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Disneyland – Los Angeles, CA

Apr8

What trip to LA is complete without a visit to Disneyland? I’ll let you in on a little secret, this was my first trip to Disneyland. Yes, seriously. I didn’t have much travels as a kid and when we did travel, it was to the homeland, not the mainland. I’ve been to other Disney parks but was excited to check California out! We decided to check out both Disneyland and California Adventure Park…and boy am I glad we did. I didn’t know this beforehand but did you know…Disney celebrates Lunar New Year??

There was a gentleman there writing these on the spot by request! Well not completely by request, you had to choose a character from their list. I chose luck!
Lunar New Year ears. Yes, I bought it. And yes, I took pictures with Mickey and Minnie in their Lunar New Year clothes!
Can’t be a visit to Disney without seeing the castle…oh wait…umm…
Award Wieners – California Adventure Park
Spicy City Dog | $9.79
Cheddar-Jalapeño Sausage topped with Chipotle Crema, Queso Fresco and Pico de Gallo with Filmstrip Fries
A Cheesy Celebration | $9.99
Cheddar Sausage Link with creamy Macaroni and Cheese, Salsa Verde, crumbled spicy Cheese Puffs, and Cheese Curds on a Toasted Bun with Filmstrip Fries

I can only comment on the cheesy celebration because this was my dog. Did I tell you I am lactose intolerant? Was this a good choice? Probably not. I was lured by the cheesiness of it. Was it good? Ehhh…for all the flavors named, it was quite a plain dog. They just threw everything on top and it was all just…empty calories and not worth them either!

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Ikea – Burbank, CA

Feb22

Ikea. This store has been a dream of mine to visit for years. We drove out to Burbank to visit this location and I am glad we did. It is a huge store and the street is named after them! I wish I lived in California, I would have bought so much stuff. Not to say I didn’t anyway, I made room for it in my suitcase. I still am holding up hope for it to come to Hawaii one day. Not sure why the this place has such low ratings on Yelp. It’s a nice big store although I’m not a fan of the layout, I guess it’s their way of making you walk through the ENTIRE store. It was a bit of a nightmare for me since I was so unfamiliar with this store, I kept getting lost.

Anyway, my main reason for the visit was also to try the meatballs! Food related, who would have thunk it.

Swedish Meatballs Complete Meal!

I love meatballs, so it doesn’t take much to impress me. I enjoyed it a lot! The gravy was great and the lingonberry jam too! Didn’t need the vegetables or mashed potatoes…give me a big plate of the meatballs and jam and gravy and that would be great. Well, as an Asian give me some rice too, thanks. Something else caught my eye as I lined up…you can see a corner of it in the picture above…

Chocolate Cake

I mean, look at that piece of cake. It’s everything you hope and dream of. It’s like that chocolate cake from Matilda. Mmm yum. I don’t think I need to say much more, just look at it. It looks as it tastes, gooey, moist and delicious. Ikea. Boom.

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Update: Current Hobby

Jun4

Hey folks! This past week has been a doozy, in a good way! My office has been a complete and utter mess, the past few years, I’ve had the “excuse” of being in grad school to avoid cleaning. Well, it’s been a year since I graduated and I finally found the motivation to clean. It really did feel cathartic. There are some things that I’ve held onto for sentimental reasons, I decided to let go of some for my sanity! I cleared out at least 3 garbage bags and my office now looks great. I had at least two people mention they didn’t know I had two chairs in my office, that is pretty bad. I’ll have to try to keep it up, wish me luck!

Also within the last week, I started to build miniatures. I’ve always liked doing crafts and projects by hand so this was a natural progression. For those who know me well, know that I absolutely love miniatures. I’ve been watching tutorials on YouTube and decided to take the leap…buying all the supplies I need to start-up. If you’re looking for a starting point, please allow me to recommend The Square to Spare, she is awesome and gives great tutorials along with what materials to buy. I don’t know where I would be without her channel. The room divider I made below is based on this video. So anyway, no food today…just some pieces I made thus far…

First attempt! The cutting board with knife. The cutting board was from this tutorial. The knife, I carved out myself using wooden coffee stirrers.

Progress on the room divider. I messed it up but I messed up consistently so it turned out okay. I learned a lot of lessons doing this piece…

I’ve never done well with measuring and exact dimensions, I’m going to have to learn to be! I drew this cherry blossom tree free hand! Not the prettiest but I am still proud…

There are uneven pieces here, I learned the hard way that wooden coffee stirrers are not all the same size and shape…haha.

Dollhouse hinges! Yes! This divider can be opened and closed! Yay!

Can you tell what this one is? This was done on my own, no tutorials.

It’s inspired by those big floor lantern lights! Custom art by Jenny. Well, I printed out templates to trace onto parchment paper…still wasn’t super easy but so worth it. Koi fish, turtles and lotus flowers. I made this as a gift for my friend, I really hope he likes it.

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Mixed Plate – Osaka Edition

May11

Happy Aloha Friday! Just wanted to do a post with some random pictures I wouldn’t be able to create full posts out of…from Osaka! Enjoy!

Okay, I have to admit…Coca Cola Peach was the drink I really really wanted to try in Japan. I read that it was a limited edition and prayed it would still be there when I took my trip. I actually ran into the 711 as we walked to the apartment and found it. Hallelujah. After a very long travel, I just wanted for throw down and take a big drink of this drink. Ummm…well, I didn’t like it. To me, it tastes nothing like peach….or if it tasted like peach, it tasted very artificial, almost flowery. I did not like it and would not get this again.

Check this out! I had to get a quick pic of this as we walked around…they have Aloha Maid! 80 cents a can, special discount. Haha! Is how our cans read too? Passion & Orange? I always thought it was just passion orange.

OKAY, HERE IS MY FAVORITE DRINK. Sorry for the yelling, but I really enjoyed this drink. It was delicious and refreshing. Okay, you see the word vitamin on the bottle but let’s be real, this drink ain’t healthy in any way and I no care. I even snuck a few bottles home…and regret not sneaking more. Okay, maybe I just need to buy some coke here and add my own lemon. So good…

For two days, I bought food from 711 the night before to have for breakfast. I had a hard time adjusting to Japan time so I usually woke up before 5am and got hungry. Here is one of the musubi packs, salmon and mayo tuna. Oh my, so good. The quality of the ingredients is just so great. You know how the musubis are here? We put it in the fridge and then it’s rock hard. Well these musubis stay ono and soft. 711 in Japan is awesome.

Last dish to share…I love soba so this was one of my meals. I love that they give you a little packet of water to add to the noodles so they don’t stay stuck together. Man…wish our 711 would step up their game. And they sold these two dashi eggs on the side, yup I ate both and yup both were perfectly cooked and seasoned. Orange runny yolk for the win. Have a great weekend guys.

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Hong Kong Mixed Plate

Mar23

This was a brand new ice cream from Japan that they sold in Hong Kong supermarkets and of course 7-11. Hong Kong has a lot of Japanese offerings! So what’s so special about this ice cream? Shucks, I wish I had taken a picture of the contents! This is ice cream with mochi balls…and the mochi balls were soft! How do they do it? I tried the Hokkaido Azuki Mochi and it was delicious. If you have a chance, give it a try!

The sushi and sashimi is so cheap in Hong Kong supermarkets – we got this sashimi and sushi set from Market Place by Jasons. The quality was superb and the price was very affordable for the quality.

The next few pictures are from the Hong Kong Lego Store. I was amazed by the lego sculptures of Hong Kong! I am a lover of miniatures and the detail put into these structures is insane. Please view them in awe with me.

Last pic is just of a random night market. One of those night markets you are supposed to haggle prices with…my cousin did pretty well with it. I’m not much of a haggler but then I also don’t buy much…haha.

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Mixed Plate

Mar17

Have you folks ever used those food ordering apps? Sometimes, you just don’t want to leave work to pick up lunch so ordering food to your door through an app just sounds right. I work with college students so they are completely on board with ordering off of them! One of the first apps on the scene was Postmates and I had a code for $100 delivery credits. Well, somehow it’s gone. I don’t know how to get it back and it was for Hawaii specifically so I don’t know what happened. Well the app makes it super easy, you pick a restaurant, order your food and pay through the app. Then your delivery person will come to you to deliver your food.

I do not currently recommend it because there is so many glitches with the systems (uber eats and postmates)!!! First, there are constantly no drivers available (at least during lunch time)…and when it finally does come online (after 2 dang hours of checking), if you don’t get your order in fast enough…there are “no drivers” again. When we finally get our food, we’ve had people delivering on bicycles and scooters. Huh? I wasn’t part of the last order but they screwed it up majorly, they ordered three entrees. First delivery and it was only one entree. 1.5 hours later, the last two entrees come and it’s the wrong order. What a nightmare. I don’t see how they could have screwed it up so royally.

I think the only time I would give food delivery a try on my own would be for food from hard to get to restaurants (Waikiki, no parking, etc.) Well…just wanted to share an order I got from Itchy Butt.

Spicy Pork Rice Bowl • $6.00

$6! It’s a big serving AND it comes with a soda. Okay so they never give the right drink, somehow always giving us 7up. Must be their least popular drink. This is actually one of the tastier spicy porks I have tried, doesn’t look great but tastes great. It’s not too spicy too. The total price for me was just under $10 since you have to pay the delivery fee and of course you should tip the driver. The delivery fee varies but for Postmates, it’s about $3.99 per order so depending on how many people are ordering…gotta split that fee!

Next is just a quick sampling of dessert we got from Island Vintage Shave Ice. I forgot what the first one was, sorry! The second one is mine, Lilikoi Moana Bowl. Yes, I know people eat this as a meal but I couldn’t resist it. To me an acai bowl is like a smoothie with a lot of good stuff on top. Shoot, I’m wanting it again…delicious. I tried this acai bowl both at their Ala Moana location and the Waikiki location. I prefer the Ala Moana location.

Have a great weekend folks!

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Leaving on a Jet Plane…

Dec3

I am finally taking a trip! A well-deserved rest from work and school…and I’m heading off to Hong Kong! The past few months have been interesting, still trying to find my ground. Considering continuing school in spring but seriously lacking the motivation right now. Ah! I got off-track again, so sorry. If there are any readers left, I hope you do bear with me. I’m hoping to do some updates from Hong Kong through Instagram. So if you’re interested in following along, please do check me out at: maybeitsjenny on IG!

I leave you with one of my favorite shots from an airplane ride. I don’t usually get to take pictures on the ride because I always take the aisle seat. Hope you are all doing well!

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Mixed Plate – Office Potluck

Sep22

We had an awesome potluck over the summer at work…and my coworkers really turned it out! Well, they always do but this time…everything was just so onolicious! No specific theme, just bring whatever you want! Here are the pics!

Homemade ume and ebi musubi, taco salad, pasta salad…yum!

Slow cooker mac and cheese!

Yummy pasta with pesto and bacon, delicious!

Homemade Pancit! It has both the egg noodles and the rice noodles…it was so good!! I love myself homecooked pancit and this definitely did not disappoint!

Ham! Yes, a whole ham. It was so good! If I remember correctly, it was done in one of those one pot cookers. The ones that do pressure cooking, slow cooking, etc. I am so hungry as I am writing this post…haha

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Mixed Plate

Sep1

Hey guys, I’m thinking Fridays might become a mixed plate post of sorts. I do have random shots throughout my camera so I’ll use Fridays to share them out. It’s already September! That means autumn is upon us…my favorite seasons are autumn and winter so yay! Hope you folks are doing well.

Here is a random meal from Itchy Butt. When you’re hungry, you know you think of Itchy Butts right? Heard about this place for a long time so we finally tried it. We realized that we should have ordered a whole chicken to share rather than get our own half chickens. My Chinese never kick in! The whole chicken is $22 for 18 pieces and the half chicken is $13 for 9 pieces….DOH!

I think we got the spicy and the garlic chicken. The set comes with corn salad, radish, and fried cheese. The fried cheese is like mozzerlla cheese wrapped in a won ton like wrapper and deep fried. If you feel like deep fried food, give them a try. I wasn’t too impressed, I prefer Vons Chicken.

Kulu Kulu! Did you folks ever try that cool ramen cake they had before? I tried to order it but the girl gave me a cold reaction and said that it was only seasonal. Why a cake with no fresh fruit is seasonal? Beats me. I did get to try their lilikoi cheesecake, it was delicious! Although I do like anything lilikoi.

Fresh Salmon Poke on Garlic Hurricane Fries

8 Half Desserts, have you been to their location on Waialae? You walk in and are greeted by the sweetest folks who ask if you want to sample their flavors. AND BOY DO THEY MEAN SAMPLE. No need go Costco. This is the Costco of ice cream, they let you try every single flavor. By the time I’m done, I no even wanna order but then I have to because they just gave me 20 samples. Delicious ice cream. As I was walking through Shirokiya, I noticed they had their own stall! We wanted a quick snack and noticed they served savory food too.

No prices on their menu but I wanted to try the fries. I get to the register to order…they ring it up and it’s almost $17. I wanted for faint. Hahaha but I was in too deep, they already started making it. Was it worth it? $17? No. Did it taste good? Yes. Was the salmon pretty good quality, yes. I still can’t recommend it due to the cost.

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Costco: Tagliatelle Grilled White Chicken & Portobello Mushroom Sauce

Jul31

I saw this package at Costco a few months ago and was intrigued. You know what I loved even more than the 8 minutes in a microwave thing? They provide the microwaveable bowl! No dishes? My lazy soul has been sold. I was scrolling through the many pictures I have yet to upload and happened upon this one and thought the timing was perfect because it’s going on sale at Costco this week (Thursday to be exact).

Here are the contents, ready to go! In the provided microwaveable bowl.

Fresh pasta!

Portobello Mushroom Sauce

Sliced Chicken Breast

Finished product! Nothing like a dump and heat up dish. How was it? I would have loved a bit more pasta because there is a LOT of chicken meat! Overall I thought it was pretty good. I don’t remember how much I paid but it’s going to be $3 off with the new coupon book so give it a try! Let me know how you like it. 😀

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