Day 20: THE HALFWAY POINT!

As we reach the pivotal 50%, halfway point, hump day, etc. I have come upon some recent ruminations and observations which I'd love to share with you guys.

1) One of the reasons why I hate this so much is that choices are literally taken away from me. Now I know that I remove maybe 10% of menu items because of their dairy or cheesy-ness, but that is by my own personal choice, and aversion to dairy. When 60-70% of a menu is just not available to me, it's really frustrating. The loss of meat doesnt seem as bad when there are delicious alternatives waiting, but usually when faced with duck, veal, and lamb on a menu, I just feel like throwing back my head and weeping. (Which, if you've been along for the ride, you probably have seen).

2) I have saved a LOT of money. Let me explain why:
2a - Vegetarian options are cheaper - I guess because of the market prices for tofu and veggies, versus a cow and chicken, I really save quite a bit of money when I go out. Additionally, I can't share a lot of meals with others (as I used to) so instead of having a bit of 4 meals, I usually have 1 meal all to myself.
2b - Because of reason #1, I am not as eager to go out to eat as I usually am. When I'm at home, it's just that much easier to be faced with only the ingredients I can consume. Also, when I purchase groceries, the unit cost of stuff spread out over a week will cost me usually less than what I used to spend in one meal!

3) See reason 2b.. when I don't go out, it doesn't mean I don't want to spend time with my friends. So instead of a night out, we'll cook together for a day in (see Sunday brunch and the delicious binge that ensued). Put down better friendships and more adventures as reason #3!

4) I still love. LOVE. LOVE. meat.

In the following 20 days, I still have ahead of me:

1) Another trip to NYC!
2) A guest post by Stego about his meat-less experience
3) The home stretch.. 7 days of pure vegetarianism at its roots - no meat, no fish. The horror!
4) The anticipation of my first meat meal

Day 19: My Introduction to Soy Chicken (and other short stories)

Today I met up with my fellow dinos: P, J, D, and G. All participants (runners + driver) in the Ragnar Relay, we met to strategize and obviously eat.. as these are quite frankly, our favorite activities.

First, I'm proud to say, P and I did a short run through West LA to get our hearts pumping (steep hills up make for scary flrunning down. Flrunning, for your information, means that you're running so fast you literally have to flap your arms a little bit to keep yourself from tumbling). Then it was onto dinner. Except.. all the dinos in my group LOVE meat. Imagine to our horror when we tried to find a place that everyone wanted to eat! Trust me.. this isn't as easy as it might seem. Each person has had lunch already at a certain genre that they don't want to re-eat, each person has had dinner the night before at a certain genre that they don't want to re-eat, and Thursday nights have still quite the long line and wait (and at 8 pm, this was not an option to 2 very hungry runners subsisting off of one orange and a coke zero).

So as we were driving around, we came upon this cute little Indian Restaurant. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that this hotspot was actually a full vegetarian joint.

In essence, what you do is choose from a variety of different dishes. You pick 3, and a choice of bread (naan, garlic naan, or roti) and get yogurt, salad, and voila! A fantastic dinner. Among the choices were jackfruit (something that was new to me), Spicy Chickpeas, and lo and behold.. Soy Chicken Tikka Masala. I couldn't believe when I saw this. I know that Morningstar has produced plenty of meat-less options, but to have it transformed into a age-old meal! If only they had soy chicken tikka masala kati rolls...drool.



Piling up on our mini dishes, we came away with our food, which turned out into a mini-feast: This is before the garlic naan and the mango juice. Really quite delicious! I will say this though.. after 19 days of the "land-meat-free" diet, this came as a great find for Stego & myself.. while to my other dino friends, it was a pretty big shock without any type of meat available. It really brought to my mind the changes that have quietly occurred behind the scenes during my fast thus far.

To be discussed in the next post. but first, a little blast to the past for you all (credit to P for this one).. who remembers the sham-WOW?

Day 18: The Rube Goldberg Experiment (to music)

From Wikipedia:
A Rube Goldberg machine is a deliberately over engineered machine that performs a simple task in a very complex fashion, usually includig a chain reaction. The expression is named after American cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg.

This band is incredibly talented (if you don't remember them, think back to that fantastic treadmill video) - and doesn't get enough exposure if you ask me. I just read an article that although this video is getting a ridiculous amount of hits.. its record sales in the US aren't even hitting 25,000. Time to support their amazing and innovative stuff!

Day 17: Running Interlude

As I've said, my secondary goal (aside from talking about the meat-less goal with pretty much everyone all the time) is to get fit in time for the Ragnar Relay. I feel like with about just a little more than half way to go, and also because I honestly cannot remember what I ate yesterday(when you work from home, your lunches and dinners become somewhat a mixture of bagels for breakfast, something thrown together for lunch, and ramen or wine for dinner) I will use the rest of these week's posts to talk about... exercise.

Or in my case, lack of. I just got the official email assigning the runners (there are 12 of us on the team) the legs and their difficulty. Mine are 4.8 (medium), 3.8 (easy), and 5.5 (hard). I should also mention that I am Runner 12.

This means that I will not only end on the hardest, longest leg of the race, but I will also end the race. As in.. run in all my sweaty, painful glory to cross (or crawl, whichever is more convenient) to the finish line. My teammates assure me that they'll all run the last 300 yards with me, but I'm equally as confident when I tell them that they won't want to get a single yard close to me when they see the agony on my face climbing (or limping) up that last hill.

The fun part of the race is that 6 of us will all get to be hanging out in a van for close to 36 sweat-filled hours. I swear, if there is even a DROP of bengay somewhere... someone is going to feel cold Gatorade drip on their face as they try to sleep.

Anyhow.. I drove to LA last night to keep Stego company, and to see some of my buddies to discuss the race and the logistics. Next stop.. LA!

Day 16: Wow, she doesn't eat out ALL the time?

So the common theme in this blog is the various food that I take when I go out. In fact, probably 95% of the posts have been around restaurant-created food. So when I write about a home-cooked meal, most of my (dear) friends suspect the following:

1) I have not cooked any of the meal - instead it was Stego

2) I ordered in and pretended it was home-cooked

3) I flew my mother in from SF and had her cook (by the way, I don't know if I've yet said this, but my mother is hands down the best chef in all of America. Possibly the world. I'm not biased.)

However, some of those are just silly, for the following reasons:

1) If I order in, I'm usually not that smart. You'd see a napkin with the restaurant logo somewhere, or those cheap wooden chopsticks. Dead giveaway.

2) My mother has gleefully told me that the day I moved away, it has become my responsibility to cook dinner for her instead of the other way around. True story; my brother and I cooked Christmas dinner for my parents last year. They entrusted ME with the menu. We did couscous and greek chicken. Worked great with the Christmas snow falling in the Northern California area.

Hence.. default to option #1. Stego was able to work from home on Monday, and as a fantastic dino boyfriend he is, he threw together the random food lying around our kitchen to create the following meal:

Yes, folks. We had some citrus-dijon cod, pepper salad, and a small bowl of asparagus (yes! this was my contribution! and incidentally, my best dish. Garlic, you are too kind to me).

We took a recipe from our local grocery store which discussed the various ways to prepare this slightly tougher-ish fish, which included the mixture of dijon mustard + orange. While this may (and still does) seem a strange entanglement, nowadays anything is fair game (may I refer you to Kermit the Frog & Gaga, Giraffes & Otters, Tequila & ANYTHING?)

Anyhow, these kind of meals are my favorite, because this directly faces our 100" wide projector screen, which serves as our psuedo movie theater, where we can watch our favorite shows on our couch in our PJs.

Bon Appetit!

Day 15: Return to California (at least temporarily)

UPDATE GALORE!

After a bit of a hectic (read: Bad Weather + Poor Handling = Never flying Delta again, and falling in love with JetBlue) re-routes and mis-starts, my expected Saturday night flight (landing in San Diego at 11:30 pm) turned into a Sunday afternoon flight into LAX with an additional train ride, getting me into Solana Beach at approximately 6:30 pm on Sunday. Very sadly, I missed Stego's race (he placed 40th out of 250, fast guy) but I did catch a gorgeous sunset and a dinner at a little tapas-like bistro.


As we both are adhering to the no-land-meat policy, we chose some hummus with flatbread along with some new england crab cakes:

Yum! Although the hummus was not like my usual indulgence (and when I say indulgence I mean that I'm getting used to rolling around the pita in the Mediterrean Hummus from Trader Joe's like that child Pigpen in the Charlie Brown comics. Yup. Think that kid in dirt. That's how my pita feels when it touches the surface of that hummus), I found it quite tasty after going almost 10 hours without human food (read: salted peanuts and pretzels do not count). The crab cakes were also good but I tend to prefer them really creamy and flaky; these had a lot of lumps but Stego enjoyed them and I let him take most of it.

Since I had by this point inhaled almost 2 waffles-worth of pita (think big, 50 pound waffles) - we decided to split the fish special, which was grilled mahi-mahi.

Oh mahi... how you never fail me. This one was particularly good because there was some sort of chili-aioli (and believe you me, I really love anything with aioli in it because it implies some sort of tangy tasty goodness..) lightly spread on the roll. This morsel also had tomatoes, lettuce, and onions, staples that should never be forgotten with a fish sandwich. In my mind, it nicely complements the .. well.. fishy part. As you can see, I didn't actually remember to take a picture until after I pretty much shoved half of it into my mouth into one big bite. Whoops.

Afterwards (no pictures of this) but Stego and I took a nice little walk along the ocean. For anyone who is around this area, Solana Beach is great for post-dinner walking... we even found a swingset that literally sits at the top of a hill leading to the beach. So at night-time, you can swing and it seems like you are going into the stars! A very heady (and slightly tilty) way to end Sunday night.

Day 14: Dim Sum (and then some)

I couldn't help myself with that title. On Saturday, after a long night at the bar/club/chicken and rice stand where I was taunted by my oh-so-wonderful friends, we ended up in Flushing for the night. The next morning, I dragged my very tired self to Dim Sum in Flushing. Being that weekends are prime time for the Tapas of Asia (as I like to call it), we beat the lunch crowd and got there just in time for all the goodies to be rolled past us.

Now, I have to say one thing about dimsum. For some reason, I had always assumed that a large majority of the food was centered around seafood. Shrimp rolls, Fried Shrimp Balls, etc. However, it turned out I was vastly mistaken. Congee had pork mixed in. Tons of pork dishes were wheeled by my sad unsuspecting nose. And even Chicken Feet, strange as it sounds, began to hold a big appeal.

We ended up with a mixture of items, which were placed at our table. How delicious! My favorite thing to do is take a ton of red sauce, lightly sprinkle it with soy sauce, and dunk my shrimp wrap/dumpling/etc. unceremoniously in it until it too becomes a nice reddish hue. Fantastic!

What also struck my fancy was the ginormous crab that was chilling out in their tank. Kudos for the freshness of their seafood.. but man that guy could star in the next Terminator movie.

Great food for a great price.. I'd always recommend Dimsum, especially for a rainy day where you feel like eating a lot!

Day 13: A short break from food

This would be typically where I discuss my food on Friday. Unfortunately, Friday turned out to be one of those days where the weather interfered, and drinking took precedence. Hence, I will take this post and turn it into.. a video blog! (Credit to Nikki for this find)

Favorite Video Ever:

Surprised Kitty - watch more funny videos

Day 12: The Day I Met the Lobster Roll

For dinner after a long day's of work, I decided to meet up with my old college buddies L & M. Originally we were going to go to K-town (which then would have been a repeat of the same pictures, same restaurant, and same food) - but then I decided to put a spin on it and go for something completely new to me: The Lobster Roll.

I had seen a friend's food blog rave about the Lobster Roll and how a simple sandwich was transformed into a majestic piece of finery, due to the immense chunks of lobster that was gently placed in a butter roll and lightly doused with mayo. I decided to give it a shot and go to Pearl's Oyster Bar located down towards the East Village:

My oh my, is this a rocking little joint. Not only were there only about 10-15 tables in the restaurant (and very cozy at that), I happened to see a friend from high school (who journeyed all the way from the 100s!) and another friend who both walked in at that time. After approximately a 30 minute wait, the 3 of us looked at the menu, and immediately ordered what caught our eye.

For me, it was the half-dozen Blue Point Oysters that began my experience at Pearl's. 30 seconds later, I can say that those were great, just enough salt and just the right flavor to whet my appetite for what was to come.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the big cahuna of lobster rolls. Coming in at about 27 bucks per sandwich, this is packed with chunks of lobster (including the tail), slathered in mayo, and accompanied by shoestring fries. I will give the following observations:
- The lobster was delicious but there was so much mayo I actually wiped a ton off on the plate itself. It was just so filling and rich that it actually took away from the lobster taste which I love so much
- The bread was richly buttered, which usually I'm not the biggest fan of, but it paired well with the lobster
- Again because of the mayo, I actually wished for more lettuce to balance the sandwich out
- The fries were thin and just crisp enough. Ranked quite highly in my book (they're similar to the fries found at Continental Midtown in Philadelphia).

All in all, I would say that the lobster roll is a great experience, but I doubt I would go back. That or I will need some sort of strainer to keep the sandwich in its purest form.

To end this post, I'll post up the video of Man V. Food where Adam Richmond takes on the oyster challenge. 180 in total.

Day 11: Ruminations on the 1st Quarter

As we've hit a fourth of my journey, I'd like to look at my eating behavior so far and its impacts on my social life, professional life, and general outlook on life.

Here's the thing people: IT SUCKS. Yes, most people say, "Oh, don't worry. Before you know it, you won't even realize that you're leaving meat out of your diet."

Uhh... yes, I do. Every time I'm faced with a menu, or every time that I'm peering into my freezer for a fast Hot Pocket, or even every time I have the 3:00 snack munchies (mmm yea that's right Shake Shack burger.. top it off!) I've really become so used to meat in my every day life that I'm acutely aware of its absence whenever I sit down to eat. Yes, I can still have seafood and there are plenty of alternatives.. but that's what it still remains to me. Alternatives.

In the real world, children dance around maypoles made of brazilian bbq carvings, while elsewhere, couples are starting in each others eyes over a big hulk of steaming steak. It's not just the main meal either -- I think I like have the enhancement of duck to accompany my curry, or having just the right amount of chicken to garnish my lunch salad. Without these additional "nice to haves".. it just doesn't feel the same.

So below I'd like to list out the things I am really craving at this moment:
1) Kalbi
2) Any sandwich with chicken
3) Duck Pad Thai, or Duck Dumplings
4) Bonchon/Kyochon Chicken
5) Gyros
6) Chicken & Rice
7) Lamb Kebabs
8) Mapo Tofu with Pork (This is KEY)

And these are just the ones that keep floating to the top of my head as I sit here.

Furthermore, I'd like to point that although I've given up meat.. I think I am having what is commonly known as the meat sweats. I.E... difficulty in consuming alcohol (without its bff, meat), lethargy and prone to open weeping, swearing and yelling at others with meat. But alas.. 30 more days of this await me, so until then.. I'll be munching down on french fries and soda to keep the depression at bay.

Day 10: New York Epic Tuesday

Hello readers,

So I apologize for my lack of updation in the past week. Whenever I travel to New York, any or all productive well-intentioned activities get thrown out the window and replaced with dissemination of currency, lapses in judgement, and well... dance-offs. All these things really don't benefit anyone (maybe the economy), but I have left you all hanging.. and so for that I will be blogging the remainder of my week to keep you all up to date. My apologies.

For my Tuesday, I keep a tradition with 4 friends called Epic Tuesday. Derived out of pure boredom, and the common thought that Tuesday is by far the worst day of the week (not quite Hump Day, but over the weekend high), we decided to create events that would make us look forward to this dreaded day. Even as I moved out of New York, we have kept it alive and have all attended every Epic Tuesday when the 5 of us are in the city. To keep our group anonymous, I will name the participants as follows: Fatty, Boo, High Five, and D.

We usually switch off our Tuesdays by drinking events or eating delights. For this particular Tuesday, we chose to go with culinary consciousness. More specifically... frequenting this place:

Sushi Yasuda. Simplistic Designs. Solid Food. We began the dinner with two appetizers; the Monkfish Liver and the Sea Bass.



The sea bass was lightly coated with a flaky crust and was so soft and supple.. it literally took me 3 times to get the fish on my fork. It was also gone in about 5 bites (one for each of us).

The monkfish liver had a unique taste, but was also incredible soft to the tongue and pleasantly with no sort of aftertaste.

I could really speak on and on about how much I love sushi.. or I could just show you the best part of the meal:

Ah yes. 5 different types of sashimi with 2 sushi rolls to accompany. I would compare this fish with Sugarfish's sashimi. Really fresh and tender, tons of flavor, really no need for any sort of acoutrement on top. However, I would say that the sushi rolls were a little lacking (plain fish inside, rice wasn't the best I've had).

For $22 bucks a person for this entree, it's not a bad deal.. and surprisingly, it leaves one feeling quite full (I know, I didn't think so either, but those fish have a way of sneaking up on you).


To finish up, my friend G had gotten our group some cupcakes (yes, 3rd time's a charm.. or an extra stomach roll) from Magnolia Cupcakes.

Chocolate, 2 Carrot Cake, 2 Red Velvet, and Coconut. They were gobbled up in approximately 30 seconds.

To finish up the night, we went to Leisure Time Bowl, a bowling alley located in the heart of Port Authority. Yes, the bus terminal. While it seems unlikely that this could be an appropriate place to show off the best that Miami, California, and New York could offer, it had a great Night Owl Special which was 29 bucks for 2 hours of bowling, shoes, and this maginificent yard of Yeungling.


Between the beer, the dancing, and the oh-so-mature name calling, another Epic Tuesday was successful in accomplishing its mission.. being hung over for Wednesday.

On to Hump Day!

New York I hate you (Monday)

Usually when I think of New York, the following things come to mind: Amazing friends, Epic Tuesday (more on that during tomorrow's post), and fooding. So much fooding. However, when it's all said and done, the elimination of meat really colors every relationship I have with the city. Doesn't matter that my friends are here... I want to slap them silly everytime they stick a delicious slider in my face or warble on and on about chicken and rice (YES I am speaking to you). Epic Tuesday is not so Epic when your very drunk self can't go to the normal kati roll joint and pick up some chicken tan-AWESOME. And fooding.. oh fooding. Let me give you just a short example of what I am missing:
Exhibit A: The beef. For dinner a bunch of colleagues and I decided to hit up the K-town classic BCD Tofu House. As fellow meat eaters, they decided to get some kalbi to supplement their tofu soups. It was placed RIGHT in front of me. I think my resolve almost broke when it was sizzling, smelling delicious...

I had to pretty much stick my face into this lovely thing to forget about my troubles:

Thank you soon dubu (with not-so-fresh oysters) for being so delicious. and salty. Although burping you up post-meal was not the best feeling in the world (especially when you're running on a treadmill) the high sodium and subsequent red overload was worth it.

Every slurpy spoonful.

Day 8: Pancakes and Green Things and Boils, oh my!

For brunch on Sunday, I went over to my friend J & K's house. They are fully stocked with a kitchen with tons of sauces and goodies, as well as counter space and tools galore. This would turn out to be quite useful for our brunch which included the following:
1) Home-made Korean Pancakes: This is one of the easiest things to make around. Take some pre-bought store mix, and basically add water and whatever you'd like for a fantastic pancake. Our version had these ingredients -Clams, Baby Shrimp, Scallions, Onions, and the kick in the pants winner, Kimchi. Faaaantastic.

2) Seafood Boil. A couple of days before, J&K had made their own version of a seafood boil, which basically meant that they threw any and all types of seafood into a large pot and stirred in some sort of cajun spices and sauces and let it sit for a million hours until everything just kind of combined into a delicious red mixture.. not unike the meals you see at restaurants.

Here it is... look at those sexy legs! To that, I say.. YES WE CAN (eat).
Nom to the max.

3) At the last minute I had thought to bring over about 15 stalks of asparagus that needed to be cooked and consumed before I went to NYC for the week. J went and took about 5 cloves of garlic, some of the leftover onion from our pancake mixins', and did a perfect steamed asparagus to complement and complete our meal.

At the end, here were the final products: The pancake close up:








And the money shot:
Yea to a fantastic Sunday brunch.. and what a great send-off before my gluttony in NYC. Wish me luck as I am tempted by a bunch of rowdy hooligans and beckoning food trucks, carts, and kiosks.

Day 7: Jen vs. the BBQ

On Sunday, I attended a birthday party for J which turned out to be an engagement party (congrats J&M!) -- when my friends and I arrived, I was already steeling myself for the battle of the 'que.. which proved to be quite tough, because the entree(s) were all based around the famous Brett's Barbeque in San Diego:

As you can see on the verrrrrrry left (in a barely discernible bowl) were the non-meat (also known as skanky because they just couldn't fill me like my usual fix) sides: Salad, Potato Salad, and Beans. To the right loomed my contenders: ribs, chicken, and other type of delicious seared and grilled meat. It was really tough, but with the help of about 4 servings of salad, a ton of beans, and lots of wine... I was able to persevere. Towards, the end, I was treated to a oh-so-pleasant surprise... CUPCAKES.

This friends.. is the money of money-est cupcakes. I mean.. look at that filling in the CENTER! It just makes you want to shove your face right in the center and just root around like a little groundhog sniffing the grass. YUMMMMMY. (Thanks to Suzy's Cupcakes for providing these delicious pieces of nomnom).

This will be a short piece as I am writing from the Big Apple, and preparing myself for all the gastronomic experience that NYC has to offer. Next up: Korean Food to the fullest - homecooked.. and restaurant-style.

Day 6: Tapas

For Friday, Stego and I decided to do our monthly thing where we go for a dinner and a movie. It being LA, there are so many choices of food, but given our "situation"... we decided to opt for tapas. It turned out to be a hidden gem, since seriously it was hidden behind some kind of auto mechanic shop and there was no way I would have found it without the help of yelp. D'Cache' is the type of restaurant that I would like to own one day.. it's tucked away, small enough to pay a lot of attention to your patrons but big enough to get a reservation 10 minutes before you arrive, and the best part.. live music at 8!

Upon walking in, we decided on starting with some delicious red wine; him, the malbec from Argentina, me, the pinot noir from Chile (Apologies in advance for the poor quality of the photos; we were sitting outside so there wasn't as much light as I would have liked) The malbec was pretty heavy, but the pinot... oh the joy! the fruit! I don't think I will ever find another red as much as I enjoy the pinot for an everyman, everyday nectar.

For our starters. we decided to get the classic tapas favorite (Gambas el
Ajillo) and something a little different (Salmon Fresco). You can't ever go
wrong with gambas.. basically it's a ton of garlic, butter and oil with shrimp delicately placed on top and then promptly smothered by the mixture. We also had the luck of having this paired with some fantastic flatbread that could be dipped into aforementioned mixture. Fantastic. The salmon fresco paired really nicely with the gambas, because while the gambas reminds me of a honeycomb; sticky and saturated, the salmon was the light queen bee flitting around, tantalizing your tongue. I usually have tuna tartare, but this salmon one was just the right Watson to the Gambas Holmes. Whoo!

Next up... our paella. Shrimp, mussels, and clams with some yellow rice to boot. Made for a good meal, but I would have loved some calamari in the dish. Also, the rice could have been cooked just like 2 minutes crispier.. (but maybe that's the Korean in me kicking in.. mmm... nooran-jee)

As I finish my first week of fooding without meat, it occurred to me that I have been not consuming meat (yes, captain obvious strikes). BUT.. I have been using seafood as a serious crutch during these times.. almost none of these meals are without some aspect of shrimp, salmon, or other type of tasty morsel from the sea. That is kind of breaking the point of me trying to discover new things and opening myself up to great foods.

Hence.. I've made the decision. For the last week of this sojourn, I will be excluding all meat from my diet. This will include all fish - sushi - smoked salmon - i'm crying as i'm writing this... but I think i'll emerge stronger.

My next post will discuss my first brush with temptation... that's right. Jen versus the BBQ party. Stay tuned!

Interlude

I usually only post once a day, but I'm breaking the rhythm just to tell you about my lunch. I would have a picture, but I kind of just gobbled it and then realized that I wouldn't have visuals to back up the STUNNING sandwich today:

Healthyca, you are the best! I did not feel any meat pangs (as I usually do when looking at my food - I always think "Just add a piece of duck here, a strip of chicken here..") when I had this for lunch:

Almost Raw
grilled tofu, hummus, avocado, tomatoes, purple onions, olive spread, lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, sprouts on a wheat wrap (+ side of quinoa salad)


Their cookies and smoothies are ok too, but the sandwiches are freaking amazing.

http://www.healthyca.us

Day 5: I-tally-an

Before I begin today's post, I am going to veer slightly off-topic to focus on my dear friend A. She is getting married in 42 days (and yes, she is having a korean all-out feast, which i CAN partake in, thank goodness) and as her bridesmaid, we were discussing how to best say farewell to her single days.

One of the coolest things she is doing for her wedding (sneak peek!) is including this song:



Oh yes.. I'm so excited to attend! Although I realized that I may need to lose about 2 ribs to fit into my dress: (this is after about 10-15 minutes of not breathing and puzzle solving to zip up the side)

Quick tip to all: if you are about to try on a dress for the first time, it's best not to consume a heavy italian meal (+ drinks) right beforehand.

Anyhow.. back to the food.


For dinner, A and I went to Firenze Osteria, a little tucked away place in NoHo. The *appeal* of this place was that 1) I looked it up on yelp.com under "Italian Restaurants" and it was the first that came up, and 2) Apparently Fabio from Top Chef is the main chef there (Unfortunately he was off yesterday night).

To start, we had a make-your-own mojito; I chose pomengranate
and she chose rasberry. We were pleasantly shocked (or maybe horrified) to see when those suckers came out. A full glass full of rum and other things. It was really good, but as we were both driving, we couldn't finish the entire thing in good faith before our meal finished.

To the left you'll see the foccacia-like bread that was brought out to the table.. I enjoy focaccia, but I think it would have been even better with less oil, more crisp, and some garlic rubbed on for good measure. To the right you'll see this tomato/olive sauce used for dipping. Slightly reminded me of Pizza Hut tomato sauce.

For Appetizers, we went with the fried calamari and zucchini. I won't even post a picture since it was very humdrum but who can't resist that yummy chewy substance! (Note on this: The best calamari I have had to date was in Istanbul. I got probably 10 pieces for 12 bucks, but best 3 minutes of my life as I inhaled them down.)

For our entrees, I ordered the Lobster Ravioli: Pieces of lobster with braised vegetables topped with rock shrimp. For her, the Ricotta and Spinach Dumplings (I can post her pictures since her dish is veggie as well)


Interesting thing about the dumplings was that they actually rolled the spinach and cheese into a giant ball... as opposed to it being the filling of a dumpling. My actual comment was that it almost looked like green mussels.

However, the meal was satisfying and (obviously as you saw me above) very filling - my favorite part of the meal (other than the conversation) :) was the ambiance.. definitely very classy and a great place for groups!

Tonight Stego and I will be going on a date night.. movie + dinner. It's almost the weekend!

Day 4: BYO...Veggie?

Good morning! (or afternoon for everyone else in the world - I always feel like being in the Pacific Time Zone lets me in on the news, entertainment, and action while still eating my breakfast and having my whole day ahead of me).

So yesterday after a grueling (see: red face, gasping, and flapping of arms phoebe-buffet style) workout with my boyfriend (let's call him Stego, keeping with the whole dino theme) - we decided to fore-go the restaurant theme and instead grab some food at the local grocery store. This was an interesting experience for me, because usually at 9 pm, there isn't much in the area of prepared foods.. and if there is, it's ALL meat. I'm serious; even the salads had some aspect of chicken or bacon sprinkled in there, while the sandwiches all contained something that resembled ham (although I stay far, far away from that color pink.. it looks like a 20-year old piece of bubble gum and probably with the same consistency).

Anyhow, we finally decided on a couple of items and brought them back for a great meal for 2. The spread (plus ratings - obviously using meat)
- Multi-grain crackers (Sweet Onion Flavor) - Quite a kick in the pants for such a small cracker! At times I would say maybe a little too pungent, but it made for a great dipper. 4 steaks!
- Sabra Red Pepper Hummus - Usually I'm such a big fan of this brand, but yesterday it just wasn't cutting it -- the flavor was bland and unappetizing. 2 steaks.
- Smoked Salmon - You can never ever go wrong with smoked salmon. I used to inhale this stuff when I stayed in hotels that were kind enough to have it for breakfast, until I realized that it is to be used as an accompaniment to your cracker (not unlike a light sweater) not the other way around. 4 steaks.
- Veggie Platter - Because there were no salad options readily available, Stego & I decided to get our fiber through this delicious trio of celery, broccoli, and carrots. Usually, I'm not the biggest fan of plain veggies, but due to my hunger after the run, and the fact that I could smother it with ranch dressing.. it did the trick. 3 steaks.
- Bananas - 'Nuff said. 3 steaks.
- Jargon Pinot Noir (2007) - Personally my favorite type of wine, the pinot noir enhanced every part of this delicious meal. Bottoms up! 5 steaks!


In lieu of my dessert, I instead treated myself to a more visual sugar: my favorite TV shows. In order, here are (without question) the three best shows on TV today:






Let's be honest here -- I love a show where you firmly believe you too can become a spy using household items, flashy items, and just general trickery. Screw the Lost, the Heroes, and all those other "mess with your mind oh no time travel.. dramatic music..and flying!" Instead, I am into wholesome idiocy infused with a lot of dry sarcasm.

To this point, a buddy of mine, inspired by my clearly delirious posts, has decided to join me in my quest for madness and give up fast-food restaurants for 40 days. Wish him luck, as at least I can indulge in my famous fishy sandwiches or right out of the oil fries any day of the week (and check out that sexy silhouette on the header!)

happymealnomore.blogspot.com

Day 3: Meat of the Sea

Today was my first taste of the meats provided by Mother Ocean. Before I'd begin, I'd like to ruminate (for just 3 lines) about what meat of the sea is. Do they include crocodiles? Why do they make it so hard to enjoy the crab meat in crab legs? How come the eyes are so scary?

Be that it may, sea animals are the reason I am not ripping off my meat-prescribed retainer and going nuts at the local fogo's. Instead, I sat down with some friends at a civilized meal in Marina del Ray at Sugarfish, an omakase tasting menu which included about 5 types of sashimi, 2 hand rolls, and the like.

First our starter - tuna sashimi lightly dipped in ponzu sauce: A solid first
choice - nothing too special about this first one, but always delights the
palate before moving onto the serious stuff.


5 different types of fish, served sparsely on dishes that whisked to and fro; the speed of the service was incredible. Here is the halibut and yellowtail:

May I just say that the fish literally melted (like the bubbly foam that trickles down a cold beer on a Sunday afternoon) on my tongue. I could have happily eaten about 40 slices of that sashimi, man v. food style. To be sure, one of the best omakase I have had ever.


Ended the meal with two hand rolls; crab and tuna. Nothing too special, but the nori was crispy and we can always be grateful for that.

To top off our great meal, we decided to troop over the local Yogurtworld. Now, as a Korean and resident of NYC for 3 years, I always considered myself quite the yogurt lover. Seasons aside, one could find me at the local Pinkberry and Red Mango sucking down some tartness with all the fixins' about 3 times a week.

Seriously.

However, when I moved to California, one of the greatest finds had escaped me. Welcome to Yogurtworld, the place where there are not 1, 2, but TWELVE types of yogurt flavors (that rotate every day and include such decadent labels as Vanilla Wafers Cookies and Cream) and weighs you in by the ounce (not by toppings). See below for such an example:

That, friends, is a 3 layer yogurt trio (Original, Pomegranate Rasberry, and Vanilla Wafers) smothered in strawberries, mangos, mochi, nerds, chocolate chips, and sour gummy worms.

All for $2.50.

(There was about a 10 minute pause as I longingly stared at my screen trying to scrounge up that last gummy worm taste from last night)

Anyways, I'm feeling good.. it's hump day and I'm ready for my next meal. Until next time..

Day 2: The Fates Have Spoken

So the initial weeping has subsided. Which is good.

However, the cravings have begun. Which is bad.

For dinner yesterday I ended up driving to pick up some Danielle's Wood-fired Pizza in Burbank, CA:

Some comments:
1) I ordered a mushroom, green pepper, and jalapeno pizza. What I received was a mushroom, green pepper, and... a greenish substance that tasted like air pizza. If I can't have meat, at least I have to numb my tongue with spices to the point that meat and veggies almost have the same texture. CMON NOW.
2) Unfortunately due to a distraction, I was unable to consume this tasty dish while hot, BECAUSE...

I was walking out of the pizza store yo-deedling around when all of a sudden my eyes fell upon the store next door.

I gasped..
shrieked..
and almost fainted (but luckily I remembered the pizza)

because of this magnificent beast:

Ladies & Gentlemen, that is a black tie (dark chocolate frosting lightly pithering around a dark chocolate mouthwatering omg i want to dive face down into its crumbly goodness) cupcake from Famous Cupcakes. Although its appeal lessened slightly from the fact that it features the oh-so-D-list Khardashian sisters, I still forgave it because it came in such a cute little box with a see-through plastic top so I could admire it as I drove home.

Clearly a sign that no matter what I choose to eat.. delicious-ness will always find me.

It was a scrumptious meal.

To answer some initial questions from folks:

1) Is this goal to become healthy?
- 2 words: Hell No. In fact, I might make it a goal just to see how many unhealthy things you can eat without meat!

2) Can you still eat seafood?
- Absolutely. I plan to pretty much subsist on tuna tartare and try some new things like lobster rolls when I travel to New York next week (oh the droolage)

Some thoughts for lunch today: A nice filet o fish meal from Mickey D's? (True story but for about 15 years I thought the pronounciation was philly-o-fish.)
EDIT: This is definitely in the works. First off, 3.99 for a value meal is.. basically change you find underneath your seat. FTW.Secondly....



Need I say more:
Give me back that Fillet O' Fish, Give me that Fish (OH)
Give me back that Fillet O' Fish, Give me that Fish
What if it were you hanging up on this wall?
If it were you in that sandwich you wouldn't be laughing at all

Day 1: So it begins

Hello All.

I have started this blog in an attempt to distract myself from one of the greatest journeys ever taken: the path not yet lighted.. the land not explored...the bacon dish not created!

-- ok. maybe that last one was a stretch (let's be honest.. bacon has run its natural course.. SPAM is the next big thing. Anyways, I digress). This is pretty much one of the most momentous.. dare I say it.. epic undertakings that I have ever tried, so I figure it deserves its 2 KB of space on the world wide intraweb.

Oh.. but I haven't introduced myself. How silly. I am a Korean, red-meat loving, 4 bowls of rice (and that's just dinner) girl who has decided to give up all meat for 40 days - starting March 1. I know, it seems like it is a Lenten thing, AND i know, Lent started about 2 weeks ago. But this is not really about religion. What this is, is a test for me to see if I can live without meat, and to maybe examine other alternative meals.. and who knows, I might even learn along the way.

Now meat will mean anything that is red meat. This will include: beef, chicken, pork, veal, lamb, game, duck, etc. This excludes fish and dairy (You don't want me to die do you?)

I've also decided that this isn't enough torture for me as it is, so I'll be trying to get in shape for the Ragnar Relay, a 200-mile, 12-person relay where one person runs along as 11 other people yell encouraging things such as "Hurry Up!" and "Wow.. you wear those type of shorts?" (You sir, you know I'm talking to you). Between the running, the emaciation of my bones, and the general lack of happiness, this will be a great place for me to share my adventures for the next month.

So.. buckle up and get ready! And pray that I don't gnaw the keys off of my keyboard! (I think I still spot a teensy bit of chicken nugget on that "f" key..)

First question of the day.. What am I going to get for dinner?