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)

SAUSAGE IN MY MOUTH

Hello people! First off let me just say that I am pretty much typing up this blog post naked because it is so god damn hot in my fucking room, and also my computer is like 6-7 years old now and its internal fans really suck, and they are blowing out hot air onto my legs...not helping the situation at all. Anyways, had a pretty chill day today.

So if you read from a couple posts ago, Bill and I weren't able to hit up Fairfax that one time...so guess what? We did today! Ahaha. Alright so I picked that fool up and we headed out around 1pm because we had to get back in time because he had work at 6pm. On the freeway, I noticed this banging sound on my car. I ignored it for a few miles thinking maybe it was little pebbles and shit flying and hitting my car, but after it wouldn't stop finally I was like "OKAY! WTF IS MAKING THAT SOUND?!" So we look around thinking maybe something in the backseat was flopping around, but nothing...until Bill finally looked outside and noticed this....

Yes....that's my tank lid, open, flopping around, and banging my car. I felt like a fucking idiot. But then I was really like "WTF!? Why IS my tank lid open?!" It's weird because I filled up last night, and I remember closing that shit. I always do, my OCD checks in too when I do it, I make sure the lid clicks 3 times before closing it shut. So I came to the conclusion that someone probably tried to siphon my gas...SO FUCK YOU WHOEVER YOU ARE! But yeah, Bill resolved the situation by hopping to the back seat, leaning out the window and screwing that shit back in. Good job Bill, you are a hero.

Pick ups

So we finally got there, and we hit up our usual shops. The Hundreds, Turntable Lab LA, HUF, Supreme, etc. I'm trying to save now, so be happy that I spent under $200 on myself today... I give myself a pat on the back for that.

After, Bill suggested we hit up Wurstküche, a sausage grill in Downtown, LA, literally like steps away from Little Tokyo. It took a while for us to get here, because we took side street from Fairfax and we got lost a few times too haha.

Worst.....Cooch? SO DOWN!

We first heard about this place from Bobby Hundreds' blog, so this was our first time here. The menu was pretty cool, had a ton of different sausages to choose from. They had some crazy ass flavors that all sounded tempting, but we both ended up trying the Mango Jalapeno and some fries. For something to wash it down with, I was flustered because they had a bunch of these import beverages on display, and I didn't know what to get...so i asked the clerk for her recommendation. She told me to give Mr. Q. Cumber soda a shot because she likes it, and was nice enough to pop one open for me to let me try first...

This was actually delicious and refreshing, better than Pepsi Cucumber I imported from Japan a while back

Our meal, supplied with an arsenal of condiments

Mango Jalapeno sausage with caramelized onions and sweet peppers in a roll

Yes, there is a sausage under all that

Yeah, the food was really good. Really delicious, but of course you have to pay the kinda-hefty LA fancy food price tag, I think it was $6.50 for the sausage, especially because it was an exotic flavor. Yeah but seriously it was really tasty, especially them damn onions. Anything caramelized becomes 10x more delicious than it normally is. I owned the tip of my tongue though trying to remove a piece of sausage-wrap that got stuck in between two of my teeth at the top-right and back of my mouth (you know, that chewy outer layer of skin that wraps the meat inside...making it a sausage).

After, just chilled at home. I thought to myself, man...I want to play a new game. And so I thought about finally going out to buy Alan Wake. So I went on Cheap Ass Gamer to see any good deals this week, especially to see if Alan Wake was on sale anywhere, and to my surprise, yes it was! At K-mart, for a pretty nice price too! $34.99, that's $25 bucks off normal price! So I rushed my ass over before they closed tonight and picked that shit up. WHAT A STEAL!

Time to play...

Japan Snack Review 6: Doritos Gourmet Wasabi Mayo

WOW! I have not done one of these in a while. I kinda miss em, and I just bought some stuff at the grocery in Little Tokyo a few days back, so why not?!

WELCOME TO ANOTHER EDITION OF JAPANESE SNACK REVIEW....where I....buy a Japanese Snack...that came from...Japan...and try it and tell you about it. So for this 6th installment, I have a bag of DORITOS GOURMET: WASABI MAYO flavor. Sounds exotic doesn't it? Or maybe gross? Only my tongue will tell! So let's taste.....

First chip was like an explosion of sharp tastes in my mouth, so I was like WTF?! til I realized what the flavor was and accepted it for what it was. It's wasabi-mayonaise flavored Doritos damn it! It took a while to get used to, but I ended up liking it and eating like 75% of the bag. It's not as good as the Cheetos Gourmet I reviewed quite some time ago, but it is not a bad alternative. In the end, I'll stick to my Doritos Nacho Cheesier flavor thank you very much. America FTW on this one.

RATING: 7 out of 10

MONEY WELL SPENT

Sup guys. So today didn't go as planned as it was supposed to be....but I can say half of it came to be...so no complaining here. So today me and my friend Bill planned on hitting up the shops at Fairfax and then going to the Freestyle Photographic Supply Warehouse in Sante Fe Springs, all before he had to go to work this evening. We planned to head to Fairfax around 10:30 a.m. but boy were we wrong lol, in fact, we just skipped that part entirely. So Freestyle was the plan, and I went to pick up this bitch.

Thanks Bill...

LOL sorry above pic looks totally out of sync with the rest (because I just took a pic of it right now because I forgot about it) but lemme explain. A long time ago, probably the first time I picked up Bill from his house, I think he came out with like a piece of cake and some milk for me LOL. And like another time, he brought out a slice of Boston Creme Pie or some shit. So now, everytime I pick his ass up, I expect some kind of random dessert. It hasn't happened for a while, but I still joke about it when I call him to come out. So this time, I was like "Ey! Bring me some cake bitch!" but instead he gave me the caramel-filled, chocolate chip cookie above. It was tasty, but I find it funny in presentation. He gave me a single, half-eaten cookie in a gallon-sized Ziploc Bag...good going Bill.

Anyways, we arrived at our destination...

This is the Freestyle Photo Catalog Order Center (Click HERE for actual business website). This is a place for photographers and students to go to when in need of photographic supplies from actual cameras, to film, papers, chemicals, everything relating to photography for cheap to decent prices and in bulk. So what you do here is you go in, sit down in this quiet office, flip through the catalog, and write down what you want to buy (and the quantity too), bring up the slip you filled out to the cashier, and BAM! The cashier walks right into the warehouse, gathers all the shit you want, and you pay, walk out and you are done!

One happy camper...

Fujifilm Instax Mini 25 + Instant Film packs

As you can see, we both bought the same thing. That is why we went to Freestyle. We both just got paid and decided we wanted to play around with Instant Photography (Polaroid JUST BARELY making a comeback right now with Instant Cameras). But my real inspiration comes from one of my favorite photographers Yasumasa Yonehara aka YONE, a Japanese erotic photographer who specializes in Instant Photography. I also have to give credit to one of my old friends from way back in middle school, Andrew Quesada, for inspiring me to shoot instant as well as having a raw style of photography as his own. Click his name to see his work.

After my trip with Bill, my friend Brian hit me up (after calling out sick from work) because he was craving some Korean BBQ...how could I deny?! So I scooped him up and headed to Mr. Lee's.

He doesn't look too "sick" to me...

Making use of all the side dishes

Brian...is a different kind of friend. You never know what the fuck he will talk about. From him imagining random shit blowing up, old people dying, to the conversation we had about Smokey the Bear I will detail you about in just a sec. Seriously, Leo DiCaprio needs to head over here and INCEPTION the shit out of Brian's mind. Anyways...so this is what Brian brought up to the plate. He made the claim that Smokey the Bear is really the one responsible for forest fires. Why? To his reasoning, it is because Smokey put so much pressure on ONE person to prevent forest fires, and that one person is the first one he said YOU to, in his famous slogan "Only YOU can prevent forest fires." So with that, he claims that all other people who have caused forest fires are not at fault, because Smokey had already put someone else in a position to prevent forest fire...therefore the fires caused by all else have no liability in Smokey's slogan. Yes....this came from Brian's mouth....

So after we ate, we headed over to Cerritos Mall to check out the new Apple store. Man was it fucking huge, and packed. I would not want to work there at all, although it was cool that I saw old coworkers and friends working there now. So we fucked around with the new iPhone 4 for a bit, tested out the Facetime video conferencing feature and that shit was pretty tight I must say. Also tested out the HD video, and man was that shit clear. Then we hit up the iPads for a bit til we headed to one of the nice iMacs and tuned into LeBron's decision. So Miami ey LeBron? This makes the NBA much more interesting.

And that folks, was my day today. See you next time.

***BONUS***

Seen when we were leaving the mall: What do you say in these kinds of situations...oh yeah..."Speak of the Devil"

DAY WITH MAY-MAY

Sup guys! First off sorry for the lack of posts within the last 5-6 days, I've been on an awesome vacation and pretty much just got back yesterday...and I have had no access to a computer to blog and the blogger app on my droid sucks ass. Now that I'm back, I'm ready to blog again! *golf clap*

So anyways, today I pretty much hung out with Mayo the whole day. It's surprising because she is supposed to be in San Diego, but I guess she is going back and forth now and she has been back in town since yesterday (hung out that day too, watched Grown Ups with Raisa and Brian, pretty funny movie). But yeah back to today. Mayo hit me up like around 3 pm (LOL I was still in bed) and asked if I was down for BOILING CRAB, and FUCK YEAH I was. So I finally got my lazy ass up and got ready. We hit up the one in Rowland Heights, traffic wasn't so bad and there was no wait at all!

This BC location is actually the one I went to with my cousins about 4 months ago which was my first experience at this restaurant chain. So when we got seated I totally remembered about the drawing I made on one of the pillars at that time. So I went back to see it in the condition seen in the picture above. It was pretty much in pristine condition, cept for that turquoise tag. ASS! THAT'S DISRESPECT YO!

So Mayo beasted on 6 oysters, 1/2 of shrimp while I failed yet again at finishing my 1 lb of shrimp, and we both shared rice and cajun fries. Check out the aftermath....

The shrimp graveyard

Victory

After eating, we grabbed a few goodies from Kee Wah Bakery a couple feet away from BC and then ventured on to Cue! Studio in Diamond Plaza.

If you don't know what Cue! is, you might have probably seen them before. It's those really asian (Japanese to be exact) pics where you go under the tarp and take pictures and print them out. But Cue! is much more crazier and expensive because you can do a bunch of whacky editing to your pics before printing. First of all, lemme just say there were at least 20+ different machines, all with different shit inside. Some even had stuff in em like cushions, couches, and even monkey bars to hang on to so you can make some extreme poses. Then yeah you go to the editing screen after shooting, pick the pictures you wanna use, and then use this magical pen and draw/write/stamp shit on there to make it look hella asian. There were so much colors, patterns, stamps, backgrounds... shit was mind boggling. Everything is in Japanese too so it was even whackier (even though I have 1 years worth of Japanese language in me).

Get Some

Thanks for the Peek-a-Pooh holmes

After all this we headed back to my pad to chill and made use of our Cue! pics.

Her phone is a collage of memories

Watching Hell's Kitchen with a cook makes it much more interesting

To finish the night, we headed up to our spot, Tea Station. Ordered some delicious unagi (eel) along with boba! If you haven't had eel in your life, you better! Or else I'll.....I don't know. Just try it please....before you die.

Melt in your mouth Eel

***BONUS***