A double whammy birthday weekend

Happy birthday to two!

Who?  Elaine and Sean were b-day starts last week, so we're going to start out with Elaine :)

here?  Taste!  A bar and eatery attached to its sister store, the Brasserie.  The ambiance upon walking in is pretty impressive, since the chairs are long wooden ones with lit candles, and there are low lights warming up the rustic interior.  There's an open kitchen facing the entrance, but a set of stairs lead downwards to what I believe is a bigger, more industrial kitchen downstairs.

We got a table upstairs, and I'm pretty sure that if Josh didn't make a reservation, then we wouldn't have gotten a seat at Taste that night.  The whole place was filled up!

Happy Debra and Elaine

Excited Anna and Sean

Sleeping Daniel and photographer Josh

Another shot of the birthday girl!

Taste features a menu of small plates and a larrrrrge selection of drinks shaken up by well-known bar tenders on the ground floor.  There were two entrees to choose from, the Chicken and the Pork Burger.  I've heard good things about the pork burger on Yelp, but last time I went to the Brasserie next door, Betty said the chicken was so good! So I thought maybe I would be able to sample a bit of how good the Niche (the mother branch of both Brasserie and Taste) can make a chicken~  :3

The small plates were indeed enticing (lamb sugo!  pork scrapple!) but I was set on finishing an entree plate, so I didn't order any.  Everyone else ordered a small plate to go along with their entree or to eat alone, and I got to sample almost all of them.  Durr, next time I should just order some too so I can share with everyone ^_^"  Will do next time!~

A bite of the barbacoa (Taste's rendition on street tacos) was enough to tell me that this dish was delish!  The beef was moist and tender, and the bread it was sitting on went well with the meat.  Yum!  Also delicious was the pork scrapple, which was a mixture of pork meats (like liver) and cornmeal, flour, and spices.  This one was topped with an egg.  It was a hearty, creamy, pork-pate-like dish :)  The lamb stew was also really flavorful; I don't know if I could choose a favorite!  The way the lamb dish was set up reminded me of Indian food:  it came with pita bread pieces and a metal bowl of stew.  Mmm.. Indian food, haha!  

Barbacoa

Pork Scrapple

Anna and Sean made a meal out of the barbacoa, the scrapple, and the parpadelle (which the waiter promised Anna was very light).  I don't think 3 small plates is enough for two people, since Sean was still hungry afterwards! :P  I gave him a part of my chicken, which was surprisingly super moist @_@  How in the world do they do it?  It wasn't as if oil was squirting out with each cut, but there was no "mehh, so dry" feeling when I chewed ^^b

Parpadelle, barbacoa, and scrapple

The greens on the side had rhubarb, and they used wine when sauteing.  The taste to me was strong, because I think I'm kind of sensitive to the taste of alcohol, but it was definitely not unpleasant :)  I polished off my plate and was satisfied, so Taste is a good place to go if you want to avoid feeling overstuffed with huge portion sizes!  I think 1 entree and sharing small plates with friends would be just the right balance of food amounts ^_^

Chicken

Afterwards, the kitchen brought out the amazing FROYO CARROT CAKE that Anna made!  Made with love and froyo from Chill, it was yum yum delishhhh~  I think all the girls love carrot cake and froyo, so the combination was quite heavenly :D

It was funny, because the candles that I grabbed from the apartment had a lot of "trick candles" inside the same package, and Anna happened to pick out almost all of the trick candles.  What resulted was Elaine almost passing out from attempting blow out the candles that would relight by themselves!  I always wondered how those candles relighted.. magic?~

:)

Happy 21st, Elainey pooh!

Anyways, I'm glad that Elaine enjoyed her birthday dinner, although a bar-centered restaurant was probably not the best choice after a crazy night the night before ;)  But it was fun nonetheless, and I had a lot of fun looking through the camera lens... still attempting to learn how to photograph in the dark!  @_@''

A shot of the bar from downstairs

Taste

4584 Laclede

St. Louis, MO 63108

~*~

The next evening was time to celebrate Sean's birthday and completion of the GRE!!  He took the test in the morning, so he was pretty dead afterwards-- what better than food to heal the soul, right? ;)

We all met up at Asiana Garden, by Sean's choice, and we ordered the "squirrel fish," as usual when we eat here:3  

Book was busy the night before, so he couldn't make Elaine's birthday dinner, but he joined us at Asiana.  So he took quite a few pictures of people using my camera!  Camera credit to him for the next four pictures:

Anna

Sean

Daniel

Debra

I think it's really interesting how Book takes pictures.  I like to take pictures of a lot of background and a bit of the subject if their humans (haha)~  Otherwise non-living objects take prime space in my compositions ;)  But for his pictures, he (almost) fills the entire frame with the person!  I think that's pretty bold and cool :D  So I tried that with him and Elaine after looking at his pictures.  Hehe, I like his picture  :P  

The culprit Book!  :P

Elaine

But I still think my pictures have more background space, don't ya think? :)

I forgot what we were talking about on Daniel's phone ._.''

HAHA HILARIOUSSS-- Josh and Sean seemed to be grooming one another... :P

*on the other side of the table*  *cricket cricket*  XD

Haha, I actually don't remember what we were staring at... must be either Debra or Elaine who were sitting across from us!  ^^  Okay, pop quiz!~  Based on composition, look at the next two pictures and decide which pictures Book and I took, kay?  Go!

Oh, this is the delishhh squirrel fishhh :D

And I love eggplant!  Elaine pondering when to make her move ;)

What is your verdict?  Well, I took both of them.  Book was taking pictures with people filling up the frame, and although my background isn't huge in these two pictures, I have a larger foreground area that takes up a sizable amount of space compared to the person.  Got it?  Yay, now you are a Wendy-picture identifier expert!  ;)

Anna ordered a cookie cake from the Great American Cookie Co. at the Galleria for Sean, and I was pretty excited for it.  I WUVVVV cookie cakes!!  It's a cookie with the most yummy frosting... seriously, I don't understand why their frosting is so darn good~  But I think I'm mentally biased for white and black frosting, because my taste buds didn't know what to expect when I was nomming on green and blue frosting!  :P

Happy 23rd Sean! :D

:)

Om nom noming my way along

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM.

... NOM NOM NOM!!

Nom nom nom??

Haha, other than enjoying sounding like Cho-gath, I also like to eat!  And of course this post will be *another* entry about food.  But to break the mundane, I think this doggie is so cute!  It’s carrying a stuffed animal in his mouth.  :3  I actually saw him and his owner walking along when I got off the metro train, and then I pulled out my camera to snag a shot.  While I was attempting to snap away, both of them turned around and looked at me while I was still thursting the camera towards their direction!  Haha, sooo awkward, but then I said, “ Your doggie is SO cute!” and nonchalantly started to try taking another picture, haha!

What do you think when you hear “Half and Half?”  Most WashU students think of the midnight snack of fried chicken tenders and a wallop of freshly dunked (in a vat of boiling oil) fries.  But thethere’s also a Half and Half around the Calyton area that serves up breakfast (and lunch) favorites!  I love the atmosphere in there: bright, cheery, and a great way to start the morning... or cheer on the day during lunch. :D  

Half & Half!

This was after a lot of people left!

I liked stalking the other table with the mirrors on the wall XD

While we waited for our food, Daniel and I started playing around with the camera and took ten bajillion stalker photos of people.  I bet the owners thought we were really crazy, haha @_@’’  Well, we are... :P

There were a lot of people as usual, but we were seated within maybe five minutes or so ^_^  The food comes out in a reasonable time, and I just think *fresh!*  and *yummy!* when the plates make a satisfying dink on the table.  :D  Nom nom!

Rwarrr~

Salmon Hash...  look at those eggs!  Beautiful :)

As usual, I suffered from a bout of extreme meu anxiety, and so Daniel narrowed it down by telling me to order something sweet.  He went with the Salmon has with hollaindase sauce, while I chose the more girly-happy “Clara Cakes”!  That turned out to be pancakes with mascarpone cheese, pecans, and raspberry preserves, Mmm mmm!~~ ^_^

Huge tower of deliciousness

A close up.  Just because I want you to be absolutely ENVIOUS of my lunch, mwahahaha ;)

Wow, so delicious!  Words cannot describe  @_@  Well, I usually think raspberry tastes quite like crayons, so whenever something raspberry amazes me... it’s quite... AMAZING.  Haha!  ^_^  But every time I used my knife to slice off a fluffy chunk for a bite, the mascarpone sauce and rasberry juice would ooze on out with majestic elegance.  Whee!  Even Daniel said the Clara Cakes were better than his salmon hash, although he really enjoyed that too :)

And of course it was all gone when I finished :3

~*~

Lunch with Elaine and Daniel at the Cityhouse Creperie in Clayton!  I think Clayton has some of the greatest restaurants to go to near school.  This was probably my fourth time here, but as usual... every visit makes me food coma due to intensely satisfied taste buds and as Daniel says, likely 5 lbs. a sugar in each bite!  Haha, not really, hopefully ;)  

St. Louis brought me my first experiences with crepes, and I like them sweet, although savory ones are still yummy.  They just remind me of wraps and taste like non-crepe-thingies.  Also, I'm always tempted to buy one of their muffins or cookies, but I'm at a *creperie*, so of course I can't, right?  :P

Elaine showing off her savory buckwheat Shady Oak crepe!

A close up on that, please :D  Oh my!

Also, if anyone noticed, I'm taking pictures with my Canon Rebel t3i now!  So that means like... almost no editing or color correction!  Hopefully better quality?  I'm still learning (loooots to learn too!), so I predict that my pictures will slowly improve :3  Bear with me while I'm learning!

My sweet Monte Carlo (strawberries, coconut & pecans with manjar blanco sauce)

What's manjar blanco, you ask?  It's a caramel-like sauce, but it's actually really a Peruvian chocolate sauce!  Anna actually recommended the Monte Carlo to me, since she ate it the past Sunday.  She thought it tasted like peanut butter :D  And I guess it kind of did?  Mmm, but my mouth just said YUM *chomp* so I don't really know~  Har har har~  Mmmm, and the whipped cream on the side was too cute to not eat (does that even make sense?  Ahh, evil brain), so that disappeared along with the crepe as well.  

Daniel poking at his Lox and Dam (smoked salmon) crepe

Oh gawsh, I'm getting hungry just typing this post up!  Daniel was really satisfied with his salmon crepe, and I'm glad, since it was his first time here.  Yay!  Success~  Elaine also had her first savory crepe this time, and she liked it, although it was kind of silly, because she essentially dissected her crepe by scraping all of the Harvarti cheese off to the side XD

Cheesy remains of Elaine's poor crepe!

It's weird to go off campus to eat during a weekday, because my brain is tricked into thinking it's a weekend until class begins in 10 minutes or something, but it was fun ^^

~*~

So back at Quad Point (what the girls dub our apartment as), we have a Restaurant List stuck to the fridge.  It's a long list of restaurants of restaurants that we want to visit in the future with a blank box next to our names.  Five Guys burgers was one place that a lot of the girls haven't been to, but a few of us checked that one off recently!  And who better to take to a fast food place than Daniel when he recently showed me a hilarious food commentary on Youtube about it? :P  

I was pretty pumped, since we pass by it all the time when we go to the Galleria, but no one ever wants to eat fast food (well, I *doooo*, but I usually prefer my veggies, nom nom!)!  When I walked in, the first thing I noticed were the free peanuts!! was how everything was so red and white.  Wow, these guys really try coordinating colors.  Even the restroom had red paper towel dispensers!  Also, random, but I love how some restaurants are moving towards automatic paper towel dispensers... so sanitary! :D

Late burger crew... POSTURE!!  *intense urge to whack right guy on the back*

Suuuper friendly employee :D  Hai there!

Okay, so what do you think about dunking your fries into ketchup?  Good, right?  What if you pour in vinegar into that ketchup?  @_@  Durr... that's what I thought ;)  So Daniel told me that the best way to eat Five Guys fries is to eat them with vinegar-doused ketchup.

Five Guys had bottles of vinegar on site too :O

I thought that the sour taste killed my sweet ketchup flavor... I don't understand why Daniel doesn't like pickles, but he likes vinegar with his fries =_=''   But, cool experience, and even cooler that Five Guys has bottles of vinegar on the side for people to use... although I'm not sure how vinegar goes with anything served at Five Guys :P

Mwaharharharhar~  Smelllllll~

Unlike the very colorful bags that McDonald's hands their burgers and fries out in, the Five Guys' bag is a plain brown paper bag.  Maybe it saves money for not having to print out logos on their bags, but it definitely doesn't do a good job hiding how much grease is in the fries!

I like the thicker fries, but they were a bit bland compared to the over-slted ones at McD's.  (Yes, I'm biased; I LOVE McD's fries, even though I feel my kidneys dying by the end of a supersized order of fries! XD)

These are some rustic-looking fries, eh?

On with the burger!  I first ordered the regular cheeseburger, but then the cashier looked at me for a moment and said that the regular portions are half a pound patties, and the "little" burger is a quarter pounder.  Haha!  He thinks I can't finish a half pound patty... *evil snicker*  But yes, I ordered a "little" burger with everything on it, yummy!

When the food came, I was attempting to take pictures of my first Five Guys burger, and it took so long that I'm sure my foodie buddy was like "Oh... my gawd*.  :3  Haha! 

Daniel is happily starting on his cheeseburger

Hurhh?  Wai yu stop me from eating?  D:

Fine I'll take a picture of my own burger.  Look how fluffy the bun is!

The thick sesame bun made the burger seem like a little tower wrapped in aluminum.  It made me pretty giddy, because it looked so much more presentable than the smushed and flattened out buns of those double cheeseburgers that I love ordering at McDonald's!  I also like grilled mushrooms and onions.  I think next time I'll add A1 sauce instead of ketchup and mustard to make it have a little more zing~  Yayyy :)  Happy that I got to try Five Guys at last. 

Five Guys

1415 Saint Louis Galleria

Richmond Heights, MO 63117

...  I also noticed that I haven't been eating very normally recently ._.  Must start making my own dinners and eat out less!  For some reason, I really crave home-cooked foods, even if they don't taste as good as the ones at restaurants  ^_^''  Something about sauteed spinach and garlic with rice and eggs really hits the spot!  :D

~*~

Since Cypher Reunion two weeks ago lasted until late, dinner was also late..  We decided to make soon dubu jiage (tofu stew), and we finally sat down to slurp it up at almost midnight!!  Ahh!  My regular eating schedule has been turned upside down and gone bonkers XD  But I’m really glad we made it, because we didn’t really use a worded recipe, and I feel like I learned how to cook it well enough to try it on my own in the future :3  Also, it was dleish!  a bit spicy for me, but yummy nonetheless.  Yay!  My favorite Korean dish.  I would only change the tofu for a firmer variety, as our tofu turned into mush as we stirred it up ^^''  Haha!

It's 11:40... at night!

I wanted to make sukiyaki, a Japanese dish that I often order at restaurants when I get a chance.  It's savory and sweet at the same time, and the broth is very warming :)  And it has VEGETABLLLLES, yay!  So Daniel man-ed it up (tofu is his mortal enemy) and agreed to make it with me ;)

I was surprised about how easy sukiyaki is to make at home.  At restaurants it usually costs more than $10 a dinner and is served in a heavy clay pot or some type of earthenware, so I thought it was going to be complicated!  But it's literally just dumping everything into a pot and adding a soup to boil it all up :D

Instead of using chrysanthemum leaves, we used Taiwanese napa leaves.  You can substitute a lot of materials, like button mushrooms instead of shiitake mushrooms, so it's really flexible! ^^  haha, I'm basically advertising and trying to persuade you to make sukiyaki-- I like it that much~ :)

So many veggies-- I'm so happy :D

And tofu!  Whether simply boiled, steamed, pan-fried, or anything, tofu is so delish!~ I actually ate a few bites straight from the box!  Omgah, I can just hear my parents gasping and worrying about how I might fall over and die any moment from parasites D:  Understandable concern, but I was so hungry!!~   

Leftover sukiyaki for lunch, yummeh!

I think it goes best with a bowl of rice :)  Also... is the picture quality better than usual?!!  No lighting corrections, oh mah gawsh!  *excited*

... Meanwhile on the farm... ._.''  

As usual, I eat cereal for breakfast every single day (and never tire of it)!  Actually, it's more like... *wake up* and AHH SO HUNGRY!!  *scurry to the kitchen and pour some cereal*  Mmmm, instant satisfaction~  ^^

I know my lighting needs a bit of work here, but I can't get over how DELICIOUS cereal is and how the milk looks so creamy here :3  I drink 2%, so I bet whole milk would have looked even more luscious!~

Do you like my cereal bowl?  Monkeyyyy :)

Close up for Kellogg's Crunchy Nut (Honey Nut flavor) cereal!

Now I have the urge to just take pictures of every single cereal variety I eat, but I will graciously save you from that XD  And I only have four boxes of cereal in my closet now (down from 13, whoo!), and I *will* finish all of them before I go out and buy more.  Blah, such a bad habit: when I walk down the cereal aisle at the grocery store, my hands are just itching to fly out and grab the nearest box to take home =_=''  Haha~

Enough food for now?  I hope so!  But no worries, there's always more coming your way, I promise ;)  

... I really should start blogging about life in general, but it's so harddddd~