2016-09-04 Labor Day Shenanigans! Day 4 and 5: Fishing, Greek Festival, and Gyoza

Sunday, September 4, 2016 - The Pacific Ocean

You'd think that after a long ass day as Disneyland and California adventure, we would make sure the next day was pretty easy and relaxing.  Unfortunately, you are again wrong (man, you guys are terrible at this game).  

So if you didn't know, I'm an avid fisherman.  I like the ocean, being on a boat, the thrill of feeling the bite, and the fight to land a fish.  I've been chasing big game tuna for several years now.  But honestly, its because I love to eat sashimi, and since its so freakin' expensive I rarely have it.  BUT, when you catch your own tuna, you have the freshest sashimi available and its best if eaten within the first couple days.  So basically, you get to binge eat sashimi like its a bag of chips with zero concern about how much its going to cost you when you get the bill.  Its foolproof logic.  (Please don't ruin this for me by explaining that its not).  Anyhow, Holly grabs her very first ocean fish, a bonito.  These have a darker and more bold flavor than yellowfin tuna when cooked.  But when eaten raw, its better than yellowfin and yellowtail tuna, according to my palate, and my palate know when its eating expensive stuff.  Nice job Holls!

Monday, September 5, 2016 - Long Beach Greek Festival and Gyoza

Finally!  A down day.  Just go to a festival, go to the grocery store, cut some sashimi, cook some lobster dynamite, make gyoza, and have Steven and Michelle over for dinner; easy breezy.

So I really like street fairs, festivals, cultural festivals... because you are guaranteed some really awesome food.  Imagine how excited I was to find out there was a GREEK festival this weekend.  TIME TO EAT!  This festival did not disappoint.  Every booth I saw was something different, there were no repeats!  Everyone's food looked so good that I got stupid excited enough to plan to have two meals there; one when we first got there and another on the way out.  Yeah, we were there for 45 minutes, it didn't happen.  But here's what we did get to:  Spanakopita, some thing like spanakopita except with cheese instead of spinach (what a genius that guy was), Octopus, a souvlaki, and Galaktoboureko.  The Galaktoboureko was one of those impulse dessert buys, the kind that takes you from, "Meh, I could pass on dessert" to, "This must be mine!"  Its phyllo dough, filled with egg custard, the drenched in honey.  People!  I dare you resist this amazingness.  Oh yeah, and the octopus.  If you didn't know, the greek and italians have the secret when it comes to making tender and flavorful octopus.  If you don't really like octopus or have never had octopus, it will make you a believer.  

Okay, we're running low on time for our weekend so we hurry up the eating at the greek festival so that we can go grocery shopping, so that we can eat again... We need stuff to make lobster dynamite.  This consists of lobster and dynamite sauce.  The sauce is a mixture of Kewpie (Japanese Mayo), Sriracha, which was super cool in asian cultures decades before it ever became mainstream hipster popular, and most importantly, masago (salmon roe).  Parboil a lobster, dice the meat, toss it with some sauteed mushrooms and onions, add the dynamite sauce, and put it in the boiler.  Served topped with some shaved bonito flakes and this dish on top of rice is one of my absolute favorite dishes in the world  I can rarely find it in sushi restaurants and I don't know a single person who makes it at home.  So if you want to become my best friend, make me lobster dynamite.  

So the deal was, we make sashimi with the bonito that Holly caught, we make the lobster dynamite with the lobster that we caught at Ranch 99, and Steven makes us gyoza.  What ended up happening is that he pawned off the manual labor on to us.  Actually no, apparently gyoza making is a very social tradition.  Teaching people how to fold gyoza and folding them with other people is a totally normal group activity.  I guess sometimes I would roll lumpia with my mom and my sister or a friend or something; this was pretty much the same thing.

Dinner ended up being fantastic.  Steven let me keep the remainder of the gyoza, which is no longer remaining, and everyone had a good time.  Cooking and eating with other people is fun, if you haven't done it in a while, be sure to call up some friends and get it cracking. 

[Said in chinese accent] DAAAAAAANG! He makes the gyoza so fast!

And there you have it!  5 days worth of shenanigans in 3 different posts!  Turns out, its much harder to do it this way.  Or, I just have a lot more pictures to show and stories to tell.  The next post is already out of the camera, so I hope to get the next one up soon.

2016-09-02 Labor Day Shenanigans! Day 2 and 3: San Diego, Disneyland and California Adventure

Friday, September 2, 2016 - San Diego

So this part of the post is entirely here so that I can post a single picture of food, lol.  Today was kind of an errand day as Holly had a Global Entry appointment in San Ysidro, which is the last city before the border of Mexico.  It is literally the last US exit on the 5 or 805.  That means two things: outlet shopping and really good mexican food.  The Global Entry office was pretty strict on showing up early, so with our extra 45 minutes, I scored a pair of steeled-toe boots for work and my welding class along with a pair of beautifully white leather vans sneakers.  If you don't know me very well, I am a sucker for white leather shoes.  I freaking love them, until they become gray or brown leather shoes.  At that time, they become the ugly stepchild and I put them up for adoption.  I think we find Holly a couple more things and we're back to the office to swiftly take care of her appointment.  Let me take a moment to explain Global Entry (GE).  GE is a program for people who fly internationally and want to ease the process of immigration when returning to the US.  Basically, they pre-screen you and tag you as "not a threat" and you can skip the immigration lines AND it also includes TSA precheck which gives you the super special line for security at any US airport.  Its $100 bucks and lasts 5-years.  I guarantee that it is worth it, even if you travel only once a year.

Onto the food!  After Holly's appointment, we got a recommendation for a local spot for authentic mexican food Los Corbones Taco Shop.  We indecisively got a bean and cheese burrito and a sampler plate of quesidillas, rolled tacos (not taquitos!), and potato chimichangas.  They are all stellar, but the real surprise was the potato chimichanga which I would describe more as a deep fried potato flauta.  AMAZE-BALLS.

Saturday, September 3, 2016 - Disneyland

So now that I work with Jeff at VG, I figured it was a good time to get the UCLA gang (Brandon, Jeff and me) back together for some studying!  Actually no, I hate studying and we all have multiple degrees now, so instead, let's go to Disneyland!!!

You know how you used to go to Disneyland as a kid, and your parents would bring their giant camera and make you pose for a bunch of annoying pictures?  Yeah, I don't have kids, so instead I'm the one creepy guy that takes a camera to Disneyland without kids.  Luckily, these guys were good sports about posing for a few HUNDRED photos.

You may have asked yourself, "Who are these girls in these pictures who didn't go to UCLA and aren't Brandon, Jeff, and Rob?"  Well, from previous posts, you should know who Holly is.  If you don't, Holly is the mayor of Roseville, yeah let's go with that.  The short one is Shy, she's Brandon's main squeeze.  Jeff's girl, now fiance, didn't come because she still lives in Denver.

Quick tip:  Instead of buying tickets at the gate for $100+, go on Craigslist and there are plenty of people that will sell you their employee discounted/free tickets for $60 ish.  We got a park hopper ticket for $75.  Also, this message will self destruct in 3... 2... 1... EXPLOSION!  Not really.

Let us enter the park!

First stop in Disneyland is the recently revamped Tomorrowland, home to Bryson's favorite ride - Autopia and Rob's favorite attraction - the epic but no longer running 3-D show Captain EO. If you don't have 17 minutes and 14 seconds to watch Michael Jackson in his prime, at least refresh your memory with the best song of his career.  Everyone thinks his best song is Thriller or Beat it or Billie Jean, but who are you going to believe, a bunch of snobby music exec's or 12 year old me.  Pay attention to every behind the music story, those music exec's are evil.

Since Bryson was not with us and Captain EO hasn't made its third comeback yet, we opted for Space Mountain, which has now been branded as Hyperspace Mountain and has a Star Wars theme to it.  Even with the changes, this coaster is still one of the best.  Good thing it was the second coaster to be built at Disneyland because the first coaster, the Matterhorn, doesn't quite pack the same punch although that abominable snow man yeti thing is pretty sweet.

Now since this is only the FIRST ride we went on, and the line was under an hour for Hyperspace Mountain, you'd figure that we were good for another hour or two before having to pit stop.  I would then tell you that you were wrong, like 1 + 1 = Jello, wrong.  Soon after we got into line, Shy already proclaimed that she was thirsty and hungry and that we should go to Korean BBQ for dinner.  We made our way toward the New Orleans Cafe, or at least that's what I'm going to call it, for some semi decent creole food and some Mint Juleps.  Funny story, when I was growing up, we got these Mint Juleps and a creme puff and I thought they were the greatest things in the world (until I discovered churros).  It was probably because we never bought food in the amusement parks growing up so it was probably some special occasion.  But these Mint Juleps are not normal Mint Juleps; they are just green candy juice with some mint on top of it.  I remember ordering one in a bar many many years later expecting some super tasty drink, what a trip that was.  Do you know what's in a normal Mint Julep?  2 parts burbon, 1 part simple syrup, ice, and mint for a garnish.  That tastes NOTHING like the Disneyland Mint Julep, it was a crushing blow to my already limited youthful memories.

If you recall your mental map of Disneyland, you'll know that the Creole Cafe is right next to my other two favorite rides, Pirates of the Carribean and The Haunted Mansion.  The Mansion was closed that day, so we turned our sights to Pirates.  Play the song!!! 

Did you play the song?  Did you sing along??  Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate's life for me... mumble and mumble and mumble and mumble and mumble and mumble, Yo-ho!

Next up we keep with the boat ride theme and head to the Jungle Cruise!  Really it was like, well... its here... there's no line... let's go on it.

Some of the worst puns in the world found their birth place on this ride.  I wonder if the driver/host leaves the job and forgets to stop telling terrible puns and gets to be known at the guy who doesn't know that puns are the 4th grade version of comedy, along with poop and fart jokes, but those are funny in any grade.

Back to Tomorrowland we go to catch the revamped Star Tours which I swear was exactly the same, just now with a Star Wars theme.  The "speeder" we were in actually broke on us, so they had to shuffle us onto a different "speeder".  All that means is that we got to wear our super cool 3-D glasses a little bit longer.

With all that action, I tried to convince everyone that going to A Small World would be a good idea; really it was just a ploy for me to take pictures on the ride.  Spoiler alert, I can be very persuasive. 

We pause for a few photo opps on our way to our last ride at Disneyland, the sword in the stone (pronounce the 'W' in sWORd) and Cinderella's castle.  What was our last ride?  Indian Jones.  I can't believe you guys didn't know that.  Are you guys even paying attention?  Actually, if I were you, I'd be asking why we didn't get a pineapple whip, because apparently, if you go into Adventureland, it is mandatory that you get one.  However, a big ole' line makes me say "I ain't got time for that!"

Okay, let's leave the park, because Jeff has to go home and work (BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WORK).  But wait, but wait!  The parade is starting!!  Love the parade.  We must stay.  I must point my camera at it and make clicky noises!

Okay... Noooooow let's leave the park.  But wait, but wait!  Lets take pictures in front of the train station!  This is where Shy scolds Brandon for taking a crappy picture of Holly and me.  Hahaha!  Shy, Brandon is not asian, he is not automatically born with a camera in his hands.

Leave Disneyland, enter California Adventure!  Our goals:  Dessert, Lobster Nachos, alcohol!  This time, we were all ready for a meal.  I have a feeling that a lot of people do this because the wait for the restaurant was 45 mins!  The girls solved that by getting soft serve and then we compared ice cream eating techniques.  This is where I tell the story where my sister and I used to share ice cream cones and popsicles.  The gist of the story goes, I would spend like 10 minutes making the ice cream cone or the popsicle into a perfect symmetric point, and then pass it off to my sister who would then take a bite off the top.  Its like she didn't even notice the perfect conical shape and just thought, ICE CREAM IN MY MOUTH NOW!  Not joking though, this went on for years.   

So I had been to California Adventure once or twice before and all I remembered is that the light show by the ferris wheel was pretty dope and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is the best ride ever!  Be sure to ride it at night, and be sure to go today because the ride is closing in January.

What wasn't there when I went last was a whole area dedicated to the animated film Cars!  OMG Bryson would be so excited.  I was so excited, I proclaimed that we had to come back after we rode Tower of Terror so that we could see Cars Land at night.  Man, am I glad we did come back.  Neon city!  But first we went on the Cars ride which is really cool because you actually drag race another car around the track; its surprisingly entertaining.  

Now that night has fallen, we make our way to the Tower of Terror and get in line.  Shy begins to hint that she doesn't really like these types of ride.  Brandon and are telling everyone to pick your feet up so it feels like you're floating and Holly joins suit.  Check out the super cheapskate picture of a picture and see if you can tell who is having fun and who is not.

Okay, okay, okay can we go back to Cars Land now puuuuuhhh-leeeeeeese!  I swear, I could've taken pictures here for another hour.  The only thing that kept us from staying, besides everyone else getting bored, is the light show at the ferris wheel.  I got some pretty cool photos there too, but neon is sooooo cool!

So every night there is a fireworks show at Disneyland and there is this light show at California Adventure.  They are both good in their own ways and they both have changed many times.  You know what made us to decide to go to the California Adventure light show?  You guessed it, we were lazy and it was right there.

All in all, a great day at the two Disney parks with great people.  Oh, and we totally got Korean BBQ afterwards.  

If you like food... read the next post!