iPhone 5 & Weekend Fun

TGIF is all I was thinking today. It's been a long week and it's finally coming to an end. Also this weekend is another of my infamous weekend movie marathon parties... and I so can't wait for it.

I did manage to get my new iPhone 5 work, connected and looking great. Such a huge difference from the iPhone 3GS. I mean 4G alone is amazing. The screen is larger, the speed is much faster and the battery life is amazing. I'm slowly learning the phone. Still haven't played with Siri much so I look forward into delving into that more. I'm very happy that I went with he iPhone 5.

7pm came and I was out of work in a shot. I had to get home as I did have people coming over early (as it's become a tradition). So I needed to be there when they arrived. I made it home, ate dinner and had a half hour to relax before my first guest arrived. Aaron came at 8:30 sharp which is amazing since he drives from San Diego and traffic is always unpredictable. Not long after Rupert, Brett, Michele, Anthony and finally Robert arrived. We played some Cards Against Humanity (it's are go to game now) and then sat around the fireplace for about 2 hours just relaxing, talking and enjoying ones company. It was a great way to end what was a very stressful week. And a great way to start what will be an awesome weekend.

My Name is Bruce

An ancient Chinese demon is wreaking havoc in small town America so who do you recruit to save the day ?, Bruce Campbell that's who and if you can't recruit him well you could always kidnap him throw him in that back of a car and try to coerce or con him into doing it.

My Name is Bruce is a movie I've wanted to see for ages and I recently picked it up as part of three movie Blu-ray pack along with Bubba Ho-Tep and I Sell the Dead, it's not what I'd call a classic but it's fun especially if you are familiar with Bruce Campbell and his movies, there are far worse ways to fill in 90 minutes of your time.

Bibimbap Soho 비빔밥 소호 - London Greek Street

I really only wanted to blog for fun. I believe I am not a super blogger. But now I truly know why people like to blog (especially about food)! ^_^ ...

I really like Korean food. Since my experience at Arirang last year I really wanted to try out more Korean restaurants. I kept seeing them but I found myself not going into them because I had no one to go in them with me. :( I found Bibimbap Soho 비빔밥 소호 on the Internet a while ago (and way before I was emailed by a kind person from Bibimbap Soho XD). 

Outside Bibimbap Soho

I'm surprised they don't use their Korean name outside of their restaurant, but it's modern age, so thumbs up (^_^)b for keeping up with the times! At the time I was just searching for a cheapish Korean restaurant to go to. There have been mixed reviews from a lot of people in London, Koreans and non-Koreans about this place. I suggested to my friend Mr Bear a while ago to go with me... and we were supposed to go here for his birthday in September 2012, but he is such a busy social bear!!! And now it's February 2013!!! So hurry up Mr Bear, find us a time and date for us to go! And don't forget to bring along Mr Smiles!! :D

Bibimbap 비빔밥 (pronounced: pi-pim-pap) is a national Korean dish which means 'mixed rice' according to Wikipedia and on Bibimbap Soho's website. ^_^ In this dish is a mixture of egg (raw or cooked), meat (mainly beef), vegetables and the most obvious ingredient white rice, which is served in a warm bowl! (More like a very hot stone bowl!).  The ingredients are mixed in the bowl and cooked at the same time. Bibimbap Soho offers 10 varieties of this dish, and I couldn't wait to try one of these out. :D But as well as the national dish they serve other food, like noodles, salads and rice dishes...

Had to take a picture of Girls Generation ^_^

Bibimbap menu

When we arrived I had thought a table was reserved for us. But unfortunately it wasn't. To make a reservation there must be a group of 10 or more people. However the staff were very polite and accommodating, which I am extremely grateful for, as they sat us at a table that was suitable for 2 people (but with an extra chair of course)... All we wanted to do was sit and EAT! (I only had 3 pancakes and some cookies for lunch :( ...). 

This is a very modern Korean restaurant. It has a lot of photos surrounding the walls. Unfortunately we didn't have our picture taken... I guess it was because it was too busy, there was a long queue of people and service was running more smoothly than usual... Keep guessing geek... :P

Inside Bibimbap Soho... Couldn't get a better picture... :(

Here's what we had...

Drinks first
I had the ice lemon tea, Mr Bear had a hot root tea and Mr Smiles had a coke. 

Coke, ice lemon tea and hot root tea

Side dishes
Mr Smiles started off with the Chilli Squid. It was very crispy, and the dip that came with it was very tasty! I like! Mr Smiles really liked his starter too!! :D

Chilli Squid

The dip is very nice!! Mr Bear said he could have it with anything! ¬_¬"

I had the spicy rice cake a.k.a ddukbokki. Oh wooooow!! This was soooo tasty! Next time I make ddukbokki I want it to be as tasty as this!! :D

Yummy Spicy Rice Cake ^_^

Mr Bear had the kimchi pancake. Now, when I made kimchi chigae one time and brought it to the office it really smelled and I had put him off kimchi... Luckily, these didn't smell that bad and were very, very yummy :D Mr Bear said he LOVED them AND wanted MORE!! ^_^

Kimchi Pancake - Thumbs up from Mr Bear!!! ^_^

Pickles
Both Mr Smiles and I ordered the kimchi. I've had several types of kimchi before. The tinned one which is my favourite, the chilled one in a jar is very tasty and my least favourite the refrigerated packet version shipped from Korea. This one tasted like the refrigerated packet. :( It has this bitter taste that I don't particularly like. But for some reason Mr Bear and Mr Smiles enjoyed it!

Kimchi

The Bibimbap!!!
The moment finally came. The three of us ordered three different bibimbaps. Mr Smiles had the Dol Sot with a fried egg. Very light in taste, and nutritious looking. Yummy!

Dol Sot

Mr Bear had the Beef Bul-go-gi with a raw egg. This was great, well the beef was! The beef tasted like it would melt away in your mouth.

Beef Bul-go-gi

And I had the Beef Fillet. I have never eaten raw beef before. But it tasted so good. I think I could sense there was some sesame oil. And the mushrooms were so tasty. ^_^

Beef Fillet - tasty ^_^

Beef Fillet all mixed up and ready to cook in the bowl!

All three bibimbap dishes ^_^ .... tasty....! The sauces were tasty too! :D

All in all, it was a good meal. I think I wanted more of the side dishes than anything else! By the way, they don't serve desserts (probably because of customer turnover as Mr Bear pointed out), but there is a coffee shop opposite called Lick that serves ice cream... although it's very expensive ice cream!

Total cost came to £54.20 (and fortunately we got a £10.40 discount, as I was told I would be able to have 2 free side dishes, but we still gave them a small tip even though there was a £5 service charge... Korean restaurants seem to like charging their customers a lot!)...

I think Miss Pinky is going to be jealous... I did invite her, but only if Mr Bear didn't want to go. She wasn't happy that she was second choice over Mr Bear! Hah! Next time Miss Pinky, next time. ;)

I can say that Mr Bear and Mr Smiles were very happy with what they had! I felt like I have introduced them to Korean food of which they have never had before. ^_^ I am such a proud geek.

As we were leaving more people were coming in... 
I would definitely come here again but probably when it's more quiet.

감사합니다

My geeky rating: 4.9/5 (lost a 0.1 mark because of the reserving issue)

Good points:

- Love, love, loved the side dishes. I want more dduboki! ^_^ Mr Bear wants more kimchi pancake! Mr Smiles loves the kimchi :)
- Friendly and polite service (even when rushed and had a busy service)
- Love the pictures on the walls
- Enjoyed the bibimbap

Bad points:
- Didn't have a reserved table
- Service charge of £5 (that's too much)
- Not entirely cheap but worthwhile

Address: 11 Greek Street, London W1D 4DJ

Telephone: 0207 287 3434

Website: http://bibimbapsoho.co.uk/

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Avengers Disassembled

For the next 10 days I have the house to myself so I'm hoping to use the time to among other things catch up on some reading, one of the first things I grabbed of my to read pile was Avengers Disassembled.

I thought it was an interesting read, it started out well but I can't say I cared all that much for the choice of villain, I guess I thought it was an interesting idea, I just wish it had been done better, the reveal of the villain and the final conflict all seemed a bit rushed to me.
I believe New Avengers picks up where this series left off and it will be interesting to check that out, I do believe I have a collection of the first several issues of that series here somewhere as well.

Time Enough at Last !

Well for the next several days I have the house to myself, a pile of books, comics, DVDs, Blu-rays and video games that all have lacked my attention so the plan is to geek out big time.

Being unemployed usually sucks but I'm looking forward to this so of course if I find any kind of work you can guarantee it's going to happen now.

Bros Bros and More Bros

I had the honor of having lunch today with my buddy Will. Will and I don't get to hang out as much as we would like but the time we do spend together is very important to me. Today he came to my work, parked and we walked up with the hill to Universal City Walk. When we got there we decided to have lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. It was another fun get together. We chatted about work, life and our usual stuff. Will has always felt like a little brother to me. I've always been there to listen to and offer advice on various things happening in his life. And though many years have past we still have that kind of relationship and I'm so thankful.

After work today I headed over to my buddy Robert's place. We are continuing our Buffy rewatch/ 1st time watching. Unlike Will I haven't known Robert for that long but from the moment we met I felt as if I have known him my entire life. We have become the best of friends and I love hanging with him. Of all my "close" friend Robert is the one I hang with the most. Today we were having Italian for dinner and continuing with Season four of Buffy. We watched three episodes tonight, starting with Fear Itself. Fun episode, great ending and fun to see a different side to Giles. Our second episode was Beer Bad. This is unanimously considered the worst Buffy episode ever. I don't think it's the best and maybe it's low on the list of rewatch for me but even Buffy's worse is still 100 times better then other TV shows. Our final episode for the evening was Wild at Heart. This was the end of the Oz and Willow relationship. I love Oz but I'm happy to see him go as that means we will be seeing Tara (who I love). It was a great episode to end the night with.

It was nice to get a break from the crazies that is my job to have lunch with Will and then to decompress and hang with Robert after a long day of work. Bros are the best.

Mistaken Identity

At work we have to valet our cars as parking is in short supply and they normally stack the cars. I got off work today and headed over to the Valet area and they were super busy. There were two of them and they were running around. The parking was the worst I had ever seen. I waited about five minutes and the guy finally came over to me and I gave him my ticket. The night guy never brings my car around he always just hands me my ticket and then I go search for my car (luckily they park it in the same general area). Well today it was in the same area but it was blocked in. I walked back over to the valet station and as I was standing there a group of older woman came out of the restaurant next door (who also uses the valet parking). This blonde white woman (looked very well off), approached me with a $20 and said in a very loud and slow tone. "Do you have change for a, $20 your friend is pulling my car around and I want to give you guys a great tip." I looked at her, smiled and said "I'm sorry but I don't work for the valet" in perfect English of course. You could tell she was embarrassed and I really didn't take offense to it until she said "Well it's an honest mistake... I mean you have keys in your hand and your..."she didn't finished the sentence and kind of laughed and walked over to her friends as their car was being pulled around. It was a very strange experience.