Words Cannot Describe How I Feel...

October 2005

June 2007

...But I'm going to try.

Liberated. Relieved. Happy. Unrestricted. Free. Wow. Different. Weird. Empty space. Blank canvas. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Top five reasons why I'm glad to have a braces free smile:
5. Kissing will be better, says coworker
4. Flossing is faster and easier!
3. I don't look like I'm in high school anymore.
2. I don't have to endure jokes from coworkers: "Jeannie is still eating her lunch two hours later."
1. No more pain!!! When they extracted 4 of my teeth I was so scared. When I got the bill I wanted to run away but realized that I had 4 holes in my mouth so I had no choice but to follow through with the whole process. When they put spacers IN BETWEEN MY TEETH it hurt so bad I cried that night. When I got bands for the first time I could barely open my jaw, much less chew a thing.

But it was worth it. =D


Bye bye braces! Hyobin, how can you draw me now??

China Islamic Restaurant

I've driven down Garvey hundreds of times and every time I see this restaurant I think about maybe going there one day. I do that for a lot of things actually...the roach coach by Peck/Rush, Chau's Kitchen on Valley/Del Mar, Hurry Curry on Sawtelle (I always go to Curry House!), etc. Wait never mind I have been to Hurry Curry once but you get my point!

Anyhoo, so Christina found out that the restaurant we were sposed to go to was closed on Tuesdays (boo) so we ended up at China Islamic Restaurant.

Beef Noodle soup with dough noodles- The beef was too stringy for me but I liked the noodles.

Ox tripe with cucumber salad. You know how "adventurous" dishes can be hit or miss? This was definitely a miss! >_<. I mean, I like tripe. I like cucumber. I like sesame. But they didn't taste good together! I think it was all the brown sauce, gross! The first few bites were okay but after that I could not touch it anymore! The sauce killed everything! Maybe I ordered the wrong thing, I should have read websites prior to visiting for recommendations. Oh well.

So I ended up eating this sesame thin bread with green onion. It was okay except I got tired of eating it, the portions were huge!

Yes I ate green onion! Well some, I picked the rest out. :P

So we were looking at the menu, trying to figure out what made the food "Islamic" because everything on the menu sounded Chinesey. We learned the whole "no pork" part is what made it "Islamic", hehe. I decided to wiki Chinese Islamic food to learn more. I'm too lazy to type so read it yourself.
China Islamic Restaurant
7727 Garvey Ave
Rosemead, CA 91770
626.288.4246
I dunno if I'll come back. Prolly not. :)

LA Film Fest

Finally a non-food thing that I was able to cross off my list! I wanted to attend other films but $11 per film was too pricey! Maybe for the next festival.

Made in L.A.
USA, 2007, 70 min
In English and Spanish with Spanish subtitles and with English subtitles
Directed By: Almudena Carracedo
Producers: Robert Bahar, Almudena Carracedo
Cinematographer: Almudena Carracedo
Editors: Lisa Leeman, Almudena Carracedo
Music: Joseph Julian Gonzalez
In 1946, French poet René Char wrote, “He who joined the Resistance, found himself.” Something similar happens to the garment workers in this documentary when they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from mega-trendy clothing retailer Forever 21. This intimate, vérité-style film chronicles the lives of three Latina workers—Maura, Maria, and Lupe—who came to the U.S. looking for opportunities and instead find themselves working 14-hour days under soul-crushing conditions in the sweatshops of L.A.'s Fashion District.
Their world opens up when they become plaintiffs in a lawsuit organized by the nonprofit Garment Workers Center. Initially the women are euphoric to be part of something bigger than themselves—manning bullhorns in front of the Beverly Center, speaking on college campuses, visiting the Tenement Museum in New York where they discover they are heirs to a 100-year-old fight—and rhythmically choreographed editing gives us a visceral sense of both the tedium of the sewing machine and the exhilaration of protest. But the women's resolve begins to falter as their struggle drags on for years with no results, causing rifts in their families and endangering their precarious livelihoods. Filmmaker Almudena Carracedo perseveres with them, allowing the viewer to experience the tremendous courage it takes to bring about real political change.
- Theresa Schwartzman

Sat, Jun 23 / Noon
Mann Festival Theatre
FREE

Afterwards, most of the cast came out for some Q&A.

I really enjoyed this documentary b/c I can relate to it on some level. Growing up, I remember my mom sewing from 6am to 8pm everyday, 7 days a week to make the bare minimum for us to live on because she refused to go on welfare or use food stamps. Then when I was in 6th grade, I started to help her with the piecework. I hated it, but I sucked it up and helped her sew all the way through high school. I figured that the more I did to help out, the less my mom had to do. Even though my mom worked incredibly hard, she rarely complained (even though I did!). I think she figured that working from home was better than being in the factories. At least my mom had a fair boss who actually paid her and didn't try to cheat her with broken promises. Even then, he would offer her ridiculous prices for completed items and hearing my mom try to bargain with him to give her 5 more cents per piece made my blood boil b/c GEEZ it's ONLY A NICKEL MORE AND HE'S SUPER RICH ANYWAY! So on some level, I'm sure my mom can relate with the women in the documentary, except that they had it way worse than she ever had. And workers should not even have it this hard AT ALL. Sigh. At least they were able to settle with Forever 21. But what about all the other workers out there??
I also interned at the Garment Worker Center back in college. It was really interesting to see the campaign from behind the scenes. I remember helping to make signs for the Forever 21 march at 3rd St. Promenade except that my signs weren't as creative as the workers.

Ooh red carpet! Thanks to Cam's friend for saving us seats. :)

Ooh yeah, Made in L.A. is going to be shown on PBS on Tuesday, September 4, 2007 at 10PM (90 minutes). Be sure to mark your calendars! I want my mom to watch it.

Fondueeeeeeee

Nancy got me a fondue pot for Christmas and I was finally able to use it nearly 6 months later. Now I want to use it at every meal! Hehe, I kid. I'll definitely put it in use at my next luncheon or dinner party though! :)

We used a makeshift double boiler to melt the chocolate with some cream. We used 1/3 of a bag of Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips and some gourmet dark chocolate bar from Ralphs. I forgot the brand but prolly anything is fine. I'm not a huge fan of regular sweet chocolate. We were sposed to add vanilla extract but I forgot!

Light the candle (tea lights)

Place the ceramic bowl on top after you've poured the melted chocolate in.

We did strawberries and pound cake. Next time we'll use frozen pound cake b/c the bakery one was too crumbly! I also want to try nuts, candied orange peel, and marshmallows next time! Note to Hyobin: NO KIMCHI!!!


Cam says "Whoops where's my strawberry!!!" For some reason our strawberries kept slipping off the skewers. A trick is to not pierce the fruit all the way through.

Hyobin can't wait!

Fondued goodness!!!

We totally lucked out: strawberries were 10 for $10 at Ralphs! Hehe I remember when Nancy and I went to Ralphs during finals week and bought a bunch of food b/c it was $1 each. That's prolly the only time I shop at American chains! I prefer to buy the bulk of my groceries at Vien Dong or Buy Low.

Sea Harbour Seafood

On any given mid morning, if you're driving north on Rosemead towards Valley and you see a massive crowd of people outside of a restaurant on your left right before the light, that's Sea Harbour Seafood restaurant!

This is one of my favorite restaurants for dim sum. I rarely go though b/c it's pretty pricey. But you definitely get what you pay for! Nearly everything is fresh and delicious. Next time I have a visitor from out of town I'm going to take her/him here!

Fung Zhao (Chicken feet) It was so delicious that we ordered more during round 2!

Seafood salad cake- Crispy on the outside, sweet and creamy and seafoody on the inside. It's pretty rich, but just limit yourself to a few bites and it won't feel too heavy.

Charng fun (Beef & shrimp noodle) The shrimp was better!


Trojan Tyrone, Awesome Ann, and Spencer-when-did-you-get-your-braces-off?

Taro cake- too much taro and too thick! The one at Ocean Bo is better.

Salty egg bun- they steam it in a way that the yolk doesn't completely cook so it's creamy and liquidly inside! Mmm!


Siu mai (Shrimp/pork dumpling with fish egg on top)

Coconut & taro jello- The presentation was nicer, but the one at Ocean Bo is just as good.


Dan tat (egg tart) This was yummy! Perfect combo of flaky and eggy custardy.

There's a rooster in the parking lot. It used to be in front of the restaurant!
Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant
3939 Rosemead Blvd.
Rosemead, CA 91770

Travel Bug

Countries I've been to:

Most visited:
Canada- 5 times
I'd like to go back to New York, France, Vietnam, and Australia

Countries/states that I'd like to go to:

Yeah, quite ambitious. I just picked the whole African continent b/c I have no idea which countries I'd visit for my safari. :P

Look at my list- I found it funny that I want to eat in the Asian countries but I want to sightsee in the European ones. :P

Phong Dinh for Father's Day

If you love catfish you will love this restaurant! They also specialize in game meats like snake, deer, alligator, etc.
Phong Dinh
2643 San Gabriel Blvd.
Rosemead, CA 91770
626-573-8623

I've been here handfuls of times and each time I go every table has the baked catfish specialty! Mmm!

Along with each catfish, they bring you plates of lettuce, herbs, pickled turnips/carrots, spring roll wrappers, tamarind sauce, fish sauce, noodles, etc. It's up to you to assemble it.

Ready to dip!

Yummy for my tummy!

Back in the day...

...I used to be super smart when it came to math and geography! What happened? *scratches head*

Okay this summer I will learn US and world geography.

Banh Beo!

Banh beo has got to be one of the cutest Vietnamese foods out there, if there's such a thing. :) And as Christina and I found out, it also happens to be one of the most tedious foods to make!

Ingredients needed: shrimp (we used fresh and dried), batter, onion (which we ended up ditching in favor of shallots only), and shallots. That's it! Oh, cold AND hot water for the batter, and lots of oil for frying and prepping.

Before you even start on the batter mix, fill the steamer halfway with water, and let boil on the stove. That way it will be ready to go when you are done prepping the batter.
Instead of making the flour mix from scratch we used a banh beo package. Scratch seems easy too, just follow this recipe. Christina and I combined two recipes: one from the back of the banh beo bag, and also that website for everything.
Start the batter by adding in 2.5 cups cold water. Keep stirring while slowly adding 2.5 cups of hot water. Keep stirring. And stirring.
Prep your little plates by wiping them with a paper towel slightly soaked in oil. Put in steamer, let plates get hot. By now your steamer should be hot and ready!

Pour into little dishes!

After 5-10 min, take them out to cool. My first two batches took 10 minutes or so, and the last two took less than 5. Weird. The first two batches were also really soft and fluffy, while the last batch was hard.
After they are cooled, use a fork to pry them off the plates. One bag of batter yielded around 23 little rice cakes.

The fillings:

Christina had to pound the dried shrimp which was previously boiled to soften. Then she had to fry them again.

I basically did a fresh version of the dried shrimp. I just boiled a pinch of salt and some shelled and de-veined shrimp in a pan until the water evaporated. Then I let it cool down, and after that I ran it through the food processor. Next I fried up some shallots and added the shrimp, sugar, pepper, and fish sauce. I basically followed that recipe on the website!

Shallots swimming in oil. Christina got this down pat! The oil can't be too hot or it'll burn the shallots, but it has to be hot enough to fry the shallots.

Then you start assembling!

Put a layer of shallot oil and some fried shallots, then your shrimp toppings, and then finally douse the whole thing with fish sauce. Mmm!

The hardworking and hungry cooks. I got a free facial courtesy of the steamer, and Christina got buffer b/c she had to pound all that dried shrimp.