Nothing says Happy Birthday like meat. Lotsa and lotsa meat.

Growing up, I was raised on meat and rice. Then starting in my early 20s, I decided to go easy on the meat intake and focus more on fish and seafood. I’m 34 now and for more than a decade, I’ve been trying to go vegetarian. Some days I succeed in doing so – eggs and rice for breakfast, spinach salad for lunch, and a variety of veggie side dishes for dinner. I smile and think that yes, yes I can go vegetarian!!!!

Then days like today happen. Two words: Honey Pig.

It was my dad’s birthday last Saturday. My dad, the guy who raised me on meat and rice.

Our family has been to Honey Pig, a Korean BBQ joint, several times and we love it each time.

It’s the kind of place where waitresses cook a variety of meats at your table, and the pop and r&b music blares in the background.

We invited my daughter’s friend and his mom to my dad’s early birthday dinner. She mentioned that it had been 24 years since she had Korean food…way too long to be without if you ask me.

Food unites and brings people together and I couldn’t agree more. She seemed to really enjoy the food and hearing stories of when my husband lived in Korea for one year.

We ordered 2 chicken dishes (regular for the kids and spicy for us grown ups), 1 beef and 1 pork.

Notice there aren’t too many pictures of the cooked meat on our plates. This is probably because I was too busy chowing down, or maybe my arteries had hardened, and I couldn’t take the photo.