Food + Theatre

Week 6 is officially over (along with week 7 now) and I decided to head home to support my best friend Kim's little brother, Gordon, in the Shrek Musical at my high school, Mark Keppel High.

That weekend's Saturday, my sister and I went to You Kitchen. The place was definitely weird, the system of getting a table and ordering. You first order at a machine (pictured below) and then you sit down at the table you picked, and pay for your food after you eat. Very interesting indeed. The food was okay.  Out of the three dishes we ordered, I liked the Sesame Chinese Pizza the best. It was so good! It was light yet flavorful. You can taste the green onions. Really good. The dumplings and buns were okay. The dumplings were a little saltier and greasier than expected, but I did like how the plate allowed the water from the steam to drain. I did like the skin of the dumplings because it was thick. As for the pork buns, I also liked the skin, the bread of the buns. The meat was again a little salty and greasy.

Saturday evening, we all went to Mark Keppel High to watch the Shrek Musical. It was amazing. Great performance by the cast and crew. It was also great to see my tech theatre teacher, Mr. Gillette, again. Always great to come back to my roots of where my passion in production stemmed from and give back a little.

The following Sunday, the entire family went to Nature Pagoda. I found it that week at Fullerton and sent it to my sister to show her. I thought it was crazy how this little gem is in the San Gabriel Valley, just a city over where we live, yet we never tried it. First timers! My mom actually went that week after my sister showed it to her, so 3/4 first timers. The clay pot rice dishes were fantastic! I saw them in the picture form on Instagram and felt like I was staring at comfort food. In person, in a flesh, they were prettier than ever. The food came out pretty quick and the rice were amazing. Each clay pot rice has its own sauce to go with it, so we put some of it on the rice. Then we mixed it and placed it on our plates to devour. The soups were also wonderful. Very clear and simple. The dumplings that came with the soup we ordered were a little saltier and very saucy as you can see below due to the sauce all over it. However, overall, the food was spectacular. To top it off, the Taro Sago, a sweet soup dessert, was lovely. Not too sweet and you can taste the pearls on your tongue. Also, the pictures below for Nature Pagoda was taken by my big sister, Melissa. At the time, I ran out of space on my phone to take pictures, so credits to her! You may like to check out her Yelp account for her critiques as well!

You Kitchen: Machine to order your food before sitting down 

Pork Cabbage Dumplings 

Steam water Hole Plate 

Sesame Chinese Pizza 

Green Onion Pork Buns 

Shrek the Musical at Mark Keppel High 

Nature Pagoda: Steamed Dumplings that came with the Soup ordered 

Hog's Stomach with Ginkgo Nuts Soup 

Preserved Meat with Taro Clay Pot Rice 

Chicken with Lily Flower Clay Pot Rice

Taro Sago 

Soup that came with the Rice 

Pork Ribs Clay Pot Rice 

WOMEN'S DAY

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY! All of the women out there, you are strong, you are capable, and you are incredible. Don't let anyone say otherwise. I am very proud of each one of you!

Today I have to admit. I said one of the words that many women should never say when there is really no for one. I used the word "sorry" when replying to one of my bosses and there was really no need of it because I did nothing wrong. Instead, I should have just replied with a simple, "Okay, I'll ask someone else. Thank you!" But I didn't... Slowly and steadily, I will learn to take the terrible word out of my vocabulary and only use it when I have something to be sorry for.

As days past by, women will continue to make a difference in this world and I cannot wait to see more women CEOs out there and doing amazing, spectacular things and killing it in everything. I see our society giving more recognition towards women and nothing is better than seeing a progression towards equality. To all the women before us who paved the pathways ahead of us, thank you. You are the inspiration that helped us all. Let's continue to follow the many women out there before us and pave more roads for future female generations to come.

GO WOMEN!!!

Week 5

Week 5 went by so quickly. Two exams done, just like that. The best part is at work, I was able to figure out how to incorporate captions on our new server with the help of my bosses. Friday night, our new server was live officially. I felt so happy. I was beaming from ear to ear. I went online to our TitanTV YouTube channel just to see the livestream and see it play. That hard work, I was a part of. It was exciting, the little things.

After work, I went to the gym, as my routine. Fourth week on this routine. Pretty happy with my progress. Then took a shower and after met up with my two good old friends who I met from freshman year, Andrea and Theresa. We went to Kopan Ramen in Downtown Fullerton and Somi Somi and Honey and Butter at the Irvine Spectrum Center. It was a great catch up session with them. Been too long.

Saturday came by surprise with my sister taking me out for lunch after knowing I haven't eaten lunch yet. She drove us to Cute Tea. I ordered the Vegan Pho and she ordered the mango hibiscus tea. We also ordered yam wedges from Healthy Junk. Very full belly at the end of the day. Thank you big sis for treating me!

It may look really oily, but it wasn't. The noodles had a great texture and the pork chashu was tender and juicy. 

I got the ube and berries flavor with custard filling, topped with Fruity pebbles. Both flavors were very good, but I think I tasted more berries. It can be very messy (dropped some ice cream on myself), so be careful! 

Interior decor of Honey and Butter 

I got the Enchanted Berries and Churro flavors to take back and give my family to try because I knew my sister was coming out to visit her friend and will stop by at my apartment to restock me with some necessities. 

Vegan Pho- It was very light and simple. The portion was big I would say and very filling. There are a lot of veggies which I loved. They had its own flavor, making them even more tasty. The vegan meats were good. I liked the smaller pieces, which had more flavor than the two big round meats on top.

Yam Wedges: They were really good. So so filling. Soft yet crispy. 

Quadruple W

     It's Week 4. Can't believe I am a quarter into the semester. One step closer to graduating. Yikes. What I can believe though is how happy I am this semester. Don't get me wrong, I still get stressed and worried but more maintained. It feels like quadruple victory in my goals this year: my personal life, exercise, academics, and work. Hence the title name of this post.
     For my personal life, I feel I gained control of it. Last semester, I felt as if the semester was controlling me. Yes, I am still busy this semester and I still stress and worry, but I don't feel as if I'm engulfed by schoolwork. I am trying my best to juggle my school life and my personal life, not only on my health and mental health but family bonding time. Over the years, I always put school first. Yes, I know what you're thinking. What a terrible daughter I am to my family. I agree. I've never been a smart person, a hardworking person is who I am. I know I need plenty of time to study and plenty of time to review what I learned to really understand the material. As a result, I would either not come home to spend time with family (in my college years currently) or bring my schoolwork to family gatherings or not go to family gatherings at all. Family understands and I am grateful for that, but it was always a lingering thought in the back of my mind. I am determined to make more time for my own personal life. That is the goal.
     For exercise, I have been going to the gym twice so far! Every Friday's after work. So far so good. I'm going to keep it up. Working on my physical health in this goal.
     For academics, I must admit, still a little worried about exams, especially for one of my courses that my professor does have the exam dates given to us but we find out when the exams are a week before it happens. At least that is what happened this past Wednesday. I do feel more control with my classes and more enjoyment in them.
     For work, well, this is a new category for me. First job ever, so juggling school and work is a little difficult, but it keeps me busy. I know time is very valuable, so I treasure each minute. As of now, I like my job and the work I do. I know my purpose and how I can better the department in my work. Currently learning how to use a new server system that will be broadcasting the shows we produce on our channel. Pretty cool stuff I must say. Here's to learning more and becoming a programmer in 2019!
     This past week and weekend, I attended a mini art gallery held in the TSU at my school that showcases students' artworks. Love this small exhibit. Makes me feel like an art critic and get to enjoy some artistic work by talented students. I also watched an hour of Crazy Rich Asians that was being showcased at my school in the TSU theatre after work on a Thursday. Went to the gym on Friday as a routine and headed home for the weekend. Enjoyed some good eating. Follow along as I write little captions underneath the pictures!

Amazing work, abstract yet simple.

This was called the Tree of Worlds. I really liked how creative this artist was to come up with a tree concept in glass canvas with the world in mind. Very outside the box.

This was just plain cute! Adorable bird!

After work sunsets.

Workouts on a treadmill. My favorite workout and my only type of workout thus far this semester. 

Pie Hole: Chocolate Covered Strawberry- Verdict.. it was really good. Very light, you taste more of the strawberry mousse than the chocolate ganache. It makes it perfect because many desserts end up having the chocolate overpower anything else included. 

Pie Hole: Banana Cream Pie-It has been way too long since I had this flavor of pie. Delicious! Light, not heavy, not too sweet. Just perfect.  

A beautiful view of the crisp air and sky after a rainy day. Plus some hope for all. 

Headed to the Alhambra Lunar New Year Festival with my parents. Nothing special. Just okay. Got three free mini bottled waters and one grocery bag.

Cute little piggy balloons. 

Summer Rolls: Second time but first time at a different location (in the Camellia Square). Had dinner with the parentals and the dry pho was really good. I even saw an old classmate/friend from high school working that night. I got the Charbroiled Pork Nem. The sauce is spicy, but it was okay. The order came with the two shrimp egg rolls (dried shrimp). I really liked it. I actually finished all of it as opposed to my parents not being able to finish their meats. What can I say, I was hungry and I am a big young lady. The meat was very tender and tasty. The carrots in the picture are actually pickles. Really nice. 

Beautiful Lunar New Year decor in the Camellia Square.

Bistro Na: Ate lunch with the whole family here before going back to Fullerton. This dish was chili tofu skin salad. We had it no spicy. It is by far my favorite dish. Simple yet so tasteful. Just tofu skin and I think cilantro. I don't really know the difference between cilantro and parsley still. Always get the two mixed up. But nevertheless, a very delicious dish. It is  a cold dish.  

Na's secret tofu. Very soft and fluffy. Beautiful taste with a little sauce equals perfection. 

Sweet and sour shrimp. Man, these were very hot and even after a long while eating, my dad ate the last one and it was still warm. Very juicy. Great sweet and sour flavor and a little spicy to give it an extra kick.

Na's braised pork belly. A little saucy but with rice is perfect. The meat is very tender and juicy. Not dry at all.

Fried mixed mushrooms with rice cracker bites. The mushrooms had a great texture and I loved the rice cracker bites (the small white dots on top) as an added touch. You can't taste it so much but when you eat it together, there's that explosion of flavor. A simple rice cracker adds an extra touch. 

Beijing pork bone stew. So so good! The tofu is solid, doesn't break as easily. The meat on the bone was tender and juicy. The soup had so much of the pork bone flavor. The waitress even mentioned we can make more soup with the bones! 

Can't leave without dessert. Crispy rice treats. Very light. Cranberries were a nice touch, considering most Asians do not like raisins. Crispy and not too dense. 

Yin yang sesame roll. I only had one but I didn't like how the sesame on top overpowered the paste inside, at least for the piece I had. Other than that, it was good. Chewy and soft. 

The Year of the Pig

Happy Lunar New Year everyone! 新年快樂，萬事如意，心想事成，身體健康，平平安安，諸事順利，諸事吉祥. Good luck, good health, peace, all good things. I hope everyone has a wonderful Year of the Pig and may all good things happen for you.

As I am in Fullerton, I went out with my friend Hannah to Slice Shabu. First timer, and I really liked how my miso broth was very clear and the meats, veggies, and ramen were delicious. The meat was juicy and tender. The veggies were flavorful. We choose Combo A and got an extra plate of meat, the 1855 Black Angus Prime Ribeye. A little splurging but was a still a little hungry. I can be a big eater at times. The service very good too. Super nice and friendly. I would definitely come back to this shabu place.

Again, Happy Lunar New Year! May this year bring prosperity and good health to you all!