Sean's dad visits St. Louis

The day after Anna came back, I found a bag full of goodies on my desk.  Japanese cute things!!  :D:D:D  Yayy, thank you Anna banana :)  She also brought back Yokohama's specialities: cake!?

I'm excited to try these!

There was another overseas *package* that arrived this past week...  Sean's daddy!  Hehe, he came from Korea to visit, and we ate three meals with him! :)  Sean and his dad look very similar @_@  His dad is very nice, and he knows food history!!  zomg~  At Asiana, he told us the origin of Hunan duck and Beijing duck.  *amazed*  I want to hear more stories~  But first, we all went to Pho Long:

Anna and Sean at Pho Long

My round eye steak and beef brisket pho

The beef brisket is very tender!  I think I'll just get beef brisket next time... or maybe ox tail.  Hmmm?  The meat looks pink, but it cooks inside the hot soup within seconds!  Sean's dad said his shrimp soup was yummy, but not very authentic.  I wonder what authentic Vietnamese shrimp soup tastes like?  Actually, I wonder what Pho Long's shrimp soup tastes like too!

I went home, took a nap, and woke up for dinner.  Turns out that Josh and Daniel also slept away the time between lunch and dinner!  We went to Asiana Garden~

Seafood soup-  super big shrimp pieces!  And I like the tofu and veggies ^^

Hunan duck

I really like Hunan duck and prefer it over Beijing duck.  Sean's dad explained to us that China's ancient capital used to be in Hunan before Bejing.  The emperor missed the taste of the food from his old capital, but the palace chef created the new and now popular Beijing duck!  So cool!  Love hearing stories like this. But why does everyone like Beijing / Peking duck so much?  Whenever we eat that, I like to get the bun / wrap, add sauce to it, and just eat it without the duck.  Haha!

Delicious lamb pot and a shot of Sean's daddy!

The lamb pot was *super* tender and flavorful, probably one of my favorite dishes at Asiana Garden now!  There were some bok choy veggies inside too.  It's a little spicy, which adds to the flavor, but Josh said it was a little too spicy for him~

We brought up the Sichuan restaurant that recently opened near Pho Long, which is supposedly suuuper spicy.  Sean's dad told us that there are two places in China really known for their spicy foods: Sichuan and Hunan.  Whooooa, so cool how he's from Korea, yet knows so much about another nation's culture!  Apparently they have different flavors of spiciness, which I think Elaine told me about a while back.  Sichuan has that numbing feeling ("mala" 麻辣), whereas Hunan doesn't.  He said that Hunan has spicier foods.  I think Elaine would be proud.  :P

POINT!  It's a squirrel fish!

Yep yep :P  This is my second time to see and eat the fish.  It's not actually called a squirrel fish, but the fish is cooked in this way to make it look like a squirrel!  Er, actually, if I ever saw a squirrel that looked like this, I would have run in the opposite direction, thinking it was either a porcupine or a mutated monstrosity @_@''  Each "spike" can be pulled off, and the outside is a little crunchy, while the meat is soft.  The sauce is sweet, and it's delish! :D

I asked Sean's dad what his favorite dish was after dinner, and he said it was probably the fish.  Hehe, that's Sean and Anna's favorite too :3

After dinner, we drove to the movie theater to watch MIB 3!  But we were early, so what better to do than try ice cream at Oberweis? :D  I've never even heard of this company before, but apparently they are known for their extremely creamy ice cream and dairy products.  (No hormones, of course!)

Josh and Daniel ready to nom!

I got a cookies 'n cream scoop, and it was yummy!  When I said I was eating "here" instead of "to go," I got a little number for them to come and find me.  I thought this was kind of weird, since Josh got his ice cream in a cup instantly.  But the ice cream came to my table, served in a chilled glass!  I liked this, since it didn't melt as much (Wendy no like melted ice cream!  D:), and it was very cute :3  

Cool and creamy?  Yes.  Better than Ben and Jerry's?  Not to me!  I'm not an ice cream connoisseur, so I actually think *all* cookies and cream ice creams are yummy!  I would probably be just as happy with a cookies and cream that came from the grocery store~  ^^''  But if it's vanilla flavored, then I'm very picky!  *only likes Breyer's vanilla bean and dislikes French vanilla*

Oberweis' cookies and cream

Oberweis seemed very popular, and almost all of the tables where filled!  Since it's so close (1 min walk?) to the movie theaters, it's probably a popular pre/post-movie treat place.  They also sell their ice cream in pints, ice cream cakes, ice cream pies, brownies, cottage cheese, yogurt, and pretty much everything that can be made with milk from their cows.  That includes sausage.  And bacon.  Which, according to Josh, comes from cows.  Haha!  He was like, "Derp..." after he realized his mistake.  If you're watching a movie at the Creve Coeur movie theater, why not drop by for something cool on a hot summer night?  :)  It'll definitely hit the sweet spot :D

Oberweis

10441 Olive Boulevard

Creve Coeur, MO 63141

Update!*  I forgot to add in a picture of dimsum with Sean's daddy!  We went to Mandarin House for dim sum on a Sunday, and it was kind of exciting to see dim sum carts shuttling around the floor ^^  Daniel was having dim sum for the first time, so I tried getting all the *special* dishes :)  He liked the shrimp dumplings 蝦餃 and shrimp rice noodles 河粉 the most, which both have that slippery, translucent skin.  I think out of the meal's choices, I liked them the most too... which is kind of odd, because I didn't remember the shrimp dumplings to be so good...  @_@''

The dragon/soup dumplings in the picture were okay; they were a very dark color, and Sean's dad said the skin was too thick.  I'm okay with thick skins XD  but I agree that I've tasted better (possibly even frozen ones?)!

Josh, Debra, Anna, and Sean say that Mandarin House has the best dim sum in St. Louis (compared to Wonton King and Lulu's), so if you're looking to satisfy your craving for this Cantonese tradition, stop by Mandarin House on the weekends and try a few dishes!

Mandarin House

9150 Overland Plaza

Overland, MO 63114

~*~

Since I'm talking about Sean's daddy, I want to talk about my Daddy too!  :D  He sent me the following pictures from home to let me know what he and Mom are up to ^^b

Dinner... veggies *heart*

Bittermelon in the garden.  Can you spot it? :)

Jasmine flowers?

Budding rose ^^