Mickey Mouse Breakfast

One of the days that I was in Arizona, we just slept in and had a 'take-it-easy' day. We had a fruit platter with grapes, bananas and pineapples for breakfast while watching Seinfeld. Hehe, there was a lot more pineapple but we used some for the pizza and as I was cutting the pineapple, chi tae jip chui, chi tae hae lok ark. Hehe. John also made us tea to go with the fruit platter. He has a teapot with a built-in strainer (haha, I am sure there is a better way to describe it) so he can make tea from loose leaves and flowers!! I couldn't remember what tea we had for breakfast but I got to try a variety of teas that he had while I was there and my favorite is the acai berry with green tea.

I couldn't help noticing that our breakfast setup resembles Mickey Mouse so I had to take a picture of it!

Pizza pizza!

The only bread meal I really like! (as oppose to bo pan huat, in America, loti teh eh pang ghi)

We took an unplanned trip to Oregano's Pizza Bistro. We were driving home from a fun morning at a Japanese garden in Phoenix when we passed by this pizza place. John mentioned that it is a highly recommended pizza place in town. Since it was lunch time, we decided to walk over there (it is only a few blocks away from John's. In fact, we had passed that place multiple times when we walked around campus) for a slice of pizza but they didn't have pizza by the slice (oh yeah, this is a nice thing here in the States, where you can get a slice of pizza if you are by yourself or with friends who do not share the same cravings at the same time.). But since we were already there, why not try it, we can always take it home for dinner later. As it was lunch time, the place was packed and we had to wait. They have nice benches by their patio section and it was a sunny day!

It was only a short 10-15 minutes wait for us to be seated. While we were waiting, we took a look at their menu so we get to order right when they served us our drinks. We both got passion fruit black tea, which was very refreshing! On the menu, they state that their pizza takes about 40 minutes as they bake it fresh. Not a problem since we were not super hungry. But guess what, it took almost 1.5 hours for our pizza to be served! Although it took forever, our server was really nice and attentive because he noticed that we were waiting for way too long. Eventually, the owner/manager of the pizza place personally served us our pizza and nicely apologize for the delay. He even bought us the pizza!! Hehe, so we got a free pizza! This would never happen in M'sia! Instead of building on the customer's disappointment in the delay, they were very responsible and it was very nice that the owner/manager came out to see to the matter himself.

By the time the pizza came, we were both sooooo hungry we ate all of it! Hehe, I basically ate the first piece in 3 bites! We ordered a thin crust (my favorite! since that is even less loti and more garing!) with pepperoni and pepperoncinis, which is the yellow slices of chili you see on the top.
We also ordered a side of marinara sauce and John likes his pizza with lots and lots of sauce...
I would definitely go back to that place again! I wonder if their pasta or lasagna are as good as their pizza. Oh, they also have super huge meatballs!!! It is like a size of a golf ball! :P We were sooo full from eating the entire pizza, it was a good thing that we had planned to go check out the Arizona Aloha Festival at the Tempe Beach Park. It was so packed that there are some parts where we have to squeeze our way to get around people! (Found some photos online from someone's blog). We took a quick walk around and then can't help trying out some strawberry lemonade as we saw lots and lots of people carrying their cup around. It was sooooooooooo good! Hehe, the walk probably didn't do much as we got a huge cup, walk around the river and went back to get a refill. The first taste, you wondered why is it strawberry (which is common since lemonade typically over power most flavors unless they use a syrup based flavoring) but wait, the strawberry flavor is an aftertaste. Great combination! You get to taste the lemonade then the strawberry.

Pizza Part 2 - We had pizza again the next day! This time, 好特別喔! 有人煮給我吃的喔! I just had to chop up stuff. John made a pizza with the most topping I have ever had on a pizza! The toppings are sliced carrots (first time I had carrots on pizza!), diced chicken, yellow peppers and pineapple with a sprinkle of chopped cilantro. Of course, not forgetting the yummy pizza sauce and lots and lots of cheese!
Ahhhh...the wonders of good food and a sweet bf who don't mind being in the kitchen!

P. F. Chang's China Bistro and Cookiez

I made another trip to Phoenix this spring break (my first spring break vacation!!) to visit John. It is funny to feel that a trip to Phoenix comes so naturally when after my last trip, I wondered if I would go back there again.

So what did we do at Phoenix this trip? Lots!!! We also ate a lot!! As I had expected, we made another trip to P. F. Chang's. They have really yummy food there that we both tried new stuff and was very satisfied with it. We took a nice walk to P. F. Chang's, which was only about 15 minutes walk from John's. The weather in Phoenix was a lot warmer than Michigan's weather a week ago (it was about 15 C all week this week here in Michigan!) and I get to wear a skirt!! It was warm enough that we got a table outside. In fact, both times that I have been there, we get to sit outside! This is allowable in Michigan only for like 2 months. Hehe.

Alright, what did we get this time? We started out with the 'must-try' of P. F. Chang's - Chicken Lettuce Wrap appetizer. For our main course, I got a white fish that is lightly breaded, just enough to make it crispy on the outside, and stir-fried with carrots and snow peas. It is a spicy dish as they stir-fried it with Szechuan sauce and it is simply called "Hot Fish". For my level of spiciness, it was not spicy at all but I like it just the way it is because it is very refreshing. Really spicy fish should be left to the works of an authentic Szechuan cuisine. In addition to the Szechuan sauce, there is also a hint of fermented black beans that is commonly used in Chinese cuisine. I am not too fond of fermented black beans by itself but the addition into this dish makes it unique. Fish also goes really well with brown rice that P. F. Chang's offer for no extra charges.
John got another fish dish - Mahi-mahi. Nope, mahi-mahi is not a dolphin, which it is commonly mistaken for. It is known as the 'dolphin fish' but it is not a member of the Delphinidae family, which is the family of the dolphins. Hehe, unlike its cute name, it actually has a fierce look! The mahi-mahi was grilled with lemongrass garlic sauce. The mild grilling definitely does justice to the freshness of the mahi-mahi because the fish is still juicy. The intensity of the garlic was also just right, not over-powering the lemongrass and the sweetness of the mahi-mahi. The fish was served with cilantro rice, another good rice combination with fish. I often make it myself when I get the canned roasted eel from the local Asian market - Oriental Mart.
Me love fish dishes! It is lighter on the digestion system and does not makes me sooo full that I just want to curl up and go to bed. Hehe. Even that, their dishes are pretty huge that I only finish half of my hot fish. But, we did go out for dessert after dinner. I still would like to try P. F. Chang's Flourless Chocolate Dome one day. To get that, we would have to just order one dish and share it so that we can still indulge in the chocolate dome without feeling too full.

For dessert, we walked a few blocks down on Mill Avenue, which is the main street of Downtown Tempe, to a small, locally owned ice-cream store called Cookiez on Mill. It is a very tiny shop with only one small table. Its specially is ice-cream sandwiches (and Italian Ice according to the review), where we can make our own combination from a list of cookies and ice-cream flavors. We shared an oatmeal cookie with Rocky road ice-cream sandwich. After getting our dessert, we walked down a few more blocks to my favorite spot in Downtown Tempe to enjoy our ice-cream sandwich - Tempe Beach Park, which is at the beginning of south Mill Avenue. I got to take another shot of the bridge for the Phoenix Metro Light Rail, this time with my macro lens! I also caught a shot of the train rushing through the bridge!
The picture of the ice-cream sandwich above is from the second time we got it. This time we got the white chocolate almond cookie with chocolate mint ice-cream. It is a superb combination!! The mint blends so well with the cookie. We love it so much we got it again just before I had to leave on Tuesday. Hehe. Yup, it is really good!

很開心John也很喜歡嚐試各種飲食. 真好玩! 我們可以一起聊些美食的話題, 我也不用擔心他念我吃太多, 或者吃到胖. Gives me a chance to learn how to take photos of food too!