Don't pick the shredded beef...

Last night was Rachel's first night out in town since she got back from Louisiana. We went to Itaewan to have dinner-she requested Korean food. So, we decided to go to Woori Garden, the first restaurant Rachel and I ever ate at when we got here. Anyway, so Rachel got to choose what we were having. With Korean BBQ, they show pictures of raw meat on the menu, and you get to pick what cuts you want, and whether you want them marinated or not, cooked with or without mushrooms and garlic, etc. So Rachel picked the marinated, shredded beef. We were pretty sure we hadn't had that one yet, as we usually get the pork belly, or the beef ribs (not like American ribs, by the way), so we all agreed that that sounded great. The food came out in about 5 minutes (it's always quick cuz you cook it at your table), and we were surprised to note that our waitresses starting setting all of our side dishes (kimchi, etc.) right on top of the grill that we thought was about to be turned on to cook our beef. Then they set down the entree itself...a beautiful pile of shredded beef (looked like beef spaghetti, almost) with shredded radishes and cucumbers..and a raw egg on top. The waitress stared at us for a minute, and after she realized we had no clue what was going on, proceeded to mix the raw egg up with the beef. I don't think we really believed that we were going to eat raw meat, so we asked her if maybe she forgot to turn the fire on. "No fire!" was her response. She smiled broadly and gestured that we should dig in...so we did. It was cold, but actually tasted pretty good. Especially if you wrapped a piece of the kimchi around it, or one of the other side dishes. They usually bring you 6 or 7 little dishes that are mostly all types of vegetables, but there's also one that's sort of a flat, chewy fish loaf kind of thing (my favorite, actually), and sometimes even some macaroni pasta with a sort of mayonnaise sauce, and one that has a couple crab legs covered in the traditional red, spicy paste. We still haven't figured out how exactly you're supposed to eat those. They also brought us some hot, kimchi soup-very good stuff, with tofu, and an assortment of vegetables. So all in all, we ate about 2 lbs of raw beef between us, plus 2 raw eggs. So if I don't show up on this blog again, it's because we came down with either mad cow disease, or salmonella. Or both...
It's the next morning and I feel fine, but it might take a while for the symptoms to show up. Rachel is going to make sure she finds out the word for "raw" or "uncooked" so that that NEVER happens again. Truth be told...it really wasn't that bad, and was actually tasty...but still.