I love grabbing Costco's custard once in a while. I love McDonald's ice cream cones too...
Warm weather's coming...well Maryland is still deciding if it will be spring or late...very late winter...
but definitely we had good warm days and looking forward to warmer days to come!
Not looking so forward to the summer as much though....

Last winter and early spring, I went on several different day trips to New York City with different friends each time!
Different friends meant different style day trip at the same place.  But all included yummy food!

I don't have all the pictures, but here are some of sweets I managed to take pics!

Mini cupcakes....so cute!  I bought variety of them...but to be honest with you.  I couldn't really find real difference in some of the flavors...

Macarons...! This was the place I went EVERY time I went to NYC.
Love their macarons!! Yum yum and so cute and colorful!

I was walking by and just couldn't pass that honey roasted nuts!
We were digging for changes and he just waived it and gave us a discount!  Thank you!
FYI He's located on Broadway & W29, hint, hint.

That's me getting my first ever caricature!  It was a fun experience.
Everyone passing by stared at me and little embarrassing, but that guy had some skills.
I studied art...but I don't think I can do caricature. Sigh....

A beautiful day... was eating my Habana cafe grilled corn outside and thought this view was beautiful.  Corn was good too!

Visited cute gigantic toy store...forget the name... we took bunch of pictures 'touring' the store.

Was introduced to Halal food.  That guy over there told us that this spot is his favorite to get the halal food.
I was already too full to eat anymore than a bite...

This was different day trip with my best friend.  Went to MOMA and admired one of my favorite Klimt.
I want to see First Kiss by Klimt someday.... Someday!!!!

My best friend and I went to Williamsburg too, but didn't have much time to explore the area.
But we were determined to visit beacon's closet!  Had some amazing finds here.
We are already scheduling our next day trip dedicated to Williamsburg alone next time!
Can't wait for some more vintage shopping!

This was a trip with Sharon.  Can you see us?
We bought CHICAGO tickets at TKTS booths and had to play in that big Hyundai screen.

We wanted to do that Psy picture...but we weren't the only ones....

Our main event for the day with Sharon, CHICAGO! All that Jazz~!

That's not me in the picture but group of us doing some art projects for the church stage.

Compassion...was the theme for this project.  Physically draining but still was fun to play with paints again!

Weekend outing to near Baltimore Inner harbor is always nice!

I don't cook much these days...(I'm single and not married) but get a chance to whip something up once in a while.
Like these rice balls with spicy tuna! Everyone liked it!

And do you know what this is?
It's Ken Smith's bass guitar! Not mine though...my church's.
But I've got to learn to play bass guitar!

It's very heavy but I feel special that I get to play with this bass.
But I can't bring out its beautiful sound...just a beginner here..
but it's one of my biggest new exciting challenge.
So much fun yet kinda painful for me too.
It's too heavy that I had to stop playing for some time.

With all those excitements, it's always nice to sit down and have a wonderful cup of coffee.
This is a cappuccino my friend 'stole' from other customer.
It was an honest mistake but she only realized it wasn't hers...after she sipped on it couple times too late.
She thought that name was signed by the barista.
Sorry David, it truly wasn't intentional...

And I still have quick walks around the office in the afternoon when the weather's nice out.
It just gets your spirit up again when I get to see some trees and the sunlight.

And I just hope that I get more diligent with posting more.
Thanks for visiting and just letting you know...

I'm still here too!

It's packaged like a juice pouch and you squeeze it out to eat it. But it has a cap to screw back when you can't finish all at once. Plus less mess with tightly sealed package! FYI, if it's frozen hard!  It won't come out even if you try to squeeze it out...you need to take some time to kind of break it (massage it little bit...) with your hands.

They have different flavors, but I love the coffee flavor the most. Vanilla seems to be okay too. Haven't had chance to try other ones...if you did, let me know.

What does "Seolleim" mean?
It basically means your heart fluttering when you start falling in love. So the commercials are all basically concentrated to that topic.

Now you know what word Seolleim is all about...I found couple of Seolleim commercials from YouTube. Enjoy!

H.C. promised he'll take us back there for the real Sunday Brunch and his treat!

So finally we went...
He made a reservation, just to make sure we can get a seat.  FYI, you can make a reservation online.

I am sure he wouldn't dare taking that risk with me again ...since
we tend to get really grouchy when we get hungry and no food...

well... maybe just me...my friends know to steer clear of me when I'm in that state...seriously...

Anyhow...we went there on Sunday around 11am. Nice atmosphere.

I didn't have chance to take pictures of the interior but it was nice and fresh. They are supposed to be eco-friendly and casual setting. We got to go upstairs, which felt more homey and warm. Felt like we were sitting in someone's dining room. Nice~ I liked how the servers had all different aprons on too. Cute.

On the way up to the upper dining area, I spotted this small mouse hole with fake mouse lighted... haha cute touch.

They had "cloud" hanging on the ceiling with somekind of birds painted white and hanging... at first, I thought that cloud was a whale or something...
One big white blob. I am not so sure about that cloud... looked little dirty and dusty.
Other than that, I liked the overall ambiance of the restaurant. Cozy.
Thought it would be cute to decorate my dining room like that later in the future minus the mouse hole and the cloud.

I still didn't have my morning coffee, so got a cup of coffee. Cream came out in a cute milk carton shaped container. I drink coffee black, but I just had to take a picture of that thing. Cute. Pardon me for overusing "cute," but they were cute! I thought it would be better if it's foldable and can close it like the real milk carton. Wouldn't that be neat?

Coffee was pretty good. Smooth. No bitter aftertaste.

And the server recommended drinks they make it fresh there. We looked around the menu and decided on Manhattan Soda and Raspberry-Lime Rickey. "Raspberry Syrup, Rose Water, Lime Juice, Sparkling Seltzer" Oooo rose water~! That's what caught my eye.

Looked nice and fresh. Rickey was actually pretty good. Tasted like some slush mocktails. I liked it that it wasn't sweet and good tart. Loved the raspberry and very refreshing.

On the other hand, Manhattan soda ...was....ugh... sorry if you like that drink....
it's said to have "The ultimate pick-me-up. Made with Intelligentsia coffee and espresso, hand whipped cream, agave nectar, and sparkling seltzer."

I don't know what to make of this drink...the flavor wasn't mixing well with each other. One sip and you could taste all different ingredients in that drink...it felt like I was drinking several different kinds of drinks at one time...Yuck. Glad that I didn't order THAT drink. H.C. was trying to finish it and everytime he sipped it once, he made (>.<) face.
Ha ha... so we tried to help him out with mixing sugar and cream. He stopped drinking it after that.
No more Manhattan soda for us. No no no!

As a starter we got Banana Fluffer Nutter, which had peanut butter and banana topped with marshmallow and chocolate balls. It was good sweet.

I got Fried Chicke, Eggs, Waffles. I saw others getting these before but never tried it. I love waffles and I like it with maple syrup. But I was just so curious how it would taste with fried chicken. It was pretty good actually. When I ate waffles with gravy and chicken, it got overpowered and couldn't really taste the waffles, but it was good. But at the end I wanted it maple syrup. They had watery syrup.  I personally think, with chicken or not, it's better with maple syrup!

And I think Grace got Founding Farmers breakfast. Just a classic breakfast. Good.

I think H.C. got Bananas Foster Stuffed French Toast. That was the best! I loved the idea of the cream stuffed French Toast. Oh my mouth is watering for that French Toast! Yum!!

It's individually packed snack...usually higher priced...but I like it since it's more portable and lasts longer (I can't finish the box fast enough)
Kinda reminded me of French Pies from Haitai with no fruit toppings.

I am not much of a sweet snacker. I prefer eating real food versus junk food.
Prefer salty versus sweet...etc. etc...
But then...I love cakes and ice cream. I just don't like cookies, biscuits, those sorts..

When do I eat them? When someone brings it for me... ha ha ha...And this one, my aunt brought it. Thanks!
I don't think I never bought Korean packaged sweet snacks for myself before...wow...just realized it.

I like eating them ONCE IN A WHILE with coffee, but I prefer real dessert like pastry or cakes (I drink Black coffee...) Then there's my friend Kyu... who would willingly substitute snacks for a meal.
She's a pro snacker...I'm telling you. I think she has tried all the snacks out in the market. I consult her for buying snacks for others. Ha ha.. I guess her taste review will be more average than mine. I can't stand sweet stuff for too long. Just one quick bite of it is enough for me.

Flaky crusted snack with some kind of glazing on top. Is it honey? Or sugar syrup?
I gave one to my coworker to try it out.
I didn't want to scare her since she is not so familiar with Korean stuff....so I told her it's like crispy croissant.
It was spontaneous description but come to think of it, I think it was the best description!

So, while trying this snack, I thought of Kyu and asked her if she tried it. Of course, she did. So, decided to ask her snack "expert" opinion. She was so excited about the snack. Since her preference usually weighs by sweetness, sweeter the better, I asked her to rate the sweetness of the snack.

1-5, 5 being the sweetest.

How did you like Brown Leaf?

Crispy Croissant! Buttery, honey-sweet, less messy and good size for my coffee break. I would've gone for 2 even! But no  more... enough sugar for me...This is max sweet I would enjoy without the overwhelming sugary taste...

I thought this kind of resembled Haitai French Pies so ....

Compare to French Pies, please
Less sweet than french pies. (That's all she really said!!!) Sweetness 4

I don't like French pies much....don't like fruit toppings...too sweet, sticky, too flaky, and messy. Always crumbs all over...I don't like messy food... And sometimes the fruit topping sticks to the packaging...just stuff it inside then....Size is okay since it's not too big.

Which one do you prefer:
Both!! I'll eat them both!!

Brown leaf definitely.

So there it is...
Have you tried Brown Leaf yet?

I heard about this new place through Montgomery County friends.

All you can eat BBQ grill place. The interior was nice. It yelled iron... metal... steel... whatever they wanted....

One giant screen and multiple TVs on the wall with K-pop music videos, from Girl's generation, 2NE1, to EXO-K? Was it?. If you know K-pops I guess you would love watching it while eating. Didn't see Psy's Gangnam Style though...lol

Maybe you know more than I do. Haven't watched any of them for a while.
With 2 big guys (oh yes they are) and 2 meat-loving girls (eat almost the same meat as those 2 guys) were ready to raid the place that day. Sorry Iron Age. But we need to try the place...

They have 2 choices in all you can eat.
Course A $18 Mainly pork varieties and beef brisket
Course B $22 Mainly beef varieties

Not only Course A was less expensive, I prefer pork so...we went ahead and ordered A.
We basically order what we want to eat first. For the first time in Maryland Korean restaurant, servers were actually younger and polite.

They seemed to be actually trained servers. Wow. I really appreciated the service.

Usually most Korean restaurants have older ladies who acts like your grouchy aunt and gives us a look and the attitude.
If you are not Korean speaking Korean, you'll never experience that so you are okay.
But if you speak Korean, they give you an attitude and a nasty look sometimes when they get tired and they don't want to work.
Maybe I should act like I don't speak Korean and just speak English and see what happens.

Anyhow back to Iron Age...
Usually rule of thumb for Korean bbq is that you order plain non marinated meat first...
the reason being the marinated meat burns the grill faster and need to ask to change the grill too many times.
And I'm sure the servers won't really enjoy that experience.
Plus marinated meat would mess up your taste for the fresh plain meat taste.

So, order non marinated ones first or just go marinated all the way.

So, we ordered thinly sliced beef brisket first. And that's the best to order for the first round since
it cooks in seconds! And we were so hungry my goodness...but noticed that they give you so little portion.
So we had to constantly ask for more meat basically every couple minutes to have the consistent flow of meat.
Then we ordered plain Samgyupsal-pork belly, I think spicy Samgyupsal, and then Daeji Galbi-marinated pork

Their steamed eggs and Doenjang jjigae was okay. Not great not bad.

Their rice balls. Nice touch but Ugh~ it was tooooooo salty for me.

I love eating BBQ with the pickled round thinly sliced radish and I just ate with that.
I didn't like their lettuce salad. Didn't care much for them.

Salad is way better at Honeypig.
Iron Age, pickled radish for me~ more please~
I asked for so many refills of them and they basically stopped giving it to use even though we asked several more times.
I think that was intentional...hey~...

But then it's a business after all... we were there like for 2 hours so...can't complain I guess..

(But then...we ordered beef brisket again at the very end mainly due to one of the guys still wanting some beef and that was like our 'dessert' course.
Finishing off with fresh plain meat. Ah~refreshing.)
I don't know if they have Mul-nangmyun tho...didn't really go through their menu...hmmm...

I would definitely go again. Just hope that their service and freshness of meat doesn't change over time. Consistency please~!!!!

Go try them, enjoy!

Anna Rating-purely based on my experience only!
Service: EXCELLENT
Food: GOOD
Compliments: GOOD
Place: GOOD+
Price: EXCELLENT

Iron Age

(301) 424-1474

I don't really like how the tables are set there, but I loved the food. It's not greasy and with hodge podge of decorations, I felt like I was somewhere out of country...Ha ha...

I love their price and the food is great!

We ordered...beef fried rice and pork bbq...we were going to order duck meat and they ran out...it turned out that this pork bbq is really good too!

eggplant and chicken with garlic sauce was the BEST!! This is not in the menu. It's on the whiteboard as one of the specials...but careful...it's steaming HOT the first time it comes out. I literally burned my tongue but it's so good that

I couldn't stop eating it. Yummmmm.

beef lomein, nothing special to my taste...plain old lomein... and

Chicken Congee Chinese porridge was good too. A big portion with ginger strips.

Avoid if you don't like ginger though.

Shrimp with black bean sauce...nothing special but not greasy or too salty either. Liked it.

I love going to this place. I can filled with good food and the awkward placed tables kind of makes it

like family dinner I guess. Ha ha... I want some now Mmmmm~

(301) 933-8388

Well, back to the my version of miso ramen.

This is what I used.  And this is the only sauce/seasoning I used.  Pretty easy huh?  But if you want to be

more sophisticated, my mom usually adds katsuobush and less miso for the soup.  Me? I just put plenty of

miso paste to taste.  Nicely salty and thick.  Mmmmm...

I boiled the water with miso and the veggie flakes that came with the original ramyun.  Chopped some onions.  Love onion.

Then, when it finally started to smell good and boiling, added ramyun. I didn't use the ramyun seasoning packet!!

Onion just seemed to be not enough for me.  Looked around and found some baby bokchoy.  Just add them when you are all done so

it doesn't lose its crispiness and fresh green color.  Pardon messy background.  I was hungry...what can I say? *Blush*

And you're done! You can opt out in any of the veggie flakes or bokchoy.  Be creative and be adventurous!

As a pho addict, I couldn't resist adding fresh mung bean sprouts...sigh....it was good and comforting..

My comfort and quick meal.

I really wanted some pickled ginger or pickled radish at least, but didn't find any...regular kimchi would be

too strong to pair with this miso ramyun so luckily had white non-spicy kimchi...

It didn't pair up perfectly with miso ramyun, but better  than nothing.

I am full, warmed up, and satisfied.  Ahh~I love miso ramyun.

Hope you like this too...Enjoy!

I love noodle soup...and I love to eat hot soup for lunch at work. But ramyun could have lingering smell afterwards and I decided that I should stock up on some Udong and that shouldn't bother others so much.

I've never tried DongWon's Instant Spicy RaUdong so I grabbed it (It was on sale too hah hah...)
I bought a box with 6 of these and chopsticks were included.

Nongshim Japanese Udon Noodle Soup Bowl (Pack of 6) FRESH NOODLES! New & Sealed US $30.00

So, this is how RaUdong instant 'paper' cup Udon/Udong looks like.

And this how RaUdong looks~! Not bad huh? I put little bit more water...I was cold and wanted some HOT steamy soup.

At first, I thought the peppers labels this Udong spicy, but the soysauce itself WAS spicy.
Looks can be deceiving! Those little red peppers added the spiciness....Ahhh....

Well, bottom line...it was good but SPICY!

I had to take those red peppers out...ahhhhh~ my lips started to burn...
but don't get scared to try it because of me...I can't take the spiciness...shame on me as a Korean right? ha ha...

Anyhow back to the taste test, the noodle was good and soup was good (minus the spicy hot for me).
Oh, but the serving size was too little for me. I don't know if it was my growling real bad stomach just wanting more food, food, food! or the portion was just too small for everybody.

Good thing I packed some rice to finish the soup with! Wink Wink!
Well I found more different Udon noodles from eBay...I should try them soon too.
Let me know if you try any of them or RaUdong.
Enjoy~!

Nongshim Japanese Udon Noodle Soup Bowl (Pack of 6) FRESH NOODLES! New & Sealed US $30.00

But the scenery was beautiful although I'm not sure if the fall foliage was there... I saw little autumn colors but leaves were already starting to fall probably because of heavy rain and wind these days.
But still it was beautiful~!

Little bit of colors for you to see.

I was told that we will be walking on the trail but I wasn't informed that it would be that steep and chilly since the trail had waterfalls and late in the day...sigh...

Water trailing down right next to the trail...and I saw many people coming back to the beginning of the entrance with DIY walking sticks from broken branches...uh oh...that steep?

This was the beginning of the trail...just fine and beautiful..can you see how late we went there?

Then, it started to get steep downward and it was muddy in most places too...my goodness..scared to death that I might slip right down! Ahhhhhh~~! Whew...but got down just fine. And everybody was crowded here..

Waterfall~! Everybody all bundled up nice and warm!

We went down some more and oooo~worth the effort...beautiful rest stop.

I went to Trail A (I think) and it was now a flat but stony trail...I guess horses pass by too..'cause my friend Kyu ummmm stepped on the horse's ...LOL....we started to look for our own walking sticks too! Kyu found really nice one..and mine was little bent but usable.

Overflow was passing through the trail and yay~we had our hiking sticks to cross with.

With my precious hiking stick.

That's Kyu with her hiking stick. She was determined to go to the end of the trail but deeper we went, no people were in sight so we turned back. Got scared little. But it was beautiful everywhere~!

Climbing back...was not fun though. My thighs were burning and my hiking sticks were great help. So I left my stick leaning near the entrance. Hopefully someone puts it into good use!

Then, another 2hr motion sickness...Next time (if we ever get energy to ride the car for another 4hours roundtrip) we will be better prepared with snacks, drinks, and warmer clothes and shoes. Ooooo~ fun...I'll make sure I won't eat Kimbob in the car next time. You be careful too with Kimbob since it get spoiled easily so just buy enough to eat once.

The way back home, we stopped by Annandale, Virginia (Korean town) and ate hot pot/Jungol at Annangol Restaurant. I was too hungry and too tired to take any pictures, but will post separate post for this restaurant.

I would definitely go back  there minus the car ride...

This is what we used today. We just got out frozen vegetables and some beef we had. Cook them first in the pot. Then mix curry with water and add them into the cooked veggies. You control how thick you want your curry to be with water. And boil it. And enjoy with kimchi or danmooji. I'm eating with danmooji today. Enjoy!