sick, but it's kalguksu day tomorrow

I don't know what mistake I made last night. Maybe I should've backed off and not done my walk even though it was substantially shorter than the Jamshil Bridge route. Whatever the problem was, I ended up with a fever, chills, and a slight, mucous-y cough. I had some leftover cold medicine lying around, so I downed that, plus some ibuprofen, and felt better for the first part of today, but it's evening now, and the symptoms have returned. My throat doesn't feel sore, but it feels as if it's on the verge of becoming sore. 

Finishing what I had to do at the office (a sudden PPT for the CEO, who decided not to stay the full month in Texas and is set to return this evening, I think, after only 10 or so days Stateside; he'll be teaching tomorrow), I skedaddled home early and have taken some more meds. I haven't gargled yet, but there's a good chance I'll be gargling later this evening.

Tomorrow, we're all supposed to meet in Incheon, way out west, to eat lunch at a kalguksu place recommended by my Korean coworker. It doesn't look like much in the street-view photos available on Naver Map, but my coworker swears it's an awesome place, and in Korea, many hole-in-the-wall establishments can be surprisingly good despite looking seedy (this place doesn't look seedy—just old). 

The restaurant doesn't do yangji kalguksu (brisket-style knife-cut noodles) like the guy in the basement of the building where I work;* the Incheon restaurateur, in talking with my boss over the phone, apparently called such kalguksu "Vietnam style" (I'm imagining nationalistic derision). I can see why he said that: brisket is a standard meat in Vietnamese pho (don't pronounce it "foe"; pronounce it "fuh," like fuck but without the "k," hence all the US-based Viet restos with names like "Pho King Good"). 

However, this restaurant's name is Sunja-nae Hongduggae Kalguksu, which probably means it uses hongduggae-sal, or eye round, in its noodle soup.** Eye round is such a tough cut that many Western chefs think it's not worthwhile to use, but Koreans use it all the time when making, for example, jang-jorim, soy-boiled beef that's shredded and often served with soy-boiled chili peppers and/or quail eggs (mechuri-al). You just have to boil or slow-cook it for a long time. It's awesome. Don't listen to the Western chefs.

We'll see how good I feel tomorrow. Blogging this evening might be light.

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*The rumor is that he's supposed to be back at work this month, but so far, he hasn't returned, and he's been gone a long time. I'm pretty sure his place went under.

**Turns out that a lot of the kalguksu restos in that neighborhood are all some kind of hongduggae kalguksu place. I'm guessing it's a local specialty. So the Sunja-nae ("Sunja's Family," or better, "Chez Sunja," i.e., "[at] Sunja's House") designation is important as a way to distinguish this resto from the others.