I think I went to the OC Fair maybe once? in high school? This was when I learned what the word “boonies” meant. LOL.

Aidan thought this was a GREAT idea

Anyways, Mike and I took the kids to the fair with Bao and Shanielle on Sunday. We had fun. We went around 4pm so it wasn’t too hot for the kids. I think the kids are still too young to enjoy the fair, but things will definitely be different next year.

Because it’s the first question I get when I tell people I went to the fair, here is a list of things we ate and how we felt about them:

Food
1. Foot-long corn dog: Mike was unsatisfied because he kept walking by people whose corn dogs were bigger than his.
2. Deep-fried White Castle burger: Yuck!
3. Marshmallow Yammies: Sweet potato fries with marshmallow sauce. Yum! (Only thing better would have been the yammie funnel cake that Shanielle and I will be selling next year…look for our booth!)
4. Funnel cake: Really can’t go wrong here.
5. Brisket sandwich from Chuck Wagon: Yuck. I had better.
6. Grilled corn: Best thing I ate at the fair. Bao challenged me to live off it since I said I could. LOL.

Highlights:
Just one highlight because it’s so good it trumps the rest:
1. Shanielle getting her head stuck in the photo frame while kids were waiting to take a picture with it.

Tips for next year:
1. Be Asian. Bring your own water because drinks are a rip!
2. Get the turkey leg. This is just a memo for Mike. LOL.
3. Go in the evening. Less crowded and way cooler.

So I just started making my own baby food and oddly enough for somebody who doesn’t cook…it’s kind of fun. I decided to start with sweet potato. (I found all this great information on homemade baby food on WholesomeBabyFood.com)

So I decided to go to Ralph’s to pick up some sweet potatoes. Those who know me knows that I am short on time these days. I preplan all my trips and today was no exception. My plan for the day was: Go to Ralph’s, pick up a few sweet potatoes and go home to my babies. I get to Ralph’s and couldn’t find any sweet potatoes. However, I did find some yams. I thought to myself, “Is sweet potato and yam the same thing?” At this point, my perplexed face signaled the produce guy to ask, “Can I help you?” Since the opportunity came itself, I innocently asked, “Is a sweet potato and a yam the same thing?” He said, “No…we don’t carry sweet potato at this Ralph’s. It’s discontinued.” And he continued on and on about how nobody buys it and it rots.

First of all, I didn’t know you can discontinue a vegetable. Secondly, this guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. After driving across the street to Trader Joe’s to pick up some, I went home and started to bake them. Between baking sweet potatoes, feeding and bathing babies, I found some time to look it up.

Fricken A! Apparently in the US, a sweet potato and a yam is the same. Ugh. What a waste of time when I didn’t have time to waste already!

For Father’s day, I wanted to take Dad and Mike to Xanh Bistro in Fountain Valley, California. I read about it in a OC blog about hidden gems. I continued my research by looking up reviews on Yelp and in all, it did pretty good. I emailed Mom and we made plans to eat here for lunch for Father’s Day.

What makes Xanh Bistro different than any other new Vietnamese joint in Little Saigon? From what I know, this is the first restaurant opened by an actual, trained chef! That’s enough to get Mike very excited.

Chef Haley Nguyen has taught at the Art Institute of Los Angeles in Santa Monica where she created the Asian Culinary curriculum. She has also taught at the Art Institute of Orange County.

We started with the Rice Flake Shrimp appetizer. The shrimps were huge and delicious! It was served with a sweet and tangy plum sauce that was good to eat with just a bowl of white rice. LOL.

Rice Flake Shrimp

Our entrees came out and being that we’re Ngos (plus Mike who eats at the speed of a Ngo now) we dug in THEN remembered after eating half of it to take pictures. Oh well. Everything was delicious. I’m going to list the entrees here from my favorite to my least:

• Cá Chiên xoài xanh / Orange Roughy fillet & green mango
• Đậu hũ rim xả / Sautéed lemongrass tofu
• Mike ordered a fish dish that was their Father’s Day special…it goes here.
• Bò lúc lắc / Sautéed lemongrass beef cubes

For dessert, we ordered two. The bread pudding with tamarind sauce and the sticky rice with mocha mousse covered with a spicy dark chocolate sauce. The sticky rice dessert is so unique and so good. Worth a trip back to get this and the toasted rice soy milk alone!

Toasted rice soy milk – Horchata goes Vietnamese and super delicious!

Sticky rice and mocha mousse with a spicy dark chocolate sauce

Xanh Bistro
16161 Brookhurst St.
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
714-531-2030

Lunch: 11am – 2:30pm
Dinner: 5pm – 10pm
Closed Tuesdays

“Urbanspoon rocks” AND “Hi Kate!” :)

Man, everybody who knows me knows I have an obsession with Sprinkles cupcakes since the day my darling husband stood in line in LA to buy me my first box. Then the best thing happened. Sprinkles opened their first OC location in Newport Beach. Since I’ve been pregnant I wasn’t allowed any sweets (so cruel). I got my first box over the weekend in over a year and I went to town. LOL.

Surprisingly, I did not order my usual stable flavor: Red Velvet. Since I’ve been on hiatus, they came out this Chocolate Marshmallow that I’ve been dying to try! For those of you unfamiliar with this flavor, think Hostess cupcake meets Fancy Shmacy! It was delicious! One of my favorites now. I also ordered a Lemon Ginger. I was surprised they had it on Sunday because I knew this was a Wednesday flavor. (Mike was pretty freaked out that I knew the schedule by heart…hahaha..only the Lemon Ginger because I loved it and it was so hard to stop by on Wednesday to get it.) I describe this one as the moist little spice cake you get in elementary school in November when they served the turkey dinner. Come on! You know what I’m talking about. LOL. And the last flavor was the month’s special: Key Lime. So delicious.

I was very pleased…and now I have to run a mile everyday to burn off 3 cupcakes. Good job, Thi.

It was a Lam/Ngo thanksgiving this year since I’m on bedrest the families decided to come over and have Thanksgiving together. It was really nice but now I’m exhausted. My laptop is being reformatted so I don’t have gallery remote to upload the photos to my gallery. That will have to come later. Here are a few from Picasa:

All the ladies

Grandma love

Of course…the FOOD!

Ex-Smarthomies took me to Din Tai Fung for my 30th birthday. Everything was delicious!

Pictures:

Chaparosa Grille at the District

I went to lunch today at Chaparosa Grille with Debbi, Lisa M and Lawson. Lawson and I shared two dishes (since neither of us can decide on what we let to eat…apparently we both like things “fruity”…hmm). It was pretty hard to decide…check out their lunch menu! They also serve dinner but I haven’t tried it yet.

I ordered the Jamaican Chicken sandwich…it was so delicious. The fried plantains in the sandwich gave it a second level of texture and a sweetness that I love. If you like sweet and savory, this is a sandwich for you (too bad I had to give half of it to Lawson!) Good thing he ordered the Spinach and Mango Salad which was equally delicious. I love fruit in my salad. Lawson did complain about the spinach – mango – chicken ratio, but I thought it was perfect. Both Lisa and Debbi ordered the Roasted Turkey Avocado Melt. This looks really good and since neither lady offered to share, I’m guessing it was delicious as well. The fries (Don’t judge!) were pretty good too. Worth the calories! Hey! They were the skinny fries so they’re not as bad, right? ;)

The District at Tustin Legacy location:
2449 Park Avenue (in front AMC Film Theatre)
Tustin, CA 92782
Jamboree and Barranca
Telephone: 714.259.9888

Everybody knows that I love food, but like other things, I tend to forget all the places I want to visit. So, to help me remember where to get some delicious yum-yums, I decided to start an entry that I will continually update with the places I want to eat at. If anybody has visited any of the places I have listed below, please leave me a comment with how your experience was.

BBQ
—–
Fogo De Chao (http://www.fogodechao.com/) – I saw this Brazilian BBQ place on “Ham on the Street”, a Food Network show. The food looks really good and how can you go wrong with BBQ.

Van, Dennis, David,(Shake..sssshake that @$$, MIKE) and I went to dinner in Rosemead. We saw this place on TV where they serve Polynesian food and a flaming bowl cocktail and we were there! Hahaha. It was fun.

Photo Highlight: Van and her new friend.


Bahooka Family Restaurant
4501 N. Rosemead Blvd.
Rosemead, CA 91770

What a rip! LOL. :-]

It all started in the morning. Lap, Trang, Long & I went to breakfast @ Chester Drawers Omelette Parlor in Newport Beach/Costa Mesa today. It was good & really inexpensive! We then head off to Triangle Square where Long saw Color Me Mine for the first time, Lap made a first discovery & Trang…hmm, let me think about that. Hahaha. Anyways, Color Me Mine was closed so we went to Metropointe & it was opened! Yay! Well, we didn’t know there was a sitting fee so we picked our ceramic pieces & sat down. “By the way, there’s a $9 sitting fee per painter” WHAT?! Too late! hahaha. We had a great time. Lap picked up Aivus and she joined in on the fun. Next time, we’re buying our own stuff & doing it at home! :-]

Chester Drawers Omelette Parlor
179 E 17th St # A