Fortune Garden

I had lunch with Oscar at his friend's new restaurant. It's called Fortune Garden (雙燕樓) and located on Steven's Creek in Cupertino.

We tried a few dishes:





The shrimp and beef dishes were sweet although they were supposed to be spicy. The flavours were similar and I would describe both as 'orange shrimp' and 'orange beef' but I think the menu named them differently. The waiter that took our order should have mentioned that both dishes were similar. The restaurant was almost full while we dined there and remained that way for most of our meal. Unfortunately this was because service was slow and there was not a lot of turnover. Most of the customers were in large groups of 6+ people. It took us about an hour and a half to finish and I think only one table had to be cleared for new customers by the time we left.

Their specialty is Roast Peking Duck and it has to be ordered an hour in advance. I think we'll try that the next time we go there.

Buns

Andrew showed us how to make buns from scratch. I mostly observed and took pictures. Here are some that we made:

From 090314

Some buns were filled with a meat mixture:

From 090314

Lethargic

I spent the day mostly watching TV and napping. I also worked a bit, did laundry, and swept the main floor.

I had pasta soup with chive and pork dumplings for dinner. The dumplings are from Kingdom of Dumplings in San Francisco and are made by hand.

From food

Oscar coincidentally gave me the same type and brand of taro pastry that Eva also gave me. However he gave me one 'daddy' pastry that was around three times the size of the smaller ones from Eva. It did not survive the trip as nicely.

From food

Work/Downtime

Lately I've been very busy with work. Part of my current project is being handled in Japan and it has not gone smoothly. It's frustrating when distance creates visibility and control issues. It's disappointing when company politics and policies harm schedules and progress.

For unknown reasons our company in Japan has implemented a strict policy on working hours. Employees go home at 7pm and do not work on the weekends. Locally we have no such policies and we have to bear the brunt of our customer's wrath when progress is slow. With the type of ASIC engineering work that I'm involved with, setting strict working hours does not always make sense. Our goal is to finish the project quickly so that customers can meet their time to market demands. Efficiency is easily lost because of the long runtimes of our tools. Freedom to arrange our own work schedules is highly desirable.

It's hard to keep a high level of concentration for days, weeks, and even months. Days start to run together and there is nothing to look forward to. I was able to find a few hours of relief today by having brunch with friends at Stacks. I had only been to the one in Menlo Park before but today we went to the location in Campbell. I tried the smoked salmon frittata. A friend commented that my egg was a bit hard but I thought it was ok and explained to her that frittatas were cooked in an oven unlike an omelette.

After lunch we went to see a new townhouse before going back to my friend's place. I stayed a bit to play with their guinea pig before heading back to work. I only stayed at the office around 4 hours today and received 2 calls from a coworker about the project.

For dinner I had portobello mushroom ravioli with a simple dressing. I paired it with a glass of chardonnay.

From food

I hope my project will be finished soon and I can find more downtime.

Church Charity Concert

Last Saturday I attended a charity concert at the River of Life Christian Church in Santa Clara. A couple of friends, Tiffany and Andrew, were part of the performance and invited Mike, Lisa, and me to attend.

Dinner

Before the concert I had dinner at Red Robin. I arrived at around 6:10pm. When I arrived there were empty tables and the waiting area was cleared quickly as customers arrived. Lisa and Mike arrived after 15 minutes and in that time the waiting area became completely packed and the hostess/host had started a waiting list. Luckily the hostess remembered that I had arrived before the waiting list started and she put us at a higher priority. We were seated quite quickly within a couple of minutes.

I tried the Burnin' Love Burger but it wasn't very spicy at all. I guess the fried jalapeno peppers were mild that day.

From 090221

The service was a bit slow so we had to rush to the concert but arrived in time. There were still many people streaming in after we found our seats.

Concert

From 090221

The two main singers were SiEn/Vanessa and Samuel Tai. I've been told that Samuel was very popular in the early 1990s. He also is my friend's cousin's cousin's cousin.

The ushers handed out glow sticks and people occasionally used them now and then during the concert. I think the atmosphere was pretty tame since the venue was a church but there was some audience interaction. During one of Samuel's songs a guy suddenly went up to the stage and gave him some flowers. Samuel gave him a small hug on stage while continuing to sing and later commented that he gave the hug because it was the first time he received flowers from a guy. Later during a transition between songs a few girls yelled that they loved him and Samuel replied by saying he loved them too, even though he didn't know where they sat. We were treated not only to a concert but also an impromptu stand-up show as well! For one song SiEn convinced the audience to join her party by standing up and dancing and singing with her. I think everybody enjoyed the concert.

In the following photo Samuel and SiEn are the two on the right. I think the girl in the purple dress is a member of the church and she sang during the concert as well.

From 090221

Tiffany was on percussion and her hands were red and a bit swollen from all the banging on the drums. She's the one in the front:

From 090221

Andrew was playing drums but unfortunately we couldn't see Andrew performing from our vantage point. After the concert we met up with Tiffany and Andrew. We got to go 'backstage' and Lisa took pictures with Samuel and SiEn.

Here are a couple of videos that I found on YouTube:





I also found SiEn's blog.

Snacks from Taiwan

Eva brought back some snacks for me from Taiwan.

The taro pastry is a nice change from often receiving pineapple cake. :P

From 090216

The box mentions that taro has four times the edible fiber content compared with rice but only has 90% of the calories. I found a website with nutritional data of various food to verify the claims. More information about taro, and other food, can be found here.

Feb 14 Dinner

I cooked a steak in my toaster oven for Valentine's Day and Nana's one week anniversary.

From 090214

It was more medium than my goal of medium rare.

From 090214

Still, I think it turned out better than Peter's microwaved steak. :P

Nana Piggy

Pets.

Pets provide companionship and unconditional love.
Pets however require attention and care.
Pets are totally dependent on their owners for their well-being.

They need to be fed.
They need to be cleaned and cleaned up after.
They need medical attention from qualified veterinarians.

Like all living creatures, pets eventually die.
They can't survive without basic needs such as food, water, oxygen, and shelter.
They have fragile bodies that can suffer from illness and injuries.

Pets need to receive immediate medical assistance if there are signs of abnormal behavior. They are unable to communicate by talking and therefore it is up to their owners to notice if their pets are in distress. Even with medical care, sometimes, as with humans, they can't be saved from the clutches of death.

As an integral part of the family, there are many emotions that appear upon their death.
There may be feelings of denial, confusion, guilt, anger, despair, grief, relief, and acceptance.

Two years ago, close friends decided to raise 2 guinea pigs and named them Nana and Bobo. A week ago, Nana passed away on the operating table. I received notification through a text message simply stating "Nana died."

Nana died at a young age and should have lived much longer. The final two weeks of her life were difficult and painful. I will remember her curiosity and appetite. She was a demanding piggy that squealed for veggies upon hearing the sound of a fridge door opening or a plastic bag rustling. I enjoyed watching her roam around her cage and munch on her food. She leaves behind her companion Bobo as well as her loving family. She will be missed.

RIP Nana.