Browse Category: yum

It’s a Kolar Khristmas

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We had a relaxing weekend of good food, friends, and Christmas fun. On Friday night, Jes made a tasty dinner of beef tenderloin and mushroom/asparagus risotto as a pre-Christmas dinner for Susie, Victor, Jimmy, and Eleen. On Saturday night, Ryan and Michelle came over with Thai food and the little dude. We also got to watch the fireworks that came from the holiday celebration across the street.

Today, we spent the morning relaxin’. I had a little dress-up fun with Koa and took some funny Christmas portraits of him. I put on his red Christmas collar and pulled out the annual reindeer antlers and a scarf my friend bought for him. He has to look ridiculous only two times a year and this is one of those times (the other is on his birthday). You can’t tell in this photo but the scarf lights up. Heh heh…

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He was a good sport and humored me for long enough to get some photos taken. This is probably the first time he was able to actually keep the antlers on without shaking or pawing them off right away.

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He still looked rather sad though. As I took the reindog photos, I couldn’t help sing a little ditty I made up called “The Sadest Little Dog in the World”. I couldn’t resist adding the candy cane prop and harsh flash to give the photo a little extra cheesiness. Merry Early Christmas, Everyone!

P.S. Kolar is just an affectionate nickname that I have for Koa. I don’t know where it came from.

Friends & Family

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. The best part of the holidays is seeing all your friends and family. That is certainly what I did this long weekend. I had just about every meal planned and it was awesome.

On Thursday, we had our Thanksgiving Feast in Buena Park. Johnny and Joy joined us but my parents couldn’t come because my mom was sick in bed with a really bad case of the flu. Poor Mommy. The turkey was super moist and everyone, including Jes’ dad, played Wii.

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On Friday morning, I slept in and then had lunch with the Suminos. We had sushi, which was something I had been craving since moving to SF. Brother and Joy also met up with us. In the afternoon, Jes took a super-long nap while I went to visit Patty and Johnny. I got to finally meet their little girl, Zoe, who is just a happy little doll. For dinner, I went out for Korean food with Patty, Holly, and Patti. That really hit the spot since it was another something that I was craving for a while. Afterwards, Jes and I met up with Huy and Jimmy for drinks. Jimmy and I also planned our Saturday morning, which will involve playing a round of 9-hole golf. Woot!

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On Saturday morning, Jimmy picked me up and we played 9 holes at IronWood. It was Jimmy’s very first golf game and I hadn’t picked up a golf club in about 2-3 years. We had a great time and lucked out with no one paired up with us and no one waiting behind us. Jimmy did great and I think I got him hooked on the game. He was a little worried since we didn’t have time to warm-up at the range first but he jumped right in a made a beautiful shot from the tee, over the lake, and onto the green at the 9th hole. Nice! For lunch, I met up with my old co-workers/friends and was happy to hear that Anahita is now 5 months pregnant! Wow!!

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Saturday’s dinner was the best part of my weekend. My mom was feeling much better and prepared her famous Thai BBQ chicken, Korean Kalbi, and peanut sauce. She taught me how to make sticky rice and I got the secret mango/sticky rice recipe from her. Yes!! It was great to be back in the Magical House with my family. The old peanut jokes came back out and seriously, it never gets old. After dinner, we went to the Cerritos Mall to walk off dinner. I ended up getting a pair of shoes and tried my first Starbucks Peppermint Mocha. Yum! Cerritos Mall still has the same vibe with a few upgrades in their decor and stores. This truly was a homecoming weekend for me.

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On Sunday morning, I woke at 4 am and we left the house by 5 am. The drive was smooth with absolutely no traffic. Koa did a great job just chillin’ in the backseat and we were home by 10:30 am.

What a great weekend. Here are just a few of the photos I took.

Dinner: Impossible

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Jes and I prepared Thanksgiving Dinner at his parents’ house with just a few gadgets that I remembered to bring down from SF. These included the fat separator, gravy boat, timer, and meat thermometer. However, we did not pack our knives and wooden spatulas, which would have come in handy. Cooking in my MIL’s kitchen is quite an adventure. With the time constraints of preparing a Thanksgiving Feast, odds and ends for cooking utensils and pans, and a pantry filled with spices and herbs that could be 10 years old, it felt like an episode of Dinner: Impossible. But dinner was completed on-time, the turkey was moist, and we all went to sleep with our tummies full. Dinner: Accomplished.

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In other news, Koa also spent the afternoon with Zooey. It’s funny that they seem to remember each other from those summer days together when we used to dog-sit for the parents for a week at a time. I guess the old man still doesn’t mind having the little whipper snapper running circles around him.

Mr. and Mrs. Foodie

One of the best things about living in San Francisco is the wide array of restaurants to choose from.  In the past two and a half weeks that I’ve been here, I’ve already eaten at three nice restaurants.

One of them was the infamous Gary Danko, which many people reserve for special occasions like birthdays and anniversary.  Being the impulsive opportunists that we are, we decided to go on a random Sunday afternoon (5:30 pm reservation) with the Bangs.  It was so much fun choosing my four courses and having a different wine paired with each course.  I, of course, had to order the seared foie gras that was prepared perfectly.  One the most memorable parts of the meal was choosing from the cheese cart.  It had 16 different kinds of cheese and the waiter did a great job describing each and every one of them.  I tried a cow’s milk cheese, goat’s milk cheese, a sheep’s milk cheese, and actually ordered a bleu cheese that was very pungent but not too bad!

We also ate at COCO500, which is walking distance from our condo.  We went with the Masayas to celebrate both of our new homes.  We had moved in a week before and they picked up their keys that day.  Our waiter was very nice and helped us pick out our wine.  We also talked to this guy that sat next to us who apparently eats there a lot.  He recommended this really awesome chocolate dessert and was eating the paella that was as good as it looked.  The overall experience was very typical of San Francisco fare and ambiance.

Just last night, we went to Perbacco with Jimmy and Eleen.  It was a Wednesday night but so very packed. All of us couldn’t recognize half the menu so Jes just ordered for all of us.  We ended up with 9 different dishes that we shared family-style, which gave us the opportunity to taste everything.  That was a lot of fun and just the right amount of food for us.  I also tried rabbit for the first time but since it was mixed in with duck, I couldn’t really tell you what it tasted like.  That was a pretty indulgent meal and I’m glad that we ended up walking home.

Famous

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Nicole Kidman photographed by Annie Leibovitz

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The White Stripes photographed by Annie Leibovitz

Jes and I went to the San Diego Museum of Art today to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit. I saw ads for it in the New York Subway but it was no longer being shown at the Brooklyn Museum. Luckily, I was surfing the internet last weekend to find that it was in San Diego until today. Score!

For those who are unfamiliar with the name, Annie Leibovitz is most famous for her celebrity portraits featured mostly in Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone. More recently, she photographed the infamous Suri Cruise photos.

lassie.jpgI met her once back in 1995 when I volunteered at one of her Vanity Fair photoshoots. It was a day-long photoshoot that involved photographing one very large group of Hollywood stars from back in the day. I actually met several of them including Eva Gabor, Gene Autry, Milton Berle, and even the 5th generation Lassie. (see photo on the left)  My job that day was to be Robert Young’s assistant.  He was the star of an old tv show called “Father Knows Best“.  My job wasn’t very hard since he was in a wheelchair and practically unaware of what was going on that day.  Another funny thing that happened that day was that I was asked out by one of Annie’s assistants.  Haha.  I don’t know if I ever told anyone this.  To make a long story short, I was way too naive and shy back then and turned him down that afternoon.

Anyway, back to the exhibit… It featured a mixture of celebrity portraits, her photos from Serbia, personal photos, and coverage of the Clinton and Bush administration. The rooms were pretty crowded but we managed to work our way through the gallery. For $10/person and an 80-mile drive it was not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning. What made it even more interesting was walking through the Earth Day festivities including a bunch of hippie propaganda and a Hare Krishna parade. Awesome.

On our way home, we stopped at Joe’s Crab Shack for a crabalicious feast. For $22.95, we got a platter of dungeoness, snow, and king crab. Yum yum. Their clam chowder was creamy and smokey and the fried shrimp was also very tasty. It sure did make driving home a little tougher with food coma and all but it was worth it.

Let’s walk to dinner!

Uh, that’s something you don’t normally hear in suburbia but that’s what we did tonight.  Jes and I went out to dinner with Jay and Nikki (our neighbors) and we walked there.  In New York City it comes so naturally but in a city where BMWs and minivans rule, it’s another story.  Luckily, we live close to a number of decent restaurants so we walked down to Lucca Cafe.  They serve tapas-sized dishes and a large selection of wines.  My favorites were the pappardelle and butternut squash ravioli.  We also tried a reisling and a pinot noir that were both pretty good.  Dessert was a banana cake with dark chocolate and a key lime mousse.  Yum yum.