Moon Festival

This post is a bit late, but did you celebrate the Mid-Autumn Harvest Moon? Did you sip tea under the glorious full moon?

In Vietnam the Moon Festival is basically their version of Halloween. Kids light lanterns and parade through the village. In China the Moon Festival an opportunity for some matchmaking. And for both it means some yummy mooncakes with your tea under the full moon.

This year I did have the yummiest mochi mooncake I have ever eaten! It was only half a bite because the mooncakes were special gifts. This mooncake was a soft mochi skinned mooncake that was sublimely naturally sweet, starchy from coconut creamy yellow beans and a salty punch that came from what looked like salted rubbed chinese sausage. Yes, you heard it right - salt rubbed chinese sausages! The mooncake was amazing and if the last one wasn't a durian flavored mooncake I would have wrestled my dad for it. I have yet to find anyone who sells them in our neck of woods. If you know of anyone who sells mochi skinned mooncakes like the ones below, I'll buy you one!

Photos courtesy of Masak-Masak Blog

Memorable Meals: Sushi Birthday

For three years Dad has hinted he wanted some homemade sushi and his hints grew louder and more frequent as his birthday neared. Even inlisting family members!

One of us said with ease "sure, no problem" and the other person said "uuggghhh, how many days of prep will this take?". Surprisingly with less than a few hours for shopping and prep we all were presented with a feast of homemade sushi.

We got everything ready "sushi-bar style".

Everyone got to make their own special rolls.

Then we feasted outside under a warm summer evening.

There was a sashimi plate, gunkanmaki, nigirizushi and even tempura!

We were even treated to oshizushi or press box sushi.

However, the best part was eating all those personalized and traditional rolls!

Sushi is a great summer meal and an even better birthday meal!

Mini-Anniversary

A month ago today we were married.

The first month of marriage went by fast.

Which got us thinking.

What happened in the months between our March post and our recent wedding post?

Anne had a birthday.

Which meant dinner at any restaurant we want.

We decided on a neighborhood Chinese restaurant that made their own house spicy noodles.

There was some singing and dancing.

We had friends move across the country and now live in our lovely city.

We enjoyed a nice Easter brunch with family.

We tried to keep up with our bi-weekly produce delivery.

We attended Elizabeth Andoh's incredible Vegan and Vegetarian Cooking demonstration.

We spent a weekend learning how to make a kick-you-in-the-crotch-drop-you-to-your-knees-it's-so-good soup.

Cleo got fleas.

Which made her act really weird.

She spent all her time in the garden. Rarely coming inside, not even to eat.

Which meant she had many kitchen sink showers.

Dengue Fever played at our favorite live music venue Dante's.

We rode our bikes everywhere.

We had brunch with friends.

We went wine tasting.

We attended a friend's book launch party.

We added a new member to our family. His name is Roger.

And we witnessed the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

We did more than we thought.

Wedding Rehearsal Dinner

Due to the traditional/non-traditional mix of our wedding, having a rehearsal was definitely necessary. More importantly we needed to make sure everyone was fed directly after. We wanted to include all our out-of-town guests, as well as all the kiddies who were not going to be at our adult-only wedding.

But what could we feed everyone for a reasonable price and keep it casual and mellow before our epic day?

Korean Tacos! That's what we could serve!

The boys at Koi Fusion Korean Taco Truck couldn't have been nicer to work with. It was a toss up between the bulgogi and short rib tacos for the top winners.

Our family and friends made it ridiculously easy to host the rehearsal dinner in our backyard by bringing a side dish or dip to share.

After filling our bellies with Korean tacos it was time for some light celebrating, nothing too crazy our wedding was the next day!

The few days leading up to our wedding were our favorites because we were able to relax with our family and friends, not stress too much and enjoy the summer nights.

We did run out beer and tried multiple times to make it to the liquor store without any luck, but it did help us find alternatives for our gluten free friends.

The summer night was perfect, the tacos were uniquely delicious and the memories of a perfect rehearsal dinner will be held forever.

A huge thank you to all our family and friends. We are so lucky to have you all in our lives and there to help us celebrate. Below is a time lapse we captured of our beautiful rehearsal dinner and guests.

Wedding Rehearsal Dinner Timelapse from Buddha Bellies on Vimeo.

Thanks to my sister Tri for use of her photos.

Wedding Hiatus

Wow!

It's been so long since we last stopped by our beloved bloggie!

Apologies.

Spring turned into summer.

We were busy planning 3 big summer parties.

One of those parties was our Wedding!

To those who are planning a wedding - sympathies, it's a lot more work than you'll ever imagine.

It was for us at least.

The effort was worth it.

As evidenced in the time lapse we captured of our big day.

More to come.

Soon.

We promise.

Wedding Day Time Lapse from Buddha Bellies on Vimeo.