Friday, January 23, 2009

Gosireh Hwa III


Hi dear sisters ....... Just like Gosireh in Tokyo, Gorilla in Seoul; Gosireh Hwa has no sign indicating that this is a Yonsama restaurant. The décor is rustic, natural and calm as the owner himself.


The only hint of a celebrity is this pair of handprints at the entry

How do you know it’s him? There ......

The manager greeted us cordially, cloudnine recognized he is actually the manager from Tokyo Gosireh. He personally came all the way from Tokyo ahead of time to ensure our group was taken care of! Wow, kiyomi san sure has lots of 'face'.

Gosireh Hwa actually is not as big as when I watched Yong Joon touring the vacant unit, thus it seemed much warmer and cozier now. As soon as you walk through the entrance, you’ll see the busy kitchen and to your right, the long corridor adorned by this huge clay? fireplace.


The whole space is partitioned into 6 semi-open cubicles with these Flintstones style walls and twigs. Are we back to Geulmool Village in TWSSG?


Our sisters were already well settled into their seats. Their bus ride coming to Nagoya was very comfortable, they chatted and watched Yong Joon’s videos all the way here, I so wish we could join them! There were about 40 of us occupying 5 cubicles in the dining area. Hehe sorry, the pillar is strategically positioned in the picture to protect our sisters' privacy.


Our table had yonyon san, sakura san, umichan, (sorry, don't know the name of the other sisters) and the lovely Tamatama san was sitting right across, lucky lucky me! Tamatama politely offered me some beer, I wonder why? Oopsies, maybe she noticed the beer belly of mine?? Well, I normally am not a beer drinker (or any kind of drinker), but I felt so hot from all the running. And how could I resist this bottle?

Remember our prince’s Hite Beer CF? Woozy ....... 2 gulps down my throat, I already felt like I was on that jet ski with our prince!


Kiyomi san had arranged a special set menu with all-we-can-drink anything. My oh my, these are not just your usual tea, coffee, pops or juice. I mean REAL drinks like Korean soju, Japanese sake, plum wine, 20+ % alcohol-content type of SERIOUS stuffs! And our sisters also meant REAL business too, look at what they gobbled down ....... (cloudnine and I could only gasped with admiration as we sipped our oolong tea and pear juice)


I attempted to order my drinks in Japanese, but obviously my accent or bad grammar gave me away. A young waitress came over immediately and told me she can speak English and offered to serve me if I need anything. So I asked her if they have any English speaking customers at all, she replied actually none. So I was the first one, well hopefully not the last (hehe princess, you know what I mean).

By now, I was really starving from all the running around, look at what arrived first – toboki! I know this is JunSang’s favorite food and it had appeared million times in Korean dramas but I’d never tasted it once, not even in Seoul! Ummmm let’s see, the sauce was awakening – very spicy and sweet, kind of appetizing. Hehe, the other dish was seafood chijime, don’t mistake it for pizza huh :)


Next came the crispy sweet & sour fried chicken, sorry – half-eaten already

Then this grilled pork wrapped in fresh lettuce, yummy

Oh, this kebob thingy was potato wrapped in beef, cloudnine told me this has a funny name like ‘taro + meat eat together’, right?

One of my favorite - seafood tofu hotpot, the tofu was so soft and smooth, slurp slurp ;o

There were actually many more side dishes and cold salads. You felt so full afterwards but you also knew that you had eaten a healthy and balanced meal. Thanks to our health conscious prince!

Food is a tummy-satisfying part in Kiyomi’s gathering, the other fun part is the games. When I walked into the restaurant, this prize section at the front was already spread with all kinds of BYJ goodies – pictures, magazines, books, T-shirts, towels, you name it. Like inside a BYJ treasure chest!


First game – Drum, paper, scissors! Ok ok, technically it is but I heard kiyomi and the sisters were chanting something Yong Joon when they played it. It was basically her against all of us – whoever won at the end could go into the BYJ treasure chest and chose her prize. Haha, we had so many rounds that most sisters (including cloudnine and moi) got something :)


Next game – Bingo! Ha, we’re not playing with numbers of course, but with the main characters in Yong Joon’s dramas. We basically made up our own bingo card from the group of suggested names and kiyomi would pick it out one by one from a bag. Hahaha, guess what? Yours truly was among the first to say BINGO! Towards the end almost everyone won. If I may guess, I really think this is the intention of kiyomi, she wants every sister to have a little something Yong Joon to bring back home.


Fun times flew by so fast, the clock struck 4. Like Cinderella, our dear sisters had to shed their glass slippers as their carriage was waiting downstairs to take them back to Tokyo, to reality. Since our Shinkansen didn’t leave till 5:30, so cloudnine and I went outside to see them off. As I watched the happy and glowing faces of these sisters, I thought what wonders Yong Joon has done to the lives of these women. Out of our hurried and mundane daily routines, we were able to have an escape, just 1 day of fun and fantasy with other women who share the same love for an extraordinary man. As I waved goodbye to them, I am sure they (especially the ones who had a few of those SERIOUS drinks) would have a very deep and sweet sleep, hehe maybe even dreaming of our Yonsama .......


Lastly, just a lunch outing may sound easy but I can appreciate there’s a tremendous amount of preparations and co-ordinations behind the scene. Thanks to kiyomi san and the ‘April Snow & Now’ team for your caring and kind effort in giving us such a fun and memorable day.

14 comments:

bbmag said...

kiyomi is really one nice lady huh... she's ever supportive of wuri yong joon and all activities related to him.

and i think we've seen firsthand how she would scout around for suitable bae-gifts for bae-gatherings... quite admirable and definitely very big- and warm-hearted of her. (then again, it seems like nearly ALL of the japanese bae-sisters i've met are big and warm like that...)

the food seems nice! more casual and homey than those dishes at gosireh tokyo? i want go!

and omo, i love the idea of all-you-can-drink...!! haiya, i soooo... should have been there!!

thanks for sharing, jaime!s

gosijo said...

Ah, dear Lady Jaime, what a wonderful post! I particularly like your concluding paragraphs. Yes, what a fun escape from the daily grind and how grand of all those who made it possible!

I bet many of your blogders live in places/situations where such an escape is not possible, but reading your detailed and spirited account gets us a good part of the way there anyway. Thanks for smuggling us along!

Hydee Pole Photography said...

Thank you very much Jaime.. yummy looking food and you must enjoyed all of them. I also love the all you could drink part. So the drinks are 20% alcohol? Not as hard as whisky but enough to make you merry ;-)
You must have such wonderful friends out there. I'm happy for you.

Love,
Hyds

Anonymous said...

Lady Jaime!

Thank you so much for sharing your lunch event with us. How exciting to meet other Bae sisters and enjoy yummy food and great company. As always, your posts make me feel like I was there too.
I love the way you describe the food items... "slurp slurp"... that gets me every time.

What a wonderful day you had!!

take care!

jaime said...

Hehe princess,

When I looked at those REAL drinks, I thought you'll be in heaven! Even a non-drinker like me would love to have a taste of some of those interesting and rare wine :) btw, the 'all you can drink' only came with our special menu, guess our price covered it already.

love ... jaime

jaime said...

Dear gosijo,

Thank you for your kind words. You know a year ago, I was so far away from Korea and Japan and could only rely on bb, camille, liezle and many other sisters' account of Yong Joon's places. Hehe, I wish one day I could write about the moment I 'bumped' into him. But I shouldn't be too greedy, I am content with what I have experienced already. I hope to share with other sisters as much as I can, hopefully you won't get tired of me. Please take care!

Btw, do you celebrate CNY w/ your family?

love ... jaime

jaime said...

Dear Hyds,

Hehe sorry because I am not too familiar with drinks. I think those Japanese and Korean soju have very high alcohol content, like 50% or more. Haha, one sip I will fall flat on the floor!

I know you are a wine expert, like bb and our prince. Imagine looking at Seoul's night view by the Han River over candle light sipping a glass of red wine with our handsome prince! You are one of the few who can conduct a meaningful wine conversation with our prince. My hats off to you :)

love ... jaime

Anonymous said...

Hi Jaime,

Great writing! Part 2 gave me a loud laugh and, like gosijo ,the concluding part really impressed me.

Now I know that we Japanese sisters can't have a confidential talk any more. You are really listening to us! Yes, we were chanting something special while we did 'Jan-ken-pon or rock-scissors-paper' game. It doesn't make any sense but we just added 'Saisho wa Yong Joon - In the first place, Yong Joon'. Before we sign any of three, games start from calling out Yong Joon's name, that's the idea, haha.

cloud nine

jaime said...

My dear 'Lady' Vegas (remember, we are partners in crime?),

Thanks for dropping by. Have you tried those dishes before in a Korean restaurant? I think they are pretty typical, unlike the palace cuisine in Tokyo Gosireh. The good thing about Hwa is you can order individual dishes to go with your drinks, more flexibility there. Hehe, but I have to say I love the Tokyo one much better! When are you coming over to eat with us?? Please take care!

love ... jaime

jaime said...

dear cloudnine,

hehe sorry, I have a feeling nobody will be talking to (or in front of) me anymore after I become a blogger. And sometimes that picture-taking thingy is annoying, isn't it? Thank you for putting up with me all the time.

Please trust me, my Japanese is still so poor that I can only recognize Yong Joon, BYJ or Yonsama; nothing else :)

hehe, love that 'saisho wa Yong Joon'!

love ... jaime

gosijo said...

Haha, that's so cute, adding 'Saisho wa Yong Yoon' ahead of 'jan-ken-pon'!

In answer to your question, Lady Jaime, yes, we most certainly celebrate CNY in our family, low-key but special.

bbmag said...

hey jaime, me too me too! sometimes i feel so apologetic about all the picture-taking and stuff... it's alright when i'm amongst fellow blogger-fans, but when i'm with the non-blogger-fans, there're times when i get incredibly self-conscious about all the snapping away :p

sometimes i also worry that people might think i would just put up everyone's pics without permission and all :p

p.s. whoa, me just sent off quite a few groups of relatives from my place... gotta go out to my aunt's later.

thank god all these CNY visiting only happens once a year :p

jaime said...

Hehe gosijo,

Wonderful to hear that you celebrate CNY, TO is actually more 'Chinese' than Tokyo, if you can believe it!

love ... jaime

jaime said...

Hi Hi princess,

you're right, a lot of times I don't use the pictures I took, especially with faces showing.

Hehe, I thought you were glued in front of the computer watching Star's Lover. Oh, it's the relative visiting customs, have fun! Hehe, Koreans do that too, right?

love .. jaime