Review: Bap House Korean Kitchen

I snuck away from my kitchen over the weekend to check out one of Halifax's new restaurants with some good friends. We tried out Bap House on Quinpool Rd. 

It was a little tricky to see at first, Quinpool can be a little congested but once you know what you're looking for you can distinguish it from the busy street.

Immediately when we walked in we were greeted by a very enthusiastic woman, I'm assuming she was the owner. She took the time to tell us about the menu, how the food is prepared and even how to eat it in an authentic Korean manner.

The menu is short and sweet. They serve Bibimbap as the main course, however due to the nature of the bibimbap you could easily have a different dish every time you visit. The dish is completely customized to your pallet. 

This restaurant takes a lot of pride in their food, they don't use any MSG, the veggies used are the ones locally in stock for the season and it's all made fresh.

The presentation of the meal was right out of a magazine, all 4 of the dishes we ordered were arranged just like this.

I ordered the noodle Bibimbap combo which came with Miso soup and I got the dish with beef, egg and spicy sauce- we were instructed to mix it up with the chop sticks and consume it with the spoon (thank goodness I am terrible with chop sticks)

Everything about this meal was delicious, the spice wasn't overpowering so you could genuinely enjoy the taste of every ingredient and the woman came back to check on us a number of times.

She was even generous enough to make us a set of dumplings for free to sample. Let me tell you I could easily eat 20 of those things- Delicious.

My sole critique was that my ahem... hearty North American tummy was not filled by this delicious dish, I could have easily eaten 3 more bowls however for the $14 before tax and tip price tag that really wasn't a good idea. I would recommend coming to this restaurant if you need something to get you between lunch and dinner, around 2PM when you need a snack. Since the food is preservative free and fresh there's no guilt for having a mid afternoon snack here.

Review: American War By Omar El Akkad

Finally got some time to enjoy a new book on the porch. My hectic life doesn't always leave time for these sorts of things so when I do find the time it's a really good feeling.

I picked up American War by Omar El Akkad.

You can find it on Amazon below! (I may get a small commission if you purchase the book through my link) 

The story starts in the 2070's after the second American Civil War, the North and South are once again divided by their beliefs. The story focused on a southern family and their mission to make a life for themselves midst the chaos.

I loved the base of this story because it's a realistic vision of what our world could look like in 50-60 years. Waters have risen, coasts have disappeared... The US map in this book looks quite different than the one we know today and the country is divided over fuel. The North is embracing solar power and the South is gripping to fossil fuels. With all the issues that plague the United States in our modern era I appreciated the realistic choice for the conflict.

I will warn you: this story isn't for the faint of heart. Throughout the whole book although you are focused on the southern protagonist Sarat and her ventures I found myself questioning choices since I am a fan of renewable energy and preventing the global warming that plagued the US coastlines in this book. 

However, it is evident that the southern characters are being .. "bullied" so as a Canadian reader at least; I flip flopped with my feelings of what's right.

The author of this book is a former journalist who has seen the real effects of war, which I credit the realistic story line to. This story is real, don't read it before bed because it's very real. You learn to love each character even if you don't love their desperate choices during a long dawn out war.

I highly recommend this book. Its a real (although fictional) story of the depressing human nature that neglects putting differences aside and being human first. I hope with more stories like this we will be less inclined to make the same mistakes.