More Crazy Nuts

World's Cutest Dog

Obie being his normal adorable self. Too cute for words.

For My Phoenix Chefs and Homecooks

For the reality series, The Next Food Network Star, the Food Network is coming to the Valley on July 8th for an open casting call for its 2010 season.

So, if you have hopes of becoming the host of your own cooking show, be at the Embassy Suites (4415 E. Paradise Village Parkway) from 10 am to 4 pm next Wednesday.

You need to bring in two recent photos, a copy of your resume, a legible copy of either passport, social security card, or driver license, and a filled out application. For any questions about the show or casting, you can email: nfns6@yahoo.com. Click here for list of other cities open casting call dates.

I would totally do it-- if I could actually cook.

World's Ugliest Dog 2009

Pabst, the boxer mix rescue above, was crowned the world's ugliest dog on Friday at the annual Sonoma-Marin Fair. Besides the severe under bite and angry eyes, I don't think he's THAT ugly.

The winner from last year, Miss Ellie, a Chinese Crested, is way uglier. Her face is all creepy and skin looks gross.

[image via Chicagotribune.com and Dailymail.co.uk]

What's For Lunch?

Barbecue pork that my Dad made before he left for China, Chinese green vegetables grown in my maternal grandparent's backyard, and of course, rice. It was all very delicious. Especially the pork.

Another Case of Animal Abuse

AP reports a 43 year old firefighter in Columbus, Ohio has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to two counts of animal cruelty and one count of possession of a criminal tool (a homemade silencer attached to the end of his rifle).

David Santuomo was going on vacation and he wanted to avoid boarding them while he was gone. So, he tied his his two mixed breed dogs (Sloopy and Skeeter) to a pipe in his basement, shot and killed them. He then threw their remains in the trash bin behind his firehouse. Prosecutors say he bragged about the killings to colleagues. Defense attorney Sam Shamansky says it was "totally out of character" for his client.

How disgusting and sad. I have absolutely no patience for bad pet owners. This guy got off easy. He deserves way more of a punishment.

What's For Lunch?

I've been really slacking on blogging- sadly, nothing really interesting going on right now. I'll fill up space with a picture of my lunch today:

Roasted pork belly, broccoli heart, rice, and an apple. I'm not a big fan of pork belly because of how fatty it is and I mostly dislike it because my paternal grandmother's favorite food is pork belly. She had a massive heart attack a few years ago and in my head, I contribute it to that.

Either way, bon apetit!

99 Balloons

Yesterday, I caught the end of an episode of Oprah titled "Remarkable Children." Every story basically made my eyes sting with tears, but were amazing. One of the last stories they did was on a couple named Matt and Ginny Mooney who had a child born with Trisomy-18 also known as Edwards syndrome. Trisomy-18 is a genetic disorder causing an extra 18th chromosome (the rest of us have only two) to develop in his cell. Besides this terrible condition of faulty DNA, Eliot Mooney was also born with an undeveloped lung and a hole in his heart. His chance for survival was very low.

I had actually seen their YouTube video a year or two ago, but seeing it again last night really brought me to tears, full on ugly cry kind of tears. And seeing how strong Matt and Ginny were was inspiring. When Oprah asked them about how they found the will to be so strong and do what they did, the one thing Ginny said that I think will stick with me whenever I'm feeling depressed over something that I think I'm not doing right or anticipating something bad, "I will be sad later."

So if you have a few minutes and some tissues laying around, you can watch their YouTube video, "99 Balloons" below. You can read more about Eliot's story on Matt's blog http://www.ninetynineballoons.com/.

What's For Lunch? Leftovers...

I was pretty hungry for lunch today because all I had for breakfast was three pieces of pig stomach in a brothy soup, supposedly really good for my health. By noon, I felt like all I had was water. I was really excited for lunch because I had roasted duck.

Then, I remembered that my mom said we were all out of good vegs and only had carrots left. I requested them raw because I HATE steamed carrots. They are too sweet and mushy. She steamed them anyway. It was not good. The only time I like cooked carrots are if they have been stewed with a big hunk of meat or thinly sliced in a stir fry.

I ate the carrots first so I could save the best (best being the duck and rice) for last. To my surprise, it was a tease! Under the duck, there was braised pork belly! Granted I like pork belly, but I realized today that I get whatever is the last of anything that is left from their lunches or dinners. Which explains why I only had two pieces of duck and two pieces of pork belly. And of course, the last of any vegetable in our crisper, too sweet carrots.

Still here

Hi! I know I have totally been slacking on the blogging front. I was sick all last week and have been a bit busier at work. And now I'm recovering from the weekend of partying and from being sick.

Quick update on food we ate this weekend though. I took N to Roka Akor (a Japanese restaurant/robata grill/shochu lounge) in Scottsdale for her birthday dinner. T and I have eaten there a few times now and its always been decent food. T, N, and I got the omakase, and there was a massive amount of food. Everything for the most part was tasty, but I was disappointed in the lack of fish we actually got. I honestly quit eating halfway through because I was so stuffed. We had so much stuff boxed up but we left in a hurry and thus, lost our midnight snack. I hope I can remember everything...
[image via Rokaakor.com]
For starters we had butterfish tataki with white asparagus (I get this everytime I've gone so far), beef tataki with a chili ponzu sauce, fried tofu with a avocado and wasabi sauce, ginger, and ponzu sauce, burnt tomato salad, and fried oysters with ponzu and shisho. T said he was ponzu-ed out by this point.

Next up, we had sushi: toro tuna roll (two kinds-one had a huge hunk of pickled radish inside), spanish mackarel sashimi (two kinds-both delicious), tuna and yellowtail sashimi, sea bream sashimi, and I think one more thing. I wish we had more sashimi though. Their fish is really good.

Following the fish, butternut squash tempura with a Japanese pepper broth, Yuzo marinated black cod, grilled wild madagascan tiger prawns (HUGE-size of my forearm basically, it was insane), grilled pork belly with marinated beets, cold soba noodles in broth with quail egg and green onions, baby pork ribs with sweet corn in butter and soy, grilled Shishito peppers with ponzu and bonito flakes. I feel like I am forgetting something, but even this list is quite large.

We were suppose to get lamb cutlets too, but the three of us were majorly stuffed so we just called for dessert (pictured below). The desserts change everyday and is always an assortment of sorbets, fresh fruit-like lychee and mangosteen, and other neat things (we got green tea custard with banana foam, some passion fruit thing, and a peanut butter sorbet on top of some cake I can't remember). For N's birthday, they brought out the sample platter (I guess that's what it is called) for free. The Yuzu sorbet was hands down the favorite from the three of us.

After rethinking about everything we ate, I feel like a fatty. For $98/person, it was seriously the most food I've ever gotten. There were some things I did not like, but overall, the food was yummy, the service is always really good (they gave us free sake and free dessert!), so I will most likely go back.

I apologize for the lack of creativity in writing this post. It's noon and I'm ready for lunch so I just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive and blogging! :)

Good Old Hard Work

In the Opinion column of the New York Times last weekend, there was a piece written by Nicholas Kristof about the three groups, Asian-America, Jews, and West Indian blacks, in America who have been unusually successful as far as minorities go.

He basically just points out that these groups are not so much smarter that they are successful but they work harder, put a higher emphasis on education and have a drive to succeed that has lead them to do so well. Bottom line: you don't have to be smart to do well--just work really hard.

Similar thing was said on Anderson Cooper's CNN show two years ago.

Zack Attack!

I was a HUGE Saved by the Bell fan growing up and it is by far still one of my favorite shows of all time. I remember running home from the bus stop to catch the latest episode. I was in love with Zack and I thought Kelly was so pretty. I hated the New Class thing they tried to do back in 1993. That show was terrible. You can't just replace the cast and expect it to have the same cult following.

Last night, Zack Morris (as played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar) made an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Seeing him dressed as Zack and his giant cell phone, ahh the memories. I hope they do do a reunion show. That would be amazing! My favorite episode of all time was "Rockumentary" so I was especially excited that he sang a part "Friends Forever," even though it didn't sound as good without the actual Zack Attack band. ;) That episode made me so happy.

In case you missed it:

I'm In Love with San Diego!

We got off the boat on Thursday in San Diego and checked into the Hotel Solamar in the Gaslamp Quarters. The hotel is nice and the room are a good size, but I would not recommend it. They had a rooftop pool/bar so that was nice, but the bar and security staff were really strict and rude about kicking us out when they closed at midnight! I had to bring my drink with me. Twice!

At any rate, on to the food! So Thursday, I really wanted ramen. I've been to Tajima a few years ago with some of my sorority sisters, so I wanted to go again. This time, I had the spicy ramen and it was delicious! It was the best thing I had since being on vacation. The broth had a good back kick to it and as you ate more, it had really good heat. The noodles were good too. Nothing worst than mushy ramen. Yum! I wish I could have some more now.

For dinner, we went to Kaito Sushi in Encinitas which was highly recommended on Yelp and by S (who I now consider a local and has good taste in food). The place was smaller than I expected but the perfect size for what it was. The sushi chef was chatty, there were a few other tables and he was the only one working so it was not as attentive. But that's okay, I was there for the fish!

We asked for the omakase or "it's up to you" so the chef just served us what he thought was the best. In order, we had halibut, shad (pictured above), kampachi, squid, bluefin tuna, giant washington clam, octopus, ono, saltwater eel, and uni. T had a toro tuna hand roll too, but I was too full. The fish was so delicious! All the reviewers and S were not joking about the high quality of the fish. You could taste how fresh everything was and the sweetness of each fish. I especially enjoyed the shad, kampachi, and uni which were my favorites of the night. The only thing I didn't like was the squid (pictured below). It had that gummy feel that I really hate (just like ebi) so it was hard to stomach for me. Overall though, I really liked the place. I love places that are full of delicious and great quality ingredients, but has a very unpretentious feel. The price was really reasonable too. About $60 per person I think.

The next day, we wanted to go kayaking and snokeling. The snorkel rental guy said we would be better off kayaking as there was not much to see that day. I love kayaking! We got to see seals and here them whine (or at least that is what it sounds like). They're so cute!

We had thai food for lunch at Kafe Yen because T went there years ago and remembered he really liked it. He had said that their mieng kham (leaf wrapped in toasted coconut, peanuts, ginger, lime, and shrimp) was one of the best bites he's ever had. I thought they were good, but nothing I'll probably remember or crave.

We did get Yogurtland after and I'm definitely craving that now though. It was so cheap and as T said, it had a great mouth feel. My sister tells me they've opened one in Tempe so maybe I'll go this weekend.

At night, we wanted oysters so we walked over to Oceanaire since we saw it earlier that afternoon while grabbing coffee by our hotel. Turns out, Brian Malarkey from Top Chef Season 3 Miami owns it and is actually at the restaurant. The oysters were very delicious and I wanted more. We also got escargot and an order of rock shrimp.

For entree I ordered the lobster encrusted halibut with English peas and sweet corn. That was tasty, except the lobster crust was over salted. The fish was cooked really well and the beurre blanc broth sauce with it was excellent. The corn really added a good sweetness to the dish. I opted out of dessert, because we still had half a bottle of wine left and I was really stuffed. But I always have room for oysters so we ordered more. They were out of the kind we had earlier so they comped us on the next half dozen which were not as good. And I ended on a bad oyster so bleh.

This is a terrible picture, but I told our waiter, Jorge, that I was a fan of Brian (well okay, I did root for Hung the whole season, but Brian was good looking!) and he told the chef who then came out. He was really nice and humble. Overall, the food was okay. I would give it a 7 out of 10. If you like seafood, big portions and reasonable prices, this is a good choice.

I'm absolutely in love with the city of San Diego. I love the ocean, I like the night life, the people, and of course, the food. Everytime I go, I forget how much I liked it. I wanted to go there for college but never applied since I didn't want to take the SAT II for UC's school. So perhaps in a few years, if I ever figure out what I want to do with my life, I can work it out that San Diego is a part of it. Until then, I'm ready to take another weekend trip out there soon!

Carnival Elation

So I'm back! T and I left for San Diego last Sunday to jump onto the Carnival Elation ship to cruise to the Catalina Islands. We were suppose to make a stop in Ensenada, Mexico, but due to the swine flu, the port was closed.

The cruise was fun. It was nice just relaxing on the decks and not have to worry about where to go or what to do since options were limited. The ship (pictured above) was really big. The food however, was terrible. I know most people say when they go on cruises they eat so much and they eat all the time. This was not the case for us. We ate two meals a day, and only so we could sustain ourselves.

Every night after dinner, we would grab a drink and play the life sized chessboard. And for four nights in a row, I would get mad at T for not letting me win. Every night also, we would have lots to drink. I'm not much of a drinker, but I definitely had my far share on the ship. It was fun though because I didn't have to worry about getting a ride home or walking too far.

So even though the cruise food was not good, I would love to go on a cruise again! I would like to go with more people though so we could party/relax all together. I was getting cabin fever by the last day because we had two full days at sea and I was getting a little bored. Next stop, San Diego!