Kalu Kote, Bobbi Brown, and Lancome

This is the Kalu Kote Pokeron (pocket iron, the Japanese really like to combine their words huh? Pokemon = Pocket + monster, lol).

It's adorable and super small, I know.

And it even has that cute little hole for those cellphone charms if you like.

Unfortunately, those are the only good things about it. It says that it gets up to 150degrees C (about 300degrees F), but I think it's a total lie. It does not get hot enough at all. I tried straightening and curling with it and it does neither for my hair. Of course, my hair is finer than most and extremely hard to style because of that, but I doubt that's the issue. So don't waste your money (even though its super cute and compact).

This is Lancome's Maquicomplet liquid concealer.

It's about the size of an average mascara and the cute sponge tip applicator (like most lip glosses).

I absolutely LOVE it. As you all know, my concealer of choice was the NARS duo in custard and ginger (which is a cream concealer). I hit pan a while back and have been on the hunt for a new one. Since my skin is on the slightly dry side, cream concealers tend to chafe my skin when applied with a concealer brush. So I decided to try a liquid concealer. After a little browsing at Sephora, I settled on the Lancome one. It is awesome! It is excellent for the full coverage look and easily blendable. It's so silky smooth and I totally recommend!

This is Bobbi Brown's bronzing brick palette!

The packaging is different than the current because I got it at the outlets for a fraction of the price :).

So far, I am indifferent to the product. It's pretty shimmery, so I like that. Other than that, I'm not so sure about using it for contouring.


And for no reason... except that he's amazingly cute... here's Friday :).


Love Always,
Me

Ojiya

I'm supposed to be paying attention in nutrition right now, but I decided there is way too much bio and chem for me in here man. Getting the Biological Sciences requirement done has been an ordeal for me here at Cal to say the least -__-

Anyway, here is the long awaited blog about my precious Ojiya (all the way back in Chino Hills... sad)

This is the Salmon Skin Salad. Total yums! They have several salad dressings available, but the miso dressing is the best because it is very light and yet very creamy. Even though they call it a Salmon Skin Salad, implying that the salmon skin is the star of the show, I found it to have more of a crouton-like role in this salad (which I found to be a preference).


Seafood Rice Porridge (I cannot for the life of me remember the actual name of this dish), but is not absolutely adorable in its little cast iron pot? Ordering this was an almost accident. You see, Rayland wanted soup and we ended up with this because once again... he did not read the fine print -__- Regardless, I loved it! It's almost like jook (Chinese rice porridge) except on the soupy side. In hindsight, it was an extremely healthy dish and of the 4/5 more times we revisited, we really should've ordered it again. Another thing, it totally fills you up because the rice is you know, filled with carbs (ALRIGHT!). The dish had large fish roe in it (as you can see). It had shrimp and tofu and other things that I can't remember because it was consumed more than a month ago HAHA.


Takoyaki! So Rayland asked me if I wanted fried octopus balls, and I was like o.O uhh... okay. He could've just said takoyaki... it sounds so much less... gross. Anyway, it's like the best takoyaki I've ever had. Their special sauce really complements the octopus and you can barely taste that weird... I don't know... fishy(?) flavor.


Baked Lobster Roll. I think this is the one roll that we ordered every time. The weird thing for me about this roll is that they're very skimpy on the lobster but it made the roll really good in that way. I LOVE lobster, so it was really weird that I preferred the scarcity of it in the roll (we tried baked lobster roll at another restaurant and it was loaded with lobster and I was not happy at all). Also, I love it when they stick the whole thing in the oven with foil, because the rice at the bottom comes out slightly crispy.


Uni and Toro Nigiri. It was my first time trying Uni raw and I think I preferred it cooked in that medium rare type of way. Nonetheless, it was extremely fresh and very tasty. The toro... I don't think words can describe how delicious that piece of fish was. Foodgasm, that's a good one.


Seared Salmon with Ginger Dressing. DEEELICIOUS. They are really good with their dressings! It was the perfect complement. Also, very fresh fish!


I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the sesame cream puff we ordered! Apparently their cream puffs are a must-try. I found it to be average, though I'm not a large fan of cream puffs.

Upcoming Blogs:
- Kalu Kote Pokeron Review
- Embrace Your Face

Love Always,
Me

Sushi Tomi

Prior to the Rihanna concert, we were all starving... and by we I really mean just me.

Jae, who was at home while the rest of us were on our way to get her, did some Yelping since none of us know Mountain View very well.

The Verdict: Sushi Tomi.

This is the Sushi Dinner. It cost me about $22 and was in no way worth it.

The fish really was not as fresh as it could be for the price they charge you. If I wanted to eat cheapo, non-fresh sushi I could've paid WAY LESS for it elsewhere.

Oh how I wish I were sitting at Ojiya in Chino Hills :(

Love Always,
Me

Guerilla Cafe

For Kristina's birthday, we went to Guerilla Cafe for breakfast :).

I've been waiting to try this yummy place on Northside for forever! It has wonderful reviews on Yelp and breakfast is my favorite meal of the day!

This was the waffle of the day; Banana Wheat. It was OH EM GEE delicious! The best part was the fresh fruit on top. It has a deliciously fragrant banana taste and goes so well with the wheat. I've never had a wheat waffle before, but I loved it.

The downside is that this ONE WAFFLE cost me about $8 :(. And the waffle is such a tease! You don't exactly get full from it and right away you want another one!!

In the words of my loving boyfriend, "Life is so hard sometimes."

Love Always,
Me

Sad, I Know

Me: Hi mommy
Mom: Did you eat yet?
Me: Yeah
Mom: Have you been eating out a lot?
Me: No, I cook
Mom: Cook what? (she didn't give me enough groceries for 2 weeks)
Me: Whatever I find around the apartment
Mom: What does Karen eat for dinner?
Me: She eats with her boyfriend
Mom: What does Beckie eat for dinner?
Me: She eats with her boyfriend (-____-)
Mom: Oh, okay bye
Me: Bye

I think she gets why i ahve Friday now.

Love Always,
Me

Bayside Restaurant

After another trip to South Coast Mall (our new favorite), we were going to try a not-so-expensive French place in New Port. Unfortunately, we were too ambitious at the mall and by the time we got to the restaurant, it was closed. So we sat at the yogurt place next door (with an absolutely adorable cashier who gave my yogurt a discount for no reason) and yelped on his iPhone.

Then made our trip to Bayside Restaurant! A restaurant I want to eat at everyday because of its awesome ambiance.

We ordered the three course meal.
Lentil Soup - I have no idea why I asked for this over salad. I hate lentils. This soup was extremely rich and starchy and Rayland and I were pretty much full afterward.


This is my Salmon over Bok Choy. Ahh! SOOOOO YUMMY. This is the freshest cooked salmon I've ever had. I'm not kidding, it was insanely fresh and most of the time I like my salmon sashimi style. The bok choy was also really tender and the sesame seeds (although looking like they've been put there for added color) enhanced the fish with this smokey nutty flavor. It was AWESOME.


This is Rayland's Bleu Steak. I also dislike bleu cheese. So this was not my fave. But Rayland really liked it and the steak was impressively tender. He requested a medium well with a tiny hint of pink and the waitress took it super seriously and told the chef specifically how to prepare it. It came out splendid :)
\

Seasonal Fruits Sorbet was the best part of the meal! We were already stuffed, but I insisted :). Peach, mixed berries, and kiwi. My favorite was the peach one. They were so delicious and so fruity and its all made by the chef. Perfect amount of sweetness to the amount of fresh fruit that was in the sorbet.


Always room for dessert, that's what I say ;)

Love Always,
Me

Sugar Rush Cafe

Every time (it's TWO words OMG O.O) we don't know where to eat, we yelp it. This cafe came up throughout all my searches and we finally had time for it. It's a breakfast place and he works early and sleeps in on weekends -___-

But I loved it!

We both wanted pancakes but not really more than one, so here's our one on the side. It was nothing special sadly.


Here's his omlette and hash browns with toast. That piece of cheese right on top made this omlette so much better than others that have shredded cheese on the inside. It was delicious and loaded with bacon, every man's dream.


This is my soup of the day with half sandwich combo. The clam chowder was a little on the not-so-rich side for me. But I assume that's much better for me health wise. The sandwich was nothing but yum! I was really happy with the size of those bacon slices :).


Too bad the avocado kept slipping out :(

Love Always,
Me

Honey Pig in KTown

I'm sad to say that this place is exactly what reviewers say it is.



Yes, other than the insanely large cooker, the place was nothing special. The BBQ was very average and I was disappointed. We ordered pork belly and some sort of beef. The pork belly was good, but you can't really mess up chunky, fatty meat. The beef was less than satisfactory.

We had fun though since the waiter was adorably helpful, and there was a plasma TV with the game on (Portugal vs. someone I can't remember).

Love Always,
Me

Ichikawa's

Since I've been back for more than a week now, I've lost count of when I did what. So I will just post pictures of food now :)



This is half of Ichikawa's 2 for $40 special. Pretty much it's shabu shabu for two. Each person gets to pick their meat, brother, an appetizer, and a dessert. Rayland and I (and by that I mean just me) felt we needed vegetables so I ordered this lovely Baked Salmon Salad.

Baked Salmon Salad
That was the highlight of our evening! It was absolutely delicious! It was pretty much a long piece of salmon rolled up with the insides of a california roll, shoved into an oven, baked lightly so that it was still pink inside, topped with yummy arugula, and a SUPER (and I mean super) light dressing. DIVINE to say the least.

Everything Else
...was pretty average but very filling and the service was SUPERB.

I'm sad about not taking more pictures, but you know what hunger does to you.

Love Always,
Me

Nutrition

-__________- <-- that's what I look like in this class every morning.

At times I wonder if my lack of interest in this class is directly correlated to my lack nutrition. Not that I have no intention of being healthy, but I just love to eat (as if you didn't already know).

Content:
Today's lecture (ONLY the third one) is on digestion. As a child, I loved those cool diagrams they post in every public school hallway (how come these didn't exist in my private school hallways?) and often thought to myself, "How absolutely fabulous that there is this crazy acid in my tummy that's breaking up my foods and it's totally not killing my organs because of this other awesome layer of mucus" or something along those lines. Here I am now, bored to death of some detailed explanation of the functions of a duodenum (*almost unrelated note: Peter Griffin likes this word).

The Professor:
She's really hot. I mean one look at her and you can understand why she has a PhD in nutrition. And really, she is not boring so I won't go down that route. You can also tell she's really into what she's telling us and hopes for the same (unfortunately for her, she has students like me).

Conclusion:
Maybe I want to go grab one of those luscious custard filled doughnuts right about now.

Completely Unrelated:
The shift button on my netbook has gotten sticky and even though I've taken it out and removed the dust underneath it, I've seen no improvement. :(

Also:
I know. I totally forgot to blog about the rest of my trip and the cool foods I've been eating and cool things I've been doing (like Rihanna concert ^-^).

Sigh... I never want to do anything but go home and pet Friday.

Love Always,
Me