i need a time machine

October flew by SO quickly which means that Thanksgiving (my FAVORITE) and Christmas are right around the corner. I'm very excited for holiday plans with family and friends...and with food! speaking of which, here are some fun places David and I hit up in the last month on one of our rare date nights:

Syrup is a cute coffeeshop/dessert bar that offers Belgian waffles and sweet grilled cheese sandwiches. David and I chose the chocolate banana waffle and a caramel apple waffle. The ice cream is from Scoops, which is a very awesome thing. The waffles were nice and crunchy, but the portions were meager. The flavor of the waffle reminded me of chinese bread, "chon bao". Kinda weird, but still pretty good.

*just "chewling" - david is eyeing the barista

We also went to The Counter, a burger joint hidden in the Green St. Alley. You get to build your own burger with gourmet toppings. I created my burger with grilled pineapple, mixed greens, roasted red peppers, herbed goat cheese with caramelized onions. The portions of fries were super generous - even I had leftovers! David loved their garlic aioli sauce as well as their drink selections. ;)


Cousin David and I found a place that serves 9 scoops of ice cream for $2, no joke! The scoops are a little bit smaller but still. It's Thrifty ice cream so they have familiar, comfortable flavors. David and I decided to have an ice cream eating contest and he kicked my butt. But I have to say that if we were going for quantity, i MIGHT have a better chance. MAYBE.

*mine was mostly chocolate <3

Birthday came early for me (and late for Kendra) when we decided to buy ourselves a joint birthday present. We've been eyeing the Yudu machine for awhile and finally came up with a few useful projects. The yudu is a silk screening machine that can make shirts, bags, cards, etc. We've only used it once, but I'm sure that's going to change quickly!


Important milestone of the month - Brayden turned 1!!!!! Edwin and Jeannie hosted a delicious birthday dinner at Lunasia, and Brayden got his first cupcake. He ate the whole thing and i'm proud that he did!

*i love how he looks in the center picture

The other kiddies were on hand to celebrate, as well as my granny:


Next post will be about our fun Pumpkin Carving Party! Can't wait to share those details with all 5 of my readers. Last thing, quick shout out to my Christine - HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Enjoy the last year in your 20s. :P

FINALLY!

okay, settle down for a long overdue post. we've had about 11 weddings since my last post, 2 fleuretica*demia sessions, a magazine photoshoot, a fleuretica photoshoot, a new office location and life has been so exciting! not the sort of 'exciting' that gets your adrenaline pumping, but the 'exciting' that makes your heart skip a beat because part of your dreams are becoming reality. anyway, this is why my blog has been so quiet...but here are my whereabouts.

august was full of celebrations, celebrating my mama's bday and my bro's bday:

*dinner at wood ranch...brayden is so big now and so cuuuute! he really makes my mom happy

*drinks, brownies, friends, and iphones make for a great partyyyy

My good friend Vi came from texas to visit with her husband. Vi is like the evil version of me...or the even MORE evil version of me! I took her to daikokuya for ramen and the kogi truck happened to be hanging out...so we got some tacos too. hehe

*vi and stan

What's a summer without a trip to the Parker Hotel. This was my 3rd time back and I've made a decision that the Glutton's Delight will be a yearly fete!

*girls vacation with tracy, theresa, and kendra...that top picture is tracy's toothbrush (totally green and biodegradable) and i thought it looked like a fingerling potato...which we conveniently had for breakfast (the potato not the toothbrush)

*damn, we were pigs. our last meal at the parker consisted of lobster & mango salad, lobster mac and cheese, lobster claws and chips...and ice cream.

and here are all my other recorded food adventures:

*at class 302, recommended by Thay. This place has THE BEST shaved ice. btw, stinky tofu tastes worse than how it smells - ___-

*nickel diner in downtown los angeles. i had a dutch baby (thin baked pancake with caramelized apple). it was good but an unnecessary pool of butter was swimming in the middle. however, their homemade ding dongs were so good! and they have a cake with potato chips in it. i think potato chips are the next big thing - for awhile, maple bacon was making the circuit as the next cool food...now is the potato chip's time to shine!

then it was kendra's 21st birthday where we celebrated with breakfast at Elements Kitchen (right downstairs from our new office):

*we had crispy prosciutto with polenta and poached eggs, sweet potato pancakes with bacon and pecan pieces mixed into the batter, and breakfast pot pie with sundried tomato and ham. This is a dangerous place to have so close to our office.

So cool stuff has been happening for Fleuretica and it all blew up in a week. First was our magazine shoot with Utterly Engaged, a new online wedding magazine. The concept we came up with was if Holly Golightly threw a wedding. We made party blowers, coffee sleeves, donut and coffee favors, a champagne pyramid, etc. Check out the spread here!

And it seemed that the Glamour magazine blog in Sweden liked our coffee sleeves (to an extent...if you translate the article it does mention that this idea is not very green hehe) and here's a screen shot of what they posted:


We'll be participating in a wedding giveaway for next year, so if you know of anyone who is deserving of a free wedding worth $100,000, check it out! You can also read about us on their blog as well.

Aaaaand i think that's the last few months in a nutshell! I'll be back in November! :D

July Round Up - Part 1

I look forward to July every year because that's when my entire family gets together for our Annual Wong Vacation. Each year becomes more exciting because the family just keeps growing - there's always a new baby to fawn over or a development in one of the kids to praise. This year was a bit different since we were all on different time constraints - our usual 3 day shindig was cut short to a 1 day affair. We decided to steer clear of the heat in LA and spent the day cruising through Santa Barbara...by foot.

The weather in SB was fantastic - low 70s and cloudy skies. We began our 2 mile trek along the beach towards the pier (or rather towards food). The kids were definitely troopers and walked the whole way without any complaints (that cannot be said of the adults haha). We ended up at Brophy Brother's for some awesome fish & chips and steaming clam chowder:


Every kid in the family is really growing into their own personalities and it's great to watch the dynamics. Jonathan is now 7yrs old and going into 2nd grade. His two sidekicks, Kaylen and Ian, are both going on 5. K will be joining Jonathan on the school bus this year and is headed to kindergarten. Ian is also heading into kindergarten and LOVES planes. And the movie Cars.


The 2 younger girls, Navs and Reya, are going on 2. I think they were a bit wary of each other upon introduction but after the requisite matching outfits picture, I think they warmed up. Navs likes to eat and so does Reya...so why wouldn't they not get along?!


And little B, growing up so fast. He's nearly 1 years old and such a happy sturdy baby. He's not old enough to tumble with the big kids but by next year, it should be a different story. Charmain & Sang got him an iPoo onesie - so freakin cute!


The future...


Stay tuned for more adventures!

She's Not Mine, I Swear

Breakfast at Bottega Louie's

"Mean reds" optional but after eating a chocolate croissant here you might be having the blues instead.

Friendship + Food

The older I get (which I'm in denial about) the more I realize the importance of good friendships and good food. And since time is so scarce nowadays, it just makes sense to combine the two! :)
I met up with my childhood best friends - Christine and Cheryl - at Susina Bakery for a night of catching up and good desserts. Christine and I hadn't seen Cheryl for YEARS and connected again through the magic of facebook. After experiencing milestones like marriage (Christine and Cheryl) and having a baby (Christine) we decided it was high time to get together and reminisce about the good old days.

Growing up we only saw each other about once a week since we were church buddies. During the week, we would receive 14 page letters from Cheryl...which we still have! Cheryl just had a knack for writing interesting letters, complete with Hello Kitty drawings and stickers. In jr. high, we had a huge fight but ended up talking it out at a slumber party. I think the only reason why we talked was because we literally had rice sacks as pillows and no one could sleep a wink. Come to think of it, maybe we were set up...?

Fast forward to more than 15 years later - Christine is a lawyer, Cheryl is a speech therapist, and I'm a floral designer:

*our before and after...I can't believe that I can't find a picture of us 3 as kids together...but then again, who could afford a real camera AND film processing at the age of 12?

We chatted over coffee and cake for about 3 hours. On the table: americano cake, apple pie, and tiramisu. The Americano cake was really light in spite of the the ganache and chocolate cake - the espresso was a great compliment. The tiramisu was also done well and not overly doused with rum. The apple pie had perfectly cooked apples. An A+ in my book with the candy jars and plethora of cake stands!


It was a great night that made me appreciate our friendship - we pretty much picked up where we left off which I think is pretty amazing. Now we're hoping to meet at least once a month to chat over dessert - food feeds my appetite but friendship feeds my soul! :)

so corny. haha

meet the gang

The 1st official liu/yun/wong grandkid picture:

*as cute as they are, i'm surprised they cooperated

food adventures

I love it when we get to lunch!

Last week we went to visit Kelley's new office in the mid-wilshire area with the peeps over at Cakes by the Pound. We went to Joan's on Third for some star sighting and good grub:

*the food was fantastic and it was a total feast for the eyes. kendra got her dream sandwich of bacon, chicken, and brie on a perfectly pressed baguette.

Last week we had a wedding and hit up Milk while waiting for our rentals. It took me all of lunch to debate what I wanted for dessert. Kendra and I split a prosciutto and provolone sandwich and a pulled pork sandwich. The black pepper cream and manchego cheese made for easy decisions!

*can you tell what i got for dessert? :) i do regret not getting a blue velvet cake - smurf blue poo would have been delightful!

The food excursions continued through the week with a trip to Pearl's Cupcakes, a new bakery in the heart of San Marino (and also where i used to work baaaack in the day when it was Juice It Up). Although I wasn't totally fond of the texture or flavors of Pearl's, I have to say the presentation of the cupcakes deserved 5 stars and they really don't skimp on size.

*l-r: lemon coconut (with a delicious lemon curd center), orange chocolate (with a pulpy orange paste within), blueberry lemon (lacking on the blueberry), and dark chocolate (a bit more like a muffin...which is not a bad thing in my book)

David also took me to La Grande Orange (la grOnd OrAAHnj) one night for dinner. The food was delicious and I later found out they currently have a Tuesday promotion where you buy one entree and get a second for $5. For this quality of food it really is a steal. Gooooo recession!!! We also came by for lunch after a flower mart excursion:

*from my dinner with david: short ribs w/ an egg, perfectly fried fish | lunch with the girlies: cheeseburger, 1/2 press, chicken nachos, deviled eggs with bacon

*t & tracy :)

After all this food, we went to Europane for some macarons. Lunching is great, but desserting is better!

The Newest Wong Member

About a month ago, my cousin Kevin said good bye to bachelor-dom and had a very beeeyootiful wedding in Maui. Arlou, his new wife, had been coming to family parties for awhile...and we were all wondering when that day would come that he would pop the question and she would (hopefully) respond with "YES". Well he asked, she said yes, and off they went to celebrate their love in Hawaii! I wasn't able to attend their wedding but I straight stole some pictures from Arlou's facebook of their wedding. Sssh!

*the lovely couple

*the bamboo arbor and a dendrobium orchid aisle runner set against the ocean

*set against an awesome sunset

Upon returning home they held a more "traditional" banquet and the whole entire family commenced for a big feast!

*Just a few of the guests - L-R: Emily, Megan|Benjie (Emily's parents), Kevin| Benjie (brothers), Addison (M&B's newest daughter), Vicky|Elvis|Kathy, Po|Justin|Austin

I'm so lame...i didn't get any pictures of Arlou and Kevin together during the dinner.

It was nice seeing the family and catching up. Here are some features of the many faces of Ian:

*i don't know where he gets all that flexing from...

*mireya happy

*the kids having fun

I've always looked up to Kevin - literally and figuratively. As a kid, I thought he was the tallest guy ever. He was always listeing to cool music (like Tribe Called Quest and Stereo MCs) and I thought his fixed up, slammed to the ground, red integra was the best car ever. Oh the good old days - too bad he's not cool anymore. :) As it's apparent (or is it...), my cousins are really important to me so I'm glad that Arlou decided to become part of the extended family that I love so much. Welcome aboard - and make Kevin cool again!

more food adventures + people reports to come. been super behind and busy with work. til then...

*Reya says hello!

Post Vacation Happenings

I've been going full throttle since getting back from Hawaii. We hosted our first ever Fleureticademia workshop and it was super fly! But getting prepped for it was no small feat. Kendra and I spent countless hours scrubbing the place down, reorganizing, and throwing out trash. It was all very worth it to see how the space could be used!


On Sunday Joe was ordained as a pastor. I've watched this guy grow up from a pesky teenager to a respectable guy (he better be since he's married to my best friend :)). It was a very happy moment for me to see Christine stand next to Joe and watch them 'transition' into this next stage of life together...congrats to the Chou Family!

*the cutie in the center pic is Isaac, making his debut on my blog. he's such a happy baby!

After the service, David and I were starving so we swung by the nearest restaurant which happened to be Fab Hot Dogs. We were a little hesitant because of the name but also desperately hungry so we went. And we were so glad to find this gem in the middle of the valley.

*i got the chicago dog with neon relish, celery salt, mustard, peppers, and tomatoes. David got the ruben dog with pastrami and sauerkraut. we split an order of garlic fries which were good but stayed in our system for the next 5 hours. kekeke

Monday we went to the beach to go bike riding. I busted out my beach cruiser (finally) and biked from Santa Monica to Marina Del Rey. It really wasn't bad at all - it was enjoyable! How come working out can't usually be like this?

*scene around...and yes, we might have stopped for a snack or two.

*we lugged 4 bikes in josh's minivan. he refused to put my cruiser on the bike rack outside...there's no shame in having a girl bike!

*we came across an adult jungle gym, right outside Casa Del Mar & Shutters. i'll call it the testosterone playground.

It was back to work after a fun weekend. Kendra and I were cooped up at hq and decided we needed ice cream. We stayed local to Altadena and headed up to Bulgarini Gelato, a small gelateria in a run down mini mall. The gelato was authentic, rich & creamy with inventive flavors like yogurt with celtic salt and olive oil. Yum! For each size you order, you get 3 scoops of different flavors:

*Kendra got plum cognac, nectarine, and dark chocolate. I got blood orange granita, goat's milk w/ cocoa nibs, and dark chocolate. Notice the sample spoons...hehe

Everyday should be like this!

Where My Beaches At?

In the weeks leading up to our departure, I kept giving myself pep talks like "hiking isn't so bad, you can do it" and so forth. I even packed appropriate shoes. David is an eagle scout so I thought that he'd want to go on on some sort of nature hike (and make fires and build tents too). To my surprise and relief, he didn't. That worked out for me because that gave us more time at the beach!

Our favorite was probably Laniakea, a beach known for turtles coming onto shore to bask in the sun. When we got there, the turtles were a bit shy but they were still close enough for us to spot.
In one of the pictures you can see a lot of dark spots of turtles in the water, just hanging out and occasionally coming up for air or a bite to eat. David was ecstatic and swam with a family of honu. He may or may not have gone for a turtle ride. As he was taking pictures in the water, a big ass turtle pushed him out of the way. There were a few other interesting things to look at, namely these guys who were swimming with a contraption that looked like half of a rabbit cage. They tied half gallon bottles to their "raft" to prevent it from sinking and proceeded to dive for sea urchins. Then they cracked them right on shore and served up dinner!


Waimea was a fun beach, although overridden with high school cheerleaders and jocks. The water wasn't quite as warm or clear as other beaches. There was a small rock that you could climb and jump off:

We swung by Hanauma Bay even though we didn't snorkel here. It was still really beautiful from afar. We saw a lot of people stepping on the coral...and there was a lone surfer riding VERY small waves. It was kinda frustrating to watch them.


Ko'Olina was another great beach that I already blogged about...but because we had so much fun swimming with dolpins, you get a collage for it!


Waimea was also where we saw our last sunset in Hawaii:


Yes, that's me posing in the top left picture.