L.A. Part II

It's been a looong weekend, but I haven't gotten time to rest up since I've been preparing for my lab meeting due in a week's time. Maybe in three years' time, when I look back on this, I'll be laughing to myself about how absurd I was to think that I will never graduate or never get my project to work. But well, it looks pretty bleak right now... moving on to happier things.

Went to L.A. last weekend again, and had more fabulous food! :D That place is a paradise.


First we went to 肥胖子 for salted beancurd and 米浆 I asked what the latter was made of, and it was apparently rice, peanuts and something else. But it was sweet and pleasant to drink. The salted beancurd from the other place is better (yi mei) in my opinion, since they have the orgasmic garlic sauce.


We ended up going back to that place for 葱油饼 with egg. With the garlic sauce, it was heavenly. SOOOOOO GOOOOOD. :P
And I had the salted beancurd again. And also took away 11 buns and 11 mochi. Heehee. :P

Heard that there's a place where they sell chicken rice, so wanted to go try it out. Turns out to be a place ran by hongkongers, and everyone was eating chicken rice!


The menu, with various pastas and taaa daa chicken rice!


The acclaimed chicken rice. It didn't impress me though. Many things wrong with it: The rice was too overcooked, the chicken flavor wasn't strong enough. The chilli sauce wasn't garlicky and had coconut milk in it (who does that!). The chicken was tender, but more limp than supple. Overall it was a disappointment, but good for any Singaporean who needs a quick chicken rice fix.

Went to this place called Q Noodle House which was known for their 傻瓜面 and 沙茶面. I was very intrigued cuz every bowl was only 3 to 4 bucks, and had no ingredients other than noodles and sauce.


I had to admit that I was impressed though, especially by the 傻瓜面, which was pretty much chives, ginger, garlic and lard. Yes, lard, but the whole concoction was so fragrant that it was almost worth sacrificing your arteries for. My mum would so love this. The other noodles was strong-flavored and really good as well!

Back in San Diego, we went to this mongolian bbq buffet (only valid for a month) called 小肥羊. Man, did we eat or what. I realize that taiwanese pple and I share very similar tastes in food. Heh.
They had two soup bases, spicy or non spicy. They put an assortment of herbs in the soup, and it tastes superb even without anything in it. :D
Our first tray of food. And THREE more trays with a lot of beef and vegetables to follow...

Happy campers! :D
At the end of it. Man, whatever happened to table manners? :P

Went to Dimitri's going away party on Saturday. It was very chill, and laid back, with loads of booze, loads of talking and playing games. :)
The two roommates with Andrea. Observe the asian flush in the two mixed bloods. :P

Jenn and I being couch potatoes.

And cam whores.
Me with the two roommates
Tom with his signature point pose. Ha.


On a sidenote, one of my taiwanese friends made 肉燥饭 yesterday for dinner. SOOOOOOOO GOOOOOD. It was so flavorful and tasty, with cloves added in, and a lot of other stuff. Man. I wish I could cook like that. I'm blessed with friends like that. Hee.

On a random note, I changed my steering wheel cover. Yes, I finally got tired of the girly pink and blue furry one and decided to get a black leather one that appeals to my masculine side better. Ha! I love it though, it gives me a much better control of the wheel. And I love the smell of leather. Wee!

Shoe rack!

Bought a shoe rack for my room. This is going to be the last time I buy something from Ikea. Had to spend 170 for a crumbly shoe rack, and had to assemble on my own, and hurt my finger in the process. *grumbling*

Looks nice tho, I love my room more and more now. Weeee.

My grandpa.

My grandpa was a good man. In fact, he was an amazing man. He worked hard to support his kids, all 9 of them. He was a very frugal man, despite the fact that he wasn't poor. The money he saved on himself, he gave unconditionally to his kids, and his grandkids. Even in his old age, he still doles out money secretly to my parents for our daily expenses.

He was so hard on himself. I remember that he would always wear tattered and torn singlets and old shorts, even though we bought him new clothes and constantly nagged at him to wear them. He was extremely stubborn, and would ride on his bike even though my parents told him time after time that it's dangerous for someone his age. And true enough, he had a couple of nasty falls, and yet, he refused to stop riding his bike.

He was a very strict and stern man, and as kids, we were so afraid of him that we would try not to eat dinner the same time he does, so that we can avoid sitting at the table with him. He seldom smiles, and the only times I've seen him smile was during chinese new year, when all his children are around him.

I didn't know when it started. When he started forgetting little things, or when he started having difficulty with daily activities. The doctor diagnosed him with senile dementia, and subsequently he had a stroke that landed him in hospital.

I remember it was the week before I had to go back after my summer break to Michigan for my second year. I remember visiting him in hospital, and looking at him at his bedside. The intimidating and authoritative grandpa that I was so used to, looked so... frail and weak in that hospital bed. I remember my dad gently nudging him from his sleep, and gently telling him that his granddaughter was here to see him. I remember him opening his eyes briefly, and I remember him holding my hand in his. And then he smiled. It was a smile that I've never seen on his face before. It was a very content, a very blissful smile that I can't simply put to words.

I remember walking to the window with my sister, and pretending to look out of the window. I remember the hot tears streaming down both our faces. I remember the pain written all across our faces.

And that was the last time I saw him alive. He passed away one morning, after asking to see all his children and grandchildren. He passed away with all of them by his side, everyone but me. And my parents kept it from me. I found out the worst possible way, when my cousin (who was studying in berkeley at that time) told me online that he was sorry to hear about grandpa. I remember yelling over the phone, while sobbing hysterically at my parents. I remember the guilt I felt, not being there for him.

And I still feel it, even up to this day. I wished I've done more for him.

I regret not sitting at dinner with him more. I still can remember his lonely silhouette at the dinner table, eating his porridge slowly with leftovers from the night before that he insists on keeping.
I wished I could have the ability to give him a better life at that time.
I wished I could have made him a little happier.
I regret not telling him how much I love him......

It's been five years now, but the pain still feels so fresh in my heart.
I can't forget his voice, and his words. They still resound strongly in my mind......

I'm sorry Grandpa. I love you, and I hope that somehow, you know.

I miss you.

L.A. is heaven on earth!

Went to L.A's Rowland Heights area last Saturday for a pigging out session. Seriously, I think I teared a little when I tasted that salted soy beancurd. Man, I never knew L.A asian food was so superb! The taiwanese food there rocks, and is prolly better than in Singapore. *Gasp* I can't believe I just said that! Ha. And the food's cheaper than in sucky San Diego. San Diego sucks balls. I am going to look into transferring to UCLA. Blech. I'm kinda lazy, so Imma just post loads of pictures, and write very little. Blech.


We went to this breakfast store called Yi Mei, which serves Taiwanese style breakfast. This has got to be my favorite food in L.A! The salted beancurd is sooooooooooooooooo good! I've never had it before and it is sooooo good. Sooooooo good! SOOOOOO GOOD! With a little bit of vinegar, it tastes like yummy soup. YUM. I will be dreaming of this...


I had the radish cake with omelette with garlic sauce. SOOOO GOOD! :) The garlic sauce is soooo good. It's called 沙茶 sauce, and man, they have raw bits of garlic in it, giving it an extra kick. :D


We had the 烧饼 too, but it wasn't that great. I mean, it was good, but it wasn't OMFG good, like the beancurd milk. I found it a bit bland.

Apparently Jay Chou comes here for shaved ice everytime he's in L.A.


We moved onto this lobster restaurant called Newport Seafood Restaurant. My friends swear by it, so we got a 4-pound lobster stir-fried in a garlic spring onion sauce. It tastes like crabs in Singapore, but meatier. And the flavor was soooo good. Just maybe they put a tad too much MSG in the thing, cuz I felt really thirsty after eating it.


My failed attempt at getting a close up of the meat.

We went to get dessert at this award-winning French dessert place which is owned by Asians. The desserts were soooooo pretty!

The tiramisu. The cocoa powder was so fine and delicate that I kept coughing on it, but it was not overly sweet and really good!


The green tea mousse and raspberry mousse cake. The raspberry cake was to die for. It's sour, but not overly sour, with a subtle hint of sweetness. The coating is a layer of raspberry jelly. YUM!


A peek at the inside of the raspberry cake.

I wasn't kidding when I said it was award-winning. Ha.


Went to eat 臭臭锅 after that. I've never had it, but I figured since I like the stinky beancurd, I should like this. The soup was really good!


Went to 长江 soy bean factory to get freshly made stinky beancurd. YUM. MAAAAN, it's been too long. I wanna eat it again. The vegetables that came with it was really fresh, and crisp too! Slurp.


Went to the Stinking Rose for dinner. It's a garlic restaurant in Beverly Hills that has only garlic-based dishes. I was so stuffed at this point that I only ordered the garlic cloves in olive oil dip with bread, and some potato garlic soup.


Our menus!


The soup was disappointing.

The bread was yummy! The garlic cloves were soft, and not overly salted. It melts in your mouth literally, and went very well with the piping hot bread!


Me digging into my garlic ice cream en mole (which means a caramel chocolately kinda sauce). It sucked. Ha.


They served little gum drops after dinner. Look how tiny they are compared to my phone. So adorable.


Naka has an apparently 1.2 million condo in Hollywood, so we went up to his rooftop to pre-drink. It was pretty nice, but kinda small.

Me and Jenn!


Went to Avalon to watch the Infected Mushrooms concert. I was kinda tired, and irritable, cuz they came on like 3 hours late. Grrr. Got home at 5 am. -__-


On a sidenote, went to watch another concert the weekend before (sorry, been so busy that I haven't been blogging). It was Britt Daniel of Spoon! Pretty big guy, he usually performs in stadiums and stuff, but he was on vacation in San D. with family and decided to do a last-min show. Tom was shrieking like a little girl and yelling at him (he's a fan), and he gamely performed his favorite song for him! :P He really was pretty good. I love his voice!



Meredith and I cam-whoring. At some point, Meredith was point drunk. :P Ionno when it happened, but we developed an insane obsession to wearing our shades at night. Weird.

The night before, when we went out to Arrivederci for dinner near Meredith & Noel's place. See what I mean. Ha.

ALSO, last Friday was Jenn's (Renee's BFF Jenn) birthday, and we had a quiet night with wine and cheese and playing board games and jeopardy.


The mandatory penis cake. Ha. This time it was made of cupcakes in ice cream cones. Jackie added that eh hem smear at the tip... :p


Jenn was clearly thrilled when she opened her eyes. :P


Jeopardy!

Okay, that's about it. Super tired now. Ciao!

Hurt

Entroducing.... one of my favorite lyrics of all time: Hurt by Johnny Cash

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hold
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here

If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way