Bowers Museum feat. the Terracotta Warriors.

gramma and i had an enjoyable day at Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. i do think the gaggle of stone warriors, animals and horsedrawn carriages were a bit of a pompous gesture by the first emperor of China who was not satisfied with people serving him hand and foot alive and had to continue this in his after life. i think of all the people who slaved over constructing his necropolis who probably were starved and underpaid and died during construction. on a happy note, since i don't know if i'll ever visit Xi'an and see the real deal, a sample of the terracotta warriors in an American museum sufficed.

Canter's Deli of Fairfax.

after the NIN Concert, we grabbed a bite at Canter's, this Jewish diner in downtown LA. I had their world famous corned beef sandwich, which actually wasn't too impressive. But i did enjoy the casual yet chaotic ambiance of the deli and i was happy to appease my growling tummy and parched throat.

Halvah.

We tried a Halvah bar we purchased from Canter's in the Fairfax district in downtown LA. It reminded me of a chinese confection. Grainy and sweet in the inside. It was tasty but one bar was equivalent to more than a meal in calories!

Halvah is a Turkish confection. It is one of the worlds oldest candies.The earliest references date as far back as the year 3000 B.C. The word halvah means literally 'sweetmeat'.

Ingredients include tahini and sugar. Tahini is created by grinding sesame seeds into a smooth creamy butter. Sesame seeds are rich in calcium, zinc, iron, phosphorous, protein, niacin and lecithin and many B complex vitamins.

Halvah contains three basic nutrients; protein and vegetable fat from tahini and carbohydrates from sugar. Halvah provides protein and calories, making it an excellent choice for the beginning of the day or for a backpacking energy source.

NIN

this morph was the best!

i had heard a few NIN songs prior to going to the concert and liked his stuff but when i heard and saw him perform live, it blew me away. not only was the music awesome, the technical stuff and performance itself was remarkable. i especially enjoyed it when he threw his stuff across the stage and the stage hands had to keep coming up to pick up after him. the bush to mccain morph was really cool. as was the Censored for your protection cam shots which included 2 people having sex. i am officially a NIN fan.

milk+honey

milk+honey=yummy for my tummy!
i liked the shave ice with the fresh assortment of fruit and red bean. but i have to say i LOVED the tart fro yo! next time, i'm getting a happy serving of that! i also liked the little atrium outside with the zen fountain and rock flooring.
go organic fro yo!

one improvement woulda been shave ice plus fro yo in one large happy cup!!

change is good. and it buys you a cup of coffee.

am i not happy
because of him
or am i not happy
because of who i am within?
i see black and white
when i see a rainbow
instead of joy
i see only sorrow.
do i look for the bad
when there is also good
is my attitude what needs to change
i know it should.
i am the common denominator
that's tried and true
as long as that doesn't change
nothing else will do.


The more things change, the more they remain... insane.

blunder asunder.

even good chefs have bad days.

i tried to replicate my friend's baked chicken with rice casserole. i failed.

the things i learned/speculated:

1. cover the entire thing in tinfoil because when you bake it, it tends to dry up.
2. chicken sorta tastes rubbery when baked on top of the rice with no cover.

3. use 2 cans of cream of mushroom/chicken, not 1 because all you'll end up with is mushy tasteless rice as opposed to mushy tasty rice.
4. perhaps i can try baking the rice instead of cooking it in the rice cooker then baking it?

it was bad. after having it for supper, i didn't even bother eating dinner. however, i did enjoy the garlic spinach i made instead, seasoned with hand-minced garlic, salt, and pepper.

bad cook.

i can probably cook up quite a feast for cockroaches. i ventured out of broiling and ended up with stir fry nightmare and baking hell.

Yoga for Beginning Beginners.

d and i started a home yoga program last night using the Yoga for Beginners DVD. you're supposed to go in sequence. we did the first one, which was Unwinding from your day. i am so outta shape. it hurt to stretch. it hurt to sit Indian style with my back straight for that long. is that even possible? you're supposed to go at your own pace. if that's the case, i'll still be on the first sequence next month. we're gonna do yoga M, W, F and hit the gym T, Th. here's to fitness or

not-being-a-total-sack-of-flab-ness.

wii sports.

i gave wii sports a go this weekend. i have to say, i like tennis and bowling the most and golf and baseball the least, probably because i SUCKED at those. and boxing was kinda fun too. i wonder how calibrated the thing is. i coulda sworn i made steffi graf jealous with my slices! i came out with a fitness age of my gramma. time to shape up!

gobble-dygook.

stir fried turkey loins and broccettes over rice using a pepper lime sauce from a brand no one's heard of.

this was my first cooking blunder. i really should have stuck with broiling the turkey. u can't really mess up with broiling.

the things i learned:

1. make sure you defrost the turkey at least 2 days in advance in the fridge or else all the water will still be in the turkey making it a watery distasteful mess. when i cooked it it was almost defrosted but not quite.

2. fry the turkey loins whole without slicing them up so the flavor will stay in.

3. don't over cook the turkey (this probably applies to most foods).

4. don't use just any stir fry sauce because that's pretty much all you'll be tasting.

stick to salt and pepper when in doubt. however, i initially did and it still tasted bland, probably from how watery it came out.

5. costco broccettes taste funny. maybe it's the preservatives. i'd stay away from those and use fresh broccoli.

6. eating more of something with a more positive attitude doesn't make the food taste better.

at least one of us thought it was edible. bad appetit! i need to figure out other ways to prepare turkey. at this rate, the only time i'm eating gobble is on turkey day, when i'm not baking the turkey!

Honda-ya.

i have to say Honda-ya is one of the best japanese pubs i've ever eaten, drank and laughed at. it's a house hold name and everyone's who has ever Yelped it knows how awesome the place is and also how you'll smell afterwards. it's got quite a reputation and the waiting time is often at least 30 minutes. but once you have it once you'll keep going back because no other japanese place can compete.

asian horrors.

lately i've been craving good asian horrors. i think the moral of the story is don't wrong people because you will pay for it in the end.

a superb korean horror both in imagery and suspense building. great twist at the end. great actors. but i did make a lucky guess at the beginning of the movie and called it. yet, i was still surprised. loved the shots and imagery and creepy crawling asian female monsters with long hair.

this thai version was so much better than the american one. we only saw the american version accidentally. the images were much more disturbing although the story line was just as bad. you can always compensate for bad story lines by creepy crawling asian woman monsters with long black hair. of course part of the mystique was ruined because my friend already told me the ending.

Tapioca Express.

i enjoy the franchises of Tapioca Express, esp. this one. i liked the caesar palace-like sky and the kinda French vintage look of this branch. i enjoyed my coconut snow bubble until i had some tummy troubles. d had some troubles with his thai ice tea. it was just a bad tapioca night.

citadels.

citadels is a strategy game that takes brains and well...strategy. i don't like to think that hard when playing games. the gang had fun playing it. maybe next time i can build my own citadels.

kitty grass.

the kitty enjoyed her kitty grass. i wonder if dogs would like it too?

gifts from peru.

the design on the Chocotejas box
locally made bracelets i can actually wear
coin purse and satchet
inside of coin purse
beads on satchet
Andean Chocotejas-they were good.

thank you karen for the gifts from peru. they were lovely.