Date: Green Panda Cafe, x2

A few weeks ago we went to Green Panda Cafe for our date night. Here's El-ahrairah's description: "We split a beef noodle soup, wontons, and a mango lychee boba smoothie. For probably everyone reading this, boba are little tapioca balls they put in the bottom of your smoothie. Then they give you a really wide straw and you can chew them (or blow them at each other). I think they're fun, but [Owlet] thought they were weird."

I never seem to remember to take pictures of our awesome meals until we're already halfway through them. I kind of think that's the way life is supposed to be, anyway. I guess you can trust that these dishes are really delicious since we couldn't even spare a few moments before digging in!

Yeah, I did think they were weird, but hooray for cultural experience! We actually went there again for another date a week or two later.

Again, El's description: "We went on a lunch date to Green Panda and got yummy beef noodles; a combo plate with Mongolian chicken, two wontons, and a spring roll; and a coconut peach boba smoothie." Yep, that pretty much sums it up! Soooo good.

I really wanted to go back and get more of a taste for those boba things. I think it's definitely an acquired thing. I didn't hate them as much this time! I loved all the food we had at Green Panda. I really don't know what is my favorite except maybe the the potstickers (which El calls wontons [which I don't understand]) because they remind me of my childhood. But seriously everything we have had there has been so flavorful and hot and amazing and authentic, too. I think we'll be frequent eaters there this year!

-Owlet

Visit from Mom- and Dad-ahrairah! And sibs! And friends!

Last week we were honored to host El's parents and littlest sister in our home! They came to drop of El's younger brother and other younger sister at BYU for the school year. We also went and had a picnic at Bridal Veil falls!

On Thursday we went to the Food Truck Roundup! I was so excited -- this has been on my bucket list for a while. Basically, a bunch of food trucks offering various cuisines all gather at a certain spot in Provo every Thursday evening. I'm a fan of trying new and interesting foods, especially ones from other cultures, so I was all over this.

I thought there would be like 5-6 trucks there, but there were more like 10-15! We definitely spent way more time trying to choose which food to get than we did eating the food. I knew I didn't want any of the "American"-styled food, like the Mad Mac macaroni & cheese truck or the Mouse Trap grilled cheese truck or the Corn Dog Commander; I was torn between the European pitas and the tacos/tamales.

So. Many. Trucks. Kind of hard to see here, but yeah.

We ended up splitting a pork tamale and a couple beef (asada) tacos from Tacos Nayarit, with some Japanese sweet pork buns from Genki to finish it off. The tacos were my favorite -- highly recommended.

Not pictured: sweet pork buns. They were delicious! And yeah, everything was overpriced. We don't do this every week, you know. Great cultural experience, though!

On Saturday we met my good friend from high school and her boyfriend in a park in Orem. They came down to Utah to buy a puppy!

Puppy! He's a 10-week old Saint Bernard, currently nameless. As you can see below, he refused to look at me whenever I was trying to take a picture.

On Sunday we had El's BYU-siblings (my brother- and sister-in-law, I guess! and also my brother-in-law's girlfriend) over for dinner. El-ahrairah made Honey Sriracha Chicken, and I made some apple crisp.

Honey Sriracha Chicken! Spicy, sweet, amazing. The apple crisp I made took way too long. The recipe is here, if you want it, and it was delicious, but I'm going to look for something simpler next time.

Looking forward to more family dinners/visits in the future!

-Owlet

Date: Bowling

Last month we went bowling for one of our dates!

It was a bit of a long week for me, so I was super excited to have this time to reconnect with El-ahrairah and make a fool out of myself bowling. I used to hate bowling because everyone watches you and, well, I'm not exactly a pro, but I'm over it now and I think it's fun!

Before we bowled, we had some delicious food at the Wall. You know, for being kind of a trying-really-hard-to-be-cool-but-not-quite-pulling-it-off kind of little place on campus, the Wall actually has some great burgers and fries. I especially like their Hawaiian burger!

Then, after driving back home to get some socks for me because I forgot and was wearing sandals, we headed over to the Game Center for the bowling!

Even though my wrist injury has been flaring up again, it was still pretty cool. I had to switch to my left hand eventually because my right wrist hurt too much ... the sad thing is, you can't even tell based on my scores at what point I switched. Ah, well.

Oh, um, I was Lover. And El-ahrairah was Redbeard.

El-ahrairah did awesome though! He was trying to break 100 points ...

At least 39 is my favorite number, so it's kind of cool I ended up with that ... right?

And he did! I'm so proud of him. He says that's a new personal best.

I'll try not to hate him for being so good at everything.

-Owlet