Wedding Pictures!

Yay! We finally received our professional wedding pictures! You know what this means? We'll finally be able to send out our thank you cards. We actually wrote them all by the end of August, but have been waiting for the pictures to come in to add it to the thank you cards.

This picture gives you a glimpse into our wedding. Yes, there were sock puppets there! I didn't know this was happening, but it was quite funny.

Here's a pictures of my "bestest" girlfriends in the whole wide world! I've known all of them for at least half of my life). Can you guess which one is my sister? I'll give you a hint, she's the only one that was not in marching band and instead was on the field as a cheerleader. (I guess that means I'm suggesting that marching band people have a "look"?)I'm trying to figure out where I should upload the pictures so that I can send a link to people who have been asking about pictures for a while. I'll get around to this later on in October.

Daring Bakers-September Challenge~Lavosh and Vegan Dip

September's Daring Baker's Challenge was Lavosh and a vegan dip! Thank you Shel from Musing From the Fishbowl and Natalie from Gluten A Go Go, for hosting this challenge! I am grateful to anyone who chooses a challenge that does not involve buttercream or baking and assembling cakes that take 2 days to make.


Here's the beginnings of my lavosh. A yeast dough ball. For the longest time I did not own a rolling pin. I would roll my dough out using a glass cup. But thank goodness I now have a rolling pin.
I'm still rolling out the dough, letting it rest, and then rolling it out more. I wanted to make really crispy lavosh so I had to roll it as thin as possible.
For this challenge, we could top the dough with any kind of seasoning that we wanted to. I went with a mixture of salt, garlic powder, black sesame seeds, and plain sesame seeds.
Here's the finished product. Tiny little abstract crackers. I call them "abstract" crackers because they are all different sizes.
My dip. I black bean garlic chipotle hummus.

My Black Bean Hummus Recipe:
1/2 c. canned black beans (slightly drained)
1 clove of garlic
1 chipotle pepper
salt to taste (I think I used 1/4 t. kosher salt)
Blended all the ingredients together using a hand blender.
Added another 1/2 c. of drained black beans and lightly blended this in (to give the dip a little bit more texture)
The finished product
If you are interested in checking out other Daring Baker's lavosh and vegan dips, here's the blog roll.

Brothers~ 10 cents chicken wings!

$5 for 50 chicken wings. How does that sound to you? If you said "awesome," then you would be correct. At $.10 a wing, it is hard to beat this bar food special. When you compound it with the $1 beers, it's downright untouchable. Lauren (best wife ever! she doesn't even like wings!) and I went here for a date last week. We went 1 hour early, and played Nintendo DS together while everyone looked at us like we were complete dorks. I guess that's one advantage to being short and Asian....everyone already expects you to be a dork, so it's okay when you are. Hey, I didn't make the stereotypes, I don't like the stereotypes, but I'll use them to my advantage when I can :). I had a Miller High Life, and she had a cherry fish-bowl so at least we fit in a little.
There were 4 wing flavors: Hawaiian Barbecue, Original, Parmesan Garlic, and Red Hot Ass-Burner. We got a some of everything. The Hawaiian Barbecue and Red Hot Ass-Burner were the best. The other two were average, and tasted almost the same. None were outstanding, but for $.10, who's complaining? None of these wings were very spicy. The Red Hot Ass-Burner wings were about 2/3 as spicy as the normal buffalo wings at Chile's.

All-in-all, it was a great experience. Lauren's labmate showed up later to help us eat the wings. Lauren and I had tried to come here a few times earlier, but the line was too long. Well, it didn't look long until the guy in front of us ordered 600 wings. Anyway, this time we got there an hour early and were first in line. For the price, definitely worth the wait!


How much would I pay?

Mike: $.20 a wing. They're pretty small. That was, $5 can get you 25, which is a pretty good bar snack (not enough for a meal)
Lauren: N/A, I don't eat chicken wings. I must really love Mike to go to a bar to go eat a dinner consisting of chicken wings!

Brothers Bar and Grill
613 E. Green St
Urbana IL, 61801
217-328-5531

Curiosity Challenge~Figs-Update

Here's an update. I washed, cut, and then ate a fig. I guess I was expecting this magical "AHA" moment or a moment of pure bliss....but nope. The figs have a mild flavor and the closest fruit that I could compare it to is a cross between a mild flavored guava with the outer texture of an apricot. My guess is that the figs I bought were probably not at their peak.

So this is what I ended up doing with my figs...

1. Thinly sliced them, drizzled honey, and broiled them. Toasted thin slices of bread, spread cream cheese on them, placed the fig slices on them, and then drizzled more honey on them. Not bad.

2. Diced up some figs, cooked it on a pan with sugar, water, and honey to make a jammy syrup concoction.

3. I hear about panna cotta all the time. Especially when those chefs on Top Chef are suddenly surprised they have to make a dessert (hello, note to future contestants, watch previous episodes of the show. You are gonna have to make a dessert eventually).

So I decided to attempt to make a buttermilk panna cotta with a dollop of my fig jam. It was pretty good. The buttermilk adds a bit of tang to the dessert and the fig jam adds a sweet contrast.
*On to other news. Get excited, today the season premerie of "Heroes" is on NBC! Whoo-hoo! Hopefully this season is better than the last season! I'm plopping myself down in front of the TV for 3 hours. So if you call me between the hours of 7-10pm (CST) I will most likely NOT answer my phone.

Curiosity Challenge~Figs!

I've been searching for figs for a weeks now. After first reading about figs on Anita's blog Dessert First and then on Kat's "Our Adventures in Japan", I've been keeping my eye out for figs. I was talking to my foodie food science friends and we were discussing what we would do with them if we by chance found them in the market.

Here's how the conversation went:

L: I just want to buy them, cut 'em in half and eat them fresh

A: Broil them, put honey from the Urbana's Farmer's market on it and serve them with prosciutto or goat cheese. Isn't that what the foodies do?

E: Do figs have some kind of cult following? It seems like it's the trendy food of the moment.

L: I dunno, but everyone blogs about them. They must be good.

E: I think I've only tried figs in Fig Newtons
While at Meijer this morning, I found those elusive figs! It was $2 for an 8 oz container of figs. I grabbed a container of the brown turkish ones and then panicked. There were black ones there too. I didn't know there were two kinds of figs, the container of black ones were heavier (even though the package said 8 oz), but I ended up buying the brown ones because the black ones looked like they were overripe and smashed.

I don't know what to do with them, but I have to figure it out in the next few days. I just found the California Figs site, so we'll see what I can find there. Wish me luck!

Cooking Hiatus

Yes, I've been lazy and haven't been posting pictures of food that I've actually cooked. Boo.

What have I been doing? I've been spending my days working on my research (like a good graduate student) and searching for jobs in locations that Mike could potentially work. Unfortunately the only location on his list is "Hawaii, where he is currently employed."
Anyways, that's what married life is all about right? Compromise and making decisions that will be the best for both parties instead of being selfish and thinking just about yourself.

Mike and I have made it to our one month anniversary and our 5-year dating anniversary. We're going to celebrate these events next month when Mike's back in Champaign.

In honor of our one month anniversary, I will share a little tidbit of our married life. You have to learn how to adapt to the quirks of the other person. I have more quirks than Mike, but luckily he's really laidback, so it balances out my personality.

This is what I have to deal with: incorrectly placed toilet paper. So I did not realize how ingrained my habits were. I started noticing it when I was reaching for toilet paper and could not grab it, because of how the roll was placed. This may sound silly, but seriously, it throws you off. Try it for a week and you'll find out if you have a tp directional preference.This is what he has to deal with: a toilet seat cover. Mike moved into an apartment that I had been living in for 3 years. Yes, so he is slowly getting used to the pink curtains, the multiple bottles of shampoo, body washes, and conditioner in the shower.

Taste of Nevada

What is it about free food that just does my heart good? Lauren (best wife ever!) took me to this event at UIUC called the Taste of Nevada. I have no idea how it got it's name, or how they do it! but I do know that it was great!
Basically, the Taste of Nevada is this even that promotes cultural understanding by giving out free food. Different ethnic centers (Hispanic, Asian, African-American, etc.) give out the food, and get a chance to show students their services and programs. I'm now told that it gets its name from the street its held on. Real original.... Anyway, I'm going to list the free food so it looks like more:

1. pulled pork sandwiches
2. greens
3. macaroni and cheese
4. popsicles
5. chocolate chip and oatmeal rasin cookies
6. water
7. pizza (Papa John's: cheese, pepperoni and sausage)
8. pretzels with nacho cheese
9. empanadas (5 kinds)
10. tacos
11. chips and salsa
12. quesadillas (3 kinds)
13. sushi (4 kinds)
14. meatballs (For some reason these were Asian...apparently if you put sweet and sour sauce on something it's Asian. Just like how putting pineapple on pizza makes it Hawaiian, or how making food taste really bland makes it Brittish.)
15. gyoza (2 kinds)
16. baklava(2 kinds)
17. Probably other things that I can't think of right now.

Lauren and I got some of everything! I'm not rating or describing the food, because it was all decent, but of the "free" quality. The impressive thing is that it was all free! There were also other free things, like pens, Frisbees, pizza cutters, candy and other assorted goodies. We were so full! It was so awesome and so amazing. They even had an giveaway that included tickets to events and ipods.
All that free stuff leads to a lot of trash. The poor volunteers had to ask people to stop throwing stuff into(onto) the trash can so that they could empty it. One girl's reply was "Fine, I'll just wait till you're done." She then placed her plate on the ground and walked away. Classy!

I had a great time getting free stuff, and I'm sure despite me making her roll her eyes at me on multiple occasions, Lauren did as well. It showed me what I missed by not going away for college. I would have really liked the experience of going to a big school away from Hawaii. Still, I did enjoy being close to family and friends, and I don't regret missing out on other things like college debt.
So much free stuff, and all so that a few organizations can get their message out. UIUC even has a monthly event called "Illinites," (get the pun!) where they have free games and food. I guess this shows what you can do when you have people paying $23,026 a year for non-resident tuition. And this is a pretty cheap school. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was ranked 9th by Kiplingers Personal Finance Magazine in Tuition-Value. It would probably go higher on the list if they knew about the Taste of Nevada. Can you imagine what those other, more expensive schools must be giving away? Free high-paying jobs? Free membership to high-powered societies that run the world? Okay, I'm not a conspiracy-theorist, but it kind of makes you wonder....

Espresso Royale, Starbucks and Coffee shops

Besides my apartment, lab, and the gym, Espresso Royale has become my second home. A lot of construction is occurring in my building, so instead of working from the lab, I plop myself down and study at the nearby coffee shop. Espresso Royale is a chain-type coffee shop located mainly near college campuses.

As a former Starbucks employee (I loved working there. There are so many perks for employees, and tips were great at the Kahala Mall location), I thought that the Starbucks philosophy was great, and at least at the one I worked, the employees were friendly to customers.
I commend Starbucks on trying to revitalize their company with Starbucks Card Rewards program and all the new healthier products they are trying to introduce. Heck, I wouldn't mind working at Starbucks R&D and sensory labs.

But with people now reducing their frivilous spending habits and watching what they purchase, purchasing a $4 latte each day from Starbucks is a "luxury item." So Starbucsks, this is how you can improve...study small local coffee shops.

What I love about Espresso Royale:
1. Free unlimited Wi-fi
2. The one I go to is open from 7am-12midnight, 7 days a week.
3. Rewards Punch Card-Purchase 10 drinks and get the 11th free
4. Special days-Saturdays are double punch days , Sundays-buy a large drink for the medium price, Wednesdays-$2 latte days
5. The new "Autumn Favorites" menu . Each day there is a special drink of the day that is 1/2 off.

So given the choice between Espresso Royale and Starbucks, I'd probably choose Espresso Royale. I do like my Frappucinos and my iced soy chais, but all the other benefits outweigh walking over to Starbucks.

Drinks I order at Espresso Royale:
Iced black tea with sugar free peach syrup
Iced green tea
Ginger Dragon (lemon, honey, and ginger. it's for when you want to wake up your senses)
Lemonade
skim milk steamer with sugarfree vanilla

Okay, and for you observant few, I am not a coffee drinker, so why listen to me? But really, over half of the my Starbucks co-workers did not drink coffee either.

Hawaii Restaurants~Palace Buffet

For our last meal in Hawaii before going up to Illinois, Lauren and I went to lunch at Palace Buffet, a Yakiniku restaurant in Mililani. It was $12.95/person for lunch, which was quite reasonable for the amount of food they had.

Someone told us that this restaurant was Michelle Wie's favorite. That's actually why we ended up going to it. I think that they were slightly misinformed. I'd venture to say that Ms. Wie has probably never been to this restaurant. There was an article in the Midweek about Palace Buffet, and it mentions that Michelle was a fan of the owner (who also owns another restaurant). But it doesn't say that she liked this restaurant. Also, if I was making 19 million a year , I'd probably eat at some place better.
The hot food line (shown above) was just okay. The fried shrimp was soggy, oily, and its consistency suggested it may have been fried the day before, and steamed in the morning to heat it up. That is saying a lot, because I really like shrimp. Actually, a lot of the fried items were soggy, which was disappointing because I thought they would have been excellent if they were freshly cooked. I'm giving Palace Buffet the benefit of the doubt here and saying that it was just a bad batch of fried stuff. We did get there just as it was opening, so I'm sure that as they made more food throughout the day it'd be fresher and better. The meat jun was good though. Since I'm in the complaining mood, I'll complain a little more and get it out of my system before I move on. Complaint #2, there was a fly in our food (shown above). It was dead and a little bit smashed. Okay, so you're probably thinking "Isn't it a buffet? Don't you take your own food? Why would you take food with a fly on it?" My opinion is that there should not be food out with flies on it on a buffet line. And, we took several pieces of lettuce together, with the fly smashed between them. Kind of like an Atkins fly-sandwich.

Last complaint. The ice cream machine was broken. It was like condensed milk with honey added frozen to a sticky, melty-gooey slush. Okay, complaints are done.

On to the good stuff. The yakiniku meats (kalbi, bbq beef, and chicken) were excellent! If I go back to this place, that is all I am going to eat. Some people think it's silly to pay to cook your own food, but I really enjoy eating great stuff when it's hot and juicy, right off the grill! Plus, what you're really paying them for is to clean up after you :).
The panchan was also really good. Kimchee tasted great!
This is some of the other food that we had. There were more than 2 people in our party. Lauren and I can't eat that much! Lauren's plate is shown below.
Keep in mind that despite the fly incident, I did enjoy my experience at Palace Buffet, and would in fact recommend it. I can hear the detractors now saying "oh my gosh, he would recommend a restaurant that serves flies." But let's be honest here people. Most restaurants are going to have bugs get into their food sometimes. The key is to know which restaurants it accidentally happens in, and which ones it regularly happens in. In my opinion, Palace Buffet falls into the "accidental" category, or I wouldn't recommend it. To have a good experience, you just have to stick mainly to the meats. That way you don't have soggy fried stuff, and if there is a fly in your food, at least it'll end up being a cooked fly!


How much would I pay?

Mike: $8-for my experience that day. $17-no flies guaranteed.
Lauren: $10, because I'm a small eater and do not really eat meat.

Palace Buffet

94-780 Meheula Parkway

Mililani, HI, 96789

(808) 623-3000

Lanai~Lodge at Koele

Here are some pretty pictures of Lanai.

The Lodge at Koele. There's a golf course, a mini golf course, 3 croquet game areas, a game room, a music room, reading room....

Our room with a beautiful view. Equipped with a flat-screen tv, dvd player, and pretty much everything you need. Every time a maid or bellhop or anyone helped you, they knew your last name. It was crazy!

Yes, I took a picture of the bathroom. Why? I don't really know. The main thing that impressed me about the bathroom (besides the fluffy bathrobes) was that all the toiletries were from L'Occitane! I swear stocking that bathroom must run the hotel about $40. Just to give you an idea of this brands prices, I own a few lotions from this company and a 1oz hand lotion is about $10-15. Here's some pictures of the Manele Bay (the sister hotel of the Lodge at Koele). It's about a 30 minute drive from the Lodge at Koele.

Lanai~Afternoon Tea

High Tea at the Koele Lodge was one of my favorite memories from a family vacation we took to Lanai when I was little. Back then, it was a informal occasion for guests including tea, sandwiches, scones and cookies served buffet style. Oh, and it was free before too. On our honeymoon, Lauren and I decided to have tea on our last day there. We saw some people eating

delicious looking hamburgers a little while earlier, but decided to forgo a late lunch since we would be having tea. Perhaps I was just upset because I was really hungry, or because the lunch places were already closed and I kept thinking about that hamburger with avocado and bacon, but I did not have a good time. I'm always going to give my honest opinion, but to be fair here's a link to some people who did have a good time.

There were several noticeable differences in the High Tea. First off, it was now served in the Great Hall (Translation: Hotel Lobby) . Secondly, it cost $19, which is more than free. However, this still seemed reasonable to us for the whole "experience." Thirdly, the food was very elegant and dainty (Translation: limited, small, and smaller)
As you can see, the whole setup was rather fancy. I did think it was pretty cool that there were candles under the teapots. Unnecessary, but innovative. It's only a really good idea if you plan to sit and drink tea for several hours. Otherwise, it's not that vital to drinking hot tea. I think that if you did actually sit there for 3 hours or so, and the candle lasted that long, then your teapot would evaporate dry before you were done, even if you didn't drink anything. The teapots (like everything else) were small.....they're only slightly bigger than the cups themselves.
The tea service is started by picking your tea. There are all kinds of teas, and everyone gets their own teapot. Just as a side note, much of the same tea is served for free every morning in the complimentary coffee/tea station. The tea was actually pretty good, but it was no better than the one I had for free in the morning.
On to the food. For clarification, please remember that even though in the picture, the food fills up the plates, it's because all of the plates were really small. The food was also very small.
Starting with the top tier. Sandwiches. There were 3 varieties of sandwiches for our gastronomic pleasure. First (bottom), the cucumber sandwich. Tasty in my opinion. Lauren didn't like it and I ate hers. It was a paper thin slice of cucumber (so thin that there was no crunch in the cucumber) in bread with mayonnaise on it and probably some salt and pepper. Secondly (middle) there was the cheese cracker. It was cheddar cheese with apple pieces mixed in mayonnaise on a toasted (stale) piece of bread with garnishes. I like cheese, so I thought it was tasty. Again, Lauren was less than impressed, and I finished hers. Lastly, there was the smoked salmon sandwich. Nothing special here, just cream cheese, smoked salmon and bread. All in all, the sandwiches tasted good in my opinion, but were nothing special, and I was disappointed by how small they were. All of the sandwiches (Lauren's and mine) could have been made out of 1-1.5 slices of white bread. Each person gets less than 3/4 of a slice of bread.
The second tier looked more promising. Cookies, a lemon/white chocolate dessert, and chocolate. Both chocolates were pretty mediocre (Lauren and I didn't finish either). The shortbread cookies were rather good.
Lastly, the scones. What High Tea would be complete without scones? These scones weren't that great. They were very heavy, with very little taste. They were served with lemon curd, berry jam and Devonshire cream. The lemon curd and jam were very good, but it didn't make up for the rest of the Tea. Lauren licked those bowls clean (not literally), without using her scones.
This is probably the most negative blog I've written to date, and I hope the last for a while. The experience was just not up to par with what I expected.

How Much Would I Pay?

Mike: $10 because it was fancy. And only if there wasn't a Burger King around the corner.
Lauren: $14, because Tea is expensive in general. My advice is to go to Tea at 1024 instead.

Lanai~ Cafe 565

Lauren and I were going to go and eat at another fancy restaurant to celebrate our honeymoon, but we were tired, and decided to sample more of the local cuisine. We tried our luck at Cafe 565, because we saw a friendly couple eating food that looked pretty good outside. Their food, some kind of chicken sandwich and ceasar salad, looked amazing.

Here's a picture of me. As you can clearly see, I'm grumpy. It's because I'm tired and hungry. Luckily, we got our food soon after the picture was taken, and went back to our hotel room to eat and watch the Olympics.
Lauren got a Crabcake plate. It was $8.50. She thought it was pretty good. She liked it better than her fancy dinner at the "Main Dining Room." I didn't like it. It was made of breaded canned crab. They added a lot of sugar. I thought it was too sweet. It tasted like really sweet frozen shumai. Lauren really likes shumai. Also, there was no dressing on the salad.
I got a Greek calzone for $9. It looked good, but was actually (dare I say it) a little too cheesy. The first third was delicious, but it started to taste weird after that. I think it was a little too salty. There was a lot of feta mixed in with other cheeses. There were also artichokes, chicken, olives and spinach in it. Lauren liked eating the crust.

How much would I pay?

Mike: Crabcakes - $4, but I still probably wouldn't eat them, Calzone - $7.50, because it was big
Lauren: Crabcakes - $4.50, Calzone - $8

Cafe 565
408 8th St
Lanai City, Lanai, HI 96763
808-565-6622

Lanai~Blue Ginger Cafe

On our first day out and about in Lanai, Lauren and I ate at the Blue Ginger Cafe. It came highly recommended, and we were excited to go there. I had been there when I was really young, but couldn't remember anything about it.

Here's a picture of the front counter. It's a cozy little restaurant, with lots of food. It is pricey, but that's to be expected in an outer-island. A plate of chicken katsu is $10, and they don't give a lot. Lauren and I settled on fried saimin and calamari.
The fried saimin was $4. I thought it was tasty, but heavy on the sesame oil. The portion was pretty small. In flavor, Zippy's is comparable and maybe a little bit better. As much as I'm complaining about the high prices in Lanai, it probably cost the same at Zippy's.
The calamari was also $4. There were only 8 rings. That's $.50 a ring. Plus, they weren't that good. Crunchy and freshly fried, but just not that good. At least it came with lettuce!
Blue Ginger was disappointing, but maybe we should have tried a burger or a plate lunch. I guess it's also tough for them because I'm comparing them to Oahu restaurants that can afford to give far more food for the same price.


How much would I pay?

Mike: Fried Saimin - $3, Calamari - $2.50
Lauren: Fried Saimin - $4, Calamari - $4, but only because it was on Lanai. $3.50 for the saimin and $3 for the calamari if it was on Oahu

Blue Ginger Cafe
409 7th St,
Lanai City, Lanai, HI 96763
808-565-6363