Me and my sisters in San Diego. I'm wearing the Angry Birds shirt that my sister (white shirt) made for me!

I had a fantastic time with my family last weekend. They made a pit stop over in LA before they headed off to Hawaii to visit me. We headed to San Diego to enjoy the scenery and of course, the food.

Before I rave about my favorite seafood place in San Diego, I have to give props to this awesome Italian restaurant. We stopped by Filippi’s Pizza Grotto for lunch.  When you first step into the place, you won’t have a clue that there’s a restaurant in there.  There’s a grocery store in the front of the store, perfect place to buy Italian-made produce.  This place is usually packed and has a line out the door.  Once you make it past the grocery store you’ll see the host and then the restaurant in the back.  It was my family’s first visit and my second visit with my boyfriend.  I love it there.  Not only is the atmosphere remind you of love and family, the prices are also quite reasonable for the large portions they serve.

Filippi’s Pizza Grotto ceiling

We ordered linguini with clams, pepperoni pizza, sausage and mushroom pizza, cheese ravioli and chicken parmigiana. O.M.G. YUM!! Of course I tried everyone’s dish and have no complaints. I ordered the ravioli and chicken parmigiana.  It was amazing.  The chicken is just right, not too dry and loved the bread-crusted goodness.  Ravioli was excellent, tasted so fresh.  For those of you who are pizza fanatics, before you order extra-cheese with it…know that this restaurant does NOT skimp on cheese at all.  I’m a cheese lover and even I thought their regular pizza was way cheesier than any other I’ve tried.  If you’re a huge fan of cheese, then you’ve come to the perfect place.

Shrimp plate from El Pescador

Now onto my seafood spot! El Pescador in La Jolla.  If you love fresh seafood, GO!!! My mom found this place a few years ago and has brought my family back consistently.  We would eat here for lunch and dinner everyday of the week if we could. This little shop was opened by a surfer who started off selling fresh fish that he caught with his friend.  It eventually became a little restaurant as well.  When I say “little”, I mean little.  It’s a real tiny spot so people are usually waiting to grab a table.  The place seats about 12-14 people.  Definitely no more than 2o. There’s also a bench right outside their store where I usually see a lot of people eating. EVERYTHING they serve is FRESH.  Did I mention they also sell fresh seafood? We ordered calamari, shrimp plate, swordfish plate, clam chowder, sushi plate, Alaskan halibut plate and a seabass sandwich.  Amazing.

Calamari Steak from El Pescador

The calamari surprised me since I was expecting the fried calamari rings. But instead it was a calamari steak, which was my first time trying it and it was excellent. Definitely a healthier option to the fried calamari rings.  My absolute favorite was the shrimp plate.  I recommend ordering a side of avocados to your plates or sandwiches.  Nature’s butter! Next time I stop by, I must try their ahi tuna and dungeness crab sandwich.  For all my seafood fanatics, you will not regret this.  If you’re in or around San Diego, I urge you to try it. After your first bite, you’ll understand my deep appreciation for this little seafood shop.  Oh PS….to the ladies (and fabulous gay men), the guys that work here are pretty cute too. Nice little eye candy in addition to the great food

Check out the thumbnails below to enlarge the pics. Click on the enlarged picture to close it after you’re done.

So anywho! I stayed up till 4am making the red velvet cake balls. Then I woke up at 8am to finish the coating process. Then I surprised my family at their hotel with the cake pops. And they LOVED it!! Even my dad thought it was so cute! And he is, by far, the farthest thing from a sweet tooth.  I was THRILLED with the success of it!  If you have a sudden urge to make these cake pops for your family and friends…DO IT!

As a side note, the batter generally calls for 2.5 cups of sugar. Since the cake is to be coated with the sweet white coating, I lessened the sugar in the batter to 2 cups.

Red Velvet Batter

3½ cups non self-rising flour
¾ cup unsalted, softened butter – 1.5 sticks of butter
2  cups sugar (If you don’t have a major sweet tooth, use 1¾ or 1½ cups)
3 large eggs room temperature
1 oz red food coloring
5 tbsp unsweetened cocoa (I used chocolate syrup) *The less cocoa you use, the brighter the red will be
1½ tsp vanilla extract
1½ tsp salt
1½ cups buttermilk
1½ tsp cider vinegar (I didn’t use this)
1½ tsp baking soda
2 cake baking trays

Frosting 
12 ounces cold cream cheese
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter – firm but not cold
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Transforming Into Pops
Food processor
2 packages of white candy melts (I bought Wilton’s Premium White Candy Melts from Michaels)
Chocolate Melting Pot (I bought Wilton’s Chocolate Pro Electric Melting Pot from Michaels)
60 Lollipop Sticks (I bought a package of Wilton’s 4in Lollipop Sticks, 150 Count from Michaels)
Wooden spoon to stir the chocolate so that it doesn’t clump together
Metal spoon
Multi-colored star sprinkles
Paper towel
Cookie baking tray
Wax paper

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Batter

Set aside the flour and salt in a bowl.

In a separate large bowl, mix the sugar and butter until smooth and creamy using an electric mixer.  Add the eggs and beat well until thoroughly mixed.  Add vanilla, chocolate syrup, red food coloring and buttermilk. Beat well.

Add the flour and salt in four equal parts. Each time you add the flour and salt mixture, make sure you do not over beat the batter, but mix it just enough so that there is no dry flour showing.

In a separate bowl, mix the baking soda and vinegar. Add the soda and vinegar mix to the batter and mix well till it’s smooth.

Evenly pour the batter into the two separate cake pans.

Put it in the oven and bake for about 40-45 minutes.  Double check that the cake is cooked by inserting a wooden toothpick in the center of the cake. If it comes out gooey, you need to bake it a little more.  If it comes out clean with a few crumbs here and there, you’re all set!

Let the cakes cool completely for about two hours.

Frosting

While the cake is in the oven, prepare the frosting. Use an electric mixer and mix the cream cheese, butter and salt together for about 2.5 minutes. Add the powdered sugar in sections so it doesn’t over clump.  Don’t over beat, your frosting should be thick.

Transform Into Pops!

After you’ve taken your cake out of the oven and it’s completely cooled off, set aside your food processor. Take the cake and break it into chunks and put them into the food processor (not all at once). It took me a few rounds to go through two cakes.  Make sure the processor grinds it down to crumbs and set the crumbs aside in large bowls.  After you’ve finished crumbling all the cakes, separate them evenly into two large bowls. Evenly mix the frosting into both bowls and mix it well till all the cake crumbles are incorporated with the frosting.

Set aside your cookie baking tray and place wax paper over it. Grab some of the cake batter and roll it into a compact ball between the palm of your hands. Place the ball on the wax paper. Repeat until you are done with all your cake mixture. It should make between 50-60 cake balls. Place the cookie tray with the cake balls in the refrigerator to chill for several hours. I left mine in the fridge over night.  Or you can place it in the freezer for about 2-3 hours to speed up the process.

After the cake balls are chilled, set them aside and you’re ready to transform them into adorable little cupcake lollipops!

You can watch my video below or click here to watch my coating section!

Set aside a paper towel on your counter. Pour a nice amount of star sprinkles on it.

Plug in your chocolate melter (or melt the coating by using the double boiler method) and switch the button to “melt”. Toss in about 6 white melts pieces to get it going. Take your wooden spoon and start stirring it around so the melts do not clump together. You want a smooth consistency. After they’re melted, add 8 more pieces. You can chop up the pieces before hand if you’d like, some people say it makes the pieces melt faster. I personally didn’t notice a difference. Stir until smooth. Repeat this step till it’s at the halfway point of your little pot.  Ideally, it’s much more convenient for you to have the coating high enough so that you can dip the entire cake pop into it. I was impatient and couldn’t wait to start coating so I just melted enough pieces to cover the top half of my cake pops. Once the melting is completed, switch the button to “warm”.

Grab a cake ball from your tray and roll it around once to fix any uneven angles. Do not roll it around too many times because the heat from your palms will make your cake pops start falling apart and it won’t hold up well at all in the hot dipping.  Carefully push a lollipop stick in the center of the ball and make sure the ball is compact and firm so it doesn’t fall off.  If you melt enough pieces of the coating to the halfway point of your chocolate melter, grab on to the lollipop stick with the cake pop on it and dunk it in the melted coating.  Then take it back out and let any excess coating drip off. Twirl it a few times till it stops dropping.

If you’re impatient like me and melted only enough pieces to dip the top of your cake ball, then take your cake pop (already attached to the lollipop stick) and dip it in the melter to coat it as much as you can. I then finished it off by taking a metal spoon and scooping a nice chunk of the coating and covered the bottom half of the cake pops. Make sure you quickly coat the rest of the cake pops while carefully spinning the stick so that it goes on evenly. You want to make sure there’s still time for you to put sprinkles before the coating cools off and hardens.

Now that you’re done coating your entire cake pop, take your cake pop and hold it over the paper towel with the stars.  Take a dash full of stars and start sprinkling the top half of your cake pop.  Set your cake pop aside to dry, I stuck mine in styrofoam.  Repeat this process for all your cake pops and you’re all set!

Watch my video to see how I made my cake pop coating!

Enjoy and have fun!

“Do you know that Asian drink with the ball in it?” he asked.  ”Oh yeah, bubble tea. The pearl looking things that are clumped together at the bottom of a drink?” I answered.  ”No, no, it’s just one ball that’s stuck at the top of the bottle. It’s not edible and it’s like a marble,” he said.

“Um….what the HELL are you talking about?”  I doubted him wondering what this non-Asian boyfriend knew that I, a full-Asian, did not.

He brought me over to the drink section and immediately pointed to an oddly shaped glass bottle with Japanese characters on the label.  ”See? This is the one!” He points to the English words that read Ramune Carbonated Drink.

“Yeah…well, where’s the ball?”

“You’ll see!”

Fast forward to the parking lot. We just sit down in his car and we start peeling off the top of our bottles.  I throw my top away and see a blue shiny thing stuck at the top of my bottle. “Well, what do we do now?” I ask. I look over and find my boyfriend pushing the blue shiny thing down with a white plastic stick. I hear a sudden pop and clunk, and there it is…the ball.  My doubt turns into quite the excitement as I see the ball rolling back and forth every time my boyfriend moves his bottle.  He takes a look over at my bottle and sees I already threw out my white plastic stick and chuckles while he helps me push the ball stopper down.  I’m suddenly an excited 5 year old receiving a long awaited gift.  I sway it back and forth for 20 minutes, tickled to hear the ball clink the bottle each time.

“See, I told you so,” my boyfriend grinned.

A clip from Colbie Caillet's music video for 'Brighter Than The Sun'

Before I begin my birthday re-cap, I’d like to state that I’m currently addicted to Colbie Caillat’s new song, “Brighter than the sun”. I’m jamming to it as I write this post and proudly bopping my head side to side.  Just checked out her music video for it as well and it is beautiful. I love, love, love the lighting and cinematography. I’m a sucker for simple, clean shots with loads of natural sunlight. It captures life’s simple pleasures, beautifully. Absolutely refreshing; the video, beats, lyrics, everything! ‘Oh, we could be the stars, falling from the sky. Shining how we want, brighter than the sun’  LOVE it! If you have no idea what I’m talking, please do yourself a favor and check it out.

Now back to the original topic of this post, my birthday! It was this past Monday, August 8th.  I always dreaded birthdays that landed on the weekdays, especially the infamous mundane Mondays.  Surprisingly though, I wasn’t bummed about it this time around.  As the saying goes, the older you get the wiser you become. Hell yes to that!  But I would like to add appreciative to this long-standing quote.  I grew up with an amazing famiy who showered me with affection and love.  They worked their asses off to support the family and raised us with their best intentions.  So needless to say I was a very happy camper during my birthdays; whether it be travelling around Europe, Asia and the Mediterranean, or ride hopping in Disney World, or preparing for my third birthday celebration three days after my birthday.

My Buddhist Temple

After I moved to Los Angeles and away from the familiar protection and bubble, I started appreciating simple things in life even more than I used to.  It’s not at all about the glitz and glamour, the coolest party, or the most expensive gifts. It’s always been about the heart and effort, whether it be handmade gifts, thoughtful cards or touching messages on facebook.  Similar to the Colbie Caillat video I referenced earlier, the simple things really do count.  To be honest, a few months before my birthday I had extravagant day dreams of an elaborately planned out party, inviting every single person I knew and partying it out to 50 cent’s ‘It’s ya birthday’ in the club. Luckily I got lazy with the party planning as I ended up having a crazy hectic week of auditions and callbacks.  I didn’t even have time for a birthday dinner with close friends, though I did spend some time at my temple reflecting on all my blessings.

It was a blessing.  Or me just wanting to see the glass half full.  Either way, the lack of birthday extravaganzas really made me appreciate the love around me and focus on my haves rather than have-nots.  I received the most thoughtful gifts from my family, my boyfriend, best friend, girl friends and touching birthday wishes from friends and supporters.  It was AWESOME.  It’s not to say that I would never have an over-the-top birthday party, I think it’s something that hopefully everyone can experience at least once in their lifetime. But it’s definitely not necessary. Birthdays should be a celebration of all the people and love and good you have in your life. A day you take time to observe who you’ve become as a person, a child, a parent, a friend, etc.

Collage of some of my birthday gifts from my family, boyfriend and best friend

Check out the quick collage I put together below of the gifts my family, boyfriend and best friend gave me.  My younger sisters Lelina and Melora made the cutest tops for me.  Lelina hand-decorated a black tank top with adorable drawings. Melora made a T-shirt with Angry Bird characters, my slight obsession, in addition to hand-decorated flip flops, etching, and drawings.  My parents bought me an adorable apron and cook books that I can’t wait to draw inspiration from and a lovely card. My Grandpa sent me the cutest card from Malaysia. My aunts Leeann and Kelly sent me DELICIOUS gift baskets and Omaha Steaks packages.  My little cousin sent me a super sweet message. My boyfriend bought us tickets to Disneyland! I’m not so surprised since I’ve been wanting to go for awhile and he’s always great at taking mental notes of what I want and don’t want as well as what I like and don’t like.  He researched the first original Disneyland ticket ever made and put a lot of effort in drawing the ticket, it was too cute. My boyfriend also made me a handmade card, drawing a cartoon man with extremely long arms to show how much he loves me. He’s a self-proclaimed disaster at art, but I loved his effort and found it sweet. My best friend bought gifts that represented several of our hilarious inside jokes and I couldn’t stop laughing. His card also made me cry happy tears.  My girlfriends sent me the most fabulous card from New York and it arrived right on time! And I was flooded with loads of birthday love from friends and supporters on facebook and twitter.  I’m still on a birthday high overwhelmed with all the love!  ‘Twas a very Happy Birthday, indeed. xo