Paw Pals: Mon Chien

Look at my cute Tino! I put the beret on his head and my cousin quickly snapped his picture. I'm guessing he doesn't like it.

Restaurant: Little Island Grill

6383 Westheimer Rd.
Houston, TX 77057

Been quite busy lately. It was about four or five years ago that I went to Maui and had this super awesome amazing terrific terriyaki chicken burger. It was one of the best chicken burgers that I've ever had. I still think about it to this day. Since then, I always want to go to Hawaiian places to get my fix, but there's really no place in Houston that is even close to rivaling what I sampled in Maui. I've been to about three different places in Houston: Aloha Hawaiian BBQ in Katy, Aloha Grill on Westheimer outside the Beltway and Little Island Grill on Westheimer inside the Beltway. All were just okay. Nothing off the charts. Big poppa picked me up for lunch one day and we went to Little Island Grill to try it out. The food wasn't bad but it wasn't great. The macaroni salad was really creamy. Too much mayo maybe? In my book, there's no such thing as too much mayo but in this case, it was true. It wasn't THAT much but considering how it's supposed to taste like, it's too much. I made the mistake of ordering a chicken katsu sandwich. Don't order it. It's not that good. When I ordered my chicken katsu sandwich, the girl asked if I wanted white bread or wheat bread. Without an ounce of guilt, I told her I wanted white. She stopped writing and looked at me and was like, WHITE? Yes, white. I asked her if most people order wheat and she was like, yeah. Gee, thanks for making me feel bad that I prefer processed bread over wheat. But who am I kidding? I'm eating a battered chicken sandwich. It's not like wheat bread is gonna cancel that out. But I guess it would have better than nothing. Oh well. I thot that was weird of her to say that. I should have just stuck to a meat combo plate.Those are usually good. Big poppa had their grilled short ribs and some yakisoba. He felt they were both just ok. Neither of us were OMGawd so gut! I think I would go back if I were ever really feeling like some Hawaiianish food. I dunno. I keep trying to figure out if Aloha Grill was better. The one in Katy might be the best one. I'll have have to remind myself to stop by that one again whenever I'm in that area.

Musik Mundi: Duet

Duets. That's what we need more of. To have two independently successful and talented artists come together and make such purty music together. Take for example Jason Mraz and Colbie Callait and their song Lucky. The song itself is ok, but cos the both of them are such good singers, it makes the song that much better. I wish there were more collaborations like this. I'm gonna end it abruptly cos sleep is a creep (-ing).

*photo courtesy of amazon.com*


Jason Mraz feat. Colbie Callait
Album: We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things (2008)
Song: Lucky

Restaurant: Jasmine's

9938 Bellaire Blvd
Houston, Texas 77036

Jasmine's is owned by the same people behind the most popular seven course beef restaurant in Houston, Saigon Pagolac. Since it's almost always crowded at the original spot, my family and I normally head on over to Jasmine's whenever we're craving DIY spring rolls. So good! The seven course beef comes with, well, seven different types of beef. The first beef course is thinly sliced raw beef that you cook at the table in a vinegar based broth fondue style. The next five sets of beef is this one huge giganto meat ball, some smaller meatballs, beef rolled in lotus leaf, lemongrass beef and sausage style beef with green onion. The last is an ABC soup with bits of ground beef in a pho-like broth. Big poppa LOVES that soup. All of beef in those courses, except for the last one, is used to make your own spring roll. You are provided with rice papers, a bowl of hot water where you can give your rice paper a quick dip, vegetable and fruit fixings (green leaf lettuce, cucumbers, mint, cilantro, pineapple, pickled carrots) and then you get either fish sauce or anchovy sauce to dip your very own spring roll in. YUMS. I'm getting so hungry just thinking about it. Besides the seven course beef, you can order different types of meat to grill at the table and then proceed to once again, make your own spring roll. I always order chicken. It's not on the menu but they normally are able to prepare some for me when I ask. My mom and dad always get the cooked catfish. We normally go with a big group so my mom will order the jumbo size catfish. And every single time she orders it, she'll tell the waiter in Vietnamese: It better be a jumbo catfish, don't bring out a medium and tell me it's jumbo, ya hear?!? Haha. Gotta love my ma. I don't eat fish, but man does it look GOOD. It's grilled and topped with loads of green onion, peanuts and some fried stuff. Heaven! But I don't like fish. Other reasons why I prefer coming to Jasmine's rather than Saigon Pagolac is sometimes, you just need a huge table so that you can fit everything comfortably and Jasmine's has a lot more ten tops avail. And lastly, the owner/manager guy at Saigon Pagolac is the biggest jerk evar! He always seems pissed and has been an arse hole to me and big poppa on numerous occasions. But you know what? It's one of those things that you gotta just get over cos they got some good arse food and they know it! There's no competition anywhere else! Fotos are lacking cos once I started eating, I had fish sauce up to my elbows.

The egg rolls used to be a lot better, but they're still not that bad.

The catfish. I like the cherry eyes. So wrong. Some of the seven course beef in front of the catfish.

Trippin': Vancouver - Blenz

I'm not going to write the include the address to Blenz cos in Vancouver, it's EVERYWHERE! There are a few Starbuck's also but mos def not in the same numbers as Blenz. I think I even remember seeing two in just a couple of blocks. There's no question that I'm a coffee devotee. I only limit myself when I know there won't be a restroom proximately avail like up on a mountain. I betcha big poppa will prolly roll his eyes when he reads my last sentence cos he thinks that I talk about snowboarding just a little too much. Our hotel in Vancouver had a Blenz right around the corner and we went there one morning to get a cuppa. Coffee is ok. Nothing spectacular. The decor is nice as well as the workers. I think the best coffee I had was at the Starbuck's in Vail. Our barista was a guy. And I don't know if this means anything at all but he only made these cute little coffee designs in the coffee that belonged to big poppa and his guy cousin. Mochi and I only got regular, boring coffee with no cute design. Pooey! So you tell ME if that meant anything. Not that there's anything wrong with it. Haha. I love Seinfeld.

The cute coffee designs made only for the guys.

Cheerio!

Placenter: Chez Beignet

10623 Bellaire Blvd
Houston, TX 77072

When the cousin from Cali and now ATL came to visit, I took her to Chez Beignet for dessert after we stuffed ourselves with some Kim Son dim sum. While there, I was able to confirm what I think I've always known. I do not like beignets. And I do not like anything similar to the family of beignets such as funnel cake either. Actually, I do like donuts. But even so, I don't normally eat them that much unless it's from Krispy Kreme. I'm still deeply saddened by the fact that all the Houston area locations closed down. It was very depressing. I still remember the first time I ever had one. It was in high school and a bunch of us girls went over to Monkhi's house to rehearse for this dance performance and she had a box of those mucho delish donuts and me and this other girl stood there and gobbled up like four each. It's one of those things where you forget that you're supposed to leave some for the others. Gone are the days where I can stuff my face with whatever I wanted and not gain any weight. Ugh. These days, I simply drive by a donut place and I feel fatter. SOCK MONKEY forreals! But back to beignets. To reiterate. I don't like 'em. And I HATE powdered sugar. It's all super bizarre cos I normally love anything fried and I love sugar. I was a good sport though and had myself a beignet but I brushed off as much of that powdered sugar as I could. Although, big poppa and I did have fun putting on powdered sugar lipstick. The beignets don't come cheap. They're about a dollar a piece but that will get you a fairly decent size beignet. Maybe like 4in X 5in or a bit smaller? If you order a dozen, it costs less per each. We also ordered their VN iced coffee. Grossness! It tasted watered down and diluted. Lee's will always have the best VN coffee. The place itself already looks like it's been there for awhile. It has that VN cafe feel to it and there are cheesy posters everywhere of dated VN singers. Right when you open the doors, you're slapped in the face with that dough-nutty smell. I'm still not quite sure of the ethnicity of the proprietors. I assumed they were VN but the lady at the counter was of some sort of Euro descent. There have been rumors circulating that the owners here are equivalent to the soup nazi. The beignet nazi. And by the looks that she was giving me as I took a few dozen fotos of her, she didn't seem to happy with me. She looked fierce. But she was not smiling with her eyes. Tyra would not be pleased.

Hi beignet lady! How big are your beignets?

They're this big!

Mean sign. If you can't read it, this is what it says: "You are welcome to bring your own food and drink to this place. However, a $3.00 fee will be collected for any of those items when consumed at our place without our permission."

The beignet.

The beignet already comes with a thin layer of powdered sugar. If it's not enough, they provide containers of powdered sugar so you can however much more that you want. There's also a squeeze bottle of honey that people can pour over their beignet. You know, even I have limits. Powdered sugar and honey? Geezus!