Wherever we may roam: My first real Korean restaurant

Today, the Nature Girl and I went out to lunch with a sweet Korean lady named Ray. We met at the train station one day about 3 weeks ago. She was the first Korean girl my age that spoke with me. Her English is fair (my Korean was nonexistent at that time) and we had a chance to talk for a little while that day. I offered to pay for lunch if she would like to take me to an authentic Korean restaurant. Up until now, our schedules have just never worked out. So today was the first chance I have had to see her since we met. We went to a “famous” Korean restaurant in New City near the train station. Ray ordered for us and we had dakgalbi and naengmuen. The dakgalbi consisted of chicken, sweet potatoes, rice cakes and was VERY hot and spicy… it burned my mouth and made me gulp water…. I felt much better when I saw Ray “suffering” from the spices, too. :) We had a good time. The naengmuen is a cold dish with rice noodles, pears, hard-boiled egg and cucumber. It was very good and was not spicy. There were some dishes on the side that I sampled, but did not catch the names of all of them. The meal was a real treat, and by the end of it, my tastebuds had gone into shock from all of the spices and I could eat the spicy chicken with no trouble. Ray and I made plans to get together again soon. She is a great gal and I am so glad we met!