the bongo man (15.52)

and now begins your weekly weekend recap!

friday – i began my ad hoc at home journey! this tale actually begins thursday evening (where i also visited sprouts for the first time and fell in love), but i made buttermilk fried chicken! thursday night i made the brine and woke up at 7 on the dot on friday morning to put the chicken into the brine. once i got home from work, i took the chicken out to let it come back up to room temperature and then LET THE FRYING BEGIN!! i was a little nervous as i have never, ever made this before – much less fried anything, and was very scared i was going to overcook everything. but it turned out really well and i have decided that all fried chicken should be brined before frying. thank you, thomas keller, for the inspiration.

brine ingredients: honey, kosher salt, lemon, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves

cutting the chicken in 10 pieces as directed by TK – first time i had to rip the backbone out of a chicken

time to batter & oil up!
batter ingredients: garlic powder, onion powder, flour, cayenne pepper, kosher salt, pepper
dipping: buttermilk, garlic salt

TA-DA!

after the chicken extravaganza, had some people over and then headed out to whirly ball in plano to celebrate eric’s birthday early. yellow team WINNERS! stopped by filmore pub in “downtown plano” where i suffered from sleepiness and even almost fell asleep walking around. awesome.

saturday – hair cut! chopped my hair off in preparation of the hot weather. my only requirements were to leave enough for me to still tie up (hate exercising with my hair down) and layered bangs. stopped by sprouts for round 2 then headed home where sunny, jana, g and i had an amazing steak grilling, potato roasting, garlic corn experience. i’m telling you. we eat well in the wong/pang household. after a little rest, got ready to go out to zouks for anthony’s goodbye party. oh, insanity.

sunday – was a little groggy this morning, but headed out to meet steph and see her (amazing) new apartment then picked up kat for a surprise brunch at hotel zaza’s sunday school. it might have been a little too early for this kind of party… but definitely appreciated the experience more than the food. just a small celebration for kat’s birthday. HEART.

afterwards, i enjoyed some peace and quiet and then headed to varun’s house to watch the oscars. i love his family – they are super cute… and his mom cooked a DELICIOUS meal for us. yummm – i’m still full :]

15.52: and again, this one is just between me and g :]

bet on cavities

for the first time in six years, i am finally going to visit the dentist. that’s right folks. i’m a little nervous and apprehensive on how many cavities/fillings/replacements/diseases they’ll find in my mouth, but hey, you gotta start somewhere. i also have to fill the gap in my mouth where an adult tooth decided to never show up.

tears.

up above

today is sujal’s birthday. it’s funny how something like this means so much more after someone passes. thanks to facebook and it’s little birthday notices – his name on my right side panel is a reminder of someone who was taken too early and that you can’t take life for granted. this is not meant to be a dramatic/sympathy post, but simply to say live life to the fullest and don’t hold back. <3

slow cookin’ to a tee (14.52)

i think i had a pretty productive weekend. more or less.

friday – hung out at the wong/pang residence playing buzz and just chillin. ate a lot of blueberries, strawberries and pretzels… that’s the kind of junk food you’ll find at our place…

saturday – woke up at around 10:30 am, took a quick trip to kroger to get some ingredients and started to make a recipe from williams-sonoma’s essential of slow cooking book. i decided to start off on one of the simpler recipes – the chicken adobo which is a filipino dish. i took some photos of the process of using our crockpot for the very first time:

slicing two yellow onions – key to the dish

garlic cloves & ginger

trimming chicken thighs of skin & excess fat

additional flavor – white wine vinegar, soy sauce, pepper, salt and sugar

layering ingredients into the crockpot and cooking it for four hours

the finished chicken adobo & my two guinea pigs…

during the four hours that the chicken adobo was cooking, g, z, varun, asif and i decided to try our hand at playing a 9-hole golf course. first time ever doing this and i thought i was going to be terrible. turns out i was average, coming in 3rd out of the five with a score of 46! not bad, i think, for my first time. g was close behind me with a 47. the guys wanted to be cute and take pics with each other… awwwww.

after feeding g and z, we went out to meet up with christine + friends for card games and karaoke. haven’t seen them in SOOO long and it was a blast hanging out with them again.

sunday – took it easy since yesterday was so hectic. picked up around the house, laid outside in the grass with the dogs, watched the social network with g and went out to eat at king’s bbq in arlington with g’s fam.

monday – had the day off for president’s day. drove g to the airport at 5:15 am and happily went back to bed to sleep longer than i usually get to. jess came over to hang out and we went shopping at h-mart and ate lunch there. all in all, enjoyable and relaxing day off.

now, back to the grind. :]

14.52: played an actual course of golf

hey mickey, you’re so fine

officially going to disneyworld/universal studios with g at the end of april.

so. excited.

best. anniversary. ever.

go sap | part 6

i still remember vividly the first time i got dressed up after g and i started dating. we were just going to a house party in west campus and i wore a black top with jeans and heels and wore makeup. nothing too fancy. as i was walking down the sidewalk, g took my hand and pulled me back from the group of people we were walking with. he had a big smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye (i know that’s cheesy, but it’s true) as he twirled me slowly around and simply commented on how nice i looked.

and now, whenever he catches a glimpse of me trying on different outfits in front of our full-length mirror, or i come downstairs dressed up as he waits for me – i still see that same big smile on his face and the twinkle in his eye.

the place at perry’s

i bought a groupon a couple months ago for $30 worth of brunch… so why not schedule it the day before valentine’s for me and the g-man? SURE!

when: 12:30 pm, sunday
wait: none (reservation, although they had lost it…)
customer service: A
food rating: A

i’ve heard good things about this place and was filled with anticipation as i drove uptown. as a sister restaurant to perry’s steakhouse & grill, which we had sampled in austin with my family a couple years ago, i knew that if it was anything like perry’s, it would be good.

situated at the corner of routh and cedar springs, i found parking quite easily along the side of the road. walked up the large steps to the double wooden doors into a darkened lobby/waiting area. took my eyes a second to adjust to the lighting as it was bright inside and was greeted by the hostess. unfortunately, my reservation via opentable wasn’t in there system… even though i had gotten a confirmation email the night before… but we were quickly seated anyways.

the place is super quiet. g and i were definitely the youngest there, although we were seated next to another asian couple who were probably a couple years older than us. everyone else were definitely in their late 40′s/50′s and beyond. i felt a little out of place in the beginning to be honest. the decor is very “old classic” – not really sure how to describe. but there are aged photos hanging on the walls of celebrities who have visited and the deep mahogany of the furniture gives it a rich, classic feel. it was a little funny though that their chairs are all scuffed and when the couple next to us left and the waiter was changing out the linens, the table underneath was terribly scratched and beaten. good thing for tablecloths…

our waitress was very nice and friendly. we started off with some drinks, the orange sun for me (oj, proseco and aparol) and morning nector for g (infused pineapple and prickly pear tequila mixed with oj, agave nectar and a hint of ginger). both were good. i liked mine better because it wasn’t as strong. we were brought an assortment of bread that included a jalapeno/cheese bread and cornbread. loooved the cornbread. delish! then we put our orders in:

the place’s deluxe benedict - by far, the most expensive at $20, but SO WORTH IT. i had originally skipped over the benedict/omelette section since i’ve never been a huge fan of dishes focused around eggs. g however saved me and pointed this particular one out to me and i just had to have it. consisting of two grilled artichoke bottoms each topped with jumbo lump crabmeat and poached egg with crawfish hollandaise… how can you beat that?! when the plate was set in front of me i wanted to curl up and die with happiness. the eggs were perfectly cooked and you can’t go wrong with crabmeat and artichoke. the dish was also served with some sort of starch and i’m still not sure what it was. it was like a purple yam and i even stretched to say it might have been taro. but it was goooood, especially when dipping it into the leftover egg yolk.

chicken & waffles – g couldn’t resist this sweet temptation, and for what you get for $12? yeah, definitely a good deal. a crispy chicken breast served over a fluffy belgian waffle with maple praline syrup – yum. although i only had one bite, it was good and g ate as much as he could (half) before he surrendered and took the rest to go.

carrot cake french toast – this was so intriguing that we had to get it to share. not really sure where the french toast part of this was, but it was very tasty. again, i only had a bite since my benedict filled me, but the cake was moist and the warm icing on top gave it a very comforting feel. this was great as an after-brunch “dessert” for those that like things on the heavier side.

summary – very delicious and i’m itching to go back just to have the deluxe benedict again. it will be hard to tear me away to try other things. by the time we left, the place had livened up a bit, so maybe we went too early. but it’s still a quieter brunch place than normal – so if you’re looking to giggle and gossip with your girlfriends over mimosas after mimosas… would recommend to go somewhere that you won’t feel like a spectacle. like i said – old classic.

chef’s point cafe

introduced to us by david after our brewery adventure at rahr & sons

when: 4:00 pm, saturday
wait: 25 minutes
customer service: A
food rating: A

i’ve never eaten inside a gas station before, but there’s a first time for everything. tucked inside is a little gem of a restaurant – chef’s point cafe – which was started by a nigerian immigrant and his wife. featured on guy fieri’s diners, drive-ins and dives, the couple tells the story on how they wanted to start a restaurant, could not get a loan for one, but COULD get a loan for a gas station. and there is the birth of chef’s point. located out in watuga, tx (ft. worth).

when you walk in, to the right is the typical findings inside a gas station – snacks, beef jerky, beverages… and to the left is a kitchen and around 20 odd tables with chairs. a little sketch? maybe so – if you didn’t know any better. forget about being able to sit if you come in after lunch hour has already started. david, g and i were there at the random hour of 4:00 pm and still had to wait nearly 30 minutes to be seated. it’s simple inside – nothing fancy. the tables feature printed advertisements from local businesses and the waiters are all smiles and friendly.

starving by this time, so right when david, g and i sit down and peruse the menu, we quickly order our food. took around 10 minutes or so, but felt like eternity as i eagerly waited to fill my belly.

appetizer | stuffed artichokes bottoms - stuffed with crab meat and cooked in the chef’s point asiago sauce – this is something i’m going to crave from time to time. simply covered in the asiago sauce in which i was spooning into my mouth after all the artichoke stuffed crab was gone. simply delicious. the stuffing was good and you can taste the crab. i only wish there was more than just three on the plate… and more artichoke!

my entree | grilled salmon – leave it to me to order the only “not-as-good” thing on the menu. the salmon was beautifully grilled, but was relatively tasteless and a tiny bit overcooked. i liked the red potatoes and was expecting more based on the description, but the fresh mixed vegetables (aka squash and zucchini) kind of conquered the plate. all in all, it wasn’t terrible, but i do with it were a little more tasty.

g’s entree | duck – half-roasted and with chef’s point orange sauce, this duck was the perfect blend of sweet and salty. the skin was crispy and delicious – probably my favorite thing about this dish. the flavor was genuine and true to the bird. served with angel hair pasta, the sauce mixed together with the duck and noodles so well.

david’s entree | blackened stuffed chicken - filled with pepper jack cheese and crab meat, this bad boy was sooo good. the chicken was so juicy and covered with the same amazing asiago sauce that was in the artichoke appetizer. not sure what else i can say about it except that it was perfect.

summary – this dive of a place serves genuine, loved and non-pretentious food. it’s comforting, homey, and as you can see from the above pictures, will not short change you on the amount of food given to you for the price. if ever in the fort worth area, this place is definitely on the top of where i would stop by for a bite to eat.

brewin’ in tx (13.52)

we took ourselves out to ft. worth to meet up with david at rahr & son’s brewery downtown. $7 admission (cash only) and you get a rahr & sons pint glass to keep and 4 tickets to redeem for beers of your choice on tap. the 4th ticket was a special one to try their special “snowmaggedon” beer brewed specifically for today. apparently, it was their one year anniversary from having their roof collapse from last year’s ice/snow storm.

really fun – especially since this was the first AMAZING and beautiful weekend outdoors after all the ice and snow. so many people and enjoyable conversation – not to mention getting the quickest buzz ever after drinking their snow beer. haha… yay for light weights.

pic below courtesy of the photographer roaming around for the day, jeff wood:

13.52: visited a texas brewery (and brewery in general!)

go sap | part 5