Viewing entries in
late night

2 Comments

Gyoza diet

If you are on a diet, you are going to die. I mean, there's a sign that tells you pretty much. DIE-t. Diet sounds like quit it. So we should all quit diets. Please. Someone. AGREE WITH ME! Why can't I eat chili cheese fries and drop 10 pounds at the same time? WHY? Why must life be so hard! Shutup all you skinny fast metabolism mother f'ers because one day you will get grubby. Or you will have babies with someone with fat genes. (this statement ONLY applies to people who giggles, and say 'I can eat whatever I want and not get fat ho-ho-he-he').

Ok... ok ok ok I'm sorry for being so vulgar. Let me take a step back.. But I'm sure, we've all been, tried, or still on some kind of diet. The diet doesn't necessarily mean weight lost. Some can just be a way of eating habits. Some can be... on a cookie diet. I love cookies... and fries.. and chicken.. fried... and I am DEFINITELY one of those people that goes to a steak house, and look for the largest oz of steak on the menu. I don't believe in 12-16oz steaks... 24oz+ and I'm in HEAVEN!

*sigh* I digress.

GYOZA TIME:

Recipe:

  1. ONE BAG OF FROZEN GYOZA.
  2. 4 tablespoons of Olive oil (or vegetable).
  3. 1/4 cup of water

I've been using a lot of canola oil after seeing Bobby Flay use a ton of it on his show "BBQ addict" shown of Food Network from 6:30AM-7:00AM pst. But, I realized that it had a strong flavor I wasn't too pleasant with. Normally, I can't really taste the difference between oils. But after using the Olive Oil from Costco for a LONG TIME (literally 2 large jugs for like, $24, a STEAL), I've grown to love the flavors it provided to my dishes. With that said, I could really taste the canola oil take over the dishes that I've made. So for this gyoza, I would honestly, use olive oil.

This is the intense part. No one is allowed to talk to you in this moment of solitude. The sound of the sizzle, the oil splatters, the sounds of your heartbeat as you are scared to your buns that oil is going to pop your eye out. Don't worry, that will all end. I poured the water into the pan maybe about 2 minutes of watching it sizzle on medium high. After the water drops, close the lid for about 5 minutes. Once the lid opens, the gyoza should look translucent. But the real test is when you flip them.

This is when I die. The crispy bottoms just makes me oh-so-happy. I tilt all of them to their side to get the slightest color on them before turning off the stove. During the process of waiting for the bottoms to color, I needed to add a little more water to make sure the dumpling was cooked throughout. But this really depends on your stove and how much your pan wants to work with you that day.

I ate this with a lot of Sriracha and some Broccoli sauteed in a lot of garlic.

So quick, so comforting, so happy.

Happy dumplings and oil splatters.

Daiisies

 

2 Comments

Comment

The Perch - Happy Birthday best friend forever-ever.

On Saturday, we celebrated my Best friend, Jocelynn's birthday. I've known this chick for about 13 years. Our memories are consisted of a lot of alcohol consumption, random crying nights (NO more of those thank God), random parties, Hot Cheetos, and Starbucks.

This year, we went to Downtown Los Angeles to a beautiful restaurant/lounge called Perch.

448 S Hill St, Los Angeles, CA 90013

We had reservations at 5:30 PM, which worked out better for all of us. And I honestly really hate going out late. I don't mind staying out, but starting the night late is such a waste. Think about it: I want to see the sun, feel it, and see it say goodnight. If you've never thought about it that way, I hope you will start.

Before dinner, we took a few... or was it a lot, of Jameson. It's her birthday! and Who cares, we weren't driving (please drink responsibly). There's parking across the street for $10. Remember to put all your belongings out of site. And when crossing the street, always look left and right. AND! make sure drivers see you, and acknowledge you are crossing the street. Downtown LA can be a dangerous place at night with a lot of drunk and impatient drivers.

The Perch LA is pretty strict with reservations. If you want to dine here, make sure to give notice at least 2 weeks ahead of time just to make sure. If you have a party of 6+, definitely call a month in advance. When we showed up to our reservation, we were seated pretty quickly. The restaurant was also more than half empty. More reservations at 5:30 could've been accommodated. After we were seated, without much thought, we all pretty much ordered meat.

BOEUF BORDELAISE $29 ("braised short rib, roast garlic potato puree, beets, cippolini and pearl onions")

The short rib was braised for who knows how long till it was literally melt in your mouth, fork tender, fat rendered-good sh*t. If you come here, I highly recommend this. I also loved the beets and the bits of citrus to cut through the fat of the short ribs.

FILET MIGNON AU POIVRE $37
("parsnip + potato puree, asparagus, fines herbes, bordelaise, mushroom ragout")

The filet Mignon was cooked perfectly. Not much to say besides it being another classic French dish that they offer at Perch. The flavors are not as rich or heavy as it may seem. I do wish there was more of a punch of flavor since filet itself, or at least to me, has a mild beef flavor. A little FYI, I am NOT a filet Mignon gal. I love my fatty rib eyes and new york. The portions by the way, are decent and acceptable.

Steak Frites $26
("'flat iron, maitre d’ butter, bordelaise, truffle cheese fries")

Maitre D'butter is basically compound butter. It's butter set in room temperature where it becomes softened enough to mix with whatever concoction you want. Roll it back up into a log, fridge it, and then VOILA! The bordelaise is just a red wine base sauce. The "truffle" cheese fries, however, had zero truffles in it. Not even one trace. And I never send back truffle complaining there's not enough, because in reality, if you are not paying $100 for it, then you really aren't ordering it. This is just cheese fries. Unless they really did forget to add artificial truffle oil. Who knows. Don't care, the Jameson is kicking. The flat iron was cooked perfectly and tasted pretty good actually. My friend Mark even said it was as tender as the filet, figuratively speaking.

From the 3 meat dishes, I would definitely order the short ribs again. It was just executed very well and it's always something I love to order, especially if it takes hours till it becomes fork tender.

Hey, where's our waitress? I swear she left to go home or something because she never stopped by. Not having it.

So after dinner, we headed upstairs to the lounge.

Upstairs looking down at the restaurant.

There's no food served at the rooftop lounge, but there is a bar, and a pretty beautiful, bad ass view of Los Angeles. And notice how pretty everything looks when there's still light out? Hey, and you will never know who you can run into. We ran into an Ex Senator with his family and friends. Super friendly and kind. They also offered their seats when leaving so we can enjoy the rest our evening there. How sweet is that?

Mark and John


Jocelynn on the left, me on the right.

Jocelynn on the left, me on the right.

What I love about Jocelynn the MOST is how reliable she is. Yeah, you can say your friends are fun, do crazy things, love to go out, whatever. How often can you actually count on someone that's within your circle? And know that every single time you are in some kind of rut, they will be there? My ruts consisted of a lot of hunger issues.. but on the real note, she is the best and I can count on her to be by my side for the rest of my growing old years. And if you do have a friend like this, you will know exactly what I'm talking about. But mine is still better.

This night was unforgettable. Literally. I'm all kinds of messed up from it. But I'll never tell.

Cheers!

Daiisies

Comment

Comment

Troys no 8. Drunk food overload. thank you.

Ok first off, I wasn't drunk. Or I think I wasn't. I know I was fine because I remembered the whole night, just not how I got a bloody toe. It was dripping over the floors a little bit BUT I was fine. Neosporin and Bandages. See? I disinfected my toe first.

It was a Sunday. And to be honest, I would hate myself if I don't have one night out with some friends involving some kind of alcoholic beverage during labor day weekend.

What is Labor Day? Here's what Urban Dictionary has to say about Labor Day

“The holiday at the beginning of when school starts that nobody really knows what it means.”

’Hey When’s Labor Day?
Next weekend Foo’
Oh Man! Yes! ..Whats Labor Day anyway?
I don’t know Cuh’ ”
— Urban Dictionary

If you are looking for what Labor Day means... go back to school.

... Going back to the story. I wanted to stay home, lay on the couch and watch countless hours of Homeland until it's not stressful anymore. But that sh*t is always stressful. My best friend Jocelynn called me and asked what I was doing.

'Laying on the couch' (I almost spelled coach).

'Do you feel lazy?'

'No, I'll call you when I leave'

And that was that. The commitment was done. She offered a way out. She asked if I was lazy and hell yea I was! But without a thought, I just put on a pair of jeans.. shirt, and sold my soul to her. I walked through the halls to say goodbye to John like it was a death penalty. John didn't want to go because he had too much work to catch up on. That normally means more trouble for me.

I'm not going to tell you how much I had to drink. All I can say is her boyfriend Mark, who has also became one of my close friends over the years, decided to make Margaritas. Poor guy was squeezing the limes with his hands and making simple syrup from scratch. Fun part of it was we get to drink it. It was either too sour or too sweet (sorry Mark), but one thing he did well was masking the flavors of the tequila. All I can tell you is that Jose Cuervo and I go way back. And we are not friends. We are enemies. But today, I won.

What I love about hanging out with these 2 is that everything is always a yes, sure, if you want, let's do it. I had steak for dinner, but had my heart set on something tonight. Mark said it first. Chili cheese fries.

Chili Cheese mess

We headed over to Troys drive in No 8 in Highland Park on York. Mark wanted more than one order, but I said no and that we should share. See that there? Self Control. Why should one person eat that whole thing? You'll probably die, but you'll be smiling.

I stopped at the drive thru, and contemplated on what we should get. Was I hungry? I thought about my dinner. Had Marks 750ml tequila. Had a few chips. But we are sharing the chili cheese fries right?

*Pulls up drive thru*

"One chili cheese fries with the fries well done, one bacon cheeseburger with avocado, one carne asada burrito and ONE PASTRAMI BURGER."

OK What just happened there? Who gives a sh*t it was only $20!

Dear John,

Sorry for the calorie intake. But I saved you some food?

love,

Daisy

Yes that saved my ass and we ended up watching 2 more episodes of Homeland when I got home. If you are a guy or a girl, always bring food home if you are out. I get hangry as hell. Sitting around, waiting. Pretending like I am busy but I am not. I'm not hungry either but you better bring me back something to eat. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, there's something wrong with you. And I am saying it like "there's sumthin' wrooooong wid chu".

Pastrami was on point and met the expectations of a drive in burger joint. Nothing you would raise a pinky about. And if you are going to be critiquing a place like this, it goes back to the same phrase "there's sumthin' wrooooong wid chu".

This is the cure to prevent hangovers. and 10 pounds.

At the end of the night, I was extremely happy I hung out with them. For a few hours, I actually forgot about a lot of things. Time just stopped and the stresses that I had went away. You need friends like that in your life. Even more important, the ones that can make you feel like who you are. I can fart at that moment and be cool with it. And I probably did who knows. Since I don't even remember how I cut my toe. Yeah, that part was not cool.

Here's the address guys:

4738 York Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90042

Enjoy and always cheers.

Daiisies

 

 

 

Comment

2 Comments

Quick ~ lazy fish sandwich

The name says it all. Quick and lazy. I went to Pavilions today and saw a bunch of goodies on sale leading to this post. I really didn't want to cook tonight. It's too hot, I've had too much to drink yesterday, watched too much Homeland last night, and I just didn't have enough sleep. So yeah, I didn't want to make a fish sandwich from scratch. Frozen beer battered fish were on sale for like, $4.99, so that decision went really quick. All I had to do was pick up some tomatoes, some french rolls, and a head of lettuce because I remember seeing a bottle of tartar sauce laying around somewhere.

lazy fish

I'm not complaining at all. It's simple, quick, and feels semi gourmet. Plus, I get to have more time watching Homeland and that series is stressful as F. Paper plates, unbuttoned pants, and a bottle of root beer. You can hate me all you want because I have no tedious dishes to wash.

I used Gortons beer battered fish fillets. For tomatoes, I used Roma. Tartar sauce, I had McCormicks.

I'm all ups for frozen fried fish fillet recommendations because I LOVE FROZEN FRIED FISH FILLETS. Ain't nobody got the energy to make fried anything on a daily. So having some fun goodies are always a plus, and keeps me less stressed on those nights where you really just want to bum it.

Have you met my dad? He's hardcore. He would even freeze bread so don't judge me.

Cheers, and goodbye 3 day weekend, I AM OVER YOU.

Daiisies

 

2 Comments

3 Comments

Instant Ramen - Frozen Dumplings - Egg. dead.

What time is it? Whether it's 2am, 10am, or 2pm, it's always a good time to whip up a quick meal before dinner time. I went to the gym today and was starving when I got out. I was thinking about everything I wanted to eat while spinning. As I closed by eyes, I started going through what I had at home. Within no time, my hour on the bike was up. Peace out 20 miles, it's Friday and I shouldn't be at a gym.

Instant ramen, dumplings, and egg.

Ingredients are simple. Get your favorite instant ramen or whichever one you are craving at the moment. Frozen dumplings. Don't know which ones to get? Sorry I don't know either. HAH! Just kidding but not really. If you go to an Asian Market on the weekends, there will probably be samples with a lot of bags going on this blowout sale. That's when I would buy a few body bags of frozen dumplings. I am not going to pay $6+ for a bag, so wait till they go on sale for like $2.50-$3ish. It's a steal.

Timing. The first thing that I do is heat up a non-stick pan with some oil heated on medium high to high depending on how hot your stove is. I like my pan HOT (By the way, I used canola oil). I also started heating water for the ramen. Once you drop the dumplings in the pan, it will start sizzling like sh*t. This is when I would tuck my arms in like T-rex. After about 1 minute, I would add water and cover it with a lid to steam the dumplings. Add enough water where it cooks out after 3 minutes or so. If there is still water left, don't worry it will cook out/evaporate.

Once your dumplings are steaming, drop the ramen in the boiling water to cook. This will be quick. After your noodles are done, pour it into your bowl and arrange your dumplings (the bottom of your dumplings should have a nice golden brown). Now, quickly crank up the heat on the same pan you used to make your dumplings, add some oil and fry up an egg. I season my eggs with salt and togarashi pepper. Slide your egg on top of your noodles and voila, I am your BEST friend.

The egg should be crispy with a nice golden butt. The yolk should goo lusciously all around.

Comfort Food. E N J O Y.

Daiisies

3 Comments