Don’t plan your entire day around eating Asian food.

Or do. We did.

Lunch started out in Chinatown at the Seven Treasures with sliced pork & green beans in a great garlic sauce served over rice, lup cheong (Chinese sausage) & noodles, and a pair of egg-drop soups. So we did some work on that while Josh shared stories from his Bali trip just the week prior.

Seven Treasures is your quintessential hole-in-the-wall place to get some cheap Cantonese food. Too legit to quit.

The highlight of the day came at dinner. Josh and I agreed that Korean would hit the spot, and he knew of just the place in Lincoln Park. Cho Sun OK is a gem of a Korean restaurant, small and located on a corner. I was convinced that it was about as traditional as it could be, none of the staff spoke and you put in your order and that’s that. To add to that, I’m fairly certain that we were the only two non-Korean folk eating so that’s a pretty good sign that it’s authentic, amirite?

There’s an unexplainable joy that I feel when I watch my food being cooked in front of me. Hibatchi, sushi, dishes that require the waiters to light on fire before serving, AND.. our Korean beef dish. Each table has its own portable, gas-powered range. Moments later, our waitress came out wielding this huge stone pot, called a dolsot, set it on our burner and poured some oil in… “Awesome.” After it had enough time to heat up, she threw in the marinated beef that was sitting next to our side dishes, banchan. You may be familiar with the most popular banchan, Kimchi or kimchee. These delectable dishes were awesome to snack while we watched our main course cook away. My favorite was a tie between the boiled sweet potatoes and the Musaengchae, “Noodles” of white radish in a sweet vinegar sauce.

One observation we had about Korean food is that a large portion of time is spent on preparation and not the actual cooking process. The fresh vegatables cut, the sauces and marinade for the beef, slicing the beef, etc. No fancy frying, baking, or grilling. It’s in the flavor, son.

Our waitress came by to stir up our beef and another 10 mintues and we were scarfing down this delish beef and white rice. My only complaint? Not enough rice… I literally could’ve eaten a whole pot of white rice. So bellies filled, we started to head out and there was a line out the door and around the corner.

It’s that good.