Feed me!

Did you miss me? :)

NOOO??

Well, I understand.  It's summer; you are excused from missing me for a while.  Hehe, just kidding~

Anyways, these will be the last few posts (I have 2 or 3 more after this one!) of the DashiPanda blog.  I will be making a new blog for the next part of my life!  It'll be more condensed, less rambling, and less food-pictures-in-your-face-all-the-time.  ^^''  Hopefully it'll save a lot of time too!  I have this bad habit of taking pictures of EVERYTHING and then wanting to put EVERYTHING on the blog.  In the next blog, I'll be forced to pick and choose my spam er, pictures wisely.

But today's topic?!  FOOD  HAHAHA.  But only because this happy blog of memories is coming to a close.  So gotta have some yummy stuff, right?

Once upon a time...

THERE WAS A PLATE OF PASTA.

I ATE IT.

THE END.

._.?

Haha XD  Okay there's more to it!

Daniel made panfried salmon with pasta!  It was muy delicioso~

That plate of pasta caused me so much pain though!  The pasta has these peppers or jalapenos in them, and I (being silly and forgetful) decided that it would be a FANTASTIC idea to take the seeds out with my bare hands.  Spoons?  Forks?  Utensils to save me from touching the capsaicin-infused little seeds of fire?  Nahhhh, who need those?~

My fingers started tingling and then burning up.  But I have a pretty high tolerance for pain (or I'd like to think so and then actually cry when I get a paper cut or something.  XD  Just kidding!), so I decided to just sit down to dinner with Daniel and eat.  And then half an hour later, I was crumpled on his bed attempting not to think about how badly my hands hurt.  The numbness didn't even block out enough pain either!  Haha, silly me...  I remember asking Daniel for a favor, and when he asked me what?  I asked him if he could Google how to get rid of the burning sensation.  He was so kind and obliged, then came and took me to the kitchen (princess-style carry, yayyyyy!  I'm not spoiled; I'm in PAINNNN, haha) where we tried various remedies from the Internet.  Ice water and limes!  It felt good to have ice water on my fingers, but after the cool faded, I was ready to be miserable again.

So the fantastic dinner he made ended with me going back to my apartment after I made a mess on his kitchen countertop with juiced limes and stuff.  I raided the fridge for ice cubes, dumped them in a Ziploc bag, and tried to sleep with my hands inside the Ziploc bags.  Probably not the best idea, because I woke up multiple times from the burning sensation still, and the bag leaked and got my entire bed wet.  Which felt like I wet the bed or something.  Which wasn't very awesome :P  It was so hard to sleep with my hands on fire too!  Well, now I will never cook with chiles ever again, or force someone else to peel them for me while I scream at them to wear heavy-duty rubber gloves! 

That's the end of that story.  And so begins another!

One of the TSO alumni was passing through St. Louis and we went to have dinner with him at the Pastaria!  We caught up with him, and he's still our TSO granddaddy-- silly and so, so nice!

TSO knows how to eat, yeahhhhh :)

Granddaddy Brian!  He was a senior when we were freshman.

And now we were seniors!  Hi Ian~~ Ian was actually co-president with Debra!

This is Pastaria's take on ramen (Italian-style).  Looks pretty ^^  Brian said he could probably make it, haha~

Belinda and Michael-- they are now rising seniors, wow!

And of course, Debra ^____^

Here's my order of Cacio e Pepe (like mac 'n cheese).  Simple, peppery, and yummy :D

Debra and I nabbed a picture with Ironman!

Just kidding-- it's Brian!

I remember when Debra and I were freshmen, we went to Target (where I pushed Debra in a shopping cart, haha!) and bought Brian that Iron Man mask.  So coooooool, and we're so happy he kept it :)  It was nice seeing him visit; he didn't think he would when he graduated, but turned out that he did.  I think the chances of me visiting STL are pretty slim, but if Brian ended up doing it, perhaps I will one day end up back there :o

~*~

Another day I met up with Dai for lunch on the Loop after class, and we bumped into David, Jehyun, and Jae, so we all went to Chubbies :D

They sell burgers and wings~

Look at those kiddos.  So cool looking :P

Cheese fries-- literally, fries with cheese.  Hahaha~  Dai added the pepper!

Double burger-- looks good!

Nom nom?

Hehe, I like happy candid smiles :3

Ah!  So Chubbies sells frozen custard (which I LOVE), but there's wasn't comparable to Mr. Wizards or Ted Drewes.  Good to have some sugar though :P

~*~

Learning to make mashed potatoes.  It's Sue!!

Wanna know a secret?  I had my first girl crush in college.  And it was Sue!  And I pretty much fell head over heels XD  I won't go into the specifics, because it's wayyyy to embarrassing, but in the beginning, I was like a nervous little boy or something and just wanted to run the other way when I saw her!  But Daniel, Sue, and I hung out and had our learn-how-to-cook-by-pretending-to-help-Daniel-make-dinner cooking lessons the past semester, and she's so friendly and uber funny.  Pretty sure I choked on a few things laughing with her :)  She's one of my inspirations now too-- going for what she loves to do!  Thanks, Sue ^^

*mash mash mash*  Mashed po-tah-toes!  With bacon, green onion, and all the good stuff~

AND MEAT.  Oh my gosh, so much meat @_@  Steak night!

With executive chef, Daniel!  It was his first time making steak this semester, and he nailed it!

Bam!  Dinner.  The steak looks like the United States of Ameria, yeah? :P

Fwee!  So happy :)

Another picture of the steak, because it was just so good.  ^^b

Ah, and I gave them one of the egg cakes I made.  It's a cake in the shape of an egg!

Made these for Michael's birthday.

He sent me a video of how to make these a month or so before his birthday, and I wanted to try something new.  My first egg cakes, and they were semi-successful?  Kind of dry *smacks mouth*  hahaha~  But to make up for it, I also made coffee cake (because that's one of his favorite cakes)!  It kind of failed, because it didn't rise (nooooo), so I tried saving it by cutting it in half and sandwiching the two layers with chocolate frosting.  It worked!

They became coffee cake bites.  Glad people liked them ^___^

Daniel squeezing limes.

Oh, limes.  That means = BURNING HANDS  AHHH THE MEMORIESSSSS D:  Haha~  I remember that this day was one of the many, many, many days I was being a cranky little kid.  I was pouting, I was quiet, and I was giving a face that probably made everyone run away =o=''  And this picture also reminds me that no matter how many times I think I'm more like a guy than a girl, I am still a girl.  Because I remember we were trying to decide what to eat, and I gave a few options and Daniel said he didn't care.  Then he suggested Tortallaria, so according to my usually faulty girl-emotion-skills, that means he *did* care (which he probably really didn't, haha).  Being a dude, I would just go ahead and pick something from my options since he didn't care and not read into it, but I said we could go to Tortallaria.  And my pout became bigger.  I think my thought process was something like, "Wait, so I'm in a bad mood, but I'm still catering to please him?"  And I marched into the restaurant and ordered some soup because I didn't want to eat Mexican food.  HAHA, oh my.  Good learning experience.  A good point about guys is that they'll just speak their mind.  That's what I'll do next time.  

Be like, "Man.  I'm in a bad mood.  Please me." 

XD  Not quite.  But more like, "May we go to this place instead?  I'm not in the mood for Mexican food tonight."  EASY AS THAT.  If the other person doesn't want to go, then they'll say so.  Unlike people like me who have trouble with reading people ._.''

And the whole time, even if I was being a total buttmuncher, Daniel was patient and nice with me even at the risk of me flipping over the table and biting his head off. :P  Thanks, Daniel!

~*~

Some time near the end of the semester, I saw this ad in our mail:

Oh man.

That can only mean one thing.

I'M EATING PIZZA TONIGHHHHT.

Haha, do you see it?  CRAZY.  CHEESY CRUST.  PIZZA.?!  Yeah, well I sent the picture to Sue, and we both were text-squealing that we had to have this.  I hadn't had takeout pizza in several years.  (I eat frozen pizza if I ever eat pizza-- Digiorno's!)  So Daniel got in on the heist, and the three of us wagged our tails while we waited by the door for the arrival of the pizza delivery guy ;)

Tadaa!  Looks a little different, but each slice is like a heart!  CUTEEE.

And so oily.  haha :P

Nom? :D

Nibble nibble nibble~  ^^

Pizza was delish~  But what bread slathered with artery-clogging cheese and blood pressure raising processed meats doesn't?  I think I still like Papa John's better, and both Daniel and Sue recommended Domino's cheeseburger pizza.  Guess what I'll be eating at medical school when I'm too busy to cook? ;)

Oh, oh!  Daniel also made tiramisu ^_^  He made it in a Tupperware and then scooped out some into plates, so the prettiness got messed up, but it was still delicious!  It was the first time I bought mascarpone cheese, which just tastes like thick heavy cream, really.  This treat was super easy to make, so I'll definitely make this as a quick dessert for guests in my apartment in the future too :)  Thank you for teaching me!

May not be the prettiest (I still think it looks good!), but it was mad yum!

~*~

Okay!  That's the last food post for this blog!  So sad :'(  but again, there will be a new blog, so no worries!  I'm still deciding whether or not to keep the Dashipanda.com domain name.  I think it will be just be the Blogger address: dashipanda.blogspot.com, and I will get a new domain name for my next website.  I'll keep you guys updated so you can come and follow me around on my journey, yeah? :)  And since this is the last food post, I want to make it a wee bit special-er and present you with random bits of non-informative information!!

Firstly, not sure if you guys know this, but I like to Yelp.  If you don't know what that is (WHAT?!), go Google it.  Basically a site of reviews, mostly restaurants.  And there are people called "Yelp Elites," which is like the higher status people of the sites.  They get this by recommendations and approvals of Yelp officers, yada yada blah blah cool.  But anyways, I was instigated as a Yelp elite (along with 23892938 other people) back in St. Louis, and we get invited to usually free events hosted by Yelp where all the elites gather, mingle, nom, and talk.  Just a fun social event!  Well, I've been getting invites, and you know me...  not going~  My excuse is that I didn't have a car in STL, and STL isn't really the safest place to be running out and about in the evenings anyways!  So in Dallas, I plan to go to some Yelp events! :D  COOL STORY RIGHT?!

Next, is that Yelp has "Reviews of the Day," where someone's review gets presented on the main page of Yelp (one for each main city).  And today I was on Houston Yelp's main page!  O_O  Totally surprised, but suddenly my inbox was sprinkled with friend requests and compliments on my review of the day, which confuzzled me.  Then I looked up my review and found that people actually find it helpful.  I'm so happy!  Cool if it's review of the day, but what makes it awesome is that people are actually finding it informative ^__^  That's the best.  I used Yelp for a while before I even signed up as a member just to read people's reviews.  Some reviews would be really fun to read and help me decide on whether I wanted to go to the business and try it, and now people were doing the same with my reviews.  I don't know what this is called, but it's like giving, but feeling like you're getting much more back?  Dunno~  Just thought I'd share my giddy happiness. :)  Also, I met one of the waiters at the restaurant featured in that review.  He was funny, and I remember him making me laugh when I was struggling to handle some spare ribs with my chopsticks (so embarrassing; they kept running away from meeee).  Hope this brings some more patrons to his place :D