life's too precious

Over the weekend, sadly two people from Sacramento passed away. I know this a food blog but the reason I mention it here is because one was a sushi chef at Kru, Rolly Soliven. He had a motorcycling accident: read about it here.

The other was, Chris Tam, of Mass Appeal Entertainment. The cause of his death is still unknown but still affecting many lives.

They were both young men, at the prime of their lives. Their loss has touched many lives, like mine. Even though I was not close to them, the six degrees of life made us acquaintances; I went to a few of the parties held at clubs by Mass Appeal and would see Chris walking around, and Rolly was my cousin's boyfriend in highschool/college.

RIP Chris & Rolly.

appalling

I was reading this article (link from Cakegrrl) and I just found it disturbing. To be honest, in the picture, she does look good but after reading about the road that brought her there, it's not good at all. I couldn't imagine myself doing what she did. To be honest, there have been moments of desperation for me, where I desire with all my might to lose weight. Hell, I've even experimented with bulimia in order to avoid being 150lbs again. But within the last year, I did manage to lose about 20-25lbs and for the most part, I did keep it off. There were the occasional fluxuations of 5lbs here and there because of holidays, PMS week, etc. Now, I find myself in the same bind. It's true that dating and being in love makes you fat...*sigh*.

I am trying again to lose weight, but not as drastically as that girl is. I want to do it the right way and I know I'm capable of doing so. All it is, is calories in, calories out. As long as I have the right kind of mentality, and the right kind of attitude, I can still bake roll my cake sushi, and eat it too.

palate frustrations*

*Similar to sexual frustrations; mostly involving the need to drench tastebuds with delectable flavors

I'm guilty, and what's worse, I'm guilty at work. My obsession for food blogs, recipe blogs, and anything remotely related to food has grown. I've been exploring (thanks to Google) food blogs of those from Sacramento and I have found quite a few that I greatly admire--just check out my list of links to the left! I'm still searching, however.

I feel inspired. Lately, I've been on this hunt, somewhat of a soul-search, to seek new interests and hobbies. I've been hungering to be educated, and not necessarily in terms of attending classes at Sac State. I have this desire to be knowledged in other areas. I don't like politics, so that's out of the question. I read books like it's my major, as is, so I needed something else. I have been desperate, to the point where I'm finding sites like PerezHilton.com and GetRealDenver.com (based off Real World: Denver) entertaining. But come on, Hollywood gossip--a new hobby? Wow, I need to get it together. I'm picking up photography more and more and I've learned that taking shots of live objects (i.e. human beings, animals, etc. of the kind) is more thrilling than taking photos of inanimate subjects, reason being that I don't like taking pictures of food despite it having once lived. So now I've moved onto food blogs.

Right now, I'm in the middle of reading Vanilla Garlic and I'm sooooo inspired (I've never been this infatuated with a food blog~!) to just go home from work and BAKE! But *sigh*...it's been a rough couple of months financially so my desire to cook/bake has to be put on hold. Man, if I could just quit my day job to chop, broil, stew, and watch meat go from pink to brown, and pick fruit off trees, I would so do it! Anyway...a girl can dream.

This weekend was a taste of that life. Saturday, the family and I headed to Brentwood for fruit picking at Bacchini's pick-your-own fruit farm. I was looking forward to picking ollalie berries, but they didn't have any! I did enjoy picking cherries, only a few because I was the photographer for the day. There were also blackberry vines and I discovered how tranquil it was to pick those little tiny things, despite being pricked by thorns. I even considered doing a career change and studying agriculture to be a farmer--but, that was just a thought. Afterward, we proceeded to bbq at a near by park. Nothing special, just your average burgers, salmon burgers, and hotdogs. We did get to experiment with condiments since my sister happened to leave ketchup and mustard at home. So I ended up with a salmon burger, dressed with spinach dip. It was interesting.

Upon getting home, I went straight into helping my sister-in-law out with cooking. She was mid-rolling/cooking meatballs so I took over. I then chopped/diced for the bruschettas we were making. Pretty simple: sliced sourdough bread, brushed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, topped with diced tomatoes, fresh mozarella and chopped basil. My brother and I were also trying to re-enact scenes from last season's Hell's Kitchen in the meanwhile. The next day was more bbq-ing. We bbq-ed a slab of side pork (w/fat on) for dipping in a soy/vinegar/garlic sauce. We had a Rachael Ray version of taco salad, along with Greek salad, potato salad, and fruit salad (dessert, of course). We also had barbequed trout stuffed with ginger and onions. Too much food this weekend.

My stomach needs a break that's why I'm filling up on fruit right now. But my mouth has been watering from reading all these food blogs. I have a mixed craving for Mexican food, sushi, and cupcakes. I want to cook =(

frozen yogurt craze

Friday night, after working out, dinner and etc...I was craving frozen yogurt. I've been on a hunt especially for strawberry fro-yo. Alvin took me to Tiger's Yogurt Shoppe in Elk Grove to get my fix. YUM, it definitely was. They offer different flavors outside of van/choc (but sadly, no strawberry) and so we tried pistachio and I liked it! I like it better than regular pistachio ice cream because it has a ton of the nut flavor minus the nuts! A+!

Tiger's Yogurt Shop
8561 Elk Grove Blvd, Elk Grove, CA
(916) 686-8222

sushi sushi sushi

I <3 SUSHI.

There's nothing more to say than that.

OK, j/k. There is. But really, there's nothing that I love to eat more than my rolls stuffed with tempura or fresh fish, held together by seaweed (or soy paper), compressed with rice all around, topped off with more raw stuff, and drizzled with spicy mayo or some other saucy concoction. Yummy.

Alvin and I eat sushi, on average, twice a week. We eat at Arigato's for one of those times, and tend to try out another place for our second meal. Arigato's has been a regular place for us to eat at, even before we were dating. It's cheap, fast, and pretty decent when you're hungry. It's definitely not for any sushi connosieur because they don't use the best fish there is, and sometimes, it's as if they just throw their stuff together. Nonetheless, there are really no other complaints. They're simple with their regular beverages of Pepsi, Sprite, etc. They're Sake Bombs are cheap and from what the guys say, (I'm not of age, yet), they're good. The last time we went, I tried something new, the TNT roll. Spicy tuna on top with the regular fillings--I like.

This past week we finally tried Nishiki's. I've heard a lot of raves about it and two of the waitresses who work there are friends of mine. The place is really chill and pretty busy, despite it being a Wednesday night. The owner seems like a pretty laidback/outgoing fellow too. I had the Golden Salmon roll because I LOVE SALMON. I'm infamous for going after anything with salmon in it, and I don't like to share it--just ask Alvin. This roll has fresh salmon on top, and smoked salmon inside. I could've done without the smoked salmon, especially when I prefer the fish fresh and raw. I also had the King's roll which was sweet egg, tempura shrimp and rice wrapped in pink soy paper. I liked this one better of the two. We were served chocolate, mocha, and vanilla mochi sliced and diced, with chocolate drizzling as a way to end the meal. More yum.

The last week, we ventured into Tex Wasabi's, owned by Guy Fieri (I kept saying Ferrari) from the FoodNetwork. The atmosphere is chill, and the servers are pretty cool. We had a whoooole crazy array of sushi. I don't remember the names anymore--I'm bad with registering in my brain the names of rolls, sorry sushi! I do remember having one that was called the Jackass roll (which I kept teasing Alvin, saying that they named it after him =P), and then one roll with bacon and bbq sauce (I think?) in it. Not my cup of tea. I did like the one wrapped in lettuce but again, I can't recall what was in it. I liked their sushi; it was different but you definitely have to be open to the idea of "American-fusioned" sushi. Their array of drinks was interesting too. Can't wait til I'm 21!

Arigato Sushi
1608 Howe Ave, Sacramento, CA
(916) 920-5930

Nishiki Sushi
1501 16th St # 111, Sacramento, CA
(916) 446-3629

Tex Wasabi's
2100 Arden Way, Sacramento, CA
(916) 927-8399

failed attempts

So the other week, Alvin and I decided to stay home and to cook dinner. He chose crab as our main staple for our meal, and I wanted to try out garlic noodles as the accompaniment. His crab turned out fine, whereas, my noodles...not so good. I don't know what it is that Crustacean does to make their noodles sooo good. I am determined to try to make them again and aim for making them exactly like the restaurant's!

british pub dining

For the second time this week, Alvin and I went to Fox & Goose. First it was Saturday for breakfast before we visited shelters. I had the Benedict Arnold with Canadian bacon with their special sauce (forgot the name; substitute for hollandaise, some Welsh-type sauce). Alvin had a New Yorker's omelet: smoked salmon with cream cheese. Pretty good. We also shared an olallieberry (sp?) scone. I really like their food.

We had dinner last night and their "pub grill" food is okay, nothing special. I had a cornish pasty, which is cornish meat (??? haha, I don't know) with potatoes and peas, served with a side of gravy. Alvin had the nutburger which was pretty interesting. It was a ground up mix of nuts made into a patty served on a bun. I liked it; it reminded me of taco meat. We also had their appetizer sampler which had fried zucchini, chicken strips and banger rolls (these are greaaat! they're english sausages rolled up dough). Nothing was too greasy, which was also a plus. We shared their burnt cream desert, which reminded me of lecheflan, except served really chilled. I liked it too. I'd come back for that, but not anything else for the dinner. Breakfast, definitely.

We also tried out Daphne's Greek Cafe (a Greek restaurant/fast-food chain-type place) in Elk Grove. I had the vegetarian platter and it was pretty good. If all vegetarian dishes were as interesting as Greek vegetarian dishes, I could definitely be a vegetarian. I'd come back here again for the food. It's pretty refreshing and healthy.

Last week, Alvin, Jo and I finally tried Big Spoon Yogurt. I know there are better places, especially Pinkberry and other frogurt spots in So-Cal, but being one of the first in Sac, I have to say it was a good experience. I put vanilla, strawberry, and Ghirardhelli frogurt into my cup (a little too much, it was overflowing) and topped it with mini-gummy bears, strawberries (too bad they were frozen), chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, caramel sauce and probably other stuff that I've already forgotten. It was greaaat! I really hope they open a better frogurt place with fresher toppings and more flavors of yogurt!

Fox & Goose Public House
1001 R St, Sacramento, CA
(916) 443-8825

Daphne's Greek Cafe
Elk Grove, CA
(no listing avail. yet)

Big Spoon Yogurt
3644 J St # A, Sacramento, CA
(916) 731-4655

random things i like at random places

chicken pot pie and raisin bread from Mimi's Cafe
pizzas from BJ's
hummus or baba ganoush from La Mediteranee
sushi from everyyywhere
garlic noodles from Crustacean
never ending fresh strawberry lemonade from Red Robin
siopao from Chow King
salads and croissants from La Bou
miso soup from Satori's
ube ice cream from Mitchell's