight my cell group, Cell 6, had a dinner date! Our cell group is what group we were put into for Mentor’s Club. We haven’t yet had a gathering started by our mentor, but we all really wanted to get together and have some fun! So tonight at 6:30, we all gathered and headed to a Korean BBQ place just down the road from Yonsei.

There were 13 of us that they managed to squeeze into tables. They pushed all the tables along a back wall together and we all could sit together, which was really nice. It was an all you can eat place, so we all showed up really hungry. It was a typical BBQ place: grills in the middle with jugs of water.

The people on the outside part of the table got the meat and started to bring it back in waves to the rest of us trapped in the middle. We got some side dishes and some onions/garlic/lettuce to put with our meat, and soon the table was packed with a bunch of different plates.

Each table had a small grill, so it was easy for the three sections of us to all cook the meat and distribute it evenly. Our table had finished about four whole plates of different kinds of meats in less than 30 minutes…we were that hungry and it tasted that good. The best meat was definitely the bulgogi and the spicy pork. Something about the grilling style and doing it yourself made it crazy juicy and mouth-watering.

Our side of the table started off very modestly. We had a few rice pockets, some kimchi, and put our meat on the grill carefully: spicy pork all together, hotdogs together, bulgogi together, and the others neatly in place. After about the second plate of meat, we didn’t care so much. Everything tasted so good and we just wanted it cooked so we could eat it! We started off the meal before anyone ate with a shot of soju. 

We all clanked our glasses and I went in for the kill…and downed the whole shot glass in one drink. In Korea, they don’t tend to drink much from the bottle, especially with something as strong as soju. I’d never had it before, but always wanted to try it. The first shot wasn’t so bad; it actually tasted LESS awful than vodka, which was surprising to me. After about the second though, it didn't taste any different. It was the same “rubbing alcohol” flavor I’m used to tasting in drinks. Then came the interesting part…Reza (the guy sitting at our end who kept getting the meat) came back with two small octopi. 

All of us were kind of on the fence but then said “to hell with it”, and cooked them. I had a taste, and it wasn't something I was fond of much. It tastes like squid, which I also don’t care for.

By the end of the meal (about an hour and a half to two hours later) our table was filled to the brim with plates and bowls of all sorts. We were all stuffed and incredibly happy. After paying (it was only $150 or so for all 13 of us to have all you can eat) we headed to a Baskin Robbins, of course. We all walked around Sinchon for a while and then headed back to campus or apartments. It was a great evening out together, and I’m incredibly excited to do it again soon. I got lucky with my group, everyone is so wonderful and fun to talk to!