after many many MANY rounds of emailing, lisa (god bless her) successfully rounded up the ladies for a yummy celebratory meal at chan dara thai tonight. lorelle (our resident fashionista) was unable to attend due to a last-minute, all-expenses-paid trip to BARCELONA. yes, i repeat, BARCELONA. her presence was missed, but thankfully, we were able to find a last-minute addition in the form of dr. jenee. who was back from her brazilian paradise to walk the walk at the GSE&IS graduation this weekend. alongside her will be the absolutely amazing dr. kim. who's yet to try on her blueberry garb, but who'll look more fabulous than a cherry on top of a sundae i bet. the rest of this glam dinner party included myself, miss d, and miss jenn (along with muffin, of course). as we like to say (fairly regularly i might add), our table was (as always) the epitome of benetton ads. hot and mod. LOVE IT.
considering that i'd been up till 5 in the morning configuring my new and adorable sony vaio, i was pretty much exhausted ALL day. i felt awful meeting up w/miloni before dinner (awful for her, i mean, considering i was so moody) b/c i was already a complete mess and definitely in no mood to walk around. unfortunately, that's exactly what we ended up doing! and i had no energy (or will) to ask whether we could sit still for a while. hopefully, we'll get to touch base again before she heads to singapore b/c i was a total bore! (i mean, one can't be socially upbeat ALL the time, right? *sigh*)
thankfully, lisa was lovely enough to pick me up from westwood for dinner. and it was absolutely amazing to see all the girls together again. i don't remember the last time we'd all been in one place at the same time. especially what with jenee gallavanting off to brazil and all. (oh, how we miss you!!) to top things off, we all looked super cute (moi especially b/c i needed a pretty little outfit to offset my limited brain function) and were ready for some yummy eats! jenn, de'sha, and i had been to chan dara before for her bachelorette dinner (which was OH SO YUMMY) and all of us had been back at least once already. plus, lisa had actually made the reservation in person when she herself checked out the restaurant several weeks earlier. (i love it when people enjoy my recs!)
we kickstarted the night with two orders of the peking duck rolls (which de'sha and i have been raving about FOREVER) and one order of the shitake shimp. both were delicious, but the duck rolls DEFINITELY deserved a standing ovation. in fact, dr. kim and dr. jenee were quite infatuated with the sauce (which miss d suggested might be a mix of plum and hoisin sauces). aside from jenn (who had a slightly reserved palate b/c of muffin and decided to focus her taste buds on the panang curry w/chicken), the rest of us decided to go in family style with: the pineapple fried rice w/beef, the seafood pad thai, the crispy mango chicken, and the roasted duck (my pick over the spicy pork shop, only b/c i'm in love w/all things duck).
the pineapple fried rice was AMAZING -- totally infused w/tropical flavor. the pineapple wasn't too sweet and the dish was a perfect blend of sweet and savory. seeing as how noodles really aren't my thing, i didn't have too much of the seafood pad thai, though i did notice that it looked very monochromatic on the plate. a big wash of taupe i'd say. thankfully, the flavors were good, though the presentation definitely needed some tweaking. the crispy mango chicken and the roasted duck were both very scrumptious -- well-seasoned, well-cooked, and well-decorated on the plate. the chicken wasn't all gross and breaded (a.k.a. panda express) and the duck was perfectly crispy w/quite a bit of meat (as in, it wasn't all skin). and w/some room left over in our tummies, we decided to end the night on a sweet note, w/some sorbet and creme brulee. i was a bit shocked when they ran out of the coconut cake (especially since we were eating at a super early 6pm). but, in retrospect, it was probably a good thing -- to keep my tummy from ballooning out even further! (and yes, i DO care about my figure!) all in all, the meal was DELICIOUS. and definitely worth paying extra for fancy thai food. i mean, we should all treat ourselves every now and again, right?
before i forget, the highlight of the night was the fact that JULIE ANDREWS was at the table RIGHT next to us. in a white cap and track suit!! OMG. ok ok, breathe breathe....
chan dara thai restaurant
http://chandarawestla.com/
after i got home, washed up, and prepared myself mentally, i got to watch the top chef finale! thank god i posted a note making sure that no one i knew would even THINK of telling me who won before i got to watch! b/c all i can say is that steph TOTALLY DESERVED THAT!! woohoo! HALLELUJAH! i can't believe lisa even THOUGHT she could beat steph and richard. i mean, she's clearly delusional and should've been off the show many episodes ago. i mean, who enjoys being around negative energy like that? ewww....
before i fall asleep on my computer, let me say that this was the funnest night of girl gab in AGES. and FYI that i think folks need to dish out regularly. not even for the sake of gossip being shocking and juicy. (though that's always a bit of a perk!) but honestly, what you're thinking is what you're thinking. don't feel guilty about it. guilt is a wasted emotion.
exit dr. ngai.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment