Lunch out

I have tried 4 different kinds of food in 2 weeks. That's what I like here in LA because you can try any kinds of food coz it's a multi cultural city. My boss asked me why there's no Filipino restaurant in Simi valley and I told him there's a lot in other cities such as Glendale, Eagle Rock, etc which is concentrated mostly by Filipinos.

Last Sep 26, our team went to La Louisianne which serves Cajun food. The restaurant is filled by Mardri Gras decors and pictures from New Orleans. While waiting for our order, our co-worker told us stories about the city coz he stayed there for a couple of months before Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans. Up until now, locals are still recovering from its aftermath. I had Gumbo which is more like a soup and Jambalaya which is served over rice. The Jambalaya tastes like "kaldereta" but it's spicier than ours. I've been wanting to go to New Orleans for Mardri Gras. They said that in order for you to get the colorful beads, you have to flash your boobies =P

My Indian team mate invited us for dinner at his home on Oct 3. His wife cooked Tamil which is a South Indian food. He said I cannot order those from any Indian restaurant's here because it's sort of "Americanized" already, meaning it is not authentic anymore. We had the following: Chicken Masala (curry), Chicken Lollypop (baked chicken), Rasam (soup), Idli (rice cakes), Pulav (fried rice), Sambhat (gravy), Chatni (sauce). We talked about our hobbies, work life, and mostly baby stuff coz he has two kids who are adorable.





We had a send off party for Sandhya who's going back to India next week. We went to The Oak's for some Korean BBQ last Friday. We're supposed to go to our VPs car coz he has an SUV but he has to remove the car seat, etc so we took the Prius instead. So Sandhya was there, my manager, then our VP.. gawd.. it's soo stressful =P Anyways, our VP was telling stories about experiments which I didn't really get, so I just laugh like I get his jokes.. my bad =P We met up one of my team mates and I ordered Beef BBQ. The food is good! This is also the first time my VP rode a Prius and he asked a lot of questions like how to get the "yellow" sticker for carpool, its ROI, and mileage consumption. I think he's planning to get a hybrid car coz he takes the 405 freeway to UCLA. We call that freeway the "parking lot" coz traffic is really terrible. I used to take that freeway and a 20 minute drive will take you an hour to reach your destination. What's cool about the carpool sticker is that you can take the carpool lane even if you're alone. They're also aware that the resale price of Prius is high because DMV stopped giving out "yellow" stickers to new hybrid car purchase. Because of its high demand, you can add another $5000 with the yellow sticker on which was purchased for only $8. Our VP asked if he can steal my sticker, I said it's not possible coz it's gonna be distorted when you remove it and it's only applicable for 2 types of hybrid cars with a minimum of 40MPG consumption: the prius and honda crv hybrid. The prius averages 45MPG but they advertise it as 60MPG consumption for city drive.






Earlier, I had lunch with my co-workers after our training. The cafeteria is still closed so we decided to go to Sawasdee Thai. I had the usual, chicken panang.. which is my fave. We talked about the Pacquiao fight which I missed and gossips about Ara Mina which is his new mistress. Interesting...