I’m working late tonight to get a slidedeck finished for an important meeting tomorrow. There wasn’t anything substantial to eat in my office, so I took a quick drive over to Ken’s Hong Kong Café at 2255 140th Avenue NE, which Mari recommended to me a few weeks ago. I was glad to see that it was pretty crowded with Asians and had some Chinese channel on the overhead TV, which are both typically very good indications that the restaurant made good food. I needed something quick and easy to eat, so I ordered the classic Beef Chow Fun. Boy, was it good! The noodles were fresh and tasty and just melted in my mouth.

   And the best part of all is that Ken’s is only a 10 minute walk from our new house! I’m really starting to enjoy being here. :-)

   Well, I guess this is truly my year! I’m about to turn 36 years old, so this is the year of my Chinese Zodiac – the Dog. I have a new job that I love, and I’m about to move into a new house that my family will love. For Chinese New Year’s Eve (Saturday), we went to the Seattle Chinatown International District, which to our surprise, was relatively small compared to the Chinatowns in San Francisco and Oakland. What I really liked about it was that there were no crowds and no bad smells like you’d often find at the San Francisco Chinatown. In general, Bellevue and Seattle are a lot less crowded than Oakland and Seattle, respectively, and I’m starting to appreciate that a lot. Anyway, we did some grocery shopping and had a very good dinner at the New Star Seafood Restaurant on S. Jackson. Afterwards, we stopped by the Gossip Espresso & Tea café for what is probably the best bubble milk tea in town. I’d highly recommend the hot taro bubble milk tea and the iced mango version.

   Having been here for about 4 months, I was missing good dim sum, which we used to have at least once a month back in the Bay Area – our favorite place remains Legendary Palace in Oakland. Fortunately, just by chance, we found a fairly good dim sum restaurant called Jeem, which is less than 5 minutes from where we live! From our new house, we can practically walk there! The kids really liked the food, which is always a critical factor for us these days. Sophia, in particular, just loves the chrysanthemum tea along with the sesame balls.

   It’s another Saturday night, which means, sushi at home! This time, I got some hamachi (yellow tail), which next to toro (fatty tuna), is my favorite kind of raw fish. Even at nearly $20/pound, it’s still a lot less expensive to prepare at home than having it at a restaurant. I also got some amberjack, which was quite good, and some tilapia to try for the first time, which turned out to be a bit too chewy for my taste – tilapia is much better steamed or fried. The store made tuna poke was meant for lunch the next day, but I think that I can actually make a better poke sauce (spicier and more flavorful) and save some money though probably not too much since the whole package was only $12.99/pound at the store.

   Of course, there's nothing that's worth more than seeing the big smiles on my kids when they savor the food that they helped prepare.

   Since I got my wife an early Christmas present and since I had some credit remaining in an Amazon.com gift certificate that I had received several months ago as a “spot bonus” from work, I figured that it was only fair to get an early Christmas present for myself as well. :-) You see, I have a love/hate relationship with both Starbucks and Jamba Juice. Although I’ve seldom turned down an opportunity (oh, I mean, excuse, when I’m with customers or my kids) to have a café latte or smoothie, respectively, at those joints, I’ve always hated (and I mean with a passion) to pay nearly $4 for the pleasure each time. Yes, I’ll pay $3 for a gallon of gas because I need it to get to places, but $4 for a beverage? For what? Quench my thirst? No, I can drink water instead.

   But since my credit on Amazon.com could not be redeemed for cash, I decided to put it to good use, and after spending an hour researching prices and customer opinions, I ordered the Capresso Mini-S espresso/cappuccino machine and the Hamilton Beach Wave Station 12 Speed Dispensing Blender, which were delivered just a couple of days ago.

   I’ve made 3 mugs of latte thus far, but the taste has been far from typical Starbucks quality though I wouldn’t expect much from a $50 machine. But then, I’m not a café snob either, so I’m hopeful that I’ll soon make an acceptable serving of latte with the machine.

   Fortunately, I’ve had much better success with the blender -- already, my kids, especially Sophia (who said, “It’s sooo good!”), really love the smoothies and milkshakes that I make with it. It’s very easy – just a handful of frozen strawberries, half a banana, honey (optional), some vanilla yogurt and milk, and some ice cubes – and extremely fast – just 15 seconds! Yes, in 15 seconds with less than $2 worth of ingredients, I have what would’ve cost over $12 to buy at Jamba Juice, and I can enjoy it in the comfort of home at any time. I shall never step foot in a Jamba Juice joint again unless someone else is buying!