Steph decided that she wanted to do one of her Japanese candies. So we looked at the ones she had left and decided on a little bento box that she had done before. They were all very tasty.
We went to a burrito place for dinner with Brian and some of his friends. We knew a few of them, but didn’t know most. The place was on the same block as La Victoria, so we stopped by and got 6 things of orange sauce. The Iguana place had it’s own orange sauce which had a lot more flavor and spice, but wasn’t as creamy. We didn’t like it as much since it overpowered everything else, and we were happy that we got so much of the La Vic orange sauce.
I biked over to Nima and Caryn’s place and met Steph there for dinner. Caryn had cooked a really amazing spinach stew, and it was very hearty considering it was vegetarian. She also served some cheese and bread, with the cheese being a really good sour feta. They also gave us some really amazing tea and ice cream after dinner. Nima showed us his new toy, a quadracopter. Steph and I were able to do some basic control with it, but Nima had gotten very practiced and was able to show us an inversion trick.
This morning I got up very early to meet up with a professional acquaintance. We talked for a few hours, and then I went over to Stephs and we headed to the farmer’s market on Cal. Ave. We got stuff to make Tom Yom for her parents this evening.
It is rare that I see the sunrise.
For anyone who wants to know the recipe it is here, below (1 person’s worth):
- Put 1 cup water and 1 cup broth into a pot and start it to boil. This could also be done as 1.75 cups water and 0.25 cups stock. This is done to taste and more broth/stock can be added later, but some should be added here for flavoring the other ingredients.
- If adding potatoes chop the potatoes and add them to the pot.
- Chop 1 stalk of lemongrass, only taking the bottom 1/3 of the stalk. Cut into pieces that maximize surface area, while still able to be kept in a cheesecloth bag.
- Chop 1 egg size piece of ginger like the lemon grass.
- Tear 3 sets of kaffir lime leaves from their stems
- Smash Thai chilis (or other chili peppers) for spiciness. For normal spiciness use 3 Thai chilis. Smash by putting them under the flat of a knife and pressing hard on the other side, until the chili splits.
- Put chilis, ginger, lemongrass, and kaffir lime leaves in a cheesecloth bag, then add them to the pot. These can be added before the pot comes to a boil.
- Chop 1 tomato into smaller than bit sized pieces.
- Chop 1/2 onion into nickle sized pieces.
- Chop meaty things:
- The meaty things that we found to work are mushrooms of any type, tofu, chicken, shrimp, full garlic cloves, and potatoes (added earlier for longer cooking – Step 2)
- The things we found to not work are sweet things like carrots and sweet potato
- When you can smell the spices in the steam add the meaty things plus tomato and onion, and squeeze in 1 lime.
- Allow the contents to return to boil for 3 to 5 minutes. Make sure the potato is fully cooked through. The only thing to really worry about overcooking here is the mushroom, the rest will tend to get better the longer it is cooked.
- Remove from heat
- Add 1 tablespoon of fish sauce
- Add 1 tablespoon of sugar
- Add 1 tablespoon of chili paste
- Stir and add more of the items in 14-16 to taste, plus more stock/broth if desired
- Add chopped spring onion and coriander/cilantro leaves right before serving.
Steph, Jeremy, and I went to Zeni for some tasty Ethiopian food. It was very good and we got the three things that we’d found most tasty in the several times that we’ve been there: Foule, Gomen Kitfo, and Yemizir Wat. We managed to finish off the entire dish, which is the first time we’ve done that since I’ve been going there. This is usually because we don’t start on the bottom bread until the toppings are nearly finished, but this time I started digging into the bottom as soon as it was possible, and we didn’t get any refills on the bread rolls. I was getting a caffeine headache, and they didn’t have any caffeinated beverages, since their fountain drink machine was broken.
Nick invited Steph and I out to Koi Palace for dinner on New Years. We got the Peking duck and it was very tasty. There were two other preparations of duck, but they weren’t nearly as good. Steph got some tofu and noodle dishes and I really liked those as well. There were also some soup dumplings as the highlight of the meal. We ate with some Boxers and former Boxers (people who work at Box). They were all nice and fun to be around.
For Dad’s birthday we went out to dinner at Goin’ Coastal. It had a very California feeling to it, but many of the places close to Piedmont Park have that feeling. The food was pretty good, but I realized while looking at the menu; I’m not really a fan of seafood. The thing I like most about seafood restaurants is that they usually have really tasty rolls.
Nick, Kim, and I drove up to Jekyl Brewery in Alpharetta to meet up with Chris and Chelsea. We had some beer at the brewery and had a good tour of it. They had a large Jenga set made of 2×4’s set up. We got it on some really precarious base, and Nick ended up knocking it over.
After that we went to the closeby La Parilla for dinner. During dinner I got a call from Steph about Leopold missing since the plumber came into the apartment. She ended up finding Leopold, but he was really upset by the incident.
Jeff and Leslie came over around 11:15 Christmas morning and we started opening presents. There were lots of great presents to go around, and I got some really nice ones. Jeff game me a really nice messenger bag that has a battery in it for charging devices. I got lots of the things I had asked for as well. Kim got me a really nice fedora. Mom and dad got me some books, socks, gloves, shoes, and other useful things. We had a big dinner and the food was delicious. Like any good holiday dinner there was way too much food and a good bit of leftovers for eating over the following days. We played some Cards Against Humanity, since I had gotten the rest of the set for Jeff. As expected Dad really liked the game, and Mom was appalled at some of the answers. Mom still liked it more than expected. After that, Jeff and Leslie left. I then got my parents and Kim to play some of the games I had made. They had some good feedback.
It's an Exciting World 