What is Din Tai Fung anyways? 鼎泰豐的媚力兒!

About more than a decade ago, way before we migrated down to the Southern California, Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) had branched out to the States and had became the “carrot on the stick” to us. Seems like, we always had to make a special stop at Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) whenever we travel south to the greater LA area and/or San Diego to visit friends and/or for sightseeing. After a while, we forgot the real motive behind making all these trips, whether we must make time for our friends or we were simply making excuses to satisfy our taste buds for the “good eat” at Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐). Over those years, it’s managed to entice our appetite and secretly we were bewitched.

When Josh was barely over a year old, he was introduced to Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) for the first time. Like father, like son, Josh single-handedly gobbled up two dozens (兩籠) of steamed pork and crab dumplings (蟹粉小籠包) in one meal. As the new and proud parents, we were not surprised by Josh’s hunger for authentic Chinese food at all ! For a party of three, (well, it’s actually two plus one 兩大一小), the damage was: seven dozens of steamed pork and crab dumplings, one veggie dish, and one steamed beef soup (原盅牛肉湯). I don’t remember if he ever breaks his own record since.

Things have changed after we moved 300 miles closer to the area a little over four years ago, we have since discovered many other (物美價廉的) Chinese restaurants that we had failed to notice before. The long wait for Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) certainly had helped to push us away. We just happened to be in the neighborhood the other day and had this opportunity to return to this long-lost favor, this place still serves the same quality food and has the same crowd. Every now and then, we cannot help but wonder if it still plays the same trick on us!

Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) official website

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My Lhasa-Poo (Lhasapoo) baby

From our past experience (a cocker spaniel and followed by a golden retriever), we have learned our lessons and realized the importance of compatibility. And after waited seven long years for Joshua to out grow his allergies, I know what I should be looking for in our family dog. In my quest to find the perfect match, I came cross numerous on-line listings of Poodle hybrid. I realized there is a new trend/demand for a "designer" dog. At any rate, there are several special characters of these design dogs really caught my eyes. Hypoallergenic and non shedding qualities of the poodle are one reason for crosses. Another reason is to create a dog with greater genetic variety, and although this is not a guarantee of better health, the scientific studies that have been done in this area have shown that crossbreds are both healthier and live longer than purebred dogs.

After a few episodes and a cold war lasted for about a week (it was a rather long story and irrelevant to the subject matter), I finally got what I was longing for… James brought home a super cute and shy puppy, and I fell head over heals in love with the fuzzy little thing at the first sight. The very first word popped into my head was "Fluffy", and we certainly did not have any difficulty to come up with his name! He was so vulnerable. In fact, his whole body was uncontrollably trembling, yet he showed his teeth at me. Of course, as I cuddled him inside my arms, I quickly learned that he has an underbite jaw, quite a few crooked teeth and overlapping teeth that definitely can use some orthodontic care. Without a doubt, a trait of Lhasa Apso. Yes, Fluffy is a cross between the Lhasa Apso and the Poodle, hence the name "Lhasapoo". I have to say that "Lhasapoo" doesn’t really sound nice in Chinese (sounds like filthy poop in Chinese), but unquestionably gets the attention.



Aside from the physical resemblances, Fluffy has some very unique and distinct temperaments which make him closer to Lhasas than Poodle. Although small, Fluffy can exhibit brief periods of explosive energy. When inspired, he would run circles around any objects (e.g. furniture, people, and tree) continuously with his full speed (like a bullet and make us dizzy) for a good couple of minutes. Often he makes tremendous leaps around the living room, and can jump from the floor to the sofa, from one sofa to another, and back to the floor with ease. Quite the opposite, Fluffy generally acts more like cool, aloof cats than the stereotypical idea of a small, "yappy" dog. During the day when we are at work and school, he would often sit/sleep for hours on sofa just listening for intruders. He views our backyard as a perimeter to be patrolled at infrequent intervals, more than just a playground to dig wholes at. Fluffy also has a high protection instinct and takes his role as guardian of our family very seriously. From time to time, he can be quite assertive about not allowing a visitor to enter the home to whom he sees as untrustworthy.





With a very cautious personality, he has reservation when introduce to new things (as he typically would tilt his head, it looks as if he is thinking) and new faces. It takes time and patience for him to warm up to his surroundings. Once you get to know him, Fluffy is very spunky, lively, eager to please, and playful. He also has a slight mischievous side, however, he has never once picked up our shoes, stocks, and/or any stuff other his toys to chew on. He would only pretend that he is going after the stocks to get the attention. Fluffy’s pet peeve is to lick feet and nibble at the ankles. I have to admit that Fluffy has a fetish about foot (his special interest is hairy legs, i.e. James’ legs). If you show off your naked feet in front of him, it is guarantee that he would go up-and-down and give you a thorough pedicure!



















It goes without saying that Fluffy is so kissable, huggable, and loveable. He is my baby and Joshua’s best pal!!

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Joshua's drawings

Putting aside all my expectations, I’ve always wanted to get to know Joshua more as a person rather than just a son. Yet I cannot help but wonder if he is gifted in some shape or form. Right off the bat, I knew I was lucky to have a very normal and ordinary kid. Nevertheless, after a couple of years of exploring his interests, I was pretty excited to find out that being able to express his inner creativity through sketches and drawing may be his strong suite. As his mom, I knew that I have to promote the development of his artistic skills, and encourage him to communicate graphically.

I hung and decorated the walls of my office with his masterpiece (my favorites) at his age of 4 1/2 through 7 years. After the summer of 2007 and before he turned 7, Joshua slowly but surely spent more and more time on reading and less on drawing. While I am surrounded by his animated and splendid drawings everyday at work and as I am putting together this posting, deep down, I am hoping that he would pick up his pens and share with me his imaginary world more often.

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Joshua drew this picture of our T.O. home when he was about 4-and-half years old. This is one of his earlier pieces, and he realistically captured the location and proportion of the orange tree and the outdoor built-in BBQ grill in our backyard. I also like the fact that he was aware of the surrounding, he added visual interests by introducing the birds and street cars in this picture.

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I really like this self portrait that he did on a piece of sandpaper, and especially the bold colors that he used. He really brought out the details by using the contrasting colors. Also, I am sure that he was not eating a slice of watermelon when he was drawing and composing the picture. It is quite interesting that he used a wedge of watermelon to highlight and add a feast to the otherwise static picture. The portrait was done when he was about 6.

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Joshua was really into ants for two years (4 - 6 years old) or so. During that time, he drew a lot of pictures about ants. This is one of his earlier drawings and also one of my favorites, he drew a boy bending over and checking out the worker ants crawling underneath. On the right hand margin, he labeled it “I am a bad boy!” I did not quite figure out why he made such remark on his picture initially, but later I pried and learned that because I was mad at him for something and he claimed himself being bad. Eventually, I asked him to change it to “I am a good boy” instead.

This is a pretty modern piece, Joshua bobbled out his Chinese name and added his signature “ant” character in the middle. Just in case it is not clear, his Chinese name is 劉杰(Jet Liu). Again, he is not afraid to use colors. This piece was done around the same time as the self portrait on the sandpaper.

Right around the time he learned to say and use the word “colony” (about 4 1/2 or 5 years old), he especially interested in drawing army of ants and their colony. I would think the magic school bus book series was his inspiration. For each army ant colony that he drew, Joshua always completed the picture with the whole colony (i.e. the queen, the queen’s brood, soldiers, and the workers) as if he was drawing an illustration for a text book. Gradually, he shifted his interests to war and then star war, his colony of ants had become more like star troopers with fancy weapons.

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This is a farm picture that he drew at my office during 2008 winter break (2007 X’mas and 2008 New Year). I was amazed by the vivid details he quickly (in less than 5 minutes) put together for the little piggy and the duck family. This drawing and composition is simply too cute that I made him reproduce a several extra copies to give out to my co-workers.

By demands, Joshua also drew quite a few copies of bat at my office, and I managed to keep one copy to myself. The thing struck me the most was, how fast he composed and finished a drawing. As if the picture was already projected in his head, all he did was to transpose it down to a piece of paper.

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This drawing was done as a School project for the first Halloween after we moved to T.O. He was a kindergartener and obviously did not know how to spell Frankenstein. In fact, I am not too sure he meant to draw Frankenstein or not. For the first Halloween, I also made him a costume, “the Bug”, which he won multiple awards (the scariest, the most creative, etc.) from various Halloween costume contests.

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10 Yr Anniversary dinner at Buca!

This was not the first time we visited Buca di Beppo. When we first visited Buca a number of years back in Palo Alto and later for our going away party in San Jose, we were unimpressed with this seemingly very popular restaurant. About three years after our last visit at the San Jose location, we decided to give it another try when friends proposed a kitchen table experience for the July 4th dinner last year. We still not very impressed with the food (seems like they favor quantity over quality) and much of the food tasted the same to us (apparently same tomato sauce), but we were overwhelmed by all the actions had taken place in the kitchen. Thanks to the great influence from our friends, we started to appreciate the atmosphere (the decoration and special settings) and ventured on menu items other than “Linguine Frutti di Mare” (seafood linguine). Well, as a matter of fact, we were sold because of the repeated $10 off coupons. And through using these convenient discounts, we’ve found that Buca is not a bad choice for family gatherings (in particular for special celebration) after all.


The Apple Gorgonzola Salad has become our favorite. This lettuce based green salad is topped with tart Granny Smith apples, spiced walnuts, dried cranberries and gorgonzola blue cheese. The salad is tossed and finished with Italian vinaigrette, very light yet satisfactory.


For our 10-years anniversary celebration night, we tried the newly added menu item “Prosciutto Stuffed Chicken” (our waiter told us this dish is a new menu item after the Planet Hollywood purchased Buca in late 2008). The breaded chicken breasts was stuffed with mozzarella and prosciutto, baked and topped with marinara, served on a bed of pesto cream sauce. To my surprise, the chicken was not overly breaded and the texture and the flavor of crunchy crest layered with the tender chicken, cheese, and prosciutto were well-balanced.


As we were presented with a complimentary double dark chocolate cake for our anniversary, we were unenthusiastic about a block of black fudge. Then again, who can resist a free sample of unappetizing dessert when knowingly it is all chocolate? Thus, we all dig in and enjoy spoon after spoon of the ultimate sinful indulgence, ummmmm moist dark chocolate cake with layers of rich chocolate, pretty much devour nothing else but chucks of chocolate… no other perfect way to end this night.







Buca di Beppo Menu

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Ensenada, Mexico (2/13/09 - 2/16/09)

Quite honestly, I have no higher expectation of this trip other than just to enjoy the time-off from work and spend some quality time with the family. In fact, the one and only reason that we took this Carnival cruise to revisit Ensenada was to celebrate our 10 years anniversary. Yah! A Tin wedding!! How about that!!! Although our first trip a little over 10 years ago to Ensenada on Royal Caribbean was unforeseen and spontaneous, it carried out a meaningful turn in our courtship.

Unlike prior cruises, we opted out of purchasing any shore excursions offered by Carnival. We wanted a little adventure and decided to shop around in Ensenada for local scenic tours and horseback riding packages. So…..after we debarked in Ensenada, we paid $2 per person and hopped on a shuttle to town.

With the recommendation and $5 discount coupons from our shuttle’s guide, we paid $15($13 for Joshua) for each adult and visited one of the major attractions, La Bufadora Blowhole, in Ensenada. The Blowhole is approx 18 miles away from where our cruise ship docked in harbor. However, it probably took us almost an hour each way, as the cars can only drive on a local service road where some sections are unpaved and others with some stop-and-go traffic. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the charming panoramic view of the Ensenada Bay while the tour guide pointed out historical building, natural scenery, and interesting local facts on our way there to La Bufadora.

The Blowhole (marine geyser) is located on the Punta Banda Peninsula in Baja California, Mexico. It is a natural crevice originating from erosion and connected to an underwater canyon. The spout of marine water is created when ocean waves and air are drawn into an underwater cave located in the cliffside, and the trapped air and water then explode upwards. This interaction not only creates the upward-shooting spout, but a thunderous noise as well. The loud grunt gave the phenomenon its name, “La Bufadora” means “buffalo snort”. La Bufadora Blowhole is the second largest blowhole in the world, after Hawaii, and can shoot upwards as high as 100 feet above sea level. Other “Blowholes” exist in Australia, Tahiti and one in Japan, but Japan’s is artificial. La Bufadora is the most spectacular of all of them, because it’s situated on a rocky inlet near the tip of the ruggedly beautiful peninsula.

On our way back, we passed by the Riviera del Pacifico, a one-time glamour spot converted into the social, civic and cultural Center of Ensenada. It's a vast white complex, straight across the harbor from the dock, a short detour on the walk to town. Built in the 1920s, this was a glamorous casino, hotel, restaurant and bar visited by Hollywood stars and wealthy Americans and Mexicans.

After Blowhole, we asked the tour guide to drop us off for some horseback riding on the beach. We got on a horse drawn carriage, and got off on the roadside of Interstate 1 (I-1) Southbound a mile or so south of the port in a shanty town. For $30 per person, the owner of this unestablished horse rentals paired us up with different size/color tamed horses and we began our very first horseback riding journey on a little stretch of Pacific Ocean coastline of Baja Mexican. Without doubts, I was a ball of nerves and had my share of fears and uneasy feelings. Soon after I got my bearings and got to know better about my horse, I tossed out all the “what if” questions and started to enjoy my ride. At the end, we all made it back safe and sound.

Even though we didn’t expect much from Carnival’s food, we still expected to have a lavish dining experience, therefore we pretty much dined at the main seating dinning rooms (i.e. all the dinners at Destiny restaurant; Sunday lunch and Monday breakfast at Elation) when available. Overall, it ranged from adequate to exceed our expectation. Not a gourmet experience by any means, but reasonably well presented with some creative choices. I found all the fish dishes to be excellent (pan-fried fillet of red snapper, tilapia, cod, salmon, etc.) On the formal night, we all had big lobster tails with fresh, succulent, crunchy, and tasteful tiger shrimps. With an extra order of perfectly rare prime rib and a fresh cod to complete our main course selections, we ate like kings and queens.

Salads (from ordinary Caesar Salad to Mongolian beef salad) were pretty creative and tasty, although a bit skimpy on the portions. Other than the strawberry bisque, chilled asparagus soup and avocado soup, the other soups were pretty boring and forgettable. Desserts (such as chocolate melting cake, ice cream, crème caramel, Alaskan cake, etc.) were OK, again not terribly flavorful, but pretty and not bad. For the Valentine celebration on Saturday night, we all tried the chocolate fudge cake shaped like a stem of rose.

For hours and hours on Sunday at sea, we had a blast twisting and turning waterslide on Carnival Paradise. And we put our waterproof Olympus Stylus 1050 SW to the test.

We watched two musical productions (Here’s Hollywood and Shout) in the main show lounge, Normandie. The shows presented aboard were quite good and I do like the fact that Carnival Paradise has its own dancers, vocalists, and orchestra.




Pictures taken with stand-up comedians Seth Buchwald and Lance Montalto, after the “R” rated adult comedy shows.

We were lucky with the weather and all in all it was surprisingly a short yet memorable trip. By taking this cruise and visiting Ensenada again, it did stir up JJ’s romance (gave our love another booster shot) over the Valentine and President’s Day long weekend. And YES! We look forward to many, many 10-years to come!!

P.S. After we got back from the cruise, I learned that the best beaches are five miles south of Ensenada, in a small town calls Chapultapec. The long strand of sand at the Estero Beach Resort is public. There’re horseback riding, surf fishing and jet skiing available on the beach. According to the local tour guide, Ensenada is just about 3 hours car ride away from San Diego International Airport. May be… for a change, we will consider coming back to Ensenada by car in the near future.

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