HAPPY NEW YEARS 2012!

Happy 2012 everyone!! I hope you embrace this new year and cherish each moment :) SO......... I'M REALLY EXCITED TO GO TO HONG KONGGGGGG!!! AGAIN!!! Last time I was there was last summer, which was so much fun I didn't want to come back. However, this time I will be going with all my cousins for my aunts wedding. Wendy, Conrad, Angela and Jessica will alllll be there. Drinking age is 18, and all my cousins are at least 18. THIS IS GOING TO BE SO FREAKEN FUN :) !!! I hope I can post lots and lots of food pics easily with my phone. I'm also going to try to make another blog thingy with an app on my phone, but we'll see what happens when I get there. I am very very exciteddddddddddd!!

Hope everyone's new year was wonderful, see you in HK!

Grandma's Fav Lunch Spot

As much as I would like to, I haven't spend too much quality time with my grandma from my father's side. So as I was sleeping in on a saturday morning, my dad wakes me up randomly and asks "DO YOU WANT TO GO WITH ME AND MaMa? SHE NEEDS TO BUY SOME STUFF." At first I was like uh hell no im sleeping....!!! C'on DAD!! But then I thought about it, and since I really don't see my grandma that much, I woke my ass up and decided to go for the ride.

And of course, we go directly to SF's Chinatown, where the farmers markets are in full swing. Everyone is crowded around, we are walking by, sometimes pushing and shoving, to get to the next vendor. Chinatown prices are so much cheaper then regular supermarkets! Also, all the fruits and veggies look so much more fresh. It's definitely a lively atmosphere.

There are so many elderly people picking out their groceries and putting them into their wheely carts to bring back home. So many regular customers that store people know their names and faces. Even amoungst the crazy crowd, these people really enjoy this time to shop and socialize with familiar faces! It's really a nice commotion to experience.

After my grandma finished buying her stash of chinese herbs, gingseng and magical stuff like that, we proceeded to get lunch. I had an urge to eat something with rice, and when I told her that, she said she knew a place with "Yao pang yao lang "Pai Gwet Fan", or Steamed Porkrib with Blackbean Sauce on Rice. That's basically the only thing they serve in this whole in the wall joint. After walking in, I realized I was the only person under age 50 hahah. Everyone else is a senior citizen enjoying their newspaper or chatting with their buddies. All locals!

Anyways, these delicious pippin hot bowls of marinated pork with yummy sauce were only $3.25 each! What a freaken steal. I finished that thing in like 10 minutes. It was nice spending time with my grandma, along with getting a chinatown grocery rush welcome, along with the chance to try some good simple food.

I'm so glad that this trip with my grandma led me to discover this hole in the wall restaurant. I might never be able to find it again because all these chinese shops look the same, but if I somehow do, I would definitely go again.

Carnival Pigout

So, its my first time going on a cruise. My mom booked a fun vacay with the family, including my grandparents, my brother, my mother, and my aunt, for a Carnival Cruise. Destination: Catalina Island and Ensenada Mexico.

What do people do on cruises? EAT ALL DAY. Thats all we did. We ate til we were full for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I totally would have drank a few beers here or there, or a few wines......but damn I was with my mom and grandparents! HAhaha. But seriously, theres unlimited food all the time, everywhere you look. OMG I ATE SO MUCH. But it was all really good!! I have too many pictures to post them all, but here are some highlights of the trip.

the cruise at sea, right after sunset time. me and my brother being dorky.
brie cheese and fruit for dessert. drool.
fruit platter appetizer!
poached pear dessert
melted lava chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. OMG. so I stayed on this cruise for 4 nights, and every single night I ordered this dessert. IT WAS SO DAMN GOOD. It was full of gooey chocolate goodness. probably gained a pound a day on the cruise, but I dont give a F*** :D

Waffle Window

I visited Oregon in the beginning of summer with my parents. I wasn't that excited to go but was like ok fine i'll go. But hey, It was actually fun! Oregon is cool! If I had to sum up my experience in Oregon with just one word, it would be: Trees. There are so many of them, everywhere you go. Its so GREEN. And there are pretty little wildflowers of all different colors just as you are driving down the freeway. And the freeway isnt crazy like it is in LA, its peaceful and unstressful :) Their tap water also tastes freaken delicious. There's a lot of hipsters dudes with lots of facial hair.

Anyways, so I was trying to yelp for a good breakfast place, and I came across Waffle Window. Yes, its as good as it looks in the picture. Those berries were FRESH. The waffles were GOOD. That BACON was delicious!! I want to go back to Oregon and visit this place again!

Lets End the Year with Ugly Sweaters!

WTF is an ugly sweater party?

Well I guess its a "northwestern" thing cuz they party in ugly sweaters all the time up there! Since two of our roomies are from the NORTH, we decided to embrace their tradition and throw an ugly sweater dinner, also in celebration of finishing finals, the beginning of the holidays, and just spending quality time together as housemates. This was the FIRST time we have ever sat together, all 6 of us, and shared a meal together! It was really a memorable experience that I will always cherish :)

we all made something we were good at and shared!

baked mashed potatoes with peas carrots- made by meee
roasted cauliflower drizzed with butter and parsley- made by richelle (the health freak!)
fucking delicious homemade mac and cheese with bacon and onions and MORE cheese- made by angela :) (so fing gooood)
theresa's specialty dish- kimchi fried rice! delicious ever time she makes it!
my greek chicken lemon soup, first time making it and it was a sucess! hooray!!
canned corn- nuf said
roasted sweet potatoes with honey and cinnamon OMG THE BOMB- made by richelle
yummy bulgogi with mushrooms and onions from vivian!

our feast set out on the dining room table :)
droooooooooooooooooooll...
roomies pic in our ugly sweaters! love you all!!!
The night ended with our secret santa exchange, killing this bottle of skyy, and going bar hopping in Costa Mesa then Hungtington Beach. My car didn't smell very pleasant the next day HAHAHHA.

CHEERS to good friends, good food, and an exciting NEW YEAR! :D

Vegas Sweets

Sigh, Vegas vegas vegas. I left my heart there, as well as my earrings and vivian's phone. Can't wait to go back since it was so much effing fun! Seriously, whatever goes there hahaha.

After our massive hangover saturday night, we needed to eat food. like seriously we were starving. Right across from our hotel was caesar's palace so we went to their buffet. LUCKY US, we decided to get the buffet of buffets deal where you eat as much as you want at 5 different buffets for 24 hours, for $50 bucks! BUT, the waitress was so out of it she said $40 on accident so had to give us the discount. HAHAHAHA. So we ate there for lunch, then a snack at Emperor's Palace, then dinner at Village Buffet in Paris. YAY for buffets in vegas!

This was a macaroon from Village Buffet in Paris. fluffyyyyyyy :)

BOMB ASS hot chocolate, we had 4 cups. HAHAHA the waitnress gave us the stink eye every time we asked for another cup. whoops.

All these deserts came from caesar's palace. They looked good, tasted whatever. Points for presentation though!

VEGAS, WE WILL BE BACK SOON! ;)

I'm Thankful

Drove home from Irvine for 9 hours, and it was all worth it for THIS! Thats right, hot pot for thanksgiving bitches....thats how we roll HAHAH. We had hotpot, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, fried rice, soup, and apple cider. FREAKEN FEAST. It was great, not only the amazing food, but sitting at the family table again and eating together with my family. I rarely get to do this anymore so it I've come to appreciate the limited time we spend together more and more these days. Thanksgiving is a good time to reflect on what you have. I'm thankful for of course my family and friends and my blessed life. I know I havn't been blogging much these days, and its not really so much because I've been busy, but I kind of been avoiding it for some other reasons. But I know that I shouldn't cuz its something I like to do! So FUCK the baggage and all the crap, and lets be thankful for all our days ahead of us :)

I'm thankful for this year, as its been a year of learning and growing. I'm thankful for all my existing friends and new friends I've made this year, including my new roomates :) I'm thankful for where life has taken me so far and where it will lead me in the future.

Cheers to our mothers and fathers who made thanksgiving dinner!! (Thanks Mom~~)

HOT POT CITY

fried fish paste with those asian shrimp chip things

homemade pineapple fried rice

my uncle carving the turkey

my brother being overly excited about turkey

my mother cooking soup

picture of the sunset in Monterey, CA from the car. Quite beautiful :D

Picture of the sunset in Monterey, CA. Quite beautiful :)

Simplydelicious

If only life was really simple? But then again that would be no fun. This bakery was right across the street from where I stayed in Hong Kong. It was a bakery and cafe but I only tried their breads. The shop was really elegant and cozy. I think they specialize in croissants because I saw a lot of different types...

Below is a chestnut creme croissant. It was really amazing. yum yum yum.
What was even more amazing was the strawberries and creme croissant pastry. Damn how do they make it so fluffy and crunch and creamy and sweet and tart all in one bite? Its one of God's many blessings.
Oh how I wish these types of bakeries would open up in irvine? :)

Learning some motherly skills

So after visiting my great aunt in HK, I learned how to make postickers strictly from scratch, even the skin! We spent the whole day making potstickers! The process includes:

1) Making the dough

2) Flattening them into small circles

3) Putting the stuffing inside and folding the dumplings

4) Frying them until cooked

5) ENJOYING ALL YOUR HARD WORK!

I'm sure this skill will come handy one day when I have kids. Even if I make it half as good as my great aunt I'll be happy! :D

In celebration of my greataunt's birthday, we also had crab for dinner. This type of crab I've never had in the states before. It's a lot smaller, and REALLY REALLY fresh. All we did was steam them until they were cooked, you don't even need any sauce. Just the authentic crab taste was more then enough. So delicious.

Sisterly love :)

Even though this was months ago, Happy Birthday again Guu Po! Thinking of you!

Jumbo Egg Tart

The amount and diversity of pastries you can find in HK is amazingly huge. Even just one bread shop will have over 30 different types of delicious goodies. I want to try them all, and I would if I could!! A few that stood out to me were..

chocolate covered waffle. omg. Isn't it beautiful?
Even cooler: deep dish Egg Tart (Dan Tat). Whoever invented this is a freaken genius. Why can't all egg tarts look and taste like this? Basically, its like 3 egg tarts in 1. The whole filling is egg!! I had to eat it with a spoon. I was so happy :)
Now, time to run and sweat in ridiculous hot weather so I can enjoy more and more jumbo egg tarts.

It's Tea Time!

I think one of the coolest things about HK is their Afternoon tea time, or "ha mm cha". It's that very special time in the middle of the day, usually somewhere between 2-5, where food in many restaurants are way cheaper and way less crowds. Since no one really eats between 2-5 they offere a special menu thats cheap and good. HOW PERFECT!

Since it was my cousin's last day of Summer, we went on a spontanious adventure. We walked in an aimless direction in Wan Chai away from the subway station, through a random farmers market, and then we had to decide to turn left or right. For some reason I decided we should go right. GOOD THING WE DID!

A few blocks away we glanced at the menu of this lovely little resturant called La Bons Broasserie French and Italian Fusion Cuisine. Menu title: Tea Time. The prices were suprisingly cheap, and the food sounded interesting. OK lets go in!

Went inside the elevator to go up to the actual resturant. It was kinda spooky since we didn't know what to expect. No one in the hallway when we got off the elevator. WTF? uhh. Walk inside, and was greeted by nice waitresses and brought to a table overlooking the street. And there's a few people inside. OK cool. We look around. What a cute place! French romance music is playing softly in the backgrown. The room is pretty and bright. Oil paitings on the wall, and the atmosphere is very relaxed and chill. The tea time menu which includes an entree and a drink of either italian coffee, milk tea, or iced fruit tea. Guess what I got??
As for food, I ordered linguini with mushrooms, corn, and smoked salmon in fresh tomato sauce. Two of my favorite foods combined (corn and tomatoes). It tasted great! Loved the smoked salmon with the flavorful tomato sauce. Big portions too.
My cousin ordered a vegetarian omelette which came with salad and bread. She said it was good even though it tasted very healthy.

But thats not all! Then after that fantastic meal, we walked along the street and came across this super hipster cupcake bakery called Sift Patisserie. There was a sign that said it was one of HK's must go to places for red velvet cupcake. Thats all I needed to get one. The cake was really moist and good. The frosting was good, but I could make equally as good creme cheese frosting at home (right angela?!! :D). Cute shop with lots of different interesting cupcake flavors though!Then, a little bit later (not that much later actually hahaha) we stumbled across this:
Turns out, it's frozen yogurt!!! hahaha. Only 2 flavors, original and green tea. Not as many toppings as yogurtland but who cares? It tasted very similar to pinkberry, but maybe a bit less sweet and more tart. First time trying frozen yogurt in HK and was not dissapointed! I love it for both it's yogurt and it's name!
When I asked for sprinkles, they RAINED it with sprinkles.

o well sugar high!