menswear for dinner

I haven't gone a day back home without wearing that coat. Winter break is the only time I get access to this so I make sure it never leaves my side - mother just asked me to stop using it as a bathrobe as it's hers and it's too nice for me to be wearing it nonstop. I found the pants in my closet. I remember being with Mariel when she bought them but she's never worn them so I guess they're mine now (?). 

Henri got oysters to start so I took one (the missing one, do you see where it should be?). They taste like mermaids.

And then I got a wild boar pasta dish and I dunno, the cheese was nice? The boar was not as soft and yummy as it was when we went to Sotto in LA but you know, I couldn't really complain because it was still decent and food snobs are annoying sometimes. But I probably would have chosen to have a dozen more oysters over the boar.

DIM SUM PART TWO

We ordered 9 dishes this time and cancelled one. He was having a hard time grabbing one of those steamed rice rolls so the kind owner/host helped us out. Definitely forever recommend One Dim Sum and Andy said it was better than Tim Ho Wan so that was a win for the night. 

I don't know what I'm doing with the editing right now. I want "softer" photos. I really just need to keep up with the Lynda tutorials. I'll stick to Sex and the City, Parks and Rec, Modern Family and New Girl because how can I not. And then Lynda the rest of the time. And reading. And exploring. And eating and all that jazz.

FOOD :: ONE DIM SUM

I'm going back to One Dim Sum tonight with Andy so I'll be sure to take legitimate photos. I actually have so many of these but I only got around to editing the above three. Isabelle and I ordered ten dishes, which was so much that the waiters kept asking us if we were sure we wanted them to keep bringing the food out. Clearly they underestimated us. Grand total: 150HKD, which is $19.35. We could have easily finished at 80HKD because honestly, spending almost $20 on dim sum here is absolutely ridiculous. It was a Michelin Star restaurant and it is very, very good, but we both agreed that it wasn't super spectacular (we are dim sum connoisseurs). We were thinking the star was given just because it was one of the first dim sums in HK. 

I need to do a post about all the yummy snacks, mainly the egg custards, pineapple buns, cocktail buns and mango drink. MANGO DRINKS. Holy cow those are heaven on earth. Like drinking textured heavenly yumminess. 

LIN HEUNG TEA HOUSE

I asked my friend Lum to bring me to a very Chinese restaurant for lunch. He picked Lin Heung Tea House, which is supposed to be pretty famous. I got there on time-ish (about 20 minutes late) and he wasn't there so I decided to walk up and see what it looked like and I was the only Western person. So then I left because I felt very uncomfortable and went to Topshop to get their wifi to see where Lum was and by the time we both made it back to the restaurant, it had been an hour after our set time.

And of course their dim sum was finished....we got the last few baskets (holy cow I actually cannot remember what it's called...but like the bamboo things that hold all the dumplings) and it was the weirdest stuff ever aka chicken feet (standard for me at this point, actually) and pig skin (which wasn't crunchy. It actually tasted alright but I kept thinking about the fact that I was eating SKIN and couldn't get past it). It was clearly very authentic because none of the waiters could speak english and I want to go back, only I don't think I could do it unless I had someone who could speak Cantonese. 

Also, I know I'd say outfit post but editing photos of yourself takes way too much time and I got a presentation to prepare! Also I looked weird.

PS Can you tell how I like adding grain. Like to the point where it's kind of too much. But we all go through phases so just bear with me.

WHAT A GEM :: RESTAURANT ON CAMPUS

There is a restaurant on campus where none of the waiters speak English but they have bok choy so it's where I get my vegetable fix. They gave us tea to complete the clean-your-own-utensils sequence, which was a tad bit unexpected for me because I'm already new to the whole concept that your dishes come half-clean, but then to throw tea on top of that! What a crazy world we all live in. Jenny and I were on a budget so we tried to keep it very simple - they have loads of options but we stuck to the college menu where everything is around 15HKD. We ended up being 4HKD short so we asked the one white lady in the room to help us out (and then we scurried out of there).

I would wish I knew the name but it doesn't really matter because they aren't the friendliest of people. It's like they don't expect college students even though they are on a  c o l l e g e   c a m p u s.

SINMEI TEA

Sinmei Tea is a teahouse completely inspired by green tea - as in every drink and pastry has green tea in it in some form. It's in Sheung Wan on Wing Lok street and you have to enter a very business-like building to get to a kind of stuffy but totally awesome tearoom:

Henri and I have been traveling around Hong Kong for the past few days (mostly Henri though, I've been trying to make friends at school, which if you know me in real life, is a real challenge on account of the fact that I make possibly the w o r s t first impression) and a lot of the places we've been to are supposed to be really awesome but are in fact full of white people who don't wear pants and aren't cool, which is not what we were trying to go for.

Luckily Lum was working at a store Henri was shopping at and introduced himself. He's from Hong Kong and is an aspiring singer - I need to find his YouTube channel though. I saw some videos and they have a decent amount of views, plus he told us that after we had left visiting him at work, a young couple started talking to him and told him they were fans!!

Henri ordered plain green matcha tea (in the black cup), Lum got the hot chocolate green tea (which I'm definitely ordering next time) and I got the Chai Chai, which is basically chai-infused green tea. We also ordered this green-tea cake w/green tea ice cream...

Which is a total killer! Would you look at that! I normally only like chocolate desserts, but I have to say that this lava cake may have stolen my chocolate heart (I'm totally kidding. But I'm also now debating if given the choice, would I pick a chocolate or a green tea lava cake right now??).

The happy family!

And finally. Let me say something about the heat. It's forever around 90 degrees and the humidity is insane. So insane that every time I successfully put on jeans I cannot help but feel like the biggest superstar of all. The first two days I wore dresses but just about everyone here ignores the heat and wears whatever - I think it's because everything is air conditioned, and public transport takes you wherever you need to go, minimizing your time walking and allowing you to wear pants.

  

But I had to buy more tops. I need new shoes too. I crave that clunk.

GRADUATION WEEK/END

What is it about graduations that make your emotions go crazy and your self-control disappear?

This is probably one of the most raw, honest photos of the weekend. Sums up every possible emotion - desire, shame, dgaf, cold, uncomfortable, unprepared, unphotogenic, hazy, lazy, hungover...the list could go on. 

But I pulled it together and we took some cool shots. I like the following photo so much that I'm putting it on three social media sites:

This was taken at Cornell's architecture building. Very cool photo, if I may say so myself.

The art museum also surpasses USC's Fischer Museum (or whatever) so when I go back to normal and feeling like myself again, I'll put together a blog post that actually falls under my "creative project" guidelines.

YUMMY: CELAYA

I haven't been here in a while but I decided, since I had just finished my last class of sophomore year, I should go there one more time. So I got the usual - the custardy dessert and the baked (probably fried) elephant ear thing that I finally, successfully, didn't eat all at once.

Then I went to Ralph's, got a good amount of groceries and proceeded to be hit by a girl on a bike and I fell on my back in the middle of the street. Thank god the lights were red. Also - mostly annoyed because half my eggs broke and she diplomatically handed me my fallen avocado and I was this close to chucking it at her back. But I didn't.

Anyway, this is the weirdest part of the year. On my way home from class I went from really happy to really sad to really indifferent to really excited for the future to wanting to stay in bed forever to wanting to call everyone I know and making us all hang out and have the best of times. I didn't, thank god. But it's the calm before the storm - I'll start studying hardcore on Sunday. I'll bike over to Cafe Dulce (hopefully) on Saturday and get a little Japanese bakery love since I just got my Mexican bakery love.

SPEECHLESS

Yesterday, after some homework, Mariel and I went for a little run, showered and headed over to Umamicatessen to get their truffle burger. I'm new at this whole blogging thing, particularly this "lifestyle" blogging, so I brought her camera along to try my hand at photographing my first Umami burger. My sister called it "popping my Umami cherry" when she told Henri what we were up to.

Giddy with anticipation.

I took a total of fifteen photos of our salad but could only take two of the burger before I had to dig in. Photographing food takes some practice + self control, I was not willing to attempt with this juicy, cheesy truffle burger in front of me. I should I have taken a picture when the burger was oozing juices + a little bit of blood (it was perfectly cooked and melted in my mouth).

Too excited to take a normal sipping water photo. 

I want to go back already.