Saigon Pearl - Irvine, CA

Saigon Pearl
2750 Alton Pkwy, Suite 121
Irvine, CA 92606
Website

Went here a few weeks ago with some old friends from high school (Patrick, Ishii, and Kathleen) and new friends of theirs. Good times.

Oohhh, pho. How I crave you. I'm afraid I'm going to crave you more now that the weather is cooling down.

 
Way pretty:

Spring rolls with that fantastic peanut sauce:

Cool shopping center in Irvine. Asian food heaven.

Pumpkin Ice Cream at Han's Homemade Ice Cream - Santa Ana, CA

Han's Homemade Ice Cream & Deli
3640 South Bristol Street
Santa Ana, CA 92704

Kristine and I had homemade ice cream here in response to a recommendation from Erin. Fortunately, we had some time after presenting our posters at a research conference in Costa Mesa. Yum. I didn't take a picture of Kristine's double-scoop waffle cone because we had to hit the road immediately so that I could attend a research team meeting on time, but we both enjoyed our flavors. I was happy that this pumpkin ice cream was made of real pumpkin. I was a little sad for not being able to try the other flavors because I wasn't really in the pumpkin mood (shocking!), but I couldn't resist trying ice cream made of real pumpkin! It definitely tasted good, and somehow it didn't melt completely during the almost-hour-long drive back to Riverside.

Here is a sample of their flavors:

Pepperidge Farm's Pumpkin Cheesecake Soft Dessert Cookies

Happy Halloween!! Too bad I will be in stats tomorrow night. My mom sent me these cookies in a care package not too long ago. These cookies are sooooo good!!! And they are actually made of real pumpkin, which is always a plus. The cheesecake chunks are perfect, and the cookies are soft and not overly spiced or overly sweet. Anyways, thanks, mom!

Korean Cookie (Slightly Sweetened Puffed Rice)

It just took me around 3 hours to complete my stats assignment today. Such an improvement from 7-10 hrs and even 17 hrs first year! Oh to life as a grad student. We did order pizza and had it delivered to us on campus tonight though, which was AWESOME.

Anyway, call me weird, but I love puffed things. Puffed wheat, puffed kamut, puffed rice, Puffins, Golden Crisp, popcorn, etc. Found this at a Korean market in Torrance a few weeks ago when shopping with Grace, Catherine, and Josh. I loved how simple and delicious these things are. I can see a lot of people not particularly loving it because it's rather plain, but I love stuff like this! I really don't always need a lot of fat and sugar to keep me happy. :) Plus, this bag was $1-ish.