My Year in Food

The road of life is filled with food, family, and friends and I've had plenty of all three so far this year.

I have to warn you all beforehand - this particular post is both pretty disjointed and image heavy. But I've had so much good stuff that I can't really bear to leave anything out 😋

Let's get started!

Carnitas Quesadilla from The Taco Shop @ Underdogs

I began the year with a visit with two important friends. I've made a lot of friends online over the years who have become extremely important to me and it's always a joy and an amazement to actually get to meet with them in the flesh.

Custard Brioche from a Chinese bakery

Of course, spending time with friends means a lot of food. (Not that I'm complaining.)

I got to actually try hot pot for the first time! Somehow I've just never had the chance before? Everything was absolutely delicious and I ate a lot of tteok because I've wanted to try it for so long 💕 This was our chosen spread at Fiery Hot Pot.

Tonkatsu Curry Rice from Kui Shin Bo - because no trip is complete without it. 🍛

We rounded off the visit with Burma Superstar. I've never had Burmese food and I got to take home the extras and enjoy it a second time.

We had:
Fiery Vegetables with Tofu and Coconut Rice (pictured left)

Vegetarian Samusa Soup (bottom left)

Tea Leaf Salad (bottom right)

After returning home, my mom and I set out to make Manti from a recipe a cousin had given us. I love any chance we have to bring more Armenian food into our home and I greatly enjoyed making it.

We made two types of homemade bread sticks to go along with it: za'atar and butter garlic. Delicious 😋

For my birthday, we stopped by Red Robin. I had the Smoke & Pepper burger and was surprised with a birthday ice cream sundae 🍔🍨

But I didn't stop there...

No birthday goes without a homemade dessert - full of love and chocolate 💕

French Pudding Milk Tea from T4

I started off February with boba with friends and ended it with more homemade desserts with my family.

These are chocolate dipped cannoli cupcakes and they are probably my favorite thing in the whole world now 🤤

Starting in March it was time for adventure! I went to visit my sisters in Pennsylvania and new places always means food.

Cheese strudel from The Original Strudel Factory

Farmer Brown burger from Burgatory

Biscuits & Gravy from Barb's Corner Kitchen

One place I frequented quite a lot was Burgatory. I'm typically not as fond of sweet potatoes but their sweet potato chips may have convinced me otherwise. (Please come to California oh my god.)

Steak with chimichurri sauce, garlic butter mashed potatoes, and salad with lime vinigrette

I was also lucky to have the opportunity to have dinner at my sister's house. I don't get to see her often so being able to visit her and her family and have a wonderful home cooked meal at their table felt a little like a blessing. I hope I'll get to see them again soon ❤️

And of course my younger sister insisted that we had to make a visit to Piper's Pub for Fish and Chips and her new favorite: Scotch Eggs.

Then it was back home to California for more exploits in homemade food.

Here's our curiously flat bread and our homemade butter!

And here we have my first experiment with replicating cinnamon honey butter. I didn't quote nail it but on a piece of pain au lait it definitely hit the spot.

Coxinha from Tempero do Samba

One of my favorite things about any city is getting the chance to visit the farmer's market. There just so happened to be a Brazilian stall one weekend and I had my first taste of Brazilian food - delicious! (And huge!)

Carne Asada Breakfast Burrito from The Taco Shop @ Underdogs

...back to SF means back to The Taco Shop! (It's a nice breakfast stop because it keeps me full all day. These burritos are real big.)

Now, to explain this, I'll have to tell a little story: I've seen Texas toast before and every time I did, I would always want to try it. Well, we just so happened to find thick cut white bread at the grocery story. But did we make Texas toast with it? No - we decided to try out French toast instead.

This was a fantastic idea.

Our French toast came out soft and melty and creamy and I'm telling you now that there's no other way I'm going to each French toast again.

The beach is synonymous with a lot of things for me but when I think about my family and the beach, I think of Morro Bay. And Morro Bay means fish and chips above the water, looking out at Morro rock. Each year we're sure to take a trip out for dinner at Giovanni's and it's absolutely one of the things I look forward to when we go.

During a quick train trip to LA, this cranberry apple tea kept me company.

Thai tea from Thai Cuisine II

You wouldn't know it just from this photo, but this was the night my best friend graduated. Afterwards, we all went out to dinner to celebrate 🎉

Kit-Kat gelato from Aldo's

Summer = hot = cool treats. It all adds up. So when I saw a kit-kat gelato, I had to get it in honor of my new kitten, KitKat.

I had no choice, right?

Well, either way, it was delicious and made the walk worth it.

Strawberry peach smoothie from Barista's

I typically tend to stay away from coffee shops because unfortunately - shock of all shocks - I don't actually like coffee. But when there's smoothies on the menu? Well, that's another story!

Chocolate Blast from Baskin Robbins

I mentioned it before right? Hanging out with friends means eating a lot. After a rousing round of bowling, we congratulated our abysmal skills with a stop for ice cream.

(Clockwise starting from top right: ) Double chocolate, Vanilla, Lemon Cheesecake Wafer, and Twix

And finally, to round off August, we picked up some cupcakes from a local bakery for my mom's birthday ♡

A lot of things have happened so far this year and I'm braced for what the rest of this year, as well as next year, brings for me. But through everything, I'm trying to keep my chin up and I know that I've got my family and friends to help keep me afloat. And, no matter what, a meal with someone who loves you can do wonders for the soul.

Have a lovely day, everyone ♡

Summer Roundup

With today marking the last day of summer, it's time to leave the bright blue skies and searing heat behind us and reach forward into the fall. Long time no see, everyone! My summer months were filled with a flurry of activity that I thought would be interesting to look back on as we bid goodbye to the heat and welcome the chill of autumn.

I rounded off May by making a trip out to see the Monet exhibit that was shown at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. The gallery was packed to the brim with paintings as well as with people, and we were greeted with a larger than life two-part Luncheon on the Grass (not pictured here). I feel like that really set the tone for the entire exhibit, powering home the point of seeing the work of Claude Monet right before your very eyes. 

Rather than giving a whole spiel about the exhibit, the work, or my thoughts, I'd rather just showcase some of my favorite artworks that were displayed.

The Wooden Bridge (1872), Oil on canvas

La Porte d'Amont, Étretat (ca. 188-1869), Oil on canvas

Towing of a Boat at Honfleur (1864), Oil on canvas

The Port of Zaandam (1871), Oil on canvas

Hyde Park (1871), Oil on canvas

Grainstacks at Chailly at Sunrise (1865), Oil on canvas

Green Park (1871), Oil on canvas

The Seine at Bougival (1869), Oil on canvas

In June I joined a few friends in picking apricots. The tree was absolutely filled with them and by the time we were done, tired and laden with more apricots than we knew how to handle, it looked as if we hadn't even started. Well, there's always next year!

With several gallon bags of apricots at my disposal, I did the only thing I could think of - I made jam. Lots of jam. Despite having made it several months ago, I'm still making my way through the jars we filled (and loving every minute of it). This was my first time making jam and there was something kind of magical feeling about contributing to the process. Picking the fruit, boiling the jars, cutting everything up, stirring, watching, waiting, and - finally - filling the jars. I didn't grow the apricots myself but making the jam sure made me want to!

I've never been much of a jam person, myself, but this jam may have just changed my mind; the apricots were already sweet and flavorful but this batch of jam was something else! I still have two more jars of it left and I can't wait to crack them open.

Come July, I was ready for a trip to the beach. The coastal temperature was a much needed respite from the 100°+ heat and the ocean is always a welcome comfort.

I don't have much to say about this trip. I love the beach. The ocean in general will always be one of my favorite places to visit but Morro Bay and the surrounding areas definitely hold a special place in my heart. As cliche as it may sound, my heart is always at peace there.

As August arrived, the sun began setting earlier. Sunsets, while beautiful, aren't often the scene behind my lens. But when the sky erupts in fire, the light screaming beyond the clouds, you can bet that I'll be there.

By mid month, I was eagerly awaiting the return of my sister back to the states. Cue a trip to the airport and the beautiful hotel we stayed at!

September crept in quietly. The air is colder now, the light streaming in through the windows redder as I walk down the hall after dinner. I'm ready for fall.

And as comforting as the weather and atmosphere of the month is, I can't leave out these two! I got the chance to dog-sit for a friend and spent a quiet evening with these sweet dogs. ♡

To round it all off, recently we've started our own windowsill garden. On the 19th (left) we added the second stalk and in two days (above) it had already sprouted this much! I look forward to watching their growth.
 

All in all, it was a very busy summer for me. Autumn is perhaps my favorite time of the year, though, and I'm ready for the changing leaves and not drowning in the sweltering heat. I have many plans to fill out the rest of the year and I'm excited for the time that I'll now have to spend on them - and it helps that Halloween is just around the corner as well!

Adventures Abound (Part 2)

Coming right off of my trip to Universal Studios to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, in April I stopped by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art! My main reason for visiting the SFMoMA was to see the exhibit "diane arbus: in the beginning". Photography was (perhaps somewhat ironically) banned for this exhibit, so I have no photos to share of her work; but that wasn't the only exhibit I saw.

It should come as no surprise to almost everyone that one of my favorite things to see was the Living Wall.

This was my first time visiting the SFMoMA since it was remodeled and although I didn't take any photos of it (due to the amount of people visiting that day) it's very lovely. You don't have to take my word for it, though - I encourage you to visit for yourself!

Almost immediately upon entering the museum, I was greeted by an enormous structure of wires and mirrors.

Tomás Saraceno: Stillness in Motion — Cloud Cities (2016)

Pictures do not do this installation justice. This is a piece that is best understood by experiencing it yourself and, due to the nature of the artwork, is best experienced with others.

William Kentridge: Bird Catching, Set I (2006)

I really enjoyed these series by Kentridge; recently I've been interested in doing some animal studies and this sort of repeated, haphazard, messy style is exactly the kind of thing I love seeing.

Dan Flavin: untitled (to Barnett Newman) two (1971)

This was the only work by Flavin that I took a photo of, but this particular portion of the gallery was filled with colored fluorescent lights. I've been to several exhibitions that utilize fluorescent or LED lights and there's always something a little fantastical about it.

Antony Gormley: Quantum Cloud VIII (1999)

The really cool thing about this sculpture is that when you walk into the room, you can't tell what it is at all. From most angles, it just seems like a bunch of steel wires. It's not until you begin walking around it and find that perfect angle that everything clicks into place.

Kiki Smith: Lilith (1994)

When I saw this statue perched on the wall I wasn't prepared for what I would see when I went to examine it more closely. I don't know about everyone else, but the eyes definitely made an impact on me.

(Full painting pictured above. Detail of painting pictured right and below.)

Jay DeFeo: The Verónica (1957)

This painting is impressively tall. I can't say that that didn't catch my attention but what I really noticed was the color and movement in it. I absolutely adore this painting and I was so happy to see it because it reminded me a bit of Braque, whose analytical cubist I've loved for years.

And speaking of Braque...

Georges Braque: Nature morte (Violon et compotier); also titled: Still Life (Violin and Candlestick) (1910)

I was delighted to see this! Since I'd studied his paintings back in university, I've wanted to see his paintings in person. I have to say, I was not disappointed in the slightest.

Overall, the trip was wonderful and I'm looking forward to some of the upcoming exhibitions the SFMoMA will be holding. What are some of your favorite exhibitions that you've seen?