Rich Table

yessssss!!! after hearing people rave about Rich Table over the past couple of years i can finally check it off my list. i made a reservation for three people and invited a couple of random friends to help me indulge in the tasting menu, which the restaurant calls "chef's pick." for $80/person you are served a generous nine course meal. if you are concerned about portion sizes i'll have you know that the second course of the meal is really five mini courses in itself. if your tummy isn't already filling up after that then i imagine you are massive human being. i held my expectations pretty high for this place based on all of the hype about the sardine chips and the dried porcini doughnuts and i'm happy to report that my expectations were absolutely met. 

1st course. oysters. pomegranate. chive.

i don't even like oysters but the texture from the pomegranate seeds made the sliminess of the oysters bearable and i actually thoroughly enjoyed these. i could've probably slurped down twenty of these little guys.

2nd course layout

hmm i can't remember what these were but they weren't my favorite so let's just push them to the side.

dried porcini doughnuts with fondue

best thing i had all night. light, chewy, not greasy and super savory. if i were by myself eating these they'd probably put me in a trance but alas, i had to continue conversation like a normal person.

chicken liver mousse. fried onions, raisins.

great mousse. sometimes chicken liver gets this sort of gamy flavor to it but not this one. smooth, creamy, salty and sweet. all good things.

dirty hippy. wheatgrass. popcorn. seeds.

not my favorite thing but i can definitely appreciate it. it had a super earthy taste to it (clearly, right?? almost grassy) and was nice and creamy with tons of crunch and texture.

sardine chips

one of their signature small plates. if you like sardines then this is clearly for you. i'm sort of neutral about sardines but enjoyed these chips. the creamy sauce balanced out the saltiness of the chips. 

cured mackerel. pink lady apples.

tagliatellie. uni butter. bergamot. 

perfect al dente cooked pasta with luscious uni butter and slight bitter, citrusy bergamot? love!

seared scallop. creamed nettles. mandarin orange. 

scallop cooked just barely enough, paired with a bright mandarin orange. 

new york strip. swiss chard. marinated brussel sprouts.

creamsicle. with sorrel. 

refreshing and light. not overly sweet.

mint chocolate sable. milk ice. mint choc mousse. 

simply just yum. mint is my favorite! 

belated secret santa

christmas is about family and at work we've built a little dysfunctional family of our own. finding time where everybody can meet up in the evening is difficult due to varying work shifts but we make it happen for fun nights like this. it builds up the camaraderie of our work environment and allows us to truly get to know each other and care about each others lives outside of work. we had a suuuuper belated secret santa at a japanese restaurant of all places yesterday. i'm fairly certain the servers were confused and probably thought we were a bunch of geeks but judging from the pictures, i'm sure you can tell that we didn't care too much. 

i rocked a borrowed vest from a friend and added to the festivity of it by bringing out the red pants and green shirt. i decided to continue with the ugly theme and throw my hair up too because if you're going to look stupid, you may as well look stuuuuuupid. 

i think we all agreed that Tan won for best ugly sweater. bedazzled snowmen on men...so hot right now. 

you know that scene in Elf where Buddy the "elf" is sitting on his dad's lap and in comparison he's enormous? somehow this picture turned out so that i look like a giant on these two. haha.

matchy matchy!

she keeps it 'classy as f*ck'

lookin a little elderly there...

women's XL

not quite a bow but we'll take it. ruby's husband made her that sweater AND wrapped and drew on the gift. what a keeper!

part of Muri's gift. i won't go into detail about the story book i made her, but let's just say it got a lot of laughs. 

ass things and mouth things for Ron. hmm what does that say?

mouth guard because she grinds her teeth at night

hahaha!! he now he needs to get a matching pair for Kingston, his beloved pup. 

haha! 

fun time, friends!! love you all!

resting bitch face

i know, i know...Resting Bitch Face isn't a new thing. in fact i'll bet that since the very first day humans existed, so did RBF. if you have indeed been living under the most giant rock and are unaware of what 'resting bitch face' actually is, just take a walk. look around and notice the girls who are alone or aren't currently engaged in conversation with someone else. any of them look sort of mean or judgmental? expressionless or in some bitch-mode? i know you see them...ding!! ding!! ding!! that's RBF also known as Chronic Bitch Face. some time over the past couple of years this idea of women with Resting Bitch Face has grown in popularity. i'm guessing it started out as just a funny joke-like conversation about situations in which guys aren't sure whether to approach a woman who looks upset and unhappy. but let's be real, it's an actual thing that lots of people posses.

i'm here to talk about my ownership of Resting Bitch Face. iiiiii definitely have one of those....have all my life! one time i was at Costco just standing in line waiting for my turn at the register and this little boy (about seven years old (but who really knows because i have no concept of the size of a human vs. their age before people become full blown adults)) looks dead at me and says "maybe you should smile more!" to which i replied "maybe your dad should teach you some manners!" this made me seem reeeeeaaaaal cool. like elderly lady cool. like not-only-do-i-currently-look-like-a-bitch-but-then-i-opened-my-mouth-and-became-an-actual-bitch-type-cool.....except that part didn't happen because i'm passive aggressive like that. the little asshole kid did tell me to smile more but instead of scolding him, i pretty much continued to stand there as i already was and waited for my turn at the register. i mean what good would it have done to say anything? he will likely grow up continuing to be a little dickhead.

well the kid was right...so maybe rather than calling him a jerk over the internets, i should commend him for being observant. when i am not actively smiling or engaged in conversation with people, i basically look like a grump monster. it's true. but can we just consider it an effort in conservation of energy? they say it takes more muscles to frown than to smile but i call bullshit on that! clearly frowning for those of us with RBF is pretty easy. look. i just want my smiles to be genuine and when i truly smile it's a pretty decent looking one i think. you can't bring that energy to life all. the. time! i actually can't really understand how some people walk around and look like they're in the happiest of places all the times. like..what is going on in their head at all hours of the day that turns the corners of their mouths up endlessly? do they live in a mind full of pink clouds and puppies?

so if you ever see me looking sort of bitchy just know it's not that i hate you or i think the world is a miserable place, i simply just look like that for most hours of the day. you can say "hi" and if you're lucky i just might put in the energy to flash you a smile.

open your heart

simultaneously one of the hardest and easiest things you will do in life is to open your heart. though the risk you take in unabashedly doing so is immense. your heart strings can be yanked in any direction and because you've made yourself vulnerable this can go one of two ways or it can go both ways in some cases. intense ecstatisism and/or severe misery can and will make its appearance once you've uninhibitedly made your heart available for the taking. but without allowing yourself to take the risk you may never experience euphoria. and what's a life without knowing that feeling? worth the risk? i think so.

best big sis

one day my mom called me up specifically to tell me "hey you know when you were little you were an F.O.B. i mean you really spoke chinese and talked like one. you even sang like one." and yes, she sounded out "eff oh be" phonetically, spoken like a true fob (even though she came here when she was seven). she'd been watching old videos from our (brother Jerome, who's real name is Jeremy but i like calling him that for no reason whatsoever) childhood to find good footage for Jerome's wedding. i replied with a "yes, i knooow. chinese is all i spoke supposedly for the first few years of life...you don't remember? then preschool happened and all of a sudden chinese was a thing of the past?"

less than a week later i get a message on my phone from my brother with a few video clips on them and a text saying "c'mon! mom even switched camera angles!" at this point excitement ensued because i knew that with a response like that it couldn't be anything short of hysterical.

but before i let you into a vision of my past, let me preface these videos.....

once upon a time after 10 1/2 months of glorious solitude my brother was born and rained on my awesome parade. i'm going to guess that from that moment on i had revenge on my mind and it came in the form of physically demolishing him. can you blame me? he prematurely cut The Regina Show off and entered the world all adorable and annoying. i don't actually recall any of these occurrences but i'm so very happy that they've been recorded because they've provided a ton of laughter for me. i can't say that Jerome is too fond of them but he'll survive. if anything you can consider it an act of character building at it's best.

my favorite part of this video isn't that my mom is very verrrrry lightly saying "regina don't push your brother" or "say sorry to you brother," or even that she got up to switch camera angles for a better shot. my favorite part is what a raging bitch i was pointing that finger up in the air angrily saying whatever it is i was feeling (so far nobody who speaks cantonese can tell me what it is i actually was huffing and puffing about). my mom was right. i was a total assholish F.O.B.

bonus footage! guitar slams on Jerome's dome! it's no wonder why we were never really close when we were younger. probably because he's a thunder stealer. good thing he turned out to be mildly way awesome as an adult.

dear Reg...

dear Reg,

what a weird year for you, huh? this year was sort of like a roller coaster. the first thing you do is start the climb and before you know it you're at the top. this is the exciting and fun part. then suddenly you find yourself in a fast decline where you're unsure, worried and vulnerable. but eventually the speed and scariness slows down and tapers off to a place where you find your balance again and can gather yourself before hopping off the ride. thank god you've finally ended the roller coaster and are ready for the next ride. what a long, exhausting year for you.

you started the year off falling rapidly in love. it was awesome and everything you could ask for. you thought it was a sure thing and damn did it feel pretty fucking real...but then it wasn't. and as quickly as it began, it just as suddenly ended. it taught you that you should never be too sure of yourself. a solid lesson in humility and vulnerability. that was not a fun time. you never can anticipate dark moments and when they come with no warning, they are that much harder to crawl out of. but you leaned on many shoulders and welcomed warm words. you allowed your human side to make it's grande entrance, strengthening already sturdy friendships and infinitely increasing bonds. for that, you can't argue that nothing positive came out of that experience and life lesson.

in the interim back into feeling like yourself again, you did some cool things though. high fives to you for remaining awesome and not letting feeling shitty allow yourself to forget about the important things in life such as your friends, family and experiencing all the good things life has to offer. you kick a lot of ass for that, y'know. you celebrated love at Eva and Jared's wedding and also went to Hawaii for Augs and Zye's wedding. the first few days in Hawaii were spent by yourself until people arrived for wedding festivities, which was a great experience. you learn a lot about yourself when you're flying solo. you also swam with sharks! well...sorta. you cage dived with sharks, which is still pretty damn awesome and one of the best things you've ever done. towards the end of the year you checked one off the list by going on safari in Kenya. it started off semi-bold as your intention was to go by yourself, isolated from the comforts of friends and communication by phone/internet but you made fast friends with some cool people right off the bat so that went out the window. what a crazy amazing trip that was, huh? a completely different world than any you've already experienced. on your way back you got to spend some quality time with one of your oldest friends in New York. there, you finally got to complete your goal of dining at all of the Thomas Keller restaurants with a delectable meal at Per Se.

but let's not forget about some great moments earlier in the year too. after five long years you and The Divas revisited San Diego for a weekend of laughs and memories. it's never not a fun time with those girls. oh and how about the end of prop 8 and DOMA? about time, California! and a step in the right direction, America! and we can't recap a whole year without the mention of our annual Flag Day feast. this year it was at Saison and it was worth every pretty little penny for a spectacular Flag Day #5.

so it's the end of a quite emotional year. you're ready for 2014 to bring on whatever it has in store for you. whatever that may be, you will never lose sight of those that matter to you. your friends and family are your everything and it was important for you to show them that because at the end of the day you'll only be remembered for what type of person you were, not what you've accomplished. you turned thirty and took that as an opportunity to treat your favorite people to a night of delicious eats, libations and laughter. to thank them for their friendship and to say "thanks for being the shit." let's call it a celebration of friendship, hmm? it was an awesome last hurrah to 2013.

but to be honest, Twenty Thirteen, i'm done with you. 2014 is here and i can't wait to open my eyes to a new day year. let's see what comes of my first year out of the 20's and into the early(!) 30's!

it's you and me, Kid. keep rockin' life!