Peach Iced Tea

A Door Opens as One Closes

2010-09-05T02:57:00.000-07:00

She was a beautiful girl, that Krystal Nakamura.

I am not an articulate person, so trying to formulate into words my relationship with her is going to be quite a task for me.

She wasn't my best friend. Heck, I hardly ever saw her after high school...but how can I explain this bond? We spent 7 years together at Holly Oak. We knew each other before we even knew who we were, or were going to become. As kids, all you had to ask was, "do you want to play?" and boom, you're friends. No reservations.

I'm laying in bed and can't seem to stop the welling of my tears.

Uvas Park

2008-12-22T02:27:00.000-08:00

Yosemite National Park

2008-08-10T11:05:00.000-07:00

I have not taken an actual vacation in such a long time due to school and work. So, when the opportunity came up to go camping, I was on it! My parents kept reminding me that when they first took me to Yosemite, there was a fire and had to turn back. I apparently cried the entire 4 hour drive home. I was 3 and it doesn't quite make sense to me why you would want to go camping with a 3-year-old.

This time around, I went with my uncle, aunt, their two young kids (9 and 6) and my 19-year-old socially awkward cousin. It was a fun couple of days of hiking, swimming in the river and eating simple sodium-packed foods like hot dogs and spam. With rice. To think that my aunt almost forgot the rice cooker... that would've been a tragedy.

Along the hike were many foreign tourists, especially Europeans. This one hiker waved and said hi to me like I was the first Asian he's ever met, which was pretty funny. I didn't reply "Hi" back, but rather a smile and a "HAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhh" because I was catching my breath. LOL. I thought I looked friendly though. I climbed to the near top of Vernal Falls and wanted to go to Tuolumne Meadows but because it was another 30 miles and due to the fact that my younger cousins were taking breaks every 3 minutes, it wasn't going to happen. I've always wanted to see what an actual meadow looks like. I picture knolls, hills, flowers and Bambi and friends. Oh well... next time I go, I will climb the Half Dome and see Tuolumne Meadow.

...and these last two pictures basically sum up my summer. Laying around and dealing with the kids.

Fatty McChocolate Sauce

2007-10-07T12:30:00.001-07:00

So this is breakfast. This is what I usually eat when I wake up. Looks healthy. Looks light. So why am I fat? A lot of people say that I'm normal, and that I'm not fat at all. I beg to differ. I consider myself overweight, as have my parents, and pretty much the entire Asian culture. However, I don't pity myself. I eat well, am active, and feel healthy. I accept the fact that I'm overweight and will probably never wear a bikini (I have a fear of public pools anyway). When I look in the mirror, I always say to myself, "Damn I look good." Not "Damn I look good for a fat girl." I just look pretty damn good.

Sarah's One Month Party

2007-07-28T23:43:00.000-07:00

Sarah Tran

2007-07-07T01:33:00.000-07:00

Weathermen are LIARS!

2007-04-23T00:14:00.000-07:00

Supposedly it was going to rain all day in San Francisco, but guess what? THERE WAS NOT AN OUNCE OF RAIN ALL DAY! I wore my winter coat and was sweating among the crowds during the Cherry Festival. Anywho, Sophia, Thao, Henry, Katie, Lan, David, Cindy and I spent the day sampling around the vendors and ate at a Japanese restaurant (eating is my favorite sport). There were quite a few people who were cosplaying. Some really good.... some horribly bad. Especially if you're walking behind a dressed up "school girl" whose white, dimply butt was peeking out at you every other second (she was not wearing underwear I suppose. She wasn't that attractive either).

Fremont Older By Valerie

2007-04-22T23:55:00.000-07:00

Oak Hill Cemetary

2007-04-03T01:58:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the annual visit to the cemetary. I suppose I feel the same way every time I visit this place ever since 2004. Before that, I was just scared of being in the presence of thousands of graves, but now I feel scared and depressed because this place has gained some meaning to me. When I stood over Acung's plot, a deep sigh left me. I can't exactly explain the feeling other than it's a warm sadness knowing that he's gone, but he's actually right under me. It's a confusing feeling.

It was a nice day though. The cemetary is always changing with new additions of grave stones, but the one thing that stays the same is the oak tree on the hill. My grandparents are buried right before the slope. I used to kick rocks into the gopher hole near the tree's roots.

Next to my grandparents grave is a section where newborns are buried. It's not as depressing as it would seem because it's decorated with dolls, animals, pinwheels and angels.

The oak tree.

Of course I always do my annual cherry blossom pictorials.

A Very Nostalgic One

2006-11-19T00:47:00.000-08:00

Fall Training Conference Nov. 2006

2006-11-05T21:28:00.000-08:00

I usually don't post up casual pictures on here, but I'll make one exception. Of course, first pictures are of some sceneries:

Near the basket ball court. Might I say... great lighting. I love autumn season.

Took this during my economics class. Holycrapshat, that 4 hour class kills me.

Also during econ.

Ok, now on to FTC. Um, compared to when I was in Key Club back at Creek, Circle K DeAnza is definitely, as Henry would say, pretty damn ghetto. I am probably the most unghetto person in the club. No one wants to tell me what a shocker is. I suppose I'd rather it be a mystery, especially after the "chode" and "queef" vocabulary incident with Garrett during my sophomore year. Let's not get into that.

My Singaporean roommates.

Minh Thi and Jennifer

John in his natural habitat

Supposedly this is what Circle K is about... (this guy is from Berkeley)

.... and this is our CK Vice President, John. He's really cool. No sarcasm, really.

I... have no idea.

Precious, aren't they? =] I seriously think Rosie looks so much like Kon. There were so many times I had to restrain myself from calling her Kon because I'd think they're one person. Except Kon's a little spastic. [my eyes are definitely not as small as John's :P]

What the hell does that hand sign mean?? >:[

John Huynh. Guzzling.

Awesome shirt.

I hate that game.

CK President Phung...[insert last name here]. It always looks like he just got out of bed. 'sall good. ^^

She did that while handcuffed.

Photoshot by Buu

I think most members were in the dark about having to wear scrubs around camp.

Let's ignore Phung for a bit and admire the lighting. That's awesome lighting right there. So warm. He's like the sun.

Ok, now you can notice that he's wearing a yellow bus.

Me and Michelle Wall at the dinner table.

Obviously ignoring MY camera. (Well, myself included XD)

ET and Phung doing the macarena

Doing what he does best: being loud and obnoxious. This applies to all the male officers.

Mary (drinking coffee), Jennifer, Rose, and... Buu? (I always laugh inside when I hear "buu" because that's Japanese for pig noises)

Fong and I. Met him at the Haunted House event in Oakland a couple weeks ago.

And that concludes my FTC experience. It was awesome.

These pictures were from ET's/Mother's/Grandmother's birthday. There was a lot of food. I was happy and that's what's most important. Oh, and ET's becoming of an "adult". Aw.

ET and the gf.

Victoria and Bambi. What hooch. Vic was a sheriff -wink wink nudge nudge-

[I was a beat up nerd]

Mr. Incredible didn't come on time, apparently.

Dios Del Los Muertos

2006-10-30T17:10:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, I was a paid photographer for the Dios Del Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), which I've participated in for about 4 years now. One year, I had to dress up as a pothead. No, not that. I had to wear a flowerpot over my entire head -shrug-. It's always fun doing these things because it's so community and family oriented. As the entire parade wandered through the streets, cars would honk, kids would gawk, and adults would hoot and holler. We literally stopped traffic. Or, er, caused traffic.

Sometimes...

2006-10-24T19:47:00.000-07:00

...I wish life was like this

The 17 mile Drive That Took 3 Hours

2006-08-20T00:18:00.000-07:00

Curries of all Kinds

2006-08-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

One thing most Asians have in common is the delectable curry. Oh how I love curries of all kinds. Thai, Indian, Japanese, Singaporean, Vietnamese, Malaysian, etc. I've tried them all and each one has a distinct taste. All are very delicious and that's why I love it.

I never used to particularly like curry. My mom made hers usually with chicken, potatoes and onions in a very huge pot. Most of the time, that meant that a party was going on, and we'd eat it with bagette bread. Never with rice. I started to experiment with curry last year when I flew to Japan. Japanese curry was a foreign commodity from India, which explains the unusual spiciness. Native Japanese cooking has more gentle and subtle flavor, so when I had the curry there, it felt out of place, however it is a staple in their culture.

My teacher took my group to a curry place near the trainstation and I ordered croquette curry that was HEAVENLY. When I got back to America, I instantly got hit with the unbearable craving for it! I had no idea where to get it since most Japanese restaurants did not serve it. I found out Mitsuwa had the dish for 5.75 with tonkatsu and immediately just had to eat it. After that, Vic showed me to an Indian buffet where I had Indian curry, then I ventured to Thai curry, and then to the Malaysian and Singaporean versions.

Today I handmade my own soymilk and made Singaporean Curry.

Soymilk
First you must soak the beans over night. The morning after, put 1/4 of the beans in a processor and enough water to submerge. Liquify it and put the paste into a large bowl. Repeat until you use up all the beans.

Pour the paste into a little cloth bag. My mom had to sew me one because we lost the old one. It kinda looks like a mini pillow case. Make sure to rinse the cloth in water first. Add in all the soy paste and two cups of water and put into a large bowl. You then squeeze, roll, and twist to get the milk out of the paste. Keep adding water inside the bag until the beans have no more milk to give.

Pour the milk into a pot and heat til it boils (you MUST stir or else it'll burn). Once it boils, immediately turn off the stove. Add in a packet of vanilla sugar and two cups of granulated sugar. Let cool and you have your own soy milk.

Curry

You'll need:
1 jar Yeo's Singaporean Curry for Chicken
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/4 of an Onion
1 Japanese yam
1 Chicken breast

First peel and cut the the yams into 1/2 inch cubes and boil for 10 minutes. Take the yams out of the water into a bowl.

Cut the chicken into cubes. Quarter the onions. Put both into a pan with olive oil and let saute until the chicken is brown on all sides. Add in the yams. Saute for an additional 5 minutes. Add in half of the jar of curry and let it coat everything in the pot. Then add in the coconut milk. Mix and let simmer. Voila, now just get a bowl of rice and chow down!

Blast from the Past

2006-07-29T03:02:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures I never got to post. These are mostly from SF

I especially liked this picture because these two guys were Brazil futbol fans. Notice the worn out soccer ball. Hot.

I liked this picture because my sister's sweater matched my mom's curtains.

2006-07-15T00:08:00.000-07:00

Long time no cook. I've honestly been eating out way more than I did a year ago, but I guess it's because of schoolwork. My first year of college I studied very hard (except for last quarter hehe.. =x).

It was about 11pm and I was in my sister's room watching tv with her. We were both watching Survivorman on the Discovery Channel where this man just deserts himself in a desert. The only crew he has is himself (he records himself with two cameras). He made a contraption to trap "food". With all his efforts, he got ONE squirrel under a rock and it was no a pretty sight. The poor squirrel was flat as a pancake!! The man roasted it over an open fire and ate it.

I don't know if that made my sister hungry, but by the end of the show, she was whining, "I'm sooo hungry...." and kicking me on the bed. We went to the kitchen and behold. I made an empanada out of pancake mix, milk and eggs. The filling I made out of canned chicken, red onion, a clove of garlic and mixed in some garlic chili sauce. The first one I fried but I forgot how fast pancake mix cooks, so it got BURNT BLACK! The other one I baked in the oven with some eggwash and it turned out waaaaayyyyy better.

Sunday Lunch

2006-05-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

Fried whole prawn. I eat the skin and all. Very crunchy :9

Sake furikake onigiri (Salmon seasoned rice ball). I just bought the onigiri mold yesterday at Mitsuwa for 3.50. I love it.

Fresh mushrooms, sauteed mushrooms, red onions, roma tomatoes, onigiri, fried prawn and pan seared, oven roasted tri tip beef.

I eat well.

Garden Birthday

2006-05-27T23:14:00.000-07:00

Today was Kelly's birthday which was fun. We had OYSTERS! YUM. Not much to say I guess. I'm gonna go eat left overs.

- 12:18AM

Reaching for the balloons

I think I bought Que and Quinn that Elephant. They've grown very attached to it =]

Ai Linh

Quinn and his Cocoa Pebbles

My sister hogging the kids' play things

Windchimes

Luc

"Daddy don't go =["

Uncle and Sherry wanted me to take a couple picture lol. They're really the modern couple. He's gonna take me to go eat FRENCH food later :D.

Ladybug Sunflower

Sunset Beach May 14, 2006

2006-05-25T01:49:00.000-07:00

Long Time No Post

2006-05-25T01:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to Kazoo for lunch in Japantown, San Jose. Bentos are pretty cheap, ranging from 7.00-8.50 which includes rice, miso soup and 4 items. Mine had three pieces of gyoza, tonkatsu, chicken teriyaki and ca rolls. I like to sample things, so I don't need such big portions. It was more than enough.

The big winner was the chicken teriyaki. I think they grilled the meat and then put on the sauce. The meat had the charcoaled taste and was crisp on the edge. SO GOOD. I've never had chicken teriyaki that way. Everything else was decent. I'd go back for cheap bento, but Sushi Coast right now is my favorite sushi restaurant.

That same day I made my own pesto.

Ingredients
10 basil leaves
1 garlic clove
Extra virgin olive oil
Parmasean cheese
Pinch of salt

You can use a food processor to process all the ingredients, but I used the traditional motar. Put the 10 basil leaves, garlic and salt in the motar and start mashin' bashin' grinding. The salt acts as an abrasive to make the basil disentegrate easier. When it becomes a paste, add in the olive oil and cheese to your desired consistency.

blossom

2006-04-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

Ch-ch-cherry Blossom Time!

2006-04-06T18:43:00.000-07:00

Every spring, my backyard turns into a beautiful garden. For the last couple of years I've tried to take advantage of the blossoming trees before summer comes and the blossoms fall out.

Cemetary

2006-04-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

Jennifer's dad. We've always felt a little eerie towards it because it had Jennifer's name on the stone. It was mean of us, but Katie and I would taunt her and say, "OMG, you're going to be buried here!"

My cousin at her father's. I remember when I was young, each time we went to visit my grandma, I also remembered to visit her father just so he wouldn't get lonely. I'm not sure what I thought during those times, but I knew that every grave needed a visitor sometime.

My UCLA alumni Uncle's baby girl. I bet my life that her first words were "USC! UCLA!". No, I'm SERIOUS. The parents are doing that to their little, barely 1 yr old, boy, chanting "USC! USC! UCLA!". Gotta get 'em when they're young I guess.

Notice the Swastika sign near my mom's head. It DOES NOT represent for the Nazi. This is a holy sign for Buddhism long before its association with facism and Hitler. Hitler just adopted the Swastika to represent the Aryan race when he was in his reign -___-.

"Is this what happens if I don't go to UCLA? :*["

I guess I've never noticed it, but this incense jar has been here for a long, long time. I usually don't pray, but I did this time for my grandpa and prayed for good grades. Behind the jar you see the name "Tran My Chau" which was my other aunt who died when she was a child.

I thought this was interesting. Apparently this is how the Burmese decorate their ancestors (with colorful paper).

I don't know who John A. Palacios is, but "BAA!!" certainly catches your attention.

My mom woke up up this morning, 30 minutes before we had to go to the cemetary for our annual visit. No one ever tells me about these things and it's ALWAYS last minute! It did damper my mood for the morning because I've never been comfortable in a place like the cemetary, especially after I found out the little cottage near the gates was a crematory (after Bobby's passing)

During the car ride, my dad had the window open and I didn't want to smell the air. It made my heart heavy and tired thinking about... things. The open air had this uncomfortable scent, but ironically, when I started to smell incense, I felt a bit at ease. Like, I could breathe again. It's a weird superstition, but if I don't smell incense, it feels like I'm breathing in the souls of all the deceased, which I don't want to do!

My dad made a wrong turn and drove all the way high up into a hill where the people didn't bury their coffins, but confined it into this box-like grave on top of the surface. -___- I prefer the dead underground, thank you.

Once we met up with the rest of the family at the RIGHT gravestone -_-, the tension inside me swelled up because there was a dug up grave right next to ours! I gritted my teeth and avoided eye contact with it. While everyone was praying, I took out my camera out of nervousness and my sister started questioning me,

Cindy: You're going to TAKE pictures of the graves?
Me: Yea I'm going to capture their souls. Oh! I see one right there! -snap-
Cindy: Huh, aren't they dead?
Me: Uh, yeah. I'm pretty sure everyone's dead here.
Cindy: Aren't they all in heaven though?
Me: O_o Heaven? You're a confused Buddhist!
Cindy: I don't know! That's what the T.V. told me!

.....

Cindy: You play fatal frame, watch people dissect dead people on tv, AND read about people dissecting dead people in all those books you have, but you're afraid of the cemetary?
Me: ........... Yep.

Luckily the mood got better when we got home because we got to eat all that food. Around 3pm, Jim E came over to give me the tickets to the football game, and then we ended up watching Sailormoon for a little bit before he went home.

Around 4:30pm I went to go pick up Valerie to go to the HP Pavilion for the game, but found out that it was 12 dollars for a damn parking space! I decided to just go park at the free lot a couple... 10 blocks away from the stadium.. hehe... It was pretty far -___-. It was the perfect day... to park really far, walk to the pavilion, without an umbrella, and have rain and homeless people coming down on ya. Great... just great. Also, when we walked down the narrow stairs from the garage, it smelled like freakin' urine! Gross!!!!! ACKKK Poor Val had to listen to me squeak and scream and what not. I was being really prissy about it.

So it started raining and we started to run around this corner and this homeless guy was like, "Hey! Let me ask you a question!". Urghhh... I didn't want to be rude, so I turned around and said, "What question?" The man took out his ID card and said, "I just got out of jail, and I live in Sacramento. I need money to go on the greyhound bus.. it costs 19 dollars..." I was too busy being nervous to look at his ID, gave him 5 dollars and said, "I hope you get home!"

I was really uneasy about walking around downtown when it was nearing dark and raining, so I told Val I didn't want to walk to the HP Pavilion anymore and called off the football game -__-. Waste of 4 perfectly good tickets. Instead I suggested we go eat at Tandoori Oven. =D We both shared a plate and got FUUULLLL... Chicken Tikka Masala YUM!! And a nice cup of hot Chai.

Since we weren't going to the game, luckily there was a theater downtown. I wanted to watch Tsotsi, but Val watched to watch a freakin' horror movie (Stay Alive). I gave in and we bought tickets for the 7:30 showing. When it was time to enter the movie room, both Val and I were apprehensive because there weren't a lot of people around and the door to the movie was in a dark corner. I chickened out and said, "I don't want to open the dooooooor! C-c-c-can we just trade our tickets, please!" Val dragged me into the movie room and fortunately there were about 7 other people inside. It still sucked cuz the rest of the row we were in were all empty.

I don't want to spoil the movie for the rest of you, but... I WANTED TO SCREAM MY ASS OFF. I CAN'T BELIEVE I LET VAL TALK ME INTO WATCHING IT! Oh the anxiety attacks it gave me! In the beginning I saw a face on the left side of the screen! A FACEEE ARHGHGHGH!!! I think I also crushed Val's fingers since I gripped so hard.

Surprisingly, it was a decent movie. I found myself yelling under my breath, "Don'topenthedooryoubitches!" and also, it had references to Fatal Frame hahaha. But UrGH.... no more no more. Why do I bother with horror films? -___-

The Healthy Burger

2006-04-01T03:10:00.000-08:00

I decided to be lazy today and not do anything, but after 5 hours of staying at home, I got pretty restless. And when I do, I venture into my sister's room and lounge around on her bed, moping and basically being pathetic. Eventually we decided we had the munchies for burgers and drove to the grocery store to buy burger ingredients.

She wanted hamburger but I convinced her to agree with me on turkey burgers since they were 99% fat free. The other day I was at Barnes and Nobles looking through this one book that documented pictures of families from each country photographed with a week's worth of food they'd buy. Sad to say that the American families' food supply was completely supplied in CARDBOARD. Junkfood, cereal, tv dinners... it was horrifying compared to the European/Asian/etc families whose food consisted more of fresh meats, fruits and veggies.

Anywho, here are some horrific pictures of the burgers I made. The lighting wasn't very good, so I tried to use flash (which I hate doing) and one without (to which I butchered horribly in photoshop). The burgers were actually quite flavorful and might I say, MORE delicious than a hamburger and LESS greasy.

Ingredients:
Ground turkey
shallots
garlic
steak seasoning
salt/pepper
onion
lettace
tomato
bun
cheese
olive oil

1. Transfer the ground turkey into a large bowl
2. Chop the garlic and shallots and put into the large bowl with the turkey
3. Add salt/pepper, steak seasoning, and a table spoon of olive oil in the bowl and combine with the meat.
4. Slice up your tomato and onion, and wash your lettace to assemble in your burger later
5. Make a decent sized patty (a little bit larger than your bun because it'll shrink. Also, DO NOT PACK TIGHTLY or else the meat will be a dense hocky puck)
6. Toast your buns with a slice of cheese on the lower bun

When the meat is done, just assemble the ingredients and viola! A healthy burger without the guilt.

Calamari Massacre

2006-03-31T01:42:00.000-08:00

These pictures were sent to me from my uncle who lives in San Diego. He's a camera enthusiast which is really a relief. My dad is into the electronics but is entranced by extravagancy. My uncle is actually KNOWLEDGABLE about cameras instead of the price tag lol. When he does come over, he'll teach me how to use my Canon, which is pretty pointless because everything just go in one ear and out the other. I don't think I'll ever learn. What I do is take a shot in every setting and see which one comes out the best haha.

Anyway, these squid pictures are actually quite old. It was on the news probably 4 years ago because all of the sudden, masses and masses of dead squid washing up along the San Diego shore and no one knew why. Just think of how much fried calamari you could make with all those squid!! OMG... just thinking about it makes me go @____@. But of course, not knowing the reason why they're all dead kinda dissipates my appetite. -__-

What a waste.

Perfect Sunday

2006-03-26T19:09:00.000-08:00

Gourmet BLT Made Easy

2006-03-25T23:52:00.000-08:00

Mmm... BLT. It was just one of those lazy days where I didn't feel bored at all. Actually, I did about 9pm and wanted to go to Barnes and Nobles, but I realized that they close at 10, so there'd be no point in going. The Borders in Santana Row closes at midnight. I'd go if it weren't so far!Ingredients
Costco garlic bread (diagonally sliced)
Fresh mozzerella (paper towel dried)
Lettice
Tomato
2 pieces of bacon

I used my George Foreman grill and you wouldn't BELIEVE how much fat came out of two pieces of bacon! I even trimmed some of the fat off before grilling them! After grilling the bacon, paper towel dry them to get more excess fat off. Take two pieces of the sliced bread, put the cheese on, and the bacon. Grill the sandwich in the Foreman Grill until cheese is melted and when you see grill marks. Take out the sandwich and put in the remaining ingredients inside (tomato, lettice) and enjoy :D

Delicate Hands

2006-03-13T19:01:00.000-08:00

I'll just be honest and say that my hands are NOT delicate in the slightest bit. They're fat with some callousness here and there. Even my pinky has rolls, but I've manage to mimick the art of a sake nigiri sushi. Isn't it a beaut?

Not only did I attempt the nigiri style, but the modern roll style too. I would've had pictures but I gobbled them down before I could snap a shot. Basically the rice was on the outside, with the seaweed, avocado, green onion and salmon inside, topped and broiled with slices of salmon and the secret orange sauce the Japanese restaurants like to put on their oysters and special sushi. Well, it's not so secret. It's just basically sriracha hot sauce and mayo.

So here's my workplace or more like my experiment lab. I didn't have any fresh salmon on me, just frozen ones, so I was careful not to defrost it artificially in the microwave. Instead, I let it sit on the kitchen counter by the stove to warm it up. That way, it'll taste almost like fresh sake sashimi instead of the gross ones left out all day by incompetent Japanese restaurants.

Ingredients
rice
vinegar
sugar
salmon
avocado
green onion
nori (seaweed)
mayo
sriracha hot sauce
soy sauce
wasabi

Soy Sauce
mix a dab of wasabi into soy sauce (haha easy)

Mayo Sauce
Mix sriracha with mayo (good sushi is so simple)
Recipe
Begin by cooking the rice. When it is done, DO NOT PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE. Lightly sprinkle in some of the sugar vinegar solution and mix in with the rice. It was cold today so I just left it outside to cool for half an hour.

Once the salmon is defrosted, cut into desired size strips and make sure the stripes of the salmon crosses horizontally along your pieces of sashimi. Prepare slicing the onions and avocado.

When the rice is cooled, scoop some onto some plastic wrap on top of a bamboo mat. The mat helps you roll the sushi and if you don't have one... well, good luck. Flatten your scoop of rice into a rectangular shape (Advice: to prevent rice sticking on your hands, dampen your hands with water). On top of your rice, put your seaweed (you can use scissors to adjust the size of the seaweed sheets). After that, just assemble your avocado, onion and salmon (make sure they are cut into strips). Once rolled, put thin slices of salmon on top and top it off with the spicy mayo and bake at 350 degrees for 2 and half minutes.

Lunardi's courtyard. At the right time, it can be really really pretty. Today wasn't that great, but decent.

A Hot Cup of...

2006-03-11T22:02:00.000-08:00

Today Victoria and I wandered downtown San Jose after a study session in the Martin Luther King Library. We came upon an Indian restaurant (I'm guessing a modernized and Americanized place) and had a nice, decent priced dinner with generous portions. The picture here is the Chicken Tikka which included five pieces of marinated chicken, cucumbers, red onion, rice and two pieces of naan. Extremely filling. I could barely finish it (but I did haha)

We both also ordered chai which was bottemless at .99 cents. With about 2 packs of splenda, it was oh so good and smooth! It was served HOT which complimented the unusually cold weather.

After I got home, I opted for a cold cup of soy milk. Here's my cow.

Rainy Day

2006-03-03T20:24:00.000-08:00

I love the rain, but not ankle-deep puddles.

Victory for You and Me

2006-02-26T01:39:00.000-08:00

My Olympic night ends very well.

Baking in the Sun

2006-02-11T15:46:00.000-08:00

Today was such a nice sunny day. Perfect for sleeping in until noon (which I did). The Olympics started so I spent my day at home, catching some snowboarding, and then deciding to cook lasagna. It was a mess to make because my mom came home and said to me, "What happened to my kitchen?!" Hehe... well...

Cheers for Healthy Eating!

2006-02-05T17:51:00.000-08:00

Fresh grilled salmon and veggies
After stocking up from Costco, I felt my cooking abilities overflow. I just had to do something with the huge piece of salmon I had purchased. The entire dish was made using the George Foreman grill. It's the best invention ever!

Ingredients
Salmon (it was probably the size of my palm, 1/2 inch thick)
Broccoli (about 4 or 5 florets)
Button Mushroom (1 big one)
Red Onion (1/2 inch slice)
Salt
Pepper
Monterey Steak Seasoning
Olive Oil

1. Take your salmon filet and season it with the monterey steak seasoning, cover with plastic and let it sit in the fridge for 20 minutes.

2. Brush the onion, broccoli, and mushroom with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Start grilling it on the Foreman grill for about 5 minutes.

3. Plate your vegetables. Take out the salmon and start grilling on the high heat for 7 minutes to get a nice crust, unplug the grill, and let the heat cook the fish for another 10 minutes.

Voila! A healthy meal.

San Francisco My Heart

2006-02-02T02:10:00.000-08:00

I love how the vines look like a star waterfall down the tree trunk.

Again the vines down the trees are beautiful. The greens in the original picture was just as vibrant, but I had to lighten up the background.

Golden Gate Bridge. I must add that the Golden Gate Bakery in Chinatown is out of this world.

Good night, good night

Mistakenly Delcious!

2006-01-30T16:30:00.000-08:00

For the past two months, my mom's been extremely busy with work, so my sister and I don't get our usual after school snacks anymore =[. Today I made my usual pasta with basic ingredients. Like fried rice, you would throw in old rice and whatever you have lying around. For this pasta, I did the same thing. Nothing fancy, but I did mess up on the meat. While I was defrosted the chunk of ground beef, I forgot about it in the microwave and it was almost well done and tough -_-. That meant that I could not season it well. However in the end, I managed to throw in all sorts of spices and it came out more than decent due to the pasta. My linguine was AL DENTE to the boot! It was the perfect texture.

Recipe:
Barilla Linguine (I would say 1/4 of the box)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
1 quarter red onion
4 LARGE white button mushrooms (after it had cooked, I could find the mushrooms anywhere! They shrink so much)
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 1/3 cup Vodka sauce
1/2 lbs ground beef

Begin by boiling your water and while the water is heating, dice the onion, chop the garlic, slice mushrooms, and set aside. Get another saute pan and add olive oil on medium-high heat. When it's hot enough, add onion and garlic, and cook enough so that onion is translucent and garlic is fragrant but not brown. Add beef and bread crumbs. Cook until beef is 60% done and add mushrooms.

By this time the water must be boiling (hopefully). Add about 1 tbs of salt to the water and add the pasta. This should take about 10 minutes. While the pasta is cooking, add in the vodka sauce in the saute pan, and let it simmer with the beef and mushroom mix on low-medium heat. Once the pasta is al dente, add it to the saute pan and combine it with the sauce until each strand is coated. If the sauce is too thick, add a little bit of pasta water.

Finally

2006-01-30T01:48:00.000-08:00

If I were as freespirited as I think I am, this is what I'd do all day; eat, drink, travel, and take pictures of me doing it. This is only the first step.