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!
