Category Archives: Food

It’s a Ska World After all! The 4th Annual Ska Day at Disneyland

It's a Ska World After All

It’s a Ska World After All! Sunday was the 4th annual Ska Day at Disneyland! I’m pretty glad I found this flier at The Skatalites’ concert at Slidebar last week.

The festivities actually started Saturday night. There was a pre-party at Las Palomas Mexican Restaurant in Anaheim. I went with Edward and gem. I guess there was a call-out, because there was some staffing and service problems. It was fun anyways! I noticed that we were sitting next to members of the ska band Half Past Two!

It's a Ska World After All

There was a hat dance, musical chairs, dance competition thingy! Basically, there was a circle of people, and one person had to wear a hat. As music plays, the person wearing the hat has to dance across the circle and put the hat on someone else. If you’re wearing the hat when the music stops, you’re out, and it continues to another round. gem made it to the last round!

It's a Ska World After All

The person with whom she’s dancing in the photos was the guitar or bass player (I couldn’t see) for The Pocketeers I think!

It's a Ska World After All

She technically came in second, but they gave her a prize anyways. She got this sweet 45 of David Hillyard & The Rocksteady 7’s cover of “Evil” by Moondust Records. Pretty cool!

I found this article about it:

New Single: David Hillyard & The Rocksteady 7 “Evil” : Moondust Records.

It's a Ska World After All

On Sunday, we started the day by trying on some hats.It's a Ska World After All

Next we went on Space Mountain. We didn’t even realize it was already Ghost Galaxy!It's a Ska World After AllWe had lunch at the Hungry Bear Restaurant for the meet and greet. After we sat down, we noticed we were sitting next to some of the members of Half Past Two again. Cool coincidence or destiny? We chatted for a bit with out new friends and took this photo!It's a Ska World After All

While in line for Splash Mountain, we met two women from Sacramento here on vacation. We had fun talking to them, and then I got soaked on the ride. We also gave them our fast passes to Indiana Jones because we were running late for the group photo.

It's a Ska World After All

This is as good as a group photo as we were going to get, because we were a little late. Oh well.

It's a Ska World After All

Look how many security guards it takes to deal with ska fans! There were actually a few more here at one time. Let’s skip over the negative part of the day.

It's a Ska World After All

After the group photo, we all went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad together! We had a rather large group. The plan was to ride It’s a Small World together as well, but gem and I decided to go on Indiana Jones instead.

It's a Ska World After All

This is not a good place to leave a diaper.

We also managed to go on some rides that didn’t involve photographs. For example, we had to go on Star Tours of course (twice!) as well as the Haunted Mansion to see its Nightmare Before Christmas version. We played a lot of Heads Up, a game gem introduced to me, on our phones while in line. It seemed to be a popular game with other people as well, and we even told others about it. There was a woman in line with us for the Haunted Mansion who downloaded it after we told her about it, and then we played with her and her son too!It's a Ska World After All

I also battled the Evil Empereror Zurg!It's a Ska World After All

Pew pew pew!

It's a Ska World After All

And another Toy Story shot.It's a Ska World After All

Before the concert, I just had to play some Fix It Felix Jr.It's a Ska World After All

While we were waiting for the show to begin, we saw that the latest It’s a Ska World SKAvenger Hunt goal was near us. We headed there and got there first, winning some Dulce Cookies by Melo! Oh my goodness, they were so amazing. We gave two to Remy, the host, for him and girlfriend as well as one to a woman who got there after us. Then I ate some more of them. They were really tasty!

It's a Ska World After All

Next it was time for the highlight of the evening, Suburban Legends! They’re so amazing. Their sound is great, their choreography is stunning, their ability to engage the audience is always superb, and their sets consist of covers and awesome originals.

It's a Ska World After All

There’s gem with the band!

Here’s a clip of them playing DuckTales. Very awesome.

I danced a lot, and boy was I exhausted. I even got to be a firework. The crowd all crouched down. They began to count to eight, using “cicero” to switch to a “Cell Block Tango” reference, and then went back to counting normally. When they reached eight, we all jumped up, threw our arms in the air, and yelled, “boom!” It was fun!

Also, you know how gang fights always involve singing, dancing, and hand snapping? Yeah, the audience split in two for one of those fights. Super rad.It's a Ska World After All

After the concert I wanted to try on this helmet even if I looked dumb.

It's a Ska World After All

After a break, The Suffragettes, an all-girl cover band, played at the Tomorrowland Terrace. They were pretty good, but they just didn’t do enough for us. We listened to a few songs before heading back to Main Street, U.S.A. We had some delicious ice cream before calling it a night.

It’s too bad that this was the fourth annual Ska Day at Disneyland and that I missed three of them. I’ll be going in the future!

Toshiba Chili Cook-Off

chili cook off

Yesterday was the Chili Cook-Off at Toshiba! Joseph made a delicious chili using ghost peppers, so we went with a Ghostbusters theme.

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Pete made a large Ghostbusters sign, and I brought the inflatable proton pack and a copy of the movie. We also had little rice ghosts.

chili cook off

Sadly we didn’t win. It seems like most people like a pretty basic chili, while Joseph wants to spice things up. I prefer his way of thinking, but I don’t think it’ll lead us to a win. Maybe the fourth attempt will be better next year. On the plus side, I got to eat a bunch of different types of chili and listen to some great live music!

Reggae and the Toshiba Tall Ships Festival

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I did two interesting things this weekend, but I don’t have enough to say about each of them to make individual posts! First, I went The Point Restaurant and Bar in Dana Point with Anela and gem. Our friend Sean invited us to watch his dad’s reggae band. It was also Sean’s dad’s birthday! He seemed pretty popular!

The band was fun, playing a variety of reggae and classic rock covers. The venue was pretty cool too. It’s a bit far to go just for drinks, but if I was in the area or there was something happening there, I’d definitely go again.

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The 30th annual Toshiba Tall Ships Festival was also in Dana Point! It was a beautiful day.

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gem and I watched some pirates learn about Pirate High Tea from their admiral. It was an amusing performance in which the pirates struggle to understand the delicacies of having tea.

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They also had dancers!

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We met an adorable rat named Izzy the Pyrat! He had a little pirate’s hat and everything.

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This blacksmith was making dice. He was pretty interesting and answered many of gem’s blacksmith questions.

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He even made this rose.

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Aboard one of the ships was a band playing amusing songs about being pirates. They’re called The Boo Hoo Crew. Despite claiming to be a children’s band, I liked them. “Old McPirate had a ship. / E-I-E yo ho!”

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Then it was snack time. gem wanted to get corn, and it was buy two items, get a third free. I bought a corn dog with the corn so I could get an Arnold Palmer for free. They didn’t have any corn dogs ready unless I was willing to accept one with a split in the breading. Because I was okay with it, they even threw in an extra corn dog for free!

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We got our corn all lathered up in mayo with a variety of delicious toppings.

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gem was hungry!

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While watching a weapons demonstration, we met the most adorable dog. His owner didn’t mind, so we showered him with attention.

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Oh, right. Here’s the weapons demonstration itself.

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And then we had dinner!

Fun day for Labor Day

Labor Day 2014!

Homies help homies. Always.

Okay, I’ll get to that in a minute. This Labor Day I hung out with gem and Anela. We met at gem’s house and went to the Starplex Cinemas in Woodbridge for Maleficent. It was a fun movie with a different spin on Sleeping Beauty. I also really like to see the backstory of villains; it’s interesting to see how they became bad.

Because Anela forgot her swimwear and gem wanted exchange something at the Outlets at Orange, we headed that way to take care of those things. That’s where gem and I saw this sweet Adventure Time billboard and had to take a photo!

Labor Day 2014!

When we got back to gem’s, we started working on lunch. I made more of my salami roll snacks and made more salad. It was sort of like yesterday’s picnic part 2. While the main course was cooking, the three of us headed to the pool. It was busy with lots of people, but that didn’t make swimming any less fun.

Labor Day 2014!

We came home to take the ribs out of the oven. They were looking pretty delicious.

Labor Day 2014!

No, Anela! Don’t eat all the ribs!

Labor Day 2014!

So very much food. I ate about 3000 calories. Whoops.Labor Day 2014

We look good surrounded by food.

While we ate dinner, we also watched Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

Labor Day 2014!

Sumo and Angel will be in for a treat too. We had a nice pile of bones to bring home to them.

Labor Day 2014!

After dinner we watched an episode of Too Cute about adorable kittens. For dessert, we had pastries and homemade ice cream. It was really good! Anela took the rest of my salami rolls with cream cheese and cucumber, and I left a bunch of the salami rolls with cream cheese and pepperoncinis with gem. I’m happy they like them!

Labor Day was celebrated successfully! Now I just need to eat less the rest of the week.

Civil War reenactment and picnic

Civil War Reenactment

Sunday was the Huntington Beach Historical Society’s 20th annual Civil War Days Living History and Reenactment in Huntington Beach Central Park. I heard about it on Reddit and thought it sounded fun. Luckily, I was right!

After finishing picnic preparations, I picked up gem and Anela and headed to the park. After seeing some tents set up, we saw some troops marching into battle!

Civil War Reenactment

We kept walking toward the loud noises. Where are explosions, that’s where the action is, right?

The loud noises were definitely cannons!

Civil War Reenactment

As the armies got closer, there were more and more casualties. For some reason, people kept dying in the shade. The shade must be deadly. Eventually the reenactment ended, and it was time for us to do something else…Civil War Reenactment

Picnic Time, c’mon grab your friends…

Civil War Reenactment

We had all sorts of delicious foods! I made Caprese salad and three variations of salami snacks – rolled salami with one of two types of cream cheese and either a pepperoncini, pickle, or cucumbers). I also packed Caprisun drinks, two kinds of potato chips, brie, crackers, and some chocolate bread! gem and Anela brought an arugula dip, a chicken dip, celery, hummus, and multiple kinds of pastries. I might be missing something, but there was a lot of food.

Civil War Reenactment

Mmmm, snacks.

Civil War Reenactment

After eating, we just relaxed on the blanket for a while. Mostly we talked and sent each other stickers on Facebook. Also, I apparently can’t say “sticker” because it kept coming out “Snickers.”Civil War Reenactment

Anela said this series of stickers represented me – before the picnic, during the picnic, and after the picnic. Yep, that’s pretty much how I felt.Civil War Reenactment

She also added this bottom sticker to represent gem since gem was playing her ukulele for us!

Civil War Reenactment

When we finally had the energy to get up, we checked out this field hospital. As usual, I’d be content to look without talking, but gem got us into a tent and chatting with some of the performers. It was a lot of fun and pretty informative. There was also quite a bit of music-talk due to the ukulele.Civil War Reenactment

We saw this peep show box, and it was obviously appropriate for me to look if I wanted to act the part, right? When in Rome!

Civil War Reenactment

Matilda the goat was very friendly. And by friendly, I mean willing to let us pet her a little while she continued to munch the grass.

Civil War Reenactment

When gem saw a man with a banjo, it was time to go talk to him. They talked about their instruments for a minute, and then decided to play together a little. gem used her tuner app to get him in tune, and then they played music for us while we all chatted. It was very nice!

Civil War Reenactment

I don’t know a better way to celebrate the end of the Civil War than eating ice cream! We went to Afters, which is somewhere both Anela and gem have mentioned and I’d been wanting to try. I sampled five-or-so flavors before ordering a Milky Bun with Cookie Monster ice cream. The Milky Bun is a donut, either glazed or unglazed, filled with ice cream. I went with the unglazed, but I think I might try glazed next time. All the flavors were super delicious. Obviously I liked Cookie Monster best of the ones I tried, but Milk and Cereal, which includes cereal on top, was a close second. I’ll need to come again!

With our bellies full, we went to the Outlets at Orange for some shopping. There wasn’t really anything I wanted, and nothing jumped out at me, but I had fun shopping with them. Also, a woman working at Forever 21 commented on my Aquabats 20th anniversary tour t-shirt! It was fun chatting with her about them for a minute.

It was a fun and foodful day!

Hiking, yoga, and Slapfish

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Wednesday evening I went with gem to the Irvine Ranch Conservancy’s “Sunset Yoga in Bommer Canyon,” a hike with outdoor yoga. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, and she’d never done it. We set up our yoga mats under the trees before leaving for the one-mile loop.

The hike was about a mile and took 20 minutes, so it was fairly leisurely. It was a nice evening, and it was interesting to learn about the area and what else we could do there. It sounds like there might be some good hikes there.

yoga hike

I stole gem’s Snapchat. Anyways, after the hike we did about an hour of yoga. It was definitely a different experience than my usual. It was much more relaxing. The yoga accommodated a wider range of age and skill level than that with which I’m familiar I think. While not an intense workout, it was nice to relax outdoors under the trees. They do this event regularly, so I think I’ll try to attend more.

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Afterward we went to Slapfish, a seafood restaurant in Huntington Beach that she’s been mentioning. Each dish we ordered was brought to us when it was ready. The first was the lobster dip and chips. Why would I ever want chips and salsa again when I now know about chips and lobster dip? It was amazing. Even the seasoning on the chips was good!

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Next came the chowder fries. I feel stupid for even wondering what this was – fries covered with chowder and bacon. It was pretty tasty too.

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The lobster grilled cheese was a delicious sandwich featuring an ample amount of lobster. It came with chips and a dipping sauce, but I wasn’t sure whether the sauce was for the grilled cheese or the chips. I tried it on both and decided I liked the taste of the sandwich without the overpowering sauce. gem had hyped this up quite a bit, and she was right to do so.

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Lastly, we got these little lobster toast bites free for liking Slapfish on Facebook. Crunch, crunch! The staff were friendly, and the food came quickly. I could definitely eat here again!

Barbecue and pool party

Suds-O-Matic

Sunday my parents had a barbecue and pool party at their house. There was lots of delicious food, including chips, dips, hot dogs, ice cream, and brownies! I think it may have been an excuse for Pete to show off his Suds-O-Matic. It’s a retro washing machine that he gutted and now uses to hold cold beers. It works pretty well and looks awesome!

They invited some of my mom’s coworkers, their neighbors, Demian (a former Toshiba employee), and Demian’s wife Susan. There was an assortment of kids there as well. I invited gem and Anela.

Lizard

When I went in my brother’s room to pet the cat, I saw a tiny lizard. Anela managed to catch it in a jar!

Selfie!

The only logical thing to do was to take a selfie with the three of us, Mulligan, and the lizard!

CAMS Class of 2004 10-year reunion

cams reunion

Last night was the CAMS Class of 2004’s 10-year reunion in Redondo Beach. It was held at HT Grill, a great venue in a beautiful location near the water. Thanks so much to Marghee for planning it! (Sorry that photo is dark. I like it anyways.)

My favorite family

I hadn’t seen many of the people there in years. Others, like three of my favorite people pictured above, I get to see regularly (if not as often as I like). Henley seemed to enjoy splashing before dinner.

For dinner they served clam chowder or salad, chicken or salmon, and a brownie. Everything was incredibly delicious.

cams reunion

“Then and now” photos were projected of people in attendance, and each person took turns standing and letting the group know what they’ve been doing. It was wonderful to learn how great everyone seems to be doing. Sure, they likely leave out the negative, but I enjoyed learning about marriages, soon-to-be weddings, children, children on the way, and impressive jobs.

cams reunion

There were also a few games, including naming classmates from their old photos, answering trivia about our time at CAMS, and answering pop culture questions from 2004. As far as I know, the planning was all Marghee, which is really impressive considering she also had her five-week old there!

I’d love to get together more often, because it was a lot of fun. Maybe a 15-year reunion should be in the cards!

U.S. Taco Co. – American classics reimagined as tacos

U.S. Taco Co.

U.S. Taco Co. is a new fast-casual restaurant owned by Taco Bell featuring classic American classics reimagined as tacos. After seeing a Reddit post about an LA Times article previewing the restaurant, I knew I had to try it. It opened on the 11th in Huntington Beach, and despite a rather lackluster review from OC Weekly, I went Wednesday night.

Unfortunately, I was too hungry to take photos of the decor. It was a bright, open location perfect for people watching. The prices were roughly $3 to $4 per taco (for most of them). You’ll have to excuse the quality of my photos because, like I mentioned, I was pretty hungry.

U.S. Taco Co.

They all had interesting names. The most basic taco I tried was the Wanna Get Lei’d, a grilled mahi mahi taco with corn tortilla, Polynesian sauce, slaw, poblano crema, pico de gallo, and cilantro. To be honest, it was nothing special.

U.S. Taco Co.

Not My First Rodeo is a smoked brisket taco with flour tortilla, molcajete salsa, slaw, pickled onions, and cilantro. It was pretty good, and there was a lot of brisket in it.

My favorite taco is the one featured at the top of this article, the Southern Squealer. Looking at the menu, I quickly knew that this was the taco for me. The Southern Squealer features pulled pork, peach jalapeño BBQ sauce, corn cake, slaw, jalapeño, and cilantro in a flour tortilla. These flavors went well together, forming a delicious taco. I particularly enjoyed the corn cake in the taco. If I eat at U.S. Taco Co. again, I’d likely order the Southern Squealer once more while trying other tacos for the first time as well.

U.S. Taco Co.

The Papa’s Fritas, potato wedges basically, were also excellent. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and fresh tasting, they were a great side. The fries came with jalapeño ranch as well as ghost chile ketchup dipping sauces. I preferred the jalapeño ranch, but both were good.

U.S. Taco Co.’s biggest problem is its location. It’s a fantastic location near the pier in Huntington Beach. It’s such a fantastic location that it’s just a few doors down from Bruxie, across the street from Zimzala in the Shorebreak Hotel, and a couple minutes walk from Sancho’s Tacos. While I do think I’ll eat here again, after my friend gem and I finished splitting the food I discussed here, I felt satisfied – not stuffed, but definitely not hungry. And then I walked to Sancho’s Tacos, because there was no way I was going home without getting an O.G. or a federale taco! If it was closer to home, I’d definitely drive a few minutes to eat there, but if I’m going to drive a half hour to Huntington Beach for a single meal, I’m more likely to eat at Zimzala or Sancho’s Tacos. However, the addition of another interesting restaurant in the area means that the idea of spending the day at the beach, which would include having multiple meals, sounds even more appealing. An appetizer and drinks from Zimzala, a couple O.G. tacos from Sancho’s Tacos while sitting on the beach, and completing the afternoon at U.S. Taco Co. sounds like an awesome day.