being a DJ is fun

I hosted our KRCL show with YaChi today... without Jenny! The two of us were newbies and without full training, but I thought we actually did a good job!

I made John listen to the show online, and give me feedbacks. Apparently I did a fairly good job, and I was not too loud, or too quiet. I was cool.

I'm thinking about dividing the program into a few sections, so we could have better organization of topics to talk about, and/or different genres of music to play. It's so much fun!

Szechuan Garden

There are restaurants that claim they have Szechuan cuisine, and there are some that serve true authentic Szechuan food. Szechuan Garden (川香園）is such a place.

It's located 1275 East 8600 South in Sandy, which is at the northwest corner of 1300 East and 8600 South. The owner and head chef Meng "is one of the few highest-ranking masters in China. He has won the silver & bronze medal in National Cookery Competition in China. He is also a lifetime judge of the National Ranking chef test in the Szechuan Province." (Restaurants.com)

Stick with the front couple pages of the menu if you want real authentic Szechuan food... or ask for recommendations from the owners. There were dishes that I would not personally ever try, and I realized I might have been misssing out, but I would never eat rabbits, even though those spicy rabbit chunks are famous and popular among Szechuan natives and authentic Szechuan food connoisseur.

I ordered in Chinese, based partly on what the owner's wife recommended, so I'm not completely sure of their English names; We had the Happy Couple, pan fried cake, spicy thread noodles, and fish chunks in hot bean sauce. Interesting to say, except for the pan fried cake, these were all spicy dishes, but they were all different, and very flavorful, and NOT your typical "wow, it's soooo spicy! I can't taste anything!" sort of Szechuan food.

I question Szechuan Garden's location, but apparently it has enough followings it's doing all right. I'd recommend it to people who want spicy and very flavorful authentic Szechuan cuisine.

makes me wonder

I know, I know... two Maroon 5 songs in a row can be too much... but I just can't help it!

Makes Me Wonder

[Verse]
I wake up with blood-shot eyes
Struggled to memorize
The way it felt between your thighs
Pleasure that made you cry
Feels so good to be bad
Not worth the aftermath, after that
After that
Try to get you back

[Bridge]
I still don't have the reason
And you don't have the time
And it really makes me wonder
If I ever gave a fuck about you

[Chorus]
Give me something to believe in
Cause I don't believe in you anymore
Anymore
I wonder if it even makes a difference to try
(Yeah)
So this is goodbye

[Verse]
God damn my spinning head
Decisions that made my bed
Now I must lay in it
And deal with things I left unsaid
I want to dive into you
Forget what you're going through
I get behind, make your move
Forget about the truth

[Bridge]
I still don't have the reason
And you don't have the time
And it really makes me wonder
If I ever gave a fuck about you

[Chorus]
Give me something to believe in
Cause I don't believe in you anymore
Anymore
I wonder if it even makes a difference,
It even makes a difference to try
And you told me how you're feeling
But I don't believe it's true anymore
Anymore
I wonder if it even makes a difference to cry
(Oh no)
So this is goodbye

[Breakdown]
I've been here before
One day I'll wake up
And it won't hurt anymore
You caught me in a lie
I have no alibi
The words you say don't have a meaning
Cause

[Bridge]
I still don't have the reason
And you don't have the time
And it really makes me wonder
If I ever gave a fuck about you
And I...and so this is goodbye

[Chorus]
Give me something to believe in
Cause I don't believe in you anymore
Anymore
I wonder if it even makes a difference,
It even makes a difference to try
And you told me how you're feeling
But I don't believe it's true anymore
Anymore
I wonder if it even makes a difference to cry
(Oh no)
So this is goodbye
So this is goodbye, yeah [x3]
(Oh no)

this love

I just can't get enough Maroon 5 these days!

This Love

I was so high I did not recognize
The fire burning in her eyes
The chaos that controlled my mind
Whispered goodbye and she got on a plane
Never to return again
But always in my heart

This love has taken it’s toll on me
She said goodbye too many times before
And her heart is breaking in front of me
I have no choice cause I won’t say goodbye anymore

I tried my best to feed her appetite
Keep her coming every night
So hard to keep her satisfied
Kept playing love like it was just a game
Pretending to feel the same
Then turn around and leave again

This love has taken it’s toll on me
She said goodbye too many times before
And her heart is breaking in front of me
I have no choice cause I won’t say goodbye anymore

I’ll fix these broken things
Repair your broken wings
And make sure everything’s alright
My pressure on her hips
Sinking my fingertips
Into every inch of you
Cause I know that’s what you want me to do

when they go out of town

The long Memorial Day weekend is here, and I've noticed that several of the morning regular customers from the City building were already gone. People had been talking about their plans to "go out of town" for the past few days, and then I started thinking about this question again: While so many people want to "go out of town," where exactly do they go, and are there people "coming in to town" as well?

I know it's a silly question, but it's just really odd that whenever there's a long(er) holiday weekend, the city is a lot more quiet than usual, which is fine, but are there towns (other than tourist towns, of course,) that get busy?

I know I've posted similar blog entries about this, but this is all I can think of on a slow morning at the beginning of a long weekend... every time!

IKEA

It's finally in Salt Lake Valley! IKEA Draper is officially open for business today.



and John said, "ahh, let's go and have some Swedish Meatballs."

frozen bao

I found these frozen char shu bao at Wal-Mart the other day. I used to see the Ling Ling char chu bao at Costco once in a while, but I guess there's just not enough people who like them here in Salt Lake, so all of the Costco stopped carrying them.

Anyhow, these new bao I found are from Peninsula, a company I had not yet heard of until then. It's really easy to heat these... you take one of the bao, place it on a place, cover it with a damp paper towel, and heat it in the microwave for about 50 seconds. Voila! You've got yourself a yummy and hot bao.


The taste of this bao reminded me of a Taiwanese snack made of pork. Hmmm... I think I must have one when I get home.

little bears

I was preparing food for the dogs, and realized that our dry dog food was low... I got a can of carrots, and chopped a few pieces of tofu skin and shitake mushrooms I made the night before, and still didn't think it was enough food for all three dogs.

Then I spotted the bag of graham bears that's sitting on the kitchen table. I checked the ingredients used in the graham bears and found it was actually pretty basic, and without a ton of "extra" stuff... so I added some into the dogs' bowls.

I think they loved it. I doubt they could tell there were little bears in their food other than it tasted a bit different, but I thought it was really cute and I was giggling the whole time the dogs were eating. OK I was very easily amused... but who woulnd't think it's cute when there's cute little graham bears in your dogs' food?

yiching the DJ in training

I went down to KRCL last night with Jenny from Eastern Trends. Eastern Trends is the only Chinese newspaper in Utah, and I translate articles from D.C., the capital, and Utah AG's office for it.

Jenny has been working at the Chinese program at KRCL for 9 years! When I was presented with the opportunity to be a DJ on the show, I was really excited, and thought I'd give it a try.

It was so much fun! I brought a few of my funky CDs and talked about some of the artists and musicians on the show, and I learned a bit about how the sound system works. I think Jenny likes my excited and slightly hyper talking/DJ-ing style, because she's going to sign me up at KRCL's DJ traning after Wednesday night! After a few weeks training I'll be a really cool DJ, plus I can access the walls after walls of music at the station, and use the recording equipment, too! I'm so excited! I just hope they don't kick me out of DJ school during traning period.

radio DJ. me?

The local KRCL radio station has a Mandarin Chinese show on Wednesday night, and I may be DJ-ing for it soon. I'm not sure yet, but I will check it out tomorrow night, and see if I will be able to contribute to the show. I don't know if anyone actually listens to the show, but I know if I can bring something exciting, cool, and a wide variety of music and fun stuff to the show, I can get more people to listen to it.

I have no idea how this is going to work yet, but I'll find out tomorrow night!

taking japanese

I'm thinking about taking Japanese again this coming Fall semester... not for credits, but just to audit it. I think it'll be a lot of fun, plus my friend Nobu said he'd help me study.

Every year we go to Japan, and over there we use our "broken Japanese" and English to communicate with the locals. People are always so nice and kind, and we actually never felt uncomfortable not able to speak fluent Japanese. However, I do think it's our obligation to speak the language when we visit the country, so I'm determined to learn Japanese well.

Another great reason for me to known the Japanese language better is the outrageously awesome books they have. Every few months I buy cool Japanese craft, design, art, and poetry (yes I said poetry) books from online and when we visit Japan. I can't yet understand everything I'm reading, but I think I'll be able to read it a lot better once I get more Japanese grammar down, since I already read the Kanji.

The Salt Lake Community College opened a campus a couple buildings next to the caffe, and I'm hoping that they'd hold Japanese classes over there... but doesn't look like that's gonna happen, so I think I may just hop on the Trax and take the classes up at the U. We'll see.

super adoption

It's that time of the year - Meet Your Match: PET SUPER ADOPTION is taking place this weekend. It happens twice a year, where many animal shelters bring adoptable animals to the event, hoping to adopt them out to loving families.

We got Nuki 6 years ago from Hope Haven, one of the animal shelters/rescues at Super Adoption. He was only 2 years old at the time, and from what we heard he had already been with two families prior to going to the shelter. They thought he was unmanageable. I know they just didn't know the breed well.


Nuki has always been a great companion. He's the BEST dog I must say! I am a firm beliver that everyone should ADOPT an animal instead of BUYING one. The dogs and cats at the shelters and rescues really appreciate a loving person or family, and they always try very hard to please their humans. I hope most of the animals will find a loving home this weekend.

korean bulgogi

John and I are really diggin Korean food recently. I'm usually like this... I find something yummy and I want a lot of it. I remember at one point a few years ago I fell in love with Indian food, and yes, I'd have Indian food at least a couple times a week, and I also went to the market to find special curry powders and spices so I can make some "Indian food" at home.

Anyhow, I love Korean food these days... I haven't been going to Korean restaurants in town too much, but I managed to go to the Korean market to buy special sauce and Korean red pepper powders to make yummy dishes.


My newest favorite Korean sauce is this "Hoe & Spicy Marinade." From what I understand Koreans use this sauce to marinade their meats before they grill them, and they call it "Bulgogi." This sauce is amazing! It has Korean apple and pear in it, and of course, the red pepper powders.

This is how I use this Bulgogi sauce: I heat a little bit of olive oil and stir in some pork, and when the meat turns white, I poured in some rice wine and cover the pan and let it simmer for a few minutes until the meat is throughly cooked. I then add a tablespoon chopped garlic, a small can of sliced mushroom, and some frozen julienned color peppers. I then add some of the Bulgogi sauce (enough so it looks a bit "saucy", and voila! It's really yummy!

The first time I used this sauce I didn't add any vegetables, but used a lot more rice wine, and it was quite good!


I experimented with the new recipe with the color peppers, mushroom, and garlic last night. It was yummy, and more colorful!