Leftovers

I'm really kicking myself for not bringing home more leftovers from my mom's house but everything was a real pain in the ass to pack up.

On Saturday, we made turkey sammiches with stuffing, cranberry sauce and had some other goodies on the side like roasted brussel sprouts with sliced shallot. The brussel sprouts took the longest so I started by trimming the outter leaves and stubby end first. Slice them in half and give them a good wash. I then sliced up some shallot and combined the brussel sprouts together with some olive oil, salt and pepper. You really can't go wrong with something so simple. Everything gets placed in a baking dish, spread out into a thin layer and into a 400 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes.

OK, I guess I forgot to take a picture of how they came out. Sorry guys, my stomach was in control here. But hey, at least you get a picture of my turkey sandwich with all the fixins. I put a thin layer of cranberry sauce on the bun, layered on zapped turkey, gravy and stuffing. Ohhh yeah, tell me that doesn't at least sound good! Look, I even took a bite to show you the innards of my sammich.

Our Thanksgiving

Yumm... it's the foodie holiday of the year, besides Christmas. We had dinner with my parents, Justyn, my sister, her friend and Angel. What a perfect way to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends and family. It truly felt like a perfect holiday.

Justyn and I started cooking in the afternoon. Instead of the traditional green bean casserole, I made macaroni and cheese. Justyn made corn pudding.



For appetizers, my mom made deviled eggs with bacon mixed in the egg yolks with a persimmon salsa. There were also cucumber slices topped with shrimp which were refreshing. The grape tomatoes stuffed with a puree of salmon were my favorite.



My sister made pumpkin creme brulee for desserts which she is pictured here spooning the liquid into the ramikens.



The next thing my mom made were some simple blanched green beans with sea salt and pepper.



Inside the oven, she cooked up some Ratatouille looking sweet potatoes. I'm loving that carmelization. So pretty!



While the cooking was going on, Angel and Justyn played the Wii.



Now for the main course. The turkey! My mom baked it but put a cooking cloth on top of the breasts to keep them moist.



I kept taking pictures of the table as dishes came out.



My mom also made mashed potatoes but instead of mashing them, she used the ricer. We garnished it with chives cut straight from her herb garden.



Here's my sister being silly haha...



On top of the turkey, my mom also made some BBQ'ed ribs which she baked in the oven so I guess it wasn't really BBQed, but whatever. They came out really juicy and tender. Angel and I kept sneaking bites from the pieces that weren't plated.



Not only was there turkey and pork ribs, but there was also steamed fish. Angel had requested that from my mom since she doesn't eat turkey.



Onto the carving!



And the final spread.



After dinner, my sister baked up her pumpkin creme brulee and went on to cook up the sugar on top.



We all went into a food coma afterward, but we were troopers. We just weren't able to pass out after dinner so we went to Angel's house for some cocktails and video games.



Donoho came over later on and the night went on. We did some bad things to some inanimate objects as you can see here hehe..



The day after T-Day, we went shopping as Donoho and Justyn played Super Mario Bros. Galaxy.

Ahh... good times. I'm so exhausted from the weekend that I'm actually missing the regular schedule of working. OK.. maybe not heh!

Review: New China Delight

Ah yes, Castro St. Home of the foodie paradise. Well not really, but it still offers a lot of different kinds of restaurants. Prodominantly, aZn cuisine. We wanted to try out a new restaurant for lunch, so we stumbled upon New China Delight. Originally, we were leaning toward Maruichi Ramen (with the bukkake soba), but we went to NCD instead.

The restaurant was empty except for a couple of business men which wasn't a good sign, but we went in anyway. I ordered their spicy beef noodles and Justyn got their Shanghai Crispy Noodles and scallion pancake. I don't know where the picture of Justyn's dish went, but it was the standard goopey gravy over fried noodles. The noodles were the weird part. They didn't look like any other kind I had seen. But the broth and tripe made my dish. It was tender and savory with a nice spicey bite. I loved it. Even Justyn commented positively on the tripe and he doesn't even like the stuff. The portions were big too. I couldn't finish my food! I'd definitely recommend this place for another quick meal.

Review: Thai Basil

It's the beginning of a short week for me and I'm actually writing this on Saturday which is almost the end of Thanksgiving weekend. *sigh* How did it go by so fast?! Well, on Monday, Angel and I went to Thai Basil for lunch. Justyn was on vacation so we weren't able to carpool and it absolutely sucked. At least lunch was a perk. This particular Thai Basil is on Murphy St., since they're currently tearing down everything in the shopping center next door.

Of course, Angel and I are trouble so we ordered some wine. Originally, we were going to get vodka but for some reason, the waiter told us that there was no bartender. Alrighty...



We were starving so we ordered to beef satay since Angel doesn't eat chicken. It was good except for the beef being totally tough to tear off the skewer.



Angel ordered the pad sie ew or something like that. It was the thick noodles with beef, egg and bell peppers with basil. And of course Angel's picky so she ordered it without eggs. It was still delicious I'm sure.



I ordered the pad thai which was good but a little on the greasy side. Our wine probably didn't pair well with our meals, but we didn't care. It was a good time.



We finished our wine quickly, and ordered two more glasses. However, when the bill came, they charged 4 bottles of wine. I didn't think anything of it, but Angel, thankfully caught the mistake. I'm normally very trustworthy of receipts, but $73 dollars for lunch seemed a bit high heh. Thai Basil is definitely a good spot to hit for a casual and yummy lunch.

A Beautiful Day in SF

Yesterday, Angel, Justyn and I went to SF to actually do touristy stuff. We bought souvenirs, walked the piers, ate and drank like crazy. The souvenirs are going to be for when we go to France and since we're staying with some of Angel's family and friends, we need to come bearing gifts.

We came out of the BART station and went directly to Pier 23 where we needed to make a pit stop for Angel. What better way to start the day than with a drink right? Justyn didn't want to go into the bar/restaurant with us, so he patiently waited outside while soaking in the view.

Justyn and Angel were both craving soup (clam chowder & lobster bisque) so we went to Nick's Lighthouse and crammed ourselves in a small booth. I also ordered lobster bisque in a bread bowl and some steamed clams that I shared with Angel. Justyn got a bowl of clam chowder with fish and chips.

After we were fueled with drink and good eats we did our souvenir shopping and then stopped off at an Irish bar called Tiernan's.

We walked around some street vendors, made more purchases and wandered back into another restaurant/bar for oyster shooters and shrimp cocktail. We sat at the bar and made idle chatter with the bartender who was making salads for the tables. Angel and I enviously eyed the fresh steamed crab and platter of oysters that they placed next to me. I was tempted to steal both plates and eat them myself.

After that, it started to get dark so we made the long journey back to the BART station and snapped some more pictures. We had to make one more stop back at Pier 23 to round out the day with one more drink before hopping back on BART home.