A Case of the Runs

(NOTE: This is the last restaurant review I'll be doing here for a while, so I'm going out with a bang) One random night a couple of months ago, "The Ukrainian" and I went to have sushi for our Friday night dinner ( Ichima Sushi in Pasadena, CA). The place was very busy, even though it was pretty large and accomodating.  Let's just say that after the waiter got our order down, he asked, " And this is for two people ?" Why, yes. I ended up trying a piece of most of the rolls, and I was already stuffed to the brim.  Since most of the rolls were fish (or imitation crab, which is essentially fish), I was able to try almost everything we ordered. Ichima roll, which is wrapped in a rice paper.  This was my favorite roll, since it had three types of raw fish in it.  But did I bother getting a good picture of that?  Apparently, I was more focused on eating it. :$ Sashimi salad, whichi s one of my Japenese food favorites. This was supposed t...

(NOTE: As I mention HERE , this will be the second-to-last restaurant review I do on here... for now.) "The Ukrainian" and I really love our BBQ joints.  It was one of the highlights of our trip to San Antonio some months back, and although it's not a common dinner choice for us, we always love it when we go. This is ironic for at least a couple of reasons. First of all, I try to be meatless.  Yes, I went back to fish about eight months ago, but I don't think I could ever munch on things like ribs again. Second, I don't like the taste of grilled food very much.  That char-ish taste, especially on veggies, is kind of icky to me.  Thus, when I attend friends' barbecues, I kind of squirm when they offer me grilled veggies in lieu of meat.  At home barbecues, I normally eat chips and salad. :$ Anyway, this place is called Woodranch and is located as part of a large mall in Arcadia, CA.  Apparently, I didn't learn my lesson about mall food the las...

I was originally supposed to take a five-day trip to Napa Valley (wine country) to celebrate my graduation , but somehow, that never came together.  Work is busy for both "The Ukrainian" and myself, and given my work situation ... it was probably not a smart idea no matter how badly I wanted to go on a romantic getaway like that. But, being the strange (ha ha!) people that we are, we decided to make do -- at least for now -- with spending a few worry-free days together over a weekend. It started off with a 7-mile run together.  The weather cooperated and held to a cool gloom until we were done, which was disappointingly later than I had hoped.  This girl is out of shape and still slightly unmotivated , but having someone running with me helped.  I plan on doing some of the long runs with him to keep me from not pushing enough during my training this time around. My reward was this place called Cici's Cafe .  I spent the days before this drooling all...

On the day of my graduation  (which seemed so long ago but was just back in June), two of my best buds attended the two-hour long ceremony. Knowing how long and boring commencements can be, I was already eternally grateful! After things finally wrapped up, a couple more friends joined us at Mi Piace  (pronounced something like: pee-AH-cheh ), a New York/Italian restaurant that is always so crowded when I would walk by at night. I guess my friends wanted to booze me up, so white peach sangria went down.  I didn't have very much, since I had barely eaten that entire day up until this dinner, and no food in stomach + alcohol = no good. We started off with an ahi tuna tower... split among six people, ha ha. I'm pretty sure this was a portobella appetizer. My buds partook in raw beef! Bread.  My friends got carried away (not me, I think...), and I think this was our third basket! My main entree was this veggie lasagna.  Of course, I took lots of...

Welcome back from the Fourth of July holiday (for those in the US)! Admittedly, I am catching up with everything, but this post proves I'm still alive! Recently, "The Ukrainian" and I found this little restaurant in the Arcadia, CA area. At the time we went, I was going on a carb strike of sorts, so I limited myself to a couple of chips only.  But when you are carb-deprived, even just a few warm chips taste heavenly! We started out by sharing this guacamole salad.  It was huge and came out really quickly. I picked around the chicken. "The Ukrainian" got fajitas, and this was just half of the order.  Yikes!  I ate most of the salad, since we had already eaten the colossal one above.  Not much of the rice was touched, and not because it was bad, but mostly because I didn't want to inhale carbs to demoralize "The Ukrainian." The other half: steak chicken, and veggies (bell pepper -- ick!, mushrooms, and onions). I ordered these fish...

Given that I didn't spend my younger days eating out, I allow myself a little slack when I start thinking incoherent things like, "What do they eat in Peru?" I don't know why I say that's an "incoherent" thought... just something not well thought-out, because I use "they" like people in Peru are creatures from another planet or something. Bottom line is... I wanted to try Peruvian food, and I kept passing by a Peruvian restaurant in Old Town Pasadena ( Choza Mama ).  Finally, after some "almost" occassions, we went in: Love their cool menu!  However, there weren't too many veggie options, though enough for me. Here's the comped bread and dipping sauces.  All were mild and not too thick.  I liked the one on the left the most.  The green one, which I thought might taste like some kind of cucumber yummy dip, fell a little flat. "The Ukrainian" ordered Inca cola, which kind of tasted like liquid cotton candy t...