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

Bumpy Experience

Nutty. Crunchy. Anything but sweet and simple.

Priorities. A must-have on everyone's to do list. A requirement that demonstrates qualities of selflessness and care.

It's something to live on.
As well to make an excuse of.

The problem about this mandatory factor is that there is always more than priority that fights for its throne. Yet, all of them are at equal in weight, stress, and most of all, importance. Many would choose that the top three priorities on their list are: family, friends, and school/career. However, accumulating all three can make your balance of time to fall or become lop-sided, never in order.

You can obviously see that this blog is not a priority at all. Which breaks my heart.

It is clearly obvious that Golden Spoon doesn't take much attention or priority on their servings' appearances. Golden Spoon is...pricey, not much appeal to my taste, not proportional, and mediocre. Yogurt should be refreshing and light to the tongue. On the contrary, Golden Spoon serves their yogurt plain, unless the customers would want to spend extra cash on toppings that they can easily acquire (I should have just taken a few of my almond rocas at home and make it myself instead of spending another $1.55 or so on the pre-crushed).

It's just sweet. Maybe too sweet. Nothing more.

Golden Spoon
21710 Valley Blvd., # B
Walnut, CA 91789
909-869-7206

sandwiching everything into one.

Geometrically Balanced.

Senior year is a drag.

Other than complaining about how ridiculous and hectic senior year is with the burden of college essays and SAT, I decide to be happy and grateful for late starts.

Did I mention that I don't have a first period? Oh, the utter joy of not getting to school till 11:00AM.

So a couple of friends and I decided to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to go out for breakfast! It's was quite shocking seeing Hong Kong Plaza at its emptiest state. Feast your eyes on a completely empty parking lot!

Anyways, we decided to try out the Garden Cafe since Connie said its food is quite delicious during lunch/dinner. Although the selection of its breakfast was somewhat limited (and full of macaroni soup), we were still willing to try out their fairly well-priced meals.

Most of us were first served with macaroni soup served with ham, carrots, and peas. The oddest thing about Hong Kong style cafes are that they add some of the most random ingredients and smash them together. Staring at a mumble jumble of pasta with chicken broth, I felt very annoyed that the macaroni wasn't submerged into some other sauce such as cheese or marinara sauce. I would conventionally see it with meat or melting cheddar cheese waiting to be eaten. However, these poor macaronis felt sadly misplaced.

We then moved on to the main course. Jono and I decided to share a spam with scrambled egg sandwich, which tasted pretty normal. Props for making it look very Asian with the sliced off crust and square shape.

The restaurant serves Hong Kong cuisine aka "myriad-of-different-recipes" cuisine since the restaurant seems to experiment with different types of foods and just smash it into one. The more I go to restaurant that serves this unique cuisine, the more I begin to dislike it.

Maybe I should avoid experimented food.

Rowland Garden Cafe
18406 Colima Rd # H
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
(626) 913-1188

The difference between Gluttony and Indulgence

Gluttony gets you nowhere. Indulgence makes you happy for what you have until it's gone.

There's a thought that always comes up in mind on September 23. Maybe it's the weather that always changes unpredictably. The inclement weather is unmerciful. It rains. It pours.

For some odd reason. For every few years (this year, too) that it does rain before this particular date, I feel as though the sky is crying for me.

It's been exactly four years since my grandfather has passed away. I can remember ever so clearly the moment I came home from school. We received a phone call from my father, who rarely calls, and rarely talks very quietly.

"Stephy, let me talk to your sister please."

I then handed the phone to my sister and walked over to the study room. A few minutes later, I see my sister already in tears, saying that my grandfather died approximately 10:00AM that day. I couldn't help but well up tears in my eyes the moment my sister cried out, "Grandpa passed away today." My siblings and I never cried so hard together, grieving our lost.

Seeing my grandfather in a casket was one of the most memorable yet most depressing moments of my life. I couldn't touch his forehead, I didn't want to feel how death feels. I was still in complete denial that my grandfather left us. After visiting him weekly at three different hospitals for two years, seeing him slowly open his eyes, and even touching his hands made me want to just imagine that he's still there. During that time when his health was returning, I still wonder even now,

"Why then?"

I think the most realistic and painful time I've ever experience was when I saw my father cried for the first time.

And probably for the last time.

Losing my grandfather was like losing a father to me. He took care of me when I was little and always made funny jokes behind my grandmother. And now... all that I have now from him are birthday cards and shards of memories that I may just forget. I hope I don't forget.

So here's to you grandpa. I hope you're watching up from above and know that all of us are okay. We're getting through this and we want you to know that we are happier that you left an unfair world to a better place. It's been four years, but it felt just like yesterday since you left your physical presence. Hope we can visit you soon.

Our family and loved ones are indulgences. Like the Häagen-Dazs® Vanilla and Almond ice cream bar, we should all be grateful for what we have, because we know there will always be a day when they're gone. However, we must also appreciate the moments and the cherished recounts that there was and never let those times die out from time.