Christmas Day

"Stockings" Torrance, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.2, 1/60 sec, ISO3200
“Stockings” Torrance, 2017

Merry Christmas everyone! 🎅🎄☃️🎁

Tonight we ate our traditional Hawaiian feast: lau lau, kalua pig, dried fish, lomi salmon, mac salad, char siu, poké, and musubi. This meal is one of the highlights of my year! I hope you also enjoyed a nice Christmas dinner with your loved ones. ❤️💚

"Hawaiian Meal" Torrance, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.2, 1/125 sec, ISO5000
“Hawaiian Meal” Torrance, 2017

Xmas Eve

"Dumplings" Torrance, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.2, 1/100 sec, ISO2500
“Dumplings” Torrance, 2017

Hello! Happy Christmas eve! This evening we went out for dinner at Din Tai Fung, which is a popular Taiwanese restaurant. The dumplings were so good!

This location we went to was at the Del Amo Fashion Center, which is the mall that we always used to go to when I was growing up since it was only a few minutes away. But nowadays, so much has changed that I hardly recognize it! But, I’m glad that this restaurant is there. 😄

Earlier in the day, I went with my mom to King’s Hawaiian Bakery to pick up a cake for Christmas day. It was super-crowded, but they had plenty of cakes to go around. Can’t wait to dig into the Haupia cake tomorrow!

"Haupia Cakes" Torrance, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.2, 1/300 sec, ISO200
“Haupia Cakes” Torrance, 2017

I hope you had a nice day!

おやすみ

Drive North

"Lunch Stop" Santa Barbara, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/220 sec, ISO200
“Lunch Stop” Santa Barbara, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Today we drove up north to being a three-day trip to Monterey. It takes about 6 hours to travel by car from Torrance, but it’s a very scenic drive, and we stopped at a couple really cool places along the way.

In Santa Barbara we had a nice lunch at The Shop Kitchen, which is a cool cafe/restaurant attached to a auto-shop. Our avocado toast, chilaquiles, and salmon eggs benedict were delicious, and I sipped on the cold-brew coffee on the drive up to Paso Robles. But before hitting the highway again, we stopped at Renaud’s Patisserie for some snacks and gifts.

"Cafe" Santa Barbara, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/350 sec, ISO200
“Cafe” Santa Barbara, 2017

Our next stop was Paso Robles, to visit Sculpterra Winery for a tasting and shopping. It is a pretty cool winery with lots of sculptures to look at in the garden, and a yummy wine-tasting.

"Arrow" Paso Robles, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/120 sec, ISO200
“Arrow” Paso Robles, 2017

After that, we drove straight up to Monterey, and had a somewhat disappointing seafood dinner before finding our way to the hotel where we conked out big-time. It was a long drive, but we’re thankful to make it safely and we’re excited for tomorrow!

おやすみ

Clouds and Oden

"Fine Weather" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: SONY NEX-6, 16mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO100
“Fine Weather” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

So I mentioned the other day that we had a nice cold-weather meal in curry 🍛, and well, tonight we had another perfect cold-weather food: Oden! 🍢

"Oden" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO3200
“Oden” Cedar Park, 2017

Mariko use the Instant Pot to cook the oden, and it turned out great. She really loves her Instant Pot!

I hope you had a great Sunday.

またね~