Lauren is a happy hippo.

Lauren is a happy hippo. Why? Because she is neither a harried nor a hungry hippo!

Why she is no longer a harried hippo:

TODAY, I finished the MCAT! For 30 days, I will wait for my score, but there is nothing I can do from this point forward until then. I am free! I felt like a true prisoner, having had my fingerprints scanned countless times, my picture taken, my signature taken, and my ID checked time and time again.

Anyway, it's a relief. I had yummy snacks (almond crunch Kashi bar and dark chocolate), but it still managed to drag on...

That is that; what's done is done!

Why she is no longer a hungry hippo:

I must admit, the anticipation of the MCAT diminished my appetite severely. As you may know, it certainly takes a lot to do that, under any circumstance. But afterwards, I was ravenous. My parents were kind enough to take me to a Mitsuwa market near to the test center where we picked up onigiri... yum. I got onigiri with ume, which is a sort of sour plum paste. It's wrapped in nori (dried seaweed); a very complete snack. They were also kind enough to get me an almond croissant, but instead of almond paste, there was a CREAM SURPRISE!!!!! Sort of like a cream filled donut but instead of fried outside, it's delicious flaky outside. I don't really know though, cream-filling isn't my favorite. But, the outside made up for it.

FURTHERMORE, they also got me Kara's cupcakes for consumption.... and they're sitting in front of me now. But, I'll get to that later.

Drove up from San Jose to San Francisco, to meet up with the bro-sky to have dinner. He took us to one of his favorite restaurants, called Pagolac on the corner of Ellis and Larkin. It's Vietnamese in a district called the TenderKnob (Tenderloin + Knob Hill). We started out with Imperial rolls, which are sort of like deep fried spring rolls with a meat filling (beef and pork I think?), and you can dip it in their vinegary sauce. One of their specialties is called 7 courses of beef. And that's what we had. 7. courses. of. beef. It was.... PHENOMENAL. The first course is a beef carpaccio, thinly sliced beef (slightly seared), that had peanuts, raw onion and fresh mint on top. The combination was incredible. If I remember correctly, it was in a sort of sauce that was also vinegary and light. It progressed to a make-it-yourself party. They gave us a hot bowl of water (or broth?) over a flame, plates of thinly sliced raw beef, a stack of rice wrappers, and a side of the typical veggies they give you at a Vietnamese restaurant: thai basil, mint, bean sprouts, lettuce (plus marinated carrots). Shabu-shabu style, we put the beef in the hot liquid and quickly assembled the rest of the wrap: dipped the wrapper in warm water to soften it, packed the middle with whatever veggies we wanted, fished out the cooked beef, rolled it, dipped it in vinegary sauce, add some spices, and nommed. Repeat 6 times. Then, we also do the same thing with grilled beef; the pot of hot liquid was replaced with a hot metal grill coated with buttttttttter to the max. That was awesome. So, if you add it up, that's only 3 courses. Then came the next 3. All at once. Beef on skewers, beef wrapped in pepper leaves, beef wrapping grilled onions... intensity. So good. Finally came a delicious, soothing soup: chicken broth, with little bits of meat and broken fried rice in the soup.... porridge-style. =7.

So, you think that's it? Oh. No. Tim knows the chef, apparently, so he brought us out some fried bananas with coconut ice cream. Which, as I raved about yesterday at our dinner at Red Lantern but did not eat, is a phenomenal dessert. It manages to make bananas savory but it's a wonderful pairing with ice cream. In this case, it was yum. Just take my word for it.

Pair that all with glasses of wine and tea, and you get...

Waddled back, by car, and here I am, sitting on the sofa, beached whale style, while the rest of the family is out for a walk. What healthy behavior.

Oh, and I have the 2 cupcakes sitting in front of me. Tempting... Chocolate, and lemon...?

Tomorrow, the plan is to walk/run around the neighborhood, down to the Marina... I've been waking up at about 8:30 am naturally, so we'll see if I can mobilize that early.

Then, we'll head to the Ferry Building (FAVORITE PLACE OF LIFE) to buy ingredients for dinner. Tim and I will be cooking dinner tomorrow night... I'll be sure to update how THAT goes (Wonderfully no doubt). Mom wants to do "touristy" things, like ride the trolleys and see redwoods and go to Union Square. On vera. In any case, will keep updating.

I have pictures, but will have to figure out where to host them. Once I do, will post.

Je dis à tout le monde de San Francisco, Bonne nuit et à plus tard!

P.S. COME WITH ME TO THIS:

TREASURE ISLAND FESTIVAL: OCT 17-18

PASSION PIT, MGMT, GIRLTALK, MSTRKRFT!!!!!

AND

THE FLAMING LIPS, THE DECEMBERISTS, BEIRUT!!!!!!!