Inscrutable fear of... SHH

Medium rare? I think not.

After spending three or so gruesome hours at the medical center of UCLA (Okay, maybe it wasn't that gruesome. After all, I did meet some very good looking and young doctors though!), my family minus my father and I decided to eat in our oh so favorite prime rib restaurant, Lawry's. With $200 worth of coupons in our hand, it would be outrageous to say no.

I recall those days when my family would drive 45 minutes there, wait another 30-60 minutes to be seated, and wait another 10 minutes or so to order and eat.

Lawry's, though, is a definite milestone of one of our many familial memories. Especially one of my younger twin brother Jonathan. Let's just say he had a sensitive stomach when he was small. Oh he was definitely stuffed after the main course. However, after taking a few bites of the free Häagen-Dazs ice cream, he would immediately regurgitate all the food he consumed from the beginning. Not only did this happen once, but twice. And as a loving family, of course we can't help but poke fun at him.

So after surviving the hysterical downtown Los Angeles traffic, we arrived at the restaurant greeted by what it looked like homemade potato chips and meatballs. Looking around the restaurant, I was quite surprised that not much of the restaurant has changed from the last time I dined there (which was about...at least four years ago?). It still had the paintings of what it looked like prominent European men and the same furniture. I guess the only change was that the waitresses didn't wear those head dresses anymore.

Once we sat down, we were greeted by a waitress who immediately gave us our menus. From her accent, she sounded like she came from England, which was pretty interesting. One thing I would definitely give Lawry's kudos for is the service. The waitress don't just give you your menus and wait for your orders of steaks and prime rib. Instead, she fraternizes with you and entertains the whole table with jokes or stories.

Of course, we got the old fashioned. Starting with the sourdough bread with butter. Although the center of the bread is warm and fluffy, I still can't help but complain about the incredibly hard crust. Of course, we all looked forward to the original spinning salad bowl, which was nicely seasoned with beets, baby spinach, romaine lettuce, carrots, grape tomatoes, chopped boiled eggs, and croutons. After eating what it seemed like a meal already, the sumptuous Lawry's Cut prime rib, mashed potatoes, and creamed corn arrived.

Wow. I looked at the prime rib again just to make sure it's not too rare. Personally, I like my prime rib without anything but the Au Jus sauce. I tried the creamy horseradish and I couldn't help but tasting very very rich cream. The prime rib was I guess not so much of a problem. In all, it was pretty smooth, juicy, and tender. I don't know, I'm not too much of a steak fan.

I do admit, I am somewhat the oddball of the family.

Unlike my family, I'm like a rabbit. I absolutely adore eating my fruits and vegetables. I don't particularly like eating too much rice or meat, unless it's Mexican food or Japanese curry.

So after eating about a third of my food (big portions = huge and yummy leftovers), we had an English Trifle, which was a light creamy sponge cake with a subtle touch of rum and sherry. Although it was a bit sour (which may have came from the raspberries), it was a different cake. It was just different, not implacable or horrible, just different.



So after two and a half short months of summer, school began yet again with the same routine. Wrong. Great thing about this year is that I don't have a first period. Thus, I can sleep in on those very late start days and laugh at the hapless teenagers who have to listen to insignificant lectures while I'm tucked away in my dreams. I guess the downside is since I have to drive to school, I have to wake up my buttocks up at 6:20AM and be ready to leave around 7:00AM. Any later and the traffic is horrendous.

I reallyreallyreally miss sleeping in. It's kind of funny how vitamins is like an alternative solution for waking me up instead of caffeine. Boy, I'm already sleeping in Physics. Ah!

I guess one subject that kind of irks me at the moment is Economics. Although the class is rather small (only 13 students!) and interesting, I can't understand the abstract theories that we are expected to memorize.



Lawry's The Prime Rib
100 N. La Cienega Boulevard
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
(310) 652-2827

Very Eventful

Ooey-Gooey Goodness.

I find that cutting pies is one of the most difficult desserts to cut into. Unlike cakes, pies are more fragile in their structure since the only thing that is supporting the indulging filling is the light flaky crust that can just break within seconds! Just looking at a broken piece of pie vexes me since the food's beauty also contributes to my opinion.

Oh well. It still tasted good. Pretty sad that Marie Callendar's discontinued its oh so yummy Boston pie.

School is rolling around the corner. Wow, it's amazing that two months have passed since high school students shout for joy around the campus. Time surely flies. Just recalling back to all the moments during the summer: Arcadia Relay for Life, going out everyday while my parents were gone, Ashley coming back to Walnut from Singapore, break ups, make ups, getting a car...this is probably one of the few summers that played a significant portion of my high school career, probably even my life.

Ugh, pulling out just one wisdom tooth made me feel miserable today. Note to self: never evereverever watch Food Network when you're not allowed to chew real food. I think I'm going to get sick of soy milk soon after drinking two cups of it in less than half an hour.

Marie Callendar's
1560 Albatross Rd., City of Industry, CA 91748
626-964-1094

sing when you're sad

What you can do with beans.

Green bean cakes (綠豆糕) is one of the many "souvenirs" in Taiwan that I would be happy to bring back home. Smooth and sweet, these little molded pieces of pastries are filled with red bean paste that are found in almost any bakery in Taipei. I guess you can say they taste similar to peanut butter since it makes me thirsty every time I take a bite out of it.

Foods like these just reminds me of the good ol' days when I went to Taiwan for about two weeks with my family. It's really strange, the moment we landed on the new Taipei airport platform, I could just feel that I was in Taiwan. I couldn't feel that when I landed on Hong Kong or Shanghai, only Taiwan. Staying in Taiwan made me feel like I was home, even though I was not natively born here. The atmosphere, the people, and just the nightlife in Taiwan made me feel like I belonged there. Well, obviously. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I do feel like the oddball in the family because I only seem to adulate Taiwanese pop and Taiwan's culture.

I think the greatest thing about Taiwan and China is knowing where the people come from. With hundreds of different dialects, saying one is Chinese doesn't define his or her ethnic background. In a way, each province is similar to a "country," each having their own unique culture and aspects of life. For example, my father's side came from 河南 (Henan) , which is near the Yellow River, and 南京 (Nanjing) while my mother's side came from both 上海 (Shanghai) and 四川 (Szechwan). So aside from just coming from Taiwan, another history unveils itself!

王力宏 - 星期六的深夜

星期六晚上 那兒都不想去 也無法入睡
看著電視機 持續在發呆 喝了七分醉
閉上了眼睛 試著不想你 但已來不及
忘了如何讓眼淚 停止流下
還好沒人看見(到) 沒人會說話

星期六深夜 我想起了你
沒什麼特別 只是回憶
你讓我自由 我很感激
星期六深夜 喔～
永遠不會有任何人 能代替你

這就是遺憾的滋味 陪著我形影不離
明天我會面帶微笑 但無法忘記你

讓我自由 我很感激
星期六 喔～Yeah

永遠不會有任何人 能代替你

Kampai for Happiness,

Up close and personal. Maybe too personal.

I have a tendency to limit how much I should write in blogs. I'm sure bloggers have the same problem too, unless they enable some kind of friends filter that enables only people that they know and trust to confide their true feelings against certain issues (haha and I was one of them!). I guess the reason why I wanted to create Beautify Love is that I was kind of sick of hiding things from readers and forcing them to grab a free ID on LiveJournal just so they can read my oh-so-pointless entries.

Despite the fact that I've kept a blog for about 3-4 years with subdomains, livejournal, and now blogspot, I'm not really sure I could define myself (one of those teenage self-identification crisis that seems overrated but atypical at the same time). If you ask me, "Who are you?" I would answer, "I am Stephanie K. Huang." However, Stephanie K. Huang is merely a label of my physical identification. I even took the nerve of writing a letter to myself, reminding myself to learn from my mistakes and the lessons that my family taught me.

What is wrong with me?

Anyways, I decided to do a meme and reveal the progress of which I have learned after losing someone.

Seven Definitive Facts About Stephanie
1. I'm a veryveryveryvery(!) difficult person to handle. Self-explanatory.
2. I don't believe there was a week when I would not cry. Haha, it's amusing that I'm such a crybaby. There for legitimate reasons mind you.
3. I'm having a very difficult time following God again. I was never a devoted Christian when I was in private school, and I guess I lost my faith around middle-early high school. But I've been praying and seldomly attending church, so there's improvement!
4. I rarely trust people. But when I do, I trust them with my life.
5. I'm an oddball out of my four siblings when it comes to interest. I sometimes feel that I was adopted from a family in Taiwan. It's ludicrous how my siblings are all Americanized while I still occupy myself in Asian interests.
6. (For once an optimistic note) I love to wrap my agenda that is provided by my high school every year. Sophomore year, I wrapped it with Starburst wrappers and junior year I wrapped it with an adorable Japanese stationary paper that I got from Taiwan. This year is a surprise! (well not really)
7. My favorite food is sushi! I have a particular liking for salmon and crunchy rolls.

T'was the night of July 27th that things started lighting up. I meant the charcoal. Just Kampai is a petite Japanese barbeque restaurant that seems isolate from the Chinese plaza not so far from it. Because that restaurant constantly changes managers (I vaguely recall the last restaurant that leased that vicinity was Fujiya), my family and I were never really crazy visiting that area and spend $10-$15 for what maybe a mediocre dinner. Because I had a get together with a couple of friends, Connie introduced us to the area and recommended their food.

Kampai was probably not the best restaurant that I've ever eaten, but it has definitely stepped up its plate. Not only is the environment nicely lighted, but the ambience and good service kept me satisfied.

We started with a boneless short rib. Although the meat was not marinated, seeing the lovely seasoned scallops made up for that. I was quite satisfied that the scallop tasted relatively fresh with its lovely white flesh.

Because many asian restaurants have lost their authenticity in America, Kampai is probably one of the few places to have a nice dinner at a decent price with a nice dark vibe to the side.

Just Kampai
18902 E. Gale Ave. #A
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
(626)854-3000

Don't worry about losing. If it is right, it happens - The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.

-John Steinbeck, 10 November 1958

One lesson to learn. One less mistake made. At least I hope.

Delighting Our Senses

This tingles the ocular and gustatory senses.

Chunky yet soft, these almond cookies have a hint of cinnamon topped with a generous amount of melted white chocolate. I was pretty satisfied with the light sweetness unlike most of the typical over-saturated-with-sugar American cookies. I would normally eschew away from the packaged or bakery cookies found in the center aisle of the supermarket. No matter how cheap it is or how embellished the cookies are with the colored frostings and sugar-coated icings, I still find that one bite is equivalent to a teaspoon of sugar.

No, and it's not because I am too "Asian".

Despite the fact that many Asians don't particularly enjoy consuming American cakes and cookies, some use that "excuse" to their advantage. Many despise the American cuisine after eating one dinner at one restaurant, thinking that one mediocre restaurant makes all others the same. Living in a city where over half of the residents are Asian, I find this obstinate behavior particularly irksome. No, annoying. There are probably other cultures that behave the same way, lacking the broad-mindedness that is needed in America and continue to dwell in this limited perspective that can only lead to conflicts between cultures.

Well, that's enough about my trivial garrulous nature. Now on to college topics, how exciting.

So. I've visited UCLA and USC (do I sense irony in this?) campuses along with many other classmates in this tour program that is given in my SAT class. After seeing the buildings, listening to the tour guides, and taking many many pictures of the beautiful campuses, I started to feel nervous.

"Nervous about what? College is all about the independence and freedom from home that is endowed to you"

That's the thing that I'm worried about. I feel that I'm so attached to home and my family that I don't feel I can stay a week without being at home, eating home cooked meals, and playing with my dog. Not only is the freedom scaring me, but also the fear of failing classes. Although it is my dream to be accepted into the medical field, getting there is just the beginning.

I dislike insecurity. Be strong!