Shove It

Hopefully that last post did not traumatize anyone too much.  Whether it did or did not, this next post is gonna be a good one.  Because I am posting about FOOD again!

With the weather getting warmer now in San Diego... well, warmer than it was earlier this year (I understand we didn't get the same winter everyone else in the country did, but hey, it was a winter for us), I started reminiscing on this past Winter Break when I went to Lake Tahoe with the fam bam.  We hung out mainly in South Lake Tahoe and on our trip ended up finding an amazing FOOD FIND THAT I CANNOT WAIT TO GO BACK AND EAT AGAIN.

What is this delicious food I have ranted on about without even mentioning the name of you ask?

EuroSnack Inc: Frog Dogs & Belgian Waffle!

Now, hold up.  Before you freak out, it does not involve eating real frogs or anything, and the "Frog Dogs" were actually Hot Dogs!

This was me, because I AM Batman, and I Enjoy Frog Dogs

What made these hot dogs amazing I should say is that Frog Dogs are not served in typical hot dog buns, but fresh, crunchy, filling baguettes with a delicious sausage placed inside.  What's really cool about the little kiosk EuroSnack Inc. is the way that they prepare the Frog Dogs.  They take the half baguette you are about to enjoy, SHOVE IT (you get the title of the post now?) into these metal spike, squish the interior "meat" of the baguette, and squish it against the walls to make room for the sausage.  Then they squirt ketchup and/or mustard into the new slot in the baguette, and place the heated delicious sausage inside for you to enjoy.

LOOK AT IT!

It was amazing!  And what makes it so much cuter and approachable and Awesome, is that it is all in a kiosk of sorts.

You can find these kiosks at a bunch of ski resorts in Lake Tahoe like North Star, Squaw Valley, and a bunch other ski resorts (and I just found out thanks to the internet that they have them in CANADA! This Got Better).  We ended up buying more than one hotdog anytime we found a EuroSnack at the ski resort we were visiting for the day and were basically just dreaming of a larger Frog Dog that we could indulge in and drool over to eat up.

JUST...LIKE...THIS

Also, in case you were looking at the menu above of the different foods they eat.  They pretty much just sell beverages and Frog Dogs, but they also sell Le Wafe, or better known as Belgian Waffles.  If you have ever had the belgian waffles they sell at Jamba Juice, they are sort of like those, but because they are EuroSnack, they have their own pizzazz (not to be mistaken for pizza but to be read as pii-zazzzz).  They were pretty good but considering it was actually winter with snow and all that jazz, the warm hot dogs definitely hit the spot.

Like no kidding, those hot dogs were amazing and we discovered them halfway through our trip which meant that we knew we were limited on time on being able to enjoy them.  So we ate them a lot.  We sort of were going through withdrawals when there wasn't a EuroSnack kiosk at the ski resort we were visiting for the day, or even worse, when we finally left Tahoe and headed back home and would no longer be able to enjoy the Frog Dogs.

This was basically us, impersonating hot dogs and dreaming of a better tomorrow where maybe, just maybe, we would find a EuroSnack near our home or wherever we would be for the day

I CANT WAIT TO GO BACK TO TAHOE AND EAT MORE FROG DOGS

"Nurse! Quick! Hand Me the Vagina!"

Yep, you read that title correctly

Sorry if that made you uncomfortable or if you deem that title (and possibly the entirety of this post) unnecessary, but it definitely pertains to my blog post for tonight.  So if you think that the word is weird or disgusting or inappropriate, please read up on my interpretation of it all.

(Talk about "Vaginas" that is - apparently)

It's not usual for the word "vagina" to come out of peoples mouths or even come up in conversation and the whole reason I am talking so much about it is because I just recently saw UCSD's rendition of The Vagina Monologues.

The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play created by Eve Ensler.  As Wikipedia describes it (and although it is Wikipedia, I believe the summary of the play is accurate):

"Each of the monologues deals with an aspect of the feminine experience, touching on matters such as sex, love ,rape, menstruation, female genital mutilation, masturbation, birth, orgasm, the various common names for the vagina, or simply as a physical aspect of the body.  A recurring theme throughout the piece is the vagina as a toll of female empowerment, and the ultimate embodiment of individuality."

I first went to The Vagina Monologues last year with a few of my friends and was not sure at all what in the world to expect.  All that people were telling me about it was that, "it's about female empowerment" and "its just feminists complaining about men."   But I kept an open mind and thought it would be a good experience to go and see the show, I mean its college right? The time of your life to go out of your comfort zone and learn not just about yourself but about others right?  Well, I am definitely glad I went.

The play was held in a ballroom in the hub on campus and there was a row of tables outside the entrance with a bunch of offices expressing the different resources they have for students to become more comfortable with themselves whether it be due to previous sexual assault or other traumatic experiences.  Walking past these I was starting to get nervous.  What did I just sign up for? 

We entered the ballroom and inside were some merchandise tables where The Vagina Monologues crew were selling T-shirts with "Vagina Warrior" or "Vagina Lover" on them, panties with "CUNT" boldly written on it, as well as "P*ssy Pops" which were little chocolate lollipops in the shape of .... you guessed it, Vaginas.  Naturally at this point, as a straight male, I was preparing my will in my head and readying to just have a woman come up on stage for the performance and call out me and every other man for being a man and not being a woman and being wrong and nonsense.

-Me-

But boy was I wrong.

The show was spectacular.  The play consists of an array of monologues performed by an amazing cast of UCSD women who speak on serious matters related to their vaginas and how it was about time that the word vagina was no longer deemed as BLASPHEMOUS or anything. This is where my title actually comes into play where in one monologue, the women on stage list off not only all the different nicknames a vagina has, but also just about how disgusting and uncomfortable the word naturally sounds.  Humorously they say how it sounds like a medical device shouting "Nurse! Quick! Hand Me the Vagina!" ... they then say how even in sexual encounters, at the mention of the word, all hotness is lost, "Oooooh yes, now touch my vagina".... uuuuuh no thanks.

Some monologues are funny.  Some monologues are just straight up fact.  Some monologues are hard to listen to.  Some monologues are gut-wrenching and teary-eyed.  

But all the monologues are real.

Although at first I could not understand why the crap I was there...

But by the end, I could not wait for next year to watch it for I plan to watch this show every year.  This play is so powerful and such an important message to not only women but men too.  This year I went again and brought some more friends that had not seen the show because I knew deep down that they needed to see the show.  Also! I had a quite a few friends that were on the cast and knew how much it meant to them.  

At the end of the show we waited for the cast to come out and congratulated my friends on their performance not only to prove that we went, but to share with them that we are all there to support them because choosing to be in this show means that the powerful & important message it sends, means something special to them.  You can never have too many people supporting you in life.

The play may not necessarily be everyone's "cup of tea" but I think it has an important message and definitely opened my eyes to the reality of ... well, reality.

Mother Knows Best

Need a new TV Show to binge watch that not only is on Netflix but is coming back for its second season on Monday March 3rd and is really good?

BATES MOTEL

Done.

But seriously, this show is awesome, it is super intense, has some crazy twists and turns you would never expect, and the actors/actresses completely sell me on being in the mind of their characters... who actually are out of their own mind.

In case you don't know where "Bates Motel" comes from, here's the low-down.  Basically the thriller drama is a prequel to the 1960 Hitchcock Classic Psycho but told in modern day so theres iPhones and such!

But seriously doe, it starts off with Norman Bates, played by Freddie Highmore (the kid from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and his mother [if you watch the show, you will know why I say "mother" and not mom], played by Vera Farmiga, (starred in Up in the Air) who buy a motel in a new town to START A NEW LIFE.  Little do they know that, well, to put it simply, sh*t goes down incredibly quickly.  I can't say much without giving it away but there is a lot of plot twists and incredible subplots that all tie up nicely at the end.

And Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga are incredible actors in this show and you honestly never know who is more sane ... or if either is actually sane at all...

Max Thieriot, Olivia Cooke, Nicola Peltz, Mike Vogel, Nestor Carbonell, and Keegan Connor Tracy also star in this series and I just HAD to mention them all even if you don't know them because all the characters are super important and just when you think you understand on of them... HOLY CRAP ARE YOU WRONG

The lack of understanding the intentions of each character though I think is perfect since it is a prequel to Psycho.  I just watched Psycho actually the other day, crossing off another movie from my list of 250 movies to watch [Shameless Plug-In: go check out my tab Just Add Popcorn] and it was really good!  It may be in black and white and the acting may not be completely the best to today's standards but it is still really good.  Like honestly, a part of me wishes I could have been in the theatre when this movie first aired in the 60's because I really feel like people were flipping out and this movie really was groundbreaking.

I definitely recommend not only starting to watch Bates Motel, but watching the original movie ESPECIALLY since just about everyone knows about the iconic scene ... Somewhat Spoiler Alert but the girl gets stabbed...

Anyway, I had always wondered what the context of this stabbing scene was all about and now that I saw it I GET IT! And theres A LOT more story behind it.

Basically, the whole Psycho franchise is blowing up, and for good reason, so watch this awesome series before its got a lot more seasons and everyone else tells you to watch the 7th season of it.

          

Wingin' It

MORE FOOD!

I kind of meant to not just talk about food on this blog but since it basically is an ultimate passion of my life (yep, just called it a passion), and since it says its part of my life on the header of my blog... Deal with it.

So the other day one of my friends was like "Yo ever since you talked about wanting Buffalo Wings I have been craving them so lets get some chicken wings" ... 1. of course I talk about food enough to make my friends crave certain foods and 2. Hell Yes was I down for getting some wings.

She yelped a place for Chicken Wings and we ended up deciding on a local sports bar/wing spot called DIRTY BIRDS!  You can find it on 4656 Mission Blvd in PB (Pacific Beach) in none other than San Diego!

And of course, since we are super cool and super smart (and super broke), we went on a Friday which is their HAPPY HOUR CHICKEN WING DAY where all chicken wing baskets were HALF OFF!

Here's the MENU! I made it extra big so you could see all the different delicious flavors they had.  And yes, those are the prices and we paid HALF for it! 

[5 piece for $3.50, 10 piece  for $6, and 20 piece for $11]

Needless to say that when I got the menu I was a little bit more than just slightly overwhelmed with all of the options and all of the possibilities.  I didn't quite know which ones I wanted and all I knew was that I wanted wings now.

CHECK OUT WHAT ME AND MY FRIENDS DECIDED AND DEVOURED

This was mine! - Dirty Ranch & Teriyaki

This is what my friends got 

(Left) Garlic Parmesan

(Right) Honey Mustard & BBQ

My favorite was of course the DIRTY RANCH - It was basically buffalo wings with ranch already on the wings which is what I dunk my buffalo wings in already so it was perfect for me

We definitely will be coming back to DIRTY BIRDS sometime soon because we got a lot more flavors to try out and a big appetite to appease.

Making It Up As We Go

When I was younger, every Friday my family and I would sit in the living room and watch 3 TV shows together every week! It was an awesome tradition that I loved and one of the TV shows that was part of the routine was WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY

The show always had us busting out in laughter and when it went off the air we were really sad because it was a humor that all of us loved.  For those who do not know, WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY is a TV Show where 4 improvisors act out scenes and play games and all all of the jokes are made on the spot (COMEDY IMPROV!).  Luckily however, they brought it back last year with Aisha Tyler ("Lana" from Archer and "Charlie" from Friends) replacing the original host, Drew Carey.  That was the only major change really which was not that bad because Aisha is an amazing comedian and improvisor AND they kept the original three improvisors everyone loved from the show: Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, and Ryan Stiles! IT IS SO FUN!

Anyway, I haven't been watching religiously the new season unfortunately but whenever I was able to catch an episode I did and it was still Hilarious! The improvisors are so funny and they are what inspired me to join the Comedy Improv team at UCSD actually!

What I an trying to get to is that not only should you start watching this show (it comes back in March on the CW), but I wanted to talk about (and brag) how me and my friends were able to go to a filming of the show!

(Me when it hit me that I would be in front of the amazing hilarious famous people)

Now I cannot talk really about what jokes they made, the special guests or anything due to policy but what I can say is that I had such a good time! It was SUPER FUNNY, all of the improvisors are hilarious always cracking jokes not only with each other but with the audience as well, and the entire ambiance was just phenomenal.

I scored our tickets FOR FREE on tvtickets.com which you should check out if you wanna go to a filming of a certain show in the LA area.  Some shows may be on hiatus at the time you check it out but when they aren't, they have tickets for WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY, AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS, THE BIG BANG THEORY, MIKE & MOLLY, 2 BROKE GIRLS, and SO MANY MORE!

We waited in line for a while, sat down, and laughed for so many hours it was amazing!  I AM MOST EXCITED ABOUT COMING OUT ON TV TO BE HONEST THOUGH AND CANNOT WAIT TO SEE MY STARSTRUCK FACE ON THE SCREEN

One of the best moments I love watching in the show is SCENES FROM A HAT which is basically what we call on my Comedy Improv team: Potpourri.  The coach (in the case of the show, Aisha Tyler) will state something such as ....

... and then the improvisors just blurt out whatever comes to mind and honestly this is one of the best games they have but then again, all the games they play are great

So go ahead and Find a Way to watch older episodes or wait till March to watch it but until then, try to be better than this guy if he were real

Taco Tuesday? Tacos Every Day!

Funny story.  When I went back home my friends and I were eating some Mexican Food and they made the comment how they wished they had some good legit Mexican Food near their campuses (they study in Washington & New York) and I agreed with them not really thinking it through to which they were not happy.  "YOU GO TO SCHOOL IN SAN DIEGO LITERALLY ONLY A FEW MILES FROM MEXICO WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?" ... woops

It was then that I had realized my friends and I HAD had some Mexican Food like Vallarta's Carne Asada Fries but had yet to find a traditional taqueria and taken advantage of being so near Mexico to have real good Mexican Food without having to bring a passport with us for a meal.

So yesterday some of my friends and I needed some comfort food and found this great Mexican place that was delicious and magical and all that we needed and will be going there a lot more often I just know (and hope). Not only was the food good, traditional, and cheap... it was FAST!

I mean as soon as we passed the place while looking for parking we knew we made the right choice driving to this restaurant.

Mmmmmm $1.95 tacos

Maria's Mexican Cocina is the name of this delicious Mexican restaurant in Downtown San Diego that my friends and I thoroughly enjoyed!

        

First off they kicked us off by giving us some chips and salsa AND even some Queso Fundido which is basically like a cup of melted cheese delicious for dipping and its like some NACHOS for appetizer with no extra charge.  I also ordered an Horchata to test out just how authentic the place is and it was delicious! Not too cinnamony and not artificial.  It was Good!

For our main dish I got a plate of fish tacos and my friend got a chicken tamale and they were both amazingly delicious.   The fish tacos were fresh and crunchy and super savory.  I actually do think I enjoyed my friends' tamale a lot more than mine but they were both really good.  The tamale was fresh and homemade and not super filling but just right .... she finished the whole thing and is a very small individual so the fact she finished it says a lot about how good it was.

So in summation, my friends and I will be enjoying a lot more authentic Mexican Food more often - and I am excited! NOTHING IS HOLDING US BACK TO EAT MEXICAN FOOD!

Not So Precious but Not So Bad

So if any of you remember one of my earlier posts or if any of you have checked out my tabs (Just Add Popcorn), it has been my goal to watch all 250 movies from IMDBs list of top 250 movies of all time.  I have been trudging through very slowly and when I can I burn through a movie and happily cross it off my list.

One of those movies... or actually, four of the movies on the list... are the three Lord of the Rings Trilogy movies as well as The Hobbit (the first one so far).  I mean, of course they were on the list after so many Oscar nominations and wins but admittedly I had not sen any of the movies.  NOW HOLD ON DON'T FREAK OUT! 

(this is a LOTR representation of how people usually react when I would say I had not seen any of the movies ... me being the elf lady)

I finally watched all four of them and surprisingly enjoyed them.  We went up to Lake Tahoe during my Winter Break and while we were there I burned through the first two and then watched the third one once I got back only to end up watching The Hobbit the following night.

Anyway, the main point of my blog post is that I think people should actually give the movies a chance.  A big reason I was very hesitant to watch any of them was because I found them to be geeky, weird, and dumb.  And I apologize.  The second one was actually my favorite one too I should add! Even though Gollum was in it who as a kid scared the begeezus out of me and still grosses me out (I feel like he is just cold and clammy and ew)

Ew

But essentially I gave in, realized I would eventually have to watch them since they are on the list and fully enjoyed then.  So I guess all I am trying to say in this somewhat short post is that no matter how weird or "not your type of movie" a movie may seem, you should give it a shot ... at least if they have good ratings.

No matter how out there they may seem...

Diabetic December

In the words of one of my SD friends: "Tis the effin' season"

I know it may be January and this post is titled with December but lemme just say last month was a lot of fun and deserves a post about it.  Winter Break is almost done for me and athough it will be sad to leave home and go back to San Diego.  I think my gut needs it.

I left San Diego cooking all of my meals which were just brown rice and chicken and SMALL PORTIONS to come home and find delicious home cooked meals everyday from my mom and a lot of going out to eat more delicious food and I think I am starting to pay for it but UGH ITS ALL JUST SO GOOD.

I just thought I would share with you all a little bit of the best desserts I had this Winter Break.  Also, sorry if the title is misleading but I DO NOT HAVE DIABETES ... but after eating all that I ate I have no idea how that is.  

Every year it is a tradition that my mom and I make Christmas Cookies together.  This has been going on for 6 years now we realized and were very surprised after calculating because we thought somehow it was only our 2nd or 3rd year.  Another tradition is our changing patterns of whether or not we share with people our cookies.. it varies every year depending on how generous and hungry we are feeling (this year we did not share with anyone... hence this post).

CHECK OUT OUR PRIDE AND JOY FOR CHRISTMAS 2013

These were our jelly cookies, the ones on the left were our "challenge" for this year.  We had never made them and they were pretty difficult to make since the cookies were fragile (hard to spread jam) and also you should know that the centers are supposed to be Christmas Trees... supposed to be.  The ones on the right we have been making every year and are my traditional favorites I usually eat 2 or 7 of them not too many 

The bars on the left are another set of "cookies" we have been making every single year and are my Mom's favorite and indeed are pretty dang good.  They have white chocolate chips, craisins, pecans, condensed milk, and clouds from the heavens.  OK but NO YOU GUYS LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THESE COOKIES ON THE RIGHT - this was our first year making them and holy crap they are mainly the reason we did not share treats this year.  They have chocolate, pretzels, and TWIX chunks in it and I LOST IT WITH THESE COOKIES THEY WERE GOOD.

But HOLD UP! There was more! We all have a bit of a creative side in my family and also hold the tradition of making sugar cookies which we later decorate as we please.

Now I know you are dying to know and YES I did make that cow and I also should let you know I made the Santa with the beard on the bottom left... the original cookie was a Christmas Tree shape but the oven did not like that and deformed it so I worked around it.

NOW THESE BABIES ARE MY PERSONAL FAVORITES OF XMAS 2013 BAKED GOODS

(cuz I decorated them)

They are just regular cupcakes but my mom found this marshmallow snowmen idea online and I let my creative side out (1. on the far left you can see a "melting snowman" 2. in the far back [hard to miss] is the "KING SNOWMAN" I dubbed him lastly, 3. is that guy on the right with half his head missing and a surprised expression on him... his story is that he was hit by a snowball and is still recovering from the shock haha)

Mmmmmmmmmmm it was all so good .... but guess what, it did not end there, 

and I am so glad it did not end with that

These delights are my expertise which I actually made back at school when my friend was down in the dumps and when my dad saw them on Instagram he made a personal request for some to made while I was home.

Their Name? Nutella-Mallow Pillow Pockets ... yes, that is their full name and they deserve each bit of it with how delicious and savory they are.  In case you could not tell from the name, they have nutella and marshmallow in them and are fluffy and crispy and chocolatey and marshmallowy and delicious and oh no I am drooling again.

We had them for post-dessert dessert while we watched a Christmas movie with some Hot Chocolate my sister had made and I decided to take the vanilla marshmallow that was all warm and gooey and lathered it on top and Oh Crap I Should NOT HAVE DONE THAT because my heart stopped, went to heaven, and wrote a personalized thank you letter to the angels for allowing us to have such goodness on Earth.

SO MUCH DESSERT AND DELICIOUSNESS IN DECEMBER I DO NOT KNOW IF MY BODY WILL EVER RECOVER FROM IT ALL BUT HONESTLY I THINK IT IS OK