January 22, 2003

EVERY NOW AND then again I am called upon to put in an honest day's work with my brother the general contractor. Phenomenon assures me that if he were to spend eight hours sitting down writing, he'd be as sore and sorry and all-around beat up as I am after helping him build a deck or, in this day's case, put in a floor.

Eight hours? When I say "an honest day's work" I'm not even talking about eight hours. This day, for example, I'd arrived to work at 11 a.m. At 12:30 we broke for lunch, which was a large sausage-and-artichoke-heart pizza from Zachary's – which was why I'd agreed to work with him in the first place. I knew the job site was a hop, skip, and a very short drive from the Solano Avenue. Zachary's. I'd helped Phenomenon hammer a deck onto this house last summer, and now we were sitting on that deck, rubbing our hands together and warming our spirits over an open box of deep-dish Chicago-style pie, as if it were a campfire. Steam rising off the tomatoes ...

Folks, for my money, an honest day's work is only as honest as what's in your lunch box, and Zachary's pizza does not lie. It's the best Chicago pizza in all of creation, Chicago included, and it's the best pizza, period, if you ask Phenomenon – but he's just a common contractor, so take it from me, the Cheap Eats Guy.

Uuuurrrrp. Excuse me.

One-thirty we went back to work and at about 3:30 I woke up. By 4:30 I was spent. My drill hand was shredded cheese, my right shoulder was sausage. I couldn't quite stand straight, and I couldn't kneel straight either. My knees were crusty and creaky. I was entirely baked, but we went on working until 5:30, so ... do the math.

I'll help: 6 1/2 - 1 = 5 1/2 hours, two of which were worked in a post-pizza stupor, and for one of them I actually was pizza. So that's 2 good hours, 5 total. An honest day's work, as I was saying.

I wasn't exactly hungry afterward, but I wasn't about to hit the freeway during rush hour, either, so we cruised back down Solano and then back up Solano, or else vice versa, looking for a good place to sit.

Found it: Shik Do Rock, a nice little Korean joint with a shower in the men's room, so if you've been crawling around on floorlessness all day, drilling underlayment, you can clean up before dinner. BYO towel. BYO change of underlayment.

The eating area is split-level with an indoor faux roof overhang, ceiling fans, fluorescent lights upstairs, real ones down, and – because I notice these things now, being in the business – blue carpeting.

We ordered kal gook soo, a seafood soup with homemade noodles in it ($7.95) and bul go ki, marinated beef and onions on a sizzling hot plate ($9.95). Plus the table was cluttered with most if not all of the usual little side dishes: kimchee, sprouts, more sprouts, some kind of greens, some kind of tofu, and I forget what all else.

The soup was great, especially on account of the homemade noodles. Homemade noodles always make my day. When there're all kinds of little fishies swimming around them in a bowl of soup, that makes my day and gives me something to dream about at night. This soup advertised squid and shrimp. There was plenty of squid, but only one shrimp. But I can't complain because there was also one mussel, uninvited but certainly not unwelcome, and imitation crab stuff.

The beef dish, for all its initial sizzle, was pretty good, but not the sort of stuff that dreams are made of. I'd have cooked the meat a little less, if it was up to me (which it is, in a lot of Korean restaurants). The onions were just right.

But, before I bottom out here, let me mention one or two or three or four other good-looking dishes we might try next time: they have man du gook, the meat dumpling soup, which is always good. They have a whole broiled yellow corvina. I have no idea what a corvina is, but if it's whole and broiled, it's got to be good. Right?

Sheesh, I can't believe I didn't see these things before we ordered. You know how it is, though; under pressure it's all rice and noodles and meat and potatoes. Nothing jumps out at you until after your order's already in. Sweet potato noodles with beef and vegetables, for example. Fried meat dumplings. Oh, and they have lunch specials until 2:30 p.m. Fifteen mostly meaty and seafoody dishes with rice, soup, and vegetables for $5.50 to $6.95.
Shik Do Rock. 1137 Solano (at Kains), Albany. (510) 526-6003. Mon., Wed.-Sat., 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun., 4-10 p.m. Takeout available. Beer, wine, sake. MasterCard, Visa. Wheelchair accessible.