The Foodtographer

2010-06-10T00:52:00.001-07:00

2010-06-10T00:51:00.001-07:00

Shao bin

2010-06-10T00:43:00.001-07:00

Sugar free aloe

2010-03-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

The face says it all: Ew.

Eldo cake

2010-01-29T17:41:00.000-08:00

Birthday cake for Jane and Gary

Breakfast for dinner

2010-01-21T16:40:00.000-08:00

Maple syrup flavored bacon + cinnamon french toast = awesome breakfast for dinner!

Warning: Don't eat at Hokkaido

2010-01-17T18:19:00.000-08:00

Understandable: Being temporarily out of tea.

Not understandable: When a customer informs you that you are out of tea, snarking at the customer and then saying "If you don't like my attitude, you can leave". Well, I guess if the waiter's goal was to have less customers, then this behavior is understandable. He'll get his wish. I, for one, won't be coming back, and if you value, oh, I don't know, your waiters being generally pleasant people, then this is not the restaurant for you either.

Again, if you want to be yelled at by your waiter, Hokkaido in Diho Square in Houston is the place to go. =(

Lunch at Garfinkel's

2010-01-05T13:40:00.000-08:00

Located in the Lionshead area of Vail. I got a cup of chili and a buffalo burger, both of which were pretty standard for a ski resort. My sister ordered the kids' chicken fingers (despite being too old for that) and got a Fruit Roll Up! Back to the slopes. Hopefully my feet have recovered.

Belated picture

2010-01-05T09:59:00.000-08:00

We went to Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian meat buffet. They had a salad bar to try to fill us up before we could get to the meat, but we didn't fall for it. The waiters (better than that, meat servers!) walk around with different cuts of meat and offer you pieces. We saw... Sausage, multiple cuts of beef and lamb, ribs, chicken, and my personal favorite, bacon wrapped filet mignon. I was so busy eating that I forgot to take pictures until dessert. This is the tres leches cake, which was pretty good (when is tres leches ever bad?) but could have used a bit more condensed milk, especially around the edges. The papaya cream was basically a smoothie. Confession: when I was young, I used to think papaya tasted like puke. >.< This was delicious and not pukey in the slightest. I would definitely recommend Fogo de Chao... If you have money to spare. For 5 people, our total was close to $250. Good thing we had a gift card!

Ticino in Avon

2010-01-05T09:41:00.000-08:00

On our first night in Vail, we drove over to Ticino, which is a small pizza/pasta place in Avon. We picked it primarily because its prices were cheaper than other Italian places. Pictured are the smoked salmon appetizer, the pork sausage dinner (with penne pasta and green beans) and the gnocchi with marinara sauce. I was a little disappointed by the salmon because it was just a few pieces of fish on top of a huge mound of vegetables, but the gnocchi and the sausage were delicious. My sister was a little disappointed because they ran out of white wine sauce for the gnocchi, but I thought it tasted just fine with the marinara. The sausage was strangely sweet, but in a tasty way. The green beans may have been the best part of dinner - not that the other stuff was bad, just that they were really good! I highly recommend this place if you're over in Vail and want a good, cheap (comparatively, because it is Vail after all) dinner. Just get there early (we got there around 8:15, and they close at 9) so they don't run out of white wine sauce!

Christmas birthday cake

2009-12-25T23:11:00.000-08:00

I'm just as confused as you. But it was delicious, if that matters. (Vanilla ice cream and chocolate cake, Baskin Robbins)

Christmas dinner (hot pot)

2009-12-25T23:08:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas (with food)

2009-12-25T10:10:00.000-08:00

Goodbye, Boston

2009-12-22T13:11:00.000-08:00

A bowl of Rhode Island clam chowdah at Logan Airport. Headed to Houston for a warm Christmas break! ^.^

Blizzard cookies!

2009-12-22T13:10:00.000-08:00

Not the kind you were thinking of. There was a blizzard on Sunday, so we made some Christmas cookies. I had already eaten parts of this dragon before taking the picture. The Dragonslayer achievement has never been tastier!

A vegetable?

2009-11-28T17:26:00.000-08:00

My family went to a supermarket called "Ranch" that opened recently. Apparently they have a buffet-style section that allows you to fill a styrofoam container with as much food as you can fit for $5. My dad and uncle picked some of this mystery food. My dad thought it was fish. My uncle thought it was rice cakes. The guy in front of them in line said it was "a vegetable". After eating it, I'm still not sure. It would have its own 20 questions category. Animal, mineral, vegetable, or that thing I ate for dinner? Oddly enough, it was pretty good. We might go back and try to find out what it is. =P

Pre-Thanksgiving dinner

2009-11-26T16:32:00.000-08:00

Tofu and shrimp from dinner last night (at some Chinese restaurant in Houston that my parents think is called Yuen Tian). They were awesome. I've gotten too lazy to shell shrimp, so I just ate the shells. Crunchy. ^.^

Thanksgiving turkey!

2009-11-26T16:30:00.000-08:00

Cooked upside down so that the juices flow into the breast. Cajun seasoning and orange juice. We'll see how it tastes. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

V for Victory!

2009-09-30T17:37:00.000-07:00

Bacon and apple omelette with cinnamon apples. The first decisively delicious meal I've cooked... Possibly ever! I now have more confidence that I will survive the transition to adulthood. =P

Steak n Shake

2009-07-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

Got some sliders at Steak n Shake. Was a pretty long time ago, but I remember my favorite being the BBQ one. Also, the fries were tiny and thus really cute, but that also meant they got cold rather quickly. =( Was very much worth the $4 I paid for the meal, though. Next time I go, I should try the shake! XD

Lunchables'd!

2009-06-09T05:34:00.000-07:00

Fruit Dive CapriSun + Skittles in a Lunchables = basically the best Lunchables ever! (The keyboard in the background, however, wasn't so tasty).

This Lunchables was basically perfect, when it comes to your "crackers with meat and cheese" variety of Lunchables... except for one minor flaw. I'm not sure what percentage of the ham was actual ham, and it still ended up tasting good, but it was obviously quite processed meat. Nonetheless, the CapriSun and the dessert of a little baggy of Skittles more than made up for the somewhat sub-par ham. The cheese, as always, was great! Unfortunately, I did not appear to win a VIP ticket to the Ultimate Summer Camp... :P

Turtle!!

2009-06-03T04:26:00.000-07:00

I don't think real turtles taste like this... but for a candy bar of sorts, it's not bad! It doesn't really taste like Chex Mix... and I'm guessing there are other flavors... but still, it's not too bad, and a lot less chocolatey than a lot of other chocolate-containing bars out there. Plus, it gets bonus points for having the word "Turtle" written on the wrapper! (I wonder what turtles taste like... :'c!!)

P.S. Turtles are cool :P (and probably tasty :'x!!)

McNuggets'd

2009-06-02T03:41:00.000-07:00

I know... I eat way too much fast food. :{ I should start making food and taking it to work! But for tonight, I had McNuggets (my friend, Kris, wanted to go to McDonald's). I like my nuggets with Honey Mustard dipping sauce, as usual (for me)... however, I also like them with regular honey, too :}D!

For four bucks, I've decided... the four-piece Crispy Chicken Strips from Jack in the Box are a much better price than a ten-piece McNuggets basket thingy. The meat in the McNuggets isn't very meaty (maybe... 2% meat content? :P), but they still taste good at first. The sauce and honey help, of course. I had 15 of them tonight... and by the end, I was still hungry, however I wanted something more... meat-like. *shrug*

...

Apparently, this bin o' McNuggets is trying to warn us that it has been nuggetized!...

Steak n shake

2009-06-01T20:30:00.000-07:00

Got BBQ, A1, and chipotle shooter burgers. They're adorable and bite sized - perfect for an indecisive person like me. They came with really thin fries which also looked cute, but they cooled more quickly than regular fries, and you had to eat multiple fries at a time to taste them. Steak n Shake is a decent place to go, for the price. (My meal was a little over $4.) Next time, I think I'll order a shake. =P

Crispy Chicken Strips'd

2009-06-01T15:38:00.000-07:00

Yay, more Jack in the Box (:'c). Hey, at 1:00 a.m. in the morning, there aren't many places open. :P

While it costs around four bucks for the four-piece Crispy Chicken Strips, I can safely say that it's much more worthwhile than the somewhat mediocre Mozzarella Cheese Sticks I blug about the other day. Seen above are only 3 chicken strips... 'cause they were so tasty (with the inclusion of Honey Mustard dipping sauce) that I had to eat one before taking the picture! The meat's nice and tender, and even if it's not real chicken (I'm honestly not sure, maybe it is!), it at least mimics chicken quite effectively. However, as it seems to go with Jack in the Box for me, I couldn't manage to eat much without large amounts of dipping sauce. I'm noticing a pattern...! But hey, at least it was tasty overall, even if not much food for four bucks. Perhaps next time, I'll get some food from Filiberto's? (Yay for alliteration!)

Arby's redux

2009-05-31T16:39:00.000-07:00

Two 5 for $5.95 orders. Totally the way to go. You can even load up on burgers. ^.^ And I got a tasty shake too. Good thing Arby's is near where I'm living this summer.

Travels and food

2009-05-30T09:14:00.000-07:00

Had a mediocre breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn in Joplin, Missouri. Overpriced for the quality, but about on par with hotel food costs. The people were friendly though. ^.^ Was surprised by the number of flies wandering around the dining area and the hotel in general, especially because everything looked clean otherwise. Maybe it's a Missouri thing? Also was surprised that most people had Southern accents. Wondering if it's all of Missouri, or just the Southern part. Guess I'll find out when I reach St. Louis.

Random craving: Arby's

2009-05-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

Been craving Arby's since we got on the road today on our epic journey from Houston to St. Louis. Finally managed to find an Arby's in Oklahoma around dinner time. Pictured is the bacon cheeseburger that I ate. I wish I had ordered the additional roast beef, but the sandwich was still tasty, although the bacon was a little burnt. I had curly fries too! My mom tried the waffle fries and found them to be too salty, but that's probably just the specific batch. Arby's is another one of those fast food restaurants that I randomly crave. I've always loved their roast beef. Now they have a lot more variety, but I would suggest sticking with what they do best - a giant roast beef burger. Although it took us most of the day to find our first Arby's, we of course saw another one within 10 minutes of leaving. >.<

Andre's

2009-05-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

I actually had 2 lunches yesterday, one after the other, because I went to Andre's in Uptown Plaza (Houston) to catch up with Shannon immediately following my first lunch get-together. >.< Andre's was full of well-dressed professionals on their lunch break, even at 13:30. I felt a little out of place wearing shorts and flip flops, but I knew that was a possibility before I went out, and I wasn't about to dress nicely specifically for lunch. Andre's had a bunch of tasty-looking desserts on display, but I wasn't about to only order dessert and leave Shannon to eat by herself while I watched, so I ordered a lunch meal of a shrimp and avocado salad. Apparently, the lunches also come with dessert! ^.^ The salad was larger than I expected. It was delicious, so even though I was full, I made my best effort at eating it. Afterwards, we were presented with a plate of desserts from which to select. Shannon got the white chocolate mousse something, and I got the raspberry one. (I forget what they were specifically called.) We spent some time trying to figure out what the soft green stuff in my cake was. It was tasty, and I guessed that it might have been tea flavored. *shrug* The place was medium priced for the amount and quality of food. Would be a cool place for a lunch date, if you were that type of person.

First time eating tabbouleh

2009-05-29T17:33:00.000-07:00

Went out to lunch to catch up with some old friends, Patrick and Alice. Originally intended to hit up Cabo Grill on Richmond and Fountainview (in Houston), but they had closed or moved and were no longer there. Instead, we went to Fadi's Mediterranean Grill, which was nearby. When we went in, the place was beautifully set up with tablecloths and glasses as if it were prepared for an elegant dinner. We were the first customers there. I steeled myself for an expensive meal, but the prices were really awesome for the quality of food and the setting. They started us off with chips that were like thin pita chips, but even more delicious. I ordered the lamb sandwich with tabbouleh. The sandwich surprised me by being in wrap form. My mom, who doesn't like lamb, would have approved because the lamb didn't have that distinctive lamb smell/taste. It was my first time eating tabbouleh, and I guess it's an acquired taste that I haven't acquired yet. >.< The dish was mostly parsley and tomato chunks, and it tasted very sour. Alice and Patrick seemed to really like it. I guess I'll just have to try again. All in all, Fadi's is highly recommended for lunch, and I would definitely go again! ^.^ Also, if you like watching Arabic music videos while you eat, they have 2 large TVs that were playing them the whole time. =P

Bamboo is food this time!

2009-05-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna miss my grandma's cooking. Here's two ways of eating bamboo: cut up and raw, and in a soup. Bamboo shoots actually taste sweet when cut up, but you have to make sure they're very small and barely peeking out of the ground. (We grow bamboo at our house.)

Bamboo is food this time!

2009-05-29T11:43:00.000-07:00

Chick-Fil-A

2009-05-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

Got some Chick-Fil-A at Memorial City Mall. I absolutely love their chicken. It's tender and cooked just right with great flavoring. Probably the best thing they have going for them is that they are not open on Sundays. This means that every Sunday I crave Chick-Fil-A because I can't have it. So on other days, I try not to pass up the opportunity! ^.^

Tiffany's birthday

2009-05-26T14:41:00.000-07:00

Surprise party for Tiffany held at JW Sushi Bar in Houston. They have a bar setup on the ground floor, and a restaurant style dining area on the 2nd floor. We all hid upstairs and jumped out at Tiffany when she arrived. Then there was food, which consisted of a salad, miso soup, and a large plate of sushi. Guess I've been having a lot of sushi lately. >.< I had never thought of sushi as being filling, but after a plate and a half of food, I was stuffed. ^.^ The sushi had been sitting out for a while because we were waiting for the birthday girl to arrive (her boyfriend kept getting lost), but that really only affected the raw stuff. My favorite was the eel, which was cooked. I'm not usually a fan of mayonnaise or imitation crab meat, but it worked well as a topping on some of the sushi. Afterwards, we ate a birthday cake from Merryland bakery. Chinese cakes are the best! They're light and fluffy, and this one had a layer of mango pudding and a layer of taro paste. Also, Chinese cakes usually have fruit on top and don't have ridiculous amounts of icing. ^.^ My dream cake would probably be a Chinese style ice cream cheesecake... They do have those, right? =P

Mozzarella Cheese Sticks'd

2009-05-26T02:38:00.000-07:00

Though it may be obvious even before trying them... mozzarella cheese sticks from a fast food place (such as, in this case, Jack in the Box) aren't quite as tasty as one might otherwise hope.

Nonetheless, with enough marinara sauce, especially if it's "Zesty Marinara" sauce, I'm pretty sure any mozzarella sticks can pass the "should I eat it?" test (I basically loaded up each and every bite with a heaping helping of Zesty Marinara sauce... which for some reason reminds me of zesty clams).

The cheese wasn't melted enough inside, and without the sauce, there wasn't much flavor to them. However, the sauce saved the day (or night), and the twelve mozzarella cheese sticks that I just finished eating made a pretty decent midnight snack!

Fu Fu Cafe

2009-05-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

We tried to eat breakfast at Classic Kitchen, but for some odd reason it was closed for a half day. I say odd because there were people eating inside, and we were told it was closed when we walked in. So we went to Fu Fu Cafe. It was a little hard to order because we couldn't understand the waitress's mainland accent, and she couldn't understand ours. The tofu soup consisted of mushrooms and tofu. It was pretty good. The scallion pancakes were oddly thick, as was the bun portion of the pork sandwich. The you tiao (once met a rude British man who called them crullers) was all right, but I prefer them to be crunchier. For some reason, I included the vegetarian dumplings, but I don't really recall how they tasted. The verdict: Meh. I'd eat here again, but I sure hope Classic Kitchen gets their act together so I can go there.

I actually have no idea...

2009-05-25T21:29:00.000-07:00

what this place is called. That's the problem with eating at Chinese restaurants without actually knowing Chinese: you can't order, and you don't know what the place is called. >.< I'll probably drive by the place in the near future and find out, though. The pictures are a dish of shrimp with peas, a sort of layered tortilla thing, fish with a sweet sauce, vegetables, and lamb in soup. My personal favorite was the lamb, but I like lamb in general. I'll update this post when I figure out the name of the restaurant. >.<

Chinese Cuisine

2009-05-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

Yes, there is a restaurant called simply "Chinese Cuisine". It's in Golden Plaza in Chinatown Houston, and they do dim sum all day, every day. No more rushing to catch dim sum hours on weekends! Also, since they don't have room for push carts, all of their food is ordered and brought to the table. This is pretty much my favorite dim sum place in Houston because of the format. And the food ain't bad either!

Frozen yogurt finally comes to Houston!

2009-05-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

Ever since frozen yogurt hit the big time in NYC and Cali two years ago, I've been waiting impatiently for it to migrate to Houston. We originally went to Cafe la Tea (in the Welcome shopping center in Chinatown) thinking we'd get bubble tea. We ended up getting tangy frozen yogurt with strawberries mixed in. This cup ran us about $4, but it was more than enough for two fat kids who love ice cream. ^.^

Moar Hokkaido

2009-05-25T10:30:00.000-07:00

We typically order a plate of sashimi to share, some specialty rolls, and tempura shrimp and yams. The 2 rolls pictured are the dragon roll and the crazy roll. The tempura shrimp usually comes with an assortment of vegetables, but we ask them to only give us fried yams because Lucky loves them. ^.^ I like to order salmon roe. The pop is so satisfying. XD

Miso soup @ Hokkaido

2009-05-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

Hokkaido in the Welcome shopping center in Chinatown Houston is a family favorite. Doesn't hurt that they offer free miso soup and red bean dessert soup!

Moniker's Grille

2009-05-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

Moniker's Grille in the Marriott hotel near the Baltimore airport. We had brunch there on the last day of our Maryland trip. $15 for the buffet, which included omlettes to order, an assortment of the usual continental breakfast stuff, and some meat. I especially enjoyed the smoked salmon and the chicken apple sausage. And then we made faces with fruit! ^.^

A&J

2009-05-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

Spicy beef and tendon noodle soup from A&J in Rockville, Maryland. Highly recommended, if you can handle mildly spicy food. (Hint: Too spicy for you, Lucky.) The beef and the tendons are very tender and plentiful. The meat is mostly lean as well. Really quality beef in this soup. If you're ever in Rockville (it's kind of in the middle of nowhere, unfortunately) be sure to check this place out!

Dinner took 4 hours >.<

2009-05-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

Dinner at McCormick & Schmick's in Baltimore. The food took forever to get to our table, but it was excellent. We had a bunch of appetizers, such as crab cake, shrimp, and calamari. For my entree, I had the lobster, which turned out to be an excellent choice. We finished up with some delicious creme brulee. ^.^ All in all, a wonderful meal. The restaurant was located on the waterfront too, so the view was great. My only complaint is that all but one of the bathroom stalls were out of toilet paper. =P

John Harvard's

2009-05-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

Beer and nachos at John Harvard's. I think the beer was called Providence ale... Or something else with a p. >.< Bad memories ftl. The nachos are enormous!I also got a burger, but I ate it too quickly to take a picture. Rest assured that it was delicious too. ^.^ The fries were so good that they were still good cold one day later.

Bubble tea

2009-05-19T21:13:00.000-07:00

We had a bubble tea study break. ^.^ My favorite flavor is Thai tea. Actually, in New York, I got some yogurt green tea, which may be my new favorite, but New York is its own long story. This picture is Thai tea though.

Melting pot

2009-05-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

A bunch of us went to The Melting Pot for Girls Night Out. Our meal consisted of 3 courses: appetizers with melted cheese, entree that was cooked in oil or soup, and dessert dipped in melted chocolate. For those of you who haven't gone, you stab food with skewers, dip or cook them in the pots, and eat! I also got a yin yang drink. I'm pretty sure they accidentally forgot to put alcohol in it, but they refused to admit mistake, so whatever. All in all, the experience was fun, and I enjoyed hanging out with friends. Melting Pot also seems like a great place to take a date. ~.^ Now for pictures!

Multimedia message

2009-04-24T16:34:00.000-07:00

Ben made this out of apples and donuts. Pure awesome. ^.^

Multimedia message

2009-04-24T16:27:00.000-07:00

Pile of mashed potatoes and pile of macaroni. They retained the shapes of their containers disturbingly well. =P

Multimedia message

2009-04-24T16:01:00.000-07:00

So I obviously meant "roast" instead of "smart" in the title. Here's a picture of the cucumbers, which Kevin and I cut. They were squishy, but general consensus was that they were okay and only looked like that because they'd been frozen. >.< Hopefully they'll be okay, or I guess we can drown them in salad dressing. =P

ICF senior smart

2009-04-24T15:45:00.000-07:00

My church is doing senior roast tonight, which seems to consist mostly
of food and making fun of the graduating seniors. As of now, the
non-seniors are frantically preparing dinner and decorations.
Supposedly the dress code is semi-formal, so I wore a dress (I never
wear dresses), and I'm the only person dressed up. >.< I'm starting to
wonder if the whole semi-formal thing is just a prank on me. Stay
tuned for pictures of food and general silliness!

this should just be the dumpling blog

2009-04-10T07:35:00.000-07:00

After living for 22 years without ever having attended a dumpling party, I somehow managed to attend two in a span of three weeks. At least my dumpling-making skills are improving. I estimate that I make dumplings at 50% the average speed (up from 25%), and my dumplings only rupture upon cooking 50% of the time (down from 80%). =P Given the choice, however, my plan is still to stick with pre-made frozen dumplings.

Of course, this post is useless without pictures, so here they are.

Pan-fried:

Boiled (I don't know any cooking terms, so please correct me if that's inaccurate):

For some reason, these dumplings stuck together and resemble a brain:

The sauce that Judy made (contains soy sauce and green onions, again correct me if I'm wrong):

Everyone was pretty full after the dumplings, but then Judy brought out a tray of cupcakes. There were 5 different types, but I only remembered to take a picture after most of them were gone. The two in the picture are something with walnuts that Judy made (top), and neapolitan (bottom). The other three were lemon, banana (made with root beer instead of water!), and something with a thick layer of caramel on the bottom. Kevin was my tasting buddy, and we split one of each flavor, despite being very very full. At one point, we almost stopped, but that's what the buddy system is for! (That, and shooting polar bears while you're pooping. >.<)

Cupcakes:

We then played a round of Taboo, during which I correctly guessed "hangover", and my pastor remarked that I sure seemed to know about that. I referenced my "sin list", and getting drunk isn't on there, so I guess it's okay, but it's still embarrassing. >.<

Yesterday, Joan (who threw the first dumpling party) suggested having another one this weekend. Maybe this blog should just be the dumpling blog. =P

the end of epic adventuring

2009-03-29T18:19:00.000-07:00

It all started two summers ago when I saw Superbad. After watching a comedy about two high schoolers and their quest for booze and girls, I realized what was missing in my life (or so I thought). I had never gone on an epic adventure.

My first epic adventure took me into the heart of Manhattan sometime in the fall of 2007. I had intended to watch a screening of Finishing the Game and immediately hop on the bus back to Boston. Instead, I realized that the Fung Wah bus doesn't run in the middle of the night, and my then-boyfriend wasn't about to allow me to spend a night wandering the streets of Manhattan alone, so he called a cute young couple from his WoW guild, who happened to live nearby, to take care of me. Enter John and Kai, who have given me a place to crash throughout my adventuring for the past year and a half.

From overstaying my welcome (somehow one night turned into three), to showing up at 3 am demanding a place to sleep (I missed the last train), to getting poop all over their bathroom (the toilet clogged up - this one wasn't entirely my fault), to having ridiculous relationship drama (they've offered to let me marry their newborn son when I'm 40 - that's how sure they are that I'll never settle down), John and Kai have put up with quite a bit of crap from me (no pun intended).

This weekend I headed over to their apartment to see their newborn son Ethan and attend a huge dinner being thrown in his honor. Unfortunately, my cell phone ran out of battery before most of the food arrived (in my defense, we had to wait 2 hours), so I mostly just have pictures of the long wait.

Not gonna lie, I'm not really a cat person or a baby person, but there is something extremely hilarious about Ethan using their cat Donna as a pillow. Perhaps because I've tried it before, and Donna didn't let me. >.< This is Ethan in his very, very red outfit that he wore for dinner. He screamed the entire time that John was dressing him, but once we were at the restaurant, we didn't hear a peep out of him. For 5 hours. He's barely a month old and already has more cojones than his father. =P

This is the restaurant. Apparently there were 80+ guests, most of whom were Kai's relatives. I felt a little out of place because I was the only person there who wasn't related to anyone else, and I also don't understand Cantonese. I mostly sat in my little corner, texted Llama, and gorged myself on food and drink.

This is Remy. I'd never had cognac before, so I decided to try some. I ended up eating a little bit of the cork that fell into the glass and spent a good amount of time trying to fish out the remaining pieces of cork. Oh well, anything to pass the time.

This was the first dish, and the only one I managed to take a photo of. It's lobster salad. The giant lobster was just for decoration. Next to it was a concoction of fruit, vegetables, and lobster, all drenched in a sauce that resembled mayonnaise. Despite being terrified of it at first, I thought it was quite delicious.

The other food that I really wish I had gotten a photo of was the octopus. It was a tiny little thing about the length of my middle finger, but neither John nor Kai wanted to eat it, so it got passed to me. It tasted like BBQ. =) All in all, I ate about 5 octopi, and I mocked my wussy friends by occasionally sticking tentacles out of my mouth while chewing. Yes, I'm exactly the type of person you want around your newborn baby.

All in all, there were 10 courses. The last three or so just got packed up and taken home because none of the guests were hungry by then. At the end, our table got a plate of orange slices, as is apparently customary in most Chinese restaurants in America. I ate about 2/3 of the orange slices on that plate while waiting for the guests to clear out so that we could leave. >.< At least I don't have to worry about scurvy.

While John and Kai took turns being crankily awake and taking care of a screaming Ethan throughout the night (don't ask me why he behaves in public and not at home - no one knows), I played the latest Sims expansion on Kai's computer. I created goth version of John, a cowgirl version of Kai, and named their baby Adolf (it was funny at the time because we'd contemplated making a black family with the last name Hitler). Then, I made myself and Llama into their pet dogs, because ever since meeting John and Kai, I've wanted to be one of their pets. =) Unfortunately, there was a glitch when bathing the dogs - they'd get stuck in the bathtub. I didn't want to watch my canine self slowly starve to death, so I deleted that game and created human versions of myself and Llama. Did you know, The Sims is soooo much easier when you don't have pets or a baby? Who'd've thunk? =P Anyway, The Sims ate my night, and I eventually went to sleep a little before 9 am.

This morning we went out to dim sum in Flushing with a few of Kai's relatives whom I'd met last night. Afterwards, I drove down to Long Island to visit a friend who used to go to my college, and I forced her to help me study for my biology exam, which is tomorrow. My ingenious idea of the day was to record myself reading out key concepts in the chapters and burn it onto a CD that I could listen to in my car (I never joined the mp3 player revolution). So I spent the majority of my drive back to Boston listening to myself mispronounce words like "auxotrophy" and "topoisomerase".

Sadly, the proudest moment of my journey this weekend was at the end, when I made it back to campus in time to pee in the bathroom instead of wetting myself. Also, I managed to drive almost 10 miles after my "fuel empty" light came on, but that's probably my car's equivalent of holding it in, so it's not really my accomplishment to be proud of.

If this all doesn't sound very epic to you, keep in mind that I spend most of my time sitting in front of my laptop in the dark, so it's all relative. After a year and a half of actively seeking out epic adventures, I finally realized that I completely missed the point of Superbad. The best part of epic adventures is having someone to share them with. So, a big thank you to John and Kai for all your support, and hopefully I'll find someone before Ethan starts forming memories, because it would be very weird for him to grow up with his parents joking about him marrying his "Uncle Ike". And yes, I do plan on making him call me that. =)

dumplings!

2009-03-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my friend Joan threw a dumpling party. This involved a bunch of people getting together to make dumplings, cook them, and eat them.

Here are some of the dumplings after we made them but before they were cooked:

We made 2 types of dumplings, meat and veggie. I wish I had remembered to take pictures when we were making the filling. It was really complex, and a lot of time was spent making sure that the dumpling filling was as dry as possible. The meat dumplings contained ground pork (was it pork? I can never tell with ground meat), cabbage, and carrots. The veggie dumplings had tofu, cabbage, and carrots.

The finished meat dumplings:

We dipped the dumplings in a concoction of soy sauce, vinegar, chopped up leeks, and chopped up garlic. They were amazingly delicious. =) The veggie dumplings looked a little worse. According to Joan, something in the meat helps to hold the dumpling together. According to me, I'm terrible at making dumplings, and I made the veggie dumplings, hence, they fell apart.

They were still good, but most of us were carnivores, so we offered our leftovers to the vegans and vegetarians down in Hippie Suite. They were thrilled and loved it. =)

To make things even better, the food cost was about $4 per person. We really should do this more often! I give the whole event two thumbs up.

unexpected foodtography

2009-03-21T19:05:00.000-07:00

Whenever I get a new phone, I spend an inordinate amount of time playing with the camera. This morning, I took about 10 artsy black+white pictures of our (messy) bathroom. Those were deleted immediately and will not be posted. However, tonight we unexpectedly had takeout fake Chinese food, so I took some pictures:

The above picture is lemon chicken. Apparently it's just fried chicken dipped in a lemony sauce. It started out all right, but the sauce is one of those things you can't eat too much of, or you'll start to get sick of it. Maybe I should have just eaten the chicken by itself.

The dish on the left is broccoli with... beef? Or maybe just broccoli in beef-ish sauce. I only ever got broccoli out of that dish. The one on the right is, oddly enough, shrimp with broccoli. I didn't even know those two foods went together - and they really don't. Plus, the sauce was, again, sickeningly sweet. At least the shrimp were shelled, and their tails were pulled off. =) I'm lazy like that.

The one above is fish with walnuts or pecans. Never could tell the difference between them. My family agreed that this was the best dish out of what we got for dinner. It was seasoned with pepper and not drowned in extremely sweet sauce, so I guess that's what made the difference.

We got all this for about $45 at a place called Dong Ting, which is apparently just down the street, next door to the Radio Shack, even though I'd never heard of it. The verdict? Next time, if I have a choice, I'll just drive the extra 10 minutes to Chinatown and get better food for cheaper. On a scale from two thumbs down to two thumbs up, I give it one thumb down. I actually started to feel a little sick after a while, so I stopped eating. Maybe it's a personal thing, but fake Asian food tends to unsettle my whiny (but somehow still sizeable) stomach.

Edit: The place is apparently called Chef Ding now. I saw the takeout menu on our table before I left for the airport this morning.

Rudy's BBQ

2008-07-24T19:08:00.001-07:00

We got takeout from Rudy's last night: sausage, brisket, ribs, and... uh... chunks of meat with bones (I forget what that's called). Ignore the mushrooms - they just kind of snuck into the picture. They also came with a delicious BBQ sauce. My favorite was the sausage. My aunt even has a picture of me eating it (which will NOT be posted).

Short version: Texas BBQ is the best!

Bucket o' Chicken

2008-07-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

We went to KFC for lunch yesterday and got a mixed bucket of chicken so we could try out a bunch of different stuff. In the little red box is popcorn chicken. Going clockwise, we have chicken strips, followed by extra-crispy mixed chicken. In the box to the left of the bucket is KFC's new sauceless hot wings.

Because I'm lazy and don't like picking bones out of my food, I particularly enjoyed the chicken strips and the popcorn chicken. Easy to eat, cooked very moist, crunchy, and very fattening. =)

Next time I'll probably go for the crispy mixed chicken instead of the extra crispy. The crispy is what most people are used to with fried chicken. The extra crispy comes in one solid sheet of skin instead of a bunch of crunchy pieces. I would have termed it "extra mushy" instead.

I was expecting the sauceless hot wings to be hotter. They tasted like hot wings that I would eat with sauce. But then again, I'm partial to super hot stuff like 水煮牛, so that's probably not a fair comparison.

Short version: I liked the strips and popcorn chicken.

水煮牛

2008-07-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of 水煮牛, a dish from a restaurant (?) called 亞洲 (Asia Market, I think is the English name). It might be a supermarket. I've never been there personally.

This has got to be the spiciest dish in the history of all spicy dishes. The soup is RED from all the chili that's in it, for cryin' out loud. Don't let the name fool you. This is more like 辣油煮牛. Greasy, spicy, sloppy goodness.

It's got a lot of beef and veggies. A surprisingly high percentage of the dish is beef, and it's fairly good beef too, lean and cooked just right. Make sure you have a lot of water or rice on hand when eating this. Sometimes my aunt waters down the soup to make another dish. If you knew my aunt (this is the woman who eats chili peppers straight), you'd understand just how hot a dish has to be for her to water it down.

(Bad) translations for our English-speaking friends:

水煮牛 (pronounced: shui zhu niu) = water-cooked beef

辣油 (pronounced: la you) = spicy oil

Short version: Mmm! *sizzle*

Another Birthday

2008-07-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

It seems like everyone in my family has a July birthday. This was my uncle's birthday cake, purchased from the same bakery as my sister's cake. It's got fruit on top (obviously), and is made of layers of taro cake and pudding (see below). Delicious and highly recommended.

Short version: Let them eat cake!

P'zones

2008-07-21T11:57:00.001-07:00

Ate P'zones from Pizza Hut for lunch today. They taste like pizzas, but the sauce is on the side for dipping. Unfortunately, P'zones are not shaped to fit into the container for the dipping sauce. The stuff on the top is... cheese and some spice? It was filling though. I had π radians (pictured) and was stuffed.

Short version: Just put two slices of pizza on top of each other.

Mighty Fine Burger

2008-07-20T18:51:00.001-07:00

I took a few bites before I thought to take a picture. =P

The burger and fries are from Mighty Fine, which my cousin and I have wanted to try out for a while. Our original plan was to sue them for false advertisement if their burgers weren't mighty fine (just kidding, I hate frivolous lawsuits). Well, it turns out that their advertising is 100% on point.

I had a 1/2 pound cheeseburger with bacon. It was very filling, and the patty made up the majority of the sandwich, which is getting increasingly rare these days. The meat was cooked very well and not dry. The bacon was delicious and crunchy.

The curly fries in the upper left corner were my cousin's. I stole them to pose for the picture. The fries were soft but not mushy, flavorful, and downright adorable! I'm not usually a fries person (all that potato makes me look like a potato too), but for once I regretted not getting fries with my burger.

Also, if you order a drink, they give you pretty nice plastic cups. I wanted to keep my cup, but I had already thrown it away, and my cousin didn't let me dig it out of the trash can. Oh well. There will be a next time. =)

As for the price, it was about $20 for both of us, so a bit expensive for burgers, but again, the food was way beyond fast food restaurant quality. Besides, my cousin paid, so what do I have to complain about?

Short version: Mighty fine!

Birthday Cake

2008-07-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

My sister wanted an ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery for her birthday, but the mall closes rather early, so we ended up getting an ice cream cake from our local bakery. The ice cream was Neapolitan (which I always thought was "Napoleon" when I was younger), and there was a thin layer of chocolate cake at the bottom.

Honestly, I'm not the best person to judge food items that contain chocolate, because that's just about my least favorite food. My mom and my cousin, certified chocoholics, always tell me how weird I am.

Besides that, though, the cake was a little dry and hard, which can probably be expected in an ice cream cake. Or we didn't let it defrost properly, because, as you can see in the picture, the fruit on top is still mostly frozen. This wasn't the best ice cream cake I've had, but what's important is that it's still ice cream cake.

This bakery makes wonderful regular cakes, though, and I'm looking forward to eating the one we bought for my uncle's birthday.

Short version: Meh.

Tres Leches

2008-07-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

We went out to Churrascos for my sister's birthday dinner on Friday. There was a LOT of excellent food, but unfortunately this is the only picture I took. This is their tres leches cake, which we had for dessert. It's very, very sweet and amazingly heavy for how fluffy it seems at first.

Other menu items I definitely recommend are:

the sampler appetizers (I loved the fried jalapenos, but you have to love spicy food to enjoy them)
the filet mignon, medium rare (very tender, yet flavorful)
the mini bananas that came as a side to the entree
the Argentinian wine (I don't recall what we had exactly, but it was a suggestion from the waiter)

You're going to want to dress up a little. My family wore jeans and felt out of place. And this place is rather expensive, so take a deep breath before looking at your tab.

Short version: Yummy, if you can afford it.

An Introduction

2008-07-20T17:30:00.000-07:00

I got a new cell phone this weekend (Nokia 6133), and I've been taking a lot of pictures, mostly of food. I thought I'd start this blog to share some pictures and comments. Enjoy!