For Dinner, we actually met up with my friends, Soo Zee and Leigh, for some samgyeopsal dinner. Marshellia and Grace actually knew them from the time they came to visit me in Jakarta and we hung out together then. So since Marshellia and Grace were visiting Seoul, they invited us to get dinner together with them. We met up at one of their favorite spot—which has became one of my favorite spot too after the first time they brought me here—and had those delicious thick pork bellies. The sizzling sound of oil meeting the pan the first time the thick chunk of meat were laid down officially kicked off our dinner and then followed by tiny splatters of oil hitting the tables and sometimes our hands causing some of us to flinched every now and then. We were all eager and ready to just eat everything that was in front of us, especially when the smell of the cooked meat started to spread around the table. When the pork belly pieces were ready, everybody took a piece and eat in silence. The meat and fat ratio was perfect, perfectly cut, and perfectly cooked. And my friends gave me their approval of the food after they finished their first piece of samgyeopsal and I was glad they like this place too.

There’s always something about eating good food that made it tastes even better when you’re having it with a good company. It might be your family, or friends, or maybe significant other. At least that’s how I feel. I don’t have a problem eating out alone, but for Korean Barbecue, I think I never eat it alone. Part of it is because I don’t think it’s a common thing to do here in Korea (some restaurant actually don’t let you eat solo in a barbecue joint) and part of it is because I just feel like it’s so much better to have it with other people to share the meal with.

The rest of dinner was pretty normal, filled with half-shouted conversations amongst us because like any other meat joint in Seoul, the place was pretty noisy. Soo Zee cooked for Marshellia and Grace while Leigh was explaining to Christina how to make a proper wrap of samgyeopsal with the lettuce and sauce and everything. We shared conversations and stories until the last piece of the meat disappeared from the pan and everybody was full.