Sunday, May 4, 2014

food Food FOOD


Oh hi!

So this post is mainly about food. To be honest, I was going to post more about one thing...but it turns out I have more recent photos of food than anything else! Of course, photos are of some of my top favorite foods

Boba



A quaint little place in Berkeley. The tea house has this lofty industrial warehouse look. Boba here is actually pretty good compared to the others I have had in NorCal (and this is closer too!). A lot of students come here to study and lounge, so it has a nice quiet/lounge ambiance.

Korean BBQ





Korean bbq in LA is amazing: low price + all-you-can-eat. When I say low price, I am talking about $10/person for dinner, and you can eat all the meat you want. Up here in NorCal, I have not found a place with that kind of pricing yet, however, this one place had pretty good ratings so Obiwon, Stef, Williana, and I decided to swoop in. $20/person.

Server/waiter was super enthusiastic! He brought good energy to the table and kept us entertained. The selection was good, and service was great. If you plan on going, be sure to call in for a reservation because the queue at the door is LONG!

Food Trucks




One of the things I look forward to at the end of the month! Every month, Treasure Island has a flea market with local shops posting their goods for sale. A lot of homemade and vintage items can be found here, and at good variety and price!

A bonus to this is that a string of food trucks are always available for those who are hungry! In front of the trucks is a nice space of grass for people to lounge and eat. Often there would be live bands/artists playing their music for everyone. Very relaxing!

We were fortunate enough to go on a beautiful day! We were able to get a nice view of the city and the weather was very promising, with exception to the insane winds.

High Tea

 OOTD










All four of us went to to Japantown to have high tea. Though Crown & Crumpet is more like a pit-stop version of high tea, it is quite good. If you do not have the time for high tea, try going to Crown & Crumpet. Nothing is rushed, but it does not have the ambiance to make you linger THAT long. Why? Because it is located in Peace Plaza, with shops like MARUQ (carrys Aymmy, Liz Lisa, Tralala, etc.) and Baby, the Stars Shine Bright.

-

Aside from some foods, I have been trying to get a green thumb. More greenery calms a person, so I have been potting some things for the apartment.



Hope everyone's weekend has been just as pleasant!

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Cherry Blossom Festival in SF Japantown +

Hello all!!

( ^_^)/ やぁ!



As many may know, the past few weekends have been filled with activity in Japantown due to Cherry Blossom Festival!

I had missed out on it during the first week, so I tried my best to make it to the second week!

FOTD
I finally took the time to use my 3-prong Conair hair curler/waver that was gifted to me on Christmas by Rayna! A light mist of hairspray all over and my mermaid waves stayed on the whole day! FOTD courtesy of Rayna again, because she got me Naked 3, which has pink neutrals and browns.



To go with the pinkish theme, I wore a dusty pink/neutral flowy blouse (H&M) with a black mini peplum skirt (Zara) for some contrast. To give a more tamed look, I wore the pointy maryjane flatforms (unbranded), and finished it up with a pop of color with my orange Kate Spade cross-body bag.

Upon arriving Japantown, Obiwon and I started hunting for parking..

..for at least an hour.

We gave up and parked at a market nearby, only to later find 3 tow trucks removing cars from the lots (the parking is for customers only). We ran into Nijiya market to grab some food quickly, ran to the food booths and shoved our faces, and left to find something else to do. We did not want to risk getting the car towed.

Sadly, that was how my one hour in Japantown was during the festival. At the very least we were able to enjoy the festival food, but with such a short amount of time, I did not take any photos.

ヽ(  ̄д ̄;)ノ オテアゲー
Green tea daifuku from Nijiya Market

Filled with red bean!

Kirin Peach & Raspberry drink. New favorite!


Trying to find something to do, Obiwon and I decided to stop by to get some coffee then peruse around Muji.

I feel quite lucky that Muji is now more available in California. More recently, a store has opened in SoCal! The one that Obiwon and I went to is in SoMa.


I love that Muji gives us such simple designs that do everything we want. Getting the innovative Japanese products we want is always hard since it usually costs more than I can really afford. Fortunately, Muji makes everything easier for me! My small haul:

Face brush, wire organizer, cotton L/S shirt, wash bucket
I made these small purchases as a way to start migrating towards a more simpler design lifestyle (though I tend to go back and forth). The face brush is typically used by men to apply shaving cream to their beards before shaving. However, I purchased this as a manual version of the popular Clairsonic face brush. My skin is relatively sensitive, and Clairsonic is quite pricey for me, and so I opted for a manual brush. This face brush is made of white horse hairs and hinoki wood, and gives a wonderful fresh and woodsy fragrance! The wire organizer is for my sink as my facial products are taking up space and makes my sink area look messy. It looks a lot better now! The L/S shirt is so soft, and the colors are nice and mellow, great for lounging and wearing out casually. The wash bucket is mainly for face-washing since my sink is so deep, I end up taking forever filling my sink and use up more water than I need to.

That was essentially my Cherry Blossom Festival experience. Quite disappointed as I did not get to take my time to see everything (but no regrets on the Muji purchases!).

On another note, I have taken a few photos of my outfits since I had just recently got a mirror in my room!
ASOS, Uniqlo, Zara, Sperry, Coach

H&M, vintage, Gap, Sperry

H&M, Zara, unbranded, Kate Spade

And some food!

Homemade dumpling with noodles

Homemade pork ribs

Homemade pork chops and chicken soup

Homemade sandwich

Homemade...epic bread lol

Talon Update
I finally took the opportunity to take better photos of Talon in the new apartment. He seems to enjoy his new home!





Though I was not able to go to the festival, my apartment-mate Stef came back from SakuraCon with a small gift for me:
This super cute pencil pouch! Light colors and big size, great as a makeup bag, or pencil bag, or even a small errand bag (ex. for receipts, pen, checklist, small change, etc.).

Thank you Stef!

Hopefully I get to go to Japantown events earlier and miss out on the traffic and parking havoc next time.

How was your weekend?

Sunday, March 30, 2014

BACK! :)

I AM BACK!!!!
ヾ(^∇^)♪


In case you forgot what I look like..

I decided to dress up (put on makeup LOL) on the weekends since my weekend priorities have been shifted so I do not leave my apartment (a.k.a. trying to fake being not lazy). -cough- FFXIV -cough-

It has been quite some time, but let me say, moving took up quite some time. Settling in took even MORE! X_X

Although it has been like..2 months since I have moved, I do not have everything furnished, even though I live SUPER close to an IKEA now...

...and I live on top of a shopping center...


..with the theater in walking distance.


Strangely enough, I am not broke (yet). Lol!!

So here is a small visual update on the recent events. I have been cooking a lot more now, and have been packing my time up with important things..

..like FFXIV.


Before I get into that, it would not be worth the move if it weren't for the fact that I am moving in with a friend I have known for over 10 years!! Fortunately enough, Stef had started working up in NorCal  before I did, and her lease was ending by the time I needed to find an apartment. And now we are roomies! \( ´ ▽ ` )ノ♪(ノ´∀`*)ノ

On to photos!


You all know my baby Talon! He/She (seriously I still do not know what gender Talon is..everyone says Talon is a girl though) loves the new apartment since our windows face the sun (North), so we get wonderful daylight through the year. Talon update:






Talon has grown quite big compared to when I first got him! He has been pretty spoiled too; just look at that last photo =_=i

In the first photo is my friend John holding Talon (Talon liked that his hand was really warm so he just stayed there haha). Our friends actually came by the apartment to visit us; they did a mini-roadtrip all the way up to see our new apartment!


And yes, in the end, we spent our weekend draining our bandwidth as we all indulged in video games.

Since the move, the most documented item would be food:
Korean casserole
 This dish actually confused me because I thought it was like the american casserole..
..but this tasted so much better. So good!

Homemade sandwich!

Homemade stuffed ciabatta: mushrooms, cheese, turkey, onion, garlic butter.

Homemade wonton soup
So far, this has to be the one thing I am most proud of making! I really wanted to make wontons, so I got ingredients at the local Asian supermarket and had Obiwon and Stef help with making them! SUPER EASY AND DELICIOUS! I even made my own broth. Tasted so healthy~

And lastly..
Leather Daniel Wellington watch
A gift from Obiwon (*^・^)CHU〜☆

Yuna Concert

She sounds SO amazing live. So amazing.



I'm slowly gathering things to do regular posts again. Hope you dolls are having a wonderful weekend!