vickichowder: AYCE

FULFILLING MY CRAVINGS

Click to see JJ Japanese Thai on Urbanspoon!

While waiting for my other friends to come I take pictures.

Have you met my love for butterfish?

A craving that's been lingering around for more often than not is my sudden need for sashimi once a week or once every other week. And that's how I ended up choosing JJ Japanese Thai restaurant to eat all-you-can-eat for dinner:

There's so much variety here, but I still can't get my mind off that salmon.

The atmosphere was really nice and quiet, and the washrooms were beautiful (which is the main thing I use to judge the overall cleanliness and quality of the restaurant). The only thing I didn't like about JJ was the service we received from the servers. They seemed rather unenthusiastic and got several of our orders wrong (she often gave us different sashimi from the ones we told her we wanted). But oh well - we can always get more!

We paid an average of $35 (some got more drinks than others), but I can see the differences in sashimi when going to a nicer AYCE now: the size and thickness of each slice is similar to sashimi from an à la carte menu.

Butterfish and salmon tataki - sashimi that's lightly seared on the outside

Determined to make our money's worth of this place, we tried to order a lot of the sashimi as well as other seafood dishes. My favourite seafood dish was the salmon tataki because the sauce that they pour on top is a bit spicy and cuts the fat in the salmon really well! The one thing I didn't like about the salmon tataki was that they seemed to be coated with crumbs!

Beef tataki

I ate with one of my friends who is 99% carnivorous, so we got several orders of the beef tataki - which was also extremely delicious. The deep fried garlic slices went well with the softness of the nice and rare beef (I love it that way). Very tender and a must-order-as-much-as-you-can dish if you happen to be eating their AYCE option.

Chicken teriyaki

The chicken teriyaki was grilled, but still very moist and flavourful! Though most of the vegetables that were underneath the chicken remained uneaten, it was taken away by the server who knew that it probably wouldn't get finished. She was right - it wouldn't have, as our mouths were too occupied with meat, seafood, or the foods of the deep-fried kind.

Mini sushi pizzas

I was disappointed but also relieved because the piece of rice was so small. Disappointed because since it was such a thin piece of rice it was dry after being deep-fried. But glad that it was small because it didn't fill us up too much.

Deep fried gyozas

My most memorable memory of going to Krispy Kreme was not the gush of their distinct smell that goes through your olfactory senses the moment you walk in, nor was it watching the bare doughnuts roll through the waterfall of white glaze - the sense that retained my most memorable Krispy Kreme moments was none other than my sense of taste!

The guy shoots rings of chocolate batter into the hot vegetable shortening

This doughnuts are covered with a thin layer of their sweet glaze

A while back, the Krispy Kreme workers would kindly offer a freshly fried and glazed doughnut off the hot rolling racks to whoever went in and asked (I would often go for seconds and insist that I needed to give one to my dad - which was, of course, not true, because I would end up eating the second one too!).

The cashier lady kindly microwaved a few for us so we could eat it "fresh"

Now, free doughnuts from my favourite doughnut shop no longer exist - so my excitement that bubbles when I see the "Hot Now" sign lit up no longer bubbles as much as before. But the absence of free doughnuts will never stop me from satisfying my Krispy Kreme cravings!

One last need that must be continually satisfied is my need to take pictures of the foods I am about to eat - before it is eaten. And so this weekend my breakfast was delayed for 10 minutes as I tried to find the better plates, cups, and positions that the foods would look best in. All that time spent was just to capture this:

Good morning food!

My mom made a sponge cake with kabocha squash, a Japanese pumpkin (remember how I said I liked pumpkin flavoured things and eating kabocha?). Along with two nicely ripened kiwis, a Korean persimmon (which has seeds!), and a cup of hazelnut coffee, I enjoyed the relaxing breakfast I've been longing for.

MUAH MUAH MUAH

VICKI CHOW

P/S

I went into the holiday break with the mindset that I'd be able to catch up on my missed hours of sleep - but I was wronged. Those two weeks didn't do much good to my black circles and under-eye bags, so I hope to be able to sleep more this school term (which I doubt will happen too *sad*)

Recently discovered that sleeping on my back is more comfortable that I thought it was *yay*

Oh yes, since I went back home this weekend, I had my typical weekend diet which meant of dimsum Sundays.

Do you have a typical weekend/weekday diet? What does it consist?

, by vickichowder

AYCE

FOOD FOR THE NEW YEAR

, by vickichowder

AYCE

PRE-HOLIDAY DINING

Today's post will try and contain of all that's been going on before and nearing the beginning of this hectic holiday season.

I went shopping with my Mom for Christmas gifts at Vaughan Mills a few weeks ago - which made me never want to go shopping in December again. There was just so many people. Not only in the stores, in line for the cashier, in line for the fitting rooms, but also in the hallways of the mall too. I never thought that I would have ever said this, but at that moment, I just didn't want to shop anymore. The crowdedness just made shopping extremely unappealing, and all the stores just seemed like a mess from everyone rummaging through the items.

Anyway, after finally being relieved from the heat of the people in the mall, we went over to a friend's to have dinner.

Roasted duck

A Vietnamese pork thing (I don't know the name)

Stuffed and pan-fried green peppers

Duck wings

Chinese BBQ pork

I really like that Vietnamese pork: it's spicy and has a nice crunchy bite, and it's good with a meal and also good as a snack :)

I've been rather lazy in cooking for the past two weeks because of exams, but I still ate really well. The second time I had Popeye's chicken was during exam week, and here it is:

Much better than KFC

We first ordered this through the phone to get delivery (because we had a coupon for delivery over $30). And to our dismay, that certain location didn't accept coupons, and said that they don't deliver until 1600. So we hold off having fried chicken for lunch, and agree that we'll have it for dinner instead (not cooking dinner = more time to study).

1600 rolls around, and we call them again to get 6 orders of the Thursday special. What did they reply with? "Sorry, we don't deliver that." With that, we hung up and went to Popeye's ourselves. Yes, that was quite a hassle, but that chicken was amazing. But full meals always trump chicken wings -

So... much.. food...

With two exams still to be written (and which I have yet to study for during that weekend), I still went to this pre-holiday dinner - where we didn't have to prepare any food, but simply bring a gift for a Secret Santa exchange (I ended up with a cheese knives set, all in a pretty box which I at first thought held poker chips).

For some reason, the fact that exams are nearing never seem to taunt me until 12 hours before the exam. So, a day before the exam, I ended up in a Spring Rolls buffet.

We chose the premium option because it has steak and dessert.

Lobster avocado salad.

The thing I like about this place is that it serves Thai, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese food in buffet style - and they make it all pretty well for the buffet option. *impressed*

The light inside constantly changed colors every ten seconds or so, which resulted in the absence of decent white balance.

Oh yes, and I wanted to tell you about that little cube on the bottom right. It was one of the deciding factors of choosing to eat at this place - deep fried cheesecake. It's not something that I'd do at home (deep frying still isn't really my thing - uses up too much oil, clean-up is brutal, and oil burns hurt), which is why it was great to have it for dessert here.

My mom had already started the holiday baking when I came home from exams *yay* - so I came home to the smell of eggs, butter, and flour :)

Sponge cake and mini butter cake

Last year, we gifted cake on a plate as presents, and this year, we did the exact same thing. Since we need to bake so much, we went crazy when we saw that the Lactancia butter, which originally ~$6 and is also one of the the best tasting butters in local supermarkets, was on sale for three dollars, we bought 13. The cashier lady gave us a look when she saw the butter on the conveyor belt (that's what it's called, right?).

Yes, I bought 13 of these.

I'll have to end here because I have lots more to say in my next post (tomorrow), about how I use up the butter.

MUAH MUAH MUAH

VICKI CHOW

P/S

I'm too afraid to weigh myself on the scale for now (after too-many-to-count consecutive dinners and lunches with people) - so I console myself by making use of my gym membership this winter break. Tonight I'll be going skating, so I persuaded myself that it's okay to skip today's gym session.

I wish I looked this determined when I'm at the gym.

I accidentally burned my finger with hot sugar the other day while making a ************* the other day, and now it has turned pretty nasty looking. Despite that one incident, I proceeded to make that dessert another two times this week!

I have to admit, I think I'm getting pretty good at making it now. *feel like a pro*

Have you been enjoying your holiday dinners/lunches/breakfasts so far? and...

To my overseas readers in Asia and Europe, Happy Holidays! :)

, by vickichowder

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GEN, SAN JOSE

OO-KOOK, LOS ANGELES

FULFILLING MY CRAVINGS

FOOD FOR THE NEW YEAR

PRE-HOLIDAY DINING

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Pages

GEN, SAN JOSE

OO-KOOK, LOS ANGELES

FULFILLING MY CRAVINGS

FOOD FOR THE NEW YEAR

PRE-HOLIDAY DINING

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