Countdown

Behold the lame but endearing sandwich sign at our law school cafeteria. I usually get the '3strikes turkey'... Most of them don't make any sense, to both lawyers and non lawyers alike (Cold Cut Conspiracy, Pastrami Parole, Meatball Verdict??, etc... overall highly unnecessary).

I will be done with finals in three weeks and will be graduating in less than a month... just picked up my graduation gown, which includes purple velvet and looks like it would be handy for the next Harry Potter movie premiere. Anyway, I will finally be saying goodbye to the world of summer/winter/spring breaks, the idea of weekends (3-4 day ones too..), days starting when I choose... It'll be interesting.

I want to post a few things about what I thought about law school
soon, before I forget all my gripes and observations about the lovely
institution. But overall I'm happy to say that I'm actually really
glad I came, as long as I don't get laid off from my job :) hah

Doritos collisions

This is also surprisingly-or-is-it-unsurprisingly good:

MC happy time

This is surpringly-- or unsurprisingly-- good: negra modelo with a
baileys vanilla vodka mix. I guess kind if like an Irish car bomb but
negra is more delicious than guiness.

Tomorrow is barrister's ball, aka law school prom. Graduates trying to
recapture their youth? Well it's the last foreseeable prom of my
time, so cheers :)

Coffee Bean's Honeydew Oolong Tea

Best thing to happen to me all of last week: finding out that Coffee Bean is bringing back its Honeydew Oolong Tea. I actually screamed a little when I read it. While alone in a parking structure.

This tea has a honeydew flavor and scent that somehow matches perfectly with the taste of oolong tea, which is somewhere between black and green tea. Its taste is not as deep/strong as black tea, but it does not have that somewhat grassy taste of green tea. Amber colored and almost sweet.

They stopped making this tea about two years ago, and I have been unsuccessfully trying to find an adequate substitute since. Republic of Tea makes a Honeydew White Tea, but it doesn't come close. It got to the point where I actually emailed Coffee Bean to ask if they would ever bring it back (and I never email companies over things, even when their products cause me great suffering/joy) (and there are few things that go away that I am not able to just forget about in a short time). I like to think that my single email made this whole comeback happen. Haha.

So yay! It's back today! And I noticed there is also a new Orange Blossom Oolong tea too... mmm sounds good. Good enough news to somewhat offset the other big news of the week: my future firm conducted mass layoffs and we 3Ls are faced with quite the difficult choice over start dates (and worries about job security in general). -__- Sad.

Back to studying for my Property Tax final.

Asian Americans in the Obama Cabinet

I am pretty surprised and impressed with the diversity of ethnicity and gender in Obama's cabinet (highly qualified people obviously, not just applauding diversity for diversity's sake). While I of course support the diverse character of the cabinet, I wouldn't have been as surprised if it was 'diverse-minus-Asians,' as I feel is often the case.

The first and second picks were good and received well, but I have to admit that I am especially surprised to find that there now might be up to four Asian Americans serving in the Cabinet (three Chinese Americans, at that!). My surprise comes despite knowing that Obama was raised partly in Indonesia, has a half-Asian sister and a Chinese brother-in-law... I don't know, I just didn't expect it. Anyway here they are:

Gen. Eric Shinseki, Secretary of Veteran's Affairs

New York Times profile

Stephen Chu, Energy Secretary

New York Times profile

Gary Locke, current top pick for Commerce Secretary (two previous nominees withdrew)

(A little ironic that Obama's first nominee (Bill Richardson) angered some Asian Americans-- in particular Chinese Americans because of Wen Ho Lee-- and now things have ended up where he will nominate a Chinese American...)

and Chris Lu, Cabinet Secretary (does that count as a fourth cabinet member? Okay maybe not technically but I'm going to say it does.)

New York Times profile

I feel so "angry asian man" right now haha but I think it's a pretty significant situation. Anyway, more importantly, hopefully all the cabinet secretaries will perform well in their roles, Asian or not.

Mobile posting test

Driving back from the bay area... Good weekend. Finally gave in and
got an iPhone. it's awesome.

Random eats in Hong Kong

Was going through my pictures (some people play Spider Solitaire or that bubblehead-shooting game during downtime in class; I browse my Picasa or review Chinesepod PDFs hahah) and wanted to share some good eats I had in Hong Kong.

Fun idea :) These didn't actually taste like beer, but they were still good. Maybe they're just supposed to go with beer, because even on the box it says "black and white pepper." If only I could read the rest of the Japanese.

These next few dishes are from W and I's favorite Sichuan restaurant in HK: San Xi Lou in the Midlevels. It has awesome spicy dishes. Here is their Shui Zhu Yu (水煮鱼)... I think it means "water cooked fish" but really it's fish cooked in hot oil and chilis. So there are pieces of fish fillet underneath all that firey red chili pepper goodness! See below...

So they serve it and then take out a good portion of the chilis before you dig in. I LOVE ma la spiciness... it's a sort of numbing spiciness, rather than a mouth-on-fire spiciness. I think it's the kind that I can handle the most. I've found it in the SGV but it's not the same.

These were so awesomely delicious. They are huge prawns cooked in this egg yolk batter. Heart attack central, but worth it.

Shui zhu yu is W's favorite, but this is mine. It's a spicy pork short ribs dish that is cooked in a pumpkin. The flavor gets into the pumpkin meat inside, so both the short ribs and the pumpkin itself is sooo good. Kind of like the clam chowder in a sourdough bowl concept :)

Of course we have to enjoy some Beijing Olympic Tsing Tao while watching the Beijing Olympics! Lame yet so super fun ^_^

Last but not least, Mangosteen! OK I actually discovered these in Singapore first, and they are really more of a Southeast Asian fruit, but why have a separate post for that? Now that I know what they are, I've seen them randomly here and there in LA, but they still remind me of my time in Singapore/HK.

The best way that I can describe these garlic-looking little pieces of fruit are that they are like a delicious cross between lychees and soft white peaches/donut peaches. Mmmm they are appropriately referred to as the "Queen of the fruits" (Durian being the "King of the fruits"-- more questionable... haha). Tasty AND whimsical-looking? Definitely one of my favorite fruits.

That's it for now! I'm hungry... rarr

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While looking for info on Shui Zhu Yu, I came across this Chinese pop song that basically goes, "I love you like I love eating Shui Zhu Yu"... there's some Chinese romance for you.