Izakaya Sozai

I've been meaning to finish up this entry. I've had it on draft status since March 19th, my bad!! I actually dined at this fine little charming establishment March 18th so if you're in San Francisco, give it a try. By the way, i'm not Japanese or Korean i'm actually Chinese. I just love all foods in general but Japanese is one of my favorites (the other would be French).

An izakaya (居酒屋^?) is a type of Japanese drinking establishment which also serves food to accompany the drinks. The food is usually more substantial than that offered in other types of drinking establishments in Japan such as bars or snack bars.
They are popular, casual and relatively cheap places for after-work drinking.
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With that said, one of my most recent favorite places to dine at in San Francisco is "Izakaya Sozai" This tiny establishment has actually been around for a few years, but they have recently acquired new owners! I'm so glad the new owners came along because the food has improved tenfold.  The food is so good, i've gone twice in the past 2 weeks and each outing has racked a bill of over $100.
I do have to mention that I am a ramen fiend. I dont' mean the instant Maruchan crap, I mean real ramen. I'm talking NARUTO ramen, mmmkay? My quest for the best ramen in Northern California has been pretty devastating. Ramen house after ramen house have left me in dismay, especially the ones in San Francisco. Along came revamped Izakaya Sozai bringing with them thee absolute best ramen in the bay area. My favorite had been Santouka in San Jose for quite some time, but now, it is definitely the Ritsu tonkatu ramen here at Izakaya Sozai.

Tako wasabi is one of my absolute favorite dishes whenever having izakaya. If you screw this up, then i know the rest of the meal will suck. This has been perfect both times thus far. I loved every single last slimy morsel of raw, chopped octopus and fresh wasabi. Perfect balance of flavor, crunch, and kick.

hamachi carpaccio (sliced yellow fin sashimi)

hamachi kama - grilled yellowtail collar

 tako yaki - they don't skimp on the octopus in this, you get a decent chunk! 

*ahem* unlike the stand at the Cherry Blossom Festival *ahem*

spicy tuna on crispy rice - i love love love love love crispy rice. if you like spicy tuna, you should get this too. i don't even want to describe it, just fucking get it and thank me later.

 grilled chicken gizzards - mMmMm seasoned beautifully and great crunch

grilled beef tongue

grilled sea bass - so perfect in buttery flavor

gyusuji (braised beef tendon) - definitely one of the stars of the meal. cooked perfectly. reminded me of my mother because she makes a similar dish with huge chunks of stewed daikon. i would have to say this was ONE of my favorites here.

grilled tofu steak w/ mushrooms

ritsu tonkotsu ramen - the best part of the meal!!!! BEST BEST PART OF THE MEAL! I was shocked and in awe at how PERFECT this ramen was. I noted how awesome the boiled egg was. Usually ramen places have tough, over boiled eggs (you can tell when there's a gray ring around the yolk) The egg in this ramen was sooooo good, not to mention it was cured. It reminded me of Chinese tea eggs. They give you a nice sheet of fresh seaweed, a good handful of green onions and plenty of noodles. I cannot express how in love I am with the broth. Perfectly robust, full of flavor, no msg headache, didn't make me thirsty after, I couldn't get enough of it.. The noodles were also al dente.. Oh man, it was better than Hakata Shinsen Gumi in Rosemead, CA. The ramen is meant for eating AFTER sake but by then you'll probably be full so I would advise sharing with someone if you can (which is what I did with my ajusshi)

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Alright, i'm done with the food. Let's get down to the nitty gritty. I finally painted my nails, woop woop! They've been bare for over a week!! I know it's good to let your skin and nails "breathe" every now and then but seriously?? My fingers feel naked without polish on them. Hahahahaha. I did them with OPI for Sephora's "Metro Chic" I had ordered this online and it looked more purple but in real life, it comes out this murky greyish brown color. At first I really didn't like it, but it started to grow on me so I try to wear it more often. I've been more into neutral colors lately so this is definitely getting tossed into the rotation. I don't know why the fuck Blogger is uploading my pictures sideways and the pictures are not sideways when I uploaded to the computer, I rotated them first and saved. I'm frustrated.
If anybody can offer a solution to this, i'd be grateful. I am technologically challenged so I don't know why it's all funky. I didn't do anything bad, I promise! It uploaded all my food pix fine! ugh! -_-

I swear by Nail Tek and Seche Vite. I use Nail Tek as my base, put 2 coats of my polish then use the Seche Vite top coat. It truly is the fastest drying top coat out there ladies. I haven't come across anything better. The Sally Hansen & Revlon ones tend to "bubble" on my nails and take for-freaking-evaaa to dry. I usually do my nails on my lunch break at work so I need something that dries quickstyles. Check it out if you can, I believe Ulta carries it.

This is the NYX palette that i've been using on the daily. 10 Color Eyeshadow Pallet (isn't it supposed to be spelled palette? Am I wrong? Iono, I googled this image and got it off ebay, so the seller is maybe doing a fakie?) from The Runway Collection in "Champagne & Caviar".The 2 colors circled are the ones I used in the following pictures. Bad eyeliner job, I know. I've been having a real rough time getting ready in the A.M. You know why? Because i'm a loser that's been playing Restaurant City on Facebook non-stop.Hahahahah i'm totally going to Hell but check out my restaurant hahahahhahahahhaahaha
"wha-evaaa yoo lie, we dooo pho yooo! $5 luv yoo long time!"

brows: MAC charcoal brown

eyes: MAC ricepaper under brow for highlight, 2 NYX colors from the Champagne & Caviar palette

MAC fluid line in Blacktrack, Neutragena under eye concealer

nothing but Carmex on my lips. I'll explain why in a bit >.<

So... Remember that movie "A Christmas Story" ?? The one where the little kid with the glasses wants a Red Ryder BB gun? There's a scene where his classmate gets triple dog dared to stick his tongue onto a flagpole and the kid's tongue got stuck. Who remembers that shit!?!?! Well...Guess what my dumb ass did. I made a delicious lasagna last night at Joy's house. (We made it from scratch too, I ain't no Stouffer bitch mmkay) and sat my fat ass on her couch and ate a red bean ice cream popsicle. I didn't realize how much freezer burn was on that thing my.mouth.got.stuck.on.the.damn.motherfucking.popsicle.

 

I had to ply my mouth off and tore chunks of my freaking mouth off! I didn't realize it at first since it was numb and I was wearing red lipstick yesterday (Viva Glam I). damn, i'm a dumbass.

epic failure.

Maybelline Eyestudio Quads - Review

Hello my lovely bloggies! I've been out of commission for quite a few days! I got sick after my trip to Los Angeles. Had a nasty cold all the way from thursday Feb 18th up until right now as I type. What else has been going on? I have a freaking STYE on my right eyelid!! I haven't worn any eye makeup since last friday!! It's been 5 days *sigh* I miss wearing eyeliner, I feel so naked without it. This stye was pretty painful but thankfully, it went down after a couple of days of meticulous cleansing. Since I haven't really been wearing makeup and can't put any on to show you.. Someone came to visit me the weekend after I went to L.A. to make my surprise visit.. I guess i'll do a random update and review.

yes, this is my face without makeup on. scary, yea? check out that stye!

Anyway. Those who know me know that I also hit up the spa and get a mani/pedi before I go on a trip. Yes, even before I go on a weekend trip to Los Angeles, I get my nails did. A girl has got to make sure she looks properly presentable, mmmmmkay? So before trekked down to El Lay for Valentine's Day I got my nails did!

I used Zoya's "Stephanie" on my nails and OPI's Absolutely Alice from the Alice in Wonderland special collection for my toesies. 

Zoya's Stephanie - very feminine and classy I love it.

 

OPI Absolutely Alice - it's a straight party on my toes

I told Melissa "I'm all business on top, but party on the bottom!"

Maybelline Eyestudio Quad - Give Me Gold

 I was inspired by Holly to try this quad out. She had managed to get this before it arrived in the U.S. Now that it's here... I decided to check it out since Walgreen's had a 40% off thing going on with drugstore brand cosmetics. Normally, I don't use neutral tones or browns but I have been using them lately (before the stye). When I was younger I didn't know how to apply them so I felt like I looked like I had a black eye. Anyways!

The color pay off seems great when you swatch these, but it's a lie :[  I always use Urban Decay Primer Potion on my lids (I have greasy lids) and that usually makes drugstore brand eye shadows last a lot longer. Although I have primer on my lids, the shadows don't last very long. They are also very very easily blendable so you can lose color definition. I also seem to have a problem with constant fall out whenever I use this. I think that it is not pressed well enough. However, I got it for 40% off so I guess this warrants a B- rating. I won't be using it as main eye shadow anymore but I really like the gold so i'll keep it to use as accentuating shadows. 

In Los Angeles, I was browsing through the various shops inside Little Tokyo before dinner. I stumbled upon a dollar store where they sold tons and tons of NYX! I was ecstatic since we don't have any place that sells these in San Francisco. However...All the things I wanted from NYX seemed to escape me. I only remembered that I wanted to try the jumbo eyeshadow pencil in black bean since a lot of YouTube gurus seem to have it.

Very pigmented, color pay off is great but - it creases on my lids despite wearing UDPP. *sigh* not happy with it. I probably won't be using this anymore and will most likely be giving it away. I still want to try their blushes and eye shadows though.

The one thing I picked up recently that I am happy with is this:

 

Neutragena 3 in 1 eye concealer in "light"

• concealer
• eye cream
• spf 20

This Neutragena eye concealer is a concealer for those of you who didn't realize that (ahem, Jocelyn). It gives me exceptionally great coverage under my eyes (I genetically have dark circles. You can see it in my stye picture posted earlier) with only needing to use a teensy little dab. It lasts all day and does not dry out or look cakey. I still wear my usual Shiseido eye cream underneath this but I got tired of using my NARS  concealer because it looks cakey and dried out at the end of the day.  (below) I also got too lazy to apply it with a freaking brush every single morning. I just use my ring finger with the Neutragena concealer :)

There is also a whopping 50% price difference. The Neutragena eye concealer is about $10 and the NARS concealer is $22 =X
If you want to make a switch, I recommend giving the Neutragena brand a try. Besides, you can't go wrong! You can always return/exchange drugstore cosmetics - don't ever forget that!

Friday we did hot pot or "da been lo" as we say in Cantonese at my friend Jocelyn's house.

We had a buttload of food! Seaweed salad, salted seaweed stems, marinated cuttlefish, dried anchovies, squid salad, taro vermicelli knots (my fave), fried tofu pods, spinach, cabbage, shitake & button mushrooms, fish paste, beef rib eye, sliced pork butt, and cod roe stuffed fish eggs. I made various dipping sauces also including a very spicy one w/ lots of Thai chilis that set my mouth on fire. We were all VERY STUFFED.
Saturday I drove down to Santa Cruz for the 29th Annual Clam Chowder Festival. It was pretty fun! It was $8 for a tasting kit: 5 tickets (redeemable at 5 vendors of your choice) 1 biodegradable spoon, paper cup, napkin, and a people's choice ballot. There were 76 different vendors. We each bought a tasting kit and decided to be greedy and share our 10 tickets. No pictures from that day, I forgot! Sorry! Drove us back to San Francisco to have dinner at Boboquivari's. I love their bone in filet mignon. Bad camera phone pic, sorry! It's dark in there, hahaha.

me: how's the twice baked potato? him: good, but it would be better with bacon me: *melt*

EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH BACON OKAY!?

Sunday was very chill. Just eating , people watching in the rain and relaxing at mi casa.

"So Good" Authentic Belgian Waffle Truck :]

French Onion soup @ Chez Maman

Basic burger + bacon and brie. Frites w/ aioli @ Chez Maman, my absolute favorite burger in the world

Blue Bottle Vietnamese coffee ice cream @ Humphry Slocombe

P.S. I stole these iphone pictures from his Facebook. Just a lil disclaimer for when he sees this, hahahaha.

Just re-did my nails because I got bored.

Zoya "Savita" from the matte collection. This stuff takes a long time to dry. I've had to re-do my pinky nail twice -_-