Food ... last 2 months

I haven't stopped eating out to try places despite my somewhat crazy schedule.  The reviews might be out of order but there they are.

South Side
Went there twice.  First time was brunch and I had chicken and waffle.  Before you say gross, it is very yummy despite the sound of it.  I remembered the first time I had chicken and waffle was Roscoe's in LA, I was grossed out by it too until I took my first bite.  It's soo good that you can feel you arteries clogging up. South Side was just as good, crispy chicken and waffle with maple syrup and cinnamon butter.  Totally recommend it.  The second time I went for late night dinner and ordered Grilled Eggplant Capresa sandwich with Fried Portabella.  The sandwich was made with fresh mozzarella and the portabella was fresh too. mouthwatering.  The atmosphere was great too, very friendly, great place for just hanging out, time with girlfriends.

Chinato
Went there on a Friday nite for dinner.  Not impressed at all.  The portion was ok but pricey.  The flavor is just not there.  It wasn't anything special.  Whatever I ordered, it didn't make a lasting impression.  The atmosphere was ok, a little loud, maybe it's because people were eating there prior to bars.

Sushi Rock - Beachwood
It's very modern for a Japanese cuisine.  The menu is very fusion like and the decor portrayed that too.  It would be a good date night too.  I had the Golden dragon roll and my girlfriend had the sushi rock tempura roll.  They are both good.  Very well made, it's comparable to the ones I've had in Cali.  I also had the lobster bisque.  It's a little weakness of mine, lobster bisque and pumpkin bisque, always gotta try them if the restaurants have them.  The soup was a little too salty but huge portion.  The calamari appetizer looked good too, I think I would get that next time too.  I would come again but it won't be the top sushi place, it's a little too fusion for Japanese cuisine.

Pacific East - Eaton Village
Yummy!!  It's got good sushi, no doubt.  Even now, I can totally go back and eat more.  They've got good size portion, especially if you ordered the bento box/combo.  The flavor is there with the raw fish and they've got some good combo and some with their own added twist.  Can't wait to try the one here in Coventry.

Melange
Eh. Not enough flavor.  I had the lobster mac and cheese and something just didn't taste right.  It's got a taste of seafood not clean or not cooked proper.  I could smell and taste the fishiness.  It's definitely got the Midwest portion,  I had enough for another 2 meals and when I heat up the leftover, there was so much oil.  gross.  definitely not coming.

The Mad Greek
It's my 2nd trip.  Love the place.  It's a great little Mediterranean restaurant, family owned but large enough to not be hole in the wall.  It's fancier than Taza and a little more formal.  The food, oh my, delish. The first time I ordered the gyro and the second time I had chicken souvlaki.  They were both yummy. It's not too salty and there were both refreshing, exactly what I would imagine Greek cuisine would be like.

Aladdin - across from Mad Greek
Aladdin's Flavor special is cheap and good.  Totally would be something I would be ordering takeout, which I already did.  Their hot sauce is something, it's tart, pepper spicy and a hint of sweetness too.  I know, usually I don't eat beef but for this I made an exception.  They did well, very juicy and flavorful.  Even the rice was good too.  None of it tasted too oily and it's light too.  The atmosphere is very casual, very collegiate like.  It reminds of the restaurants in Westwood when I was at UCLA.

Blake's Seafood - Crocker Park
We just had a good day and just decided to stop in for dinner. I had Garlic Crusted Haddock.  The fish was cooked nicely and it had the richness that the haddock has.  The place is like a steakhouse environment that serves mostly seafood.  It has the very Western flavor in the decor but at the same time it feels like there's a little class.  Dunno if I would come back for seconds.

Wow, after all this, realized I ate a lot.  I'm sure there's going to more later .... :)

Nighttown ... Taza

So after a day of fellowship and small group workshop at Parkside with Angel and Eric, we went to Nighttown in the Cedar/Fairmount area for their burgers.  We each got our own.  I had blue cheese with mine and we all had mayo (which I believed it house made) with our fries.  It was good, delish, and juicy. I asked for medium well and mine was slightly overcooked.  Angel's was perfectly done for medium well, which should still be slight pink but with no raw juice running out.  Nonetheless, it is good place for bar burger.  Just as we were leaving, they are packed in the sit down area, which I think it's expensive, high end menu, not really my regular fare.  I would definitely come back for a quick bit of burger.  The ambience is very homey, jazzy feel.

On Sunday, after church, we ate at Taza, Lebanese grill.  With Mediterrean restaurants, I always order either gyros or vegetarian cuz they usually have the best vegetarian meals around.  So I did the same today, ordered the vegetarian feast with hummous, baba, tabouli and falafel with pita breads. They served the pita bread first with their homemade dipping sauce (balsamic vingerette, olive oil and sesame seeds).  They have the normal pita and their own pita which they call it puffy pita (poufs up like naan but with yeast).  It was a good pita, wish I could buy in a store. The portion was huge. They only thing I picked on them was that the baba was slightly saltier than I would have liked.  But otherwise, the meal was very light and refreshing.

B Spot

One of Michael Symon's 3 restaurants, very casual burger spot.

It was one of those days where I finished work earlier and I went without lunch. So I decided to go to B Spot for a burger.  I ordered Shroomage and Lola fries. The burger has a huge portabella mushroom with some cheese and onions on top of the burger.  The patty is not one of those thin ones, it was meaty, thick patty.  It was just a little too salty for me.  I added their pickled onions and pepper and their red pepper sauce.  Very good gourmet burger.  The Lola fries is okay, not my favorite. It just wasn't crunchy enough but it did have good rosemary flavor.

I have yet to try the vanilla bacon apple shake.  I have been told that it is good despite it's weird name.  We shall see.  It's definitely one to go back when I get my occasional burger craving.

Birthday weekend ...

Weekend arrived thinking that I just might end up spending my birthday by myself again. But Lord was great, provided me company so I'm not lonely and actually develop deeper friendships in Cleveland.

Started the weekend off with Le Petit Triangle Cafe for brunch with Hee-Jeong and Erika, girls I met in Chinese church but they are non-Chinese. It was good times. I don't think I have laughed as much or as hard since I've been in Cleveland.  The two of them are quite a pair.  Random thoughts connected, random comments with no filter, friendly abuse and most of all, I felt like they are people that I can have fun random hang out.  Needless to say, the food wa awesome. This is a French cafe and they have crepes, my all time favs.  I've always had chocolate crepes but decided to try their chicken cheddar chutney crepes.  Oh my, yummy to the nth power!

Later, I had my girl date with Angel at Paladar.  Its's a Latin restaurant with more of Cuban flavor.  We decided to share our dinner, which was fine by me since I had such a yummy brunch earlier.  For appetizer, we had chorizo and cheese papusa. It was good, chorizo and cheese stuffed between plantains and corn cakes with spicy tomato sauce.  You can actually taste every single flavor in it. For entree we shared the roasted chicken mole.  The chicken was tender and was served with fried plantains and mole sauce over rice.  The mole sauce was slightly different than what I have tasted before, not my very favorite but still yummy nonetheless.  For dessert, we had their flan.  Wow, that definitely was the hi-light.  It was creamy and couldn't taste the egg taste that's common with flan.  Overall, would definitely come back for other tastes.  I want to try their guacamole since they have different flavor base on the chef's inspiration.

After dinner, we went to Wickliffe bowling lane with other people from church and bowl for 3 games, as there was a special going with 3 games and shoes for $10. Let's just say, I sucked.  My highest was 89 and my scores just got progressively worse over the next 2 games.  I did have fun though, trying to learn to spin the ball. What a sight that was.  Also I came home with a broken thumb nail. Owie. Oh well, will just be 2 weeks before it'll be fixed.  Time change too, spring forward.  So tired, losing an hour of sleep, but worth it.

After Parkside church on Sunday, me and Angel went to McCormick and Schmick for lunch and Mitchell's ice cream after we walked around the mall for a little bit to see if there was anything eye catching. McCormick and Schmick's is good seafood restaurant.  I had the crab and shrimp melt, a little saltier that I would have liked but yummy, delish.  Just couldn't tell if the crab meat for fresh or canned. Mitchell's as always, just absolute dreamy.

So for my actual birthday, it was a Monday so I had to work but I did get myself my family version of traditional birthday dinner.  My family always celebrated birthday with a seafood galore with noodles, with both, it usually means more than enough blessings and longevity.  Then we would have an Asian French style cake.  So for myself, I got dinner from Wonton Gourmet (Sichuan fish and chicken pan fried noodle) and mini tiramisu cake from KoKo bakery.  It was good enough for myself but really wished I had my mom's homemade dinner.  It will have to do until I can get home to my mom's birthday dinner.

ITE as PGY 1

Wow.  In-Training Exam. Felt really dumb as I walked out the room.  Oh, well, I'm glad that this is the first one and I can just keep on improving year after year.  There are some questions that I knew the answers to cuz somebody just by chance told me about it.  But realized there are so much reading to be done.

Alrighty, Jia Yo!!!

Afterwards, our program had a post ITE celebration at Bier Markt.  It was nice to see other people from other classes and to see some of the staff as well.  But there just wasn't a lot people.  And we still kind of hang out with the same people that we know.  Maybe eventually I'll get adventurous and get to know other people.

Fracas

It's a gastropub in Coventry.  I drive past it everyday to and from work and it's newly opened.  Angel and I decided to venture out and try out this place.

Let's just say, I would not come back.  The ambience is nice.  It's in an old theater with stage and they had a Jazz band playing later that night.  It's set up like what I would imagined a lounge/dinner place would be like.  The food just doesn't have the flair, nothing really spectacular.  It's the typical American fare.  We had the chips and dip for appetizer.  Props for the kettle chips but the dip was a little too ordinary and salty.  I got the pumpkin bisque which was good. I can never turn down pumpkin or squash bisque, a new habit that I've found myself liking more as I get older. For main, I got the Grouper BLT.  It's interesting but I would not get another BLT.  It mostly just taste like someone dumped a bottle of salt into the sandwich.  The grouper was slightly overcooked, not very tender.  So overall, would not visit again.

But the night was salvaged but my chatting time with Angel.  She's been busy and I have in and out of town over the holidays, so it was the first real catch.  Realized we are very similar in a lot of our choices and what we wanted in our lives.  I really hoped she would stay in Cleveland for CRNA school.  I really think that God has put us together for a reason.  She's going through a hard time and I'm just not very happy with where I am currently, just haven't really found my niche.  So with her, I'm going to make the switch to Parkside and see how it goes.  I think unintentionally, we both decide to make this weekly happening, us trying out a new restaurant.

Interesting ...

Funny thing happened this past weekend.  It was suppose to be relatively quiet with me attempting to read for my in-training exam.  Saturday night turned out to be something different.

Dinner with people I know from church but once I got to Wonton Gourmet, it wasn't only people from church but other Chinese people from other churches.  Dinner was fun, conversations were random and just plain having a good time.

After dinner, debated between bowling or hanging out at Ferdi's place.  We ended up at Ferdi's place, where I met even more Chinese people who are PhD or med students at Case.  How bizarre.  It just goes to show that us Chinese will find each other in some ways and connections go far and wide.

Wonton Gourmet is good per Midwest standard.  It's fairly authentic. Would totally warrant a next visit.

I found out that I sucked at Rockband, esp at drum. Oh well, serves me right for not being a big gaming fan until med school. Will definitely need to get into the Wii and xbox.

Restaurants to taste

From Diners, Drive-ins and Dives with Guy Fieri

Melt Bar and Grilled - DONE, Yum, stay on my personal list.
13463 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights, OH
14718 Detroit Ave, Lakewood, OH

Sterle's Slovenian Country House
1401 E 55th Street, Cleveland, OH.

ParkView Nite Club
1261 West 58th Street, Cleveland, OH.

Momocho Mod Mex
1835 Fulton Road, Cleveland, OH.

Lucky's Cafe
777 Starkweather Ave, Cleveland, OH.

Geraci's Restaurant
2266 Warrensville Center Road, Cleveland, OH

NYC ... New Years Weekend

Of course the day that I'm supposed to drive to NYC, my car skidded on a patch of black ice right outside my garage then I hi the ice and the curb. My steering wheel was then very shaky and pull to the left. It was ok so I drove anyway, but I did call my auto shop and made any appt to go in Monday to get it fixed.

The weekend was fun, spent it with my mistress (Kirstin) again. I got in Thurs night, so I just crashed. This was the weekend after NYC got the crazy amount of snow, about 3ft worth. CNN was reporting how it would take ambulance at least 2 hours to respond due to the fact that the roads weren't plowed. One tragic story was of a woman delivering the baby at home cuz she wasn't able to get to the hospital and the infant died because the ambulance couldn't get to her after delivery. Another tragic story was a father had heart attack and died and it would take ambulance 2.5 hrs to get to the apt and another 2 hrs to get the ER and it was too dangerous for the daughter to drive as well. Tragic stories. Wonder if the city is now more prepared?

Anyways, Friday, we looked up places that don't need too much covers to get in. All the one around Time Square are at least $60 cover just to get in. The no cover ones would probably be way too crowded. We weren't really looking to bar hop since it was just too darn cold. Ended up in Tonic East, only $10. Not bad. We had fun, drinks and dance. Had a couple of guys dancing with us and one of them literally decided to get us drunk, just kept on buying us drinks. I'm glad that I was still coherent enough to watch my drinks. I think I was fairly drunk that night. Definitely couldn't walk straight at all and ended up totally sleeping on the train ride back. haha. Didn't even realize it was midnight until people were screaming "One minute!!" then countdown "10...9...8... 3...2...1" It was fun, enjoyed myself. Now I can officially say, I have done SF and NYC for New Years, 2009 and 2010.

For New Years Day, called home, kind of dozing in and out since my stomach was upset with me because I didn't eat my drunk food after we came back. Kept wanting to throw up but not much ever came up. Oh well. Then we just kind of vegged out, playing Wii and watched movies. Were planning on going again with Kirstin's buddies from work for her B-Day, but no on was really up for it so we just stayed in. Had the best pizza, Joe's. NY pizzas are the best, still couldn't find anyone else that rivals theirs. I was actually craving for NY pizzas. haha.

Decided for Sun, we'll go into Chinatown for dim sum and shopping for what nots. Found Vegetarian Dim Sum House, across the street from Joe's Shanghai. It was actually pretty good. The only thing I didn't like was the shumai. We both acutally like the shrimp/pork shumai. The vegetarian version of it just didn't taste right. Everything else we ordered was pretty good. Totally forgot how cheap the food was in Chinatown. Then we went in search for grocery market. Found Hong Kong Market, a fairly clean and formal one. I bought few fruits to take home with me and introduced Kirstin to various fruits and spices and food. She was in food heaven. Her mom would totally be jealous. Love introducing Chinese food to people who actually likes it and would get a kick out of it. Then we went to bakery, Fay Da. It's ok. Not bad, tolerable for being in US. I still like the one my family goes to in SF. BUT no one can beat the ones in Taiwan and HK. Those are the best. Overall it was a productive Sunday.

I drove back afterwards. The drive was long and boring, especially the Penn stretch.

Got my car checked out on Monday. Yep, tires replaced and rim as well, apparently I bent the rim pretty badly and they couldn't hammer it back out. Oh well.

Weekend with my mistress

My Mistress (Kirstin) has come to visit ... Yippee ... super excited. Haven't seen her since graduation. Would say she's my best friend. She drove in on Thurs night and Fri she's getting pampered while I'm at work.

So after work on Friday, went to meet up with Kirstin and Sarah's place. We just hung out, chatted and playing with Sarah's boys. They are adorable and love to play. I'm excited that Evan remembers who I am.

Then we went to Mad Greek for dinner where I got the GroupOn. They serve both Greek and Indian food. I had gyros and Kirstin had curry. They are both good. Totally worth going. I think I'll use my lunch coupon either with someone or just order take out on a weekend.

Cleveland is not a Friday night going out city, so we stayed in and watch movies and just hang out with the 2 of us. I really miss her. In Kirksville, we would chat nearly everyday and we live so close together. She was the reason that I even looked at Cleveland then she pulled the card which the program she wanted was not taking any. Now we just swapped out cities. Too funny, God, You just love to play with us.

For Sat, we had brunch with Sarah and Scot and then just hang out. It was good times, we had girl talks with Sarah and catched up with Scot as well. Poor dude, he's exhausted. Looking at him, I'm glad that I didn't do medicine. Whew. We also played with their little guys too. Love them. They are so much fun.

Afterwards, we went to Melt. It's basically a grilled cheese restaurant but they have some strangest and weird combination of grilled cheese. But it's actually good. It was featured on Diners, Drive-in and Dives show with Guy Fieri with Lucky Cafe. I've always want to try it but there's always a wait especially for a table. So this was a good opportunity for me to go with Kirstin. I had the Tokyo Tuna melt with fresh tuna and wasabi and Kirstin got the Big Popper (essentially jalepeno popper sandwich). We shared Melt Peirogi. Everything was yummy, delish. They have really good saurkraut too. I think it's got vodka in it, making it taste better than any other ones. Their coleslaw is fresh too, not much of mayo, mostly vinegarrette with lemon juice and whatnot. I think this will become a new place for me to order takeout.

That night, we went to Cadillac Ranch and like we are not leaving cuz it was too cold outside. It was quiet until around 11pm when more people started to arrive. It was fun, we just had drinks and danced the night away. We did attracted a couple of the older guys who were a little creepy than we would like. We ended up trying to run away from them. Yuck! After that we ended dacing with a group of Indians. The guy I was dancing with was cute and the girls with them were giving me the stink eyes. Haha. It was fun. The one Kirstin dance with just 21 so still fairly young but wa just as fun. Overall it was a good fun night.

So for Sunday we went to my church, mostly Chinese and Kirstin was one of the only blonde in the sanctuary. Haha. Afterwards we went Mint Cafe for Thai food. Yummy. This was a good place for my fix of Thai food. Definitely another take-out place for me. Afterwards, we just veg and watched movies. It was a good restful Sunday.

This was a great weekend. Can't wait to see her over New Years in NYC. :)

Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows

Movie time ... first movie since the last one I saw with my brother.

Definitely a fan of Harry Potter, never read the books but totally enjoyed the movies. So totally up for this when friends from church made plans for this.

Watched this with Angel and everyone else bailed out on us. Oh well.

The movie was great, intense with humor thrown in every so often. It got both me and Angel on the edge of seats most of the time. I didn't even realized that it's been 2hrs when I checked my watch. Usually I would start checking my watch about 45min-1hr into the movie. So didn't want the movie to end.

Can't wait the next installment in May/June. Totally watching it the weekend it comes out.

Afterwards, we went the Cladagh (Irish pub). They are known for fish and chips around the area. I had that and Angel had their Jack Daniel Burger. Both were yummy. Normally, I don't like restaurant burgers but this one was really good, totally impressed with it. The fish was more fish than dough. Good quality, totally could come again.

NYC ... College Gals Weekend

My college small group mate Dung came down this weekend to visit. She's in New Hampshire for nursing school and want to see NYC while on spring break. So we did the touristy things. We hit Chinatown's Joe's Shanghai, Doughnut Plant, WTC, Rockefeller, Times Square. I only spent one day with her and her friend in the city. I'm not a fan of the city and I can only handle so much going into the city. They stayed at my place for the weekend. It was nice see her again and catching up on our news. She's still very much as I remembered. And I felt like I was the one who changed the most once I have left UCLA/GOC. It makes me feel old that now I get think back how college was. ::sigh:: Time just flies.

One of the place we visited in Times Square, M&M store. Couldn't resist.

Interview # 4

CCF ... Categorical

As per my previous review, nothing change during this visit for me. I was a little intimidated going in because of the other applicants not becuase of the interviewers. The applicants all seem to be from a much stronger batch than myself so there was a little inferiority complex. But other than that, CCF is still what I saw 2 months ago.

They put us up at the Intercontinental next to the Clinic. They were very accomodating. I got in very early, right around their checkout time, and they were able to put me into a room with no fuss. I was impressed. For dinner, we all met at the lobby and they chartered a bus/van for us. There were 2 chiefs there with interns and all other classes. Dinner was at Fire in Shaker's Square.

Interview day started aroun 7am and done by 2pm. Interviewed with 3 facutly and 1 residents, not necessarily the chiefs. The interviews were laid back and the ones with the chair and PD were nice and short. Everyone interviews with PD and others are just luck of the draw. Residents came in during lunch and tour was after. Tour was long, 1 hour and definitely needed the walking shoes. They took us all over the clinic. Whew.

They no longer do the exit interview where they sort of give you hint of how likely you'll match there because the PD and the chair are new.

Overall, they are still one of my tops and would love to be there.

Interview # 3

SLU ... Categorical

Awesome peds... Cardinal Glennon .... peds wonderland ... need to say more ....

Anyways, it's a medium size program about 10 per and only pain fellows around. So work/cases wise, no competition. They are working on setting up a peds fellowship but according them, there are enough work that they shouldn't have any problems.

They have one thing special is that they are starting a course on healthcare policy/management. I find that amazing because I know that I myself am fairly clueless when comes to healthcare politics/business. The fact that they are starting a course on it sounds like they really do care how the residents do while they are there and afterwards out in the real world.

This was one of the few that did not put up hotel but got us a great deal at Hyatt Riverfront. It was a gorgeous hotel and I think the going rate was around $200 per. Dinner was at Ruth's, which was right in the lobby so it was great not having to worry about where to go for dinner. The residents there that night was very blunt and straight forward. They tell you straight up what is good and not. Same thing during the interview day when they came in during breaks and lunch.

The interview day was one of my longer one. It started around 7:30 and did not end until 5pm, partly due to a series of situations that the interviewers had and they had to call other to come in to interview us. Interviewed with 3 people and they are all very laid back, no crazy questions.

Overall, I liked this program, which surprised me. I didn't want to like St Louis because it's in MO but it made an impression.

Interview # 1

Texas Tech ... Lubbock, TX - Categorical

Dinner - Lots of food at steakhouse. Food is really good. Got to talk to the residents and have their honest opinions and the going ons of the program. They seem to be happy to be there, not really have complaints. Got to meet the other applicants and just talk about random things and also hear about their other interviews as well. I got lucky and manage to coordinate rides with a couple of the applicants. Being 1 of 3 gal applicants there, got the story behind them having only 1 gal in their program. One left due to personality issue and the other left wanting to be full time mom.

Interview Day (Sat) - Starts with breakfast @ 8am. Again their theme seems to be food. Day starts with a couple of slideshows by Dr Hall, program director, introducing Lubbock and the program a bit. He is funny, very laid back, approachable. Then interviews start. Each of us has 3 interview sessions, 2 one-on-one with faculty and 1 with 2 residents. There are 12 of us and about 5 faculties and 4-5 residents. The rest is luck of draw to see who you get. I interviewed with Dr Boswell, Dr Hall and 2 of the residents. Standard questions. Asked about my personal statement, my research, what I liked and how I dealt with struggle and of course my school and OMM. I just hoped that I answered coherently. In between interveiws, can chat with other residents popping into the conference room for food. Everyone there is very open about answering any questions. They are up for accreditation renewal so they'll know in Nov. They are planning to rank 25 ish to match 4. Their ranking process is very mechanical. Everyone is given a score and then are put in order after interveiw. They would talk about it before submission. Lunch is provided and a short tour after. The hospital looks fairly new and has electronic records. It's a decent size, not too small. They have plenty of call rooms and they all look very nice.

Hotel - Hawthorn Suites - gorgeous hotel for the price of 80ish bucks. The only thing I could complain about is not having shuttle service or not being too reliable. Interview is on Sat morn and we were told that they would have a shuttle for us in the morn even though they don't normally run on Sat morn per program coordinator. Anyways, I asked them 3 times about and they didn't have a clue to what I was asking about. Thankfully, I met one of the guys on the plane and ran into someone I knew from Dallas at the hotel. We ended up bumming a ride from another that rented a car and staying there as well. Also there's not much around the hotel besides Covenant Hospital and I didn't know what else is there and being that dinner was not till 8pm, I got hungry after I landed at 12:30pm. Took quite a bit of walk but ended up eating at the hospital cafe. would be nice if the hotel could provide some surrounding area info for those of us without rental.

Overall - Solid program. Not have enough pediatric but do send residents to Dallas Children's. Seems to have good education to pass boards. Lubbock is interesting being that it serves West TX, NM and surrounding states. Will consider.

Apple Picking and PJ Pancake House

End of the 1st week of rotation at Jefferson ... more about it later. Drove back to my apartment and went apple picking at Terhune Orchards in Princeton with my small group. It was fun and we caught a bit of rain halfway through.

I didn't realize that there are more variation of apples that I have seen in the markets. They tasted much better than the ones in the market. They had Stayman Winesap, Jonamac, Macintosh, Empire, Liberty, Macoun, Golden delicious and Red delicious. I'm still not a friend of the delicious types so didn't pick any of those nor try them. I did try a bite or two of all the others. My favorite was Empire and I picked more of that. I also liked Liberty and Macoun. Jonamac and Macintosh just tasted too grainy and too thick of skin for me. And they were little more tart than I liked. I really like the Empire because it was more crunchy, slightly sweet and just more refreshing.

Before we left the orchards, I bought pecan pumkin bread and of course 1/2 gal of apple cider. I really miss the good yummy pumpkin bread. My first time was last Thanksgiving trying it at my friend's home and now I'm hooked. For apple cider, heat it up, a dollop of caramel and whipped cream ... yum ... perfect for fall. I knew there was a reason that I'm enjoying fall this year on the East Coast.

Lastly, apple cider doughnut. Never seen it or had it before. It was good but not my fav. The taste has more apple flavor but it's still a doughnut. I also bought apple butter but haven't had a chance to try it yet. Will definitely go for it after I'm back from Seattle around Thanksgiving.

Then we had lunch near Princeton University at PJ Pancake House, which is supposedly this awesome pancake place. I'm not a big fan of pancake and only when I'm in the mood for them. I had their fish and chips. It's not bad but probably wouldn't go there again. We went there mostly for the landmark.

West Side Market

Per my good friend Kirstin, I had to visit the West Side Market. It's an indoor farmers market. The fresh produce is on the perimeter and the inner block was the meat, bakery, seafood and ready made food stalls. It's absolutely wonderful. There's so much that I didn't know where to start. I ended up roaming around and repeated some of the stops that I have made. They gots lots of good Italian food and pastries. They all looked to die for. There's an awesome gyro stall and the regular gyro was huge. It was enough for my lunch/dinner. There are even some Asian fruits that I would only expect to have in the Asian market. I'm very impressed by them.

It's definitely an experience and would love to go again if I'm back.

Jorg's Vienna Cafe & Dallas

First week in UTSW Anesthesia -- complete.

Anyways, I'm staying with my cousin Wei in Plano, TX about 25min from Dallas. Plano is an old and new suburban city. Wei lives near the old downtown area. The Vienna Cafe was spotted on my way home and Wei also saw it too. So we decided to try it and see. I have never had any Austrian / German food so this is a first for me. For Wei, this is to compare to what he had when was living in Germany.

The food was ok to me since I didn't realize that Austrian food mostly consist of "wurst" (sausage), suaerkraut, and cold potato salad. The sausage part wasn't bad, it's just a little too much meat for me. The sauerkraut is good. The interesting part is the potato salad. It's not a salad where there's potato chunks, it's more like mashed potatoes but with dressing. All I can say is interesting. Wei said that it's actually very close, but not as good as the real thing. This is a maybe try again category.

Dallas in general is hot. I'm not used to the 100's degree since I have left Sacramento more than 7 yrs ago. I'm still trying to get use to the heat. Anyways, the rotation is set up like radiology rotation where it starts early but ends by noon after the lecture. People interested in Anesthesia stay later. We rotate through 2 hospitals, Parkland Memorial and Zale University. The residents rotate through 5 hospitals throughout Dallas as UTSW is the only anesthesia program in Dallas. So far, it seems like there's pretty good system set up where the residents do their own learning on the own time and there are short reading for each day to trigger more in-depth discussion with the attendings. The attendings are very willing to teach. There's definitely heavy case loads but there seems to relief from the CRNA around 3-4pm unless there are just too many cases going on. Calls seem to be Q4d. So far so good.

After Boards Vacay

After all the boards, I flew home to enjoy some family time and SF before going off for my away rotations for the next 4 months. I spent a couple of days at my brother's place in SF and we went to a couple of good Chinese restaurants that my mom found and want to go as family.

We went to this awesome and expensive dim sum place in Daly City. They also sold Dragon's Beard. It's a candy but made it like tons of white threads woven together. Yummy

This was my makeup birthday cake. My brother bought this from a place that he deemed really good. It was yummy too.

In the end, I had plenty of yummy food for a couple of days. I also met my brother's girlfriend and we had lunch with her family after her white coat ceremony. She's nice but I personally don't think they'll last long. She just doesn't really fit with my brother.

Whole Foods - New Eye

Today, I went to Staples to get some stuff printed and bound and saw that Whole Foods is next door. Being that it's lunch time and I couldn't try the Thai restaurant that I wanted to so I decided to venture in and see what I could get for lunch. All through undergrad, I never liked Whole Foods at all because of being too organic and too expensive and totally not my taste. But this time around, I find Whole Foods very intriguing and totally fun. It's just too bad that I don't have the time today to wander around.

They have this whole area just for salad bar but their salad bar is very different. They've got the real salad bar, hot foods like Indian curry, popular Thai dishes, traditional American comfort food and desserts. All this and they have a dine in area that look very much like the ski resort's cafeteria by the windows in Tahoe area in Cali. Not only this, the shopping there is awesome. A ton of stuff that I missed from Cali and I was able to find them. It was great for the 20min that I could squeezed in to wander.

This new perspective on Whole Foods must be because I am older and have changed my taste a bit. Before you would never find me willingly to step foot into a place like this. I am so glad that I did today and found a great place very close to my apt. It seems like a great place to study for my upcoming boards as well. :)