Monday, June 21, 2010

Redondo Beach Seafood!

Hi! I hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was nice and long because I took today off. I really needed the break. I was down in LA and I just went crazy with the shopping. There were too many discounts... I couldn't help it. All my hauls will probably be in another post. I will mainly blog about the food haha!

I finally went to Redondo Beach because I wanted to try the fresh Santa Barbara sea urchins. I never knew they were so famous in Japan even. I feel so dumb now because I used to go to college at UC Santa Barbara so I could have just gone to the finish market in the morning. I had heard about it but I was always so lazy about getting up. Well now that I know there's a fish market called Quality Seafood in Redondo Beach, I don't have to drive up to SB for fresh sea urchins anymore.

Picked out my sea urchin. It sure was alive....

The guy whacked it and cleaning it out for us.

Here you go. Time to eat up. It tasted so fresh and it was still moving and it tried to climb out of our plate. I felt so barbaric. These kids were like "can we touch it?" "What is it?" We got a lot of attention while eating lol.

Me holding it. It was still moving dude... even after we finished eating it! I bought this hat at UO for $5 because they had an additional 50% off sale items. I got this 3 weeks ago but they had that kind of sale again just this past weekend.

We also picked out a red snapper and got it fried on the spot. It was really good!

We got a nice view of the dock while we were eating!

There was also an oyster bar with all different kinds of live oysters, like my fave kumamoto oysters. They kept having to go back to refill it because everyone wanted to eat that type. We skipped on oysters because the wait was way too long. I would go to Quality Seafood again. You could seriously just pick what you want to eat and they'll cook it right there for you. I mean even clams, lobsters, and crabs.

So on Sunday, we went and tried a Thai restaurant called Sapp Coffee Shop. I honestly only knew about it after watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations lol. I tried the boat noodles and it turned out fabulous! I've never had this type of noodle soup before so it was exciting to try something new. The broth was concentrated, beefy, and full of spices. Good thing I only asked for medium spicy and didn't ask for spicy because it would have been too intense for me. The one I ordered might not be for everyone though. It had beef and innards like liver, tendon, and tripe. Don't worry, there is also boat noodles with just beef!

So that's it. Time to pass out now! Bye!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Marie Antoinette's Estate

It's been so warm lately... I'm LOVING it! I'm so happy that it finally feels like summer. It's my favorite season! Too bad San Francisco weather doesn't follow seasonal patterns though. Anyways, I'm updating with Marie Antoinette's estate. It wasn't as grand as the palace but it's the simplicity and girly aspect that I like.

Loved this simple hallway. It was nice that we could take decent pics because it wasn't as crowded here.

The cool yellow room!



Bedroom! Too bad the sign is in the way.
Even simpler hallway. Can you tell that I love hallways? hehe

Cute music room

Super cute seats! I want to own one of these!
I forgot what room this is but I think it looks like an office doesn't it? Maybe a meeting room?

The girliest room! I love the floral print!

SO that's all from Versailles. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Sorry for posting so many pictures! I get so sad when looking at these pictures because I feel like I need another vacation already haha! I have so much more I want to blog about but I'm just so tired after a long day at work. I think I only have two more Paris posts and that's it. Next up is random Paris stuff. See you later!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Gardens of Versailles

Hi, I'm back with another post! I usually don't update this frequently but I'll try to keep this up. I have so much stuff to post lol.

One of my favorite parts of my Versailles trip were the gardens of Versailles. It was so massive so I was not able to see everything. Some people rented golf carts and bikes but we were too cheap to do that. We didn't even get to see the gardens at Marie Antoinette's estate. We didn't know about it and it was already pretty late so we just left. We were trying to make it back to the Louvre. I really regret it now! We still had a lot of fun though.

Looking to the left of the gardens.

Cool patterns.

View of the north side. So massive right?

Looking back towards the palace. Too bad the fountains weren't on since we went on a weekday. I heard it's amazing when they're on.

Me with some grass sculptures lol. I don't know what these are called but they were cute!

More of those.

Apollo fountain!

Real swans were swimming around in there.

A sweet British man was selling hot potatoes (baked potatoes). We got the beef stew one which turned out to be really good! It was perfect for a chilly day.

Seems like my blog is more of a photo blog now but I think photos are more interesting anyways right? Ok Marie Antoinette's estate will be next! Byebye!

Friday, June 4, 2010

Chateau De Versailles

Hi there! So I'm back to using blogspot again. I just can't seem to stick to one blog! Well I'm back because blogger is easier to use and it loads faster. Well back to the Paris updates. Today's topic is Versailles! This was probably my favorite place during my trip to Paris. It was so beautiful and I've never been to a place like this. I will have to break up Versailles into multiple posts. I just had too many pictures!! This post will be about the Palace of Versailles. It was quite difficult trying to take pictures because there were so many people! I went during a weekday plus it wasn't tourist season yet. Sorry for the bad photos... I just picked the ones that weren't too blurry hehe!

Outside of entrance of the palace. So massive and look at how many people there were!

Outside again! Some construction going on at the side there. I look upset here but I just look like that when outside because of the brightness! It was so cold and windy that day too!!

Royal Chapel. Someone was playing the organ that day.

The ceiling of the Royal Chapel. Beautiful isn't it? All of the ceilings in the palace were basically works of art!

The Hall of Mirrors. Look how many people are in the room! This is a very historic room by the way. Even the Treaty of Versailles was signed here.

The Queen's bedchamber. I would love to sleep in a room like this!!

I forgot which room this wall was part of. Every room was just as fancy!

Me eating some bread outside the palace. You can see a bit of it in the back! I had a nice view of the gardens!

Yea, so this part of the trip was so packed of people in a small area. The State Apartment rooms were quite small for the amount of people visiting. Good thing most of the people were little kids so I could see over them haha! They didn't block my camera view at all... it was just those adults! There was so much detail in every single one of the rooms. It was hard to take pictures because I wanted to take a picture of every single thing like the paintings and ceilings lol! Ok the gardens of Versailles will be next so stay tuned! Gnite!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Tomales Bay and Sainte Chapelle

Hi! I wanted to do an update post and also a Paris one because it's taking me so long to finish my Paris posts!

I had so much fun this long weekend. Monday was Memorial Day so I did not have to go to work. Good times! I went to Tomales Bay which is about an hour and a half drive from San Francisco for oysters and barbecue. This was my first time going to an oyster farm! We brought so much food and bought too many oysters! We couldn't finish all of it and had to give the rest away. I also ended up shopping again today because there were so many sales going on because of Memorial Day! Urban Outfitters had a sale and it was a take an additional 50% off on existing sales. Ok I have so many pictures! I also got a really bad sunburn on my shoulders because I'm stupid and forgot to put on sunscreen!! haha!

We got the oysters! All 50 0f them!

Got the grill going!

Got the oysters on the grill!!

The boy is shucking oysters! I'm being stupid! He said the oysters were so hot after being grilled and all.

What a huge oyster!! Can hardly fit in the shell!

Eating chicken wings!

It was so hot... we needed an umbrella haha! All the food on the table were melting like the pack of cheese!

Just chilling now... nice day yea?

Let's just say I wasn't prepared for the sun... no cap, no sunscreen, and no shorts! haha!! I probably won't go back for bbq again because I can just do that in my backyard or Golden Gate park. The drive was pretty bad because it was all mountain roads! We can buy cheaper oysters at Asian markets for grilling too. It was a very fun experience though!


Alright now back on track with the Paris stuff. Sainte Chapelle is my favorite little chapel in Paris!! It's so beautiful and is a great example of Gothic architecture. I was like WOW when I was inside haha! Too bad I didn't get a good picture of the outside. Doesn't matter because the inside was just amazing!

Bottom floor of the chapel.

This type of art was all over the walls.

Top floor. Amazing... the walls were covered with stained glass windows! Too bad the front end was under renovation though.

Pretty....

Painting of Jesus and angels?

Stained glass up close. Every picture is different!

Ok so that's all for today. I know... so many photos!! Sorriez!! Have a goodnight!