Tried out a new Korean BBQ place not to far from the house - Manna Korean BBQ.
It was totally packed with a bunch of people waiting outside for a meal. We ordered the $24.95 all you can each package and tried out a few dishes.
The Deungshim was pretty good with quite a bit of fat and the Goutsal came out in a huge steak. Both were pretty tender as the Deungshim were sliced paper thin and the steak was not cooked very long. There are no knives at this restaurant and each table is given a pair of scissors to cut up meat.
The waitress recommended the Chadol Baegi but we found it very tough and we would not order it again.
We had a couple dishes of shrimp as well as squid. Squid is not my favorite but it was pretty good.
The meat so far discussed have not been marinated and each person has a small dish of some kind of sauce similar to a soy. I found there was not much flavor with the meat.
We then tried the LA YangNym Galbi which is marinated and was very tender and tasty. The last dish we ordered was the spicy chicken which was also good but by that time, we were too stuffed.
Of course, each table has a salad and a multitude of small dishes of Korean delicacies. Overall, the meal was good but the place my parents go to in Sacramento was better in my opinion and I discussed it here.
We took a trip to visit the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Vista and it was a beautiful day with full sun and light winds. We went after lunch and hit the Park around 1:00 and the parking lot was full as was the Park.
We saw a bunch of animals including meerkats.
Birds.
The King of the Jungle.
Gorillas with a baby.
My mom posed with a "hand" as well as the body schematic. She is almost the same height as a gorilla.
Elephants including the new baby.
And went on an African Safari to see how multiple species live together.
Here are two of the eight Rhinos left in the world and they are both too old to reproduce.
We did not stay to see the Cheetah run but did see a couple of them relaxing in the shade.
There were a few other species of Rhinos.
Here are two animals doing a face off - wildebeest and some kind of antelope.
It was a fun day and we left as the sun was going down and it became cooler. My mom got a couple of stuffed animals - an elephant and a polar bear for her collection at home.
During the summer, I won a pair of hand knit socks by Sheila of the Knit 1 Heart Too podcast.
We discussed various patterns and due to the pooling of the Socks that Rock yarn, we agreed on the Flutterby socks.
The socks arrived right before Christmas and she included a small knitting bag that she won and was not using. Sheila also sent me a podcast button.
Here are the socks.
The toes are a bit big, but the socks fit pretty well. They are super thick so I won't be wearing them with shoes.
While my family was visiting for the holidays, we went out to lunch at a new place.
The Bite of Boston is in an adjacent neighborhood and have gotten some great reviews.
As we walked up, we saw their mascot dog who was wearing a logo t-shirt. The dog also had a name tag on the shirt so I am assuming that Lily is her name. She was very docile - not like my animals.
I ordered their famous lobster roll as well as the clam chowder.
There was definitely quite a bit of lobster but the roll itself was not really filling for lunch. With the chowder, which was delicious, it was a yummy lunch.
I finished plying the singles I spun here and ended up with 324 yards of a fingering weight. The fiber consisting of superwash merino, merino and silk (40/40/20) was pretty easy to spin thin to get a consistent yarn.
Here is the plied skein.
I then separated the skein into two equal parts by yardage.
I decided to make another pair of Socks on the Plane and here are the toes with two repeats of the pattern.
I am going to continue knitting until I run out of yarn. That is the great thing about a toe up sock pattern.
I had discussed a Malcolm Fielding supported spindle that I purchase earlier here and loved the spin on the dervish. It is smooth, beautiful and spins forever.
I have been following his group on Ravelry and succumbed to his spindle club. I also coveted another dervish in a lace sheoak and Malcolm was nice enough to package my spindle with the last offering of the spindle club since he had one set left over.
Here is the lace sheoak dervish that I got.
And here is the club offering for October. These are a matched pair of Tibetan spindles, one in baby Pu Yok size and one in purse Tibetan size. The whorls are in that stunning figured Curly Mineritchie, on resin laminated oak shafts.
The club has 4 shipments for the year - one at every quarter. I can't wait to see what the next offering is.
In the latest edition of Knitty - an online knitting magazine, there is a sweater called Less is More. This sweater came about from buying 4 ounces of fiber and spinning it up and not having something to knit it with.
Amy King took 4 different 4 ounces of fiber and spun them up to make this sweater. It is a great idea since I too have purchased 4 ounces of fiber because I fell in love with the color and having no idea what to make with it.
So my new sweater project for 2013 will be to spin and knit up this sweater which may take me the entire year.
I'm going to use 2 4-ounce braids of fiber and spin up singles. Then I'm going to stash dive and find some gray or neutral color fiber in 8 ounces and spin up more singles and ply with the colored fiber.
Here are the colored fibers I'm going to use for this sweater.
The pop of electric green will be awesome.
I decided on my Soar color way project as required by the Texas retreat girls.
I was pressured to buy the Abstract Fiber's Soar color way with the rest of the girls since it was to be a "team" project where we would all spin and knit something for show and share in March.
I split my fiber into 3 bumps and spun singles in equal weights.
My plan is to ply them all together to have a nice 3 ply to knit some socks.
For our last supper club dinner before we go on hiatus again, we met at Bo Beau in Ocean Beach.
Kim is relocating to the East Coast for a time and maybe she will be back again with us. We also had a surprise visit from Andrea who was visiting from the East Coast. It was good to have four of our original members present.
We usually have our December get together at a restaurant instead of cooking as a reward for the rest of the year.
These were the dishes we ordered.
Crispy Brussel Sprouts Appetizer - roasted sprouts are pretty great
Kim and Andrea both had the French Onion Soup Granitee
Kim and Andrea both ordered Flat Breads - Banh Mi (without cilantro) and Braised Short Ribs
Janet had the Boeuf Bourguignon
And I rounded it out with the Leek Fondue Mac N Cheese with Lobster which was super rich and I was only able to eat half. The topping was creme fresh with apples.
We passed on dessert but they brought out mini cupcakes since it is the restaurant's 2 year birthday.
