Biking to the Ballard Locks, Later Sorabol

Sometimes, I have these weekends where a day will have multiple highlights.
Lately, they seem to be happening more often than not.

Mr. T proposed a bike ride to the Ballard Locks. The plan: we would picnic lunch with sandwiches provided by the Golden Gardens Paseo outpost. We had 2 obstacles on our way — firstly, the nail Mr. T found in his tire as we cruised through the no-man’s-land industrial section of Ballard which prompted a 20 minute tire-fixing session and secondly, the 45-minute wait at Paseo. They mixed up our order, which we didn’t discover until after we ridden on to our next destination. Both prawn sandwiches were still excellent. I’d link to them on urbanspoon, but they need no publicity.

Fidgety Feet Dixie Land Band was playing a fun Summer concert as we arrived at the Locks. It was like some summertime of yore — they were excellent. We ate our lunch under the trees by the waterside and watched batches of boats make their way to and from Shilshole Bay.

Later in the day, we trekked to Lynnwood for an errand. We played that into an opportunity for dinner at Sorabol, a Korean restaurant we’d read about when Jonathan Kauffman wrote for the Seattle Weekly. (Come back, Jonathan, come back!) As soon as the waitress rolled in the Dol-Sot-Bee-Bhim-Bob on her steel cart, I knew we were in for a great one.

Dol-Sot-Bee-Bhim-Bob: a dish of assorted “veggies, cuttlefish, beef, egg & spicy bot sauce over steamed rice, sizzling in a hot pot.” This dish was everything you hope BiBimBap/Bee-Bhim-Bob to be. Spicy & comforting. I love when the rice starts to crisp up into a crust at the bottom of the hot pot. (I’m from Louisiana; rice is my ultimate comfort food.)

Yangnyeom Galbi “premium-cut beef short ribs marinated in house special sauce.” Also like the rice in that it was everything you hope korean short ribs to be. How else can I describe this? Perfectly cooked with dense layers of dynamic flavor.

Hae-Mool-Pah-Juhn: “pan-fried seafood (pancake-sized) with green onions.” We found good octopus within this seafood cake, but the crispy fried parts made it. Mr. T noted we’d never had anything quite like this before. I’d return for just this dish, then again, I’d return for all the dishes we tried.

The best Korean I’ve had, barely surpassing the equally sublime Kaya Asian BBQ in Shoreline. We over-ordered, but now I have at least 3 fab lunches for the week. They needed more patrons on a Saturday night — please visit so I can keep going there!

Our final Saturday highlight: we wrapped our day with a visit with Celine & Ms. N at our neighborhood Pies & Pints.