Buga & Heaven Sent Desserts

My birthday fell on a lucky day, Friday the 13th!

Bert, TC and I went to Buga for dinner with Lotus and Thor. Here are the guys' Korean beers:

Our panchan below (broccoli, I think, with mushroom? the other one is spinach):

The salad that you can eat with your grilled meat plus more panchan. Pictured are the kimchi and fish cake. That last dish contains chili dipping sauce for the meat.

Radish with chili sauce:

Cuttlefish. This was too chewy for me. Lotus ended up having most of it.

The pickled, green wasabi flavored radish, rice wraps, and Korean potato salad (it had big chunks of Asian pear in it --- hmmm)

We ordered the Bulgogi (thinly sliced beef, #5 on the BBQ menu):
The Joomulruk (seasoned beef rib eye, # 3 )

and the Daeji Samgyubsal (pork belly, #11):

The waiter fired up the pork belly first, four big thick strips of it:

Later on, a waitress in a hanbok came over and sliced the pork belly into smaller strips:

We also ordered Chapchae:

It was so much food, but we managed to eat it all!

Just look at that bulgogi sizzling on the grill, curling up just so...

After this veritable mega-meat feast, we went for dessert at Heaven Sent Desserts in North Park. We had been here a couple of times before and I was really hoping they would have their macarons (they didn't):

Cute design on the pistachio cake:

*Note: The descriptions in quotes were taken straight from their online menu

My dessert was the Champagne Pear Tart, which are "ripe pears poached in champagne and vanilla accent, baked in a frangipane filling, all in a delicious shortbread crust ($5.75). Although this was quite good, I only had a few bites because I also had a cookie, plus a few stolen bites of Bert's dessert. I took the rest of the tart home.

Bert's choice was the Marbled Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake ($6.25), which was a "smooth, silky chocolate cheesecake swirled with bursts of refreshing raspberries. It was pretty rich and dense.

I also had the Chocolate Orange Sarah Bernhard cookie ($1.75 each). This was so good that I bought three more to go (one for each of us the next day).

TC had the Alice's Tea Party Cup Cakes, a "wonderland of nine miniature assorted vanilla chiffon and chocolate fudge cupcakes. Iced with fanciful colors of sweet buttercream and topped with whimsical chocolate edible butterflies" ($6.50):

TC ate the decorative butterflies first, then picked off the real flowers. A few cupcakes were eaten so we took the rest home along with Bert's cheesecake and my pear tart.

Lotus & Thor shared their Golden Sunset Butter Cake, "a golden yellow butter cake layered with a colorful apricot French buttercream and raspberry marmalade. Edged with toasted chiffon cake crumb and fresh raspberry decor" ($7.00):

The dessert place wasn't too crowded when we arrived but it picked up by the time we left. On an adjacent wall was a projection of a Charlie Chaplin silent film, forming an amusing backdrop as everyone enjoyed their desserts and coffee: