Placenter: Inversion Coffee House

Give me a laptop, a working outlet and a coffee house and I'm good for the whole day. I repeatedly speak of coffee place time cos I rarely get to do it. Finally, one Sunday, big poppa and I decided to go to Inversion Coffee House in the Montrose area to work on independent personal projects. I had an iced English toffee latte and big poppa most likely had a vanilla latte. Both were okay. Not over the moon yums. As soon as I get settled in at a table with coffee and all, I get a text from a friend. I told her where I was. Turns out, her and hubby had just finished brunch and were in the neighborhood. Ten minutes later, they're sitting with us and for the next two hours, we're all chitting and chatting away. I'm sure the people hunched over their laptops who were doing actual work were probably a bit annoyed with us. With the internet being super sloooooow and our friends stopping by, big poppa and I basically got nothing accomplished. Oh well. As for the Inversion, it's a bit small but I love how the decor is heavily influenced by art.

Trippin': San Antonio - Mad Dog's

On the third night in SA, mascara planned on meeting with a few of her old classmates at Mad Dog's and we decided to join them. Mascara brought My-Linh along so that the classmates could meet her bebe. Once we all sat down, we realized that Mad Dog's was more of a pub/bar than a regular ole restaurant and people were smoking everywhere. So My-Linh stayed long enough for a brief meet and greet and a quick dinner of some kind of starchy baby food before retiring for the rest of the evening with g-ma. Big poppa and I were the first to arrive and as we sat around and checked out the decor, we were confused as to what type of bar/pub this was. It was British yet there were kilts everywhere. My knowledge of geography isn't the best and there are prolly people who already know what I'm getting at. I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one who gets this mixed up. So here's a quick lesson for clarity purposes. The United Kingdom and Great Britain are technically the same and the correct way to state it is The United Kingdom OF Great Britain. The UK of GB consists of Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland. These countries each have their own flag as well as one flag that represents all four countries. I guess my confusion was that I some how have always assumed that England was the UK and was the GB not thinking that okay, England is simply a part of the UK of GB. So someone who claims to be British doesn't automatically mean they're from England but rather any of those four countries. In the Olympics, did you know that the four countries do not compete as separate countries but as a unit? I think Scotland is looking to change that so they can compete independently from the UK of GB. The UK of GB's flag is the one that everyone recognizes. I would never have known that England's flag looked the way it does.

UK of GB:


England:


Now I understand the concept of Mad Dog's being a British pub and that's why there's a little bit of everything from the four countries. I feel so dumb yet so enlightened right now. Haha. The pub had Scotch eggs on the menu and I really wanted to try it. It's basically an egg wrapped in ground pork, coated in bread crumbs, deep fried and served with a side of honey mustard dressing. A contestant from Top Chef made a variation of it during a quick fire challenge. So yum! It tasted like sausage and eggs. I normally don't like any type of mustard but the honey mustard dressing here was really good. The rest of the food everyone ordered was pretty run of the mill Chili's type of fare. Not much food fotos but I took a whole lotta fotos of the adorable little chubs.

Gastron Om Nom: Bun Thit Nuong

I love to eat anything that requires the addition of nuoc mam. Or in big poppa's dialect, luoc lam. So bun thit nuong is something I like to make. It's relatively easy since the only thing I'm actually cooking up is the thit nuong. As with most of my meats, each time I make thit nuong, it's almost always very different from the last time I made it. I think my nuoc mam always tastes different too. But man, you should see the obscene amount of garlic that I put in there. I love nuoc mam so much that I usually will have a huge jar of it in my fridge cos I always add it to my rice. The fotos of the thit nuong looks a bit charred, or burnt I guess if you want to get technical. What can I say. I mos def have a culinary magic touch. Haha. Viva la nuoc mam!

Musik Mundi: Jay-Z

I love when an artist does a cover justice. I've been a little behind on my song acquisitions and I always hope that Jay-Z's Young Forever comes on the radio during my commute to and from work. Now that I think about it, my chances are quite slim since I mostly listen to The Buzz. Big poppa and I aren't experts on 80's music and thot that the chorus was sung by the lead vocals person from Alphaville, whose song is being covered. I remember telling big poppa, man, that's respect. I take it back cos the person singing the chorus is some guy that calls himself Mr. Hudson who is some music personality from the UK.

*photo courtesy of amazon.com*


Jay-Z
Album: The Blueprint 3 (2009)
Song: Young Forever