Gami sushi sucks!

Just got back from sushi with Tak. We went to this Japanese restaurant called Gami sushi up in Del Mar (3870 Valley Centre Dr Ste 302. San Diego, CA 92130).

It's slogan is "Oh-so-yummy", but someone should switch it to "Not-so-yummy" instead.

The total bill came to 120 without tip. WTF? We didn't eat that much at all! We had

1) an order of uni sushi
2) an order of hamachi sushi
3) an order of surf clam sushi
4) an order of hirame sushi
5) a sunlight roll
6) an omakase sashimi platter

This wasn't a staggering amount, considering there were two of us. We were full at the end, but the quality of the fish was certainly NOT WORTH 120 bucks. With a 120 bucks, we could have gone to downtown La Jolla in one of those fancy restaurants and have someone wait on us hand and foot.

When the bill came, we realized that the sashimi platter was 46 dollars. That was such a ripoff, considering the amount of (or rather, lack of ) fish on that plate. There was
1) 3 slices of maguro (tuna)
2) 3 slices of ono
3) 4 small slices of red snapper
4) 4 pieces of amberjack
5) 4 pieces of uni

The sushi chef was grumpy, and when we asked why it was so expensive, he replied that it could have been 80 dollars. Maaan, he should just rob a bank instead.

Verdict: Fish was so so, uni was pretty good, ambience was okay, sushi chef sucks, sushi rice was not well made. Just go for the miso soup.

Philly Cheesesteaks!

I'm back from Philly! It's been an *eh hem* sorta arduous couple of days (more about that later), and I'm dead beat. My pops are off to Taipei for the whole of this week today, so no mum-calls for the whole week, which is kinda strange. My mum calls me promptly at 9.30pm every single day - It's like clockwork. I guess I never realize how significant that is till she stopped calling (and today's the first day of their trip!). Anywhoo, mummy dearest promised me that she will try to call me everyday. Apparently, it costs $1.70 a min to call here when she's in Taipei, and my dad is refusing to let her call. So her plan of action is to pretend to go to the bathroom and call from there. Isn't that sweet. Heh. Her alternate plan is to find a cheap calling card. My mum can be full of brilliant ideas sometimes. :D

Anyway, more about the trip. It started off on the wrong foot - I am supposed to take the United flight from San D. to Philly, connecting at Chicago. I got to the airport on time, and before long, I was comfortably settled on the plane to Chicago, dreaming of Chicago cheesecakes and deep-dish pizzas. The instant we landed, I turned on my cell only to find a voicemail from United that goes "Hi there, we are calling from United Airlines. This is a gentle notification to inform you that your flight from *pause* Chicago to *pause* Philadelphia on the *pause* 24th of November has been subject to a *pause* cancellation. Please consult our friendly front desk for an alternative flight. Thank you, and we hope you have a nice day." The first thing that ran through my mind was "What the fuck." The second thought that came running was " How am I supposed to have a nice day when you fucking retards just cancelled my flight!" ( Anyway, the pauses are really there. It's an automated message in their feeble attempt to cut down on staff, so they just pre-record messages and fit in the appropriate details as deemed fit.) I got to the customer service counter, only to be greeted by an extremely unpleasant staff (or rather "friendly", as United retards put it). She informed me that I was booked on an U.S. Airways flight now, and it's 1/2 hr later than the United. I asked her if I can have an earlier flight, only to be slapped with a curt "no". Resigned, I went to the U.S. Airways terminal, and obtained my new boarding pass. The lady was telling me that United pretty much dumped the 50 people on the canceled flight on their flight, and she says it's prolly to cut down on costs, by combining the passengers together. WTF. If I had known that I'm getting this from my 730 bucks ticket, I would have known better to choose United. I was so pissed off at that point, and even more so at the fact that I have to wait TWO hours to board the plane. Well, what better thing to do than to get crunk at the pub next to the boarding pass. So there I sat, drinking a total of three beers while reading my book and talking to occasional beer drinkers. At the end of it, I felt pretty happy. All my anger at United had vanished, and I couldn't wait to get on the flight! It even landed half an hour earlier than the estimated time, so I was pretty happy. But alas, that is not all. After waiting for my luggage for an hour, the representative informed us that our luggages are lost, and PROBABLY still in chicago. That was the last straw. We had to get in line to file baggage claims, and I was steaming mad. Actually, everyone in the line was, and we were rallying for boycotting United in the future, and sending complaint letters. We figured that the United retards prolly thought "hey, the flight's canceled! Let's just head home earlier for thanksgiving dinner and forget about the bags still on the bloody canceled flights!" Well, tomorrow I shall compose the most vicious complaint letter.

So the first night, I had to borrow a shitload of stuff from Jenn's mum. Left me pretty grumpy. The thanksgiving food was really good though! In my hunger, I kinda forgot to take pictures, but well it was excellent. Heh heh. I had to wear Jenn's mum's PJs too. It was pretty funny.

The second day, we went to the 2nd largest mall in the states. It's called King of Prussia, and man, was it big. We were pretty grossed out by the massive crowds shopping on Black Friday though, and the only remotely interesting thing was when they were going to nab a shoplifter at A&F. Seriously! There was even a cop, but they were taking too long to stake out the guy, Jenn and I got bored and left. Yep. And that brings us to the highlight of my entire trip ----> PHILLY CHEESESTEAKS! Jenn and I had to follow the GPS, cuz we didn't know how to get to South St, and it was worth every ounce of effort! We went to this place called Jim's Steaks, and I got the cheesesteak with american cheese and mushrooms. It was heavenly. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was the supple, almost chewy Amoroso roll the steak was set on (Amoroso rolls are only found in Philly, and people believe that the flakiness of the roll is due to the alkalinity of the water in Philly), maybe it was the very well-seasoned steak that simply melts in your mouth, or maybe it's the combination of steak and melted salty cheese. Regardless, it's right up there with the In-and-Out burgers in Cali. Dishes like that, I really do marvel, because they taste so spectacular for something that looks so uh, not spectacular. Man, my stomach's growling for another cheesesteaks. Anyways, enough of my rambling - pictures! :D
Jenn driving us to the mall. I wanted to take a full picture of her, but didn't want to distract her from her driving.
Typical view of roads on suburban Philly. I was trying to take pictures as we were driving, but well Jenn was driving really fast, and my camera was really slow, so this was the only presentable non-blurred picture.
Crappy food at the food court at the mall. The mapo-tofu still had the edges of the tofu on it, and is the worst MP tofu ever. The tempura shrimp left me with a queasy stomach. The only reason I took a picture was to remind me that this is the record holder for worst asian food ever. Need I say more?
Downtown Philly on a Friday night.
South Street. Apparently a very historical street, and where all the good cheesesteaks are! :D
This street is so cool, their adidas store even has an in-house DJ spinning.
The massive line at Jim's. It follows a snake-like pattern, so it's longer than it looks. Jenn says there's always a line, every single time she was here.
The walls are covered with framed pictures of celebrities who came here to eat. Judging from the state of the pictures, I can only say this shop goes waaaay back in time.
The cheesesteak! Man, the onions were sooo soft, my stomach's growling again. Sigh.
The juicy meat. Mmmm. Sorry about the blur picture, was too eager to get to the cheesesteak. Heh. It looks so deceptively plain, man if you only knew.

They have this thing called Tastykake, which is a trademark of Philly. It's pretty much iced sponge cake, but there's something about the buttery cake and the sweet icing that makes this a great treat.
Jenn and I went to this bar type thing, where the hispanic head chef was trying to hit on us. The crowd was pretty bad, and well, not exactly the most fun night I've ever had.
Jenn's mum treated us to lunch before I left for the airport. It was at this classy, up-scale fusion Asian restaurant. I should have taken pictures of the decor, but well, it's comparable to restaurants in Vegas, and the food was superb. This is the walnut shrimp, and it came in an exquisite emsemble (the shrimps were perched on a tower sprinked with alfafa sprouts), but I was quick to destroy it. The shrimps were huge, about 3 inches wide, and very fresh. Yum!
This is the Mango chicken. It's a decent dish, but I prolly can find something similar in the Thai restaurants here.
The eggplant shrimp. It's pretty good, at least the eggplant didn't come in the typical thick starchy sauce Chinese here like to cook eggplants with. The eggplant was thinly sliced enough for it to absorb the flavor, and it was pretty good.

Anyways, that's about as much pictures I got. And I'm tres tired. Heading to bed. Ciao ciao!

Off to Philly!

Haven't been checking my blog for the past two days, due to numerous festivities going on. Coincidentally, three of my friends had birthdays this Friday, Sunday and Monday, so I've been attending birthday dinners. I was thinking aloud about why there are SO MANY birthdays this month, and my friend remarked that well, it was V-day month 9 months ago. I guess that makes a lot of sense. The month that girls get flowers and guys get some. Heh. Anyways, I was pretty surprised that people actually commented on my chicken rice entry, which got me wondering, maybe I should write more about food since people feel so strongly towards it, like me. Heh. I'll be off to Philly in two days' for Thanksgiving! Thanks Jenn for the invitation to stay over at her place, and no thanks to Nick for listing off the items he'll be preparing for Thanksgiving dinner:

nickdoray: Oh ok.

Cool.

So!

I will tell you.

:)

I'm making Turducken with corn bread and sausage stuffing.

1:05 PM me: maaaan

nickdoray: Buttery mashed potatoes and green bean casserole.

me: i hope you're not making that decadent read puddingb

nickdoray: Hot Buttered Rum will be the festive drink of the day.

me: :P

i mean, bread pudding

nickdoray: Bread Pudding with Brandy and Whisky Sauce.

:D

It made it's appearance.

me: ooo! I tried that before right?

shite!

i want!!!

nickdoray: Baked Stuffed Apples.

me: !!!!

what!

1:06 PM stuffed with what!!!

nickdoray: Chocolate Chip Cookies with Milk.

Hot cocoa with marshmallows and whipped cream.

me: haha get outta here!

nickdoray: And the coup de grace: A double apple shisha pumped through a jug of apple cider.

haha

1:07 PM Apples are stuffed with raisins and walnuts and cinnamon and stuff.

1:08 PM you like?

:)

I'm telling you, that guy is pure evil. Do I deserve this just because I can't make it to NYC for his dinner? Mannn, buttered rum. :(

Anywhoo, I'll try to take pictures of food in Philly. Apparently, Jenn and I are prepared to wait in line for 1/2 hr for the famous Philly cheese steak. If I'm successful, you'll see it on my next post. If not, don't ask about it. Ha.

Apparently it's gonna be freezing there, so packing my bags will be a bitch. Dear God, please give me 5 min of snow. Just 5 min. Nothing more, nothing less. After living in Michigan, I have a very strained tolerance for snowfalls. Till then, here's wishing everyone a happy thanksgiving! :)

I am the QUEEN of chicken rice.

It's official. I am THE queen of chicken rice. I firmly believe that my craving for chicken rice surpasses anyone else in the world. Why? Because I've been having chicken rice dreams ever since I got back from July. I spent every night of August dreaming of eating chicken rice. The plot is different every night, but the ending is the same. I might dream that I'm back home, and I'll realize this about 5 dream seconds into the dream (I say dream seconds because it's prolly equivalent to 5 hours of sleep: Don't you notice the disparity between the amount of hours you sleep and the length of your dreams?) and I'll go "Man, let's go for chicken rice!" Or I'll be shopping with my sister, and we'll tumble upon a food court, and I'll be like "Let's stop for some chicken rice!" Anyways, at the end of my dream, I'll always be ordering from the stall, and just right when the plate of steaming rice is in my hands, I'LL WAKE UP! ........... T____T WTF. And if you're going to suggest that I try to get back to sleep, I've tried it. Doesn't work! So every night of August, I was always so close to eating chicken rice, but never had it. I think the subsequent months, it subsided to maybe once or twice a week, but recently, the dreams are coming back, more vivid than ever! I think my body senses that I'm heading back to Singapore, and automatically adjusts itself to the Singapore channel of dreams. Just yesterday night, I just had another one. My friends have told me it's pretty unhealthy. I think so too. I think I'm going to eat it every day of my trip back, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I remember the last time I went back, I had two plates of chicken rice every meal for the first few days.... so yep, I'm officially the queen of chicken rice. Don't doubt me, I even have pictures of chicken rice on my laptop. Anyway, the point of this post, more than anything, is for me to look back upon when I'm actually in Singapore, so that I don't get complacent and not eat it as much as I crave it now.

Singapore

You know, when you tell Americans that you're from Singapore, you can almost see them conjuring an exotic image of an island... that's part of China. Hold up! This is a disclaimer once and for all: Singapore is NO WHERE near China, and we're certainly not part of it. Our forefathers did not strive so hard, only to be dismissed as part of PRC in the end. I think I've had it up to here. First, they think it's funny to portray Singapore in Pirates of the Carribean as some pirate island. It is true that we used to be a trading port in the olden days, but by no means do we have witch-like figures or people with black paint all over their faces. People in the old days are simply toiling labourers who moved over to Singapore to earn their keep by supporting the port. I swear to God when I was in the theater watching the movie with my friends, when Chow Yun Fatt goes "Welcome to Singapore!", followed by sinister music and demonic surroundings, ALL my friends turned to me and raised their eyebrows. Man. Horribly misjudged. And yesterday, I was watching TV, and suddenly they're talking about an exotic virus of sorts that has infected the Americans. And ta daaa, the virus is from no where else but Singapore! Give it a rest people, it's getting old. Also, stop telling me that ohhh, it's the place where 1) they ban gum (I don't think they even care right now 2) Michael Fay got caned. Sigh. I wish people go to Wikipedia more often.

Ah, expensive wines.

The hungover from expensive wines and champagnes, I've realized, doesn't differ at all from that of cheap alcohol. I was invited over to my PI's house yesterday, for an evening of fine wines and cigars. Renee and I were awed by 1) his sprawling property 2) his collection of fine wines and cigars. The estate was in downtown La Jolla, and the house was perched on a hill, with other prestigious estates, overlooking the whole of San Diego. Imagine a spiraling stairway down to the living room, which has full length glass doors overlooking the pool and jacuzzi. Venetian columns, classy art pieces, and a row of tall palm trees next to the balcony overlooking the cliff. I asked my PI if he goes out to the pool everyday to gaze around at the surrounding equally impressive houses, and think about what a good life he has. Seriously, if I attain his status someday, I will NEVER leave my house. Who cares about social gatherings when I can come back to my ballin' house, park in the 3-car garage, put some bossa nova music on the surround sound system, walk out to the patio and just lie on one of the chairs and puff away on a Cuban cigar? Anyways, we opened a pair of burgundy wines (70 bucks a pop) and moet n chandon champagne (white star), which after he indulged us in some '94 vintage port wine. It was heavenly, just leaning back and staring at the stars, listening to the jazz music and inhaling the fresh crisp air. Renee and I got toasted, and ended up leaving only when Renee is sober enough to drive. I have to say, compared to the many Saturday nights when I usually head down to a bar and drink in the loud and boisterous crowd, this was a very welcome and pleasant change. :) My PI made a very disturbing comment though. He said "Keira, it's really great how you don't look like you'll be intelligent, but you are." I still don't know whether to treat it as a compliment or an insult. -__-

On a totally unrelated note, I am seriously impressed by the sitemeter reading! I never really thought anyone read my blog, considering that I don't get that many comments and stuff. :) At least now as I write, I don't feel like I'm ranting off to my computer like a complete dork. Heh. Thanks for reading! Hopefully my life will get spicier so that I have more exciting and interesting stuff to post. XOXOXXO. :)

Hawaii for thanksgiving? Guess not.

So I guess I'm not headed to Hawaii with my best friend after all. Sigh. It feels like every time we try to plan an escape somewhere, the God of travel will sound its thunder and cast his curses upon us. This time round, it's an uncompromisable situation. His sister is coming on an spontaneous visit, and well, he can't really leave for Hawaii. Which sucks, cuz I was really looking forward to it. He told me that I can change the ticket to a ticket to Philly, so I guess I'm going back home with Jenn to Philly for thanksgiving. Which isn't bad at all, but well, it's just sad that sometimes, when you and your best friend are living in different cities, and he happens to be the busiest person you know, you wonder if your friendship will waver to the hands of time. Who really knows? You try to keep in contact, but you'll never know if there comes a day when the familiarity ends, and the distance sets in. People always tell me that I'm fortunate that all my friends are going different places and cities - it's convenient for travel and whatnots, but what I really want is for all my good friends to be in the same place as me. Is it really that hard?

Sitemeter

I just added a sitemeter today! I shudda done it the time I started this blog, but I was obviously an idiot 'course I didn't. So for all my friends who keep telling me they check it ritually, watch out! I have proof now. Lol.

My minor proposition!

I passed my minor proposition! Yay! Woot! Wee! (Okay sorry, I just had to record this somewhere.) My committee members all thought I did a great job, and one of them said it's one of the best ever! Woohoo!

Alright, now that I got that out of my system, moving on to the tragic news of the day. I got a bloody $350 ticket for parking in the handicapped lot. So why was I parked in the HL? Very good question, and the answer is a reasonably long, and not entirely logical story. So I've been sick for the last five days or so, and haven't been sleeping all that well. In fact, I didn't sleep a wink last night because 1) I was coughing the whole night 2) I was thinking about my minor proposition defense scheduled in the morning. Anyways, I've been feeling very fatigued, and since I refuse to go to the doc's, I've been feeding myself a mixture of medicine off the shelf, prescribed medicine from Singapore, and even some chinese herbal shit. So I was feeling very groggy yesterday, and I had to stop by my place to grab something before heading out to pick my supervisor up. So I parked in the HL, thinking that it shouldn't matter since I was only grabbing some food. So, when I was at my place, my supervisor called and said that I don't have to pick him up anymore. This was followed by my senior graduate student in the lab who said that he is not heading down to the neuroscience seminar after all. I decided not to head down as well, as I wasn't feeling all that great, and I have a defense to umm defend the day after. So I just stayed home the whole day, completely forgetting that I parked my car in the HL. Night falls, and a lot of opportunities/ reasons came up for me to head out, such as:

1) I had to grab bagels for the defense
2) I was supposed to go over to Renee's to help her bake a penis cake (yes, you heard me right - more about that later)
3) On a few occasions, I was craving the vitamin water in my trunk

BUT despite ALL THAT, I kept my lazy ass at home, and not for one split second, did I remember that I parked my car in the wrong spot. So taa daaa! I got to my car in the morning to see the big parking ticket stuck to my windscreen. In an odd way, I felt resigned, because I feel that God gave me SO MANY hints for me to go out to my car, but I breezily rejected ALL of them. So I kinda deserved it. Sigh. Man, 350 bucks can buy me....

1) A new pair of Chanel shades
2) A weekend trip to Vegas
3) Three fancy meals
4) A quarter of parking permits
5) An iPhone
6) 6 heaters (not that I need that many, but hey, it's getting cold)
7) 14 tubes of my shampoo or conditioner
8) Eyelash extensions, and maintenance for 2 months

Okay, this is getting depressing, so I'm not going to go on. Sigh.

On another note, Renee decided to purchase a cake mold in the shape of a dick so that she can make a penis cake for Guang's bday. Hahahaha, it's pretty funny.

I walk alone.

These days, I feel like a new person. It's really hard to put to words. In my past 6 years of life, ever since I was given the heads up to date, I've never really been alone aka single. It's always been one guy straight to another. Ever since my last heart-wrenching breakup, a relationship just doesn't feel the same. Maybe it's because I can't find anyone to measure up, or maybe I've just simply grown up. These days, I feel like I've grown a cover of thorns against guys around me. I just simply reject the ability to fall in love with anyone at all. It's sad, really, considering how it was so natural in the past. I guess I'm just jaded. I can't find anyone I can rely on at all. Hence, I find myself occupying my time with things that gives me satisfactory results, like my work or my workouts. At least, even if I'm left to die on my own, I know I have excellent grades/work, and have a half satisfactory body. Lately, I've realized that I'm not allowing people who care for me to come close to me. If they attempt to come a little closer, I will act so nonchalant that they wish they didn't. Frankly speaking, I don't know what is wrong with me. I know that a little tiny part of me is hoping for someone to fuck all that, and try a little harder to know me, to reach me. Sadly, a huge part of me is thinking that it's better off to be on my own, to be sufficient on my own just so I don't have to depend on another significant other. Last night, it felt weird going to bed, 'cuz I finally realized that I don't have to report to anyone every night when I go to bed......