mmm mmm good fried chicken

A's boyfriend was visiting this weekend and so I met them for dinner after my class today. The dinner choice was Founding Farmers, literally a block from GWU Law School. I wanted to go there because Booth and Brennan from Bones always seemed to end their day with dinner at Founding Farmers, and plus I heard the food was good.

Founding Farmers prides itself on eco-friendliness and all of the food is prepared with fresh produce from local farms and made from scratch, right down to making ginger ale from scratch (it was delicious! not sure if I can go back to Canada Dry Ginger Ale cans).

We started off with some corn bread baked in a skillet. The thickness was not as thick as I would have liked it but the taste was great. Apparently the cornbread is even tastier when slathered in butter and honey (there was a serving of butter that had honey in it).

We also tried the Popcorn of the Day. The chef's choice of flavor today was ranch.

I don't know what seasoning they put together to make the ranch but my goodness, that was the best popcorn I've had in a long time. So flavorful!

For my dinner entree, I chose the Southern Fried Chicken and Waffle plate. It was ginormous! I ate all the waffles and only one piece of chicken. I don't usually eat cooked carrots, but whatever glaze was added to the carrots made it really tasty. The mac & cheese was pretty yummy too. The waiter packed up what was left on my plate, and now I'll have chicken dinner tomorrow too!

We finished off dinner with an order of dessert -- Fried donut holes with chocolate, caramel and vanilla rum dipping sauces.

Fresh donut holes are oh so yummy. I liked dipping them into the chocolate and caramel sauces, but the vanilla rum was not a favorite because it tasted waaaaayyy too much of rum and I am not a lover of things that taste like alcohol (I like drinking cocktails that don't taste like alcohol).

All in all, it's a place I would definitely go to again. And since it's so close to school, we might have to figure out if there's some sort of happy hour special...

funny break up notice

The Boy emailed me something funny today. It was a break-up note from one of his friends in Delaware who is also suffering from their own Snowmageddon:



Dear snow, it's over. Sometimes you say you might stop by for a brief visit, and you end up staying way too long, while other times you promise to visit and barely show your face. I'm sorry but I'm moving on. It was great at first but now you're just annoying. Also, please do not be upset if you start to hear rumors about Spring and I. I'm laying the ground work to start a relationship in the very near future...



My sentiments exactly!! I've been wanting to break up with the snow since I left Boston for warmer San Francisco almost eight years ago!

Happy Year of the Tiger!!

Chúc Mùng Năm Mới!

新年快乐!

Happy Lunar New Year!

Tiger people are sensitive, given to deep thinking, capable of great sympathy. They can be extremely short-tempered, however. Other people have great respect for them, but sometimes tiger people come into conflict with older people or those in authority. sometimes Tiger people cannot make up their minds, which can result in a poor, hasty decision or a sound decision arrived at too late. They are suspicious of others, but they are courageous and powerful. Tigers are most compatible with Horses, Dragons, and Dogs.

To see what it says about your zodiac animal, click here.

And Happy Valentines Day to all the rest of you who happen to be celebrating it (I don't believe in Valentines Day, therefore The Boy is not pressured to do anything).

The images came from Japan Post (heads up: the website is all in Japanese).

Tet/Chinese New Year Eve's dinner

It's Tet (Chinese New Year) tomorrow and even though I've been studying for this annoying thing non-stop, I really wanted to go out and have a nice Chinese dinner since I couldn't go home and fill my gut with homemade Vietnamese food. So I invited A out to join me at China Garden and we gorged (okay, mostly just me who did the gorging).

We started out with some cocktails - A had the Tropical Punch adn I had a Cherry Blossom.

This is Crispy Chicken Spicy Orange (I might not be right on the exact name because there were a lot words to it).

This is the House Special Spare Ribs - ohmygosh they were so tasty!

House Special Fried Rice, which had shrimp, bbq pork and chicken in it. A really liked the fried rice, even though I had to pick out all the shrimp for her.

And I ordered a Lobster Ginger Scallion to eat all by my lonesome (A does not eat seafood).

Here's the entire spread:

Before we ordered, I told A that I was going to eat the entire lobster by myself. I don't think she believed me, but we sat there and I ate the whole lobster like I said I would. She was quite in disbelief. I guess she does not yet realize the love I have for lobster and crab. Below, my plate of lobster carcass:

Upon giving us the bill, the restaurant gave us some sweet red bean dessert on the house. It doesn't look too appetizing here in the picture, but it was a nice ending to a very good meal.

I am so full now that I can slip into a food coma.

the day after snowmageddon

After the snow decided to stop coming down upon us, I just had to get outside for some air, even if the roads were still pretty yucky. The sun sure felt nice on my skin though. I saw this giant snowman along the way to the metro station.

Someone sure took the time to build him nice and tall, and with a nice big smile.

He was just as tall as I was! (I nearly fell over into the snow while trying to take this self-portrait).

The only way out of the snow-covered park was to follow the footsteps to the other side.

It was worth it for some yummy Chicken Flautas at Chevy's Fresh Mex.

I just LOVE the corn tamalita, I could eat a giant bowl of it. I wonder if corn tamalita is easy for someone like me to make?

snowmagedden day 5

Today is the worst day of the storm that won't stop! This was the view I woke up to:
Yep, that's our balcony door.
Here's the front door to our apartment.
And fresh new snow is now covering up the roads again.
Click here for other names of this storm if you don't like Snowmagedden/Snowpocalypse.

As if you didn't already know, I'M SICK AND TIRED OF THE SNOW AND READY FOR IT TO GO AWAY NOW!!!

Sorry for the caps. It's what happens when one is stuck inside for the last three days.

superbowl eats

L & S hosted Superbowl Sunday this weekend. L made chili for Frito Pie (the only time I eat chili is usually when L makes it, so that the last time I had chili was like four years ago). I don't know the recipe but L makes a really good pot of chili.

Frito Pie requires: chili, of course,

Frito chips (original flavored preferred, but BBQ flavor doesn't destroy the whole combination either),
lots of cheese if you like it,
sour cream,
and jalapenos, optional, of course.


The layering process: Start with some chili, then add layers of the toppings in any way you like.


As you can see, my bowl only consisted of chili, chips and jalapenos because I don't like cheese or sour cream.

I had to trek through ten feet of snow to get to L&S, but it was well worth the trek to have a nice bowl of Frito Pie and watch the Saints beat the Colts.


That's the ten feet of snow I was talking about -- this is the path I usually walk to get to the Metro, and it was blocked by this giant snow pile. The only way through was to climb over the side...

not a good day for grocery shopping

This was the scene at my local Safeway last night:

no produce...

anyone need a pineapple?
even pre-packaged salads were all gone

no meat either...

and no milk whatsoever...

Not pictured: there were also no eggs, no bread, no chips, some canned foods were nonexistent.

Lots of frozen meals available though! Here's hoping that the power doesn't go out at my apartment because I wouldn't be able to cook/microwave anything to eat.

snow fun

Instead of the usual whining about all this snow I'm currently buried in (Snowmageddon 2010), I thought I would share some photos of all the fun one could have with snow...i.e. making a snowman:

This one here looks like a character from Where the Wild Things Are.

But from this angle, it also looks like it's a snowman that's buried in snow (haha).


Here's a taller, more human sized snowman.


And these two are mini-snowpeople on our balcony. My roommie made the one on the left (well, she and her friend worked on it together yesterday), and I made the one on the right this morning because it needed a buddy.

And now that I have had my fun in the snow, I'm ready for the sun to melt away all ten feet of snow Mother Nature dumped on us.

anything for a burger

I've been cooped up inside the apartment because of Snowmageddon/Snowpocalyse 2010 and finally decided that I should probably go out to get some fresh air. But I'm not going to walk through ten feet of snow just for the heck of it. Ohnosirreebob, there has to be something on the other side of that ten feet of snow. Today, it was Ray's Hellburger.

I usually order the Diablo, which has a spicy barbeque kinda sauce on it. However, I wanted to try something different today and got a blackened burger with Cajun seasoning on it, and my usual toppings of bacon, jalapenos, tomatoes, lettuce and pickles. The blackened burger wasn't as good as my usual Diablo and I was only able to eat half of it. This place serves giant burgers anyway, and this plate of food would be perfect to share with two. Unfortunately, the roommate is a vegetarian so I couldn't share with her. Oh well, I'll have to bring a fellow meat-a-terian next time so we can share an order. Half a burger or a whole, it was still yummy in the tummy!

no more snow please!

Rumors and weather stations forecasts a ginormous blizzard to engulf DC tomorrow, dumping about 18-26 inches of snow. My school even told us to keep checking the school's bulletin to see if classes will be canceled tomorrow (which doesn't affect me because I normally don't have classes on Friday anyway).

Spring, where fore art thou be? I don't want to be cranky anymore!

Update tomorrow on whether the Roomie finally gets her snow day.

more snow

It started snowing again last night, and the roomie had hoped for a snow day today. I told her the snow wasn't even sticking so how can they cancel classes? She said that it was DC and they usually freak out about the tiniest bit of snow. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough snow for classes to be canceled today.

So, as I was making my way towards school, I stopped a bunch of times to take pictures of the snow on the trees. It's just a pretty sight, and it was also quickly melting.

Doesn't this one below look like a cottonball?

And this is me not looking happy to be walking in snow.

It's pretty and all, but I've had enough snow now. Thanks.