Wes and Erica's vacation photo album // Carrollton, TX // December 2022

When you're 38, you get excited about -- beef jerky case at Buc-ee's, a gorgeous quilt at Not Your Mama's Quilt Store, and gazebo at Historic Downtown Carrollton

Last week, we took my annual birthday trip to Carrollton Town Center. ☕🍙🍜🍨🍣 We ate lots of yummy Asian food and did our shopping, per usual, but new this year was the addition of fabric shopping! 😄 I found three fabric stores in the area, and Wes found an authorized Gundam model kit retailer. First, pictures of food, then shopping...

We got into town mid-afternoon so we started with a light lunch. We went to Frankseoul for Korean hotdogs. I got the "half & half dog", which was part hot dog and part mozzarella stick rolled in a crispy batter. They had a bunch of dipping sauces; I got honey garlic, hot sauce, and ketchup. For dessert, I got a dalgona ice cream sundae. 🍨 It was sooooo good!!! It was soft-serve ice cream topped with caramel and bits of dalgona cookies. The cookies were a little too sweet by themself but tasted great in the sundae. Wes got a sujeongwa drink, which is a cinnamon punch. He was so excited that they had it because he hasn't had it in ages and can't find it anywhere. 

We went to dinner at Too Thai Street Eats. It is the best Thai food I've ever had and the restaurant had a nice vibe, too. I think this is my favorite restaurant we visited this year. I got the boat noodles with beef. I asked for a 1.5 - 2 spiciness level but it was still too spicy for me to drink the broth. For our appetizer, we ordered the pork Thai sausage. I thought they were really good but Wes said they had too much ginger in them. He got the pad Thai and said it was good but didn't share my opinion of it being the best Thai restaurant. 

The next morning, we went to 99 Ranch for breakfast and groceries. There is only one place I've found in OKC that has congee with bits of preserved black eggs in it, and its only available for dim sum. 😒 Since we rarely get dim sum here, I wait literally all year to get my bowl of congee from 99 Ranch. It is always my favorite breakfast. 🥣 Wes got a pastry with all of his favorite ingredients - coconut, raisins, and almonds. We bought lots of chips, candy, and other non-perishable grocery items. My mom only uses a specific brand of egg noodles (that has 2 chickens on the packaging 🐓🐓). Cao Nguyen stopped carrying them so she's been lamenting each time we go over to her house for won tons. We found that exact brand at 99 Ranch so, of course we stocked up! LOL

For lunch, we returned to BCD Tofu House. It was my favorite restaurant when we visited for my birthday last year. I was so excited to return but was underwhelmed this time around. 🙁 It had to have been what I ordered because Wes said his meal was just as good as last year's. I got the soon tofu with tripe. I was worried it would be too spicy so I ordered it plain. It was definitely plain... too plain. It didn't have any spice in it and it tasted gamey because of the intestines. I should have stuck with seafood and a low spiciness level. 

We wanted an afternoon snack and had way too many options to choose from. There was a boba cafè, a place that made crêpes, and an ice cream shop that I was interested in. We decided on none of those. LOL We went to Coconut Paradise. I don't even like coconuts! 😅 This place was absolutely amazing. It's decor is so adorable, the owner is the nicest man ever, and the coconut jelly desserts were so good! 😋 I told the owner that I've never tried coconut jelly so he told us all about them and offered samples. I tried the matcha flavor but ended up with chocolate. The coconut jelly is like a pudding but not as thick. The one I got was topped with Oero bits, M&M's, chocolate syrup, mochi balls and coconut flakes. It didn't really even taste like coconut. Wes got the coconut espresso. He said it was good but wish he got the coconut Thai tea in hindsight. 

For dinner we went to Kura for sushi. It is a sushi train restaurant. The wait was super long and the food was just so so. I think people went for the price. It was only $3.75/plate. I always want sushi on my birthday because it is one of my favorite foods but we haven't had much luck. The place we went to last year also wasn't too impressive. The conveyer belt sushi concept is a fun novelty. And they had a robot with a cat's face that played music while it delivered drinks to the table. That was actually my favorite part of our dinner! 😂 I felt like all of the good sushi items came out after we were already full. If you get 15 or more plates, you get a free prize. We only had 7 but the waiter gave us a prize anyway. He must have sensed it was my birthday! 

Our last meal was breakfast before we headed out for home. We got pastries from 85℃ Bakery. Always a good breakfast! 🍪 We got a little extra for the road home. too! Of the places we ate at, I would want to return to Too Thai Street Eats and Coconut Paradise for seconds. I already picked out restaurants I want to try for next year's birthday trip (a Vietnamese place, a different Thai place and a restaurant called Mad for Chicken -- because the name cracks me up).

Now onto reason #2 for the drive down to Texas... shopping!! Wes and I are mostly minimalists but this is the one time a year we really shop. There are very few things that I like so normally shopping bores me but when it comes to fabric, washi tape and stickers, I lose all self control. LOL We spent the first day going to all the shops at Carrollton Town Center. I got tons of washi tape & small gifts from Teso and Daiso, face masks from K-Pop + and, of course, my tokodoki Unicorno 🦄 Sadly, Teso and Daiso didn't have as much tokidoki stuff as they did previously. 

We went fabric shopping our second day. The first shop we went to was Urban Spools. 😍 It is my new favorite fabric store. It has super contemporary and modern prints like Sewciety in Norman, OK, but it was about three times as big. They had a lot of Ruby Star Society prints and there was an entire shelf of Alexander Henry prints!! I saw a bunch of different designs that I've only seen online. I wanted to buy two yards of everything but I controlled myself. I wandered around the store twice and picked out my absolute favorites to buy. My prized purchase is two yards of Endless Love by Alexander Henry. The print is of two Victorian lovers in the English countryside but they're skeletons.

After Urban Spools (which is in Dallas), we drove to Plano to visit Not Your Mama's Quilt Store. The owner was incredibly nice. I told her this was our first time in because we're from out of town. She gave us a quick tour of the store and free bottled water. She claimed to be a modern quilt store but I don't think they had as much unique fabric as Urban Spools. It was a nice mix of traditional and contemporary fabric. I recognized some of the fabric from the Road to Oklahoma Shop Hop I did with my sewing club friends this summer. I saw a lot that I liked but knew I could purchase it in OKC so I didn't buy much, just a few fat quarters.

While we were in Plano (which is way closer to Carrollton than I thought it would be), we went to HobbyTown USA. I guess there are HobbyTowns all over but this one is special because it is a flagship store for Gundam model kits. A quarter of the store was devoted entirely to Gundams. 🤖 I have never seen a Gundam tv show or have any interest in model kits but this place was pretty neat. There were tons of models! The wallpaper (floor paper?) on the floor was printed with Gundam pieces and there was a gigantic model RX 78-2.

The last fabric shop we went to was back in Carrollton. The Old Craft Store is a very traditional quilt shop (all florals and fabrics in your grandma's sewing room). I didn't like any of the prints. The owners were kind of rude, too.😑 The two women followed us around like we were shop lifters. One of the women seemed annoyed when she asked if she could help me find something and I told her I was just looking around. The only interesting part of the store is the antique fallout shelter. There is a room in the back with tons of old canned goods, boxes of provisions, and other general store items. 

And thus concludes another vacation and the end of my 37th year. The highlight of my year was finally making friends in my sewing club. 😁 I've been a member of The Oklahoma City Chapter of American Sewing Guild for probably 5 or 6 years now and I have always been friendly with all of the ladies. But, this year, I actually made a group of friends who I hang out with regularly outside of sewing club, and we've let each other into our personal lives and have become genuine friends (instead of just casually sewing... which we do plenty of that together, too!) 

Wes & Erica's vacation photo album - Carrollton, TX - December 2021

The last time we were in Dallas (probably 2018 or 2019), I discovered that there was a 99 Ranch - my favorite Asian grocery store, and Wes discovered there was a Kinokuniya - his favorite Japanese bookstore, in the city of Carrollton. They are both in a shopping center with lots of cute shops and tons of restaurants. We decided that the next time we travel to Texas, we'd spend a weekend in Carrollton to eat and shop. We were going to do this for Lunar New Year 2020 but had to postpone due to COVID. Then we were going to in August, but Zephyr got super sick the day before we were supposed to drive out. So, FINALLY, we went for my birthday. This was over a month ago but I'm just now finding time to journal. 

You can't drive by a Buc-ee's and not stop in, so the one in Denton was our first stop. We got there around lunchtime on a Saturday and it was packed. We bought snacks, souvenirs, and lunch... all the things you need to buy when visiting a Buc-ee's. LOL I got a hotdog with dill relish and some potato salad for lunch and Wes got a Lunchable-type thing with cubes of cheese, salami, grapes and almonds. We ate it all before I could take a picture. 

Our next meal was dinner. 🍣 One of Wes's friends from work suggested that we go to Blue Sushi. It is his favorite sushi place and gave Wes a stellar review. I was so pumped to try this place... and it was not as good as I had hoped for 😔 Wes said his friend probably likes this place for its vegan options. I think he likes this place because it's a hip restaurant to impress his girlfriend. LOL I'm almost certain that the patrons dine at Blue for its ambiance and not its sushi. I would compare it to Sushi Neko in OKC. The coolest part was the front room & bar that was Godzilla themed. 🐉 It had murals of scenes from the old movies. We weren't trendy enough to be seated near the front; the hostess sat us in a different dining room that wasn't themed.  

The best part of our meal was the shishito peppers we got for our appetizer. One of my rolls had cilantro in it and the other was rolled in tempura beet flakes -- the two best parts of my dinner. Wes said he liked his sushi alright but there wasn't anything special about it. I was kind of bummed after dinner, so I wanted dessert to compensate. There weren't many places that were both nearby and still open so instead of dessert, we decided on coffee. I am so glad we did because Civil Pour was so good. ☕ I got a caramel apple latte that tasted exactly like the lollipops. 

The next morning, we headed out to our Asian shopping center excursion. We had breakfast at 85℃ Bakery. We've been here before and loved it so had to go again. Dine-in wasn't available, which was actually better because we got to heat up our pastries at the hotel. They would have still tasted amazing at room temperature, but I prefer them warmed up. The potato croquette I got was SO freakin' yummy!! 😋

We spent a majority of the day wandering around the shops. It was a really good shopping day. 😁😍 I bought a ton of snacks, goodies for my pen pals, and even Wes (who never shops) bought a couple of things! Of course, we had to take a boba break so we got drinks from 7 Leaves. I got the mung bean milk tea. It was delicious, no surprise. It had bits of crushed up mung beans and reminded me of the mung bean cakes I liked when I was a kid. 

Next meal was lunch (We did do things in between meals; in case you were wondering. We went to Rainbow Vomit 🌈 and the Meadows Museum, and they will be chronicled in the next blog post.) Wes really likes Korean food but it's just so-so for me. 😕 I try to find different Korean restaurants each time we travel in hopes of finding a dish that I really like. And it worked... I found my favorite Korean dish on this trip!! We went to BCD Tofu House and all they serve is soon tofu soup. It was the absolute best Korean food I have ever eaten. Wes really liked it, too, but he didn't agree that it was the best he's had (he's had the homecooked stuff and you can't beat that).

Soon tofu is soft tofu. The soup is made with lots of different spices, ginger, onion and scallion. Chunks of tofu are added to the broth and then you get your choice of meat. I got the combination with beef, shrimp and clams. You get to pick your spice level (I'm a wimp and got 1 🌶pepper). The soup is served boiling hot in a clay pot with a side of rice, traditional Korean side dishes--one was a whole fried mackerel 😋--and a raw egg that you crack into the soup. The restaurant had televisions playing informative videos about how to cook the soup, the proper way to eat it and BCD's annual spicy soup eating competition. 

For dinner, we had Pakistani food at BBQ Tonite. 🍛 I was still pretty full from lunch so I don't think I liked the food as much as I would have if we hadn't eaten a ton just a few hours previously. We shared the beef seekh kebab and rice with lamb. Wes really liked the spice blend they used. It was a good meal albeit a bit too spicy for me. 

Our final meal was breakfast the next morning. When we were shopping at the grocery store the day before, I noticed that 99 Ranch had dim sum at their hot deli. And on their dim sum menu was congee, like the legit congee with salted pork and black preserved egg. OM-freakin'-G!!! I am the only person in my family who likes congee so it's never cooked at family dinners, and you can't find it at many restaurants around here. I was ecstatic!!! I wasn't hungry when we went shopping so I didn't get any... when we returned for breakfast the next morning, I made a beeline for the dim sum and asked for congee. The cook said it wasn't done yet and I would need to wait 5 - 10 minutes. Wes got his breakfast (a pastry and some tea) and we wandered around the store a bit, patiently awaiting. As soon as the 10 minutes had passed, I rushed back to the deli and the cook handed me a steaming hot bowl. I triumphantly brought it to our table and devoured it.  I also got some fried stuffed eggplant, which was also delicious.

We stopped in IKEA on our way home. I got a table for my serger and we got a (much needed) new dining room table. We spent three days in Carrollton and ate as much as we could. SO MUCH GOOD FOOD. Our hotel was only a block away from the Asian shopping center so we had every meal (except for sushi) there. I almost wish we had something like that in Oklahoma but then I think it would take the fun out of travelling for good authentic Asian food. And I would probably be broke from shopping --or I would just have the most awesome collection of stickers & washi tape. LOL Anyway, it was the perfect way for me to spend my birthday! 🎂

Erica & Wes' adventures in ramen noodles.

Home creation: beef flavored instant noodles with dried seaweed, topped with a fried egg and crispy onions.

When Wes & I went to Sydney, my cousin, Kent, suggested that we go to a local ramen house. "Ramen," I asked, "those cheap noodles you get at the Asian grocery store for 0.79 dollars a bag?" (I obviously knew nothing about ramen noodles.) One night during our stay, Wes & I walked to Ippudo. (http://www.ippudo.com.au/) It was a small restaurant inside of the mall and extremely packed with hungry customers. The entire staff (dressed in traditional attire) shouted greetings and thank you's in Japanese as each guest entered and left. The menu was both foreign and adventurous, two of my favorite things when trying new foods. Our dinner was good but I wasn't instantly hooked.

Our meal from Ippudo.

Fast forward two years and there are now two ramen houses -that I know of- in Oklahoma City. I've eaten at them both and enjoyed thoroughly the food (Sydney planted the seeds and it just took me a while to come around). I decided to make some of our own ramen concoctions at home. Wes has made "fancy ramen" before and was on board with the idea. Here are some of the bowls we've come up with. (To all you foodies out there...pretty pretty please don't get offended... this isn't claiming to be as good as the traditional ramen served in the noodle houses. It's definitely an easy DIY imitation using instant noodles and creative pairing of ingredients.)

Instant imitation ramen noodle recipe-

       Ingredients needed: instant ramen and whatever you want to mix into it. Simple enough, yeah?

1. If you're using meat, make sure it is pre-cooked. We used leftover protein from the previous night's dinner.

2. Prepare ramen noodles according to instructions on package.

3. When the water is boiling, add in meat & vegetables along with the noodles & spice packet.

4. Add toppings and serve.

Here are some delicious ideas:

Chicken with edamame and eggplant, topped with cilantro.

Duck and zucchini, topped with cilantro and crispy fried onions (not pictured). I put the zucchini in last so it didn't get too soggy.

Shrimp with mushrooms and edamame, topped with sesame seeds. This was my least favorite combination. I don't think the shrimp worked very well.

The possibilities are endless (as long as you're willing to break tradition)! It's a quick and cheap meal. It's also relatively healthy, the only bad part is the sodium content in the spice packet. And it's fun getting to be creative with what you want to add in. We bought a twelve pack of instant ramen for $7 and had cheap, healthy and fun dinners for a month! 

Some of Erica's favorite places are Asian grocery stores.

If you haven't been to an Asian grocery store, I highly suggest that you go visit one. Wes & I go to the Super Cao Nguyen here quite often. It's pretty low key compared to the ones in Texas and California. Those are ah-maze-ing!! There's all sorts of unique (aka weird but delicious) groceries, different languages being spoken throughout, a local restaurant and/or bakery serving fresh hot foods and the whole environment is just so much fun. They're almost like the open air markets you find in big cities and in other countries. All forms of manners and politeness are null once you walk in: there's no such thing as waiting in line or saying excuse me; if you want something, you just reach and grab it (pushing aside whomever is in your way); there are wild children running around parent-less, and if you want to tell your cousin something who is three aisles over, just yell it out loud in Chinese. Now don't get me wrong, none of these things are bad. It's actually rather exciting. (The only stressful part is the parking lot.) I love to visit the 99 Ranch Market every time I go out of town. And, I like the experience of going shopping here locally on a Sunday afternoon.

OMG just look at all those green vegetables...and ramen, tofu and chips!!

When I was younger, my cousin would often spend the weekends with me. My parents would take us to the old Cao Nguyen market (before it got a makeover and moved into a much larger building) and drop us off at the rice pallets. Toward the back of the store, there were a few pallets piled high with large bags of rice (25lb bags, 50lb bags, etc.) We would climb all over the rice as if it was a jungle gym and play "King of the Mountain." Strangers would tell us how cute we were and we would thank them in Cantonese, which made us cuter, and then they'd give us candy. Oh, those were the days!

Shrimp, lychees and choy (leafy greens)... three of my favorites.

This afternoon, Wes & I went to Super Cao Nguyen to get groceries and ingredients for dinner. For my blog tonight, I would like to share our dinner recipe with you-- HOMEMADE VIETNAMESE SPRING ROLLS.

Our shopping basket.

Spring roll recipe:
       Ingredients needed- 

• spring roll wrappers (I like the "baby in a box" brand)
• rice noodles
• lemon grass
• shrimp
• tofu
• mint
• shredded carrots

We're using fresh mint that we've been growing ourselves.

(Actually, if you could prepare steps #1, 2 & 3 at once, that would be ideal. It is best if the shrimp, tofu and noodles are finished cooking at the same time so all the components can stay hot and fresh for wrapping.)

1. Prepare the meat (shrimp in this case; you can use whichever meats you fancy).
       Peel the outer bark off the lemon grass. Then chop into small pieces and dice in a food processor. Set aside.

       I always get fresh shrimp from the butcher section of the market so it's necessary to peel and de-vein the shrimp. If you are using frozen shrimp, go ahead and skip this step.

       In a wok or large sautee pan, cook the shrimp with the lemon grass and a little bit (probably a tablespoon but I never measure) of water. Set aside. Lemon grass shrimp is delicious so try not to eat any...

This picture is blurry so it doesn't look as appetizing but I promise it is yummy.

   
2. Prepare the tofu.
       Slice the tofu into long slender pieces.

       Pan fry the tofu until browned on each side. Set aside.

3. Prepare the noodles-- boil a large pot of water, throw noodles in, stir around with chopsticks and let them boil until they're soft (let's say 5 minutes. We want them cooked but not mushy.)

4. Set out all your ingredients in an assembly line fashion.
       Shrimp, tofu, noodles, mint, carrots all in separate containers.

5. Fill a large bowl half full with cold water.  Soak the spring roll wrappers ONE AT A TIME in the water. Soak until they are softened and malleable. Try not to tear the wrappers. They should not be too soft, wrinkly or begin to disintegrate.

6. Place a small handful of noodles, a few shrimp & slices of tofu, some carrots and mint at the base of the wrapper. Tightly roll the spring roll, folding in the sides and continue rolling until the entire wrapper is rolled in.

7. Serve either immediately or chilled (I prefer immediately). Serve with sweet peanut sauce (yuck) or Sriracha or soy sauce.

I tried to take an artistic picture but my soy sauce went everywhere. I could never be a fine dining photographer :(