Atlanta, ho!
Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I’ll head down the mountain to pick up my friend Tara and head even further down the mountain to Atlanta. The land of Korean raspberry brandy wine and denjjang chigae. This is the last time either of us will be able to go before I move to the Great White North, and I really need a Korea fix before I go. I’ve checked out a few Boston-area Korean markets and restaurants on yelp.com, so I’m hopeful, but I’m going to stop up on non-perishables while we’re in Atlanta tomorrow just in case. I truly don’t have the money to go, but I will somehow make it stretch.
If Buford Highway is the end all be all of Korean goodness in Atlanta, then the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market is it’s capital. That’s likely where we’ll spend most of our time, in a Sam’s Club sized grocery store stocked to the gills with Asian (and Mexican) peculiarities. There is not enough money nor enough hours in the day to genuinely spend all the cash and time I’d like to in there. Heaven. Pure heaven.
Our schedule is usually the same every time we go. We’ll arrive in Atlanta and immediately stuff ourselves silly on bowl after bowl of panchan. I’ll devour a bowl of denjjang chigae and bowl or two of rice while Tara does the same to kimchee chigae. Blood soup, I call it, as it’s an astonishingly red color. Okay, okay, I know it doesn’t actually look like blood. It’s too orangey for that. I just like to make fun. I’ll smoke half a pack of cigarettes trying to make the massive amount of food I just ate digest, and then we’ll be off to the Farmer’s Market.
After a couple hours we’ll spend there, we’ll head on down the road to Asian Square to peruse a cd store, make fun of the “hot wing” sign, and grab some bubble tea. The saddest thing about this trip is that I have heard our favorite Chinese bun shop has closed. I don’t know of anywhere else in Atlanta to get buns this good, and that is a sad, sad thing, my friend. A trip to ATL won’t feel like a trip to ATL without those buns.
But the good is that we get to do all the other things we normally do, and Cho Sun Ok is the kick-assin-est Korean joint I’ve ever been to. I’ve visited Korean restaurants in Baltimore, New Orleans, Greenville, you name it. Cho Sun Ok in Atlanta is by far the best. ….Of course, I’m white. So… yeah.
I will take plenty of photos, and perhaps I’ll have some to show when I post again. Hurrah!
May 7th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
I was just in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago! I didn’t get to go to the Korean market you’re talking about because I didn’t know about it. Where is it at because I’ll have to make another trip down there and check it out.
I did hit this store called Books Japan that has some amazing drinks and desserts.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
@Tsuzuki: Heehee, Buford Highway Farmer’s Market is like, the single largest building on Buford Highway. It’s right off 285.
Books Japan is an awesome place, but I thought it had been renamed to Iwase Books.
May 8th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Back @ erika: No, it’s still Books Japan. I even took some of their business cards. I say ’some’ because they’re so thin, that when you think you grab one, you actually grab a few.
And yes, it is an awesome place. I would move there just to be near this bookstore even though I can’t read a word of japanese. I would, instead, ogle the hot asian guys working there everyday.
May 9th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Man, that was fun (and I miss it already). I still kind of can’t believe how much we spent at Farmer’s Market, and that’s with us not finding/not being able to get half of the stuff we wanted!
It’s going to be sad, trying to go there with Jonathan instead of you. (Though I shall remember, no going to ATL on Thursdays!)
May 14th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Sucks I missed the trip. I really would have loved to go with you. Though I have to give two cheers for the bun shop closing HIP HIP HORAY! HIP HIP HORAY!!! Sorry I know you loved it…
June 21st, 2008 at 10:58 pm
I stumbled across your page while googling…you haven’t been in true asian “heaven” until you’ve been to H-Mart….about 10 times better than buford hwy farmers market and 100 time cleaner…I could spend days in that place….GA has about 5 of them now…It would have been closer to you too! There’s a couple just north of Atlanta…they’re a chain open all over the country so maybe they’ll be some in your neck of the woods…