My Northern Californian Adventure Up the Coast

Living in California for 22 years, I would have never expected to never had visited the biggest cities in California. Leave it to my foreign Swedish boyfriend to call me out of it too. Since Philip and our other Swedish friend Jonathan had a few weeks left in the States, they invited me to take a roadtrip up the coast to see California.

Me...a roadtrip? Never been on one but who wouldn't want to take a week off of reality and go site- seeing? Our first stop was Santa Barbara where my sorority big sis lived! We made a big rookie mistake by taking PCH up to Santa Barbara during the peak time for major LA traffic. Instead of a 3 hour trip to SB, which is the normal estimated time, we made it there in a little under 9 hours. 9 HOURS. My big sis took us out to a few bars in downtown SB which ended up being packed since it was Graduation week and families were pouring in from all over the U.S. In the morning we headed out to see Santa Barbara which happened to be a gloomy cold day but still nice to do a little site seeing.

Santa Barbara Pier

 

Santa Cruz

 Next stop, Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz was a sight to see. We went on the boardwalk and had to play some carnival games, eat ice cream and experience all that is the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. As we only had a week to travel, we had to keep our Santa Cruz trip short in order to make time for our biggest stop..San Francisco.

Next stop we made was Napa Valley. Of course, the one thing to do there is to go wine tasting, so Philip picked a vineyard and we headed to Hendry's Vineyard. Napa was extremely hot especially while the vineyard owner had us hike through in the blazing sun so he could show us the different grapes they were growing. On our way we stopped by my little sisters in Berkeley where they took us around the UC Berkeley campus and showed us around to some really really good hole in the wall establishments. Brazillian food! I've never had it before and let me tell you...after a long day of walking, my stomach surely grew up an appetite!

Hendry's Vineyard in Napa Valley

Berkeley with my little sisters

San Francisco (it was FREEZING)

Last pit stop (for me at least) was San Francisco. It was FREEZING! I've always been a so-cal summer girl (emphasis on SO-CAL) so San Fran was not my cup of tea. It was crazy to see so many landmarks that you'd normally see in movies or on t.v. right in front of you. We did all the "tourist-y" things you possible do in SF like visit Alcatraz, go to Union Square, and of course hit Ghiradelli Square....That's where my trip ends. Back to work and back to reality, I flew back to Orange County a changed and more cultured woman. But seriously! I felt like I had just seen the world and definitely realized I've been missing out on so much.

My boyfriend and Jonathan went on to Yosemite and Grand Canyon for a few extra days before they drove back to Orange County. I must say, this trip was an eye-opening experience and one that tested my outfit choices ;)


Until next time...<3

The Cooking World

So a resolution for 2011 was to try to start cooking since I am and will always be a terrible cook. On the other hand, my mom is the world's best chef in the world. I promise I am not being bias just because we are blood related, but because it is so incredibly true! If anyone knows me, they'd know the only food I have ever been successful at not screwing up is a grilled cheese sandwich and mac and cheese..from the box. So this will really be a test of my womanhood.

If you didn't know already, I work at Roy's Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine and got inspired to make these amazing short rib tacos. I work closely with our chef partner so he gave me a few pointers on recreating something that I could definitely not go wrong with. With the help of my kitchen-saavy mom, here's what we came up with:

Beef Short Ribs: 5 lbs
Garlic: 6 cloves
Soy Sauce: 1 cup
Seasame Oil: 2 Tablespoons
Sugar: 1 1/2 teaspoon
Brown Sugar: 3/4 cups plus 3 Tablesppons
Peeled Ginger: 1/2 inch
Rice Vinegar (I used White): 6 Tablespoons

Spices:
Red Pepper Flakes: 1 pinch (or however much spice you like)
Salt: 2 pinches

Carrots
Cucumber
Red Chili Peppers
Cilantro

I used tortillas, but what makes it more interesting is using deep fried taro as the shell.

First place peeled ginger and garlic into a food processor along with soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes and blend til mixed thoroughly.

Place short ribs into the crockpot and pour your mix over the short ribs. My family loves spicy foods so we chopped up red chili peppers that we grow ourselves in our backyard and add them into the crockpot. Next, turn on the crockpot and let it sit overnight for about 6-8 hours on low heat or until the meat is very tender and fall straight off the bone.

Let cool. Remove the excess fat over the top and use the leftover sauce at the bottom to use as a spread.

For your slaw, we used cucumbers and carrots and sliced them with a food peeler and mixed them in a mix of sugar, salt, red pepper flakes and vinegar and let it soak for a few hours. And there you go!

Let's just say my dad was our #1 fan as he always has been with my mom's cooking. He was quite surprised that I helped create an amazing dish (mostly my mom's doing). From now on, I'm sticking to a crockpot to cook everything...it does all the work for you (an my mom)!!