California eatings, 2012

I’ve been very naughty about updating my blog but I was too busy eating. (Obviously.)

November, when I went back to SGV for Thanksgiving, now feels like ages ago. My brother and his GF were in town for a week. They ate about five meals a day and one night I joined them, where we ate at four places in 2 hours: Don the Beachcomber for cocktails and pu pu platters, banh cuon in Westminster, chicken fried steak at Twoheys and one last place that I’ve now purged from memory.

It wasn’t until Christmas when I was able to have a decent appetite again. To be honest, it put me off food for a while. My stomach seemed to have been suffering a permanent fullness from Thanksgiving up unit about mid-December.

And dim sum. What is Chinese people’s obsession with dim sum? Being away for some time, the first thing relatives and my parents’ friends would want to do with me was take me for ‘yum cha.’ Then the first thing they would say when we’d sit down to dim sum was, “You can’t find this in London” or “You’ve lost weight because the food isn’t any good in London” or some kind of variation of that. Then I’d have to respond politely, yes there is dim sum in London but no it isn’t nearly as good as it is in LA (I think it would upset them to say that dim sum in SGV isn’t the best).

But it wasn’t dim sum that I missed the most about being away. I missed road trips, so I took one in January.

 

Thanksgiving weekend report

I’m back in Southern California through the winter. For that, I’m thankful.

I’m feeling overwhelmed by food lately. I haven’t been wanting to eat so much lately, let alone write about it all the time. But here’s a quick rundown about the weekend anyway.

This was my family’s hugest feast yet — 50 guests, three tables of food. I’ll post a photo up in the near future.

My parents have been hosting Thanksgiving for a while now but it’s the kids who cook. We have a system. My brother cooks the proteins, my sister makes the desserts and I  make the sides. The guests end up bringing other things, including things from my cousin’s restaurant so we have Chinese food next to the turkey and the green bean casserole.

 

This is London, Part II

I hadn’t seen Sean in almost a year and the first thing I say when I see him in London is, “What are we eating?”

It was only logical for me to start my first meal in London with a classic English fry-up. I saw them everywhere, from the dingy corner dives to posh, trendy eateries. It must be the national dish or the collective comfort food of an entire country.

There are aspects in life where surprises can’t be tolerated. The full breakfast is probably one of them. One can always expect a traditional fry-up with two eggs, sausage, bacon, fried tomatoes, fried mushrooms, beans and toast with a big cup of builder’s tea.

 

Barthelona, me gusta very much

To get a seat at Kiosko Universal at the Boqueria Market, everyone, even Marc Almond of Soft Cell, has to hover over the people eating at the bar, like vultures circling over a wounded animal. It doesn’t feel very civilized, but supposedly that’s what they do in these parts.

Almond, like the rest of us, was in Barcelona for the Primavera Sound festival, but he eventually left before going that far for a seat. Our group was more determined after seeing and smelling this: