Meet Lei Ann: A Girl in Denial about her Consumption Issues
So why on earth would anyone want to start *yet* another food blog? The world needs another foodie's opinion like I need a kick to the head. Oh wait, I loves me some kicks to the head. I also do kung fu, so how could I not like kicks to the head?
I mean other than a few months stint waitressing at a sushi restaurant, I have NO QUALIFICATIONS whatsoever to be writing about food. No culinary degree, no experience as a food reviewer, not the editor of a food magazine or anything so formal. I just LOVE food and maybe, *just maybe* you would be interested in sharing my food experience with me.
Question & Answer Session 2007
Q: So, is your blog about reviewing restaurants?
A: Yes and no. I will definitely be giving opinions about restaurants I go to, but "review" is so formal. If you want a review, then you can go to Zagat or if you want the address or hours of a restaurant you can go to Open Table. I will describe my dining event in such a way that probably makes sense only to me. For example, I could go to 5 Chinese restaurants and order the same dish and rank them all as to which *I* think is the best. Nothing will escape my discerning eye (and taste buds). I could easily write about the newest faux trendy restaurant/lounge to open in the South End just as easily as expound on the finer dishes of my great aunt's cooking and with the flexibility of a Romanian gymnast, segue into the creation of my all-time, can't miss, don't have anything else to eat in the house, back-up, emergency meal - fried eggs and Spam on rice.
Q: Will you only go to fancy-schmancy restaurants?
A: Heck no! Even the local Greek diner down the street or a generic ham and cheese sandwich from Store 24 is ambrosia when you're hungry! I've found the best foodstuff in the dirtiest, most unsanitary holes in the wall and lived to tell about it.
Q: What would be your niche or specialty?
A: Well, since I live in Boston, heck, it'll mostly be about restaurants here in the greater Metro Boston area. I also go to Chinatown *quite* a lot, so Asian cuisine will make a significant appearance, oh and I guess the fact that I'm Asian as well would figure into that quite prominently as well. I do tend to favor sticky white rice over semolina pasta, although HONESTLY when it comes to FOOD, I do not discriminate. If it's there, heck I'm not shame, I'll dig in!! I'm planning a trip to the Philippines and Japan very soon as well, so you'd be retarded to think I'm NOT going to be writing about the fly foodstuffs over there!
Q: What are your favorite foods?
A: Oh man...I have so many. Let's see...lemon gelato, yellow cake with chocolate frosting, red velvet cake (hmmmm...notice I start with dessert-type items first), sushi/sashimi, kalbi, bulgogi, Vietnamese subs, anything with scallops, salt and pepper squid, chicken adobo, lumpia, pancit (skinny vermicelli noodles, not fat yellow noodles), lechon with lechon sauce or banana ketchup will do in a pinch if you don't have lechon sauce, Big Macs, hotate hokkaiyaki, miso soup. I should stop there. I could go on...and on.
Q: Do you work?
A: Ha...what would be the complete and direct opposite of unemployed? I am multi-ployed? Super-ployed? Yeah, I have like 5 jobs. Nah...not really. Just kidding. More like 3. Yeah, 3 jobs. Seriously. I still laugh to this day when my Dad loves to tell his joke about my Mom being a DJ. So, people are like "Wow...your Mom's a DJ? That's so cool." Not really...DJ means "double job," his way of saying she has 2 jobs. So, then I became a DJ too, but I guess I'm a 3-J now.
Q: What are your other interests?
A: I'm your typical girly-girl, so of course I love handbag shopping and hanging out at the spa and getting fancy pedicures and French manicures (thank goodness I work there...you think I can I can *afford* that lifestyle? In the words of one of the Olsen twins as Michelle Tanner "Oh puh-leeeeze"). I was doing vinyasa yoga but I'm kind of bored with it right now. I'm also your typical *Filipino* girly-girl, so of course my shoe collection is like Imelda going out of style. I'm kind of a techno-geek too with gadgets. I'm addicted to digital cameras and I honestly don't know why. I always want the newest and greatest with the most advanced technologies, but one has to admit you have consumption problems when you have seven (7) digital cameras lying around.
Q: Can we play "Which is better?"
A: Sure, I've got nothing to do for a few hours.
Q: Which is better? Sparkling or still water?
A: In Europe when they ask you that, they actually say "Water...gas or no gas?" I LOVED it. Huh...huh, huh...you said gas. Even at the fanciest restaurant with the waiter who stood there the whole time to make sure you had everything you needed and served you one roll at a time. (Man, why couldn't he just leave the basket, so I didn't feel like such a little piggy when I said, "Yes, another roll please.") Oh, but I digress. I prefer still.
Q: Salad dressing poured on or on the side?
A: I prefer a salad that's already dressed. I actually can't stand mixing up a salad because they invariably give you a bowl that's 10 times too small, so when you're trying to actually get at the lettuce underneath, the goat cheese is falling off, the olives are already rolling down the table and forget keeping track of the grape tomatoes.
Dressed salads...done...boom, finished, like that.
Q: Ice cream in a cup or cone?
A: I prefer a wafer cone (with the flat bottom) instead of a sugar cone (there's usually a hole in the bottom, so ice cream starts dripping out as it melts) or waffle cone (way too big), but that's still better than a cup. Why wouldn't you want a cone...crispy goodness to go with the creamy goodness? It's a treat within a treat.
Q: Sidekick or Blackberry?
A: Sidekick. I never was and never will be "corporate."
Q: Myspace or Facebook?
A: It took me 2 whole days to totally pimp out my Myspace to my satisfaction. Unfortunately, when I get absorbed in a project, I get totally one-track-minded to the point where I can't think about anything except getting back on the computer to get one of my pictures just right that I have to figure out the pixel width down to the exact micrometer and it still takes me 10 tries at guesstimating the right dimensions so my arm isn't cut off. I have no energy left for Facebook.
Q: Better dancer? Carlton Banks or Napoleon Dynamite?
A: Man...don't even come at me with that question. The Carlton dance will forever be the BESTEST dance that ever was.
Q: Better twin? Mary-Kate or Ashley?
A: Mary-Kate definitely. Two-name first names are always better than one. Although, don't ever confuse us. I don't hyphenate my name...EVER!