random thoughts – Day 1,506 – (Friday) – discovery day

At lunchtime, there was a downtown walk and long overdue visit to explore the confines of the magical place called Dollar Center. It’s down the street from the site of Dollar Buy, which I used to love and went to often, but it closed a while ago. Anyway. I needed a walk to clear my head and get some steps in for the wellness challenge. 

Our bank was in an embarrassing 47^th place in the Massachusetts Bankers Association team rankings when I was on the wellness site yesterday. It probably doesn’t help that half the people who signed up on our team had not logged a single step in the first week, including me because I couldn’t get even into the site since signing up.

A couple little nudges beyond the steps got me to take the walk to Dollar Center. While enjoying my lunch of mass produced grocery store steamed Korean dumplings fresh from the freezer then the microwave, I thought, and I quote, "this would be easier with chopsticks than this stupid plastic fork." And I remembered the now-closed Dollar Buy store that had all manner of merchandise at crazy low prices, including chopsticks. And I wondered if Dollar Center had similar wares. 

Five pairs of stainless steel chopsticks have sat in my Amazon cart since two nights ago. they were deemed necessary because the sets of jade and rosewood chopsticks I got in Korea are too nice to use. It was further decided that if the downtown store had chopsticks, I would find them and buy them.

At Dollar Center, after three laps through the housewares area hunting for chopsticks, I had in hand a plastic microwave plate cover, aqua colored pot holders, and two gardening tools before finally finding the chopsticks. Sets of five pairs of stainless steel chopsticks at half the cost of the ones on Amazon hung on the wall, next to some kids chopsticks with cartoon characters printed on them. Eureka!

Seoul Bunsik - open!

After seeing all the stuff in the store, I was glad to have finally discovered its wonderousness. And also a little cross with myself for not having gone there before.

The drive home took me off the usual route for two reasons. The "Low RTE" warning illuminated this morning and I needed gas. Also, on Wednesday, I noted the new Seoul Bunsik shop passed on the way to work finally had the brown paper gone from the windows  and a multicolored sign proclaimed "Open." Gas was gotten, and a visit made to the shop.

Many times in the past couple months I had passed the not yet open space and imagined the delicacies that might eventually be inside. Visions of bi bim bap, hot pepper pancake, fish cake, and kim bap danced in my head.

Ramen bricks and machinery.

Tonight, I got to check the place out. The "Open" sign glowed in the window. One wall was decorated with floating shelves adorned with all manner of wrapped bricks of ramen. Below that was a counter holding a row of stainless steel machines of mysterious purpose. 

There were none of the dishes I imagined on the small menu except for kim bap, a roll with rice, cooked meat, carrots, and some other veggie things, but that was enough to make my pulse quicken. As I walked to my car with a white shopping bag of precious cargo, the couple ahead of me in the store were in their own car devouring their own kim bap. 

In my car, the smell of kim bap wafted out of the bag and I was glad the shop was close to the house. If it had been any further, I might have been compelled to pull over to eat it on the side of the road. 

Kim bap!

At home, I discovered my takeaway bag also contained containers of kim chi and soy sauce, a napkin, and a set of takeaway wood chopsticks. I didn’t even need to take the time to breach the package of new metal chopsticks and wash a set. The kim bap was topped with a sauce embellishment not seen before. And it was all so very delicious. 

Later, there was a minor reorganizing of the refrigerator in search of a refreshing beverage to mark the end of the week. In one of the bottom drawers, tucked away with two bottles of white wine and a few cans of Long Drink, was a forgotten can of oatmeal stout. Talk about a day of glorious discoveries. A store, a Korean food shop, and the last can of forgotten dark beer. Wow.