J-E-L-L...O!

Sing it! You know you love Jell-O. You'd have to be monster not to.

Actually, I only like Jell-O pudding and the occassionaly sugar-free Jell-O gelatin. The regular gelatin stuff gives me a huge headache. I don't know why. But I've always loved the pudding. And as I've gotten older, I've started to like it doctored up because I like dark chocolate more than milk chocolate now.

It's really one of those things that tastes a lot more complicated than it is. You combine the packet with two cups whole milk or one and a half cups low fat or skim and blend with a hand mixer or in a blender. Yesterday I added about two tablespoons of finely grated dark chocolate so there were tiny chocolate bits in my pudding. You could also melt two tablespoons of super dark, even un-sweetened, chocolate to pump up the intensity.

Urth Cafe (Main Street, Santa Monica)

Short post today:
They make a damned fine quiche. Incredibly fluffy, almost like a chawan mushi (Japanese steamed egg). The almond biscotti was just right too. Hard enough to stand up to dunking, but not too dense.

Self-Serve Hand Rolls

C came over for dinner last night and we had one of my favorite easy summer meals, which consists of a few different things that you can roll into your own handroll. J had a bowl of yamakake, which is just grated mountain ham and cubes of tuna mixed with soy sauce and wasabi.

The recipe for the handroll is simple:

• 2 cups of shrimp, peeled, deveined, cooked, and chopped coarsely
• 1 cup of tobiko or masago (tobiko are bigger, have more pop, and cost more)
• 4 tablespoons of mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 package of radish sprouts
• a plate of sashimi of your choice
• 1 package of sushi seaweed
• a few bowls of sushi rice

Mix the shrimp, fish roe, two tablespoons of mayonnaise, and half teaspoon of the sugar. Mix well and add more mayonnaise and sugar if you like. That's it! Roll with the other ingredients as you see fit.

Here's a photo of how I assemble mine. Fold a large (about 10x10) piece of seaweed in half. I use about two tablespoons of rice to make a triangle one third of the way in from the seaweed, top with all the fillings, then roll starting from the short side. Dip in wasabi and soy sauce!

Random Thoughts

I found this baby picture and thought it was hilarious.

The caption should be "Hm, what flavor did you say this was again?" That, and "I can't believe mom made me wear this. Again."

And, in more Horrors of Japan news, this is what happens when you have a culture where men are allowed to openly lust after thirteen year old girls, women think their money is best spent living out their gothic romance/tragedy fantisies, and everyone loves anime. More here.

Pho What?

I'm ashamed to admit I don't really remember the name of the place I ate today. C and I were so starved when we got there that we saw the word "Pho" and swung into a parking space as quickly as we could and ran inside. I think it's Pho Han, but I could very well be wrong. Han doesn't seem particularly Vietnamese. Pho Hoa? It's on Las Tunas just west of Valley, in a TJMaxx strip mall.

I did not try the pho, but it looked good.

The spring rolls were \mediocre with bland sauce and not enough herbs. I squeezed half a lime into it.

The bun was great! Nice meat, crispy imperial rolls, nice sauce that also needed a little lime.

The Madness Continues

Tonight we ate congee run through a blender with some fermented bean curd. You really don't want to see a picture, do you? Actually, it looks exactly like the potato soup from last week. Here, look at pretty pictures instead:

I've never had so many flowers in my apartment at the same time. I put them all over the dining and living rooms. It's so nice to see them everywhere I look!

Lesson learned: beginners should stick to flowers with hard stems. These leaves were pretty, but the stems were floppy and very hard to keep in place as I worked. I also don't love the orangey pink roses, both because the color doesn't really go with the leaves and because they were smaller sale roses that turned out to be hard to arrange too.

I removed the few flowers that had died in the two first arrangements and re-did the rest into this. Much more full, round, and balanced in terms of both shape and color than my first try! I think I like roses best when they've fully opened up like this.

Tada

Tada!

I knew I could do it. These roses are kind of sad looking, but that's because they came from the $5 "Please buy me now" bin. Good for practice. I know, I know. More food, less wedding. But honestly, you don't want to see what we've been eating. It's just been varying degrees of mush, and J's getting another set of wisdoms out today. So you know what that means: more mush.

I hope these invitations satisfy my mom.

She adamantly did not want white invites, and I adamantly did not want red and gold Chinese invites.

Kimchi Chigae

Chigae!

In a way, it's leftover casserole, but better: kimchi plus kimchi juice, hondashi, greens, tofu, ground meat, Korean chili paste, and oysters.

And my other project, gracefully modelled by my bicycle. Not that I would use bells of Ireland, but I figured since I bought the roses I should rearrange them a few times for practice.

I did not know our gray concrete deck would photograph so strikingly at dusk. Anyhow, I need floral sheers to clip the bottom of the bouquet cleanly, wrap the handle with satin, and use a flower or filler that's more appropriate than bells. But I think I have the technique down, at least for the small bridesmaids' bouquets. Price difference? Under $10 versus $50-75.

Chili Thai

Greasy Thai takeout is one of my food weaknesses. Sometimes I just want it! I don't even think it's particularly special. I just want it when I want it. I tried the new Chili Thai on Pico. To make a long story short, the pad thai was horrible but the pad see ew was quite delicious. i would ask for less chewy beef and more tasty vegetables next time. And my flowers are holding up nicely. I took them apart to practice arranging them again, and made the bells of Ireland (green) look less dumb.

And one more wedding task, done! It makes me sad to think that kids and designated drivers will have to drink only water, tea, and coffee at the wedding. And soda at the hotel is $4.50 for a lowball glass of soda. WHAT THE?! Arg. So on Angela's recommendation (shout out to The Hidden Vine!) I bought a case of grape juice from Castoro Cellars. It's chic and elegantly bottled like wine, but delicious and unfermented because it's grape juice! Castoro's version contains sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon, and petite syrah. And your daily dose of random.

My sister took this on Pershing Square. My butt loves these cropped Sevens. But don't believe the hype--they're not worth over $100. Not even the long ones.

Voila!

Someone tell me why I should pay a florist $75-100 for this when it cost me $30 for both (not including vases)?

I know, lazy bride in me wants to just let someone else worry about it.

Super anal money saving bride wants complete control of flower situation, plus would like to save between $1,000-1,500.

Here are a few that I liked, for comparison's sake.

Downtown Fun

Today my sister joined me for more wedding planning downtown.

We bought a ton of flowers at the flower mart (you'll see later what I'm planning).

Then we had pupusas at Grand Central Market. Tasty and cheap, as always. But I think I prefer the goat tacos. After lunch I had an appointment with a jeweler, walked around the diamond district, and found a lot of things that I loved. Now to rob that bank so I can afford it all...

Anyway, we came home tired and ready for limeade.

Tea Party!

My sister stayed over yesterday. She arrived in the afternoon and we had a tea party. No time to bake, but we gathered treats from Viktor Benes' in the Century City Mall Gelson's.

She basically drove all the way out to visit me because she had a craving for princess cake.

And fluffy cake with berries. She bought me the greeting card because, let's face it, who better deserves a "pig out" card?

And I wanted cookies. VB makes excellent cookies. My favorites are the walnut ruglach (top center square cookie with sugar crystals), the half moon pie filled with raspberry jam and walnuts, and the lace cookies when it's not humid out. The other cookies are good, but those three are exceptional.

Kimchi Dumplings

Homemade dumpling skins rule.

Tried our hands at kimchi dumplings last night. The recipe is too complicated for me to lay out immediately, but I'll try to add to this post as thoughts come to me.

We used J's grandmother's instructions for making dumpling dough. Basically you mix flower and iced water until the dough comes together. Then you let the dough rest for a few hours. J was in charge of rolling while I filled.

The filling was ground pork mixed with plenty of kimchi juice. J was in charge of stirring like crazy to create a sticky paste of pork, juice, and chopped green onions. I was in charge of chopping the napa kimchi into tiny pieces and squeezing as much liquid out of them as possible.

Cauliflower Potato Leek Soup

You know what? For a man who just had two teeth pulled, J's not eating too poorly.

For a huge pot of soup (I would halve this):

• 1 small head cauliflower
• 2 large leeks, white parts only
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 quart water
• 2 cups leftover mashed potatoes
• 1 cup nonfat milk

I cut up the leeks and cauliflower in large chunks and simmered in the water with bay leaves, two teaspoons of salt, and plenty of fresh cracked pepper. When the vegetables were soft, I stirred in the mashed potatoes and milk. I let that cool for awhile, then blended it in the blender in batches, added more milk to thin out the soup, salt and peppered to taste, and served it with some challah.

Rick's Bar on Main Street

This is going to be a J post, because he is the lover of bars and pubs. We took a trip to Main Street in downtown Santa Monica Saturday night, just to enjoy the nice summer evenings and see what was going on. Having eaten only soup and mashed potatoes all day, J was pretty hungry by the time we got to the area around 9:00 p.m. We walked around and decided to try Rick's for the first time.

J was sticking to soft foods, so he ordered a black bean soup. We actually spent a few minutes mashing all the beans with our spoons so that it was even mushier than this. It was a good soup, if a bit mild.

I had wings, which were actually pretty bad. I love vinegar, but these were way too salty and way too vinegary. I couldn't finish the last two. But good news is J actually ate some chicken! I broke it into tiny pieces for him so he could get some meat.

I had Blackthorn cider, which was dry and flavorful. I like it a lot!

Funny bar signs are always a plus.

And, since this is a post all about J, shiny new shoes! We've been on the lookout for tux shoes, and today we found some beautiful Via Spigas. I'm actually jealous. I love Via Spiga's women's shoes, but I've never been able to find a pair on sale! J totally lucked out on these, and now they're stowed away in the closet for weddings and holiday parties. They're his first pair of designer shoes!

Pretty Wedding Stuff

J and I got bored and decided to go hang out at the new Barns & Nobles on Westwood today. I. of course, divided my time between the wedding magazines and cookbooks.

Doesn't it look great? It makes me want to throw a tea party. Anyone?

This is exactly the setup I envusioned: a table set with both colorful candy and trays o chocolate.

These colors are more my speed, though.

I tought this was a cute reception table ide. The overhanging orchids are dramatic without being a giant explosion of flowers, and instead of the favors like in this photo I'd have a guest book and seating chart.

I looove peonies. This bouquet is the perfect shape to me. However, I've been told that even if I can find peonies in January, they might not be available in an ideal color.

So I might have to settle for anemones (pictured here) or rananculus. Also pretty!

Saturday Eats

Nothing special so far this weekend. I changed up our leftover spaghetti and meatballs, just to show you how I like my pasta. I broke up the meatballs into large chunks because I like more of the meat to be covered in sauce, added a can of tomatoes, some frozen corn, and a can of hearts of palm.

J had mashed potatoes with cream and Plugra butter. He's not complaining. They smell incredible. If you haven't made mashed potatoes (or scrambled eggs) with Plugra, I highly recommend it.

Giant Meatballs!

J is getting his wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow, so it'll be liquids and baby food for awhile. For his last supper (in awhile, at least), I made him giant meatballs and spaghetti.

I prefer a chunky meat sauce with a lot of diced vegetables, but J likes one giant meatball per plate and a thin tomato sauce. And really, who could have big complaints about a giant meatball?

I did cheat today, though. I put a huge onion, an entire bulb of garlic, and the leaves of one bunch of parsley in a food processor. I sauteed a third of this mix and then dumped in a jar of sweet pepper marinara, a cup of red wine, and a tin of tomato paste. I squeezed some of the liquid out of what remained of the onion mix and added it to a pound and a half of ground beef, a pound of ground turkey, an egg, a quarter cup of bread crumbs, maybe a quarter cup of milk, a tablespoon of salt, and about a teaspoon each of black pepper, mace, marjoram, garlic powder, and onion powder. I made tennis sized meatballs and put them, raw, into the tomato sauce. I made sure to coat all the meatballs in sauce, then put the pot in the oven at 325 degrees for an hour. I would suggest at least an hour and a half in the oven if not two. If you're in a hurry, make smaller meatballs.

Amandine

I hadn't been in awhile, but Amandine is one of my favorite bakeries in Los Angeles.


It's on a bustling section block of Wilshire and parkimg is a nightmare, but isn't it charming?


It's summer, so there were plenty of berry concoctions to choose from. Berry danishes, berry tarts, berry layer cakes...yum. This was the most unique: a strawberry tart with balls of strawerry whipped cream. It's so pretty!

I finally decided on the caramel banana. The caramel is intensely burnt, which I love!

I shared a ratatouille omelet with J since he's been saying how fun it would be to make ratatouille (yes, after watching the movie). I love that almost everything at Amandine comes with fresh fruit.

Beautiful San Diego (and Fullerton)

This weekend, my friend N and I are crossing off a bunch of things that have been on our t0-do lists for years. One was to have afternoon tea together. The other was to visit our friend J in La Jolla before she gets her PhD.

There were a lot of people playing in the various little coves along the shore.

We lunched at Goldfish cafe, a casual little sandwich shop with a drop dead view of the ocean.

J says this beach is usually overrun with seals, but there were none today. Notice how clear the water is in the bottom righthand corner. That's pretty incredible for Southern California. We wandered around La Jolla, visited a bridal salon because of course I had to scope out the jewelry, and went to Free Tuesday at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

After a long drive back to Fullerton, we went to a Korean tea shop for a light meal and shared a few dishes. Above is spaghetti Napolitan (that's how they spelled it!). As in Hong Kong style Western food, the sauce is slightly sweet.

As a contrast we got spicy squid and rice. The food was quite good.

And a crazy colored Korean shaved ice for dessert. It's a different style from what I'm used to at Mr. Coffee, but I found it more light and refreshing, with really soft tasty mochi pieces (not like the gross hard ones at Pinkberry). I was over-sunned and sleepy from the car ride, so I totally did not get the name of where we ate. Maybe N and J will tell me.

Bu-San

After one bad experience I've been very reluctant to do Korean style sushi again, but Bu-San really wasn't bad.

Beautifully colorful sashimi platter. Standouts for me were the toro, abalone, and salmon.

The usual panchan.

My favorite two dishes of the night were oysters on the half shell and fresh uni.
Nigiri.

Spicy fish stew.

And a gift from the sushi chef! All in all, a great meal. $108 after tax fed four people to maximum capacity!

Afternoon Tea at The Peninsula Beverly Hills

One of my favorite ladies is ending a month's vacation this week, so we decided to celebrate by going to The Peninsula Beverly Hills for afternoon tea. We've been talking about making time for afternoon tea together for a few years now, so it was great to finally do it. The Living Room where tea is served is upscale, cozy, and warm, though not opulent like The Palace Hotel in San Francisco or a Ritz Carlton.

We ordered one "Full Tea" and one "Royal Tea," which was the full tea plus strawberries and Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin (yellow label). Our two tea choices were English breakfast and Caramel Pear. We both loved the china at The Peninsula.

Afternoon tea is just so civilized! Look at the cute little tea strainers and jam pots. I did a poor job of photographing one of our favorite parts of this tea, which were the down filled tea cozies that the pots were wrapped in. Everyone being served tea had a different colored brocade tea cozy, and they did a great job of keeping the tea hot for almost two hours.

There was so much food that we ended up taking home the entire second tier of desserts and the two grilled vegetable sandwiches. Stadouts for me were the salmon (gravlax?) sandwich and plain scones.

Please Drive Carefully!

Today, J and I came out of a store in Chinatown, started walking down the street, and wondered why everyone was staring in the other direction. We turned around and saw this:

According to the people standing around, the car was coming off the freeway too quickly and completely flipped over. I didn't hear if the driver got out safely. We watched until the paramedics and firefighters got there. We didn't see anyone going into the car to evacuate people, so we could only assume that the police officers who got on the scene first helped the passenger(s) out, or it was too late to save ayone.

So please, drive carefully!

On the Waterfront (Venice Beach)

One of J's favorite summertime activities is drinking beer under the sun at On the Waterfront, a Swiss-owned biergarten (beer garden) on Venice Beach.

Raclette, a traditional Swiss dish of cheese and potatoes, was introduced to us by our Swiss friend who first brought us to On the Waterfront.

I tried Rosti for the first time. This is a curry version with chicken, tomatoes, and fruit. Odd, but not bad. It was served on a bed of hash browns, so after about half a plate I was stuffed.

A salad. Boring!

Meringue sundae. Frankly, when I ordered meringue at a Swiss place, I expected homemade. Hello? Swiss meringue? It has its own name. Arg. At least the caramel ice cream under this was tasty.

They serve Charly Temmel's ice cream, which our friend tells us is Austrian in origin. This is a banana split with vanilla, strawberry, and banana ice cream. The ice cream style is very fluffy and slightly icy with what tastes like a lower butterfat content than your average American ice cream. Huge, fairly tasty sundaes for around $8.

The six of us managed to consume all the food above (and then some) plus over three pitchers of Erdinger Weisbier and a pitcher of Schwartz black beer. Ah, summer.

Chicken Curry Salad Sandwich

Sandwiches are a great summer food. Fast, healthy, filled with fresh vegetables, and cold. Photo now, recipe later!

Mystery Meat: Pulled Pork Sandwiches!

I think the photograph a few posts ago was misleading because two people thought it was Korean BBQ. Actually, they were huge slabs of bone-in pork ribs that I used for pulled pork sandwiches. I know pulled pork is usually shoulder or butt, but I used what was on sale and it worked out just fine.

I marinated the pork in a rub of mustard, onion powder, shallot powder, garlic powder, paprika, thyme, salt, cayenne pepper, white pepper, and black pepper overnight. Then I put all the pork on a baking sheet, arranged slices of onion over it, and covered it tightly with aluminum foil. I baked at 300 degrees for six or seven hours, shredded it, added all the cooking juices, covered it in Baby Ray's hickory brown sugar barbeque sauce, and kept it warm on the stove until ready to be topped with cole slaw and eaten on an onion bun.

Vanilla Bake Shop

New(ish) bakery alert!


I'd heard whispers about this place on-line, but didn't know where it was until I drove right by it today (the south side of the 500 block of Wilshire in Santa Monica).


I'm long over the cupcake craze, so I got an icebox "cake" instead. I think if Angelenos can get over their lemming-like devotion to cupcakes, they'll realize that the icebox cake is Vanilla's strength. They have interesting flavors like dirt cake, tiramisu, Southern banana pudding, and key lime. All winning combinations in my book, though I could do without the fancy (and pricey)jar. Shot glass versions of the icebox cakes are available for $3. Incidentally, shot glass desserts have also hit Whole Foods.

Truly, one of the best desserts I've had in a long time. The whipped cream is fresh and light, and the chocolate mousse is exquisite in its intensity. They did not skimp on quality or dumb down the mousse with sugar and milk chocolate. The cake crumbles are slightly chewy like a browny, and actually more salty than sweet.

The best thing about this dessert? It is so reserved in its use of sugar that the aftertaste is just as savory as it is sugary. This is not a dessert that coats your tongue in sugar and makes you thirst for milk or water. Delicious. Easily enough dessert for two, $8.

Mystery Meat

This is in the oven, slowly roasting for the whole morning. Only the lucky few have been told what it is going to be made into. Mmmm...meat.

MikeFest!

Had myself a mid-week minifest with Mike yesterday since he's in town for the week. We weren't exactly great about taking photos, but we had ourselves a deliciously good time. First, we stopped off at Pinkberry because he'd never been. Can't say he loved it, though he acknowledged it would be a nice non-heavy dessert after a large meal. Ice cream still rules. I think I should have taken him for gelato instead.

We wandered around Santa Monica a little, had Jamba Juice, and then ate fries at California Steak & Co. because fries are the best. Sometimes a boy just misses his SoCal snacks, you know?

Fries made M hungrier so we went to Ocean Avenue and had some oysters and a weissbier. That beer was some seriously good stuff. It's called White Rascal Wiessbier if you ever see it. Just as we were paying, J called to say he was getting off work.

Off we went to conveyor belt sushi! And after that, we went home for a break and then took M to Zo, our new favorite more expensive sushi place. We got out for $30 each since we'd had dinner #1 already. M's favorite was the ankimo, though he was very surprised by how good the blue crab handroll was.

Chung King and Barney's Greengrass

We had an important errand in Temple City yesterday, and happened to drive by Chung King. We've been hearing about this Szechuan instititution for awhile but never had a reason to be in its vicinity, so we stopped in for takeout.

All in all, I still like Best Szechuan on Garfield better. However, my opinion is largely colored by Chung King's disgusting rice. I know it probably isn't like this all the time, but our rice was overcooked and gummy to the point of being completely inedible. It tasted like someone had taken day old rice, poured some water in, re-heated it so the top was dry and the bottom was saturated with water, then mixed it up. And if you've had Szechuan food, you know how hard it is to eat it without rice. The "ants up a tree" were also overcooked and all chopped up. The watercooked lamb and cold dishes, however, were all quite tasty. It's not like I would refuse to go back, I think it's just a restaurant with hits and misses.

Another L.A. institution checked off: egg cream at Barney's Greengrass off Rodeo Drive. It's not the best egg cream in the world, but fifty cents for a big cup of chocolate milk off Rodeo is pretty darn good in my book. BONUS: if you get your parking ticket validated at the cafe, you get to park for three hours free instead of two.

Finally, has anyone heard of Shawn Ray Fons? I tried on a gorgeous red gown the other day at Saks, but haven't ever heard of this American designer. I did appreciate that for the a lower price than more famous designers (Vera Wang, Bagdley Mischka, Monique Llhuilier), the fabric and lining he used was much higher quality. Who uses 100% silk satin for lining any more? It felt like buttah. And Made in the USA for cheaper than China? Errrr...

Gui Rim and Mr. Coffee

Mr. Coffee first, because it's pretty.

Who knew two bowls of circus-colored ice could be so hauntingly beautiful?

And some Gui Rim photos. We've been to both of these places many times, so there's nothing new to say. Everything's the same: cheap, tasty, and filling. And let's face it, we love Gui Rim because not only is the meat great quality for $15 all you can eat, almost all of the staff speaks Chinese. It just makes things easier.

Christian Louboutin

They're mine, all mine! These, besides the swanky beachside location, are my only wildly unnecessary wedding splurge to date. I daresay I've been pretty good about exercising self-control on most wedding details. But when Louboutins go 1/2 off at Barney's, all bets are off.


Obviously bridal, but still unique. And because they're satin crepe, they can be dyed a more versatile shade after the wedding.

I confess: it's the red underside. I really could not resist. Not that it fully justifies anything, but it solves the problem of wanting cute red good luck shoes but not wanting to clash with a wedding gown.

Yi Mei (Monterey Park)

Went to Yi Mei for breakfast. There's a branch in Rowland Heights in the Hong Kong Supermarket building, of which I was quite the regular in high school--to the point of getting caught by a friend's mom when some of us ditched for lunch senior year. Thank goodness her son wasn't actually with us that time. Yesterday, we went to the branch on Atlantic in the same plaza as Elite Cafe.


Best dish of the day was daikon cakes coated with egg. Very fresh, tender, hot daikon cakes.

Beef in pastry was okay, but the pastry wasn't hot and flakey enough.

Chinese "tortillas" filled with eggs and green onions. Good, a hard dish to mess up.

Cold noodles with chicken. Very disappointing, with unappealingly large chunks of chicken and very thick noodles. Four Sea does this much better.

Savory soy milk. Yum.

Drove around downtown yesterday and saw this in a window. I really think this is the kind of gown my mom wishes I were going to wear. It's not horrible, but jeezus. So not me. And while I think giant sparkles are great if you're only going to be seen from far away, at a wedding where people are going to be coming up to you it's just too gaudy. I don't know. I'm getting a lot of "But you have to (wear huge jewelry, have sparkles on my dress, wear heavy makeup, put sparkles in my hair, carry an enormous bouquet) because it'll look great in photos!" I think I'd rather have a balance between great photos and not looking like I'm in a theater costume all day. "Gee, didn't Pei look like a clown today?" "Yeah, but the photos are going to be great." Shudder.

Pretty Pretty Beets

I think beets are beautiful. They come in so many colors! Flavor-wise, I think the yellow ones are my favorite. The pink and white striped ones can be a little bland, and the deep red ones are too intensely irony to eat a whole plate of. The yellow ones are a perfect level of sweetness. Nine huge ones, each the size of a baseball, for under $4 at the Culver City farmers' market!

I roasted these, then peeled them for a salad. The beet greens I shaved off the stems and saved for a quick braised vegetable dish later. I don't know how restaurants keep beet colors distinct, though. Once I tossed the beets with some vinegar, everything looked red! I was kind of sad. Any advice?

The Men

Now that the bridesmaids have dresses, we have to worry about the men. You know, men have fashion opinions too? I live with a guy who just could not care less, so I was surprised when some of his friends (names withheld to protect the easygoing) had opinions about what they were to wear. I mean, not that there was whining, but it wasn't just "We don't care, Pei, whatevers."

J's tux looks like this, and the vest/tie combo and color is close to what we have in mind. Now, shoud the groomsmen get a similar tux?

Or should they wear black suits and gray ties like this? I had thought it would be nice to save the guys some money, but then was worried that because people's suits are different fabric and different ages they would show up different shades in photos.

So I snooped around and found a menswear warehouse downtown. It's actually been used by a lot of brides, one of whom designs menswear for a living. I'll still go check it out, but I think I trust her. If it's $170 for a 100% black wool suit, a shirt, and a tie (or upgrade to wool/cashmere for $30), that's a way better deal in my book than $150 for a rental plus the hassle of going in for a fitting on a Friday afternoon two days before the wedding. I could buy based on measurements, ship it to the guys who are out of state, they can get them tailored, and bring them to the wedding. Am I crazy?

Capital Seafood

Hope everyone had a happy 4th! We spent the day eating at my parents' house. We literally started eating around noon and noshed until 10 p.m. Photos of what we ate will have to wait until my sister e-mails them to me. Meanwhile, our lunch that day was dim sum at Capital Seafood. Nothing exciting, just the usual great food for about $12 each. We had seven dishes total.

My mom's $60 flower tree is really earning its keep these days. I don't know the English name for these, but in Taiwan they're a popular thing to buy from street vendors to hang in your car. They're kind of like gardenias or jasmine flowers in tha tthey smell incredible. My mom said her tree is yielding about 60 of these every day, more than they can use. Too bad they die after a day or two.

Flying Lanterns

I saw this fun idea on a wedding website. I thought it would be a lovely thing to do around 11:00. That's when the band will leave if I don't have the budget to keep them a little longer, and gathering the guests who are left to do a lantern launch on the beach would be a fun way to distract everyone while the band leaves.

I know it's silly and totally unnecessary, but I wanted to post the pretty picture. I can't do it anyway, because they can only be launched if the location is over five miles away from an airport and not subject to high winds. Santa Monica beach is a poor candidate for those requirements.

New Port Seafood

Had a simple but not simple dinner at Newport Seafood in Rowland Heights with my family this weekend. We ordered a large lobster and some vegetables and fish stomach egg flower soup.

This is one of my favorite soups, especially with some red vinegar.