Monday, December 21, 2009

[recipe] Enoki mushroom sauteed

Just made this:

- Enoki mushrooms, sauteed with
- Salted butter
- Togarashi
- Hawaiian coarse salt

Friday, November 20, 2009

[trip] Cabo San Lucas

Thursday 11.12
- All nighter before the trip
- Smith's blue popsicle
- VIP lounge!
- Cocktail of the day: Sea of Love
- "Either I'm drunk or this is damn good rib eye"
- "Room service? Yes please bring me a dozen coronas"

Friday 11.13
- Eggs, bacon, sausage, more eggs
- Dirty Banana
- Endless mahi mahi cerviche
- "Another three orders or sashimi flowers please"
- Behold the amazing power of the portable DVD player

Saturday 11.14
- What's Day Glo?
- Fruity Graham = Honeydew, Mint, Rum, Ice, Blended
- Having the nice italian restaurant all to ourselves
- International Dance night: If we go up there we have to do a shot every 10 minutes
- Saw IIIII

Sunday 11.15
- Pirates Night!
- "Honey I just lost my dinner"
- "Halo Seniorita. Please do not leave candles lit in your room. It is a fire hazard"
- "I guess this is yes?" "I guess so!"

Monday 11.16
- "May I offer you moral compensation?"

Monday, October 26, 2009

[trip] New York City

Thursday 10/22
- Argh! Last and only name on the upgrade list!

Friday 10/23
- All day conference calls ...
- Chocolate and Wine bar
- Ippudo
- 3 hours wait? There's better be unicorn coming out of these ramen bowls
- Crazy amazing pork buns
- Sizzling rice
- Happy birthday Waney
- Momofuku Milk bar. Cornflake marshmallow chocolate chip cookies (And pierre thought I was crazy for trying to bake with cornflake)
- "Wait I thought you know you said you know how to play big2"

Saturday 10/24
- Chelsea Market
- Lobster rolls and string quartet
- Highline
- Hogs and Heifers
- "If you want to disappear into the couch, remember to wear this shirt"
- Mandoo Bar. Mini boiled mandoos definitely the way to go
- Mad for Chicken genius cheese ramen
- Hun, do you have my camera?
- Hun, focus! walk!

Sunday 10/26
- Who's not so chirpy today ...
- Argh! Last and only name on the upgrade list! Again!
- Business class ice cream sundae and chocolate chip cookie

Sunday, October 11, 2009

[util] Install Foxit Reader Plugin for Google Chrome Browser

Adobe Reader must have paid a great deal of money to be so in bed with Google Chrome. Fixed that today by manually installing the Foxit Reader plugin into Chrome, so that you can read PDF files inside Chrome tab using Foxit.

1. Chrome Plugins folder -- Go to where your Chrome is installed (you can right click on the chrome shortcut to find out), but typically it's C:\Documents and Settings\[USER]\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\ -- Make sure you have a subdirectory called "Plugins". If that's not there, create it.

2. Foxit Reader Plugin --- Make sure you have Foxit Reader 3.1 or higher installed, and also the Plugin installed -- Do this by going to "Help" ... "Check for Updates Now". If you see "Reader" or "Service Module .. Plugin" -- Select those to update.

3. Copy npFoxitReaderPlugin.dll "C:\Program Files\Foxit Software\Foxit Reader\plugins\" to "C:\Documents and Settings\[USER]\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\Plugins"

4. From the command prompt, run
regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Foxit Software\Foxit Reader\plugins\FoxitReaderOCX.ocx"
with admin rights.

5. Re-start Chrome and try to read an online PDF file

6. Uninstall Adobe Reader, and reclaim 200MB+. Your computer will thank you.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

[util] Tab Switching Keyboard Shortcuts

The Acer Netbook doesn't have trackpoint, so these are my new favorite keyword shortcuts to switch between worksheets and tabs:

Excel -- Ctrl+PageDown / Ctrl+PageUp

Web Browser (Internet Explorer / FireFox / Chrome / Opera) -- Ctrl+PageDown / Ctrl+PageUp OR Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab


Saturday, September 05, 2009

[code] User Agent / Browser Simulator in Ruby

Totally forgot that I wrote this early last year -- Test / simulate header response, redirect, and other behavior with user agent for various browsers, crawlers, and robots.

require 'httpclient'
require 'uri'
require 'net/smtp'

# Pick your user agent
targetUserAgent = 'Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows+NT 5.1)'
#targetUserAgent = 'Googlebot/2.1+(+http://www.googlebot.com/bot.html)'
#targetUserAgent = 'Mozilla/5.0+(compatible;+Yahoo!+Slurp;+http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp)'
#targetUserAgent = 'msnbot/1.0+(+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)'

# Pick your URL
targetURL = 'http://sevenwires.blogspot.com/'

begin
  client = HTTPClient.new(nil, targetUserAgent, "")
  response = client.head(URI.parse(targetURL))
  
  # Print the entire header message
  print "\n===== HEADER =====\n"
  print response.dump 
  
  # Print some summary
  print "===== SUMMARY =====\n"
  print "URL = #{targetURL}\n"
  print "UserAgent = #{targetUserAgent}\n"
  print "Response Code = #{response.header.response_status_code} \n"

rescue 
  print "Failed to connect to the page\n"

end

Sunday, August 30, 2009

[outing] Bottega Louie and Seven Grand

Where: Bottega Louie and Seven Grand
When: Friday 2009 Sep 28th
Who: Ray, Linda, Lisa, David, Nancy, Leonard, Fannie, us

- Level One vodka over a singular big rock. Alton Brown would be pleased.
- Can you please bring the chairs ...
- You waited for an hour and a half? two free pizzas on the house
- Everyone ate the pizza margherita. All pizza bianco for me.
- Burrata. 'nuff said
- Didn't know pork chop can taste this good
- Portabella mushroom fries!
- "Just one nightcap"
- The wall of Makers Mark

Saturday, August 22, 2009

[web] Twitter

Google Alert now finding references to the "type upside down" page in twitter, like this one: http://twitter.com/gcorneil/status/2663333003

Google appears to be crawling the RSS feed (http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/10869332.rss), since URL of individual status does not appear on a user's homepage.

Twitter is a growing SEO factor

Monday, July 13, 2009

[code] How to encode URL in Excel

1. (from your worksheet) Tools ... Macros ... Visual Basic Editor
2. (from VB Editor) Insert ... Module
3. (in module window) Paste in the URLEncode function below and save
4. Close VB Editor to return to worksheet, and use URLEncode like any other formulas. For example =URLEncode(B1)


Function URLEncode(ByVal Text As String) As String
Dim i As Integer
Dim acode As Integer
Dim char As String
URLEncode = Text
For i = Len(URLEncode) To 1 Step -1
acode = Asc(Mid$(URLEncode, i, 1))
Select Case acode
Case 48 To 57, 65 To 90, 97 To 122
' don't touch alphanumeric chars
Case 32
' replace space with "+"
Mid$(URLEncode, i, 1) = "+"
Case Else
' replace punctuation chars with "%hex"
URLEncode = Left$(URLEncode, i-1) & "%" & Hex$(acode) & Mid$(URLEncode, i+1)
End Select
Next
End Function

From http://www.devx.com/vb2themax/Tip/19160

Sunday, July 12, 2009

[outing] July 4th Newport Beach

- Fuzz Fest!
- We are going to the war zone? Don't you mean the fun zone?
- Uh, where's the hand brake?
- 34th street. Bob. Cops. Mooning.
- Drunkun Man in Bunny Suit
- The girl who grabbed the jager
- "All for one. One for all"
- "When we get back, you don't know me"
- Razor ride to Jared and Christa's

Sunday, July 05, 2009

[web] Tweetmeme

Google Alert dragged this new SEO reference today: http://tweetmeme.com/domain/www.sevenwires.com

Sunday, June 21, 2009

[trip] New York City

Who: Jessica, Dave, Janet, Patrick, Steve, Mike, Nick, Johnny, Ivan, Us

Thursday:
- "Hun, can you please call the front desk tell them [fill in blank]"
- Sushi Twist: What's his name? Ivan [i-ven]! Another order of white tuna sashimi kudasai!
- Bar Fly: Fisher getting those 3's and tanking Dave's chances. Mind Eraser. Patron. Jack.
--------
Friday:
- 24 oz of Bud Light Lime after an entire day of conference calls
- Socarrat: Paella. Chorizo. Mini sunny-side up quail eggs.
- Billy's: Cream cheese frosting
- Slainte: NY Mets losing the game when outfielder goofed catching A Rod's high fly ball
- De Santos: Making our own VIP lounge in the basement
- Pegu Club: Cheapest tequila shot is $14, and I don't recognize any bottles on the shelf
- "If you do 25 chin ups I'll buy you pizzas"
- Joe's Pizza: "can't charge you for this slice. it's too small"
- "You are getting up at what time to go surfing?"
--------
Saturday:
- Shake Shack: Er, where's our chocolate shake? Oh just take this one.
- Big Apple BBQ Festival: The Pit, Salt Lick, Free Snapple
- Fun with Old Navy mannequins
- Pierre enjoying Pay Less
- Karaoke One 7: $5 for large bottles of sake? O.M.G. Partying with Nick (The TSA Bomb Specialist) and his peeps.
- Shake Shack, again. Apparently we bought burgers.
- Champaign and chocolates
- Star Lounge Chelsea
- Enjoying watching traffic jam on 7th and 34th at 1am.
--------
Sunday:
- "Where's my shirt? my phone? my wallet? my camera?"
- "I am try to telling you that the lock is messed up and I can't get out of our room"
- Caracas Arepa Bar: Faves: Fried green plantains topped with Mojito Mayo and lemon and white cheese. Pulled pork arepa with spicy mango and tomato sauce.
- Porchetta: Yes, our trip ended up with yet a final pork dish

Sunday, May 31, 2009

[trip] Napa

Who: Christine, Tamera, Justin, Pierre, Me

Friday
- Dinner with Danny, Charlotte, Harry and Gavin
- Marriott Courtyard at Oyster Pointe. Midnight beer.
-------
Saturday
- 1801 First: Suite 3 Bella Fresia. Gorgeous gas fireplace and tub.
- OMG these chocolate chip cookies are crack cocainne
- Delicious port in the sitting room
- The warm pool at Exertec
- Hendry's: Tasting at the wine lab. Each of the wine barrel probably was ... $20k?
- Oxbow Market and oysters at Hog Island
- The Elements: Foi Gras, Burrata Cheese, Seared Scallop with Egglant salsa, two really large steaks
- "This wine is corked"
- "Do-do-do-do-do-do this water is hot!.... zzzzzzzzzzz"
-------
Sunday
- Damn those mini chocolate croissants
- Waking up at 6am to the beautiful smell of the kitchen
- Charming Sonoma square
- Lunch at ?
- Shot of espresso over soft-served ice cream ad ED Kithen
- "Half-shot!"
- Afternoon hor deurves, cheese, and wine
- Dinner at Tamera's - Amazing Pallella with chorizo, chicken, shrimp, and clams
- And let's not forget the manchego cheese with quince
- Pierre's magical power to keep the rubber duck lit with his forehead
- Poker - The Musical!
-------
Monday
- Melt-in-your-mouth blueberry scones
- Delicious Strata with ham, egg, and cheese
- Whestones: Jamey and Michelle host the perfect tasting picnic
- Charbay: "Port is fortified with brandy and is twice as strong as regular wine? No wonder!"
- Bounty Hunter: Really? we are going to have dinner after all these bbq ribs?
- Long walk around Napa downtown
- Bottega: Michael Chirello? Chimichango? Chilerelleno? Do another impression of him!
- Wow, star-lined limo
- Yes, really, Bilco's Billiard was closed at 11pm
-------
Tuesday
- Crepes with banana compote
- Artesa: Absolutely gorgeous view of Napa rolling hills
- So relieves to see that the four bottles of wines stayed intact!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

[outing] A Sunday Afternoon Brunch

Sunday May 18th

- Marie's spicy and sticky baby back ribs
- Pierre's slow-braised beef ribs
- Mike and Shelbey's apple cake and raisins and walnut
- John and Jamie's hummus and mozzarella
- Top Valu carnita tacos
- Ray and Linda's strawberry and raspberry pies
- Pork and shrimp shu mai
- Savory crepe with pastrami and asparagus
- Sweet crepe with banana and nutella
- Pierre's sangria
- Alan and Maureen's Hornitos, Coronas, and Pyramids
- Josh and April's spinach salad with craberry, candied walnuts, and feta
- Josh and April's blueberry scones and zucchini bread

Sunday, April 26, 2009

[outing] Hipcooks Dim Sum

2009.04 - ScallionPancakeBalsamicShitake
- Holy trinity: garlic, ginger, peppers
- "Wow, you can blend chicken?"
- Steamed shrimp wontons
- Steamed lettuce wrapped chicken
- Scallion crepe with balsamic shitake
- Rice paper wrapped seared beef with snow peas, spinach, and hoisin
- Spicy cashews with thai long green beans
- Cha-Siu pork puff pastry (and meat balls)
- Seared scallop with green beans on yakisoba
- Fried dates and walnut wontons with powdered sugar
- Instructor: Allison

[recipe] Ham, Red Bell Pepper, Enoki, Basil

2009.04 - RedBellPepperEnokiBasilCubedHam
- Saute red bell pepper, then enoki mushrooms, salt, pepper
- In a separate pan, brown cubed ham, then mix in basil
- Mix everything together

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

[outing] An Easter Sunday Brunch



- Marie's Artichoke and Cheese Empanadas
- Ray's Spicy Juicy Lucy
- April's Banana Bread
- Pierre's Chinese Sausage and Shitake Mushroom Frittata (Flip! Flip! Flip!)
- My Spicy Italian Sausage with Carrots and Onion on Puff Pastry Squares
- My Duncan Hines carrot cake
- Roberto and Jameson
- Rita and Todd's Tulip
- Jose therapy for Marie

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

[recipe] Really Quick Polenta / Grits


[ Ingredients ]
- Quick Grits - Color is white instead of the polenta yellow, but saves a ton of time and tastes the same.
- Liquid - Half chicken stock and half skim milk works well.
- Mix - Like omelette can mix in anything. Sausage, bacon, corn, peas

[ Notes ]
- 1/2 cup of dry grits makes healthy side-portion for three adults
- Flexible, easy, and quick to make in small or large quantity

[ Direction ]
- Liquid to Grits ratio: 4 to 1
- Bring liquid to boil
- Salt liquid appropriately depending on how much salt is already in liquid
- Lower to simmer, then slowly stir in quick grit
- Stir for 5 minutes until grit absorbs the liquid
- Add more liquid / cream as needed to get to desired consistency.

Monday, March 30, 2009

[outing] A Sunday Dinner

Who: Shelbey, Pierre, me

What started out as a light sensible home-cooked meal ended up not so light after two courses of desserts ...

- Pork Sung wrapped in phyllo dough (4 layers)
- Baked salmon fillet dressed with lemon (12 min @ 375F)
- Veggies dressed with balsamic vinegar (30 min @ 375F)
- Strawberries and honey wrapped in puff pastry, dusted with powered sugar
- Betty Crocker chocolate oatmeal cookies (chewy batch and crunchy batch)
- Bottle of wine

Sunday, March 29, 2009

[outing] Jamie and John's Wedding

- Bel Air Presbyterian Church
- West at Hotel Angeleno

- Can I shazam this song ...?
- Jamie: "I'm ready to eat and party!"
- Hmm your plate seems to be missing potatoes?
- 48 figs and chestnuts. John and Jamie will be real busy.
- I'll just have more cake later to make up for the carb
- OMG, no one at the table behind us has gotten their food yet
- Did you say there's $200 worth of tab already paid for that we have to spend, in the next 15 min?
- 3 shots of Johnny Walker Blue @ $35 each for Ray and Pierre
- Johnny's Pastrami at 2am
- "Don't let me order a chili dog with the pastrami sandwich next time!"

Monday, March 09, 2009

[outing] Pierre and Tuki Birthday Weekend

- Ocean Avenue Seafood
- - Wine. Oysters. Crab cake. Fish tacos. Tri-tips. Damn good bread.
- iPhone!
- Goat cheese tart with strawberry Coulis
- Shopping with Jose in the shopping cart
- 1:15am showing of Watchmen on IMAX
- Tuki's Birthday Party
- - Cake for the dogs
- - Cake for the humans, with dog photos
- Orange County Mining Co
- - More damn good bread - 3 cheeses whipped with beer and butter?

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

[outing] Racing School

When: Sunday March 1st
Where: Auto Club Speedway

- speed racer the night before, complete coincidence
- surprisy surprisy!
- you are about to wear this car
- follow the gates
- what? wave left and lift? what?
- number 20! number 20! number 20!
- "my kids are making some hard choices ... motorcycle racing or F1 ..."
- side-by-side ride-a-long with-a-pro going-at-150mph+ is-just-amazing
- omg everything is so cheap at winco foods. and the bananas, giant.
- speed racer the night after, since i fell asleep the first time
- http://drivetech.com

Monday, February 23, 2009

[outing] Christine's Vertical Wine Party

Where: Christine's and George's

- "i think christine invited us to some party at her place tomorrow night ..."
- 93, 91, 89, 86, 81 ...
- omg i just broke a glass
- omg i just broke another glass
- dates stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped in bacon
- sautted mushrooms bruschetta
- skirtsteak with chimichanga sauce
- quail egg dropped in prosciutto next served on garlic rubbed bread
- chorizo sauteed with greens
- rubbing butter into puff pastry dough -- and turned out good!
- $2 pudding jam cake
- "is it a woman? is she a movie star? ... errr ..."
- "comedic relief", "whoopie goldberg!", "yes!", "oh wait, that's not who you have ..."

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

[recipe] Mushroom Ragout

- Sautee chopped mushrooms in butter and thyme
- Once mushrooms softens, add in finely chopped shallot
- Add in some red wine or chicken stock
- Add in balsamic vinegar (the critical secret flavor ingredient)
- Right before done, mix in finely chopped or grated parmasen
- Sprinkle with chopped parsely. Serve with anything -- though especially good with appetizer sized puff pastry squares

[outing] Valentines / President's Day Weekend

- Foxtails for Robert's b-day
- "got 4 bottles of vodka. where are you?"
- "did you ask me if he was abusive?"
- the waiter who snatches your drink away if you put it down
- Zee devours IHOP Colorado omelette
- We try to make Zee eat the butter
-----------
- one hour swim in my own lane
- "i thought you are 16!"
- hungarian grandpa and newspaper man in spa
- (check out washington/normandy sometime)
- crazy lines at santa monica seafood
- 1. ahi poke
- 2. baked chilean sea bass
- 3. mushroom ragout on puff pastry
- 4. mini chocolate eclairs
- 5. the prisoner red wine
------------
- "do you know what tetris mean?" "uh ..."
- 1. seared beef tenderoin
- 2. pan fried polenta cake
- 3. mushroom ragout
- 4. lava chocolate cake
- argh! @#$^%&*~ up button!
- 4am. 148000 points!
------------
- 40 lines in 4 minutes!
- how the heck does this "go low" mode work?
- jake celery. 3 min. real ice bath. real crunch.
- "uh how do you prepare lobster tail?"

Sunday, February 08, 2009

[outing] Creperie by Jack n Jill's + Father's Office

Where: Creperie by Jack n Jill's
Who: Corinne, Andrew, Deb, Bill, us

- Nutella and Banana please. With lots of Banana
- ABT Omelette with Cheese Grit: egg whites, Applewood smoked bacon, tomato and avocado with jack and cheddar cheese
- Big box of chocolate covered macademia nuts from Corinne
- Spam singles and pillipino dessert from Andrew

-----------
Where: Father's Office, Culver City
Who: Charles, Me

- "You invented the GoPhone plan?"
- Burger (and no, they don't have ketchup)
- Shoestring fries
- Sweet potatoe fries
- Tasty Beer
- Fabulous setting!

Friday, February 06, 2009

[outing] Hipcooks

Where: Hipcooks
Who: Mike, Shelbey, Scott, Jessica, Us

- "The draw"
- No need to follow the recipe and no need to measure! Bwahahah
- Watch that index finger!
- Keep stirring that polenta scott (while we enjoy a sip of our cabernet)
- Waft! Waft!
- Oyster, shitake, crimini mushrooms sauteed with butter, thyme, shallots. Mixed with sour cream and a dash of vinegar. Served on puff pastry squares.
- Listening to the rain as the ancho chille simmers with onions and roasted red bell peppers
- Um, you have a chilli seed on your hair
- Seared top sirloin steak served with sauteed zuchini, red bell peppers and squash
- Polenta cake served with melted monterey jack cheese
- Goat cheese and cream cheese mix with egg yolk, vanilla bean paste, and lemon zest. Baked in a tart and served with berry sauce.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

[outing] Superbowl Sunday

What: Superbowl Sunday at Roberto's
Who: Robert, Monica, Brian, Rita, Todd, Chris, Dan, Sean, Michelle, Us

- Discovering a whole new section of the grocery store -- Canned chilli
- Balancing tastey fatty staag ones with lean turkey chili
- Hurry! We can't miss kick off!
- Fat free cream cheese doesn't taste so bad afterall
- Low card draw on time-outs -- Pierre is this year's Monica!
- The beer pong games that inevitably follow
- Pierre's famous teriyaki wings
- Monica's pizza pinwheels
- Already forgot who played and who won. Only remember 4th quarter being fun to watch.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

[trip] Singapore

When: 2009 Chinese New Year

- Sushi rolls in the JAL business class lounge
- Another glass of iced green tea please?
- Taking endless pictures of astoundingly beautiful japanese dishes
- Getting sold on noise-cancelling headphones
- 36 pieces of Scotch-brite, 8 packs of Lindor's, 6 JAL snacks, 3 bottles of Reversitall, 1 bottle of glucosamine, and 1 bottle of calcium
- 12 chinese piano songbooks and 12 pairs of socks
- ----------------
- Gorgeous pool at the Royal Plaza on Scotts and the even more gorgeous smell from the kitchen below
- Squeezing through the crowds at Mufstafa plaza
- Eating with our hands (and not really quite sure nhow) and being the only female, non-indian patrons in Little India
- "Whoa! A solar eclipse today"
- Yet another "3 for $10" shop!
- Enjoying the best fresh squeezed mango juice since years ago in Egypt
- The wonderful 8-step ceremony of Yu Sheng
- Uncle accidently breaking a wine glass
- The room thermostat always reading 30C
- Making my 9am PST conference call everyday
- ----------------
- Watching that really, really funny singing / lyrics game show with sis, starring 66 of 5566
- Dad drank an entire Dinasour by himself, at the country club cafe
- Trying to explain to the vendor that they should sell "dessert" Roti Prata with butter and sprinkled sugar
- Realizing that Boba Tea was actually copied from Teh Tarik
- Chanel No 5 for $10 at The Alchemist on Arab Street
- Could not stop eating those darn good "Kueh Bangkit"
- Dad accidently breaking a scotch glasss
- 15-min of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" in 3D
- Remembering just how funny Kung Fu Hustle is again
- Chicken curry in Singaporian, Malayisian, and Indian style
- ----------------
- "Wow how can you find all the cheap stuff that looks expensive?"
- Waiting for dad for 3 hours to deliberate on a pair of shoes
- Amazingly Hai-Nan Chicken Rice at Takashimaya basement
- Buying bargain handbags and getting free pearls with mom and sis
- Discovering "Durian Pancake"!
- ----------------
- Best Rohja and Asam noodles at the Singapore Island Country Club
- The grand-aunt who is 83 and has more energy and does more than most people half her age
- Enjoying Sourdop on shaved ice at Dessert Hut in China Town
- Witnessing speedy alteration by Doreen at Suits n U
- Are we having dinner at a hotel? This is uncle paul's house?
- Satay and shrimp chips surely contain crack cocaine
- An evening of fine Macallan
- Having a Singapore Sling and chocolate fondue at midnight with sis
- Seroiusly chocolate scented lotion at the DFS downstairs
- ----------------
- Playing "Jose Speaks Again" video for the 50th time and driving sis nuts
- It's not a food court at the Wisma -- It's a Food Republic
- Best Chen-dol and Coffee + Macha jelly on shaved ice
- Finally seeing what's behind those big LED screens
- Listening to the afternoon rainstorm in china town
- "I'll pass on the crab, but I'll take all the chili sauce!""
- The softest fried "Man To" to go with the chili crab
- Eating Durian at the "Guaranteed Good" Durian stand
- Driving through the red-light district lined with chinese hookers
- Getting locked inside the pool after way overstaying in the sauna past midnight
- ---------------
- Waking up the fam at 5:30am and piling into a Maxicab at 6am
- "There is a seed in Mangosteen? I've swallowed the last two ones whole!"
- "I don't feel so good. Maybe we shouldn't have eaten the Mangosteen on empty stomach?"
- 3 little sandwiches for mom
- Finally finding the Singapore Girl batik Sarong Kebaya outfit
- The machine that delivers the perfect pour of Asahi at Narita's JAL Sakura Lounge
- Seeing the big'ol Green Expedition pull up the curb and getting licked all over the face by Jose
- ---------------
- Dessert Hut: People' Park Center #02-48 / 6533 1137
- The Alchemist: Adny Alhaddad / Golden Landmark Shopping Complex #02-17 / 9456 9874
- Suits n U: Doreen / People's Park Centre #02-30 / 6532 3383

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

[recipe] Green beans + Sliced Almonds

- Melt a tiny bit of butter
- Toast 1/4 cup sliced almonds at medium heat for a few minutes. One cannot have too much toasted sliced almonds though. Salt and pepper the almonds.
- When it smells really good, remove and set aside.

- With some olive oil + butter -- Stir fry green beans. Salt and pepper. This will take a few minutes.

- Turn off heat and stir in almonds.

Green beans = by-the-book healthy. Toasted almonds = by-the-book addictive.

[recipe] Sesame Seared Tuna

- Pat dry tuna steaks, rub a bit of sesame oil, and cover in sesame seeds
- Seared on high heat with a little olive oil, a couple of minutes per side

- Sauce: Can buy Ponzu sauce, or, take 2 part low-sodium soy sauce, then 1 part sweet (honey / brown sugar) and then 1 part sour (rice wine vinegar / lemon), plus dash of sesame oil. Sliced green onion or cilantro will make it look pretty, if not just throw some sesame seeds in there.

- To serve: Slice tuna, dip in sauce, enjoy.

Impressive looking, delicious, and ridiculously easy.

[recipe] Smoked Salmon Bites

1. Smoked salmon (that we got from Seattle)
2. Whipped cream cheese
3. Low-fat wheat thins

- Cream cheese on wheat thins
- Flake off smoked salmon and pile on top of cream cheese
- Add secrete ingredient (or not), I tried and liked: Fresh black pepper, lemon, honey. Guessing sundried tomatoes, roasted red bell pepper, capers, would work well too.

Colorful and fast appetizer perfect for 2 or 20.

Monday, January 05, 2009

[trip] Shanghai

Where: Shanghai - Pudong
When: 2008.12.21 - 2008.12.28
Pudong Champs Elysse Condominium Complex, next to Tong Mao Hotel

- Going to bed in my coat, jeans, and socks. Yes, it was that cold.
- Walking to buy breakfast with Uncle Peter every morning at 8am
- Bowl of 30 mini wontons for 75 cents. OMG.
- Trying the thousand layer pancake from all three vendors
- The cops that busted breakfast vendors at 8:30am
- Dad raving about the KC Worm that lives forever
- Um, you may want to read dosage instruction before downing that glass of Reversitall ...
- Mom going home with tons of sunflower seeds and Lindor chocolate balls
- Pick your own live chicken / duck / pigeon and ready to take home in 5 min
- Enjoying a sparkling pool heated to a perfect 28C -- All by myself
- Striking up a conversation with the pool lifeguard about life and economics
- Dad making Pierre do his secret exercise trick -- c'mon dad, you mean, the basic horse stance?
- Yes, that chinese sign really says "Massage by the Blind", in 200 point font
- Number 5 and number 6 please
- 1 hour full body massage. $8.
- Nothing like a glass of cold beer after a nice swim
- Checking out Uncle Richard and Auntie Tina's Rock Sculpture collection
- Discovering a Brazilian restaurant in the underground shopping plaza -- along with cheap beer, fee pool tables, and clean bathroom -- what a haven
- Pulling out enough white hair to make a beard for a very small santa
- OMG internet connection totally doens't work on my laptop (for three days!)
- "The Day The Earth Stood Still" -- with really strange English subtitles - an secrete unreleased screenplay?
- An amazing meal at the Marriot, with our private room, with two dedicated servers, for 8 people -- for $130. Seriously?
- Highly addictive pineapple pancake and paper thin fried beef fillet
- Who knew beer ice slush can taste so good!
- Taking a million pictures of Pudong from the Bund - And that Blimp!
- How many of these D&G shirts do you have? I'll take them all.
- Good cop bad cop bargaining for four pairs for tennis shoes
- How about 350 for this 8GB SD card? How about 300? 250? 200? What price do you want?
- Having lunch at Pierre's great great grand aunt's house. The best and warmest lunch of all!
- Oh no, I lost my right glove! Haha, you lost your right glove too!
- All the fancy games on PSP - and we played original Road Rash for 3 hours instead
- The dude who bought a bottle of Johnny Walker Black from the in-flight duty free cart, and drank half of it, while telling us about Milk Thistle