024 I Eat too Much + Lessons of Insults in Asian

Relatively slow day today in Los Angeles. Who would've guessed? Chris and I woke up at around 8:30 this morning as she had a breakfast date at McDonald's with some of her old school friends. I was asked to tag along, so I had to drag my butt out of bed too. Yech. Chris and I found a recording of a song my mom used to sing to us when we were younger, Fattie Bum Bum, and she played it on repeat until I actually got up. It is without a doubt, one of the most obnoxious songs I have ever heard. Ever. Dressed like a hobo because I didn't care, and Chris and I went to catch the 9:20 bus near the house - it's called the ~Spirit Line~. It's awesome.

Boom.

We needed to pick Christine's friends up half way across town even though the McDonald's is right down the hill from where we live. Apparently, they weren't sure which bus to take and needed to be guided...it was an adventure, so I didn't complain.

We like to camwhore on the bus!

The bus driver gave this to me. I have no idea what it is.

Picked Chris' friends up and headed back to where we started. I should have just slept the extra half hour and met them when they got back. Hmm. 

I digress.

McDonald's breakfast, as you know, is legit. So it was awesome. 

I don't care how many calories are contained in the muffin of
the Breakfast Gods.

I left the kids after I finished eating breakfast so Christine could bond with her buddies. Walked back up the hill. Went online - usual suspects: Facebook, Reddit, StumbleUpon. 

I am embarking on a new project: clearing up some space on my MacBook Pro because it's moving at a pathetic speed. Working on moving all my pictures from back in the day onto Picasa so I can finally delete them on my hard drive. This endeavor has proven to be more tedious than expected. I take too many pictures.

Note: HAHAHAHA. Sorry this post is so lame. I really didn't do anything overly exciting. We move on.

Hannah and I continued to cement the basis/plot line for the sitcom she will be writing about our lives. It will apparently be a combination of How I Met Your Mother, Wong Fu videos, Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. Or something like that. Basically awesome.

My Aunty Lydia came over at around 3:30 with lunch for my grandparents, and I got to sneak some food. Boss.

Effin' banh mi, man.

Aunty Lydia took my grandma and I to a nail salon after lunch so we could get our nails did. I was supposed to go with Chris but the loser wouldn't pick up her phone, so she missed out on a free mani-pedi, courtesy of Aunty Lydia. Whatevs. I'll take Chris out and pay for hers later anyway. Such is the duty of being a da jie.

Nail salon!

Purty.

Let's just hope the nails stay pretty and intact for Japan! I can't be chulu (unladylike) for the next few days. BAHA. Men. Who let the dogs out? Omg. This is what happens when you don't sleep enough.

Headed home to pick Christine up for dinner after we finished up at the salon. She had just gotten back from hanging out with her friends, so the timing worked out quite well. Aunty Lydia and Uncle Willam wanted to take Grandpa and Grandma out for a Father's Day meal, so naturally Chris and I got to follow along. 

We went to a restaurant called Chosun Galbee in Korea Town in Los Angeles for KOREAN BARBECUE. And I ate like a pig, yadda yadda yadda. You know all my posts in LA have been/are/will be about food. Aiseh. Just enjoy the pictures. 

Allow me to draw your attention to the big spoon.
Apparently this is a big deal. Idk ask my mom.

Lol Chris and I couldn't afford anything.

"Damned tourists."

Christine and I are what we call orang kampung (village people) or super jakun (backwards) so essentially, we had no idea what was going on 95% of the time. So we let Aunty Lydia and Uncle William take the reins.

Executive decisions being made.

KOREAN DIM SUM? Hahahaha. So jakun.

Yay family.

NOT TO BE EATEN AS SALAD. This is a garnish
for your barbecued meat wtf. We are so jakun.

This part we understood.

This part too.

Meat goes in, barbecued goodness comes out - you can't
explain that.

My sister and her big spoon.

Korean-style hotpot. Nomnomnom.

Idk Aunty Lydia thought he was cute.

Hotpottttt.

Before...

...and after. Never a miscommunication.

Everything tasted PHENOMENAL of course, and the meal was going well until...

Chris found a surprise in her soup.

FISH EGGS. 

It's cool - grandma ate it. Aaawwww yeaaahhhh.

Christine schooled me in the art of camwhoring while waiting for the bill to arrive. Apparently, it would appear that I have failed as an Asian in this department because all my pictures make me look chinky. 

Proof. Where are my eyes? Where are they?

So I was taught to raise my eyebrows to make my eyes appear more bright and happy and also existent.

Fixed.

I am a natural beauty.

023 Happy Birthday, Po Po!

Busy day today, as every day in LA has been so far, much to my surprise. Woke up around 10:00 (so much for my hope of lazing around this summer), and ate breakfast with my sister. A Nutella sandwich and Milo. Boom. My grandma is adorable because she thinks I'm still incapable of making Milo on my own (there is some truth to this), and so she made it for me. Yay! After breakfast, Christine told me one of my (many) aunts, Aunty Sau Ying and her husband would be taking my grandparents out for a Father's Day lunch, and that we were invited. When you're Asian (or anyone, really), you don't turn free food down, ever, and so we left with them at around 11. The original plan was to grab some dimsum, but that was quickly given up when we saw the line for food.

Not cool.

So we headed next door to this Chinese restaurant called Happy Harbor for some wanton noodles instead. Omnomnom.

And then we ordered food.  

Boba milk tea, Hong Kong style.

Chicken porridge for grandpa.

YEAH. WANTON NOODLE SOUP. That's right.

Idk what Aunty Sau Ying ordered. Just go with it.

Cheong fun. Nomnomnom.

After lunch, we headed to Ralph's to get some bread and a bottle of Nutella for Christine. When my grandma discovers what you like, she will do everything in her little Asian grandma power to purchase it for you so can gorge yourself on it. Trufax. She's kinda awesome like that. Christine and I helped her pick some things up around the store...she's too much fun.

Shopping with my grandma is a blast.

Bread is important!

After finishing up at Ralph's, the group headed to a tailor nearby to pick up my grandma's cheongsam for my cousin's wedding in Malaysia later this year. She has sexier legs than me. That can't possibly be allowed.

We headed home after finishing up at the tailor, and I helped my grandma put the groceries up once we got back. After a bit, my sister and I started working on a birthday present for her! It's her 80th birthday today! She's such a baller. Chris and I sent some pictures to get developed at a CVS pharmacy nearby using the interwebz, and got to working on her card in the meantime. Not too bad if I say so myself...

The outside. My grandma was born in the year of the monkey.

The inside. We love you, grandma!

Once we finished up, Chris and I went to pick up the pictures and then we got them framed. We headed home soon after and gave them to my grandma, and she was happy. Mission accomplished.

Favorite gift: her picture at the Clinton house in Fayetteville.
Hahahahaha.

We had some Chinese food for dinner, courtesy of my grandma, and it was awesome. 

Chris and I spent the rest of the night watching the Travel Channel and a football game between Brazil and Mexico. Idk. A little more internet-ing, and I'll be headed off to bed! 

022 Asian Potlucks for the Win

Woke up at around 10 this morning after staying the night at my Aunty Sau Kuan's place. My cousin, Shan Shan, is back in the States on holiday from med school in Prague so we wanted to spend some time with her. Snaps for family time.

Aunty Sau Kuan was awesome enough to take Christine and I out for a dimsum brunch (so much for my summer diet) at a new place called New Capital Seafood Restaurant. I'm super obsessed with dimsum because it doesn't exist in Fayetteville, so I was pretty excited.

We got to the restaurant at around 11, and had to take a number and wait in line. To those less well-versed in dimsum restaurants, dimsum is goddamn AWESOME, so there is always, always a line. If you ever see a group of Chinese people waiting outside a Chinese restaurant in the morning, regardless of whether it's a weekday or during the weekend, there is a 99% chance that that restaurant serves dimsum. If you know of a restaurant that serves dimsum, and no line exists, don't eat there. Their dimsum sucks, no question. Go look for a cluster of Asians elsewhere. Chinese people don't mess around when it comes to food.

I digress.

PICTURES OF FOOD TIME.

Fish cakes. Sounds gross, tastes incredible.

Shiew mai, chicken feet, tripe. All yummy. Trust.

Cheong fun. Le nomz.

Char siew bao - pork buns. I will literally fight you
for these.

What's in this incredible bundled treat?

Awesomeness. That's what.

Durian-flavored mochi. Idk. I hate durian.

It has occurred to me that not everyone knows how dimsum restaurants work, so here is a lesson for those not in the know. There are no menus in real dimsum restaurants - only aunties pushing metal carts around. 

Exhibit A: Aunty + cart.

Exhibit B: Aunty + cart close-up.

These aunties walk around from table to table, announcing what type of food their cart has, and then you tell them if you want anything from their cart. If so, they'll give it to you, and stamp your table's receipt card with a number, denoting the value of the food you've just selected. This is how your total is rung up when you're done eating. There is literally no way of knowing if you're getting cheated or not. Bahaha. Just go with it. 

After dimsum, we headed to a Chinese grocery store. Because this is Monterey Park, places such as these are everywhere, unlike in Fayetteville where much like dimsum, they are nonexistent. 

Random things you can find in Chinese grocery stores.

More random things.

Boba stall. Duh.

Honey dew slushie.

After we finished up at the Chinese grocery store, Aunty Sau Kuan dropped Christine, Shan Shan and I off at the Puente Hills Mall so Shan Shan could do some shopping. She'll be interning at the Mayo Clinic (wtf why is she so badass) over the next two months and needed some new swag. I, of course, bought way too much. UGH I WILL HAVE NO MONEY FOR JAPAN. My excuse is the items I bought were necessities - people need clothing, right? That's perfectly acceptable, right? RIGHT?

I digress, again. The mall was fun. 

Unfortunately, Chris and I were too fat for this.

Aunty Sau Kuan and my grandma picked us up at about 5 so we could go for a potluck at my Aunty Sau Ying's house. My grandma turns 80 this year and the potluck was planned as part of the celebration. Chinese potlucks are the bomb diggity. We arrived at my Aunty Sau Ying's at around 6:30, and a lot of my family was already there, with a whole lot more on the way. As expected the food was awesome.

More pictures of food. Geez.

Fried noodles from my grandma.

Prawns from Aunty Sau Ying.

Steamed fish from Aunty Sau Ying. 

Dog from Julian. KIDDING THIS IS BUBBLES WE LOVE HER.

Fried mixed vegetables from Aunty Sau Ying.

Chicken and some sort of chili thing from my grandma.

Fruits from my Aunty Lydia.

Meat pies from my Aunty Cindy.

We ate till we exploded and spent the rest of the night talking and watching K-Dramas. My mom would have been proud. To be honest, I wish I had spent more time with my family before tonight. I've never really spent much time in LA (only during university holidays when my family used to live here), and the more I get to know my family, the more I adore them. I'm pretty lucky to have such a large family who loves me. Yaaayyy. 

After talking and bonding for a while, it was cake time for my grandma! The cake was pretty incredible, no lie.

Check it.

It made my grandma happy, so mission accomplished!

What a sweetheart.

We took pictures with family afterwards to show my mom back in Fayetteville. I miss her! 

Uncle Ken, Uncle Stephen, Uncle Jimmy, Uncle William

Aunty Cindy, Aunty Sau Ying, Grandma, Aunty Lydia,
Aunty Patricia, Aunty Sau Kuan

Family is pretty cool.