Food Blips from Texas

A long overdue and unfortunately truncated post, this is a picture recap of some food-related things I pursued during my internship in Texas.

Sundried tomato risotto (Lundberg) with Blue Baker Olive Focaccia,
made for an intern dinner I planned.

Bourbon Bread Pudding from Bell Ranch Steakhouse,
in the Hilton Hotel.  Very very sweet and very large portion.

Pho Bo Tai - rare sliced beef pho - from Rosie's pho. This was so good.
I never realized pho could rival or exceed my mom's homemade pho.

Japan vs US cake made for the Women's FIFA Final game.

Cream cheese frosting....Japan or US. Who would win?....

Hard to celebrate after, since most of my friends were rooting for
America, so they didn't feel like eating cake. Cake was like a cinnamon
muffin texture and flavor.

Failed attempt at beer bread (made it bland this time around), and
surprisingly delectable cornmeal cookies. Easy to snack on.

Like crisper, but still light and airy, corn bread in bite sized pieces,
lightly dusted with powdered sugar.

Secret menu item at McDonalds: Strawberry Pie McFlurry.
Only $1 in Texas. So good! Not overtly sweet like DQ Blizzards.

La Bodega crab enchiladas. Decent. Their tomato sauce is like
a strange pasta sauce.

Fish burrito. Green sauce is okay. Too much creamy topping. Red
sauce also like pasta sauce. Innards do not have enough fish >:(

Potbelly's Berry Smoothie. So many seeds, so you know
it's real fruit. Good taste, good price. So cute with the
cookies on top!

My last baking in Texas. Had to make Texas "chicken in a chive biscuit"
with my Texas cookie cutter. ^_^

That pretty much recaps my food adventures in Texas. Sorry for the lack of recipes of some of the things I made. The result of these recipes I think were only all right, not anything spectacular. I was mostly proud of the presentation for my FIFA cake and my Texas-shaped biscuits. And I had to share the Pie McFlurry with you all. Everyone has to definitely try this at least once. The saltiness of the pie crust complements the sweetness of the filling and the sweet milkiness of the ice cream.

Hope you have enjoyed my (partial) itinerary of Texas!

San Antonio Part 1, July 1-2

Here's that recap I promised about our fun foray into the depths of San Antonio and New Braunfels.

On Friday, July 1, I returned from a trip to HEB and proceeded to pack quickly. L+D were coming in the early evening to whisk me away to spend the night at L's place in San Antonio. I had gone to HEB to gather ingredients to make Mango Chai Bread Pudding (recipe from Eatingwell.com, where I often go to for lighter baking recipes): a fresh loaf of French bread, which never fails to delight the taste buds and warm the stomach without complexity; and dark brown sugar, the color of which is rich and gorgeous. I already had the wonderful box of yellow Ataulfo mangoes that my mom sent me a week ago, and one of the other residents was nice enough to stock the pantry with all the spices, herbs, and seasonings a cook could ask for! I packed away all the stuff to make the bread pudding, stopped by the poolside BBQ, then jumped in the car with my friends for the 3 hour drive to San Antonio.

Along the way, I saw cows and lots of land that looked the same.

Driving by downtown San Antonio

On Saturday, I met L's dad, a pretty nice guy. I really liked how he renovated his apartment. The living room portion of it was painted blue and had a blue bookshelf, and he installed some sills on the wall on which he placed photos and trinkets. After a nice breakfast at McDonalds (I must admit that oatmeal is dang good, with a copious amount of fruit), L and I got dropped off at the Alamo!

The famous Alamo!

You can't take pictures inside the Alamo, and it isn't mind-blowing, but it was better than I expected. My expectations were lowered because my roommate talked about how small it was. Truth be told, it was bigger than I expected. The coolest part with just looking at the names and origins of the people who fought on that fateful day. There were people from various states such as TN, TX, SC, FL; as well as people from Germany and Ireland. There was Davey's Crocket's gun. A man in the courtyard was telling a battle story. The giftshop was packed and had cute trinkets. My favorite was a Christmas stocking shaped liked a Texas cowboy boot.

We then proceeded to the RiverWalk, which is basically the upscale tourist attraction there. A coughdirtycough river, lined by restaurants, one end cupped by a typical shopping mall and hotel. It felt like I was back in Hawaii at a resort again.

Nice fountain-stream before the RiverWalk

One part of the RiverWalk (restaurant seating under umbrellas on right)

I wanted to check out El Mercado, the Mexican Marketplace that supposedly was 15 min away. Heat definitely makes it take much longer. But look what we found along the way! 

Trolleys!

Deer-rabbit?

Torch of Friendship - gift from Mexico to America

After that long, draining, heat-exhausting walk, we made it. The plan was to eat at the famous Mi Tierra Bakery & Cafe, but the wait was 1 1/2 hours! We wandered more, with fatigue and blisters pestering. We ended in the food court where we bought some Mexican food and watched traditional Mexican music and dancing.

See the lucha libre masks on the right?

Cute little dancers

Later, I got the tres leches cake from Mi Tierra. First time trying it! Got a HUGE slice, for $6. Ate nearly all of it and it was super filling and very very tasty. I like, I like.


We went back to the RiverWalk and took the tour boat (~$7-8) through the canals. I'll add the slideshow after I make it. Beautiful and interesting.

(SLIDESHOW TO COME...)

For dinner, some of our group wanted to go to Dick's Last Resort bar restaurant. If you didn't know, this place is known for its bad service. Literally, it is their purpose to give you rude service, throw things at you, and keep a dirty atmosphere. It was amusing at first, but then it just got annoying. It's too loud, other people are wadding paper and throwing it all over the place, the waiters don't give you really what you want, you get bequeathed with ridiculous tall paper hats with random insults. Some ladies were having a bachelorette party, and they were given a huge blow-up cartoon penis, which they paraded around the front with. Great. Classy ladies, real classy. The food was nothing close to good or spectacular. Pass.


Kinda sucky ending, but otherwise a good wandering experience. The return to San Antonio and tubing down New Braunfels tomorrow!

Quick Soccer Check In

I hope everyone had a wonderful July 4th weekend! I know I did. It was quite a tiring but fun adventure. My friends and I drove down to San Antonio and New Braunfels, slept over at cousins' houses, and explored. More on that later. I am quickly giving a check-in on today.

So, I've been trying to keep up with the FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany. It's difficult because the games are on at 7 am, 11 am, or 1 pm daily, but I am often in lab so I cannot watch. I go to the FIFA Women's World Cup page where I catch up on the highlights. Here's a quick run-down on what the matches have been like:

What's crazy is that Japan scored four goals against Mexico. Germany beat France today; if you didn't know, Germany and France have a rivalry rooted deep in their history. For me, I say "Deutschland Vor!!!!!" North Korea has lost all of its games so far. USA won all except against Germany, so I'm a bit torn on who to root for. Tomorrow, we have Equatorial Guinea vs Brazil, Sweden vs USA, North Korea vs Colombia, and Australia vs Norway. US and Germany has been super strong so far. We'll have to see who comes out on top.

What's awesome is that I played a pick-up game of soccer today with some REU interns and their Civil Engineering grad students. It was pretty awesome. We played on the field by ISLB at 7:30 till close to 9ish, when the sun was almost completely set. I have not played soccer since...maybe elementary or middle school. I was super surprised when I found myself running back and forth across the field, trying to steal the ball, blocking, shooting. I somehow managed to keep running and hustling despite never playing before.

Best of all, I got two goals.

Boo-yah.

It was crazy. Many times I was by the other goal, tussling with the other team to try and get the ball in. We were kicking back and forth right in front of the goal for a good minute. Twice I was on the ground in some weird position, kicking in an even weirder position to try and get it in.

My star quality is being the small and swift one. They said I had good positioning, and I really tried to book it to get the ball from others and block. Only thing, small is not good for goalie, haha.

Anyhow, today was the perfect summer day. We played soccer through the sunset, with a good breeze, and some intense players. Ozzi was a little squat, but man does he have bursts of speed. He's a real star player. Him and Berto were awesome. Ozzi was great with his speed and head and passing. Berto was all crazy footwork. He was a real powerhouse. Then there were the two intense girls, Liz and Mara. They kept cheering me on, "Keep on it!" They were real supportive in that sporty way.

This was such an awesome day. I made about 15 hydrogels during the day, made 2 goals in the evening, and am watching "How the States Got their Shapes" on History Channel as I blog (awesome show. Check it out). I will definitely play soccer with everyone again on Thursday.

Updates on July 4th weekend to come up soon too! I've got lots of fun pictures of the Riverwalk and such. Till then, enjoy the night!

Texas Fourth Week Part 2

Thursday June 23
At lunchtime, I went to Joy Luck Delivery Chinese restaurant with S. This place was one of the few Chinese restaurants around College Station with really good reviews. I checked the menu out, and it looked pleasing, with an enticing lunch menu to boot. The place is really cheap too. $5.55 lunch specials? $6.50 seafood and combo meat? Yeah yeah! It comes with soup (egg drop or hot and sour) and a vegetable eggroll.

Egg drop soup - why so yellow?

The egg drop soup tasted so much like eggs, a little TOO much like eggs. It was okay.

I got the Yu shan shrimp, which is some sweet and sour gravy with shrimp, water chestnuts and mushrooms. This was good, a little salty if you ate all the sauce, and there a was a bit too much sauce. Good spiciness. Glad I didn't get the spicier Hunan shrimp. LOVED the eggroll. I must admit, though, I love a good Chinese eggroll, and this place was fried perfectly, crisp. Delicious cabbage and other veggie innards, with a sweet and sour dipping sauce.

Yushan shrimp with vegetable eggroll

This was enough for two meals. Very filling. Yup, those other Yelpers are right; this place is a good eat in College Station.

Afterward, I wandered around and went shopping around World Market. Man, this place has some awesome stuff! Their image is that of the exotic and eclectic from around the world. Check out the randomness below:

They have New Orleans King Cake Mix and Cafe Du Monde Beignet mix too! My two Louisiana friends here told me about these and maybe we'll make these one day!

Spotted dick = British dessert. Such a funny name.

I had so much fun going around World Market, eying things to put in my fantasy house in the future. They even have clearance shelves where I bought a bunch of chocolate and some cute, sturdy paper boxes for pastry and confection giving!

Friday June 24
The next day, I got out early again, and decided to go to the mall. Post Oak Mall is the closest one nearby, and houses JC Penny, Dillard's, Hot Topic, Aeropostale, A&M stores, shoes stores, a legit comic book store, and others. I walked through the entire place and enjoyed the store selection. The food court has Chick'fil'A, Taste of the Tropics (smoothies), Sonic, Toll House Cookies, Japanese, and Chinese. I got a mango smoothie from Taste of the Tropics. It tasted weird at first but it grows on you. Only $1.60 for a small too. Cheaper than McDonald's. The smell of Auntie Anne's pretzels was such a temptation, I forced myself to not buy one.

The Puppy Store only sells cute puppies, like these baby Chihuahas

Antoine Dodson: Bread Intruder Video and song:
http://youtu.be/y54yESyq6Io
http://youtu.be/hMtZfW2z9dw
Tribute to ma' sister!

I ended up buying boots, a raccoon beanie, and a moustache purse from Hot Topic, all on sale. The boots were only $10! Come on; tell me who can buy boots for only $10?


For dinner, we went to Layne's of College Station, a fried chicken finger place. Almost right next door is Raising Cane's chicken fingers, so these two have a rivalry. So, we came, we ate, we left.

What a deal! lol

I really didn't like it.

Maybe fried chicken fingers isn't my thing, but the chicken was dry, the black pepper sauce was weird but you get used to it. I like the thick and wavy shape of the fries, but they're just a little too thick and starchy for me to eat much of it. The Texas toast was yummy with its lathering of butter, but a bit salty. Meh, I don't think I'll come back every. The cole slaw was the one redeeming factor, but not amazing either. A bit much on the mayo.

I think we went dancing again this night. If it was Daisy Duke's or the Social Lounge or Luxe or something, it was really fun.

Texas: Fourth Week Part 1

Monday, June 20, 2011
I already posted it, but I decided to cook this day. I had made the kale bread pudding.

Tuesday June 21, 2011
Thanks to a 365 deal (kind of like Groupon, but specific for College Station), we got tickets to go see a Brazos Bombers Baseball game. The field was 6 minutes away from the apartment. The deal was $5 for a ticket and a Bombers baseball cap. We were pretty excited, so at 6:30, we got together and drove to the baseball park. NH was nice enough to drive some of us there even though he wasn't going.

Our baseballs caps

We got there, got our hats, and went in. We saw the Cookie Monster walking around and took a picture with him. Waiting in the bleachers, we watched as the Bomber mascot strolled around, playing it cool with the kids and adults. It was cute. Some of us bought some baseball food and ate as the game started.

It was quite boring.

Yes, sorry, baseball fans. Baseball is boring. And both teams, the Bombers and the Dallas Copperheads kinda suck. The Copperheads barely got any straight hits. It was a forced excitement whenever some batter actually hit the ball right and when they sometimes got runs in. The only fun part was watching the random prize games in between pitches. They had two little kids race to the some people, rushedly put on adult business clothes, then drag the huge hand luggage case back to the start. The girl won even though the boy tried so hard. Haha. Another game, a dad and his daughter raced with shopping carts, picking up paper bags off the floor and raced back. The dad was winning so he pulled out his cellphone and pretended his wife was calling him, which the announcer joked was his wife yelling at him that he didn't pick up the right groceries. So the dad's little daughter won. So cute.

We started seeing lightning a lot in the distance, so we left early (plus the fact we were all bored) at the 7th inning.

Moral of this story? Baseball's only fun for the mini-games, the tailgate food, and probably only fun if you're drunk, which is why we see all the adults drinking beer and stuff there.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011
EB told us about a comedian she met at Blockbuster. This comedian told EB to check out the comic night at Schotzi's, which the comedian would be at. At ten, they went, and I joined half an hour later. I'm really glad I came later. The first act was the comedian that EB met. This lady was not making good jokes, and because people weren't laughing, she was getting belligerent. At the end of her skit, she forced everyone to laugh before she would get off:

Comedian: "Any one of you guys gonna buy me a drink? No, seriously. I mean it, who's gonna buy me a drink. I've been up here this whole time. Buy me a drink now...I'm not leaving this stage until you all laugh. 1, 2, 3, laugh. Come on. I said LAUGH."
Awkward, forced laughter ensues. Comedian gets off stage...


The ensuing comedians were slightly better, but all really sexual and vulgar. The one Asian guy had some funny ones. A Caucasian, a recent graduate from A&M, had even better ones, and less vulgar. Slightly nerdy. A good long poem about semi-frat domination ("Hey, y'see that girl? Slipped a roofie in her drink...Hope she gets a good night of sleep!")

Otherwise, I didn't really enjoy the comedy night. I would have rather gone to karaoke again. Maybe this Wednesday, and if we can stay up long enough, stay until 2 am to try and win that $50 prize.

Third Week Part 2

Thursday, June 16
Aha, bad memory. All I can remember from this day is what I have from pictures, and that's of dinner. LOL, totally me.

So, at dinnertime, I got some of us to go to Crazy Cajuns, just past the Schlotzsky's. It's a Cajun/Creole place. Lots of space inside, with lots of booths, very down country down college kind of thing. Lady comes up, kinda old, but that kind of active "How may I help ya, honey's?" kind of waitress lady. I like her spunk. Anyhoo, the place serves us the classic N'aw'leans (=New Orleans) kind of food: jambalaya, red beans and rice, boudin (sausage), gumbo, and po'boys.

A bottle of spicy Creole seasoning in a Corona bottle.

Awesome meat selection: crawfish, shrimp, chicken, boudin...and GATOR! I HAD to try this one. So I ordered the kids fried gator platter: fried gator pieces, french fries with some seasoning on it, and 2 hush puppies ($6.99 ish).

Fried Gator Kids Platter

It came with tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, and/or gator sauce. Gator sauce was nasty. I ate it with tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, and ketchup, alternatively. The gator meat was delicious and a wonderful texture. Not too soft like stewed chicken, not too tough like steak, not dry like turkey. Very yummy. The flavor of the batter was good, or it could have been the taste of gator itself. Definitely try you tastbuds at alligator when you get the chance.

My friends got the etoufee, gumbo, red beans and rice, and shrimp basket. The etoufee was wayyy too salty and didn't seem to have a lot of crawfish. You're better off getting the one from Herbert's Cajun. Shacks always serve authenticity and taste better. Gumbo was very liquidy, but I didn't try it.

They serve various po'boys, which I want to go back and try. They also have a 2 foot po'boy challenge. I told the lady she should invite that "Man vs Food" guy to try the challenge. That'd be pretty cool. But, as I said, I want to try a po'boy. My Louisiana friends here tell me a lot about New Orleans. I want to go so bad. We've talked about taking a weekend trip there. It'd be soooo awesome. Sounds like a party all the time!

Friday June 17
No vessels today, cuz the lab technician misplaced his phone and then accidentally drove over it. Haha, baaddd mistake. I started a MatLab program to automate solving for flow, pressure, volume, and radius of a lymphangion with input flow. The lymphangion is modeled as an electric circuit, and these equations are related and used to solve for those parameters previously listed.

Dinnertime, I FINALLY got G to come with us! Usually, the poor kid is held hostage by his work or his professor (who talks incessantly) and he comes back late. So this predicament and failure to receive my messages on time has prevented him from joining us for our nearly daily dinners. But, after three weeks of trying, I finally got him to come to dinner!

Rooftop patio seating. Nice, but humidity not.

Ah-ha. :)

G eating with us! Huggeee chicken strips crushing some fries underneath.

So, we went to the Corner Grill, which has weekday $5 specials. They have fish taco Fridays, so we went. You can see my full review on Yelp.

Grilled tilapia fish tacos with chips and salsa. All so tasty and fresh.

Sum up: fish tacos = amazing when grilled. Fish tasted fresh and juicy, AND you get a whole filet in each taco! Didn't like the tortillas themselves and the green lettuce could have been subbed for something better, but overall very fresh and tasty and filling.

Then, we tried to go to a dance club in Houston. It looked super awesome online, this place called Hush, but it was horrible. No one really dancing; some DJs and rappers on stage doing what my friend called old Louisiana rap and which I totally was not grooving with, a bunch of drunk guys scouting women to grind on...blah. Very disappointed. Wasted $10 on it. Sucky club. Don't ever go.

But the good thing, was that it said "Dressy attire enforced." So we went to Kohl's beforehand and I got myself (in an amazingly quick shopping sprint) these cuuteee shoes:

Mud heels. Only $19!!! Love Kohl's!

Hung out in Houston with Lal's friend. Oh, and I had bought some banana pudding at a pit stop (Waller County BBQ) during the drive. Yum, but very very sweet. 2 am snack plus breakfast the next day. We slept in, and poor Lal had to drive us back in the morning, then she had to drive to Dallas for Father's Day. She's strong, that one!

Saturday, June 18
Today was a home-day. Laundry, chatting, reading. Got a crunchwrap supreme for 99 cents...yum. I guess that's it for that day. We all needed resting from the night before.

Well, that sums up week 3!!!

The Third Week Part 1

Meh, I've been slacking. A whole week left unblogged. To start off, this was a very eventful week, did something nearly every night.

Saturday, June 11
I attended this business seminar entitled something like "Business in a Turbulent Economy." It was sponsored by the Mays Business School here, mostly for A&M alumni, and went from 9-5pm with a happy hour reception afterwards. I attended and wore my business dress. You may be wondering, You are a bioengineer; what are you doing attending a business seminar? No, it was not just for the breakfast and lunch. I wanted to see if I could learn anything about the economy and business from this. I do have hopes of one day opening my own business, be it a bakery, a franchise, or a biotech company.

View from the Universitiy Club, top of Rudder tower

It was pretty good (food was definitely really good, lol). The seminars were interesting and the people were both funny, nice, and talkative. The first speaker sounded like Forrest Gump, no joke. My favorite seminar was this funny one about how many people abuse Powerpoint when giving presentations (click the link). I sat next to this woman who was more excited about playing Angry Birds on her Nook and a woman and man who doodled and constantly whispered and giggled to each other. Haha, I thought it hilarious how these adults were so kiddish at this professional business event.

The whole thing about "Aggies help Aggies" fosters this community atmosphere among these alumni. They were really nice to talk to and told me about resources. At the reception, I chatted with a woman working with IKEA in Dallas, and she told me about a non-profit group there that refits medical devices to be used in third world countries.

The seminar itself was enlightening and allowed me to explore the business world. I definitely enjoyed myself.

Sunday, June 12
Umm, I don't remember much, except that I went to Schlotzsky's again:

The "Original" - pretty yummy

Monday, June 13
Sigh, no vessels again today. So, Tam and I just did more mathematical modeling. I climbed a tree:

Tuesday, June 14
Attended another lunchtime seminar. This time, the REU seminar had a grad student panel, in which we asked about "Life as a Grad Student." Sounds like grad school is the way to go in this troubling economy, and one must be diligent about searching for funding. Not everyone gets funding as a grad student. You really need to constantly look for fellowships and grants.

I can't remember when I did this, but I visited the Cosgriff-Hernandez lab here. Dr CH is a biomedical engineer whose lab focuses on tissue engineering. I asked for a tour of the lab, which one of the grad students politely obliged. It was really cool. They create various hydrogels as grafts for blood vessels if one needs to be removed in surgery. The grad student who gave me the tour showed me her hydrogels and said that they use polymer chemistry synthesis to attach certain integrins to allow for selective binding of cells to the inside of the hydrogel. When the hydrogel is inserted, you do not want all types of cells and biological debris binding to the inside, otherwise it would just clog the vessel and prevent normal function. I got pretty excited and plan to prepare myself for a future in working with stuff like this. I need to take a polymer chemistry synthesis class and continue with my tissue engineering track.

Wednesday, June 15
No vessels yet again, so Tam and I did more mathematical modeling, yay! We met in the afternoon and tried to develop some empirical model of lymphangion response, but we actually spent half the time doing a crossword puzzle. LOL. We finished it though! First one I've ever done!!!

After, we walked to the rec center and I tried some rock climbing. One guy there helped me out a bit by giving me pointers while climbing. I could only do one rock climbing path though. It's tough.

This girl makes it look like she's gliding across the wall.

Nighttime rolls around and we head over to Ash's cousin's place. We play rock band, which is a good return for me after two years. Fun stuff. And then Lin let me borrow "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Mastermind." I watched "How to Train Your Dragon" that night. Sooooo good! I am seriously buying this movie when I return home. The way they made the dragon act and move is very true to animal behavior: the sliding scale between curiosity, love, fear, and defensiveness. The animation was great, and the story was superb. It was not a strained, heavily milked story-line, and neither were the jokes. It did not try to make too much humor, but had a decent amount to aid the story along. The main characters are likeable, although the annoying teen side-characters are the only "strain" on the movie. Definitely a recommend if you haven't seen it yet.