Wes & Erica's vacation photo album // DFW, TX // December 2024

 

Another year, another trip to eat & shop at Carrollton Town Center. 🍴 Although this year, we branched out and ate & played all throughout the DFW area. The hotel we usually stay at in Carrollton was full so Wes found us a place in Farmers Branch. I was a bit worried at first but it turned out to be a more central location for all of our activities. I did so much driving 🚗(which I was also dreading but the traffic was surprisingly not violent nor overly congested). Our first stop was an errand for one of Wes's friends. He ordered a computer part from Micro Center and charged us with picking it up. I assumed Micro Center would be a small shop in a strip mall but is gigantic. Should be called Mega Macro Center!! It was like the size of two Best Buys or one very large Circuit City (remember those from back in the day?) 

Vegan tuna rice cakes (top left picture) was the best part of lunch!!

Our first actual vacation stop was lunch. We went to Blue Sushi Sake Grill for dinner a few years ago. I wasn't impressed and Wes said it was just okay, but he actually loved it. When we were planning all the restaurants we'd try this year, I mentioned sushi and he suggested giving this place another go. 🍣 He said the roll he got was really good & unique, and that he liked the Godzilla theme and vibe of the restaurant. I was hoping that we'd get to sit by the Godzilla mural this time, but our hostess sat us at almost the same table as our last visit. We came during happy hour and our waitress talked us into getting all the specials. LOL Wes ordered the same roll as last time and said it was just as delicious, but I again, wasn't super impressed with my meal. 😕 I thought the shishito peppers had too much shallot and my spicy octopus roll was entirely too spicy 🔥 (like it overwhelmed the octopus). One thing saved my meal and that was the vegan tuna. Wes refused to try it but it was SO GOOD; like a thousand times tastier than I expected! Blue Sushi Sake Grill is known for its vegan sushi options. I didn't try any last time, but I was really curious about their Vegan Tuna Rice Cakes. Their vegan tuna had the same texture and taste of actual tuna. Now I know that if we got back (which I probably will veto next time), I should only get the vegan options.

I got my first hole-in-one with the bonus on the Connect 4 hole.

We went to play crazy golf next. 🏌 We've played putt putt a few times (Wes is a huge mini golf fan) but never crazy golf. It is so much better! Each hole had an added game attached to it, like it was ski ball and you had to hit the ball into the highest slot, or it was Tetris and you had to maneuver the ball around the blocks. There was the Diamond, Emerald, Ruby (our course), Amber, and Sapphire courses. I had a lot of fun even though my shots were so dismal that the automated tv screen displayed a depressing message after each shot. I kept getting the message that read, What a string of bad luck!, literally after every stroke. LOL 😅 I know & admit that I am terrible at sports (and basically any activity that has a game element to it) so I wasn't mad about it. I actually had a ton of fun! In the end, I did end up with two hole-in-ones, and one of them included the special bonus shot. 👍 My final score was 330 and I was #61 for the day (I think only 70 players had come in so far). Wes managed a 410 and was in third place for the day. I would totally come back every year and try to play on a different course (they're automatically assigned when you come in, so I think its completely random which one you'll get on any given day). My score most likely won't improve, but each course has a set of different games, and I'd like to get the opportunity to fail at all of them. 😆

So much Hello Kitty merch for her 50th anniversary. I loved the Texas kitties and almost bought one for me & Lacey.

We went "home" to the Doubletree by Hilton Near the Galleria (the hotel was seriously called that but it was in Farmers Branch instead of Dallas) to rest a bit before our shopping at Daiso, Teso, and Kinokuniya. Shopping wasn't all that this year 😔; there wasn't that much cute washi tape or pen pal supplies, and I think there is less and less tokidoki stuff each time we go. Kinokuniya was actually closed for the day, so we went back tomorrow.

Those noodles changed my life.

We had dinner at Fat Ni BBQ. 😋 It is a skewer restaurant; you order off a sheet of paper, like at sushi restaurants but they're all types of meats on skewers. 🍖 I wanted one of everything but had to practice restraint. LOL We weren't sure how big the pieces of meat were so we only ordered a few. They're pretty small portions so I would 100% opt for more next time. Each skewer can be made spicy or not spicy. We got a few of each. They're all flavored with Asian 5-spice blend. Everything we got was amazing, but the Oil Spill Noodles were the super star of the meal. It is flat noodles drenched in chili oil with bok choy and roasted garlic & scallions. It was just the right amount of spicy. 

The next morning, we had breakfast at the Grand Prairie location of 85℃. It's a smaller location with less options than the Carrollton one (and the guy at the counter wouldn't heat up my pastry like they do in Carrollton 😢), but it was also much closer to our next activity. I wanted to try the new toffee latte that was on special but they were out of toffee 😑 I got a Matcha Oat Pumpkin Spice Latte instead. I thought it might be too many flavors but it all blended together really well, and it was the perfect hot drink for a chilly morning (it was actually cold in December in TX this year! ❅). Everything was delicious, as always.

The bakery was next to an Asian "mall," so we took a walk around after we finished breakfast. It was bringing back flashbacks of the Asian malls I went to when we visited my dad's side of the family in Houston & Dallas when I was younger; herbal shops that smelled awful, gold & jewelry stores, and all the slippers, fuzzy blankets and silly imported fashions. Most of the shops that I was interested in were still closed so there wasn't too much to see. The food court looked amazing and I almost wished we came hungry for lunch. We did our grocery shopping at Hong Kong market since it was there, and we figured we might not have much time tomorrow to shop at 99 Ranch. It is smaller but still had all the stuff we needed. There were flyers advertising a dragon dance competition at Asia Times Square later in December; I wish we could have come back for it. 🐉 I wonder who won.  

Didn't like much of the art, but here are a few pieces I thought was cool. 

We went to the Arlington Art Museum next to see the Disney costume exhibit. (I took soooooo many pictures so we'll save that experience for tomorrow's blog post. 💻) The "museum" is an itty bitty section of a much larger event space. The event space had a giant E-sports arena, which seemed to be the main attraction of the center. Parking at the museum was a total rip off. 😡 There was no street parking so we were forced to pay $10 to park in a deserted lot that was at least two blocks away. There was zero security or even a sidewalk for us to walk back to the main entrance. The museum's permanent collection was a small gallery of amateur student art. It was very obviously student art. Every single piece was purposefully woke and aggressively thought provoking, i.e. there was a section of unnecessarily graphic abortion art. I prefer to view art and then come to my own conclusions about it, but everything in this gallery was screaming, look at how horrible people like you have made the world, and now it's up to me, a righteous artist, to save all of humanity with my opinions. Just so gross and pretentious. At least the permanent collection was free with our Disney ticket so I didn't waste any money on it.

Next was lunch. We ate at Hurtado BBQ--another good pick. 😋 [I think we choose good really good restaurants on this trip. I usually look on Instagram for places to try but sometimes the food isn't as good as portrayed in the pictures, but not this time. Every place was so yummy!] Hurtado is one of those small barbeque joints that is open until they're sold out of meat smoked for the day. It was really busy even after the lunch rush (I think it was around 2:30 or 3pm when we went). My eloté brisket bowl was perfectly balanced. Not too much sauce or too much lime, like I've had at other places. Wes said his Spanish rice was amazing because it was cooked in the meats' drippings.

After lunch, we stopped in White Rhino coffee for an afternoon snack before driving back to the hotel. ☕ I got a Whole Latte Love, which is a lavender honey coffee. It had a very strong and distinctive flavor. Wes said his cold brew was a little on the weak side, but still good. The café advertised a local vendor market the following weekend, which makes me want to consider doing smaller café shows here. Any recommendations? Hurtado and White Rhino made Arlington worth visiting, but I didn't really like the city much. It's definitely not as nice as other Dallas suburbs. 

How cool is this place? There are bird cages hanging from the ceiling and flying saucers printed on the dinnerware! 

We had dinner at Ida Claire. I 100% recommend this place! The Southern voodoo/tarot, ancient vibe is so cool! 😎 It just had the best atmosphere as soon as we walked in. The food & drinks was also really good. There were whole pieces of lobster in my seafood pasta 🦞 Wes got the chicken and waffles. He doesn't like his food touching, and usually chicken and waffles is served with the chicken on top of the waffles and then a bunch of toppings. But, Ida Claire had the chicken on the side of the waffles and all the different syrups & butter in their own separate ramakins. There was a Thunder game on at the bar. We sat close enough to where we could watch it. It felt weird rooting for the Thunder when literally everyone else was rooting for the Dallas Mavericks. The Thunder won so they can all suck it. LOL

Our last meal before we left town was my customary black egg congee at 99 Ranch. I look forward to it every year. 😊 I got a side of taro cakes this year (they didn't have my eggplant). We already did our grocery shopping yesterday so we didn't really need to walk around the ranch. The cosmetics shop where I always get my face masks changed their hours from 10am to 11am so I couldn't get any this year. 😥 I guess we could have waited around for an hour, but we were both pretty anxious to get back to Athena & Zephyr. 🐕 We stopped in Buc-ee's on our way home and bought a ton of stuff, but I didn't take any pictures. It was fun to do activities and try restaurants outside of Carrollton this year. I already spotted some new places I want to try next time while we were driving around. Everything we ate was good, but to recreate the perfect meal I would choose: oil spill noodles from Fat Ni and the brisket eloté from Hurtado. With a side of the vegan tuna rice cakes from Blue Sushi and the fried oysters from Ida Claire, and the cocktail from Ida Claire for my drink. 🍹 And the matcha oat pumpkin spice latte from 85℃ for my dessert. 

Preview of the Heroes & Villians Disney costume exhibit.

The main reason why we spent so much time outside of Carrollton was because I wanted to see the Disney costume exhibit. 👗 The costumes are from the Disney archives so they're the actual pieces that the actors wore on screen. I knew it would be fantastic, but it was a thousand times more awesome than I thought it would be. I'm not even a Disney fan, just a massive lover of clothes & fashion. More on that to come... 

Wes & Erica's vacation photo album // Tulsa & Sapulpa, OK // November 2024

Earlier this month, Wes & I took a quick weekender to Tulsa to watch their ballet perform Dracula. 🧛The original plan was to go to the ballet, then drive to Price Tower in Bartlesville. We'd stay the night in a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired room, take the tour in the morning and then drive home. Just as I was about to book our room & tour, I saw on the news that the Price Tower is closed. 😒 There aren't any other tourist attractions in Bartlesville so I pivoted to Sapulpa. 

We got in to Tulsa around lunchtime and ate at Fixins Soul Kitchen. It is a local Black-owned restaurant in the Greenwood District that partners with Black-owned breweries and distilleries. I don't remember the name of the businesses, and I wish I did because our drinks were amazing (and mine was very pretty 🌺). Everything was good, but the roasted okra was the best part of my meal. I paid for the maximum time for parking (2 hours) since I wasn't sure how long lunch would take. [A quick note on parking - I had to download the ParkMobile app, which was dumb because I hate apps, but it ended up being great because it had a very efficient countdown timer and parking was only $2!!] We still had about 45 minutes left on the meter, so we browsed Magic City Books and Made boutique. Both were cute but way overpriced. 

After lunch, we headed to the Vintage Sewing Machine Center & Museum. I've been wanting to visit but they weren't open the last time we were in town. The museum is free but donations are appreciated. The owner teaches classes and holds afterschool programs for children. He showed us some samples of his students' projects and they all looked so professional, way better than what I can do! 

There was another visitor when we arrived; they were busy unboxing a brail sewing machine sent over from the Netherlands, so the owner told us to walk around as we please and not to forget to go downstairs. The "museum" is a house that's been gutted and jam-packed full of sewing machines. Like thousands of them! Some of the rooms are themed & organized but its mostly a mess. LOL I spotted my newly acquired treadle machine! I was going to tell the owner that I have one, too, but I forgot to mention it when we got to talking. Along with sewing machines, there is also a nice collection of old patterns, books, notions and some fabric. I told the owner (I wish I got his name; he was super nice and very informative) that I make my own clothes and he said I could take some fabric & patterns but I didn't want to disrupt his collection. 

The owner found us downstairs and started giving us a history lesson on sewing machines in the military. He has a handful of giant industrial machines that he uses for his classes. He gave me a quick lesson and I felt so silly because I couldn't sew on them. 😳 I didn't really understand the mechanics, but there are no feed dogs and the entire machine is driven by the needle. The machines use a walking foot (I have one but have never used it) and a walking needle (which I have never heard of but it seems to be better than the feed dogs). He said there was one of these machines on each of the aircraft carriers and they were used for upholstery and parachutes. He kept telling us about how the feet and needle work differently when sewing thick leather. Wes seemed to understand but I was lost. All I know is that I want a swiveling foot that can sew in all directions; instead of having to move the piece of fabric around.  

After our downstairs tour, he took us back up and showed me what he says is the best sewing machine ever made. It is a black Singer 201 with the light in the front. I didn't take a picture of it because I was really into his history tour and forgot - I don't think I took a picture of any of the machines he mentioned. Anyway, the assembly of the 201 machine is impossible to mess up because each piece is shaped differently. The light in the front is what sold me on it. He talked about some other machines but I don't remember any more fun facts. Before we left, he let me make a souvenir tile (and showed me all the neat ones his students have made, center right in picture above).  

Our hotel had a late check-in so we were going to go to the mall to find my Unicorno figurine and then stop into Glacier Chocolate & Coffee for a snack, but the sewing machine museum tour took longer than expected. I conceded to skipping my Uniorno, but I wasn't passing up on a sweet treat. I got a free truffle since it was my first time in Glacier. 🍬 I picked the peach raspberry one. Wes got a lemon cheesecake and an oatmeal raisin truffle (he said both were meh) and a cold brew (which he said was weak). My triple berry sorbet was good, but what I came in for was a caramel apple cup that Lacey showed me on Instagram. Sadly, it wasn't on the menu 😑

🩰Ballet time!! 💃 There was no photography allowed so this section will be quite boring. LOL The Tulsa Performing Arts Center is really nice and we had great seats in the mezzanine. There were several people in Dracula cosplay. We saw a guy dressed exactly like Gary Oldman in the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola movie (remember the grey suit & top hat? 🎩). This ballet version of Dracula was very different from the Bram Stoker novel. I don't even think Dracula was the main character; it was mostly about a towns girl and her fiancé. Act II was the longest and biggest part of the story. It look place in the village where the towns girl (another name I should have remembered) lives and it was all about her eighteenth birthday dance and her engagement. The dancers were immensely talented but I thought it was too long and repetitive. Renfield in Acts I & III was the best dancer, in my opinion. I think I prefer the OKC Ballet's performance of Dracula that we saw a few Halloweens ago much better. 

We were going to eat at Mr. Kim's (a trendy late-night Asian fusion restaurant) after the ballet, but we were both tired so we just got Taco Bell and went back to the hotel--welcome to your 40s 😭. I was so ready to fall asleep but there was an annoying tapping/hammering going on in either the room next to or above ours. I called the front desk and Guest Services told me there were hooligans in the stairwell. 😒 A ton of other rooms have called to complain and their security is trying to find the culprits but they keep moving from floor to floor. I think they finally found them on our floor, thank goodness!

The next morning we had breakfast at New York Bagel. Initially, we wondered why it was in a giant two-story building... we soon found out how busy it gets on a Saturday morning. 😮 Luckily, we got there before the rush. My salmon lox bagel was good except for the red onions weren't pickled. We had just run out of Everything Seasoning at home so it was nice to find a bottle for sale at the restaurant.

I've been wanting to go to The Gathering Place park for a while now but the weather never cooperated each time we've been in Tulsa. ⛅ We almost went after Chinh's wedding last year but I didn't bring a jacket, and it was actually cold in December. There was rain in the forecast this time, too, but it was mostly just overcast so we took a chance and went. We only got sprinkled on a bit --and luckily, we were near the boathouse so we went in to look at the Cabinet of Wonder.

The Cabinet of Wonder is a very clean and organized antique shop. [Two adjectives never used to describe an antique shop. LOL 😆] It had some cool stuff, like a drawer full of old scissors (top right picture) and some rocks & fossils. Like a majority of the park, it was mostly for children. I think I was more impressed at how everything was categorized & displayed than what was actually on display. A family came in as we were going out and the kids were astonished by the fossils, wide-eyed and declaring it a dinosaur (it was horse), so I guess it hit its target audience. 

We also came across a pressed penny machine. One of my pen pals collects them so I had to get her one. Lorie, I put it in the mail last week! I hope you get it soon! 😃 

The map of the park made it look MUCH larger than it actually is. We walked through all of it, except for the children's play area and some gardens on the outer perimeter, and it took us less than two hours. We walked all along Peggy's Pond and went up Mist Mountain (my favorite part of our walk). 🌄 The mountain has lots of manmade waterfalls and gutters that would direct water all around the stones, but the fountains were turned off. 😒 Either that or Oklahoma hasn't been getting enough rain. There weren't any birds but we kept hearing loud birdcalls so we suspect there were speakers hidden in the trees for ambiance. The landscaping is beautiful. It was nice seeing all the leaves in their autumnal colors. We'll have to come back in spring or summer to see everything in bloom.

The Gathering Place was really beautiful and deserving of all its awards. 🌲 We didn't see a single piece of litter, or any homeless people. The homelessness in Tulsa was rampant (waaaaaay worse than in OKC) so I was surprised at how clean and pure the park still is. After our peaceful morning walk, we headed to Sapulpa for part two of our trip.

We had lunch at Wimpy's. Wes is always quoting his tagline (I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today), so when it popped up on the list of unique restaurants along Route 66, I knew we had to go. The food was very mid (I got the Frito chili pie and Wes got a hamburger & fries, and I could have made both of those items better at home), but the prices were cheap so I guess it was worth going to. I think people go for the friendly staff and novelty of it being a Popeye's themed restaurant. 

Next on the agenda was the World's Tallest Gas Pump. We also went inside the Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum. 🚗 Car museums are a permanent fixture on our "travel to-do" list, along with art museums and fashion exhibits. I'm counting the Vintage Sewing Machine Center & Museum in the latter category so we got both on this trip! 😁 Anyway, there was a map and guest book at the lobby with people signing in from all over the world (we saw a party listing Cape Town, South Africa as their location!), but we were the only ones to sign in for November 2, 2024. 

There was lots of classic cars for us to admire. Several of them had current license plates so they must travel to car shows. I think one had a few ribbons hanging from its dash. The neatest vehicle there, in my opinion, was the 1967 Amphicar. It had propellers for driving in water. It only drove a few times and never caught on. Wes liked Maserati. I admit that is a cool car but no propellers or silly gimmick so my pick wins. LOL 😆

The owner of the sewing machine museum told us about how the Singer 201 was used to sew the interior dash of Rolls Royces, and he also mentioned how the industrial machines sewed on leather with a perfectly even stitch length. I never noticed before, but I found myself inspecting the stitches on the cars' seats and other details. 

Our original plan was to go to Little Taiyaki to get a quick snack (they serve Japanese-style ice cream desserts) on our way out of town. I didn't realize how close to Christmas it is (its not, by the way 😑) and downtown Sapulpa was already setting up for their famous Christmas Chute. The roads were closed so we had to park outside of downtown and walk. That was kind of annoying but we got a free viewing of the chute. Wes didn't feel like ice cream and I wasn't super hungry so we passed on our snack. I actually looked at the menu when we got into the restaurant and was going to try to get something to go if it looked amazing but I wasn't completely sold. 

Instead we went to Crossroads Coffee Lab. Wes got a cold brew and said it was really good. The dine-in restaurant part looked really nice, and they had a little soda fountain with gelato, so we'll have to go back to sit down for a meal & dessert if we're ever back in Sapulpa. I am usually terrible when it comes to timing (I try to cram too much into a vacation), but we were actually early leaving town this time around. We would get back into OKC before 6pm so we could pick up the dogs early from camp. 🐕💓 I was all excited to see Athena & Zephyr but Wes reminded me (when he tried calling the camp), that they close at 3pm on weekends. Oh well. We took Route 66 for the scenic route home. We drove through Drumright and Cushing, and I was ready to stop if I saw an interesting tourist attraction but there was none. 

Wes & Erica's Vacation Photo Album - San Francisco, CA (food) - August 2022

8 Tables by George Chen

Our vacation seems sooooo long ago... but I've been super busy with craft shows and custom orders (definitely not complaining!) and I've become way more active with my sewing club so I'm just now getting around to posting about our trip in August. I usually like to wait a couple of weeks before journaling so I can gather my thoughts and let it sink in, but I think this time I might have gone on too long and have forgotten some of the nuances & detail. Oh well, it'll mostly be pictures anyway. 

I usually bring a book on flights, but I switched to crocheting this time and it was so much better. I think my love of reading has been replaced by audiobooks.

Wes and I love to eat, and the food in San Francisco did not disappoint. We went to our first tasting menu, and it was a dream!! 😋 My first meal on our vacation was a bag of Cheez Its I got at the airport in Oklahoma, then we got breakfast at the Las Vegas airport (Wendy's and Leaf & Bean Coffee). Our first meal in San Francisco was at Goldilocks in the airport. Goldilocks is a Filipino chain restaurant. It was good... for an airport meal. My garlic fried rice was mushy and entirely too garlicy. 

Our first actual meal was at the Beach Chalet Restaurant at the Golden Gate Park. **Side note: I've always meticulously planned our trips... what to see & do, where to eat, etc., but this time, I just made a general itinerary. It was hard to pick restaurants in advance because there were just so many! I think the spontaneity made the trip fun, but I also think we missed out on some essential San Francisco eateries.😕** We spent our first afternoon walking around the Golden Gate Park and the plan was to just end up somewhere for dinner. At the end of the park sat the Beach Chalet. The restaurant was pretty upscale; we weren't dressed for it and we didn't have a reservation, but they seated us anyway. (Luckily, it was a slow weeknight.) They had their own brewery, but I was way too dehydrated from walking around to enjoy a beer. Wes got a Seal Rock Black Lager, and fish & chips. I got the mussels. They were really yummy, but I think I prefer them in a tomato-based sauce instead of cream. I ate Wes's coleslaw for him since he doesn't like it, and it was very different from what we have in Oklahoma. The coleslaw dressing was mayonnaise, like a thick flavorless off-brand mayonnaise. Everything else about the meal was great.

The next morning, we set out for Chinatown. We wanted to head out early to grab coffee but literally everything was closed until 10am. It was just before 9am when our Uber dropped us off. 😔 We wandered a bit and found a tiny coffee shop inside of a bank lobby. The owner was the nicest man in the entire city! He was the embodiment of a jovial Italian immigrant that you would see on a sitcom, but in a good way. He even said "fuggedaboutit" unironically. I ordered a macchiato and he warned me that it wasn't like the ones Starbucks makes. I accepted and Wes ordered his drink. When he brought it out, he had me try it in front of him and request adjustments. There was zero sugar in it. I didn't want to say anything (or admit defeat) since he was so nice, but he must have saw the look on my face because he took it back and added more milk and sprinkled cinnamon on top for me. Still not sugar though. He offered us brownies on the house as we were leaving. He spritzed Persian water on them, which smelled amazing. 

Lunch was at City View. I knew I absolutely had to have dim sum while in San Francisco. A majority of the dim sum restaurants didn't have dine in so that sort of limited our options. But, City View was so good and we got there right before the lunch rush!! The stuffed eggplant with fried tofu was my favorite. Wes really enjoyed the lotus wrapped sticky rice. We had to be careful not to order too much so I had to skip some of my usuals (no tripe or chicken feet this time around). 

I really wanted to snack all day while we were in Chinatown but our dim sum meal was so filling. The only snack I got was matcha ice cream. 🍦 OMG it was amazing!! It tasted like matcha, it tasted like vanilla, it was an awesome soft-serve swirl!!! 😍 Besides the tasting menu we had for dinner, I think this singular ice cream cone was the best thing I ate on vacation. Wes was going to get the pandan coconut soft-serve swirl but changed his mind last minute and just got a yuzu drink. 

I wanted to go to San Francisco for two reasons: 1. The Fantasy Couture exhibit at the Legion of Honor Museum and 2. the tasting menu at 8 Tables by George Chen. One of the food bloggers I follow called the tasting menu "the best meal of his life," and one of the food magazines I came across hailed 8 Tables as one of San Francisco's "most sought-after reservations." I wholeheartedly agree with both. 😀 This was my first experience with a tasting menu and it 100% did not disappoint. Literally everything about it was great -- the food (obviously), the building, atmosphere, staff, drinks and overall vibe! The meal represented a cozy & intimate traditional Chinese dinner. It was eight courses, all using local seasonal ingredients. We also got drinks (cocktail for me & wine for Wes) but I don't remember what they were. 

The first course was the "9 Essential Flavors" of Chinese cuisine according to chef George Chen, called Jiu Gong Ge. Our waiter explained each morsel to us, and I think we promptly forgot as soon as he walked away. 😂LOL My favorites were the right most of each row. The top right corner is a sweet pear, the center one is spicy eggplant wonton, and the bottom right corner is salty crunchy thing with caviar. Wes's favorite was also the pear, with the sweet stuffed date (top left corner) coming in a close second. 

We found out during the second course that we had to eat everything before the waiter would bring out the next dish. Our second course was Suan La Tang, a spicy & sour soup. I love soup but it isn't Wes's favorite thing to eat. He still had about 1/4 of his bowl left when the waiter came to collect our dishes. The waiter peered into his bowl and said, "You have one more bite," and walked away. 😂 

The seafood course, Steamed Monterey Squid, was my favorite of the night. It was also served on my favorite plate. LOL The squid's tentacles are fried and the rest of him is stuffed into a squash blossom. I liked the squishy surprise when I bit into the squash blossom, but Wes didn't like the texture. I've never had squid prepared this way before and really liked it. Steam and emulsify everything from now on!!

Next was more soup!! We had a Porcini Mushroom 'Dun Dan'. There was a custard at the bottom of the bowl that we scooped out and ate with the soup. The soup reminded me of the traditional Chinese medicines that my mom would cook in the crock pot and have me eat when I was sick as a child. I never enjoyed it then but I'm glad my taste buds evolved because this was delicious! The chicken is stuffed with some other sort of poultry and placed on a little grill to keep it hot. 

After the first four courses came the entrees. I was already starting to get full by this point. 😓 Our first entree was Lapsang Smoked Squab. Before bringing out our plates, the waiter brought out a box of knives and let us pick our own. I grabbed a beige one and Wes went with black. The square bit next to the meat is scallop and asparagus sticky rice. I think I liked it more than the squab. I love how artistically it was presented. I've never had squab before. 

Longevity Noodles came next. They were cooked with beef and vegetables in an XO sauce. I really liked the seafood dish but this one almost took over first place. Our waiter gave us a small glass of the wine pairing, a Melville Syrah, with this dish. He must have noticed we had finished our drinks but were too timid (or, let's be honest, cheap LOL) to order more. 🍷

I was so relieved when the waiter told us this would be our last savory dish. I was 1. getting extremely full, and 2. really wanting dessert. Wes liked this dish the best; Iberico Pork Char Siu. The pork was really really good, but I think the fried rice was the star here. I just noticed that this is served on the same plate as the seafood dish. Wes & my favorite courses both came on the same style of plates. How neat! Anyway, I didn't want to get in trouble for not eating everything but there was no way I could finish it, so I gave Wes most of my char siu.

Dessert time!!!! 🍨 Up until now, my favorites were the squid and noodles... dessert (Jasmine Tea Rice Pudding) quickly took the #1 spot. The rice pudding was topped with strawberry ice cream, bits of dragon fruit & strawberry, and jasmine foam. I've never had foam, but I didn't expect it to taste so much of jasmine. Our waiter brought us the wine pairing, Degeorgis "Sori del Re" moscato d'asti. The meal was everything I could want it to be and right as I thought it was over, our waiter brough us a second dessert! 🍭

🐉We got dragon's beard candies as our one last bite before the meal ended. Our waiter said they are stuffed with something different each night; the night we went was peanuts. Dragon's beard is another thing I had never tried before. It tasted like fancy cotton candy. What I liked most about this experience is all of the new foods I got to try. I told Wes that we are getting reservations to a tasting menu on each trip we take going forward!!

I'm not sure if it was because I was still stuffed from last night's dinner, or if the food was really blah, but breakfast at Brenda's French Soul Food was the most underwhelming meal in San Francisco. The selling point for us was their beignet flight, but they weren't even that good. 😒 It's one plain beignet, one stuffed with apples & cinnamon, and one with chocolate goo in the center. I got the biscuits and gravy; the gravy had way too much onion in it. There were gigantic pieces of (almost) raw onions littering my gravy! No thanks! 🙅Wes said his breakfast was good though. 

Our home for the week. The Courtyard Marriott was in a terrible location for Uber drivers. One of our drivers told us that he couldn't drop us off in front of the hotel because there wasn't a legal parking space to do so. 😑Annoying. 

The concierge told us about the restaurant on the first floor of the hotel when we first checked in. We had planned to have one of our meals there. It looked really nice, and the menu online looked decent but there were NEVER any diners in there. Our room faced a curious dive restaurant called Tommy's Joynt. At the last minute, I suggested that we lunch there instead of the empty hotel restaurant. Tommy's is a cash only, no frills, not very friendly, sandwich restaurant. It advertised all sorts of house-smoked meats. I got a corned beef sandwich and I think Wes got the brisket. It was very tasty but I liked the potato salad more. I've noticed a pattern of me liking the sides more than the main part of the meal...

Our flight out of San Francisco was at 5am so the plan was to eat an extremely early dinner, then get back to the hotel to pack and rest by early evening. The problem was that we've been eating almost all day and were not hungry at all for an early dinner. I suggested a sushi train so we could just get a few dishes and be in & out. We went to Hikari bullet train sushi. 🍣 I've had sushi train before but not bullet train. We ordered on a tablet and the food came out on a cute little conveyer belt. It was brought out on either a ship or a train. Our tablet flashed and made noises at us when the food was about to be delivered. Everyone else at this restaurant must have been regulars because I was the only one amused by this. The sushi was super good!

So there's all of the food pictures from our vacation. We did a ton of touristy stuff, so more blog posts to come!! I didn't take any pictures of our airport meals, but on our way back, we had a crazy long layover in Las Vegas. I discovered a Shake Shack at the airport!! Shake Shack is my favorite hamburger restaurant and there aren't any in Oklahoma, so it was a nice surprise to find one. We had breakfast there and also got coffee from Dunkin'. Our vacation fulfilled all of my foodie wishes. I will fondly remember our meal at 8 Tables for the rest of my life. My only regret is that I wish we had more time to eat in Chinatown.