stress reliever/insanity reducer

A must have during the wintry season.

It's amazing how the somewhat painful experience of spicy food is one of foods on the list that relieves stress and takes the form as a 'comfort food.'

Pain in the mouth relieving sadness in the soul.
It's like self-mutilation. Ha. Let's not get to there!

Okay. That was the weirdest comparison ever.

Korean tofu is my absolute favorite during the cold weather. Everything is just nice, warm, and bubbly with that white soft goodness inside.

School and college applications give me another reason to just let go and eat more tofu. As the December SAT rolls in (which is oh so soon! Ack!), I wonder if I should really study for the exam. Over the past few months, I have been quite unsatisfied with the results that I have been seeing from the grades posted. I question after the hours of studying and relentless reading that I absorbed myself in, "Was it really worth it?" There are times when I want to experiment one day and just not study at all, hoping to find an inverse relationship between the length of time that I study to the quantitative results that I get from it.

After getting a perm last Saturday, I look at myself more like a China doll. It feels awkward seeing people stare at my hair.

I'm quite excited for the choir concert next week. I hope that I kept my weight low enough to fit my dress without suffocating.

in loving memory

2/14/02-11/20/07
We love you baby girl.

sugar high: a substitute for alcohol.

I miss my homemade French toasts.

With the exception of burning out my oven in third grade, I picked up my cooking skills during sixth grade. In retrospect, I had the time in the morning to look up recipes and enthusiastically apply them to my everyday breakfast and lunch. But now, I only cook the somewhat normal eggs and bacon in the morning my twin brothers and myself since I only have -oh...- about 10 minutes to cook and eat. Because of the lack of time, I would normally eat and cook simultaneously.

It's heartbreaking to not enjoy the food itself: it's color, it's redolence, and most of all, it's taste. I feel as that humanity will soon fall under the express meal solutions from the Jetson's, swallowing a 'dinner' pill that is composed of a steak dinner with vegetables on the side.

Ugh. I feel sick after eating two instant cinnamon rolls. Disgusting.

sticky situation

Perfection is a subjective thought.

Many seek perfection in everyday life. From work to food, people perform their own best in order to fulfill their expectation. But really, where is the "bar" to flawlessness? Is your limit at the same measure as someone else's? Does a measure exist at it's most dispassionate perspective? I think not.

As sad as it is, one of the few people who will think that we are perfect is our mothers. Sometimes, it gets to the point where they think we can excel in every activity, curriculum or skill. They think we can do it, even though we are conscious that we can not. Sadly, my mother is like that.

Food is also another thing that people expect perfection in. In my area, most restaurants become "American-ized," where any cuisine tastes different from its native culture. Targeting Chinese food, many restaurants cook dishes that are no where related to any province in China or Taiwan. Panda Express becomes the overwhelmingly sweetened while others lack the quality ingredients that are only found in their indigenous country. Thus, the dishes taste dry and unfulfilling.

I am normally dissatisfied of the many "Chinese" dishes served in restaurants. However, Apo Apo has welcomed many with authentic Taiwanese dishes such as 炸排骨 and 豆腐花. One of the only Chinese restaurants that I recommend.

Apo Apo (阿婆 阿婆)
(626) 912-2113