I would’ve been perfectly content to stay home this Superbowl Sunday, but instead, left the house for dimsum. How can you pass up dimsum right? To sum up my opinion: Hollywood East was very crowded and the food was mediocre. They did make one dish very good though, the sweet warm tofu dessert, dou-fu-hua (in Mandarin). Not too sweet, not too gingery. Still, I wouldn’t choose to go back just for that because I’ve had better overall dimsum elsewhere.

Those little scallop shell things weren’t very good by the way. Too mayonaisey. The egg custard things were too coconutty, and I was never a big fan of that stuff anyway.

After that, drove around and saw this very unusual house. It looks like a gnome house or something, maybe made of clay? Even the door is a short little arched wooden door. Kinda’ neat and sturdy looking. Just wish I could go in to take a gander at what it looks like on the inside because the outside looks like it was fashioned out of Play-Doh. I’m guessing the inhabitants are eccentric engineers or architects. Or maybe, judging by the Prius, they are granola-type people with good taste in colors. Love it! Pink goes with everything and is never out of style!

I’ve been vindicated! The other day I was cooking a batch of mixed beans in a pressure cooker. The pot EXPLODED! Half-cooked beans all over the kitchen! Besides the fact that it gave me such a scare, it took me about 4 hours to clean up the mess and the walls are still slightly stained with the splash marks. I thought I must’ve misaligned the lid with the pot or something but another lady said she experienced the same thing before. She said it happens because the beans jump a bit when they’re in the pot and it clogs up the steam escape valve and then the pressure and then kah-blooie! So, from now on, when it comes to bean-cooking, I’m going traditional, slowly simmered.

I’ve been wanting to try the sandwich shop called Booeymonger (because of its funny name) ever since I passed by it back in the days when I worked in DC. It was right by my bus stop, but I never stopped in because I figured, I’m there everyday, I can go whenever I want. Which happened to be never I suppose. Finally tried it today with Rosa and it was a good sandwich. Nothing out of the ordinary though. The crispy potato wedges were good too. Afterwards, we went shopping up and down the street. Geez I had no idea the kinds of swanky shops tucked in that area (LV, Bvlgari, etc.). I got 2 pairs of socks at TJ Maxx. On a budget here. Oh and I picked up an Express paper at the metro station. How I miss doing the crosswords and Sudokus.

On another note, I just got my yogurt maker and made my second batch of fresh yogurt. It’s very good and so worth the $20. All you need is fresh milk, powdered milk, and plain yogurt. Dissolve the powdered milk in warm milk and stir in a few spoonfuls of plain yogurt, mix it all up.  Pour it into the contraption and it keeps the mixture warm enough so that the bacteria can multiply.  It works overnight and after a few hours in the fridge, you get fresh yogurt! You can control the tartness and viscosity by adjusting the incubation period and amount of powdered milk you add.