I had a day off on Wednesday, which was great because it just so happens it was restaurant week on Orange County. I love having Wednesdays off. It's a perfect midweek break. Work for two, take a break. Then work for two more, then its the weekend. I actually got a lot done, I love being productive. I started my day with working out. Then had lunch with Frank at Bagels and Brew. They make pretty delicious sandwiches....at least the one I had with was the Havarti Florentine. I love havarti and it made it so much more delicious. I love how havarti is creamy. I had the other half for lunch today and it was just as delicious. YUM!

I decided to go ahead and get a haircut. I had been contemplating it for a while. I wanted to let my hair grow really long, but it kept whipping me in the face, so I had to trim it down. Also its healthier to get a trim every so often. My hairdresser... I have been going to her for a decade now and its funny, she was laughing at me because of the highlights in my hair. They really stood out in her chair more than usually. Anyways, I got the hint and fixed it. Earlier in the summer, I had highlights, and well, they grew out, but not the way they normally do. The blend is now gone. I am sitting here with 4 mins left to wash it out. Back to black... I think.

Frank and I decided to check out Memphis Cafe in Costa Mesa. We both hadn't been there and I always wanted to see what this place was all about. We both got the $30 3-course dinner meal. This was my first course.
Cornmeal fried green tomato salad, caramelized pearl onions, smoked goat cheddar, warm bacon vinaigrette. The cormeal with the fired green tomato was good. The caramelized pearl onions were not very caramelized. The goat cheese was nothing speical. The vinaigrette was too much. I felt that this salad was too greasy. Overall, no bueno.

This is Frank's first course.
Southern rock crab cakes, corn & peppers, herb salad, smoked tomato beurre blanc. It was like mush. You couldn't really taste the crab. It also was no bueno.

Seared, day-boat scallops, green chile grits, Cajun creamed corn, fried okra. Overall the scallops were cooked just right. The green chile grits complimented the cajun cream corn. This to me was a pretty southern dish, similar to jambalaya. My only complaint is: TOO SALTY!

Frank decided to get the steak as his second course.
Block cut, Harris Ranch new york strip, roasted pee-wee potatoes, purslane, blistered grape tomatoes, oyster mushroom sauce. This was nothing special. It's a typical strip steak.

Seasonal fruit cobbler, sweet biscuit crust, vanilla bean ice cream. The sweet biscuit crust made this dessert, but I must say that I got gyped because there was no vanilla bean ice cream to compliment the cobbler with. All I got was whippped cream. BOO! Once again, NO BUENO!

We also got the Belgian chocolate layer cake, fresh whipped cream, berry coulis. That wasn't anything special. It's like chocolate cake. Thick consistency. I prefer my cakes moist.

Final thoughts on Memphis Cafe: watered down drinks, food was nothing special, good service. Would I come back here? I wouldn't go out of my way, let's just say that.

Frank and I decided to check out this Carribbean place around old town pasadena. I recently yelped this place and when I found out it was a Carribbean place, I jumped on it. We decided to check it out on saturday for lunch. We started our meal off with a side of Festival bed. They are basically deep friend cornmeal. It was pretty tasty. But tiny as you can see. It comes with a pineapple chutney and sliced of almonds. It was pretty good. Sweet taste but well balanced by the cornmeal.

I wanted to try the Jerk Chicken Sandwich because it came with Irie Fries which were delicious. The Jerk dressing was tasty as was the chicken and the mango salsa was so good. The red onion was grilled just right. Overall, a very satisfying meal. The deep friend plantain was good too.

Frank got the Ox Tail with rice and beans. He quite enjoyed it. It was quite tender and came with a side salad and a fried plantain. The rice and beans was authentic jamacian cuisine. I though it had an herbal flavor to it, but it could have been a jerk spice.

We will most likely check this place out again on a Saturday night to catch some live music.

I made some Devil's Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting. When I was putting it in the frig, they toppled and I was really sad because now they aren't all pretty. I was really annoyed at the watermelon. That was the reason they toppled. I hate watermelons. They are big and heavy and make my pretty cupcakes unpretty. BOO! Had to do some major damage control. Still annoyed and want to stab or throw that watermelon so that it shatters into many pieces. I am allergic to watermelons, so it ain't gonna get no love from me. My mom put it in my frig. I don't really know why when we have an empty freezer and her frig isn't filled, so there was clearly room for it there. BOO!

so many thoughts process through my head throughout the day its hard to keep all my thoughts in line. i usually have an epiphany that just slips away from me. does that me it was not a true epiphany?

I went to a products presentation speed dating tonight. and no, this isn't like the speed dating you think it is. Its for my CEs, which I am just doing just cause now. It's always fun going to the CEs with this one group practice close to my house. I learned about OralDNALabs. They basically do diagnostic testing to test for precursor of systemic conditions. How great is that? With a simple saliva test you can test to see if you are predispose to let's say HPV. I am going to do more reading about this.... for it is an up and coming innovation that will be pretty popular.

On the lighter side of things...looks like i'll be vacationing in Maui next october. I am pretty excited about that. It's the one island I have yet to explore. I've got the travel itch, but alas, I am homebound for the rest of the year. I looked at the calendar and looks like there isn't much of an opportunity to get away until March. BOO! But that's okay....just means I can save. Starting fresh again.

I've always wanted to try and make lemon bars. So I decided Barefoot Contessa's receipe. They are pretty tarty.... because of the lemon of course. I hope its a crowd pleaser. I usually prefer to make something sweet so this is a little bit more out of my element.

I'm one of those people that need to carry a notepad and pen or a mobile app that will allow me to write down key words to remind me of my thoughts. I had a pretty eventful day. I got up way too early today but that's okay because I went to sleep at 10 and slept at least 9 hours or so. I decided to do cardio X. Having gotten the workout done, I went and got an oil change. And ran some errands.

I met up with Audrey and Andy and got a chance to catch up with them. We had dinner at Chang's Garden before heading off to watch a movie. We decided to see eat pray love. The movie was actually pretty good. I never read the book so I have nothing to compare it to. I kinda like it that way. The movie was about finding balance and being happy. At least that is what I got out of it. It teaches you not too get married to young because you could grow apart. That's kinda a scary thought. I guess that's why they call it a leap of faith. Anyways, life is all about finding balance. We are constantly juggling things around us. The whole meditation thing was really interesting.

I think julie roberts got big in this movie. I saw in a magazine that she got a boob job, I think she just put on some poundage and that's how the boobs grew.

Tomorrow, I am going to attempt to make lemon bars and maybe some sewing.

How come men don't take the woman's last name? Apparently these days, some children take their mother's last name. Apparently, school like to know that the mom and child have the same last name. It's so strange....because there are so many chen's and lee's.....a chen can then just claim another chen. I think its lame. This is what someone was telling me. She has a 16 yrs old but got divorced and can't formally change her last name back to her maiden name because of her son's school. Strange.

So I decided to get tacos again for dinner. I wanted to try something else and see what else komodo has to offer. I was curious to see what the Asian Marinated Chicken was all about. I see people ordering this so let me try it out for my self. It's grilled orange marinated chicken with stir fried rice. The fried rice caught my attention. It has good flavors, but the chicken was a tad dry for me. still a good combination and the mandarin orange makes for a nice presentation. I also tried the fish n' grapes. I know the combination sounds kinda weird. It's a deep-fried alaskan cod tossed with fresh grape salad. The cod was good, but also kinda dry, tough. i don't get fish and chips too often, but i expected more tenderness. I didn't like the celery flavor on the grape salad. There is only one thing left that I would like to try and that's the soi which is a vegetarian soy tempeh salad with a savory peanut dressing. I love peanut flavored stuff..... so i'll give this a try in the future.

A shout out to the guys at the Arcadia Komodo Truck for the free tacos. Thanks for caring what I think. I am surprised they "remembered" me. See you for the Soi.

i think i am dehydrated. I am slowly starting to feel weak. This post is going to be kinda of gross. So here's the disclaimer. Stop reading, NOW!

I woke up this morning with these horrible cramps. Before that, I was craving some maple toast from 85C. But as the morning progressed, the cramps were becoming intense. I had 2 solid deuces. So I thought that I was done.......boy was I wrong. Apparently there was much more to come. The cramps got so bad. I thought....appendicitis.....right side....pain--> left side. ruled out. Then the diarrhea was upon me. I felt somewhat better. Then POW.....i was hit again......and again.....6 times.....that is not fun on the hole. I thought.....what was the cause of this evilness??? Was it the food from the tailgate??? Or was it that garlic french fries.....i dunno.... all I know is.....i will not be eating solids for a while....it just comes out the other end.

Apparently, people experiences diarrhea 1-2x a year. That's interesting. Time to rest a bit....i guess this is a natural cleanse.

I was just coming out of REI and I noticed this komodo food truck. So I decided to check it out. I tried the Komodo 2.0 which is a seared skirt steak with jalapeno aoli & southwest corn salad. This was really good. I liked like the skirt steak and jalepeno aoli. I also tried the Blazin' Shrimp taco. This was just okay its a spicy singaporean-style shrimp with sour cream salad. I'd pass on this. For a food truck, I thought the food was pretty pricey. $3 tacos and $8 burritos.

omg! it has been so long since i have posted anything. in fact, i forgot i had a blog. SO SAD :(

I just read cindy's blog and got inspired to blog. we'll see if this even last a day. I have come to realize that people stop checking my blog because I haven't blogged in so long.

I just finished doing cardio X. I was so tired as I was driving to the OC from Santa Monica. I was falling asleep, how bad. I am just cooling down before I shower. Then maybe take a quit nap before AYCE Sushi.

Tomorrow, I am off to San Diego, it has been so long since I headed down there. I'll catch up with some friends which will be nice since it's been a while since we've chatted.

ciao for now.