Chickn n Waffles, and One Angry Pup

My brother and the boy had a conversation about chicken and waffles last night, whereupon they both agreed that chicken and waffles comprise of the weirdest combo there ever was. Secretly I thought that it was a genius concept. How many times have I gotten a hankering for waffles, only to feel overly stuffed at the end of the meal and wish that I'd ordered something savory instead? And if I HAD ordered a sandwich or an omelette, I'd wish for something sweet at the end. So I mean, chicken AND waffles? What could be better than that??

So today, after a whole afternoon of swimming and dunking the Pemster in the pool (he instinctively knows how to dog-paddle, but still hates the water anyway), the boy, Joanna, and I headed to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles at Pasadena.

Upon entering Roscoe's, we were immediately enveloped in a fuzzy blanket woven from the fumes of meat hitting a tubful of boiling oil. Oh yes. Deep-fried protein. Mmm. I haven't had fried chicken in a loooong time. I remember loving KFC as a kid, but when I revisited the chain a few years back, the experience was sadly disappointing. There was a pocket of air in between the flesh and the skin, so that the amount of actual chicken I got to eat was nothing but a measly smidgen. Fortunately, Roscoe's fried chicken is a far cry from KFC's over-breaded meatless sticks. It's the real thang, guys.



I ordered the thigh and waffle combo because my tastebuds are advanced enough to recognize how much more exquisite dark meat is when compared to the stringy, healthy, fatless, tasteless breast meat. (The boy and Joanna fail in the tastebud department, so they both went for the breast. Tsk tsk.) The waffles were served with a scoop of soft, salted butter. SALTED! Who woulda thought?? But the light saltiness of the butter combined with the woody sweetness of the syrup transported the waffle out of normal waffle standard and into THE waffle hemisphere. As in that happy place where crispy-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside sweet-salty waffles dance in harmony and hop into your open mouth with squeals of joy. Oh yeah. It's a good place to be.

And the chicken? Oh man. Just look at this picture.



The term "heartbreakingly crunchy" might sound exaggerated, but it's really not. With each crunch, I could feel my heart splintering with joy so intense it was painful. How can chicken be this good??? Although it had been deep-fried to a golden crisp, the skin wasn't greasy at all, and the flesh was soft and... yieldy. Mmm. I like my food like my friends: submissive. Muahaha!



The boy ordered 1/4 of a whole chicken, which he finished (!!!), and two waffles, which he didn't (BOO).



We also had a side order of soft potatoes with gravy and a bowl of grits. The gravy was thick and injected with chickeny goodness, but the grits was a disappointment. Bland with minimal texture, it tasted like Chinese-style porridge, only with 10 times the fat.

Speaking of fat, you might look upon this meal as the unhealthiest meal on earth, but if you think about it, it's got your major food classes covered. There's protein (chicken), fat (the fried part), and your carbs (waffles). Sure, it's missing the veggie and fruit part, but oh well, no meal is perfect. =D



Thigh and waffle inhaled within the record time of 6 minutes and 47 seconds. All gone! Except the butter. Because I still sort of love my life and would hate to die of a heart attack just yet.

Oh yeah, the Angry Pup part. Unfortunately, we had to attend a college graduation some days ago and had to leave the Pemster at home for half a day. And this is what we came back to.



Surprise for mommy! =_="

If you think this is bad, a couple of days ago, he threw up on my bed (right next to my pillow) at 7 in the morning. I'm still not sure what it was that made him sick so early in the morning, but at least he was smart enough to aim AWAY from my face, eh?

Sushi and Sleeping

I have a ton of sushi pics here (I told you I live right next to Little Tokyo) to share with you guys. They came from two restaurants: Ebisu and Tenno.

First up, Ebisu!


Mmm, spicy tuna. Oh yes. I love Ebisu's spicy tuna. It's spicy enough to pack a kick, but not so much that it becomes overpowering, like... a roundhouse kick. To the face. I guess Ebisu's spicy tuna is like a nice lil spank, nice and far from the face, if you know what I mean, heh heh.

*ahem*

Back to the sushi...!


Let's see... uni, albacore, and salmon roe. These were primarily my brother's order, so I didn't really eat any of it, save for the albacore (I love albacore). To be honest, I'm not a big fan of uni, ever since I bit into one (during my virginal uni experience) that tasted like the sea. Like the sea ate something bad and got a little green. Understandably, I was quite discouraged after that little episode and since then haven't been able to bring myself to try yet another piece of uni. =(

And salmon roe is just ehh. It's like masago, but big and slimy. Not my cup of tea.


One of our favourite rolls at Ebisu is the Fire Tiger roll. I don't know why it's called Fire Tiger... presumably it's because it's topped with hot sauce and there are stripes on the plate next to the roll. So it looks like a tiger (not really). Anyways, exotic name aside, this roll is REALLY GOOD! Stuffed with shrimp tempura and crab meat and topped with spicy tuna and avocado. And then slathered with hot sauce and mayo. Mmm. If you're one of those people who eat sushi mainly for health reasons, this roll ain't it. It's probably got more fat than a cheeseburger from McDonald's. But the fat's what makes it THE FIRE TIGER.

(I'm sorry, I'm sleepy and not making much sense. Sorry.)

Okay, moving on to Tenno...


Albacore and Tamago.

I don't usually order tamago because sweet sushi is just weird. But I was in a weird mood, so there you go. The albacore was yummy as usual, but then again, you have to try really hard to make albacore suck.


Masago and (eww) uni.

Very generous topping of masago! Fresh, ticklish, teeny weeny teasers... how I love thee... as for the uni, well, I dunno. It still looks like seasick to me.


Out of a whim, my brother ordered the Little Tokyo roll. Oh. And WHAT A ROLL it was. I can't really remember what was in it (oops), but I do know that it was topped with albacore that was so soft it was falling into pieces and splashed with ponzu sauce. I remember the filling was something sturdy, probably shrimp tempura or something, and it contrasted SO well with the soft albacore. Mmmm... such a trip in your mouth.


Baked Salmon Roll.
This must be the sushi version of comfort food. Rich, warm, and sturdy. Like a hunky man with strong arms, the Baked Salmon will draw you into its arms and engulf you with love and security...


Spider Roll.
Well, Spider's more like a fling. The main complaint I have with Spider, despite it being delicious, is that there is absolutely no way for anyone to eat it in a dainty, attractive way. Think you can chew prettily with a fried crab leg sticking out of the corner of your mouth? I mean, if you try to cut it up, the whole thing self-destructs and you're left with a pile of mess that you have to pick up piece by piece with your chopsticks. And god help you if you're thinking of putting the whole roll into your mouth. Unless you have a really big mouth (which I do, but still it's nowhere near big enough for the Spider).


Sweet shrimp.
Sweet shrimp only works if the restaurant has live shrimp and the chef fishes it out of the tank and flays it right before your eyes. THEN it is sweet. This was sweet and juicy, so you can be sure there was fresh massacring at Tenno that day. Some restaurants stew the head in miso soup, resulting in a bowl of sweet, golden broth. At Tenno, they choose to deep fry the shizzle out of the heads. It was like biting into a shrimp chip, only really strong and shrimpy. In a mind-numbingly good way. I don't know if you can go wrong with deep frying, really.

Alright, that's the end of our sushi tour! Next treat: The Pemby, Asleep!

Pemby's five months old now, still a growing pup, so he needs his rest to make sure he grows strong and healthy. Every chance he gets, he'll sneak in a few Zzzs to freshen up.




Late morning nap.



Afternoon nap (while I do my homework in my PJs...)



Before bedtime nap (right after humping the poor piggy...)

Alright, now he's getting cranky because it's past our bedtime, so I'll leave it at that ;)

What a treat! A video of Pems!

...And food porn. After all, this IS a food blog, and I hate to be one of those people who rubs the intelligence of their pets in everyone's face. (Even though, as you will see in a bit, MY pet is exceptionally brilliant. But I'm a humble sort of girl, so it's just a short video.)

I actually have a whole load of food porn to share with all of you hungry readers (yes, all two of you), but let's just stick to one restaurant per post, yes? And I'm sorry for not blogging sooner. My computer crashed YET AGAIN, and I haven't gotten around to fixing it... so at the moment I'm using the boy's computer, just because I've missed blogging so much. (And also to show off the puppy vid...)

So! Remember our old favourite Chinese corner restaurant... Delicious Delicious? Yeah, we couldn't get enough of their awesome homemade food, so we had to make yet another pilgrimage (25 miles away!!) to Monterey Park for MOREEEE.

The noodles are a must, of course. But for the sake of keeping you on your toes, we went with a different type of noodle dish.



Noods with minced pork! Mmm! Okay, the noodles are great as usual, brilliant texture and everything, but I found the pork kinda lacking in flavour... there was no spice, no extra kick in the bum that would make you sit up and go "HOLY SHIZZNIT! MUST EAT MORE, RAWRRR!" None of that. Instead, it was a smear of disappointingly mild-mannered pork with the slightest whisper of a presence. It's kinda like if the noodles went: "Okay pork, I'M the start of the dish here, you hear me?" And then proceeded to beat the crap out of the pork just to prove its point. Yeah, kinda like that. I felt sorry for the pork, almost.


The boy had the rice with fried pork combo, and this time, the pork asserted itself. In fact, it asserted itself quite aggressively. It screamed, "Lookit me! I'm glistening with fat! I was fried to a crispy-skin-yet-tender-innards stage! LOOK AT ME! LOOOOOOK!!!!" At which point we found its cries to be too annoying and thus devoured it without further ado. Very filling it was, that pork.


I've been in love with leek dumplings ever since I had one at dim sum a while ago, and I thought DD's leek dumps would be similar... but no.


Instead of normal golf ball-sized dumpers, DD's dumps are swollen, behemoth gerbil-sized monsters.

We cautiously cut one of them into half...



And took a bite.

Oh.

VERY leek-y. The leeks kicked my sorry ass into submission. They were fresh; too fresh actually, and I was blessed for the rest of the day with leek breath. The flavours were great and the dumpling skin was crispy, but I'd have liked the leeks to be cooked a little more to get rid of that oniony kick and let its sweetness come out. I wouldn't recommend this dish if you're on a first date. Then again, I wouldn't recommend Delicious Delicious as a first date venue, delicious though it is, it's not too big on the romantic factor (obviously)... but I digress.

Because we are gluttons, we'd ordered yet another dish... Green onion pancake!



My dear lord, this is yet again THE BEST onion pancake I have EVER, EVER come across.



Look at those layers! The outermost layer is fried to a golden crisp, while the inner layers remain springy, hot pillows of joy. With specks of green onion here and there, just to wake you up a little. There was also this fragrance which is like, "Oh, granny is baking again, everything's right with the world, my life is wonderful, I can die happy now." ...Okay, maybe I won't die HAPPY, but I'd be a little bit less unhappy about dying after tasting this pancake. It is THAT good.

Yay, that's it for the food! You ready for the borderline genius that is The Pemby?

Of course you are! And if you're not, you will watch it anyway and tell me how wonderful he is. =D

Sushi and The Loss of Manhood

Loss of Manhood: You think it's just a meaningless title, nothing more than a gimmick to catch your eye, don't you? Well, it's not. I mean it very literally.

But let's do the sushi first.

We currently live in downtown LA, which is a 20-min walk away from Little Tokyo, so we eat sushi a few times a week. Why is there no sushi pics so far? Because I keep forgetting to take my camera with me... *smile* please don't stone me. We also like to walk down to Little Tokyo at night for a bit of exercise with Pems, and it was during one of these walks that we came across Tenno Sushi. You can't miss it, really. It has a huuuuge banner announcing the presence of "HALF PRICE SUSHI" in big red letters, and whenever the wind blows, the banner threatens to smack you in the face. I was quite wary of the restaurant at first, because if you think about it... would you reaaally want to eat half-price sushi? There's a reason why it's half-priced.

But we're Chinese. And I hate stereotypes as much as the next person (assuming that the next person hates stereotypes), but both the boy and I fulfil this particular stereotype: We're cheap. If there's a good bargain, we'll go for it, at times to the detriment of our health. $49 flight from LA to Oakland at 5 in the morning? We're on it. Cheap(er) gas 25 miles away from home? We'll make the drive. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I'm frugal, but I also can't stay away from bargain prices. So, questionnable raw fish at half price? Screw bacteria, we'll eat it.

And I'm glad we did, because it turns out that yes, some places actually do serve good sushi at half prices. (The trick is to just stick to the half price menu, because everything else is pretty pricey.)

To start with, we had a seared albacore salad.



The salad leaves were pretty tasteless, but the slices of albacore were SO good. Smooth and buttery in texture, they yielded readily in my mouth and I barely had to chew before they practically melted away.



I'm obsessed with spicy tuna. It's one of those things that I HAVE to order every time I go for sushi. Tenno's spicy tuna, while fresh and generously packed, is just waaaay too spicy. It was a battle between the tuna and the chili powder in my mouth, and in the end Chili powder kicked the crap out of Tuna. Very, very sad. Poor Tuna. It was just so feeble; it didn't stand a chance.



Fresh water eel roll and baked scallop roll. The eel roll was delicious. The eel was slightly crisp on the outside and moist on the inside. Very eely, just the way I like it.

The baked scallop though... okay, you know that episode of Top Chef where Dale made these funky butterscotch scallops and got sent home? I mean, butterscotch scallops. BUTTERSCOTCH and SCALLOPS. Really, Dale? Really? You reaaally want to put those two things together? You know, I have to admit, when I watched that episode, for a split second I thought, there's a potential here, it could potentially blow minds off the table. And I was curious to try it. Perhaps, properly executed, it could have been a wild card winner, like the white chocolate wasabi thingamajig.

Well, I got to try it at Tenno.

I don't know if it's actual butterscotch... it's probably glorified eel sauce or something, but it was thick, it was buttery, and it was sweet. Oh, and it was slimy. If the combination of sweet, brown phlegm on scallops appeals to you, this dish would be a winner. The boy liked it, so umm... I dunno. You just have to try it.

That's the end of our sushi dinner!

Now on to The Loss of Manhood.

This morning, we woke up at an ungodly hour (before 10 am) and watched our poor victim as he slept for a bit.



He didn't know what's going on. He doesn't know about the ordinance that was passed in Los Angeles County, the one that states that all dogs and cats have to be made sterile. He doesn't know that I've been on the phone for the last week, looking for an appropriate vet to take him to. He doesn't know that today is The Day.



Now he does.

I can't say I blame him for turning his back on me and giving me the silent treatment. He's had a very rough day, and something like this isn't an easy thing to get over. I predict that the sulking will last until the stitches come out...

Smallows and RIP Mildred

The first thing that people say whenever I tell them that I make my own marshmallows is: "You can make marshmallows at home???"

Yes. Yes you can. If you have a whole morning to while away, a kitchen to mess up, a few dozen pots and pans to melt, and a good long list of expletives, you're ready to make your own marshmallows.

I've made vanilla ones before, and they were good but slightly boring. These aren't your run-of-the-mill marshallows, these are SARAHMALLOWS, or Smallows (TM). Named after my fine friend Sarah, Smallows (TM) consist of any marshmallow that refuses to conform to the predictable purity of vanilla and instead chooses to go down the road less travelled. They're mallows with attitude. Do they care if your taste buds love 'em? Hellz no! Sometimes Smallows (TM) are good, and sometimes they're... not so good. (The not so good ones often end up in the trash, but they always, always taste interesting.)

Alright, every mallow, be it Sarah or plain Jane, starts with a death pot of molten sugar.

As you all know, I don't have many kitchen gadgets, and one of those gadgets that would have been oh so useful on this instance is a candy thermometer. But hey, I'm a resourceful girl, so I make do with what I have. (Which isn't much.) Still. I make do. This looks like what the experts call the "soft ball stage", so it's time to take it off the stove. (One way of checking is to dip a chopstick into the pan and then dip it into a bowl of cold water. If the sugar comes away in a ball, it's ready.)



Very, VERY carefully pour the super heated sugar into your mixing bowl of gelatin and cold water and mix on low until the sugar is all dissolved. Once again, you have to love my "mixing bowl"... which happens to be tupperware. =(



I tried a new recipe for marshmallows this morning, and it turned out really runny. For a second there I thought I was going to end up with marshmallow creme instead of regular solid ones...

Ah well, I soldiered on anyways and added an extra ingredient that would turn these mallows into Smallows (TM)...



Coffee! The difference in colour may not look like much here, but trust me. Like a kick in the face, it's there. And it's strong.



Cooling the Smallows (TM)...



Within minutes the batch was cool and I was able to very slowly peel away the parchment paper to reveal a mushy slab of sweet caffeine. Next comes the cutting and the swearing, but first let's go on to the second batch...



This one is a favourite of mine, and it's made with a generous slop of fresh raspberry-blueberry-blackberry puree.



As usual, beat the crap out of the sugar/gelatin mixture until it looks like...



Silly putty? Play-Doh? Radioactive sludge?
Any one of those will do, but take care not to over beat the mallows, because once they harden, they will be impossible to pour into the mold, and trying to spoon out the mixture will only result in mallow all over your hands and in your hair. Trust me on that one. I've had to snip off a few chunks of hair because of prematurely-hardened mallow (also because I finally gave up trying to mold my first ever batch of marshmallow and resorted to licking the bowl, thus resulting in a mallow mask).

Alright, now here comes the hard part. You know how some things aren't exactly difficult, only really tedious? Well, this isn't one of those things.

You don't believe me?



Try cutting up slabs of goopy candy which stick to EVERYTHING. Including the knife. And the other knife you got to scrape the mess off the original knife. And as you brush your hair back, glops of it sticks to your skin and your split ends and suddenly you need YET ANOTHER HAIRCUT.



The horrific mess that I made on the table... alleviated slightly by the bottle of wine on the upper right hand corner of the picture.

But then you get to do this...



Is there anything more beautiful than poking the soft belly of a homemade mallow? *Sniff* The answer is NO, there isn't.

Fruit and coffee Smallows looking happy together.



The coffee Smallows ended up being too damned strong, and I was on the verge of chucking them when a brilliant idea struck me and...



Ooo yes. Cocoa makes everything in the world okay. Mocha Smallows. So potent, so chocolatey, with a firm handshake from the shot of espresso. They're like the hardass gangstas of the mallow world, definitely not something you would want to trifle with... unless you mean business. *RAWR*

Alright, I have a piece of really disturbing news for you, and those of you with weak tummies might want to skip this part. It's not a pretty sight and extremely unsuitable for children. You've been warned.

SO. Remember Mildred the Mouse? Sure you do, she's the cutie hiding in my homemade scarf.

Well, unfortunately my scarf slid to the floor while I wasn't looking, and before I knew it, Pems had gone off and feasted on poor Mildred. By the time I found her, there really wasn't much of her to save.



Curled up in a pitiful ball in a corner, her belly torn open, spilling her wooden insides all over the carpet... it was all I could do not to get sick then and there. What a crime. What a murder! No investigation needed to find out who the culprit was. Who would have known that my puppy is a sociopath without a conscience?

R.I.P. Mildred. You were a good, lovely little mouse and you will be missed by all of us.

Begone, you wretched season!

*Note: No food in this post, sorry!

I hate summer. There are many, many reasons why I hate summer, each one better than the last, and they include common complaints such as excessive sweating, unsightly rashes, unladylike odors, the threat of skin cancer and so on and so forth. But now there's yet ANOTHER reason for me to loathe this muggy weather.

Behold the Pemby. He's cute! He's furry! He likes to lie on laptops while you're trying to work!


Yep, he's just a veritable ball of fuzzy love, challenging any stranger he comes across not to immediately go, "AWWWW!"


But...
Ever since the arrival of (ugh) summer, Pems has been panting and drooling/sweating without stopping. For a few days there we had to put a halt to our daytime walks because the heat was turning both of our brains into soup and slow-cooking Pemby's insides under his rich fur coat. There was no denying it; it was time for a hair cut.

A tedious, back-breaking hour later, I present to you...



My Pemby. My poor, poor Pemby.
Now people on the streets either turn away from him or very warily say, "Aww... what a cute... umm...? Hmmh, nvm." They think he's a mutant chihuahua/dalmatian/rat. It breaks my heart, and I'm sure he's indignantly telling everybody that he's a Cocker Spaniel, dammit!

Oh, he still looks really cute in our eyes (thank god we didn't shave the fur on his face)...


And those furry paws look adorably huge on him now...

But I'm still praying for autumn to arrive quickly!

On a completely different subject, a while ago my awesome Hawaiian penpal and I decided that it would be nice to receive a care package in the mail, so we agreed to put together a package and send it to each other.



The package was meant to be an Easter basket, so I bought a cute wicker basket and filled it with a bunny towel, a bunny chew/squeeze toy, a rubber ball that lights up for her pup, and a homemade doll. I also filled the basket up with candy, but didn't take any pics of the sweets because they covered everything up.



I'm not sure what this poor guy is called, but notice he has a chicken on his tummy... yep, that's Clayton's brother, Clarence! Hmmh, hey Steph, what did you end up naming him?

Alright, so that's the humble basket I made.

Little did I know that Steph had gone all out and put together the most kickass and generous care package ever!


Holy jeebus, that's a lot of stuff!

Inside the humble little USPS box were:
-A vegetable peeler
-A homemade soft toy (I named him The Green Monster)
-TWO homemade bags
-A tug toy for Pems
-A little squeeze toy
-Two teeny weeny rabbits (one of whom is smoking a cigarette.. XD)
-A wavy cucumber slicer (it's not in the picture for some reason)
-A puppy dog card

Yeah... I was so embarrassed when I opened the package she sent me and found all these goodies...

I mean, see that white and blue bag in the upper right hand corner of the picture? It's a reversible bag, and the other side looks like this:



And it's homemade. HOMEMADE! She made this with her two lil hands!!



But this cherry lil number is my favourite of the bunch. I may hate summer, but I love all the accessories that go with it. And there's nothing summer-ier than a bright red purse begging to be shown off.

And it happens to be homemade as well.

My dear readers, if you want to exchange care packages, do it with Steph, the genius purse-maker. She won't disappoint. (You might want to befriend her first though... I'm not sure how willing she is to send random strangers gifts through the mail.)

Fooding and Boozing in LA.

I don't know why you would call a restaurant More Than Waffles. Waffles in itself fills a void in my life that can only be sated with warm, crispy, syruppy goodness. Who needs anything more than waffles?

Normal people I guess. =/

Umm, going off the waffles tangent... on Saturday the boy and I met up with my roommate from college, Anji, and her boyfriend Sean. My fondest memories of Anji include lots of good, homemade meals, rowdy board games, and of course, copious amounts of alcohol (hey, we were in COLLEGE... at BERKELEY! You should just be glad that I didn't say "copious amounts of weed"). Saturday was no exception.

We caught up over brunch at Encino in a restaurant called (what else?) More Than Waffles, and our reunion was delicious from the very start of the day.


Sean got the turkey club with a fruit cup on the side, and he demolished his plate before I could ask for a taste... so I'm guessing it was good. >=(


My vegetarian sandwich was tasty, but I felt that it's something I could easily rustle up at home for a quearter of the price. I mean, rye bread, tomatoes, sprouts, and avocado... really, how hard could it be to make?? I chose home fries as a side and they were delicious and hearty, but the boy got to most of them before I could dig my fork into those taters... dammit people, LET ME EAT MY FOODZ.


The boy ordered the Farmers' Market omelette, which, aside from being slightly overcooked, was SO DELICIOUS. It was stuffed with spinach, mushrooms, and goat cheese. Unfortunately, he wasn't really into goat cheese, but I LOVEEEE goat cheese. So creamy, so milky, so rich... oh god, I want to slather my whole face with it.

*ahem*

Oh yeah, so where are the waffles??? They came as SIDES. How crazy is that?? Who would be able to finish their ginormous omelettes and then have a full-sized waffle WITH toppings?? I don't even want to know... but here are the waffles.


Nutella and bananas. I wanted waaaaay more Nutella than this! But then again, you can never have enough Nutella huh? There's nothing bad I can say about this dish because you just can't go wrong with Nutella.


Anji ordered a really boring-looking (but yummy) omelette (thus no pictures) and the walnut something waffles. I think it was ...maple? Apple? Pecans? I don't remember much because I'm not a big fan of whipped cream and this sucker was just drowning in it.

I announced before the cheque came that it was going to be my treat for Anji's belated birthday, and my dear readers... think hard before doing that again. The price tag came to the ridiculous price of $75 with tax and tip. Who ever heard of a brunch for four WITHOUT alcohol, WITHOUT caviar, WITHOUT salmon or any expensive ingredients, to go over $50?? Ah well, it was a good time spent with friends... but now I wish I'd gotten Anji something that would last a lot longer than an over-priced meal.

After stuffing ourselves, we waddled around Woodley Park, where they were having WorldFest in honor of Earth Day. It was too hot and stuffy for us to really enjoy ourselves, but Pemby did get a lot of love from strangers around us and he had a blast. I think it might have something to do with the shirt he was wearing...


Yes, it says Hugs $1.00, and no, I didn't actually get any money, even though everyone was ooh-ing and aah-ing and petting him all over the place. Hrmph.


We also got a cup of the most disappointing lemon Italian ice I've ever licked. It was nice because it was a cold treat on a hot day, but other than that the lemon flavour was so weak I might as well be eating frozen sugar water.


These flower people freaked the shizz out of me. Seriously, they were reeaaaally in character and traipsing all over the place and waving their leaves in people's faces. I'm glad real flowers don't do that. Well, maybe it wouldn't be so bad because real flowers wouldn't be 10 feet tall. Right?

Anyways, it was when we got back to Sean's place that the party really got going. Yea yea, there were only the four of us, but we know how to LIVE IT.

First off, Sean got his manly propane-fuelled grill going.

And also gave the camera(wo)man the evil eye while grilling...


We'd bought plenty of meat from Trader Joe's in the afternoon, although I can't remember what type we got. I know it was beef, and I know the big chunk in the corner is tri-tip, but I have no idea what the rest were. Flank steak maybe?


Sean poking the tri-tip to test for doneness. (It turned out a tad overcooked, but don't tell him that!)


The rest of us helpfully lounged around chatting in a heat-coma while Sean worked the grill. I think Pemby's got it right in this picture... in such muggy weather, the only thing to is sleep.

...Or EAT!

Once the beef came off the grill, the savory charcoal smell enveloped the apartment and sent our bulging bellies into yet another feeding frenzy. Despite staying a minute too long on the grill, the tri-tip was still potent in its deliciousness and quickly devoured.

And just to prove that we didn't just gorge on red meat the whole evening...


There was also a bunch of organic sweet corn that was lightly steamed.


Steamed green beans (my all-time fav side dish).


And a walnut-cranberry spinach salad.

Still, no matter how fresh and beautiful all these sides were, they were just that: sides. There was no way they were going to compare to the power that is...


BEEF. Slightly charred and pink-tender in the middle. Like I said, I don't know what cut of the cow this was, but I was only too happy to dive face-first into the tower of beef. The marinade was slightly sweet and smokey and oh god just PLATE-LICKING GOOD. I'll have to look out for it the next time I go into Trader Joe's.


We ended the night with Cranium and the (afore-mentioned) copious amounts of alcohol. It was girls against guys. The guys won (by cheating), and thus we punished them by making them clean the dishes and put away the game. THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR CHEATING AT CRANIUM.

The perfect weekend ended too quickly, but plans have been made to meet up at Santa Barbara next Saturday for a bit of kayaking and no doubt more food, booze, and board games. No cheating this time guys. I MEAN IT. >=O