san diego sunday quickie

A friend of mine is moving to Maryland, and he threw a going away party, so I went to SD for the night. There was talk of a whole roast pig. Sadly, by the time I got there, a lot of it was gone, but I was still able to get some pieces. I liked chewing on the skin.

A picture of the poor pig.

I hadn't ate dinner, so I headed over to Rigobertos (formerly known as Robertos #2) on Miramar for old times sake with some friends. Part of the trinity (Coti's and Sergios being the other two) of popular mexican joints for UCSD students. It's open 24 hours. Free hot carrots, radishes, green onions, and a variety of salsas. You can ask the guy to grill the green onions for you. They are delicious...

5 rolled tacos with guac for $3.49. This was pretty disgusting. The meat was horrible, and it didn't really taste like beef. I ate one and was done.


Pollo asada fries. This, however, did not disappoint, and it was good to know that some things are still the same. Marinated chicken, sour cream, and guac heaped over a large amount of made to order fries. Liberally put some hot sauce on this, and you have a meal for two. We didn't even dent this thing. For some reason, I just wasn't that hungry, although I usually get munchies after drinking.

A short, but fun trip to SD. Got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen for a while. But now, it's back to reality...

Still got that itch...

My god...first week of school is done, and my body is just not feeling it haha.

Vegas contd: The next day, I woke up and hit the tables once more. Gambling is such an emotional rollercoaster...my stomach def. suffered from the stress, but in the end, I came up a hundred after about an hour playing blackjack.

So, what was first?


Breakfast of Champions. Two daiquiris (strawberry and moonshine) with an extra shot in each from Tacone Wraps. I thought the moonshine tasted like crap. The strawberry on the other hand was delicious. My cousin said it tasted like a Flintstones Push Pop. You gotta love the fact that you can walk around outside while drinking. Viva Vegas!

We went to the Coke store, and we got a sampler of 16 drinks around the world for 7 bucks.


You get a good amount, enough to share among four people. You can click the picture if you want to see the full size. These were the non carbonated drinks. I personally liked the Delaware Punch(like a dark fruit punch) and the Pine Nut, which didn't really taste like pine nut, and had more of a limey taste.


Out of these, there really wasn't anything that I liked in particular. Honestly, I'm a Coke kind of guy. The watermelon really tasted like candy watermelon, but felt weird to drink as a soda. The mezzo(the clear one on the left) tasted disgusting and bitter. Yeah, I'm brief with the descriptions, but I've got a sketchy memory, and I don't take notes of what I eat or drink (yet haha).


Next door is the m&ms store. I thought this was kinda interesting. The first mascots. You've come a long way my friends.


This scared me.

Lastly, we hit up the Bellagio buffet before we left. We waited for almost an hour and paid $30 bucks (before tax and tip) for brunch. I've had Bellagio before for dinner a few years back and honestly it's just all right to me. I think it's too hyped up and not worth the wait or price. We went here simply because it was closest to where we were, since we were a bit short on time. I ended up leaving disappointed in the buffet and myself (you'll see why as you read along). While we were moseying along the buffet, I noticed a rather obese woman strewn across the floor with a manager or two around her. Evidently she had fallen off her wheelchair, and it took them a while to get her back up. All I could think about was how she was gonna try to sue...Meanwhile, life went on, as people went about their business picking at this and that at the buffet's offerings.


Pasta fagioli soup.


Shrimp, some fish(salmon and something else I forget, but this was pretty good), some seaweed salad and fried rice. I like to get a little of each thing at first to see what I like, so I can get more later.


Corn chowder. At first, I thought this was bland, but it had a sweet aftertaste to it, and I changed my mind about it and liked it.


Chilled crab legs. This was very salty and wasn't that great. I like my legs hot. Some kind of spring roll, which was pretty good, a lot of cabbage in it. Spicy tuna hand roll, which was decent for a buffet.


Cucumber salad, a vegetable roll, and a California roll. Meh.

You may be asking, why the hell are you getting Asian stuff at the buffet? As I said, I was working through each station...prime rib was next. They had an omlette station as well.

But unfortunately, this is where I stopped. I lost my appetite halfway through it all and just didn't want to eat anymore. Yeah, I didn't get my money's worth and left quite sad.
All in all though, a fun time with family...

Next time, places to go to: MGM blackjack tables (I've always been treated well there), Lotus of Siam, Mesa(Bobby Flay's restaurant) and Green Valley Buffet.

Vegas!

I went to Vegas with my cousins and sister before the New Year for a night. The drive was horrible. It took around 6 hours because of the traffic, and by the time we got there and checked in, it was midnight, and we were starving. We stayed Planet Hollywood, and being too tired to go out, we decided to eat at their 24 hour cafe, Planet Dailies.


Having predrank in our hotel room and happily buzzed, I wanted to keep the good feelings going and ordered the Michelob Amberbock. There's also a Hef in the background, but I forget which company brewed it.


We started off with the buffalo wings (8 pieces) with bleu cheese dressing. They came out hot, but the meat on some of the wings were skimpy and overcooked because the meat was crispy.


They had a pretty big menu, and I wanted to order the Hawaiian rib eye, but they said they were out of all beef except the filet mignon. So I got the Jamaican Jerk Pork chops with a mango pico de gallo instead. These were cooked well and not dry at all. They were a decent size. However, on their menu, it said it had been marinated in jerk spices, yet it didn't seem to be marinated. I tasted the grill more than anything else. You also get to choose a side of fries, mashed taters, or baked. The portion of their side of veggies was quite generous.


Cousin A got the chicken primavera, which was tossed in olive oil.


A closeup picture.


Cousin B got the chicken Parmesan chicken. This was one big piece of chicken and it came with a side of spaghetti. He let me try some, and I thought taste wise, it was a little on the bland side.


My sister got the chicken marsala. The chicken was decent, but she could have got more chicken for the price she paid. She got fries with her meal, and they were pretty tasty and came in a big paper cup. No picture though, sorry.

The service started off good, and gave my cousin more marinara sauce for his spaghetti when he asked for it. But as the restaurant got packed, our server disappeared for a while, and we were left waiting for the check.

Overall, it's a decent place to eat at, but for the price you pay, I don't think it's worth it. The total with tip came out to be $102. Mind you, this was after we got 10% an item per person with a coupon I got when we checked in.

I thought our room was pretty nice for the price we paid.

A picture of the Candyman's hand in our room. Haha.

Where have all the flowers gone?

Dduk!
Dduk!
Dduk!

Happy New Year!

Better late than never. Been doing a lot of eating, but not enough posting.

For New Year's, I went to my Uncle's house to seh beh and the traditional dduk gook (rice cake soup).


A picture of my plate. The kimchi was especially delicious. My aunt also made galbi jjeem (like a Korean style pot roast) but no picture, sorry.


Traditional dduk gook.

I love dduk gook. It doesn't have to be New Year's to have this, but I only eat this occasionally. So I decided to give it a shot myself.


What you'll need: I believe this was flank. I got a pound of it. My grandma, who was a great cook, said that sirloin is better, so I'm going to try that next time.

Soak the meat in water for 30 minutes to get rid of some of the blood. It'll give a clearer broth.


In a pot, I put in 5 cloves of garlic, half an onion, the meat, and 9 cups of water. Cook on low heat for a couple hours (I did 3 hours). You can also use anchovies for the broth, and I've even read some people using chicken broth.


This is what it looked like afterwards. You will probably want to skim off some of the fat that rises. At this point in time, the meat will be so soft that you can break it apart with your hands. No need to use a knife. I put half in the soup and gave the other half to my doggy.


While that's going on, buy a bag of sliced dduk (rice cake ovalettes) and soak em in cold water for about an hour. Then dump them into the broth, along with some more sliced onion and green onions. You gotta also have eggs, which you can do two ways: Either take a few eggs, make a sort of crepe, slice em up and serve on top of the soup after ladled, or beat a few eggs and stir them in the soup. It's your own preference. My aunt did the first way, but I like the latter and did just that.


Sprinkle some geem(dried seaweed) on top, salt and pepper to taste, and wallah! My first shot at dduk gook.

Concluding thoughts: Although the salt helped, the broth wasn't as beefy as I'd have liked it to be. I probably reduced the soup to about half of what I originally started with, but even then, the beef broth wasn't as strong as I wanted it. I will try sirloin next time like my granny suggested. Also, if anyone is reading this from the LA area, Chosun Galbi on Olympic has a kickass broth. My mom said it's probably because they also use bones and cook the broth for over a day, as well as possibly using MSG, which I may have to try. I'll probably need to use more meat as well with the amount of water I used.


I bought this as a Christmas present to myself and drank it today. 10.5%, which accounts for any typos I have in this post and will most likely fix tomorrow.


Let me tell ya. I first had this beer at B.J's, which surprisingly has some interesting bottled beers, and loved it. It definitely packs a kick. It has a small head and a wonderful fruity and malty taste. What I like best about it is that it's 10.5%, but doesn't have that bitterness that some of those strong seasonal beers have.

That's it folks. I'm off to bed. Seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ya!