more things that happened

• V-day came and went, along with me and N's 5-year anniversary. How to celebrate? Steak again, of course! He's such a pro at broiling+pan searing steak now that he picked up some cuts of meat from Gelson's at 7pm and dinner was on the table before 8!

• Following LA Time's suggestion, we ate at Mapo Kkak Doo Gee--a pretty great tiny Korean restaurant. They specialize in fried fish, which I've never seen before at a Korean place. My experience with Korean food is really limited, I've realized, even though I've eaten it my whole life. And they serve a huge variety of banchan! Each kind was really good. We will definitely be going back.

• President's day came and went, and N and I drove up to the San Francisco area to see my new niece again and to see my mom for her birthday. We all went to the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley to celebrate. We watched a cooking demo taught by one of the instructors and ate at the Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant. The food at the restaurant is cooked by CIA students, and you could watch them at work in the open kitchen. The menu was typical and the quality of the food was very inconsistent, which wasn't surprising, I guess. The steak I ordered (geez, I really do eat a lot of steak/beef...it's so good, though!) had a huge piece of gristle running through it. I wasn't going to bother mentioning it to our waiter, but he somehow overheard me and quickly offered me a replacement for free. They also had a special whole wheat sourdough bread they bake in-house which was REALLY good.

• One our way back to LA from SF, N and I finally satisfied a years-long dream--we ate at Sonic Drive-In. We always saw commercials for it in NYC and in LA, but there are none in either city! Why do they tempt us when they're not even around to spend money at?! Anyway, the last time we drove up to SF we saw a Sonic sign when we drove through Gilroy, and we planned to stop by next time. And that time finally came! We got hot dogs and tater tots and limeaids. It was totally fun and tasty (I'd never been to a drive-in before). I wish there was one closer by.