Down the Rabbit Hole

We couldn't get enough of Burmese food... so on Memorial Day, the family (including JP, Ate Maddie, and Kuya Allan this time) trooped to Aung MayLika one more time to savour the unique flavours of Burmese cuisine.  Our lunch started off with lahpet thoke (tea leaf salad), which is a mix of lettuce, tomatoes, nuts, pulses, and fermented tea leaves, with a dash of freshly squeezed lemon juice. According to the server, the salad typically also contains shrimp paste; but because of my allergies, this was removed from the salad. Ate Maddie doesn't like spicy food so the jalapeños were removed as well. This dish was so good... we ordered it three times over the course of our meal! Aside from lahpet thoke, we also had samusas  paired with chili sauce. This is a mix of mashed potatoes, peas, and spices wrapped in a thin wheat-flour pastry sheet and deep-fried. It's savoury but the flavours didn't pack the strong punch I've learned to expect from Indian samosas...

The fourth week of May was peppered with special occasions, which called for several opportunities to dine out. Two times, I ended up in a buffet eat-all-you can restaurant. I'm not a big fan of the buffet format in restos because I prefer menu dégustation or a multi-course meal served à la russe   when dining out; note that I prefer the more informal  service à la française  (of which, the buffet is a variant) at home.  I'm also concerned that eating at eat-all-you-can buffets will definitely fatten me up so I rarely eat in these venues. When the occasion calls for it, I eat a lot! Vegas Seafood Buffet Matthew's graduation party was held in the Torrance branch of Vegas Seafood Buffet. There was a wide selection of plat principal , from Brazilian churrasco to Japanese teppanyaki but I skipped these, opting to begin my meal with hot and sour soup and salads. These were followed by a clam stew and a few pieces of mussels (chili and cheese variants). But a mea...

Matthew's hard work has paid off... he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Nursing from California State University, Long Beach. For his ceremony, Ate Gigi invited me and Joycelyn to join her and Kuya Merlin. Patrick was unable to join us because he still had classes in UC Davis.  I was excited because it's the first time I got invited to a nephew's graduation. My other nephews and nieces (in the Philippines) could only invite their parents and siblings to the ceremony because of space constraints in their graduation venues. Anyway, I made sure that I had my Canon point-and-shoot at the ready so that Matthew would have a lot of photos to remember his achievement by. The day started partly cloudy but the air was surprisingly nippy! I was so happy to have worn slacks to keep warm because Ate Gigi and Joycelyn were both wearing short skirts and they had to cover their legs with a scarf to stay warm.  As the graduation candidates started piling into CSUL...

I tagged along with Ate Gigi, Kuya Merlin, and Joycelyn to attend Matthew's graduation in CSULB. This was my first time to go to SoCal by land and only the second time I popped in. The first time I was there, I flew in from New Orleans  and stayed in Torrance . This time, I was going to Long Beach, a place Anna kept talking about. Interstate 5, according to Joycelyn, is one of the most boring routes. But the scenery is definitely pretty. We passed by hills and by fields with a lot of cows. This was Harris Cattle Ranch, one of the major beef producers in the West Coast. As we drove past, they were telling me that the place typically stinks because of the cows. But the wind must be blowing in a different direction because we didn't smell it when we were driving by. The scenery reminded me of the Windows computer screensaver; the traffic (cars and big rigs), of Cars  (particularly of Mac and Lightning McQueen).  The rolling landscapes along the I-5 eventually bec...

This is my first Memorial Day. Reading up about this federal holiday, I learned that today is a day of remembrance for the soldiers who have died in the wars involving the U.S. I remember being in Arlington National Cemetery  listening to the tour guide recite John McCrae's  In Flanders Fields : In Flanders fields, the poppies blow Between the crosses, row by row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt the dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. When Val and I were in Washington, D.C., I was able to visit the different memorials for people who sacrificed their lives in the military service of the U.S. In the National Mall, there were quite a few. Vietnam War Memorial This armed conflict actually wasn't confined in Vietnam. It's also called the Second Indochina War because it also involved Laos and...

The Golden Gate Bridge is typically on the top 10 list of places people want to see when they first visit San Francisco. As the pictures below show (2005, 2008, 2018, 2019), the bridge has such timeless beauty and is well-maintained that it's hard to believe that it turns 82 years old tomorrow! September 2005 October 2008 July 2018 April 2019 April 2019 April 2019 I can still remember my surprise when I saw a red bridge instead of a golden one! And I've seen it covered with fog only once in all the times I've been visiting the bridge. That's when Val and I went on a cruise that went around Alcatraz and sailed past the bridge. 

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is pushing my understanding of art and its limitations yet again! Suzanne Lacy is one of the leaders in the art of "social engagement", which includes (my impression about her exhibit) outdoor and indoor performances documented via photography and/or videography. These installations are intended to include the audience in the creation of art and to spark conversations about controversial topics. As someone with limited appreciation of modern art, her works were something I don't understand because I felt like I was supposed to find art in things so ordinary, like a market scene where vendors were selling clothes. Beauty in the mundane, yes, that was easy to see; but what made a piece of work art? That's the question I kept struggling with. Alterations  is composed of three piles of colour-coded clothes—red, white, and blue—surrounding a sewing machine that just kept on sewing. I think that the colours represent the...

Although I don't understand how some pieces are considered art, I do recognise architecture as an art form. I thank Prof Paul Zafaralla for taking my class through an arts appreciation course through the Ilocos Region , which included architecture. At the SFMOMA , an exhibit about The Sea Ranch , a coastal real-estate project north of San Francisco, welcomes visitors to peek into the environmentalist ideals of the people who conceptualised this project in the 1960s. The scale models suggest that this seaside village is situated by a cliff. Bay windows in the houses allow people to see the Pacific Ocean while lounging in the living room. The sharp angles and the sparse design remind me of brutalist architecture, which is popular during the 1960s... however, I'm not sure if the Sea Ranch can be considered as such because the houses are made of wood, not concrete. The houses are shielded from view from thoroughfares by a tree line, providing privacy to the residents. ...

I've seen Andy Warhol's artworks at the SFMOMA  but not as a full exhibit. When I returned to the museum (this time with Alex and Tita Vicky), three floors were dedicated to his works. I noticed his fascination with repetition, particularly with his commercial art (for product ads, I think) and his portraiture. I found some sense in the repeated patterns because I also like doodling patterns in a sketchpad (when I'm extremely bored). However, his  Cow Wallpaper  (pink cows on yellow background) tested my senses: I found it over-the-top (which was what he was aiming for, I suppose) because it's a repeated pattern of pink cows on neon yellow background. But that didn't stop there... repetitive paintings of flowers were hung over the cows!  Warhol's work reminds me of the pop of colours in the Austin Powers movies. His work is definitive of the 1960's and the 1970's, in my perspective. Unlike Suzanne Lacy 's work, I don't think there's a de...

Twin Peaks are two of the tallest hills in San Francisco, which makes them the place to go to see the views of city and of the East Bay. When we got there, the wind was already strong but that didn't stop us from enjoying the view. It's not everyday that we see San Francisco from the top of a mountain, after all. Tita Vicky wanted to stay at the Christmas Tree Point (where people can park their cars a few feet below the North Peak) but we wanted to see the view from the top. We walked up the short but steep flight of steps, huffing and puffing because we weren't used to the elevation (and we just polished off delicious noodle soup at Joy Hing).  We got greeted by strong gusts of wind... so strong that it felt like it was pushing us over to the other side of the mountain.  Anyway, I was quite surprised that the hill is sandy soil. It almost seemed like a tall sand dune! The day was not clear enough to take a spectacular shot of the city. But still, we coul...