CAMERA STALKING

Remember how I said that I was bad at taking photos? I really am bad at / shy about it! Even if I did come back from NorCal with only photos of food... So what's a girl to do? Doodle!

Because I had to capture those food places in NorCal that I didn't snap photos of, like...

• The Tropisueño margarita at Il Tropisueño (San Francisco, CA)
  A margarita with the bright flavor of ginger? Delish. Perfect for those of you who don't like sweet drinks, but would like a little more flavor than straight-up triple sec, tequila and lime. Also amazing there? The chips and salsas that they brought out, as well as their mole. (P.S. I loved their mole, but it overwhelmed the meats on my taco... to the point of where I couldn't tell which meat was which.)
• The vegetarian eggs benedict at Bill of Fare (San Jose, CA)
  A diner with the tiniest of signs next to a gas station? Totally sketchtastic. Not so sketchtastic? The delicious food there... But it is diner food, so expect a little a lot of grease. My vegetarian eggs benedict were delish, piled high with spinach, but the amount of hollandaise definitely killed the health factor. I should've just gone with my friend's French toast, which was to die for! Plus, a place that pays tribute to my childhood dish of soy sauce and rice? Approved!
• The Siciliano pizza at Amici's East Coast Pizzeria (Mountain View, CA)
  Even without much of an appetite, I really enjoyed the combo of salty meats and sweetly roasted vegetables (broccoli and garlic). Really, the whole cloves of garlic on top did me in. I also barely noticed the tomato sauce that I had requested, so I might skip that the next time around.

Next time around?! I left my heart up in NorCal, so I gotta go back for it.

MONDAYS, BLEGH

Going to need some coffee tonight, since my accounting test will prolly start around 7:30 p.m., after I've been up since 5 a.m. (thanks, weird daylight savings time) and probably after my professor bores - I mean, regales - us with more stories of accounting. 

Clearly, I should fly back to San Francisco to pick up a cup of coffee from Blue Bottle Coffee... But since that's not possible, a return back through pictures. Speaking of which, I took ZERO photos of people on my trip the other weekend. Apparently, my trip could be visualized in food.

The rec came from a friend. She had a list of things to do, and I didn't do them. (Sorry, girlie!) Except for this. Thank goodness I listened.

CHECK IN

I've been on a bit of a soul-journ the last few months. Literally. I've been up and down California, checking out San Jose, San Francisco, San Diego, LA and Orange County. It's been no Eat, Pray, Love experience -- but it gets me pretty darn close.

I love it here. Oh, sure, there's friends and family and UCLA and USC, but really there's this diversity of experiences and people and languages and cultures and events. There's always something going on, or if there's not, there's someone trying to get something going on.

In the past week, I've had buffalo sausages, and El Salvadorean food, and pumpkin yogurt, and curry, and New Orleans coffee, and diner food, and all sorts of nom-noms. My mouth and my heart have been opened up to some delicious foods, and you know what?

That's the beauty of being a Californian. There's no way that I could live here and be close-minded, close-hearted. I would end up missing out on so much, if I were dead set on doing this and that and being one way or another.

And that's really the only thing that I am 100%, dead-set sure of... I want to constantly grow and learn and challenge myself. No more settling. If I'm unhappy, if I'm unsure, I'm going to do something. I'm going to be happy... or at the very least, fulfilled.

SWEET ESCAPE

Currently getting a much needed vacation in the Bay! Loving that I get to reset and restart in a really gorgeous, lovely area.

The only bummer? I grabbed some food at Mitsuwa, thinking that it'd be light and easy on my tummy. It wasn't. 

Instead, it made me miss last week's little trip to Little Tokyo with my fellow grad students. After our bowls of ramen at Men Oh, we went on a little foodie adventure!

CURRENTLY SNACKING ON 10.23

No, that's a lie... I'm not currently snacking on mochi... But I had an idea, and Sam was excited about a GIF in the making, so I executed.

I wish that I had mochi right now. More to come on our Little Tokyo foodie adventure later. (Also... We definitely had more than four.)

MEN OH MAN

Daikokuya might have some competition. Last week, a few friends and I went on a foodie tour of Little Tokyo, and our first stop? A brand new ramen shop: Men Oh. (So yes, more posts to come! I promise!)

SHANTIH

photo credit: carl abuan
I don't even know where to begin. The last few months have taken me up, up, up, and then crashing way down to the ground. But the story of it almost doesn't matter.

What matters is now, picking myself up and regaining my balance and finding peace in it all. Who am I? Who do I want to be? How do I get there?

For me, part of getting there has been getting out and doing things -- like yoga. Oh my goodness, yoga used to be the slowest, most painful thing ever... But I wanted to get fitter. I've always been small, but I've never felt strong, and I wanted to increase my flexibility, and yoga deals pop up all the time, so I snagged a deal and committed myself to a class at least once a week.

Yoga's been good to me. Yes, I feel fitter. I feel stronger and more flexible. I feel healthier! I want to run more than I've ever wanted to run before.

But more importantly, I'm finding my inner peace. I'm more in tune with who I am, and who I want to be. I used to feel so troll-ish in classes, but you know what? Everyone struggles. I've learned the wonders of taking things at my own pace, finding my breath, and focusing on me.

It's all still a work in progress... Because some days, I can't focus on me. I try and rush things along. I don't stop and breathe. I get self-conscious when I can't do a handstand, or the crow position. That's all okay. I'm learning still.

So that's all I'm sharing for today: Find your balance, your inner peace, your shantih. Move towards who you are and who you want to be.

I am an almost-foodie, an almost-designer, a lover of life and happiness and colors and brightness. I am who you want to avoid in yoga classes (because I will fall over and crash into you, and the person next to you, and the person next to that person).

But seriously, I want to be better (2% better) each and every single day. I want to get closer to myself, and to the people around me. I want to surround myself in love, so that even on the worst of days, I know that I'm gonna be okay.

Alrighty... Enough with the mush. You care about the food, and I love food. I love design. And where does that all come together? Right here. Expect to see me back here, peeps.

And if yoga doesn't do much for you, a series on the Avengers and what they can teach you about yourself! My faves?

• Tony Stark's Guide to Being Yourself / Tony Stark
• Captain America: The (Not Terribly) Flexible Avenger