Foodie Friday: Samgyupsal!

Food is love.

Do you know why I say that? Because I have no friends and food is low maintenance. Because food connects people—food connects cultures and fosters a greater understanding of all walks of life.

My group from AALEC—the Asian American Leadership and Educational Conference held every year at SMU (Southern Methodist University) as part of their Asian Council… more on that to come!—planned a reunion for last April 14. The plan was set to go to a restaurant near Super H-Mart, a Korean supermarket in Carrolton. (Side note: another one is opening close to my house and I’m super excited!)

Well, I can’t really say it was much of a reunion since it was actually cancelled a few hours before I was supposed to start, but I forgot to check. Whoops. Luckily for me, my friend Julie was already waiting at Café Mozart next door! Since we made it all the way out there, we decided we’d at least get a decent meal out of it. My friend Julie is Korean, which made her the perfect companion at Omi Korean Bar & Grill right next door!

When we got there, we decided to splurge a little bit and have samgyupsal (also written as “samgyeopsal”), which is basically fatty slices of uncured pork belly grilled at the table.

I don’t know if I’ve ever had samgyupsal before—maybe I did when I was younger but didn’t realize it—so I decided to go with the most fun way: treating it as a completely new experience!

So let the record show that on April 14, 2013, I tried samgyupsal for the first time and actually learned how to eat it!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Color

Let’s get real. There’s nothing more colorful than the beauty that is… les macarons.

You can’t begin to know how excited I was when I found out my friend went to Paris and brought me back a pasalubong (gift/souvenir in Tagalog) from, of all places, Ladurée! I’ve gone on about Ladurée before, like after I returned from multiple stops at the maison in New York. (Yes, I’ll be triumphantly returning this July, as well.)

Heaven Has Halo-Halo (Carson, CA / adventures in Tagalog)

Whether we have one difference or are the polar opposite, we can agree on one thing: there is halo-halo in heaven.

Tagalog word of the day: Sarap.
Meaning, “delicious.”

There are only a few desserts I really enjoy and crave: French macarons and halo-halo. Of course, living in Dallas means you don’t get halo-halo often—rather, not at all—and now that I think about it, even French macarons aren’t super easy to come by. That’s probably one of the downsides of living in the Dallas suburbs—a certain lack of culture that is found in places like New York City or Los Angeles.

Austin’s South Congress Street: a (short) photo journey

While in Austin for a few days in December, I had the chance to eat at some great food trucks! Austin, the most eccentric city in Texas, is known as the live music capital of the world, but it also has a growing food truck population! South Congress Street in downtown Austin is another food truck hub within the city, with food truck “parks” dotted down the street, selling everything from Indian dosas to Texan barbecue. Austin has definitely been growing in its foodie status.

(The area we went to is extremely close to the Hyatt Regency Austin.)

To celebrate another Foodie Friday as well as Phoneography Month, I decided to share my photos of the food trucks and restaurants we stopped at! I took a few photos with my dad’s Nikon D5000, but the rest were from my iPhone 5 since I didn’t want to lug around a big camera with me all day. Either way, enjoy!

Austin is an incredibly exciting place, especially if you don’t consider yourself part of the mainstream. Austin is very dog-friendly, as well as vegetarian- and vegan-friendly. Nearly every single food truck and restaurant in downtown Austin offered vegetarian or vegan options—not just one, but normally an entire menu! Nomad Dosa, one of the best food trucks on Congress Street, didn’t even offer meat! (It’s like a vegetarian/vegan heaven!)

Austin proudly proclaims its slogan of “Keep Austin Weird,” standing as the major center for liberal politics in Texas and a safe-haven for the nontraditional, including the creative, LGBT, naturalist, environmentalist, and intellectual communities. It holds a desire to protect independent and local businesses (as opposed to large corporations).

Austin is actually a really cool place, and if you’re ever in Texas or even the southern half of the United States (yes, the crazy part), then be sure to stop by! You won’t regret it—as long as you’re willing to keep Austin weird!

Food and Fashion: Saint Valentine’s Day Luncheon and Fashion Show

On Tuesday, February 12, 2013, I had the privilege of attending the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s annual Saint Valentine’s Day Luncheon and Fashion Show. How was it? Completely amazing.

As I mentioned earlier, I was selected for the Spirit of Tom Landry Character Award—a great honor that I’m so grateful to receive! The luncheon and fashion show were such amazing experiences, and I even got to bring along one of my first childhood friends, A-. (I thought she’d enjoy the fashion show much more than any other one of my friends, too.)

We got out of our car in the pouring rain, something I assumed was “good luck” for the events to come. Running into the Meyerson Symphony Center in the Dallas Arts District, I knew it would be an exciting day. I was surrounded by tables covered in the classic Valentine’s Day red and pink, with little gift bags—and pledge cards with my face on them!—on the tables. (The fun part about the picture was that I took it on my camera while I was in San Francisco!)

Foodie Friday: Chinese New Year (Year of the WaterSnake)

This is the last Friday of Chinese New Year, so I thought it would be fitting to send it off with good cheer through a Foodie Friday post! On February 9, the day before Chinese New Year, we had a feast of food to celebrate!

Noodles with Pork and Carrots

Shrimp with Long Beans

Orange Chicken

Jiaozi (gyoza) Dumplings
and Wontons

Tofu and Bok Choy

Beef with Broccoli

Our theme was more general Asian as opposed to traditional Chinese or Filipino food for the New Year. Unfortunately, I had just gotten the rest of my braces on my top-teeth, so I couldn’t enjoy all of the food—the poor shrimp and bok choy was too hard to eat! But, I was able to have the noodles, and I made sure not to bite them! Luckily, it was Saturday, so my weekday vegetarian diet wasn’t in effect (although, I’d consider Chinese New Year a break day for eating vegetarian), meaning I was able to enjoy the jiaozi and wontons, as well as the noodles and orange chicken!

I hope you’ve all had a great Chinese New Year so far… let’s make the most of our last three days! Gong xi fa cai!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Home

This week’s photo challenge from the Daily Post was “home.”

For as long as I can remember, my mom would always decorate our front door with something to match the season—normally a wreath that would have different leaves and fruits depending on the season. It’s only fitting that we decorate our front door for Chinese New Year as well.