http://kolinateng.com

You can tell that I’m avoiding study time (Dad, grad schools, and employers: I hope you’re not reading) because I made fresh lunch and dinner today that involved appliances other than the microwave/toaster—namely, the stove and the rice cooker. It’s kind of a big deal. 

I love Japanese foods because 1) they’re generally healthy in balanced amounts (which means unhealthy in the average American serving size) and 2) the everyday dishes are so easy to make! 

Firstly, zarusoba on my ghetto, ill-fitted zaru. Just boil the soba (buckwheat) noodles, rinse with cold water, and dip into soysauce broth!

And then there was natto for dinner. I think my friend Adam describes natto pretty accurately: 

“…Natto is probably the most disgusting, vomit-induciug foods to come out of Japan.  It’s basically fermented soybeans that looks like cat-barf, with the viscosity of snot, and the rank of dirty gym socks.”

WELL. That is what I made for dinner. The smell and appearance seem to repulse the majority of my friends, but since my psuedo-Japanese mother persisted in preparing all kinds of weird foods I did not enjoy initially, I have since become an avid natto fan. It’s so easy to make; the package comes with everything you need—the fermented soybeans, the spicy mustard, and the soysauce. Mix it up, throw it on the rice, top with green onions and stale seaweed from the cupboard, and I’m set!

Apparently, it goes well on zarusoba, too! I’ve had it in maki sushi, which I enjoy a lot, and Wikipedia tells me that it’s customary to spread it on toast too, so I might try that next. It would sure beat peanut butter in terms of nutrition, at least. Yay for soy!

---

And in keeping with the Japanese-ish theme for this post, check out this blog for Maru, a cat in Japan made famous by his cuteness and affinity for boxes. AHH SO CUTE! I’ve deemed it worthly for my blogroll reserved for only the best blogs. I can haz cat?

---

Since I’m on a roll… Have I mentioned Japanese denim? Okay okay, I won’t go into lengths here, but seriously—I’ve never seen anything comparable to Japanese-made clothing. First of all, it fits my petite stature (although I am a size “Large” in Japan) and narrow shoulders to a T; second, the craftsmanship is unbelievable. Mom kept most of her clothes from her time in college in Japan, and they’re made so well that I still currently wear a few items (the whole vintage fad in fashion works well in this regard).

---

P.S. This is here only to beat Reid to the punch and mention that, yes, he is Japanese… but only after I’ve mentioned food, cats, and denim. Hm.

Well, I still was over Nancy’s bowtie tanlines, but then I remembered my own tanlines from last summer’s rafting trip and the SF Oyster & Beer Festival. And then I stopped laughing, since I still have those tanlines, one year later.

Hopefully this June’s Yosemite Young Lakes backpacking trip and 4th of July Sonoma/Point Reyes trip will be much kinder on my skin. Woohoo! Excited for the summer!

As I mentioned in my last post, I went on a cruise with some old friends over the Memorial Day weekend. It was my first time on a cruise, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I hoped it was going to be G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S-yeah like the Titanic (and Fergie), minus the sinking, but because it was Carnival Cruises, it was like being in Reno, but on a boat. I think Peter said it best, when he said at the end of 3 days of boat/Titanic/pirate jokes, “I’m going to miss the decor. It’s tacky, but it’s growing on me… like a fungus.” Aforementioned decor garnished the cheesy dance shows that must have originated from the 70’s, the dance club with middle-aged people, and a casino. The food and table service, however, far exceeded my expectations of sloppy buffet food. On our first night, we ordered 15 appetizers, 8 entrees, and 17 dessert items, and with each subsequent dinner we tried to out-do the last. Oh, the gluttony!

The ship was originally to set sail for Ensenada, but due to the recent swine flu scare, we stopped at Catalina Island instead. There we did a lot of touristy stuff, like having lunch at the country clubhouse, where the Chicago Cubs held their spring training, and walking past the world’s first theater for talking films. The highlight, of course, was ocean kayaking in the clear, shallow waters amongst kelp forests and bright orange fish.  Amy and I tag-teamed the kayak and even paddled around trying to pick up what litter we spotted floating in the water. Yay, we’re Green! I risked taking my camera onto the kayak with me and was consequently rewarded with this money shot:

Island excursion aside, there is really limited entertainment on a boat. For lack of better things to do, somebody lay out in the sun, expecting to be there for only an hour—thus forgoing the sunscreen—and ended up falling asleep for 4 hours, resulting in a very large, unmistakable bikini bowtie tan line. Observe:

The real highlight of the entire mini-vacation, however, was simply reconnecting with old friends, some of whom I had not seen or spoken to in 10 years. We ordered drinks and toasted to ships instead of friendships, explaining that we would need much more to tolerate each other for 3 days. Clearly we needed a few more:

Amy, Judy, Nancy, Jon, Josh, and Peter: Here’s to hot tubs, Moscato, T-pain, A Whole New World, climbing palm trees, homosexual elephants, sunburns, 4 boats in 3 days, and Journey. Let’s do it again (maybe not a cruise) and don’t stop.. beliiiievin’!

I signed up for this Carnival Cruise with my oldest family friends of 18+ years just so I can sing this ridiculous song from The Lonely Island that satirized this music genre so well that it’s actually played on VH1. Thankfully, dorks attract dorky friends who were more than willing to indulge me by helping me recreate our own version of the song.

---

 

On a side note, I can’t believe I was able to get a picture with a buoy and mermaid more easily than I was able to find a nautical-themed pashmina afghan. And believe me, I looked.

Although I haven’t made time to read lately, I consider myself a bookworm—typically for fictional literature. Sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction, drama, suspense, the classics—pretty much anything goes, save romance and horror. But more than anything else, I love the books that I grew up reading. I’m excited and a little conflicted that some of my favorite books are going to have on-screen adaptations soon!

• Where the Wild Things Are - As much as I love this book and how excited I am for this film, I can’t help thinking that I REALLY want to make and wear Max’s costume for Halloween and/or winter pajamas. 

• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - I kind of wish this wasn’t an animated film. While it seems kind of awesome that I could eat food out of the sky, can you imagine the stench of molding food in the gutters, the terrifying horror of having a GIANT PANCAKE crash down on your roof and slather your windows with butter and syrup? Okay, that last part still sounds like of appetizing. But just imagine the potential of a movie with real actors and realistic scenes!

• Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card (???)- I am SO STOKED for this movie. Card’s written a few revisions of the script, and if he is heavily involved with the film’s direction, I am sure I will love it. I love stories of child psychology in situations where they are left to fend for themselves, i.e. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale. Throw in space adventures and a thematic heroic journey a la Aristotle, and I am game.

• The Giver, Lois Lowry (2011?!) - Why hasn’t there been a movie made for this yet?! I can’t get enough of stories of dytopic universes.George Orwell’s 1984, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron come immediately to mind. Add child psychology, and again, I’m sold. This would be such an interesting film to direct—specifically using color, music (or lack thereof), and lighting to juxtapose utopian ideals against the flaws reflected in the dystopic society.

Of course, the downside of these adaptations is that I’ve developed my own interpretation of the stories, the settings, and the characters, and very rarely do the films accurately reflect what I think the story should look and feel like. The ability to develop my own interpretation and derive my own conclusions is the reason I enjoy the original stories significantly moreso than their adaptations; regardless, I rarely watch a film before I read the book and thus my own interpretation usually remains unbudged. Plus, seeing someone else’s intepretation often offers a whole new point of view.

Where the Wild Things Are is slated for release on October 16, 2009. That gives me 5 months to get my Halloween costume ready, conveniently in time for the opening night of the movie. SO… who wants to go with and be embarassed to be seen with me? :)

 

---

 Update:

Dude he’s wearing chucks, too. So money you don’t even know it.

I wanted to surprise my parents with a Sunday brunch with pancakes, so I bought some organic buckwheat pancake mix and went home extra early today to cook. Perhaps I should have stuck to the usual chocolate chip pancakes—because I wasn’t familiar with this particular brand nor type of mix/buckwheat, there was a bit of a learning curve. Observe: 

Pancake fail. Later I found out that Dad had run upstairs and told Mom that she’d better go keep an eye on me. O YE OF LITTLE FAITH. 

VICTORY! Okay, so they’re not perfect, but I blame the lack of a griddle and a bad spatula. They taste a little different and have a strange texture—kind of like zarusoba in pancake form, which I suppose makes sense because it is buckwheat—but they were delicious and healthy! 

Pick yours up at the local Nob Hill!

My roommate and long-time friend Nancy turned 24 on Monday, and we had celebrated over the weekend Friday with her coworkers and a few of good friends that we grew up with. Check out the two pictures below—that’s me, Nancy, and Judy in 1993 and now (plus Jean!) in 2009, 16 years later!

The interesting thing is that prior to Summer ‘08 when we moved in together, I hadn’t seen Nancy for about 10 years since I moved away from San Ramon and stopped attending the church that we grew up with. Coincidentally, we both ended up working in this area after college, and she needed a place to stay and found via Facebook that I too was looking for a roommate.  As a product of living with Nancy, I’ve been getting back in touch with several others that she had kept in close contact with. Interestingly enough, even though I had been MIA for so many years, I found that we’re all still able to mesh well and that our childhood ties run deeper than one might expect from a bunch of kids that watched The Brave Little Toaster about 20 times over and slid down the stairs on a red mini-sofa while their parents communed and prayed together. 

Yesterday, the four of us that work in South Bay decided to cook together and prepared meal of zarusoba, baked salmon, pesto pizza, nian gao (or “Rice Ovaletts” according to the packaging), salad, chocolate pie, and frozen yogurt.  Eclectic yet delicious!

     

     

Our next potluck is supposed to be a curry cook-off, so stay tuned for that one; I intend to win this one as I’ve been getting in some good practice lately!

We spent the rest of the evening checking out a dance floor that Wei installed in his room; Wei and I tried to teach Josh and Nancy how to Lindy Hop, and they tried to teach us how to pop lock and drop it. I think I’ll stick with ballroom…

Anyway, I’m looking forward to some good times on our cruise next weekend! We’re no longer going to Ensenada due to the Swine Flu but circling the Pacific Ocean to land at Catalina Island instead, which is definitely a-OK with me!

I take back any bad things I have ever said about yoga, ’cause today, it kicked my butt! I signed up for an introductory month of yoga today and attended my first ever yoga session—90 minutes of 95-degree-Farenheit heated vinyasa yoga at Yoga @ Cindy’s—in part to strenghten my failing knees, in part to tone up these muscles that have been neglected since I stopped practicing Wushu, and mostly because relying on my willpower to swim consistently is more difficult than attending classes with a regimen and instructors.

Within the first hour, I drank a whole liter of water—literally. Liter-ally! HAHA, get it?! (Oh man, I’m so lame. How do I have friends?) I got owned in that 90-minute session, but I’m fairly content that I was able to keep up to a certain extent for my first time. It was so warm and the dynamic (vs. static) positions really got me sweating, so I feel like I got a good workout. I’m much more used to the high-impact type of exercise that makes me feel like I’m really getting a good workout, so this is really different in that I am basically doing stances, stretches, and strenghtening for 90 consecutive minutes—a building, burning pain versus the sudden, sharp, Oh-God-I-just-tore-a-muscle-I-didn’t-know-I-had kind of pain.

While I’m excited to see how a month of this will be reflected on my body, I may need to continue swimming for resistance and cardio training. I would also like to learn how to rock climb properly, play tennis, dance the Lindy Hop, and so many other physical/recreational activities, but there’s just never enough time in addition to working and studying! Guess I’ll see how this month goes first :)

I think the most overused phase EVER is, “You’ll understand when you’re a mother one day.” No kid has ever believed that that is a good justification for rules and regulations.

I have a handful of peers and cousins whose mothers have used the exact same phrase, and they have, of course, hated it too. Now that some of them are touting around their own Mini-Me’s, I see in them my own Mom’s fears, concerns, hopes, dreams, and good intentions  in the upbringing of their children. And then I think, “Oh God, Mom’s gonna be right… again!”

 

---

 

What kind of fake smile is that?! Don’t make me force you to smile!

There we go :D

It’s no big news that I’m a devout fan of a certain mid-sized Scranton, PA paper company and what must be the most dedicated and/or bored camera crew ever that films the employees through their everyday awkward moments and the hilarity that ensues at Dunder Mifflin.  Last Monday, I was able to see B.J. Novak a.k.a. “Ryan Howard” a.k.a. writer and producer of The Office when he visited Santa Clara University for his stand-up comedy act. Apparently he’s been making some rounds, as he was at Stanford last week, and had quite a few of us in the auditorium! Anyway, he’s a really good comedian with a lot of subtle, witty lines and great timing—exactly my type of humor! 

At one point, Novak went through a stack of cards of pre-meditated/written jokes and one-liners to gauge audience reaction, supposedly for his future routines. He threw some of the “bad” ones away, and one of the girls in my group was able to grab one for me (Thanks Beah & Sandy!). A group of girls bum-rushed Novak at the end of his routine for signatures and pictures. But not I. No, I would never sink to that level of fangirl-dom. 

Or would I?!

Yea, I would. :(

---

I know of only a handful of individuals one individual that hasn’t watched The Office (and he actually DOES work at a mid-sized paper company!), but if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it, especially if you like dry, awkward humor and a lot of WTF?! moments. Below are a few of my favorite quotes, mostly from the first 3 seasons!

Dwight Schrute: Whenever I’m about to do something, I think, ‘would an idiot do that?’ And if they would, I do not do that thing. (Ep 3.16)

Michael Scott: A boss’s salary isn’t just about money. It is about perks. It- for example, every year I get a one hundred dollar gas card. Can’t put a price tag on that. (Ep 3.18)

Jim Halpert: Question. What kind of bear is best?
Dwight Schrute: That’s a ridiculous question.
Jim Halpert: False. Black bear.
Dwight Schrute: That’s debatable. There are basically two schools of thought–
Jim Halpert: Fact. Bears eat beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.
Dwight Schrute: Bears do not… What is going on?! What are you doing?! (Ep 3.20)

Kevin [on pizza]: It’s bad. It’s real bad. It’s like eating a hot circle of garbage. (Ep 4.3)

Andy Bernard: Beer me that CD
Jim Halpert: Lord, beer me strength. (Ep 3.20)