My YiMama makes Legit Dumplings

My aunt, whom I call Yi Mama in Cantonese, makes freaken awesome dumplings! So this is my little tangent story on how I discovered it. One weekend, Josh tells me there is a "Dumpling Festival" in downtown Pasadena, sounds fun lets go. So me and my cousin, my aunt, and Josh go and it takes like 40 minutes since theres traffic, and TO our surprise we see only like 2 taco trucks, one is seriously a taco truck...(at a "dumpling festival?")and the other is the dumpling station. Basically it was a taco truck look alike that sells different types of interesting dumplings. Theres like over 50 people waiting in line for the dumpling station. Greaaattt. But they had a creative menu. Nutella and Banana Wontons? Wasabi Fries? Curry Dumplings? Since we were on a time crunch we just left empty handed. BUT, that didn't stop my aunt from getting some dumplings! The next morning I woke up, and saw plates and plates of uncooked potstickers, bowls of different fillings, my gong gong (grandpa) and po po (grandma) hard at work folding the dumplings in place. My aunt was seriously inspired because she made like 5 different types. When you have an aunt like mine, who NEEDS dumpling station, or a dumpling festival? Below is the normal type of potsticker with pork and bok choy inside.

Then she took it to the next level and made dumplings with apple, ground pork, and shrimp inside. These were Josh's favorite :)

She also made some really awesome chicken and curry dumplings, perfectly crispy and crunchy!

Me and Wendy's experiment: chocolate dumplings hahah.

YiMama hard at work

My grandparents, taking this dumpling making business very seriously.

haha jk!

As my grandma would say, "Fai Dee Sek Mai Koi le!"

1/2 + 1/2 = 1 yummy lychee green tea

Me and Josh visited this tiny but always busy boba place called Half and Half. It's a really really small shop sandwiched between a Wells Fargo and a Shabu Shabu place. We both ordered Iced Milk with Boba because yelp told me to. It was......interesting...in a good way. Don't expect it to be super sweet because it's actually really light. The milk part basically tasted like milk and ice made into an icee. But the boba was really sweet and chewy so it was a nice balance. But when I went again with my cousins, I ordered the Lychee Green Iced Tea with lychee jellies, and it was SO good and refreshing! OMG I can just imagine drinking this in like 100C degree weather and feeling extremely happy. The good thing about Half and Half is that the regular sized drinks are like large sizes at most other boba places. Thats always niceee. I also tried the Peach Black Iced Tea and it was pretty good too.

We also ordered two brick toasts. Below was the corn flavored one. When we got it I was thinking in my head how I could make the same thing......hahaha. (Which I later did with josh but it just didnt taste the same) It was nice and buttery but I wouldn't spend 5 bucks on it again.

The second one was the "sweet cream" flavored. OMG it was soo good. Even though the toast was the size of a regular piece of bread instead of thicker, they put a magical recipe of butter and condensed milk and honey and some other magical ingredients to make it taste super delicious. I probably would spend 5 bucks to eat that one piece of bread again.
So since summer is here, and the weather is getting warmer, go visit Half and Half and get yourself a nice refreshing drink. Its full of chinese fobs though, but maybe you will make some new fob friends!

Chicken and Waffles

So I finally went to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in Pasadena. I didn't really know what to expect. I went with my cousins as a spontaneous dinner suggestion. They said you are suppose to eat the chicken with the waffles. I'm thinking thats really weird. But anyways, we were all super hungry and couldn't wait for the food to arrive. When it did, (didn't take long) all the plates came all at once and we were bombarded with FOOD. Chicken everywhere! Waffles all over the place! My brother doesn't waste any time and just begins eating the waffle off the plate. Like really? hahah. So I took a drumstick and a quarter of a waffle. I cut up the chicken, and ate it with a chunk of waffle smeared with syrup....and..... I really liked it! It actually tastes good together! I continued to do that for the rest of the meal. We were so hungry that we finished all our food in 15 minutes. Yes we timed it. Hahaha.

my cousins waiting for the food. My cousins Conrad and Joanna proudly wears their tye die shirts. (we all made them for fun). Lookin good Conrad.

Chicken in gravy- not as good as the fried chicken but not bad either.
the waffles with scoops of butter
Southern fried chicken!

I would have to say that the Southern fried chicken was the best thing I had there. It was just really really crispy and delicious. Totally different from KFC. The chicken just tasted really really good. Overall it was a very nice experience at Roscoe's. I also heard that the Pasadena location was not as good as the other locations in LA. Really though? Cuz I thought this place was already pretty good. I'll have to try the other ones in LA to see what they mean. Does anyone wanna go with me? :D

My cousins, my brother, and me rocking the tie dye hahahhaah

simple food

I was hanging out with my cousin Wendy at her house, and she made me simple but delicious chicken quesadillas with mango salsa for lunch. All by herself! It took like 5 minutes to make, but it was so good, and healthy too. It was a fun time with my cousin before midterms and finals :)

one bitchy kimchichigae

I dont think I need to explain this one...

HAHAHA! Ok so this is the awesome kimchichigae (kim chi soup) that Theresa makes. She may not be a chef, but she can cook this soup pretty darn well!!

Ingredients: Aged kimchi, spam, medium firm tofu, water, and red chili paste.

ucla grub

How do UCLA kids stay fit after eating dorm food? I REALLY REALLY don't get it. They have like so many effing cafeterias and on top of that, little cafes all over the place that are open LATE NIGHT all the time, just luring people to go there to eat food! After visiting my best friend at UCLA, I really can not understand how people manage to cleaverly disguise their massive food intake. When we went to eat late night, a shitload of people were there eating away their cheeseburgers and chili cheese fries, and oreo shakes, including ourselves too. This was only 3 hours after eating dinner, so yea..... couldn't really finish much of it. But, it was an eye opening experience of dorm food at UCLA.

After food coma, we went to visit the beautiful library! I wish I brought my books so I could have studied there!

best friends since 02 :)

Sushilicious

Sushilicious is a revolving sushi place. SOooOoo with that in mind, it wasn't bad. Definitely better then Kula. The waitresses were very attentative and friendly too. The food was whatevers. If I had to choose I probably wouldn't go back unless someone else suggests it. But it seems like a nice place for a group of friends to hang out though!

Below is the Scallop Roll.

Also, one cool thing about this place is that it has bottomless vegetable tempura! only 9 bucks and you can get as much as you want. We ordered at least like 5 rounds of it haha.

Tuna Sashimi
Salmon Sashimi