Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, mom! Thank you very much for everything you did to our family. You are the most amazing, beautiful person in the world, I hope you have a happy and wonderful life. Love you!! 

Iron man 3

this is just sooo cute... 

Hubby is a hardcore Iron man fan. I think he watched all three Iron mans plus the Avengers more than 10 times already, plus the numerous times when he was listening to the movie at work. He literally remembers all the scripts, senses and EVERYTHING. Give him an Iron man quiz, I'm sure he will  get 100% correct easily. (I just can't believe it, I mean who can do it? I bet Tony Stark can't! :/ ) 

When Iron man was about to come out, the release date in Asia was one week earlier than in United States. Hub got upset and frustrated, he was saying how unfair it is to have a different release date and US should get to release first, blah blah blah... I think if we have the time and $, he will want to fly to Taiwan/HK just to watch Iron man 3 a week earlier. HAHA... 

Anyway, we went to watch the movie in old town monrovia on a Friday morning. (Can't believe I need to get up early for a movie. -.-) I like old town monrovia so much, everything is so peaceful and relax in here, there's a coffee house named "Friends". Altho it does not look exactly like the one in Friends, it still has some similar elements.

The theatre opened at 9:45am and we were there at 9:30am *bummer* We waited a bit, got the tickets, we thought there will be a large crowds lining up, but we were wrong. (not many people get the privilege to watch movie on a Friday morning, we are the lucky one. =D) The movie was okay, I would not say it was great. It was so different than what I anticipated. WHAT? Tony Stark has panic attack, just like million of people does. He is so human in this movie, the director took away the superhero factor and made him human again. I come in the theater wanting to see how the Superhero Tony Stark suprises me with all his high-tech shit, how he can use his money to build more advanced robots and stuff, instead I got a human Tony Stark with anxity attact and will constantly freak out just like I did. I guess this is why I do not like this movie.  (I might be wrong) and I think it's Pepper who saved Tony at the end of the movie, isn't  it? Tony Stark seems so weak and useless in this movie. :( 

The Tony Stark I knew is the biggest playboy in the world, he is charming he is cute, he is the superhero and un-defeatable. Somehow in this movie, I do not see that. And the bio-weapon thingy, human body can turn into super high heat and melt away things? This reminds me of the Torch from Fantastic four. Remember at the very beginning of F4. Torch constantly burnt off his shirt when he was on fire. In IM3, why Pepper or the bad guys never burn off any of their clothing? This is just not making any sense to me.

movie: ✭✭✩✩✩

[Homemade] Taiwanese Style minced pork with eggs

OMG, it's May already!!! OMGGG...
Time flies faster than I thought. It's already MAY.

So, as a newlywed, trying out new recipe become one of my hobby,
and as I was posting this picture last night on Facebook,

Taiwanese Style minced pork with eggs

A friend of mine left a message on my wall asking for recipe.
Right, I haven't post any recipe for a REALLY long time, and this is a really really great blog post idea. :D

Minced pork with eggs is the most common dish in Taiwan, almost every taiwanese restaurant or street market has their own minced pork sauce. However, no one knows what is in the grounded meat, rumor said they will use meat that does not look fresh or is even expired, put it in the grinder and there you go, you got yourself some good o ground meat. That is why in my family never bought ground meat of the supermarket rack. I rather took a piece of whole, fresh meat and ask the butcher (or supermarket staff) to grind it in front of my own eyes.

I got some freshly grounded pork from the market, about 2 pounds. I got a thin slice of pork belly, about .5-1 pounds. Normally I do not like to used pork belly on any of my dish, I am just very frighten of the PORK OIL and CALORIE. (This is why I am not a fan of bacon.) BUT, if this is what it takes to get a good bowl of minced pork sauce, let's do it.

Most of the ingredients here.

We also need some mushrooms, dried shrimp, shallot, garlic, and eggs. I used dried mushrooms and shrimps, as they have more aroma than the fresh one. Wash well, and soak the dried one in drinking water for about 2 hours (or until soft). Cut them into small pieces and set aside. (Note: you can save the soaking water for future use, it is full of favor and can add more taste to the dish.)

1. First, cut the pork belly into a small pieces and put those in boiling water for about a minute. Give the pork belly in icy cold bath.

2. Boil another pot of water, add eggs. Cook for about 8-10 minutes.

3. Heat up a big wok, use 2 tbsp of vegetable oil, throw in all your shredded shallots, fried until it's golden brown and crispy. (Or you can skip this step and buy Crispy Shallot from any Chinese supermarket.)

4. Take out the shallots, put aside.

5. Use 1 tbsp of oil, add garlic, stir fry until golden brown (it will be less than 1 minute), add grounded pork, stir gently until the pork turns slightly brown.

6. Take the pork belly out from the ice water, and add into the ground pork. Fried with high heat. Add about a tbsp dark soy sauce to color the meat.

7. You can add all other ingredients: mushrooms, dried shrimps, stir fry well.

8. Add a cup of water (or the dried mushroom/ shrimp soak water.), a cup of taiwanese rice wine, soy sauce paste, rock sugar, chinese star anise & crispy shallots. You can also add hard-boiled eggs at this time. Bring to boil and simmer for about an hour.

TADA! You got yourself a pot of delicious minced pork rice that can feed at least 4 people. I usually make more, and store it in freezer so whenever I am craving for minced pork, I can just microwave it and throw it on top of rice or noodle :)

My lunch, yummm...

Wedding gown Shopping

After founding the best venue for our wedding, the next big thing to do is finding the best wedding gown.

In Hong Kong, most people rent their wedding gown (something borrow?), and it makes sense to me, what am I going to do with big wedding gown after the wedding? I can not wear it to my company Christmas party, can I? After visiting the gown shop on Las tunas, I just give up the idea of renting one. They do not have much option and it's expensive.

Somehow I found this little shop online - SimplyBridal.

I never buy clothes online because I believe I have to try it before buying any clothing. I believe all the clothes will look good on stick thin model but not on me. Good thing is, SimplyBridal has a showroom in downtown LA that will carry most of their wedding gowns sample and I immediately pick up the phone.

To be very honest, there was a moment I almost gave up on SimplyBridal. I tried to call their hotline many times for appointment BUT no one picking up the phone, or there was one time a girl picked up and told me they are fully-booked, and I will have to call back in 2 months to check if there's any opening. (For a moment I thought they are not legit / or they are those crappy internet selling company that offer crappy product/job.) Anyway, I called many times (I'm persist) and finally made an appointment.

I went there with hub. SimplyBridal showroom was amazing, it is located at a service apartment overlooking the whole downtown LA. The view was breathe-taking. The apartment has a modern and contemporary look, and it was very open, they had big windows that allows sunlight to go into. The whole feeling just gave me a perfect mood for trying out gowns. (at least better than DB)

Feel very modern and contemporary.

Wedding gowns..

Big size window overlooking downtown Los Angeles

After flipping though many bridal magazines, I had a few gowns in my mind. I focus on trying all their A-line or ball gown type dresses. To me, sheath or mermaid or empire just does not say "wedding" to me :/ I also had my eyes on all the sweetheart neckline gowns, it just flatter my big boobs more than the flat one.

A Maggie Sottero Wedding gown from David Bridal (1k+) (left) ; Simply Bridal (right) 

Simply Bridal wedding gowns; Skye gown (left) and xx gown (right)

I like the way they only serve one customer per appointment, so their staff can better help me to find the best dress possible. The showroom manager was very helpful and friendly. I tried on more than 10 dresses and she was still very patient and professional. (unlike the staff from DB, she got very impatient when I was trying my 4th gowns.) She even suggested me to buy one size smaller than my usual size, so the dress will fit me better. (I might be wrong, but I think they only carry sample sizes at their showroom.)

After trying many dresses, I finally decided on my gown. (YAY) Placing order was easy, and I was told they will ship out the dress in about 2 months, however, I got mine 2 weeks earlier, so this was nice!

The "Simply Bridal" package

Overall, the dress was well made. It was stuffed inside a plastic vacuumed bag. So, when I took the dress out, it was all winkled. The length was a bit too long but it was understandable, I took it to the tailor and get it altered to my length, steamed and pressed to perfection. I was really happy with the gown, I got many compliment at my wedding! =) Glad I got it from Simple Bridal.