Shortcuts

The roads are going crazy tonight. Traffic GPS re-routes Davy past the Mitsuwa Marketplace. We must keep up to date with the latest and greatest instant noodle technology from Japan.

From the makers of Cup-O-Noodle, UFO BIG instant noodles have strainers built into the dual layered lids. Quite impressive construction. Should these even be considered instant noodles if they require more than 6 steps to make?

Looks absolutely nothing like the picture on the lid. The 6 different steps just raise your expectations to an unrealistic level- only to be disappointed in the end. 33 cent Cup-O-Noodles are classic for a reason.

Hi Mi Mi

Baby Naomi Faith is Hannah's new little sister.

Uncle celebrates with panna cotta, strawberries, and black pepper.

Magically delicious

Preston no longer stricken with sympathy jetlag.

Rigatoni magically appears from the kitchen larder. One of the benefits of fully stocked freezers and pantries. Bring on the earthquakes!

Cranking wood and pink balls

Still whacked out from jet lag today, but I stayed lucid enough to unpack some Korea loot. There wasn't any time to see the sights and wander and explore. So I visited the 24 hr Target equivalent across the street from the hotel. Random cheap goodies ensue.

At the Home Plus, I found things such as Crunky ball chocolate (Nestle Crunch in centimeter cube form) and Milk Ball candy. I just love saying "Crunky." And who can resist a cow holding a giant strawberry on a pink spotted milk can?

And I found the most awesome super #1 tie. White and grey and pink. With sequins! Pink is the new Black in Korea. All the boys were sporting pink shirts and pink hats and pink phones. The girls, not so much pink. Pink is the manly color of the moment. Wear it. Own it. Love it. Did I mention SEQUINS? Hawt!

And someday, I will be wearing a panda eye mask and a panda face mask. Panda branded cigarettes will hook naive impressionable me into a lifetime addiction to nicotine. But I will look stylish smoking cigarettes through a hole in my panda face mask. Bonus points for irony.

And in the hardware department, I found a hand crank coffee grinder, wooden spoons, no-underage minors signage, and wood panel shelf paper. Yes, I schlepped Korean vinyl shelf paper halfway across the globe and through customs.

Cracker jack

Eggs and salsa. I'm guessing that jet lag food is the same as hangover food.

A fluffy clean furminated Preston is not jet lagged, but happy to just hang with me.

Manly tattoo. I'm telling everyone I got tattooed while stationed overseas in Korea. And I barely remembered what happened because I woke up in a gutter after a month of drunken debauchery. That's my story.

New bathroom shelves are needed to hold the items kicked out by the proliferating pandas. The lower shelf is slightly droopy because power tools and travel loopiness shouldn't mix.

Plane crazy

The airport "limousine" is optimistically named. Sigh. Less than 3 days on the ground, and I'm heading back to California already. I'll just have to squeeze all my restaurant hopping in the limited time I have at the airport. 

Korean draft beer is good.

So-so bulgogi. I guess most airport food is of similarly overpriced quality all over the world.

I found a gelato stand in Korea! Black sesame and yogurt flavoured gelato. Surprisingly good. And the yogurt gelato texture was spot on. I got two spoons so I can share with myself.

Black bean tea tastes like dirt. The dirt that the beans grew in. Blech.

Colonel Sanders looks Asian. I'm not sure this will go over well in Kentucky.

And one last fiery seafood tofu stew pot. Then onto the airplane for the 12 hour flight back to LA! Aie! (And yes Meg, I did eat all that.)

Stay roll over

The view out of my hotel window. Somewhere in Korea. As I don't speak the language at all, I find myself giving the same tilt-y headed confused and quizzical expressions that Preston does. Blah Blah Blah Blah. Davy. Blah Blah Blah. Blah Blah Blah Blah California. Blah Blah Blah. Davy. Blah Blah. Blah Blah. Sit. Baroo?

My Korean vocabulary consists only of "Bulgogi, Galbi, and Kimchee."

Explosive tails

Squirrel tail. Sans squirrel. Carnage in the backyard again. There sure are a lot of tail-less critters in the neighborhood since Preston moved in.

Trying a new limoncello variation. A love child of Ed's rosemary limoncello proportions, and Aaron's pre-mixed fermenting booze sugar method. I hope it doesn't explode while I'm in Korea.

Hair brained

The furminator brushed out enough undercoat from Preston to make one mini-Preston. I will ask Jenne about turning Preston fur into yarn. Maybe a nice warm beanie will result.



I never bothered to check what these kind of instant noodles these were. I just saw the bald asian guy with glasses and felt an instant affinity.

Renewal

I am so grokking this salt and pepper set that Aaron and Jenne sent me. Little tins filled with things like assorted flake sea salts from all over the world. Smoked pepper and African grains of paradise. And the best part... wait for it... bacon salt! BACON SALT! AND the elusive Balinese Long Peppers I've been trying to track down for months. How did they know? BACON SALT! Does a more wondrous invention exist? I think not.



Replanting the planter box with assorted succulents and cacti that mimic rocks. According to feng shui, placing fleshy round shaped succulents in the front courtyard is auspicious. But the reality is that I placed them near the front door so I won't forget to water.



Some mornings you just wake up and think, "I'm too sexy for my hair."



And you act upon that thought.

BACON SALT!

Pussy cats

Roomba vac did it's best feline impression when it ate a houseplant and coughed up hairballs.



All of the product photos on Amazon.com have managed to avoid showing this particular angle of the Furminator. Egad! All I can say is Egad! Sure makes brushing out Preston's undercoat an adventure each time.



I managed to stay up late enough to catch the night-blooming cactus flower. Thankfully, I managed to avoid blatant sexual imagery like Georgia O'Keeffe and the Furminator.

Fiesta!

The long awaited Mexican feast I've been obsessing about all week. Thinking, dreaming, planning for days! Most items made from scratch. Strawberry agua fresca with mint syrup. Serving anything in a tall skinny glass makes it fancy. Grilled corn, potatos, and poblano peppers. Tomatillo serrano salsa. And carne asada tacos with roasted tomato garlic salsa and mango jicama slaw.

Variety pack

The Trader Joe's has new fruits to try. This week, we have golden plums, black apricots, and angelcots. Apparently, angelcots are only grown on a 2 acre farm somewhere nearby. Because they're are so juicy, these "saintly" angelcots practically melt at the slightest touch. They are incredibly hard to ship long distances, which probably limits the chances of the rest of you trying some of these. You'll just have to come visit when they're in season next year. I have no idea how the local Joe's got a hold of these. Black apricots are a cross between red plums and yellow apricots. Them sure is sweet. I have no idea how the local Joe's got these also. So this trip was a good score fruit-wise.

In a related note, Food4Less has new varieties of Doritos on special. Food snob I am not. I like to eat junk too. Now if only Frito-Lay would develop angelcot and black apricot Doritos... How awesome would that be?

Petting zoo

Nectarine harvest this year. These must be tasty as squirrels have taken bites out of every one. Thankfully, squirrels have not discovered the joys of figs yet.



Dreaming of goats and sheeps.



Actual goats and sheeps. They're named Hansl and Gretl. That Hansl is quite the chatterbox.



Aaron at the sink. The technical term is "puttering."



For parting gifts, I'm sending Jenne and Aaron off with a chunk of the rhubarb jungle.

Donut black hole

It takes an event like Jenne and Aaron visiting this weekend for me to make it to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. There's some sort of invisible donut shaped force field around the house where all restaurants within are too close to make eating out an event, yet too far to pop by effortlessly. But chicken and waffles are delicious, so I should go more often. I stole this picture from Jenne's flikr stream.

Noisy pants

The last of the frozen mushroom ragu in spaghetti rigati form. Spaghetti rigati reminds me of corduroy.