2012 and 2013

2012 Review
-Visited Taiwan and met Andrew's family. They are just the sweetest people. We ate until we could take no more. Taiwan has so much to offer, especially for your taste buds!
-Eating Clean(er) and exercising more. It hasn't been consistent but it's a start. I am definitely more educated on it and am more conscious of it. This is something I will always be working on.
-Purchased our first home and living together. I absolutely adore our apartment and our neighborhood. I could not have asked for anything better. This truly is our dream home in NYC.
-Upgrade to iPhone5. Seriously, a good smartphone is a life changer. It has helped me manage my personal life better and I have been taking more pictures, which was one of my goals for 2012.
-Promotion at work. Well, this one was quite unexpected. Nevertheless, I am really happy to be able to celebrate this accomplishment.

2013 Resolutions
-Health
     -Run a half-marathon (target for May 2013 with 3 month training)
     -Tone: use weights/toning videos (i.e., blogilates)
     -Always eat breakfast
     -Take daily vitamins
     -Drink lots of water
     -Avoid fried foods and sugary beverages as much as possible
     -Do not eat 3 hours before bed
     -Eat clean
     -Vegetarian 1x/week
     -Meal plan
-Home
     -Cook more: try a new baking and new entree recipe every month
     -Enjoy our home
          -clean more
 -Relationships
     -Shop for the ring
     -Spend more time with good friends:
         -dinner parties, but keep them small (4 ppl max at once)
         -game nights
     -Adopt a dog (?)
-Travel
     -International trip 2x this year: South America and Hawaii on top of list
     -Weekend trips: 
          Winter: Skiing
          Spring: Delaware
          Summer: Lake George, Cape Cod
          Fall: Maine
-Finances
     -Create and manage a monthly budget
-Career
      -Continue to identify dream job

Mid July Update

First of all, where did summer go? I mean it's not over but it's definitely flying by. However, I can certainly use a break from this insane heat wave and move onto my favorite Fall season...

We've had 2 consecutive refreshing and productive weekends so far in July which is always a good thing worth blogging in my book!

Last Friday, Christine, Diana, and I went to a zumba class in Midtown prior to heading uptown to Harlem for some Dinosaur BBQ. We order green tomatoes, shrimp, and their famous wings to share as appetizers. For our main course, we order a family meal that consisted of ribs, lean brisket, a whole chicken, with sides of mac & cheese, fried rice, cornbread, and salt potatoes. We also order 2 pulled pork sliders for a party of 6 to share. My favorite were the fried green tomatoes, salt potatoes, and wings. I think the moist brisket over at Hill Country BBQ beats Dinosaur's lean brisket any day, but then again, that's not a fair comparison since Hill Country also has a lean brisket (called regular) that is comparable to that of Dinosaur's. On Saturday, I did some yoga with Diana to burn off that ginormous meal overnight. Dinner on Saturday was a brisk walk over to Jack's bistro and a movie from Blockbuster express: Sherlock Homes 2. We watch too much TV. Sunday, Andrew and I stopped by Sleepy's and got sold hard by the chatty salesman and later regretted making a deposit so soon, but they have a good refund/price match policy so we are not overly concerned. We later met with Josie, Jin, and Benny for some cookies that Josie has been raving about over at Levain Bakery in the UWS. The cookie was just how I usually like my cookies - thick and gooey. We watched Ted after which I completely loved - I can always appreciate some light humor. We did some more furniture shopping after and called it a nice long weekend. We find that weekends feel extended when you do something subtantial or go out on Friday night!

Andrew and I had our coop board interview on Thursday which we thought we went well. We should hear back on the final board approval early this coming week. Can't wait to schedule closing! Cross my fingers!

This weekend, I joined Diana for some intense yoga after work. I was sweating like it was hot yoga; to be fair, the room was definitely a lot more humid and warm than most other yoga vida classes. I went back to Andrew's and we went to grab some ramen at Ramen Takumi. I actually like this ramen spot, it's no Totto, but to me, ramen is ramen unless it's really bad. I can't really tell good ramen from great ramen. Maybe it's all the salt. After dinner, we grabbed some ice cream from the Van Leeuwen truck parked across the street and got the earl grey tea ice cream. Andrew fell in love with it and said it's one of the best ice creams he's ever had. And trust me when I say the guy has had a lot of ice cream in his lifetime lol. We passed by a movie theater at Union Square and decided we should finally see Avengers. He's been wanting to see it for a while and what better time now when no one's fighting us for seats! We saw it in 3D and I personally think these movies are the best for paying the extra $$$ for 3D. It was also BOGO for Visa Signature cardholders since it was Friday - score!

Saturday, Andrew missed his basketball routine and I missed my yoga routine. Oh well! We substituted some physical exercise with some kickass brunch at Maharlika for filipino food. Diana and I noticed this name at the Googa Mooga event and she had since came to the restaurant and loved it. The staff was attentive and super friendly. She took the time to explain the menu to us as well as introduce us to the condiments and how they're used with the food. We ordered the chicken and waffles to share and the pig ear, snout, cheek, belly sizzling platter with garlic rice to share. The waffle was simply out of this world, so moist and unique being that it was made with taro. Agree with Diana, chicken was well fried and tasty. The pig dish was also delish. Andrew actually preferred this one over the chicken and waffles. There was so much texture going on in this dish that it really was interesting to eat bite after bite. I loved pairing this with the vinegar they recommended as the acidity really cut through the pork nicely. The garlic rice was good too - I think I will attempt to make my own version some day by frying up some minced garlic and just mixing it in with white rice.

After brunch, we passed by abraco and remember we loved their olive oil cake and coffee last time and decided to pick some up since we were here anyway! I love walking around the city with an ice coffee equipped at hand :) We ran some errands and window shopped at a few furniture places along SOHO. We tried to price shop at 2 Sleepy's again but that didn't work out as nicely as we imagined. We are just the worst bargainers.

Andrew wanted to meet up with his friend, Mike for some kayaking so we went home quickly to change and took a cab over to W56th on the Hudson for some free kayaking. It was surprisingly no hassle and a lot of fun! The Hudson did gross me out a bit but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The day wasn't hot and since we went around 5pm, the sun was just cooling down. It really was a great recommendation by Mike. The staff was helpful and patient. I would definitely come back. We had plans to meet up again for dinner after going our separate ways to shower and change for the evening. Andrew and I took the subway down and did more window furniture shopping around 5th Ave before heading home to shower and change. We had dinner with Mike and Mayer at 5 Napkin in Union Square and I ordered a grilled shrimp salad. It was light and refreshing. Dave came to meet us and we headed over to Sing Sing at St. Marks for some karaoke.

Sunday, Andrew and I headed over to Carroll Gardens (painfully since it was hot and humid and the F train wasn't running so we walked over 40 mins to get there!) to have brunch with Josie and Jin at Buttermilk Channel. This place is simply awesome. Everything was delicious.

Googa Mooga

Saturday, May 19

Diana and I had volunteered via CleanVibes for the Googa Mooga event. I didn't actually realize that not only had we signed ourselves up for CLEANING, but we also had to put down a $55 deposit to "hold our volunteer" spot. Stupid. Makes no sense in my opinion. Why do I have to pay to volunteer? Upon completion, our $50 of the $55 deposit is refunded and we get $50 worth of food vouchers for the event. For 4 hours of HARD labor, it is totally NOT worth it. Diana may feel otherwise...

In any case, I just kind of want to block the painful memory and jump right into what I did enjoy about the first time ever held Great Googa Mooga food festival. We started getting food around 6pm and we were both starving by that time. Diana had her eye on trying M. Wells' Bologna Foie Gras Grilled Cheese. It was DELICIOUS! Definitely one of my favorite, if not my favorite of everything we tried (total of 10 items). The foie gras was so rich and the bread was nice and toasty. YUM!

M. Wells // Bologna Foie Gras Grilled Cheese

We were not happy about the volunteer experience...

This was how we felt x 500000

Next up, we got on a pretty long ling for the Burger Joint. I've always wanted to go check this place out which is actually at the Le Parker Meridien Hotel, but never had the chance to trek all the way there. The burger was standard, nothing special about it. 

Burger Joint // The Works Burger with everything

Following the burger, we went to get some nachos at Calexico. They were supposedly serving Roasted Corn nachos but by the time we got them, they ran out of corn and was serving guacamole in lieu of the corn. I ain't complaining :) The Nachos were, well, nachos, no differentiation whatsoever.

Calexico // Guacamole nachos

Next, we had this bombass Phillipino "hotdog" at Maharlika. We actually had no intention and had never heard of this vendor but decided to give it a try because there was no lines/wait (that was a huge risk to take since every stand had long long lines). High risk, high reward - the hotdog was amazing. Diana loved it and said it was her favorite food at the festival. It had so much flavor: salty, spicy, sweet, you name it. I liked it a lot as well, definitely on the top of my list. I only wish that they did something with the bun, they could have easily toasted it to make it THAT much better as a whole. 

Maharlika // (nameless) Hotdog

Taking a break from all the food, this was a picture of what part of the event looked like, mainly the stage. It was so packed. People brought blankets and just chilled. Loved the concept, but I really hate (crowds of) people. Eeeek! 

Stage @ Googa Mooga

The Roots performing

We were thirsty after having a decent amount of food and I finally got to try kombucha! I'm so glad Diana spotted it and got us a cup. It was soooooo delicious; I didn't think I would like it so much. I first learned about the drink from Blogilates, and didn't really set my heart out to try it, but Diana ordered it for me to try and it was a total hit! Delicious and healthy - works for me! 

Macarons // Kombucha

We got some macarons: salted caramel, pistachio, and passion fruit. Our favorite was the passion fruit, but I've definitely had better (i.e., at Per Se - can't believe I didn't finish them there!! Should have brought them home in hindsight!).

Macarons

Diana ventured out to get a ginger milkshake from Momofuku while I waited in line for some smoked meat. She literally inhaled the milkshake. I'm not a big ginger fan so I took a sip and passed. I'm glad Diana really enjoyed it, we both got lucky on the drinks :). Diana said she had some really good smoked meat once and wanted us to try it. They ran out of bread for their sandwich (eeerf? Don't call it a sandwich then...and reduce the price! They did neither). We got about 6 slices of meat for what? was it $7? It was salty.....and salty. The bread would have really helped.

Mile End // Smoked Meat

A view of what the food stands looked like. They were scattered in groups all around the park.

Red Rooster was here! Holla!

Diana's obsessed with cheese so of course we had to get a second grilled cheese sandwich. This one looked promising but did not meet our expectations. The cheese was not melted enough. I guess that's what happens when you have a long time of hungry customers...

Little Muenster // Grilled Cheese

Last but not least, we finished off the night with 2 orders of some awesome wings from Blue Ribbon. I didn't even know they made wings; I always thought it was a sushi place. The skin/batter was super crunchy and it was seasoned with lots of paprika and drizzled with honey. The honey was definitely a really nice twist. The meat itself could have used more marinade/flavor but the super crunchy shell made up for it. Delicious!!  Since we got 2 orders, Diana and I could not finish it and after we left Prospect Park after nibbling on these wings, I delivered the leftovers to Andrew at his office as he happened to be working over the weekend.

Overall, I thought Googa Mooga was pretty successful. Many vendors ran out of food 3/4 of the way in, so that definitely was a let down; better planning would have helped. I wish we did not sign up for CleanVibes and wasted half the day "working". It was a hot sunny day and it would have been very enjoyable just laying on the grass.

After I met up with Andrew for a bit, I headed over to Josie's cousin-to-be, Jaz's, apartment over at NYU and got ready for Betty's promotion and Jaz's graduation celebration. We went to the Park in Chelsea and waited on line for a good hour. We took 2 shots of soco lime (pretty yum) and a cocktail. I stayed till about 2am and Andrew came to pick me up as he got out of work and we cabbed it back to his apartment.

Clambake Party!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Josie, Jin, and I started off our day with a quick run at Prospect Park for about an hour. We went slow as it was hot, sunny, and humid outside. I think we ran a little under 2 miles. Anything is good when you know you have a long day of eating and drinking ahead! After our run, we went back to Jin's apartment to shower and hopped across the street to Giovanni's Brooklyn Eats for brunch. The restaurant was adorable and offered a great menu with 2 courses and unlimited mimosas/bloody marys for a whopping $17.

Unlimited mimosa's at Giovanni's Brooklyn Eats Brunch - deeelish. One of the better mimosa's I've had

Josie's choices left; Mine right (Top: Antipasti, Bottom: Secondi)

Going clockwise with top right: 

roasted beet, walnuts, and goat cheese salad

"Uovo al forno" - oven baked egg over polenta, tomato, & ricotta cheese

"Double eggplant - baked eggplantparmesan topped with a fried egg

prosciutto and melon

The food and atmosphere here was super. I would definietly come back. Per Jin, it's a relatively new establishment so it's still a "hidden gem". No waits and amazing home cooked style food. 

After brunch, we went to pick up groceries and Lena, Jeff, and Betty shortly arrived. Jeff was the executive chef for our party. He whipped up some AWESOME lobster rolls from scratch. Now, I'm not a lobster fan, but these were incredible.

 2 flavors: half garlic butter (served hot), other half mayo and celery (served chilled). Both were equally amazing!!! Great job Jeff - we are more than impressed :)

Betty made some bangin' guacamole

And the clambake begins....first a layer of chorizo...

then some potatoes...and clams and mussels

then some corn...

then some killing...i mean lobsters, fresh.

Jeff also made his special meatloaf

with some wicked good sauce

Lobsters are out!

and the corn!

clams, mussels, potatoes are out

the goodness...

I made a healthy salad that didn't get much attention due to Jeff's amazing main courses :P

de-shelling to get all the good stuff out. Jin, take it easy! lol

the juicy heads for Jeff and Lena

Clambake party = SUCCESS!!

Healthy and refreshing desserts :)

Food was amazing, some drinks, awesome company, and lots of laughs and fun! Congrats to Betty and Jeff for being board game champions - you guys are adorable. Also, a big big thank you to Jeff for doing majority of the preparation and cooking, and Jin for hosting it!

Hope you all had a great start to the Memorial weekend! Hellooooooo summer :)

Feeling healthy and productive

Today was the perfect weekday! I haven't felt this good (physically and mentally) in a long while.

I started to Eat Clean since Sunday. It's been pretty manageable. I think this "diet" may actually work for me because it's not really a diet, but more of a lifestyle to eat better by consuming wholesome foods at regular intervals to keep up the metabolism. I bought the Tosca Reno book on Eating Clean, but still have to finish reading it. I like that there's lots of pictures and recipes :P

So back to why today was so productive - it was mainly because I had a really good workout today with my new personal trainer, Diana Yang. She's a pusher and I love it. To jump to the point, we started running from Andrew's apt at 24th and 3rd, down 2nd Ave to Houston (near Chinatown) and back! And then we went to a 9pm yoga class at Yoga Vida Union Square (I decided to purchase a 10 class package because I actually really love this yoga studio). Talk about a good workout! My personal trainer took note that we ran 2.66 miles in total - ran 1 mile downtown nonstop, walked for a bit, and then ran 1 mile nonstop back uptown. It was awesome! I need more of these kind of days.

Overall, I had a really productive day. I woke up early to cook myself oatmeal and eggs before leaving the house for work. On my commute in, I managed to not nap on the train and read my Tosca Reno book for a bit. Work was productive and slow (which I don't mind) and we heard back from our loan officer that our mortgage applications were ready for us to review and sign. I ate pretty consistently today, about every 3 hours or so. After work, I met up with Diana at 7pm at for our aforementioned workout. I randomly bumped into my cousin Peter, as I was walking back from yoga class at Union Square. By then it was a little after 10, and he came to over for a bit to check out the apt and catch up. It was perfect timing as Andrew just got back from basketball. I ate 2 egg whites for dinner as there really was nothing to eat and showered after. I was on a role, because I still managed to organize my "closet" at Andrew's that's been a complete mess since forever and I've bee wanting to just pull everything out and organize it. Andrew said he was hungry so I quickly whipped up some pasta for him (while I was drooling over it, but no simple carbs! Especially after 11pm!). 

What a good day. *happy sigh* Oh, AND I blogged.

Thanks for the great workout Diana! <3

The Apartment

I wanted to save and share some photos of the co-op apartment Andrew and I are purchasing around the Gramercy/Flatiron/Kips Bay area in Manhattan, New York. We started apartment hunting the beginning of this year. In the beginning, going to open houses was fun and interesting, but by the time we saw 40-50 places, the excitement dissipated. Everything started to look the same and only the ones we liked stuck with us. We (and by we I really mean, I) found this apartment on Streeteasy and saw it at an open house hosted by the seller's friends. We automatically fell in love. However, we still continued our search as the price was slightly out of our budget. We found that we kept comparing everything else to this one. And after a few weeks of continuous search, we realized this apartment was the one and we can totally see our lives in it. Below are some photos from marketing:

 Entering into the foyer and overlooking living room

 Living area

 Dining area to the right of the foyer

 Compact Kitchen with small breakfast bar

 Oversized bedroom

 Bedroom again

Walk in closet <3

Bathroom

And a terrace! Can you believe it? It's huge - about 100 sq ft

Obviously the place will look a lot different with our own furniture and decor but I love how we don't really have to update or fix anything. It's in mint condition and we pretty much just have to bring a pillow and toothbrush!

We signed contracts last Wednesday and sellers signed over the weekend. By Monday, we were officially in contract! On Tuesday, I got an email update from Streeteasy (I have an account and had saved our apartment in one of the folders) indicating that this apartment was "In Contract". I had the biggest smile and had to forward it to Andrew. It was really happening...

Streeteasy: In Contract! (Sorry, had to blur out the private info!)

Everything felt pretty surreal, but it's slowly starting to sink in. I can't believe we're actually buying an apartment. Together. In the city. I'm really excited, but also scared at the same time, as this all comes at a hefty price tag. But we believe it will be worth it - I can't wait!

Reflections: Titanic, Wall St, and Climate Change

Titanic, Wall Street, and Climate Change? What do these 3 things have anything to do with each other?

So Andrew and I recently watched "The Titanic: The Final Word" by James Cameron on NatGeo. With the 100 year anniversary upon us, there has been much talk about the tragedy of the Titanic, including the release of the new Titanic movie. What really hit home for me was the last 2 minutes of the video documentary where James Cameron eloquently delivers his analogy on the Titanic with Wall Street and with our next crisis, climate change. I cannot agree more with his take on this. The transcript is below - the message really sent a chill down my spine and saddens me that this is, in fact, the reality we live in...

There's something about the Titanic. For me, it's so much more than just simply an exercise in forensic archeology. Part of the Titanic parable is of arrogance, of hubris, of the sense that we’re too big to fail. Well, where have we heard that one before?

There was this big machine, this human system that was pushing forward with so much momentum that it couldn’t turn, it couldn’t stop in time to avert a disaster. And that’s what we have right now.

Within that human system on board that ship, if you want to make it a microcosm of the world, you have different classes: you’ve got first class, second class, third class. In our world right now you’ve got developed nations, undeveloped nations.

You’ve got the starving millions who are going to be the ones most affected by the next iceberg that we hit, which is going to be climate change. We can see that iceberg ahead of us right now, but we can’t turn.

We can’t turn because of the momentum of the system, the political momentum, the business momentum. There too many people making money out of the system, the way the system works right now and those people frankly have their hands on the levers of power and aren’t ready to let them go.

Until they do, we will not be able to turn to miss that iceberg and we’re going to hit it, and when we hit it, the rich are still going to be able to get their access to food, to arable land, to water and so on. It’s going to be poor, it’s going to be the steerage that are going to be impacted. It’s the same with Titanic.

I think that’s why this story will always fascinate people. Because it’s a perfect little encapsulation of the world, and all social spectra, but until our lives are really put at risk, the moment of truth, we don’t know what we would do. And that’s my final word.

-James Cameron

Taiwan: TSMC & NYC (Day 10)

February 20, 2012

On our final day in Taiwan (Monday), we had most of the day there since our flight wasn't until the evening. We woke up and took a taxi to Andrew's dad's office, TSMC. He gave us a tour of the office building to show us where he spends most of his time in Taiwan (sadly, working too much!).

Andrew and dad in front of TSMC

TSMC Headquarters

After visiting the office, we had time for lunch before we had to go back and grab our luggage and head to the airport. We originally wanted to try a famous shop for beef noodle soup but unfortunately the shop was closed when we got there via shuttle bus. We ended up going with option #2, lunch buffet at Ambassador Hotel. The food was okay, pretty good for buffet but I think by now, I was pretty tired of the whole unlimited quantity concept.

Specially ordered ribs at buffet

Dessert

Lunch buffet

After lunch, we headed back to the apartment and picked up our luggage and headed for the airport. I was pretty ready to come back, as I definitely had intense food overload over the past 10 days - felt like I gained 4000 lbs. The plane ride back was miserable as this baby kept crying and its fob parents took and had no control over them - so inconsiderate.

Overall, it was an awesome trip - there sure is a lot to eat and everything was phenomenal. Super thankful for Andrew's family and Diana for taking us around. It was wonderful meeting Andrew's family!