Monday, April 26, 2010

Musik Mundi: Joshua Radin

Joshua Radin's musik can sometimes get really slow and really boring but there are some songs that I don't mind listening to from time to time. He has a slew of tracks on his Simple Times album that feature some of my favo female artists. Meiko! Erin McCarley! I'm actually not too familiar with Patty Griffin but I wanted to keep the theme going. Cool random fact: Radin was asked by Ellen DeGeneres to perform one of his songs at her wedding.

*photo courtesy of amazon.com*


Joshua Radin
Album: Simple Times (2008)
Song: Sky (feat. Meiko)
Song: They Bring Me To You (feat. Erin McCarley)
Song: You Got Growin Up To Do (Patty Griffin)


Thursday, April 22, 2010

Gastron Om Nom

I have sorta perfected my very own version of both the rau muong xao toi (Vietnamese hollow stem spinach with minced garlic) and the dot dau hoa lan xoi toi (snow pea leaves with minced garlic). I also add some diced onions along with it cos big poppa and I worship garlic and onion as a power duo. It's a lot of work for such a simple looking dish with the blanching and then stir frying. Anyways, if big poppa go grocery shopping at the asian stores on the weekends, it's a sure bet that I'll be making either one of these for dinner during the week. The one in the foto is the rau muong. Disregard the meat next to it. It was just some ground pork with Chinese sausage. It's my Sandra Lee semi-homemade style of cooking. Haha. I come home so tired that I just want to really concentrate on making one time consuming item and the rest needs to be snap snap snap. Anyways. I'm the most airhead klutz in the kitchen. I just really don't belong in there but I like trying to think that I'm on Top Chef. I ended up using the rest of the meat to make fried rice two days later.


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Restaurant: Cyclone Anaya

309 Gray Street
Houston, TX 77002

Happy earth day everyone! I pretty much have not done anything to help our earth. I mean the least I could have done was to not drink my coffee from a styrofoam cup. But I did. At least I can say that I always recycle all of my water bottles and paper on a regular basis. This is part two of my brunch meet up. We were seated pretty much right away when we got back to Cyclone Anaya. The wait time had been an hour but luckily we killed it by snacking on the free chips over at El Patio. The wait at Cyclone Anaya is just plain ridic. With all these new restaurants opening up all over Houston, it's hard to imagine that every place still has such a long wait. The food here is pretty darn good. The sangria I had was just OK. But you know, in the end, it's all about good company. But seriously, it would not kill them to increase the lighting in here. It's too dark at Cyclone Anaya. It's too loud at El Patio. Geez. I'm turning into an old grouchy lady. Hah!


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Chile con queso. Average. Escalante's white queso will always rank supreme!

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Seafood Ceviche: Lime and herb cured seafood served with avocado and plantains. Fabulous thought it was good.

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Jacques ordered the Pollo a la Parrilla: Marinated charbroiled chicken breast topped with diced avocado and tomatoes, smothered with white Mexican cheese and served with Mexican rice, beans and sour cream. Gilles ordered the Pollo Valencia: A mouth watering charbroiled marinated chicken breast topped with mushrooms and onions, sautéed in garlic butter and melted Mexican cheese served with avocado, tomato slices, Mexican rice and beans. At least I think that's what they ordered. Anyways. They really like whatever they had.

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Big poppa and Rice Boy both ordered the Fish Tacos: Two soft flour tortillas filled with grilled fish, topped with pico de gallo and chunks of avocado. Served with cilantro lime vinaigrette, Mexican rice and black bean soup. They both really liked it. Yeah. That's all the food commentary you get from me. Haha.

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Monday, April 19, 2010

Musik Mundi: Ladytron

Ladytron is an English electro-pop band with a fun Blondie's vibe. There are a lot of times on Dancing With The Stars where the couples do this technical ballroom style dance to a song that just doesn't complement it. And as weird as it may be, I listen to this song and want to do this fierce tango, a la Mel B and Maksim.

*photo courtesy of amazon.com*


Ladytron
Album: Velocifero (2008)
Song: Ghosts