I Couldn't Come Up With a Clever Title

Playing: Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On a Bad Bet-Fall Out Boy
Reading: Those Who Nailed It for Fall 2013 by Cathy Horyn

Over the weekend, I got the chance to try Taco Asylum, which was featured in Orange Coast. I must say it's one of the best places I've tried in a long time. Typically, I avoid Mexican food at all costs, but after looking at their menu, I was convinced that I should try it. For starters, I shared a Taco Plate with the Pork Belly, Wild Mushroom, and Surf n' Turf tacos, which also came with lentils and quinoa. Out of the taco trio, I would skip the Surf n' Turf taco because the arugula overpowered the lobster and pancetta by a long shot. The Pork Belly and Short Rib tacos were so good. I loved how the pork belly was braised in coconut milk and how the Short Rib taco was topped with pickled red onions. Everyday Taco Asylum makes several drinks freshly, so on the day I went, I got a Pineapple Orange Acqua Fresca, which comes with free refills.

The Nachos were so amazing. Topped with salsa verde, guacomole, scallions, pickled red onions, jack cheese, oaxaca cheese, cayenne creme fraiche, these nachos were unlike any other nachos I've ever had. First of all, these weren't your typical tortilla chips; these nachos were made of crisply fried potato chips. Second of all, these nachos were lacking the fake cheese spread that's always grossed me out in the past. Since I usually don't like Mexican food, I think I should toss in that many of the flavors weren't specifically Mexican. For instance, the Pork Belly taco's flavors were more along the line of Thai food.

After lunch, I also stopped by SEED People's Market to do some quick shopping. I've been looking around for more earrings and this pair is so long and perfect. I love how simple it is yet how it does make a statement. The only issue I have with them is that I have to keep untangling them from my hair, so I'm thinking of wearing them with a messy bun soon to keep my hair away from the earrings.

Left to Right: Austin (aka Cheese), Vivian, me, Alley, and Shabaan

However, I had to cut my shopping trip short to work on an APUSH video in which my group discusses why the Social Security Act is detrimental to the health of the USA. In my video, I played the parts of a Looper, Professor Audrey Gordan Levitt, one of Shabaan's wives, and my APUSH teacher. Our video is really random and it includes guest appearances from Stephen Colbert, Alfred Landon, FDR, Katy Perry, and the authors of my APUSH textbook. It's really weird and there's singing, dancing, drinking, and a murder. Hopefully, I don't get suspended from school for this video, but Vivian edited out most of the bad parts. We showed it to the class today and everyone asked us why half our characters were wasted and why Shabaan was running around shirtless. He wasn't shirtless by the way; he had a tank top on.

Congrats to Mei of Ice Pandora for winning the first prize of my giveaway and to Terri Leane for winning the second prize! I'll be sending both of you an email, asking for you addresses, soon and you've got a week to reply before I give the prize to someone else. Thank you to everyone that entered!

Welcome to the Resistance

Playing: Angels-The xx
Reading: Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley

A friend of mine, Naomi, recommended the Playground, an experimental restaurant focused on offering new and exciting food made with the finest ingredients, to me. Everyday they have a new menu, so you can expect something different every time you go. For starters, I shared the Smoked Cod Chowder with my dad, which was amazing. Chunks of bacon, clams, and smoked cod were plentiful and they actually mixed sour cream into the chowder too.Event he cabbage in it tasted good and I normally hate all leafy greens.

One of the things that the Playground is currently doing is a quest for ramen perfection. This is Day 35: Quest for Ramen Perfection, which was served with double pork in the form of crisp pork belly and pork shavings. The pork belly was perfectly crisp and moist, while the broth was almost like a pork au jus. After awhile the broth was a bit salty, but overall I really enjoyed the bites I stole from my mum.

One of their most popular dishes according to the waiter is Uncle Lou's Fried Chicken. Since I'm on the constant search for the best fried chicken, it was a no brainer choosing this. The waiter described the chicken as being really potent like salt and vinegar chips, since it's cooked with so much cinnamon and vinegar. I was actually looking forward to having a very salty and vinegary chicken. However, I found it fairly mild even though the vinegar and cinnamon was clearly there. Unfortunately, I wouldn't say this was the best fried chicken I've ever had, especially since the breast was really dry and stringy.

The main complaint I have with the Playground is the wait time. Just getting a seat took 15 minutes, even with half the restaurant empty and my chicken came out around 20 minutes after the other dishes. My parents were literally done with their meals by the time mine came, so the Playground served us up a complementary Black Mission Fig Sticky Toffee Pudding, which was undoubtedly the best part of the meal, to make up for the wait. The pudding is moist and sticky, while the toffee sauce is freshly made and still bublling as it's brought out to you. It was so good that I actually regret not getting a second one. Overall, I probably will go back to the Playground. Other than the wait time, the service was great and the waiters really knew the menu and were ready to explain everything to you. Be warned however that the prices are very expensive, considering the portion size.

Tamarind of London

Playing: Fluorescent Adolescent-Arctic Monkeys
Reading: Marie Claire Runway Second Edition

For my brother's birthday, which happened to be the same day the world was supposed to end, we went to Tamarind of London. My brother, Ted, and I keep a list of restaurants that we want to try and we use every possible cause to celebrate as a reason to try a new place. Tamarind of London was hailed by Orange Coast as being not as good as its predecessor in London, but still offering the best Indian food in Orange County. To start us off, we ordered the Garlic Naan and the Date Naan. The Date Naan was by far the best thing we ordered there. That naan was stuffed with a date and coconut spread that was almost desert like.

The dishes are all served family style in small pots and you help yourself. We ordered the Mushrooms and Spinach, Smoked Eggplant, Lamb Curry, Butter Chicken, and the Prawn Kebabs. Even though the Lamb Curry was too spicy, it did have a great flavor once I got over how tough and dry the lamb was. Unfortunately, both the Butter Chicken and Smoked Eggplant had bitter aftertastes that I wasn't too fond of. The Prawn Kebabs were pretty standard and considering the price, I really think we deserved more than five prawns. If you ever go to Tamarind of London, order the Mushrooms and Spinach. I don't typically eat vegetables, but this was definitely worth a try.

My brother and I each ordered a Mango Lassi, which was incredibly small for $6 and around the size of a kids meal cup at McDonald's. After the Date Naan, this was the next best thing I ordered. The creaminess of the yogurt really served to balance the heat from the Lamb Curry. They also serve a Passion Fruit Lassi, which my brother and I wanted to try, but they ran out of it that day. What a bummer...

Since all of the portions were a lot smaller than we expected them to be, we ended up ordering some Cheese Naan, which was actually pretty good. Was it the best naan ever? No, but it was good. It was stuffed with a mild, creamy cheese that oozed out of the naan, when you bit into it and it was nice to have a blander dish to offset all the strong flavors of the main dishes.

The most interesting dish, which wasn't really a dish, that we got was the complimentary after dinner mints. They were mint leaves freshly dipped in white chocolate. It was definitely very odd and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. The only recommendation I have for the chefs is less white chocolate please, since the white chocolate was overpoweringly sweet. Overall, Tamarind of London was good, but not amazing. If you want the best Indian food in California, I still suggest heading into Los Angeles. The biggest problem I had with Tamarind of London was the itsy bitsy portions. Considering each main dish averaged around $20, I was expecting a lot more meat or at least to be left mind blown at how good the dish was. The most reasonable dishes there were the naan bread, which came with around four slices each and averaged $4. Also, the service was lacking, considering we had to ask them twice for utensils and had to remind them that we ordered the lassis. So the verdict is, skip Tamarind of London and head on over to either the Ritz or Charlie Palmer, if you're in the mood for high dining.

What I've Been Eating

Playing: Sugar, We're Goin Down-Fall Out Boy
Reading: Civil Disobedience (Part 1 of 3) by Henry David Thoreau

For Thanksgiving break, my brother came home, so as usual we went off to try a bunch of new places to eat. Bruxie is known for their waffle sandwiches and we've been meaning to try it, so I ordered what was recommended the most on Yelp. The Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Waffle is a chicken fillet deep fried and topped with cider slaw and spicy honey stuffed into a crispy waffle. Out of the sandwiches we ordered, this was one of the better ones, since it had more stuffing than the others.

My brother and I shared the Lemon Cream and Berries, which was only ok. The lemon cream had next to no flavor and all the berries were quite sour. Overall for my verdict on Bruxie, the food is only alright, but the concept is cute. It's not nearly enough food, since the waffles aren't stuffed with that much food.

Flavio's happens to be one of my favorite restaurants for pasta. The food is good, the service is friendly, and the price is inexpensive. The Pasta Rustica is one of my favorites there. It's bow tie pasta served with sauteed garlic and artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, and chicken in a light cream sauce. The best part about this dish is that it's actually pretty light for a cream based sauce.

My brother and I also went to the Old Towne Grinder and Ice Cream Parlor, since they have the largest selection of sodas anywhere. We actually didn't try the Nuclear Orange Bomb, but I wanted a photo of it because, let's get real, why wouldn't I take a photo of a soda with Kim Jong Il? It's just "WTF" enough to make me smile. The blueberry soda was amazing by the way, while the Cherries and  Mint was quite unusual. I highly recommend visiting this place for their amazing soda selection. Where else can you get gourmet Ginger Ale and then get Sweet Corn?

Harry's Grill is one of those places that I go to for old time's sake. After my family went to the beach, we would come here for inexpensive American food served in huge portions. Their fried chicken is pretty good actually and has a sweet unexpected after taste. This actually comes with a large bowl of soup, so you can get away with sharing this with someone too. What I've been eating is pretty safe and not too fancy lately, so hope this post didn't bore you too much.

PS Blogger  is no longer letting my upload photos directly, since I've used up my 1 GB of memory. I deleted something around 100 photos to clear up some memory and it's still saying that I have no memory. Do any of you know what's wrong? For now, I'll just use Photobucket to upload my photos.

Whatever, Whatever, I Do As I Please

Playing: 1901-Phoneix
Reading: Antigone by Sophocles

Disclaimer everyone, I am not a title making genius. Let's just get on with the show about what I did over the weekend.  As you probably know, I love Tim Burton a lot. I love his movies, poems, and art, so I was dying to go see Dark Shadows. While it did leave me feeling disappointed, I have to disagree with the critics that said it wasn't funny at all. There were tons of awkward moments, where the main character Barnabas (Johnny Depp) from the 1760's had to adapt to the 1970's and all the modern appliances, that were chuckle worthy. Although this movie was dry from time to time, the beautiful set and well thought out costumes totally made up for it. The main complaint I have with this movie is that too many story lines were going on. If they cut out Bella Heathcote's unimportant story of how her parents left her in a mental house and Chloe Grace Moretz'z random transformation into a werewolf, the movie would've been a lot better.

I also tried the Turkey Melt at Berkeley Dog, which was unlike any other Turkey Melt I've had. It had slices of turkey covered in grilled onions, cheese, and bacon. I'm used to the typical turkey melt with American cheese, so this was definitely a step up and it was a decent price.

 My friend, Sophie, let me use her Chanel nail polish from Spring/Summer 2008 called Antelope. This has to be one of the prettiest nail polishes I have ever used. It's tan with a metallic shine and when you go out into the sun, it looks like the prettiest blush ever. My camera did not pick up how pretty this color is and frankly, it looks kind of bland in this photo, but trust me, this is such a gorgeous color. It almost looked like I had pearls on my nails and what made it so pretty is how close it is to my skin color, so it was also subtle. In class, I could not stop staring at my nails. Considering Chanel nail polish is like $30, I was not impressed by its staying power. By the fourth day, it started to chip really badly on all of my nails except my thumbs. By the end of the week, I had to take it off because it was almost all gone.

The Orange County Great Park has been in development for years and part of my summer plan is to check out all the farmers markets within driving distance that I can, so I just had to check out the one at the Great Park. They had tons of cute stalls with specialty items like the local raw honey shown above and organic, gluten-free baked items. They also had fresh vegetables and fruits plus gourmet food trucks, vintage records, dog clothing, and organic pet food. I did buy some amazing nectarines and sweet cherries, while I was there too.

Before going to Daniela's party, I made Chef Michael Symon's 3 Minute Chocolate "Cup" Cakes with my brother. It was such an easy recipe and took next to no time at all. However, I did find I had to microwave everything for twice as long as he suggested. I used one and a half bars of Lindt's 85% cocoa dark chocolate and one bar of Lindt's 70% cocoa dark chocolate. I found that our's came out way too rich, so I think next time I'll use two and a half bars of Lindt's 65% cocoa dark chocolate plus some vanilla extract. I topped mine with whipped cream and the left over chocolate bar crumbled into sprinkles. Eat it while it's hot! It always amazes me how much I can squish into one weekend...Until next time, hope you have a most fabulous day!

Fashion Thoughts

Playing: Boytoy-Starfucker
Reading: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

After the runway shows for Spring/Summer 2012 and Fall/Winter 2012 left me feeling like fashion was boring without Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, Burberry has given me hope that S/S 2013 is going to be fantastic! Their menswear show left me feeling pleasantly surprised and like Christopher Bailey has really stepped up his game. His choice of metallic and silk printed clothing and accessories is taking menswear in a more bold and exotic direction for me. I loved the classic suits punched up with metallic lining plus the casual wear's sheer British-ness. Even the male models were better this season than last. They looked more youthful, boyish, handsome, and upbeat than the last two seasons, where the boys looked all a bit sad eyed. I love how Bailey always thinks through every aspect of his show, especially the music. So many of my favorite musicians, I've discovered thanks to him. Also, I was so glad to see George Craig returned to his rightful seat in the front row because I was a bit disappointed to see One Night Only in the second row of the Womenswear F/W 2012 show, especially when I saw SNSD in the front row. Come on, One Night Onyl models for Burberry, so they derserve to be in the front row more than SNSD, in my opinion. One day, I hope to make it to a Burberry show. That's my life dream and Mr. Bailey, if you're reading this, please invite me and I'll do whatever I can to show my gratitude to you.

Ok, I've been thinking about this one, since I watched Project Runway:All Stars. AUSTIN SCARLETT FOR DIOR. Yes? No? Maybe so? His design aesthetic is so classic with a nod to the past plus so, so glamorous. He once described his clothes as belonging to a dream, which is what I always associated with Dior. All the adjectives I associate with Dior are words I think of, when I think Austin Scarlett. Ethereal, fun, whimsical, classic, expensive, ladylike, and the list goes on. A lot of his clothing I can see walking down Dior's Haute Couture runway as they are and some of them just need a bigger budget, so that he can buy better fabric and then they would be perfect for Dior.  Plus, Austin Scarlett is able to create amazing pieces in short amounts of time, so imagine what he can do when he's given months to work on one collection plus tremendous freedom to do whatever he wants. Plus, he's so lovable with his quirky expressions and over the top diva personality. I really think he's the perfect choice for Dior. As much as I would love to see Galliano back at Dior, I know it's not going to happen, so why not give Dior to a totally new designer and see what happens?

Left to Right: Central Park, Mike Gonzalez, and T by Alexander Wang

I've also been playing around with the idea of a luxurious sweatshirt for casual days. I've found that I can get away with wearing a solid colored tank top in a contrasting color with one of my sweatshirts plus interesting shoes and skinny jeans. Plus, it's a nice look for walking your dog perhaps and for doing quick errands. My suggestions for finding a good sweatshirt that can pass as chic is to find one in a solid color, no tacky details like rhinestones or sequins,  and one with interesting details like a curved hem, ruffly trim, or an overlapping fold in the back. Check out American Apparel, Uphustle, and Urban Outfitters for some nice choices. I especially like these ones from Urban Outfitters: USA, Skull(Very Mondo Guerra!) , and Zombie.

I've also been searching for a way to make summer clothing more fashionable without sweating to death and I think I discovered one. An easy way to make shorts look dressed up is by choosing tailored shorts over denim cutoffs. Although I do like the shredded shorts look, sometimes I just need that extra polish that only pleated shorts can do during the summer. This Chloe pair I got are great because the navy color makes them look like regular shorts from far away, but when you get close, you notice that they're not your typical, run-of-the-mill denim shorts! Goodness, I write way too much. How can I expect you to read all of this? I'll be letting you go now, but I would love to hear your opinions on all of this because I've been thinking about them a lot lately.

I've Got Hips But I'm Not a Hipster

Playing: F.A.L.L.I.N.G.-Teen Hearts
Reading: BioChip May Make Diagnosis of Leukimia and HIV Faster, Cheaper

Over the weekend, I went to go try a restaurant that I've been hearing about. Apparently hip, "right type" of white people like to eat here, since it serves fancy versions of food we love or foods we love done in unexpected ways. It's called Eat Chow and as you can see, it likes to make everything look different and clean cut. They had a mini cactus on each table and serves the sugar in clear glass jars plus had a variety of Mexican hot sauces.

Eat Chow had amazing interior decorations though. In order to keep the restaurant both open and cozy, they used slated walls to separate each room. It was connected to a high end baby store, so it had a cutesy mural painted on the floor and avant garde book shelves with fairy tales on the wall. I love the glass lamps they had hanging down. They looked like a globe of ice that had frozen, while being stuck in a whirlpool.

I ordered the Truffle Mac N'Cheese, which was macoroni and cheese served with what seemed like three types of cheese, oyster mushrooms, bacon, and truffle oil. You actually couldn't taste any truffle in the dish, which was what made the dish extra pricey, but I have to admit the mushrooms were a wonderful touch and bacon is always a plus. What was really a surprise was the use of goat cheese, which offered a tangy relief from the creamy cheese overload. For $13, I would say this is a pricey lunch, but compared to places like Panera Bread, it's truly not that bad and the food is so much better. I mean I definitely want to go back to try more dishes.

Outside, there's a funny painting of the Beatles on the curb. It's interesting how the Beatles keep on finding a way to pop into my life after I did a History Day project on them. I MEAN THEY'RE EVERYWHERE! Anyways, I like finding quirky things like this everywhere.

Oh, and you know what true hipsters do? We love to make puns relating to bands we like together on Youtube. I have no idea who these people are, so if they're you, high five for liking the Killers. If you're a fan of the Killers, it's pretty easy to tell what is going on here. I suppose if I was a true hipster rather than a sarcastic girl acting like a hipster in order to parody them, I would say the Killers were too mainstream to ever be on my playlist. But whatever, I like them. A lot. Tons and tons. I'm sorry if this post was boring for you because it was just a food review with me rambling, but at least I shared a photo of a pretty lamp, right?

PS I'm sorry that I enjoy teasing hipsters so much and that I like making hipster satires. I'm friends with a few self-proclaimed hipsters, so I just enjoy making fun of them so much. I always have to be a tad sarcastic towards them just to annoy my friends a tad. Click these links to see Hipsterville and A Very Hipster Easter! Oh, and the title is a play on a line from a Killers' song that says, "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier."

PPS I'm leaving for Spain tomorrow, so I won't be updating for over a week unless I can get internet access at one of my hotels. I hope it isn't too hot and I'm still trying to decide what I'll be doing on the 14 hour plain ride.

Hipsterville

Playing: Locked Doors-Jack's Mannequin
Reading: Indian Home Rule by Mahatma Gandhi
Over the weekend, I went to this new area called the OC Mart Mix, recommended by Orange Coast magazine. It claimed this place was a hipster and indie paradise plus had amazing shopping all of which I found to be untrue.

I went on a Saturday, so luckily there was a Farmer's Market going on to grab food at. I went to a food truck called Barcelona on the Go, which had decent food at a price a tad too high for my liking. The Chorizo Grilled Cheese my mum ordered tasted great, but it was overpriced, considering it only had a thin layer of chorizo and cheese. My dish, the USDA Prime Top Sirloin with Fries with Chimichurri, was actually very tender for food truck steak. The chimichurri sauce is what made it great. It was tangy and fresh, brightening up the whole dish.

The only place I highly recommend at the OC Mart is Nice Cream, which serves up interesting gelato at a reasonable price, if you get more than one scoop. One scoop is $5 and for each additional scoop, it costs a dollar more. My favorite was the Strawberry Basil, which was extremely refreshing and overall a strange, but enjoyable flavor. The White Chocolate Strawberry was standard strawberry vanilla, but it was still tasty and very creamy. The Pistachio was better than most pistachio gelatos I've tried, since it tasted nuttier. I really liked the smoothness of this gelato and the friendly service.

The problem I had with the OC Mart Mix was the over planning of the whole place. It was too planned out and overpriced. I hated how every piece of clothing that was affordable looked like a generic piece of clothing I could find at Forever 21 and how everything that was different was as high as Barney Co-Op's prices. It felt like a suburban town's desperate attempt at creating an artsy shopping center. It just felt very boring, plain, and like everyone there was trying too hard.

I left quickly, but I had to grab a photo of this. I crawled through some bushes to get a photo of the SoCo sign only to figure out I could've used the sidewalk. Why is this sign so important? It says SoCo, which is short for Something Corporate in my mind and Something Corporate is my favorite band after Jack's Mannequin. I am a super fan of Something Corporate and they're from Southern California, so I wonder if they've ever seen the SoCo signs. I hope they have!

To get my fill of fabulous indie-ness, I drove to the LAB, which is fairly close to the OC Mart Mix. The LAB has stores that really do reek of hipster love. It's full of semi-thrift stores, high end street wear, and of delicious places to eat. Right across from the LAB is the Camp, which is also great for hipsters. The best part of the LAB is that it feels natural and cool, even though you know everything was well planned out. The people that shop there all look like hipsters and indie people, making the place feel more artsy and legit.

How can you not love a place that is filled with cool people with cool cars? The LAB specializes in sassy people with witty bumper stickers. If you have learned nothing from this post, I want you to know this: the LAB is amazing at being indie, while the OC Mart Mix lacks spunk and is outrageously priced. I might just be a suburban kid that doesn't understand true indie-ness and mocks hipsters, but still I think I have a decent idea of what's fun and what's not.  Since they are relatively close to each other, it is very easy for you to check out both places in one day. Go for it, I encourage you!

PS I do not have a hipster obsession, even though I now have two posts with hipster in the title. It just seems to be the new wave of nonconformists trying too hard to not conform that I can't help but tease.

Diamond Jamboree

Playing: I Forgot If We Dreamed-Pandatone Feat. Julianna Barwick
Reading: My Struggle by Adolf Hitler (It's for history. I'm not a Nazi.)
I've been seeing Diamond Jamboree all over the blogosphere lately, so I decided to do a little write up of it myself. I don't go that often, but I have been there a few times. According to my dad's friend, people from all over California, especially from Los Angeles, like to drive to Diamond Jamboree to hang out and experience all sorts of Asian foods. Diamond Jamboree covers a lot of Asian cuisine including Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and Taiwanese.  

At Chef Hung, you can order his award winning soup noodles for around $10 each. I ordered the Champion Beef Shank with Noodle in Soup, which to be perfectly honest, was only ok. I've had better and I don't really understand how this could win Taiwan's award for best noodle soup. The service was quick, friendly, and very good looking. Yes, that is of importance. Good looking waiters will bring me back. I like how any noodle dish you order, you can choose from a wide variety of noodles to eat plus you can watch them make your dish, if you like. They also give you complimentary black tea, as soon as you sit down.

85 Degree C bakery is apparently a popular, Taiwanese bakery. The pastries in general are pretty good, but there's almost always a long line that goes out of the store just to get in. My favorite pastries to get there are the Half Moon Cakes, which are fluffy cakes with jam or cream spread in the middle plus coconut shavings on the edges. It's light as air and just so good, but most of the time, it's not worth the wait, at least for me. I tend to find 85 Degree  C's drinks to be disappointing and I much rather go next door to Lollicup for a drink.

 The Papaya Thai Bistro is my favorite restaurant at Diamond Jamboree due to the fact that it's the only non-Thai Spice Thai restaurant that I'm aware of. The food tastes pretty great to me and the serving size is reasonable for the price. My favorite dish there is the Duck Noodle Soup, which comes in a huge bowl that can be shared between two people. The duck is so tender and the soup is just a tad spicy.

The other thing that I enjoy tremendously so at Thai Papaya Bistro are the Money Bags. They're basically like fried wontons filled with ground meat, coconut, green onion, and carrots, but they're just so tasty and I love them. The only issue with this place is their service. They bring out one dish at a time and depending on who you get, the server can be a bit rude and sometimes, they seem too bored. Also, quite a few times that I've gone there, they brought out the food before the utensils, so I had to go up to one of them and ask for utensils.

 At BCD Tofu House, open 24 hours, you can order normal hot tofu dishes plus much more. I usually like to do their combination meals, with the pork tofu and bulgogi noodles, which is a pretty good price for a large amount of food. The food is pretty standard, but the array of side dishes that come complimentary with your meal is impressive. However, I rarely go here due to the long wait just to get a table.

Diamond Jamboree's main attraction for my group of friends is Sticki Picki, a store filled with purikura machines. The only issues I have with Sticki Picki is that they never turn on the air conditioning and it's very crowded, so my friends and I can last two rounds before we all get dehydrated and leave for Lollicup. However, I don't know if this is true, since this is the only purikura place I've been too, but apparently, it's very expensive at $10-$12 per round. Overall, Diamond Jamboree has a lot of food to offer and can be a great hang out place, if you want to do a round of purikura or go to karaoke!

Perfume Samples

Playing: Tranquilize-The Killers Ft. Lou Reed
Reading: April Harper's Bazaar
Over the weekend, I went to Nordstrom to look at perfumes and purses and such, so I grabbed some perfume samples just to test things out. I personally like these samples because perfume isn't something you can buy at random. You have to wear it for a day or two before you can decide whether or not you like it.

 

Chanel N°19 Poudre Eau de Parfum is a nice, floral version of N°5. It's a pleasant scent, but there's one problem that keeps me from wanting to use this often. After I took a shower, you could still smell the perfume on me and it didn't go away until after two washes. It's nice to have a perfume that lasts, but I don't want to be tied down to one for multiple days.

Tom Ford's Violet Blonde is an amazing scent perfect for a night out and about. Lasts for a long time, highly concentrated so one spritz is enough, and smells luxurious. I really liked the smoothness of this scent and how warm it was, but not warm as in spicy like the next perfume sample.

Thierry Mugler's Angel smells like something made for someone elderly and it was too strong for me. After about five minutes of wearing it, I had a terrible head ache and had to wash it off. I can't say much for longevity other than it lasted more than one shampooing. It reminded me of a much stronger, spicier version of Yves Saint Laurent Opium. For some reason, I thought this was going to be a fresh, soothing smell because of the light blue coloring, but trust me, it wasn't calming for me. I do encourage you to smell this for yourself because it might be just me, who dislikes it.

For something fairly inexpensive and in general, something everyone likes, head over to Bath and Body Works for their body sprays. These are almost always on sale with a buy two, get one free kind of deal. My favorites are Sea Island Cotton, Rainkissed Leaves, and Sweet Pea. I bought these about four years ago, hence the old packaging, so I don't think Rainkissed Leaves is sold anymore. The only issue I have with these is that they do change over time. My Sea Island Cotton and Rainkissed Leaves have become muskier within the last year or so. The Sweet Pea has stayed the same, but if you wear it, everyone knows what you're wearing, which isn't that fun...They do last the whole day though and are easy to wash out, so it's a great deal actually. I also like how I used these almost every day for two years and there's still a lot left. Hope my review of these perfumes and body sprays helped or interested you in checking out something!

I Just Smell So Good

Playing: What Makes You Beautiful-One Direction
Reading: The Turk Wikipedia Page

I naturally smell pretty good, not going to lie about that. Strangers have complimented me on the way I smell even when I'm not wearing any perfume, so who knows. Usually, if a stranger talks to me, it's to ask for directions or to ask what perfume I'm wearing. I've been wearing perfumes for three years now and this year, I took to trying to wear perfume everyday. I usually spritz some in my hair in the morning because I like how the scent envelops you throughout the day.

The Hello Kitty Rollergirl Rollerball perfume smells so amazing with its mix of fruity and floral notes. For me, it lasts the whole day, but being a rollerball perfume, it can't be applied over a large surface area, so not as many people smell it. In order to smell it on me, you have to have your nose right by my neck. It's pretty much something only I can smell during the day, so if I were you, I'd get the spray on version of it.

Burberry Brit Sheer is a nice, light, floral perfume that lasts me the whole day. It's not as concentrated as other perfumes of mine, so I usually need two to three spritzes for it to really stand out. In general, everyone that I know of has liked this one. It's just a really easy, light perfume to wear everyday. Even if I do wear a lot of this, I don't find it overwhelming at all.

I actually got L'eau D'Issey by mistake. I wanted the L'eau D'Issey Florale version, but I didn't know there were multiple versions until I opened it up and then it was too late to return it. In general, one spritz does the job for me and anymore can make me feel a bit dizzy. It's ok for me in small doses and my mum seems to like it a lot, but I don't find it to be a very youthful perfume. It's just that I like the florale version so much, I would expect more from this perfume.

Acqua di Gioia is by far my favorite perfume to wear. It's really fresh and bright, not to mention, I get tons of compliments when I wear this one. I usually wear one to two spritzes depending on my mood and this lasts the whole day for me. If I could only choose one perfume to wear for the rest of forever, this definitely is my choice. I forgot how wonderful it smelled until I was in New York and had to go a week without it. One day I walked into Saks to get a spritz for myself just because and it really did make me remember how amazing this perfume is.

What's your favorite perfume to wear?

PS The title of this is just a joke, a jab at narcissism if you will.