DON VS. FOOD

**WARNING: THIS POST IS PICTURE HEAVY!**

Sup everybody! Today was a very filling day for me, especially after all this you are about to read today, I have just finished eating an entire bag of corn-chowder flavored potato chips right now as I am typing. Anyways, today started off with hanging out with my Big Sis Shari and my awesome cousins.

Me and Shari picked up my cousin Paulo (the grad from a couple posts back) and met up with our other cousins Erika and Jaclyn over at Orochon Ramen in Little Tokyo. Erika and Jaclyn (Ate Jax) just recently came back from a month-long trip to the Philippines, and have long been craving some delicious ramen, and so today was the big day. We just did what we usually do when we all hang out together: eat, talk shit, laugh at others, chat about the good/bad/drama going on in our lives, and of course talking about gross and inappropriate things while eating in a restaurant *cough cough - Ate Jax on the phone talking about periods all loud while our next seat neighbors are like inches away from you LOL* Couple fails today in the restaurant though (which is okay I guess because they were super busy as usual), but yeah they ran out of water to serve and they didn't bring out our order of fried rice til literally the end of our meal and chatter (which was about an hour in duration) and after about 2 reminders to our waitress.

Cousin Crew + Sis: Paulo, Shari, Erika, Jax

I've posted about my other trips to Orochon Ramen before on my blog, so I'm sure you are familiar with it, but if not...I'll give you a quick fact. Orochon Ramen recently hit the spotlight being featured on an episode on Man vs. Food (you might have seen it too), where the host attempted and conquered eating this restaurant's challenge dish, the SPECIAL #2, which is a big, super spicy-hot-as-flame bowl of Ramen, broth and all, in under 30 minutes. I, on the other hand, just wanted to enjoy my ramen and not burn off my tastebuds and make my mouth and stomach suffer, so I stuck with the opposite.

My dish: Miso Base #5

Every time us cousins finish up our ramen, we head to Mikawaya in the plaza across the street to get dessert, in our case Mochi. The A/C inside felt so bomb, especially because it was boosted due to this place being an ice cream shop...because seriously outside felt like baking in an oven.

Jax's choice: coffee mochi

After dessert, the girls headed to American Apparel and Popkiller while me and my fellow sneaker lover cousin Paulo headed to our sneaker shop of choice: RIF LA.

Homie wanted in on my blog

Again, I've posted about RIF LA in the past as well, but man has their business boomed since that time. They have so much shoes now that they seriously have stacks and stacks out on parts of the floor that was originally meant for walking space, and have also installed a couple more shelve-towers to store shoes on. They have so much inventory that they are currently not accepting used-shoes for 2 weeks.

Stacks so high you can play sneaker box Jenga

3 pairs of Original Air Jordan 1's, drool...

Got baby? Put some heat on their feet with these Baby J's

As a kid, I was a huge Jordan fan (who wasn't?). Along with that, was love for his shoes. You weren't a cool kid unless you had Jordan's on your feet. In my childhood, I bought every Jordan shoe that came out that I could afford. Now in the present day and as a sneaker lover, I am not much of a Jordan head (unlike Paulo and my other older cousin Kuya Ry...who actually has a Jordan shrine...yes...an actual Jordan shrine no lie). But I will always remember my favorite pair of Jordan's, the Playoff 12's, the shoe in the pic below. My aunt had this picture of me holding up these shoes when I had em as a kid, and I've been meaning to recreate it by buying myself another pair (although she can't find the picture anymore).

One day...

Here are a couple of other pairs of shoes I am aiming to get currently...

Dr. Rx collabo with Levi's Chukka: Sellers price: $400

Undefeated x Converse Poorman's Weapon: Seller's Price $120

Well, didn't buy any shoes in the end (as I just bought a pair yesterday), but I did support them by buying a shirt and jacket from their own line, which they made in collaboration with the neighbor store Archrival.

Okay, so after chilling with the family, something that has been in the works for the longest time finally happened...which was chilling with college friends OUTSIDE OF CAMPUS! Well, it's not as bad as I say it to be, I have hung out with college friends outside of campus before, but I am speaking plainly about something me and my friends Erica and Carol have been planning for a loooooooong time. After talk talk talk about all 3 of us hitting up Boiling Crab together, it just never actually happened over the past damn year, it was pretty much a bunch of "Okay for sure(s)!" and "Fuck yeah i'm down(s)!" but the event never actually occurring LOL. It wasn't until someone stepped up to really make it happen, and that person was me. Seriously, it wasn't until I created a virtual document on our walls on Facebook that required all of us to virtual sign that we agree that we were finally gonna FOR REALS THIS TIME GO THROUGH WITH A PLAN TO ALL MEET AND EAT AT BOILING CRAB AT THIS DATE AND TIME (today).

Satellite/Radio Tower/Fake Tree spotting on the 60 freeway!

Destination reached...BC in Rowland Heights

You've seen my posts before, and you know that at BC you can write on the walls (in the designated wooden areas at least). But you know, there will always be rebels...

Good job Madmel...

After meeting up @ 5pm, we got seated immediately (a surprising feat at BC) and got to ordering our food because we were fucking starving. They shared 1lb of shrimp with sausage and corn, while I devoured 1 lb of shrimp and 3 potatoes for myself, and we shared cajun fries. Once again, and for the 2nd time of the day, delicious restaurant food in my stomach! SATISFIED!

Poppin' Bibs: Carol and Erica

Agree with you 100% Erica

Salivary glands have been triggered

BC makes everyone happy

After somehow getting shrimp juice splash into my eye (I wear glasses too, really how the fuck did that happen?) and finishing our food, we didn't want to leave the day to just this, I mean we've been looking forward to this day of chilling for the longest time, so we decided to hit up Tea Station just down the street to relax the day away.

Riding in the back with some good tunes playing

She asks the same question to herself every morning like I do, what a coincidence

Mixed Fruit Tea Snow

So we spent the rest of the day here, seriously just chatting it up for a couple hours, seeing the sun go down and everything, which was quite refreshing. We talked about new phones, K-Town Jersey Shore, Carol's big move to Paris (in like 3 weeks), relationships, jobs, hipsters, clubbing, knock-off/bootleg Gucci bags, Inception, a whole bunch of shit. I love these two gals, you can talk to them about anything and the conversation will last all day, and they are just fun people to be around. But yeah the big topic of the night though was getting my lazy ass to get working on my portfolio to apply for the BFA program when Fall semester comes up. They made threats to me (very violent and disturbing, unforgiving ones)...and now I have been forced into applying, due to me being scared of them. Good job ladies...it just might work! Haha. At around 9:30, we decided to call it a night. Had a great day today guys, we will for sure hang out again soon! And for reals! LOL.

**BONUS**

See this sexy stick figure right here? LOL. He asked...Okay, I asked Erica and Carol what logo my hat was playing off of, and it was hilarious because in an instant after I asked they both shouted/pretty much blurted the correct answer out loud in unison while @ BC...seriously more synchronized than Olympic synchronized swim routines.

Question is...Do you know the answer?!
(Hint: It's a fast food restaurant...I probably didn't even need to give you that hint)