Gabe's Food Collection

Last Pre-Violet Party!

2008-10-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

We decided to have a last party at home before Violet decided to show up. This was sort of our equivalent of a baby shower, but we wanted to have something that was both guy and gal friendly.

Main course was just a "seafood bake" (really more of a "seafood steam"). Mussels, clams, shrimp, crab legs, onions, red potatoes, and fingerling potatoes steamed with white wine and fresh thyme.

Savannah

2008-10-12T19:56:00.000-07:00

It was kind of a cloudy, dreary, rainy day. We first wandered over to Paula Deen's restaurant, but the lines were crazy long, so we decided that we'd just have to survive our trip to Savannah without consuming three pounds of butter each.

Nearby kitchen shop with a murderous knife stand.

Pecan pie.

Georgia State Fair and Savannah

2008-10-11T19:45:00.000-07:00

This was the last road trip/vacation prior to the arrival of our munchkin. We wanted to keep it simple and local, so we spent the afternoon at the Georgia State Fair and then drove out to the sea.

Mandatory BBQ stop along the way.

Brunswick stew, pork sandwich, corn bread.

State fair had a neat rabbit show that we didn't see last year.

This rabbit is bigger than a lot of dogs.

Couldn't quite tell how large this one was.

The alpaca contest. In this section, they had fans blowing so you could more easily show off the coat on your alpaca.

Hooking up the milking machine.

This thing was sucking out milk at an impressive rate.

Mmm... meat.

Dole whip. Yum!

They always have these arts and crafts contests where they award blue ribbons for various categories. This entry was among other flower basket presentations, and I would have loved to have given this a blue ribbon! LOL!

No need to comment.

The south is well known for its frying skillz.

Various antique tractors and other farm equipment.

Peach cobbler a la mode.

Fresh squeeze lemonade, corn dog.

Youth livestock show.

Budweiser?

Then it was off to Savannah. It was raining pretty hard when we got in, so we just went to some restaurant/bar across the street from the hotel and got some dinner.

Sue's crabcakes.

My mussels.

Edinburgh back to Atlanta

2008-09-14T19:04:00.000-07:00

Get up early, check out, catch the shuttle bus back to the airport.

Nice sunrise coming up over the North Bridge.

Front seat in the top of the double-decker bus.

Frenchie sandwich in CDG.

Edinburgh (Day 3)

2008-09-13T18:37:00.000-07:00

Another day of playing tourist. First order of business, hunt down the local farmer's market.

Hunted!

Produce.

Oh deer!

Double entrende.

Cheese.

Fresh breads.

Fresh quail? I don't know my game birds as well as I should.

Sausage.

Seacritters.

More produce.

Time to eat! I ordered myself a "bacon buttie." What's that you ask?

It's basically a bacon sandwich. Bread + bacon.

Add a little mustard and a little brown sauce, what's not to like? (Also, the bacon is cut differently than the usual strips us Yanks are used to.)

More breads.

Scotch eggs. (huh?)

Hard boiled egg, wrapped in meat, breaded and deep fried. Genius!

National museum of Scotland. Really nice free museum. Wandered around for some a while, but I wish I had more time to see all of the exhibits.

They don't like Scientologists o'er there, either.

Lunch time. Edinburgh is right on the water, and as such they have a good supply of fresh seafood. Oysters!

A half-kilo pot of mussels. Mustard and chive flavored. Yum.

Kids being kids and just playing in the park.

Walked over to the train station.

Taxi pickup/drop off round-about.

I thought that this was interesting. Basically a performance report showing percentage of time trains were on time, late within a certain margin, etc. Imagine how ludicrous this would look for any of the train/subway systems in the US? (0%, 0%, 2%, 0%, 1%, ...)

The city observatory. They used to drop a ball from the top of the tower at 1pm so that ships in the harbor could watch and set their clocks (important for old-school naval navigation... sextants and all that jazz). That's also why they fire the cannon at the same time each day in case the weather was too poor for the ships to see the tower. Perhaps this is also where we get the wacky "ball drop" traditions for New Years...

View from a top the observatory over toward Holyrood and Arthur's Seat.

The Romans were here.

View the other direction back toward the castle.

On my way to hike up to Arthur's Seat, the bicycle racks by the parliament building. Looks like random shapes perhaps...

Until you get them all lined up and then they form the shape of a bike.

Slightly muddy in places.

It was actually nice that it wasn't sunny otherwise it would've been too warm.

I don't always choose the wisest/easiest paths to hike.

Up on top!

Made it back down. Time for a refreshing drink. Irn Bru is a Scottish soda that actually rivals Coca Cola here in Scotland. I think this is one of the few non-global products to challenge Coke reasonably well anywhere in the world.

Back over to the castle where they had fire outside the gate now.

Why back to the castle?

This is why. (I was too hungover the previous day to have ice cream as the first thing in my stomach.)

Really good, creamy, old-skool ice cream. Well worth the walk back.

I then made a stop in the cheesy "Scotch Whisky Heritage Center". They had some funny quotes on this cloth. I liked: "Gentleman, I have just met with the most wonderful adventure that ever befell a human being. As I was walking along the Grassmarket, all of a sudden, the street rose up and struck me in the face." -- Lord Rockville, 1877.

Scotch samples included with price of admission.

Cheesy Mr. Rogers-looking model of a Scotch distillery.

Ok, time to eat again. I was hankerin' for some bangers and mash, so that's what I got.

Suds.

Bangers and mash.

There was something on the menu called "mushy peas." I was curious, so I ordered it, and lo-and-behold, it was a big ol' bowl of ... you guessed it, mushy peas. Unfortunately, it didn't have all that much flavor.

Why are potato chip flavors in the US so boring?

Edinburgh (Day 2)

2008-09-12T18:08:00.000-07:00

Tourist day. Got to a late start due to the previous late night. First things first, off to Edinburgh Castle!

It's only a model. Ssh!

View of New Town from the castle.

The One O'Clock Gun.

Cool vaulted ceiling.

S-words. (Another Connery/SNL Reference.)

Had lunch in the castle restaurant, which was pretty nice for a tourist trap.

Tart version/interpretation of Cullen Skink (a traditional Scottish fish soup).

Haggis, neeps and tatties. (Haggis burried.)

Haggis exposed. (Neeps = turNIPS, tatties = potatoes)

Now that's what I call a cannon.

Where dogs get buried.

Inside a little chapel.

Old cannonballs.

Ok, back outside of the castle on the Royal Mile.

There are lots of parts of this town that are very vertical.

Mmm, local cheese shop.

Assorted vinegars, brines, and other soaked liquids.

Hmm, smells like pork.

This is the way pork should be served. Hello, Mr. Piggy!

Greyfriar's Bobby. Tribute to some dog that kept watch over his Master's grave. Seems similar in spirit to the Japanese dog Hachiko outside Shibuya station.

Singular of grits?

Inside Greyfriar's Kirk.

Greyfriar's Kirkyard. I'm guessing Kirk and Church are related/derivative words?

St. Gilles Cathedral

Heart of Midlothian (sounds like a name from Lord of the Rings). Said to bring good luck if you spit on the heart. Weird.

Inside the aforementioned cathedral.

I just took this photo because one of the computer clusters at school is called the Hebrides (it's a bunch of islands here), but we always remember it as "He-Brides" which sounds more like something sketchy from the darker corners of the Interwebs.

Him of "Wealth of Nations" fame.

There are lots of cool looking alley ways.

I think this was Cannongate Kirk.

The wacky Scottish Parliament building... interesting architecture.

Palace of Holyroodhouse across the street from Parliament.

There were lots of unicorns in the various crests and emblems.

Back to parliament.

Security entrance.

Each of those little windows has a different pattern around it.

Better view of the windows.

Looking through an alley at Calton Hill and the City Observatory.

Somehow I wandered back over to the hind-side of the castle. (I did a lot of walking today.)

Mmmm... Fleshmarket.

Random mug shot.

Ok, dinner. Another random selecton from Lonely Planet.

The real cullen skink.

Unremembered dead animal... might have been sheep/lamb again.

When presented with the option of a side of garlic, always order it.

Edinburgh (Day 1)

2008-09-11T17:43:00.000-07:00

This is the day of the program committee meeting, which is why I'm in Scotland in the first place.

Started the morning with a traditional British breakfast at the hotel, which is very similar to a traditional American breakfast but with some grilled tomatoes and some beans.

View of the castle from the hotel dining room.

Views on my walk from the hotel to the University of Edinburgh.

They've got a really nice building. I really liked the open feeling of it. You can see everyone working, having coffee, etc., which just made the building feel a lot more alive. The copious natural lighting was also a big plus.

Easy access from one floor to the next. I wish the architects for the Klaus building (where my office is at GT) had talked to the guys who designed this place a little more regarding usability and accessibility of work and communal spaces.

Pretty nice spread for lunch.

In between the PC meeting and the dinner for the PC, Rich V. and I got a recommendation for a local pub to swing by for a traditional hand-pulled pint.

Barkeep pulling a pint.

I don't remember the name of the restaurant where we had dinner, but it was pretty upscale. Good food on large white plates. :-)

Random smeared sauce on the side of the plate as is required these days of all top-end joints.

I got a cheese plate for dessert. Some nice local cheeses.

(other people's desserts)

Then we went out for more drinks afterwards.

Pint o' somethin'.

Gotta have some scotch while in Scotland.

Pit-stop at a "chippie" (that's what they call these shops where they pretty much deep-fry anything/everything).

My order of deep-fried haggis glopped with plenty of "brown sauce" (that's what they call it).

Some other place we swung by for some more drinks.

On the walk home, mostly drunk, somehow Sean Connery's mug was really funny to me because I can't look at the man without thinking about those SNL Jeopardy! skits ("Therapist"?).

Edinburgh (Day 0)

2008-09-10T17:28:00.000-07:00

Had a conference program committee meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Long flight from Atlanta to Paris, a painfully long four-hour lay-over in CDG (almost slept through the boarding calls), and then a short commuter flight to Edinburgh.

Little snack tray that you get on the Air France hop from CDG to EDI. Pretty nice for an airplane!

Random views on the double-decker bus from the airport to downtown.

Big impressive buildings.

Castle in the background.

This is pretty neat. It's a model of the city commissioned so that blind people can feel it and get a sense of the layout of the city, the topology, etc. There's some braille descriptions along with it.

I had to play so wacky games with converters to get juice for my laptop.

"New Town"

My ass never made it inside.

The place I ended up for dinner. Just pulled restaurant listings from Lonely Planet. Sort of upscale "new" Scottish/British fare.

Cold cider.

Black pudding. Was pretty tasty despite its ominous look.

Scottish lamb of some sort, I believe.

Panna cotta-like dessert.

Not Food: Dragoncon Parade

2008-08-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

There's a scifi convention in town every year called DragonCon. As part of it, they have free parade up Peachtree St. downtown where all the cosplay folk get to strut and show off their stuff.

Cobra commander and the Baroness.

I didn't know that Superheros were so into my last name.

Nobody expected this...

Speed Racer in the Mach 5

I don't remember the Thundercats trucking around in a mini Cooper.

Ghostbusters... kinda retro.

Halo/Red vs. Blue

Pirates of the Caribbean

Sgt. Pepper and the Lonely Hearts? Huh?

KOTOR Sith dude.

Star Wars meets Pez... pretty funny concept for costumes.

A whole lotta folks who can't aim their laser guns.

Sand people.

Booba Fett?

Liz Visits

2008-08-22T19:04:00.000-07:00

Liz braved the Atlanta August heat and came to visit us.

First stop: Papi's for some Cuban food.

Dinner: Korean BBQ (Hae Woon Dae)

Banchan

Meat a sizzlin'...

Then it was off to Zesto for dessert.

My banana split.

Liz looks a little intimidated by the volume of ice cream.

Yogurt!

2008-08-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

Sue was sort of annoyed that the yogurt containers are not recyclable, and the Greek yogurt that she sometimes likes is somewhat expensive. So she tried her hand at making her own yogurt.

It turned out pretty well, but it's still sort of a little too much work.

Random Steak Night

2008-08-09T18:59:00.000-07:00

Had some ancient fillets sitting in the freezer. Decided to finally break them out, thaw 'em and grill 'em.

Appetizer of mussels with fresh thyme, onions, red peppers (I think that's what's red), white wine.

Previously mentioned fillets, wrapped in bacon, of course.

Canada, Day 5

2008-07-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

Breakfast at "Asian Legend" restaurant.

XLB

Nian/ Gao (rice cake) soup.

Bowl o' hot soy milk.

Scallion pancakes.

Yo/ tiao/ ("chinese donut") and ro\ song ("pork floss") wrapped in rice.

CN Tower

Hockey Hall of Fame

Taking a break from walking around the downtown waterfront.

We then headed over to the St. Lawrence Market, which was pretty nice to walk around.

Lots of of little booths.

Meat.

Some delicious-looking bacon.

Sea meats.

Dad inspecting the cheese selection.

Dry aged sides of beef.

I gots me some perogies. Yum!

Dinner that night at Sam Woo's BBQ.

Cha Shao Ro\ (a.k.a. "char siu").

Then of course, it was off to Pacific Mall for one last round of Tian/ Tang.

But before we got there, we saw the most obscene cuttlefish hanging in the window of one of the shops (the sausage hanging next to it did not help the imagery).

Then we saw these kids rehearsing some sort of dance.

I felt kind of bad for them, but that didn't stop me from laughing and recording more:

Canada, Day 4

2008-07-24T18:21:00.000-07:00

Went to the same sushi buffet place that we seem to go to every year.

Assorted rolls.

Weird dish. Some sort of fried disc of rice with salmon and tobiko on top. Not recommended.

We bought some plants to plant around my grandfather's grave to pretty it up.

Before.

Digging.

Ariel provided sun blocking functionality.

Final result.

Everyone.

Break for tian/ tang and assorted snacks. Some sort of scallion pancake, but kinda glutinous.

Cold lychee drink.

Watermelon juice and sago with assorted fruits.

Sago close up.

Went to dinner at Aunt Julie's house that night.

Canada, Day 3

2008-07-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

Brunch/lunch at Pacific Mall

Sue and I get a variety of BBQ pork and soy-sauce chicken type of objects. Yum.

Everyone else with other assorted Chinese foods.

Super-large pearl milk tea.

Dinner at a Shanghainese restaurant. We'd been here before, but somehow I never noticed this horribly gaudy reproduction of the "Pearl Tower" from Pudong.

Drunken chicken!

Rice cake (nian/ gao) with clams.

Off to the Chinese dessert shop...

Grass jelly with "sea coconut".

Some weird sort of rice cake dessert, constructed in a somewhat taco-like topology.

Canada, Day 2

2008-07-22T11:56:00.000-07:00

Off to Niagara Falls!

First stop, Yogen Fruz of course...

Falling water.

Mmm... scum.

At the bottom of the falls. Cheapo yellow ponchos to keep you from getting too wet from the mist.

'nother round of YF.

Off to Niagara-on-the-Lake (nearby town).

Looks like turds on sticks (choco-covered marshmallows I assume).

Dinner and surprise baby shower for Sue at Aunt Judy's.

Canada, Day 1

2008-07-21T10:26:00.000-07:00

Objective #1: Yogen Fruz!

Target acquired.

Selecting options.

Objective accomplished!

Then off to more deserts (Chinese style):

Red bean "cha cha" (assorted beans, tapioca, coconut milk, purple rice, and who knows what else).

Mixed fruit with sago.

Frozen mango slushie.

After spent watching one of the most ridiculous, over-the-top movies I've seen in a while. Gross but entertaining.

Dinner was at some Chinese restaurant. I forget what regional specialty it was.

Road Trip Continued...

2008-07-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

Got up in the morning and toured some caverns in Ohio.

Lots of stalactites.

Stopped in Toledo for Johnny Packo's (apparently this place used to get mentioned on M*A*S*H which is where I think Sue knows it from).

Weird (but interesting) mix of eastern European and American. (Top) Sausage and stuffed cabbage, (Right) chili dog, (Left) chili-cheese dumplings (as in bits of boiled dough).

Funny picture post-border-crossing. In the US, when you get caught for a moving violation, you just get points on your license. In Canada, they give you "Points d'inaptitude", which best I can guess translated into "points of ineptitude". That's a great name.

Road Trip to Toronto

2008-07-19T18:55:00.000-07:00

Meeting up with family in Toronto + Air planes tickets are ridiculously expensive = Road Trip!

Part way through TN, got hungry (around lunch time), and saw a sign for a random 'que joint.

From the outside.

From the inside. Ribs and pulled pork.

A little further up I-75 in KY.

Yup, that's a KFC, but not any old KFC...

It's the original "Sander's Cafe" where it all started.

Little "museum" area with old paraphernalia. The colonel looks awfully east Asian to me... perhaps part of why KFC is so successful out there.

A very modern KFC meal though... at least they still have sporks.

Mock-up recreation of the original kitchen.

Further along the drive, we take a 50+ mile detour to catch an out-of-state detour (we only thought it would be like 30 miles out of the way) for Zesto's (New Albany, IN).

Zesto. It indeed is good.

Proof of Goodness.

Random stop in Cincinnati just to see what's there. Wasn't the most exciting, but it seemed like a pretty nice city. Ended up spending the night at some random motel a little further up the interstate (still in Ohio).

Shanghai to Atlanta (Sat)

2008-06-28T15:37:00.000-07:00

I had most of a morning to kill before heading to the Pudong airport for my flight back to Atlanta (hooray for Delta's direct flight!). So I just wandered around the neighborhood near SJTU.

Dude selling fresh steamed buns.

This bun was *so* good. ^_^ (and only costs 1RMB = 14 cents)

More street-side food stalls/shops.

I couldn't entirely figure this one out. I think you just point at whatever you want, they boil it in some soup, possibly with some noodles, and there you go.

Fresh yo/ tiao. I was running out of small bills at this point, and didn't want to force one of these street stall guys to have to break a 100RMB bill, so I didn't get any.

Fresh made cong yo/ bing~ (scallion pancakes). It took a good 10-15 minutes of waiting for them to make them. I watched it go from raw dough to finished product, and there was a long line by the time it was ready.

Finished product. Also amazingly good. Also 14 cents. Totally worth the wait.

I found a little market. Incredibly crowded.

Vegetable lady.

Meat aisle.

I got one more bun. This one was similar to the original one, but instead of steamed bread on the outside, it was made out of rice. Also very tasty.

Funny shop name in the Shanghai/Pudong airport. Someone needs to file an anti-trust suit against them.

Shanghai (Fri)

2008-06-27T15:26:00.000-07:00

We finally got to the Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU) "Faculty Club", which is their hotel for visitors, at about 2am. Suck.

Cool/weird bronze piece in the lobby. It's a urn with eight dragons, and eight little frogs with their mouths wide open ready to accept something from the dragons (like feeding baby birds?).

Neat model of the Minhang campus of SJTU. This place is *huge*.

Fancy room where they showed us a brief video on the history of SJTU.

Offices where the GT/SJTU ECE MS program are run out of.

After a good visit to SJTU, we were dropped back off at the hotel. And it was pouring. We hiked to some mall nearby to meet up with my cousin Lester, but we just got straight-out soaked (even with umbrellas).

We went to an all-you-can-eat sushi/hot-pot place.

Lester and I ate them out of uni... or at least they claimed to be out of it as we ate enough of this to more or less cover the cost of dinner.

Tuna and salmon.

"Kobe" beef and kimchi.

The hotpot... convenient for hiding unwanted food; since this is an all-you-can-eat place, you have to pay extra for any food that you order that you don't finish (that they don't find before handing you the bill...). Lester is a pro.

More sashimi, shrimp and uni. Oh yeah, it's also an all-you-can-drink place as well, so we went through plenty of beer and sake.

Some sort of grilled fish.

And then of course, it was off for foot massages.

The pre-foot-massage massage.

Nate enjoying himself. They gave us these pajama-type pants to wear, which were more comfortable than our still sort-of damp clothes.

Continuation of above picture.

Beijing to Shanghai (Thu)

2008-06-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

Conference over. Nate and I have a morning to kill before heading over to Tsinghua University, and then later to the airport.

Not really that pretty.

But in the basement, we find a hot-pot counter. Sweet.

And we ordered too much food, and it cost next to nothing anyway.

Coffee break. I just thought it was interesting that they used coffee grinds in the ash tray.

Weird sculpture on the Tsinghua campus.

This building is supposed to have some significance, but I forgot what it is. I think it's just one of the old buildings on campus, but there were a lot of people taking pictures of/with it.

Off to the Beijing airport, where some thunderstorms end up canceling our flight. We had to go through multiple rebookings before we got it all settled. Didn't depart until well after 11pm (we were supposed to get to Shanghai by about 10pm).

Noodles in the Beijing airport while killing time.

Fried chicken bits. (Same place.)

Beijing (Wed)

2008-06-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

I had one of the last two talks of the conference today (there were two such talks due to parallel sessions). Normally, there are not that many folks left at this point because a lot of people only attend one or two days of the conference, or have flights on the last day and have to head out early. I actually had good attendance at my talk, largely due to the fact that people were hanging around for the trip to the great wall...

I had not been to this section of the Great Wall (I forget the name, but it was about a 90-minute bus ride from the Hotel). Had to hike up a bunch of stairs just to get to the wall (or take a gondola, but that's no fun!). This was similar to parts of the Incan Trail, but you don't have to do it at altitude which makes it a *lot* easier.

Old worn-out ramp.

It was cloudy/foggy that day, so the pictures aren't as nice as they could have been. I ran up this stretch in one go and was seriously wheezing by the time I got to the top.

End of this section of the wall.

Donkey at the side of the wall (I'm on the wall looking down). We assumed that this belonged to one of the ladies selling water and other souvenirs/trinkets.

For dinner, we had a huge group head out to a Szechaun restaurant. We had three full tables worth of people crammed into a little private side room.

The restaurant.

Suan Mei/ Cha/ (sour plum drink).

Fatty pork (was very popular, so we ended up ordering a second one).

Duck gizzards.

Pickled veggies.

Gelatinized tendon.

Bai/ jio~ (Chinese rice wine... 52% alcohol/104 proof). Strong stuff.

Prawns in Chinese glass noodles (fen~ si).

Ko~ shui~ ji (literally, drool chicken... in that it's so good just seeing it will make you drool. Probably a bit of an exaggeration).

Catfish in oil. The Szechaun peppercorns are supposed to make your lips numb, but this was very weak. Somewhat disappointing.

Spicy diced chicken and peanuts.

Beijing (Tue)

2008-06-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

Met up with Mauricio and some of his Intel buddies for breakfast. Yio/ Tiao/, assorted buns, and soy milk.

Lunch at the shopping mall food court. Got some hand pulled noodles and some boiled dumplings. You can see the noodle pulling guy in the middle of the photo behind the yellow sign (didn't get an action shot).

Dumplings (so good when they're fresh!).

Noodles (too much cilantro, boo!).

Interesting way to advertise to you... displays built into shopping carts.

Dinner that night was at the Chinese "Hall of the People". This is similar to their equivalent of congress or the senate where their politburo meets. Regular folks don't usually get to set foot in there. We were to be treated to something like a "state dinner".

The official invitation. No entrance without one.

Hall of the People from the outside.

The banquet room where we had dinner.

Nice painting of horses.

Mao leading the Chinese people.

Of course all of the ethnic minorities are at the very back of the line.

Random cold dishes/appetizers.

The menu (for those of you who can read Chinese).

We had a nice performance with various classical western and Chinese instruments.

There was much jockeying for good photos.

Shrimp in a tomato-y sauce; in background are some weird tater-tot like things, except bigger and with some stuff in the middle (I think it was some ground meat, maybe some diced mushrooms, and sauce).

I think this translates into Golden Thread or maybe Golden Needle soup.

This was bizarre. Half-way through the meal, they brought out little pieces of cake!

Some kind of bun.

Duck, but not peking duck. The sauce is different and the duck skin is not so crispy. But otherwise the serving method is similar.

Kalbi-type ribs with sugar-snap peas.

Some kind of pork on the left, and fried rice.

Asparagus and carrots.

Deep-fried salmon.

Overall, I wasn't that impressed with the food, but I think the menu was designed to entertain visiting foreign dignitaries as opposed to a random Chinese person who grew up in the states.

After that, we wandered our way over to Wangfujing street.

Tiananmen square at night.

Mao was still attracting plenty of attention from tourists at this hour.

Mmm... scorpions. They were still wriggling around on the skewers, so you know they're fresh! We had a lot of people chowing down on these critters (after frying).

Other meats/parts/species on sticks.

Beijing (Mon)

2008-06-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

First day of the main conference. I ducked out of the conference lunch to join Fred, Diana, and Sean for Szechuan food.

On the way to the restaurant... I don't think this is how it's explained in the installation manual.

Pretty posh restaurant. We ended up paying more for the four of us than we eventually paid for dinner for 14 people (still cheap overall).

Szechuan pao\ cai\ (pickled veggies).

Spicy diced chicken.

Lamb chop on my plate, eggplants in the distance.

Some kind of bun.

Caramelized fried bananas.

During a break in the afternoon. David Patterson (President of the ACM) has a posse. Chinese students mob him for autographs and photo-ops.

For dinner, we tried to find a restaurant that served donkey meat. We failed. We, however, ended up at a Chinese Muslim restaurant that was still very tasty, even sans donkey.

Various meats on sticks (mostly lamb).

Preserved eggs. (More people liked these than I anticipated... don't get me wrong, they weren't wildly popular but a non-zero number of non-Chinese folks ate some and didn't spit it out.)

Eggplant.

Some kind of soup with massive meat bones in it.

"Pine cone" fish.

Gizzards. (Chicken, I think.)

Lamb chops.

Small riblets.

Some kind of chopped meat that you put onto a tortilla-like object (similar to peking duck), wrap up, and eat.

Another interesting dish. It was a "da\ bing~" (big bread) but soaked in some kind of soup/broth with other assorted toppings.

Beijing (Sun)

2008-06-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

This was a busy day at the conference. Four workshop talks, along with chairing half of a workshop.

Lunch: hong/ shao nio/ nan/ mein\. (beef noodle soup)

The conference welcome reception featured a peking duck station. I had enough PD here for the rest of the trip.

Went out to Ho\ Hai~ jio~ ba jie (a lake surrounded by bars). One spot we stopped at featured "Griled Paddywack" which turned out to be grilled tendon.

Various meats on sticks and some dumplings. The chicken hearts were surprisingly popular.

Onward to ISCA 2008 in Beijing

2008-06-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

It's off to ISCA (the International Symposium on Computer Architecture), one of the main conferences in my research area; this year held in Beijing.

Hae Mul Sundubu in the Seoul/Incheon airport where I had a brief layover.

"We sincerely welcome you with hospital service, ..."

The "bird's nest" building for the '08 Summer Olympics.

Another crazy building.

A He/ Nan/ dinner with my student and his parents.

BBQ!

2008-06-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

Time to put the smoker through a more serious workout.

Dry rub applied to three racks of pork ribs and allowed to sit overnight in the fridge.

Ribs after smoking. Nice deep red smoke color. I smoked them a little too long and the thinner parts came out too dry. Oh well, I'll just have to practice some more.

Appetizers. Peanut-butter filled jalapeno pieces on left (learned these in Texas), and roasted asparagus wrapped in prosciutto with a light drizzling of white truffle oil.

Ribs, mac-and-cheese, collard+turnip greens, and a cold Shiner Bock.

Happy eating!

Close up of the super cheesy (made from scratch) mac-n-cheese.

Attempted recreation of durian dessert from San Francisco. The durian wasn't blending very well, so I mixed in some coconut milk, too. Didn't taste quite the same, but it was good (to me anyway).

Lucky 8's!

2008-06-09T19:36:00.000-07:00

Eight (ba) is a lucky number for the Chinese. Ba is supposed to sounds like "fa", which is the first word in "fa cai" or to come into fortune, although "cai" is really the fortune part. Anyway, that's why eight is supposed to be lucky.

Lucky for my car... too bad it's dying and will be replaced soon.

Weekend in Boston

2008-06-07T19:34:00.000-07:00

Up in Boston for Sue's MIT 10-year reunion.

Ankara Cafe (formerly Angora's). The only non-Yogen Fruz place that I know of where you can get Yogen Fruz style frozen yogurt.

Clam Chowda!

Cannoli and Espresso at Mike's Pastry in the North End.

Weird anchovy pizza that I ordered.

Sue got a less weird pizza.

Gelato!

More chowda (at Legal's Seafood in Logan Airport).

Raw oysters.

Mussels. I think there was something bad in this batch of mussels, as the dish smelled like poop. We sent this back.

Smokin'

2008-06-02T19:31:00.000-07:00

Finally decided to build myself a means of doing some more serious smoking of meats.

I bought a deep stainless steel buffer tray with lid, drilled a hole in the side of it for some plumbing (broke a couple of bits in the process), screwed in the short piece of plumbing, and voi la! Home-made smoke box!

The pipe fits perfectly in the hole in the side of the grill where smoke usually leaves.

Not much time that evening, so we just smoked some chicken thighs and wings which don't take too long (compared to ribs or brisket). I think we just gave 'em something like a 90-120 minute smoke.

Wings (marinated in a pineapple-curry hot sauce).

Thighs. I don't remember what the flavoring was... probably just some dry rub.

Pro-Life

2008-05-31T19:28:00.000-07:00

Weekend in San Jose y Francisco

2008-05-24T19:22:00.000-07:00

Went to San Jose for Heidi and Haiwei's wedding (about time...).

Super-awesome camcorder pose!

Pouring sand.

Strange mural in San Mateo.

Finishing off Lobster Plate #3. It was sad to see so much lobster and abalone go uneaten at the tables with large non-Chinese populations. Michael and I tried our best to eat as much as we could, but after half a platter of abalone and three plates of lobster, we were done.

BBQ next day (was also Memorial Day weekend). I liked this grill as the wheel on the side lets you raise and lower the grill to adjust the distance to the fire/coals.

Dinner with my brother Nat in San Francisco at Shimo Sushi. I basically ordered everything on their specials menu which included several fishes that I had not had before (and some that I have had). included were herring roe, and walu/escolar.

Then we went to a Chinese dessert place. I got sago with durian smoothy and chunks of durian. It stinks! But I like it.

Next day, lunch at In-n-Out burgers.

Ischia back to Naples (then to Atlanta)

2008-05-07T19:20:00.000-07:00

I think Bimbo must mean something else in Italian.

Back in Naples next to the hotel by the airport I was staying at overnight before my flight home. Pretty good pizza... it was all I could afford with the few remaining Euros that I had and I didn't want to go to the ATM and get more money (stupid place didn't place credit cards either).

Duty free shop in Rome (brief lay-over). I was very, very tempted to buy this balsamic vinegar. It's super-aged, so it's very thick and sweet. Goes really well with vanilla ice cream or gelato. Yes, it's 77 Euros. The reason I didn't buy it was that I wasn't checking in any baggage, and the Atlanta airport is retarded with respect to international arrivals. There's no way to exit from customs directly out of the airport... you have to go through the terminals again, which means you have to clear through security, which means no liquids (including vinegar) in your carry-on (or carry-through) baggage, which means I would have had to check in my bag, which would have cost me an extra 45 minutes to get out of the airport.

Ischia, Day 2

2008-05-06T19:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to me!

Lunch selection was mostly the same as day one.

Different gelateria.

View by the seaside.

Dinner was at some restaurant on the north side of the island.

Squid salad.

Tuna pasta.

Fish again.

Crazy-heavy chocolate dessert.

Limoncello.

Absynth (someone else's).

Ischia, Day 1

2008-05-05T19:12:00.000-07:00

For a relatively small conference (that's why I was in Ischia), they sure had some good food for lunch. Huge seafood selection (comes from being on the Mediteranean I suppose). Also the only conference I've been to so far that served wine at lunch as well.

(end of lunch pictures)

Afternoon Gelato break.

Pastry selection from same gelateria/bakery.

Some of the foods from the conference reception.

Saw this in a store... mmm, trout baby food.

Dinner that night was at a pizza/pasta place. The pizza oven shown above.

I ended up getting mussels with buccatini and sheep's cheese (or was it goat?).

Fred got an impressive looking seafood pizza.

Panna Cotta for dessert.

Arrival in Naples and Transfer to Ischia

2008-05-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

Had to transfer from the Naples airport to the port (Molo Bellevero or something like that), and then take a ferry to Ischia.

Castle by the port.

View of port area from little snack shop.

Little snack (cheese, ham, peas wrapped in rice, then battered and fried).

View from ferry leaving Naples.

View along the way.

Snack selection on ferry... happy days.

Dinner that night by the seaside in Ischia. Seafood spaghetti.

Killing Time in the Venice Airport

2008-05-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

On my way to Ischia for the ACM Computing Frontiers conference. Had a four-hour layover in Venice.

Gelato.

Kiwi on top, apricot on the bottom (both new flavors for me!)

Espresso... helps to adjust to the time zone change.

Random "Chinese" Food

2008-04-21T18:11:00.000-07:00

Decided to make some Chinese-style dishes, although I don't think any of cooking really qualifies as bona fide Chinese food.

Spicy stir-fried/sauteed green beans with red peppers and onions (left). Fermented black-bean sauce with tofu, okra, and a little ground beef. I put too much black-bean sauce in this dish so it came out a little too spicy. Okra isn't very typical in Chinese food from my experience, but I think the texture and flavor works well.

Blanched Gai Lan with oyster sauce (left) and diced chicken with corn.

Low-Country Boil; BBQ Ribs

2008-04-12T18:02:00.000-07:00

Went to the "welcome to the neighborhood" event for the Cyprus Street Pint and Plate. Free "Low Country Boil" and cheap beer specials.

The aforementioned boil. Mostly shrimp and taters, plus some corn on the cob. Not bad for free.

That night, decided that it was time to break out the BBQ and do some smokin'.

Mesquite-smoked ribs; probably about 3.5 hours in the smoke. I'm out of practice... didn't get a good strong smoke going so the penetration was a little weak despite the good external color. Ribs coated with some old dry rub that KB had given me over a year ago.

Also made some BBQ sauce from scratch. Made it slightly spicy by adding sriracha sauce to it.

Accompaniments. Green beans, baked beans, and some bad biscuits.

Pasta Effort Saver!

2008-04-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

After having gone through several iterations of making pasta completely by hand, I decided that I liked this idea of fresh pasta enough to warrant sinking a little bit of cash into making this easier. I had been rolling out all of my dough with nothing more than our counter, a rolling pin, and a knife.

The kitchen-aid pasta roller attachment. The kitchen-aid is pretty cool; it is really just a multi-purpose motor packaged as a mixer.

Fresh pasta.

Final result! This was a lot easier than doing it all manually!

Massive Serbian Dinner

2008-03-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

Milos and Alenka had a bunch of us over at their place for a traditional Serbian dinner. Too much food was had by all... (yum.)

Salad.

Alex getting ready to help out in the kitchen.

Milos cradling the freshly-baked bread like a new baby.

Happy Birthday Jon! (6-pack of Guiness is not the easiest thing to wrap.)

First course(s).

Pork tenderloin.

Potato and bacon things.

Stuffed cabbage.

Dessert blintzes.

Another dessert... sort of cousin of baklava?

Yet more dessert (I think Sasha brought this one).

Obligatory photo of Jon on his iPhone.

Broken Water Pipe

2008-03-24T19:18:00.000-07:00

We had a water line break which flooded our crawlspace with lots of water... guess which month it occurred in based on our water consumption bill...

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

Easter morning candy treats.

Sue and I had never actually had Cadbury creme eggs before... Thank You Easter Bunny!!! Brawk, brawk!

Brunch at Lola's

Fresh donuts with some strawberry stuff and mascarpone cheese.

I got some sort of egg and yogurt and octopus and greens mixed-up thing. Fairly unique among breakfast/brunch options. A little too much lemon I think... too tart for breakfast.

Rat City Rollergirls!

2008-03-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

First time ever seeing roller-derby!

Hot-dog stand in the parking lot. Despite being called "Dante's Inferno Dogs," they didn't actually have any spicy hot dogs... what gives?

The dog was still pretty good though.

The line waiting for the place to open up.

Warm-ups.

Cool blurry action shot.

Introduction of one of the teams (Derby Liberation Front).

More girls whizzing by.

Grabbed a light mini-dinner afterwards at a Mediterranean restaurant in the U-district.

Sue got some weird fruit soda.

Zesto?

2008-03-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

Sue and I really like Zesto's in Atlanta. This had made me do a little research into the chain. It used to be a national franchise, but the franchise apparently went out of business and then the remaining privately owned stores kept going on. As a result, they have all evolved slightly differently over the years. I want to try out as many as I can (there are about ten-ish states that have Zesto's still).

Outside. From what I can tell, most still have vaguely similar logos. This one, however, has an espresso bar which you will not find in any Atlanta-area Zestos. The whole thing feels sort of like Darwin's Finches to me... they started off from the same ancestry, but then took different paths.

Milk shake!

Burger and fries.

For dinner that night, we ended up at the Elysian Brewery, which is just a few blocks away from Liz's place.

A form of bangers and mash.

Japanese Food (round 2)

2008-03-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

We made a visit to Kisaku, my current favorite sushi joint in Seattle. We had found this many years ago just by accident I think.

Fried shrimp heads from the amaebi.

(Clockwise from top-left) Spider roll, amaebi, salmon, salmon and yellowtail (I think?).

(back to front, L-to-R): Kisaku roll (scallops, aspagus, tobiko, in soy wrapper), spicy tuna roll, tomago, ika/squid, and more yellowtail.

(Clockwise from shiny fish in top left corner): kohada/gizzard shad, sockeye salmon, red abalone, amaebi, futomaki, uni/sea urchin ovaries.

(L-to-R): aji/spanish mackerel (I think), tuna, and I forget.

Dessert 1.

Dessert 2.

Dessert 3.

Crystal Mountain, Hot Pot

2008-03-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

Sue's team had a group trip to go skiing, and I got to tag along.

The uber-expensive Starbucks brand coffee makers at Microsoft.

We got some serious snow in the afternoon to the point of it being almost white-out conditions. It got hard to see the terrain at times, but I liked it quite a bit! Sue was less happy with not being able to see where you're going.

For dinner, we went to an old favorite: Old Szechaun where they have all-you-can-eat hot-pot (including all-you-can-eat pot stickers as well). Soup is divided into regular and szechuan death (I think they actually turned the heat down as it wasn't nearly as spicy as I had remembered).

Pile o' meat!

Pot-stickers, tripe and more meat. The hot-pot also came with this funky peanut sauce that I don't recall ever having had with hot-pot (it's that bowl of yellowish stuff in the top left corner of the photo).

Japanese Food (round 1)

2008-03-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

There used to be the best teriyaki place near where we lived downtown, but it sadly closed down and has been replaced by a nail salon.

I just tried this random place for lunch. Hard to say no to a place called "Teriyaki Madness."

Teriyaki bowl. Somewhat disappointing. Not enough "char" flavor and the sauce was too sweet.

For dinner, we ended up back near where we used to live and stopped in a Koji Osakaya where we used to visit a bit. We liked this place because they have a decent non-sushi menu.

Pork-bone ramen. Not shown, but we also ordered some oyako don, some sashimi, and I think one other rice bowl.

Cherry blossoms.

Happy St. Pat's!

2008-03-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

We dropped by our friends Marion and Paul's place on the evening of St. Pat's. We picked up some corned beef and cabbage at this Irish restaurant.

Probably one of the stranger combinations... Irish + Cajun? I guess that has you covered for two of the bigger drinking holidays (the other of course being Mardi Gras). Not as weird as the Irish+Chinese restaurant that was around when we were growing up called "McWang's" (I kid you not).

Post dinner bubble tea stop. I actually got a durian smoothie instead of tea.

Steven's Pass

2008-03-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

We used to go to Steven's Pass a lot when we lived in Seattle. We went back several times this trip since Liz has a season pass there.

Sue taking a rest along the side of the terrain park.

Random lunch-time shot of everyone looking in different directions.

Me and Sue.

I don't think Jeff Foxworthy is 96% fat free, nor is he big nor tender. Not surprisingly, the jerky was only so-so.

Had dinner at a Thai restaurant.

I got a whole deep-fried fish (I think it was trout). It was a little over-fried.

Desserts. Black rice pudding of some sort, and coconut milk and sago/tapioca.

Spring Break in Seattle

2008-03-15T20:42:00.000-07:00

Sue had to head back to Microsoft for a week, and since it was during my spring break, I decided to tag along. We stayed at our friend's Liz's apartment.

Aerial view of dinner preparations.

Super-speedy Liz!

Sue with her dinner. We made some gnocchi.

Hockey Cookout

2008-03-02T20:40:00.000-08:00

This is how we do our cookouts. Brats galore!

AXO Gala

2008-03-01T20:39:00.000-08:00

Sue's sorority alumni club in Atlanta holds an annual fund-raiser. The highlight for me was probably the plethora of cupcakes that they had on hand.

This is just a small sampling of the cupcakes. They had quite a large number donated from several bakeries/cupcake shops.

SLC: HPCA (day 2), conference excursion

2008-02-19T20:36:00.000-08:00

This has to rate as one of the coolest conference excursions... bobsledding on an Olympic course!

Orientation/warning/waiver signing session.

Mandatory helmet.

They pack three riders in with a professional driver. They don't let you push the sled yourself as it's pretty hard to pack everyone into the sled while it's stationary.

Night shot of part of the course. A lot of the course is covered up to minimize exposure to the sun to maintain the ice conditions.

Entrance to the luge track. Obviously hadn't been used lately.

Off in the Olympic "Museum". Paraphernalia from the non-gold winning USA hockey team. We should have beat them to burying a $1 coin in the ice, but that probably wouldn't have helped us.

Curling stone.

SLC: HPCA (day 1)

2008-02-18T20:35:00.000-08:00

Along the sides of the streets in SLC, they have these buckets of red/orange flags. The idea is that when you cross the road, you grab one of these flags so that drivers can more easily see you and stop to let you cross. Seems like a bit of an overkill to me, but maybe SLC drivers have poor night vision or something...

So we grabbed an unnecessarily large number of said flags just to be extra safe while crossing the street.

SLC: The Canyons

2008-02-17T20:33:00.000-08:00

Back to the Park City side of things for our third day of snowboarding.

Brat for lunch... somewhat disappointing.

Starting to get a goggle tan...

Snickers satisfies!

SLC: Snowbird

2008-02-16T20:31:00.000-08:00

Day 2, we went to Snowbird, which is in the little canyon where a lot of the other SLC resorts are (e.g., Brighton, Alta, etc.).

Hard to see in the picture, but there is one trail called "Bassackwards".

This is scary.

Random photo in downtown SLC.

SLC: Park City Resort

2008-02-15T20:31:00.000-08:00

I had a conference in Salt Lake City, so the weekend before we headed out there to get some snowboarding in.

We took an early flight out of Atlanta, and we were on our first lift by 11:30 the same morning. Sweet.

Mullets!

2008-02-09T20:29:00.000-08:00

The Atlanta Thrashers do a "Mullet Night" every year. Kind of funny to see everyone in the stands wearing fake mullets.

Happy New Year!

2008-02-09T20:28:00.000-08:00

Went out for Dim Sum on the weekend right after the lunar New Year.

Cheesy lion dance... I don't think a single guy in the troupe was actually Asian.

Climbing up to capture the dangling red envelope.

After math of the hundreds, and likely thousands, of fireworks.

Ethiopian Dinner

2008-02-08T20:27:00.000-08:00

We checked out this random Ethiopian restaurant that we had driving by for a long time. Food was quite tasty. The bread was funny because it comes rolled up, so it looks like a small basket of Ace Bandages (top left corner of the photo).

Coconut!

2008-02-04T20:26:00.000-08:00

Fresh, young/green coconut. Knife and screwdriver are the tools I use to get into there. The juice is very good.

George's

2008-02-03T20:25:00.000-08:00

Random dinner at George's around the corner from our place.

This is a hot dog! Well, somewhere underneath there, there does exist a hot dog and bun.

Corned beef reuben with onion rings.

Russian Dinner

2008-02-01T20:22:00.000-08:00

Sasha had us over for a Russian dinner.

Some of the many pigs at Sasha's place (not counting me).

Nate checking out the salad.

My plate with assorted cold dishes. Multiple salads and a deviled egg with caviar.

Alex has too many mashed potatoes.

Look, it's Jon on his iPhone!

Aquarium, Hot Pot

2008-01-28T20:20:00.000-08:00

Before my brother took off to head back to SF, we hit the Georgia Aquarium.

Horseshoe crab. Apparently these guys have a large number of eyes, both underneath and on top of the shell!

Me and the giant tortoise.

That evening, Sue and I made use of our new hot pot which we purchased while we were in Toronto over Christmas break.

NHL All-Star Game

2008-01-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

NHL All-Star Game: the main event.

Warm-ups.

Me and Sue.

Me and my brother paying careful attention.

Sucky band that failed to get the crowd hyped up.

Singing of the national anthems.

Action down at our end. We had a good view right along the goal line and got to see several goals scored by both sides.

Honoring Willie O'Ree (first black ice hockey player in the NHL, 50th anniversary of his breaking the color barrier).

Sucky intermission show. No-name R&B/hip-hop dude Ne-Yo performed for which I'm sure that 96% of the crowd could care less about. I actually like hip-hop, but this was still pretty sucky.

Sue playing her Lemonade Tycoon game during the intermission. Probably a lot better than Ne-Yo.

Final post-game hand shake line.

Overall, still a fun event and I'm glad we got to go!

NHL All-Star Skillz Competition

2008-01-26T22:00:00.000-08:00

Brunch at Pho Bac...

Pearl-Milk Tea.

Pho and Bahn Mi.

That evening it was off to the Skills competition part of the All-Star weekend.

Skaters warming up.

Zambonis resurfacing the ice; all of the teams' logos.

My brother mocking my Thrashers jersey.

Me and Sue.

Grand entrace of players.

Ovechkin taking a slap shot.

Left over dessert later that night (picked up at a Vietnamese market). Basil seed, coconut meat, and some unknown flavoring. It was ok, but not good enough to get again.

Clay Roasted Fun

2008-01-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

My brother came to visit Atlanta for the NHL All-Star Game. Friday night we went to a Korean restaurant called Budnamu, that specializes in clay-roasted items which we had to call ahead to have them prepare.

Banchan.

Carcass of the clay-roasted duck; filled with purple rice, chestnuts, and some other stuff (I seem to recall red dates).

Some of the duck meat.

A piece of the roasted pumpkin. The stuffing is pretty much the same as the duck.

Fox Bros. BBQ

2008-01-20T16:58:00.000-08:00

Sue and I checked out this BBQ place in town that purported to be a Texas BBQ joint.

The "Tominator" (actually, this is the half portion). It's a heaping plate of tater tots, drenched in Brunswick Stew, and then coated with a thick layer of melted cheese. This was honestly enough food for the two of us, but it was only the appetizer...

Meat plate. I ordered chicken and brisket. Sides: green beans and mac & cheese.

This was a good sign that the people who run this place had at least been to a Texas BBQ place before: banana pudding served in styrofoam containers.

Snow in Atlanta?

2008-01-19T16:55:00.000-08:00

This is our fourth year living in Atlanta now. We saw an ice storm the first year, and we've seen the occasional flurries, but none of the snow had ever actually managed to land on the ground without melting. This year, we surprisingly actually had a tiny bit of accumulation!

View out of our front door.

View out of our dining room.

Squeaky Soup!

2008-01-14T21:51:00.000-08:00

We decided to make a vegetable soup with a bunch of more or less random veggies. We used eggplant, which ended up being fairly squeaky in texture.

Weekend Skiing in Vermont

2008-01-13T21:44:00.000-08:00

French onion soup!

Steak... ended up being kinda chewy.

Ski lift shot.

On the way back to the airport, we stopped off at a Friendly's for lunch/dinner. I hadn't been to one of these in years. Food was good, and the nostalgia was nice, too.

Clam chowder.

BBQ chicken sandwich.

And then what Friendly's is really all about... the ice cream. Sue got the peanut butter cup sundae; I got a scoop of their butter crunch ice cream, which I have not seen anywhere else.

62 Hours in Seoul

2008-01-05T21:41:00.000-08:00

So I ended up spending about 62 hours in Korea just after New Year's. I'm teaching for the Korea program again this year, but via video. They wanted us to go spend a little time there to meet the new students and give a lecture or two.

It was funny being reminded of this again: the 24-hour go channel.

Kimbap. Can't seem to find good kimbap in Atlanta.

Random banchan.

Sundubu jiggae. Yum.

We went to some tofu-specialty restaurant for lunch.

Much larger banchan selection.

My tofu soup. It was a fresh form of tofu that was almost kind of curdled in texture.

Dunkin donuts, but Korean varieties that you can't get in the US. Peanut something or other and the green tea "chewisty".

Kishore got pizza for the Korean students on saturday afternoon. This was a funny variety: "seafood island".

Tteok gook. (Rice cake soup)

Some kind of beef soup (at the airport).

Toronto, Day 5

2007-12-31T21:37:00.000-08:00

More chinese donuts.

Some meat and dough roll.

Yin/ Si Juan~. A form of Chinese bread, deep fried, and served with some sweetened condense milk for dipping.

Snow pea vine.

Scallion pancake.

Xiao~ long/ bao. (Steam dumplings with soup in them.)

Then back to the dessert shop!

Another round of turtle jelly.

White tree ear with papaya.

New year's eve dinner at Aunt Jane's.

Maria and Ariel.

Uncle David.

Bacon-wrapped scallops.

Toronto, Day 4

2007-12-30T21:35:00.000-08:00

Guess what? Another trip to Pacific Mall.

BBQ pork and soy sauce chicken. Super awesome.

Grass jelly in coconut milk.

Assorted drinks. Blueberry and yakult (left), some kind of tea on the right.

Back to the tian/ tang joint in Market Village.

Dueling sagos.

Black rice soup with coconut milk.

Cooking at grandma's.

Toronto, Day 3

2007-12-29T21:30:00.000-08:00

Dim sum for breakfast/brunch...

BBQ pork wrapped in knots of dough.

Turnip cakes and gai lan (chinese broccoli).

I think this is some sort of soy bean sheets wrapped up in a roll... not sure.

Chang/ fen~ yio/ taio/ (chinese donut wrapped in long noodles).

Shrimp dumplings.

beef tendon? (left) and tripe (right).

small rib pieces.

cuttlefish tentacles I think (could be squid).

Weird rolls. Seaweed and fish cake I think.

Dough balls filled with black sesame stuffing.

Red bean pancake.

Back off to the dessert shop (more tian/ tang).

Mango pudding with coconut milk.

Mango pieces and sago.

Water chestnut gelatin... very disappointing. (Very little flavor, and minimal chestnut content.)

"Liver" tea (supposed to be good for said organ), dunno (top), and strawberry and sago.

More tofu hua.

Dinner at aunt Judy's.

Toronto, Day 2

2007-12-28T21:26:00.000-08:00

Every trip to Toronto involves multiple trips to Pacific Mall and Market Village, one the Asian mall/market/pirate-centers. For some, it's to stockpile on pirated DVDs, still-in-cinema bootlegs, etc. For me it's food.

Chinese pulled noodles. Super fresh. Super awesome.

Said noodles with pork and chinese pickled mustard greens. In the back, wonton soup.

Arcade break. Drummer version of guitar hero-type rhythm games.

Nat and Ariel doing the DDR thang.

The main reason to hit Market Village: Chinese dessert soups (tian/ tang).

Almond paste.

Mango with sago.

For dinner, we went to this "fusion" Chinese restaurant, which was mostly a regular Chinese restaurant with a few odd dishes.

Soup.

The stuff used to make the soup... to prove to you what went into it and that's it's not really just chicken broth from a can.

Fen~ Si (translucent noodles with assorted stuff).

Seafood and veggies on left, chicken on right.

This was definitely one of the "fusion" dishes... it's orange pork, but the orange flavor tastes like creamsicles!

Crab on right, bamboo pith and veggies on left.

Fairly unsatisfactory dessert soup at end of meal... this made us go out in search for more. Our cousin Lester introduced us to a new place. Slighty more expensive than the one at Pacific Mall, but different selections and possibly slightly better quality.

This was really good; we went through a couple orders of this. It's some sort of black rice and coconut pudding.

Turtle jelly with coconut milk.

White tree ear with papaya.

Cashew paste.

Not sure anymore... foreground item looks like it might be soymilk. Next is yo/ tiao/ (literally oil stick, a.k.a. chinese donut), and then in the back is tofu hua (a kind of soft tofu dessert).

Toronto, Day 1

2007-12-27T21:22:00.000-08:00

For brunch, we went over to my cousin Jonathan's place where he had fixed up all sorts of goodies.

Deviled eggs (with bacon!)

Stuffed 'shrooms. There was a lot more food; my brother has much more comprehensive documentation of all of the food items.

We were walking around and we stopped at some tea place (bubble tea I guess). On the menu, we found the above oddity: chicken teriyaki croissant!

Then that evening it was dinner at Aunt Julie's...

Aunt Julie and Rachel with some glazing action.

Uncle Edmond tending to the grilled salmon.

Post-glazed spiral-cut ham.

Moussaka.

Salad.

Assorted roasted veggies.

Mac and Cheese.

Nat with a giant guava.

Massive dessert spread.

Toronto, Day 0 (Arrival)

2007-12-26T21:16:00.000-08:00

On arrival in Toronto, we first took an unlicensed china-town taxi cab to my Grandma's place.

Taro and sago dessert soup.

My cousin Lester brought this super-sweet Louis Vuitton mahjong set for from Shanghai our grandma.

Beef tendon and brisket noodle soup.

Assorted side dishes (clockwise from bottom left: turnips/daikon, bitter melon, shrump, and some chinese veggies).

Bubble tea later that night.

Christmas Dinner

2007-12-25T22:00:00.000-08:00

For christmas dinner, we made a fairly traditional set of dishes.

Instead of goose or turkey, we roasted a chicken since there were only four of us (Sue, her mom, her brother, and me). Supporting cast included: green bean casserole, mashed potatoes with pan-gravy, stuffing, fruit salad, and wine.

Apple Delight

2007-12-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

We went to the mall, and there was an apple-only store (and not the computer type!).

Hot apple cider, apple-cinnamon donut, and a fried apple pie.

Nashville

2007-12-22T22:00:00.001-08:00

We went up to Nashville to visit Sue's mom for Christmas. One day, we drove around a bit into Kentucky. On the way back, we stopped at this BBQ joint:

Sign from outside.

Pulled pork, turnip greens, fried okra (deep-fried), and fried corn (not deep-fried).

Blackberry cobbler + vanilla ice cream.

Random Dinner

2007-12-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

Soup made from Japanese Pumpkin (kabocha) that I bought more or less at random from the Asian market.

Stir-fried snow pea vine.

Pepper steak with onions and peppers.