Curious Notions

Yesterday hung out with Nisreen, Shannon, Katambra all day practically. We chilled at the pool for a bit. Saw a disturbing group of kids with a very cute baby. They’re maybe in late 20s or early 30s. Party animals with a tiny baby. Infant baby. They’ve left the baby by itself several times and Katambra was so tempted to just walk over there and grab the baby. They smoked over the baby countless times and tried to put the baby in a floaty device not understanding that the baby is lacking muscular strength enough to hold itself up. Idiots. Finally, we watched in horror as one of the men took off the baby’s diaper and then dipped the baby in the pool, swished the baby around the pool and then put on a new diaper. EW?

Katambra and I hanging out at her apartment after the pool.

Afterwards, Katambra took us to a deliciously satisfying shaved ice place in Round Rock called Kawaii.

You know how crappy snowcone places are crunchy and the syrup just kind of seeps to the bottom and you have crunchy flavorless ice? Not this place! Finely shaved and every bite flavorful. It was bumping, too.

I got root beer and coconut with cream. I haven’t ordered ice with cream yet but it adds an additional element of decadence. Yum Yum.

This is a plug for my friend, Neville who is always up to interesting antics. His current project is the Homeless Experiment. He hasn’t done it yet but I’m waiting with bated breath. Basically, he is going to live on the streets of Austin, Texas for 5 days, 4 nights. He outlines what he wants to learn and research in the aforementioned link.

What I’m curious about is how he’s going to record his field work.

• Will he bring a camera?
• Or will it be a pen and paper kind of recording.
• What is he going to do about safety? Especially if he’s going to bring a camera for recording purposes?
• I can’t wait to see the bio sketches of the people he meets.
• I can’t wait to see what he does about food and going to the bathroom

I just chatted him up and he is going to bring his netbook, iPhone, and camera. This makes me very nervous for him. He will explain in a further post.

I guess I’m hyperaware of possible muggings from watching The Soloist last weekend with Kim when she was in town. Trailer follows. Jamie Fox was mugged 14 times as a homeless man in the movie. (We both enjoyed the movie.)

P.S. Neville updated his blog. Check it out to follow him in this experiment.

Last Saturday, I spent the entire day with Kim (who visited from Houston!), Nino, Bing, Nisreen, Jesse, Katambra, Deesh, and Britney. We started the day off with dim sum (which then lead to pool time, watermelon time, Trudy’s time, bowling time and then drinks and bar games at Sherlocks.) No wonder were were BEAT.

We usually go to T&S Seafood for dim sum unless we’re trying a new place. No place has matched it since we’ve started to go to T&S. I always forget to snap pictures because I’m so busy scarfing down food like I haven’t eaten in days. Truth be told, I don’t remember a time we’ve gone when we weren’t all ravenous. I like that I haven’t been to this place without this crowd ever, so in my mind this is OUR place. It genuinely tastes the best and the staff actually has a lot of fun with each other which always affects the service favorably.

I managed to snap 2 half ass photos last weekend of our food. People pictures were taken while we waited impatiently for the carts to go around. We were RAVENOUS. Big party takes a while to seat as this place is small and crowded.

Lovely girlfriends.

Cranky due to hunger.

Above is a picture of our table at one point. Nino and I love the cheung fun which is the steamed rice noodles filled with your choice of meat (our choice is always shrimp.) We get 3 plates of this stuff. 1 for the table. 1 for Nino. 1 for me. Honestly, that’s really how it works. Above, you can see 2 of the 3 plates we ordered of the cheung fun on the bottom and center. It’s always doused in a sweeter soy sauce kind of sauce.

Another dish I never leave without getting is a dessert. Steamed buns filled with egg cream. I gobbled mine up too quickly to take a picture of the filling. Since there’s all sorts of steamed buns, there’s usually a kind of marking on top to identify which bun is which. The egg cream bun is usually marked by an orange color or yellow color. Katambra and I were the only ones who HAD to have these.

If I can remember to slow down at dim sum, next time I will take individual pictures of dishes that are must-orders.

Neighborhood: Downtown
310 Colorado St
Austin, TX 78701

(512) 472-6770
www.imperia-austin.com

Last weekend we honored Sae’s graduation at Imperia, a trendy sushi restaurant in Austin. So it was extremely experimental which I usually appreciate. They had a whole menu of infused sake, sake infused with various flavors. We got the lemongrass and basil infused sake and the honey sake. Everyone who had a shot of the lemongrass and basil infused sake had a gagging reaction, so I skipped out on the lemongrass. However, the honey infused sake was pretty good. Honey with warm sake sounds good. Alan and I ordered the spicy tuna roll, our usual assortment of nigeri and we branched out with Imperia’s Zebra roll, a hamachi roll with a white chocolate pepper sauce. White chocolate pepper sauce! Intrigued, we went with it.

Zebra roll on top.

YUCK! We had a piece and it tasted like orange chocolate with a white chocolate aftertaste. It passed it along the table and it was like a replay of the lemongrass infused sake. Only one guy liked it, however he likened it to ice cream. So there you have it. If you want sushi that taste like ice cream, order the Zebra from Imperia.

My final impression of Imperia is that may be a little too experimental, which usually isn’t a bad thing for me since I have a pretty adventurous appetite. With such a consistent streak of bad reactions from our big party, I wonder if they test out their concoctions?

Hope everyone is safe and enjoying the day off. I’m about to do what I did yesterday and go hang out at the pool.

Last night, it was Sae’s law school graduation and secretly, I was paying tribute to my last day of official employment after 3 years as a clinical research coordinator. We had sushi at a restaurant I haven’t been to yet downtown, Austin. I will save that for another sushi post later. Afterwards we stayed downtown, drank and were merry. Photos follow.

A lot of Patron last night.

Some of the group.

Some of the boys.

Some of the girls.

Here’s little brother. (Not mine)

Here’s big brother! Don’t they look alike?

Ran into my hot doctor friend from Houston/former high school and college classmate.

Bill and Jen

Miss Jen and me

End of the night group shot!

I really like this picture of us.

Last week, I joined a few colleagues at Fleming’s Steakhouse. We were listening to a talk about osteoporosis. None of us had been to Fleming’s before and it was pretty good. I’m usually not a steak person since my TMJ flares up pretty badly with steak. I learned from the website that there are many Fleming’s all over the states. This one is fairly new located in the Domain. So, it’s a bit pricey. Our meals were paid for but Lily noticed some of our cocktails were 12-15 dollars. The service here was impeccable, compared to the other nicer restaurants. Steak’s pretty tasty. We all brought our left overs home to our respective significant others and the next day everyone reported it was well received. Especially the creme brulee. The garlic mashed potatoes were creamy and delicious. As always, I snapped a few pictures.

Blueberry Martini

This was E’s drink. called Romance. Looks delicious. Has champagne in it.

Sweet and Sour Calamari

I got to the talk a little late but my buddies saved me some crab cake.

One of my favorite desserts: Creme Brulee

Hee. Rearranged the fruits to be more happy

Steak! Medium well. Alan enjoyed my left overs.

Our Table. The sponsor gave us sugar cookies that looked like doggy bones. It was suppose to just be human bones, as we were listening about osteoporosis. You can also see my mojito! As you can see, their sides are family style (like Eddie V’s and Joe Dimaggio’s)

Some easy facts about osteoporosis we learned while enjoying our food.

Signs of osteoporosis include broken bones and hunched back. Your bones get so weak that they cannot support your frame so your spine starts to literally curve over with your weight.

I knew the following in college, but it’s been 4 years since I graduated. Osteoclasts are the cells that break down bone. Osteoblasts build bone. Osteoporosis happens when the osteoclasts outweigh the osteoblasts, upsetting a natural balance the body is suppose to have.

I guess I’ll leave it at that. Don’t forget to drink your calicum!

• I put in my two weeks notice last week. I just had a moment of clarity the week before, that the longer I stayed at work, the more of a disservice I was doing myself. So I made a bold move and put in my notice without a clear path or a job lined up. I’ve since learned career changes are scary, uncertain, time-consuming, exhilarating, and expensive.
• I really truly believe in love, as something to strive for, as an action, and as a gift. I also accepted that it can mean different things to different people and though it may seem subjective, it is essential to find what it means to you and live it.
• A colleague today told me yesterday she could tell I have an open heart from my photos I share online. That was unexpected and neat. I think I will keep this compliment for a while. I’ve been pretty closed hearted in recent years past and it feels good to take stock and agree, it’s open.

This blog entry is the last of a series. Here are the previous entries:
- San Francisco Fire Engine Tour
- Day 2 in San Fran
- I stalked a stalker and videotaped him.
- First Day in San Fran

Last Tour

Our last full day in San Fran, we did the Fire Engine tour first and then hopped onto a ferry and visited Alcatraz. It was a delightful tour. There’s an audio tour that walked us through the cells, a couple of escape schemes including a pretty gruesome and violent one, a few other rooms/offices of Alcatraz.

San Fran looked pretty beautiful from Alcatraz.

A furnished cell in Alcatraz.

This is a tiny winidow in a hallway of Alacatraz.

You know when you go somewhere extra touristy, they take a photo for you and give you an opportunity to buy it? I always buy. (I still want a copy of the one I took with Nam, Dave, and Kym at the Empire State building in NYC. Must remember to pester them).

Last Supper

We had dinner our last night in San Fran at a restaurant called Pier Market. I misread the directions and took us to Pier 24 when it was really located at Pier 39 (Fisherman’s Wharf). Ooops. However, it wasn’t just me who goofed (I don’t care what Alan says). Alan didn’t know the name of the restaurant! We got dropped off at the wrong pier but thanks to his iphone, we retraced our internet search and found our way to the right pier after a bit of walking and another cab. Our feast was an embarrassment of riches. We ordered 3 appetizers, 2 entrees and 2 desserts.

We caught the sunset.

Salmon Bruschetta. Pretty good.

The restaurant was too dark and my flash too harsh. Trust me, it was delicious.

Mmm slimey and tastey.

So this is Cioppino. It was the star of the meal if you ask us. We killed it. Cioppino is rumored to have been orignated in San Fran and it’s a tomato based fish stew. Whatever you catch that day you throw it in a stew. It was divine. I can still conjur up the mental taste, making my mouth water.

This was Alan’s pick. We each picked an entree and shared both. I was pleasantly surprised how good the ribs were. BBQ ribs does not sound like something San Fran would master? The meat fell from the bone. Just how it should be.

We ordered both the apple crisp and the creme brulee. I’m not an apple dessert kind of girl so I stuck with the creme brulee and nibbled on the ice cream of the apple crisp. I love custards which means I love creme brulee! Mm. Take me back to Pier Market, please.

Airport Food

We checked out on the fourth day at 10:30am, eager to be home in Austin at 8pm. We ended up being delayed all day and didn’t get home til 2am. I read an entire book. Not an epic novel, just a beachy novel I might link later. Alan watched some basketball and played a lot of golf on his phone. We were cranky, but I was pleased that we didn’t kill each other. We had lunch in the airport at San Francisco (and dinner in Phoenix) and I was surprised. It was the best meal I’ve had at an airport. I don’t think I’ve ever had good meals in airports, just mediocre bar food. Photos of our airport meals below.

Airport food: Korean BBQ Sandwich. Alan’s order.

Shanghai Dumplings, my order. I posted this picture second because I wanted to point out that in the corner you can see a french fry I stole from Alan. It was too hot so I let it rest. Hee.

I get a lot of videos from Thomas. He sent me this piano piece and I literally listened to it four times consecutively. I’ll come out and admit that I love Taylor Swift’s Love Song. Thomas said it ibest, “even though I know it’s meant for young girls, it’s so damn catchy!” He’s right, it’s really catchy. On top of that, I’ll also admit that it tugs on my heart strings and makes me love hungry. Anyway, the video below? Absolutely amazing.