roadtrip

we just got back from our birthday roadtrip up the coast, through the Pacific Northwest. it was so beautiful, i had to include images i found online that remind me of what we saw. once we have our photos downloaded, i hope to post them too.

Avenue of the Giants:

Trinidad, CA:

Redwood National Park:

Patrick's Point-Wedding Rock-Agate Beach:

Heceta Head Lighthouse:

Portland Japanese Gardens-Rose Test Gardens:

Mount Hood-Trillium Lake:

Pike's Place-Seattle:

Stanley Park-Vancouver:

because it's my birthday

i'm 29 and rex will be glad to hear me admit that it is no longer my birthday. i believe everyone should get at least two straight days to celebrate and take advantage of their birthday. maybe even three days, don't you agree?

mochi/manju

today, i had the BEST mochi/manju i have ever tasted -- out of this world good, strawberry manju from Benkyodo Co.

while i was shopping for poki ingredients in japantown last week, i remembered reading about some place that had rave reviews for their peanut butter and strawberry mochi. i was curious to see what all the hype was about since my previous mochi experiences had always been with the ice cream mochi i would eat during my college days, or with the overly sweet red bean kind that i would end up eating all of the mochi and throwing out the filling. in order to take advantage of my rare trip to japantown, i had to call up johanna to look online for the name and location of the place. too bad Benkyodo closes at 5pm because it was too late for me to experience them that day.

but today, my luck changed!

after paying for the peanut butter manju you have to buy in packs of three, i debated trying other flavors. i am so glad for my often excessive ways, as i got to try the strawberry manju! it has pieces of fresh strawberry in the middle. so so good! i am craving one right now and kicking myself for only buying one. sorry roomie and boyfriend, you will just have to hear about the delicious treat until i go there first thing tomorrow morning (they open at 8 am, should i?!). the peanut butter is also good with crunchy pieces of peanuts inside and i think it would be even better if i had some tea to wash it down with.

but it is the strawberry mochi i am currently feenin' for!!!!!!!!!!!!

next trip, i also want to try other manju - the Age which is donut like, Yomogi with whole red beans, and Chofu, pancake wrapped sweet rice.

we all scream for ice cream!

when we were little kids, my brothers and i would consume tremendous amounts of ice cream. our parents would end up buying a 5 gallon tub of the stuff from the navy commissary, and store it in our extra freezer located in the garage (you know your family has that second freezer filled with max-pack sized meats!). with limited flavors in that commercial-size, we would usually end up eating chocolate marble vanilla ice cream or rocky road. we didn't care so much about the flavor as long as we could have our big bowls of it all day long. also the more ice cream, the more milk shakes and banana splits we could make. mmm... the good ol' days before carb-consciousness and slowed-down metabolisms.

it's been a long time since then. now all i need is a little of the high quality stuff. okay, i lie. if i could get away with eating the good stuff without adding to the junk in my trunk and increasing my credit card debt, i probably would! recently, i've had some addictingly good artisanal ice creams. these are uniquely flavored ice creams made in small batches. so far the caramel flavors have stood out...

try Bi-Rite Creamery where the ice cream is oh so soft and creamy. salted caramel is the most popular and my favorite. i went to this place two days in a row because of this flavor and brought home a pint of it. it has that great sweet and salty combination with the saltiness being very subtle. other yummy flavors include honey lavender ice cream and blood orange sorbet.

in berkeley they have another addicting caramel ice cream flavor at Ici. The flavor is burnt caramel and it tastes like the burnt sugar in leche flan dessert and it reminds rex of cracker jacks. Ici has other flavors like honey almond, rose pistachio, meyer lemon, stout... They also make their own ice cream cones at Ici!

not an artisanal ice cream spot, but a must, is of course Mitchell's. i love their ube ice cream!!

also not to be forgotten is Fenton's Creamery. i love their black and tan sundaes with all toasted almond ice cream, please. it takes me back to the good times during college. it's perfect during the summer in the east bay.

fyi- i am going to a cupcake cooking class today! i will try to report back on what i learn.

fun

Your Birthdate: June 2

You may watch someone from afar before you finally decide to make your move. It takes a long time for you to develop an attraction to someone. Generally, you prefer to pick who you love. Anyone who tries to rush you is in for some heartache. Number of True Loves You'll Have: 3 Number of Times You'll Have Your Heart Broken: 4 You are most compatible with people born on the 2nd, 11th, 20th, and 29th of the month.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean For Your Love Life?

my oaklander was born on may 29!

firsts

it seems like lately i've been writing about a lot of firsts: my first big game, my first santa clara gift exchange... and yesterday i made my first batch of cupcakes from scratch. YUMMY!

i have been craving my favorite cupcakes- Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes from new york. during my last trip to nyc, that lasted a mere 24 hours, i made sure to get half a dozen to take home to sf. there is something special about these darn cupcakes. they taste homemade, are not too sweet and don't taste like cake mix from a box.

well, i found a recipe for them online and got to baking. i made 3 dozen.

it's evil in my apartment, carb hell.

i brought some to work and now i think i'm going to bring them to a holiday party this weekend.

maybe i can become a cupcake caterer :)

my first scu holiday party

tonight was my first santa clara gift exchange party! to go with our 2-buck-chuck bottles of wine, rex and i baked/fried some popeye's style chicken to take to the party :)

for the gift exchange we ended up giving a mojito set and getting an interesting jar of cinnamon sugar cookies from starbucks.

my first big game

this is bear territory!

like ro and liv...

it is time to blog again... i miss reading friends' updated blog postings and writing my own. lately it's celebrity gossip all day.

is it true... nicole richie and joel madden?