Wedding: Nealy & Francis

01.16.2010

Cambodian Tea Ceremony - Bride's Home
Chinese Tea Ceremony - Groom's Home

Cambodian New Life Church
2922 Washington Dr.
Houston, Tx 77038

Fung's Kitchen
7320 Southwest Freeway
Houston, TX 77074

If you can't tell by the list above, this was one loooong day. The Cambodian tea ceremony was really fun to watch. It was truly a learning experience in the traditions that are involved in a Cambodian wedding ceremony. The bride and groom had strings tied to their wrists by the older folks and then had water dusted onto their heads using a carnation. They were kneeling down the whole time with the both of them holding onto a dagger. Unfortunately, I can't remember what everything symbolized. Afterwards, they took some awkward fotos that involved posing and feeding each other a banana. In bed. It was all very Anna And The King. Then it was on to the groom's house for the Chinese tea ceremony, where you pour tea for the elders and in return, they give you well wishes and some cold hard CASH! Gotta love that custom! The church had recently been renovated and they were the first to couple to be married there. My pictures aren't so great though cos of all that fluorescent lighting. I don't know my camera that well and am too lazy to constantly change the settings, even though there's like a white balance setting specifically for fluorescent lighting conditions. The day ended with a reception at Fung's Kitchen. Let me just say that the food here is a lot more expensive than Kim Son and it is no where as good. I know some people love the food there, even the dim sum, but bleh, I don't like it at all. All in all, I can't wait to visit the newly married couple in Seattle. I heard they live only about an hour away from a mountain. Haha!

Gastron Om Nom: Pho Ga

A couple of weeks ago, I made pho ga! It wasn't great but good enough for my first try. Big poppa liked it but that's not really saying much about my cooking. He really likes soup and so I slaved away in the kitchen cos it is my duty to do as he wishes once every couple of months. Hah! It took me about two, maybe three hours to completion. I did the whole parboiling with the bones and even used star anise. That was a first time ingredient for me. I however did not buy a whole chicken cos there's no way I want to de-bone a whole chicken. There were a lot of things that I could improve on for next time. Soak or quick boil the red onions. Skim frequently. Remove as much fat from chicken as possible. Either use less chicken or buy a bigger pot. Contain all the spices in a cheesecloth. Ugh. Man. So much work.

Musik Mundi: Schuyler Fisk

On a car ride to dinner one evening, Wonder Woman let me in on her musical flavor of the moment. Schuyler Fisk. Pronounced SKY-ler. We're both really into slow-music-played-on-guitar-by-some-girl. She told me that Schuyler actually played the role of Kristy in the Babysitters club movie. I used to love reading that series and I even watched the movie. After talking to her, I hankering for a little re-watch of the movie. Haha. Another interesting fact that I picked up whilst looking up her info, she's the daughter of Academy Award winner Sissy Spacek!

*photo courtesy of amazon.com*


Schuyler Fisk
Album: The Good Stuff (2009)
Song: From Where I'm Standing

Event: Superbowl 2010

Every year, two weeks before superbowl, big poppa gets into this state of longing. For crawfish. There are tantrums involved and he definitely knows how to get his cranky on. He begs anyone and everyone to have a crawfish boil and luckily, there's always someone who takes it on since everyone else seemed to want crawfish just as much. So this year, we were invited to a crawfish boil at a friend's house and big poppa was just so excited about being able to eat his first crawfish of the season. Then came the day of and he gets a call with some bad news. There were no live crawfish to be found anywhere. We have folks that usually go down to Kemah to pick up crawfish and even they didn't have any. Something about the cold weather and New Orleans keeping all the crawfish to themselves. And with good reason I suppose. The guy who hosted the shin dig is a single guy and his house screams bachelor pad. He's got four flat screens showing the game, a slot machine and one of those touch screen game machines. But at the same time, he was a better host than some girls and he a LOT of food. That's really all I care about. Half the people in attendance were for the Saints with the other half going for the Colts. I ... really didn't care. There were chicken wings and ribs to be had. Somewhere after half-time, J. Hardy, who's this big beefy guy decided that he was gonna make funnel cake for everyone. And he actually came prepared with all the ingredients! He had the powdered sugar, whip cream, caramel sauce, strawberry sauce and chocolate sauce. I'm not a funnel cake person but even I wanted one. With no powdered sugar cos I don't like powdered sugar. When it was clear that the Saints would be winning, the host presented everyone a Saints cookie cake. I of course got myself a piece cos I had been eyeing it for awhile. At the end of the night, there was this girl who had been rooting for the Colts and she had drawn all over her shoes anti-Saints and pro-Colts stuff. I guess a bet had been made and they made her live up to her word by throwing her shoes into the mini fire pit they had going outside. Poor girl. Anyways. Why does superbowl have to be on a Sunday?