use real butter

My parents have a habit of buying a lot of things when they visit us. They have a habit of buying things in general as an activity. My dad gets excited about visiting the Costco (all three of the nearest ones to Pasadena: Alhambra, Burbank, and Azusa) in So Cal because they are “different” from the ones at home. I’ve had to give away random stuff they leave behind (and they always leave something behind). They treat our house as a repository. Dad wants me to live my life the way he wants me to. I cannot count how many times I’ve caught him lugging a giant TV to the Costco cart only to march him straight back to the TV aisle. While packing the kitchen last night, I found this in the freezer:

You got it. Frozen fish head (and tail). My parents also cook when they are here. They are great cooks! But it’s a little odd to have them leave fish parts in my freezer. I know my father’s intention was to come back and make fish stock with the head and tail for his famous (and delicious) bouillabaisse. Well, he’s not going to visit before we move and I’m not transporting Mr. Red Snapper in our cooler to the new house…

Like a good Chinese granddaughter and Chinese granddaughter’s husband, we set out at 4 am today to drive up and see Grandma for the weekend. Travel was fast, but there was still considerable traffic for such early hours. Californians are on the move now that school is out. Speaking of school being out… I stopped by Caltech graduation on Friday to hear Sandra Tsing Loh give the commencement address. I ran into Jack (my old house president) and the deja vu feeling was a little weird being back at my undergrad stomping grounds with a Caltech bud.

For some reason Friday was a crazy busy day.

city hall

**Jump for more butter**

We have begun our orange cream soda research and already, I am about to pass out from the sugar rush…

Unfortunately, the first three candidates were all natural. Although I love natural and organic foods, when you are looking for orange cream soda, you are very obviously not giving a damn about the amount of artificial ingredients pumped into the bubbling liquid. And of the two most recent acquisitions (pictured above) one is a Tangerine Cream and the other sucked. I’ll have to formalize all of this at some point. I’ve had better orange cream sodas – I know they are out there.

masago with quail egg, rock cod nigiri

Dinner out tonight – at Ai! Hiro was working (which he didn’t used to on weekends). Fumito did up some beauties for us and made them extra pretty b/c he knew I was photographing the food for my sushi page. I love those guys.