I was not your average kid.  I was eating pad thai before it was trendy.  I ate kimchi for breakfast.  I knew what sriracha sauce was before I knew what ketchup was.  My first word was “pho.”  Basically, I was raised Asian.

My dad introduced us to ethnic cuisine of all types and I’m so grateful that he did.  He is also a phenomenal cook and loves to recreate dishes at home with his own twist.  Recently, he has begun making his own thits.  Bahn mi thits, that is.  A bahn mi thit is a Vietnamese sandwich served on a baguette with pork roll, pate, or tofu and a combination of cilantro, pickled vegetables and jalapeno.

Here’s what he used:
-tofu
-daikon
-pickled daikon
-red, yellow and orange bell pepper
-cilantro
-thai basil
-mint
-shredded carrot
-Thai hot chili mayonnaise
-jalapeno
-cabbage
-sriracha sauce
-white onion

This mayonnaise can be found at Asian grocery stores or you could probably make your own by just mixing regular mayonnaise and sriracha sauce.

Pickled daikon rules!  Except it makes your fridge smell kinda stanky.  No wonder my dad let me take the rest of it home with me.

Below we have regular daikon.  It tastes like a mix between a radish and jicama.

Washing, drying and picking the thai basil, cilantro and mint off the stems was the most time consuming task of bahn mi prep.

So the prep work took a little long and the mayonnaise kind of congealed.  Disregard that in the photos.  It normally looks more ballin.

Smoosh it down like you’re working the t-shirt press on the Jersey Shore.

Try to get the freshest bread possible.  Sometimes day old French bread can crack a tooth.  We didn’t have a baguette so we went with wheat rolls.  Make multiple sandwiches at a time and let them sit in the fridge overnight to mash flavors.  The taste of everything combined is phenomenal.  Just looking at these makes miso hungry.  Try one!

Some weekends you crave Asian food and you’ll ride 4 laps around White Rock just to get it.  That’s precisely what we did last weekend.  Saturday we had a hankering for some Korean Seoul food so we went with my dad to Seoul Garden off of Royal/Stemmons.

Garden of Eatin. AEO!

J Man's first Korean experience! He is super excite.

I’m really embarrassed to say that I ordered the salmon teriyaki.  I panicked and in a moment of weakness I picked the first thing that I could pronounce.  Mega fail.  It would be like going to Mi Cocina and getting a burger.  Luckily, we started off with some yeehaw appetizers:

There was nothing sticky about these pots.

Korean pizza. Could have/should have eaten 12 of these. SO GOOD.

Jason ordered the bulgogi (Korean BBQ beef) and it was ferkin amazing:

Rocky and Bulgogi

My dad ordered squid surprise which was equally as baller:

Korean spaghetti and meatballs

All meals come with Korean sides Luby’s style.  Tofu and kimchi were the only things I recognized:

Yum! What is it?

Yum! What is it?

Hey tofu, I know you!

All together now!

The waitress was awesome and the food was awesome and I highly recommend it for Korean food rookies/fans.

On Sunday we wanted to hit up White Rock for a 40 miler.  However, we knew we couldn’t do it without a bahn mi thit for energy.  So we booked it over to Lee’s Sandwiches in Garland.  One of the best decisions of our lives.  Since we had the custom blinged out bikes with us, we had to go through the drive-thru.

Approaching the sandwich kingdom

omg the anticipation

one of each! no wait #4 and #8 and a smoothie. or one of each!

They have all kinds of sandwiches (check their menu) and all looked tempting but we opted to try the #8 shredded pork, #14 pork roll with pate and #18 cured pork with pate.  The sandwiches are only $2.99!!  And check out these beauties:

Cured pork stocked full of fresh veg. OMNOM.

Pork roll with fresh cilantro, jalapenos, carrots, etc.

Washed down with an iced coffee and a honey chrysanthemum iced tea:

Iced coffee nicely paired with pork roll.

Needed more chrysanthemum flava but refreshing nonetheless.

They threw in a free loaf of French bread too!  Probably because it was a day old but still!

I like things that are free.

And they label their sandwiches!

No, that's Susie's. She had the cha lua pate.

And they have rides out front!

I'm almost 30!

Three sandwiches and two specialty drinks for $14.52.  Not too shabby in my book.  We’ll definitely be back and next time we might have a french bread fencing lesson in the parking lot.

To the lake!  It was windier than Keanu Reeves in a wind storm on Sunday so the ride was more difficult than planned.  However, I did get some free advice!

Seriously, I didn't have to pay a dime.

For the past 15 years two gentlemen dish out free advice to anyone who wants it every Sunday.  We made a stop on our bikes to take advantage of this surprising service and the guy told me to get a life.  I said you ugly anyway.  Totally joking!  They were extremely nice guys and we talked about morals, movies and my career path.  Two police officers and another young rider joined us in our nearly 20 minute discussion.  Roderick, the main advice giver, even loaned us a movie – Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium.  I know what you’re thinking – random dudes giving out free advice, bottled water and DVD’s?  Awkward!  But these guys will listen to anything you have to say and ask you questions in return until you come up with your own conclusion.  They were tricky like that.  So next week I’m opening up a restaurant in a silo!  Free advice = genius.

We managed to squeak out 4.5 laps around the lake for a total of 42 miles.  We also drank nearly 3 gallons of water but kind of forgot to replenish our calorie stock so we cramped up real bad like.  Luckily we packed some pb&j sammies which took care of the problem.  Our 65 mile ride is coming up in a few weeks so we’re trying to get our mileage up and learn when to snack and how much to snack to keep our bodies happy.  I hope they have Vietnamese sandwiches at the rest stops in Wimberley!

Got home at late thirty again tonight but was wound up from staring at a computer all day so late night run it was.  We took the two crazed hyenas on about a 3 miler through a hilly neighborhood.  After a tough level 3 Jillian workout last night my thighs were en fuego going up the hills.  Reminded me of this one time I played with matches.  Anyways, let me tell you what I had to eat today because it was awesome.  I started off MLK Day at work with a banana and some apple cinnamon tea.  When I couldn’t take it no mo, I left the office to go to Central Market to make my own salad for lunch.  Unfortunately, I took the long way around the store and ended up with $40 worth of impulse buys (WTF is wrong with me?  I bought beer chips and I don’t even like beer.  CHIPS MADE WITH BEER.  THAT’S A NO SARA).

I NEEDED these. Or so I thought for a split second.

I Made a Mezza on My Desk.

The Signature Salad bar is $7.50/lb and it is so worth it.  They have just about all the goodies you can think of putting on a salad and I’m not talking about goldfish and jello.  Pictured above you’ll see I went with romaine mix covered with couscous, cucumbers, roasted bell peppers, hummus, tofu, tabbouleh, a dolma, 2 pita pieces, edamame and a side of balsamic vinaigrette for dipping.  It was INCREDIBLE.  Know what was not incredible?  Dinner.  It’s really difficult for me to write this considering Haiti just had an earthquake and there are people with no food, no running water, no clothes and no unlimited texting.  Here I am writing a food blog about to bash the free meal I got for dinner.  For that I apologize, but the show must go on.  For the next few months we have meals catered in due to the fact that we work redonkulous hours during tax season.  Tonight we had meatloaf, corn, green beans, mashed potatoes, rolls and salad.  Here’s my plate:

Yes, those are different colored green beans. Normal.

Coincidentally that is the before and after pic because I couldn’t choke down but one sample bite of each.  Needless to say I had the rest of my salad from lunch for dinner.

How was my weekend?  Hey thanks for asking!  It was pretty ballin.  Friday night we hit up Sushi Masu and Hibatchi for a little hot griddle action.  I had the scallops and my hot date ordered the filet mignon.  Apparently it was reward night because I certainly forgot my wallet.

Sushi Masu? More like Sushi Mushy.

I gots flava. Their miso soup don't.

Bonus salad with ginger sauce. It was aight. Nothing fancy. Like the Cowboys.

Crazy onion choo choo on fire trick! Never seen that one before! I suppose they're gonna retire this one too along with Conan.

Sometimes it’s better if you don’t see how things are cooked in front of you, especially if you are trying to eat healthier.  When I saw the chef adding butter to the scallops and vegetables and dousing everything with salt I kind of lost interest.  I like my scallops cooked simply with lemon and pepper so the buttered method was whack.  Jason thoroughly enjoyed the filet mignon though.  The vegetables were another disappointment because they were cooked too long.  I think the chef was too busy trying to make sure he used all of his ketchup bottle and knife juggling tricks during his “act” that he left the food on too long.  I don’t blame him.  Sometimes I drive to work only to realize I have gone past work and must u-turn.

Saturday morning I woke up feeling like J-Woww and was ready to conquer the day with Sleep, Tan and Clubbing.  Only in Dallas that equates to Running, Costco and Mystery Dinner Theater.  I whipped up an unbelievable bowl of simple oatmeal.

The H is for Hungry, fella?

Instant oats, greek yogurt, dab of maple peanut butter then topped with a small chopped honeycrisp apple.  This was the absolute perfect meal before I set off on a 5.5 mile run with Enzo Monster and Riley Bears.  It was finally warm again on Saturday and the weather was ideal for a nice run.  Also ideal for ring and runs but that’s another story.  After my run we hit up Costco to pick up 2,000 lbs of dog food.  I heart Costco so much.  Guess what I saw a lady carrying out?  A HUGE box of Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches!  It was like I died and went to lactose intolerant heaven!  Between that and the huge jugs of pomegranate juice, what more do you want from your ginormous grocery store?

Saturday night we went out with Jason’s boss and his wife and their friends to a mystery dinner theater party.  I had no idea what it would be like even after looking at the website but it turned out to be pretty fun.  I wish I knew then what I know now (obvi) because I would have asked a lot more people about their relationship history rather than what kind of underwear they had on.  Huh?  Let me explain.  When you first walk in they tell you the mystery has already begun so you grab your “Suspect” nametags and read an instruction sheet full of questions intended for the other party goers.  This event takes place in the Old Mill Inn Restaurant at Fair Park and the meet and greet introduction is done in the saloon downstairs.  It is open bar with a fruit/cheese platter set up as well.  They have actors mixed in with the group and you are supposed to try to find out as much as you can about these people and take notes.  One of the questions on the sheet was “What kind of underwear are you wearing?” so of course that’s all I asked all night.  People were like “Do you have a lot of money?” and I’m like, “Let’s be honest here.  What kind of underwear do you have on?”  After the meet and greet we all go upstairs for the three course din din.  WHICH INCLUDED CHICKEN IN A BISCUIT.  You heard me.  Chicken.  In a ferkin biscuit.  So weird.  Who would have thought?  I’m actually going to start making everything in a biscuit.  Or a pancake.  I mean seriously I would eat more vegetables if they were served inside a pancake.

The winning table. I sat there. Whit cheated off our sheet. He won.

Salmon, wild rice, asparagus, red bell pepper, OMG CHICKEN IN A MFA BISCUIT

Chocolate cream pie or some junk. Luby's?

Fake Stripper Money. Mystery dinner theater is dirtier than you think.

A clue! The shape is important. It's really a circle. Or is it? Remember sheep blood. And cow hats.

The Cop explaining "The Situation." It was more of "An Issue."

The winning couple who couldn't have done it without my astute observations. The only reason we didn't win is because I drew a pterodactyl on the answer sheet.

My nametag. Hello my name is "I'm a Suspect." And I'm wearing foil underwear.

I won’t tell you all the details of the dinner because I can’t ruin it.  This is the internet, people.  This blog could have 5 readers one day and 5 million the next.  When it gets to 5 million do you think we can have a party where we cook sh*t in a biscuit?  But srsly, if you can get a group together try out Keith and Margo’s Murder Mystery Theater.  Because let’s be serious, what else are you going to do in Dallas?  If your name is Ethan you’ll probably go dancing.  GOTEM.

Fast forward to Sunday.  We got fed up with Tony Romo and his spatula hands so we went for a walk through the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve.  I’ve been through some nature preserves before and this was not a nature preserve.  “Watch out for wildlife!”  Oooh ooooh I saw a kid wearing a tiger costume!  Do I win?  Even though the nature preserve was pretty lame, it was absolutely beautiful weather wise.  After running some errands we decided we had a craving for pho so we tried Pho Mac in Plano.  It wasn’t the greatest pho ever but it was cheap and it hit the spot.  We were super fungry so we also ordered a banh mi thit.  I said thit.

Pho Mac JAM PACKED WITH AWESOMENESS

Tofu Pho with bonus basil leaves, sprouts, jalapenos, lime and Sriracha Sauce. So simple, so pleasing to the palate. Amen.

We didn't just order pho because we're phat. Banh mi thit sandwich: pork, cilantro, shredded carrot, cucumber, awesome.

The sandwich was only $3!!  And the pho was $5.99!  The staff at Pho Mac was very friendly and the restaurant was clean and I would return pho sho.

That’s all she wrote kids.  Time to shower and hit the sack.  After I down this acai-blueberry-pomegranate Vitamin Water that I’m obsessed with.  Hollerz!