use real butter

NaBloWriMo day 25.

Short on time because I’d rather spend it with my grandma and aunt. It’s so warm here! And I don’t mean that to sound delighted or anything – I really really like my cold and snow back home. We went to a place that serves Shanghai-style dim sum this morning. It’s called, oddly enough: Shanghai Dim Sum in Cupertino. The big deal is the Chinese doughnut (called yo tiao) which is neither salty nor sweet – it’s just deliciously fried dough, and the do jian or soybean milk which we got in the savory version. Mmmmm. We also ordered some xiao lon tan bao or the soup dumplings. I love those too.

chinese doughnut and soybean milk soup

soup dumplings

I don’t get to indulge in Shanghai-style dim sum very often, certainly not in Colorado – like EVER – but this was Grandma’s birthday wish. It was her day! She saw the picture I posted of her yesterday and said she didn’t like it much at all. She complained that she looks old. I don’t think she looks anywhere close to 88, do you? I took some more pictures for her today.

grandma and my aunt elena

For dinner, we always take her to Chef Chu’s on her birthday. It’s not because it’s necessarily the best Chinese restaurant out there, but because my second cousin helps to run the business and she adores my grandma. In truth, everyone adores my grandma because she’s really thoughtful and nice to people, she’s got a good and wise head on her shoulders, and she’s so positive and full of spunk. And we always order the same dishes, because they are her favorites (again – birthday girl calls the shots for the day!): seafood sizzling rice soup (hai shian guo ba tan), lobster noodles (lon shia e mien), and hunan tofu. I know my pin ying sucks – Lisa even asked me about where I learned it (I didn’t, I just sound it out phonetically).

seafood sizzling rice soup

lobster noodles

hunan tofu

Fabulous dinner. Stellar company. I hope I get to celebrate many many more birthdays with Grandma. Thanks for all of the well-wishes! Grandma is aware of the blog, but she has no idea who you people are (except for my mom). Still, she’s a great sport about it all and she said to thank you :)

NaBloWriMo day 24.

I’m in California now. Jeremy and I are playing tag team taking care of Kaweah. Kaweah doesn’t mind as long as she gets to sleep on the bed. My flight out was uneventful save for a little turbulence. Whenever I am in an airport I always do a lot of people watching. I think kids are the most entertaining.

these two cute little boys in the next car were waiving to me

Sunday is my grandma’s 88th birthday! She looks awesome and she was very animated and happy tonight. Well, she’s animated and happy in general. My grandma is the coolest.

grandma tells us a story

Hope you are all having a grand weekend. xxoo

NaBloWriMo day 23.

I’ll be leaving on a jet plane soon…

In the meantime, I had a lovely afternoon spent with friends at Manisha’s house. She wanted to treat us to a Diwali feast. What a treat it was! Happy Diwali and enjoy the pics.

kitt taking pics

kitt and mom

manisha, master hostess and cook extraordinaire

teri mixed some pomegranate champagne fizzies for us

kitt made chivda

shankarpali (mmm!)

chakli (mmm!)

pohe (mmm!)

khaman dhokla (mmm!)

nichole’s aloo ki subzi (mmm!)

chavde (mmm!)

oh wait, this is orange burfi – decadent