Last weekend, Reid and I had dinner at DOSA and ordered the 7×7 list item #67: paper masala dosa. While it was good, it wasn’t spectacular, which is what I would expect from the end-all-be-all list of SF foods to try before I can die satisfied. This forced me and Reid to re-evaluate how we would rate the 7×7 items. “Would we recommend a friend to go out of their way to eat this?” is the new question. No, but I wouldn’t be adverse to coming here again, provided that we have exhausted the remaining 86% of the list.
A friend had recently asked how my 7×7 100 foods endeavor was going. DISMALLY! I replied. Okay, I didn’t shout. But we’re almost one-third through 2010 and only 14% complete; this projects to roughly a 37%-completion by December. Reid and I haven’t been keeping up due to the fact that 7×7 updated its list for 2010 while we were already 12% into the 2009 list in January 2010. The fact that we had already tried some items off the 2009 list that didn’t make it onto the 2010 list was kind of discouraging. You can’t UNCROSS things off a list! We will have to RE-EAT EVERYTHING… which is a good excuse to eat another Roli Roti porchetta sandwich now that I think about it.
Also discouraging is that now I have to update the existing list on this blog. Or I could just not.
What a weekend! I absolutely love long weekends packed with activities. These days are probably the most carefree days I’ll have for the rest of my life - before the inevitableness of grad school, before mortgages and large loans, before family obligations, and before health concerns that most certainly accompany adulthood. I thank God for the comforts he’s blessed me with (and my workplace that allows me to work a 9/80 schedule!) that allow me to have wonderful, indulgent weekends like this!
On Friday, a few of us took advantage of the beautiful weather to take make a non limited-hassle 4-hour trip to Northstar. It hadn’t snowed there since the previous Friday, where we in the South Bay experienced an unexpectedly large rain downpour. As a result, the snow was packed and way too icy in the morning - Debbie Downer here was starting to dread the rest of the day. Fortunately, the sun warmed up the ice and the snow took on the consistency of a snow cone, and it became much more fun once I started imagining that I was riding down a mountainous snow dessert with a rainbow of colors and sugary flavors trailing behind my snowboard. It was the last day of winter for the year, and probably won’t snow much for the rest of the year, so it was a great way to close the season with such a nice, relaxed day of riding snow.
And, what a perfect transition to Spring! With Reid and Linda’s March birthdays recently passed, a barbecue was definitely in order. Ever since Reid got that super nice grill last year, I’ve loved playing host for our BBQs and potlucks. It’s a great way to get all our mutual friends together (and it’s especially fun trying to figure out how we all know each other - it’s a complicated and fun mess) with good food to usher in the new season. I started food prep at 10AM on Saturday and didn’t stop until 3 hours into the birthday bash. I’ve got to say that while I love hosting a social event, I’m definitely happiest in the background and facilitating via food - the social glue of any good party.
I’m not a great cook, but I was pretty happy with the spread this time around: grilled garlic soy sauce drumsticks (a recipe adapted from HK), 15 pounds (fifteen pounds!!) of kalbi (courtesy of Linda’s parents’ store - Seoul Market in San Jose), pulled pork sliders (with Reid’s manager’s recipe here), pulled pork soft tacos with the works, prosciutto-wrapped goat cheese, bruschetta (I LOVE bruschetta), red velvet cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting (Joy the Baker’s recipe here), nachos, and salami and kalamata olive pizza bagels. Everything was put together from scratch (except the kalbi); I get a particular satisfaction from that. And of course, there was some awesome contributions by many, many others: Charlene’s homemade guacamole, Sandy’s veggie platter, Kim’s thumbprint jam cookies, Wilmot’s healthy grilled peppers and mushrooms, and lot of beer and chips and drinks from others. Thanks for helping, everyone! :D
And even after all that delicious food, I spent several hours on Sunday afternoon eating more. Thanks to Nelson, I recently discovered SF Food Wars, which hosts local food competitions and hopes SF’s local denizens “compete and eat until your knife is dull and your stomach explodes”. Today’s competition was that of chocolate cookies with an overarching Jersey Shore theme, appropriately titled “The [Chocolate Cookie] Situation” at Mighty in SF. COUNT ME IN.
There were 20 different baking competitors doing everything to chocolate and cookie that you can imagine… and I had to choose ONE favorite. 20 cookies don’t seem like a lot for a girl who can eat half a package of oreos in one sitting (who? me? what?), but I was SO SAD by the 10th cookie. There was so much that I couldn’t even finish my favorite one. Eric took the smarter approach and ate only one bite of each cookie to judge, but who DOES that? You’re WASTING. COOKIES. Will someone think of the children?!
Anyway. Reid’s pics here. I was too busy shoveling cookies into my gaping maw to take my own pictures.
On a side note… Jersey Shore: wtf?
hahahahahahah
Thanks a lot, MTV, for your value-added contribution to my generation.
Back in college, HK and I used to bash on the male population that bought flowers and stuffed animals for their significant others on Valentine’s Day. One year we even [facetiously] suggested that she decapitate the stuffed bear that an admirer had gifted her since she was known to be rather selective (that’s a nice way of putting it) and often scoffed at any cliché signs of affection directed at her. I know, I know - we’re horrible and don’t deserve anyone’s adoration, but Valentine’s usually leaves a bad taste mainly because of things like this:
Lover's Lane at Safeway
Yech!
Anyway, that was until last year, when she received a bouquet of roses and sheepishly admitted how thrilled she was. And then this weekend, Reid pulled out all the stops for our first Valentine’s and one-year anniversary. Now I’m the sheepish ball of sap.
First, we celebrated Chinese New Year on Saturday night with my parents and some extended family. Yay, good food and red envelopes!
Second, Reid surprised me with all the sappy stuff that I pretend to hate and then made a delicious brunch crab and avocado omelets with hollandaise sauce, mimosas, and bacon! We went to Tartine Bakery in the late afternoon, got a fresh loaf of bread right out of the oven (7×7’s 2010 list of things-to-eat item!), slathered it in creamy, sweet brillat-savrin cheese from Bi-Rite Market, and munched on it at Dolores Park. Granted, my suspicions were correct in that we would spend the day trying to get the Foursquare Valentine’s Day badge, and Tartine was one of the Foursquare stops, it was hands-down the best bread and cheese I have ever tasted, and it was a beautiful day in the Mission to enjoy it. We did have some time to kill before our dinner reservation, so we went to Absinthe to try the Galapagos cocktail (another item off the 7×7 list). I can’t say it wow’d me, but we’ll have to come back for the house-made hot dog that’s also on the 7×7 list.
And last, Reid took me to dinner at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, which I have been excited about since he told me he made the reservation. The restaurant is hailed as the birthplace of California cuisine, was listed as one of the top 50 restaurants in the world, and was awarded a Michelin star for several years. I was particuarly impressed with the UN-pretentiousness of the restaurant and the friendliness of the wait/kitchen staff who invited us to explore their open kitchen at the end of the meal. I’m not a self-proclaimed foodie, nor can I speak with knowledge to quality of ingredients or cooking technique, but I can just say that the meal was absolutely delicious. It was definitely one of the best dining experiences I’ve had, but the caveat I must state with that proclaimation is that fine dining is only as good as the company dining with you. That said, I looked forward to making pasta with canned sauce, frozen meatballs, and leftover bread and cheese with Reid the following evening as much as I looked forward to our nice dinner out at Chez Panisse.
Okay, enough of the sap. Back to self-deprecating humor now.
Look, I even made a Google map to help plan the strategy of my attack. Iwill need to strategize so that every trip to SFis optimized for money, time, and stomach space. It is not complete yet, but you can see that under each restaurant/location is the food I am to consume at each location; additionally, I am trying to identify each location by dessert/snack (coffee symbol), dine-in restaurant (fork and knife), casual counter food (burger and drink), and cocktail (martini glass not pictured).
Reid, who has already blogged about our endeavor, and I will begin at the Ferry Building this weekend with the cheap(er) foods, but in the meantime, I will satiate my appetite with au bon pain at the airport before I board my plan back to the Bay Area. Smell ya later, D.C.!
I seem to have inherited my mother’s propensity to let fruits over-ripen in the fridge - they’re just so much sweeter when they’re just about to go bad! I’ve been wondering what to do with those overripe pears sitting in the fridge for the last month or so instead of proactively doing something about them. There’s something weird about pears that I don’t like - I love the taste but the mushy texture of the ripe fruit makes it so messy to eat.
And just in the nick of time, Tartelette and Smitten Kitchen both recently posted about pears! Is fall/winter the season for pears? Or did two of my favorite food bloggers just read my mind about wasting food?
Tartelette’s poached pear and almond fallen souffle cake looked delicious! But seeing how I have yet to tackle poached pears and much less souffle, I thought I should try something more manageable, or at least something that wouldn’t require a trip to the supermarket. Enter Smitten Kitchen’s pear bread. This thing is de-li-cious, from the moist, pear brown sugar center with a hint of cinnamon, to the majestic brown crust.
In the name of saving overripe pears from the garbage, I hereby decree a postponement on my holiday diet! Merry Christmas to myself!
So I haven’t been cooking lately since it’s no fun cooking for just one person. Also, I recently retired the no-brand mixer that I bought from Walmart in my thrifty college days because the chrome plating on the beaters were flaking off, and I don’t want that stuff ending up in my food. For a couple of weeks, I wrestled with myself, deciding whether I should just get another $10 beater mixer or just splurge on the coveted KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer With Styled Tilting Head And Ergonomically Designed Mixing Bowl Handle. In the end, I picked out the cheapest hand mixer available from the reputable KitchenAid. The Artisan Stand Mixer will just have to wait until I reach Joy the Baker status. Or when I am rich.
Armed with my new mixer on Monday night, I had the brilliant idea of baking/cooking 3 different dessert/snacks at the same time. I would tackle marshmallows, shortbread, and caramel popcorn all at the same time! Never mind that I have neither a candy thermometer, nor do even my regular cookies come out well. I think more sugar ended up on the counter/floor/my hair than in the food itself, and I certainly had bits of liquid marshmallow in my hair. Egads. Well, luckily for the recipients, better that than my hair getting in the marshmallow instead!
Anyway, the following pictures are lacking in quality because 1) my photography skills are lacking, and 2) I don’t have the patience to photograph when both hands are covered in some mix of chocolate, marshmallow, cookie dough (which tasted really good out of the mixing bowl, btw).
Smitten Kitchen’s Toasted Coconut Shortbread turned out pretty well. I’m normally not a fan of coconut, but I think I’m adverse to only the papery texture regularly used in baked goods. I toasted the coconut and then ground it up in a processor pretty well so there wasn’t a texture issue here and were thus delicious! I used regular Safeway butter, but maybe next time I can try something more decadent? :)
Orangette’s Caramel Popcorn with Salted Peanuts turned out delightfully chewy, crunchy, sweet, and salty. Perfect! It was so easy to make, I think this will become a regular snack to make!
Lastly, the Chocolate-dipped Marshmallows turned out way too sweet for my own liking. I was never a huge marshmallow fan (except in s’mores!), but this one seemed like an interesting challenge to tackle. And there it is. At least my sweet-toothed Mom loves them so I gave her most of the batch to share.
Yikes, I wish I could take better pictures! It’s something to work on, I suppose. Wouldn’t it be great if my photography skills developed in a positive linear correlation to my cooking/baking skills? That would be an interesting trend to see :) Fingers crossed.
Anyway, the snow was so great last weekend thaaaaat… we’re doing it again! Tomorrow, all the college kids are out of finals and it’s going to be a beautiful partly sunny Saturday, so we’ll probably have to deal with the crowds. The more the merrier? Perhaps. Oh well. If all else fails, we still have our 5-day New Year’s Eve cabin trip snow bonanza coming up in 2 weeks!
December is upon us, and I am now 3 years out of college. Yikes. Where did the time go?
I had a good time in Vegas with good friends, spent mostly eating and walking the strip. A few partook in gambling, but I’m way too risk-adverse to invest in luck and would rather invest in things with guaranteed positive return—like shoes! Or not shoes. I don’t know. I really like shoes.
All the fun I had in November—crab fishing, Reduced Shakespeare Performance, Paramore concert, Vegas—culminated in my 4-day Thanksgiving trip with Reid to his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri—my first trip to the Midwest! I wasn’t sure what to expect there, but if Missouri’s attractions were proportionate to Reid’s anecdotes and descriptions, St. Louis should have a restaurant on every block that served toasted ravioli and Budweiser, all under the Gateway Arch.
Needless to say, St. Louis wasn’t quite like that. What I’ll probably remember most is the Yokoyamas’ home—downright cozy with beautiful exposed brick walls and blue-checkered walls, sprawling lawn, trees everywhere, deer and birds frequenting the garden, and a very warm, hospitable family. Oh, and leaves. Leaves EVERYWHERE in St. Louis. As a member of the Facebook Group “I Will Go Slightly Out Of My Way To Step On A Crunchy Looking Leaf”, I lived up to my name and stepped on as many leaves as I could that were slightly out of my way—and the crunch of leaves was particularly gratifying in Missouri. I also saw the Mississippi River for the first time. I sort of expected to see Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher on steam boats floating down the river. And I DID. Sorta. Okay, they were tourist steamboats named Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher. That’s okay.
And Thanksgiving dinner—oh my! Thanksgiving dinner to me usually means huoguo—Chinese hot pot, similar to shabu shabu—and maybe a rotisserie chicken. A family of three like mine has trouble eating any-sized turkey and/or ham. But in St. Louis, we deep-fried a 12 pound turkey (along with coconut macadamia nut shrimp and wontons—a delicious deviation from traditional Thanksgiving fare), baked a green been casserole and spinach-and-yam gratin (adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s recipe), and made pumpkin pie, cornbread, fresh cranberry sauce with golden raisins, stuffing, gravy, and fresh mashed potatoes! Oh, what a delicious meal by the Yokoyamas!
After Thanksgiving, we spent one day at the St. Louis Art Museum (the special Five Centuries of Japanese Screens exhibit) and at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, and then spent another day doing the tourist rounds at the Gateway Arch and Anheuser-Bursch Brewery, ending the trip with Reid’s old favorite eateries: Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, the Posh Nosh, and Steak ‘n Shake!
I had such a pleasant holiday with great food and wonderful company, that coming back into work was pretty rough. I’m back home for a good while now after an exciting month. The Christmas wreath has been dusted off and hung up, Starbuck’s gingerbread latte is now in stores, and the annual snowboarding trip to bring in the new year has been planned; ladies and gentlemen, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Yesterday was Friday the 13th. And as luck would have it, my Friday-the-13th’s are generally good days, and indeed yesterday was a good day. Why? Well, it was the first day of my 5-day weekend/vacation/getaway. And let me tell ya, there are good things lined up this weekend: I’m going to Vegas!
Okay, so let me start by saying that Vegas seems generally kind of over-the-top and tacky to me. In Ocean’s 11, you don’t see the stumbling drunk people, the seedy strip bars XXX GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS XXX, the people lined up on the side of the streets trying to hand you “censored” “escort” calling cards. And who actually goes to Vegas to get married? I’m painting such a picture that suddenly I’m getting un-excited about my trip, so I’ll stop right there. Let me start over.
I’m going to Vegas! It will be a college apartment-mate reunion—whew, that’s a recipe for disaster, isn’t it? No tagging in Facebook photos, guys. Just kidding; the movie Hangover makes me wary of drinks (or friends that would accidentally roofie your drinks) lest Mike Tyson’s tiger ends up in my bathroom.
Anyway, as most girls know, a trip to Vegas doesn’t really start with Las Vegas, NV itself. It starts with a prior week of I-don’t-have-anything-to-wear, since we work at an engineering firm and not, say, Sephora at the mall. So Linda and I have been shopping around and yesterday, we got our nails did.
I’m still getting around to the point of this blog entry, which is not about, as you might have guessed, Vegas. Yesterday, oh yesterday, to kick off this awesome mini-vacation, Reid and I drove up to Walnut Creek to see the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s performance of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised!]. Now, I watched a video of this performance back in high school in the 12th grade. On occasion, I’ve been Googling (how is “Googling” not a word accepted in Wordpress’s spellchecker?) about their tours. Finally, 4 months ago I introduced Reid to some of their work and it just so happened that I found that they were going to perform in the Bay Area for 3 days, and tickets would be sold in a month!
I called the first day that tickets were available and landed us some 6th row seats to the show. Let me tell you: it was possibly the best $45 I have ever spent. Sure, most of the script was verbatim from their taped performance, but it was amazing live. They engaged the audience (with audience participation!) and delivered clever lines and witty puns with incredible comedic timing. The fact that I knew what to expect didn’t matter; I laughed so hard that I cried! I find it hilarious that so many, as I once did, consider Shakespeare to be irrelevant and stuffy. Only some people realize that these Shakespearean plays were written for the common folk and were riddled with slapstick comedy and sexual innuendo. These guys captured the spirit of Shakespeare wholly.
You’ll just have to watch it yourself! This is their Romeo and Juliet. Watch it and try to tell me it’s not hilarious!
Before our show, we went to Va de Vi Bistro and Wine Bar for dinner. I think the restaurant is described as an Asian California fusion tapas bar. Basically, what my mom makes like this, wonderful in taste and familiarity:
Do you know how good these cookies are? I skipped blogging about the John Legend Evolver concert to first blog about these cookies. THAT’s how good they are. It’s basically baked peanut butter in the shape of a cookie. It’s delicious and it takes 4 ingredients and about 15 minutes to make. That’s a dangerous combination. A dangerous and delicious combination.
Thank you, Joy the Baker, for undoing anything I ever do at the gym.
I love the summer; with the warm weather come cool foods, cold drinks, beaches, BBQs, and summer dresses.
Reid drove me down to LA the previous weekend before last to visit Kim! It was also my first time really walking around LA, as most of my previous trips have been to just to visit relatives during Thanksgiving when I was younger. Reid beat me to the blog post (again), so I’ll just punch out some of my highlights:
1. We went to the Santa Monica pier, where I rode a ferris wheel for the first time. According to others, it’s kind of weird that I haven’t been on one before. So we changed that, but it wasn’t as glamorous as I imagined it to be. It probably seemed cooler in Grease or the animated movie Charlotte’s Web when I was younger simply because I had never been on one before.
2. The one time I did drive through LA with friends was 8 years ago on the way to Tijuana, Mexico for a service trip, and we stopped at this amazing place called Diddy Riese. I dreamed about that place and its $1 icecream cookie sandwiches for 8 years, so my only request in LA was to go back to Diddy Riese. The sandwich is now $1.50 but I think it would sell for $5 anywhere. I had Espresso Chip icecream sandwiched between a peanut butter cookie and a macadamia nut white chocolate chip cookie - and it was beautiful.
I was so happy when I was eating this, except that Kim and Reid made me walk while eating.
3. Din Tai Fung - Now I understand the hype surrounding this place. The xiao long bao at this place are p-e-r-f-e-c-t. Yet another reason to love Shanghainese cuisine!
4. Reid really wanted to drive back up on highway 1, since both of us had never gone that way before. It took 12 hours to get home, with a nice dinner stop at Cannery Row in Monterey, but it was really worth the beautiful views of the California coast in stark contrast to the barren hills flanking the linear, quicker highway 5.
A bit of a "Marilyn Monroe" moment
This past weekend was fun too, except for the part on Saturday where Reid dragged me out to go hiking out to the Dish in the Stanford Foothills during the hottest part of the day. Okay okay, it was more like a 3 mile walk and it was actually pretty nice to get outside. Also on the upside, when we finished the walk, he went and surprised me by purchasing the grill he’s been eyeing! I had also been wanting to purchase a grill since I moved into Sunnyvale last year, and since we cook a lot together on the weekends and it’s been too hot to cook in my kitchen, he finally bit on a good deal. Sweeeeet. Just in time for a mid-summer barbecue? :)
Yes!
Can you tell where my priorities are by the size of the pictures I post? :)
OH and on Sunday, a couple of friends went to Santa Cruz to cheer on several friends that were participating in their first sprint triathalon. We got there only minutes after they finished, unfortunately, but the beach was still fun! Throwing around a frisbee “bee” reminded me of my dad and I doing the same thing in our backyard more than 15 years ago! I’m still just as terrible as I was back then, but I take comfort in consistency.
Action shot with the "bee" (Reid, I'm pretty sure "bee" is midwestern slang..)
I’ve been cooking almost every weekend! Mom is probably offended that I’m using cookbook and online recipes other than her own. A pinch-of-this-Chinese-garnish and a dollop-of-that-Japanese-sauce doesn’t work for me—I need specifics, Woman! Then again, specifics is why I fail at baking. Nevertheless! I decided to try making cream puffs again. But not any ol’ regular cream puffs. TOTORO cream puffs!!!—a recipe I found from Anna the Red’s Bento Factory.
TOTORO ARMY ARIIIISE!
My Minions.
Why, hello.
O noes, chibi totoro is no match for the soot sprite!!
Alright: GMAT has been taken, and my stash of chocolate has dwindled significantly, but I’m ready to get on with my summer.
That’s why, last night, a couple of nerdy friends and I stayed up until 3 A.M. playing, of all things on a Friday night, TypeRacer.
I can’t believe that 107 WPM puts me in 4th place, and that at certain times, the others were getting upwards of 120 WPM. I need friends who type more slowly so I can feel superior in comparison :P Even for such a fun activity, I was getting nervous and my stomach started to cramp up from the fun-induced stress—something tells me I need to learn to relax!
[Update: Eric just hit 150 WPM. FRIENDSHIP OVER.]
Reid and I hit up Aziza again last Sunday, since they are participating in the SF Dine About Town this month. I am persistent in being adventurous and trying their various dishes—the duck, the shrimp-chicken-lamb coucous—despite overwhelming consensus from Yelp and other friends that the lamb shank is THE dish to order. Reid only ever orders the lamb shank, and I think I have to finally concede. Rick Astley will give you up for this lamb shank.
We also made Spicy Mississippi Chicken Cakes from the Google Cookbook! They were pretty darn delicious.
Backpacking to Young Lakes in Yosemite next weekend with the Asparagooglers! Any excuse to shop at REI and Sports Basement is a good one.
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!
“…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.
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!
Started off the weekend very nicely with an amazing Moroccan-Mediterranean Californian fusion dinner at Aziza in SF! The piquillo-almond spread on flatbread was especially delicious, and I can see why the lamb shank comes so highly recommended.
Headed to Local Kitchen & Wine Merchant shortly after dinner to meet Kim and company, and then to Kate O’Brien’s, where the entire bar busted out singing along with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” - all kinds of awesome!
On Saturday, I attended (for FOURTEEN HOURS) the 17th Annual Chinese Martial Arts Tournament. As always, I regret not participating in the competition. But I wouldn’t have been able to compete anyway, since I haven’t trained since the the 16th CMAT last year and have virtually quit since then, due to changes in priorities and the frustration associated with the lack of drive and thus, the lack of improvement. Perhaps if I can pick up Wushu recreationally and just constantly remind myself that I can train without the competitive edge and simply for appreciation of the art.
In any case, Linda performed really well. I am amazed that she was able to recover from a torn ACL two years ago and train to compete again! Eric did very well, too; solid performances all around, and especially impressive in the advanced division of staff and broadsword - respectively, 2nd and 3rd place winner! WINNARRR!
Friends have really improved in the past year, and I was especially impressed with Evelyn, gold medal winner in Intermediate Female Changquan, and Ashley, who medaled in the Intermediate Female jianshu (straightsword) event!
In any case, tournament and afterparty were fun for the most part, nice to be reunited and it feeeeeels so gooood with lots of old faces! (Cookie for the person that can identify title and artist of that song!)
