Brera

I was recently invited to a dinner at Brera by Mika, who was co-hosting the dinner with Star, whom I had met at Butterfingers for brunch quite awhile ago.

I was running a little late, which for some reason always is my luck when I meet up with Mika. (I’m so sorry, Mika. 人(_ _*)) It was a very busy day, about 1 million people were protesting in Seoul and as a result the trains and stations were insanely busy. Which meant when I arrived at Beotigogae station which was empty, it was a very shocking difference. The restaurant was close to exit 1, just on the other side of the buildings, which was a bit confusing as I left the station into the suddenness of night (since it starts getting dark at almost 4pm now, never thought I’d miss daylight savings time).

When I arrived I was a bit thrown by how big our table was. It wasn’t full as I greeted Mika and waved at Nathalie who I hadn’t realized would also be there. Mika and Star were sweethearts and had ordered appetizers for everyone to share, practically every appetizer on the menu, ahead of time. Tris di bruschette (one tomato bruschette, one mushroom, and one sausage), Melanzane alla Parmigiana (which was a dish with tomatoes and eggplant covered in cheese), Salumi e Formaggi (meat and cheese plate),  and a Margherita Pizza. I loved everything that passed in front of me. (And didn’t get a single photo)

Slowly people filtered in, we sat around and ate our appetizers and got to know one another while perusing the menu to decide on our main course. Lasagna was suggested to me by Daeun, and after verifying it wasn’t spicy like the one I had had at Mix&Malt, I ordered it.

The lasagna was amazing. Not the slightest bit sweet like a lot of the the pasta I eat in Korea, and salty. It tasted like lasagna, which shouldn’t be surprising since Mika told me Brerais owned and operated by Italians. There were some leaves at the bottom of our plate that gave a ton of flavor but weren’t particularly fun to eat, so do keep an eye out for them.

As the ladies around me drank wine and pretty cocktails I flipped through their drink menu before spotting smoothies. Daeun summoned a waitress to our table using the frog pictured above and I asked about the smoothies, ending up ordering an apple one.

The apple smoothie was a bit tart, tasting mostly of yogurt and mildly of apple and full of apple peel chunks like good mashed potatoes. It wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t great either. It was okay.

Eventually as the night grew long it was time to go. Like cinderella watching the spell un-do itself I got Nathalies attention and began our goodbyes. It took a bit longer than expected, exchanging information, taking photos, hugging, paying for our meal. All of which led to Nathalie and I running to catch the last ITX home, making it just in time onto the crowded hot train. It was a lot of fun meeting up with so many wonderful creative women for dinner.