Phil’s blog

Christmas vacation has been great. I arrived at Dulles ~3am Friday the 22nd, spent a week in NoVA, and am now in Jackson, TN visiting my dad and relatives. Highlights:

• Having lunch with Syl and Justine at Panera and catching up on Syl’s love life.
• Pot luck dinner at Hao’s place with Elaine, Justine, Syl, Rajib, Abe, Abe’s sister Diana, Vickie, Matt Mah, and Rong. Delicious food + good company + dogs = awesome time.
  
• Playing Gears of War co-op with Rong until 5am. I had intended to go home at 1:30 but we couldn’t stop.
• Last-minute Christmas shopping on Christmas eve with Mom, Andrew, and Dennis.
• Exchanging presents. I got an Xbox 360 from the family (which I asked for after playing Gears of War). From Justine and her family: a sushi book, a Christmas ornament, a gift certificate for a pedicure (not that I have bad feet, but Syl likes making me pretty :), a tie, a glass sake set, a money clip, a stuffed foxy, a $50 gift credit card, and a pair of super-rare yellow and black Asics like the ones Uma Thurman wears in Kill Bill which I had tried unsuccessfully to find in the past but Teeny somehow found.
• Getting a pedicure at Nail Pro in Fair Oaks. For the most part it felt quite nice, but when she was removing dead skin and trimming and cleaning under my nails, I was a bit tense. The scrubbing also tickled a lot. I opted for clear nail polish just for fun.
  
• Feasting on delicious leftovers at the Kwan house.
• Catching up with Junghoon and Stephen at Stephen’s house.
• Dinner at la Madeleine with Junghoon, Stephen, Chris, Matt, and Ben. 5 out of 6 members of my UVA suite from 2nd and 3rd year! All we needed was Dave to be complete, but he was in LA for work. It was still great to catch up with the old gang, and the food was pretty good! I like the self-serve arrangement because you don’t have to tip and the delicious bread+jam are unlimited.
• Lunch at Super H Mart with Carlton, Syl, and Teeny. We ordered some dishes from the in-store Korean restaurant that were outstanding. Kalbi and bibimbop are always good, and we got this beef stew with noodles that was amazing. We also tried cold, spicy noodles which weren’t so great.
• Seeing Curse of the Golden Flower with Carlton, Teeny, Syl, Cons, and Patty. I wasn’t that happy with the ending but there wasn’t a clear side to root for since each character had done something selfish. The fighting was pretty sweet though, and the scenery and cinematography were great.
• Trying unsuccessfully to make sushi. Almost everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. The tuna we got at Super H Mart was bad, we accidentally used sticky rice instead of sushi rice (or even regular medium grain rice) and had to use leftover rice from a day or two before, the avocados were bad and we had to make a last minute run for fresh ones, we couldn’t find a suitable quantity of roe or good pickled ginger (Super H was only selling large containers of each), we ran out of rice vinegar, and we didn’t have a good knife for cutting the salmon. By the time everything was ready, we were too hungry to actually make rolls. What we ended up with were bowls of leftover rice, Japanese seaweed/sesame seasoning, mutilated salmon, and slices of avocado and cucumber. It tasted ok but I’ve definitely done much better in the past. I’ll make it extra-good next time when I’m back in my own kitchen.

The rest of my Thanksgiving vacation:

• Wednesday: Took my mom, brother, and cousins to dinner at Blue Ocean in Fairfax. We ordered a sushi boat, sukiyaki, and a dish consisting or rice steamed in a pot with mushrooms, vegetables, and small pieces of shrimp and possibly chicken. I wasn’t a huge fan of the sukiyaki because I’d prefer salty instead of sweet broth, but the rice dish was amazing. The seasoning was just right and I liked how it was slightly crisp where it touched the sides of the pot (not sure if that’s intentional). My mom had to call a couple of hours in advance to give them time to prepare it. Wish I remembered the name of it. Afterwards I took my brother and cousins bowling where we got schooled by Winnie.
• Thursday: Mom’s Thanksgiving meal was better than ever because she brined the turkey this time, which helps it retain moisture during cooking. In the evening I went to Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo in DC with Justine’s family. The feats were impressive, especially the intro in which the acrobats do tricks hanging from giant, spinning, swinging chandeliers. The music was also solid.
• Friday: Thanksgiving meal #2 with Rong, Songbin, Stephon, and others at Fabi’s house (French lady who trains at O-Mei VA). She prepared a delicious roasted, stuffed goose (said she couldn’t find a turkey), and people prepared the standard side dishes. We played poker until 3am - the first time I’ve played for real money, and I lost $15 but it was fun :]
• Saturday: Saw Happy Feet with Justine, Rong, and Songbin. I don’t think I appreciated it as much as Justine did, but I certainly enjoyed it. Went to dinner with some old highschool friends afterwards and then to Matt and Chris’ place where we played Guitar Hero 2 and Halo 2 until 5am. Good times.
• Sunday: Hung out with Justine and went to Shilla bakery (for like the third time that week).

It was a good week. Can’t wait ’til Christmas!

I get Thursday and Friday off but decided to use vacation time Mon-Wed to spend the whole week back home in VA. It’s good to be back. Even mundane things like going to the grocery store with my mom are enjoyable. Highlights thus far:

• getting a free roundtrip voucher for giving up my seat on the flight to DC for another one 6.5 hours later (plus a free brief stay at a hotel near SFO and $25 in airport food vouchers)
• relaxing at home
• hanging out with Justine and her sisters
• lunch at Lighthouse Tofu with mom; had soon dubu (tofu stew) and seafood pancakes for the first time - delicious!
• dinner at Makoto in DC with Justine - more about this in my next post

I’m looking forward catching up with old friends through the rest of the week, Thanksgiving of course, and seeing Cirque du Soleil with the Kwans Thursday night.