Wednesday, January 25, 2006

warning - exotic meat consumption ahead. not for the squeamish.

i feel like i need to put a disclaimer on this post because i think some people might be grossed out and/or offended by the details of what will follow. so the people i work with love food. they especially love asian food and trying new kinds of food. i guess my bosses have been talking about going to this vietnamese restaurant for awhile. well we eat vietnamese food all the time so why was this place so special? the myth is that is serves exotic meats like snake and kangaroo along with the more traditional chicken and fish dishes. an article mentioned this restaurant recently in an article about where you can eat goat, and the spark of interest burned anew. so we called and had them fax over a menu (which i think they thought was odd)and my co-workers were delighted to find that they had kangaroo, venison, rabbit, snake, snails, squab, fox (apparently now illegal though, much to my co-workers' disappointment) and other strange creatures up for grabs. a plan was hatched and we went out last night to sample some of life's finer delicacies. i was a little apprehensive because the idea of eating a snake kind of grossed me out but i figured that i would suck it up and just eat it. the wait staff was very happy we were so enthusiastic though and thankfully, no one (meaning me) freaked out about the meat or anything like that. we ended up having alligator and venison grilled at the table with some butter and then wrapped in rice paper rolls with vermicelli and veggies, kangaroo stir fried with onions and bell peppers in a wine reduction sauce and snake porridge. we also ordered chicken with lemongrass just in case, but that's pretty boring. everything was really good. the restaurant really knows how to marinate meats and make it tasty. i liked the deer a lot. the alligator was good but it was in such small pieces, that it was sort of annoying to eat. the kangaroo tasted sorta like steak and was dark. and the snake didn't taste much like anything at all, but it's a white meat, which surprised me. we were quite impressed actually and are already planning the next outing, where we will try the famous baked catfish, some goat and who knows what else. ok - here are some pictures:

deermeat
raw deer meat ready for the grilling

grillingitup
i was the lucky one to grill the deer and alligator last night

grill
more grilled deer and gator

roo
'roo with wine sauce

snakesoup
snake porridge with mung bean - kinda sweet

and to top it off they served us vietnamese jello for dessert (yummy). here are the details if anyone else wants to go (and i think you should. the food it very tasty and you can totally get "normal" meat there, too). it's called phong dinh and it's at 2643 N. San Gabriel Blvd., Rosemead; (626) 307-8868. Lunch and dinner 10:30 a.m.–11 p.m. Beer and wine. Lot parking. Dinner for two, food only, $15.95–$35 (more with exotic meats).

i think that's enough for one post. i am driving back up north for the lunar new year celebration with the parents. i am not really looking forward to the drive but a few days off sounds pretty cool. finishing up the green kid's sweater. one more sleeve to go!

Monday, January 16, 2006

no work and all play

yes, i was one of the lucky who did not have to go to work today. i don't know why more people don't celebrate martin luther king jr.'s birthday. it's really quite a shame. but lucky me spent most of the day shopping and watching the new season of 24. yeah i watched yesterday and tonight's episode today. i couldn't even knit while doing it, i was so tense. those first few minutes of sunday's episode just floored me. i can't wait to see what happens for the rest of the season. and i love that sean astin is on it this season. he's my favorite hobbit and he was a goonie! clearly i haven't gotten much done lately, as you can tell by my sad lack of posting. i know why they call it sleeve island now. it's like you keep knitting and knitting but it doesn't seem to end. and a sleeve is so much smaller than a back or front. i don't know why it takes so long to knit. so i started the cap sleeve on the jack sweater. it doesn't look like much but it's getting there.

sleeve

not much else is going on here. the frenzy of visiting friends has finally ceased and i have some more time to myself. it's always a reflective time at the beginning of the year and i don't really do resolutions but i would like to take better care of myself (ie eat better and exercise) and actually finish my knitting projects. we'll see. alright well it's off to bed for me cause i have to go to work tomorrow. geez.

Friday, January 06, 2006

brokeback

i saw brokeback mountain last night and i must say that i loved it. i thought that it might not live up to the hype and the expectations i had given it but i thought it was a really beautiful and poignant film. it was just a really sad love story about two people who could never really be together. you should definitely see it if you haven't yet and i hope that people not in liberal places like the east and west coast give it a chance. go see it now and happy weekend!

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

the path to hell is on i-5

yes i really thought i had driven right into hades itself on monday night when my friend and i made our return trip from northern california back to so-cal. first off, it had been storming for days and visibility was expected to be low. the rain wasn't actually so bad. it was a bit stressful and a few time i felt like we might slip off the freeway but really, it was nothing to prepare for what came. it started off innocently enough with some minor traffic due to rubbernecking. then we hit more because of an overturned big rig. the winds were vicious and i can only imagine how hard it would be to drive a big ass truck in them when i barely managed my sedan. um, them more traffic due to overturned trucks. then after an hour going about 5 miles, they closed the 5 freeway. okayyy. so we got off and took a break. they opened the freeway. we drove for 10 minutes freely and then massive traffic again. yippee they were closing the freeway AGAIN. this time it took up an hour to go three miles before being detoured off the freeway. we turned around and went back to the place were we had taken a break over an hour before, got on a different, smaller and creepier freeway (one of the streets off of it was called gun club road - not kidding) before finally connecting to the 99 in bakersfield and back to our regularly scheduled freeway. we were really getting delirious and crazy though after about 8 hours (point of reference - the whole trip usually takes 5 hours). we finally got home after 11 hours of pure hell and i had to work the next day. i don't know what i did to piss of the powers about but i hope i never do it again. some pics to show you how we felt:

death
strangling myself with the seat belt

death2
just strangling

tumbles
our friend the tumbleweed

i hope this never happens to any of you. off to knit before bed now. pics of the baby sweater to come soon.


Wednesday, January 25, 2006

warning - exotic meat consumption ahead. not for the squeamish.

i feel like i need to put a disclaimer on this post because i think some people might be grossed out and/or offended by the details of what will follow. so the people i work with love food. they especially love asian food and trying new kinds of food. i guess my bosses have been talking about going to this vietnamese restaurant for awhile. well we eat vietnamese food all the time so why was this place so special? the myth is that is serves exotic meats like snake and kangaroo along with the more traditional chicken and fish dishes. an article mentioned this restaurant recently in an article about where you can eat goat, and the spark of interest burned anew. so we called and had them fax over a menu (which i think they thought was odd)and my co-workers were delighted to find that they had kangaroo, venison, rabbit, snake, snails, squab, fox (apparently now illegal though, much to my co-workers' disappointment) and other strange creatures up for grabs. a plan was hatched and we went out last night to sample some of life's finer delicacies. i was a little apprehensive because the idea of eating a snake kind of grossed me out but i figured that i would suck it up and just eat it. the wait staff was very happy we were so enthusiastic though and thankfully, no one (meaning me) freaked out about the meat or anything like that. we ended up having alligator and venison grilled at the table with some butter and then wrapped in rice paper rolls with vermicelli and veggies, kangaroo stir fried with onions and bell peppers in a wine reduction sauce and snake porridge. we also ordered chicken with lemongrass just in case, but that's pretty boring. everything was really good. the restaurant really knows how to marinate meats and make it tasty. i liked the deer a lot. the alligator was good but it was in such small pieces, that it was sort of annoying to eat. the kangaroo tasted sorta like steak and was dark. and the snake didn't taste much like anything at all, but it's a white meat, which surprised me. we were quite impressed actually and are already planning the next outing, where we will try the famous baked catfish, some goat and who knows what else. ok - here are some pictures:

deermeat
raw deer meat ready for the grilling

grillingitup
i was the lucky one to grill the deer and alligator last night

grill
more grilled deer and gator

roo
'roo with wine sauce

snakesoup
snake porridge with mung bean - kinda sweet

and to top it off they served us vietnamese jello for dessert (yummy). here are the details if anyone else wants to go (and i think you should. the food it very tasty and you can totally get "normal" meat there, too). it's called phong dinh and it's at 2643 N. San Gabriel Blvd., Rosemead; (626) 307-8868. Lunch and dinner 10:30 a.m.–11 p.m. Beer and wine. Lot parking. Dinner for two, food only, $15.95–$35 (more with exotic meats).

i think that's enough for one post. i am driving back up north for the lunar new year celebration with the parents. i am not really looking forward to the drive but a few days off sounds pretty cool. finishing up the green kid's sweater. one more sleeve to go!

Read More


Monday, January 16, 2006

no work and all play

yes, i was one of the lucky who did not have to go to work today. i don't know why more people don't celebrate martin luther king jr.'s birthday. it's really quite a shame. but lucky me spent most of the day shopping and watching the new season of 24. yeah i watched yesterday and tonight's episode today. i couldn't even knit while doing it, i was so tense. those first few minutes of sunday's episode just floored me. i can't wait to see what happens for the rest of the season. and i love that sean astin is on it this season. he's my favorite hobbit and he was a goonie! clearly i haven't gotten much done lately, as you can tell by my sad lack of posting. i know why they call it sleeve island now. it's like you keep knitting and knitting but it doesn't seem to end. and a sleeve is so much smaller than a back or front. i don't know why it takes so long to knit. so i started the cap sleeve on the jack sweater. it doesn't look like much but it's getting there.

sleeve

not much else is going on here. the frenzy of visiting friends has finally ceased and i have some more time to myself. it's always a reflective time at the beginning of the year and i don't really do resolutions but i would like to take better care of myself (ie eat better and exercise) and actually finish my knitting projects. we'll see. alright well it's off to bed for me cause i have to go to work tomorrow. geez.
Read More


Friday, January 06, 2006

brokeback

i saw brokeback mountain last night and i must say that i loved it. i thought that it might not live up to the hype and the expectations i had given it but i thought it was a really beautiful and poignant film. it was just a really sad love story about two people who could never really be together. you should definitely see it if you haven't yet and i hope that people not in liberal places like the east and west coast give it a chance. go see it now and happy weekend!
Read More


Wednesday, January 04, 2006

the path to hell is on i-5

yes i really thought i had driven right into hades itself on monday night when my friend and i made our return trip from northern california back to so-cal. first off, it had been storming for days and visibility was expected to be low. the rain wasn't actually so bad. it was a bit stressful and a few time i felt like we might slip off the freeway but really, it was nothing to prepare for what came. it started off innocently enough with some minor traffic due to rubbernecking. then we hit more because of an overturned big rig. the winds were vicious and i can only imagine how hard it would be to drive a big ass truck in them when i barely managed my sedan. um, them more traffic due to overturned trucks. then after an hour going about 5 miles, they closed the 5 freeway. okayyy. so we got off and took a break. they opened the freeway. we drove for 10 minutes freely and then massive traffic again. yippee they were closing the freeway AGAIN. this time it took up an hour to go three miles before being detoured off the freeway. we turned around and went back to the place were we had taken a break over an hour before, got on a different, smaller and creepier freeway (one of the streets off of it was called gun club road - not kidding) before finally connecting to the 99 in bakersfield and back to our regularly scheduled freeway. we were really getting delirious and crazy though after about 8 hours (point of reference - the whole trip usually takes 5 hours). we finally got home after 11 hours of pure hell and i had to work the next day. i don't know what i did to piss of the powers about but i hope i never do it again. some pics to show you how we felt:

death
strangling myself with the seat belt

death2
just strangling

tumbles
our friend the tumbleweed

i hope this never happens to any of you. off to knit before bed now. pics of the baby sweater to come soon.


Read More