Tried natto for the first time yesterday! It’s a really weird flavor but the texture is awful because the stickiness kept getting into my hair. I tried it on bread with kim chi and sriracha but the taste of the natto completely overwhelmed everything else and it wasn’t spicy at all :(!
It’s supposedly super healthy, so I’m forcing myself to eat it. Not only that, but its only 78 yen for THREE servings. I guess it’s great for those of us living on a budget? Anyway, I guess I’ll try it with rice and an egg next time?
Last month, my friend Kaye invited Phana and I to her aunt’s restaurant soft opening. The restaurant is called Bistro 7107 and will serve Filipino food. The name is comes from the 7,107 islands that Philippine is comprised of. Phana and I had never had Filipino food before, so we were really ecstatic to get to try it out and it was pretty darn good. I don’t remember the names of anything since it was so long ago, but if you live in Northern Virginia, I recommend you stop by to give it a try.
Before we started eating, Kaye’s aunt did a Filipino tradition where they welcome good luck and wealth into the new business by throwing lots and lots of coins on the ground. The guests are supposed to pick it up and keep it for good luck. Phana, Kaye and I grabbed quite a few but gave all the money to Kaye since she had been having some pretty bad luck around that time.
Last week, I went to California for a few days with my parents. Spent most of the time in Westminster/Garden Grove and Los Angeles with a few beaches here and there. If you follow me on Instagram you probably saw a lot of Vietnamese food! The food in California is so much more legit than here. Its like stepping into a mini Saigon over there cause all the restaurant names are in Vietnamese, and they even sweet talk you into buying their fruit like you’re in Vietnam!
Anyway, my parents and I then went to Colorado for a day to visit my brother. Its so lovely there! The weather is really nice, the air is super fresh, the minimum speed limit on the freeway is 55mph cause the maximum is 75mph, gotta love it. He took us to Garden of the Gods for a short morning hike. Then we visited downtown Denver just to check out the city.
For lunch, Nam took us to this really, really mom & pop restaurant called Thai Street Food Restaurant. Apparently they used to be a really popular street cart in downtown Denver with lines that could be an hour long, but had to close down because of new enforced regulations. So the owner and her husband decided to open up a brick & mortar instead. The wait is still a bit long because there were only three employees, the owner cooked, her husband waited tables, and one dishwasher. We waited about 45 minutes for our dishes, but the wait was definitely worth it! My parents who went to Thailand at the beginning of the year were like, “This is REAL Thai food, not that fancy smancy not-spicy Thai food we have in Virginia.”
They let us choose how saucy and how spicy we wanted each dish to be. Lets just say “medium” is still a very painful spicy. My face was burning so I ended up drinking so much water to the point that my body started shivering. It was so good though! The food was spicy, but you could still taste the food, which is the most important part. So if you’re ever in the area, I would definitely recommend this restaurant!
And in more unrelated news, I got to go see Two Door Cinema Club this past Wednesday and they were so freaking amazing live.
