Happy New Year!
Happy New Year everyone!
May 2009 bless you with great moments and great food!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
My Greatest 2008 Discoveries
2008 was the year when I made the most discoveries ever in my life, mainly due to the fact that I had finally graduated from college, landed a new job and had the opportunity to enjoy my newly-earned income. There were so many things to learn, see and taste this year. Here are my greatest 2008 discoveries both in food and in my personal life:
Amuse Bouche:
Quail 64 from the Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton
Poached Egg with Salmon Belly from Arcadia
Egg and Leek Cream from La Folie
First Courses:
Pig Trotters with Bacon from Incanto
Duck and Cherries from Foreign Cinema
Monterey Bay Squid from Blue Plate
Salad Lardons from Globe
Stuffed Mushrooms from Hahn’s Hibachi
Scallop Tartare from Scarpetta in NYC
Entrees:
Poussin with Sugar Snap Peas from Ana Mandara
Prawn and Tomato Pasta from Bacco
Roasted Chicken from Luna Park
New York Steak from Gotham Grill in NYC
Chilean Sea Bass and Malaysian Curry from Red Lotus
Desserts:
Meyer Lemon Trifle from Arcadia
Mascarpone Semifreddo from Gary Danko
Chocolate and Vanilla Parfait from Candybar
Panna Cotta from Steps of Rome and The Moss Room
Frrrozen Hot Chocolate from Serendipity 3
Best Breakfast:
Eggs Benedict with Green Tomatoes from
Davenport Roadhouse at the Cash Store
Best Brunch:
Desayuno Mexicano (Steak and Eggs) from
Consuelo in San Jose’s Santana Row
Best Lunch:
Kobe Beef Sliders with Salad and Fries from
Fresca Peruvian Cuisine on Fillmore
Best Dinners:
COCO500
Gary Danko
La Folie
The Dining Room
Arcadia
Food without the White Table Cloth:
Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dog Cart in the Mission
Halal Chicken and Rice Cart on E 40th and 5th Avenue
Hot Dogs with Kraut and Onions from Papaya King in NYC
Sweets:
Sweet Vanilla Cupcake from Kara’s Cupcakes
Tea, Scones and Crumpets from Crown and Crumpet
FroYo with Strawberries and Mochi from Yogen Fruz
Freshly Baked Dan Tat from Golden Gate Bakery
Chocolate and Hazelnut Croissant from La Boulange
Best Combinations:
Braised Brisket and Turnips with Dried Scallop
and Egg White Fried Rice from Fat Wong’s
Fried Chicken with Pickled Jalapenos from KFC
Hawaiian BBQ Korean Shortibs Plate Lunch
with Kim Chee and Hawaiian Sun Passion Orange
Duck and Fig Sausages with Kraut and Onions from Rosamunde
Pork Bahn Mi from Saigon Sandwiches, Sunkist,
and Sex and the City the Movie
The Experiences:
Food Industry Events:
First Ever Foodbuzz Dinner at the Slanted Door
Slow Food Nation at Fort Mason
Asian Culinary Forum at the Ferry Building
FoodFest 2008 at Justin Herman Plaza
Many thanks to Foodbuzz for sending
me to these great events!
Personal Accomplishments:
My First Giants Game
My First A’s Game
My First Trip to Santa Cruz
My First Projekt Revolution
My First Trip to New York City
My First Sharks Game
My First Tattoo
My First and Last Wisdom Teeth Extraction
My Birthday Celebrations:
Roy’s with the Fam-Bam
Top of the Mark with Bubuh
Incanto with the Boyfriends
Arcadia with Ate Di
Biggest Disappointments:
One if By Land Two if By Sea in NYC
food was uninspiring, companion was lackluster
E&O Trading Company
cool people, food portions were small & overpriced
Osha Thai Embarcadero
dining partner outstanding, food was overpriced and bland
Zazil Coastal Mexican
I didn’t like my food at all! Fam Bam were good sports though
“Dessert” at the Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton
celery sorbet and pea reduction? Ick.
Guilty Pleasures of the Year:
Mexican Food
Enchilada and Crunchy Taco from Andale
Super Tacos with Rice and Beans from Poncho Villa Taqueria
Carne Asada Tacos from Los Metates Taqueria
Yucatan Chicken with Mandarin Oranges from Mi Lindo Yucatan
Carne Asada Quesadilla from Hola Mexican Restaurant
Tostadas Topped with Chipotle Marinated Chicken from Zazil
My Favorite Mexican Dinner
Tres Agaves Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Lounge
with My Coworkers and Business Partners
Cupcakes
My Favorite Cupcakes in the Whole World!
Kara’s Cupcakes
Cupcakes I Baked at Home:
Fourth of July Cupcakes for “Cousins Day”
Red Velvet Cupcakes for my Coworkers
White Chocolate Chunk Strawberry Mini-Cupcakes
Magnolia’s Cupcakes in NYC
Help-Yourself Cupcake Table, Our Bounty, Famous Red Velvet
Good, but not as great as Kara’s Cupcakes!
Cupcakes from Belgano (now closed)
Strawberry and Vanilla Cupcakes from Miette
Honey Cupcake w/ Rose-Infused Icing at Slow Food Nation
Safeway Surprise Birthday Cupcakes for Star’s Birthday
Red Velvet Cupcake with Creamy Frosting and Pecans made by one of my VIP patients at work
Kara’s Sweet Vanilla Cupcake and Hello Kitty Cupcakes from Star for our Christmas Eve dinner. The greatest Christmas gifts I could ever get from Star!
Wafers for ears, pink gel and pink flower spinkle candy for the bow, brown M&Ms for the eyes, yellow M&M for the nose and Pocky for the whiskers. My cousin Star knows me so well. She is really my BCF!
So there you go ladies and gentlemen, a look-back on my favorite food and memories from 2008. Just wanted to take a second to thank everyone who contributed to my food experiences, from my friends and family to the servers and cooks. It really was a wonderful year and I can’t wait for what 2009 has to bring!
Have a fantastic new year, everyone! Read more...
Monday, December 29, 2008
Christmas Eve 2008 - KFC, Hello Kitty Galore, Magic Tricks, and Karaoke
Occasion: Christmas Eve 2008
Place: My House
Date: December 24, 2008
Dining Partners: Momma, SAM, Rox, Jenn, Auntie Lolit, Star and Bubuh
This year, we decided to do most of our celebrating on Christmas Eve since Momma had to work on Christmas Day…yeah, working in the hotel industry has its downsides. We weren’t planning on making it a big deal. We were just going to buy some KFC and have a fun night karaoke-ing the night away. THEN Star called to see what was going on, and since she now a vegetarian, we had to make a detour to Safeway and get Star-friendly food, like the spinach dip and bread she requested. THEN Momma offered to pick up some Round Table “gourmet” pizzas - namely the veggie supreme one - and BAM, we had a meal.
Before y’all moan and groan about us having an anti-foodie dinner with the KFC and Round Table pizza, I just want to say that this was probably one of the most wonderful and memorable Christmas Eve dinners in my life. As long as everyone enjoys themselves, it’s ALL GOOD. Actually, one thing I appreciated about this dinner was that I didn’t have to cook anything! All I did was bake up the garlic bread and that was it. Loved it.
This was our Sweets Counter. Those cupcakes were almost too good to eat. We also had See’s chocolates, Ferrero Rocher, and Brownie Bites from Just Desserts. We didn’t eat of all the sweets, of course. After dinner, there was tea an karaoke - classic combination at my house. Sorry for the dark photos, I had to capture them from video I shot.
Star and Auntie Sipping Their Tea
Bubuh Singing “I Can Love You Like That”
I love the timer on my camera.
Gift time! Usually I am the one who does the spoiling, but BEING spoiled is a totally different feeling. I never felt so special on Christmas before, and I was SO digging it! The following are the gifts I received on Christmas Eve.
Lots of pink, huh? Growing up, it seemed like I shunned the color pink. I was such a tomboy. All I wore was blue, baby blue, white and black. I guess I needed a few years to become more girly. One vow I made was to make my kitchen pink. Pink utensils, pots, pans, plates, everything. Since I still live with Momma, I don’t have much authority in what goes in the kitchen, but once I move out and get my own kitchen - WATCH. Pink. Why pink? It’s cute! But joking aside, I wanted to honor my Auntie Mina who passed of breast cancer. So it’s for her.
One of the first gifts I received was a stocking from my manager. Isn’t it just so cute? I loved how she took the time to have my name stitched into it!
Inside the stocking were little holiday gifts like that gingerbread cookie, snowman sticky notepad, and candy cane. I also got that mug from our medical assistant L-Boogie. Lots of cool seasonal gifts! My boss also filled it with traditional English gifts like plum pudding. Not sure if I will eat it, but it was interesting to have thought of doing that for us.
The stocking also housed these socks. They’re Totes, so they have little rubber grips on the bottoms. Very cute and very pink! Perfect for this time of year because my house has hardwood floors and it gets really cold, plus you don’t know how many times I slipped after Momma waxes the floor.
This came from one of our nurses, and these are so clever! They are ideal for travel because these are individual soap leaves. You use one and it’s good for one to two washings. I don’t think I’d use them because they’re so cool…but we’ll see.
Gotta love them no matter where they come from!
I got these from my coworkers in my department Christmas Eve morning, but I didn’t unwrap them until I got home. Goodness, they know me too well. I don’t know if they were planning in getting me matching gifts, but if they didn’t, then that just shows how easy it is to shop for me. I’m getting closer and closer to my pink kitchen!
Now I’m going to start on the gifts I got from my cousin Star, my BCF! This was very familiar to me because this is a teacup and saucer from Crown & Crumpet. We went there to have Afternoon Tea in October and I am so happy that this tea parlor remained to be a dear place to her. The quote is on the saucer where the teacup sits in. So cute and brings back so many memories of that day.
I think she is hinting to me that she wants to have a tea session similar to the one we had at Crown & Crumpet because she bought me this tiered-stand. She also baked and decorated those Hello Kitty cupcakes herself! She NEVER bakes or decorates cupcakes! She recruited Herbmeister, her SO, to help her out. That meant so much to me. I think we’re going to use this stand many, many times. Thanks to Bubuh for assembling it for me!
Star also got me this recipe book with a lemon on it because she said, “I know you like lemons.” She really knows me. I don’t cook fancy-shmancy dishes like many of you do, but I do cook when I need to. I have come up with some good dishes, so this would be a great place to document the things I have made.
This brings me back because this is OLD-SCHOOL Hello Kitty. I love it. It’s a 2009 planner and this is really going to help me get organized in the new year…and I need to be more organized. A lot is going to happen next year, so this will be very useful.
I was speechless when I saw this. It’s a little baking kit complete with cupcake cups, a wedding cake cookie cutter, mini wooden spoon and rolling pin, and a recipe for cupcakes. Star said it’s from Japan, which makes it even more cute. LOVE IT! I doubt it will ever be used, but it is going to be a great addition to my kitchen décor.
As you saw before, Star baked the Hello Kitty cupcakes, but she also got me my favorite cupcake in the world! I love my Sweet Vanilla cupcakes from Kara’s. Sweet and perfect. Thank you so much, Star!!!
Christmas Eve was so much fun even though we really didn’t plan on having an a big night. But sometimes the night you don’t necessarily plan all week for is the best because you don’t have many expectations. Sure the food was cheap and probably crap in your book, but it was still mad good and everyone had a fantastic time. That’s all that matters in the end. =) Read more...
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Christmas is Just Hours Away!!
Hey everyone,
Before I go off and celebrate, I just wanted to thank all of you for visiting my website. I wish you a happy holidays and a wonderful new year. I hope 2009 will be an incredible year for everyone.
Celebrate lots
Sing lots
Laugh lots
but most importantly,
EAT LOTS!
Love,
Jo
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