We got up before 5am and were out the door by 5:30am. I wanted to make sure we got some breakfast so we stopped by Jack-in-the-Box. By 6:30am we were at the LA Center Studios, where the event was being held. The guy we met there gave us a tour of a set. They film a lot of stuff there and apparently they were still in the process of filming The Next Food Network Star (airing summer this year) so we got to see the set. :) That was pretty cool.
We spent the next 3 hours setting up the booth for MobiMunch. It was exciting to watch as the food trucks trickled in. The chef I met on Wednesday was Ludo Lefebvre from LudoBites. MobiMunch sponsored the food truck he was cooking on. Apparently there's some backstory behind how that came about but I won't get into that here. Jeffrey Saad (finalist on The Next Food Network Star) came to the event as well to act as sort of an ambassador for MobiMunch.
The event itself was O.M.G. insane. A quick search today showed that reactions have been very mixed - people were either excited they got a chance to try the food there or were pissed off at how long the lines were. Since we were stationed in an open space in front of the LudoBites truck, we were able to witness the chaos first hand but not get totally consumed by it. The LudoBites line grew quickly, expanding straight out until it hit the fence and wrapped around...hit another line and turned again. At that point I lost track of the end of the line. The location was enclosed so there was a longgg line outside to even get in. It wrapped around the block, made a snake-line through the parking lot next door, and continued to wrap further around the block - I don't even know how long it went for because I was inside the whole time.
So, even though we were at the event, we only really got to try a handful of food. We were able to get some of Ludo's chicken. One of the girls volunteering with us was able to snag some popsicles from PopShop. I had a lime mint mojita popsicle, and it was deliciously refreshing. It got to be very sunny by mid afternoon. I was able to get into the VIP section and try out some other vendors there - The Fry Girl, The Dim Sum Truck, and The Tea Salon. The lines everywhere were seriously ridiculous. Some people had to wait 2 hours for Ludo's chicken, and then another hour to get their order. The most successful people separated for a divide-and-conquer approach to hit up the most popular vendors.
At the very least, I feel the event was a great intro to the newest street food out there and really gives me more incentive to go find the trucks and try them out on my own time. If I went to the event on my own, I probably would have gotten really pissed off too.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
L A Street Food Fest
w00t! Totally looking forward to this. We're going to be up at 5am - set up on location is at 7am. The event doesn't actually start until 11am and it runs until 5pm. Afterward...I still have to head over to my parents for Chinese New Year stuff.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Sick?!
Speaking of being sick...I hate being sick - who doesn't? I'm pretty sure I caught whatever it was Lawrence had a couple weeks ago. Yesterday, however, was a fortuitous day to get sick. Josh is in town, the LA Street Food festival is this Saturday, and that means there's a lot to do for the business!
I slept till pretty late in the morning and Lawrence was late to his dental appointment. After he got back, his brother asked if we wanted to go check out a certain food truck that just finished getting wrapped (i.e. covered in a vinyl wrap so as to change the visual of the appearance of the truck in a non-permanent, easily switchable way). This truck is being used by a certain celebrity chef on Saturday's street food fest. I just recently started following LA Weekly and a few over local L.A. oriented restaurant-food blogs and so I've heard about this chef. Screw my cold - I wasn't going to give up this opportunity to meet the guy!
The truck looked totally badass, with his totally badass logo of an angry coq (French for rooster, harhar) wielding a knife. There was a small film crew there taping the chef for a reality tv show based on the chef. They tested out the deep fryers on the truck and we got to try out the inaugural food truck-fried chicken. It was juicy, flavorful, and totally delicious! The chef and his wife were very friendly, personable, nice. We got to chat with them and it was soooo cool & fun.
That night we went to have dinner with them at the Lazy Ox Canteen. It was funny...when Josh asked if we wanted to go have dinner with them Lawrence was a little hesitant (I didn't want to seem overly eager by screaming out "OH GAWD, YES!!!"). Then Josh mentioned they were going to the Lazy Ox Canteen, and both of us lit up and were like "OKAY!" Haha. I had heard it mentioned all over the LA food blogosphere and really wanted to give it a try. Dinner ended up being not so much about the food as Josh, in his enthusiasm, ended up dominating the conversation with his "company pitch". :P All in all, it was a great time. I felt bad for our servers as they kept on coming by to see if they could bring us our second course, but everyone was either too busy talking or just plain not hungry from all the fried chicken we had earlier in the afternoon. I tried to eat a lot of the salad and veggies (luckily we ordered plenty), but yes - my bootcamp diet went out the window. I didn't order a beer and mentioned I was kind of on a diet. The chef was like - oh yes, I'm always on a diet - bread, butter, etc....LOL. There's nothing better than a fresh, warm baguette for this French chef and I totally agree.
Man, I SO wish I had done my food research before going to Paris with my mom that one year. I totally missed out on the opportunity to experience some of the best food in the world. Lawrence and I will have to go there some day. He's so cute too, he said I should ask about the famous Parisian artisan bread baker I had been reading about in Peter Reinhart's book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I did mention that I had just gotten into artisan bread baking. :D
So yeah, to sum it all up - I had an awesome day meeting some awesome people who cook deeeelicious food. I felt like the odd duck out cause I'm just a lowly code monkey who works on a computer all day. Speaking of which...it feels good to get back into some REAL coding, no matter how much I complain about the frustration. It's only frustrating until you figure it out, then it's like the biggest satisfaction ever. :D Even so, it's nice to occasionally take a break from the code to do stuff like refactoring or UI design.
I slept till pretty late in the morning and Lawrence was late to his dental appointment. After he got back, his brother asked if we wanted to go check out a certain food truck that just finished getting wrapped (i.e. covered in a vinyl wrap so as to change the visual of the appearance of the truck in a non-permanent, easily switchable way). This truck is being used by a certain celebrity chef on Saturday's street food fest. I just recently started following LA Weekly and a few over local L.A. oriented restaurant-food blogs and so I've heard about this chef. Screw my cold - I wasn't going to give up this opportunity to meet the guy!
The truck looked totally badass, with his totally badass logo of an angry coq (French for rooster, harhar) wielding a knife. There was a small film crew there taping the chef for a reality tv show based on the chef. They tested out the deep fryers on the truck and we got to try out the inaugural food truck-fried chicken. It was juicy, flavorful, and totally delicious! The chef and his wife were very friendly, personable, nice. We got to chat with them and it was soooo cool & fun.
That night we went to have dinner with them at the Lazy Ox Canteen. It was funny...when Josh asked if we wanted to go have dinner with them Lawrence was a little hesitant (I didn't want to seem overly eager by screaming out "OH GAWD, YES!!!"). Then Josh mentioned they were going to the Lazy Ox Canteen, and both of us lit up and were like "OKAY!" Haha. I had heard it mentioned all over the LA food blogosphere and really wanted to give it a try. Dinner ended up being not so much about the food as Josh, in his enthusiasm, ended up dominating the conversation with his "company pitch". :P All in all, it was a great time. I felt bad for our servers as they kept on coming by to see if they could bring us our second course, but everyone was either too busy talking or just plain not hungry from all the fried chicken we had earlier in the afternoon. I tried to eat a lot of the salad and veggies (luckily we ordered plenty), but yes - my bootcamp diet went out the window. I didn't order a beer and mentioned I was kind of on a diet. The chef was like - oh yes, I'm always on a diet - bread, butter, etc....LOL. There's nothing better than a fresh, warm baguette for this French chef and I totally agree.
Man, I SO wish I had done my food research before going to Paris with my mom that one year. I totally missed out on the opportunity to experience some of the best food in the world. Lawrence and I will have to go there some day. He's so cute too, he said I should ask about the famous Parisian artisan bread baker I had been reading about in Peter Reinhart's book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I did mention that I had just gotten into artisan bread baking. :D
So yeah, to sum it all up - I had an awesome day meeting some awesome people who cook deeeelicious food. I felt like the odd duck out cause I'm just a lowly code monkey who works on a computer all day. Speaking of which...it feels good to get back into some REAL coding, no matter how much I complain about the frustration. It's only frustrating until you figure it out, then it's like the biggest satisfaction ever. :D Even so, it's nice to occasionally take a break from the code to do stuff like refactoring or UI design.
Monday workout
I flew through workouts on Monday. It seems that bootcamp has increased my stamina for Melody's workouts - maybe it's the cardio, or the fact that I'm working out 4 nights a week instead of 2 for a total of 3.5 hours of strenuous activity each week instead of 1 hour. I don't remember what I did - there was too much. I should have written it down on Monday. :( I missed last night's bootcamp workout because I was sick...
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Efficiency vs efficacy
I sometimes get so caught up in figuring out the most efficient way to do something, I lose sight of the larger picture and nothing actually gets done.
I just realized today one way in which my obsession with efficiency has been useful. It forces me to practice and learn new skills that ultimately become part of my repertoire. By experimenting with various finger/hand positions and motions, I've become more flexible with my knitting techniques. I can knit with the yarn held in either hand (as well as both for fair isle colorwork). I can knit with quick fluid motions, although I am still trying to minimize the stress on my wrists. I can also hold the yarn in two different positions so as to adapt my tension to fit the project/yarn at hand.
I just realized today one way in which my obsession with efficiency has been useful. It forces me to practice and learn new skills that ultimately become part of my repertoire. By experimenting with various finger/hand positions and motions, I've become more flexible with my knitting techniques. I can knit with the yarn held in either hand (as well as both for fair isle colorwork). I can knit with quick fluid motions, although I am still trying to minimize the stress on my wrists. I can also hold the yarn in two different positions so as to adapt my tension to fit the project/yarn at hand.
w00t
164 lbs. It's not that much less than 165.5lbs, but at least it's going DOWN. I need to totally DDR it up on my off days. This past week of exercise was not so bad even though I missed Tuesday.
Last night we went to So Kong Dong for some soon tofu (Korean tofu pot). It was pretty good, but the broth wasn't as hearty as I expected, especially given that I ordered my regular spicy. I'd like to eat more soontofu for dinner but I only know of one Korean place in Pasadena, and they're more contemporary.
Last night we went to So Kong Dong for some soon tofu (Korean tofu pot). It was pretty good, but the broth wasn't as hearty as I expected, especially given that I ordered my regular spicy. I'd like to eat more soontofu for dinner but I only know of one Korean place in Pasadena, and they're more contemporary.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Developer rant + other news
Have I already complained about how much JavaScript frustrates me? AJAX + ASP.NET = headdesk. I guess it's because I'm really not that familiar with AJAX, its integration with .NET, or the gritty .NET stuff involving authentication/access/webservices/etc.
I'm trying to figure out how to do certain things with my code, and it seems like it should be simple enough. I mean, functionally it's pretty basic. The problem seems to be with the way I'm implementing it. I don't know how I'm *supposed* to implement it so I've just got to try something that looks like it should work...until I realize it doesn't and then try something else.
_______________________________
Grr. It doesn't help that I've been getting only 6 or so hours of sleep each night. I missed my workouts Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday, I partially made up for by digging out the DDR and doing 40 minutes of cardio. It was good, and I can still do medium difficulty songs easily. The heavy songs with tricky footwork are still beyond me.
So on Saturday I went to Salon Sessions in Pasadena to get a hair cut. Angela was really cool and even gave me a card for a free makeup session (because I'm a n00b who doesn't know how to put on makeup and she's really sweet and wants to teach me)!
Lawrence picked up my bro on Friday after going out to Riverside to pick up Phillip from his job interview after Phillip's car broke down. We ate at Shabu House in Little Tokyo. We walked over to Wurstkuche afterward, but they were packed and so I didn't get to buy my bro a beer. Saturday, he went out with us to the IMAX at the Ontario Mills mall. We met up with Lawrence's cousins to watch Avatar. After that, we went to Rowland Heights for some sushi at a HK market plaza that was surprisingly not bad. We went to William & Cathy's house to hang out and I taught my bro to play Cantonese mahjong. I knit a bit and ended up falling asleep for a few hours. We didn't leave until close to 4am.
Sunday we went to Golden State Cafe (finally!) in Hollywood. Lawrence and Wilson got the burger, with a side of sweet potato wedges and fries, respectively. I got the grilled chicken caesar salad. We all agreed it was yummy! :) I also got to try some Scoops gelato, Brown Bread flavor...omg, delicious!
I'm trying to figure out how to do certain things with my code, and it seems like it should be simple enough. I mean, functionally it's pretty basic. The problem seems to be with the way I'm implementing it. I don't know how I'm *supposed* to implement it so I've just got to try something that looks like it should work...until I realize it doesn't and then try something else.
_______________________________
Grr. It doesn't help that I've been getting only 6 or so hours of sleep each night. I missed my workouts Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday, I partially made up for by digging out the DDR and doing 40 minutes of cardio. It was good, and I can still do medium difficulty songs easily. The heavy songs with tricky footwork are still beyond me.
So on Saturday I went to Salon Sessions in Pasadena to get a hair cut. Angela was really cool and even gave me a card for a free makeup session (because I'm a n00b who doesn't know how to put on makeup and she's really sweet and wants to teach me)!
Lawrence picked up my bro on Friday after going out to Riverside to pick up Phillip from his job interview after Phillip's car broke down. We ate at Shabu House in Little Tokyo. We walked over to Wurstkuche afterward, but they were packed and so I didn't get to buy my bro a beer. Saturday, he went out with us to the IMAX at the Ontario Mills mall. We met up with Lawrence's cousins to watch Avatar. After that, we went to Rowland Heights for some sushi at a HK market plaza that was surprisingly not bad. We went to William & Cathy's house to hang out and I taught my bro to play Cantonese mahjong. I knit a bit and ended up falling asleep for a few hours. We didn't leave until close to 4am.
Sunday we went to Golden State Cafe (finally!) in Hollywood. Lawrence and Wilson got the burger, with a side of sweet potato wedges and fries, respectively. I got the grilled chicken caesar salad. We all agreed it was yummy! :) I also got to try some Scoops gelato, Brown Bread flavor...omg, delicious!
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