Holidays

Elmer and I decided to test out our new camera by taking some photos at The Grove.

Hello Kitty

Elmer, Brian, and I went to the Three Apples Hello Kitty exhibit at Royal/T cafe. The event was being held in celebration of Hello Kitty's 35 birthday.

HB

After attending John Williams' performance at the Hollywood Bowl last year, Elmer and I decided to make it an annual event. So, this year was our second time attending. His theme for the night was Harry Potter!



I especially enjoy the second half of the night, when John Williams conducts classic movie scores.

Superman



Although I am not a Star Wars fan, my favorite is when he does The Imperial March (Darth Vadar's theme) because all the fans whip out their lightsabers and swoosh them around. I didn't record it this year, but I did get the Star Wars theme.

Happy Birthday Karen

Elmer and I went to Las Vegas to celebrate my 30th birthday. It was also a belated celebration for Elmer's birthday as well.

We left our place around 11 pm, when Elmer got off work, and stayed the night at Buffalo Bills. We left as quickly as we could to head to the outlets, and then to The Wynn.





We had dinner at The Buffet located at The Wynn. I thought it was just okay.





We spent some time at the pool and had some pina coladas (virgin, of course!). It was a short but nice and much-needed mini get-away!

Musha 2

I needed a reason to go to Musha again, and what better reason is there than my 30th birthday?!!!

We celebrated with Iris, Brian, and my mom. Here are some highlights from our meal:

Tuna poke: Yum


Baguette gratin: Super Yum


Grilled beef tongue. This was good, interesting texture, almost like geoduck. (I've only ever had my mom's braised beef tongue).


Udon vongole: TO DIE FOR!!! It's the chewy texture of the udon that does it for me!


And finally we got to try the black sesame icecream. It was pretty good. It didn't have as much black sesame taste as I've tried elsewhere.

NYC2009

I guess I'm not so good at updating my blog, as I am really behind on this post. Brian, Iris, and I went to New York City 5/24-5/29 for a mini vacation. (Elmer couldn't go because of work.) Since I've been to NY before, I decided to turn this visit into a sort-of food tour. Here are some highlights:

After a sleepless red-eye flight on Virgin America, we arrived at the Grand Hyatt just before 7 a.m. and headed over to Ess-a-Bagel for, of course, bagels with cream cheese and lox.


After the Natural History Museum (too large to fully explore), we stopped for some photos in Central Park.


Dinner at S'mac. Mmmm mac and cheese!


Statue of Liberty


Being silly inside Lady Liberty's pedestal


Then we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and stood in line for about 1.5 hours for a taste of Grimaldi's pizza. Was it worth the wait?


Afterwards, we had ice cream from The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory


Pommes Frites!!! Not such a good picture because we devoured it before stopping to take a picture. The parmesan peppercorn dip (white) was awesome!!! The red one was curry ketchup and the yellow was dijon mayo, I think.


It was windy and cold atop the Empire State Building.


My favorite shot from the NY Botanical Gardens


Lunch at Serendipity 3. Iris's dish of chicken livers was awesome! We finished that off with frozen hot chocolate.




It was drizzling by the time we got to Times Square


A nice shot Brian took of our hotel, with Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building


The Met


A view from the other side of Rockefeller Center


Washington Square


We made the trek over to the original Nathan's Famous at Coney Island. It was definitely worth it. Iris and I each had 2 hot dogs. I think Brian ate 4, or was it 5?


We made numerous cupcake stops, including Crumbs, Magnolia's Bakery, and Buttercup Bake Shop, but these mini cupcakes from Baked by Melissa were the best.


Dinner at Max's. This is my Gnocci.


Iris and Brian each had Max's specialty, lasagna


Iris and I love raw oysters, so we tried some at the Oyster Bar Reataurant


And, finally, what's New York without New York cheescake?

Happy Birthday Elmer

Thirtieth birthdays are usually a really big deal, but Elmer's came and went uneventfully, mostly due to him having to work so much and work odd hours : (

I did get Elmer one of his favorite things, though: strawberry pie! He ate the whole thing (because I don't eat fruit pies, except for apple and pumpkin).

MUSHA

Musha is my new favorite restaurant! They serve izakaya-style Japanese food, which some people like to call Japanese tapas.

This is the harasume salad: glass noodles, shredded chicken, and veggies in a ponzu-sesame oil dressing.


Grill-your-own beef. They brought out this little grill for us to cook our food!


Parmesan cheese risotto. This was awesome! The waiter scoops out the risotto from the block of parmesan. You can see it behind the little grill.


Ebi mayo mayo: Fried shrimp with a thousand island-like dressing, greens, and masago


MFC, or Musha fried chicken


Yakiudon. This dish was my second favorite. The udon noodles were nice and chewy...perfection!


I also wanted to order black sesame icecream, but they were all out : (. Until next time!!!

Golf

Sometime last fall, somehow, Elmer picked up the sport of golf and has been hooked ever since. We decided to take some lessons at Los Verdes Golf Course. The views at this course are amazing, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Elmer's a natural athlete, unlike myself, so he's hitting pretty well (in my opinion). I am so inconsistent day-to-day! I don't think I'll ever be a good, even decent, golfer!