Girl's night out

Friday!  Our date for an outing for the whole apartment :)

And a looooong day at school it was~  Well, I tabled for pl4y at the DUC, but I couldn't find the tables, so I left Ben all alone before finding Elaine the second hour D:  Sowwie >_<!''  

I had the daily special at the vegetarian station:  Tofu gumbo!  Since I was sitting in the shade, it was pretty cold by the time I was finishing it @_@

Tofu gumbo

A view of a partially hidden LabSci buildling

Elainnnnnney pooh!

I met Jennifer while tabling, and we headed to class together.  After both dozing off in class, I headed back home via metro.  Laundry, nap, and we were ready to head out!  Hup hup!

Debra had photo shoot pictures for LYNF (as did the other two, but it was at 11:40pm), so Anna parked ON the DUC sidewalk.  We sat inside, while people walked by and awkwardly looked into the windows at us.  Haha~

Whoooa, VIP on campus, yo!

Before we left home, we spent an hour or more looking up places to eat at!  We decided on Farmhaus, a restaurant focusing on organic food and fresh ingredients, combining them into fantastic dishes that pop with flavor!  :D

The girls at Farmhaus!

Farmhaus

3257 Ivanhoe Avenue

St. Louis, MO 63139

The restaurant is actually pretty small.  When we peeked into the windows, the place seemed full of patrons already.  We were asked if we had a reservation (which we didn't), so it was pretty lucky that we got a table within less than 10 minutes.  

The waiting staff were dressed in Cardinal jerseys (World Series champions, anyone?) or dress shirts with jeans.  There were a *lot* of them for such a small area @_@  I guess it's for a more personal interaction with Farmhaus?

Debra :)

We sat down to a wooden table with really heavy wooden chairs.  The tables were covered with tablecloth and a sheet of thick, brown paper.  On top of it, there were cloth napkins, wine glasses, and sets of fork and knives.

Anna :D

The kitchen was an open space, so you could see the chef prepare the food if you sat at their bar area.  But since we were more in the dining area, you could enjoy talking to one another while musing over the pictures and paintings hanging on the wall.  Elaine said they reminded her of Boston!

Elaine :3

The menus were printed on a long sheet of paper in Arial font.  Why not laminated and tucked away into those vinyl menus?  That's because Farmhaus' menu changes every day!  o_0  I guess it depends on whatever fresh ingredients they have and what the chef decides to make that day.

The waiter told us that the dishes were designed to share "family style."  That meant two entrees ordered per person!  That was kind of mind-boggling for college kids like us, since each dish was barely shy of $20 a piece.

After poring over the menu for ten minutes or more, we finally ordered.  Anna ordered two appetizers:  Nachos and Tepanade.  Elaine:  meatloaf, Debra: red grouper, and me: fluke.

The chef made the dishes at his discretion, so the dishes came out at different times (that's another reason the waiter suggested eating family-style!)  Anna's nachos and tapenade came out first.  Why nachos?  These weren't your usual tortilla chips drowning in cheese sauce!  Tonight's nachos were thinly sliced sweet potato pieces drizzled with a sweet and salty sauce, speckled with goat cheese, and sprinkled with savory bacon bites.  Yumm!!  Although only the top slice was loaded with cheese and bacon, the bottom slices had only a few smudges here and there.  But those few smudges were bursting with flavor ^^  Elaine actually liked it plain~

Sweet potato nachos

Next we tried the Onion and Apple Tapenade.  On pieces of super toasted crostini, there were caramelized onions, smears of ricotta cheese, and extremely thin apple pieces drizzled with a dark sauce.  I thought the sauce was chocolate, but it turned out to be a balsamic vinegar-based mixture!  :)

Although I tasted the sauce and cheese, I didn't try the tapenade dish as a whole, but Anna and Debra assured me it was super delicious:  savory overall but sweetened due to the caramelized onions.  The apples added a nice crunch along with the crostini!

 

Apple tapenade 

Debra's red grouper came out second.  Flaky fish (with a few bones) atop mashed potatoes with herbs mixed right in.  There was a flavorful chutney bursting with cranberries too!  I tried and loved that, and the fish was pretty good (tasted a bit like tilapia), but everyone assured me that the mashed potatoes were good.

Red grouper with mashed potatoes and cranberry chutney

The next dish that came out was the Fluke.  Was my choice to order seafood in Missouri, a landlocked state with only a dangerously polluted river nearby, a fluke itself?  The answer was no! :P  I actually ordered the dish, because I didn't know what "spoonbread" was.  Fluke is basically a flatfish, as we discovered while browsing the web using Anna's smartphone.  The piece of fish was a fillet smaller than the size of my palm, so it was pretty tiny.  But they blackened it, so the flavor was really strong :3  Nom nom!  The spoonbread turned out to be something like a milky, moister cornbread.  Very yummy, although I personally like the gritty texture of cornbread ^^'  The hearty veggies were just regular greens, but they were soaked in this oil-cheese sauce, so they were nicely salted.  Although the plate itself was ginormous (maybe for presentation purposes?), the indention in the middle for the food was quite small.  The spoon bread was probably eaten within 4 small/medium bites, but overall it was nom nom yummy :D

Fluke with spoonbread and hearty greens

All the dishes were super small; Debra finished hers in probably 2 minutes and then went out to talk to her mom on the phone, while we waited for Elaine's meatloaf to appear.  I was eating the black seasoning on the fluke, and it was really good :) 

When the waiter came to ask how everything was, we told him it was all awesome, just waiting for Elaine's food.  He made a sort of *Ahh!* face (>_o) and was like, ".. er, terrific!"  A minute later, he came to tell us he forgot to put in Elaine's order and that he was totally sorry.  Very honest guy.  I think other waiters would have just put it in late without telling the customer it was late.  

So then Elaine's meatloaf came in last.  It was bacon-wrapped meatloaf sitting on top of mashed sweet potato.  The whole thing had golden, crunchy, fried onion strips.  On the sides were some sort of marinara sauce with pearl onions.  Elaine and Anna said the meat loaf tasted like a big meatball, but it was still good.  We all agreed that the sweet potato was delicious!  I also tried the sauce, which was salty and sweet at the same time. 

Meatloaf wrapped in bacon atop mashed sweet potato puree

Elaine mused about how although the dishes were tiny, they were "just the right size."  Debra and I gave each other a look and were like, "Durr..." -_-''  Haha!  They were super tiny, and I was planning in my mind what I was going to eat when I got home.  But then the waiter reminded us dessert was still available!

While we were waiting for the entrees to come, another waiter was reciting the day's desserts to another table beside us.  Anna was listening to the waiter, and the patrons at the table were all kidding around about how she was listening and that the waiter might want to repeat the menu for Anna!  :)  Tee hee~  When they left, they strongly recommended the brownie.

So after a tough decision, Debra ordered the brownie (Rocky road) and Anna ordered the raspberry crostini.    The other choices were peanut butter cup and fried apple pie!

The Rocky Road arrived at our table with all its splendor.  It looked like an edible landscape!  A long slice of crusty, kind of hard brownie with two slices of salty, sweet caramel brittle and vanilla bean ice cream covered in a sort of marshmallow and caramel sauce.  I liked the crustiness of the brownie, enjoyed the vanilla bean-specked ice cream, and had a tiny piece of brittle.  Delish!  ^^

Rocky road:  brownie with vanilla bean ice cream and caramel salt brittle

After nibbling on Debra's rocky road, the waiter swept over with the raspberry crostata.  Before he could place it on the table, Anna reached out both hands and muttered, "Gimmee!"  Haha, so funny!  The waiter laughed and placed it into her outstretched hands in front of her :P

Wow.  This was just wow.  The waiter called it "phenomenal."  We called it "pheNOMenal"  ;)  The crostata wasn't too sweet, and the crust was soft, fluffy, and warm, contrasting with the cool and melting vanilla bean ice cream.  I'm usually not a fan of raspberry filling (tastes waxy.. like crayons to me), but the others loved it!  If I ever come here again, I really do hope this dessert will be on the menu that day!

Raspberry crostata (pheNOMenal!)

Anna thought it was so delicious that she stuck her face into the bowl and tried licking all of it off!  Don't worry, other than a couple in the corner, we were the last ones in the restaurant, hahaha!

Anna enjoying *every* last bit of her crostata, haha!

I'm guessing it was one of the patron's birthdays, so Farmhaus presented her beer with a little candle.  Cute!  I took a creeper photo, zooming onto her table, tee hee :P

I'm not the only food enthusiast ^^!

We walked out super happy with the experience.  Although we planned to check out The Cup, a cupcake bakery in Central West End, it closed at 10pm, the same time we finished dinner.  Oh well.. so we decided to go to Schnuck's for groceries!  :D

Elaine, Debra, and me

Actually, the real reason to go to Schnuck's was because I wanted to buy the cereal on sale that week.  Golden Grahams for $2 a box?!  Oh yeah!  ^__^  Although I had 9 boxes of cereal in my closet at home, I ended up buying 4 more boxes of Golden Grahams, 1 box of Smorz, and 1 box of shredded wheat.  So hard to resist  :')

Debra really liked the floral section.  She was amazed at the variety of colors.  So boys, that's a *slight* hint, yeah?  :P

While Debra frolics among flowers,

Anna and Elaine are mesmerized by the Halloween candy

Paparazzi shot!

We were so cold in the store that all of us kept hopping around the produce aisle.  Good thing it was near closing time, so no one saw us being weird!  :P 

Girl's night out ended up with setting up Elaine's TV back at the apartment while Debra snoozed away soundly on the futon.  Sleepy ending, but the night was really fun ^^  We haven't done this since the beginning of sophomore year when we went to our weekly bakery outings or eating at Wong's Wok.  Ahh, those days are long gone, but at least we can have little reminders here and there  :)  Love you girls!~

The lovely girls of my apartment!  Aww ^___^

Mission & Seoul Garden

Want to know a secret?  Well, it's kind of a secret. 

A big part of my choice to come to WashU was because of its food.

I wonder if any of you are even a bit surprised!  :P  WashU's food on campus was voted Top 10 in the nation the year I received my acceptance letter.  And the rest... is..  um, apparent. haha.

I've really enjoyed their comfort food my freshman year.  They served American food, like Shepherd's pie and meatloaf with mashed potatoes and creamed corn.  I've never had this stuff, and it was soooo stick-to-your-ribs good!  

Anyways, I'll stop reminiscing now.  My point was.. that I've eaten pretty much everything on the S40, but I never really visited the bakery section.  I only have 2 years left on campus, so I decided (quite randomly, I might add) to eat every single bakery item at WashU before I graduate!!!!!!!!!!!  (not including cupcakes or cheesecakes)  

Why not?  Cupcakes are always the same except different frosting, well, in my opinion!  And I like frozen cheesecake.  Soft, room-temperature cheesecake just makes me sad.  :P

I decided this after I was eating the cinnamon roll from Whisper's for two weeks.  Maybe I should just explore.  The plan was to try some new sweet / bakery item for lunch every other day.  I never eat these things at home, and buying two pastries is actually cheaper than buying a sandwich for lunch, so let's sweeten up lunch a bit~

And so the mission began!

This week I had a cheese croissant.  They also sell chocolate croissants, but I was in for a subtler sweet treat.  The middle is a vanilla cream cheese filling.

Cheese Croissant

The pastry isn't flaky, but it's soft, and I actually like it that way better!  :)  It was really good!  Along with the croissant, I met heaven in bar form:  the gooey butter cake (a.k.a. the only thing you'll eat with 10 sticks of butter in it and still smile).  Wowww!  I can't believe I've never tried it before!  The reason I chose this for the first day, was because St. Louis is known for their gooey butter cake!  But I've heard from people that campus's version isn't legit.  If that's true, it's still delicious illegitimacy @__@  The creamy filling and sweet crust was just intense!

Cheese croissant and gooey butter cake

The next time, I was at Stanley's eyeing their ginormous cookie.  I asked for a JEM cookie.  These are apparently cookies dedicated for the late Dean of WashU.  When I pulled it out of the bag, it looked like a squirrel had gotten run over.  Haha!

But when I bit into it, I just wanted to smile.  It's like a hybrid of a chocolate chip cookie and a gingersnap with cinnamon!  ^_^  My favorite cookies all together!  Err, kind of, since my favorite cookie is basically every single cookie >_o

The JEM cookie wasn't super soft or anything.  In fact, it was kind of hard.  I think it was crispy?  But there were nuts and a punch of brown sugar in every bite.  If you're one of those people who can't take too sweet, you'll probably want to stay away.  I was sipping on water after every bite, but it was nom nom delicious! :D

JEM Cookie

JEM Cookie and gooey butter cake

My half-eaten lunch on Tuesday.  Does it look good or delicious?  ;)

Notice the gooey butter cake hanging out in the background?  I just had to eat another one!  And it was just as good <3

Oh, so apparently my taste buds are all for sweet things now!  The math department sets out a candy platter, so whenever I come to grade papers, I grab a piece.  I had Reese's the last time, so this time it was Whoppers.  I remembered that this wasn't a brand that I would try looking for, but I decided to give them another chance.

The original malted milk ball sitting on Statistics

Mmm, not impressed.  I remember that Nancy really likes these, but after all 3 pieces went down my esophagus, I felt like I hadn't eaten anything at all!  The Reese's last time calmed my growling tummy.  I also don't like such aerated crunch!  Mmm, peanut butter <3

The next day on Wednesday, I found Elaine sitting in the sketchy vending machine area in Cupples II for lunch.  It's actually quite pretty ^^  just a remote location!  I had told Elaine about my new mission, and she told me she was quite surprised at me for doing something like this.  haha, it surprises me too!  Maybe I'll just drop the whole thing in a month and go back to eating savory sandwiches for lunch!  ._.''

Elaine and her TGIF chips!

This time I had gotten the super huge Snickerdoodle cookie and a scone.  The cookie was kind of square-shaped, so it's pretty cool to know that they made it on campus!  Imperfect cookies are always delicious~  It was super soft and yummy.  Good sugar cookie base, and I always fall for cinnamon.

Snickerdoodle = sugar cookie + cinnamon sugar

*so good*  Do you think these huge cookies are worth $1.95?

Next was the scone.  I was a little worried about this one actually.  It was kind of small, and I've made all the scones I've ever eaten, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  It was soft and dense, with a hint of orange.  There were cranberries, so I'm guessing it was a cranberry orange scone, haha!  Yum!

Cranberry orange scone

When classes ended, I walked to the metro stop to head home.  Here I am walking down in front of Brookings.  The trees are just starting to change their leave colors!  

.. are you getting tired of me going on about the leaves?  :P   They're just so pretty though!

Notice the nicely manicured lawns with stripes :)

Book invited me to their dinner at Seoul Garden, so I tagged along to experience my first Korean BBQ!  And we were planning to get the all-you-can-eat option.  Oh my.

Charlie drove us to the DUC where Ramita and David were waiting before we all transferred to David's car.  But I really like Charlie's car!  It looks so spiffy inside, right?  ^_^

Seoul Garden is a Korean Restaurant about 15 or 20 minutes away from WashU.  We parked and hurried in from the cold.

They have other food to choose from on the menu, but we were already all set on BBQ!  I was so excited that I forgot to take pictures of Book and Charlie and instead just took pictures of whatever was in front of me ^_^'  Haha, sorry guys!

David is thinking:  No need to look at the menu, Ramita.

We're getting "Unlimited Plus!" tonight, mwahaha!

which comes with unlimited side dishes!!  *heaven*

The side dishes were super yummy!  I saw this one for the first time, and Charlie told me it's mung bean jelly.  I usually dislike jelly texture, but this was really good :)

Mung bean jelly

David approves.

Bits of side-dish!  Yuhhhhm!

The waiters were all really nice and courteous.  They swept back and forth to place all the side dishes on the table for us and came periodically to check on the meat and flip it for us!  My only complaint would be that they never refilled the water, and we had to ask multiple times.  But I'm a hippo when it comes to water (my nickname!), so maybe I just drink too much~ ^^'

We ordered 5 rounds of meat.  I really liked the thinly sliced and steak varieties, but they had a lot more to choose from!  I also liked the sauce they gave us.  Since the "brown version of gojuchang" was on David's side of the table, I didn't want to keep reaching over to bother him, so I stuck with the individual sauce.  I loved it!  Charlie said it was just sesame oil mixed with salt and pepper.  Nom nom nom~  I think I was more drinking the sauce than eating the meat, haha!

Pork belly!

Thinly sliced beef

Steak

Nice waiter ^^  Tee hee~

So we left relatively full, although not bursting.  I think as girls, Ramita and I did pretty well!  The BBQ was good, but I really liked the side dishes (don't tell the guys, but I think I ate more of that than the meat!).  ;)

Food coma!  (literally!)

Field Trip 2

Ta-daaa!  Jun-Qi got us tickets to see Wong Fu next month!  Very cool :)  Thanks Jun-qi!~~

Today was our second field trip for Baroque Art to the SLAM in Forest Park.  Compared to last time, the weather was quite nice!  The cold wind bit at my cheeks and my hands were a bit frozen, but walking fast warmed me up ^^

Ohh, the little fountain dried up.  Wonder if there's a drought?

The foliage here goes crazy in the Fall.  Crazy as in beautiful!  Back where I live, there are tons of pine trees, and instead of turning into rosy hues, they drop their needles everywhere.  :P  But it still smells really good :)

I took a picture in the same spot a month ago.  Do you recognize it?

The Art Museum is special like that ;)

Oh, so I saw this picture on my computer, and I was thought, "Hmm.. I've passed by this equestrian statue quite a few times, but I actually don't know who it is..."  After a Google search, I was credulous of my own lack of common sense.  The answer?  Saint Louis, King of France.  (Duhhh~~)

Looks as if King Louis is commanding the leaves to change color! ^_^

The SLAMuseum

A better view of him

Since the statue has one of the horses's front hooves in the air, Saint Louis was either wounded in battle or died of battle wounds.  Let's check it!  *wiki wiki wiki*  Yep!  Saint Louis died in his second crusade.  :O

There were lots of buses in front of the art museum, and I saw a few classes of younger children contemplating art pieces.  My classes never did that D:  But I guess now I am!  :D  The museum actually opens early for these school classes!

Hmmmm~~

We met in the print room, a little room hidden away on the 4th floor.  The elevator was HUGE but sooo slow.. The print room was really pretty ^^  I liked how well-lit it was!  

The research assistance introduced print-making to us.  We're studying Rembrandt, so it was cool to see the tools he used to create such works.  And the prints inside the room were *actual* prints!  Like.. they were pressed on the copper plates worked by Rembrandt's hands hundreds of years ago!  @___@

People inspecting the plates

We got magnifying glasses to view the marks that were made more easily.  I felt like Sherlock Holmes looking for clues.  Whoo!  So legit!  :3

When we were done, the we avoided the super-slow elevator and ran down the stairs.  A display of cotton-like trees welcomed me warmly with their festive colors!  ^_^  Beautiful.

I met up with Kevin and Josh at Stanley's Cafe for lunch.  Josh got his usual tower *sigh*  ;)  and Kevin got a bread bowl with soup!  It looked good; maybe I'll get it next time!

I tried taking a picture of Kevin, but he wouldn't stay still and kept making clawing motions in the air and going "Rwarr, rwar, rwar~~"  XD  Haha, oh Kevin!

Elaine, and you think I take awkward pictures of you!  haha!

It really is a bread bowl @_@  ... a bowl.  Made of bread.  *wow*  Minestrone soup!

Are you wondering what sweet I devoured today?  I stuck with the JEM cookie again *so good*, but I picked up a slice of some dark brown loaf.  I thought it would be chocolate or something, but it turned out to be banana bread!  At first bite, I wrinkled my face a bit.  It has a medicinal taste to it!  @_@  but after a second bite, it mellowed down and was actually pretty good.  I liked the edges, nom nom nom~

Banana bread!

Shin stopped by the table to catch up with Josh, and then we dispersed afterwards.  Back to lab!  

~*~

On my way to lab the other day, the metro officer at Skinker station started talking to me, pointing out that he would really want to be in Paris right now.  (I was wearing my white T-shirt that says "My travel story: Paris" on it.. but I've never been there, haha)  We ended up talking about China's communistic government and economy and comparing it to the United States' system.  Haha, so random~ @_@  He was really passionate about the Wallstreet protesters, talking about how his friend is in a financial rut and stuff.  I was pretty touched about how worried and public he was about his concerns for his friend~

Today while on the metro, a black man with a graying beard came to sit next to me, but since I was getting off at the next stop, I got out and stood in the aisle as he settled into the seat.  Then he asked me if I knew how to play Chinese Checkers.

I think I might have before, but I've forgotten, and it was such a random question (should I be offended, haha?), so I said "No... not really."  Then he propped a folded newspaper on his red sweat pants across his knees and placed three soda bottle caps on it.  After pulling out a bit of fuzz from his sweat pants and rolling it into a ball, he covered the fuzz with one of the bottle caps and started switching the positions of the three circles.

"Can you guess which one?  Eh, eh?  Chinese Checkers!"  I was dumbfounded.  I'm pretty sure this wasn't Chinese Checkers, but this was so cool!  *easily amused*  Two other young black men around my age or a bit older were sitting right in front of us and turned around to watch.  The older man asked me to guess which cap held the fuzz, so I pointed to the middle.  He removed the cap and revealed the red fluff.   "See?  You know how to play!"

Haha, so three more rounds of this while the other two guy, but before removing the last cap, he points to the middle one.  "Are you sure it's not this one?  This one could be the winner."  I shook my head and pointed to one of the ones on the side.  He removed it and congratulated me when I picked correctly.

This was all cool and stuff, but the thing that happened next sort of shocked me.  He pulled out a $20 bill from a wad of cash in his pocket and held it out to me.  "Winner~~," he says.  I rejected it but thanked him, and the other two guys were like, "Oh man, I want his money!"  Haha, silly~  I was actually thinking, "Whoooa, so cool!  It's like in a movie.. that could actually buy me something online!"  But I've always been told not to accept gifts from strangers, and plus, he could use that money for something else.  Not on whatever material desires I have, haha  ^^

The conductor announced my stop, so the older man and I shook hands "cool-guy" style, although I think I let my hand go a little too limp.  All right, I am now a proven underground Chinese Checker master!!  :D  Hi-yah!~

~*~

I was listening to my mentor today, but I was so sleepy!  I wonder if he noticed >_<''  

Nancy gave me this pencil last year.  It's from Taiwan and it has "Lovely Mango Girl" wrapped around the barrel.  Cute, right?  ^^  It's also shaped like a syringe.  Haha, Nancy told me it's because I want to be a doctor when I grow up.  Awww~   *sentimental*  ^_____^

I got back home at 7:30pm and immediately made dinner.  I ended up eating a whole pound of some Chinese veggie (空心菜)  @_@ with my two eggs.  We were eating Thai rice the whole summer, and today was the first day I ate my usual Japanese rice!  I love how much stickier the grains are  ^__^  Omgah, so good.. *happy happy*

Oozing molten egg yolk about to drip onto deliciously moist Japanese rice!