KFC: Korean Fried Chicken

Have you ever heard of Korean fried chicken? Well, I hadn't either until my friend told me that the best fried chicken she ever had was at BonChon. BonChon is a chain of Korean fast food restaurants that are located in NYC and here in close-by Annandale, Virginia.

To locals around here Annandale is known as a very diverse town in Northern Virginia. I've heard it referred to as A-nan-da-le because of the amount of Hispanic people that live there, and I've also heard people call it K-Town because there are so many Korean people and businesses there. Call it what you want, but I like it. I like everything about it.

There are Korean BBQ's everywhere, pupuserias abound, and there's the BonChon!! Best fried chicken wings ever. The skin is super crispy, and I mean super crispy, and the place is just plain interesting. It's basically a bar with some tables and booths that serves Korean food and specializes in fried chicken wings...weird, I know, but great. BonChon is nothing fancy at all. There's classic rock playing which is is totally random and awesome, there are about six TV's with sports playing, and the waitresses are cute teen-aged Korean girls.

The service is terrible, and that's half of the appeal. You must know this going in. Prepare yourself for a slow paced meal. It takes them 35 minutes just to prepare each chicken wing order. You have two options with the wings: garlic and soy, or spicy. And when I say spicy, I mean SPICY.

Here's a rundown of what we ordered:
SPICY chicken wings and drumsticks (a mix of the two, medium sized)
French Fries (crinkle cut...yum)
Tofu with kimchee and fatty pork

The wings were hella spicy but really crispy and good, the kimchee dish was great with the tofu and fatty pork adding good flavor, and the fries were delicious and perfect for cooling your mouth off after scarfing down a few wings and some of kimchee dish. I've never seen Mike sweat like he did after trying his first wing. It was funny... sorry babe. You're a trooper!

Below are a few pics we snapped of the place and the food, and me texting my friend Grace (who's Korean) about the food. You should definitely try BonChon too!! Enjoy.

Glee: A Must Watch

If you haven't yet jumped on the Glee bandwagon you are really missing out. Glee is my new favorite show and in my opinion, the best show that's on TV right now. It's so freakin fun!!

The premise is simple: high school kids in glee club. It's a glee club made up of great characters. Take Finn, the captain of the football team. He's a sweet innocent guy that everyone loves, who's caught in a love triangle with Rachel, the intense young girl who has been singing and performing forever, and Quinn the head cheerleader who comes across as a pretentious snot, but who is really just a confused teenager. It's great! My favorite character is Kurt who is as gay as a parade and proud of it. His fashion sense is impeccable and he has a face moisturizing regiment that would put most girls to shame. Kurt is such a great character because in each episode he stays true to himself, which is so hard to do when you're in high school.

I mean, come on...remember high school? It was so tough. Trying to fit in, trying to wear the right clothes, trying not to get picked on, or beat up...what a shitty time of life, but what a great time of life. Good times meant hanging out with friends, feeling like you were invincible, falling in love, having your heart broken...Well, Glee encompasses all of these feelings and memories and whenever I watch I feel like I've been transported back in time. All of those high school feelings come rushing back, and I love it.

I also love Glee because in each episode the kids perform at least five songs. They sing everything from Broadway ballads, to Beyonce. From Celine Dion love songs to Young MC's "Bust a Move." And they dance. And they're really, really good! Again I say, it's so freakin fun!! And it's showing kids that you can sing and dance and be who you are, and still be cool. It makes me happy and I guarantee it will make you happy too. Just watch.

Glee: Wednesday's at 9pm on Fox

Our Big Night Out

What a thrill the other night was for Mike and I. As many of you know we are huge fans of Scott Schuman, aka The Sartorialist, and his amazing blog. I make sure to check it everyday for inspiration on all things fashionable.

How cool was it then when we found out that he was kicking his United States book tour off in none other than Washington D.C.!! Who woulda thunk it? Well it was true. Not only was he to visit D.C. for a meet and greet and book signing, but it was taking place at Masa 14, a new restuarant about 5 minutes away from our apartment!!

After three long hours of waiting both inside and out, we made our way up to, and sat down next to the man himself. I was acutally nervous! I mean, it wasn't like I was walking up to shake the President's hand, but to me, Scott's photographs are an important part of my life.

You see, I'm a people person. I like to see people express themselves through fashion. That may sound shallow to some of you, but you're wrong. Fashion means personality, a sense of style shows character, it shows that you have perspective. It says something about who you are as a person. I like that Scott takes pictures of real people he sees on the street. Granted, he does take some pictures of celebrities and models...but the majority of the pictures he takes are of everyday people. People like you and like me.

Anyway, meeting Scott was great. I sat next to him and he signed my book on Giovanna's page, because she's my favorite. He said she was his favorite too! We chatted for a few, posed for a picture and wished him the best. Whatta nice guy, whatta rich guy! Getting a book published that's mainly of photographs is no small feat. Kudos Scott, we love ya!

Gripe of the Day: People with Enormous Umbrellas

Have you ever noticed that people get dumber when it rains? It's like all common sense just flies out the window. People start driving like idiots, walking like they may melt if a drop touches them, and the umbrella situation gets completely out of hand.

Take this morning for example. I'm walking to work as usual, and these two girls decide to stop and have a conversation in the middle of the block. They also happen to be holding ridiculously enormous umbrellas. You know, that special kind of umbrella that has those top vents that prevent those umbrella-inside-out occurences we have all experienced. Anyway, there they are gabbing away and no one can get passed them without saying "excuse me," or just pushing through.

I mean, HELLO! Move to the side ladies, take your conversation to the coffee shop, but don't stand in the middle of the sidewalk with your monstrous umbrellas and expect not to get shoved. So that's what I did. I shoved past them making sure that my tiny, almost falling apart, pink umbrella knocked into their HUGE Brookstone umbrellas and got them wet.

So far, that has been the highlight of my day.

How Far is too Far?

Mike and I are shoe lovers. You all know this, but a recent article in the NY Times has me asking, how far are we willing to go for fashion?

All women know that a good pair of heels not only make you taller, but thinner, better looking, and better dressed. I have recently been pining away after an amazing pair of black nappa leather Prada platform heels. I tried them on and fell in love. My legs looked so freakin long it was ridiculous...I'm telling you, instantly I felt like Gisele Bundchen.

Well, then my cousin emails me this article and I'm like, are you kidding me? The shoes the designers put these models in on the Paris runways are downright scary. You could take a really bad spill in these and break your neck and DIE.

They're also hideously ugly. Pushing the envelope way too far if you ask me, but then again it's fashion, so how far is too far?

What do you think?

Man Shops Globe

I just found out that the buyer for my absolute favorite store, Anthropologie is the focus of a documentary series called "Man Shops Globe" which premieres on the Sundance Channel tomorrow night at 10pm.

Anthropologie carries some of the best clothes you can find as well as amazing furniture, antique lamps, and the most beautiful bedding. This series follows their buyer Keith Johnson around the world as he searches for hidden treasures.

I love the idea of getting a behind the scenes look at how buyers find merchandise in stores that I frequently shop at. I will definitely be tuning in and you should too!

Below are some pictures from the show to whet your appetite. The first is Keith in India buying bangle bracelets. The second is Keith in Turkey looking at a suzani which is an embroidered blanket or throw. In the third picture Keith is in Holland in search of furniture.


Find out more about the series here.

My Favorite Foods

Being home this weekend was fantastic. Saturday during the day, Mike and I did a little local shopping and then for nostalgia we visited our old stomping grounds in Kew Gardens, Queens. We got pizza at a place called Paul Michael's that Mike and I used to order from all the time. This was back when Mike lived in a basment apartment called the dungeon, and I still lived at home with my parents.

Paul Michael's is a great example of a local Queens eatery that is friendly, and happens to serve really good food. The people working there are so nice and the patrons are locals from the neighborhood. Their pizza is awesome and they also have delicious Italian dishes like spaghetti with meatballs and homemade lasagna. It was so fun to go back to a place we used to frequent when we first started dating back in 2002! It brought back all sorts of funny memories, and reinforced the fact that we can't wait to get back to NYC.

On Sunday, my parents took us into Flushing which might as well be renamed mini-China, and we had an amazing lunch at Joe's Shanghai. The Xiao Long Bao, known to Western Devils as "soup dumplings," are delicious. We had pork and crab xiao long bao, regular pork dumplings, shredded pork and pickled cabbage noodle soup (my absolute favorite thing - EVER), cold spicy pickled cabbage, scallion pancakes, spring rolls, and shredded chicken with wide see-thru noodles. Everything was super good, and we were all in a food coma by the time we were finished, but it was worth EVERY BITE!

Being in NYC is great, and being home in Queens is especially great because I really miss the diversity and the great ethnic foods that are so easily accessible there. I know that we only have one more year to go before we're back in NYC and I can't wait.

Here are a few pics of the xiao long bao and me eating...yum.

Home Again, Home Again

Mike and I are headed to the big city tonight for the weekend, so cross your fingers and pray that there isn't horrible traffic due to "volume" or some hideous accident that backs the turnpike up for 30 miles.

I'm really excited for this weekend, because my parents have been away in California on vacation, so I haven't seen them in a while, and also because on Saturday night we're having dinner with some of Mike's friends from law school and needless to say, it's always a great hang.

I have to say that I'm lucky when it comes to my husband's friends. I really enjoy each one of them and I have become close to their wives as well. I know that they have become our friends instead of just his friends and to me, that's special.

The only gripe I have, and leave it to me to have one, is the restaurants we go to when hanging out with these friends. They always pick the places that Mike and I would NEVER in a million years go to if it was our choice. On Saturday, out of all the amazing resturants to choose from in the great city of New York, we will be dining at Del Frisco's which is a total power scene Wall Street, steakhouse. It also happens to be a chain, which annoys the shit outta me.

Why the hell are we going to a chain steakhouse in NYC? I get that we needed a bigger place to accommodate 9 of us, and that we may be a rowdy bunch, but common! There are plently of places we could have picked.

I guess I can't tear the place apart until after I've been there, but I know that if it were up to me we'd be going somewhere with a little more character and a little less of the see and be seen scene. Oh well, I guess that's what you do for friends. You take the good, you take the bad, and you dine at crap restaurants...

Look for my review of Del Frisco's soon.