The B’s Before Christmas (21-23 Dec)

My room of stay for the majority of my stay in California. It’s a guest room, believe it or not. ❤

Top: This is how we eat at Boiling Crab. Bottom: My middle sister’s awesomely squeezed lime (anemones).

Monday, 21 Dec

Today starts a series of fooding events that happened — by pure chance –to start with B. The B of Monday? Boiling Crab!

So, while I was back in Boston, I had been talking to my middle sister about how both of us were going back to Southern California for winter break; so we decided to meet up. Although she lives about an hour or two’s drive from where I was staying, I still wanted to see her anyways. So, we planned to meet up and she agreed to join me in indulging in Boiling Crab, where she’d never gone before.

What is Boiling Crab? Well, it’s a place that serves seafood boiled in a bag by the pound — with seasoning — which you eat with your hands on a table covered in butcher paper! It’s so much fun! I couldn’t believe she had never gone to one, as we have quite a few scattered across Southern California, not to mention the number of copycat restaurants.

We had a blast just digging into our seafood, playing with the — as my beau calls them — crawdads and making “lime anenomes.” I only wish I could eat like this all the time, having so much fun playing with and eating my food.

Top left: This is the rotating tray they make taiyaki on. Top right: this is what a “perfectly made” taiyaki looks like prior to serving. Bottom: Beautiful, delicious taiyaki.

Afterwards, we decided we had time — and were bloated enough — to go take a walk prior to taking my middle sister home. So we wandered the streets around Koreatown and ended up in a shopping centre with a grocery store in it. While we were wandering around the grocery store, we found, were fascinated by — at least my sister and I were — and purchased some delicious taiyaki. Oh my was it fun to just watch them pour the batter, put in the filling and flip the taiyaki in an iron fish mold that twists. So cute, so delicious. (It’s definitely something cute enough I’d actually squeeze it “to death” — because then all the filling comes out and I could eat it.)

My scrumptious Bruxie brunch. Left (Lunch): the California Pesto Chicken sandwich. Right (Breakfast): the country sausage & egg sandwich.

Tuesday, 22 Dec

Tuesday’s B: Bruxie. And you know what? I had Bruxie for the “b” meal of the day: breakfast (or brunch). Bruxie is one of my favourite Southern Californian places. It’s a waffle joint, I guess you could say.  They make tons of sandwiches — and burgers — as well as other waffle-related items with nice, thick Belgian waffles. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water! I’d been craving it since I moved over to Boston, as there is nothing — as far as I know — that is even close to it in Boston.

Later on in the day, I went out with my friend — who’s name starts with a B — to go swing dancing! I love swing dancing, even though I don’t do it too consistently. There’s nothing not to like about the music of East Coast swing and lindy hop with its swinging beat and brass tones. I love it! We caught up over dinner before we headed out to the Atomic Ballroom where we had first met briefly before my transplantation into the Boston cold. Then, it was dancing until late — as late as you can get when you have work the next day and don’t want to be dead at work.

Wednesday, 23 Dec

Today was…*drumroll*….BBQ & Boba Day (Korean BBQ to be exact)! My girlfriend, who also came home to Southern California from Boston for winter break, had been wanting to meet up with me back home. She randomly decided that she was craving Korean BBQ and asked me to come with, considering the place she wanted to go to would only allow people to do all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ with 2 or more people in a party. So, my beau and I made the journey out to pick her up. Prior to said pick-up, we also convinced my host to come join us and get out of the house, even though she was on leave for work because she wasn’t feeling well. The four of us had quite a blast eating. My girlfriend almost completely took over the grill with all the different types of meat she ordered — though I did manage to slip in two orders of vegetables much to her disgust. It was great fun, especially since my beau and I sided more on the “half vegetables, half meat” orders while my girlfriend and my host were all about the “meat only” options. It was definitely worth it.

My cup of Quickly boba.

After stuffing ourselves silly with so much beef — and what little vegetables I managed to sneak by my girlfriend — the group of us went to get boba — because, again, my girlfriend was craving it. It’s been a while since I’ve had good boba, so I had to get some, especially since it was at my favourite boba place: Quickly — particularly the one my brother and I had regulared prior to him moving into the frozen wasteland of Michigan. Then, we proceeded to go for a walk around a supermarket to walk off the bloated feeling you get when you stuff yourself silly at an all-you-can-eat buffet. While we were at the supermarket, I spotted my favourite Japanese cheesecake. Luckily, my beau offered to buy it for me and I went home with the best mouthwatering cake in the world — well, my world at least.

 

“Today” I Learned

• Apparently some people need their disheswashers soooooo badly that someone had invented/created a thing as a countertop dishwasher that you can buy and have sit on your counter, as opposed to it having been installed into your cabinet system. Who knew? I didn’t. I just learned how to use a dishwasher last year when I moved in with my current roommate.