The male employee had a bright & warm smile on his face which felt welcoming as I was getting ready to decide what to get for dinner. It was super hard to choose only one single dish as everything had looked scrumptious from the menu with colorful & accurate-looking food pics + detailed descriptions of all the listed ingredients for each of the food options. The vendor was a small, no-frill looking kind of area just like the rest of the other booths at Food Gallery 32.Typically, seafood + beef + pork are more expensive proteins in comparison to chicken. Tonight, I was craving for chicken especially something hot to warm my stomach since it had gotten a bit chilly & windy after the pouring rain just now not too long ago. So, I ended up choosing the Spicy Soft Tofu Stew w/ Chicken that's served in a Korean 'onggi' (옹기) aka a 'Korean earthenware pot.' The total came out to be roughly around $15. The price range is average for K-Town in general. This particular type of pot is used to serve the stew as a way to keep the temperature of the food hot plus maintain the rich flavors during the whole meal. Then, staff handed me the change, a beeper, and the receipt after paying at the register counter. When the food is ready and/or the beeper starts flashing red lights + vibrating, that's the signal for you to go pick up your meal. Didn't take too long, I would say the prepping and cooking were like 15 mins altogether which wasn't bad at all for a weekday. Of course, it might take slightly longer on the weekends.I looked around for somewhere to sit down and can't wait to start digging in!!! Luckily, I quickly found a seat two steps away from the vendor I'd just ordered from. It was served with a plastic container of steamed white rice and a small banchan (side dish) of bean spouts and thinly sliced fish cakes in a plastic container. Was a bit disappointed not to see the familiar slices of yellow pickled radish being included in each person's meal whether you've ordered a meaty stew or bowl of glass noodles with veggies and/or meat. I began to slurp the soup hungrily and almost burned my tongue from it. There was some spiciness to the soondubu jjigae (spicy soft tofu stew) but it was only a mild to mid-spicy kind of taste in my opinion. Love seeing that vibrant orange color of the piping hot deliciousness bubbling in the black clay pot. I'm so happy that I can really taste the mild to mid-spicy kick from each flavorful sip, the softness and smoothness of the soft tofu rolling around, the tenderness of the boneless chicken pieces, and lastly the softness of the onion slices in between of every bite. Loved that nothing had either tasted too salty or too bland, everything was just right in its own way. And did I ever mention that there was actually lots of chicken pieces from the stew?!? To me, it was definitely so worthwhile to get the delicious spicy soft tofu stew. Can't wait til I go back next time and try other dishes as well from the Korean food court.
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