Like The Tomato
Nothing here but my musings about daily life, books, anime, and food.
One fact about me. I have not eaten alone in a restaurant. Nothing against it for sure. I admired people who can just go inside a restaurant and ask for a table for one. Yeah. Never done that. I always felt like all eyeballs will be on me. Intellectually, I knew that this was not the case. Of course, this was just my social anxiety talking.
But being the loner that I am, I thought what is the harm on eating alone anyway. So during my last trip to San Francisco, I decided to take the plunge and try it. I was staying at Union Square at that time and there were restaurants all over the place. From popular ones to smaller businesses.
I chose a little Japanese restaurant along Geary St in Union Square, Katana Ya. I decided for an early dinner just so I could still get the experience of eating alone without the dinner crowd. It was little quaint restaurant, with dim lighting, music playing softly in the background. The restaurant was not loud, always good in my books. I opted to sit at the bar. This way my back was to the crowd, which thinking about it now might not have been the smartest move on my part. But seeing as this was my first time venturing out on my own in a restaurant, I wanted to blind myself of the crowd.
I ordered the Tonkatsu Don because why not? I skipped on putting my headphones on. Since I was already vulnerable with my back to the crowd, I wanted to at least be alert enough to hear what was going on. I decided to read. And I did just that throughout dinner. I read while I slowly ate my dinner, once in a while getting distracted by the crowd chattering behind me.
The next stop, I decided, should be a busier chain. Cheesecake Factory. Lo and behold – it was crowded for an early dinner time. It was LOUD. The only thing that I really appreciated with this specific location was the fact that it was on the top floor of the Macy’s Building – so it was bright. Considering that there was already a line when I went, I only waited about 15 minutes before being directed to a table. I laughed silently as I realized where I was being lead to – the “table for one” section.
I started with a mojito, they did offer more variations of this with different flavors like pineapple, but I opted for the classic. It was definitely refreshing. Ordered Tex Mex for appetizer, and the Hibachi Steak as the main course. And yes, I realized that it as a lot food but I didn’t care. My excuse? I was starving. Ri-ight. Just like the previous restaurant, I opted to read instead of listening to anything through headphones.
For a tiny Asian woman, I finished the food. I was proud of myself for this one. I was so lost in my own world, well more like the world of the book I was reading, that I didn’t realize that I finished all the food I ordered. I even ordered a second glass of mojito for good measure.
So my verdict? I liked it. To be honest, the experience was quite nice. I was able to enjoy the food more. I always ate fast but with me being alone, I was just savoring it more. Most likely because I wasn’t lost in the chatter. I knew it took longer for me to finish the dishes that I ordered compared to when I eat with someone. I was able to just enjoy my own company, or should I say the company of my book at that time. I loved the combo – me, book and food.
So…what the hell happened in 2019?
Our parents decided to say hello to us this year. My parents decided to visit and welcome 2019 in Washington. Chris’ parents decided to visit during Halloween. Well we showed them the usual tourist trappings Seattle has to offer. A lot of walking, a lot of food, and a lot of sights. Hope they had fun. And hopefully they consider coming back to visit us again.
Our first winter. Well, this was not the first time we’ve seen snow but this was the first time that we experienced snow in the city that we lived in. First time driving in the snow too. Which was interesting. My car was definitely not up to the task but Chris’ car was. So thank goodness for Subarus.
Chris and I enjoyed the little bit of snow, the dogs however was a different story. We wanted to let them experience playing in the snow but they had other plans. The moment they went outside, they ran for a few seconds and decided snow was not for them. Ran back towards the door to let them in the building. Adorable.
I quit my job with the company that I’ve been with for about 10 years. Not going to lie, leaving was bittersweet and definitely emotional. Not as emotional when I left the San Diego branch but definitely still emotional. But I was burned out and tired of the nightshift/overnight job so when the opportunity rose, I took it. But of course like any other big decisions, there are bit more reasons why I chose to leave the comfort and the security of a very well known established company for a start up.
Regardless, I believe this to be one of the best decisions I made this 2019. There was nothing more gratifying and satisfying to me than the feeling of working with a company instead of the ten years of working for a company.
When I visited Seattle a few years ago, I wondered why everyone wears a backpack. And one year in Seattle, I finally caved and invested in a backpack of my own. A lot of young professionals working this city prefers to commute by bus instead of driving. And I found myself embracing that life once I started my new job. And there I understood the efficiency of just carrying a backpack compared to carrying around a huge shoulder bag or tote bag. My EDC backpack holds an umbrella, my lunch, my water bottle, my bujo, a book, my emergency kit, and a jacket, sometimes I carry a laptop in there too depending on the day. And it has secret pockets. and since I commute to work, I liked the fact that the zippers are hidden. And one of the most important detail, this backpack is waterproof and that detail definitely came in handy during the wetter Seattle days.
My reading game was on this year. 2019 was my best reading year so far. Clocking in with 139 books read. Impressive right? Well, for me at least, this was an accomplishment. I normally just read about 20 books a year at the most the past years, so 139 books was impressive to me. How did I accomplish that? Reading apps. The commute to work gave me ample amount of reading time. Not to mention I was able to listen to audiobooks while working. And with my new job, I didn’t have to do overtime, which gave me more reading time at home. And I loved it. I took advantage. Hence 139 books read this year.
The Libby app and library cards (I have 2 – from the Seattle Public Library and the King County Public Library). This app made so many ebooks and audiobooks available to me the latter half of the year. With my phone, I was able to read on the bus comfortably without having to carry a book all the time or my nook or my tablet.
I’ve also been a fan of Audible this year. I borrow a book on the Libby app, loved and enjoyed that audiobook, I would purchase it on Audible. Making the book available to me to reread the books whenever I want. And reread I did!
And I’ve also used my Kindle app so much this year. The ebooks I borrowed from the Libby app are compatible with Kindle. So whatever ebooks I borrowed from that app, I am able to read on the Kindle app giving me the power to customize the reading to my liking. Same thing goes for this one too, if I loved the ebook enough, I would buy it on my Kindle so I can reread the book to my heart’s content. Again, reread I did!
So what is in store for me in 2020? I don’t really believe in resolutions, so goals would be a bit more accurate in my case. Read more for sure. At least continue on my reading streak from 2019. Cook more – since with my allergies, I would be able to control the ingredients more if cook at home. Go back to school and finally get my master’s degree, god knows I’ve procrastinated enough. These are the only planned goals I made myself for 2020. Being a planner, I don’t like winging things out. But this year, I’d like to be a bit more carefree. I just want to loosen the reins a bit. You know, go with the flow, so 2020 is a go with the flow year for me. Well, maybe.
Well, Thanksgiving came and went. This was our second Thanksgiving in Washington. Much like last year, Chris and I decided to celebrate the holiday with the just each other. But we agreed that we would lessen the food that we make – we went overboard last year, definitely prepared food for more that two people, to say we got carried away was an understatement.
So for this year, we decided to skip on the ham and turkey, we chose ribeye steaks. And that meat was beautiful… We had some asparagus, stuffing, and green bean casserole. Normally, I would be the one in the kitchen cooking but this year, Chris decided that she wanted to cook all the dishes. And so she did. She slaved in the kitchen while I lost myself in Christmas romance movies – because why not?
We both preferred our steaks rare, and she made a damn good job cooking those ribeyes to perfection. I’d like to share her process but I honestly don’t know how, grilling and cooking meat is her forte not mine. So I was more than happy to let her rule the kitchen for Thanksgiving.
We didn’t decorate – we are not decorators and we believe that we can celebrate without the trappings of the holiday. So we just laid the dishes as simple as we liked. And dug in. Pretty simple Thanksgiving dinner for the both of us. It was a pretty relaxed dinner for sure. And my introverted loner heart sang.
There are things that I need to be thankful for. A new job. A promotion. My family who has been supportive with every decisions I made and continue to make. Friends that regardless the distance are still there when I need to reach out and talk. My dogs who give me cuddles and I can always count on to make me feel better after a stressful day. And of course, Chris. For loving me for who I am and being patient with me always. Four years together and she still chooses to stay with me even though I can be the most difficult person in the world. And for choosing to slave in the kitchen to cook us a bomb Thanksgiving dinner though she had been awake all night because she had to work.
Friday night, Chris and I found ourselves in a dilemma. We were hungry with no idea where to go for our usual Friday dinner date. I was fine with just going to our usual haunts. But Chris, being the more adventurous with trying new places, suggested for us to have some Korean fried chicken. And me, being a sucker for fried chicken, couldn’t turn down the suggestion.
The restaurant was a ten minute drive from our apartment. Traffic was not bad, the usual Friday night dinnertime rush really. So, it was no surprise that there was no free parking spot right in front of the restaurant. The place however shared a plaza with other establishments so there was an abundance of parking spots. The place was busy. But looking at the almost empty restaurant right next to it, it being packed was a good thing. Chris and I decided to sit at the bar not wanting to wait for a table to free up, like I said, it was dinnertime on a Friday and the restaurant was busy.
We focused on two dishes – a seasoned whole fried chicken in honey butter garlic sauce and duk bokk ee (spicy ricecakes) with ramen noodles.
Chris and I both love duk bokk ee but never had it with ramen noodles before. And they so match, definitely a game changer for me. Being used to eating this with just the ricecakes and the vegetables, the ramen noodles gave it a different texture. Because the sauce was thick, it saturated each ramen noodle and packed it with flavor. This dish, depending on where you go can really get spicy, but this one in particular was not overly so. It almost had a hint of sweetness to it, letting us savor and enjoy the dish a lot more. I kid you not, I hummed on the first bite.
One thing about me, fried chicken is more than just a comfort food for me. Definitely sacred. So I am definitely hard to please when it comes to fried chicken. But SIS’ fried chicken impressed the hell out of me. Definitely special. The restaurant uses unfrozen chicken for these and you can taste the freshness in every bite. The chicken was fried to perfection, no dryness whatsoever especially with the dryness prone pieces like the chicken breasts. The sauce that we picked complimented the spiciness of the ricecakes. We almost finished the whole fried chicken. I couldn’t stop eating them. I had to tell myself to stop. Because this fried chicken was that awesome.
The restaurant was cozy without the feeling of being crowded. Ambiance was very chill. While stuffing our faces with awesome foods, we enjoyed KPop that was blaring on the speakers. We couldn’t help but smile as we occasionally hear the singing coming from the karaoke rooms. Definitely dug the almost divey feel of the restaurant. The place was definitely family friendly but I liked that they offered a twenty one and up seating area. It really was a hole in the wall gem with a red door, karaoke and a full bar. Can’t go wrong with that combo.
Stars in the Sky 23830 Hwy 99 N Ste 121 Edmonds, WA 98026 (425) 582-8802 starsintheskywa.com
I finally unpacked all our books. A little over a year here in Washington and all our books are now on bookshelves. Organized as well – the books are definitely arranged alphabetically by author, then alphabetically by title for authors we own multiple books of, and obviously the series in order of release.
The reorganization of our book collection was definitely not planned. Well, a little bit planned – since we needed to get extra shelves, I knew I wanted to do it but I just didn’t know when. But with my anxiety on high lately, I needed something to focus on. And the process did help to pull myself out of my head.
So…the process took a few hours. I started around 3 am – I know, crazy but my anxiety doesn’t really pick a time and when it’s on high, I definitely can’t sleep. So I knew the timing was perfect. I was done by about 11 am. Not too bad. I moved the little furniture we have in the living area to make room for the floor sorting. We had a number of books from authors whose last names start with the letters B, S, M and T, which I found weirdly interesting for some unknown reason.
We currently have 5 tall-ish bookshelves against the wall. We got these ones from Ikea to line the wall of the living area. We agreed on not shedding too much money on sturdier bookshelves at this time because we know that this apartment living is something temporary. And I wanted to build a customized bookshelf once we have a permanent living situation. We also decided to get a smaller 12 cube shelf which we got from Amazon to house our smaller paperbacks and mangas.
We do own a number of graphic novels and hardbound books, which are not photographed here. I still yet to organize those. They have shelves of their own, just not organized. That would be for a later time since organizing our paperbacks, fun as it was for me, was very tedious.
One thing I didn’t do though, and I should have, was tally the books. The last count we did was almost 3 years ago, and the total was a little over 5oo books. Our collection definitely grew from that number. I will definitely do the count once I organize the rest of the books. I am also planning on creating a spreadsheet just to catalog the books. So this organizing business is definitely not done.
Friendly. Outgoing. Cheerful. These are certain characteristics a person needs to make friends easily. Like a breeze. Really. So how come, one year in Seattle and I find myself friendless. Well, not friendless per se but more like I haven’t made any new friends. Which would’ve bothered some people. But I’m pretty unfazed by it. I am just merely stating an observation.
Now, not that I never made connections. Interactions at work did help with making connections. I mean casual conversations did build some foundation and unearthed some common interests. But it didn’t really escalated to anything other than that – casual conversations and polite interactions. I find it interesting that new transplants do have an issue with making quick friendships here in Seattle – unless they actually move here with someone or they already know people here. Starting new friendships can be difficult in a new City for sure but in Seattle, it seems like an effort.
I keep on coming back to when I was based in San Diego. It was damn right easy to make friends. To be honest, I almost didn’t have to try. San Diegans are very welcoming. I remembered my first week on a job there and almost instantly I was invited to a party happening that weekend. San Diegans are a lot more inclusive. Groups and cliques are very common. You just get invited to get togethers, potlucks, parties. You just feel included. Like I said, one person doesn’t even have to try hard to make those connections, you just have to make sure that you show up to where you got invited to. Seattle is definitely not like that.
New transplants to the city will definitely agree that Seattleites are nice and definitely polite. But for some reason, it doesn’t extend to anything more than that. Like it almost feel superficial. The term Seattle Freeze gets thrown around, something to blame really why new transplants have a hard time making new friends. This is a touchy subject. And why wouldn’t it be? I mean it definitely paints Seattleites in such a negative light – cold, distant, disinterested, flaky. I for sure don’t want to be described that way. But I really don’t think that that is the case. I don’t see locals as cold, distant, disinterested or flaky. They just do their own thing and they are comfortable with that.
And that is why I feel right at home in Seattle. I have read of Seattle Freeze before. Came across it during my research prior to moving here. Articles and videos alike. But the social phenomenon really didn’t deter me from moving here. I wanted to be in the city where no one knows me. There is something so freeing about that. And the longer I can keep my life as noisy free as possible is definitely a temptation.
I did say that I am friendly, outgoing and cheerful. I am those and for making a good impression, those characteristics are imperative. But to be honest, I kind of adapted those characteristics living in San Diego. The city forced me to be more open because the city itself demanded it from me. San Diego is a very social city and I kind of adapted to that lifestyle. And out of habit, those characteristics tend to be on the forefront when I interact with people.
If I am being honest though, I am very introverted and a loner. Despite my adaption to the San Diego social scene, I prefer to be alone. Solitude is always my preference. Even my hobbies are solitary – reading, writing, journaling. So, moving to Seattle has been a breath of fresh air. Knowing nobody in Seattle sang to my introverted soul. And for the most part people in Seattle just leave you alone. San Diego was great but damn, a skill in small talks is crucial and I am not a fan of them. But in Seattle, you really don’t have to. It’s socially acceptable to have your headphones in the bus and just be in your own world. You can sit alone in a coffee shop, read if you want, hammer your fingers on your laptop, sip your coffee and just watch people and you can be rest assured that no one will ever bother you. Seattleites are more like that, they like doing things alone, they’re comfortable with it, and that is definitely something different than what I was used to.
So for the last year, that’s all I’ve been doing really. Getting lost in my own world. It felt really great to not have social obligations. I mean sure, I am expected to still be social at work but it doesn’t really go beyond that. And that is a drug on its own. Knowing that I can be invited to a happy hour and say no without much guilt after. I like knowing that once I leave work, I can just put my headphones on, listen to music and read in the bus on the way home. Or listen to an audiobook and get lost in that world. And no one will disturb you.
Being a loner naturally had its disadvantages. I have been described as cold, distant, disinterested and flaky. Familiar? Oh yeah. Is true? Definitely not. I filter people, I don’t gravitate to social interactions and it takes time for me to warm up to someone. You can talk to my real friends – the friends who’ve known me for years – and they will tell you that it definitely took time to get to know me. And the way I see it, Seattleites are the same. It just takes time. Some locals even say that new transplants just need to be patient and the friendship will ultimately bloom naturally. For all I know that could be true. I don’t plan on finding out really, not much need really. I personally feel that I have more than enough true friends to last me a lifetime.