thektan
Adventure On
Journaling a collection of memories.
244 posts
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Thought I'd just make an announcement here since I won't be posting anything on this blog anymore.
New Blog: advon.tumblr.com
Read why here
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Katherine in San Jose
My sister and I did a quick photoshoot in this deserted plaza in Downtown San Jose last weekend. (deserted because none of the places were open on the weekend, not because it was abandoned haha) We went after watching the 49ers win their game and before my sister went out with friends. I always love doing shoots during sunset because it is neither too bright nor too dark.
Played around with the reflections in the water and a few close up portraits. I've been inspired by many, many photographs over the past few months so it really helped developed my photographing ability.
So I haven't been posting on this blog at all for about two months mainly because an overhaul of homework and I also just wasn't happy with how my blog looked, haha. Some things never change...except for my blog layout.
Another new part of my blog: I decided to give it a title. "Adventure On." One of my favorite words since to me it just gives a promotion of exploring further--obtaining more knowledge, trying new things, perseverance, and so on. Also the title has a somewhat double meaning where the "on" can be considered in the context of an "on" or "off" switch. So in this case, my adventuring is turned on. I'm probably just over analyzing, but it's my own title, so ha.
Just enjoy these photos. Or not.
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Brewing During Sunrises
Not beer, but the other beverage that many sip to jump start their day. To introduce this new theme, this post is to show how I introduce my mornings with a cup of coffee.
Its been way too long since I've made a post, but with good reason. I've been in the process of designing a new theme. Well, it started off as simply cleaning up the original layout (which I actually fully coded up), but I realized it just didn't feel right. I assessed what I wanted my theme to convey, and ended up wanting something casual, minimalistic, yet unique. I'm still in the process of tweaking/adding things, but I felt it was time I finally published it. Along with trying to come up with a suitable theme, I've also been trying to keep up with my classes. But my mind was just too wrapped around making a theme since it wasn't coming out the way I wanted to, but here I am finally somewhat accepting its outcome.
Anyways, just the process I go through to make coffee using a french press, which I learned through the many tutorials across the web.
Pour just enough water to cover the coffee grounds and let them saturate for 30 seconds.
Add the rest of the water for one cup and let it sit for another 4 minutes.
This started out as more of a weekend thing, but I've gotten so used to making coffee with a french press that I can easily multitask while making it so it's no problem at all. Obviously it isn't enough time when I'm in a rush, but if I have 30 minutes to spare, I'll do it. I really love strong coffee and I'm slowly evolving into a coffee addict.
Here is actually a really short, simple, and quite soothing video I found how to make french press coffee. Might not be the most informative since there aren't any words, but it gives a clear demonstration that you get the gist of it.
http://vimeo.com/18524628
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Sunday Night
7:38PM
I first went out to do some evening grocery shopping. The two times I like going grocery shopping are super early in the morning or right before sunset. Coldest times and less people, while the sun is out, although Yogurtland was quite packed when I went in.
Tried out the Strawberry Lemonade flavor, and I absolutely loved it! It was like a sorbet, so now my two top favorites are this flavor and Pineapple Guava. I like the sour and strong tasting ones. Pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but my favorite topping is mochi bites!
Simply took my yogurt back to my apartment to eat while watching a tv show. A perfect way to relax on a Sunday night before rigorous studying and homework.
I took the photo above when it was practically dark out. Usually when there's just a small hint of light outside I can still take nice photos with a slightly long exposure. Natural lighting is what I really love in my photographs, so I really try to keep my indoor photos of my meals before it gets pitch black outside. Luckily with a 20 second exposure at f/1.8, I was still able to come out with a perfectly lit photo with no need of flash! I also really like how the street light from the window was captured very well. Gotta love long exposures--they definitely give some surprising results when done properly!
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Chicken & Quinoa
Roasted the chicken in the oven for about an hour at 375 degrees F. I don't know why, but I always end up undercooking my chicken. Yes, I've tried to keep it in the over longer, and at lower temperatures, but I have to take the chicken out before the skin burns. I guess it's fine though since I just end up shredded the leftovers and recooking them, but it ruins my first meal with it. So to finish cooking a piece of it, I simply cheated and microwaved it for an extra 2 minutes. It did the trick, haha.
The main ingredient I want to point out in this meal is the carrot. After watching numerous Gordon Ramsay videos on YouTube, I came over his stuffed courgette rolls video--specifically his technique in thinly slicing the zucchini. Just using a vegetable peeler, I did the same with my carrots. It made them like flat noodles. Since I find raw carrots quite flavorless, I used some of the oil drippings from the chicken and flash fried the carrots for just a quick few seconds until they were slightly cooked. (Technique adapted from Christine on Master Chef). The carrots went from bland to extremely tasty in a matter of seconds! They also became much more soft like delicate noodles.
5:16PM
Ignore the ugly and horribly cooked hard boiled egg. Another simple cooking task I fail at.
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Poached Pears and Yogurt
Poached pears with a teaspoon of sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla extract. After they were nice and soft, I removed them from the pan and stuck them in the freezer to get them nice and cold (I don't like hot fruit). Then added plain greek yogurt, dusted cinnamon, and drizzled some honey for just a bit of sweetness.
1:23PM
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Breakfast for Lunch
The plating came out nice so this post is here mainly for photo purposes.
I had a long night so I decided to sleep in a bit longer than usual. I didn't have time to eat a complete breakfast and since I know the importance of eating at least one egg a day, I decided to simply make a breakfast typical meal for lunch.
Toast, scrambled eggs, sausages and bell peppers. Cooked everything in the cast iron pan including toasting the bread. Finished off with cilantro, green onion, and ricotta cheese.
3:31PM
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Stir Fry Curry Rice Noodles
Christine, a contestant on the show, made curry stir fried noodles with seared scallops and it looked so delicious it made me crave it. I haven't craved anything in awhile so I definitely had to make this dish. Instead of scallops, I used shrimp.
I didn't exactly follow a recipe so I made this one up myself after simply looking at the ingredients others used. I simply used what I had and it surprisingly came out extremely tasty!
For the spice I used this Thai Chili Paste that expired in 2011, but I just opened it last year. It still tastes and smells fine, and I haven't had any side effects from eating it, so I might as well continue using it. It's only used in small portions anyways since the flavor it gives is pretty strong.
Here's the process I went through:
Ingredients
shrimp
rice noodles
yellow onion, diced
red bell peppers, diced
wood ear
spinach
tarragon
cilantro
lemon juice
1/2 tsp red thai chili paste
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp canola oil (cooking oil)
1/4 tsp turmeric (just enough to give a yellow color)
1/2 tsp sugar
pepper to taste
Process
Soak dried wood ear in water
Boil water, pour over dried rice noodles and cover for 8-10 minutes until noodles are cooked (make sure they aren't overcooked or else they'll be mushy and break apart easily)
Cook onions and bell peppers and remove from pan.
Mix together ingredients for the sauce (chili paste, fish sauce, cooking oil, turmeric, and sugar)
Add sauce to wok and then add rice noodles.
Add wood ear, spinach, and cooked onions and bell peppers.
Stir fry all together until sauce has fully coated the noodles.
Remove from wok.
Cook the shrimp.
Add tarragon, cilantro, pepper, and lemon juice if desired.
Enjoy!
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Quinoa
Pronounced "Keen-wah," quinoa is a "grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds" (Wikipedia). Yes, I just referenced a quote from Wikipedia, breaking one of the biggest rules when writing anything for school, research, etc.
Moving on, I first found out about quinoa when it continuously showed up on Sprouted Kitchen, a food blog I follow. Since I've been trying to make healthier choices, I thought I'd finally try it out. Picked a box up from Trader Joe's at around $4. Slightly on the pricey side, but definitely worth the try.
Simply threw it into my rice cooker for easy preparation. No room for mistakes!
Thoroughly washed.
In the rice cooker:
1 cup of quinoa
1 cup of chicken broth
1 cup of water
The directions were to cook with one part quinoa, and two parts water. It also suggested to use broth instead of water for extra flavor. I didn't want it to come out overly flavorful so I used half water, half broth.
Cooked with chicken, spinach, and bell peppers.
Basically used it like fried rice. I really loved the texture of it. There wasn't really any flavor of it, but it's the texture and the feeling in your mouth you get as you eat it. I recommend trying quinoa out! It's supposed to be healthy like brown rice, but I prefer quinoa over brown rice. How healthy? Well I'm sure you can google around for the answer, but in short, it's good for you!
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Instant Noodles
While at a Japanese grocery mart, Vince pointed out one of his favorite instant noodles that were on sale for a dollar. I love instant noodles--well noodles in general. I've tried quite a good handful of different types, and I think it really just depends on my mood. But the typical top ramen is usually my go-to. I never get tired of it.
I picked up two packets while at the store and decided to make it for dinner. Simple instructions, the way it should be.
Boil Water
Add noodles and cook.
Remove from heat and add sauce and powder.
I add the raw spinach right after removing the pan from the heat. This way the spinach becomes soft, but not overcooked and mushy. The bright green color is what I want.
6:36PM
Perfect spinach.
Adding the packets.
Added chicken, tomatoes, and herbs.
Delicious!
I really loved the noodles! The type of noodle was similar to Top Ramen, but of course much better quality and had a better texture to it. Great instant noodles that I'd definitely pick up again if it's still $1. Thanks for the recommendation Vince!
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Newark Cafe
We were going to try this Chinese restaurant in Fremont, but just to our luck, they're closed on Mondays. Instead we went to this place in Newark.
A crowded place with lots of Chinese families, which is usually a good sign for a Chinese restaurant.
Dishes were really cheap and they had a deal where you could order 3 plates for only $20. There were four of us, so we each chose one dish.
*Photos from my iPhone since the place was kinda of cramped and I didn't really feel like pulling out my giant DSLR. Plus I knew my photos wouldn't come out that amazing either so iPhone photos would definitely suffice.
7:36PM
Dishes we ended up ordering.
I chose the Salt and Pepper Shrimp, one of my favorites. It was perfectly crispy, which not only meant I could easily eat the head and skin, but even the tail! This is how I like my salt and pepper shrimp to be!
We actually finished all four dishes. This is probably the first time at a chinese restaurant where all the dishes were fully eaten.
Dinner wasn't as awkward as I thought it would have been. Enjoyed the food and enjoyed meeting Robert again, and Philip for the first time.
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Upgrading Memory
I was at Fry's the day before with a couple of friends and had to decide whether to buy laptop memory right then or there or just to wait for another deal online. Since I was already there, and shipping items to my apartment is such a pain, I decided to just buy it.
"Bring this printed slip to the cashier and they'll give you the memory so you can inspect it before purchasing," the employee told me.
I really had no idea what to look for...not even certain on the exact look of it, but all I did was double check the label and made sure it didn't look damaged.
Then came the fun part of taking my laptop apart for the first time! The thought of upgrading memory first came to me when I saw a blog post on The Imaginary Zebra. He had a really detailed and informative post, and it was surprisingly very simple!
Just to talk about what this upgrade will actually do is simply enable me to multitask more easily. This means I can have more programs open at once and it won't slow down my computer! RAM doesn't actually increase the processing speed of how fast programs will work, but instead simply helps keep everything running at the same speed. I am a huge multitasker--having Chrome, Safari, Chat, iTunes, Lightroom, Photoshop, Calendar, and Mail open on a daily basis.
Extremely tiny screws!
Computer guts.
I actually had a lot of difficulty putting the memory back into the slots. The bottom one went in easily, but the top one just didn't seem to want to go fully in. It still laid flat so I thought it would be fine. Screwed the back plate back up and booted the computer only to discover that the computer only recognized 4GB meaning the top one needed to be fully in. So I had to unscrew it all over again, this time much faster.
I tried putting in the old memory bars back in, but they wouldn't slide all the way in either. Then all of a sudden it just fully went in. So I took it out and tried it again with the newly purchased RAM, and this time I slowly wiggled it up and down until it fully went in. Hopefully it didn't damage the tips too much, but at least it did the job.
Crossing my fingers, I rebooted my computer and success! 8GB of RAM. After using my laptop for a couple of days already, I really am seeing the improvements! My laptop isn't slowing down anymore and everything runs smoothly even with all my programs open! Hip hip horray! A great decision to upgrade my laptop memory! This will definitely lower my want for an extremely fast desktop computer for the time being.
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Banana Peach Mango
A long over due post seeing that it's September 6th today and I made this over 2 weeks ago. I'll be doing a lot of catching up with posts. School's keeping me pretty busy!
Just the usual procedure with freezing the fruit first, then blending it all together. It's important to freeze first because I tried it the other way once and ended up with basically a smoothie instead of something close to the consistency of ice cream.
I used bananas, peaches, and mangoes--basically whatever was in my fridge.
4:25PM
Ready for freezing.
Blended until creamy.
Finished result in a jar, then back to fridge for additional freezing.
I really enjoyed adding different fruits along with the banana! The banana really makes things creamy so I feel like it's a good base to start off with. Adding the other fruits makes it all taste basically like a sorbet! Lots of peach flavor from what I can remember. Also a nice twist I did once was added cinnamon with peaches! A great combination. I sometimes also add vanilla extract to it as well.
Healthy and tasty! Getting in those daily recommended servings of fruit!
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Food In My Belly Redesign
No, that wasn't a typo with those three "again". This is my third time changing my theme from scratch in this year alone. I just get so inspired and awed whenever I come across stunning websites. Then I think to myself, "Why isn't my website that impressive?" Back to the drawing board! I guess it is good experience and now I can almost type regularly in html and css (" < / = : > " keys don't slow me down anymore!), but I should really be studying Java, C, and other programming languages that I'm actually going to school and soon going to look an internship/job for.
Anyways, I started working on this theme about two days ago and played around with type faces and colors on photoshop to come up with an actual "identity" for my food blog. It's always just been "Food In My Belly", but I really wanted something more defining. At the same time I was going through many, many color palettes to find one that was appealing and stood out. I am absolutely horrible at choosing colors, so I'm really glad for websites like Kuler and Colour Lovers to make my designing process a bit easier.
Here's the palette I ended up with:
Color Palette from Kuler
There's just something I've always liked with the combination of yellow and a grayish black.
After a lot of playing around with fonts, here's the identity I went with:
I really liked how the font I found for the "in my" resembled an ice cream cone, which totally sold me on that typeface. If only those words actually had more meaning that for sure would be my logo for this blog.
It still seemed to be lacking a bit of definition so I went ahead and added an arch of text on the top, and to balance it out, I also added text to the bottom with a similar shape.
Finally I added a ribbon shape to the back of the "Welcome To" and some black dots at both ends since it just didn't feel complete enough yet.
Finished Identity
Oh, and another thing to mention: I should really learn how to use illustrator. I really just had to try my best to make that ribbon shape look as perfect as possible. It obviously isn't, which is what illustrator is great for, but the feel of using illustrator is so different even though photoshop and illustrator are both made by adobe.
The theme I decided to go for was something that mimicked a restaurant menu.
I find that consistency is a key part in website design and I try to stay true to that.
One of the parts that started to bug me already was the number of different fonts. A rule is to only have up to three fonts, but I ended up with four. It did look somewhat chaotic, but the main serif font I wanted to use just didn't look fitting for the "welcome to" and "created by ktan" and vice versa. But those are easy changes if I do find a fitting one in the future, so it wasn't that much of a big deal at the moment.
I used a double border to act as a frame to make it look more like a piece of cardstock paper, like a menu from a fancy restaurant.
Coming up with a suitable shape for the header was a huge time consumption. I started with the downward pentagon shape, but the sides felt really empty so I tried diamond shapes, squares, and numerous other shapes. In the end the pentagon looked the best in my opinion and to fill the sides I decided to make black bars that would look like window shades or wall sidings. I was thinking about adding texture to make it look like wood, but I felt like I had too many patterns with the stripes and gray grid already.
Just some other details I kept in mind while designing:
Design for each post
Navigation Bar
Whenever things didn't look the way I wanted it to, and I couldn't figure out how to change it, I would just take a break. Sometimes I realize that it already looks perfectly fine and it's just because I've been staring at that one element for hours, which is what's making it seem off. It's like where you stare at one word for an extended amount of time and soon enough it looks like it's spelt wrong. I know that's happened to me many times in the past. (One time so bad that I had to google "About" because it just looked so incorrectly spelt to me at that time.)
Getting a fresh look at the object can help make you realize what needs to change as well, so my advice would be to sleep on your design when you finish it so you can get a fresh perspective of it, tweak a few details if need be, and finally publish/print/etc it.
The blog is still definitely in it's preliminary stage so there will still be many tweaks here and there, but in the mean time...
Check out the new design in action!
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Photo Walk Around Downtown
First day of classes is tomorrow so this would probably be the best time to walk around during sunset to take photos while I'm free. Plus it's a way to get some fresh, cool air, since around this time, the heat buildup reaches its max in my apartment.
Sunset or sunrise really is my favorite time to take pictures. The sun really creates some beautiful lighting and it really makes me think about how I can use it to my advantage. It was when I got to the Center of Performance Arts that I found the object that really got my attention. The sun was shining onto the fountain and when I took a test shot, it was just beautiful bokeh all over. So this photo walk's theme was kind of just trying to get bokeh and slightly out of focused shots.
Thankfully during this time there weren't that many people in the area as well, which made taking a ton of photos and adjusting myself to get the right shot wasn't awkward at all.
Here are my favorites:
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Berkeley Trip
It isn't often that we all are able to hang out together (excluding when everyone is at home), so I was really happy to find out both Josephine and Joanne were able to make it. Jacky, Mindy, and I are around the bay area so it's a lot easier to meet up with each other with no stress from driving (yay for bart).
This trip started as a spontaneous way just to escape from the heat, but it turned into more of an official type trip even though we were only spending basically the afternoon at Berkeley. Ironically the weather wasn't even cloudy or cold--in fact it felt pretty hot due to no wind and the sun just blazing down. The main plan was to explore campus, but in the end, there wasn't any time for that. It seemed that we spent all of the time getting and eating food. Nothing wrong with that, but I really love exploring new places.
Something else to note is that we actually had an even ratio of guy to girl. Most of the time it's all guys and one girl, so it's nice how it all worked out.
Here's how the day went:
A total of six people, so we all couldn't fit in the car. Due to the nice even split of guys and girls, us three guys went on to order and bring the food back to the apartment to devour!
1:21PM
Cheeseboard for lunch
Price: $20 for a whole pizza
If you haven't tried Cheeseboard yet, this place is a must! Don't be fooled into thinking this vegetarian place will be lacking in taste due to the absence of meat! My second time coming here and they really make amazing pizzas! So good I can't believe it's vegetarian. There's only one pizza they make a day, so be sure to check their website to make sure which pizza you'll be getting.
Long lines, but it moves very fast. All you do is order and they basically give the box to you as you're paying. All smooth and quick transactions, just the way it should be!
This place is responsible for making me find out that potatoes go amazingly well on a pizza!
1:36PM
Gasp. Someone threw a whole piece of bread away.
Gregoire for Potato Puffs
Price: $4.50 a box (contains 9 puffs)
This is also my second time coming to this place. Their potato puffs are mouth-watering good! These puffs are basically pillow-soft mashed potatoes with a crispy exterior. You also must try this place out!
2:23PM
Eating at Jacky's
Then it was off to Ici's! Really excited about finally trying this place out! About a 20 minute walk from the apartment, but it was worth it to me. Just burning off some of the calories we gained and are about to gain!
4:05PM
At Ici's
Price: $2.95 one scoop / $3.95 two scoops
A little disappointed with the selection of flavors today, but at least I still ended up with an amazingly delicious one! I got the nectarine sorbet and it was just exploding with fresh nectarine flavor! We shared bowls because it was obviously much cheaper since we each just wanted one scoop. Very very happy with the ice cream here.
6:36PM
Saboteur
Then left at 7pm so I wouldn't get back when it was too dark. Well at least I didn't have to wait at the bus stop in the dark. So from now on, 7pm is the latest I will leave.
About the day overall: I really had a blast even though we didn't even get to do much. So much good food in Berkeley; I'm super envious. I'm also really happy with how my photos came out! I had a good time spending the day with my friends, eating amazing food, and taking a ton of decent photos than I usually take. I think I've found my "editing style" for my photos too! I wish the day could have been longer, but the entire day was just filled with good times--at least for me. The perfect last large get together before the next school year!
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San Francisco, Emeryville, Berkeley
12:58PM
Sushirrito
I was going to make a stop at Sushirrito just to try one of their items, but the line was too long so I decided to just wait for another time.
Sweetened Iced Coffee
Waited at a nearby Starbucks (there were plenty of them nearby though) for everyone to arrive in San Francisco.
1:39PM
HRD Coffee Shop
Short Rib Bibimbap
It was alright. I still like the Kimchi Burrito a lot more, but I still want to try the Firecracker Sandwich.
3:59PM
99 Ranch Area
Was going to go Karaoke, but the prices were higher than they were from people's reviews on yelp. We ended up just walking around then decided to go to Emeryville.
4:38PM
Shopping
This place really reminded me of Santana Row, except just a lot smaller.
5:13PM
Teacake Bake Shop
A place that's been reviewed over 800 times on yelp (4 stars). It was the too bad that the flavor of the week sounded the least intriguing out of all the flavors of the week. On the brighter side, it just so happened we went during happy hour and got cupcakes for only $1.50 (originally $3.25)!
Vanilla with Honey Tangerine Frosting
It had good tangerine flavor and a moist cake, but the frosting was really sweet, and I didn't like the texture of the frosting either--it reminded me of store bought cupcakes, but at least I still enjoyed eating it!
Alex and Jacky
7:04PM
Cafe Strada
Back in Berkeley, Mindy and I got some coffee since we were feeling a bit low on energy. Jacky took us to one of the best places to get coffee in the area.
#event#adventure#san francisco#emeryville#berkeley#jacky#mindy#alex#food#hrd coffee shop#cupcake#dessert#coffee
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