For once, I'll have a theme to this blog entry: FOOD.

CHI & WES vs. FOOD (but mostly Chi)

Above was at Crabpot, a restaurant in downtown Seattle that aired on Man vs. Food.

Their specialty menu is that they bring out this huge bowl of steamed fresh seafood and dump it on the table. Then, the food is consumed caveman style with our bare hands.

It was a fun place to go, but as you may know, I grew up in two islands surrounded by the sea. When it comes to seafood, especially compared to some of the aquatic delicacies I've had in the Land of the Rising Sun, my standards are high. Crabs were pretty awesome for the price but I've definitely had better. But for the price and how HUGE the portions were, it was pretty good. I didn't like the clams and mussels that much though, and they took up most of the dish.

Our next stop is Red Mill burger which was also on the show. I haven't been there yet and after seeing the show and reviews, I'm dying to try it.

but anyhow, I've been taking pictures from my cook offs which I'd like to share since the trend seems to be to post salivating photos of individual culinary works.

my japanese take on au Gratin which I made the béchamel (white) sauce and combined chicken, shimeji mushrooms, spinach and onions with grated Beecher's white cheddar and parmesan.
I've made this with ham before but I think chicken gives it better flavor.

Pad Thai I made once, it was ok, lacked bean sprouts and cabbage and the sauce we had was not so good. I think I'm gonna try to make the sauce from scratch next time.

Pasta salad with artichoke, mint, arugula and other fresh spring greens. I mixed it with olive oil and vinegar.
I F'n love arugula. its one of my fav greenz.

Wesley made this spagetti with mushroom white sauce. It was good!

Wesley's baked chicken. the best part about was it used no oil! no butter!
He also made sum green beans satay in pepper, garlic and salt.

Wesley made the baby bak choi stir fry which was really good.
Oden came in a frozen package with sauce and I added hardboiled eggs.
it was pretty good, i should've used my newly purchased nabe though!
I also made takikomi-gohan, mix rice, where you basically put in soy-dashi based sauce and vegetables (I put shiitake and bamboo) and cook with rice cooker. Its easy to make and really yummy with some nori :D

my super easy AZN meal combo
oyako don - so easy to make and so good!
seaweed + cucumber salad
okura with tobiko in mayonaise >> this was weird.
spring roll

super easy AZN meal #2
Okura with shoyu and bonito flakes
store bought kim chee
steamed broccoli with QP mayo.
Okayu style chicken with shiitake, tofu and spinach >> this was made with konbu (seaweed) dashi and little bit of ponzu. I used potato starch to create thick layering around the chicken and the sauce to give it the "Okayu" feel. I personally liked this dish because flavors were very simple and it is healthy! recipe said its good for when you are sick.

I cannot believe its December already! On Friday, I just went to my company's Christmas party at the Sheraton in downtown which was absolutely fAboosh and errrverything was all free! the tasty wine, the champagne, the beer and mMm orgasmic prime rib and roasted pork...yUmm

yeah I was busy chomping and chugging down this once-in-a year gracious offering from my company I didn't get pix of the food. but from decoration to service to booze and food, everything was top notch. I wish they have the party every season lol.

On Black Friday, we attended the "Friendsgiving." It was a potluck and we brought over tabouli and daikon salad. There was a looot of food! I was so stuffed and I was wearing SO MANY layers of clothes (like I had at least 2 pants on) it was painful to live during the aftermath.

Everyone was so good to us! Afterwards, they even packed us left overs. Thank you Andrew & Olivia :D

gobble gobble

ono kine grinds n' seattle. oh ya Vicki, look at the leopard bowls you gave me put to use!

deleesh nori chicken by Joanna, chilli, spring roll, marshmellow salad (?!), potato salad.. etc.

And now, I'm rolling up 3 different events in 1 entry.. man, I need to update this more often.

But Wesley and I went to go see the Seahawks last Sunday too.

This was the very first time I've gone to a professional football game. I guess I was feeling generous sometime back in August to buy Wes and I tickets.

Needless to say, I have 0 knowledge of football and all the rules it entails. I couldn't even see who had the ball. I don't really understand why 1 score would lead to 6 points. I also didn't understand why they had to take time out every few minutes, dude, I'm paying money for this game, get moving and run into each other like you are supposed to.

But what was cool, the whole environment of sitting in a stadium with 67,000 capacity. I found out that the Qwest field is known to be the loudest stadium. OH AND IT WAS SO LOUD. It was pretty awesome to see and hear thousands of people crying out loud for this consumerized event-- whether a hot dog, beer or the tiny ball that moves back and forth in the field, they were all so passionately enthralled by some form of a human invention. If I was an alien and was part of alien National Geographic's film crew, this is exactly what I would film.
Nevertheless, I say still a very expensive price tag for all the screaming I was allowed to do in a unheated seat. But I definitely want to hit up the Sounders game next time its in season.

So It snowed. I got 2 days off of work! I only went to work 1 day this week & I get paid for a full week which is pretty sweet. So the local news have been hyping up this winter to be one of the coldest and snowiest... it appears the forecast is correct. They say this was the first time it snowed before Thanksgiving since like the 80's. It is SOOOO COLD. I swear the coldest I've ever experienced in the last 6 years I've been in Washington state.

But its always exciting when it first snows. Especially if you get time off for it. :D I've been looking for place to move, but its times like this that makes me NOT want to live outside of seattle or cap hill. I saw so many cars stuck on the street on Monday and they were causing crazy traffic. One of my coworkers were like "I'd be happy to be home before 9pm." Shit, Seattle is never prepared for snow.

It was also exciting to see snow this year because my hawaiian boyfriend has never seen or touched snow in his life. When I came home from work, I found out that he didn't step outside to see the snow yet. So I convinced him that we should go outside to go grocery shopping so he can see snow. I was able to capture the very moment he stepped outside:

Wesley: "HO"

Me: "So.. How is it?"

Wesley: "Its pretty amazing" =)

BUT what I didn't know was how long of a walk it was going to be to the grocery store.

It was like 19F outside, still snowing HARD, and super evil wind slapping my face every step I took. Possibly the coldest weather I've been in, except for that one time at age 7 when I was caught in a blizzard... but this was the first in my adulthood. TO think, it is only November, and the coldest part of the winter hasn't even begun yet, frightens me. I asked Wes to turn back because my face felt like it was about to peel off but he, of course being in the snow for the first time, was deaf to my words and proceeded to ask numerous questions about the frozen ice on ground like "why is it crunchy?" "why is it shiny?"

What also kept him from complaining about the frigid air that surrounded us, was at least 8 layers of clothing he had quietly equipped himself in.

But luckily, we made it to and back from the store, even found some time and energy to take photos on our way back which are now being presented to you in this bloggity blog.

"We are focusing on the small details and hiding the misery in the world. Look at the smoker and we miss global warming, war, and the crap we eat--not the bad guys but smoking. I smoke and they talk about cancer, I eat and they talk about cholesterol, I make love, it's AIDS. Before AIDS and cholesterol and cancer there's the pleasure of making love and eating and smoking. I have to die someday, so if the thing that gave me pleasure all of my life kills me instead of me going under a truck, that's fine. Besides, why should I live so that when I die I give fresh meat to the worms? I hope that I am rotted and they don't want to eat me. F@#$ck the worms."
— Marjane from Persepolis

Hola!

wesley has an obsession with finding weird restaurants on Yelp. We once ended up at a Cuban restaurant called "La Casa del Mojito," which was pretty good and unique, but I failed to take any photos there. More recently, on our way to go meet my friends in Greenlake, we stopped by another south american restaurant called Tropico Breeze. Above is a picture of fried banana that the latinos are fond of serving as part of a meal instead of as dessert.

I ordered this beef stew thing (apologies for my terrible naming convention), and wesley ordered something that resembled fried chicken that came with another type of fried bananas. They came in HUUUUUGE portions and we were both blown away. They also had these tropical (non-alcoholic) drinks, which the waiter brought like 7 different flavors for us to try. I have no idea what flavor we ended up getting, but it was pretty good.

And then we got to J&D's place and felt exactly like Pumpkin, the cat.

We took a visit to Two Bells in Beltown last week Friday after work. I've never been there before and ran into my coworker who claimed that this is his favorite bar in the area. The atmosphere is a weird blend of art gallery and a dive bar with a piercing on the ceiling. lol.

Thanks to Groupon, we got to check out the Tin Table, which was a charming little pub on Capital Hill. While we got the impression that all waitresses got their periods on the same night, the food was delicious and our bartender made excellent cocktails.

This chicken at Tin Table was really good!

Halloween was pretty awesome, mostly because I was awesome.... ok and really awesome company :D

Most of da gang dressed up as 70's detectives, we had avatar and wolverine also join in. We hit up the HG lodge on the hill.

he kept up very well to my drunkness, it was all good fun :D

The End

heyo bloggahz!! it has been almost 2 weeks since the Don Wes made his big move up here in seatown! Its been really nice having him here. Every day I wake up and feel the need to pinch my cheek like damn is this real? I mean I just came home the other night from work to be greeted by bouquet of flowers like this:

and this:

and other days I came home to this:


dAwwwww... right? he also made me sum yummy lunchez which we've been eating by the water with my former lunch buddies:
haha. so Life has been pretty sweet. Except like they say, what goes up, must come down... Well, what do we know, I felt something has been buggy with my body lately like I felt sharp pain on the left side of my stomach from time to time. I ignored it for a while and kept making excuses, like its cramps, its gas, its a hangover, whatever. But things started getting worse like I was having sweats, stomachache so painful I couldn't move. One day, I took like FOUR tylenols and I was still in pain and when I finally slept, I slept for 13 hours and woke up still feeling exhausted. Then the last draw was when I started going to the bathroom to pee every 10 seconds, I couldn't do anything because I felt the need to pee all the time and when I did actually pee, it HURT so bad like I was peeing porcupine juice, if there is such thing.... Soooo.... figured it was time I go see a doctor. Wallah, I was diagnosed with kidney infection. I was put on antibiotics. Then just like being touched by a unicorn, I immediately started feeling better. *whew* Lesson of the month, TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY WELL and DO NOT WAIT TO GO SEE A DOCTOR.

So aside from me taking a brief stroll to hell and back, Wesley and I have been doing a lot of shopping. We rented a car for a week so we tried to take full advantage of it by hitting up several massive mallzballz around town. Wesley looks so curious everywhere we go, its pretty funny to watch. We mainly have been buying stuff for the house, and sum biz clothes. We also went grocery shopping at all kinds of places so my fridge looks hella loaded. We went to Costco bc wesley's parents got him a membership. Its funny how that place just puts items in packs of 3 or more if they don't already come in giant containers/packaging. Get this, we got this package of lettuce which I thought was 3 bunch of lettuce for 2.99. We came home and opened it, it turned out to be like EIGHT bunch of lettuce tightly packed in the container!! so at this point in time, we have been eating lettuce for like 7 days in a row with every meal... ick.

We also got to go to some giant Asian marts that I've never been before like 99 Ranch in Renton (I heard there is one in Hawaii too) and Hmart, in Lynnwood. At one of the Asian stores, Wesley came up with a brilliant idea of getting a yakiniku set!! So those who dont know, yakiniku is japanese/korean style barbecue where you cook raw or marinated meat usually on a charcoal indoors instead of outdoors! We got a portable butane gas stove and this korean stone dome shaped plate we can cook meat on. We are also working towards getting a nabe pot (hot pot) so we can cook nabe stuff like sukiyaki or shabushabu hMMmm NOMMM and it will be bOOOMb when it gets cold~!! maybe when we get a hang of cooking them well, we can throw a nabe/yakiniku party which might be fun with nice warm sake. It is Fall and in Japanese they say "食欲の秋" - "Autumn, season of big appetite." Gotta fatten up for the harsh winter coming up soon. haha

I made sum deviled eggs at wesley's request

wesley made me yummy sausage spagetti

So other haps, we went to see Deadmau5 last week too. At the concert, I introduced Wesley to some of my friends here in WA. Here are sum pics we took after the concert:

hawaii crewww!

everyone got the 30$ deadmau5 shirts cuz they ballaaah... I had a mickey mouse shirt on... kind of close... right..

The concert was sold out so the venue was packed! His set was really good and realllly trippy. Here are some photos from seattle show I stole from his facebook page:

This was my favorite part when his mouse head had smiley face on

Yeaah so next week we're going to go see DJ Shadow, pretty stoked about that. Probably gonna be more chill this time though since I have to work next day. anyway, thats my update for now, pEace...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

recent hapz! well 1 more week until the Don Wes moves up to sea-town!! I just got rid of more than half my wardrobe! *AHhh* so refreshing...welp, finally ending my 2 years of living alone. while it did get a bit lonely and sad at times, I'd say living alone was a positive experience--I learned how to manage my bills, conserve energy, clean up the house ultra fast when people come over, learned to be fearless walking near by a late night gang activity, learned to be patient when opening a jar and other very important survival skills. ;) all in all, it allowed me to better prioritize a lot of shenanigans in my life and be able to focus & understand myself a little bit better.

With that said, I'm definitely ready for the imminent change. I'll miss getting greeting cards like this ;) but finally be able to start fresh and say good bye to long distance =)

oTher hapz, well... recently I've been REALLY into mushrooms. ok not magical ones... the edible ones! My favorite is shiitake and I cook them with almost everything I eat... But I also loooove other ones like enoki, nameko, shimeji then portobello & chanterelles if I can get my hands on them at the store. then recently I found at Uwajimaya... THE BLACK FUNGUS!!! ok I'm not entirely sure if they are mushrooms. To those who don't know, they are usually in chinese or korean dishes, with rice noodles they have texture similar to that of jellyfish. anyway, I lOooOOove them. I never knew what they were called but with my handydandy iphone, I looked up "black fungus" at the store and found that its "the stuff I like." so you can prepare them just like dried mushrooms, by soaking them in luke warm water and let it sit for few minutes.

I like stir-frying them with harusame noodles. in the picture, its the black stringy looking stuff. I read online that they are actually really good for you and has a lot of detoxing agents. Miracle!! gawd I mean almost everything I like now a days are BAD for you. But I've been trying to go back to my roots and remember what I ate growing up in Japan, which was a LOT of veggies and fish. Thanks to college and working in downtown where aroma of buttery croissants and freshly baked bagels have compelled me to believe that they are absolute essentials to LIVING: alleviating my mood thus improving the well-being of my work environment. WRONG. *sigh* too often, its too easy to take the wrong step with dieting. I went through I think 3 major weight gains since I got to college: freshman year, senior year and last year. but FINALLY now that I'm almost back to normal weight from last year, I think I learned my lesson.. Man, how food can affect your life so drastically!

Anyway, speaking of being healthy, couple weeks ago, I organized an HH for my supervisor who just got married. It was a good turn out, both my managers showed up as well as a lot of people from other teams. It was good fun and we all got pretty tipz. I ended up with few pictures of me on my phone with one of my coworker's tie around my head:

one of my coworkers left his tie at the table when he went home so my manager put it on me

oh joy of alcohol... dear Sascha, this is right around the time I drunk dialed you.

Overall, work has been pretty good. People are starting to ask me questions like "what do you wanna do here?" or "where do you see yourself in couple of years?" There has been some shifting around and new people coming in, so most of us who started in the last couple of years are asking questions about their future. As for me, I have NO IDEA. I want to do some more PM work. some people say I might be good at being a BA, which does sound interesting but also sounds like I have to unleash the bitch in me all the time. either way, I have no idea when and how I'll be able to get to these positions and I'm kind of freaking out because it feels like I've JUST settled in my comfort zone and people are thinking ahead already. hmmm

anyways, I must get on to life stuff now. Cheers!