food fest

Wow, what a weekend. We started with lunch on Friday at school and didn't stop eating all weekend. We had all decided to hangout after school and go for some sushi but our lunch was really good and everyone ate everything so we were quite full. We bumped the sushi time to dinner and in the meantime, we decided to explore nearby Chinatown and Olivera Street. Little did I know we were going to purchase various foods to try - alot of various foods. By the time dinner came around, we were even more full but went anyway. By the way, the sushi restaurant was quite disappointing.

Saturday started out with more food - lunch. Three of the classmates are Vietnamese and miss Vietnamese food so we went to Little Saigon and had some real pho. These guys are all buddies from Mississippi so they also have a southern accent which is great. We had some authentic pho then went on to explore all the shops and yes, we stopped at bakeries, markets, fruitstands - everything and got a taste of this and that. Whew! My belly was already full from lunch and you can imagine hanging out all day, how much stuff we ate. Those guys can really eat! Then of course, after all the snacks they were hungry for dinner. Then after dinner more snacks. We found a massage place too. I guess in Mississippi, the massage centers are real expensive so we all went for an hour massage for $20 each. Feeling better they were hungry again and we went to a cafe had some drinks and another dinner. By that time, my stomach really hurt and it was 11PM. Can you imagine eating for 11 hours straight? Holy smokes! But the foods we had were authentic Vietnamese and I got to try some new things - grilled goat, couple of different kinds of sea snails, banana flowers, jackfruit, beef tendons, tapioca starch cakes (similar to mochi), and somethings I've had before but this time around it was better tasting.

Today was alittle better as far as not gorging myself - I didn't hang with my classmates. My roommates returned from their vacation while I went to meet Iron Chef Morimoto. He made a few appetizers for everyone and just came out with his first cookbook.

Iron Chef Morimoto signing his new cookbook.