Christmas hot pot

Ta-daaaa~~  It's Connie!

Where are we?  At a restaurant of course, where all the food is.  It was Christmas day, and I went to pick her up, but we ended up stopping for a "snack" (lunch) before heading home to our Christmas dinner.  Cafe 101 was our restaurant of choice, its younger and hipper atmosphere (as well as the teeny bit more expensive prices) scare away my dad, so we took this chance to eat here! ^_^

Connie ordered the calamari and fried tofu <3  so gooooood!  I love fried tofu :D  The squid was pretty good too!  I liked dipping the tofu into the sauce that came with the squid, because the tofu's sauce was super...  flavorful?  But it was super garlic-y and it felt like the taste... and smell... was staying in my mouth.  Yummy? :p  

I was amazed at how many tofu pieces they gave us.  Such a large portion!  *happy happy*

Close up of calamari and fried tofu

Hurr hurr, food picture takers = sisters fo sho

It was a bit chilly outside, so Connie ordered Strawberry Green Tea.  It came in a beautiful pyrex-like pitcher, that seemed more fit for a chemistry lab than a cafe.  The color was strikingly red, and it tasted nothing like green tea.  Or maybe I am just bad at tasting tea?  It reminded me a lot of strawberry jam, and I wouldn't be surprised if the drink's recipe went something like microwaving strawberry jam in a bit of green tea!

It came with little white tea cups... that I almost dropped with my clumsy fingers, so it was nice to sip on ^^

Strawberry green tea

And lastly, she ordered a Kimchi Chinese Omelette.  It was a green onion pancake wrapped around egg and kimchi, and it came lined with two different types of sauces.  :)  It was so pretty!!  and delicious to boot :3

Looks like a rocket ready for launch?  Shyooo~

Cafe 101

9889 Bellaire Blvd
Houston, TX 77036

~*~

We went back home and sat down to a Christmas hot pot dinner!  My parents had hot pot that afternoon at temple, so we didn't go all out or anything, but we still had a lot of yummies like shrimp, tofu, homemade shrimp/pork meatballs, noodles, taro, lamb, beef, and veggies.  It was fun fishing out the pieces with our little hot pot netted spoons, and we (everyone else) talked while we (I) ate everything.

Dad and I bought the doggies a frozen doggie treat pack by Purina at Walmart last week, so the doggies got to lick on that after they finished their own dinner.  Connie and I were curious how this one was different from regular ice cream, so we both licked on the treats for a bit before giving them to Balto and Bacardi.  They taste like a popsicle made of milk powder.  @_@''  but the doggies really loved it!  Still have 2 left in the freezer... maybe for New Years? ^^

Everyone's looking at the camera, even Bacardi and Balto!  tee hee~

Haha, Connie's so silly!  :)

Mommy, Connie, and me!

Haha, post dinner dancing! :P

After hanging out for a bit, Connie needed to head back home for another party with her friends!  So  packed her stuff, Bacardi, and Daddy into the backseat of the car, and we drove her back to her place.  Bacardi was so obedient and quiet as she slept by my dad, what a good little doggie!

Yep, so that was my Christmas day!  For real, since I slept 11 hours and woke up at 11:35am before heading to downtown to pick up Connie.  Nice day of seeing family :3

Bacardi and her mommy are so cute together ^^

Holiday baking

Ideas exploding out of my head!

Haha, actually no, that's not true.  Unless I think about tigers, swimming, being young, dolphins, and nice-looking and toned male models with abs.  ...... Hmm, that actually sounds kind of accurate..!~  ;)

This is my sister's room!  All the walls used to be covered in posters like these and of various bands, but my mom took most of them down after she moved out, and all that remains is this little section near the windows.  The furniture is gone, since she lives somewhere else, so her room is very spacious.  It makes for a nice little exercise room :D

My house is crazy cold, so the only way to stay warm is to keep moving.  That's why I'm in shorts!  On the same day (Thursday), I went to UH's recreation center for a swim ^^  I promised David I would swim during break, and I try my best not to break promises!~  ... although now I can't swim for quite a while!

ROCK CLIMBING WALLLLL facing the front entrance

I've been to this place way too many times to count.  Starting from my middle school years, there were a lot of swimming meets here for year-round swimming, and a few winter championship meets for high school.  I wondered if the pool would be in the 50m or the 25yd mode, and it turned out to be neither!  They split it into a shallow and deep end.

If WashU is the 4th most expensive university to attend in the United States, how come Houston's university has such a nicer pool and rec. center than my school?!  @__@  Like.. *infinitely* better!~  The locker rooms are super nice too; Texas-sized (super humongous) shower stalls kind of like bathroom stalls with locks and another section with shower curtains!  Yayyyy!  And everything's super clean ^^

There's a gym on the second level with an indoor running track looping around it.  Basketball courts are located behind the rock climbing wall.  Yeah, they have rock climbing, say what?~  ;)  And they have a Smoothie King downstairs.  Nom nom nom..

Beautiful!

After swimming, I went to Azuma with Daddy for dinner!  The restaurant was extremely dim, so no food pictures to show.  Steven, Theo, and I ate at the Azuma in Sugarland, but Dad and I went to the one near Rice Village.

Fancy chopsticks

Pretty garden sculpture.  You can see my dad's car, tee hee ^^

It soon became super busy!

The menu was 11 pages long, but most of it was dedicated to sushi and robata (think shish-ka-bobs) descriptions.  We both ordered seafood udon, which was quite yummy!  I usually don't like udon / soup noodles, but since I hadn't ordered it in a few years, I decided to give it a go, and it was so worth it! :D  The noodles were super QQ, and there was tons of goodies inside: octopus pieces, the pink and white fish cake slices, a ginormous king shrimp (so flavorful!), mushrooms, spinach, and clams, all garnished with green onions.  Mmmm~

I was paying for us with a Groupon, so my dad ordered appetizers (unheard of! haha).  He got the Caterpillar sushi roll and the Grilled Mackerel.  The caterpillar roll tasted like many other restaurants' versions, but it was still delish, especially doused in wasabi and soy sauce!  The grilled mackerel was a tiny portion, 2 bites per person, but it was flavorful.  :)  They put bread crumbs on it, so that was interesting (although I would have preferred without).  

Overall, the food at Rice Village's Azuma is delicious.  It is on the pricey side though!  (Well, to me, a college student, haha ^^)  The udons cost $14 a bowl, the sushi roll $12, and the fish $8.  Including tip, our meal cost $60, but with a $40 Groupon that cost $20, it turned out to be $20 a person out of the pocket.  Kind of expensive, right?  @_@

My dad and I left satisfied, but not super full from Azuma, and we drove back home.  What a nice day ^^

Azuma

5600 Kirby Drive

Houston, TX 77005

~*~

Squirrel is nom nom-ing on something yummy! :D

Baby persimmon fruit!

Where's Wendy?  Har har, it's like "Where's Waldo," but Wendy, get it??  And I wear striped quite often >_>  

But annnnyways...  I'm walking in my neighborhood!  My parents and I woke up early at 7am and left for a walk around the neighborhood and to a McDonald's for breakfast!

I used to walk around a park with Irene a lot.  I remember I would park my bike at her place, and we'd set off for our walk and talk about stuff.  In middle school it was Ice Crescent Valley, an animation we planned to create with Flash media.  We had all the characters drawn out with descriptions ^^  Later it was about Maple Story, and still later, it was about random bits of life.  Ahh, memories!~

A stork

Just curious, but do you say "s-tork" or "s-dork?"  I say the second, but my mom says I say it totally wrong.  But don't you think it sounds weirder if you say it the first way?  :P

I stalked my parents while they ambled along together, and I thought they were so cute!  ^__^  It's really rare to get my mom out of the house and exercising outside; she's usually watching television or sleeping on the couch (that's where I inherited my knack for sleeping!), so seeing them together was pretty awesome.  :)  

Tee hee ^__^

I love trees!

This is the ditch where Irene and I would attempt to walk across without getting too wet!

There are two people here.  Can you spot them? :)

We walked to the McDonald's near the high school.  According to Google maps, that's 3.2 miles.  I was really set on trying their oatmeal (a somewhat new item), which I had a free coupon for!  My parents satisfied themselves by splitting a sausage McGriddle and eating their own apple pies and cafe lattes.

So small o_o

Colorful Oatmeal

The oatmeal actually didn't reach the top of the cup either, haha~  They had bits of apples and golden as well as regular raisins on the top with some milky cream stuff.  You can have it with or without brown sugar, but I took mine without.  

I don't like stirring up my food, so I ate the fruit first and then the oatmeal on the bottom.  Super yummy and quite filling!  *happy* ^__^b

When we left for home, we took another route, and my parents marveled about how big the oak trees in the neighborhood were.  I took a picture with a squirrel scampering across a branch of a very large and strangely shaped tree. :)

^_^

When we got home, I showered, and my parents took me to the doctor again.  This time it was for the actual surgical procedure.  It was pretty funny, because the doctor said my mom probably didn't want to watch and offered her the little waiting room outside the operation room . Then he was like, Wait, she can still stay, since we'll only be numbing you up for now.  I told him she didn't like needles either, and he strongly recommended her to wait outside again :P

The hand has a tons of nerves, so before anything happens, it has to be numbed up a lot or else there will be lots of pain.  They injected anesthetics six times in one finger.  @_@  Good thing I didn't watch.  I looked at it afterwards, but before they proceeded, and it was rounded out swollen to the size of a strawberry... and yellow. =_=

I was awake during the surgery, because it was just a small procedure on my hand, and they numbed it, so I didn't feel it.  But I could hear what was going on, and I could feel the pressure they were applying on my arm.  ._.  I think it would have been interesting to watch on someone else, but since I was going to be recovering with my hand attached to me and in close proximity for the next few weeks, I didn't want to watch how they were cutting it open, durrr...

But on a side note, I got my first stitches ever!!?~  I've never broken anything before, so that was a first for me :P

Anyways, so after that, we went out for lunch!  Nothing to keep me preoccupied like food, har har :P  The anesthesia was wearing off, and it kind of hurt, but there was nothing I could do without freaking out my parents by yelling for us to run to the nearest Walgreens to buy some ibuprofen, so I just focused on my food and marveled how yummy it was~  Plus it felt silly to be agonizing over a procedure so small ^_^''

We tried a little restaurant in Chinatown called "OK Cafe."  What a weird name!  But they sell Taiwanese snacks, dimsum, and food!  On Monday-Friday, there is a lunch special for an entree and soup for $5, so that made my dad pretty happy, haha.  :D

I ordered the chili bean fish with rice.  The fish was fried and then cooked with tofu, and the plate was served with blanched bok choy.  I really enjoyed the texture and taste of the fish, since it was only spicy enough for a slight burning sensation!  And the rice was sticky and moist <3  It came with a meatball soup, which tasted like hot pot meatballs in a tasty broth probably heavily seasoned with MSG.  :P

My parents ordered spareribs with rice and the owamiswa (oyster noodles).  They both were quite happy with their meals.  My dad and I swapped pieces of pork and fish, and the meat on the ribs were quite tender, delish~

Taiwanese meatball soup

Chili bean and fish on rice

Pork spareribs on rice

Oyster noodles

OK Cafe also sells milk tea and other slushies and drinks for cheap ($2.77), but I planned to visit Star Snow Ice for dessert later.  Students also get 10% off purchases after 6pm if they bring their student ID!  Overall we were happy with everything: pretty fast service, good food, nice prices.  The only bad thing would be that it was so empty!  We were the only patrons there the whole time we were eating, and I wonder if it's because the restaurant is relatively new or if it's because it's in a small, hard-to-find corner of Chinatown (hidden near Golden Foods Supermarket)~  :o

OK Cafe

9888 Bellaire Blvd
Houston, TX 77036

A quick trip to the supermarket and Star Snow Ice to try a Peanut Shake.  I like a slushie, sort of icy texture, over the creamier smoothie texture.  They blend all their shakes into a milkshake texture, so it's super creamy, so maybe I'll go back to the Teahouse next time.  Star Snow Ice is much cheaper though ($2.50)!  It tasted a bit like peanut butter <3 yummy!

~*~

Christmas eve means it's baking time!  Well, the monks at the temple requested me to make sweets for their Christmas hot pot banquet is on Christmas day, so I'll be sending some baked goodies with my parents when the go.  :)  I like to try baking new sweets instead of churning out the same recipe, which I usually do when I'm back at home.  Christmas gave me a good reason to try out two seasonal desserts! 

I stirred up some gingerbread dough the night before, but I left it in the fridge overnight to make it easier to work with.  So when I woke up, I began rolling out the dough for gingerbread treats!  When I went to Taiwan last year, I bought these super pretty mini-cupcake liners from an industrial restaurant store, and I finally decided to use them.  They're patterned and cute!

Making gingerbread bites~ :)

Closeup of pretty wrappers and filling before baking

Second set of pretty wrappers out of the oven!

I baked the first batch too long, so the filling poofed up and sank into holes... durr.  Not presentable! = treats to be left at home for us to nibble on :)

I used 3 batches of dough to make gingerbread cream cheese bites and gingerbread men.  I finished at 2:30pm.  The cookies themselves only take 9ish minutes to bake, but since I was making these with only one hand, it took 5 hours!  @_@''  *so slow*  

My mom kept wanting me to take the pain medication, but I definitely am for only taking pills when I really need it.  I saw her popping pills after her own surgery during my last spring break when I was in Houston.  Definitely don't want to end up like that!  >_<  Her procedure was definitely much more serious than mine, but still~  Otherwise I might end up with a dependency!  I took two the day of the surgery.  It's kind of uncomfortable and throbbing, but if I concentrate on other things, I forget about it and don't have time to worry about pain, right? :)  

And no worries about hygiene-- I'm worried just as much for cleanliness of the cookies as well as keeping my hand clean too. Not even one of my fingers had flour on them!  :D  So I only used one hand the entire time and asked my parents for help when I needed two hands, like opening a new jar of molasses!  ... and cleaning dishes afterwards, mwahaha >:P

But if you find a few stitches in those gingerbread cookies, please do tell me.  ;) just kidding!~

Can you spot my failed attempts? ^^''

Packed and ready to go!

Gingerbread cookies :)

Like an assembly line :P

After decorating the cookies and letting the icing harden, I packed them into cake pans and placed them onto the counter.  Hope they'll enjoy dessert ^_^  I feel pretty accomplished baking and typing up this post with one hand, although I split the task up into a few days ;)  although I hope my right bicep isn't extremely bigger than my left one now!~

And just a random picture to finish this post off:  a bowl of my parents' Zha Jiang Mian noodles!  <3

I'll never get tired of these noodles, om nom nom nommmmmm *drool*  :D'

Clear Lake kids and a family outing

I wake up in the morning feeling like... P. Diddy?  Haha, okay, well parents left for work and I had no car to go anywhere, so it was a day with the doggies in the backyard!~  My dad's a stickler for temperature control, and our house was actually colder than outside =_='' 

When I walked out, I saw leaves.  EVERYWHERE.  Since when did leaves fall down in Houston?!  And then I realized that our oak tree is ginormously tall now!  I remember when we planted it when it was just a sapling with a diameter smaller than a circle made with my thumb and index finger.  Now I can seriously injure myself running into it when I'm chasing or being chased by Balto.  :)

Anyways, the leaves were all over the place!  So instead of seeing green grass, all I saw were leaves.  I don't remember raking leaves *ever*, but I saw a rake leaning against the wall, so I grabbed it and started raking up piles.  I ended up making one massive pile in the middle!  And every time I was raking up a smaller pile on the side, I would hear some rustling and look up to see Balto and Bacardi sniffing around and rolling around in the big pile of leaves!  Haha, guess I'm not the only one who likes to play around ^^

Making a pile!

*sniff sniff*

I worked up a sweat, and I didn't realize until after when I was admiring the pile that the skin on my right hand peeled off and I was bleeding.  Haha @_@''''   My community requires all the bags for leaves and grass be compostable, so I filled 3 bags and placed them beside the windows.  I could actually see the grass!  A lot of patchy areas, but I'm not sure if it's because the grass couldn't "breathe" from the weight of the leaves or if it was from the drought Texas suffered from this year.  But apparently there's no more drought, since it rained pretty hard that night! :D  

When I stuffed the last of the leaves into the bag, I felt something semi hard and smushy and took a look at the ground.  I saw a gray lizard and screamed really loudly.  I put my face closer for inspection and blew on it, but it didn't move.  So I took a leaf and poked, and it still didn't move.  When I flipped it over, and its legs stuck stiffly into the air, I realized it was dead.  I screamed again and jumped backwards a few times.  AHHHH I hate dead bugs and animals T_______T  My doggies came to comfort me (or were led to believe I was excited to give them a treat, I don't really know), and I ran inside to wash my hands like crazy.

Tuesday night was our get-together!  It was a potluck, so I made a BBQ chicken dish.  Super light-tasting, since my parents said it was perfect.  That means it was super bland, because they have zero salt tolerance, haha!  Oh well~  But a lot of people showed up, and there was a huge feast!

The guys laughed at me when they saw me downing my second plate of food =_=''  Is eating bad?!  Or maybe they just eat super quickly, and two hours later, I'm still eating, so it just seems like I'm a cookie monster.  :3  OM NOM NOMMMM

Raymund and Jeff enjoying victuals

Chris, Lindsey, and Irene

Haha, they are so funny!  And Chris is just like *munch munch*

We had a Secret Santa thing, and I loved watching everyone give their presents, really cool!  Most of the guys got nice clothes, and I thought that was pretty cool :D  I got a mini-donut maker!  (Thanks, Tim!)  I gave the Butt Station and a cereal bowl separated into two parts for cereal and milk, so the cereal never gets soggy, to Jeff.  I hope he likes it!  Haha, so weird, because I actually like my cereal soggy, yummmm~  *watches the cereal pieces drown in milk* ^_^

There was some talking and catching-up, but I went home before 1am with Ting, since my parents were expecting me home early and I had a doctor's appointment the next day.

~*~

So the next morning, both my parents were off!  And we planned to go eat lunch at Chinatown together, so all three of us went to my doctor's appointment, haha :P  I actually don't my car insurance activated until Friday, so someone had to take me ^^''

Parents talking in the super spiffy waiting room

Daddy reading and being smart!

He got a picture of me being not smart and checking my cell phone :P

I have to go again Friday to get a small surgery done, but then I can't swim for a few weeks.  D:  Whyyyyy~  I brought my swimming stuff back too!  But it's all good, the UH natatorium closes on Friday all the way until I go back to school anyways...  So that's why I plan to force my daddy to go swimming with me on his day off Thursday by bribing him with dinner! :D:D:D

  

Oh, where are these two lovely parents?

Haha, doesn't it look so random?  We planned to eat lunch with Connie at noon, and so while we were waiting for her to leave her place in Downtown, we explored the back of some buildings in Chinatown.  While they were looking at what businesses were located in this little square, I took a creeper photo of them.  Cute, right? ;)

Then I was walking on the edges of the sandbar, balancing on the little line of cement.  My mom followed me for a brief moment and stepped off.  I told both of them that as people get older, they lose their sense of balance, so they should try to walk on the strip with me a couple times to exercise their balance a bit!  And they did, tee hee!  Super cute ^__^  

But no, I wasn't making stuff to make them walk with me, haha~  My friend accidentally ran a bike into me when I was in 10th grade.  It wasn't even at full speed or anything, just a little bump, but the angle and way I fell messed up my knee, so I had to get physical therapy (and since then couldn't beat my best time in the 100yd breaststroke T__T *saddened for life*).  When I was getting treated there, the physician told me to try balancing on one foot.  Another older patient had to do the same thing and fumbled a bit, and the physician told me that it's easier for younger people.  Yep yep, random story!

Keep your balance!

Haha, my dad's such a stud.

It was time to meet up at the Jang Guem Tofu and BBQ House, and 15 minutes after the set time and a no-show from Connie, my parents decided to order.  They ate a light breakfast, so they must had been super hungry, since my mom looked so happy to receive her tiny salad!

Haha, so happy~

I was excited for side dishes, delish!!

My dad ordered "Rice with Assorted Vegetables" (bimbimbop), and I ordered "Rice with Kimchi and Assorted Vegetables."  My thinking was that it's bimbimbop, plus kimchi.  Sounds right, doesn't it?  :P  But when it came out, I was a wee disappointed.  It was kimchi on top of ice berg lettuce on rice.  Who eats ice berg lettuce on rice?!

The other dish came out in its colorful glory, so pretty!  I took a picture of both, saying "Omg, this is so pretty" to myself when I took a picture of Daddy's dish.  My parents switched the bowls, giving me the bimbimbop and refused to switch them back when I half-heartedly said I liked kimchi and lettuce.  I am so spoiled :'o 

Rice with Kimchi and Assorted Vegetables

Rice with Assorted Vegetables (So pretty!!~ ^^)

*That* is why I can't fully enjoy myself at UCity Grill at school.  For around 40 cents more, the food I get in Houston is so much prettier!  And I definitely eat with my eyes as well as my tongue ^^  I loooooved the vegetables here: watercress, mushrooms, beansprouts, red cabbage, carrots, and daikon.  They were all slightly sauteed, seasoned, and placed neatly around minced meat and an egg yolk.  Delicious!~  ^_^

My mom ordered a seafood tofu soup with a side of mackerel.  It was really yummy!~  Connie came when my parents were pretty much finishing their food (probably an hour later) and I was less than half done with my dish.  She also ordered seafood tofu soup!  Hmm, sometimes I think she is more like Mommy than anyone realizes.. ^^

Grilled Mackerel

Jang Guem Tofu and BBQ House

9896 Bellaire Blvd

Houston, TX 77036

Later Connie and I went to The Teahouse to buy something to drink.  It was my first time at this location, and I was super surprised at the layout.  It was a lot smaller than I thought it was!  I was actually deciding between taro, red bean, and green bean, but I realized that I should try things I usually don't order.  I took so long that my sister was making jokes about how she can never go eat with me ever because I take a million years to decide what I want.  Then I ended up ordering Taro Coconut Cream Slush!  

Connie at The Teahouse!

Taro coconut cream slush ^^b

Connie got freshly squeezed orange juice, but I still wonder why she and Mommy like to order that.  I mean, yes, it's freshly squeezed, but can't you squeeze oranges at home for less than what it costs to buy it?  And The Teahouse was actually super pricey too-- two drinks cost $8.12 for the both of us!  @_@  Star Snow Ice sells each drink for $2.75-ish!~  But it was good to try this place at least once!

I was really happy with the taro coconut slush ^_^  Super delicious, even if it was a bit sweet!~  I haven't ordered any slushie/drinks since forever, so it really hit the spot!  Also, I was surprised that the drink lasted me about 10 or 15 minutes.  Usually it's gone before we hit the highway (5 minutes).  I have become a slower drinker!! @_@

Drinks waiting to be inhaled

Teahouse Tapioca and Tea

9198 Bellaire Blvd
Houston, TX 77036

I gave Connie her Christmas present which was a Nintendo DS game called "9 Hours, 9 Peoples, 9 Doors," a white and shiny Hello Kitty watch, and a Clif and Luna bar.  The present's theme was "time!"  haha, not sure if she got it.  But she never eats a good lunch, because she's always in a rush to go somewhere, so that's what the bars are for.  Then the watch is because it's fashionable and popular now, but also because she doesn't have a watch (uses her iPhone), and also since she is always late, late, late *annoyed*. =_=''  But she's getting better.  I mean, she actually shows up for things instead of just forgetting completely!  And the game is because she likes mystery and violent games.

So that's my first weekend back!~