What I Ate: December 13, 2009 (Austin Food Blogger Cookie Swap, Korean Grill)

Dinner: after grabbing some Asian groceries at MT Supermarket, we decided to try Korean Grill (10901 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 339-0234‎). I got pretty excited by the smells since Tina and I have only had one Korean meal since we moved to Texas seven months ago. We used to live a block from El Camino Real and Lawrence Expressway in Santa Clara, California where there is a high concentration of Korean restaurants and markets - so we've grown to love Korean cuisine.

We started with Pa Jun (Seafood Pancake - Pan fried Korean pancake, vegetables with seafood, $9.95) which was okay, but not even close to the best we've ever had. The flavor was pretty good, but the texture was a tad gooey and the sauce could have been better - the sauce was a bit too sour/acidic.

We also had the Galbi (short ribs cooked in Korean BBQ sauce) ($11.95) which was a bit chewier than I like it and not very strongly flavored (could barely taste the BBQ sauce let along the Asian pear that makes it so special).


Jab Che (beef japche - stir fried clear noodle with beef and vegetables) could have used a little more sesame oil and the noodles were over cooked and sticking to each other so it was very difficult to separate. Otherwise, the dish was decent.

Based on these dishes and the banchan (some of which were too mildly seasoned and some much too sweet), we'd probably give Korean Grill a 6 or 6.5 out of 10. We might go back, but it's unlikely as we haven't explored other Korean cuisine in the area yet.

Food Blogger Cookie Swap: We joined a couple dozen other food bloggers at a Holiday Cookie Swap. Everyone brought six dozen cookies to share with others and took home a similar number of various cookies ranging from homemade bacon and chocolate chip (made by Marshall of Eat This Lens - my personal favorite of the few cookies I tasted) to Italian wine cookies made with olive oil and savory herbs to lavender shortbreads to truffles (candies were allowed in the exchange) to Chinese New Years Candy (which isn't Asian at all involving copious amounts of chocolate, butterscotch, peanuts, and fried chow mein noodles… incredibly delicious regardless of the origin). I brought two types of chocolate chips cookies and peanut butter cookies (playing it safe) which have the honor of being the very first things I've made in the new oven in my new house. It was a great afternoon eating cookies (but there's only so many you can eat), sipping apple cider, and chatting with foodie friends and making new acquaintances.