Happy Halloween!

 My cat Bailey loves to dress up! Have a safe Halloween!

Welcome Baby K!

My dear friends B and A just welcomed their 2nd child at 8:15 yesterday morning.

The beautiful baby boy was 9 lbz. 14 oz. and at a length of 22 inches. Baby A joins his brother N, who just turned 2 last Friday. Congrats to them!

I couldn’t be more happier for this wonderful family.

 Also, I’m excited to be an “Auntie” again

Holy Earthquake!

Last night, J and I were at dinner with our uncle K. At around 8:00 when we were seated, we felt this shaking going on. My first thought was that the train was passing by, but when it lasted for about 15 more seconds, we realized we had just felt an earthquake — it wasn’t just a small earthquake, it was big enough that it was broadcast all over the news and CNN. It was a 5.6 on the Richter scale. Wow. At least there was no real damage done to anything. When we got home from dinner (yes, instead of leaving the restaurant like some other patrons, we decided to stay put), I noticed a few things had fallen off the shelf, but that was it — not much else.

This is the 2nd earthquake we’ve felt since we’ve been out here….I just hope we are elsewhere when a bigger one comes. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

A Special Birthday Shout Out

I just wanted to say “Happy Birthday” to a wonderful 2-year-old. N is the best.

May he have a special year as he is going to be a Big Brother soon.

I wish all the K’s the best.

Men’s Bathroom Etiquette

The other day, J and I had lunch at Buca di Peppo with our friends M&N. J and N started a discussion on the proper way men go to a public restroom. It was a very enlightening conversation (HA!), but all the while entertaining and I had to share. These are the rules:

1. If you go into the men’s room and there are 3 urinals (A,B,C), you never go to the middle one (B), either to the one on the left (A) or the right (C).

2. If a man enters the bathroom and sees urinal A is in use, he must use urinal C, thus leaving the middle one (B) open. (If there are 3 urinals and only 1 is occupied, no man should ever use the middle one — must leave urinal between 2 men unoccupied.)

3. If a man enters the bathroom and sees 2 men at the urinals A & C (with middle one unoccupied), he then must use the bathroom stall.

This is the proper etiquette of the men’s restroom. These are the rules according to J & N.

This is the funniest shit I’ve heard in a long time. Pass the word.

Peace.

Weekend Update

On Saturday, J and I had our friends M&N over for dinner and to watch the Grindhouse movies. I love to cook, so I found a couple of new recipes to try in addition to some that I’ve made before. Here’s what was on the menu:

Stir-Fried Shrimp with Spicy Orange Sauce (sauce consisted of OJ, honey, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and chili paste)

Asian Green Beans (seasoned with ginger, garlic, green onions, and Oyster sauce, mixed with some sliced roasted red peppers)

Herbed Basmati Rice (mixed with some garlic, green onions, fresh basil, thyme, and pine nuts)

and for dessert, I made profiteroles (cream puff pastry stuffed with vanilla ice cream, drizzled with caramel and chocolate sauce)

Everything turned out great. The food was delish (if I do say so myself). The profiteroles were a hit. It is seriously one of the best desserts in the world. After eating it, you don’t feel overly stuffed. Everything that I made is pretty simple. I’d share any of the recipes if anyone is interested.

After dinner, we watched both the Grindhouse movies: Planet Terror and Death Proof. J and I actually saw both movies in the theatre when they featured them together and the only thing that is lacking from the movies is the fake movie trailers in between the films. The producers of the film (those damn Weinstein bros.) decided to sell both films on their own and eliminated the hilarious fake trailers altogether. Oh well, at least J and I know we aren’t missing anything. We all enjoyed the movies and majority of the funny scenes. There were some gruesome and gory parts, but it’s all fun and enjoyable.

If there are Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn) and Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs) fans out there, I’d recommend buying the both Planet Terror and Death Proof and adding it to your DVD collection. These are good, really good.

FedEx = F’d Up

Can I just rant a little bit about Fedex’s incompetency? Argh….I am so frustrated by them. Around the 9th, I had placed an order for some wine. Since they provide you with a tracking number, I wanted to know the whereabouts of my package — on the 18th, it stated that it was sitting on a FedEx truck ready for delivery at 4:18 AM. I had it delivered to me at work since I’d be here to receive it (can trust the idiots in the apartment complex…someone might scam and sign for my wine; besides – everyone at work does it.) Anyway, now it’s the 24th and still no wine. I called them everyday since the 18th inquiring about why it wasn’t delivered yet, etc., etc. I was told the same thing each time “once we locate your package ma’am, we’ll give you a call.” I was told 2 times that they would call me — did I ever receive a call? NO. I called them up yesterday and this lady kept putting me on hold to go ask the driver, the packaging people on the whereabouts of my package. She then tells me “she will call me back.” To which I responded, “Oh, will you call me back? I’ve been told 2 times already I’d get a call back and no one ever did.” She guaranteed I’d hear from her.

Well, I did get a call from her and she basically told me that my package had been damaged. It had been sitting in their damaged area for a few days now. Like they just couldn’t have the balls to let me know! They made me wait around for their good-for-nothing asses to let me know that my package was damaged. Unbelievable. These people are idiots!

Now they tell me I have to call the wine place and let them know so that they can send me another package. Un-f-ing-believable. They should be the ones informing the wine place — they’re the idiots who screwed up. I hate FedEx with an exclamation point!

Guys and Dolls

Can I just say how much I love the theatre? I am such a fan of musicals because they’re so much fun and I get so engrossed in the acting, singing, dancing, and costumes. L and I went to see Guys and Dolls today at the American Musical Theatre. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the theatre and I love, love, loved it. I love the characters of Sky Masterson and Nathan Detroit and their lady loves – Sarah Brown and Miss Adelaide. It was a really fun show. I’m glad I decided to get tickets and go. I’ve been wanting to go to a show for sometime now, it feels good to actually have done it.  

I am considering being a season ticket holder since it involves holding tickets to 4 shows during the 07-08 season:

1. Little Shop of Horrors
2. Cabaret
3. Beauty and the Beast
4. A choice between Mamma Mia or Jesus Chris Superstar (in my case, I prefer Mamma Mia)

I can’t wait till the next show. I hope they bring some more excellent shows for the 08-09 season. I’m excited for the current ones so far. Most of the other shows are not until January. Can I wait that long? I hope so.

Gochi, Gochi, Gochi Coo

Our friend L invited us to go to Gochi with her on Saturday night. We had 2 wait to weeks for this event because you have to make a reservation in advance. The reservation was originally for 6 people…but it ended up being J, L, and me. Oh well…it was still a nice experience. Gochi’s tag line is Japanese fusion tapas and that’s what it basically is. All the dishes range between $6-$14. Nothing was overpriced at all. When you get to the restaurant, you wouldn’t even think twice that such a nice place exists in such a dumpy strip mall…but I’ve been fooled before (refer to Bleu Ginger restaurant which is also in a strip mall). Once you get over the fact that the restaurant is in a strip mall and you enter the restaurant — it’s a whole new ball game. We were seated in the dining room with the raised platform where we had to sit shoeless in tatami-style seating. This was very interesting indeed. This is the first time I’ve been somewhere that you are required to take your shoes off. It was neat.

According to an article I found, Gochi is Japanese slang for “good food.” — In my opinion – very true. It is also a globally inspired izakaya restaurant — meaning these types of restaurants serve small, elegant plates of grilled and fried food (just like tapas plates you get at Spanish restaurants.) Since Gochi claims to be Japanes fusion tapas (there are some hints of French and Korean inspired plates), we decided to try a little of everything.

Since Gochi doesn’t provide their menu online…I will have to remember what we ordered from my memory. We had:

• Crab Croquettes – Cream cheese and crab quickly fast fried in a batter
• Steamed Cod with a plum soy sauce
• Chicken thighs chopped and topped with a house teriyaki sauce
• Shrimp balls in a broth
• Pork and Tofu Clay Pot (a traditional style of Japanese cooking, ingredients cooked in a clay pot, when the waiter brings it out, they have to mix it up and dish it out for the patrons)

We were all pleased with our options. We got plenty of food and when we left there, we didn’t feel overly stuffed. It’d be fun to go there again with a bigger group — that way we can order more dishes to share. They have an extensive menu offering some simple dishes, but at the same time some eclectic dishes (like pork innards, cow tongue….)

I definitely will go there again…except I might ask to sit at a table next time instead of on the tatami mats. I need my back support.

Banana Leaf Is Too Crowded

Friday night, J and I met up with our friends M&N for dinner at this joint called Banana Leaf, which is a Malaysian, Indian, and Thai restaurant. Overall, the food was pretty tasty….but I wasn’t too impressed with the service and the atmosphere at the restaurant. It was too crowded in there and all the tables are about an inch apart. It’s just too crowded. I didn’t like the layout of the restaurant at all. Besides how bad everything else was….at least the food was good. We decided to order a few dishes and share with everyone.

We started off with the Roti Prata, which is a multi-layered home made Indian bread dipped in curry sauce and the chicken satay. Both were excellent.

For our entrees, we decided on 4 dishes:

• Mango Chicken (with green & red peppers in a spicy mango sauce served in a mango shell )
• Malay Sizzling Black Pepper Prawns (with onions in a pepper sauce)
• Penang Sizzling Prawns (with onion, green & red pepper with chef’s special sauce)
• Belachan KangKung (Ong Choy) -with Malay special shrimp paste sauce

We had the Hainan Seasoned Rice with turmeric to accompany our dishes.

The Mango Chicken had very nice flavors and the sauce accented the chicken very well. The presentation of the dish was very nice.

Both the prawn dishes were very good. The vegetables and sauces went very well with everything. It was very tasty.

The KangKung is similar to baby broccoli. I found a new vegetable that I like. It was good…not bitter at all like I thought it would be. Very satisfying.

For dessert, J and I ordered the Deep Fried Banana a la mode. The waitress told us it came with mango ice cream. I asked her if there was another kind of ice cream we could get instead — she told us yes, vanilla. So I tell her I want the vanilla instead. She repeated my order back to me….but when they bring the dessert out, it’s got mango ice cream. I didn’t want to be picky, but didn’t I specify I wanted vanilla? I had to remind them, so they took it back and brought the dessert out with the right ice cream. It’s not that complicated, is it?

Anyway…the dessert was decent — it doesn’t compare to the other banana desserts I’ve had at other Asian restaurants. To be honest, I was kind of scary. The bananas were dipped in this really red-orange breading, because the dessert came out and there were 2 crescent shaped objects in the weirdest orange color. It was kind of scary. After the first few bites, it isn’t too bad.

I say I would go back there….but during the week when it’s less crowded.