yosemite sam

a few weeks ago, i went camping with a few friends to yosemite. i didn't take pictures of the food because i was too busy cooking, but i did get to try a tri tip recipe from menu in progress that was pretty doggone good. it was my first time cooking over a fire though, so it was tricky, but i did learn a few things from it. honestly though, it could have turned out like crap and still tasted good. i don't know about you, but when i'm out camping, everything tastes delicious. i remember once i had canned corn beef hash on a trip and thought it was the best thing i ever had. so when i got home, i bought it at the market and cooked it up, only to spit it out because it tasted like dog food. so there you have it.

despite the beer drinking binges and card games, we did have time to squeeze in a short hike to sentinel dome.

where you got a pretty nice view of yosemite falls

as well as the amazing half dome....something that is on my to do list the next time i come here.

made a new friend up here. damn thing had been fed by people so many times, it wasn't afraid to get close.

inspiration point. a weekend is barely enough time to just see one place because the park is huge.

we left the park through the west exit, following the merced river and noticed it was remarkably hot as it got well over 100 F that day.

decided to just stop by the first place to grab a quick lunch before the long drive back and saw this happy joint in mariposa.

the place was so packed and busy! a typical american joint with your sandwiches, burgers, and what not.

having had my fill of meat and heavy food, i was craving for something light and fresh so i got my favorite tuna sandwich on wheat and a trip to the salad bar.

verdict? it was a good sandwich although the mayo seemed a little watery. all in all though, a fun trip with some old friends.

truit fart

Inspired by Nad's Bakery's post on a fruit tart, my sister and I decided to give it a shot.

We're still getting the strawberries from the same spot, and while I don't often go out on a limb to sing my praises about this hoot nanny or that, this little shack sells the best strawberries I've ever had, and the prices aren't too bad looking either (~$16 a box or less than $10 for seconds(smaller strawberries, but same sized box).

the finished product, which was laughable compared to nadia's. guess i should have looked at her pictures before putting on the fruit haha. also i ignored my sister about the crust being too thick, which it turned out to be. timing the crust cooking time was tricky too, and the crust ended up being overcooked but not burnt thankfully. overall though, it tasted good if you just closed your eyes and didn't look at the thing. i plan to give this another shot, but will use vanilla bean instead of extract to see how it tastes.

disney adventures on kcal nine

about a month back, my recently engaged cousin and her fiancee flew into cali for her birthday, while i did have a disneyland annual passport once, i had never been to dt, so with my camera, i trotted over to downtown disney.

to tortilla jos.

while we were waiting, i munched on some free thin tortilla chips with some decent blended salsa and sipped on my strawberry margarita. Given the location, it's pretty darn pricey (~40 bucks a pitcher x_x)

After changing my mind a few times, I settled on Jo's favorites ($14.95): chicken flautas, tequilla bbq ribs, spicy mango mustard shrimp, and a carnitas tostada. The carnitas and ribs were dry with not much going on, but I did enjoy the flautas. The shrimp, sadly, wasn't much on the spicy side and was more of a very sweet mustard than anything else. But it was a pretty big platter, and I wasn't able to finish it.

besides the happy couple, i also got to meet my cousin's talented friend/co-organizer of the party nadia, who has a beautiful blog. she baked some nice treats for everyone to look at and enjoy.

along with some chocolate cupcakes with a hazelnut(?) filling inside. *so* good as cathy from mmm-yoso would say =)

a trip to the tower of terror(that ride is awesome) would have been a nice nightcap, but being able to see j&j was good enough. congrats again you two!

cowabunga dude

i have been wanting to go to tony's little italy in placentia for quite a while now after reading the new diner's post. the opportunity arose when I met w/ a friend, who let me choose the joint.

we ordered tony's special: sausage, bell peppers, mushrooms (i think canned? not that I cared), and onions. the crust was thin like a pie, and what stood out the most here was that it was very cheesy. i've had two chicago style pizzas before, at bjs being in the middle and zachary's with a lot of sauce, and it's funny how this one fell on the opposite scale. overall, i liked it although i wasn't much of a fan of all that cheese, but if that's your thing, i think you would really like it.

observe the healthy puddle of oil leaking out on the side. call me weak, but after two slices, i was done.

the place itself is pretty small and in a strip mall that's easy to find. we went for lunch, so there wasn't much of a wait besides the time it took for the pizza to bake.

1808 N. Placentia Ave Unit B

Placentia, CA 92870

also, don't forget, free slurpee at 7-11 today!

yahtzee! another food pornapalooza palazzi!

while my korea posts have been severely lacking in food pictures, i hope this one partly fills the void.

i can count the number of times i've had fine dining on my hand(s?), so i was lucky to add one more finger to my rather large collection of experiences when i got to eat at chaegundam. we heard that it was a vegetarian restaurant, but they did offer meat.

you can choose among fixed meal sets, and we opted for the lower priced ones at 33k and 45k won, around 30 and 40 USD.

to start, we had a cold jellyfish dish in a light mustard sauce.

a green salad with lotus chips in a delicious berry dressing.

jap chae, a noodle dish made from yam starch

i didn't like the pickled lotus too much because they put in cinnamon, which was a weird combination for me.

refreshing white radish kimchi

a black sesame porridge

arrowroot jelly with some mixins

soy sauce shrimp

some "nigiri" was given out as service. first was dolagee (bellflower root)

along with mushrooms.

to drink, we had some makgeoulli

traditionally drank in a bowl. this one overall was average...it wasn't that great, but still drinkable.

some kind of beef wrap

a very thick mushroom soup (stew?). i think the broth was made from soy beans.

at this point, taking all of these pictures started to feel like a bloody chore, which is probably why i'll never do a sushi post, at least in the foreseeable future. big ups to kirkk on his ridiculous three part urasawa post as well as kirbie's recent post on her gaslamp tasting extravaganza.

gujeolpan, thin pancakes in which you took some of the veggies(traditionally nine, which is what gu means) and made a wrap. we were ready to throw in the towel here. belts were loosened, bellies clutched, and groans let out freely, yet still the food kept on coming

galbi jjeem, a korean pot roast type thing.

fresh out of the fryer tempura: jujubes, orange zucchini, and ginseng (?!)

mushroom and green dduk (chewy rice cake) skewers

then, as if to rebuff any thoughts that the joint wasn't legit, the traditional rice and dwenjang jjigae (soybean stew) was served.

along with a myriad of banchan. as the old man in my yoga class hooted last night "oh lordy lordy lordy!"

the rice was cooked in a dolsot (stone pot) and scraped out, leaving a thin hard crust. tea was poured in afterwards, and you eat it as a soup. (as anyone who's been to a korea tofu house probably knows).

at last, dessert was served. some dduk that was filled with red beans and pine pollen, which really tasted...piney

along with watermelon and a light fruit tea. produce was really fresh here but also quite expensive.

overall, the food was wonderful and i really enjoyed being able to experience a new dimension of korean cusine. stuffed, we decided to walk it off

to the hotel. but still bloated, we walked across the street to a buddhist temple. i really wanted to take more pictures but my camera battery died shortly after. this had to be one of my favorite places i got to see at seoul. with all the hustle going on 24 hours a day in the city, i really felt like one could find some peace and quiet here.

the more pictures i take, the more i realize the difficult challenge of trying to capture everything i felt during that particular time. still, doing the food blog has awakened an interest in photography and its self taught lessons freely given with the growing pictures i snap (yo bagels). holla.