Revolving Sushi Factory

During Thanksgiving break, my mom and dad took me to the recently opened revolving sushi restaurant in Cerritos, Gatten Sushi.  It was my very first time eating at a revolving sushi place so I was pretty excited!  But my excitement ended soon after the waitress sat us down at our table.  We sat at a booth, so instead of facing the sushi as it rolled on by, we had to make an effort to turn our heads just to see the items on the conveyor belt.  My head was turned to the side pretty much the whole time we were there and my neck was very tired by the end of dinner.  Plus, if you miss an item that you want, you have to wait forever for it to make a full round before it comes back again.  I don’t know why but this made me super stressed out.  I didn’t anticipate how stressful and tiring it would be just to constantly stare at the revolving belt in order to find the sushi that I liked.

Now on to the things that I liked.  It was nice to try a bunch of different dishes with tiny portions, in case something we choose tastes nasty.  And every time one of the sushi chefs would place a new item on the belt, they would yell the name of the food out and the rest of the chefs would reply shouting “YUMMY!”  Hahha I thought it was so cute and funny whenever they did that. 

We got two of these squid dishes one because it was pretty good and two because my dad loves squid.

This was my favorite dish of the night.  The shrimp was o so good!

I don’t remember what this is but it was really good.

Tags: Family, Food, Photography, Sushi

Fruit Tarts

Every time I come home from school for break, my mom buys me these little fruit tarts from Honey Bakery.  They are seriously THE BEST fruit tarts I’ve ever eaten.  Honey Bakery makes their products fresh everyday and usually runs out of their best items by the time they close unless you reserve them by phone.  The fruits they use are always fresh, the crust is never soggy, and the cream filling complements the fruits so well!

During Thanksgiving break, my mom surprised me with a ginormous fruit tart from Honey Bakery. I didn’t even know they made fruit tarts this big…

It took us a couple days to finally finish this up, but the crust didn’t get soggy at all.

I’ve been on a quest for a while to find a better tasting fruit tart but even 85 degree bakery in Irvine did not compare.  Honey Bakery is truly amazing.

Tags: Break, Family, Food, Fruit Tart, Photography

OASES Fall Retreat

Sorry for the lack of updates recently!  I finished my last big block of midterms last week and I haven’t done any productive work since then.  I’m so ready for winter break…

I left my Nikon back in SoCal so I haven’t been taking any pictures lately.  I’ve been relying on my Canon point and shoot and it is just not the same…  I will never make the mistake of parting with my camera again!!

Here are some pictures taken in August during our OASES fall retreat at the Marin Headlands.

This retreat was pretty amazing.  The place we stayed at was gorgeous.  The air smelled so clean and fresh and the hostel was right next to the beach.  We were pretty isolated from the rest of the world during our stay there.  We had no access to computers or the internet and it was extremely hard to get cell phone reception.  Not having to depend on all these electronics was actually a really nice change.  It allowed maximum bonding time with me and the other coords :)  The food was provided by the hostel and they only use locally grown food.  I’ve never tasted heirloom tomatoes as good as the ones I had at the Marin Headlands.  All the food was really delicious and I loved how they advocated the no waste policy:  Only take as much as you can eat so no food gets thrown away.

We looked up the time of the sunset to make sure we didn’t miss it.  Watching the sunset at the beach was one of my lifetime goals… goal accomplished!

Hopefully spring retreat with the new coordinators will be just as amazing!!

Tags: Beach, Break, Marin Headlands, OASES, Photography, San Francisco, Sunset

Berkeley Kite Festival

One of my goals this summer was to go to a fair or festival.  At first I was really excited about the Garlic Festival in Gilroy since I wanted to try their garlic ice cream, but it only lasted three days and it was on the weekend I had to study for a Physics midterm.  So SAD!  But then there was the Berkeley Kite Festival!!  The weather was perfect on the day we went and the sky just looked gorgeous with all the kites flying in the air. 

There was a random animal hanging out by the rocks.  Is that a gopher?

One of the best parts of that day was the fried food!!  I didn’t get to take any pictures of it cause I think I was too hungry…  My friend and I shared a veggie platter.  There was fried artichoke, asparagus, zucchini and some other stuff and we doused it with Tapatio hot sauce.  It was delicious!!

Tags: Berkeley, Berkeley Kite Festival, kites, Photography

Wow… It’s been a long time since I’ve update

I still have a bunch of pictures from summer that I haven’t posted up yet…  So here goes!

On July 4th, my family went to Shin-Sen Gumi in Rosemead for some Japanese Ramen.  It was quite an experience since all the waiters spoke Japanese and would yell out some Japanese phrases whenever someone walked in or out of the door of the restaurant as a greeting.  Everything that went on in there was so authentic.  Just look at the cook with his bandana.

My sister ordered some appetizers, but it was so long ago that I don’t even remember what they were…

I think these were fried oysters?

The amazing thing was that you could choose the toppings in your ramen, the firmness of your noodles, and the amount of oil you wanted in your soup.    What other place would give you so many choices?!

But I have to admit… this ramen wasn’t as good as the Hakata Ramen at Manpuku even though you are given so many options.  The appetizers were great, but eating their ramen just made me miss Manpuku’s ramen.

Tags: Break, Family, Food, Photography, Ramen