Maedeup Monday!

The nasty bug I've been fighting for the last four weeks finally won and I went to my doctor for help. The last time I was this ill for this long was when I received a swine flu shot in 1976 while I was working at a nursing home. It was required at the time for all health care workers and I was one who had a horrible reaction to it. I was sick for about 10 days then.

I had a really hard time staying vertical at my doctor's office and for the first time in a long time, he was running on time so I was put in a room quickly. I had just seen him two weeks prior for a med check and had lost 10 pounds by eating better. I was down an additional 5 pounds due to lack of appetite and food just evacuating when upright for any period of time. When my doctor entered the room, I was prone on the table in a ball with my mandatory mask flipped up over my eyes. I have always had a problem with wearing masks of any kind.

He was clearly worried with my condition and additional weight loss. He listened to all my symptoms and agreed that the flu shot I had received had definitely played a role in my illness. He thinks I had something brewing unbeknownst to me and the flu shot weakened my immune system enough for it to take over. He sent me home with a script for a strong antibiotic.

It will be a week on Wednesday since I saw him and I was hoping that I would be totally recovered but that hasn't been the case. But I am doing better and I will take that. Before this nasty bug took over, I made a bunch of Korean garakji maedeup necklaces. I showed my sister, Heidi, and she wanted a couple so I was happy to send them to her. The rest you can find for sale in my Etsy shop.

 I told Rocketman I needed some kimchi to help cure me. Did you know that kimchi can cure cancer? I'm not sure that is true but I've been told that when we were living in Korea. At this point, I was willing to try anything. I had heard about this Korean restaurant in the back of a food store that had pretty good reviews on Yelp so I thought we could give it a try. It is located in Columbia Heights, MN which is about 30 miles from us. I was just hoping my body would agree and I could venture out for a little adventure.

 The restaurant opened at 11 am. and we arrived just at that time to find a line already. Always a good sign as far as I'm concerned. They had a pretty big menu to choose from.

 I chose kimchi jjigae and Rocketman chose spicy pork stir fry. We also ordered some mandu (dumplings). I saw that the offered a pajeon but it was seafood so I asked if they had a kimchi jeon and she said no. Oh well.

          They told you a number and the numbers were called as the orders were finished.

 Orders were not complete, but trickled out. We got the mandu first. It wasn't like Korean mandu at all but I thought it was pretty good.

                Then came the banchan (side dishes) and my kimchi jjigae. It smelled soooo good.

                                                            Close up of the deliciousness.

      The kimchi was pretty good!

                                                    Along with the other banchan.

Rocketman's dish did not taste Korean and was not very good. I really liked the kimchi jjigae but couldn't eat much because I wasn't feeling very well. A funny story, we had two Hmong women sitting next to us and they spoke mostly in Hmong except to comment to us about the food. One asked us if we thought the food was not spicy enough and I told her I thought it wasn't quite as spicy as in Korea but that we had encountered that a lot with U.S. Korean restaurants. She told us that she had been in Korea and the food is much better there. We smiled and agreed.

 

I definitely want to go back when I feel better and really enjoy my food. I was hoping the kimchi would kill the bug I have but it didn't. But I am feeling so much better and for now that's a good thing.