hong kong!

after an hour flight to vancouver bc and a 13 hour flight to hong kong, i finally arrived! i didn't really sleep much on the plane for the first time ever in my life, because the on demand movies kept getting me! i watched the tourist, little fockers, burlesque and going the distance. they were ok. i almost laughed out loud several times during little fockers but reminded myself i was on a plane. they also had oscar titles but i wasn't in the mood for serious cinematography at the time.


anyway, i arrived in hong kong to find that pert's flight was a little delayed so i was going to need to make my way to my aunt's on my own. thank goodness for courtesy phones and subway cards my parents gave me with money leftover on them! after switching several MTR lines and getting numerous stares from people from my huge backpack, i met my family in the subway station!


i've been to hong kong several times prior since my mom's side lives over there so usually when i come, i don't really have a plan except for to walk around and EAT. ha, i know, shocking.


the first day we headed to victoria peak which had amazing views of hong kong from hong kong island. we grabbed some bubble milk tea along the way which hit the spot since it's already fairly warm and humid outside! i went with two of my aunts (one who came from guangzhou just to see me!), their friend who was our tour guide for the day and then pert. i feel like i should preface that pert doesn't usually have creepy asian man facial hair like that. he just isn't shaving until the vacation's over...

[asian man who was oblivious to my picture...]

[victoria peak]

[bubble milk tea!!!]

we headed to stanley park and then to repulse bay which are also on hong kong island. these are more touristy areas but nice to visit. i went into a 7-11 for a snack because i got hungry and totally found a mochi ice cream that i totally forgot about! it made my day. it's starting to become more popular in the us now, but hong kong makes me happy because they have taro flavored things. sometimes they call it ube which i don't quite understand, but i don't question it anyway, mochi is good, and ice cream is good...so obviously the combo of both is just splendid!

[stanley park]

[mochi ice cream]

that night we met up with pert's uncle who owns this reptile shop in mongkok and headed to hotpot. his uncle is pretty bad ass. pert's gonna blog about him so i'll post the link when he's done with it. let's just say he is so bad ass that he can't leave hong kong again for the rest of his life. yea.

[hot pot]

the next day, joe came in from beijing and met up with us at my aunt's. we headed to dim sum and then went to mongkok to walk around with my cousin and their baby girl! i love mongkok. despite how touristy that area is, i have to go there every time i go to hong kong. i just love how lively it is. we'd walk around for a while and then find somewhere with ac and have a snack before moving on again. i didn't really buy or bargain much at ladies street because i don't want to carry it around with me! on another note, i must look more asian these days or something because they no longer address me in english!

[mongkok with my aunt]

[my cousin and baby stella]

that night we headed over to the star ferry waterfront to check out the view. you could call this hong kong's mini version of hollywood blvd. i walked by bruce lee and jackie chan's handprints on the ground. i got some pretty decent pics of the skyline too. thank you nighttime setting.

[star ferry waterfront]

joe had to leave the next day because train tickets were sold out on monday from their labor day holiday earlier that week. after going to dim sum, we dropped him off at the train station and headed over to the gold coast beach to walk around with my family. there was a lot of slow walking that has taken place these past few days but i didn't really mind all that much.

[dim sum]

[saying bye to joe at the train station]

for dinner, we went to this sushi restaurant and had AMAZING salmon. i couldn't believe it. you could order one pound of salmon sashimi for under $20 USD. i think i could eat that for the rest of my life!

currently i'm sitting at the singapore airport at 2:30am typing this. pert and i are headed off to vietnam (ho chi minh) in about 5 hours. haha that's what we get for buying a cheaper plane ticket. i've really enjoyed my time in hong kong. i've had dim sum every single day (which i could do for the rest of my life) and got to spend some time with my mom's side of the family. one thing that's drastically different between asian and american cultures is how generous people are. a prime example of this is what i'll call the bill paying game. i swear to god every single meal there has been a fight for who is gonna pay the bill. who wants to fight over paying, right? i lucked out once and snagged it while my aunt wasn't looking. joe had to grab the check when my aunt bent over to pick something off the ground another time cause she was guarding it like a hawk. today, pert got it when i begged the cashier to take his card instead of my uncle's. my cousin suki was the SNEAKIEST of them all and claimed she was going to the bathroom but took care of the bill without any of us knowing when we had sushi. paying for the bill is a polite gesture but i also think it's a gesture of love. from what i've experienced in many asian cultures, many people show their love through food as opposed to words. this definitely rings true in my family!

...and i'm off!

as some of you know, i'm taking off tomorrow (10:20am from pdx to be exact) to see the world for a while!  yes, i quit my job, moved out of seattle and have no plan for what's going to happen when i come back.  but i'm ok with it.  weird, huh?  the girl who's always had the next step figured out suddently doesn't.  whoops.  you could say that i'm going on my own eat pray love adventure...but replace the pray with drink and that'll probably be more realistic!

i'm planning on keeping this blog updated while i'm away to keep everyone posted on my (mis)adventures.  i'll do my best to post food but you never know what kind of wifi i'll encounter along the way.  

here's the itinerary i'll be following these next few months.  definitely let me know if you feel like meeting up along the way because i'd love it!  at this point i'm doing portugal solo...

5/5-5/9: hong kong
5/9-5/18: vietnam
5/18-5/24: laos
5/24-6/2: philippines
6/2-6/6: indonesia
6/6-6/10: singapore
6/10-6/20: greece
6/20-7/10: spain
7/10-7/20: portugal

i've been spending all day slowly packing and it's been painful.  i'm the most indecisive person ever so packing three months into a backpack was NOT EASY.  here's where i landed...debate is still up in the air if i'm going to bring my running shoes but i am gonna try to fit those in.  i'm also going sans blowdryer so the hair is going to be one hot mess.  i'm about to get realllll hippy for the next few months.  you can take the girl out of oregon, but you can't take the oregon out of the girl ;)

bucket list cont'd

as promised, here are the last of my food exploits before i moved out of seattle.  i should really be packing right now seeing as i leave for three months tomorrow...but clearly you see where my priorities lie. ;)

i went out to dinner with photobucket for work and we hit up emmer and rye again.  for my entree, i got the seared albacore tuna which was delicious!  they paired it with some pesto, orange, coriander and fennel which was a nice twist.  i feel like lots of places usually put an asian twist on this so this was a pleasant change.

on my last day of work, john (lovely partner from focus rally) treated me to salumi (mario batali's dad's cured meats shop)!!! i got the hot sopressata sandwich with fresh mozzarella, onions and peppers.  it was to die for!  i could only eat half and then saved the rest for later.

then i had to go visit my friend navi at adobe, so we got lunch as kostas opa in fremont.  i wanted everything so i did just that.  got the plate that had bites of everything!  there was a little gyro meat, mousaka, dolmades and spanakopita.  the mousaka was probably my favorite.  it's essentially greek lasagna with bechamel. SO good. the veggies and potatoes i passed on.  they were not the most appealing...

oh, and we got free baklava for dessert.  the pastry was perfectly flaky.

my friend aj and i hit up facing east in bellevue on thursday night.  it was my first time there and it was really good!  usually i'm not big on taiwanese food, but this changed my perspective a little.  below are the garlic string beans.  these are essentially the equivalent of the garlic fries you get at safeco, but replace the fries with string beans.  you def don't wanna make out with anyone afterwards!

then we got five spice breaded chicken nuggets served with fried basil and pickled cucumbers.  these were really tasty.  the breading is a lot lighter than your mcdonalds chicken nuggets and much healthier i'm sure...

we also got the taiwanese style chow mein.  this was alright.  they didn't really have a description on the menu but we ordered it anyway.  your standard chow mein.

this was really tasty! it's a taiwanese pork hamburger.  haha yeah...i don't know that i would call it that but it had marinated pork with cilantro and pickled vegetables enclosed by a bun.  it was delicious!  we ate it in 2 bites...

alright, then for my last day in town, i hit up seatown snackbar (a tom douglas establishment) with angela and will.  long story short, there was a mix up in reservations (on the restaurant's part) therefore they offered me lunch for three!  below is an arugula corn salad with soynuts, parmesan and orange zest.  it was really tasty but i could've done without the orange zest...or at least a toned down version of it.  it just overpowered everything else.

then we got the sticky ribs! these were really good, but the meat was a little dry.  i like that they included some legit chinese hot mustard.

then because ang and i wanted everything on the menu, we decided to split the dungeness crab blt and the chicken pot pie.  the blt was amazing.  it was the perfect amount of each ingredient including some pickles and the bread was the ideal bread you'd want on a sandwich.  not too hard, not too soft.

the pot pie was also yummy, but i feel like my blt was a little better.  the crust was great and the filling was good.  i just wished that the actual filling pieces were cut smaller.  the chunks of potatoes were quite large (seasoned with rosemary) and the same went for the chicken.

i know.  i ate A LOT these last two weeks and i haven't stepped on a scale cause i'm in denial about it.  haha just kidding...but not really.  i'm sad to leave seattle's amazing food community but i'm about to embark on some global cuisine so i'm excited about that!  the key now is to avoid food poisoning...definitely packing some immodium in preparation.  i learned my lesson in egypt!

my bucket list

naturally when i decided to move away from seattle, i had to make a bucket list of restaurants to hit up before i bid this city farewell. go ahead...judge...but then again...are you all that surprised??  some of the places are just restaurants i enjoy while others are specific dishes i love.  well in no particular order, here is the deliciousness that i've devoured in the past two weeks!

quinn's bone marrow with escargot and tomatoes. this was a little bit of a letdown because liya and i couldn't figure out where the marrow was...laugh it up.  the escargot was alright.  i'm not a huge fan but it takes a lot for me not to eat something.


pork belly also at quinn's.  this was really good. had a nice apple chutney to go with it. good balance with the saltiness of the pork.


oxtail ragout with gnocchi! this was definitely my favorite dish at quinn's.  it was so tender and the gnocchi was pan fried a little which gave it good texture.


musashi's chirashi bowl.  fresh and delicious cuts of raw fish with sushi rice underneath.  need i say more?  i always sub shrimp for something else because let's be honest, cooked shrimp is a waste when i could eat more salmon ;)


paseo's midnight cuban press sandwich. i will miss this place so much!  this sandwich in particular has ham, pork roast, banana peppers, caramelized onions (the best part!) and swiss pressed with their yummy aioli and crusty bread.  yeah...i thought i would only eat half.  not so much.


portage bay's southwest eggs & grits.  this was okay.  the grits were made of yellow corn, cheddar and jalepenos with poached eggs, spinach and an ancho chili tomato sauce.  it lacked salt and the grits can't compare to toulouse petit's.  the fruit was good though!


la carta de oaxaca's 'entomatadas' plate aka grilled thin sliced beef with homemade tomatillo sauce, tortillas stuffed with with oaxacan cheese, onions, and mexican crema.  it sounds simple but the flavors were unbelievable!  you know it's good when you show up on any given night and it's packed with people waiting in every open area possible.  i can't believe this was my first and last time ever here :(

i'm not done..more to come still!

Seattle Restaurant Week

although i've been completely lazy lately, the least i could do is post my restaurant week adventures. truth be told i haven't done a whole lot of cooking since i came back from focus rally. just haven't really been in the mood, and now i'm moving in a week so i need to eat my way through seattle before i leave for good :)

luckily restaurant week has been happening these past two weeks so i've been able to take advantage for one last time. the first outing was at canlis for my birthday on 4/11. yes...that's right. canlis. for the unfamiliar, it's arguably the nicest restaurant in seattle with a gorgeous view of lake union. mostly this happened because i happened to see on my facebook feed that the restaurants were announced, i peeked at the options, saw canlis and immediately called and made a reservation. did i know who was coming? course not. did i book for as many people as i could? hell yea i did. turns out that 5 people had called also in the last 4 minutes. people don't mess around.

for my first course i had the canlis salad which was great. i've had it before so i knew what to expect. everything was tossed well and they add mint to it which is a nice touch.

the entree was papardelle with fava beans, a tomato confit, peashoots and meatballs. the meatballs were tasty and the pasta was good, but it was missing a sauce to tie it together.

desert was a rhubarb shortbread desert with strawberry sorbet and the added touch of a candle for my birthday :) it was delicious.

stop number two of restaurant week was this last tuesday at emmer and rye on upper queen anne. i've passed by it many times and its always looked so cute so i gave it a try. my appetizer was really good! some greens with house cured salmon, fromage blanc and pickled mushrooms on a baguette. the acidity helped make the dish feel lighter.

the entree i chose was grass fed beef bolognese. this was absolutely TO DIE for. everything about it was perfect, even the curl of the pasta. it was so flavorful and a 'flavor explosion in our mouths', as my roomie put it ;)

then came the dessert. these were fudgey brownies with a rye caramel sauce and hazelnuts. they were amazing! the brownies were a little crisp on the edges and then you had the fudge and i ate every single bite. the hazelnuts added some more flavor. i didn't even miss the ice cream.


tonight was the last restaurant week dinner which took place at art in the four seasons downtown. i started off with a stout pork cheek dish with endives done three ways. i liked it, but thought it could've used some sweetness. there were also coffee grounds on the plate so that combined with the stout made it a little bitter almost. the pork was very very tender and the endives were great.


this is probably the best cod i've ever had in my LIFE. it was sooo smooth and flavorful. it had soy flavors and was just cooked to perfection. the mushrooms and pepper relish were also very nice.


for desert i had the strawberry pavlova which was another lighter option. there was also strawberry sorbet with a balsamic reduction to make it a little savory. it was good but i probably wouldn't waste my time on pavlova again.


well there you have my restaurant week adventures. i'm sad that this was my last one, but i'm sure wherever i move to will have something similar!

i suck...i'm sorry

i know...it's been ages since i've updated. i was doing so well until i left for focus rally and then after i got back, shit hit the fan...metaphorically.

long story short, i won focus rally america, i quit my job (last day is 4/27), i'm moving out of seattle (4/30), and i'm going traveling for about 3 months starting 5/4. what's the plan after i get back from seeing the world? wish i could tell you. the world is my oyster?

YEP. girl went crazy. or you could call it a quarter life crisis. i did turn 25 this last monday afterall ;)