thanksgiving, wo ai ni (iloveyou)

thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. this year was the first year i've ever missed thanksgiving at my parents' house - a big feast consisting of loads of family friends, elastic waistbands and, certainly not least forgotten, cajun deep fried turkey(s). i was pretty bummed to be missing it considering the assumed lack of great tgiving related foods here in shang but i was proven wrong that fine thursday evening!

luckily my boss and her hubby ilan (aka my second family) are also big on thanksgiving and had us over for a feast. hao had seen a facebook post from owner of madison restaurant austin hu that they were catering the holiday. so our boss ordered it and we had a delicious, traditional (better than expected) dinner!

i am so thankful for such a happy and healthy life, great family and friends and a happy, filled heart.

here are the pics of the food!!! so good!

the spread

the golden turkey - really tasty!!!!

true to tradition - sweet potatoes with raisins and marshmallows

creamy mashed potatoes - omg so good

green beans are always my fave!

felicia's homemade apple crumble with graham cracker crust!

hao's homemade pecan pie! soooooo good!

madison's pumpkin pie

hao chi ma?

hao chi ma? is it good? important question for eating and can be answered simply with 'hao chi' or 'bu hao chi'. gotta love this chinese language. some things are so simple, as they should be.

here is a photo recap of the past couple weeks post travels. not as glam as the longest post ever but something to tide you over while i experience more post-able shenanigans.

1. hao chi. hao's birthday, celebrity status. the theme was 'bowties and bandanas' though literally no one came through except hao :) delicious dinner at scarpetta (the shanghai version, not related to the conant ones, sadly).

happy birthday!

2. bu hao chi. the team and i went to beijing and tianjin for work a couple weeks ago. here are some shots from the famous wangfujing snack street! these things are crazy but i never saw a single person eating them...except the two bros on a college trip daring each other to eat one (never actually saw the consumption).

seahorse

starfish

large scorpions

roast pigeon?

 2 1/2. hao chi. on same beijing trip, we had a team dinner at da dong. after they skillfully carve your duck in front of you, the first bite you must eat is the skin dipped in some sugar. oh baby.

i will die for you

3. hao chi (well...hai keyi). in other, more delicious, news, some girls and i had brunch at a new place called Henkes. sub par service and pricey prices (just like the rest of the reel mall sans my one and only, reel kitchen) but the breakfast pizza was certainly a novel creation. regular pizza tastiness with pancetta and two cracked eggs. aside from the ubiquitous 'i wish bacon was crispier in china/why isn't it crispier in china/pork is everywhere can't you cook it a little longer' underlying feeling with every non-chinese meal, a cracked egg (or two) on pizza shall never be underestimated.

what's not to like?

 4. hao kan! dong tian lai le! winter is here! and it was time to get my shop on. to the left in that big ikea bag are my summer clothing donations and the line up of shopping bags that i'm gracefully trying to cover encompass my new winter wardrobe. including this fancy outfit...head to toe fuzzy. gap body pullover, fuzzy uniqlo leggings (yes like legit fuzzy) and uniqlo fuzzy house slippers. i hope it gets cold enough to wear this outfit because the last two nights i've been sweating my ass off in this. ha!

dong tian!

 5. HAO CHI! last but certainly not least. ive been on a cooking rant...(if three times makes a rant) and dessert surely counts! just like these saturday night s'mores i made in the handy dandy, gloriously global tool that rarely lets you down - yes, the microwave. ladies and gentleman, it's a smore. in china. [queue chorus] oohhh happpyy ddayyyyy. gooey milk chocolate, honey graham cracker and one air fluffed marshmallow. "eat me eat me" says the smore. i obliged.

my next post will be dedicated to my favorite holiday (except for all holidays involving gifts+parties) THANKSGIVING! 

longest post ever.

i'm bacckkk. what up.

you might call this long, is-she-still-alive hiatus unjustified and just plain inconsiderate. then you might recall that if i'm not blogging, i'm actually too busy frolicking the world to boast about it. and then you might sigh in relief that there is no update for you to read and be jealous of.

but i'm back. traveling and working and eating as much as i do takes its toll. thus i will condense the past 4 weeks of amazing discoveries and reunions to merely one really long blog post. :) 

1. laos

seriously underrated and i'm obsessed. the slow-paced, low-story, small-street city of vientiane was an instant refresher to the shanghai hustle and bustle. our cute boutique hotel, conveniently plopped in the middle of the quaint streets of this walking city, was the perfect oasis for a few nights and our complimentary breakfast and mosquito repellent definitely added memorable value. 

five words to describe laos: spiritual, unpretentious, delicious, relaxed and easy. 

five of the best things of laos: coconut biscuits (#1-3), laos coffee (e.g. wok roasted with condensed milk), mekong river fried fish

here are some fantastic pics courtesy of mr. wang:

 monks walking for evening prayer at the temple

small city streets

that mekong river fish nom nom nom

delicious food: roasted pigeon

all things coconut

kayaking in picturesque vang vieng

last meal: coconut sticky rice with mango

2. maui 

hard to say enough about maui so i'll just tell it with photos. aka it's almost 10 pm and i'm really tired. but yes, here are the highlights.

food
ziplining
sunrise at haleakala
road to hana
mama's fish house
eating it from some 2-3 foot waves
jaws (where the waves are 20 feet and surfers drop in from helicopter!)
breakfast buffet
pool bar and virgin pina coladas
spf 80
sea turtles
poke
waterfall hopping
da kitchen

five of the best things of maui: fish, fish with butter, sunrises and sunsets, macadamia+coconut, road to hana, da kitchen. oh wait, that's six.

we had some damn delicious food in maui but this was a fave. sesame miso glazed fresh catch of the day with caesar side salad. sounds silly. 

but for those of you that know me, i don't finish my food. this was serious. that's how good it was.

sunrise at haleakala

sunset at the hotel

sunset near lahaina

on the road to hana...bootiful!

waterfall numero uno: a nice cool dip

bamboo forest on the way to waterfall #71

which led to this! waterfall 71! amazing.

3. back to ny and the love is palpable. first stop, shwe's engagement partay!

shwe's happy day!! miss you devsies!

miss alex and annie 

(creepy) elmo

j chiang!

mr and mrs carlson! :O

great to see ted allen again...been awhile since my last episode of chopped ;)

small aside regarding the last pic...my sister has the coolest gig ever and writes the blog for the degustibus cooking school. which means i get the best perks ever! got to sit in on this cooking class and met ted and his man later. can't wait for your china visit guys! haha. if you live in ny or are in ny for a bit of time, you should absolutely check out the degustibus school for a fine fine 5 course meal, extensive cooking lessons and shooting the shit with some of the best chefs around.
https://degustibusnyc.nlcommerce.com/blog

OK so that's it. if you made it this far, i appreciate your loyalty and boredom. all in all a very very successful few weeks of traveling and food and eats and family and fun. what more can i ask for?

also check out hao's blog because it's way better than mine and way more thoughtful!!!!
http://houseofhaos.com/

this week: hao's birthday takes us to scarpetta (nom nom nom) and then hong kong for the weekend. im sure blog worthy things shall arise from said occasion.

off to nurture my food-baby! 

goga chowdown

bittersweet occasion of sophia leaving calls for one thing and one thing only. FEAST. ok our lives have been seamlessly full of feasting but tonight was certainly no exception. sophia's last night in town, we had to do it delicious and appropo. aka goga - golden gate bridge style with SF chef brad something or another's tiny concoction of fresh, intellectually concocted dishes. yes i'm tipsy from the 3 glasses of wine we had.

first a lobster roll...which i neglected to take a photo of because of the monster in my stomach that forced my hands to go straight for the buttery crispy roll rather than my iphone.

i might have coerced sophia to order the duck confit salad - mixed greens, onions, caramel pecans, apples, etc etc etc with a beet sherry vinagrette. but i think eventually she was into it :)

then comes the special of the night - grilled salmon with wasabi vinagrette (read sinus killer) and delicious crunchy shenanigans. like...bring your tissues an buckle up because this shit is delicious.

finally after complimentary pours of our glass o vino, our miso black cod arrived. it tasted much different than it looked...rich, miso-y and buttery. unfortunately we wanted to die from how much we already devoured so this was a tough swallow...literally. but so delicious if i had that empty stomach. any day now...

all in all a great last night with sophia over a memorable california-china inspired meal.

shout out to tony for a great night!

LOVE YOU SOPHIA!

tomorrow morning (like early morning) off to laos for golden week. staying off the radar to enjoy the bliss of lowkey vacay!!!! cant wait!

montage anyone?

well first let's get the food out of the way.

this week was an epic epic week. i acquired...a crockpot. amazing. well amazing for the one thing i know how to make in a crockpot, pulled pork. so last friday we feasted on a tasty pulled pork sammy with some homemade coleslaw.

this past weekend has been bittersweet. it was the last weekend two of my besties were in shanghai - sophia and fanny. they've been great friends to me here in the shang and we had a great time together the past few months. so this post is dedicated to them! at their separate but equal going away parties, we took to the camera, and had a little photo opp. everyone knows i enjoy the camera so i was prepared to make a fool.

fanny and i were pretty tame...minus the 4 other photos that either a. were inappropriate to post or b. she who shall be unnamed coughbernicecough deleted them for unknown reasons.

typically i like to play the 'adjective' game but most people don't respond to that. so now most typical tactic is 'smile', 'pout', 'pretend like something hilarious just happened'

but with hao, things aren't so simple...

here we got all dolled up for a cocktail/dinner progressive. the iphone self camera comes in handy here when one needs to photo themself eating, shopping, reading and/or sleeping and then naturally post on weibo. but we were able to snag these schnazzy ones exclusively for this post! ha.

in 1 week, we're off to laos and then hawaii and ny. so lucky. next post shall feature my new wares from recent trips to qipu lu, fabric market and taobao market. fall is in the air!!!