Caltech

Typhoon Season

After the rainy season in Japan comes summer. And with summer comes the typhoon season. Typhoons (or as we call them, hurricanes) are common in this part of the pacific. They will often hit the coast and Japan has frequent typhoon warnings, especially Kyushu, Shikoku, and western Honshu, the main island. Okinawa, which is farther south and west, has even more trouble. These typhoons are often downgraded before hitting the coast, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t any devastation. The high winds and heavy rains mean that mudslides and flooding rivers are fairly common with the advent of each typhoon.

The most recent typhoon, Krosa, was downgraded to a Severe Tropical Storm before hitting Japan. But it still went right through Hiroshima, with winds strong enough for Japan Rail to stop Shinkansen service in JR West (everything to the West of Osaka). Boats and ferries to smaller islands off the coast of Honshu were also cancelled that Thursday. I know because I was originally planning to take one! Even if they happen often, they're still dangerous. It's concerning that one can get used to hearing about typhoons every other week. Now, I almost expect them to come up on the news.

Farmer's Market and Goat Yoga

Yes, you read that correctly: Goat Yoga. Doing yoga with baby goats around is actually real thing. Most of you would probably think that it's bizarre, but it's actually pretty fun and exciting. I had the opportunity to try goat yoga at a farmer's market event put together by my internship, and I can affirm that it's worth trying once in your life.

So the farmer's market event is more to promote healthy eating and sustainable food choices, and the goats were more of a marketing scheme. The goats were brought by Hello Critters, a service that specifically provides baby goats to goat yoga events around LA. It's kind of crazy to think that such a niche service has a cult following. Anyways, the goats were quite an attraction and tons of coworkers were lining up to play with them. To interact with the goats, we had to first sign a waiver that takes into account all the different injuries you can get. I thought the goats were tiny and benign looking, so I didn't think twice.

The woman leading goat yoga recommended me several yoga positions that would allow for more interaction with the goats. One of them was the table top position, which is simply getting down on all fours. Then, using a twig as bait, she got one of the goats to jump onto my back. Boy are these baby goats heavy. They probably weight as much as a human toddler. Also, I am severely ticklish, so when its hooves were first tapping on my back, I wanted to collapse with laughter. It took so much self restraint to not do that. If I had buckled, the goat could have become frightened.

 

After playing with the goats I went to check out the various tapas they had, each featuring a unique produce. Some interesting things we had were peanut butter and strawberry gazpacho, tomato and mayonnaise sandwich, and roasted sweet corn. My favorites were black radishes and chayote squash with miso and fermented chilis. While all the food was great, I am an incompetent chef, so I'll stick with cooking broccoli and brussel sprouts.

 

While the mini farmer's market is fun an internal event, it doesn't compare to the larger, public farmers markets on the weekends. Next weekened, I'll checkout farmers and fleas in Venice and the Santa Monica farmer's market.

Exploring Pasta-bilities

Apologies for the bad pun, but I had to do it. I've been on a severe pasta kick lately and have been eating way too much carbs and cheese that my semi-lactose intolerant body can handle. It doesn't help that the friend I usually hangout with loves bolognese and will gladly eat it any meal and every meal. Over the past two months, I've checked out a LOT of pasta places on the west side and have now formed my own rankings of them. Just a heads up, my palate is not that sophisticated and I will gladly choose cheesy lasagna over quality cacio e pepe any day.

 

The best place I've been to so far is also the cheapest. It's called Pasta Sisters. They have been featured in several Buzzfeed Worth-It videos. I am proud to say tho, that I discovered their lasagna before those video producers did. I've tried their bolognese, their truffle pasta and their lasagna. All are pretty good, but if you only get one, get the lasagna. Small tip, you can pay a premium to get a fresh ball of burrata on top of your pasta. It transforms the pasta from good to sublime.

 

A pricier option is Osteria Mozza, in Fairfax, that has the best, fancy pasta ever. I've tried the one with duck ragu, another with sweet corn, and a their giant raviolo with brown butter. The giant raviolo is basically a fist sized ravioli with a whole egg yolk inside. It is absolutely delicious. Make sure you ask for extra bread to soak up all that brown butter. 

 

 

Two of the more forgettable options are the pastas at Margot and at the Jean Georges hotel. I guess because it's so expensive, you expected to blow you out of the water. I tried the bolognese from both those locations, and I can only consider it good, but not great. I think the same dish at Pasta Sisters tastes pretty much the same, and is only a fraction of the cost.

 

 

Over the next few weeks, I am hoping to try the pasta at Jon and Vinny's, Milo and Olive and maybe also Uovo. I don't think any of them will change my undying love for Pasta Sisters, but if any of them do blow me away, I'll let you know.

 

 

A Day at the Getty Museum

The Getty Museum is one of the most iconic LA landmarks. After getting an aerial view of it from my quick flying experience, I really wanted to go. I can't believe that after living in LA for the past three years, I never bothered to make my way there. It is slightly far from campus, but it's still quite accessible. A lot of freshmen tend to go during their summer SURFs, but somehow it evaded me. Nevertheless, it's never too late to check it out, and you definitely should add it to your bucket list if you have not already.

 

As much as I wanted to go to the Getty, my trip is actually quite spontaneous. Originally, I planned to go shopping in Santa Monica, but a friend of mine also interning at Snap this summer is leaving soon and hit me up to check it out. I figured that my money is better spent on experiences rather than clothes so I decided to hang out with her instead. The museum is free, but the Uber there does get quite pricey as it is out of the way from the rest of LA. Funny story, both my friend's and my own Uber rides dropped us off at the wrong place. I ended up hiking 20 minutes up a 30 degree incline in the 90 degree weather to get to the entrance. My friend was lucky enough to take a tram up.

 

We started out checking out the Central Garden, which is apparently its most well-known "exhibit". The Central Garden is a tiny garden that is constructed in a similar format to the central garden in Versailles. There are tons of flowers, a waterfall and plenty of shade. It's a very photoesque place and almost everyone was taking picture there. Afterwards, we checked out the special exhibit on beasts. Some of the art were super beautiful and glamorous while the others were straight up creepy. There is a small station set up outside the gallery where kids can design their own beast too. 

 

 

Finally, we checked out the photography and fine art displays. Van Gogh's painting of irises is currently on loan here and it draws a crowd. The painting itself is about the size of a flat screen TV and is extremely vibrant in color. However, I think it's overrated as compared to some pieces by Monet, displayed in the same room, that many other visitors just ignored.

 

I'm not an art connoisseur, but I love going to museums and learning more about artists and their styles. I found the Getty to be one of my favorite experiences in LA. It's big, but not too big, so you can see everything in a day. Best of all, it's super accessible and has plenty of activities for people of all ages, so it's a great place to spend time with family and friends.

 

The City That Never Sleeps

    Last weekend, another Techer and I drove down to New York City to spend a weekend visiting friends, seeing the sights, and eating food of course. Being that I am originally from the Midwest and go to school on the west coast, this is my first time really seeing the east coast and my first trip to New York City. We met up and stayed with a recent Caltech alum who generously let us sleep on her couch for the weekend. We arrived pretty late Friday night and just took the night to enjoy some Thai food and relax before a full day on Saturday.

    Saturday morning we took the ferry from Jersey city where we were staying and grabbed some crepes and coffee for breakfast. We walked past the World Trade Center and headed to Chelsea market. Chelsea market is this urban food market and shopping center with a kind of old brick building vibe. The variety of food in such a small place was amazing and they even had a flea market section where local artists were selling various goods. From there we walked to the High Line, an abandoned railroad elevated above the west side of Manhattan that was converted into a park/walkway with a nice view of the city. Afterwards we headed to the water to take a ferry past the Statue of Liberty. No we didn't actually go to the statue of liberty because it cost money and would've taken several hours, so we instead took the free Staten Island ferry which goes right past. By that time, we were starting to get hungry and headed to Times Square to meet up with a few other friends from Caltech. We grabbed some Ben and Jerry's ice cream then went to walk around Grand Central Station. Then we found this really good but kind of pricey ramen place called Nippori. Then we walked across the Brooklyn bridge, took some nice photos, walked around Brooklyn for awhile, admiring the nice view of Manhattan across the river (see photo below) and then headed in for the night.

    Sunday morning, we decided to walk around Central Park for a few hours. Central park is such a weird experience because it's really an enormous park, but you can still see skyscrapers beyond the line of trees, the only reminder that you are still in the middle of the largest metropolitan area in the country. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, but quite hot. Seeing all of the people riding bikes and running made me wish we had a longer time to enjoy the outdoors. Below is a picture of Bethesda Fountain which is towards the northern end of the park. After central park, we went back to Times Square one last time, so I could go to M&M world where I tried some coffee flavored M&M's and some coconut flavored M&M's (both of which were absolutely delicious). Then it was back to Boston for another week of working in the lab. It was such a short trip but a crazy, wild adventure. I definitely wish I had time to go back and see more of the museums and maybe see a show on Broadway rather than just briefly hitting all of the sights. Even so, I'm incredibly glad I had the chance to experience the city that never sleeps (though I did squeeze in a few hours).

-Lexy

 

M’laysia

Hello hello! I celebrated Singapore’s national day this weekend… By going to Malaysia! So funny thing about Singapore national day – it’s not exactly the fourth of July. In-fact, most people I knew were either going on holiday, or had people visiting them. Apparently, you must get tickets for the national day parade months in advance. I didn’t do that, and I didn’t want to stick around for the fireworks. So, I grabbed two of my friends (two interns from the UK that are working in the lab across the hall), and we went to Malaysia. And my oh my, it was a wild time.

It started wild too. After Aidan got a little held up of the border leaving Singapore, we ended up in a MASSIVE queue trying to catch a bus to Malaysia. Like, 500 people. So, we did the only reasonably thing and decided to walk. Across the border. It’s really not that far, only about a mile and a half, but it was certainly a dodgy time. And we ended up in a giant queue for that too! But eventually (after another MASSIVE queue in customs and two Uber rides that took 4 hours) we made it to Melaka, Malaysia! Melaka is a quaint oceanside town originally settled by Dutch settlers(?), but now a nice Malaysian tourist destination.

It was a quick trip, but we got to explore Melaka. During the day and a half, we wandered around and saw the touristy sights of the city and ate all the foods. During the night we got to… also eat all the food. My favorite was the putu piring of the Jonker Street Market, but we also had all other sorts of street food delicacies. We also ended up in Muar and Batu Pahat just because of the way that everything worked out transportation wise. And we saw a really large water monitor – probably a 4/5-foot-long lizard.

And the highlight of the trip? Malaysian KFC!!! You heard that right, Kentucky Fried Chicken. For some bizarre reason KFC tastes about 5x better in Malaysia? It’s not greasy, the skin has a nice crisp to it, and the chicken is moist. Better than most fancy restaurant fried chickens I’ve had.

Actually, the highlight for me had to be the D24 durian I got. My mates hated it, but that was ok because I got the whole thing to myself. Deeeeeelicious 😊.

Durian time is a good time!

--Chandrew

Ending on a High Note

Well, after 8 weeks of delicious food and good friends, I started having to say the first of my goodbyes in Singapore this week. I’d been hoping to catch up on blog posts this week but yikes I fell even further behind.

My best friend from fencing, Alvin, is fencing in Taiwan next week, so I won’t get to see him before I leave. And that’s very sad. I’m starting to miss Singapore already, and I’m still here for a few more days even. The last little bit is going to be very tough.

But let’s backtrack a bit. To why Alvin and I are such good friends. When I met him, he asked me to be a part of his team for a tournament two months away. I, of course, said yes. And 8 weeks later, we won! It was a close one too. I almost blew it in the final. But luckily my team pulled through for me and we ended the day on top of the podium.

So, this last outing for the two of us was a bit of a celebration of that win, and a bit of a celebration of a great summer of fencing.

As a group of me and some of Alvin’s friends, we went to a hawker Center and did a family style feast of a ton of Singaporean favorites. I got to try a few of the last things I’d needed to cross off my food list. This included prawn hokkien mee, a noodle with a light gravy, rojak, a weird fruit and vegetable medley served in a savory peanut-ish sauce, and ice kampang (honestly this was really just American shaved ice, but the syrups were a little different and there was red bean at the bottom). Of these I think my favorite was the rojak. There’s something about savory apples that’s just uncannily good. Although honestly, all the food was amazing. I don’t know how I’m going to go back to normal Western food after this.

When I came to Singapore, I hadn’t really been expecting to fence much at all - I ended up practicing more than I do in the U.S. and making tons of great friends. Sports really are a true international language.

Alvin also brought me some of his grandfather’s recipe bakkwa, a preserved pork jerky. It’s like a caramel teriyaki bacon and once you start eating a piece of it you can’t stop. It’s probably the best food that I’ve had while being in Singapore. And that’s saying a lot.

Catch you on the other side (of the piste),

— Chandrew

The Hunt For Red Chicktober

I finally did the one thing I’d been trying to do for my entire time in Singapore – got the second Michelin starred hawker stall’s food. This might not seem like a huge deal (after all, it was just chicken and rice) but I had been battling with this stall to find its food. This was my THIRD time going – seemingly every time I went it was closed. And so, I suppose it was a fitting beginning of the end for me to finally get my soya chicken rice.

However, this journey wasn’t without its own fair share of trials either. I went with Michael from Caltech (a surprise but pleasant visit!) and we ended showing up an hour and a half early. Which was fine, only unlike we thought, there was actually no line whatsoever for the chicken rice. As a result, we found ourselves taking a bit of a journey over to a kaya toast stall in a nearby hawker center (not sure if I mentioned it before, but kaya is a coconut jam). This was ranked as one of the best kaya toasts in Singapore, but honestly it was fairly forgettable. I can’t even remember the name of the place. I guess I just like a little more kaya on my toast than your typical Singaporean.

Oh yeah, and this was absurdly cheap too. $2.70 SGD for a plate, which works out to a little over $2 USD. I’d eat the chicken rice for every meal if I could get it for that price always. It was a true treat.

The details: delicious. The skin wasn’t exactly crispy, but it was bursting with flavor. The chicken was by far the best roasted chicken I think I’ve ever had. All the flavor of a typical roast chicken, but the moistness of a delicious marinated fried chicken. Somehow it was just delectable. But also, I did wait for about an hour and a half (and visit the stall 3 times) to get roast chicken. I don’t know, I think the pork noodles were better for 1 Michelin Star, but this definitely deserved it as well. I’d go again. Also, it made me realize that Howlin’ Rays was straight up robbed of a Michelin star in Los Angeles. Honestly, I’ve had a lot of food that probably could make the list if this did. Mama sol cocina, I’m looking at you.

Victory, at last.

--Chandrew

The I-Couldn’t-Think-of-a-Pun-But- Was-At-a-Conference-This-Week Post

Hello from Suntec City! Well, actually I’m writing this from home, but I was at the Suntec mall/convention center all week for the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society convention. I’ve spent my week going to talks, perusing the poster presentations, enjoying the fine dining of the Suntec for the week. This was much smaller than the AGU conference I went to last winter, but it was very nice. I attended a couple of great talks, learned a lot, and made a few good contacts back in the U.S. for when I’m back in the winter.

But the unusual and the wonderful happened throughout the week. We had lab lunches (somehow I managed to order the same Hainanese curry chicken twice – it’s ok, it was delicious). Lab dinners (Halal dim sum!). So, the rest of the post is going to focus on the convener’s dinner. My lab mate Anandh and I somehow ended up getting tickets to the fancy dinner that they throw for people that convene sessions at the conference.

It was held at the S.E.A. aquarium which in and of itself was a great. It was a nice, small aquarium that had one huge ocean tank. I don’t recall ever seeing a manta ray, or at least not one that close. They also had dolphins, a blue lobster, and a couple of just surprising things that you wouldn’t normally expect to see at an aquarium. The one letdown was the smell. For some reason, I’ve always loved the smell of the aquarium in Denver. Something about the briney fish smell that just feels like home to me. This aquarium was the first one I’ve ever been to that had no smell whatsoever. Beyond that, great experience.

Instead of proper dinner they gave us meal vouchers. But… they also provided durian, mangosteen, and rambutan samples. Of the unlimited variety. I’m sure you can guess what we went for. It was nice durian too, the Mao Shan Wang – my favorite type. I think I’m becoming a proper durian convert now. I keep eating it, I keep liking it, and I don’t think that’s going to change even when the durian gets worse. We then were able to save the meal vouchers for some treats to take away. The real professional strategy if you ask me.

Till the next conference,

--Chandrew

A Real Live MUMMY

    So far in Boston I have visited two different art museums, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). Although the museums were fairly close to each other, I did visit on different days. Both are very accessible from the green line, which was super convenient considering how blistering hot Boston has been lately. Also, something I learned recently is that MIT students get into both art museums for free by just showing their ID, so of course I showed my very much temporary and very much not a student MIT ID and saved some money.

    The Isabella Stewart Gardner museum was established by Isabella Stewart Gardner when she decided to turn her private collection into a public museum. She converted her house into the museum during her lifetime but it has since expanded far beyond that -- and by house I mean palace. I really enjoyed the interesting mix of artwork, historical texts, and other antiquities. Although walking through what used to be someone's house and is now a public museum is kind of strange. One of my favorite parts was the beautiful courtyard garden in the center of her house. Four stories surround this glass-ceilinged courtyard that has beautiful flowers, interesting statues, and an intricate mosaic tile that can be viewed from both the ground and the upper levels. The newer section of the museum housed an exhibit on maps. My first thought was "Oh, how boring -- MAPS!" but it was actually a very well thought-out exhibit that traced the development of parks and greenery in major cities. They had several blueprint-like maps of the Emerald Necklace in Boston, Central Park in New York, and the lake shore area of Chicago. Overall was a very worthwhile experience.

    The Museum of Fine Arts is first of all enormous and second very well organized. I did not get a chance to explore the entire 3-story museum, but I did try to hit part of each section. The museum is divided into 5 different sections: art of the ancient world, art of the Americas, art of Europe, contemporary art, and art of Asia. I'm not exactly sure which section this was in, but when I first arrived I started in an exhibit of musical instruments from classical harpsichords to the electric guitar. Being a musician myself, I found it especially captivating to see the progression of musical instruments throughout history. I also really enjoyed seeing the ancient Egypt / mummy exhibit. Yes, they have real live mummies! Well... real dead mummies that is. Speaking of strange exhibits, they had this case full of different shaped bottles and vases with mirrors that created the illusion of infinite bottles. The simplicity of an ordinary object like the vases in combination with the mirror effect was quite captivating and my picture definitely does not do it justice.

    My favorite exhibit by far was the Monet section. They had an entire room full of gorgeous impressionistic landscapes. I can't say that Monet is my all-time favorite artist, but I do love his use of pastel colors and subtle textures. Although to be honest, the haystacks series is quite strange. I appreciate the beauty of the lily pond much more than the quite ordinary haystacks. I also really enjoyed some of the Jackson Pollack paintings in the contemporary art section. Yeah, I know he just splatters paint onto a canvas, but some of the REALLY large paintings are just plain cool. Especially the one in the image below. It was a hodge-podge of vibrant colors on a cloth canvas so large that it hung from the ceiling and still draped onto the floor! It was about 30 feet long, but the best part was that you could walk behind it and see the painting from all angles. It was very easy to become immersed in such a large painting and it made me feel quite small. I walked through a few of the other exhibits, but those were definitely all of the highlights. I would highly recommend visiting both the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum and MFA for anyone who has a vague interest in art, but if you want to see all of MFA, make sure to set aside an entire day.

-Lexy