Cocari

Christmas night 2010, my family and I sit down to what is becoming one of our wintery tradition: Dinner at Cocari, a "Korean BBQ" AND "Hot Pot / Shabu Shabu" dining experience. What makes this place extra cool is the wall of refrigerators that you walk up to and choose what you want to eat. Another plate of marinated beef? Why not?
Anyways, my sister and I get a kick out of this place, and so after properly stuffing ourselves, we start talking about making this our "Xmas place". The conversation then evolves into getting something "Cocari" related tattooed. I'm not sure what Kim had in mind, but I suggested that I would draw out the idea.
The cast iron BBQ / Shabu Shabu grill is actually shaped like a flower. I thought I would start by borrowing from Buddhist ideology, who celebrate the lily as a beautiful flower that grows from the muck. I complimented my cast iron lily with a Chinese women based on a handful of period style watercolors I looked up of empresses and/or goddesses.
The end result so amuses me that I wanted to share.
Enjoy.