food, food, and, oh wait: more food.

last night, the hub got home after 8. i don't generally cook on the weekends, and that starts friday night, right? so we hopped in the car and headed out to the new sansei that opened last month. it was our second time there, and while it's not exactly sushi roku, it'll do. we each got teriyaki bowls (steak for me, chicken for the hub), plus a spicy tuna roll and some miso soup. delish.

we decided to grab some lowfat dessert at the golden spoon, also newly open, a couple of doors down. i got a mini cookies & cream with marshmallow cream, and he picked pecan praline with graham cracker crumbs. i'm not usually a huge frozen yogurt fan, but golden spoon is yummy.

and i just got back from having dim sum with monkey, lilcee, and winnie (we missed you, tater and jen!). so much fun! we went to empress harbor restaurant in monterey park (a place that conjures up memories of life with the ex, ew) and after a bit of confusion (lilcee was already waiting for us at a table, while we were waiting for her outside with 1058461584 other dim sum fiends), we were happily digging into some delicious grub.

on the left is some har gow. basically, a shrimp dumpling. and then some shu mai (shrimp and pork steamed in a won ton wrapper). and that other weird-looking dish on the right tastes way better than it looks. it's a bunch of veggies and shrimp in a tofu wrapper, drowned in some brown sauce. i'm not usually a tofu fan, but the monkey told me to try it, and so i did. and i liked it.

the newest love of my life made an appearance too, all warm and gooey and dredged in yummy peanutty sugary goodness - mochi. oh, it was so good. it didn't even make it all the way into my mouth yet, and i was already blissfully "mmmm. mmmmmmmm."-ing. and the other is sticky rice wrapped in some kind of leaf - banana, maybe? i'm not sure. nor am i fan. but i took a picture anyway.

these green things reminded me of watermelons. in fact, we weren't even going to order it, but the monkey's curiosity got the better of her. they turned out to be a fun combination of crispy and chewy dough wrapped around green tea-flavored paste. we agreed that they would've been better hot, but we devoured some anyway. ha! next to it is a plate of fried shrimp balls, which, as it turned out, no one particularly wanted. but each of us thought someone did, so there you go. and then that's the almond milk/smurf house that the monkey had a few weeks ago. we were all pretty excited to see it on a passing cart and decided to snap it up to share, even though it wasn't dessert time. besides, when ISN'T it dessert time?

everything was so yummy. we said our goodbyes and went off in separate directions - all looking forward to tomorrow, when we'd get together again for more food and fun with a big ass group of fellow bloggers. i drove home quite happy and full - with dinner at lawry's coming up in, oh, four hours. heh. but now i have happier monterey park-based memories, and that's a good thing.

oh, and here's a prime example of why it's not a great idea to let daddies dress their daughters. the bean kind of reminded me of madonna in the "hung up" video: