TX 6/4-6/6

Day 4: Saturday, June 4, 2011
After a fun Friday night, most of us slept in. I got up around 10:30 and wandered around. I walked past Schlotzsky's to the Traditions bookstore and Hurricane Harry's, exploring the options of stores and restaurants. Schlotzsky's is a fast food restaurant dishing up (healthy?) sandwiches and pizza. Their bread is a perfect squat cylinder, which they like to call "Bunz." I thought that was cute, plus the pumpernickel is dark brown to close to black. Interesting when you make a sandwich. I walked back to the apartment (oh my god, it's sooo hot!) and did some reading. When I migrated to read by the pool, it was just too warm and I ended up dozing off on my bag instead. Dan came out and we chatted for a bit. It's always a fun conversation with Dan. He said he went to Schlotzsky's twice now since coming here and that it was amazing, so later for dinner we gathered everyone to go there for dinner. All day Saturday and Sunday their 8" pizzas are only $2.99! Such a good price. I got the chipotle chicken pizza, which came with a generous dallop of guacamole on top. Spread that green sucka across the whole pizza. Damn, this is one tasty pizza, but I could do with a little less guac and 2-3 pieces less chicken to let the cheese and veggies shine a little more.

After we walked by Crazy Cajuns and just chatted outside there, randomly, haha. I think we went back to the apartment after that and wandered/talked.

Day 5: Sunday, June 5, 2011
What did I do this day? Oh yeah, I went to Evans library and blogged yesterday's post. After that, I went to Taco Bell and McDonalds and it started thunderstorming! Crazy! I can't believe how heavy it rains. Gigantic plops of raindrops. Strangest thing is that it's very warm as it's raining. Eventually came back to the apartment, and did an hour run. Wow, did I sweat. I usually don't sweat that much, but I think it's the long run I did plus the heat of Texas. I met up with the others at Dixie Chicken later, after they'd eaten, then we wandered all the way to Kyle Field and the Rec Center. Both of those are HUGEEEE. Lots of fun shenanigans along the way and back. Found some toads hopping around. Fun Sunday.
Day 6: Monday, June 6, 2011
Finally started working on my project. Went with Tam and we got our assignment from Dr Quick. We went to the lab and started coding in LabVIEW. Stayed there until 7 pm trying to get the thing to run right. It started pouring and flashing lightning, even more than yesterday. We both were super hungry but it was raining so much so we couldn't really leave. Tam eventually just biked home (good thing it's warm rain) and came back with his car. He took us to this Mongolian BBQ place and we ate there. Pretty good (I mixed scallops, fish, lots of veggies and their Kanzhu sauce with udon noodles), but kinda pricy. Didn't even get any leftovers for total of $12+tip. After we both got a pint of Haagen Daz chai tea ice cream. Came home and ate that. Wowwww, sooo good! Still kinda sweet, but good flavor! I swam for 30 min in the pool at midnight. Really nice and warm. Yay Texas warmth.

TX First Weekend

Here are more pictures from our tour around campus on June 1st (slideshow opens in new window)

Slideshow design generated with Smilebox

 Day 2: June 2nd
"S" and I leave at 8:30 am to walk down University to the Veterinary buildings across the railroad. It only takes 10 minutes to walk there, so we hang around for a bit. We take a look at the Critical Care Cafe and look at the decorations. All along the walls are paintings and photos of animals - dogs, cats, cows, horses, etc. This is a very elaborate veterinary school. We come back to Dr. Quick's office and wait. He comes some time after 9 am since he had to drop off his kid at school. As he's quite the talker, and passionate too, he tells us more about the two projects: pulsatile lymph flow and bat blood vessel reconstruction. Total, he probably talked 3 and a half hours. He gets excited about what he talks about, and he really knows what he's explaining. Plus, he tells it in a way that is understandable, and even writes things on the board so we understand. The most exciting thing for me was seeing my two BioE classes from last semester and a couple other classes prior integrating into the projects described. Transport phenomenon and cardiovascular physiology! I actually understand this! This is why I got pretty interested in the lymph flow project, although the other project sounded interesting to work with the bats (which are trained to sleep with their wing open in a lego-constructed box!!!)

After finally being saved by our GSI Tam, who mentioned lunch to Dr. Quick, we escaped around 1 pm. Tam was really nice and he drove us to HEB supermarket so we could buy food. I lingered as I usually do at the grocery and felt bad to get so much, but I'm glad I did now. Yay snacks and sandwich materials. Dude, HEB has the awesomest coupons. Buy one get this free.

I did some reading about the lymph project and then looked at the NSF grant for the bat blood vessel one, but I still felt drawn to the lymph one.

Eventually, we all went to dinner at Antonio's Pizza by the Slice. Dannggg, HUGE slices of pizza and of many different varieties. I got the black bean avocado one; pizza crust with black beans replacing marinara sauce, crumbled cheese, avocado, and some other vegetable. The black beans kinda sucked out the flavor, so I dumbed all the pizza condiments on it and stole S's red oions to give it more flavor. Afterward, I was very full. We went back the apartment after that, hung out, talked, went to the pool, wandered. Good day.

Back to front: Sausage/pepperoni, ranch chicken, black bean avocado

Day 3: June 3rd
S and I went in the morning to meet up with Dr Quick again. After a little more talking and explanation, I decided on the lymph one and S decided on the bat blood vessel one. We got a bunch of articles to read to prime us on it and then we left around noon. I dragged S along with me to the Chef Tai Gourmet Truck to get Asian-fusion. We both got 2 tacos, one Korean BBQ beef and one caramelized brussel sprouts and tofu. The two stuffed tacos morphed into four normal sized tacos for me.

 Caramelized brussel sprouts and tofu (L) and Korean BBQ beef (R)

 The Chef Tai Mobile Bistro

Me and my box of tacos

The Korean beef taco was very flavorful and delivious. The tofu one was a little lacking in flavor but nonetheless good. We ate the tacos in the McDonalds. McDonalds here is HUGE and very nice. They have an extension with lots of chairs, tables, benches, couches to study and eat on! And it's clean here. AND, best of all, it's SUPER CHEAP! The ice cream is only 50 cents, sundaes $1. Sooo good.

After I wandered around North campus and into a couple of buildings:

Later I got most of us plus a CivEng intern to go to Downtown Bryan for  First Fridays. By stroke of luck, another gourmet food truck was there: Madden's Street Cuisine. S and I split one of their specials: softshell crab sandwich. It came with their spiced up shoestring fries (with cilantro). It was pretty good, although I don't think I'm that much a fan of eating the softshell crab. Softshell crab sandwich with (spicy) slaw and fries We wandered around Bryan more. We went into Must Be Heaven and got Blue Bell ice cream. My first time having it. Got it since Becca said it's "the best". I got the cinnamon flavor (yay cinnamon!). Dude, the single scoop ($1.85+tax) is like a third or half a pint! (My photos on yelp)  After, we came back to the apartment then went to Daisy Dukes for some country clubbin'!!! It was SOOO MUCH FUN. First thing we do when we get in: country line dancing! It's like the electric slide but country! There were waitresses walking 'round with test tube racks filled with dollar test tube shots. These are basically mixed drinks. Soo cool! They also played hip hop and gangster music. Danced to that too. Ash, L, and E danced like crazy, but Ash most of all! She's sooo energetic and fun! Eventually, I danced with this guy who does fancy footwork, like top-rocking. He was pretty cool. He then showed me how to two-step, even though he admitted he didn't really know himself, being from Utah and all.  Man oh man. That was a great first Friday to begin this internship. A lot of things, I admit, making this post long, but so worth it.

Howdy from Texas!

Well, haha, totally didn't post the day after my last post. As usual. Oh well. Things come up. More on that later. It is now time to post about my last two and half days in College Station, Texas!!!!

I arrived at Dallas Airport on Monday afternoon. The airport is HUGE!!!! There are four terminals, A, B, C, D. They even have this tram that can take you from terminal to terminal. I didn't take it. Rather, I wanted to explore the airport to kill the hour between layover flights. Walking through, I took these pictures:

 Two stories of vendors at DFW Airport

 Awesome random structure to walk through (terminal D)

 Touch screen info booth! Lists where everything you'd want to know is.

Cute Texas souvenirs!

Then, 30 minutes later, I arrived in the TINY airport in College Station, where Dr Hsieh picked me up. He is such a nice professor! He picked up me and another intern and took us back to our apartment. The apartment is NICE!!! There's an outdoor pool, gym on the 5th floor, nice decor inside, and the whole street of bars and restaurants right across the street! The weather is hot and humid during the day (90 degrees!!!) but it's wonderful at night. Right now, I'm sitting poolside writing this blog. It's breezy and feels great. I would like to sleep out here. And funny thing, it's 11 pm!

Day 0: May 31st

After getting picked up and then settled in at the apartment, we get driven to this Chinese buffet nearby. Since it's 2 hours ahead of California time, I had only just eaten a large lunch a couple of hours ago. But since I'm also a big eater, I took a plate. Good pineapple chicken and veggies, good watermelon. Weird red sauce covered bananas o.0

I met all the other interns. They are all really nice and fun to talk to. We've got multiple BioE, one Chemistry, and one or two electrical engineering and/or mechanical engineering students. A couple from around Texas, three from Tulane, one from Sac, and one from Minnesota. We explored the street across from our apartment: full of bars.

 A sign in front of one of the bars

Bottlecap Alley

The sleep was really bad though. I was cold. I left the window open to let in the hot air to counteract the freezing air conditioning but then that just let in the NOISY birds in the morning. Interesting birds, those fellas.

"S" playing the profound sounding piano

The kitchen at the apartment. Convection stovess!!! I want to cook!!!

Day 1: June 1st

We meet up in the front lobby at 8:30 am and go to get our IDs. My hair is sooo fluffy! Haha, but I really like using this duo-straightener-hair dryer that my roommate brought along. Then we went to Dr Hsieh's office and conference room at Thompson Hall to set up some things. "B" gave us a tour of the engineering side of campus, which is just like one-fifth of the entire campus. TAMU is GINORMOUS!!! It's seriously 4 or 5 times the size of UC Berkeley. The trouble was that it was sooo hot and sunny. We were all exhausted walking around. The campus is very nice, but it was just so spread out and huge and we had to walk around under the blazing heat. We really enjoyed sitting inside. At noon, Dr Hsieh treated us to the Sbisa Dining Commons. It was good. They actually cook your pasta there for you. I like this a lot better than Crossroads at Berkeley, where the sauce just sits in a hot waterbath and you spoon it over wet pasta. Nasty. Here, the sauce was cooked over a skillet, and the pasta added to the skillet and tossed by the cook, then served in a large beautiful plate. They say Sbisa is the largest dining common in the US! The sweet tea here is sooo tasty too!

After we got to meet up with our mentor. "S" and I went to the Veterinary School of Medicine to meet Dr Quick. We first met with the GSI Tam, who gave us a tour of the lab rooms. Some cool stuff! I got excited about his work with lymph vessels and already started thinking about what I could research and help out with. After, we met with Dr Quick, who gave us an exciting and passionate but lonnnggggggggggg talk about the projects we could be working on for these next 9.5 weeks. I got really excited about the lymph one, but the idea to work with bats is sooo cool! At 4:30, we left to go the REU Welcome BBQ at ILSB. We came 45 min late and there was almost no food left. I managed to scavenge a sausage link, a small brisket slice, beans, mashed potatoes, SWEET TEA <3, and salad. I love mashed potatoes, and I have found I love the Sweet tea in the South!!!! I'm gonna need to buy me a jug.

We went back to the apartment after that. After a much-needed nap from all that hot walking, I went to the pool and swam laps. The other girls came down and swam with me. Eventually we stopped and just sat poolside talking to a physics REU intern. He was pretty cool. Then, after a shower, I met with "S" at the ASC and we read up a little bit about Quick's research and chatted. "S" brought crochet stuff. Sometime I will show her how to crochet a cute round chick or teddy bear. I wish I brought my crochet stuff! Sleep was good this night. Quite warm, now with two covers and my long sleeved shirt.

Good to be Home

This weekend is Memorial Day Weekend, which means Monday (today) is off. Since beginning my summer after my junior year, it's been absolutely wonderful to be home. I came back home from Berkeley on Tuesday, May 16th. Right after I flew in at 3:30pm into John Wayne airport, my mom picked me up and whisked me away to get a massage, my hair cut, and eat some delicious Thai food.

The massage was some "reflexology" massage - foot-based I believe. Well, it really was not very relaxing to me. Apparently, my mom and my sister both really liked it. It was just rather stressful for me, ironically. The lady giving me the massage was...lets say, powerful. Her fingers are STRONG and she perhaps could have used more lotion to prevent significant friction between her fingers and my skin. It was only $20 though, and part of it was relaxing. I'm guessing she teased out some tension, but overall I wished I had gone to a more Western-style massage.

After, we got a haircut from Le Nam salon somewhere else in Garden Grove. The lady was nice, talked a lot to me and my mom, and cut my hair well. Yay. I think I should just keep my hair about shoulder/chin length. It looks nice. Only problem is that the $60 messed-up perm is still left in my hair and prevents my hair from relaxing into a nice straight 'do whenever I wake up.

Next up, we went to Royal Thai Restaurant because Thai Gulf in Newport Beach was closed on Monday. My mom wanted to take me there, but I'm glad it was closed. This place was nearby and it was good. The lady was really nice. I have photos which I'll have to upload later, but the food was pretty good (not the best, but large portions and tasty) and the service (particularly the one lady) was attentive and awesome. The owner lady was so sweet and cute, what with her hawaiian shirt, and her easy-going behavior. She took pictures for us and even took a picture with me standing on the seats when I asked her! It was awesome. Plus, free drink via yelp! check-in is nice ;P Full review with pics to come on yelp later. But, take-home message: try out Royal Thai restaurant if you're in Garden Grove and want cheap good Thai food with nice service!

That was just in the evening that I came back home from Berkeley! The days following have been full and fun as well! Best part of being home, though, I have to say, is spending time with family and my boyfriend...and BAKING! A little preview of some things I did:

 

The last picture is a real winner of a baked treat! Can't wait to post about it! And you all should definitely try this recipe out if you wanna wow some people!

Well, hopefully, I will post tomorrow on my summer adventures!

[RECIPE]Summer Mango Apple Pie

In June, I was back at home, and that usually entails a countertop toppling over with fruit because my mom buys so much all the time. She practically lives off fruit because she gets it really cheap at the Asian and Persian supermarkets (yea yea, Crown Valley Marketplace and Saigon City!!!) I came back from the university to a huge box of ripening champange mangoes and a whole bag of red apples. My great-aunt (the most amazing baker and resourceful cook in our family) had given me Pillsbury pie crusts a while back and these I froze. Figuring I should use up these things that needed to be done away with.

I sliced up the mangoes and apples, and mixed these with brown sugar and cinnamon. I rolled out the pie dough, parbaked it in the pie plate, then filled it with the fruit mixture. After which I popped in the oven a bit longer. Out came this delicious, quick, and satisfying pie that's just the right amount of natural sweetness with just a bit of savoriness from the crust.  It's quick and a nice change from the usual apple pie, which in stores is laden with too much syrupy filling.

Easy Mango-Apple Pie (serves 8-12)
Ingredients
1 champagne (or Kent/Keitt) mango cut into slices
2-3 apples cut into same sized slices as the mangoes
1 frozen pie crust (or you can make your own, but I lazy ;P )
1/4 or 1/2 cup (I think) of brown sugar
Cinnamon to taste (be liberal!!! It's tasty AND good for you!)

Directions
1. Parbake the thawed pie crust according to directions.
2. Meanwhile, mix the fruit slices, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
3. Let the pie crust cool a bit, then spoon in the fruit filling.
4. Bake until the crust is just golden.

*Note: to prevent burning the crust (which I was on the verge of doing), put aluminum foil over the edges of the pie crust.

Judgement? Great! My dad loved it! And it makes me happy when my dad likes my baking, cuz I tend to experiment with "healthifying" things and then he doesn't like the blander taste or weird texture. I'm still trying though. More experimentation will lead to perfection.

Try this sometime. Maybe you have some addition or suggestion to it to make it even better. Let me know! But, in general, mangoes are just about a great addition to anything, and definitely perks up the usual apple pie.

Summer Cookup Collection

I did a lot of cooking last spring semester. A lot of it wasn't chronicled, but why should every dinner be? Now, that'd be a hassle. I have a couple of pictures of experiments I've tried this summer. I finally decided to stop procrastinating and post them up. I don't know if I have the recipe for all of them, but I can give a gist of what they are and what I did.

Banh Da Lon (Vietnamese Pandan and Mung Bean Layered Cake)

This is a steamed cake, made by alternating layers of coconut-pandan rice cake and mung bean paste. I didn't have green food coloring when I made this, so it doesn't look like the typical one you see in Vietnamese stores, but it came out all right. Steaming was a little hard, and I had a tiny pie pan, so I couldn't do many layers. It came out all right. Will definitely have to keep practicing.

(Recipe courtesy of ch3rri-blossoms)

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Mushroom Ragu(?) over Cornmeal Mush

I actually can't remember what I did with this and where exactly I got the inspiration. I think I basically put cornmeal in boiling water, then added garlic parmesan dry mix from Costco. The mushrooms were sauteed in olive oil with onions and garlic, and maybe some wine. It came out kind of bland and tough to eat, actually. Won't make this again. Plus, I need to cut off the stems of shiitake mushrooms. Those were the tough part to eat. This was like eating some kind of savory cream of wheat again. Not that great, but pretty in the picture at least.

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Strawberry Jam Cake

I can't remember where I got the recipe for this. It was a cake with a swirl of strawberry jam through it. It was tasty and pretty, but not sweet enough. I added icing (lemon, milk, confectioner's sugar, butter) on top to make it more dessert-like and it was perfect.

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Homemade Tomato Sauce and Broccoli over Spaghetti

This was a simple, quick, and tasty throw-together. Just put cut-up tomatoes, sauteed with garlic and onions. Cooked with tomato paste and Italian seasonings and salt. Served with steamed/boiled broccoli, parmesan cheese, and spaghetti. Very easy but probably the tastiest of my Spring 2010 cooking attempts.

Next post up is my collection of summer attempts, hits and misses, including my first FANCY CAKE! Here's a preview :D See you soon!

Crazy food all over the place - tortas, pho tacos, and jap crepes

Sooo, I'm actually just going to blog about some interesting new food popping up all over SoCal. Recipes and food I've been making or have made and need to post about shall ensue.

Like any other foodie, I've been obsessed with the torta fad lately. Soft telera rolls generously fillled with succulent meats, smears of avocado and beans, creamy queso fresco, with refreshing lettuce and tomatoes. I've tried a couple of places around North and Southern California, but I definitely have to branch out. I've had it at Senor Pedro's Tacos in San Juan Capistrano and from the Mexican supermarket Cardenas in Norco. I have to say, the one at Cardenas was by far the best so far. Luscious meat, great bread, I dunno, it was just so good. I also had one from some place in Mission District in SF (location is near the BART and McDonalds). That one was all right. Another from NorCal was from the taco truck on 1st and International in Oakland. Veryyyyy good - or maybe cuz it was 1 am in the morning, but I had eaten dinner already and I had to eat the whole thing.

Anyways, AM PM is trying to get on the bandwagon and is currently promoting their own tortas, and now a "Tower of Torta." Intrigued, I went to their facebook where they apparently have a bunch of crazy secret menu items. This is what it looks like:

Sounds like a heart attack of a secret menu, huh? Donut burger? Triple burgers, triple tortas. Pizza wrapped around a hotdog. Yeah...

Nevertheless, I am actually considering trying their torta. Just one, though. NOT that insane tower of torta. Wayyy too much for me. What do you say? Should I do it?

Other interesting food things that I've come across:

(pic from yelp)

Japanese Crepes at Harajuku Crepes in Beverley Hills. I am soooo getting a green tea crepe with azuki beans and strawberry ice cream. Going this Thursday and I'm sooo excited!!! They're so cheap too! $3.50 for crepe, $1 for fruit or azuki, $0.50 for ice cream, $0.50 for whipped cream or nutella!! So cheap but I've read soooo delicious!!!!

(Xoia Eats)

Vietnamese Taco: move over Korean taco trucks, the Viet taco is coming to town! Ha, now chefs and aspiring cooks are putting whatever protein they can get their hands on into corn tortillas. My mom just made pho. Maybe I'll just take the rare sliced beef, fresh onions, cilantro and put it in the flour tortillas she just bought. Wow. I've created a pho burrito. I'm gonna be famous. *waves flag*

That's what I've been up to lately. Sucked into my computer. Hope this bit was entertaining for you. Next post will be a collection of some stuff I made up at Berkeley, along with some other recipes.