Family

Food, Travel

My LA Thanksgiving in Food

I used to have a food blog. It was solely dedicated to me eating out and making the occasional ugly but delicious meal. Even though I shut it down about a year and a half ago (I had taken too many embarrassing photos with food. It had to be stopped), sometimes people still search for “Tracy Eats SF.” This post is for you, loyal reader, since I don’t post about food much anymore.

Breakfast in my grandma’s house in LA usually means one thing: Bun Xiao AKA her special beer batter crepes with bean sprouts, veggies, pork and shrimp. Even though I am usually stressed out every time I go see my family, which is rarely, my grandma’s crepes make it worth it.

I was totally stuffed with one crepe, but my grandma decided to make me another. When I wouldn’t eat it, she rolled up the innards into a spring roll. Maybe she thought she could trick me?

It worked. I was curious, and ate a bit more. Grandmas are sneaky like that.

In the afternoon my aunt took me to her friend’s house for a Thanksgiving lunch. Everything was delicious and TOO DAMN PERFECT. It took until about the third course that all shame fell out the window and I started taking covert photos of my food. My aunt’s friend had just gotten back from Argentina, so the theme of the meal was Argentinian. I can get behind that! Here is an empanada that I dirtied with chimichurri. Apparently you’re not supposed to use it as a dip. I doubt anybody actually follows that rule.

Hello Argentinian ribs! Hello Argentinian sausage!

Eaten with mango salsa and lotsa Malbec. Bliss.

And afterwards, an invigorating walk in the hills, followed by cappuccino, limoncello and pie. Some kinda heaven.

About an hour later I made it back to grandma’s house in time for our usual 30+ Thanksgiving dinner, complete with ham, turkey, prime rib, seafood, and all manner of Chinese food. I don’t know how, but I didn’t overdo it this year.

 

Life, Travel

The Way We Were

I’m hanging out in Los Angeles for the Thanksgiving holiday and while there’s a dizzying amount of clutter and chaos, I’m trying to focus on the gems. Today I stumbled across this classic photo of my parents, which was hidden amongst my pile of old comic books. LOOK AT THAT HAIR!

Life, Travel

Los Angeles Food Porn Post

I went to Los Angeles to see my folks a few weeks ago, and all in all it was a pretty good trip. Normally trips to LA overwhelm and depress me (being surrounded by 5-20+ kids at all times will do that), but this time I stuck to the essentials- good food and honest conversation with my family. I managed to have a good time in spite of myself.

First up, pork and pumpkin dumplings and the mysterious sounding “BEEF ROLL”. 

My uncle said that beef roll was kind of like a Chinese burrito, which is why I wanted to try it. As you can see, it’s not quite true. I mean where’s the aluminum foil? It was still incredibly good, however. I am interested in trying SF variations if I can find them.

The beef roll was followed up by a stop at Half and Half for some pudding boba. 

The portions are approximately the size of my cousin’s head.

Later that night my mother and I went to President Thai. She’d read about it in the paper. I was impressed that she’s keeping up with the (non pho-related) food scene. She is so restaurant obsessed.

Tom yum, of course.

Oops.. it’s a papaya salad, except DEEP FRIED.Not what I was expecting when I ordered this.

These are some really great chili paste clams.

The next morning my grandmother made banh xeo, like she normally does on “special” occasions. I saw her make the batter, and she used Heineken??? Odd, no? I’m definitely going to ask for the recipe.

My aunt wanted to take me to Huntington Library, followed by a swim at CalTech (er… I don’t have any pictures of that).

Don’t I look just like a bonsai?

Then I had my mom’s pho for lunch…

And a Brazilian guarana drink for the drive to the airport!

I am almost looking forward to going back to LA for the holidays, if it means I can have pudding boba and beef rolls again.

Life, Travel

Las Vegas- We came, we drank, we had wonderfully awkward family time

I had to book it to Vegas over Labor Day weekend for my Uncle Vay’s wedding reception. Since it was a bit short notice, driving was the way to go. Yes, driving! Unfortunately my friends decided to bow out on the trip, so it was just me and Ryan splitting the 10 hour drive, but it was not as bad as it could have been.

Friday- 9 hours of driving 11pm-8am.

Saturday-Check in to hotel. Pass out… er…Sleep. Food. Drink. Frantic shopping for swimsuit because I packed two bottoms. Swim. Drink.Drink some more. Fancy dinner and fancy family wedding photos. Sleep.

Sunday-Eat. Walk. Swim. Drink. Eat.Sleep.

Monday 6 am- 5ish? A 1o hour drive back to San Francisco. Work in the car and try to pretend that there is nothing weird about getting work done while driving through the desert at 6am.

Vegas was good-a little family and a little heat- both things that I don’t encounter very often. It was a nice time, although near the end I was happy to leave Vegas. The dark side of the city really depresses me sometimes. Also, it was really hard to get a decent healthy meal in town and not feel totally swindled.

My entire family was stationed at the Trump, and I gotta say, I was impressed with the little touches of Trump ridiculousness. There was a well stocked kitchenette (Le Creuset tea kettles, WHAT?), jacuzzi bathtub AND shower, and a television in the mirror in the bathroom.Wow! Too ridiculous. The hotel was off the strip and had no casino on the ground floor, but those are definitely good things. I’m feeling majorly thankful to my uncle for inviting me and Ryan along for the silliness, putting us up, and feeding us well. Now I just have to find him a nice wedding present before Friday, when I take off for Los Angeles.

Life

5 Memories for 5 Years

Today was the fifth anniversary of my dad’s death. I don’t put much stock in anniversaries, but this year made me especially sad. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 5 years- it’s just really surprising how time doesn’t stop passing.

Anybody that spends five minutes with me knows that I’m fascinated with morbid stuff. Taxidermy, mortality rates, death portraits… I could dwell on the significance of the death, and talk about how beautiful and crazy life/death is, but I thought that I would finish today (it’s had its ups and downs) on an optimistic note- by sharing five wonderful memories that I have of my father. These are not meant to be big, or particularly meaningful, but they made me smile when I thought of them.

  1. Everyday my dad made a GALLON of coffee in a makeshift pitcher crafted out of an old cooking oil container (just cut the top off). He would mix it up with loads of cream and sugar. Basically that’s how I like my coffee today. I know, sickly sweet and disgusting (and I do this to my $$$ coffee too).
  2. He was a total taoist and was always telling me while I was growing up that in life I just needed to follow “the way.” He practiced what he preached. Several weeks before he died, we sat on the couch talking. He said “I hate chemo. I don’t want to do it anymore. You can’t fight things like this, you just have to let it happen. I’m not afraid to die, but I am tired of the pain.” I think about this conversation quite often.
  3. I was a spoiled brat. I always got the latest stupidly expensive technology (scanners, digital cameras, computers, ipods). I was very touched that he was so supportive of my gadget love, and wanted me to have the best tools available to post boring photos of myself online with. I still have the camera I received as a present during Christmas 2005, and have no plans of donating or recycling it.
  4. He made up a song for me that went like this: “Ka-man-da-la-woo, Tracy eats poo poo.” I thought he was nuts, but whatever. About a year ago I heard the song “Comment Allez Vous” by Blossom Dearie, and I realized that he had been singing “Comment allez vous” the entire time. Really wild. The um… poop part… I think that was definitely in English.
  5. Dad drove me to school in downtown Little Rock every day during junior and senior high school (I could walk to elementary). He would watch the morning news and have his morning tea, and by 8:00 or so we were off in his rickety blue Jeep for the 20 minute drive. Oftentimes we didn’t talk at all, we just listened to my mix tapes or NPR while I finished up any leftover homework. He told my mom that he really cherished this time with me. I agree.

Five years! So wild. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family that you love them.