Chinese New Years!
I sat down Friday morning and filled in a calendar of events for myself. I suppose one of the reasons that I didn't update this much was because I wasn't doing much with my life except working and gaming (and I have a separate blog for that). Not that I had a huge problem with that, but much of the reason for moving to the city was so that I'd get out and do some of the more interesting things that a city can offer a person. I find it slightly amusing that many people think that all that living in a city can offer is easier access to good booze - while that may be true, that wasn't the reason for me to move. I've always been rather big on culturing myself, and now I'm located in a cultural goldmine.
So now I will ideally have much to discuss in this journal. Ideally. Sometimes it just boils down to the fact that I don't have time to write in this thing, since I usually only write while I'm at the office. I've been meaning to update more now though, and also update my food journal more regularly. As usual, I do have quite a few notes regarding my food journal, but I haven't yet sat down to write out entries. All in good time, I suppose...
So to get to the point of this entry, on Sunday I went to SF's Chinatown for Chinese New Year's festivities. They had a Flower Fair, and there were many vendors selling other goods as well. I ended up buying a few toys and a potted chrysanthemum plant from the vendors. We wandered around for a while before getting some food to eat; which was rather amusing, as we were practically shoved into the restaurant from the street. This lady had been handing out flyers, and we picked one up... and I was immediately sold on the free potstickers. So we headed in that direction, and another lady saw us with the flyer and escorted us from the street into the building and even up the stairs straight to our table. The food was pretty good; I'll reserve talking about that for my food journal. We then wandered around a bit more, and saw the fortune cookie factory, where lissiehoya bought some adult fortune cookies. Our next stop was a tea shop called "Vital Tea Leaf", where we sat and sipped tea for well over an hour. I ended up spending quite a bit on some good teas, including Monkey Pick tea (hand picked by monkeys, apparently), Drunken Eight (I have no idea where this name came from), some Rice green tea, and Lychee Black tea. The shop was pretty cool - I'm not sure if they're overpriced or not, but I liked them well enough. What's really amusing is that I tried probably around 20 different teas, and then just picked out the ones that I truly enjoyed. Of course, my two favorites were Monkey Pick and Drunken Eight, which both happen to be over $160 per pound - but I didn't know that until I'd already decided what to get. I guess that means I have expensive/good taste? The guy at the shop said it's probably because I've been drinking tea for so long... which is true, and I've usually only had really good tea with my mom. I've been researching it a bit more now, but it's a little tough for me since oftentimes I've been drinking stuff that I don't know the name of, even in Chinese (and much less so in English). I'll learn eventually though... :)
I went home and then proceeded to sort through my new teas (putting them in the new canisters I bought) and then doing various household chores (laundry, putting away dishes, etc.) Cake is coming to town soon, which I'd like to go to, and there was talk about seeing the Lestat musical, but I saw that it got some pretty terrible reviews. We shall see...
So now I will ideally have much to discuss in this journal. Ideally. Sometimes it just boils down to the fact that I don't have time to write in this thing, since I usually only write while I'm at the office. I've been meaning to update more now though, and also update my food journal more regularly. As usual, I do have quite a few notes regarding my food journal, but I haven't yet sat down to write out entries. All in good time, I suppose...
So to get to the point of this entry, on Sunday I went to SF's Chinatown for Chinese New Year's festivities. They had a Flower Fair, and there were many vendors selling other goods as well. I ended up buying a few toys and a potted chrysanthemum plant from the vendors. We wandered around for a while before getting some food to eat; which was rather amusing, as we were practically shoved into the restaurant from the street. This lady had been handing out flyers, and we picked one up... and I was immediately sold on the free potstickers. So we headed in that direction, and another lady saw us with the flyer and escorted us from the street into the building and even up the stairs straight to our table. The food was pretty good; I'll reserve talking about that for my food journal. We then wandered around a bit more, and saw the fortune cookie factory, where lissiehoya bought some adult fortune cookies. Our next stop was a tea shop called "Vital Tea Leaf", where we sat and sipped tea for well over an hour. I ended up spending quite a bit on some good teas, including Monkey Pick tea (hand picked by monkeys, apparently), Drunken Eight (I have no idea where this name came from), some Rice green tea, and Lychee Black tea. The shop was pretty cool - I'm not sure if they're overpriced or not, but I liked them well enough. What's really amusing is that I tried probably around 20 different teas, and then just picked out the ones that I truly enjoyed. Of course, my two favorites were Monkey Pick and Drunken Eight, which both happen to be over $160 per pound - but I didn't know that until I'd already decided what to get. I guess that means I have expensive/good taste? The guy at the shop said it's probably because I've been drinking tea for so long... which is true, and I've usually only had really good tea with my mom. I've been researching it a bit more now, but it's a little tough for me since oftentimes I've been drinking stuff that I don't know the name of, even in Chinese (and much less so in English). I'll learn eventually though... :)
I went home and then proceeded to sort through my new teas (putting them in the new canisters I bought) and then doing various household chores (laundry, putting away dishes, etc.) Cake is coming to town soon, which I'd like to go to, and there was talk about seeing the Lestat musical, but I saw that it got some pretty terrible reviews. We shall see...