Review : Buffet restaurant

Ashley Premium

 

      I went to the buffet restaurant named ‘Ashley’ which is located in Non-hyun dong, Incheon to celebrate my parents’ wedding anniversary. Right after entering the restaurant, delicious smell stimulated my appetite. This buffet restaurant has become issue among young people with delicious salad bar. Let’s observe about this restaurant deeply to check on whether it is good like the reputation.   

 

Taste : Generally, the taste of foods were great. Especially, I was satisfied with pizza and spaghetti. Whenever I go to buffet restaurant and eat pizza and spaghetti, I felt like “Oh, it is just pizza and spaghetti, no more, no less.”, but for this restaurant, I thought its taste got abreast of high-class Italian restaurant. For dessert, I was fascinated by its deep, savory taste. This restaurant’s cheese cake and brownie cake were the best I’ve ever had. But I am very sorry about one thing. Some foods were too spicy, so it was hard to eat easily for babies or old people. (Actually, it was too spicy for me even though I can eat spicy food well.)   

 

 

Interior Design : The restaurant’s design was like other family restaurant such as Outback. I liked that some small pictures were hanging on the wall because it looked like mini gallery. Interior design was different for each hall. One hall was decorated in western style, and the other hall was designed in antique style. Both design created cozy atmosphere, and it increased pleasure to eat. I was satisfied with the designs.      

Service : Service was so-so. Although employees were kind, and they cleaned the finished plates quickly, I had to wait for a long while after calling them, and they didn’t fill the lacking food immediately. For example, there was no cup to drink, and people were waiting for the cups. But employees didn’t care about that, finally my father asked them to bring the cups. Service is one of the important points when we evaluate the restaurant. They need to care about service more than before.

Variety of food : Menu is divided into two ; main dish and salad bar (buffet). I will evaluate only buffet food because my family paid for only salad bar not ordering main dish. There were various kinds of buffet food for basics. For example, there were a lot of kinds in Pizza, spaghetti, soup, and salad comparing to other normal buffet restaurants which provide only one type of Pizza, Spaghetti and salad. And for salad, not only special- menu salad such as apple-salmon salad, but also various toppings and salad dressing were prepared so that people could make their own salads palatably. However, there were not much Korean food (there was only Bibimbab), so it seems like old people who don’t like western food couldn’t enjoy eating. Kinds of beverage and dessert were also various.  

Price : Price is different depends on when we eat. Only weekday lunch is 12,900 won, and weekday dinner or weekend lunch/dinner is 18,900 won. Comparing to other restaurants’ salad bar, the price is more expensive than Bennigans and cheaper than V.I.P.S. When I consider the variety of buffet food and the taste, it is well worth its price. Also, I thought it is reasonable that dinner’s price is more expensive than weekday lunch, because they provide more kinds of food such as steaks, hot wings, and pork ribs for dinner.   

Cleanliness : This restaurant was clean because this restaurant is in department store, and the department store have to manage restaurants’ cleanliness. As I watched cooking process, cooks dressed in an outfit appropriate to cook, and it seemed they keep cookers clean. When people dropped food putting food on a plate, employees cleaned them quickly.Therefore, I gave them full score for cleanliness. 



Rough map to get to the 'Ashley Premium' in Non-hyun, Incheon



The game

The game

Lee Se-hee               

           Since I decided what I want to do in the future, my own game started. Watching African children are smiling brightly, but suffering starvation from TV, I desired to help them. I started to study to realize my dream that I will work at international organization and help work for African children. Like the lyric of the song, it is hard to win and easy to lose, however I made a bet on my winning in this game.

           Drawing a fine picture of my future in which I’m hugging delighted children at school, I have made steady efforts. I started from tiny things such as studying and not losing interest in the African education problem, and later, I could get great opportunity to enter the KMLA which meant shortcuts to reach my ultimate goal. However, after being a freshman of KMLA, things were not going as well as I thought and I was always behind other students. I studied and studied much more than others did to keep up with them thinking that the ending of this game would change gradually if I didn’t give up. Surprisingly, what I had studied steadily accumulated and it comes out as a remarkable result that even I could be satisfied. At that moment, I noticed that unpredictable result of winning is the charm of any game and steady effort is the key.   
During this game, the difficulty and fear that I faced so many times remained in my heart as a bruise giving lasting pain. I have felt anxious about the future that I can’t predict, got pressure mentally, and my body became exhausted. Because my dream is the most valuable thing in life, my own game becomes an ‘subtle as a bruise’. This bruise and what I felt from hard time are the avoidable things which can’t be helped if I keep going for my goal. However, I believe all the pains experienced will fade as the bruise goes away someday and I also believe all those difficulties are just a device to make my game more interesting.  
         In conclusion, my game will be continued for few years from now, and nobody knows the result of my game. What I can do now is just to be steady and enjoy my game which is set in front of me. And if I overcome and enjoy the obstacles which make my game more interesting, the day when I can win the bet on my game will come to me someday. That would be a wonderful day, that I can be happy with African children.

Milky way

When I saw this picture at the first, my heart beat so fast.

This photo is by one German photographer, and he took this picture on sylt island in Germany.

Metafiction

           In cozy sofa, one little boy awaked from his sleep. As Tommy-the boy- went out on the balcony, he had screwed up his eyes as if he found the sunshine too bright. His cut kitten came in the warm sunshine purring and stood by him. Then, the cat licked his leg.

             “It tickles! Aha, you want to play with me. Ok, I’m going to catch you from now on then you have to run away from me. Three, two, one. Start!”

The cat ran away quickly and hid somewhere surprising with his shout. After he saw the cat disappeared, he started to look for the cat.

             “Where are you my little kitty? Are you behind the sofa?”

He searched behind the sofa which he had been sleeping in, but there was nothing.

             “Are you under the bed? Come out quickly!”

He looked under the bed, but there was something blue instead of his kitty. He stooped down and put his arm under the bed more deeply. As he pulled out and took a close look at the blue thing with bright light, it was a blue book. The name, In-chan was written on the back of the book.        

“Wow, it’s my father’s diary.”

The blue diary was covered with dust. It seemed like nobody had read the diary for a long time. He opened the front hard cover of the diary and started to read the first page.

It was a gloomy day, and I was watching the cars passing by. The sun was shining brightly on the grass. Birds on the tree were twittering, and lovers on the street were flirting. It was quite beautiful day. Everything was beautiful, and ironically, it made me sad. Everything was perfectly beautiful except for me.

 If it was yesterday, I would feel perfect. But it isn’t today. Bright sun seems too bright, twittering birds seem noisy, and I don’t want to see the lovers. What makes me like this? I can’t really say about that. My thoughts come from me. But sometimes I don’t know where it came from. That moment is now. Let’s just think about what happened yesterday, the day I was happy.

“Hmm…… My father was so sentimental when he wrote this diary.”

Tommy kept reading the rest part. And when he started the beginning of the rest part, he could felt the sudden change of the tone.

           I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT! What’s wrong with me!? Why did I have to ruin the concert? I should’ve stopped at the moment. I FARTED while I was doing my solo part! Oh god. What a nice motorcycle I was at that moment!! I wanted to cry out loud, but I couldn’t. Only I could do is just blushing my face with shamefulness and frustrations: of course, there were several reasons which felt me shame, but the very first thing was that I was right in front of my lovely girl friend, Lou! I thought that it would be impossible to forget today’s happening, the way she saw me with surprise and frustration.

           When I faced her eyes which were full of surprise, I noticed that she disappointed at me. She ran away from me, and I follow her and tried to grasp her by the wrist. And then cruel words came out from her lovely lips.

 “ Let’s break up. I don’t want to go out with the boy who farted during solo part.”

 I dropped my hand which had tried to grasp her with, and tears flew down my face.

          

           “Wow, it’s about my father and my mother. But it is different a little bit from what I had heard from my father. He told me that my mother chased after my father to marry him.”

             Tommy ran to his father and asked what the real is. His father, Inchan took a look around quietly feeling abashed about son’s unpredictable question. Then he put a finger to his lips and said,

             “From now on, this diary is secret only between you and me. You don’t have to talk about the content of this diary to anyone, no, especially to your mother. Do you get it?”

             Tommy suddenly became quiet and nodded his head. Maybe he thinks that he and his father are playing kind of ‘game’ like he had played spy game in kindergarten.

         “Ok, papa. I am not going to tell about the diary to anyone. I promise.”

             “Thank you my lovely son. Do you want to play with me? What kind of game do you want to play?”

             Tommy and his father start to play and to run around the living room. The sun streams into the living room again. Their happy laughter is spreading out far away.

Reading journal on 30 pages of 'The body'

                  When I finished reading 30 pages of ‘The body’, I was surprised to see Stephen King’s different side. Because I’ve heard that Stephen King is a writer who enjoyed writing eerie and horrible story, but this story, ‘The body’ is about four boys’ childhood and their friendship. While I read the story, I could find Stephen King’s unexpected sensibility which is kind of different from shawshank’s.

                  This story starts with interesting setting. A narrator is a writer whose name is Gordie, and he write about his friends looking back on his childhood. There were three friends to Gordie : Chris, Vern, Teddy, and they all burdened their own problems such as brother’s death or assault from father. Under those unfavorable conditions, they relieve stress and find pleasure getting along with their friends.

 As I watch them depending on each other, laughing and crying together, I felt ‘something’ bursting into huge emotions. I guess I could sympathize with their story because I am a same teenager and I have those similar memories like the characters. In the middle of the story, main incident happened that the four boys decided to find the dead body of missing child. I thought this material, finding the dead body, is unusual to convey friendship and memory of childhood. At the same time, I thought this material could come out since the writer is Stephen King. This odd incident was kind of good material because it kept me guessing the next and being nervous.

In addition, Stephen King’s suitable expression was one of enjoyments to read the story. For example, in the sentence ‘When it rained, being in the club was like being inside a Jamaican steel drum… but that summer there had been no rain.’, King’s comparison gave me impression that just like I am in the club and listening the sound of raindrop now. In another sentence, ‘And when he died, I was mildly shocked and mildly sad, the way I imagine those same so-so Christians must have felt when Time magazine said God was dead’. I could feel how Gordie’s love and respect toward his brother was big from the expression.

In conclusion, although I don’t know the whole story yet, the first impression about ‘The body’ was good, and I want to keep reading the story. As I read this novella, I liked the way Stephen King led the story and I came to wonder how he will deal with this material which is different from his usual subject. Therefore, for the next reading, I’m going to focus on how the story develops and how Stephen King conveyed themes through the story. Maybe the next reading will be a good opportunity to remind my memory of childhood and my best friends.  

Mirror

   It is hard to admit my shortage. I already knew what my problem is, but I have denied that. From now on, I’m going to face the problem and the reality bravely. Sehee, get a hold of yourself. Your English needs to improve. You haven’t studied abroad, and even you are not gifted in language. Read a lot, write a lot, and don’t give up. That’s the only way to survive.

In-class writing

I’ve heard so many times about the movie, ‘spring, summer, fall, and winter’, but it was the first time to see it. This movie started with the temple’s door opening, and I felt that it is about Buddhism. Because I believe in Buddhism, I could sympathize with this movie in many points, and understand the lesson which the movie conveys.

When the Buddhist monk punished young monk in the same way which the young monk tortured animals such as a fish, frog, and snake, I thought the old monk is so wise. Because if he scolds the young boy just by words, the boy wouldn’t know how the fault is serious. However, the young boy notices what his fault is and takes the lesson that all organisms’ lives are precious and killing those organisms can’t be accepted. As watched it, I admired the old monk’s method to teach the lesson.

When the young boy buried died fish, I was ready to cry. I could felt that how it pains to him to bury died fish and to recognize fish’s dead is his fault. Also I could predict that he is going to bear the burden in his mind forever. It was so sad because I know how regretting is torturing, and even this regretting will last forever.

    In general, this movie touched me. I want to get an opportunity to see the whole movie someday.