Husband and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day. Instead, we have our own celebration of our love on February 21st, because that is the day Husband proposed to me. And so, every year after the hubbub of Valentine's has died down, and we've helped everyone else through their holidays, we get our own. We took the day off, and Husband even volunteered to go to Ladies Eighties at Skully's, something I love and he hates. I let him off the hook for that one, but I did request we go to Diaspora for lunch. I went there when they first opened, and have begged him to go back with me ever since.
It's quite possible Diaspora is the most beautiful restaurant in the (North) Campus area. In a sea of divey, cockroach-covered holes, Diaspora is awash in soothing colors, with a soaring ceiling, giant light-allowing windows, and lots of paper lanterns:
Although they sell pig's feet as an entree (I was sure Husband would choose those), we both settled on the Dol Sot Bi Bim Bop, a Korean favorite consisting of a rocket-hot stone pot wherein rice is topped with beef, vegetables, and an egg. It's the perfect thing for the cold, snowy day we were having yesterday.
One of the charms of dining in a Korean restaurant is the panchan, the little gratis plates of kimchee, pickles, fishcake, and whatnot which arrive at your table when you order. Typically, if there is one item of which you are particularly fond, you can request an additional plate. At Diaspora, our panchan consisted of 7 plates - seaweed salad, fish cake (my second favorite, below, lower right), the potato in a sweet sauce (favorite favorite; above, lower right), standard cabbage kimchee, daikon kimchee, a funny little potato salad with cucumbers and apples, and a tasty, great-textured tofu in chili sauce. I love these little nibbles, and it's always fun to see what you're going to get.
Now, on to the bi bim bop (below). There's the aforementioned stone pot, with a nice mound of rice. Artfully displayed over the top of the rice are a variety of vegetables and meat - ground beef, carrots, mung bean sprouts, mushrooms, daikon, what I think are some sort of pickled fiddlehead, and slivers of toasted nori (seaweed), and of course, a raw egg (my favorite part). I believe the proper way to eat this deliciousness is to add the mild chili sauce provided (Diaspora gives you a dish of chili sauce and a squeeze bottle of sesame oil) and stir the entire mixture together, (the heat kind of cooks the egg as it coats everything, making a sauce) and then eat it with a spoon. I'm addicted to eating with chopsticks, so I only lightly stir, cover everything with salt (alas) and eat with chopsticks.
As a sidenote - and of course, I can't remember my source on this, but I've read that Korean cooking doesn't include a lot of salt, so one adds salt when eating. It goes against my nature to add salt to Asian food, but here I have to. And, I can't eat an egg yolk without salt.
The rice which maintains contact gets a nice crunchy texture which can be enjoyed throughout the eating of the hotpot and at the end. I know it's probably completely gauche, but I like to add a pinch of leftover miso soup to the very end of the rice (very crunchy by now) and then eat it with a spoon.
I love Diaspora. In fact, I would go back again today given half the chance.
A perfect day should include eating with chopsticks (check), going home to find Netflix delivered the next disc of Alias (check) and to find that your new shoes came days earlier than expected (check) and a nap (check). And then, it should include a super cool event, such as Pecha Kucha (check), and then another meal with chopsticks and something I've never eaten before, such as a Snapper's head (check):
So, it was a Perfect Day, Husband. (wait for it) I'm glad I spent it with you.
Info: Diaspora Korean Restaurant 2118 N. High St (just south of Lane) 614.458.1141 Bonus - open late on the weekends.
