Cycle 15 – Item 96
10 (Wed) April 2024
Janchi Guksu
2.0
-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-
solo
BREAKFAST
Manghyang Bibim Guksu is a Korean restaurant. Specializes in noodles, especially their eponymous bibim guksu. Part of a franchise chain, supposedly founded in 1968 (I don’t buy it for a second), currently 65 locations.
Although the sign claims that the restaurant was founded in 1968, it’s bullshit, as is the case with most Korean restaurant origin stories. The website tells some hoaky tale about a woman who started out by selling noodles and other items, mostly to soldiers, but that’s as far as it gets – no details, like where or when. On a separate page, the company Blue Mill is shown to have started in 2008, acquired the rights to the Manghyang brand and open the first franchise in 2011. No mention of what happened in the 43 years between 1968 and 2011. Most of the website, of course, is about why and how to become a franchisee (see for example 14.312 Sunsal Jikhwa).
I hate franchises with a passion, but they’re impossible to avoid these days.
Right after getting to school (today was a holiday for adults – Election Day – but schools were open), IZ called to say that he’d broken his glasses, so I had to get him a new pair on the double; the store where he gets his glasses in Wirye opened at 09:30.
While waiting for the glasses to be completed, I walked around to find a place for breakfast, and the only restaurant open nearby was Manghyang Bibim Guksu.
I didn’t feel like eating bibim guksu at 09:45, so I went with the janchi guksu.
POSTPRANDIAL DRINKS
Justin, my best and only remaining friend from law school, is in town. After he graduated (2 years ahead of me), we had something of a falling out (I wasn’t even invited to his wedding a few years later), though I can’t remember why. Haven’t seen him since 2007, which I recall because he met W, a few months after we’d been married.
I’d originally met him during college, when he was at UCLA and shared an apartment with Hahn, my best friend from high school.
Dan (also from SIS), who knows Justin originally through Hahn and then more through me, joined us for drinks, along with Jane, Justin’s wife.
As Justin’s daughter and my son are in 11th grade (DP’s eldest, 12th grader, will be going to Georgia Tech in the fall), the conversation eventually turned to college (probably would’ve anyway). First, a breakdown of who went where: I went to Cal for undergrad and USC for law school; Justin went to UCLA for undergrad and USC for law school; Jane went to USC for undergrad and UC Davis for law school (Dan went to Cal for undergrad). Justin’s daughter is weighing both UCLA and USC, possibly leaning more towards the latter, which kills Justin, because he hates USC, even though he went there for law school (grad school doesn’t really count). Jane has no animosity against UCLA but generally is unimpressed with the UC system, even though she went to UC Davis for law school (grad school doesn’t really count). Whereas DJ’s first choice at the moment is Stanford, I would much prefer that he went there than Cal, despite the historic crosstown rivalry (I wonder if anyone would prefer that their kid went to Cal over Stanford, other than for financial reasons) (Stanford was also my first choice, got waitlisted, eventually rejected). Another random bit – alumni of Cal, officially the University of California – Berkeley, never call it “UC Berkeley,” especially in front of someone who went to one of the other UCs; Justin, in his older age, was finally willing to concede that yes, indeed, Berkeley is the big brother to them all, even the otherwise highly venerated UCLA – “We even have a derivative mascot” (Cal = Golden Bears; UCLA = Bruins) (I’m sure that I’ve mentioned this before).
(See also HANSIK)
(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)