redundantly redundant

This is The End?

2011-01-31T00:00:00.000-08:00

my gmail account has something like 7 GB of storage but my Picasa server that stores all my blog photos only gets 1 GB? Can't I allot some of that storage from one system to another? Unless otherwise, it looks like this is the end of Gundammit. I will have to migrate to another address because I don't plan on paying for more storage. Thanks for the free stuff anyways google. post comments if you know a way around this. Just short of finishing posting my 2010 pictures and post # 1000. =( Gundammit has been a personal blog / record of my life since Saturday, June 18th 2005 maintained by me. And presumably some magic google machines. Thanks for reading. I'll be back to post the new link.

DTF-SEA-Dumpling

2010-12-29T21:00:00.000-08:00

Pudgy hands!

The early queue at Din Tai Fung - Seattle

Recursive photography

Stickers from Violet's DNN

>__<

Another ordinary Dec 28th, 2010 - I've had many just like this.

2010-12-28T19:00:00.000-08:00

Breakfast box of Kwaa-sonnnnnnnn' And one raisin bun.

At the Microsoft visitor center.

Drinking for two.

O__o

Tower of ICE CREAM!

too cute!

Your Typical December 27th, 2010

2010-12-27T20:00:00.000-08:00

XD

El Salvadorian food for dinner.

White Post-Xmas

2010-12-26T12:00:00.000-08:00

silly games I was teaching Violet - twisty mustache.

Silly game #2 - twisty unibrow.

Xmas in Seattle

2010-12-25T18:00:00.000-08:00

dinner spread (and future left overs)

Glide SF - Xmas Eve

2010-12-24T11:00:00.000-08:00

service was hectic!

Winter Dumplings + Wings

2010-12-19T21:00:00.000-08:00

Holiday cookie baking.

San Tung w/ Tracy, Kelvin, + Friend

Zha Zhang Mien + Crispy Rice Soup

A very Kissmas Holiday

2010-12-18T22:00:00.000-08:00

I thought it was a KISS themed party but it turns out t-shirts were all that made it for the theme.

City Hall Open House

2010-12-12T16:00:00.000-08:00

that's a lot of paper cranes!

In a brief 30 second interaction, the Mayor managed to be a D-bag, but he had been greeting people all day, but he is an elected official, and probably a D-bag anyways.

Food for the Week 12/6

2010-12-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

This week's entry for food of the week: Mezzi Rigatoni al Telefono

Also arriving in the mail...

A Very TFB Holiday

2010-12-03T23:00:00.000-08:00

Food for the Week

2010-11-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

In an attempt to save both time and money, I am trying to make meals for the week.

Today I made a Lasagna. It's more of a Frankenstein Lasagna. I used my left over Bolognese sauce, Bechamel sauce w/ Peas, and a variety of cheeses that I had. The top is roasted basil leaves.

And my Mega Mac n Cheese bake with Sage, Portobellos, and Bacon.

Thanksgiving Dessert 2010

2010-11-26T17:00:00.000-08:00

This was the dessert I present at the Chen's 2010 Thanksgiving Dinner. It is a chocolate mousse cake with a thin spread of mascapone cheese topped with wet pecans and served with Caramel Pear ice cream.

Thanks for Giving and Giving Thanks

2010-11-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

Starting the morning off w/ Turkey Pulling and Ham Carving at Glide SF w/ Boobs4Food

@ the Chen's for Thanksgiving. Their mega-spread never disappoints.

Handmade Meatballs

Tater Tot Bake

Sweet Potatoes and Marshmellows

Stuffing

Bean Casserole

Pumpkin and Bacon casserole

Confucius Rub Porchetta Turkey (Crab)

Hong Shao Rou and

Kim Chee for...

Awesome buns.

Bag of giant Pizzeria Delfina Bread on the ground.

Lady

Family photo.

Kayin - born ready for the camera.

Biggers

Hon's Birthday

2010-11-21T23:00:00.000-08:00

@Bai Som for Hon's birthday.

And for my next magic trick...

I will make this plate of food disappear!

Debbie hiding her embarrassment (of giving our food away)

Chilling at Casa du Loh

Facetime w/ Jome

Project Open Hand - November

2010-11-21T17:00:00.000-08:00

Adios, Convention!

2010-11-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

It was a quick but wonderful trip. Hopefully there is time next time to actually go shopping =P

London Convention: Main Event

2010-11-13T23:00:00.000-08:00

breakfast

Ron trying his best to be Asian

taking a winter's walk

down the street

to City Hall

Maria trying her best to be Asian

my favorite pic of the set.

making things official

paparazzi attack!

prom picture?

Fish and Chips!

as big as my head!

my magazine pic of Maria Apt.

And now for a London Eye reception

bubblies

"Big Ben, Parliament"

A little before

A little after

massive camera a la Disney Land

A now a proper dinner reception

Mmmmm....

Tapas

Chicken + Mushroom sauce

speech! finally, I am able to witness a maid of honor able to deliver a worthy speech.

Cheeeeeese cake.

Removing the nest of bobby pins.

London Convention

2010-11-12T23:00:00.000-08:00

Brunswick Centre

Maria's new Apt

Team Loh assemble!

What interesting tastes you have, England.

Sasmosas

How can you possibly make Saag Paneer look good in a photo?

Kheer

Covent Garden at Night

Pubbing it up

w/ Steak flavored potato chips. Tastes like someone just put the 'beef soup base' powder from instant ramen on some chips.

Can you sense a theme here?

2010-11-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

Roasted Eggplant

2010-11-07T20:00:00.000-08:00

or attempt to. it was an experiment. I roasted 4 pieces all differently. Permutations of X-cut/no cut and spiced/no spice. Deep fried is still the tastiest =P

Halloweens

2010-10-31T23:00:00.000-07:00

Lego love

Lou's Cafe

2010-10-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

Ultimate Club Sandwich from Lou's Cafe on Geary. Better than your average sandwich.

Off the Grid

2010-10-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

a collection of San Francisco food trucks and street vendors at Fort Mason.

Duck Confit Bao from Chairman Bao

Sisiq Taco

2010 China/Taiwan vacation directory

2010-10-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

Preflight Hot Pot

2010-10-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

what could possibly go wrong?

w/ Teresa & Lester

It's all you can eat!

sauce-age

Regular and Ma La (numbingly spicy)

And can you believe it? all you can eat Häagen-Dazs!
OK Asia, nice seeing you

The Day I Ate 8 Fishes

2010-10-22T23:00:00.000-07:00

A magic meal with fishes @ The Peak Restaurant Cafe

Prices

Fish are caught fresh, daily.

what a motley crew of fish.

Team Chaos assembles again.

Fish count: 2 (there are two red fish in there)

Fish count: 3 - Salted Fish Fried Rice

Not fish. Tofu?

Fish count: 4

Not fish

Fish count: 5

Fish count: 6 - Fish soup

I think my dad is trying to commune with the dead fish...

One massive fish cheek

Cafe stop.

Dinner A - Weird Taiwan foods w/ Mr. Chan. If you can read that menu, it says weird things.

pickled mango? w/ passion fruit

You Tiao w/ clams?!? Not bad.

oooh, straaaaange vegetables.

Fish count: 7

Green bean dessert soup/tea

hanging out with Wen and Rita

Dinner B

sadly, not stinky

Fish count: 8

Yong Kang St.

Famous Mango Shaved Ice

but oops, we got the wrong one.

umm... is this Gong Guan? Pretty empty as there was supposed to be a monsoon trouncing about but it got tired and puttered out.

Dinner C! No fishes here.

That would be good night.

Back in Taipei

2010-10-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

Early morning snack

And straight to Din Tai Fung

Bitter Melon cake

XLB. Strange that when in Shanghai, I went to a Taiwan Restaurant with Woody and then in Taiwan, we got Shanghainese food. Which was better in Taipei =P

Protein

Is this a Shanghai Holiday fruit cake?

We got there early. Like 10:45 or 11am? This is normally the mob you have to deal with to get into the restaurant.

[Intermission]

Super family dinner at Shanghai Story.

Set of appetizers.

Avengers Assemble!

This is my Uncle who we never get to see.

All the Chao's assemble. If I they ever formed a super villain team, they could be CHAOS.

reunion speech #1

reunion speech #2

Reunion toast

And then the food...

Super group photo!

Smell you later China!

2010-10-20T20:00:00.000-07:00

Last day in China. At a Shanghai artist district.

See all the pig parodies. How many can you name?

There were people doing photo shoots all over the place. Lame photo shoots.

We wandering into a random Halal Noodle place.

"Toothpick Lamb" It's just all the trimmings. Tasty but kinda tough meat.

They had some divine noodles. Especially the Dao Xiao Mien. So divine I neglected to photo them. They skipped right pass my camera and straight into my mouth. It's also like $1 for bowl.

No customers? Why not nap? I guess...

A display of items that are either illegal to bring with you on the plane or require special paper work. Who knew Er Hu was not allowed? I guess it must be all those antique Er Hu collectors smuggling out national treasures.

@ Airport
No customers? Why not nap? Hey wait a sec...

Lake County, China. Also : þ

2010-10-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

Uh, yeah so just like the map says. This is the Wuzhen Xizha scenic zone. A government developed lake town turned tourist trap, but still has people living inside of it.

Woody: "ugh, it tastes... horrible"

<: þ >: þ

booze factory

I took a bunch of lunch pictures like normal but upon inspection, the food does not look very attractive and I'd rather not spend the time photoshopping them to.

Chinese Jesus spotting.

Random people pictures

Ironic Communist hipster?

Reminds me of my friend Brett Amory's waiting paintings.

Yup, that will be a classy photo!

Winner. Who has the balls to wear that shirt? That guy!

Honorable mention to shiny yellow pants man.

Zzzzz...

Old town

The woman on the left is attempting to produce a pirated version of this experience.

famous? XLB place. ???

They were only ok. Still better than what you would normally get in SF. I much preferred the place I went to last time with Lester but alas, that place had sadly closed (for good).

Random Night Market we stumbled upon.

Ex-poo World's Fair

2010-10-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

Breakfast Lounge

=P Beijing's hotel was better.

So we went to this thing called the Expo, or as I like to call it the Ex-poo. What a horrible experience. The day started with a 45 minute taxi ride there which isn't terrible but I'm sure I could think of something more exciting to do for 45 minutes. Still, I guess with Woody in tow, it wasn't like a wasted 45 minutes. We get to the gate and there is walking. Lots of walking. We have to walk all the way to gate 9 (far left) to get in and go to the info booth (far right) to go find a wheel chair which they loan out (I called ahead about this and was assured (this won't be the first false assurance I would receive this day) that I would have no problem getting a wheel chair. Of course they were out of them and there were 4 other people waiting for them to be returned.

So Woody and I thought we would go ride the tram around to see the expo through the power of electric vehicles! Make a loop and check again for wheel chairs. When we asked if we could keep riding the tram around for a loop, we were assured that this was not a problem.

Naturally we get to the center of the expo (1st stop mind you) and we are forced off the tram. This one man with a wicked half face covering birthmark comes across the street barking at us. And wouldn't you know it? There is a ONE HOUR long ride to get back on the tram. AND you have to pay the fare again. You know that Russel Peters bit about the Pacific Mall where he says Chinese people will never give you a deal? This was like that but times... how many people are there in China? Like times 8 billion? Chinese people will never give you a deal, and when they smell a chance to milk you for all you're worth, boy do they go for the milkage. If I didn't know any better, there was probably a fee imposed on coughing.

So we're in the middle of the expo and there is nothing except this big building in site. Well there are other buildings but the hell if I could tell where their entrances were and my post-needle hobbling wasn't too keen to find out. The hobbly nature and presence of a cane in hand did allow us to skip the giant line outside of what was the "China Pavilion"

where on the inside was madness. Part Vegas, part convention, part sardines. I did not even want to go look around.

Oh, and there were more lines. Woody walked around a bit and took some video and showed me. I'm sure if I was healthy, I would have been just as uninterested in submitting myself to these propaganda factories. The Tibet pavilion was particularly sad because you could tell they either didn't want to be there, or they were paid actors - bad ones. On our way out, we had the misfortune of running into the mother of all Chinese lack of decency. We were trying to go out the way we came in and a door hostess literally watched me for the 2-4 minutes it took me to walk over, waited till I was like 10 feet away from the door to say "sorry, this is an entrance only." Oh boy did I flip. I tried my best to cuss her out in Mandarin. I kinda wish I just went off in English so any tourists could hear me. I can understand if she was facing the entrance like you might think a door hostess would do but no, she was facing inwards and watching me struggle all the way up to her station. Man, I wish I knew all of Captain Haddock's insults. Heck, I wish I thought of that at that time. I could have amused myself calling her a Bashi-Bazouk and the ilk.

Because of the tram line wait, we ended up just hiking out to the subway to escape this horrible trap. I think there were 90-100k people there just 2 or 3 days prior. Madness.

Dinner at a Taiwanese restaurant? In Shanghai?

I like getting meat wrapped in lettuce cups.

Dinner was ok. Oh well.

Destination: Shanghai

2010-10-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

checking into our hotel @ the Renaissance Shanghai Putuo. We were originally getting a hotel closer to downtown but we got bumped out by some Chinese government officials. Apparently they can do that in China.

Lobby

Main entrance staircase to ???

As such, some people got nice upgraded rooms although mine wasn't so far off from this.

At first it's like "oooooooh" but functionally, it's a horrible design. you have to move these heavy doors to pee or take a bath.

Here I am with a giant needle stuck in the back of my calf. This is to help relieve the tension in the muscle that was injured from my ankle sprain. Having a needle in your leg is not so bad. Having to walk with a needle in your leg is a pure test of one's constitution. HOLY CRAP is this not fun. Painful AND tiring.

OK, these mic logos are out of hand.

Some take out dinner brought up to my room.

Sabrina having some birthday tiramisu. Or photographing it, rather.

Cousin Woods.

Xi'an: "thanks for tripping me, Buddha, you bastard" edition

2010-10-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

@ the Xi'an Bei Lin Museum - aka Stele Forest. Stele is one of those words you learn in history that you immediately forget about once you finish that class. How often do you ever get an opportunity to say Stele? Remmington Stele?

Here is a stele

Hitchhikers

Θ__Θ

That's a freakin' long kite! @ Shanxi Provincial History Museum

Model of the village from yesterday?

Mini-terra cotta display

XD this dog is cute!

I like this guy. Biting his foot. heh.

An entire band on his back. =P

Stepping on a slave/servant?

Halal Lunch

w/ special Muslim bread soup

you tear the bun into tiny pieces and then they make it into a soup. You get to choose between goat or beef.

My Bread Goat Soup

No name plaza? Plaza of Insane Fountains?

If you understand me, you know why I would take and post such a picture.

Da Ci'En (Great Kindness and Grace) Temple. In the distance is Big Wild Goose (aka Canadian Geese) Pagoda. Supposedly, there are scripture of the monk Tripitaka aka Xuanzang aka, the dude Sun Wukong aka the Monkey King escorts in Xi You Ji aka Journey to the West.

So at this point in my vacation, I feel down the last step thar and sprained my ankle - worse sprain of my life. Suffice to say, I did not make it to the Goose Pagoda.

Furong Hu (Bei Hu)

A theater show of sorts. I also say the last 1/4 of it.

Rubbish

Why can't Chinese plays EVER have a story?

Table 8!

Pumpkin soup

Dumb founded. They actually serve Orange Chicken in China?

=P not a fan of the persimmon and bean desserts.

Our table decided to boisterously applaud this girl (situated right behind our table) after every song she played.

My wicked on-loan cane.

@__@

We were delayed like 20-30 minutes from getting back to our hotel because there were these large anti-Japanese protests. Mobs of students were filling the street. I was amused that on the news they only reports several thousand when it was easily in the tens of thousands in attendance. Having seen enough massive crowds, I'd venture to say at least 20,000-30,000 people in the streets and was just in the surrounding areas we traveled in.

Xian - Towns, Tombs, & Terra Cotta

2010-10-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

At the Banpo (half slope) Prehistoric Village Museum.

Ancient Archeology isn't too sexy. You really have to use your imagination.

Things look a lot different in 2D. Ancient smiley face.

This was a life size diorama like the ones in natural history museums.

This was... a raccoon badger dog?

More dioramaage

Holograms!

Our next destination was the Huaqing Hot Springs where Tang Emperor Xuanzong built many pools for his favorite concubine.

Emperor's toilet! For real!

Upon seeing this photo, a certain cousin exclaimed "UGH! That's me in 20 years."

Concubine Yang, one tall woman.

Looking at empty pools

Li Mountain

Natural hot spring

Chinese text Maiden

Lunch in Egypt? Supposedly, these somehow represent the Silk Road which isn't too far away.

The famous Bian Bian Mien. Man, this was some good noodle. Like fat Papardelle. I would have liked to try this with a sauce, like mushrooms and truffles. Mmmmm.....

Comrade Obama

OK thar Pedo-cotta Soldier.

Madness inside the museum. Utter madness.

Que John Williams.

Massive massive massive

They've fallen and can't get up

Live archeology is slightly sexier.

Life imitating Art

Looks like a level in Tomb Raider.

This about sums up my view of the Chinese and their relationship with the law.

Dinner

Hot Pot - individual pots with some fancy inductive plate that works right through the table cloth!

blurry image of green lit trees.

I am decidedly not a persimmon person. I also don't fancy eating them either.

Xian: has waaay too many pictures edition

2010-10-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

More of Central China's colorful folk.

I'm kind of reminded of that scene in Shaolin Soccer when they are having that exhibition gang and the opposition is looking at Stephen Chow's team for the first time and it's just like "who are these guys?"

He's just selling fruit but could you imagine he was the goalie of the soccer team you were playing against?

At an emperor's tomb. Qianling Tomb. Well this is the grand entrance road you had to walk to to get there.

So apparently two Feng Shui dudes were sent to go find a tomb location and they both, without any corroboration, picked this spot.

"Stone Statues of 61 Foreign Officials" oh, China. Who can top your ethnocentrism?

reminds me of the Tuscan hillside. Since I saw it sans flowers.

Into the tomb

The emperor liked his women.

There is a cross section of the above tomb.

Inside the tomb was a dark room with a big black box full of engravings. It was very poorly lit and equally disappointing. This image is taken from the replica in the adjoining museum.

No Trumpets allowed in China.

Here we are at this ridiculous structure. It really looks like something out of Avatar: the Last Airbender.

Designed by, who else? Taipei 101 and Pangu 7 architect C.Y. Lee

What- the...

I'm assuming these are different incarnations of Buddha. A lot of them seem to ride on crazy animals.

Lunch!

A Buddhist vegetarian lunch at that!

This was a piece of this super bing, eaten with a garnish of marinated (or pickled?) hot peppers.

So the story with the ridiculous building is this; this tower used to house China's most valued Buddhist relic. A bone from thee original Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama a.k.a. Śākyamuni.

Buddha treasures.

Tomb Stone Gate Slab

Fancy tea set.

More riding of the strange animals.

Oh yeah, so anyways, the story is this original tower collapsed one day. Or rather one side of it decided it wanted to visit the ground. The Chinese government restored it and decided it would be best to move the sacred relics to a new building.

Enter ridiculous building. Really, what the hell? I swear, I'm in a sci-fi movie. I guess China wins the prize for ridiculous space building. So once or twice a year, they bring this Buddha bone out for public viewing. You can see if from really far away. Except it will just look like a white dot. Ooooooh. I guess they want this place to be like the Vatican of Buddhism. Except they clearly have never been to the Vatican. Oh well. Go China.

So there are 3 other holy bone relics kept here (not in the space building). This underground chamber houses these other 3 holy but not as holy relics.

So super bing from lunch was just a warm up for the Giant Bing. Really, why would anyone make a bing that big?

"I would"

One slice is bigger than my head.

Dinner!

...at a government run restaurant? What could possibly go wrong?

Especially when I've brought a bottle of Singleton 15!

yeah, dinner was overall quite meh. The service was sooooo bad and the meal was bookended by neighboring tables swamping us with cigarette smoke. China has yet to get that public health notice.

These look like the Buddha bones from earlier.

Fried persimmon cakes - or as I like to call them, Persimmon-based Oil Sponge

Potstickers. How many times have they used that oil?

Fluffly pastry! Soaked with Oil! =P

oh, come on! this must be a practical joke an American translator is playing on these guys. Engrish to the max.

Beijing -> Xi'an

2010-10-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

the breakfast lounge of the Tang-La Hotel is quite nice.

PEK

->

XIY

Quite the mob of people waiting for luggage. 99% tourists.

aboard the tour 'short bus'

our guide

and her crazy but somewhat mesmerizing shoes.

I think our flight was delayed coming in so we missed lunch. Here we are making a pit stop for snacks.

Rou Jia Mo - Xi'an cuisine. It's kind of like pulled pork in a Chinese Bing - round flat bread

Xi'an has it's city walls intact.

And its colorful cast of sketchy men selling you maps and other touristy things.

On the Wall

Most. Decorative. Trash Can. Ever! So far.

Off the Wall. We are in what I believe is the Muslim Quarter of Xian.

treats

Hot salt churned walnuts.

Chinese Halal eats

walnuts and dates. walnuts and dates.

This guy had a crazy Mongolian or Kyrgyzstanny accent. The idea here is you pick out the skewers you want and he cooks them for you on his charcoal pit.

Cumin-y goodness.

5 eggs! who is gonna eat five eggs?

Sorts of oven with underwater fire exhaust system.

I want to call these Pork-Screws but given that we are in the Muslim Quarter, they are most likely made of something else.

Adjacent to what I'm calling the Muslim Quarter is the Tourist Quarter.

Where we dine at a supposedly famous dumpling restaurant. Xian and Central China is known for their dough. So dumplings, noodles, etc.

Appetizers - I quite enjoy the variety and healthy balance of food groups.

Lamest dumplings - only because they hyped these up with fancy stories and what not. They are just balls of dough in soup. No filling.

Enter the parade of fancy dumplings.

and more

and more

and even more

Christs...

The unfortunate sweet dumpling, overflowing with red bean paste.

In the end, the regular dumplings were our favorite so we ordered a few extra plates of these.

We ate on the tourist trap 2nd floor. Apparently the 1st floor is much better. That's gotta be where locals (including our guide) eat.

Chinese cowboy directing parking lot traffic? I should mention that traffic or rather just driving behavior in Xian is beyond crazy. Well, maybe Mumbai or Vietnam crazy, but it's just bonkers the way they drive out there.

Our hotel is... the fanciest Howard Johnson in the world? What the? I guess it's still a good strong American hotel brand in China. So good in fact...

They can afford a giant rotating sphere/platform with lights and a white grand player piano. wtf!

Ok. No complaints. P.S.

I'm rich biyatch!