Have Yourself A Cabo Wabo Christmas

The de Joya, Chuidian, and Pastor families gathered in Elk Grove to celebrate Christmas together. It was also the 3rd Annual Cabo Wabo Christmas. Here's a picture of my dad, taken in the inaugural year:It's now 2 years later and the tradition is still going strong.

Tita Yeyet made an incredible Christmas Eve dinner of Kare-Kare, grilled pork chops & roasted tomatoes, Dungeness crab, and Lechon, followed by a spread of desserts. It was a raucous night with 4 doggies and 3 cats in the house (Mollie quickly showed them who was boss!), and family members all taking turns at the dining table.
Afterwards, the cousins stayed over at Erica&Chris's house. This year, the "kids" would be in charge of making Christmas dinner, and we had quite a menu planned. It was the first time we'd be attempting dinner for our parents, and we have a lot of expectations from prior years feasts to live up to! It was a lot of work, but a LOT of fun, and it looks like we're going to be doing it this way from now on. Already looking forward to Cabo Wabo Christmas #4!

Click HERE for our pics.

Holidazed

Every holiday season, my family makes a pilgrimage to this house on 34th Avenue & Quintara, a few blocks away:

picture from http://sunsetstyle.blogspot.com/2008/12/merry-chirstmas.html

It's a delightfully animatronic winter wonderland, replete with tinny xmas music and ice-skating teddy bears. Whenever we drive up and pull over to park, there are at least 3-4 other carloads of families doing the same thing, gawking from the car &/or walking up to stare at the house in awestruck wonder.

I got that picture from a blog, SunsetStyle, which chronicles the quirky personality of our little beachside neighborhood. It's a pretty brilliant blog, and there are a TON of crazy-looking homes within a 3-block radius of ours. Ah, the Sunset...

Fugly Sweaters Galore!

"... don we now our gay apparel..."

We held our annual Tree-Trimming Party, in which our friends come over and make the ornaments that will adorn our tree this year. Taking inspiration from our 1970s-1980s childhood memories, we christened this as our Ugly Holiday Sweater party. Our guests came bedecked and bedazzled in their fugliest holiday finest (and we said, the more obnoxious, the better!)



Justa came over early to help prepare the holiday spread (thank you Justa!) There was soooo much food, which kept arriving all night long as more people arrived! Our friends looooove to eat!

Click HERE for our pics. Fa la la laaa, la la la laaaaaaaaaaa!

A Winter Wonderland

St George Spirits in Alameda is truly one of the most magical places on earth. It's a craft distillery located in an old air force hangar (next to the Mythbusters shop), where they make the most exquisite small-batch hand-crafted spirits, including eau de vies (which are like grappa) and liqueurs, single malt whiskeys, and Hangar One Vodka (we are huge fans). Last year they debuted Absinthe Verte , the first absinthe legally made in the United States since 1912. We have a bottle of that too, and it's incredibly smooth and oh so delicious.

They recently released their handmade agave spirit, Agua Azul, otherwise known to most folks as tequila. However, just like how all "real" champagne has to be made in France's Champagne region, all "real" tequila must be made in Jalisco, Mexico - otherwise one cannot call it tequila. Just like the rest of the St George stuff, it's made on-site in their hangar (with agave pinas that they exported from Mexico), and thus can only legally be called an "agave-based spirit".

St. George hosts Open House events a few times a year, and this time around the theme was "1980s Winter Prom". For $40, they gave attendees tickets for 4 cocktails, 1 absinthe cocktail, 1 photograph at the photo station, and unlimited (ahem) "tastings" of all of their spirits. It goes without saying that there was also plenty of water stations to keep everyone hydrated, and plenty of hearty yummy food to keep the spirits in check.

Russell, Alden, and I had a blast. For more pics of the debauchery, click HERE.

RibDobo

A night of beer-fueled karaoke at the friendly neighborhood dive bar always seems to lead to an urge to cook the next day (like this). And Isa's mention of adobo last night put all sorts of crazy ideas into my head. I ended up waking up to a fever-dream of making adobo-glazed barbecue babyback ribs. Could I pull it off?

Click HERE for the answer!

Booze Cruise

Some very cool friends recently got us the gift of boozin' and cruisin' with Hornblower Cruises. So we took off on a beautiful clear weekend morning to enjoy a champagne brunch on the seas. The unlimited pours worked their magic, and we couldn't discern whether it was the boat swaying or whether it was us.
For more pics, click HERE.

Eat Your Colors

The onset of cooler weather signals the influx of hearty green and orange colors from Terra Firma Farm, the organic CSA farm we subscribe to, located in Winters, CA.Here's our box of produce this week. Loaded with goodness, just in time to fortify ourselves in the wet winter months. One of the things I love about Terra Firma is their inclusion of seasonal recipes in that week's newsletter, like this yummy Butternut Squash and Spinach Soup. Their recipes come in handy for those times when they send us vegetables I'm unfamiliar with, and I've learned so much!

A blog I've been following is Darya Pino's www.summertomato.com, which is filled with information on eating & living healthier. I like her approach, which doesn't focus on diets but instead talks about small & simple steps to improving your health and being mindful about what you put into your body. But at the same time, it leaves room for occasional indulgences without the guilt. I like this piece on Saving Money While Eating Healthy. It's realistic and do-able, and I highly recommend you check it out.

LA Labor Day

We took a trip down to SoCal to hang out with Isa, Jay, Marley-dog and Sidney Vicious for the long Labor Day weekend. Highlights from the trip:
- Sweet Tea Vodka
- Del Taco
- Scoops Ice Cream (shoulda tried the Brown Bread, darnit!)
- Ostrich tacos at El Coyote Cafe
- Seeing the freaks at Venice Beach
- Meeting friends & family for san-nakji at Masan Korean Restaurant (and everyone had some, yay!)
- Hanging out with Isa & Jay's pals Meg & Lyle, and meeting the Charlielator
Click HERE for our pictures!

Eat Real Food. Drink Real Beer.

We checked out the Eat Real Fest in Jack London Square on what was possibly the hottest day this summer. The organization was "created to inspire eaters to choose tasty, healthy, good food. Through a vibrant, local festival in Oakland, CA, and a focus on delicious and sustainable “street food,” Eat Real puts eaters in contact with the real people -- the farmers, chefs, and producers -- who make our food." This also gave us a chance to meet some of our rockstar street food vendors who've been making waves in SF this year, see them in action, and sample their goodies.

Pretty much all of the vendors are on Twitter, and there were a few that I was determined to try. We noshed our way through Phat Matt's BBQ, the Adobo Hobo, 4505 Meats, and succeeded in finding Steve of Gobba Gobba Hey, creator and purveyor of delectable Gobs and Gobbles. We were pretty much stuffed by the time we made it to the Beer Shed to guzzle a few servings of local microbrews.

Pictures of the sweltering (but satisfying) summer day: HERE.

The Hood

I just discovered http://theoutersunset.com/ which gives a pretty good visual description of what it looks like in our neighborhood. A few more things:

• The Outer Sunset is also sometimes called The Parkside, and it's totally different from the Inner Sunset (which is East of 19th). The Inner Sunset is a bit more Old Money and also includes the 9th/Irving St strip (aka the New "Chestnut Street"). The Outer Sunset is rougher around the edges and is more old-school working-class Irish & Asian, many of whom have been here for generations.
• Everything in the Outer Sunset displays a distinct patina of rust & salt corrosion, thanks to the thick, omnipresent, and salt-laced fog.
  
• It's pretty quiet out here. We often hear the waves, & can sometimes smell the ocean, from our house. On warm/sunny days, it's a crapshoot whether the fog will actually lift from our neighborhood (and for how long before the fog rolls back in), even though temps are soaring everywhere else in the city.
• There's really no rhyme or reason to the house colors & design. Anything pretty much goes in this neighborhood. The most entertaining street has to be 48th Ave - the seaward-facing homes have the craziest nautical themes.

I wouldn't trade living here for anything in the world.

Good food = Best medicine

I wasn't feeling well today, and stayed home from work so I could herbal/vitamin-supplement myself back to normal. As I tend to do when I'm putt-putting aimlessly around with no agenda &/or feeling under the weather, I decided to spend the afternoon doing what I do best: making dishes from our abundant Terra Firma Farm produce. We were overloaded with basil, garlic, walnuts, and apples, so I made some pesto and an apple pie.





For dinner, we had mushroom tortellini with fresh Basil-Walnut pesto and sliced Brandywine, Marvel Stripe, and Lemon Boy tomatoes, and warm Gala Apple pie for dessert. Happy Tuesday!

Haute Dawgs

Lauren and Charles held a DIY Hot Dog Barbecue Party at their place today. Lauren has her own successful catering business (she makes a kickass award-winning chocolate-chipotle chili), and she put together some creative gourmet twists on these regular old turkey franks.



Ahhhh so many fond memories of partying with our girl Lauren. It's no surprise why we love her so.


More pics HERE. Congratulations to Charles and Lauren on your engagement!

Saturday Night Chicken Adobo

One of our favoritest joints of all time, Rick's Aloha, was a Hawaiian restaurant in the Sunset District within walking distance from our house. We spent many a Friday night knocking back a few pints, wailing on their makeshift karaoke stage, and cheering along with the rowdy regulars. Rick's closed last November 2008 after a couple decades of operation, and as we went through a period of mourning, we also waited impatiently for what would open in its place.

The Parkside Tavern finally opened a few days ago. Has the same owners as Foley's Irish Pub downtown, with an interesting menu featuring "upscale" pub food. Hmmmm. That's good news for my dad, who now can get his steak dinner fix a few blocks away.

So we checked it out after work on Friday. Boy was this place SLAMMED on its opening weekend! We said hello to former Rick's Aloha bartender Jason, who was hanging out at the other end of the bar. We spotted a couple other folks from the old Rick's karaoke crew. We noticed a lot of older folks like our table neighbors, very casually dressed down, who were also former Rick's regulars checking the new joint out too. In all the madness, our server forgot our order, and eventually forgot about us, leading to an unhappy word with the manager, who comped our entire meal. It was actually pretty delish, and we understood it was a crazy night for the staff, so giving us this freebie was very cool on their part.

We then strolled back home, stopping by The Spot Lounge for more booze. The beer was fine, but the soju was our downfall. Doing shots with one of the owners, yikes. This morning, I had one of the most brutal hangovers I've had in years. YEARS, mind you.

Which brings me to the topic of this post: Chicken adobo. After eventually getting back to a semi-queasy normalcy in the afternoon, I needed to make something comforting and hearty (and easy!) for tonight's dinner. I also considered arroz caldo, but Russell helped me settle on adobo. Which was perfect, since I had been craving this since I started following The Adobo Hobo on Twitter.

Throw it all in a pot

Terra Firma Farm heirloom tomatoes

Lookin good, smellin good

Time to eat!

Ukelele all-a dayday

Some friends spent the weekend with us in San Francisco for some nonstop ukulele madness

Mando+Linda

Russell, Corser, and I drove down to LA and kicked it at my sister Isa's & Jay's swank new place in Toluca Lake over the weekend. We were attending the wedding of our buddy Armando and his ladylove Linda, who got hitched this past Saturday, July 27. The wedding ceremony and dinner reception took place at the beautiful Ambassador Campus in Pasadena.

Click HERE to see a few pics from our camera.


Here's a peek at Armando from the archives:


Felicidades, Mando y Linda!

Jammin 'Cots

Our friends Tony & Asuncion have a prolific apricot tree in their backyard which is just sagging with fruit. They can't give away their apricots fast enough, and we saw bushels of the almost-ripe fruit covering the branches. We managed to take home a bagful (shoulda taken more, dangit!), and I made some apricot-lime jam with our loot. I didn't want a sweet jam, and using a judicious amount of sugar with juices/zest of 2 limes resulted in some amazing tart-yet-fruity-sweet jam, thick and luscious like lemon curd. This stuff was heavenly on thin-sliced toast, and even better on Kashi TLC crackers with cream cheese. Now I want to try it with some chevre, or on top of cheesecake, ice cream, or waffles...

Garden of Eatin

We spent Sunday afternoon gawking at our friends Tung & Lisa's backyard garden in San Leandro, which they've been attending to all summer. It's their first garden in their first year at their first house, and it's growing like gangbusters.

In one corner of the yard, they are growing different kinds of tomatoes, Chinese gourd squashes, cucumbers, melons, eggplants, snap peas, and various Vietnamese herbs & mints.

And along the fence, they've got several hot chili pepper & bell pepper plants, different basils and more herbs, a row of corn, and and apple tree.

Lisa's kids Nathan and Isabelle are enthusiastic gardeners and veggie eaters too. Seeing them care for the plants, talk so enthusiastically about their gardening, and munching down heartily on the healthy food harvested from their back yard is just the coolest thing ever. Tung generously gave us a little chili pepper plant to take home (along with his instructions), and we hope that it survives the cold San Francisco beachside weather.

Riptide

There's this cozy dive joint about a dozen blocks down the street from our house. Called The Riptide, you can smell the salty ocean air as you stand outside its door, shivering in the misty Ocean Beach fog. They host Open Mic Mondays, which we occasionally check out due to the amazing talent displayed at this particular event. Back in March we were treated to the four-part vocal stylings of Chairman Wow. Last night we were blown away by Kerry Wing and The Love Dimension. Yes, actual pros masquerading as amateurs.

Such an eclectic range of styles and instruments, it's not unusual to have a ukulele classic-rock tune followed by a barefoot a-capella french chanteuse followed by a roots-reggae-soul-singer followed by a psychedelic garage rock band followed by a crazy-haired accordianista followed by something like this:

Basil Exposition

Tonight's meal, courtesy of Terra Firma Farm:

First I prepared us some Basil Mojitos

As I was sipping on my beverage, I made us some Shrimp Chowder with sweet corn, green beans, and basil

Eaten with crusty sourdough bread to soak up the broth. Mmmmmm...Taste a little bit of the summer...

A woman's place is in the kitchen.

Well, THIS woman, anyway. I love creating things in the kitchen. My ideal Sunday afternoon involves making complicated and slow-cooking dishes that take at least a couple of hours from beginning to end. Like meditation, only with a big fat tasty reward at the end. So when we had Friday off as a holiday, I spent the afternoon leisurely baking things like Banana Walnut Cardamom muffins. Inspired by Tammy's Banana Bread, I added nutmeg, cinnamon, and cardamom-infused milk to a basic banana-nut muffin recipe.

Then I made some doggy biscuits, recipe from Eric Rochow on Gardenfork. It's super-easy with only 4 ingredients, and I made smaller-sized cookies for our smaller-sized guy. Corser usually only likes veggies/fruits or meaty treats, so I was totally surprised he liked the cookies! Maybe it's because they're a bit chewy in the center, and he loves soft things. The smell of the cookies also reminded me of Kare Kare, Filipino oxtail & peanut butter stew (maybe next time I'll add some veggies to the cookies!)

For my big guy, I made one of his favorite meals: Fish Tacos. I've actually never made them before, and was remembering the Mahi Mahi Quesadillas that our friend Rich Vigil made during our stay in Maui. For my version, I marinated Mahi Mahi filets, made an extremely spicy fruit salsa using Terra Firma Farm peaches & tomatoes, and made a cabbage-bell-pepper & yogurt slaw to cool things down.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing my boys happy!

A day in Jinguashi & Jioufen / Goodbye

Back in Taipei, Tammy took us to this hidden hole in the wall for a Taiwanese breakfast of sweet & savory soy milks and fried things. Now with fuel in our bellies, we took the train to Jinguashi and Jioufen, both on the northeast coast of Taiwan.

We checked out the historic town of Jinguashi first, which is an old Japanese-era mining town. They've preserved a lot of their historical buildings and have a museum about the area's history. Being that it's all built on hillsides, getting lost in this town was quite an ordeal since it involved a lot of walking up and down unmarked back alleys comprised entirely of stairs. Let's just say that we burnt off a LOT of that morning's fried breakfast.

We then took a bus to Jioufen, down the hill. This quaint little town is essentially one big market alley that snakes through small shops & food stalls. The food here was amazing, and we ate things that were so entirely foreign and bizarre and delicious. We would taste, eat, shop, taste, and eat some more. Wending our way through to one end, we rested up at the Jioufen Teahouse during sunset. We later took a train back to Taipei, and had a nightcap at the Taipei Bear Bar (yes, "Bear" in the gayest sense of the word).

The next day was our last shopping day, and we met up with Tammy's sister-in-law (who was also from/visiting Taipei) to do some street market shopping. Later that night, Tammy's friend Zoey took us to an all-you-can-eat Taiwanese barbecue dinner, at which we consumed an obscene amount of meat. Still reeking of delicious barbecue smoke, we headed to In House lounge where we met up with her other friends Nina & Peggy for a last night of drinks before going home to the US the next day.

Pictures can be found HERE.

Breath of fresh air (literally) in Hualien

We took an overnight trip to Hualien, which is a city outside of Taipei on the eastern coast of Taiwan. This region is breathtakingly beautiful, and is supposedly the place where the Portuguese sailors who first explored the area shouted the words "Formosa!", which means "beautiful" (or something like "well-shaped", as Marco explained) in Portuguese. Hence the original name for Taiwan: Formosa. One of the attractions here is Taroko Regional Park, and the area is also the native home of the Taroko people, one of the several aboriginal peoples of Taiwan.

We stayed at Crossing the Rainbow Bridge bed & breakfast, a "homestay" owned by a Taroko gentleman & his Taiwanese wife. There were also two resident dogs, "Ati" ("Little Brother", although she was a girl) and "Muffin". Upon arrival that afternoon, the hotel provided bicycles for us to ride to the Taroko Regional Park visitors center. They also provided us with afternoon tea, followed by a traditional Taroko dinner with all of the B&B visitors (who were all from Singapore). The owner had ferried the four of us in his car, and he took us to a shop afterwards to pick up some local Hualien pastries & mochis & of course, the local wines.

After a lovely alfresco breakfast, we went on a private tour with an English-speaking guide, who took us on an all-day tour of the park area. We learned from our guide that the B&B owner is actually a very well-known and highly-regarded Taroko member who has founded a lot of community services & organizations, has been highly-educated & a principal for 30 years and married outside of his group to a Taiwanese woman (all of which are very unusual for a Taroko minority), and has even spoken in front of the UN regarding minority issues. We didn't see him again that morning because he had left early to be a guest speaker at a university conference. Jeez... if only we knew what an importang guy he was, we would have asked him for a picture. And to think, all we did was ask him "do you know where we can get some booze around here?"

HIGHLIGHTS OF HUALIEN & TAROKO REGIONAL PARK:

• Discovering all sorts of crazy/cool-looking marble, quartz, and granite stones at Cingshui Cliff beach
  
• Walking the Shakadang Trail and wandering its riverbed... made of MARBLE
  
• Watching the birds swoop around the Swallow Grotto
• Lunch of indigenous Taroko foods at Buluowan Village hotel
• Seeing the Cihmu Bridge & the crown atop Frog Rock
• Crossing a swaying suspension bridge, Indiana Jones style
• Taking the rail equivalent of the "chicken bus": on the train ride back, our car also had several "country bumpkins" who spoke loudly, acted rudely, and snorted/spat their snot rockets without shame or aim. Gross gross grossness all around.
  

Pictures can be found HERE.

Boys and Girl in Taipei's Underworld

Tammy & Marco went to meet up with her auntie who lives in Taipei, so we wandered about on our own for the morning/afternoon. It took us a few days to find out where the nearby bars/pubs were located, since there appeared to be none in Ximending other than a TGIF's, even when we asked around.

Desperate for some kind of night scene, we went to the Shida district near Taipei University, figuring college students would know where to get some booze. We caught this really great band, Boyz and Girl, at the small, smoky, and psychedelic Underworld nightclub on Shida Road.

The next day, we discovered that right across the street from the Hero House was the GLBT district, which was (of course) filled with bars! The interesting thing was that either no one knew about this district, or it never occured to anyone to recommend this district to us. It was very well hidden behind the historic Red Pavillion Theater, and you wouldn't know the GLBT places were there unless you walked behind this building. Wow, what a discovery!

MORE HIGHLIGHTS FROM TAIPEI:

• Longshan Temple visit in the early morning.
• A very sad Core Pacific Center. Most depressing mall EVER. Lonely store clerks would perk up like hopeful little puppies waiting to be adopted whenever we'd walk past a storefront window.
• A day-jaunt to the Spring City Resort at the hot springs area of Beitou.
• Meeting up with Tammy's college girlfriends Nina & Zoey for a Taiwanese hot pot dinner, one of which involved using bendy straws to suck up marrow out of ox bones.
• A nightcap at one of the many gay-friendly bars in the Red Pavillion square.

Pictures can be found HERE.

Street performers (the band is "Happy Circle") in Ximending near our crash pad:

So Long, Seoul / Taipei on the twenty-third!

We hitched ourselves to Taiwan for the 2nd week of our trip. Our homebase was at the Hero House in Taipei, a building formerly used to host military veterans but is now open to Taiwanese residents &/or "youth" guests (thank you for making us young again, Taiwan!). We would then take day trips out of the city for the next several days. The Hero House was pretty centrally located next to a main subway station in the Ximending district. This is usually described as a hoppin' place for younger people, the "Harajuku of Taiwan", filled with shops, clubs, bars, etc. We thought it would be our scene... until we got there, and saw that Ximending is filled with KIDS!!! Frickin TEENAGERS!

HIGHLIGHTS FROM TAIPEI:

• Seeing "Betel Nut Beauties" at roadside towns on the way from the airport to the main city.
• Wandering Tammy's old neighborhood, where we saw the market, streets, and apartment homes of her childhood (awwww so cute!)
• Got glasses for cheap.
• Visited the immense Taipei Zoo & saw actual panda bears.
• Had tea & snacks up the mountainside & saw the sunset.
• Went up to the Taipei 101 observation deck (and was able to stand outside in the blasting wind!)
• Dinner at Modern Toilet Restaurant (where I had the worst spaghetti and meatballs ever, but hey, we're not there for the food, right?)
• Saw ridiculous & unintentionally funny late-night informercials for Chinese viagra, starring potbellied balding guys (and special-effects "boners") & young ladies. And then there was that one channel which was nothing but pole-dancing girls in a un-sexy badly-lit 70s-era-disco-looking studio.
• Toured the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.
• Visited the National Palace Museum and saw the famed carvings of cabbage and pork (not kidding, it was actually pretty cool).
• Awestruck by the beauty of the Confucious Temple at dusk.
• Street food and shopping at the Shilin Night Market (and endured a Chinese foot massage afterwards).

Pictures can be found HERE.

Up at Taipei 101:

24 hours in Busan

We took a high-speed KTX train to Busan, which is a rougher-edged port city (like Osaka is to Tokyo, or Oakland is to San Francisco). This place is known for its amazing seafood, and has a HUGE fish market compared to Seoul's. It was dumping buckets of rain throughout our first day there (we were only there overnight), but thankfully cleared up the next day.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM BUSAN:

• Strolling through the sad-looking Chinatown, which was actually filled with Russians & Russian businesses/bars, which had "American" names like "Cowboy" and "Texas bar". Go figure.
• Had street food & chigae stew lunches at PIFF Square.
• Checked out Jagalchi Fish Market & bought some tasty items.
• Stayed at the rockin Zen Backpackers hostel, which is run by the ubercool June Park and located in the Seomyeon District.
• At June's recommendation, waded thru back alleys in the storming rain to an all-you-can-eat Japanese-style dinner at Dea Rim Tuna (for about $28 each!), which had multiple courses & small dishes and tons of ultra-fresh tuna sashimi (different cuts), eaten Korean-style wrapped in lettuce leaves &/or nori seaweed sheets & doused in sesame-oil or gochujang chili paste. The beondegi made a cameo appearance on our table.
• Spent a sunny morning at Haeundae beach.
• Had a street-food munch lunch in the Seomyeon Street Food Alley, where we were schooled by the vendors on how to correctly double-dip your fish-cake-on-a-stick in the communal sauce. Oh, yay.
• Was stunned by the gorgeousness of the Lotte department store food court (too bad we were full of rice sticks, fish cakes, and mandoo dumplings from the street food alley).
• Back in Seoul that night, we had a "Chicken and Hof" (i.e. Korean fried chicken and beer) dinner with Peter and his coworker, followed by a hilariously epic struggle for the dinner bill between Marco and Peter... guess who won?

Pictures can be found HERE.

Seoul Food and other bad puns

We went on a trip to Korea and Taiwan with our friends Tammy & Marco for a bit over two weeks, spending about a week in each country. First stop was Seoul, Korea, where we met up with Marco's pal Peter, who was also best man at their wedding. Peter, who was born in Korea, is now living and working in Korea and was an absolutely perfect guide for us stumbly Americans.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SEOUL:

• Peter points out the "symbol of the Incheon Airport" as he drives us via freeway from Incheon to Seoul. All he said was "it's coming up soon, you'll know it when you see it". And when we saw it, you could almost see the big WTFs on our faces. (it's awe-inspiring when lit up at night, so... porn-y.)
• Our first korean barbecue dinner near Hongik University, with lots of Soju and Cass beer.
• Our first (and only) night at Kim's Guesthouse, otherwise referred by us as "Kim's Stankhouse" or "Kim's House of Feet". It's a dirty dirty hostel (fuck you Lonely Planet!) stay far away!
• Thankfully found Hotel NamKyong the next day (just in time for Tammy's birthday). We actually stayed in the old wing of the building during the next 2 nights, and Marco had to call Peter to help us translate via celphone with the non-English-speaking staff.
• Checking out Gyeongbokgung Palace.
• Shopping and snacking on street food in Insadong district. Tried out beondegi for the first time (the smell haunted us for the rest of our stay in Korea).
• Discovering that channels 2 & 4 in Seoul (possibly all of Korea) is porn. 24/7 porn on regular non-cable/paid network tv. Awkward & hilariously unattractive porn.
• BBQ Chicken & fried rice dinner with Peter & his friend June, followed by drinks at Ho Bar, where we met up with Marcy (this cool chick we met on the plane) and her BF Fletcher. Then a night of noreabang-ing!
• Breakfast and morning shopping at Nandaemun market.
• Meeting Peter and his GF at Noryangjin Fish Market where we bought live seafood, had our purchases "prepared" (i.e. rinsed off and cut up) so we can eat them raw.
• River ferry cruise, followed by a tram ride up Seoul Tower. Then an awesomely good pork cutlet dinner at a nearby restaurant that is known for its pork cutlets and serves nothing else but pork cutlets. Damn, those were some good-ass pork cutlets!

Pictures can be found HERE.

Eating silkworm larva ("beondegi") in Insadong:


Drumline on the streets of Insadong:


Curing our post-noreabang hangovers at the Noryangjin Fish Market:

Maui Madness in March

We were guests at the lovely wedding of Russell's pal Jon Suzukawa to his lady love Christine Martinez, which took place on the island of Maui on Monday March 23. In true Jon & Christine style, they had a gangload of activities for their guests, like scuba diving, Pacific Whale Foundation whalewatch eco-tour, the Old Lahaina Luau, and of course LOTS and LOTS of partying!

Most of us stayed in the Wailea area of Maui, since that's where much of the wedding-related action was taking place. But many guests (including the wedding party) got to Maui the week before and several days exploring the island and meeting & getting to know each other. Russell & I stayed at a condo at Wailea Elua Village with his coworker-friend Rachel & her husband Rich Vigil, which was (thankfully) stumbling distance from Jon & Christine's hotel.

Here's a link to the wedding website for those two crazy kids: Christine & Jon in Maui

And here's a link to our pictures HERE (I only posted small pics, let me know if you'd like me to send you any of the full-size files)

We had a mindblowing time in Maui, experiencing the most amazing things, including but not limited to:
- Snorkeling with the sea turtles, and hearing the whale songs while we were underwater
- Close encounters of the baby-whale kind (our slideshow appears below)
- Spotting a playful seal next to our beach
- Having The Best Giant Mai Tai In The World at Humuhumunukunukuapua'a restaurant & feeding their humongous freshwater carp
- Frying panfuls of spam for Spam Musubi in Jon & Christine's luxury penthouse hotel suite

An awesome time was had by all. Thank you to Jon & Christine for making such an experience possible, and for sharing your love of Maui with all of us! Congratulations to the wonderful couple!

Tribute to Momma

Here's a little ditty from Fountains of Wayne, which was THE PERFECT SONG epitomizing everything our family feels about our momma Julie. Her birthday is March 30 (although it's the 29th today, it's technically tomorrow in the Philippines). Happy Birthday Ma!

We're totally gay for Mamma Mia & HSM

Last night, we had one of our movie/dinner theme nights: Mamma Mia (the Musical) and a big fat Greek Dinner potluck. Pictures of our feast can be viewed HERE. Of course the meal was accompanied by generous servings of ouzo, wine, and beer.

We actually started off by watching High School Musical 3. I guess one could argue the Greek connection due to the latent homosexuality of the male leads, but I digress...

Here's a bit of the giddiness that is Mamma Mia:

More Potluck Action (cuz ya can't get enuff!)

And here are some more shots from Tu & Herman (click HERE for the pictures)
Although I'm warning you now, there are a LOT of close-ups. So don't click on that link if you're eating. Or just finished eating. Or if you have eyes. Or are a human being.

Potluck "Off The Beaten Path"

Tu & Herman had the brilliant idea to hold a "Bizarre Foods" type of Potluck dinner. Or as they described it, "The theme behind this event is for everyone to share a dish that is 'off the beaten path', something a little exotic/fear factorish or just a little different." Everything was surprisingly delicious, even though I was reeling from all the rich fatty mystery meats the next day.

Russell & I chronicled the evolution of the two dishes we brought: Lengua in creamy mushroom sauce and Sisig, two traditional Filipino dishes that we actually had & really liked during our visit to the Philippines. Pictures of our food preparation in all its gory details, as well as the MUCH more appetizing pictures of the delectable potluck dishes, can be found HERE.

Of course no party of this sort would be complete without that Filipino party staple: The Balut (fertilized duck embryo). Here are some slideshows of balut-eating in progress:

Justa's does a shot of Balut


Tu's turn to eat Balut at her potluck


It took a while to convince Billy, Marco, and Jason to do it, but they succumbed to peer pressure and took the Balut Challenge

Academy of Sciences

Spent today at the Academy of Sciences museum in Golden Gate Park. It was awe-inspiring, breathtaking, and intellectually stimulating... and crowded! It's only been open for a few months, so there are a LOT of people visiting right now. But oh. my. goodness. it is AMAZING.
The show at Morrison Planetarium was outta this world! Pun intended. So so cool. You all MUST go.
[CLICK HERE] to see our pictures.

New Year's Eve at the Tsao-Alves's

On December 31, we were invited to a New Year's Eve dinner at Tammy & Marco's. Now, that Marco has got the SKILLZ in the kitchen, I'll tell you what! Made a Portuguese meal of fat prawns with garlic, chili, & olive oil over crusty bread and "Bacalhau à Gomes de Sà" (salt cod with potatoes, onions, hard-cooked eggs, parsley, and olives).

Plus lots of wine and cheese... and liquor... and belgian ale... which leads to all sorts of wackiness...

Pictures of the bacchanal are posted [CLICK HERE]