Category Archives: People

Happy Birthday, Dad! – Las Vegas, NV

10/20/2011 – 8:55 PM

So my dad’s birthday (along with the photos in this post) was actually nearly two weeks ago, but I’ve only gotten to posting this now. Apologies (as well as for the lack of posts).

With that said, my dad’s birthday was on the 8th of October, and he decided he wanted to take a little mini trip to Las Vegas that weekend to celebrate. My aunts, grandma, cousin (Reycel), and the boy went with my parents and me.

These photos are from days two and three of our trip. Day (or rather, night) one was spent arriving in Vegas, checking into the hotel, feasting on a buffet, and walking the Strip.

We had a few photo ops at The Palazzo and The Venetian.

Can’t go to “Italy” without getting some gelato!

I couldn’t help but stop in front of the Givenchy display at Barney’s and drool.

Top – Forever 21, Shorts – (I forgot :p), Tights – Banana Republic, Boots – Sam Edelman, Bag – Marc by Marc Jacobs, Watch – Movado

The October Draconids were supposed to be at their peak on this evening, the 8th, so after dinner, we separated from the parentals and drove off, further into the desert to attempt to get a peek at the meteor shower.

Aside from successful seeing a few regular shooting stars and one humongous one (must have totally been part of the Draconids shower), one of the major highlights of my evening was seeing these signs everywhere along that narrow highway into the desert. Burro crossing! Next time, we are going to attempt to take one for ourselves… mayhaps.

Urban Outfitters ads, anyone? And yes, I did indeed change out of my boots into flats (Michael by Michael Kors) for our trek into the desert.

My takeaway from wandering the desert late into the night – Joshua trees are creepy at night.

The next day, before heading back home, we all stopped by the Ethel M Chocolate Factory and Botanical Cactus Gardens in Henderson, NV. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend stopping by. Not only do you get to take a gander at their chocolate factory and cactus garden (which is apparently one of the largest cactus gardens in the U.S.), but you also get a free chocolate sample at the end of the chocolate factory tour!

Seeing as it is currently the year of the rabbit (based on the Chinese zodiac) and I was born in the year of the rabbit, I found this Bunny Ears Cactus rather amusing.

All in all, a successful family trip filled with lots of food, photos, and gambling. Well, the older folks gambled quite a bit. Ironically, we were in Vegas, and this time I didn’t even touch a slot machine once.

Tags Cactus, Cactus Gardens, Draconids, Ethel M, Ethel M Chocolate Factory, Ethel M Chocolates, Family, Las Vegas, Marc by Marc Jacobs, October Draconids, Regina Reycel Reyes, Regina Reyes, Reycel Reyes, Sam Edelman, The Palazzo, The Venetian, YL | Comment (0)

Food Friends Media Music People Restaurants & Cafes Shows & Concerts Videos

Jazz Cat & Girl Talk

03/20/2011 – 11:18 PM

On Saturday, BeiBei and I had lunch and boba with Jona. It’s Jona’s last weekend in California. Next weekend he’ll be moving back to Oregon. We went to Jazz Cat, which is basically an Asian fusion shabu shabu restaurant. I suppose it’s more like a Chinese style hot pot place, except each person gets his/her individual hot pot and they offer many different types of broths, including Japanese miso and Korean kimchi. I really liked the interior design/motif of this restaurant.

Here’s Jona helping me untangle my necklace.

I ordered the Japanese spicy miso broth with beef.

BeiBei had the Taiwanese spicy broth with lamb.

Jona ordered the creamy rose broth with chicken.

Alas, the aftermath.

Each order of shabu shabu/hot pot comes with a generous plate of vegetables and dipping sauce. I loved how they gave a great variety of vegetables, including bok choy and enoki mushrooms. We tried three of the dipping sauces: a sweet soy sauce similar to ponzu, a sesame (or peanut?) based creamy sauce, and what I believe was a slightly spicy satay sauce. My favorite of these was the simple sweet soy sauce, although I wish it were less sweet.

My spicy miso broth was pretty good. It reminded me a bit of typical ramen broth that you’d get at ramen restaurants. Jona’s creamy rose was interesting. I took a little sip of it, and it tasted like steamed milk to me with a hint of flavor. I would be interested in trying it out with a full meal. BeiBei’s Taiwanese spicy broth was your typical Chinese-style hot pot spicy broth. You can’t really go wrong with it, but I felt it wasn’t very unique. It’s the usual spicy broth you can get at a place like Little Fat Sheep (小肥羊). I would definitely want to come eat here again and try out their other broths. I also didn’t order anything from their dessert menu. A lot of the desserts looked really good, so I’d want to try those out next time too.

Following lunch, we headed over to Tea Station. BeiBei ordered the pudding milk tea, I ordered the Japanese macha coffee, and Jona ordered the winter melon milk tea with boba. (These drinks are pictured below in that order). The Japanese macha coffee is one of my favorite drinks here, so I enjoyed it, especially because at that moment, I hadn’t had coffee yet and I was craving it. While waiting for and enjoying our drinks, we played card games, just like everyone else at Tea Station does.

After Tea Station, we stopped by a store at Focus Plaza so BeiBei could buy some stuff, then we proceeded back to BeiBei’s place so I could grab my car and head over to the Girl Talk show at the Fox Theater in Pomona. Doors were to open at 7:00PM and the show was to start at 8:00PM. I met up with Allan, and we headed over to the Fox Theater to meet up with Jeremy, Lamonda, and Nick. Jeremy’s friend Will also showed up later on.

We had tickets for the balcony, and the personnel actually checked tickets to verify people were in their designated areas. This was disappointing because I enjoy being on the floor by the stage for shows, especially upbeat ones. At least we snagged good seats in the second row.

Opening for Girl Talk was Junk Culture, a D.J. backed up by a drummer. I actually really enjoyed their set. They were followed by Max Tundra, a British musician/singer/D.J. At first he as pretty amusing and funny, but later on, I felt his antics were getting a little old. Finally, the set staff began setting up the stage for Girl Talk. Girl Talk is a D.J. specializing in mashups and digital samplings. I had never seen him live before, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

Let’s say that I was pleasantly surprised and entertained. Girl Talk has such great energy and stage presence, and the music was fun and upbeat. He kept me dancing all night! Nobody on the balcony cared that there were seats; we all stood up and danced!

His use of LEDs was pretty awesome. I loved it. He also had a bunch of people from the crowd get onstage and dance throughout the whole set.

Balloons were released from the ceiling during the encore. That was pretty awesome. I wish I had been down on the floor level, though, so I could have messed around with those balloons. There were various other things that were tossed into the crowd throughout the set, such as bigger inflatable balloon-type objects.

It was a great show. I hadn’t been to a show in a while, and it definitely made me miss going to shows more often. I had a lot of fun. I can’t wait for the upcoming shows I’ll be attending in the next couple of months!

This weekend was filled with good food, good events, and great company. I hope this week and next weekend will be just as awesome!

If you’re interested, you can download Girl Talk’s recent album legally here for free!

Tags Allan Chiou, BeiBei Chen, DJs, Friends, Girl Talk, Jazz Cat, Jeremy Nissen, Jonathan Leung, Junk Culture, Lamonda Steele, Max Tundra, Music, People, Restaurants, Restaurants & Cafes, Shabu Shabu, Shows & Concerts, Videos | Comments (2)

Birthdays Food Friends People Restaurants & Cafes Work

Happy Birthday, BeiBei!

03/14/2011 – 11:59 PM

Today is BeiBei‘s 25^th birthday. To celebrate at work, Allan, Jeremy, and I stopped by Baskin Robbins at lunch to buy her an ice cream cake!

We even bought candles for it (no, she is not turning 11). The poor ice cream cake was starting to melt from the commute from Baskin Robbins to the office; I’m sure the lit candles weren’t helping either. We hurriedly carried the cake over to BeiBei’s cubicle to surprise her.

After being embarrassed with the “Happy Birthday” song and blowing out the candles, we sliced up that cake and shared it with some co-workers. Ice cream cake is very difficult to cut, especially when you only have a plastic knife, FYI. That cookies and cream ice cream cake topped with little mini ice creams of different flavors sure “takes the cake!”

For dinner, BeiBei, Jeremy, Lamonda, Allan, Xian, David, Sue Ann, and I met up at Lemonade. None of us had tried this place before except for Xian, who has eaten at the USC branch. BeiBei and I had seen this restaurant quite a few times and thought it was cute, so we really wanted to give it a shot.

Lemonade is located in the Venice Beach area on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, which is a cute street lined with cute boutiques, restaurants, bars, and cafes. It has a four-star rating on Yelp with 326 reviews, so we had high hopes for this joint.

The whole ordering protocol was a bit confusing, thus we took quite a bit of time figuring out what and how to order. We were also waiting for Xian, David, and Sue Ann to arrive. The ordering process is somewhat cafeteria-style; they have different prices for different types of combinations and you basically pick and choose what you want. Conveniently, they have a copy of their menu online.

Their motif is very modern and also very green. They even had grass painted on the walls! Is BeiBei eating grass?

I ordered a semi-traditional sandwich: tender beef with horseradish aioli and arugula on a soft panini. As a side, from the “marketplace,” I chose the watermelon radish and ahi tuna cooked with snap peas, black sesame, and ginger. What’s neat is that Lemonade has many choices of food/sides in the “marketplace,” and you’re free to taste samples of anything they have – from hot and cold foods. I tasted a sample of the watermelon radish and ahi tuna and immediately found it to be delicious. The radish was great. The ahi tuna was a bit more overcooked than seared, but it tasted really good with their seasoning. When I ate the side with my meal, however, I found that the ahi tuna that wasn’t overcooked tasted way too fishy; it seemed that the tuna wasn’t very fresh. That was totally a buzz-kill, but the watermelon radish still tasted really good. My sandwich tasted exactly as I had hoped. I was intrigued when I read “horseradish aioli” on the menu and immediately set my stomach on consuming this sandwich. The beef was tender and delicious, and the horseradish hit the spot and gave the sandwich a good kick of flavor.

Since the restaurant is called “Lemonade,” it is no surprise that they do in fact have lemonade. They don’t only have regular lemondade — they have multiple different flavors of lemonade! I opted for the old-fashioned lemonade. Jeremy and Allan both got the kiwi strawberry lemonade. BeiBei ordered the blueberry mint lemonade. Pictured above is the old-fashioned lemonade and the kiwi strawberry lemonade. I personally thought the old fashioned lemonade tasted like any other lemonade you could get at any other restaurant; nothing special there. The kiwi strawberry lemonade was pretty good. I was definitely not a fan of the blueberry mint lemonade, although I am usually not a fan of mint in beverages anyway.

My little Android came out to join us for BeiBei’s birthday celebration. Unfortunately, by the end of the night, he was missing an antenna. :[ He fell off my lemonade, smacked the table, and one of his antennae came off.

Both BeiBei and Allan ordered the Moroccan chicken braise with Basmati rice. They seemed to enjoy their food. Lamonda and Jeremy tried two types of pot roast sandwiches. Xian ordered a few sides. I forgot what Sue Ann and David ordered; I believe they both ordered sandwiches and then ordered other things to-go to take to work for lunch tomorrow.

The general consensus seemed that we give this place three-and-a-half stars, not quite four. The food was okay, in my opinion. It was a little pricey just for simple sandwiches and sides. I think the interior of the place is very pleasing to the eye. I love the all-lowercase cursive “lemonade” logo. I can’t say I’ll want to come back here again, but I wouldn’t mind eating here if I happen to be in the area.

After dinner, Allan, BeiBei, and I went back to our work building so BeiBei and I could pick up our cars (we carpooled to Lemonade). We decided to take some shots by the large “909″ sign outside of work. I love these giant red numbers! I had taken a photo with them before (which can be seen in an old post), but the lighting looks so much more awesome at night!

To sum up the evening,

Happy Birthday, BeiBei!

See BeiBei’s birthday post here. It also happens to be her very first blog post, so please welcome her to the blogging world!

Tags Allan Chiou, BeiBei Chen, Birthdays, David Ng, Food, Jeremy Nissen, Lamonda Steele, Lemonade, Restaurants, Sue Ann Ooi, Work, Xian Li | Comments (3)

Birthdays Food Friends Life Me People Restaurants & Cafes Street Art

Birthday Weekend Recap

03/10/2011 – 1:34 AM

My birthday recently passed. (I’m now 24!) It was on Monday, March 7^th. However, the festivities surprisingly began last Friday at work!

My co-workers surprised me with this huge birthday cake with a cute caterpillar on it! The cake was so heavy, in the first photo, you can actually see it in dipping in the center from lack of support. I could barely hold that thing up!

Jacob and Jeremy really loved that cake.

The cake apparently wasn’t the only surprise. They had apparently pitched in together and purchased this Comme des Garcons wallet I had been wanting. I was almost going to splurge on it for myself that week too; good thing I didn’t! The box was actually wrapped in a reddish wrapping paper, but I had taken the photos post-unwrapping. Needless to say, that is currently the wallet that can be found in my purse.

BeiBei was our master cake slicer.

Jacob loved his slice.

Stas was… apathetic?

The cake made Mark Jones happy. :]

Jeremy just really wanted to eat it.

Franklin was the one who apparently picked out the caterpillar design!

Ji didn’t want cake…

…but Allan sure did!

On Saturday, as a little birthday get together, a few of us went to Shabu Shabu House in Little Tokyo to indulge in some delicious shabu shabu. Specifically, BeiBei, Jona, Allan, Tony, Ji and his gilfriend (Jen), Jeremy, Lamonda (Jeremy’s girlfriend), Nick (Jeremy’s friend), and Jacob were there.

Allan is a “hipster.” (Jeremy decided to steal this sticker off some undies at Victoria’s Secret during his visit to the mall earlier that week and gave it to me)

Jeremy looks more appropriate to wear the “hipster” sticker though. Sunglasses indoors — totally hipster.

Tony got me this Android special edition collectible!

After chowing down on our shabu shabu and walking around Little Tokyo a bit, BeiBei, Allan, Jona, Ji, and Jen proceeded to my house. Ivan came to join us too! We sang karaoke until the wee hours of the night. Okay, maybe not that late. I suppose we wrapped it up around 1 A.M. It would have been a lot of fun if the others had joined us as well, but it was still an excellent way to end the night!

On Sunday, Allan, An, and I decided to hunt down the last surviving piece from Banksy’s recent work in Los Angeles – the “Foreclosure” piece. I wish it weren’t covered with Plexiglass, but I suppose the owner of the building wanted to preserve the piece. It certainly does take away from having good photos without glare or reflections though. There were a few people who had also decided to stop and take photos of the piece while we were there.

Spotted a random Diglett and a mushroom in the vicinity!

After finishing up at the Banksy spot, we headed toward the Magic Kingdom – Disneyland. We did not reach our destination, however. Hindered by hunger and the forthcoming rain, we decided to search for a place to eat dinner. An had this craving for fish & chips. Using my trusty Android phone, I found a superb British pub (four stars on Yelp) in Fullerton whose best dish was none other than fish & chips! Enter The Olde Ship.

An and I both ordered the tomato basil soup as a starter.

Allan had the clam chowder.

For his entrée, Allan ordered the chicken pot pie.

An and I ordered the same thing again! Fish (haddock) & chips.

An was really happy he got his fish & chips.

I only ordered hot water as my beverage and asked for some slices of lemon to put in it, but let me tell you, this was such a delicious drink. Who knew hot water + lemon could be so satisfying?

Needless to say, we all found our meals quite enjoyable. An absolustely loved the place. I’m sure we’ll be back again sometime in the future!

Monday rolled by – my actually birthday – but unfortunately I was sick with a sore throat and the chills. I was feeling a bit off on Sunday already, thus the reason behind ordering the hot water and lemon at The Olde Ship, but I didn’t think I’d be sick enough to have to stay home all day the next day. I did, in fact, stay home from work on Monday. I spent my birthday working from home while drinking hot tea and Theraflu. I’m not complaining though; it was definitely a relaxing day, sans the discomfort of being sick and feverish. And at least I had an excellent birthday weekend, thanks to all who made it enjoyable.

I went to work on Tuesday, and Morgan stopped by after she got off work to surprise me with an awesome birthday balloon and cute mini bundt cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes in Manhattan Beach!

These cakes are so cute, and delicious too!

Overall, I had an excellent 24^th birthday. I’m grateful for all my friends and family who greeted me and helped me celebrate. It didn’t even bother me that I was sick on my actually birthday, really. I had enough fun over the weekend to last me for quite some time.

I really wish I didn’t look so tired in my photos. I should probably try to sleep earlier on a daily basis. Maybe that will help out my immune system too. I’ve been sick so often this past year. I suspect it may be a combination of two things: working indoors for long hours without any fresh air (in contrast to all the fresh air I had back in Berkeley during college) and sleeping late. With that said, I take my leave. Good night!