Running into strangers...

Have you ever had days where you just seem to be constantly running into people you know? Today, I went to dinner down a cute street called Cary Town and I ran into two strangers. Person #1 was one of the yoga instructors from my gym. Person #2 was the Bare Escentials lady who helped me out at the mall. It always catches me by surprise when I run into "strangers" outside of where I have seen them initially. It's like realizing for the first time that professors and TAs have lives outside of lecture halls and classrooms when I see them outside of school.

Yes, I am a bit (maybe a lot) obsessed.

So you know when you try something out, and it's cool and all if you don't succeed and just move on? At least that's how it is for me with sports or anything that involves coordination. However, when I stumbled upon the idea of making French macarons for the first time, I thought it would be just like any hobby or activity I start--I would just get bored and move on. It was quite the opposite, as I learned how hard and fickled macarons were to make that it made me more determined to get it down at some point. How hard could it be? Ha. No wonder they charged 3 dollars for a quarter sized macaron! I read baking blogs online and picked up tips here and there, and more assuringly, I read that a lot of bakers (even professionals) struggled to get macarons down, not just once or twice, but sometimes dozens of times. Phew! It's not just me.

This is a picture of the batter at the right consistency, as I'm letting it dry out on the table before I stick it into the oven:

This is one of my "macawrongs." These were supposed to be chocolate macarons. I knew they were the hardest to make because the acidity of the cocoa powder would interfere with the stability of the meringue inside the batter, but I tried nonetheless. Plus, I thought, I was somewhat close the very first time I made chocolate ones (see previous post). So I just sent them with my dad to his work. He told his co-workers they were "soft baked chocolate meringues." His co-workers raved that these "baked meringues" were so good. If only they knew what they were supposed to be...The macawrongs in this batch failed because they puckered up due to a few extra unnecessary strokes of folding the batter. : (


On a brighter note, I decided to give up to the French method of making macarons, and decided to try for the first time to try out the Italian method. This involved making a sugar water solution at 118 degrees Celsius, so I had to find a candy thermometer to use, because a meat thermometer didn't reach as high in temperature. Surprisingly, the macarons, aesthetically turned out well. Once again though, there was another problem, there were too many air pockets formed. I baked it at the optimal temperature to prevent them, but they still occured, probably as a result of the Italian styled batter, as warned by many baking bloggers. The tops were flat and smooth with no wrinkles, and feet developed (the frilly skirt thing on the bottom of the macaron). However, with the air pockets, and the dullness of the tops, I still haven't made them correctly. =(

So I'm supposed to sandwich two macarons together with some sort of ganache. Making good ganache will come later...way later.

Conclusion: Macarons win. I lose.

Making macarons, an art?

I've created a to-do list for this summer, and it includes things like reading Les Miserables, playing Jon Schmidt songs on the piano, and learning how to cook more of my mom's food. The most challenging of my list is probably making French macarons. I miss the macarons from Laduree that my cousin Cathy introduced me to in London so much, that I decided it was time for me to make pseudo-Laduree macarons. My first trial was today, and I tried making chocolate macarons. I burnt half the batch, and cracked a few. However, the ones that did survive, had the perfect shine on the top, and had feet at the bottom. The texture was light and crisp on the outside, and chewy on the inside. I filled them with my mom's homemade strawberry jam. There are so many different factors that can affect them. Temperature too high-cracked tops, temperature too low-air bubbles, overmixing-cracked flat and discolored, undermix-runny.

Trial 2 occurs tomorrow! I think I'm going to try to make matcha green tea macarons instead of chocolate. After perfecting the shell, I need to learn to make good ganaches, creams, jams to fill them with!

Isn't it funny how everything works out in the end?

So many things have happened to me these past couple weeks. I've had some pretty outrageous, crazy, or plain ridiculous moments, days, or even week. In general, I find myself in these silly situations that may appear absurd or impossible to many, but become quite real to me that I eventually learn to laugh with (not at) myself, if that makes any sense at all; and to realize, as cliche as it may sound, that it's all how I look at it. At the end, everything works out--all the pieces come together.

I mentioned in a very early post about how I've become more mellow over the years, how I think "oh well" to whatever circumstance I come across. Yes, partly it stems from apathy as I've grown more jaded towards a lot of issues that might have mattered more to me at one point in my life, or from disappointment towards certain aspects of reality that makes me think, ignorance is indeed bliss. The other part of this "oh well" attitude is because I have faith that everything will work out, or to say the least, appear to make more sense. And so it's funny when those around me might obsess over something pertaining to me that I might not even obsess or worry about at all. Like a friend once said, what's the point of worrying? Truth. Because, tomorrow will worry for itself. Nonetheless, I'm still happy and grateful every single time something works out.

flowers, flowers..and more flowers?

I don't really appreciate flowers (with the exception of tulips), and I definitely don't understand trees. Nonetheless, that's what my weekend was filled with. I went to the annual cherry blossom festival in DC, which was super crowded and fun. Lots of Japanese musical performances, street fair foods, crazy anime people (no offense if you identify with one). I had to take the picture above of the girl dressed up as an anime girl. I took a boat ride of the Potomac River, and ended up sunburnt.

Tulips! My favorite, although I couldn't find purple tulips, my favorite of them all.

The picture of the cacti above cracks me up because they look like soft churro! It made me crave some...yum.

The cutest chow-chow ever.

Cherry blossoms!

Takes too long to upload, so tis all for now.

Spring!

Spring is finally here! Well, it's been here for a few days I think? It's crazy because I'm not used to having seasons. Here in Virginia, the seasons aren't even super extreme like it may be in upper Northeast. Anyways, this is a picture of the tree on front of my house. It was just bare branches during the winter, but now it's blooming pink flowers. At first, I thought they were pink leaves that were budding, because little red buds were the only thing growing out. More spring pictures to come from the cherry blossom festival in DC this weekend!

personality = specialty

How would you describe your family practice doctor? Or say, a surgeon, dermatologist, ob/gyn? So apparently, what I've learned recently was that there are particular personality types that are better suited for one specialty over another. True, medical students chose specialties that they enjoy most, but what they enjoy most might very well be what environment suits them best. So here are a few stereotypes that I found out about:

surgery: type A personality, strong-minded

radiology: antisocial, not a people person, doesn't want patient interaction

anesthesiology: wants to contribute, get work done, but also want to enjoy other parts of their lives, laid back, chill

pyschiatry: quirky, weird, secretly wanting to self-diagnose

ob/gyn: tend to be the pretty girls of the class

dermatology: the pretty girls in the class with the brains (it's the hardest or 2nd hardest specialty to get into)

internal medicine: the nerds, the ones who want to know everything (since that's what the specialty kind of is about)

family medicine: people friendly, likes to build relationship with patients

I wonder...what field I will end up in. LOL.

btw, the weather here is ridiculous, it was as low as 10 degrees on Sunday when it snowed 5 or 6 inches and I played in the snow, to today it's super dry and in the 60s and I went to a barbeque in a tank top. Ridiculous!

let it snow. let it snow. let it snow!

It finally snowed in Virginia yesterday. First snow day of the season, and in March! I don't have snow clothes here though to go sledding. Next year, next year!

I miss UCLA! :(

Ah! I finally saw the end of the year DVD that Hoang made (thanks Hoang)! It made me so happy, yet sad to see it. I can't believe it's close to a year since we graduated. Sorry Thuy, I used your collage you had for your fb profile at one point because I still don't have any or most of the pictures from college. I still need to steal them from you guys! I'm so glad for such a good group of friends at UCLA. Couldn't have asked for better fun (and often random) moments during college =). Thanks guys!!!

P.S. It is not "fin" yet!

Ah the hesitation of a public post

Many times I find myself in the mood to journal or blog. My friend Mon who came for an interview was writing in a journal every day that she was here, and it reminded me of my Sanrio Keroppi diary that had a little plastic lock! I thought it was such a good idea at how often she wrote in it. It would be nice to go back and read it. I stopped however, because as a kid, I'd only write about the really good times or the really bad times. I usually have these crazy ideas in my head that I want to convey, but then I grow hesitant, and ultimately either write about a completely different topic or not write at all (the latter being more often than not). The problems of a public blog! So...hopefully I don't end up going off tangent like I usually do. =P.

Lately, I've had friends re-appear in and others disappear out of my life. In the past, I would go after the ones who would start to disappear. In other words, I would make an effort to keep in touch with them or to continue to be there for them the way that they were not for me. It's sad to realize what can get in the way of a friendship between two people.... relationships, jobs, other friends, life! Back in the days, I'd hold the light in the dark, until the friend decides to come back. Now, I don't know whether I'd call these individuals friends or mere acquaintances, or whether or not I'm jaded or simply not naive anymore. And then there are the friends who suddenly pop in my life. It's funny who I've gotten closer with too. There are a few friends that I talk to on almost a daily basis, who I might not have even spoke to unless I ran into them. It's kind of weird actually sometimes...

And to the friends who have always been my friends, thank you. :)

Dare to explore?!

Apparently Church Hill (the part of Richmond that I'm living in) had a railway tunnel built underneath it during the 1870s, but the two entrances were blocked off by 1925 because of an accident that occurred, as the tunnel began collapsing on the inside, and trapped a train and some of the workers on it! The train and some of the bodies were never removed, so it's still in that underground tunnel! I've never noticed this as I've gone running through the parks around here. When it gets warmer, Sarah and I are planning on finding both of these blocked off entrances. At least with the East entrance, it's not blocked off for a couple hundred feet, and supposedly the railroad tracks are still there. This is the picture of the West entrance from Wikipedia.

Weekly Rituals.

I love being spontaneous as much as I love having ritualistic activities to do on a regular basis--if that even makes sense. I like taking a drive in the middle of the night to destination "Unknown." I like deciding to go to NYC two days before.

I also like having something regular and consistent, like my Sunday Soy Latte days. Every Sunday, Linh and I stop by this cute European cafe for their soy lattes. While every Friday a group of us have our gelato and pho night after a hard (haha) studious week. Various Sundays we have boardgame night, and once a week we have our potlucks! I decided to blog about this just because it's Sunday and I'm waiting for my latte!

Oh also, I've gotten into coffee and tea more and more lately. I was already really into it back in college (hence why I worked at Coffee Bean). I caught myself being a coffee snob =O the other day when I requested extra dense foam, since I could tell the difference between good and bad (which is what it typically is at chain-coffee shops like Starbucks) foam. It's actually quite an art to perfect foam. You have to angle the steam wand at a particular degree, have the tip below the surface of milk only a few millimeters, and move it in a consistent particular pace too. Perfect foam is so firm that you can stand a metal spoon in the middle, and it won't fall over! Most people end up making bubbly watery foam that look nothing more than soap suds. Or people over heat the milk above the right range. Anywho, enough about this coffee talk. Lo siento!

Okay so on a random non-tangential note.... so I was having a discussion with someone about pulling off looks, and sadly, I realized I can't pull off bad ass white trash...This is a picture from the summer when we had our Derby themed party at our house. This is me with my two roommates:


I mean I can't pull of white trash 100% Well because I'm not...white! But for being asian, I feel that's as close as you can get to being white trash. This discussion came up because the same person I was talking to said he couldn't see me pulling off barbaric, tough stuff-type Viking as a costume!

Toodles.
Mon

A "just because" post.

Over break, I went to the SD zoo, hoping to find my <3, the manatee (a.k.a. cow of the sea). Instead, I found this fella: