Archive: May, 2009

Kawaii Hawaiian Shaved Ice with my girlfriends.

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?

Hanging out at the apartment afterwards
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.

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.

Kawaii
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.

Kawaii

Kawaii

Kawaii

Homeless Experiment

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.

T&S Seafood Dim Sum

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.

my lovely friends
Lovely girlfriends.

my lovely brother
Cranky due to hunger.

our table
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.

egg cream buns
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.

Imperia

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.

Imperia Sushi
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?

Happy Memorial Day!

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.










Always a reason to celebrate

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.


Patron
A lot of Patron last night.


Group Shot
Some of the group.


Boys
Some of the boys.


Boys
Some of the girls.


Little brother
Here’s little brother. (Not mine)


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


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


Bill & Jen Bill & Jen
Bill and Jen


Jen & Me
Miss Jen and me


End of the night group shot
End of the night group shot!


Alan & Me
I really like this picture of us.

The Last of Our San Francisco Trip

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.

View of San Fran from Alcatraz
San Fran looked pretty beautiful from Alcatraz.

jail cell
A furnished cell in Alcatraz.

Tiny window in a hallway of Alcatraz
This is a tiny winidow in a hallway of Alacatraz.

Cheesy Picture
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.

Sunset at Pier Market

We caught the sunset.

Salmon bruschetta
Salmon Bruschetta. Pretty good.

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

Oysters
Mmm slimey and tastey.

Cioppino
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.

Pork Ribs
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.

Desserts

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

Airport Food 2
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.

Paint Job

Today, along with some friends I went and painted Jamie’s new house. Poor Wallypoo (his true nickname) who had work at 2am earlier today passed out after working a good 5 hours. We thought it would be fun to take a group picture with him. Note the before picture he had no props near him.

Before....
Before

After....
After

Something about painting with buddies. It’s a good bonding activity, painting. Lily brought delicious tart and William barbecued and baked chicken for us. Albert brought his famed guacamole and lots of drinks to drink and be merry.

San Francisco Fire Engine Tour

This blog entry is third of a series. Here are the other entries:

- Day 2 in San Fran
- I stalked a stalker and videotaped him.
- The Last of our San Fran Trip
- First Day in San Fran

We only did 2 formal tours in San Fran and we did them both on our third and last day of the trip. First one was called San Francisco Fire Engine Tours which was highly recommended by my San Fran aficionados. One went as bold as to say, “if you only do one thing in San Fran….” The tour is done by a jovial and theatrical older couple who won an auction for an old Mack Engine Fire Truck and actually live in an old fire house. They took us through a random neighborhood of San Fran, across the Golden Gate, to Sausalito and back. It was very cheesy (they had us sing songs) and surprisingly fun. Here are the photos & few captions.


San Francisco Fire Engine Tour


San Francisco Fire Engine Tour


San Francisco Fire Engine Tour


San Francisco Fire Engine Tour


San Francisco Fire Engine Tour


San Francisco Fire Engine Tour
Sausalito


San Francisco Fire Engine Tour


San Francisco Fire Engine Tour


San Francisco Fire Engine Tour
I really love the picture of Alan in front of the Golden Gate in his firefighter jacket over this one of me but he declined to share.


San Francisco Fire Engine Tour

Really adorable couple who have been together for quite a few years. She said, “We were togther since the day we met and the rest was history”


San Francisco Fire Engine Tour


San Francisco Fire Engine Tour

Day 2 in San Fran

This blog entry is part of a series. Here are the other entries:

- San Francisco Fire Engine Tour
- I stalked a stalker and videotaped him.
- First Day in San Fran
- The Last of our San Fran Trip

Second day there, I picked up breakfast from a cafe called Honey Honey Cafe & Crepery about a 10 to 15 minute walk away my hotel (corner of Taylor and Post). I found this place poking around for breakfast places and the website and reviews won me over. Check it out, you’d be won over too! I ordered crab cake florentine which came with home fries and a strawberry and nutella crepe (my 2nd crepe of the trip) which came with either whipped cream or ice cream. Seeing as I had to walk, I went with the whipped cream and made sure to walk quickly. As I waited for my order, I had some water they had in fountains chilled with strawberries and oranges. I wished more restaurants did that. Pretty clever and refreshing. It was naturally flavored chilled water. I read in reviews sometimes they had chilled cucumbers in the water. I’m curious what that would taste like.

Honey Honey

Honey Honey

Honey Honey

After breakfast, I walked around on my own waiting for Mr. Alan to wake up. Found Ghiradelhi Square.

Ghiradelhi

And Sea lions…

Sea Lions

Sea Lions

For lunch, Alan joined me for sourdough bread bowls at Boudin Bakery. They do not serve boudin, by the way.Boudin was the baker’s family name. Alan was almost positive they’d have boudin. Inside, there’s a cafe, a museum and a restaurant in the bakery. They supply the bread to many restaurants in SF. Alan and I relaxed in the restaurant. I had the crab and corn chowder and Alan had the traditional clam chowder. So good. We quickly learned the reason why sourdough bread is so delicious in San Francisco is because the fog and the ocean air locks in flavour.

Soup Bowl

We had dinner in the Italian neighborhood, dubbed North Beach. Alan found Sotto Mare online and was so taken by their reviews and photos he was adamant we’d go even though we were missing out on some basketball games aaanndd it took it us a handful of wrong turns to finally find Sotto Mare. I was so sure he’d give up and just randomly pick one of many restaurants in the neighborhood. I’m so happy he was steadfast. As soon as we walked in, we were pretty enamoured. The owner (the bald man on the website) was loud, pushy, and possibly Italian. He gave us half glasses of wine on the house as we waited. Seating was very limited, reminded me of restaurants in NYC. Maybe 7 tables were available and there was a bar counter (where we sat.) He let 2 more parties wait with us and loudly shooed the third party away.

“We don’t have room for you. Lots of restaurants in North Beach, you won’t go hungry!!”

That made me feel lucky. Hee.

Sotto Mare
Sipping some wine while we anxiously wait.

I saw oyster shooters with soju on the menu and remembered a blog entry Cindy wrote once about her first experience. We ordered a couple. Pretty weak, hardly any soju. But I’m happy I can cross that off my mental to do list.

Oyster Shootersl

Had West Coast oysters for appetizers and ordered our Pasta with Smoked Salmon and Pasta with Chef’s choice of Seafood.

Pasta with Salmon

Pasta with Salmon

Pasta with Seafood
Mussels, Clams, Red Snapper, Shrimp, Squid

Mouth is watering! I still think about the pasta entrees. Mmmm. The red snapper in the second dish was perfect.