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| lalala.
i like to combine work with pleasure. so when my work meant an extended trip to LA, i decided to extend the trip even further and spend the weekend there beforehand. 6 days in LA is more than i had ever spent at one time; i got to know the LA freeways much more than i would ever care to, and it never fails to remind me of why i would never want to live there.
one could argue that i spent as much time eating as i did visiting our retail stores, which translated into a lot of pleasure between business. i spent 3 days with jodan--their condo is in a really convenient part of LA (between K-town and Beverly Hills)--which also meant 3 days with their toddler noah, whom i met for the first time this trip. after spending quality time with noah each day, i can almost believe joanne's assertions that her son is the smartest and strongest 2-year-old in the world (ok she never said that, but one might imply that by the way she talks about him). i spent a blissful 2 meals at shik do rak (a korean restaurant which joanne first introduced to me and chris 5+ years ago), one with the family and then again one day for lunch by myself. joanne was amazed by the amount i could eat--always snacking on ice cream and TJ's awesome white cheddar corn puffs at her place. unfortunately, i set a very bad example for noah during dinner. "ai-yi eat popcorn?" she also took me to kate mantilini one evening, a late night upscale diner in beverly hills where one can bag-watch (i.e. identify nice purses) while eating macncheese; also the site of that infamous conversation between al pacino and robert de niro in one of my all-time favorites, heat.
the first and last days were spent with lee and kathy, who never fail to try to get me drunk (they love wine). lee invited me to celebrate his b-day with his work friends whom i realize assumed that i was still one of them, which was fine by me. lee, otoh, was so intrigued by our product that he had me take him to fashion island for a showing at the local babystyle. i told him that he should hurry up and have a kid so that he can join the numerous mom groups that i see exercising around seal beach with their strollers in the mornings (the ones with bigger butts walk).
they did succeed in getting me drunk the very last night when i had 1.5 glasses of champagne at dinner and then another glass of riesling at home as i was making them chocolate souffles. i dont think i realized how gone i was until i attempted to lean down to check on the souffles as they were baking and couldn't keep my balance. luckily, the souffles came out just fine. at first lee was skeptical when i told him that lance has 2 each time i cook for him, but then had nothing to say after he polished off 2 and proceeded to finish mine.
i spent the very last day in newport beach. that part of OC is almost undescribable...let's just say that it's enough to make a fashion-forward person like me feel insecure. after my last trip to shu uemura, i have a set of eyeshadow that i reserve for evenings out, but i felt like nothing less was appropriate there, not to mention that dressing nice is an unspoken obligation. i much prefer the more muted wealth of the bay area where rich people don't need to act rich (and i can be guaranteed to be one of the best-dressed among an engineering population).
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| right impression?
one of my friends who reads my blog just asked me if my new job is "something related to shopping and/or shoes." i guess it is a question of which one i spend more hours on during the course of any given day. | | |
| all shopped out.
so today after business had finished being conducted, i took a 3-block tour of michigan ave. in that stretch, i went to: NM, SFA, barney's, jimmy choo, hermes, YSL. nice stores that i passed that i deemed not even worth my time: stuart weitzmann, LV, BCBG. seriously, i've never considered myself a good dept store shopper, sale or no sale. the sight of all those racks just makes me tired. also, i find that if i don't find something to buy within the first 20 minutes, chances are that i'm not going to at all. then again, it might be due to the fact that i did buy myself a new bag, pair of earrings, and jacket last week. probably not.
i rarely have the patience to check out new makeup at the makeup counters, but will do so (1) when i have made a mental note to buy some makeup, (2) don't have anything better to do anyway and (3) see a shu uemura counter since they are no where in the south bay. today, i spent an hour with a bald black lady named basha (which brings my lifetime total at makeup counters to 3) who kept telling me i was "so funny" when i told her that i hated wearing makeup but felt it my vain obligation. i told her that i liked to keep it natural and she implied what was the point then. anyway, she was all charm to me, but when the hispanic guy came around to collect garbage (i have no idea why that would happen when the store was open), she went from all smiles to annoyance in an instant, telling him sharply "not now." that was scary. | | |
| windy city action.
i'm on my first solo business trip! i decided to combine business with family by staying with my mom's cousin, whom i refer to as ABY. ABY is a trip. true to shih (my mom's mom's side of the family) form, she is charming yet domineering. in ABY, it has evolved into a strain so strong that she makes my mom seem easy-going and me downright laidback. sometimes i just don't know what will set her off so around her, i play it safe by taking the position not just of a beta, but the omega.
that said, the shih women are actually excellent hostesses. i only know of 2 people among my mom's peers who cook better than my mom, and she is one of them. i hinted to her that i would like some of her homecooking while i was here, so today she gave me the option of having her cook and i took it. watching her is a treat. she's so different from my mom that i picked up quite a few tips by just watching her cook 4 dishes. for a starter, we had mussels-in-shell with large shrimp-with-heads in an egg custard broth steamed in individual bowls. i wasn't hungry, but that was one of those dishes designed to "open your appetite." after that, i was all over the steamed doban fish (finished with fresh scallion in hot oil), along with pickled mustards with pork (which she cooked b/c she knows it is one of euni's favorites) and stirfried regular mustards. even her rice was different: a fragrant bhasmati short grain interspersed with a bit of wild rice.
after that, she took me downtown to see a few of the many new things since i was last in the city 8 years ago. 3 things especially stood out, all around millenium park. my favorite was the giant silver jellybean whose surface is so polished that it gives a brilliant reflection of the chicago sky/skyline. then as you pass underneath, you get at least 10 different reflections of yourself of various shapes and appearing from various distances. next door is a water fountain with 2 structures the shape of an average building. a picture of a person's face appears on each structure, changing every 2 minutes but always showing the eyes, nose and mouth of each face in the same proportion. in the last 30 seconds, the mouth on the face opens up and water comes out. the last was "the serpentine bridge" leading to the amphitheatre. like a real snake, it winds back and forth on itself as it spans the distance across columbus ave. the bridge itself is like a hollowed out snake such that the sides are curved and covered with metal tile "scales."
in other news, ABY and i had dinner with allen and bernie last night where i was i able to offer my personal congratulatons on their recent engagement. ABY commented on bernie's rock, which is pretty big. bernie's only reply was that to point out that mine was bigger. actually, i find it extremely funny that a girl like her is marrying my most frugal cousin, tho i have warmed up to her over the years despite her obvious HMness. speaking of which, i couldn't resist stopping by NM (in the same mall as one of our retailers) this morning to check out their private shopping event and yet didn't buy single thing! sometimes i surprise even myself. (still going to check out the sales at another NM and saks tomorrow as i end my day on michigan ave.) | | |
| the most expensive meal i didn't pay for.
now that the tank and motorcycle are gone (and i'm trying to quit smoking...again), eating has become my #1 hobby. i've mentioned that lance is my best eating partner as chris does not have the patience for the frequency at which i like fine dining. anyway, after chris and i went to alexander's in cupertino for the first time a few weeks ago with some b-school friends of his, i showed lance the menu and he was all over it. the one thing that was regretful of that first visit was that we were too late for their "iron chef tasting menu" which sounded intriguing. basically, you give the server your list of special requests and the chef makes up a 5-8 course menu based on those ingredients. lance wanted to do that, so he even left work an hour earlier than normal (we usually eat around 8:30).
i will begin by saying that there is no doubt that alexander's is overpriced. even ignoring the wagyu, you probably cant escape spending at least $60/person. once our server (a nice guy named andy whom i requested again from last time) heard that we wanted wagyu, he upsold us on everything. lance couldn't give a damn as long as he had his wagyu filet. our tasting menu eventually included: dungeness crab rolled in granny smith apple "cigarette" amuse bouche, pickled peach with truffle asiago, tofu-adamame fried crabcake, caviar with poached egg, cream, and chives, foie gras (i got cold terrine while lance requested hot seared), maguro poke with octopus, asparagus cream soup, poussaint with veggies, strawberry yogurt parfait, wagyu (filet mignon for lance, ribeye for me), cheese course, and chocolate ganache dessert.
i should say that alexander's, with all of its friendly service, lacks refinement. i'm no expert at food, but even i can tell when the overall flavors lack a certain je ne sais quoi...delicacy perhaps. plus the tasting menu is not really a tasting menu. when they say 8 courses, it really is 8 (big ass) courses. i haven't felt so defeated by a meal since 2002 when i was suffering from jetlag while attempting a 13-course dinner at lasserre in paris. by the time we finished the foie gras tonight, i knew that i was being set up for failure. we did end up sending back one course: the maguro poke, which both of us agreed had the wrong consistency probably due to being held at room temp for too long. we've never done that before.
btw, alexander's is only 1 of 2 restaurants on the west coast that have wagyu from japan, which really has an incredible consistency. i'm not a huge fan of beef, but even i think it's wonderful. we found out tonight that the other restaurant is the wynn in vegas, which made lance feel vindicated because he loved our experience at alex while i thought it overpriced. then again, he had the wagyu there and i didn't.
as for chris, he was feeling sorry for himself when he got home from class tonight and realized i had left him spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. but then everything was ok again when i brought home 3/4 of my wagyu along with most of my pouissant and half of my cheese.
anyway, as is tradition, lance footed the bill (i cook for us on the weeks where we don't eat out), but it was more than we had ever spent (lance and i have been to FL together). in fact, it was so ridiculous that i felt downright guilty, which rarely happens. i told lance i would pay the tip. that in itself was more than the tasting menu at manresa. | | |
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