turkey weekend

My weekend was filled with the abundance of eating, shopping, and sleeping that comes with Thanksgiving as an American.

I was crazy enough to suggest going to the Moonlight Madness event at Citadel Outlets on Thanksgiving evening, hoping to get an early start on the insanity that is normally reserved for Black Friday. I left my house at 9:20pm to make it to the event which was starting at 10:00pm. While it didn't take that long to reach the freeway exit, it took an entire hour just to get out! By the time I found parking (which was relatively painless), it was 11:00pm. Then we had to line up just to get into the stores. Tired and defeated after two hours of not accomplishing anything, we hopped back in my car and made for home. It only took me 14 minutes to get back.

"Never again!" I had sworn to myself. Except...

...I slept for 3 hours and went on another mission, hellbent on satisfying my Black Friday shoplust. But finding good deals just wasn't in the cards this year. Everything I purchased was at regular price, with the exception of one ugly-with-potential sweater from H&M that only managed to reel me in because it was so cozy when I tried it on (I am powerless to soft things). Will try to post some pictures of my haul soon.

Saturday night featured a Thanksgiving potluck with friends, a dinner that's become an annual tradition spent at Greg's house where everyone has a jolly time getting fat and wasted. The highlights of the evening were two gloriously juicy, tender deep-fried turkeys:

The skin was the best part! Salty and greasy!

The lowlight of the evening was having to take care of Greg after he had waaay too much to drink, holding him upright after he began vomiting so that he wouldn't choke on it while out cold, only to end up getting it all over my arm. Thanks, friend!

summer nights

After an uneventful start to the month of August, life finally picked up its pace again this past week, beginning with a girls' night out with Elise, Leigh, and Irene. (These days, the BFF is nowhere to be found and sometimes I'm not sure how that makes me feel.)

Dinner at California Pizza Kitchen in Glendale followed by some browsing at the Glendale Galleria and Americana made for a pretty low-key evening, which seemed appropriate for a Wednesday night. That didn't prevent Leigh and me from sharing a strawberry mojito though, and I'm glad we ordered it because it was really delicious!

Doesn't it look pretty?
Photo courtesy of Leigh

Another highlight of dinner was dessert (of course). It's probably a good thing that we split the tiramisu four ways--I totally could've put down the whole thing by myself, but my waistline would've been none too happy about that.

Cool and creamy, with rum-soaked ladyfingers. Yum!
Photo courtesy of Leigh

Fast forward to Friday night and we kicked off the weekend with a birthday celebration for one of Leigh's friends. The plan was to check out Supper Club in Hollywood, which is apparently a pricey restaurant in the early hours of evening that transforms into a club come 10:30pm.

For one reason or another, we weren't able to secure a table and bottle service there like the birthday girl had wanted. So we migrated to another club down the street but I was too preoccupied with trying to refrain from pissing myself for the thirty minutes we were in line to check what the place was called (the unfortunate side effect of having only 10 minutes to pregame with mixed drinks). By the time we were finally granted admittance, I made a beeline for the restroom and only narrowly avoided giving myself a UTI for holding it in so long. Leigh promptly ordered us some AMFs, and wow. They make'em really strong here, but considering they charged $15 for each one, that is expected.

Compared to all the other women walking around, I felt really modest in my outfit. They say classy > slutty, but I think being slutty gets you better results in environments like Hollywood, where everything's more about raw sex appeal than sophisticated allure. Still, I wasn't in the mood to readjust my outfit all night for fear of spillage, so I went the conservative route.

Forever 21 dress, belt, and earrings (not shown), Target tights, Charlotte Russe heels

Oddly enough, my theory that guys tend not to hit on bespectacled girls did not hold true that night. Not one, but TWO guys attempted to win me over by, ironically, commenting on how hot my glasses were. Sloppy execution, but A for effort I suppose. Must do some more field testing before I can prove/disprove my theory. Will report back.

Last night I ventured out to Blitz Ultra Lounge in Alhambra to get drinks with a friend I hadn't seen in months. We had a couple Buttery Nipple shots (which were sinfully good, by the way) and I sipped on a cranberry vodka afterward. Totally didn't mean to drink that much since I had to drive myself home early, but it helped to make dancing on the deserted dance floor a lot less awkward.

The transitions were kind of sloppy and the music was much too loud, making it impossible to have a conversation even whilst shouting directly into each others' ears, but the crowd seemed friendly enough. I can't comment too much more since I left right when the place started to fill up, so I'll have to try this place again some other time to get a better feel for it.

I didn't have time to take an outfit picture, but since it was a repeat of what I've worn before, here's a crappy picture of it taken back in January. Tights are shown, but it was warm enough outside for me to ditch them last night.

Express shirt bought from China, Forever 21 belt, H&M geometric skirt, gifted Urban Outfitters watch necklace

vacation photo diary

...okay, more like a food diary.

World of Color at Disney's California Adventure


Rainbow Roll and Roppongi Roll (basically a shrimp tempura roll topped with spicy tuna and eel) at Roppongi in La Jolla. We were celebrating our 40th monthaversary :)


Chicken Satay with sweet peanut sauce at Roppongi in La Jolla


Lychee Martini at Roppongi in La Jolla. This alone got me buzzed. It had been a while since I last got drunk.


Hazelnut Truffles at Roppongi in La Jolla. They might not look like much, but I cannot stress enough how absolutely fucking amazing these tasted. I have never had a truffle explode into warm, gooey, chocolatey goodness in my mouth...and hazelnut-flavored to boot! Mouth-gasm, if ever there was one. Oh, they were also complimentary! :D


Stuffed French Toast at The Cottage in La Jolla


Eggs Benedict at The Cottage in La Jolla


La Jolla Shores, where J got horribly sunburned because he wasn't thorough enough with the sunblock. I'll never let him live it down :P


The name escapes me, but it's like a tortilla and meant to be dipped in that bowl of curry. Served at Penang in West Covina.


Black sticky rice with coconut milk. It looks unimpressive and possibly even unappetizing, but it's actually quite good and has a hint of red bean (always a plus in my book!). Served at Penang in West Covina.


Turkey Club served with plantain chips at Porto's Bakery & Cafe in Glendale. J also got a potato ball and shared it with me, but it was so good that I forgot to take a picture before we gobbled it up. Oops. (This actually happened a lot during our two weeks together.)


Egg noodles with peanut sauce at Ding's Garden in Rowland Heights. We ordered it medium spicy. Yummy.


Egg noodles with beef and brown sauce at Ding's Garden in Rowland Heights. My favorite!


Sunset on the 10-W towards LA

I swear we also did other things besides eat a lot, but I think I'll save that for another post.

comic con

My long-time friend, Sweet Talker, invited me out to Comic Con in Anaheim this weekend and I decided to accept since I had never been. I was pretty excited, even though I figured it wouldn't be anywhere near the scale of San Diego's Comic Con. Oh well, you gotta start somewhere.

I saw cute things!

The only person I really wanted to see was Tricia Helfer, but when she finally appeared it turned out that she was only doing autographs...at $30 each. They were doing a photo op later that day and probably charging an equally obscene amount. And I probably would've been willing to pay, but then again...losing monies to juxtapose myself with her? My ego said no thanks.

I did, however, manage to snap a stealthy photo when nobody was looking. Creepy, no?

After having satisfied my fangirl imperative, I obliged ST's need for food and together we trekked over to Mimi's Cafe to grab a bite to eat. This place garnered good reviews on Yelp, so it seemed like a good time to try it out. I absolutely looove spinach and artichoke dip and once I saw that it was a menu item, I already knew what I was going to order.

I love when it's served with bread instead of chips!

The dip was rich and full of flavor, which went quite well with the crispy, garlic-y goodness of the bread. We also split a bottle of white wine and being the lightweight that I am, two (or was it three?) glasses were more than enough to put me in a good place for the rest of the afternoon.

We went back to the convention and walked around a while longer but left shortly thereafter in search of ice cream. It was such a nice day outside that it would've been a crime NOT to get some frozen treats. A quick search on Yelp turned up a place nearby called Joe's Italian Ice. Apparently their specialty is --you guessed it--Italian ice. Behold...!

ST's strawberry Joe Latti and my mocha almond fudge ice cream

The Joe Latti is Italian ice layered with soft-serve ice cream and is freakin' delicious. If you're in the area, I definitely recommend giving it a try!

So passed a pleasant day of eating and talking, but now I've found myself in a bit of a bind. You see, I've been friends with ST for quite a number of years and while I do enjoy his company, I'm afraid he enjoys mine in a different way. A part of me wonders whether he's just biding his time until I happen upon singlehood again and hoping that he can be the one to swoop in and pick up the pieces...

Perhaps I should just tell him I'm a lesbian and be done with it. You think he'd buy that?

saturday sundae

Groupons are amazing. A few months ago, I purchased one for ice cream (no surprise there) at LA Creamery Artisan Ice Cream in Glendale and finally had the chance to use it today.

Even though I'm a self-proclaimed dessert fiend, the size of my stomach is always the limiting factor in how much I can consume in one sitting. No matter how much I may have the appetite for it, I can't shouldn't eat $10 worth of ice cream by myself so I decided to share with a friend.

After much sampling and deliberation, we each went for the Fudgey Brownie Sundae. Two scoops of ice cream topped with chewy bites of crumbled brownie, dark chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, candied pecans and whipped cream for $5.95. I chose a scoop of Coffee and Milk Chocolate-Guinness while my friend got Rice Pudding and Saffron Vanilla.

It was an orgasm-inducing experience and worth every penny.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect for ice cream. Summer's on its way.

ETA:
I also attended a birthday gathering where food, alcohol, and good times were had by all. Though I normally avoid beer like the plague, I was peer-pressured into trying a Blue Moon for the first time. Garnished with a slice of orange, it was probably the best beer I've ever had.

tapas & ice cream

As luck would have it, I was brought back to Bar Celona for dinner with a visiting college friend, S. The atmosphere was just as mellow as it was from my last visit, but what else can you expect at 7pm on a weeknight?

The waitstaff were friendly and attentive, and our waiter didn't seem annoyed at all when he had to ask three times before we were finally ready to order. I settled on the chicken and herb empanadas and crispy eggplant served with spiced yogurt while S ordered the shrimp ceviche and a red sangria.

The empanadas were really good--then again, almost anything with a flaky, golden-brown exterior will win me over instantly. If I had to complain about something, I would say the eggplant was a little over-fried but having it with the yogurt tempered that issue. S let me try some of her sangria, which was sweet, strong, and came with lots of fruit. (All pluses in my book.) This is where I did battle against Temptation. Ultimately, Responsibility won out and I didn't order one for myself since, darn it, I had to drive home.

I didn't take any of these, by the way. I'm really bad at photo-documenting my life nowadays.

We walked around in search of dessert after our meal and were disappointed to discover that Dots Cupcakes had already closed. Our quest for sweets continued but when no other options presented themselves within reasonable walking distance, we ran into the welcoming arms of good ol' Baskin Robbins. It was a difficult choice between Jamoca Almond Fudge and World Class Chocolate, but in the end I chose to have a scoop of the latter. The creamy texture and rich flavor really satisfied my reason-defying craving for ice cream ('twas cold out that night)...and it actually didn't give me GERD. Happiness!

om nom nom

In an uncharacteristic fit of spontaneity, I attended the LA Food Truck Festival today with Greg and Elise to satisfy our gastronomic appetites.

However, I had to steel my heart against what I saw there--and I'm not even talking about the plethora of food trucks! No, what I was unprepared to see was how many couples were there enjoying their delectable delights together. I've always been a huge sap, but for once in my life the sight of it stirred up a bitter brew of jealousy that was surprisingly difficult to stomach. What once was one of my greatest sources of joy has suddenly become a double-edged sword. I know, so emo.

And as for the food...well, it all looked good. The lines were quite long since we got there kind of late, so Elise and I only managed to get a small sampling of treats at The Sweets Truck (chocolate cake bite and s'mores cake "sandwich" sufficiently satisfied our sweet tooth!) while Greg stood in line for his lobster roll (lobster was quite fresh, btw). We spent a lot of time walking around to check out what kind of trucks were there, but many of the more popular ones had sold out early. By the time we decided that we wanted fries, that truck had closed up shop for the day. Booooo.

Lesson learned: must get there earlier next time!

rain rain go away

I've been holed up at home for the past two weeks, which is not really conducive to having fun at all, so despite the forecast promising rain for the whole weekend, I was determined to have a good time (read: be social).

When Friday night rolled around, I was ready to have a delicious dinner with a friend who might have a crush on me, until he told me that was not going to happen until 10pm. Fuuuck that. But man, I sure was looking forward to good food after a shitty day at work...you would need a pick-me-up too if your Boss insinuated more than once that you will excel in the domestic domain, as if it will be your defining role in life, and carried on like you should be proud of hearing this crap.

Doesn't matter, Saturday had me covered. Elise and Leigh scooped me up for a late lunch at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in Pasadena, which ended up really hitting the spot. Fried chicken & gravy, mac & cheese, candied yams, and (what I'm guessing were crack-laced) waffles with syrup and salted butter on top. How did I never try this until yesterday?

We walked around Pasadena afterward, stopping to ogle chocolate-covered confections and ice cream ads but too full to actually do anything more than stare, drool, and move on. As the food coma slowly set in, we went back to Elise's house and got comfortable. Before I had time to think twice, the camaraderie that came of our girl-bonding seduced me into revealing my streaking story from senior week. We all had a good laugh at that one, though they wondered why I didn't tell them sooner. Well, I couldn't help but feel like they would've judged me (and maybe they did) as it's not something I would normally do...oh well, I REGRET NOTHING!

Saturday night came around and Leigh and I met up with some high school friends for a birthday celebration at Verdugo Bar. Got drunk for the first time in a while but not on anything I asked for...this bar's kind of weird as they don't make drinks that are normally offered at bars. AMFs and Irish Car Bombs were not on the menu, so I settled for a Tequila Sunrise that tasted like medicine and a Lemon Drop which apparently didn't taste the way it was supposed to. But they did the trick and good times were had, so I'm not complaining too much. I do have to bitch about the stupid cloud coverage that prevented me from seeing the supermoon though...it started raining again by the time the bar closed.

I awoke to the sound of thunder this morning and even now it's still raining bullets outside. Kind of depressing, especially since tomorrow is the beginning of another week of hell...

birds of a feather

I actually went to see Black Swan last Friday, and it was pretty difficult getting tickets since it was only being shown at two theaters in all of LA but we persevered and got decent assigned seating at The Landmark. If you didn't know, the film's a psychological thriller about a possibly bisexual ballerina. I wasn't sure what to expect going into this movie, but I was intrigued enough by the concept to put in my $13.

She cries a lot in this one. Still manages to look beautiful though.

The movie explores the pressures of competition within a professional dance company, accented by seduction and sexual curiosity while throwing a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship into the mix. Some of the special effects were on the cheesy side but mostly the film was kind of disturbing. I especially liked the doppelganger motif...I shall say no more in case you plan on seeing it for yourself. Or read Wikipedia like I did, though it doesn't offer a detailed synopsis.

At the behest of yours truly, we hopped over to Yogurtland afterward for a late night sugar fix even though it was cooold outside. (There's no wrong time for frozen yogurt.) So we found out that Yogurtland is doing this 12 Days of Yuletide Yumminess promotion and unfortunately for me, they're not featuring the tiramisu flavor until the 9th. Booooo. They also ran out of my favorite original tart flavor so I had to settle for the cranberry tart instead. To make up for the substitution, I piled on so much mochi and chocolate-everything that my topping-yogurt ratio ended up quite disproportionate. Who didn't see that coming from a mile away?

December is either going to be really crazy or really boring. Not sure which one I'd pick if given the choice.

owned

Seriously, I need to work on becoming better at navigating social situations. Not only did I get myself stuck driving down to SD when I didn't really want to, but I also got myself into doing lunch with J's parents. Without J there. Why do I do this to myself?

Well, I know why I did it--the last part, at least. I would've felt really guilty if they somehow found out I had been in town and didn't drop by to say hello. And I really want to say, "At least I got a good meal out of it," but considering I had to work pretty hard during those two hours not to piss my pants while they prodded me for details about my job and future plans, I still think I got the short end of the stick.

They ended up taking me to a restaurant called The Cottage in La Jolla, which was a cozy-looking place that also offered outdoor seating--perfect for enjoying the bout of unusually nice weather that graced San Diego this weekend. Since breakfast was still available, I ordered stuffed French toast, which was French toast filled with fresh strawberries, mascarpone cheese and orange zest topped with powdered sugar and maple syrup. Sooo rich and delicious! J's parents ordered a crab melt and eggs benedict; I didn't try the latter, but the former was quite good as well, although it was a bit on the greasy side.

I hung out with the BFF afterward and had some long-overdue girl talk. She told me that she missed me, which actually came as a surprise to me...but it was touching and I let her know that I missed her too. I wish we could've spent more time together but this weekend just wasn't very well-planned. It's nice to know she still cares. Even though I can confide in J about anything, sometimes I just need a female to listen.

I also called up a couple of J's friends to see if they wanted to do something fun while I was in town. Unfortunately, Drinking Buddy wasn't available but Party Friend was down to play board games (Was that paradoxical? Party = board games?). He had a good laugh about how I got suckered into driving to SD and having lunch with the (I say this facetiously) future in-laws, while I poked fun at him for having to climb through the window into the driver's seat of his BMW because the lock had broken earlier that day. We played Settlers of Catan with two other friends, and I'm usually pretty awesome at that game but I got my ass handed to me by noobs. 'Twas a humbling experience but still a pleasant night.

My outlook on this weekend was pretty grim in terms of how much fun I expected to have, especially because I hadn't planned on going down. But I'm glad that I was still able to enjoy what SD had to offer even if J's no longer there as my anchor to the city.

no regrets, just love

I still get a little misty-eyed every time I think about J's impending departure, but I'm mildly comforted by the fact that it isn't likely to happen until November. He came up to visit me for a day and a half and as always, we pigged out like there was no tomorrow and talked much more than usual about nothing at all.

After indulging in Daikokuya for dinner on Saturday night, we went on a double date with Elise and Greg to see Easy A. Feeling guilty that I was dragging him into something that might've been too much of a chick flick, I paid for J's ticket. It was a fun and mindless movie, with a balanced mix of humor and drama. The whole making-a-statement-by-wearing-lingerie-in-public idea was impressed upon me, and now I'm tempted to emulate it simply because I'm actually pretty conservative in real life. Call it irony. Oftentimes I wonder how people perceive me. I already know I'm kind of judged for my interests. I guess they'd be surprised to know I've been keeping a blog too.

Today we made the trip out to West Covina to have delicious Malaysian food at a restaurant we used to frequent in college called Penang. Absolute favorite dishes are the mi goreng (definitely not the same as the instant noodles I mentioned before) and kacang pendek, which are string beans covered in a funky-smelling but mouthwatering fish paste. Sooo good.

Now we're going to switch gears. My spotting lately has done nothing to assuage my fears of premature parenthood, especially because I've never ever spotted in my entire history of periods. If I'm stressed out, I just skip entirely. So I insisted that we make a run to Target and find out once and for all whether there's a bun in the oven. Clutching a box of tests as discreetly as possible while waiting in line, I avoided all unnecessary eye contact until I got to the cashier, who glanced at my purchase and then at me before she smiled sympathetically. How embarrassing! I finished the transaction and ducked into the restroom where I settled into a stall to read the directions and get the whole thing over with. I have to say, those tests are pretty darn fancy for how quickly they get discarded...

Sadly enough, it turns out that my developing roll is more likely due to overindulgence in palatable pleasures than sexual ones. And so, as one anxiety is relieved, another is born in its stead.

cakes

Kind of a busy weekend, with a little more spontaneity than I'm comfortable with...but to hell with comfort when spontaneity promises some fun, which my life has been lacking lately. A friend was turning 25 so we celebrated by taking him out to all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ at a place called Tahoe Galbi. Prices were decent ($18 without tax and tip) and the 4.5 shots of soju that it took to get me to my happy place went down smoothly. I love being a lightweight.

The birthday boy's girlfriend bought a cake from JJ Bakery that was quite delicious. Chocolate cake with a light whipped cream frosting, I think. People say Asian cakes are much better than American cakes because the frosting isn't as sweet, but I've never minded the extra sugar. I guess I'm just a sucrose fiend :)

A friend got married so I brought Elise with me to the reception. It was my first time attending anything wedding-related, and now it's got me looking forward to my own wedding. But just the wedding, not the marriage. And only because I'd get to wade through elegant dresses and go cake-tasting! Otherwise, I don't want to get married by 28 anymore. It feels too soon all of a sudden...

buzzing

I thought I should do at least one post while inebriated, so without further ado I bring you this edition of aesthetic seduction right after a night of getting drunk off my ass! We were celebrating Elise's boyfriend's birthday, so we had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory before heading over to another friend's house to drink. I feel obligated to review this place, so I will say that for $15 you can get a pretty decent meal here. Most, if not all, their dishes come with either a soup or salad and ice cream for dessert. Spumoni is pretty awesome but only because it gave me a much-needed chocolate fix :)

Anyway, half the people took shots with the birthday boy at the house and being a lightweight, I was buzzing after three drinks and feeling pretty good. But then everyone decided that King's Cup would be a good idea so I joined in for the hell of it. That didn't work out too well. Somehow I knew I would end up drinking the King's Cup, which is why I pleaded with people beforehand to share it with me in the case that I did end up having to put it down. Except when I drew the last king, everyone goaded me into drinking it by myself and being easily peer-pressured, I chugged the mixture of beer, coconut rum, tropical punch, grenadine, and orange juice. And that brings me to my current state.

It wasn't the grossest concoction that could've come out of that situation, but I've decided that I can't get a good buzz unless I commit to one kind of alcohol. From experience, I've found that vodka or wine works best and I'm going to try my very hardest to stick to my tried-and-true ways.

ETA: I'm almost certain that I was still a little drunk when I woke up this morning, even though I didn't have all that much last night. I was most definitely a little hungover, but the headache passed as the day wore on.

loko

I still felt a little drunk from last night when I woke up this morning, but I couldn't really tell whether I was or just exhausted and slightly hungover. All I know is, Four Loko gives a bad buzz. It's an alcoholic energy drink that comes in an aluminum can like the ones used for Arizona, which is the equivalent of probably three standard drinks. Leigh thought it would be a good idea to get really fucked up on it so we each put one down before we left to the Broadway Bar to celebrate a friend's birthday and we were giggling uncontrollably like silly little girls by the time we got there.

Ours was 12% alcohol and 88% nasty.

We had the fruit punch flavored one, which everyone thought was better than the lemon flavored but...it was all gross to me. Of course, I chugged it anyway. It must've been the caffeine because that buzz lasted six or seven hours. And that's more than I'm comfortable with for something that's only supposed to last three or four. Everyone else at the party was trashed too so it didn't matter until I got home and had to clumsily tiptoe around the house at 4am to make myself some Mi Goreng. Never again! Caffeine and I can't be friends, at least not when alcohol is involved.

As for the bar itself, it was pretty nice and from what I can remember there wasn't a cover. We got there around 10pm so it wasn't packed but it was definitely full by the time we left around 1am. I can't remember much more than that...I'll add more if anything else comes back to me.

tipsy wednesday (nsfw)

Irene, Leigh, and I went to Islands for dinner last night to have another catch-up/gossip session. Of course, Irene was the only one who went intending to have dinner. Leigh and I had our hearts set on getting drunk. Nevertheless, once our menus were placed before us, I suddenly had a hankering for spinach artichoke dip. Irene ordered onion rings for "dinner" and she couldn't even finish it with our help.

In our defense, most of our stomach space went to the drinks that we all guzzled after realizing that we were making more of a dent in our food than our beverages. Irene and I each had a Lava Flow while Leigh tried the Rusty Anchor. I should've gotten that one for the Kahlua alone, but I was still happy with mine. Islands' drinks are fruitylicious! And for lightweights like us, they really did the trick.

Afterward, we walked around being obnoxiously loud and taking pictures before deciding to leave. Somebody whistled at us in the parking lot and I was nearly overcome by an urge to shout, "Let me show you my penis!"

Now I want to get one of these just so I can oblige when someone takes me up on that offer.

We spent part of the ride home catcalling guys on the street. Not too successful as there weren't many of them walking around on a Wednesday night, but we'll probably be back again soon to do it properly. Bwahahahaha.

ten hours

Today was a long day that began at 6 in the morning and I only had four hours of sleep from the night before to carry me through, but it was well worth it. Oddly enough, the weather's starting to warm up again. I guess we should be preparing for another heat wave. Oh, joy...

I met up with J and we breakfasted at the Broken Yolk Cafe in Pacific Beach. The place wasn't very busy so our food came fairly quickly. I had Betty's Southern Biscuits and Gravy which was much more than I could handle since I had a snack on the way down but it was still delicious. He finished his Huevos Rancheros and proceeded to pick at my plate afterward. He also kept joking about how much of a lesbian I was because I kept saying how cute our waitress was.

We headed to the nearest AMC to catch Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. AMC is the only theater I know of that gives an early bird special, where tickets for shows before noon are only $6. So our tickets together cost about as much as one regular ticket. I love great deals! The movie itself was very quirky and painfully awkward at first, but once it got going the whole thing was very amusing. And according to J, the fight scenes were pretty well done. I recommend this if you want two hours of fun and mindless entertainment.

The day wouldn't have been complete if it didn't include some time on the silky sand of a San Diego beach. J knocked out but I stayed awake to tell him to flip over periodically so that he wouldn't burn. Then I couldn't help myself and fell asleep at the sacrifice of my left pinky, which came out of the trip mildly burned. Not sure why it was only that finger.

Beautiful blue sky and fluffy white clouds

Gorgeous sunset at day's end

young dong

Met up with my awesome buddy (he's the only one who follows my blog semi-religiously) M for lunch today. He made me choose the restaurant, which was unfortunate for me because I don't like making executive decisions like that and it always makes me more than a little anxious if people don't like the food I picked but damn it, they'll just have to deal with it as punishment for making the mistake of forcing me to choose. So I voted on a Korean BBQ and tofu house called Young Dong. The name gives J endless ammunition for bad sleazy jokes. He's so juvenile sometimes. But then again, so am I.

Anyway, I think this place is also a small chain because there are locations in San Gabriel and Chino Hills. The menu's not huge but all you should ever need is a plate of bulgogi and/or one of their tofu soups. From experience, the medium-spicy seafood tofu is the best.

They give you a small egg to crack as soon as it arrives! :D

I made the mistake of not ordering this, opting for the beef tofu instead and ended up eyeing M enviously as the smell of his seafood soup wafted over to me. Oh well, now I know. We spent two hours catching up, which mainly consisted of us exchanging stories inappropriate for public ears. But now I've given away all my funny stories and have nothing of interest to keep my sole reader coming back for more. What's a girl to do?

lazy saturday

I thought sleeping patterns for my generation (or for young adults in general with nothing better to do than poke around the internet) were trending toward sleeping late and waking up late, which is why I also believed there was an unspoken rule in place that barred any phone calls before noon. Not so, apparently! Leigh just came back from her two week stint visiting family and wanted to grab lunch with Elise, so despite being woken up before I had my fill of delicious slumber, I was excited to see them and dragged my sleepy self out of bed.

I suggested that we head to the Kang Kang food court so that they could try some Shanghainese pan-fried bao (生煎包, sheng jian bao), which are small buns filled with pork and soup.

Covered in scallions and black sesame. Yum!

To my immense relief, they seemed to enjoy the food. We intended to go back to Elise's and make dessert, but we ended up lounging around and having girl talk about ex-boyfriends, marriage, tattoos, feminine hygiene, sex, vacation spots, and moving out instead.

Our conversations reaffirmed two things for me: a) getting married at 28 like my 16-year-old self originally planned does not give me enough time to do the things I want before tying myself down and b) even after having at least four months to think about it and potentially change my mind, I still want a tattoo.

I was a little too embarrassed to admit to the girls what image I wanted to permanently replace a patch of my skin with, but here on aesthetic seduction I am utterly unashamed!

Yeah, from a game. But not because it's from a game.

It'll probably have to be in the middle of my back. Somewhere that I don't regularly look at on the off-chance that I do get it and come to regret it. I tend to change my mind a lot.

P.S. My dreams are beginning to give me orgasms that rival the intensity of those reached in my waking hours. As if sleep wasn't appealing enough already.

aubergine

It hardly needs to be repeated, but ugh--YouTube is amazing. So much useful information at your disposal! Yeah, the same can be said about the Internet, but now you can imagine how awesome that must be. Anyway, I digress.

I was clicking through some Gordon Ramsay videos, and "aubergine caviar" caught my eye. What in the world is aubergine? I thought. So then I'm watching him give his introduction, and then he pulls out a freakin' eggplant. How anticlimactic. Leave it to the British to use a pompous word like "aubergine" for something that can plainly be called "eggplant." lol But I rather like it.

Eggplant will invariably remind me of one thing every time it comes up, and every time I can't resist telling the story to any poor soul who is willing to listen because it's nearly the stupidest thing in the world.

One silly night, three years ago, I was chatting online with The Woman and somehow we got on the topic of eggplant. I asserted that it looks pretty gross when it's cooked, at least in the ways I've seen it prepared, but also added a disclaimer about never having tried it so I can't speak for its taste. Something along the following lines ensued:

"Hey, you better watch what you say next time because eggplant happens to be one of my favorite foods."

"Well, you can say it's your favorite food, but I still think it looks gross."

This looks delicious to me now, but tell me it doesn't look a little like tentacles.

The argument starts to escalate after a little more back and forth as neither of us would yield. Then, as if trying to concede and put the whole thing behind us (read: make me shut up):

"I guess it's just because Americans aren't as exposed to eggplant dishes."

Bitch PLEASE. Cooked eggplant looks like slimy tentacles because I'm too "American"? lol So then we started arguing about the degree of my Americanization. There were tears, angry tears on my end. We didn't speak for a bit, I took a walk, then I called to apologize. Bleh! In retrospect, I almost wish that had ended the relationship. It really was that stupid.

But I had the last word several months later, oh yes. When he insisted that he had to talk to me in person and handed me 8 pages (some front and back) detailing my flaws, our problems, and away messages he didn't understand, I broke up with him and the poor fool cried. I know, I'm a bitch.

noodles

I was laying in bed, sinking into my soft comforters and hoping to absorb more heat from my surroundings (I have, like, the heat capacity of water) when I became painfully aware of how jiggly I've gotten in the past month. So I started thinking I should go for a run or something. But then I was overcome by the urge to blog about food...which is obviously more important.

When I had the midnight munchies yesterday, I immediately jumped on my newly acquired bag of Mama brand Tom Yum instant noodles. I normally don't eat spicy if I have other alternatives, but these are pretty delicious and really hit the spot if you're craving a really flavorful soup. lol Unfortunately, it doesn't come with all those extra ingredients pictured on the packaging. Just the noodles and seasoning, but it's still great considering it's instant noodles.

While we're on the topic of instant noodles, the most delicious brand I've ever tried has to be Mi Goreng, made by Indomie. These aren't soup noodles, but if you're looking for something really flavorful then these are freakin' amazing. I can't even describe how delicious they are. Again, they don't come with all that fancy stuff on the front, but the noodles are really all you need.

And now, for the ultimate noodle-eating experience...you must go to Daikokuya. It's a small chain with locations in Little Tokyo, Monterey Park, Hacienda Heights, and Costa Mesa. They don't offer a wide selection of dishes, but they're famous for their mouthwatering ramen so that seems to be what most people go there to eat, myself included. For $8.50, you get a huuuge bowl of ramen, bean sprouts, scallions, and a soft-boiled egg, all swimming in a rich, savory broth that they apparently prepare 24 hours in advance. Oh, and arguably the best part--two or three strips of fatty pork that practically melt in your mouth.

(Picture taken from Yelp)

I've eaten at the Little Tokyo and Hacienda Heights locations, but I have to say that the ramen tastes better in Little Tokyo, though the difference is only marginal.

Now that I've gotten started on talking about delicious food, I might continue this next time and share some other places I've discovered with J this past year :)