I went up north a few weekends ago to visit my niece and attend her Red Egg and Party. According to Chinese tradition it's a time for all of the friends and family to meet the new addition to the world. Of course in our culture that still remains true, but it also means some good eats going on. (I know what you're thinking, but i left Cinnamon at home. We couldn't have TWO troublemakers at the party!)

Oddly enough, both my brother and I had breakfast meetings to attend right before this 11 o'clock buffet, so we definitely didn't get out money's worth. Oh well. Still had a great time. For those of you who haven't met little Kelly Jana Dong I will tell you now that she is definitely a mover and a shaker. That lil ball of heat does not know how to sit still. She is the epitome of her parents. When she's awake she is constantly moving all of her limbs and trying to get into stuff just like her mommy, but boy does she LOVE to sleep. One moment she'll be spazzing out and the next she'll have her eyes locked shut not to be disturbed. Oh, and just like her mom, she LOVES attention. Especially from Grandpa and Grandma, but she'll pretty much take whatever she can get. Don't be fooled by her crying either. She cries loud for just enough time for everyone to be looking at her and then she calms right back down. She's also got no shame...

Here's Grandpa




And Grandma








And if i didn't know any better....I'd think that she was the most conceited baby ever! But of course we just laugh and think it's cute....


She doesn't even flinch when we try to scare her!


But.....We found her kryptonite! Yup, we showed her who's boss....


It was a nice time hanging out with family. Getting another opportunity to take family pics







We pretty much went straight from (a buffet lunch which I went straight to after breakfast) to eat dinner in the City. We went to Aquerello, an Italian Restaurant in the City. I'll try to list what we ate....i don't know what half of it was. You can play match the words to the picture....if you can...good luck with that!

Lamb's tongue with celery, hearts of fire, salsa verde and black Gaeta olive oil

Ridged pasta with foie gras, scented with black truffles and Marsala

Sardinian saffron 'malloreddus' tossed with rich duck ragu'

Lobster panzerotti in a spicy lobster brodo with “Diavolicchio”

Rabbit filled agnolotti with Taggiasca olives and prosciutto

Seared sea bass, piquillo peppers, capers and olive relish over grilled onions

Pan seared scallops, corn fritters, baby fennel and tarragon

Seared lamb loin with summer caponata, 'lamb involtini' and cornmeal cake

Breast of Grimaud Farms duck with pear composta, orange lentils and 'foie gras bomb'

Veal loin over creamy polenta, chanterelles and veal sweetbreads

Grilled short rib of American Kobe beef with baby squashes and horseradish essence

Peach tart with Italian triple créme

Basil gelato with roasted strawberries and pistachio praline

Dark chocolate ganache with coconut gelato and chocolate crumbs

House made vanilla gelato with Aceto Balsamico "25 anni"

Selection of seasonal sorbets


Ummmm...we may have eaten more than that...not too sure...It's mostly just a delicious blur to me now.

Oh, and they gave us free alcohol. Not too bad....


Of course my mom said "Try this tomato, Kenny...I think you'll like it"


which ended in....






Then came the next morning when little baby Kelly was dedicated to the Lord in front of her FBC Church family.







Always causing trouble....


Until She's sound asleep at least....


But of course...no one is ever bored when they are around the little angel!

Click here for the Entire Photo Album

Cruising out of the Tennessee we headed through Alabama on our way to Lousiana.  After a few hours of driving we decided to stop for lunch close to Birmingham.  We found ourselves at the Irondale Cafe.  Apparently this is the cafe that is modeled after the cafe in Fried Green Tomatoes.  I chilled there while Randall left for an hour to go get the oil changed in his car.  It was a nice small town.  I imagine it's the kind of town where people chill on the porch and watch life pass by.  I was kept occupied by the choo choo trains that passed by.







The Cafe was.....well....a Cafe...You grab a tray and then go down the counter and get your food



After a few hours of chillin there we finally got back on the road and headed down to New Orleans, LA.  It was a few hours away and a pretty relaxing ride.  Once we got to New Orleans and the GPS told me to take a right onto I10...I figured we didn't need the GPS anymore...Since I10 is just 20 min from my house...Who would've thought it was actually more like 3 days.  While normal people get darker under the sun...for some reason Cinnamon (along with most inanimate objects) just got lighter.  Maybe he's got some sort of reverse skin cancer or something.  He just sat under the sun and soaked up life.  At least the windshield is UV protected.



We arrived at Andrew's apartment a little bit after 6:30...as you can clearly see on the GPS.  Of course we first enjoyed the view of the sky as we drove over some water.  Almost like driving on the San Mateo bridge without the toll at the end.



We hung out at Andrew's for a little while.  Did a little bit of resting and figuring out where we would go to eat.  He lived about 10 minutes from the French Quarters so we decided to go check out that place.  By that time it was night and all of the lights had turned on.  As we hopped in the car, somehow Cinnamon was able to transport himself from one car to the other and decided that He wanted to go explore the legendary home of the Mardi Gras

Or maybe he was just sick of Randall's car and need a change of scenery.  He didn't even want to look out the window....He's a strange one I tell you....7 days on the road and I STILL don't understand some of the the things he does.


As promised a few weeks before I lent Andrew my 18-200VR Lens to play around with.  He had been using the kit lenses (boooo), so i wanted to show him what a real lens felt like.  Of course the 18-200 is a pretty cheap lens considering what else is out there.  I think he had some fun with it though.  Looks a little more professional with a bigger lens.  Not like one of those average Joe's who only uses the kit lens and keeps it on auto so it's pretty much a $700 giant point and shoot.  Those people make me roll my eyes.  ;)

Not sure how his pics turned out though...since it really is mostly about the photographer and less about the camera.  As I have learned after buying $2k worth of equipment and still taking horrible pictures! =P



Walking down the French Quarters seems strangely familiar to Randall and Myself.  The after a bit of contemplation we realized that it was pretty much like New Orleans Square at Disneyland except a lot more dirty.  I've realized if it's a Disneyland or Vegas, you don't really need to see the real thing.  So I don't need to go go Egypt, New York, Paris, the Wild West, Italy, Tomorrow??, etc....

Of course the real places will seem a bit more real and have windows with guys' butts on display.  You probably won't see that at Disneyland.

"Famous Door" - to what?


That was a special moment for all of us. 

After walking down burbon street we settled on eating at the Red Fish Grill.  It was probably the most (the only) expensive meal of the trip.  I had fish that had clumps of lobster on top...with crispy potatoes on the bottom.  Funny story...The waitress named off the specials before we ordered.  One them was Gumbo, so i figured, hey gumbo sounds good, I'll have the gumbo.  She failed to mention that Gumbo was not an entree, but merely a cup of soup, so when she brought it out I was disappointed and confused.  It was tasty, but definitely not filling.  I thought that maybe we had gone to one of those fancy restaurants where you get tiny portions.  I'm glad that wasn't the case.  I ordered my entree and filled myself with what i can only imagine was probably a full stick of delicious butter.



I tried to send a postcard home to my parents and girlfriend at least every other day, so after dinner I ducked into a gift shop and grabbed a few to send out.  One of them was a little similar to a photo I had taken.  I took this picture without really trying to make it artsy, so it definitely wasn't as well composed as postcard.  I guess Burbon street is some sort of famous street.  I don't know.  Didn't bother looking it up.



We kept walking and took a few more pics of things that caught our eye.

Some sort of Castle of something


A street car of some sort...Street cars are always fun

 

Finally we ended up at Cafe Du Monde for some Bignet.  The waiter said that they were about half the size of how big they really were.  I'm pretty glad that I didn't order any cuz those suckers were pretty dange huge.

Yeah...3 Bignets per order...so there was 6 between the 3 of us.  I'm not complaining


The waitress came up to us and just started to speak to us in Vietnamese.  I think maybe it's because we were the only Asian tourists.  And I guess Asian in New Orleans = Vietnamese.  Either that or she didn't know how to speak english cuz when she realized we didn't speak her language she really couldn't communicate with us.  Perhaps it's hard for her to switch from one language to another.  I guess we'll never know.

Andrew sure did savor every bite.  I promise he looked like that on every bite.  OR did he?  I only have a picture of that pose, so logically we can assume yes.



Heading back to Andrew's apartment we got ready for bed.  Cinnamon was so wiped out that he just found whatever spot on the floor and crashed before any of the lights were even turned off.  Didn't even notice me taking a picture of him.  It's freaky, cuz he sleeps with his eyes WIDE open!





We had a nice rest before heading into the dessert heat.....Boy were we NOT prepared for what was ahead of us.