Duh oh

Coming from a humble city in Texas (HOUSTON!! ;D), I am quite familiar with Mexican food.  Or rather, Tex-Mex! ^_^  Although Taco Bell is always one of my favorites (Crunchwrap Supreme or Chalupa, anyone?), one of my favorite indulgent dishes is a plate of steaming, ooey gooey cheese enchiladas.  Mmm-mmmm!  :3   When I'm not in Texas, I try staying away from Mexican food, because I know I'll only be disappointed.  But after realizing Everest Cafe was closed, we walked across the street to the Atomic Cowboy for some south-of-the-border cuisine for dinner~

Lots of people!

Anna and Sean came here before, so this place was good enough for them to want to come back :P  We got nachos smothered and cheeses, salsa, and sour cream, which were really good.  I aimed for the chips on the bottom-- soggy chips... mmmmm~  ;)

My first experiences (and almost all of them) with nachos were the salty tortilla rounds swimming in liquidy processed cheddar cheese sauce at swimming meets.  Although simple and extremely unhealthy, they were sooo gooood.  I remember I would split them with my friend, and she would eat the crunchy ones while I scavenged the chips that fell into the sauce and drowned.  Delish!

Yum!

For our meals:  a burger, steak and chicken gorditas, tilapia vera cruz, and a chimichanga.  I've seen chimichangas on the menus in Texas before, but the idea of a deep-fried burrito escapes my idea of deliciousness.  (I like *soft* tortillas, not ones that are fried and crispy!)  Book's chimichanga looked very cute, and he said it was really good and filling.  And he also told me he's never had an enchilada before.

WHAT?!  D:  Omg, missing so much!  Must change that somehow, and soon!  Haha~  Who doesn't love an enchilada?  I found out last year that I like the cheese types the best, although most people like them with some meat like chicken or beef ^^b

Atomic Burger

When I saw Josh's burger with the knife sticking straight in the air, I was extremely tempted to pull the knife out and place it on the plate.  AHH!  Mannerisms!  And the kitchen gods would not be pleased, haha~

Chimichanga with sauteed veggies and Mexican rice

Steak Gordita

Both Daniel and I ordered the steak gordita, which is really similar to a Greek gyro (different meats, and a Mexican flatbread in place of the pita).  I don't know if the bread was supposed to be softer like the pita or not, but it was grilled, so there was a stiffer, toasted texture.  Overall, the sandwich was good, but nothing that screamed "Mexican food."  Of course, I'm biased ;)  The veggies on the side were very flavorful and yummy :D

If you've never had Tex-Mex, the Atomic Cowboy's a good place to start.  Anna's tilapia Veracruz looked really healthy-- a fish filet hidden away in a tomato-based Veracruz sauce.  It was $12 and didn't look very filling though :/  Atomic Cowboy also sells other less-Mexican foods like chili and various sandwiches, so even if you are less adventurous, this place will likely have something nice and tasty to offer :3

Atomic Cowboy

4140 Manchester Avenue

St. Louis, MO 63110

~*~

Since it was the weekend, I continued my lovely summer schedule ^____^:  a morning run, a cold shower, and playing around in the kitchen (attempting not to lose a finger or cause the oven catch on fire).  I made a vanilla-chocolate cake loaf, but I didn't add that much sugar in the chocolate batter, so it was *super* dark chocolate-y.  I'll probably just make a vanilla loaf if I ever make it again, because it was sweeter and milder :)  The texture is like the bread slices they sell at school!

Looks like charcoal!

Also, my dad makes a mean Ants Climbing a Tree dish!  Don't know what that is?  It's a Sichuan dish with thin noodles with ground meat on top.  The noodles are the tree, and the ground meat pieces make up the ants.  Cute, right?  ^__^ Anyways, the flavor is savory, salty, and spicy.  YUMMEH.

I tried making it for dinner on day, and it was deliciously similar to my daddy's *heart*!  But the noodles weren't soft enough for me.  I wonder if it's because I didn't soak it long enough or if I got the wrong kind?  @_@''

Dinner :)  Lots of veggies and soft, wet rice!

My dad said my ants were too fat, gotta stir them into smaller pieces, haha!

Also, I've been on a cooking adventure with Jeff!  :D  We alternate picking recipes each week to make, take pictures of our finished product and compare.  It forces us to cook and I like the idea of trying to make dishes I've never made before!  This week, Jeff picked japchae, a Korean noodle dish with lots of vegetables.  It's actually one of my favorite Korean foods!  (*everything* in Korean cuisine is my favorite food, haha :P)

It took me two hours to make (mostly cutting the veggies and cooking them separately), but it was a lot of fun to do on a Sunday afternoon.  Too bad I don't have this much time during school :(  I didn't have enough noodles, but I'm glad I only used half of what the recipe called for; there was so many vegetables in each bite!  Nom nom nom!~  I used carrots, spinach, button mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, onions, spring onions, and garlic.  Is garlic a vegetable? :o  Ooh, also, I didn't have beef, so I substituted with some chicken I had in the freezer.  It was from Book's sriracha chicken a week ago, and its spicy taste became utterly exquisite stirfried with soysauce and sugar.

Japchae!

I call it "my-style" noodles, because apparently I used the wrong type of noodle ._.''  Japchae noodles are supposed to be super soft like dong fen 凍粉, but mine were not as squishy.  Again, maybe I didn't soak them long enough or wrong type.  Or maybe I should just buy a different brand... yeah, I'll do that next time ^^b!

So many veggies, so happy :D

I wonder which dish I should pick for next week... ragu with parpadelle?  Hirashi rice?  Hmm...

~*~

And now to the subject of the title:

Me and Maplestory = Perfection?!  Duh oh.  Duh oh, indeed.

Yeah, I used to play Maple Story in high school.  Actually, that's how our big group of friend became born.  Haha~  So nerdy, but so true ^^v  Nexon (the creators of the game) decided to send me an email after a 7 year hiatus with my character in it.  And one of the main reasons I continued to play was to wear that white seraphis (the white hat thingie).  So when I saw my character in her seraphis (the little person in white on the left), my knees went wobbly (although I was sitting in a chair eating Kellogg's Chocolate Frosted Mini Wheats with Quaker Cinnamon Life cereal) and the next thing I know that popped up on my screen was...

Hur hur hurr... guess who's going to be killing Lupins, Mushies, and Zombies soon?~~

Maybe I'll finally become reach the Priest job this summer!  It's 4 more levels, but I have a month or so, right? ;)