New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve was actually a work day for me, but luckily we had a half day. I quickly got everything I needed to get done for the 2010 cutover. I had to head over to my apartment quickly to pick up everything I needed for the long weekend and then quickly head to Queens before the crowds started filling up Broadway. I ended up getting in at 3:30, which gave me plenty of time to relax and help setup for dinner.

View all

Get your own

We really didn't have anything big planned and since Cindy & Wil had no plans either, we just had dinner at my parents' house and watched the ball drop on TV. I was also good to have Cindy stationed in Queens in case the baby felt like coming out a couple of weeks early for that New Year's Eve scholarship! The night ended up being a normal New Year's though... no drama of rushing to the hospital in the snowy/rainy weather!

Kum Gang San

Location: 138-28 Northern Blvd., Flushing, NY 11354
Cuisine: Korean
Hours: SUN-SAT (24 hrs)
Phone: (718) 461-0909
Website: www.kumgangsan.net
Prices: about $14/person (lunch)
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 9
Service: 7
Value: 7
Environment: 9

Frequency: Unique

It was my last vacation day of the year and originally, I was going to go with my parents to East Buffet as they invited some out of town friends out. Luckily they decided to to to the outlets. I don't think I could've handled a buffet after the Christmas party. So we went and tried out a Korean restaurant that none of us had been to before... Kum Gang San.

View all

Get your own

We had a good experience there overall. The staff (at least our waiter) didn't know English that well, but the menu was in both languages which is always a good sign. When they took our order, we each mentioned the number of the item, pointed to it and gave the waiter the English name. Somehow he got my Dad's order wrong even though it was the same item as mine. Anyway, they corrected it quickly and politely apologized. So the effort was there and I didn't take of any points for it. The food was great. For more details, check out the comments in the Picasa album.

Christmas Party

We originally planned to do something on Christmas Day, but moved it to the 26th because of Warren & Susan's party. Theirs was for lunch, but we didn't want to have 2 big meals in the same day. Also we needed the full day to prepare for ours. Everyone was still available on the 26th too.

View all

Get your own

Christmas Day

Christmas Day this year was pretty much a repeat of 2008. We went for lunch at Warren and Susan's place. Once again, they were able to get use of the basement in their condo.

View all

Get your own

Merry Christmas

Imperial Palace

Location: 136-13 37th Ave., Flushing, NY 11354
Cuisine: Chinese, Seafood
Hours: SUN-SAT (11:30am-12am)
Phone: (718) 939-3501, (718) 939-3502
Prices: About $13 per person
Credit Cards: Cash only

Food: 8
Service: 7
Value: 7
Environment: 5

Frequency: Frequent

Emily & I took my parents out to dinner since they didn't want Christmas presents from us. They also brought alone Uncle George & Auntie Rose for the small Christmas Eve dinner. The restaurants were packed. We got to Imperial Palace around 6pm and got one of the last tables left. During our whole meal, there was a huge line at the entrance.

View all

Get your own

Generally, the food is pretty good here. They really cook the food. Many other Chinese restaurants bring out their dishes ridiculously fast... so fast that they either cook in large bulks or microwave already cooked food. I boosted the rating up to 8 from my original post from last year. For more details, please visit the Picasa album.

I reduced the environment rating because of the way they laid out the tables. While Imperial Palace has nice decor and is pretty clean, the comfort factor is ruined by the stuffy arrangement of tables. If you're sitting down at a table, there will be someone sitting next to you at an adjacent table because the seating is too closely packed. The acoustics are terrible when the place is full. You won't be able to hear each other speak.

DVDeals 12/20 - 12/26

If you enjoyed Family Guy: Blue Harvest, the Star Wars: A New Hope spoof, then you'll want to pick up Family Guy: Something Something Something Dark Side this Tuesday. It's the sequel and a spoof of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Amazon has the best prices for both the DVD ($12.99) and Blu-ray ($18.99). Best Buy has the exclusive collector's edition for $29.99, which includes a t-shirt and lunchbox.

Best Buy Deals
- Terminator Salvation for $19.99
- Terminator Salvation (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- Earth for $14.99
- Earth (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- Up for $14.99
- Up (Blu-ray) for $24.99
- Transformers 1 & 2 (Blu-ray) for $40

December Dinner

Only the Queens people were available for our December dinner and Ben & Clovy were having visitors over from Ohio. So they hosted a pot luck gathering. Ben, Clovy & Irene brought Chinese food. Charlotte picked up stuff from SriPraPhai and I got the usual cupcakes from Buttercup.

View all

Get your own

Curry Leaves

Location:135-31 40th Rd., Flushing, NY 11355
Cuisine: Malaysian
Hours: Daily (11am-11pm)
Phone: (718) 762-9313
Prices: about $15/person
Credit Cards: Cash only

Food: 9
Service: 7
Value: 8
Environment: 5

Frequency: Unique

Emily's family birthday celebration is usually in Sentosa, but we thought we'd give a different local Malaysian restaurant a try for comparison. We noticed it while eating at Corner 28 one day. It turned out to be a bad day to eat out since it was raining the whole time and we had 3 cars total going there. The rain didn't stop the Flushing crowd either... and it didn't stop us!

View all

Get your own

The first thing I noticed when I walked in was the small tables. I was wondering how they were going to fit 10 of us at their 8-person table. Instead of putting a couple tables together, they squeezed us in. We had a reservation and the place wasn't crowded, so they had all the time in the world to do a custom arrangement. They brought out all of the dishes at once and had trouble fitting everything. It was difficult to eat until we got rid of a few dishes. There was no elbow room and we had to pass around everything. The restaurant had nice decor and was very clean, so I counted the experience with the large group we had against the environment rating. I don't recommend this place for parties of 8 or more. You're better off paying a little more for Sentosa. For parties under 8, this place is great though.

The service was OK. Our teapot was never empty, but they never changed our plates in the middle of the meal. Many of the items were saucy and some dishes had bones. So there was limited space to eat unless they changed our plates like they do in many Chinese restaurants.

For more information on the food, please visit the Picasa album.

DVDeals 12/13 - 12/19

There's nothing good coming out this Tuesday, but there are a bunch of good titles on sale at Best Buy and Target. As expected, Blu-ray prices dropped quite a bit after Black Friday. The players, which were around $300 last year became as low as $120. And the price drop of PS3 probably helped a lot.

Best Buy Deals
- Transformers (Blu-ray) for $14.99
- Batman: Dark Knight (Blu-ray) for $14.99
- Enter the Dragon (Blu-ray) for $14.99
- Max Payne (Blu-ray) for $14.99
- Princess Bride for $4.99
- Harold & Kumar go to White Castle for $4.99
- T2 for $4.99

Target Deals
- Terminator Salvation (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- Wolverine (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- Casino Royale (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- Quantum of Solace (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- Wall-E (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- Independence Day (Blu-ray) for $14.99
- Terminator (Blu-ray) for $14.99
- Speed (Blu-ray) for $14.99
- Predator (Blu-ray) for $14.99
- Swordfish (Blu-ray) for $14.99
- Ice Age for $10

Sunday Hot Pot

Sunday was a quiet with nothing much going on. We headed over to Cindy & Wil's house for a hot pot dinner and there was virtually no traffic. We got there in less than 30 minutes. I don't that has ever happened before. The weather started getting cold this week after a relatively warm November. So hot pot was perfect.

View all

Get your own

This was my 3rd hot pot meal in 8 days. Last Sunday, we had it at Uncle Bock & Auntie Kim's. And on Tuesday I had dinner at a Thai Shabu Shabu place with Charlotte & Jeff.

Christine & Nino in NY

It's been a very busy year as far as family occasions. We've never had as many visitors in one year as in 2009. I also don't think I've ever had as many plane trips in one year myself. I thought Auntie Clarita & Uncle Mariano would be the last group, but the festivities continued as Christine & Nino came by for a short visit. Because of conflicting schedules and little vacation days left, we were only able to meet up for dinner tonight.

View all

Get your own

The last time I saw Christine was almost when I started this blog... during my trip to her wedding. This was Nino's first visit to the US and the first time I met their daughter, Nadine.

Holiday Gift Ideas

Here are some original gift ideas from my friends:

Bedtime Ballyhoo
This is a wonderfully illustrated, rhyming bedtime story by Nicki Granata Bosch. Your kids will enjoy the story and pictures and you'll have a blast reading it to them. Click here to shop.

Books by Chris Grabenstein
Chris recently released The Hanging Hill, a sequel to Crossroads. Both are great books for young adults. I got myself a copy at his release party and enjoyed it a lot a well. He also has a collection of mystery/thrillers for the older audience. Click here to shop

A Ma$tamind Christmas 4
This is Shawn Noel's 4th X-mas album. Not only does this make an original gift, but be sure to get one for yourself for background music if you're hosting a party. Click here to shop.

Tinkerbot Jewelry
New hobbies produce new products for Jene Wallace. The link I had for her last year was for crocheted food items. This year, it's handmade jewelry. Click here to shop.

DVDeals 11/29 - 12/5

Terminator Salvation
Finally, another Summer blockbuster will be released this Tuesday. Terminator Salvation is the last one I think. Amazon has the best price for the regular edition DVD at $9.99. They also have the Blu-ray for $15.99. Best Buy has the Blu-ray for $19.99, but it includes a digital copy. It's odd that there are 2 Blu-ray versions... with and without the digital copy. Best Buy also has a special edition Blu-ray for $34.99. They didn't mention anything other than the special endoskeleton box though, so it's probably not worth the price.

Best Buy Deals
- Ghost Rider (Blu-ray) for $14.99
- A Knight's Tale (Blu-ray) for $14.99
- Spiderman for $9.99
- Babylon AD for $9.99
- Wanted for $9.99
- Max Payne for $9.99
- Punisher for $9.99
- Forbidden Kingdom for $9.99
- Death Race for $9.99

Happy Black Friday

I didn't go crazy for Black Friday this year. There didn't seem to be much on the electronics/movie sections. I found some early deals beforehand online. I woke up at 7am... pretty much normal time and just checked out Radio Shack. They're really the only electronics store that stocks what they advertise. I was able to take care of a few Christmas gifts, so that was successful. My Mom just went to Macy's and got a bunch of clothes on sale. Black Friday for us wasn't that eventful, but efficient.

Thanksgiving

View all

Get your own

Happy Thanksgiving

Corner 28 (2nd Floor)

Location: 40-28 Main St., Flushing, NY 11354
Cuisine: Chinese
Phone: (718) 886-6628
Prices: $9/person (w/ dessert)
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 8
Value: 10
Environment: 8

Frequency: Unique

I had the day off so I met up with my parents for lunch and was able to add more to my Flushing restaurant reviews. We've been to Corner 28 before, but only for takeout, which is a completely different experience. This restaurant really split itself into many "departments" as they offer fast food downstairs, a sit-in restaurant upstairs, a sushi bar and bubble tea/smoothies. If they had the space, I'm sure they would offer dim sum on weekends too!

View all

Get your own

The thing that stood out about the Corner 28 restaurant menu was the prices. $9 per person is extremely cheap for non-fast food that included a smoothie. Without the desserts, it would've been around $6 per person... a takeout level price!

City Café

Location: 136-13 38th Ave., Flushing, NY, 11354
Cuisine: Chinese
Phone: (718) 661-3380
Prices: $8/person
Credit Cards: None

Food: 7
Service: 7
Value: 9
Environment: 7

Frequency: Unique

Auntie Clarita & Uncle Mariano took us out for dinner on their last full day in New York. Since it was a Thursday night, the dinner crowd was comfortable and I got to try a new place. My parents have been to City Café before for lunch. I've never tried it, but used to come to this location a lot back when Sweet 'n Tart was in business. City Café is a much different style of restaurant, most noticeable with the price range. Sweet 'n Tart had small portions and high prices. This place has OK portions (all of our dishes were a good size except the lobster) with very low prices. This is probably one of the best bang for buck Chinese restaurants in the area. The dinner prices are pretty close to what youd pay for a lunch takeout.

View all

Get your own

The restaurant was clean and well-maintained, although one might not think that when looking at the outside. The service was above average, but I lowered the score a bit because they didn't change our plates and didn't have an English menu. For more details on the dishes, visit the Picasa album.

Auntie Clarita & Uncle Mariano enjoyed their stay in NY and got pretty good at the subway system as they went out to Manhattan for most of the days. They covered more ground than most of our previous visitors from the Philippines. Like true Ne Yorkers, they walked around a lot too. Hopefully they can join the next group event... another possible cruise in 2010?

After Halloween

We had unusually great weather for Halloween yesterday... 70 degrees in October! Since it fell on a weekend, I was expecting a big turnout. I went out and got 4 bags of Kit Kats with a manufacturer's coupon. We actually only got 4 groups of kids at my parents' house all day. So I gave away less than 1 bag total! I guess it must just be a NYC thing where parents take their kids more to businesses rather than residential areas for safety reasons. And also, at night it conflicted with Game 3 of the World Series. Everyone was probably tuning into the more important Yankees game.

View all

Get your own

Today, we had a little get-together at my parents' house. Auntie Clarita and Uncle Mariano are on the 3rd week of their NY vacation. They're both pros with getting around the city now. Cindy, Wil and Wesley also joined us.

Halloween

Woodbury & Fall Foliage

As you know, I'm not much of a shopper, so I can't spend even half a day at Woodbury Commons just going to stores. So I spent most of yesterday's trip shooting pictures of the fall foliage around the outlets. I walked out to the edges of each parking area and was able to get full nature shots.

View all

Get your own

Ifore's 2nd Vacation

Ifore was here again for another 2 weeks in 2009, making it a total of 2 months in the US out of the year! There weren't as many activities this time around as you can see in the blog because he was here to train and study the restaurant business. He didn't have a lot of free days. Today was his last day and we packed in a lot. We all got up early so we could make it to Woodbury Commons right when it opened. It was a good plan. The outlet opens at 10am daily and always gets packed on the weekends. We arrived at 9:45 and were able to get a good parking spot. It probably filled up around 11am and any time after that, you just have to wait for a car to leave in order to get in... or park very far away. We all split up to hit our own stores. I met up with Ifore at 12pm for lunch. We went to the same place as last time... Desert Moon for Mexican. Then we had about an hour left. I went off to the more distant stores just to see what was in Sony... nothing on sale at all. They just had regular or jacked up prices. It makes me wonder why they're even there! Definitely just a branding presence.

We headed out at about 2:30pm and got to Flushing at 4pm so Ifore could do some last minute packing and make sure his check-ins weren't overweight. Emily met up with us at 4:30 and we had a nice dinner. There was no rush because his flight was set for 11:15pm. We didn't have to be there until 8pm.

It always feels like a long vacation for me whenever I have out-of-town visitors even though I don't take the full time off that they're here. I actually only used 2 vacation days for it, but it felt refreshing.

Click here for more photos

Tung Yi Fung

Location: 135-29 37th Ave., Flushing, NY, 11354
Cuisine: Chinese, seafood
Phone: (718) 886-8233
Prices: $15/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 6
Value: 8
Environment: 7

Frequency: All the Time

I was surprised it took this long for us to go to Tung Yi Fung again. It was Ifore's second to last day out of 2 weeks. Auntie Clarita & Uncle Mariano also have been here for over a week already. It's still a must for visitors because it's a good benchmark for NYC Chinese restaurants and it's usually impressive for anyone from Philippines. Aside from Gloria Maris, I feel that the Chinese food is lacking there.

I bumped the service back up to 6 because we ended up on the first floor again where there was a lot more attention to the customers. I figure the first floor is a 7 and the second is a 5, so 6 is the average between the two. Everything else is still the same.

Click here for photos. Many of the dishes are repeats from previous entries.

SriPraPhai

Location: 64-13 39th Ave., Woodside, NY 11377
Cuisine: Thai
Hours: SUN-TUE & THU-SAT (11:30am-9:30pm); WED (closed)
Phone: (718) 899-9599
Website: www.sripraphairestaurant.com
Prices: about $20/person
Credit Cards: Cash only

Food: 8
Service: 7
Value: 7
Environment: 8

Frequency: Uncommon

View all

Get your own

After a busy September, most of us were able to get together for this month. Clovy requested SriPraPhai since she missed it last year and I also needed to reevaluate it because we experienced unusually bad service that time. The food was still good as expected. For details, check out the Picasa album. It did end up bumping the service up to a 7 from 4. They didn't get the orders mixed up this time and were very accommodating with our large group. Most of us got there late for the 7:30 reservation. It wasn't as crowded as last time, so that likely factored into it. If we did end up losing our table, then it would've been Rice Avenue that earned the big order for the night!

Some interactive links if you want to add your thoughts:
- Jeff & Charlotte
- Meeting

Reinhard & Marites

I just got home from one wedding only to find out about another in the mailbox...


Reinhard & Marites will be getting married next year on July 4 in Cancun! So it looks like that will be my next vacation destination!

California TOC

This post is a table of contents for last week's trip to California for Jeremy & Frida's wedding. As usual, all posts were back-dated to the original dates of occurrence:

- Smooth Flying
- NBC Seafood Restaurant
- Pajama Party
- NBC (Dim Sum)
- Yazmin Malaysian Restaurant
- Little Tokyo
- Jeremy & Frida's Wedding
- In and Out Burger
- Reception at San Gabriel Hilton
- Shutters on the Beach
- 3rd St. Promenade
- Java Spice
- Ontario Mills
- Mijares
- California Interactive

California Interactive

Let's have fun with some of these photos. Click on the links and fill out a comment in Picasa with what you think is happening in each one:

1) What was Frida talking about on her way down the aisle? [click here]

2) What's the reverend telling Jet & Frida? [click here]

3) What are Benjamin & Riley planning out? [click here]

4) What should we name this dance? [click here]

Mijares

Location: 145 Palmetto Dr., Pasadena, CA 91105
Cuisine: Mexican
Phone: (626) 792-2763
Website: www.mijaresrestaurant.com
Prices: $15/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 8
Value: 7
Environment: 9

Frequency: Unique

In a break from the Siy Family festivities, we met up with Audrey tonight for dinner. She works at the Hilton and recently had her hours changed. She got off at 3pm and met us at the hotel at 5pm, so we could have an early dinner. We figured we'd go for Mexican since it's easier to get an authentic cuisine from CA. Mijares was a great choice because they've been around for 90 years!

View all

Get your own

Mijares was one of the best decorated restaurants I've been to. The space was large and comfortable. Everything was well maintained and restrooms were clean. We all had a good time there because we got a chance to catch up, no rush. Prices were good for the type of place and amount of food. For more details, visit the Picasa album.

Ontario Mills

We spent the first half of the day at an indoor outlet called Ontario Mills. It was sort of a half mall, half outlet. Some stores followed the outlet prices with good discounts and the usual buy 1 pair of shoes, get 50% off a 2nd. Others were just regular retail stores.

View all

Get your own

Emily spent most of the time watching a movie. A full theater was part of the gigantic complex. I walked around once, looked for Blu-rays in a used video store and then hopped on their free wi-fi to work on my Picasa albums for the trip. My Dad & Uncle Mariano were just catching up in the food court while Mom, Auntie Susana and Matt shopped.

Java Spice

Location: 1743 Fullerton Rd., Rowland Heights, CA 91748
Cuisine: Indonesian
Phone: (626) 810-1366
Prices: $15/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 9
Value: 7
Environment: 7

Frequency: Unique

After our Santa Monica side trip, Jet came over our room to hang out for a bit. We were also deciding what to do for dinner. I remembered the other night when we went for Malaysian, Jet mentioned they chose the restaurant because it was closer to the hotel and also it was similar to Indonesian. The Indonesian place they normally eat at (Java Spice) was too far and too small to accommodate a party of 60. So I suggested the place to Jet. Many of us have never had Indonesian food before, and this was a perfect time to do it with the Hartonos in town to take care of the food choices.

View all

Get your own

The closest Indonesian restaurant was way out in Rowland Heights and it was well worth the trip as it was the best meal of the trip up to this point. Overall, the food was very similar to Malaysian or Thai, but a little different. For more details and comments, visit the Picasa album. Java Spice was a mom-and-pop restaurant, which made it very authentic. The service was extra good, probably because half of us were Indonesian... it always helps! The environment was a bit cheap looking, but clean and well-maintained.

3rd St. Promenade

After lunch, we headed to the 3rd Street Promenade since that seemed to be the main tourist attraction in Santa Monica and it had lots of stores for the Philippines family members to shop in. I just went around taking photos and using the city's FREE Wi-fi.

View all

Get your own

Shutters on the Beach

Location: 1 Pico Blvd., Monterey Park, CA
Cuisine: European
Hours: MON-SAT (11:30am-2:30pm, 6pm-10pm); SUN (11am-3pm, 6pm-10pm)
Phone: (310) 587-1717
Website: www.shuttersonthebeach.com
Prices: $25/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 7
Service: 8
Value: 6
Environment: 10

Frequency: Unique

For lunch, we wanted to get everyone out of Monterey Park, but really didn't know where. Luckily we ran into Jet, who was meeting up with Frida's family at the hotel. After some brainstorming, he thought of Shutters in Santa Monica.

View all

Get your own

Shutters on the Beach was an excellent change of scenery, right on the coast. It felt like we were in a different country. EVerything about the environment was just right. The place was clean, spacious and well lit. The seating was comfortable for our party of 7 and we had a good view of the beach. The weather was sunny, but windy by the end of our meal.

Reception

Though we tried to kill time before the reception at Hilton San Gabriel, it actually started promptly and there were no delays with dinner like pretty much every other wedding I've been to! We still made it in time for the first dish though. After In and Out, we actually made another stop for hot tea!

View all

Get your own

The reception schedule was very efficient and everything worked out right. There was never a boring moment. The food and entertainment were both great.

In and Out Burger

Location: Garfield Ave., Alhambra, CA
Cuisine: American, Fast Food
Hours: SUN-THU (10:30am-1am); FRI-SAT (10:30am-1:30am)
Phone: (718) 961-2900
Website: www.in-n-out.com
Prices: about $6/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 7
Value: 9
Environment: 5

Frequency: Unique

Like it was with Jollibee in the Philippines, I was trying to find time to slip In and Out Burger somewhere into the schedule that was already filled with family get-togethers. We decided to go for it after the wedding ceremony since it would be another hour before doors to the reception were even open. And usually, there's a long wait before dinner starts. Andy found the closest one on his GPS and relayed the info. to Wil, so our 2 cars met up there shortly.

View all

Get your own

In and Out Burger had somewhat of a diner feel because of the retro look rather than a typical fast food restaurant. There was also a good wait for the food, so I'm not sure if it's considered fast food or not. It's more similar to those healthy burger joints in Manhattan (minus the healthy of course).

Jeremy & Frida

View all

Get your own

Little Tokyo

The original plan was to go to the beach, but it was too hard to coordinate everyone getting up on time. Also, it got a lot cooler from the previous 2 days. Evelyn planned out a bunch of possible activities and visiting Little Tokyo turned out to be a good alternative. Things started out slow as we were waiting for stores to open up, but at least we got the change of scenery and ate somewhere other than NBC!

View all

Get your own

Yazmin Malaysian Restaurant

Location: 27 East Main St., Alhambra, CA
Cuisine: Malaysian
Hours: SUN-THU (11am-9:30pm); FRI-SAT (11am-10pm)
Phone: (626) 308-2036
Prices: ??? (covered by Jeremy & Frida)
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 8
Value: ?
Environment: 5

Frequency: Common

After dim sum, Matt & I helped Jeremy & Frida out with some wedding activities. We drove all over LA, picking up shoes, confirming their booking at the Hilton<, picking up the reception decor and dropping off back at the hotel. It was a great workout after that big lunch! By the time we got back, it was almost time to head to the rehearsal dinner at Yazmin Malaysian Restaurant.

View all

Get your own

We had 6 tables, which was about 60 people to fill up more than half of the spacious restaurant. I thought Malaysian was a great choice for the traditional pre-wedding dinner. In my family, it's usually a Chinese banquet, so this is a good experience to open up some people. Malaysian is somewhat similar to Chinese food, but yet different enough for the creatures of habit!

NBC (Dim Sum)

I had a feeling we would be back at this close, convenient restaurant again... just not this soon! At least it was for dim sum, so it felt like a different place. Chinese restaurants are like that. The same venue can alter the experience by offering dim sum, lunch and banquet style meals.

View all

Get your own

Pajama Party

Since most of us were still getting used to the time zone, we just hung out at the room instead of going out again for dessert or coffee. After dinner, we looked at the clock and it was only 7:30pm, though we were really up for more than a day already. But we had to stay up to make our adjustment easier.

View all

Get your own

We all had fun catching up. I haven't seen Matt since Andy's wedding and didn't really get to catch up with Jeremy & Kathy for Uncle Vic's Memorial. So that's one of the reasons why I took more days off than I normally would have.

NBC Seafood Restaurant

Location: 404-A S. Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park, CA 91754
Cuisine: Chinese, Seafood
Hours: 7 DAYS (8:0am-10:00pm)
Phone: (626) 282-2323
Prices: about $12/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 7
Service: 8
Value: 8
Environment: 6

Frequency: Common

Our first dinner was close by and surprisingly good. We noticed NBC Seafood Restaurant earlier in the afternoon when Uncle Mariano drove us around the area. So we just had a relaxing walk over there for later on.

View all

Get your own

The food was above average overall, but not nearly as good as something in one of NYC's Chinatowns. For more details, please visit the Picasa album. The service was pretty good in that they changed our plates often and got anything we asked for pretty quickly. The prices were great for the portions we were served. The restaurant space was huge and decorative, but wasn't that clean. There were flies and ants all over and the restrooms could use some maintenance.

Smooth Flying

Generally, I hate flying just because it's boring, so I always prepare a lot of things to do. Many times, I end up not doing any of them. I guess I never really know what I want to do until the moment arrives. I had the following items charged up for more hours of entertainment than the flight itself: iPod (~12 hours), game emulator (8 hours) and laptop (9 hours). Delta had personal entertainment devices with movies, games & music in every seat though, so I ended up not using any of my devices! The movie selections were actually pretty good too. I killed all of the flight time and didn't get to finish everything. There were no delays, no lost luggage and the ride was comfortable. The start of my vacation couldn't have been smoother.

Donations to Philippines

I gathered some links for donating to the recent typhoon relief efforts in the Philippines. Each item below was personally link-checked to make sure there was an option for the specific crisis:

• AmeriCares
• Medical Teams International
• Operation USA
• Oxfam International
• UMCOR

Please feel free to republish this post on your own blog. Click here to download the source code for Blogger.

Thank you.

DVDeals 9/20 - 9/26

DVD Tuesday
The 2nd season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is coming out tomorrow. It's the same price at Best Buy and Amazon... $44.99. The only difference is the Best Buy version has a metal outer case... exclusive. The 2nd season is a lot more expensive, but keep in mind that it has more than twice the number of episodes. It was a true full season whereas the first was sort or a pilot half season. The set is well worth the money too. The 1st season was one of the best Blu-rays I have, so I expect the same out of the 2nd.

Boulder Creek

Location: 134-15 20th Ave. College Point, NY 11356
Cuisine: American
Phone: (718) 961-2900
Website: www.bouldercreekcollegepoint.com
Prices: about $25/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 9
Service: 8
Value: 8
Environment: 7

Frequency: Common

We rarely go for steak, so I chose Boulder Creek for my birthday dinner. I think the last time I went to a steakhouse was January of last year at Michael Jordan's! I made an early reservation because I remember the place getting packed in the past... even at 5:30. It was actually pretty empty when we got there, but filled up around 6:30. So they were affected by the recession a little, but their peak hours looked OK.

View all

Get your own

It's been a couple of years since eating at Boulder Creek, but the important thing is the food was still good. The service was still the same as before. Our waiter, Tyrone was very helpful and patient. One thing he did that I wish other restaurant would do is... he handed us a piece of paper with the specials. In other places, they would usually read everything quickly (and sometimes with a thick accent). This way, we all got a long look at the specials and knew the prices of all of them. The value is great at this steakhouse because the portions are satisfying... a medium sized steak with a prtty big bowl of salad and a side dish was $19.00. I'd say the average for a steak is $25-30.

For details on the food and event, please visit the Picasa album.

Mini Ninjas DEMO

Category: Adventure
POV: 3rd
Graphics: 7
Controls: 8
Difficulty: 7

I actually downloaded this one just because I hadn't downloaded anything for weeks after Batman: Arkham Asylum. I didn't expect the game to be good at all. It looked like a cutesy children's game. The only positive it had going for itself was the ninja theme. I tend to enjoy games where the hero uses a sword or hand-to-hand as opposed to a gun. So I gave it a shot.

Mini Ninjas is about a village of ninjas that gets invaded by a mysterious band of samurai. They capture all but 2 ninjas... Hiro & Futo (the demo lets you play as Suzumi as well) and are capturing animals to convert to evil samurai. Hiro is the main character and best all-around ninja for most situations. Futo is all power and Suzume is the most agile.

I immediately felt at home with the controls because they were similar to other games I play regularly. There's the standard move & camera controls with the analogs, jump, attack, block... just like any 3rd person game. This game uses every button on the PS3 controller + combinations. Despite it's simple, cartoony look, the game is actually very complex and takes a while to get used to.

I did whip through the demo easily on the first try, but didn't get perfect scores on everything. There are tons of items you need to collect and many are very hard to find in the vast environment. In the demo, the fights were generally easy. It was the problem solving that was hard. This game is like a modern day version of Legend of Zelda... a combination of action, collecting items and figuring things out. What makes things interesting is all of the secret areas and different environments you have to navigate through.

I'll probably give a walkthrough later on, but need some more practice first. I'm pretty much finding all of the items now, but need to be able to do it more efficiently (without going back and forth a lot).

DVDeals 9/13 - 9/19

DVD Tuesday
It was another movie release drought, but X-Men Origins: Wolverine will be released this Tuesday. There are a couple of editions of this movie, but they're the same price everywhere for the DVD versions. The regular edition is $15.99 and the 2-disc set is $22.99. For the Blu-ray, Best Buy has the lowest price at $23.99 unless you can qualify for free shipping at Amazon where it will sell for $22.99 (same price as the DVD set). Best Buy also has a Blu-ray boxed set for $42.99 that includes a Wolverine bust and $50 gift card to sideshowcollectiblaes.com.

Best Buy Deals
All $19.99 items are also 2 for $30.
- Independence Day (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- X-Men (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- X-Men III (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- i, Robot (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- Fantastic 4 (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- Terminator (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- Fantastic 4 Animated for $6.99
- Wolverine and the X-men for $6.99
- Punisher Extended Cut for $6.99
- Punisher (Blu-ray) for $12.99

Game Reviews

Since getting the PS3, I've been slowly getting back into video games after many years. The Playstation Network is great because they have so many demos that I have yet to buy a full DVD game. I only purchased Super Street Fighter II HD Remix, which was a downloadable game. So I figure I would try writing some reviews of the demos I play constantly in this blog. For the rating scale, please click here.

Happy Labor Day

Labor Day Weekend

I never really have anything planned for Labor Day Weekend, but always end up at a BBQ or two. On Saturday, I went with Uncle Rupert and Auntie Chit to Auntie Carol's house for their annual celebration of Auntie Ching's Birthday. It was a skeleton crew this year as many of their family members were away for the holiday. It was a Filipino style BBQ on the outdoor patio. This one was so spontaneous that I didn't even have my camera with me!

Just today, I went over to Cindy & Wil's place. Since I had no plans, I asked Cindy on Friday if she was doing anything because I was going to call her over to my parents'. Instead, she invited us over because Wil's family would already be there for lunch.

View all

Get your own

So Labor Day weekend has been pretty eventful so far. Besides the BBQs, I've been juggling Yankees games, US Open and PS3 Demos!

Early Autumn in NY?

Sentosa

Auntie Janice treated us to Sentosa for her sister Anna's birthday. Auntie Anna makes an annual visit for her birthday to the city so she could catch up with Auntie Janice and be away from the 4 kids for a couple of days. Last year, we met up at Carmines in Times Square, so this time around we went to Flushing for Malaysian.

Please visit my original Sentosa post from last year for the full review. All ratings have remained the same.

For tonight's photos, click here.

Tito Rad's

Location: 49-12 Queens Blvd., Woodside, NY 11377
Cuisine: Filipino
Hours: MON-FRI (11am-10pm); SAT-SUN (10am-10pm)
Phone: (718) 205-7299
Website: www.titorads.com
Prices: about $25/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 9
Value: 7
Environment: 6

Frequency: Unique

We were able to get enough people together to reconvene our monthly meeting after skipping July. Getting the right restaurant was a bit of an adventure this time around. We were celebrating Jen's Birthday, so we were going for a Filipino restaurant. Unfortunately, our favorite, Perlas closed down. That would've been the easy choice. The plan was then to go for Renee's because we knew Ihawan closed too early on Fridays. Just to doublecheck, I called up Renee's and found that they had the same hours. So we ventured outside of the usual neighborhood to Tito Rad's, a place Ben & Clovy had been to before. For more details on the food and how it compared to the other, please visit the Picasa album and read the comments there.

View all

Get your own

The service here was one of the best I experienced. They seated us earlier than our reservation and didn't pressure us to order food before the rest of the group arrived (like Ihawan). The whole staff was friendly and treated us (and every other customer) like house guests.

The environment was average, but much better than most Filipino restaurants. This place will have to serve as our restaurant of choice whenever we go for Filipino since the Woodside ones near 69th/74th close way too early. The tuna jaw alone is worth the extra travel time!

Batman: AA DEMO Tips

1) When you're attempting the silent takedown, you can hit the triangle button earlier than than you think... about 5 ft away. When I first played this, I thought I had to go all the way up to the opponent and would sometime bump into him.

2) You can get a wider variety of freeflow moves when you mix in a cape stun or counterattack.

3) If you mess up in the last room and let one of the bad guys see you, there's still a chance to recover before they shoot you down. Quickly grapple up and swing to a gargoyle on the opposite side so that the office in the middle blocks their line of site. You can then go back to the predator strategy because they'll lose track of you.

4) You don't always have to swing to the adjacent gargoyle. From some positions, you can skip one to save time. The faster you move, the better chance you have at catching a wanderer in an inverted takedown (which is a bit safer than glide kicking down).

5) Switch Detective Mode on and off often. When it's on, you can track all the henchmen, but sometimes it's hard to tell what level they're on. When it's off, you get a better idea of line-of-site.

Batman: Arkham Asylum DEMO

Walkthrough


This is one of the best demos I've played for PS3. It's truly an original game because it's not the standard 3rd person action/fighting game. It explores the entire range of Batman's skills. He has to solve puzzles and figure out how to take out multiple armed bad guys with his brain. It's not one of those games where you could just charge in, dodge bullets and dish out hits faster than taking gunfire. This is very realistic as you'll see in my walkthrough. But it's not all strategy. There are also sequences where you take on several unarmed thugs in hand-to-hand. The freeflow fighting system is very fluid and Batman can put together some crazy multi-hit combos.

The game starts off with Batman capturing the Joker and sending him back to Arkham Asylum. What he doesn't know is the Joker planned to be captured as he has already setup a takeover of the asylum, setting free the classic rogues gallery that Batman will have to take on in the full version. Batman's first fight sequence is 2 rounds of freeflow to warm up. Have fun with this and practice using the hand-to-hand buttons. Use the attack button and switch up the directional stick in the directions of your many opponents to get the back-and-forth freeflow combos going. It should be relatively easy to take out all of the enemies. After that, there's a vent just under the mezzanine section that Gordon is standing in. Open it up to get the Riddler trophy.

After Joker opens up one of the corridors, head right up. From a distance, you'll see a set of windup teeth on the floor. Hit it with a batarang to rack up some points and get some target practice. There are a few of the along the way. Continue following the corridor. After you hear a PA announcement, 2 more thugs will come at you. Drop them with hand-to-hand combos. Turn left to talk to the cop trying to unlock the door. Then head in the opposite direction. You'll get a call from Oracle. Continue to walk towards the closed door. Talk to the cop.

Run up the stairs and talk to the guard on the right. switch to Detective mode and move the camera to the gargoyle to the upper right. Grapple up to it. You want to swing your way to the one in the back... directly behind Mr. Zsasz. It's the only one that gives you a 100% success rate at taking him out without seeing you. Once you knock him down with a glide kick, make sure you crouch down and knock him out.

After Harley's cutscene w/ Jeremiah Arkham, walk towards the wall away from the balcony. There's another shaft with a Riddler trophy. Then go back to the other side of the room. Another shaft will lead you to the next scene.

Walk through the shaft and bust open the next grate. Switch to Detective Mode and you'll get a call from Oracle. You'll be in a room with 3 machine gun armed bad guys behind the wall in front of you. You can't use the direct approach obviously. Grapple your way up and swing behind them. Drop down silently. Crouch down and sneak up on the guy in the middle and do a silent takedown. Do the same to the guy on the right and then the guy on the left. You must do it in that order or they'll see you. Because the 3 guys are close to each other, if you mess up, it's possible to win the fight with freeflow. Also, once you take out the first 2 guys, you don't necessarily have to choke out the 3rd. You can unload on him without alerting anyone else. Head back in the opposite direction and up the stairs. There will be another armed henchman talking to the Joker on the big screen. You could choke him out, but it's faster to run up and pummel him.

The next sequence is the hardest by far, but it will really hone your predator skills. Open up the vent in the room. Head through the shaft and open the other side. There's going to be a bad guy that just took a machine gun away from a dead cop. You must choke him out quickly before he goes up the stairs. If he makes it up the stairs, your task will be much harder. Once you choke him out, immediately grapple up. Scan the room quickly and you'll see another henchman under the central gargoyle. Swing your way there (again, quickly because you need to get there before he moves). Aim the camera down and do an inverted takedown. Quickly grapple to another gargoyle so the others don't see you. There will be 3 other armed bad guys left. If you didn't act quickly on the first 2, you'd have to deal with 5, which is really hard because they'll all be on the move simultaneously. The idea is to take them out from above when the guys get separated. If one of them sees you, he's going to fire and you can't block bullets! Once you take out the guy in the middle with the inverted takedown, the remaining 3 will check that guy out and then walk over to the first guy you choked out. At this point, you can't attack. Just observe from above and be patient. They'll then fan out to look for you. Switch Detective Mode on and off to see where they are and see if there are any walls obstructing their view. For the next takedown, I suggest waiting for one of them to wander under a gargoyle. You can do another inverted takedown, but it has to be faster than the first time because he won't be standing still like before. And also make sure the other 2 are out of sight. Continue to stalk the remaining guys until they separate. Every time you take down a bad guy, the others will go towards his scream. To be safe, swing to the opposite side of the room. For the next bad guy, wait until he's close and on one of the higher platforms (some of the lower ones are hard to grapple out of and you don't want to get stuck there). Do a glide kick and then punch him out. The last guy will be extremely scared and jumpy. Wait a while before taking him out because he'll fire his gun randomly a few times. Since there's no one else, feel free to take this guy out however you want. If you go for freeflow, make sure you land close to him since he has a gun.

And that's the demo! Pretty intense, huh? The full version comes out on August 26. Pre-order your copy now!