Tag Archives: friends

We’re doing happy hour wrong.

Posted on April 20, 2010 by m@| 9 Comments

Michelle and I now have the keys to our apartment. We also found out that one of Michelle’s high school friends lives right around the corner from us. (This is where I would have linked to your blog if you had one, so get one so we can blog our Culver City adventures together.) Her husband is ecstatic, because now she has someone to watch chick flicks with, and he can watch sports and drink beer in his underwear with me.

To celebrate having neighbors that won’t judge us because we know their secrets too, we went to happy hour. Since it was already getting along in the evening we decided just to stop at Gyenari. Their happy hour runs until 7:30 PM.

Kimchee Fried Rice. Pretty tasty, but I don’t know how you would really mess up this dish.

The wings. These are a bit sweet for my tastes.

What isn’t shown are the Bulgogi Sliders, the Japanese Curry Crabcake Sliders, the Korean Taco Trio, and the beers and wine. Happy hour is supposed to be cheap, but it doesn’t quite work out when we eat every item on the menu. Maybe we should just eat or drink and not both. I might opt for the liquid diet. Is that bad? It’s the only way to save money and have a good time!

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I am a pig, possibly with mono.

Posted on February 16, 2010 by m@| 1 Comment

Two words can sum up this past weekend. Eating and sleeping.

Friday night Michelle were looking for some Korean BBQ, but the place we’ve been to a couple of times was closed. We went to a local joint that serves Korean bar food. We were looking for something spicy and this did it. After dinner I was passed out by 10:00PM.

Saturday morning we woke up early to head to the LA Street Food Festival. The place was a mad house.

Wrong. It was a long ass line.

Once inside there were more lines. It reminded me of the lines to use the bathrooms at Coachella. Insanity. The first thing we got to eat was Panang Curry from the Yum Yum Bowls truck, because the line was the shortest. The rest of the time we spent in long lines, feeding each other as we got food from one line or the next.

Qzilla BBQ was probably one of the best deals, $5 for a sampler. They were delicious.

Fries from the Frysmith truck. Kim Chi, Rajas, Chili Cheese, Chicken and Sweet Potato, and a special Foie Gras Mousse.

Fried Chicken from Ludo Bites truck. My cousin Trevor got in this line as soon as he got into the event, and it was the last thing we got to eat. Delicious, but worth three and a half hours of wait? No way.

I’m pretty sure they had no liquor license as beers were done as donation only.

For those of you that couldn’t get into the event, don’t feel bad. It wasn’t worth it. I know the organizers were caught off guard by the popularity of the event since this was the first time, but even with a bigger venue I still wouldn’t recommend attending this. What they need to do is create night markets like they have in Taiwan.

After the food fair we decided to hit up Mr. Churro on Olvera Street for some custard filled churros before heading straight to Chinese New Year dinner. We thought we wouldn’t be able to eat anything, but we did surprisingly well for having eaten all day. We were exhausted from standing in the sun all day so we crashed by 9:00 PM, sleeping until 9:30 AM.

Michelle insists she has mono. I certainly don’t. Who has she been kissing?!

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The Bachelor Party Has Begun!

Posted on February 1, 2010 by m@| 1 Comment

Friday I got to meet up with all my groomsmen for dinner. The plan was to discuss what we’re doing for my bachelor party, but it was also an excuse just to grab some food and beers. It’s a good thing we didn’t make this a critical meeting for deciding what to do for the party, because we got nothing done. So far they’ve decided to either to ride bikes with baskets and streamers on the handles or kill a hooker. Uh, yeah.

Why can’t we do both?

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Here comes the sun.

Posted on January 25, 2010 by m@| 2 Comments

Saturday we went up to Hollywood for Annie’s 30th birthday party. Michelle kept saying, “Don’t get too close or you’ll catch it! Then we’ll all be thirty!” We’re all getting old, but that doesn’t mean we can’t feel young at heart and in our activities.

We had a picnic party! Who would have thought it rained and hailed for six days straight before this?

We gorged ourselves on delicious foods and after playing badminton, croquet, and other rich people games we decided we needed to eat more and  headed to Ondal 2 for some Korean food.

I picked the best seat. With people running late these were all mine.

Holy Mackerel! Vegetable pancake in the background.

Seafood pancake.

Unfortunately I can’t eat this one, because I’m allergic to crab.

This one I can eat. Short ribs in a spicy broth that is just awesome. It’s got heat but you can taste all the other flavors in the broth.

Doesn’t that look awesome?

After all the crab was gone, one of the servers tossed some hand made noodles into the broth for round two.

Not to be outdone, another server made some fried rice with the beef broth. This was awesome.

Those Koreans are so resourceful, taking two dishes that would have been otherwise considered finished, turning them into two completely new dishes. I bet a pack of Koreans could live for three weeks on my food waste alone.

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This is NOT the way to start a new year.

Posted on January 3, 2010 by m@| 6 Comments

Poor choices on New Year’s Eve lead to a bad start to the new year. That’s really all you need to know, but for those of you that like to see me in embarrassing moments, read on please.

Dinner was at Jitlada in Thai Town. For those of you unfamiliar with Jitlada, the best stuff on the menu is the back page, which is known to be incredibly spicy. It’s good but not really the kind of meal you enjoy before a night out on the town. It’s normally safer to enjoy a meal here and then speed a night close to a toilet.

Fortunately for us the pain we experienced was only during the meal and it was on the inlet side of the body. It hurts so good.

After dinner we went back to Annie’s place to have a few drinks. Then the really bad decisions started as we headed out to the bar.

I think it was no more than a fifteen minute walk to the bar, but by the halfway point I put down three beers. There would have been a fourth, but halfway through it I realized I was too full. Here Michelle and I stop to pose.

As you can see by my facial expression, I am already having too much fun. Yet I keep drinking. You won’t see me  in the rest of the pictures with my friends at the bar, because I decided to make new friends and hang out with them.

On the walk home, I decided to take a rest on this couch. I’m sure it was filthy.

This picture isn’t to point out that someone else had too much fun. This is just to point out that Annie had a poster of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. Why?

Michelle gets all the blog love.

I don’t remember this, but I tried to feed soda to Fred. Based on pictures he was not happy. Probably like waking a hibernating bear.

I spent the rest of the night in the kitchen, wedged next to the fridge.

Then my friends drew on my face. I’m talking hands free! My only complaint is that they did this AFTER they drew on my other friend’s foot WITH THE SAME MARKER!

This is the good knee. I have random bruises on my arms and I feel like I pulled my lats. I also looked at my jacket and thought I had blood all over it, but I was later informed that Michelle used me as a napkin. Thanks to all my friends that stuck by me so that these were the limitations to my injuries.

The rest of the year can only be better. Bring it on 2010!

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Avatar among us

Posted on December 28, 2009 by m@| 2 Comments

I did this after one of my friends gave me the idea. It was done at work, which is no easy feat because my monitor faces the rest of the office. I might as well have done this one in Paint.

This is what happens when you take the Na’vi from Pandora and try to assimilate them into our culture.

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Christmas is the time for giving (junk)

Posted on December 28, 2009 by m@| 1 Comment

It has now become a tradition for our friends to get together for Christmas to share a meal together and do a gift exchange, but we also have a tradition that’s a little more fun. We throw in one more gift exchange, but we make them junk gifts. The only requirement for the gift is that it has to be something you don’t want. That makes it quite open ended and the creativity makes it quite fun.

This is not a junk gift. This was my contribution to the meal. A bacon-wrapped smoked pork loin. I know how to perfect it next time. More bacon.

Look who got the Internet Urinal!

This man is actually a doctor. Would you let him operate on you?

Someone brought a tape player with an actual tape and took the time to put in new batteries.

2009 calendar! Totally not junk. There’s still three more days to use it.

At least Michelle got rid of her disastrous snow globes.

Our friends made the announcement about their engagement. Here the girls are swarming to hear the story. The guys are debating whether to go the moon or Mars for the bachelor party.

Archery in Wii Resort. Such concentration!

She kept laughing and couldn’t hold still. If this were a real bow and arrow, she would have shot someone.

I’m glad to have the friends I do, many of them since junior high. I’m even more glad to know that we’re all still friends despite all the crappy gifts that got passed around and the laughs we share at each others expense.

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Another Delicious Weekend

Posted on December 21, 2009 by m@| 2 Comments

I went three for three on going out for this past weekend. That is pretty good for me. Normally one of my days is reserved for nothing. Nothing is important after getting my ass kicked all week.

Friday I got to have dinner with Michelle and my Cousin Trevor. He picked Sake House Miro on Miracle Mile for us to meet up. The sushi was pretty good. Also the Butter Fish isn’t shown here, but it is awesome. They must get fish to adapt to swim and live in vats of butter.

This is no optical illusion. The beer is the size of Michelle’s head.

There are lots of other things on the menu, which don’t seem to fit. I ordered the Garlic and Naan Pizza because it seemed so out of place on the menu. It was actually pretty good.

Saturday was a Christmas party for Michelle and her dorm friends. It’s hard to tell from this picture, but it was a pajama party.

This is one of my weaknesses. I always forget what these are called, but they are awesome.

Some of the people had too much fun and took the theme a little too seriously.

Sunday I had the pleasure of joining a bunch of food loving Internet nerds (and I mean that in the best way possible) for a meal at Shu Feng Yuan in San Gabriel. I am by no means a foodie, but I do love food, just not in the same way that these people do. I have a much simpler understanding of food, but I’d like to think my enjoyment of the food is as great even if my ability to describe it is not up to par.

I have no idea which dish is which, but you have lamb, brazed pork, various noodles, sea cucumber, chicken soup, kidney, intestines, pork blood, pig ears, frog legs, and diced rabbit.  Can you guess which dish is the least spicy? It’s the least red one. I enjoyed this meal thoroughly and enjoyed the company just as much.

I saw Avatar this weekend. Stay tuned for that.

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Thanksgiving Weekend = Gorging

Posted on November 30, 2009 by m@| 1 Comment

I don’t know what it is about the Thanksgiving, but it’s an automatic excuse to eat until our pants explode. This year was no different but the eating wasn’t confined to Thanksgiving day.

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Wednesday night’s dinner was Otafuku Noodle House in Gardena. This is the shrimp and scallop tempura udon. Delicious.

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Pear, cranberries, and walnuts over mixed greens. I thought this was a piece of chicken when it was set at the table and was wondering how long they were going to let the chicken sit out. Unfortunately this was the only picture I have of Thanksgiving dinner. I put my camera under my seat and forgot to take pictures during the meal, but there was ham, turkey, duck, cream corn, sticky rice, green beans, fresh baked bread with honey butter, and  multiple pies.

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Sounds odd, huh? I was even more intrigued when the Japanese waitress spoke perfect Spanish. She was actually from Peru.

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Peruvian style sushi for an appetizer. Delicious.

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This is a simple chicken and rice dish, but toss in their wasabi mayonnaise sauce and it’s awesome.

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Mariscos. Tan deliciosos.

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Mac and Cheese at Bar Food in West LA.

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The burger is pretty good here with the Guinness ketchup. Sweet potato fries and calamari are great snacks as well.

I am stuffed.

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Kids at Heart

Posted on November 12, 2009 by m@| Leave a comment

Just so you don’t think all I did in New York was eat and drink (although nothing wrong with that), here is a short clip of us in the subway station. They were doing construction so you could hear the jack-hammering. Like any grown adult, some of us decided to make machine gun motions.

The rest of the New York pictures can be viewed here.

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