Fooding through grad school

Research is complicated

So maybe it is time for a career change

But in the meantime...

More culinary explorations

For Chinese New Years, I made myself an arugula, mushroom, and cheese salad thanks to my balcony plant.  I've never tried balsamic vinaigrette with dijon mustard before, but I was glad to find that it worked well with the mushrooms.

Nothing more Chinese than reheated pizza and salad.

Unfortunately, the cilantro is now dead.  Mom came and aggressively chopped off all the cilantro because they've been ready for harvest.  This made a delicious meal, but made the plant all wimpy in the LA dry heat.

DineLA 2013

My winter DineLA experience was leaner this year than the last.  I just closed my eyes and focus on the future macaroon eating instead.

But no worries, deliciousness still happened.  (In fact, some were so delicious that they could not be captured before their disappearance.

The end of the world as we know it

Now that even the Mayans have been proved wrong, it looks like we are just going to have to make our own futures happen without any hope of an end.

To that end, I'm sharing some of what I did to celebrate our continuing lease on life.

Birthday? Birthmonth! (part 1)

Some people celebrate their birthday with a few friends.  Some have a giant party with the police involved.  But you know what all those people are doing incorrectly?  Only celebrating for one day!

Come to LA!!!

Thanks to Darienne, I can finally make a promo post for why people should come visit me.

Boston in Summer

The best part of visiting Boston was getting to snuggle with my mom, of which there is no photographic proof (but we both can just close our eyes and see it).  Still, lots of other exciting things also happened.

Spring Break: San Francisco

After finding out that I passed my Block 3 exams, I was able to throw myself whole-heartedly into spring break, which was my first visit to San Francisco.  I also finally got to see Darienne for the first time since we both left the Alt lab.

Very envious of Darienne's sunny afternoon nap spot.

DineLA II part II

I was still going strong at the end of week 1 of Jan 2012 DineLA with only 3 restaurants under my belt, literally.  I started off the second week on a bright note with Sunday dinner at Spago with 2 fellow first year MSTPers.  We got there early enough to start things off on a good note.

The cocktail menu apparently changes once per month.

DineLA II part I

Be prepared for pictures and ranting...and no excuses for how long this took to post (nearly two months!).  And yes, this DineLA round is long enough to warrant two posts.  This is week 1.

Recent kitchen improvements

Did some improvement of my own kitchen skills in preparation for DineLA.

Baked salmon with tomatoes and onions.

Blueberry flan: came out perfectly unbroken!

Boston Foods

As wonderful as the food is in LA, I have mentally been compiling a list of foods that I missed eating ever since I left Boston.

My first stop was at Japonaise, the French-Japanese patisserie, in Brookline. How I have missed the butter rolls, the custard pudding, and the Japonaise (green tea mousse cake), as clearly evidenced by the inability to resist taking a bite prior to pictures.  The green latte has also been missed, although I do make it for myself many mornings.  However, I use 2% milk at home, so the occasional whole milk version is quite an indulgence (for my taste buds).  I am not sure that my pancreas agrees (more lipase please!), but I just think of it like a challenge.  I am no longer that drawn to the mochi ice cream since I know that I can order them directly from the same factory. 

Do you hear the food angels singing in praise?  If not, maybe you need a Rinne test.

NYC is The City

After a quick stopover in DC to see Grandma, it was time to hit the city, New York City.  This trip was my first time riding Megabus, which gets a plus for free WiFi and a minus for a pretty horrible bathroom.

Upon arrival, my cousin and two of her friends took me to ABC Kitchen, which is interestingly enough part of the ABC furniture store in both a financial and a physical sense.  The decor is has a Gothic theme but is spacious enough that it was not tacky.

Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving week(end) at Auntie's was awesome!

I actually attended our Monday and Tuesday lectures this week as to not have to play podcast catch-up.  It was okay, but I didn't like how I couldn't make flashcards as fast as I wanted due to the lack of a pause/replay button. 

Tea Tasting

Sometimes, a Saturday morning is meant for relaxation and enjoyment of life.  Today, a friend and I went to Valen Dolce in Santa Monica for a tea tasting. 

From left to right: Earl Grey Creme, Jasmine Rose, and Guava Ginger (white tea).

dineLA 2011 summary

The past two weeks have been dineLA, which is the equivalent of Boston's Restaurant Week.  What better time to visit some expensively priced and well known restaurants?  There were three planned outings.  Most of the MSTP year ones attended one event.  However, only myself and one other showed true dedication in attending all three!  Here are the results...

Birthday weekend extravaganza

This was an exciting weekend of fun and family.

First, Mom is finally here in LA to see me, which is the best birthday gift.  We had happy snuggly time all weekend long.  Here is some proof...

Forays into the kitchen

So, apparently recipe books are useful for a reason.  And so is experimentation.

This is my take on a seafood gratin with matcha sauce.  

white-fish gratin with matcha sauce

Food therapy

What is the best way to rewind after a week of hard classes and a little sickness?  Food, of course!

Today, I had late lunch at Rocksugar Pan Asian Kitchen Restaurant at Westfield Century City.  The decor had a Thai flavor.  I was seated on the balcony next to the man-made waterfall.  Seating-wise, I enjoyed having the sound of water flow and the open air; however, since the balcony overlooks Santa Monica Blvd., traffic sounds can occasionally disturb the mood.

A rock at Rocksugar.

Labor Day Weekend

Saturday
I tried to make flan for the first time today with the following ingredients: 1 cup sugar, 3 large eggs, 14 oz. condensed sweetened milk, and 13 oz. evaporated non-fat milk.  The result (after 60 instead of 45 minutes of baking at 350F) was a gooey mess that TASTED like super-sweet flan, but was totally the wrong consistency.  My conclusion is that the eggs were not large enough and that less sweetened condensed milk relative to regular milk is better.  The recipe also made enough for roughly 5-6 people with my level of sugar tolerance, so probably 7-8 normal human beings.  (And as I learned in class, normal being the top of the bell curve of 70% surveyed.)

I had a headache all day (caffein-addiction predisposition is showing after having morning tea everyday this week), so only some reviewing got done.  On a more productive note, I cleaned the stove, vacuumed the floors, and did several loads of laundry so that I can study in a happier environment during the rest of the weekend.