Cycle 11 – Item 358

28 (Mon) December 2020

Happy Family

3.5

at Cheonhyang

-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-

with the Family

My Birthday (48) (see also HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME)

Cheonhyang is a Korean-Chinese restaurant.  One of the relatively rare mid-level Korean-Chinese restaurants, situated somewhere between the grunge of neighborhood delivery joints and the glamor of hotel banquet halls.

In light of the whole pandemic thing, outright gluttony felt inappropriate – even for the biggest day in the GMTD calendar – but a quiet dinner comprising overpriced Korean-Chinese dishes seemed acceptable.  I was already thinking about Happy Family before we’d arrived.

While Happy Family has been featured on GMTD before, it was previously referred to by its Korean name jeongabok (see generally 2.017 Jeongabok).

Here, it was excellent.  The medley included nothing but the best: abalone, scallop, shrimp, squid, sea cucumber, snow crab, pine mushroom, shiitake mushroom, ginko nut, broccoli, and bokchoy, pristinely fresh.  Lightly sautéed, virtually no sauce, allowing their natural flavors to come through.  Even with so many competing tastes and textures, they came together in harmony – happy family, indeed.  Very pricy at 60,000 won for a small portion, but worth it, especially on this special occasion.

On average, the food was just okay.  Started off great with the Happy Family.  But every subsequent dish got progressively worse.  Anyway, we enjoyed the meal overall.

In all sincerity, I feel blessed to have a happy family, literally.

(See also FOODS)

(See also PLACES)