Merry Xmas!

A belated Merry Christmas to you all! Hot pot Xmas eve dinner, Yum!

Shrimp and Chives Dumplings!

The Laduree Macaron Murders...

The night started out innocent enough -- champagne, strawberries and cheeses...

Then, these yummylicious Laduree macarons showed up... and the evil kitty inside of me whispered... meow meow meow meow meow...

Kitty-lish to English translation: One less human, more macarons to myself, bwahahaha...dun dun dun...

The rest of the mess we made...

Journey to Chung King

Nothing gets in the way between me and my Chung King hot pot, not even fallen trees, broken traffic lights, glass shards! Sichuan peppercorns, here I come :-) Ok, there was like a huge windstorm in LA last week, and Pasadena, where Princess Cat's sister Cinderella lives, was especially hard hit.

When I finally picked up C, I was like, phew, now it's only 15 minutes between me and my Chung King hot pot! You see, I didn't have lunch that day. So I drove Baby Catmobile like a maniac down Colorado straight for Chung King Restaurant on San Gabriel Boulevard. After I turned on SG Boulevard, suddenly I see lots of red backlights, WTH? It turned out the lights at the intersection of Hungtinton and SG Boulevard were out. WHA? After 15 excruciating minutes, we finally passed the non-working light... and I was like, yes, we are almost there, when suddenly I see a roadblock, WTH! They closed down SG Boulevard? How? Why? But Chung King Restaurant! We were forced onto a tiny side alley, where I promptly called Chung King to ensure they were still open, yes, they are still open. Now, Plan B, we turned onto Rosemead Boulevard, where Baby Catmobile zoomed pass the other cars, I looked down at my GPS, k, we are close to Las Tunas, one block away from Chung King Restaurant. But suddenly, I see lots of red back lights again. NOOOOO. So I sat patiently and waited my turn to pass another non-functioning major intersection traffic light. After 15 minutes, I opened my eyes wide and stared into my GPS again, we are at -- Las Tunas! So we haven't gone anywhere. Wahhh... Anyhoo, we finally passed, and we turned on Mission, then turned back onto San Gabriel, yay! And the cheesy Chung King sign is right in front of us! Then I suddenly saw a massive spread of glass shards on the street right in front of Chung King... NOOO, Baby Catmobile's feet. Anyhoo, I was too hungry at that point to think much.. and here are what we got. Ahem, this is my new S95's virgin shot :)

Yeah, I was a bit embarrassed to order this bland dish at a Sichuanese restaurant, but our stomach linings need defense against Sichuan peppercorns :)

Here it is: The Chung King Hot Pot. The Holy Grail of Sichuanese cuisine -- it's fiery, spicy, tingly, filled with pork, intestines, bean sprouts, tofu, tofu skin, black mushroom ears, cabbage, baby bamboo shoots...

Afterwards, we went to Tenren Tea House and had some fruit tea and some Xmas-y looking tea :)

Mountain II

Here is a pic of spicy shredded beef soup (Yookgaejang) and chicken soup (samgyetang) I had at Mountain (the new Korean joint in Torrance). Highly recommend these two dishes. Btw, this is also my Canon Powershot's retirement photo. I got a new Canon S95!

Mountain (山)

A new Korean restaurant opened up in Garden Grove. It is called Mountain (or 山 in Chinese, doesn't the character look like a mountain? Wonder why they use Chinese character for their logo). Anyhoo, here are the banchans. The first time I'd seen them in such super shiny saucer plates... A few chomp, munch, chomps later, they were all empty.

When the waitresses brought out the entrees a short time later, their eyes opened wide and they kindly reminded us that the banchans were not appetizers, i.e. we did not have to finish them before the entrees. We nodded and said, yes, we know, refills please.

Beef soup... I like the touch of red peppers, gave it an extra spicy kick. Here is a little "Hiyah!" from the chili pepper...

Ramen...

Ramen noodles at Tsujitala...

Happy Halloween...

Boo. Now, turn over ALL your candies. Yup, the WHOLE bucket.

Best Luck!

J is moving to Texas soon, met up with her at my favorite Asian Food Plaza to say goodbye... We went to Chef Hung's Noodle House. I got beef noodle soup with a tomato soup base. Totally reminded me of northern Chinese style noodle soup.

Misleading advertising -- thought I'd get this enormous bowl of noodles...

Munching on 85 degrees treats. Best of Luck in Texas. Visit us often :)

I am being sexually harassed by...

...my neighbor's parrot! Every time I walk out to get into my car to go to work, I hear a high pitched whistle sound from the parrot that goes like weeeee weeeeee... I demand some respect, humph!

Lin Jue-Min's Farewell Letter

Today is the 100th anniversary of the Shinhai Revolution (辛亥革命) which led to the overthrow of the corrupt and incompetent Ching Dynasty and the founding of the Republic of China.

Lin Jue-Min (林覺民) was a member of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Tongmenghui (同盟會) and a participant of the Yellow Flower Mound Revolt (黃花岡之役), one of a series of uprisings during the Shinhai Revolution. The young revolutionaries' goal was to capture the Canton Viceroy's residence in Guangzhou as a means to inspire their fellow countrymen to rise up against the Ching government. They knew it was almost certain to be a suicide mission as they were vastly outnumbered. Many wrote farewell letters to their loved ones before the uprising. Lin Jue-Min's letter to his pregnant wife began with these words:

My beloved YiYing:

I am writing this letter to bid you farewell forever. While writing this letter, I still belong to this world, but by the time you read it, I will have been a spirit in the after world. When I write this letter, my tears blend with the ink, I can barely continue. But I worry you would not understand my heart, and think that I abandoned you to die needless for a cause...

I love you so much, because of this love, I now have the courage to face a certain death. Ever since we met (and fell in love), I have so often wished that all lovers will live and grow old together happily. Yet, we live in a time when the air is permeated with the smell of blood, and vicious thugs roam the streets - how many families can in fact lead happy lives? The bureaucrats hardly care while leading decadent lives. I cannot feign compassion but assume no action. I will use the love I have in my heart for you to help all the people under the sky to have the chance to love whom they love. Because of this, I am not afraid to die and go before you...

Lin Jue-Min and the other Shinhai revolutionaries stormed the Canton Viceroy's residence three days later. They were vastly outnumbered, captured and executed. He was 24 years old.

Congratulations!

The happy couple... congrats T and J!

Madrona Manor...beautiful venue.

After the banquet...

I won the toss of the bridal boutique... me next? :)

How to get fat lips without surgical enhancements...

Go to Hunan Chilli King! Yes, that's Chili with a double "LL"... Rawwrrr... But no alcohol permitted... seriously this is like the perfect food to go with Chinese liquor.

Stir Fried Lamb: not for peeps who do not like cilantro, yes all the green stuff is cilantro!

Purple perilla leaves with cucumber. This is a very unique Hunanese dish. Chinese cuisine typically does not heavily use herbs such as perilla leaves.

Spicy crabs, so delicious. When we requested middle spiciness, the waitress quickly overruled us and wrote small spiciness down instead... little did we know, Einstein's Theory of Relativity applies to hotness too. Although rated small spiciness on the Hunanese scale, I'd put at least four hot chili peppers next to this dish. It was darn spicy and I was getting teary eyed, a runny nose and burning lips. Next time I am gonna order extra extra small spiciness.

Chinese yoghurt to the rescue... on behalf of my fat lips, thank you moo moo cows!

Restaurant still packed at 9:30...

85 Degrees of Madness

85 Degrees, the uber popular Asian pastry chain, has finally invaded San Gabriel Valley.

Here is what to do when you arrive there -- grab a tray and a pair of tongs and fluffy pastries here I come.

This is what happens when you get a back-seat driver with a chronic case of eyes bigger than stomach disease: I want this, and this, and this, yeah make sure you get that one too, get one more one more!

After you get all the pastry your heart desires, go to the counter to wrap your pastry and to pay... [Update: my friend Bella first noticed this, but look at the hand of the guy in front of me, does it look like his hand is in another dude's pocket? Did I catch a criminal mid act?]

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

Happy Moon Festival... It's ultra round and big tonight. I write this msg to you as I sit on the couch munching on faux mooncake and rubbing my tushie. I had to do like twenty squats last night and my tush hurts so much today, wahhhhhhhh. Evil Wii fit!

In remembrance...

It's been ten years, why does it still hurt?

image courtesy of floraluniverse.com

Labor Day Weekend 2011

View from the Wayfarer's Chapel in Palos Verdes... this is what makes battling LA traffic all worth it. Beautiful.

Inside the Chapel. It is famous for its architecture: glassy chapel in the midst of pine trees... kind of like an open air chapel. Dear God, please bless this little kitty cat, I don't want much, all I want is to make it to the finishing line safe and sound.

Green tea fruit cake... yum yum yum.

Balloons inside South Coast Plaza...

Katsuya in Laguna Beach... great place for people watching, especially shovel carrying young women with their much older dates... hey, they need something to dig the gold.

Watermelon and cucumber drink... we ordered three of these, two virgins and one slutty, guess who was the slutty one, meow :)

Albacore with fried onion strips...

This is how much we loved this dish :)

Rolllllll... yum.

Seafood at Pacific Fish Center in Redondo Beach Pier... huge pot of Mae Woon Tang or Korean seafood soup.

Reminder: do not get king crab legs, so expensive and so not worth it, this tiny bit cost us $35.

Pinkberry's. Cute little yogurt swirl, I know you want me to eat you, hehe.