Jan/103
oaktown!
one of my best friends in the world just recently moved to oakland with her american football loving french husband. christie and gregory now live in this really cool little house in north oakland, and its really not a bad area of oakland (south berkeley really). i’ve always been a strong advocate for the east bay, since i did attend university in the east bay and i just liked the feel more than the snooty peninsula.
gregory and christie were kind enough to invite me over for pizza and watching the rose bowl on new year’s day. it was good to just hang out in someone’s house and watch football.
Dec/090
crab feed!
the more i try not to write about food, the more that i end up writing about food.
one of the great things about being back in california for the holidays is that i got to attend my cousin celia‘s annual crab feed.
crab might be my very favorite food of all time. i like it prepared hong kong typhoon style, or chinese style with ginger and oil or in fried rice (in the philippines, or the thai restaurant in rat alley in hong kong) but what i like the best is dungeness (off the north american pacific coast from san francisco north to vancouver) straight boiled and eaten plain. really. it’s the best, and celia’s crab feed is the best opportunity to fill myself full of crab.
Dec/092
christmas eve dinner
we were priviliged enough to be hosted by my cousin keelan and his wife amelia and their two precocious sons samuel and joshua, for a hybrid western/filipino christmas eve dinner. growing up christmas eve dinner wasn’t a big deal in my household, but it was nice to have a family dinner on a family holiday.
Dec/090
home for the holidays
after an epic 4 airport (shanghai pudong, hong kong chep lap kok, san francisco international and san diego international) and 23 hour journey involving 2 cars, 1 train, 3 flights i finally arrived in san diego just in time to catch the poinsietta bowl, starring my beloved cal bears. while the game result didn’t go as i would’ve hoped, it’s good to be back in california for a little while. i’m here through the 2nd, and then i’ll be in new york through the 7th or 8th. here’s some photos from my trip home and the bowl game.
Dec/092
dadgummit! blowout!
for me, watching the 1983 movie “a christmas story” is almost as much as a tradition as christmas itself.
with that in mind, we had everyone get together to watch the movie and to have meatloaf, mashed potatoes, broccoli florets with cheese sauce and cream of mushroom soup (prepared by colin). it was the first time i’ve made meatloaf – but it turned out quite well, except for it falling apart, so it became meat-pile, instead of meatloaf.
Dec/094
home again, home again
with christmas and new year’s around the corner, i’m in countdown mode for my trip back to the states, which is nominally home for me.
of course, i’m not really sure what is home anymore. let’s review a bit:
pittsburgh, pa
i left at age 2 or 3. don’t remember a single thing about pittsburgh. have never been back. so pittsburgh isn’t home. (although if i was mainland chinese, i’d be a pittsburgher)
Nov/092
i wish that turkey could cost a nickel
the most wonderful time of the year has came and went. thanksgiving!
of course, what we’re really celebrating is a group of WOEFULLY unprepared english types who arrived in the colonies with things like 200 pairs of shoes (for one guy), musical instruments, and encyclopedias, but no farming equipment, hunting equipment, fishing line, or anyone who knew anything about living off the land or in the wilderness. Seriously. (All knowledge cribbed from Bill Bryson’s excellent I’m a Stranger Here Myself.
Nov/0921
the most wonderful time of the year
i actually don’t believe that (for me, it’s spring, when basketball playoffs for both the ncaa and nba are in full swing, baseball starts and the sun comes back), but that’s how the song goes.
anyways, there are several reasons why i do enjoy the fall, aside from escaping the sweatbox that has defined summer ever since i left california in 1996 (a horrible decision in retrospect, as i continue to rack up years in hot-n-humid climates like guangzhou, hong kong, houston and shanghai).
first, starbucks holiday drinks. yes, its not coffee. yes, it’s $5 for a cup full of sugar. i don’t care what you think, i just know i enjoy my toffee nut latte. and even in religion-less and non-christmas celebrating china, the local starbucks still cranks out the toffee nut lattes.
mine didn’t look half as nice (no whipped cream), but it still was awfully tasty.
i only wish starbucks china would start in with the gingerbread lattes. now we’re talking.
but that’s only one-quarter as exciting as the emminent arrival of the best holiday of the year: thanksgiving! a day to eat one’s weight in buttered foodstuffs. i see no way this could end poorly. this year (and its the third year we’ve done this) we have about 20 people going to my friend colin’s apartment. we’re getting out turkey and sides from boxing cat brewery (a change from bubba’s – since bubba never acknowleged my reservation email.)
here’s the beginning of our menu
1 Whole Butter Roasted Turkey ; Apple Cider Giblet Gravy
Jalepeno Cornbread Stuffing
Cranberry Relish Creamy Mashed Potatoes
Maple Spiced Roast Sweet Potatoes
we’ll probably end up with a lot more food – there’s already talk of pie and macaroni and cheese and more pie and some salads and pie and maybe banana bread. it’s going to be epic.
Oct/094
halloween eve
yesterday, i highlighted my favorite halloween costume of all time
this is me and my friend holly in houston in 2004 or 2005.
