Dishes - Korean

Vivian and I were hungry for "real" food, and Vivian suggested a food court that has 5 Korean places in a row. We looked at all of the menus before settling on Dishes. We both ordered the dumpling soup, which came with kimchi, vegetables, and some other things with which I was not familiar. Vivian also ordered a side dish of something... it was like sushi but it was beef inside instead of fish. I didn't try it. While I thought the prices were a little high when we ordered, it turned out that they gave us TONS of food, so I guess it was probably worth it. That is, if you liked it. I found the broth to be REALLY starchy, and the dumplings kept falling apart. It was still okay, but I wouldn't get it again. However, I had never had this Korean dish before, so it's possible that it was just as good as any other dumpling soup.

Epcot Food & Wine Festival

Jonathan and I had free Disney passes for volunteering, so we utilized them during Epcot's Food & Wine Festival. I had never been before, but Jonathan went a few years ago. As you may already know, about half of the park is a "Word Showcase," featuring rides, pavilions, foods, films, and other things from various countries. During the Food & Wine Festival, additional countries are on display, and each has a kiosk where they sell small portions of authentic cuisine and drinks. This is where the fact that our tickets and parking was free comes into play... we spent about $50 on food and drink. But it was delicious! Everything was wonderful, so we have no regrets. And besides, places like South Korea and Ireland are not at the top of our international travel list, anyway.

We spent several hours doing the attractions throughout the park, but at 6pm we began our little tour of world cuisine. We technically walked the Festival backwards, but we'd actually recommend doing it that way.

Our first stop was Charcuterie & Cheese, which isn't specific to any one country, but specializes in wines & cheeses. We had the Nueske's Charcuterie Plate, which had smoked beef, duck, and ham with bread. It was all good, but the beef in particular had a nice flavor. I also had the sample of Prosecco, a peach sparking wine by Martini & Rossi. It was nothing special. Canada was next, where we shared the Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup (one of our favorites of the night) and tried the Inniskillin Pearl Vidal Icewine. Now, we adore icewine but rarely have it because it's expensive. It was wonderful here, tho a little thick (also not uncommon with icewine). I wanted to stop at Ireland for the Lobster and Scallop Fisherman's Pie, which was absolutely scrumptious. It had carrots and onions in it, and the scallops were plentiful. It was topped with a baked mashed potato, and I'd probably call it my favorite item, tied with the cheese soup. Jonathan liked it, especially because he had a big lump of lobster in his bite!

Morocco was a bit of a let-down, as we went with the Tangerine Mimosa Royale, which wasn't anything special. Tasted like you'd expect, and was a bit pricey for the serving size.

I think Jonathan's favorite was probably Australia. He had a grilled lamb chop with roasted potato salad and red wine reduction. I tried it, but of course I don't really like lamb. I thought the potatoes had a nice flavor, despite the red wine drizzle. I had considered getting the Lamington from that station as well, but it turned out that the chocolate-covered butter cake was also covered in coconut, so I skipped it.

Then it was on to Germany! We were really looking forward to that one, and honestly would've ordered everything on the menu (except the two beers) if we weren't pacing ourselves! They had 4 Rieslings to try, and since Jonathan enjoys Riesling, he was hard-pressed to choose one. He went with the Gunderloch Diva Spätlese, which ended up being rather sweet, and even I enjoyed it. We also had a Nürnberger Sausage in a pretzel roll, which came with a wonderful mustard and was delicious (and probably the largest portion for the price that we had anywhere). Again, I had planned on trying the Apfel Strudel with Werther's Oiriginal Karamell Sauce, but was told it was covered in nuts, so I refrained. Our next stop was South Korea, where we couldn't resist the Barbecue Short Ribs with steamed rice and cucumber kimchi. The ribs had an excellent flavor, and I thoroughly missed the Korean sauces, since it's been so long since I've had that. I was getting pretty full, otherwise I would've dived right into finishing off the rice (which was sticky like sushi rice) and the cucumber (which was plentiful). After some deliberation, Jonathan tried the Grilled Pork Skewer with Farofa at the Brazil kiosk, which he enjoyed. Farofa is really ground up spices covering the pork, making it incredibly dry in your mouth, LoL. I thought it was kinda bland, especially since it was supposed to be a "rooty" flavor.

I was really excited about the Desserts & Champagne booth, and had planned to order two out of the three items. At this point, Jonathan was feeling like something chocolate, so he was probably going to order the third item. I was getting concerned about running out of money (we had picked up a Disney gift card earlier to make transactions faster), but it turned out that at that station only you could get all 3 items for just $3.50! That settled that! I dove into the Strawberry Angel Verrine, although Jonathan did try the middle part of that layered dessert, and found it to be very good. I enjoyed the Pear Streusel Pudding cake much more than he did, too. He did eat the bulk of the Dark Chocolate Sensation (kinda like a brownie bite with chocolate mousse on top) tho, which was fine with me. On our way to find a nice place to watch the fireworks, we stopped at the Puerto Rico location and got a Bacardi Frozen Torched Cherry Colada. It was very creamy, and probably the least coconut-ty colada I've ever had. It was a nice way to finish.

Oishi Restaurant

Yes, we've been dining out a lot lately. It seems that since the snow has stopped, everyone has come back to life and our social calendar is filling up again. But, when we're introduced to fantastic little places like Oishi, it becomes apparent how wonderful evenings dining out with friends are.

Bryan & Emily suggested we all go for sushi, and Oishi is a place that they've discovered in Newtown. It's incredibly popular with the locals, and even with a reservation we had to wait twenty minutes or so for a table. Service is prompt and friendly, and there's no sense of urgency once you're seated, which is good.

It's a BYOB place (many restaurants in PA are, because of the strict liquor laws), and it's the first time that Jonathan and I actually did bring in our own wine. We had picked up some Fu-Ki Plum Wine at one of our local liquor stores, and it was delicious. We also have tried the cherry flavor... I don't care for it but Jonathan does.

We started off with the Tartar Tuna, since that's a dish we liked a lot in Cali. But, it was very different here, and I'm not at all convinced it was worth $10 (aside from the very generous serving of caviar on top). It wasn't blended like tartars in Cali were... instead it was arranged in a little cylindrical tower with mango. It was okay, I wouldn't get it again. The photo is impressive. Bryan and Emily had some edamame, which was served warm and salted here, unlike at Mirim. Jonathan liked it, too.
The entrees came with soup or salad, and I was the only one who went with the salad. And that was the wrong choice, LoL. The dressing was heavy and hard to define. I'm still not quite sure what it was, but I know I'd never get it again (which is odd for me to say... rarely do I meet a dressing that peculiar). Everyone else thought the soup was very good, a miso-mushroom mix.

They went for the sweet potato roll, Jonathan and I had a salmon roll. The sweet potato roll has tempura inside, which was new. Jonathan tried it, I passed. Rave reviews. The salmon roll was very fresh and quite delicious.

Jonathan had Thai Green Curry, which was a variety that I had never seen before. They use different peppers to make it green, apparently. He thought it was bland, and didn't seem to enjoy it as much as he might if it was red curry. Bryan went with a bento box-type meal, and seemed to enjoy it all very much. I really liked the shape of the dish, it was large with three domes dug out for the items, neat!

Emily had a sushi platter, and I went with Chirashi (fish on top of a pile of rice, as opposed to each piece of fish on a little pad of rice). It was my first time having octopus, but the rest were all fish I knew. Octopus tastes exactly like you might expect... chewy like calamari, and there are some sucker-like pieces on it. The white tuna was divine. I'm talking like top 3 white tunas I've ever had. The whitefish was also delectable, and that's coming from a person who generally giver her whitefish to her husband, LoL. I thought that the salmon was average (three pieces of regular and three pieces with WAY too much roe), and so was the tuna. Emily had many of the same fish (no octopus tho, she had clam instead, which she was was very chewy), and also a California roll (with crab, FL folks).

If/when we go back, I'd probably get a more specialized dish (chirashi is very generic, in my opinion), and certainly the soup instead of the salad. Actually, they have a lot of noodle dishes, so I kinda wanna go back to get a feel for their non-raw stuff, LoL.

Mirim Japanese & Korean Restaurant

We actually left the house with the intention to get pho at Savor Saigon. But, we forgot that they are closed on Mondays, so we searched Yelp and found a good sushi place a mile away.

Mirim Japanese & Korean Restaurant looks kinda seedy on the outside, and it at the end of a small strip mall in Langhorne. But, the inside is really very nice. We had excellent service and excellent sushi.

The menu is about half sushi and half entrees - some Udon noodle dishes and a bunch of Korean dishes. We chose four rolls and split them, and Jonathan also had a piping hot miso soup. He said it was pretty good. We were first served edamame, which I don't care for, but Jonathan thought it was okay. The sushi came out pretty fast, from the sushi bar that nobody was sitting at. We had a plain tuna roll, an Alaskan roll, an eel with cucumber roll, and a salmon-tuna with green onion strange-looking but FABULOUS roll (I also forgot the name, LoL). They were all pretty good, and aside from some of the tuna being a tad past ultimate freshness, it was all very good.

Pricing was a smidgen high, considering rolls are 6 pieces instead of 8, and they were average in diameter. BUT, finding fresh sushi close to home is difficult, and this is certainly a contender in that department.