life goes on in SF-O

After a crazy week I had to relax, eat, and have some fun before the work week starts again on Sunday ARGH!

Friday night after cleaning up the conference room (all week meeting with millwork contractor from Italy 9am to 6pm no less), I stormed outta the office and call Wendy and said ‘I NEED to go eat and hang out with you right fucking now’. She just recovered from a bad cold and scratchy coughy throat. She met me at Joe Ginger (Shanghai Joe #2). Crab Roe Xiao Lung Bao was ok, Shangahi Stir-Fry Thick Noodle was inferior to Green Bo. We still like Green Bo best because of the 1-min-from-order-to-being-served-at-table speedy service. We don’t like Joe Ginger because:

#1 We don’t like Tung Po Pork (braised pork belly) because of the two pig nipples staring right back at us. I am Chinese but not THAT Chinese. I mean, please, serving pig nipples? I bet they serve chicken feet with the claws too. Please see enlarged pic for nipple(s). Oh, and the piece of pork’s supposed to have been slow cooked for hours. It tasted like it was boiled for 30 min then they threw cornstarch on top. Very dissatisfying (is there such a word?).
#2 Didn’t take a picture but there was a dried leave-eating worm on the napa cabbage they steam the soup dumplings on. Anyways, first and last time we’re dining there.

We rented 2 movies: Breach and Babel. Both were pretty good but
was trying to cheer myself up with watching movies with Wendy. These were not the most cheerful movies available. Although Ryan Phillipe AND Gael Garcia Bernal were sure enough to cheer me up =) Why a father of any race, ethnicity, well, why any sentient adult being would give a 9 y.o. and a 13 y.o. rifles to play with is beyond my comprehension. Somethings you just don’t do because of the potential of shit that may come. I blame the father.

Then Saturday I got up and took the ferry to the New Jersey side to go to Kathleen Jordan’s BBQ at her house. Super beautiful ferry ride, never seen NYC this way. $6 for a 6 minutes ferry ride was a bit much for my taste though. Food was super yummie. Not the usual hot dog and burgers. We had goat cheese and caramelized onion pizza (grilled on the grill, super crunchy), brocolli and sausage pizza, a 20 lb pork loin with grill marks, skirt steak that KJ’s husband Tom/Tim marinated for hours. I brought $20 worth of kimchi and panchan, YUM! Constantly fighting with KJ’s 8 y.o. daughter, verbal, for fun. Then I threw the white towel in when she started blowing soap bubbles in my ears, on my face, my new Mosley Tribes shades, my hair, and places I didn’t know existed. I was pretty much bathing in soap bubbles. I let the little miss boss win. But then at the end she gave me a hug and flowers she picked from her mom’s backyard.

Caught the 7:40pm ferry back to NYC and ran over to the theater to watch Tie a Yellow Ribbon with Wendy at 8pm. The whole experience reminded me of Quentin Lee’s showing of Ethan Mao at the Castro Theater 2 years ago with all the keen supporters and after screening Q&A session. Very fun. Very Asian. Woorijip for dinner.

And I like this guy’s outfit =) Nice calves and shoes. Shot in SOHO near Mercer and Spring. Doesn’t he look yummie?

work work work work work work work work work work work work work

no fun in sight

had dinner at Sushi A La Kawa tonight after work. only had the filet mignon cuz i craved meat . . . i may try the sushi next time. service was excellent, friendly and efficient. waiter boy was pretty cute. steak was very tender but the mushroom red wine sauce could use a lot more red wine and a nice reduction. it tasted like worcester sauce mixed with cornstarch for the most part. steak could also be marinated to add depth to the taste. japanese rice was perfectly cooked. steamed veggie was unexpectedly tasty, not bland. oh oh oh and the green salad had my fav ground ginger salad dressing on top. and it was a mound of dressing. yum! only On the Bridge in San Francisco can top that quantity. although there was no decor worth mentioning. i don’t know where that girl came from on yelp that raved about the restaurant’s decor. she would die from a heart-attack even if she went to Osha on 2nd and Howard in San Francisco.

oh, so jason won’t say i’m asian-centric again, i went to Atomic Wings and ate 20 buffalo wings for dinner one night *BBBBBUUUUURRRRRRPPPP* norman said it’s usually pretty good but i made the mistake of walking 20 min back to the apt before eating’em. =P sorry. but then there’s not enough butter flavor anyways. i’m not the only one to blame. i want me buffalo wings with lotsa butter, super acidic hot sauce, and a hint of honey. also super crunchy on the outside, plump and juicy on the inside . . . best ones i’ve had so far was at Dan Ryan’s in Hong Kong and Singapore. I used to work there one Summer.

i still only talk about food . . . . how weird . . .

time for bed. i’m gonna try to get 7.5 hours tonight, yay!

Yikes, just a quick one. I’ll be coming back to SF Thursday late night (6/14) and flying back to NYC (6/17) early pm. It’s already been a whole month since I arrived in NYC.

Quick overview of last week =)

It was all a blur since i found this little bug in bed with me (photos to come) one morning. Showed it to Lucia, she said "BED BUG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I freaked out with her and ordered the apt management to take care of it . . . turned out it was justa Spider Beetle or something like that that doesn’t eat human blood/flesh.

At the same time I coughed my guts out for a week. Didn’t go to work one day cuz I couldn’t sleep. Went to NYU Downtown Hospital emergency room. Doctor said it’s probably some allergic reaction to the not so clean air in NY  . . . not infectious, not enough mucus to gimme antibiotics. Just a dry cough. But she gave me liquid vicodin and Flonase. Fare enough. I can sleep again.

Sunday I was so procrastinating (didn’t want to go to work WWWAAAHHHH). So I went running across the Brooklyn Bridge all the way, found my way onto the Manhattan Bridge, then ran back to Manhattan on a different route. Landed right in the middle of Chinatown =) It was soooooo cool cuz Manhattan Bridge is the one where the subway lines cross the river? I’ll just call it a body of water. Some of you get so technical about these things. Oh shit, I was just staring at this blinky ad in the right frame for 5 minutes. Must resist. So when I was running across the Manhattan Bridge, 4 subway trains zoomed past me from 2 feet away, I couldn’t help staring and smiling . . . people on da train must’ve thought I was nuts. It’s a relatively quiet bridge compared to Brooklyn Bridge. No tourists at all! I can remember scenes from "As good as it gets", "Saving Face" (2 of my fav movies, check’em out). . . where they show the characters ride the train to get to Manhattan from Brooklyn. AND I was running on the same bridge. Awesome =) I am.

Last night I went to this Jamaican takeout place by NYU called Jamaican Flavors. GOOD LORD, their curry goat on rice was heavenly. Second only to China First’s (Clement and the single digit avenues in SF) lamb claypot Canto style. The goat was oozing with goat flavor it stayed for a day and a half. I can prove it by burping in yo face 24 hours after I’ve consumed the next batch.

I started telling myself to go try a new restaurant or take-out place every night no matter what. Next stop is Cercle Rouge. Oh, Wendy and I went to ACME Cajun tonight in NOHO. Collard green was v good. The sauteed spinach with garlic was also v good. But I’ve had better fried chicken at Popeye’s (Wendy’s gonna get mad at me, never gonna take me anywhere anymore).

Oh and I went to this Thai place that I wanted to trash: Budtharasa
A sorry excuse for a Thai take-out place. I ordered Pad See Eew. It took her 20 minutes to make it. Lucky she didn’t ask me how it was, I would’ve made her cry and wished she was not a Thai person. She needs to:
1. marinate the chicken for at least 15 min or have enough flavor in the noodles to spread to the dry chicken breast pieces
2. add sweet dark soy sauce in the frying pan
3. add more eggs
4. add minced garlic for heaven’s sake
5. some sugar would not hurt since it’s so flavorless
6. less black pepper, I’m trying to taste the noodles, not the pepper. I would’ve ordered a shaker/grinder of fresh black pepper if I wanted to taste the latter.

That’s about all that’s needed for the Pad See Eew she tried to serve me. I mean, respect your job whatever you do. The Hair Color Technician Frankie at HAIR, Festival Walk, Hong Kong made me realize that it creates an aura around you when you really respect your job and act accordingly, no matter what you do.

Will add more pix and links later =)