Jen's Wedding

I was in Detroit last weekend for my cousin, Jen's weekend. It was kind of awkward for me to be there. I didn't really know anyone, other than my dad. And while you could say she's family, I hadn't seen her in over six years, and even back then, I had only seen her for maybe a weekend on Thanksgiving?

I can't really comment much on the wedding. She's Lutheran (I think?) and the wedding consisted of family and church group friends. I guess you could say I'm not a very religious person (or at least, that I'm not a Lutheran myself) so the culture and traditions were something new to me. Her dress was beautiful though, and she seemed happy to be marrying her husband. :-)

So it was nice to be able to go.


(no that is not stock footage. That is me messing w/ Photoshop....)

Harbor Inn

Harbor Inn is a seafood restaurant in Portage Lake, OH. My mom had been talking about taking me for years, but we never seemed to make it due to other, um.. food priorities (see previous post).

But last week, we finally made a trip.

Truth be told, when we arrived I was a bit disappointed. My mom painted the place as a nice relaxing lake-side seafood restaurant, but as we walked in, it was, well... a lakeside pub, complete with plastic wine glasses (the frosted colored kind) and burgers. I guess when I hear "seafood restaurant", I don't think of fish and chips.

But, as it turns out, inside was a nice restaurant. Outside was the pub-like bars. My mom asked for the indoor menu and all was well. We got a bottle of wine and ordered our seafood dishes. I got freshwater trout with almonds and amaretto cream sauce and for dessert, I ordered a butterscotch crem brulee to share.



Both dishes were delicious. :-)

I am very happy to find a good seafood restaurant in our area of Ohio. Most restaurants around my hometown are either chains or involve burgers & chicken wings (which I do not mind. :-) Yum). There was once this nice place even closer to our home but it has unfortunately closed down due to lack of business (The food was very good and the environment really nice, but I suppose what they offered wasn't of interest to the neighboring residents because despite the good food, classy bar, and jazzy live music scene (and being the only place around like this...), they still had to close).

I do wish Harbor Inn could offer the niceties of the indoor restaurant outside as well, but due to regulations (no glass on the deck), they leave outside to the bar hoppers. But I also think this combination is what allows Harbor Inn to keep up a nice seafood place in our small town area. In either case, I really liked this place. :-)

Mom's Famous Steak ^_^

Wow. Being home is a non-stop eating fest. Mom's cooking is the best. I'll show.

Les Halles

One of my goals in life was to eat at a restaurant of a famous person (I know, lame goal, but it seemed like a fun idea at the time). Since my visit to Liz's place meant being in the capital city of restaurants, it seemed like a good place to try and fulfill that wish. Anthony Bourdain's restaurant was also a rather well-priced place with decent ratings on Yelp.com. I love his show. Even if his depictions of countries are not entirely accurate (his visit of Shibuya Tokyo, I want to know what part of Shibuya he went to. It was nothing like that for me), they are depictions of one point of view and make for fun entertainment and a good way to see a non-touristy side of a country (after studying abroad, the tourist side just doesn't hold the same appeal as truly living there).

Les Halles is Bourdain's restaurant and he has 2 locations in NYC with different items on their menus. We chose on the one on Park Avenue due to distance and had no trouble getting a table without a reservation. I really have no idea how busy the place usually gets, but we were going on a Monday at dinner time. I got the "Magret de Canard au sauce grenade," or "roasted duck breast with pomegranate sauce" and a turnip & potato gratin. It was... okay.

The duck was cooked very well and we absolutely loved the bread and fries I had ordered as a side for the table. But honestly, I didn't really care for the pomegranate sauce at all. "Interesting" is probably the best word to describe it. It was enjoyable for the first bite as something new to try, but I didn't think it complimented the duck very well and really just clashed as another flavor to mess with on the plate. It wasn't terrible, but to me, it just didn't fit.

My friends weren't crazy about their dishes either. The "Poulet Roti, frites" (Roasted chicken w/ fries) was bland and the "Confit de Canard" (duck confit) was flavorless on the inside.

In hindsight, I probably should have ordered steak or something off the grill or specials sections of the menu. I recall an episode of Bourdain talking about the proper way to cook a steak and even a burger with a demonstration in his restaurant. But... I had steak at Liz's the night before and I have a huge bias for my mom's steak which I don't think anyone can beat (no one ever thinks to prepare it like her. It's real fusion food, not this "soy sauce & miso makes it fusion" crap). I never feel like paying $20+ for steak when I know it won't compare to home's. They can cook it as perfectly as they want in an oven, pan, or grill. It won't compare.

So my opinion of Les Halles? Affordable compared to other famous-people-restaurants I've looked up. But worth it? Not really. The meat is cooked well from what I tasted and saw, but they do not do anything inventive or inspiring with the flavors to make the food worth the costs. It's fun to say "I went to Bourdain's restaurant" but for the prices you'd pay on the menu at Les Halles, you could probably pay less at a smaller bistro elsewhere and get more satisfying flavors.

Still... I got to eat at Bourdain's restaurant. :P

Graduated!

Ha! Graduation! We have mastered the entertainment tech! Achievement unlocked! Lol.

It's a weird and happy mix of joy and bittersweetness from having finished 2 years of a great experience and knowing that we are all going our separate ways. Looking back, I really did love this grad program which, as a result, made this graduation ceremony very meaningful for me. Much more meaningful than my Art graduation ceremony two years ago (sorry guys... but then again, I think the feeling was mutual with my Art School friends.... Also, you can't really argue with a graduation ceremony that involves dinner, an awards ceremony, and lots of photos and laughter). Graduation felt like a completion, which I guess is always a bittersweet moment in itself.

I'm glad for these last two years with my wonderful classmates, faculty, and staff. In pure honesty, it is the people that make the whole experience worth while.

Sketching w/ Liz

At Liz's place for 2 days. I miss hanging out w/ old art school friends. For fun, we decided to try out some of her new art supplies and then do some collaborative drawing.

Me messing w/ her "walnut" ink. We're not sure if it is made of walnut or just labeled walnut because of the color. It's supposed to be a natural ink.... So we're not sure. But this was me messing w/ ink painting and diluting washes.


Both of these are from Liz and me doing a drawing game. We'd draw for 2 minutes, 1 person on each picture, then switch images after every 2 minutes. Towards the end, we changed it a bit to be 3 minutes, then after we felt like we were done, we both took one to just polish up so it looked more complete.

Tada! :-)

First Post

Hi. So... I like blogging. And I don't know why but I never tried making a public one before. Oops.

Here's me starting a blog. Maybe later I'll get adventurous and actually sign up for Twitter. :P