Josh and I celebrated my 30th birthday with a dinner out last night - 2 weeks later (October was a slim month money-wise because the end of my maternity leave was unpaid; and November is shaping up to be as well - what with holiday plane tickets and the end of my maternity leave being unpaid (I get paid on the last day of the month, so at the end of September, my pay was a little less because of the few days in September that were unpaid, and the same in October) ).

Anyway, fourteen thousand parentheticals later, we ended up going out west to Albany Park, to Chicago Kalbi, a highly recommended Korean restaurant. We haven’t had Korean food in forever, not since our first few weeks in Chicago, and the last place we went didn’t compare nearly as well to our favorite Korean restaurant in Hadley, Gohyang. The parking outside Chicago Kalbi was horrendous - I have a rental this weekend via work, so we took advantage of having a car and did a bunch of errands. But I wish we’d left the car at home; driving and trying to find a place to park in Albany Park was the pits!

The food was excellent - there was tons of it, including the customary condiments on the side - kim chi, potatoes, seaweed, and a spicy soy bean/tofu paste thing. We had bulgogi, chicken and squid - so good.

I wish we had a Korean place closer to us. Alas.