a good weekend. a very good weekend. friday was jin ju with my family who arrived 35 minutes late (!!). its a new fancy-ish korean restaurant on clark in andersonville staffed almost entirely by hot, buff gay men. this is, of course, absolutely my thing. granted it doesn't have the romantic grittiness (or inexpensive entrees) of san soo gab san, but dinner was fantastic. the two hot, buff gay men sitting at the table next to me asked the server to pick for them and we ended up pretty much ordering what they received: dol sut bi bim bap, and, um, chicken stuff and scallion pancakes and loads of other fantastic stuff, spicy and full of goodness. and tea. saturday during the rockin' scavenger hunt my friend organized, Team Giles stopped at a pub downtown for a platter of deepfried food. it would have been just as effective, i think, to actually crack myself open and clothespin my arteries, but who has time for that? sunday on the way home from the hardware store, don and i stopped at La Unica's cuban cafe. the menu was in spanish so we didn't stay. i went home, got on the phone and convinced my friend jason to bike up to La Unica and help me get lunch. i ended up with rice, beans, fried plantains and a frisbee-sized piece of fried chicken. i successfully ate every bit of food on my plate and dragged myself home to prepare for the dinner party that was but a few short hours away.

shortly after coming home, i received a call from a dinner invitee requesting space for two more folks, upping the attendees from a paltry five folks to a whopping eleven. in my slight panic i made said invitee promise to bring food with her. got off the phone and went to work, with don, on veggie tagine, salsa, this tasty spinach corn side, and a salad. attendees 1 and 2 arrived with two strawberry rhubarb pies, two loaves of homemade bread, salad stuff and beer. attendies 3-9 showed up with more beer, more bread, salsa, hummos, cheese, olives, pita chips and more that i'm forgetting. needless to say, we have enough leftovers in our fridge to last us for a few months. of course, i wasn't particularly hungry but i gave it the ol' college try. after eating about 5% of available food, we packed up and shipped out to Rainbo, the "dive" bar in wicker park where i ran into obies and trevians all over the place. we stayed there 'til the lights came on.

monday morning, hung over, vaguely nauseous and completely exhausted, i headed down to chinatown for dim sum at happy chef. despite the nausea, i did a good job, stuffing in various forms of meat stuffed in various breaded products, steamed, fried, sauteed and boiled. sue naturally ordered about five times more than we could have ever possibly eaten. my favorite: fried dough wrapped in pancakes, covered in sauce and scallions. hello, its a dough sandwich! post-dim sum i napped. i swung by a 4808 barbecue for shrimp kebobs and raw radishes and then drove up to the 'burbs for a family barbecue with parents who very generously accomodated the vegan i brought with me.

and now, i rest. well, except for the leftover tagine i have for lunch.