Coriya
I was one brave mama on Friday night. After Vida’s piano lesson on Friday afternoon I realized that I was coming down with a cold and my weekend of relaxing and beer was turning into one of coughing and Kleenex. As I made the 45 minute drive from piano to Muffinville I contemplated my options—I could go home and try and throw something together or I could stop at what I thought was a new dim sum bakery on Clement Street. I opted for the bakery and was disappointed to find that it was just a bakery—it looked so much like Sun Maxim on Irving that I guess I fooled myself into thinking it was something it wasn’t. Pound cake just wasn’t going to cut it for dinner. We headed back to the car when Vida spotted Coriya, a hot pot barbeque place. She was pretty sure she wanted to try it after spying people cooking their own dinner in the middle of the table and I was pretty sure it sounded like a recipe for disaster taking a two year old in there. I was too foggy to object too vehemently and found myself walking in despite myself.
We were ushered to a table with a pot sitting on top of a foil-covered barbeque with a gas flame below. Our hostess explained how it worked. We would go pick out our raw meats from one buffet and then some vegetables and noodles from another. A third buffet held various sauces and steamed rice and yet another dessert and soda. It was one price per person and large signs warned that you would be charged if you wasted food. I felt foolish trying to single handedly manage Victor and COOK DINNER at the table. Wasn’t this what I was trying to avoid? Vida loaded up on soda and distracted Victor while I put marinated beef, thin sliced beef, pork chops and chicken on a plate and brought it back to the table to throw on the grill. Then I went back for some wontons, noodles and nappa cabbage for the hot pot that was starting to bubble away back at the table. I got up again to get some bowls of rice and “house sauce” for myself along with some cilantro and green onions. I was exhausted already and I didn’t even feel well enough to order a beer. Good thing I am pretty good a cooking with lots of distractions around me. I started cooking the meat and quickly pulling it off the barbeque for Vida. The wontons were ready quickly and Vida loved them. Victor was somewhat content with his bowl of rice as long as I kept pouring ridiculous amounts of soy sauce on it. He ate a bit of meat and a wonton too.
The people around me were eating all sorts of challenging things, tiny silver fish, and prawns with the heads still on, beef intestines, liver and tripe. I stuck to the basics and put some noodles in the pot hoping to further distract Victor. When they were done I doused them in some of the “house sauce” which was kind of a tangy soy sauce with sesame oil and cilantro and dug into a very delicious marinated pork chop. Vida thoroughly enjoyed her meat mélange. Despite some noodles ground into the carpet and a quantity of rice in the chair Victor did ok. He understood that the grill and the entire area around it was hot and stayed away. I was completely amazed that I managed to keep him safe and feed us all. I was very envious of the couples luxuriously cooking their food and really getting their money’s worth.
It was a pretty warm night so after dinner we went for a little walk to a very strange gift shop. There were Chinese movies and books, toys, knickknacks and colorful bras for sale as Vida had to point out. Vida picked out some Pokemon cards and Victor was leaning towards some motorcycles that he was happily playing with on the floor until one of the clerks pointed out a toy Smart Car that played a Chinese jingle, moved in a circle an opened its doors. We made our purchases and went back to the car. I was happy about all things except for the fact that this was going to be the highlight of the weekend, as I would be spending the rest of it under the weather.
Restaurant Total: 258
