Liking or not liking specific foods is a weird concept.  Why don’t some people like some foods while others like it?  Why do some people not like foods when cooked a certain way?  Why do some people not like specific foods by itself but like it when mixed with other foods?

These thoughts just came to me as I’m eating this Taiwanese Rice Roll (fahn tuan (no I don’t know the correct pinyin)).  The outside is rice, and the inside consists of pork sung, and a chinese donut (chinese cruller) (yo tiao).  The thing is, I think these are pretty good but I also don’t really like pork sung and I don’t like chinese donuts!  I never eat the chinese donut when we go to chins.  Odd.

Another thought – I don’t like mustard – it’s gross.  I also don’t like pretzels – they’re not that good.  BUT, mustard flavored pretzels are good! Haha.  Random right?

End.

I like cooking. I actually miss cooking. I used to cook so many different kinds of things and it was so fun! I had the sudden urge to eat/cook steak the other night so I invited myself over to MOL’s house to cook. :) Thanks for letting me cook, haha.

I like to think of how to cook things in my head a lot. Things I used to make:

• Chicken Marsala (not to be confused with Chicken Masala)
• Pasta Bake Thing
• Salmon – different kinds
• Different crockpot items – chili, shredded pork for tacos, coca cola meatballs
• Sweet & Spicy Wings
• Different types of pasta

Man, I miss it.  I also like to try cooking new things.

There are probably a handful of of deli’s near the office.  I’ve been to two so far.  Previously, I had kept going to this one because it was the closest and cheap.  But I decided to explore the other ones, so yesterday I tried this other deli just slightly farther.  I had read on Yelp that the people that worked there were super nice and knew everyone’s name.  I like places like that, where the owners know their customer’s names.

Yesterday, right when I walked in, I was greeted loudly (HELLO!) by this small Korean (I think) lady.  She had a big fat smile on her face and was so cute.  I ordered and she asked for my name for the order.  Then she used my name twice before the transaction was over.  As I sat there and ate, I noticed that sure enough, as people came through the door, she greeted them happily and loudly by their names.  “Hello Robert!”  “Hi Joan!”  And as people left, “Bye John!”  “Bye Jennifer!”  So awesome.

So I went back again today, the food wasn’t that good, but I liked the atmosphere.  The lady didn’t remember my name from yesterday, and I didn’t expect her to, but when she asked for it, she proceeded to use it 3 times before I was done ordering and paying.

I’m going there again tomorrow.  I’ll probably go there almost every day.  Maybe one day she’ll remember my name.  Haha.  Nice little lady.

I will not eat food that has fallen on the floor.  I don’t care about the 5 second rule, the “God made dirt so dirt don’t hurt” saying, or anything.  It is just gross.  I also do not eat food that has fallen on the table.  That is also gross and dirty – especially in public places!!!

However, a lot of people I know don’t care and will go through great lengths to save the food.  I will almost always be saying, “Don’t eat that!!!” Or I will at least try to stop them, although a lot of the times, I have just given up because it happens so frequently and I can’t seem to stop them anyway.

Although, one thing you may not know is that, I will sometimes eat food off MY desk or MY table, but usually my desk only.  And this is only if it’s dried food.  In fact, sometimes when I eat peanut m&ms, I will actually put them straight on my desk.  This is usually the case for hard-shelled candies.

But whatever you do, just please don’t eat it out of the trash can (like some people I know who tried to save a quiche!).  That is soooo gross!  :)

I like to eat. :) And I usually like to try new places but sometimes it’s hard to find people to go with. Anyway, the housemate had been craving chicken and waffles for sometime now and heard about this place that serves SOUL food. What is soul food you ask?

Wikipedia says: “Soul food is an American cuisine, a selection of foods, and is the traditional cuisine of African-Americans of the Southern United States and of black communities beyond. In the mid-1960s, soul was a common definer used to describe black culture (for example, soul music), and thus the name “soul food” was derived.”

It basically consists of things like fried chicken, fried chicken with waffles, chitlins, grits, collard greens, fried catfish, okra, yams, etc.

I was thinking the place might be kind of expensive so was hesitant about going first.  Also, as I thought about it, I don’t really like waffles that much, too much fried food, mac n cheese, okra, fried pickles, etc.  So I was definitely having second thoughts of even going in the first place!  But I decided it was worth at least a try.

We wanted to get a group of people to go so that we could get a variety of items and try it.  However, that proved unsuccessful.  We drove quite far down the 15 and east on the 94 to arrive at our destination: Bonnie Jean’s Soul Food.  This restaurant was in a tiny tiny lot shared with a liquor store and who knows what.  We went in and it was empty.  It was about 7:30pm.  I was thinking, well that’s interesting, but I proceeded to tell the lady, “table for 2.”  On the other hand, the housemate was thinking, well it’s kind of dark in here, I wonder if they’re closed.  We sat down and looked at the menu and lo and behold – the menu said they closed at 7pm.  Uh oh, what do we do now?  The lady had gone in the kitchen to see if they would still cook for us and by they, I mean one guy.  I was like, well, we could leave, since we felt really bad that it was 30 minutes past closing and they still sat us.  But the housemate was like, but we drove so far.  We decided to stay, after all they were very friendly and welcoming.  So we both ordered chicken & waffle – yes just one and fried mac n cheese balls.  Now, I am really not a fan of mac n cheese, but this was different, so it was worth a try.  It was mac n cheese with some chopped jalapeno rolled into a ball (smaller than a tennis ball, bigger than a golf ball), breaded, fried, and served with some type of ranch sauce.  It was actually pretty good.  Now the chicken (2 pieces) & waffle came out piping hot!  I poured on the butter and syrup and proceeded to eat.  I didn’t think it was all that great.  The combination is supposed to be sweet and savory.  It tasted just like I was eating chicken & waffles. =P  But the housemate loved it.  And that was that.  We left a nice tip because they were so nice in letting us stay and cooking (made to order) for us.  The lady was super nice as well.

I think I would eat there again, but I would try something else.  And note to self: they close early. 7pm on Tues-Sat (I think), 6pm on Sundays, and are closed Monday.

I’m glad it wasn’t a completely FAILED adventure, like so many other’s I’ve had.  Although, those are always quite amusing and make for good stories. :)

I was flipping through channels on the tv the other night when Food Network caught my eye.  It was diners, drive-ins, and dives (or whatever it is called) and it was featuring this place that sold fish.  It looked like a small little casual place.  The fish looked really good – they had a variety of sauces you could pick from, fishes you could pick from, and lastly you would pick if you wanted a sandwich, plate, or salad.  It turns out that the place was in SD!  I was like…mmm that place looks good!  I yelped it and the reviews were a bit mixed but I think they still had 4 stars.  So, I told my housemate about it and we were off to try it.

The place smelled kinda fishy and the line was quite long.  I’m sure that had a boost in traffic since the place got featured on tv.  I ordered the clam chowder, a mahi mahi sandwich with half lemon garlic butter marinade and half chipotle marinade and we shared some calamari.  M. got the halibut sandwich.  I thought my sandwich was pretty good, had I not even anything else, I think I would rate the place 4 stars.  But, the calamari was just okay, not even close to as good as it was at the Yardhouse.  The clam chowder wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad either.  The halibut sandwich was okay.  I liked my sandwich.  :)

I also ordered a coke and they gave me a cup of ice and a canned soda.  I poured the soda in the cup and drank it and thought, wow this smells like fish!!  That was so gross!  I kept calling it fish ice.  M. said he thought it smelled a little weird but not that bad.  I was thinking in my head that maybe they laid the fish on the ice and then put the ice in my cup.  SICK.

Anyway, so the place was alright, not extraordinary.

About a couple hours after I got home, I was getting itchy on my back and was like, dang, I just got like 10 bug bites on my back!  So I was asking M. if he had any bug bites.  He was like no.  It was pretty itchy and felt really gross.  So whatever, I went to sleep.  Woke up in the middle of the night feeling itchy all over!  I went to the bathroom and realized I had these red itchy splotches all over my upper legs and more on my back.  GROSS.  And I was thinking, what the heck?  I wonder if I have an allergic reaction…

But I’m not allergic to seafood…or so I thought.  I’ve eaten fish and calamari and had clam chowder with no problem before.  In the morning it was still there.  At first I got kind of scared because there has been talks in the news of bed bug infestations.  Gross.  But I took some antihistimine and things are much better now, which makes me think I really was allergic to something.  But what?  Who knows..and I hope it really was just a rashes from an allergic reaction NOT bed bugs.  I guess I’ll find out when I wake up in the morning.

So, if I just had my sandwich, I would rate the place a 4.  But the other stuff was sub-par, so 3.5.  And the allergic reaction makes me want to just give it a 3!! =P

Anyone else been there?  What did you think?

I like food.  I like cooking.  I love to look at cookbooks, especially the ones with pictures.  Sometimes I wish I had a huge kitchen with all the ingredients in stock including spices and what not.  I think I can cook but my problem is that I’m lazy and never know what to buy.  And I never want to buy too much because it’ll go bad.  If only I had all these ingredients that never went bad!  Then I could make whatever I wanted and could experiment on people.  I think I find joy in cooking for people.  Cooking is fun.  Tell me what you want to eat and I’ll probably figure it out and be happy to make it for you.

I love boba!  I think on average, I will get it once a week, sometimes 2 or 3 times during just one weekend.  Although sometimes, the 2 or 3 days in a row makes it a little too much to handle.  Anyway, a while back I did some boba reviews and I think it’s time for an updated one.  But just for fun, here are the old ones first, the new review below, and lastly, a fun story.  Enjoy!
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Friday, November 05, 2004
my two cents on boba
–boba bliss sucks, the milk tea didn’t even TASTE like milk tea, in fact i couldn’t even tell what it tasted like…lets just say..trying to save money by going to a non-asian place (no offense to non-asian people) was not a good idea
–quickly is ehhh, their milk tea taste like coffee, i don’t like coffee and milk tea isn’t supposed to taste like that, in fact their snow bubble or whatever tastes weird too, the only good thing at quickly is slushies on hot summer days
–tea n more is okay for its special 1/2 off after 9pm, they have tiny cups and the milk tea tastes as good as its priced, for the half price deal that is
–tapioca express is satisfying, expensive in SD but much cheaper at home, although not worth it for its almost 3 dollar charge, in fact i can get a large at home for the price of a regular here in sd, it tastes good…it tastes good when the boba is good, they should have more 99cent specials
–tea station, i used to not like tea station because the milk tea was so sweet, but i have come to like it, the green tea that is, i only get green tea at tea station and green tea house, and every once in a long while at tap x, anyway…pricey as well, but tastes good, and they have fun straws
–green tea house cafe, best stuff, pricey but good, good green milk tea, good green boba, mmmm that stuff is so good, add a scoop of ice cream and if you know me well, you can hear me say, mmmmm this is soooooooooooooooo goooooooooooood, and this is only if they make it right, once they made it wrong and forgot the sugar and it tasted like water, and then we asked for a new one and they overloaded the sugar and nearly killed us all, so now every time i do go, I’m skeptical, i say, “i hope they made it right this time”, but its been alright since then

//edit
life plaza, hmm I’m not sure where to place life plaza boba, ive only gotten boba there maybe once or twice believe it or not, guess I’ll have to try it out when I’m home before i give my opinion on it

Wednesday, November 02, 2005
I Love You No More…
What happened to you?  You used to be so great.  I used to brag to my friends about you.  I told them you were the best.  I took every opportunity to see you and I looked forward to being together.  You used to be so sweet.  This last time we met, I could almost feel a slight bitterness in you.  When I pointed that out, you tried to sugar coat it, but you couldn’t.  I already felt the bitterness and you tried to turn it around, but it just wasn’t the same. Sometimes you’re too mushy, other times you’re not enough.  It’s no longer consistent.  Every time we meet up my mind is already filled with the doubt you left me with last time.  I no longer know what to expect anymore.  I’m not sure I can do this any longer.  Sorry, green tea house cafe, your boba is no longer good enough for me…

Oops, forgot the date, too bad.
Boba.  Yep, a whole section devoted to tapioca.  I went to try this new or rather, different boba place earlier tonight.  It was called Tapioca Heaven.  They claim to be the home of strawberry boba or the makers of it or something.  Their prices were alright, just about the average tapx prices, slightly cheaper depending on what drink.  I got the “original milk tea”, that wasn’t that good.  They had four kinds of boba, strawberry, green tea, brown honey sugar (something like that), and the same thing but in minis.  I didn’t know what to get and since they claim to be the king of strawberry boba I decided to get that.  It wasn’t that good.  My friend got a strawberry lemonade slush with strawberry boba.  She liked it, I didn’t so much.  The best was my other friend getting jasmine milk tea with green tea boba.  The jasmine milk tea was pretty good but I still don’t know about their boba.  Sorry Tapioca Heaven, you do not rate high on my boba list.
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And now for the most recent boba reviews… By the way, these reviews are based on the “original” boba drinks, either green milk tea or black milk tea, because I almost never get the other kinds.

Teastation – I go here most frequently because it is the closest one to my house.  The boba is good. The milk tea is sweet.  Too sweet.  It is also very pricey here.  Ridiculously pricey if you eat in.  I think a large to-go is about $4 but if you sit in it is close to $6.  Are you kidding me?  $6 for a drink?  That’s equivalent to those mixed alcoholic drinks!  How can boba compare to alcohol…  Anyway, I can rant more about Teastation and what I do not like about them, but this is about boba, so I’ll leave it at that.

TapX – I rarely go to TapX anymore, but I do make a stop when I am in La Jolla.  The milk tea is good, the boba is decent, and the price is good.  I think it’s about $3.  Although, on a bad day, the boba might be too mushy or too hard.

Tea N More – I have started to come to this place more often.  I think the price is reasonable and the milk tea is decent – still a little sweet but not ridiculously sweet like Teastation.  The boba is also good.  A regular is $3 and a large is $3.50.

Quickly – I never go here anymore.  There are some up in LA.  The milk tea is not good.  But the price is cheap.  This place is not worthy.  I will go here if I am in the vicinity and feel like boba.

Tenren – I think these are the same people as Teastation and if not their boba is very similar.

Champion (Irvine) – Pam told me this place had the BEST boba.  I stopped by there and was not impressed.  Nothing special, sorry.

Tapioca Heaven – My first experience here was not good (as you read above).  However, I’ve only tried it once, so I am willing to try again.  Anyone up for it?

Green Tea House – I have never returned since the two bad incidents.

Bobalicious – Cheap but the boba fails.  The tea, on two separate occasions, made me feel like throwing up after.  FAIL.

Boba at Vietnamese Restaurants – Too mushy.  The drinks are not that good.  Not worth the price.

QCup (NorCal?) – I’ve been to QCup (I think that is what it’s called) on a few separate occasions.  It was not good at all the first time.  The 2nd time, ehhh.  So no to QCup.

Fantasia (San Jose) – I’ve been here once and I can’t quite remember how the drink tasted.  Considering I can’t remember, it must not have been that good.  What I do remember though is that I asked for a large drink and they looked at me like I was crazy.  Large?  Apparently, they don’t have large.  What the dumb.  How can you not serve LARGE?

99 Ranch – I don’t know if they sell boba in the 99 ranch down here in SD, but up in LA, they do.  It’s super cheap and it’s not bad.  I recommend it.

So, I’m trying to think of more places but I can’t.  Are there others in SD?  Oh yes, I’ve been meaning to try Guppy Tea House up in LA.  Yes, I’ve heard about all the shaved ice madness, but are the drinks good?

Anyway, so when it comes down to it, I frequent mainly 3 places, Teastation, Tea N More, and TapX.  I realize I don’t have a strong favorite, but I guess if I have to pick one, I would pick TapX (just not the one on Convoy, due to the crazy parking lot).
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On yet another note, there is this other great drink up in LA at this place called Phoenix.  It has the mini clear tapioca and diced fruit in it, and sits in some type of coconut milk flavor and is delicious!!  You must try it!  I just warn you to NOT look for the Irvine store because it does not exist which we found out through a short adventure of ours.

I was going to tell another story here about boba, but I’ll save it for a separate post as this has gotten quite long.

What is your favorite boba place and why?

There’s this BBQ place up in Vista that is pretty good!  I went there on Friday night and I really enjoyed the food.  It’s a little bit far to go eat, but I think it’s worth it.  The prices are what you would expect of a BBQ place.  I ordered a half rack of ribs and a side of meat (you get to pick from things like, chicken, shredded prok, brisket, etc) and you get 2 sides and a corn bread.  I think that was around $20.  I still have leftovers!  Yum!  I want to go there AGAIN!