Crab Crazed Meals! :D

I am such a lucky woman, being in SFO for barely just 4 days, and I already had 2 types of crabs! :D Crabs being one of my favorite sea creatures, I am living in heaven. :D

2 kinds of crabs were served throughout 2 days. :D

We got these king crab legs at Costco. The Costco near home in Sunnyvale was disappointing, but it redeemed itself by selling these giant crab legs. :) This was an awesome dinner for Sunday. :)

Just to show you how large these legs are, I put the 'forearm' whole chunk of meat in the very common Chinese bowl. :D You can imagine how long these legs are. It was just too damn good! :D What is that light yellow sauce in the bowl? It's the Japanese crab vinegar. The vinegar complimented the meat perfectly.

Then, Monday, I went to the Pier 39 by myself as a real tourist and got the dungeness crabs home for dinner. :)

I got 2 precooked crabs. It seems the seller only boiled them with nothing else added to it. These crabs are huge! The pink bowl is like at least 15 inches wide :D and it barely fit the crabs :D

I made Mike my scale model again :D hehe Again, it's huge!! :D

Wow! These were so much better than the king crab legs!! I mean king crab legs were good too coz it's really meaty and easy to get to the meat. The king crab's meat was fresh and a little bit sweet. :) But these dungeness crabs were more flavorful! Its meat has its natural ocean flavor and it didn't need any crab vinegar to make it taste better.  Also, it has the crab fat/mushy green glue :D hehehe.. That's the best part of these crabs!!! :D I can't even describe it :D

These 2 meals satisfied my cravings for crabs for a long while! :D

Sunnyvale Art & Wine Festival 2010

Since Mike and I had this craving for our favorite Thai coconut seafood soup, we headed to Downtown Sunnyvale this afternoon for lunch.

Just so happened, without our prior knowledge, there was the Sunnyvale Arts & Wine Festival being held in the area.

I am crazy about street fairs and festivals and farmers' markets. :D So naturally, we side tracked and walked around the fair a bit before we ate.

It's amazing! :D It seems everybody living in Sunnyvale had come here today! :D  I have never seen Sunnyvale Downtown being this crowded before. :D

We didn't stay for very long because the sun was grilling our scalps. Well I actually bought a giant straw hat there, so I was fine. :D But Mike doesn't have one, so we left before he got cooked. :D

This is the lovely straw hat I got. I was gonna get a black one, but Mike suggest to get something lighter color coz black attracts lots of heat, black is not a color for the Bahamas. :D Being a smart woman, I of course listen to his clever advices. :D

Just to show you how large is the hat! :D It covers my shoulder too. Having experience the Hawaii sun burn a few years back, I am smarter this time to get a bigger hat.

Other than straw hat, we both bought some glass sculptures.  These are no ordinary glass figures, they are actually made with 24k gold too!

We got an elephant for my dad and a mouse for Mike :D These are fun to look at, the color changes under the light.

When in dark, it could turn completely gold due to the gold applied.

This is a card from the artist who sculpted these glass arts. :)

There are some more samples the artist sells:

I especially like the roses there.

Taipei Airport's Decorations

I have been to Taipei airport multiple times now. I must say that it's not a very exciting airport to be in. It doesn't look very modern and it doesn't have free wifi like HKG.

Due to its expansion/renovation, the intruction to the connection gate is not very clear. Although I asked somebody at the airport and got the general direction to where my gate was, it was still quite scary when there is no sign confirming you are on the right track.

Anyways, after I reached my gate (D4) I was overwhelmed by a sea of umbrellas hanging from the ceiling. It was the most welcoming scene at this boring terminal.

There are hundred of these umbrellas there! It was impressive. After reading the banner, these umbrellas are from a competition (possibly drawn by school kids).

I couldn't possibly take pictures of every one of them, so  here are my favorites :)

Arrived at my vacation cabin! :D

Just to let you, my friends, know that I safely arrived at Sunnyvale! :D

The flight was as awful as it can be, which included:

• vomiting neighbors,
• switching seats
• turbulence every hour or so
• no personal entertainment unit in front of seat!
• low salt meal, although healthy, taste kinda bland :P

I am dead tired now. :D Will write tomorrow :D

HKG - The best airport in this universe :D

I am waiting for my flight for my annual 3-weeks journey to SFO. :D

I must reliterate that in my opinion, HKG airport is the best in this world.. well... among all those I have travelled to, this is the best! :D

Not only does it provide free wifi for travellers, you can now find yourself sitting quite comfortably at its recharging station too!

However happy I am feeling right now, I don't find too many of these as I walked along the gates. This one I am using is at gate 31, where my flight is gonna be. :)

After a bit of search, I read that there are actually 36 stations like this one.  For such a large airport, I think it needs at least 100! :D Next time you in HKG international airport, look for these lovely stations. :)

7-11's awesome snacks!

I love Hong Kong's 7-11! Well in fact, Asian's 7-11s or convenient stores are mostly awesome.

Lately, there are new products being introduced. I couldn't resist to buy some of them as snacks. :D Below are 2 items worth mentioning.

Drunken Duck's tongues and chicken kidneys! :D my favorites :D

Food label is required now in Hong Kong, so you can see what you are really eating. :D Wow ducks tongues has more Cal then the kidneys.

The food inside aligns with the picture outside the package. :D 6 pieces of tongues and about 8-10 slices of kidneys, perfect for 2 snacks. :)

Birthday Present 2 :D

This is part 2 of my birthday gift loots :D

This is Viv's gift to me. :D It's a travel tea bottle. It's a very convenient gadget for us tea loving girls. :D You can see Viv is a very resourceful and creative lady, as her wrapping is sooooo unique... hahahaha. I must be nicer in English, coz when we were face to face that night, I told her that her wrapping was very 'unenthusiastic'. (無誠意) Hahahaha :D Only best friends could say truthful things to each other like this. :D hahha

Now this is Hilda's gift to me from Japan! :D The wrapping is very professional and classy. :D very 有誠意!! :D I am already using it. :) Love the color and pattern. The material is quite interesting as it feels like paper but denser. Japanese stuff, just full of awesomeness! :D

情迷杏加橙 :) Hahahha

My dad and I seem to have great tastes in color. Following my previous grey rubber shoes (灰交鞋), My dad chose to wear ginkgo color + orange (杏加橙) :D hahahah That's a swear phrase in Cantonese :D

He wore it the day we went to have that huge awesome Japanese buffet on the 15/05. So Funny. If you click on the picture below, you will see how his stomach grew after the meal.

Hmm. I animated this picture, but it doesn't show here. If you like please click on the picture so it would load up an animated version :D hehe quite funny

Birthday Celebration, Take 2 :D

Today is my day off, so my fair friends, Viv and Hilda decided to celebrate my birthday early with me. :) We had a great time tonight. :)

Viv treated us to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for a dinner buffet. They serve good stuff there too. I guess good conversations make up for crazy eating. :D


I didn't eat as much as the last time when I was with my cousins and my parents. :D Below is a picture of what we ate. I didn't eat all those just by myself. :D

The hotel serves good stuff like giant prawns, oysters, king crab legs, prime rib, sashimi, different cooked dishes, salads and last but not least, yummy desserts.

Those giant prawns were sooooo good :D

Viv and Hilda gave me birthday gifts too. :D Thank you so much my dear friends. :) Next one is on me! :)

My Adorable Chocolate Rain Bag :D

Mike bought me this bag while we were strolling along the Soho area of Hong Kong back in March. :D

I have been using this almost everyday since and it seems this bag has drawn lots of attention from fellow ladies. Sometimes, I go into shops and the cashiers would ask me where I got this. :D I couldn't pinpoint the address and just know it's somewhere from Soho area.

I loved this bag the minute I saw it.. :D but it's was quite expensive for a plastic bag (well, the outside is weatherproof plastic, but inside is lined with cotton of course), so I hesitated. :D Mike must have known that if nobody made a decision on the purchase, we were gonna linger at the store until past happy hour. :D So, he being a decisive man, said, "Honey, if you like it, let me get it for you." :D

That totally turned me into a decisive woman right then and there... hahaha

I was digging up my dad's old news paper stash for something to read earlier and found a piece of article mentioning the lady who designed this bag. Her name is Prudence :D She turns patchworks into arts and now become quite famous.

After a bit of searching on the net, I have finally located the correct address for the store. :D Next time someone asks me where to buy the bag, I will just point her there.

But Prudence told Mike and I this is the only one left of its kind. :) So, good luck ladies! :)

More articles can be found if you are interested.
http://www.com.cuhk.edu.hk/ubeat/080182/chocolate/chocolate.html

http://trans.wenweipo.com/gb/paper.wenweipo.com/2009/08/02/OT0908020030.htm

http://mylittlethingco.blogspot.com/2010/01/chocolate-rain.html


Location:
Chocolate Rain flagship store
Shop A, G/F, 67 Peel st. (卑利街), Soho. Central, Hong Kong

The store front looks like this:

Heh, just noticed there's another famous personalty of Hong Kong in this picture too. :D I will tell you about him later. :)

Birthday Present :D

Approaching 36 year of ripe old age has its advantages. :D

Not only did we went on a binge Japanese cuisine eating event yesterday, my folks and I also went to look for gold trinkets for my 2 betrothed cousins.  It is customary for the elderly of the clan to gift gold jewelleries to the newly weds. :D

You might have known about this already, but my parents love me. :D I must say it out loud. :D Because when we went to buy gold stuff for my cousins, my mom said, let's buy me some too. :D

And here's what I picked. :D  It's a little gold bracelet with a series of little butterflies and hollow leaf shaped rings. The cuff is a traditional "S" shaped close. :)

This same chain would have only cost like HK$1200 5 years ago. (Because when Liza got married, we got her a little chain almost the same weight and it didn't cost as much than now). Now it cost $3xxx!!!!

Naively, I commented to myself, "Why the hack the gold price is so high now." I thought I knew the answer, but my mom's answer kinda was not what I have expected.


She said, "Because people don't trust the $US dollar anymore, so they just go buy gold as investment instead of investing in the USA money."


I thought it was purely because of supply and demand. I think the reason that the gold price went up so crazily was because many mainland china people love to buy gold and they are so stinky rich now, they would afford any type of shiny things.

In case of a WWIII, this would probably buy me a bowl of wild rice or a few potatoes.. :D Must keep it safe.

Birthday Celebration, Take 1 :D

Hey, it's 5 more days until I turn 36 :P Gee :D So old! :D Anyways, to celebrate having a shorter expiration date, my cousins and my parents took me out to pig out on sushi.

They know me too well. I am a raw fish junkie! Now I've said it! :D

This is the first time I have visited this restaurant, it's worth visiting again.  Let me show you what we have ordered first. :D 

We basically went nuts with the food! :D Well that's not unusual :D

Here's round 1, lots and lots of sashimi :D Clockwise from left: A close up peice of special saba (希靈魚), large plate of wasabi in flower shape, large order of salmon! :D, assorted sashimi at the bottom 2 pictures

A round of sushi and maki. :) There were 2 different types of eels, salmon, some other fish I can't even name.. :D they were all awesome! :D

Top left: Grilled beef tongues :P Right: Grilled garlic beef cubes; Bottom Left: Grilled scallops and Right: lamb chops!  Yummy!

Grilled eel! My favorite, then there's grilled ginkgo nuts (白果), chicken knees kabob and grilled oysters! :D  How can we eat so much! :D

Then we have tempura! :D Shrimps, oysters, crab claws, sweet potatoes, pumpkins and mushrooms. :D

Veggies and shrooms and corns, oh my! :D

Other sea creatures! :D

That's about all we had that I had taken picture of... :D we had a bit of fruits in the end and a little ball of ice cream ball, 雪糕大福. :D But I didn't take picture of those...

We ate for like 2 hours and had a blast.

Let me rate the restaurant with the convenient star system. 5 being the best.

Food (Taste) : 5
Food (Freshness): 5
Food (Selection): 5
Service :        4.5 (food takes a bit of wait and our order was a bit mixed up in the beginning)
Comfort:       4 (The table are kinda stuffed too closely together)
Price:           $$$ (It's $218 per head, for the freshness and the good quality of food and the vast choices of dishes, it is well worth the price!)

Location:
6/F Wellington Place, 2-8 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong
中環威靈頓街 2-8 號, 威靈頓廣場六樓
tel: 31071117 / 3107 1112

My First Swallow of Swallow Spit :D

This Chinese New Year, my favorite cousin gave us a box of bird's nest as New Year gift (貢品) to my dear mom. :D

I have to say that I have never had any good feelings about animals spits. :D Feel so nasty and stuff. Although people say bird's nests are good for skin care and other womanly health benefits, I was never interested in it a bit.

But since we got these little bottles for free, I might as well try it.

All I have to say is that I prefer having jello or Agar-agar (大菜糕). They just feel cleaner and more delightful. :D

Thank god these bottles are 'swallow' sized, only 1 mouthful in one tiny package. Perfect for taste testing.  I don't think I will eat them again though.

Doom's Day - Peace Treaty Agreed Day

Today, as agreed, the iCable manager called me back for a settlement.

He originally offered me refund for the whole 24 days that I was not able to use the internet which = HK$129 and 2 weeks of free usage period.

I told him, "2 weeks? You think I am a begger on the street?! I will not accept it as you have wasted me more than 2 weeks calling you everyday, and wasting all my days offs waiting for your technicians to come up to check my cable without any result!" 

They also charged me $200 to rewire the cable which I have nothing to do to break! So I tell them I will not pay for that $200 either!

Finally today, this manager called me back and said the best they can do is refund $129 + 3 weeks of free service + waive the $200 + reply in writing.

I am just glad that this whole thing is behind me. I will make sure I cancel their service when the contract ends! :D Geez.

My Awsome New Camera!

I am just having fun with my newest camera, a Canon Ixus 210. :D

It has a few additional features to play with. One of my favorites is the 'miniature', a.k.a. Tilt Shift photo feature. :D

It turns ordinary picture into a fake miniature shot. :D It's quite fun.

Ordinary max zoom picture (because I took this picture from my 22/F flat. I must say the zoom quality of the camera is awesome too! :))

Now this picture is taken using the tilt shift feature. :D Can you feel that you are looking at a model driveway instead of zoom? :D

Here's a another miniature feel picture :D

The above pictures were all taken with the max zoom possible on my camera. They are taken on the 22nd floor actually. :D

I will show you the normal view from my home looking down the entrance of the drive way. :D

without zoom

tilt shifted

Max zoomed :)

The best Uni I have ever tasted! :)

After my internet is back to normal, I figured I should celebrate! :D

My usual means of celebration is to eat! :D Eat something good that can cheer you up, that's the key! :D

Did you know that those Japanese grocery stores would slash their prices drastically near closing time? :D Last Saturday, with the internet problem nearly resolved, I figured I'd visit Jusco after work at 10pm to check out the crazy closing of the day sale. :D  It was such a blast!!

Let me show you what I got.

Sea Urchin from Jusco store! they are called Uni in Japanese. :D My dad was holding this for me so I can show you how big these are!! :D They are like 2.5" long, 1" wide and almost 1/3" thick!! Original price was HK$130, but due to price slash, now only $90

This is a picture with the same Uni, just with flash and close up. If you click on the photo, you can see the little individual sacs of the uni still intact. It's so fresh and sweet and a little sea water bitter taste. Ohhh it's heaven.

I must say these sea urchin are much better than the ones Mike and I had in Sai Kung. Those local grown sea urchins were too skinny when we went this March.

Live sea urchin from Sai Kung, Hong Kong

The ones I got at Jusco are flown from Japan and it's as fresh as getting them in Japan.

Talking about Japan, even the Uni we got from the fish market wasn't as fat as these one I got at Jusco!

Mike and I tasted our first good uni in Tokyo. The uni is hidden in this bowl. :D Can you find it? No? Let me zoom it in for you. :)

Looking at this picture makes me hungry. :)

Well, I must say, no matter where the sea urchins are from, either it be from Sai Kung, Tokyo or Jusco, they are all good.

Good in different way. If I were to rank it, I would still rank the sea urchin from Japan and Sai Kung better.  Not because they taste better, but because I had those with Mike when we had vacation together so I score them better due to sentimental value. :D hehe

5 big bucks! :)

Below is proof that I have filed tax this year. So no more mistake. :D

This year, I have to pay a huge sum of $5 in total. :D hahha... I better start saving up now....

D Day! Liberation! Rejoice!

Finally!!!!

My Internet is fixed! My days of mumbling to myself is over. Well, I'll still mumble to myself like usual, just not as much. :D

The technician has come this morning, as predicted, they had to do some re-wiring to make it work again. Now instead of hidden wire in the wall, it has a cable crawling on the wall pass the hallway to reach the modem.

After 3 weeks suffering 10kbs Internet at home, suddenly, everything is so smooth with the 10mbs cable.

From now on, I will count the days the contract with this shitty company is over, then I will shit to another maybe shittier company. 

The manager at i-cable called me back and ask how I am doing. I said I am doing fine now, but they are not forgiven.

The rewiring procedure had cost me $200 which I am asking them to compensate me. The manager will call me back this Thursday to confirm whether they can waive that charge for me.

I am not done pissing off with them yet. I am armed with the knowledge I learned from my complaining customers and I am using those skills to get my way. Hopefully, I can annoy this manager enough that they either want to terminate my contract early or pay me the $200 back. :)

My mom wants the icable to compensate her for the trauma she had gone through this morning when we had to disturb the ancestral shrine too! :D 

We had to vacate the Buddha and goddess and grandpa and grandma and the deity of earth so to give access to the cable people to fix the cable connection.

We will see.

Tax Season Reminder!!!

Just got an email from the inland renvue to remind me about the tax filing deadline! :D

I must file it once the internet gets back to normal, as deadline is June 3rd + 1 month, but I have no grace practically because I will be in SFO from 4June to 25 June. :D

I think I shouldn't need to pay any tax this year, unlike the last.... :D Last year, I forgot to file tax and result in a very scary tax bill. Good thing is like most of my bad experiences, it got fixed in the end.... :D So end up only paying $200 ish. :D

Won't make the same mistake twice! :D

Doom's Day - Day N+2

Yes, I wrote that I won't be update the blog until I get my normal home Internet back.

No, my home Internet has not been back.

But yesterday, a senior technician visited my house and after some more thorough investigation, he determined that the building's Internet is finally back to normal, but my home Internet still is not. This could only mean something wrong is inside my cave.

He will send someone up again on the 9Th of May to try flush out the mole which has broken my Internet.

I might write this calmly and my mood seem smooth. I must say that knowing the building's Internet is finally okay made me feel better. At least this time I have some kind of answer given to me and another solid deadline to look forward to. The whole process between someone coming up again and the night before was not entirely smooth!!!

The i-cable hot line people are shitty customer service people. As a HKCCA gold award winner, I have the rights to say that they are dirt cheap in terms of their service skills!

When I called them up again on Saturday, they told me they have been checking my cable TV all along since the 25th of April.

All I can say is WTF!

I sure hope they cannot fix my Internet on the 9th, coz then I will have a solid case to terminate the contract earlier than agreed! Justice for me!

Doom's Day - Day N

Sadly, with repeatedly broken promises, my i-cable Internet is still not working!!

Today, I called them again, turns out they were fixing my cable TV which was never broken to begin with.

I will not be updating this blog anymore until my complaint with this i-cable company is resoloved. My next course of action is to terminate the contract with them.

They will be sending someone to my home again to check one last time tomorrow, I predict the outcome will not be satisfactory to me.

I will fight on! May the best cave-woman win!

Doom's Day - Day 8

I am being lied to!!

Still no internet today!!!!

I am escalating my complaint and I will not agree to the terms I agreed to yesterday anymore! 1 extra week free is not good enough!!!

I need written reply this time!!!!!

ARRRRGHHHGHHHHHH!!!!!