Next event, Hollywood Bowl coming up, very soon...

May be around end of August, if interested let us know ASAP...

I miss you guys!

Muzeo And Huntington Beach

Saturday morning, we went to the Muzeo Museum in Anaheim. The current exhibition is Monsters & Beasts. If you have a Bank of America card and a valid ID, the admission is Free. Otherwise, the admission fee is $13. The cahsiers in the front desk were so nice to us--they gave us free tickets even though a few of us didn't have a BOA card.



Afterward, we headed to Huntington beach to relax. It was a very clear day at the ocean. Tanning, reading, sleeping, and playing volleyball on the beach, any one is a relaxing way to refresh your soul and body.

Friday night gathering And graduation&birthday celebration

Last Friday night, 8 people met at the Mosch's place, and we had a great time.

Thanks to Shoko who brought "Shoko farms" organic eggs, to Yok who brought juicy watermelon, and to Lynn who brought fried onion beef to share. Also, we prepared Regatoni with Cheddar Marinara and bean paste for dinner.

We held a discussion about a book and video that discuss the requirements for a planet such as earth to sustain life, the complexity involved and how it relates to chance in the universe. In addition, we discussed things like eclipses which seem to add a special relevance to our place in the world. It was a very interesting, thought-provoking discussion and everyone had their own unique conclusion.

After a discussion, we had a celebration for our superstars: Shoko, Lynn, and Claudia. Congratulations to Lynn and Claudia for a recent graduation. Also, I just found out that Shoko's birthday is coming next Wednesday, so we celebrated her birthday as well.



I made a cake for today. I like the words showing on the box, When you bake a cake it's likely a special treat for the special people in your life. You care enough to take the time to bake a cake, and you try to make it the moistest, most delicious cake you can so the people eating it will enjoy it the most, and I agree with that.

Upcoming events in June

Events in June

June 4th: We are going to play badminton in the gym at the church. There were 8 players coming to play badminton last time. Everyone had a fun night. Don't miss out!

It will be from 7:00 to 9:00 PM. The address of the gym is at the Pomona First Baptist Church. Church is located at:586 N. Main St.Pomona, CA 91768 (Drive on Garey, Turn right on Holt, take your first right on N. main St. then take your first right into the church. Drive straight until you reach the gym on your left).

June 5th: We will have Friday night gathering at Darin & Teresa's place at 6:30pm. The location is 2230 Blossom Lane, La Verne, CA 91750. Dinner will be provided, but you are welcome to bring something to share.

June 6th: We will go to Muzeo Museum in Anaheim and will meet at the Darin & Teresa's place at 9:30am. The current exhibition is Monsters & Beasts. Here is web: http://www.muzeo.org/home.php If you are Bank of America card holder and bring a valid ID, the admission is Free, otherwise, admission fee is $13. Afterward, we will head to the Huntington beach having fun on the beach.

June 12th: Friday night gathering, Purpose Driven Life Part I

June 19th: Friday night gathering at the Adidjajas (Margaret Fang is going to talk about how the Chinese characters reveal stories from the bible.)

June 26th: Bowling night (bring money for bowling, shoe rental, and dinner) and eat at a tofu house.

Please invite your friends to join us. We would love to have you with us!

May 22th 2009, Griffth Observatory And Phoenix Food Boutique

Last Friday night, we headed to Griffth Observatory and had a very tasty dinner at Phoenix Food. We met at the Adidjaja's at 6:00 PM and had a quick sandwhich dinner before we left. Thanks for Egid's food preparation.

It was not a long trip and only took us 40 minutes to get there. It's Friday night, and there were more people than I thought would be there. No parking spaces were available, so we parked along the street.

You can see the whole view of LA city from the top of hill. That's so pretty. Below is the photos of Griffth Observatory building.
Each of us was so amazed to such a beautiful observatory building and night view. Before the sky turned dark, we took a quick shot.

Admission to the Observatory building is free, and you can optionally pay $5 to watch a show. Some of the group members went to watch the show.

The rest of us went upstairs and were in a line waiting to seeing Saturn. Yes, it's the real Saturn.

We were lucky that the sky was clear, so the Zeiss telescope is open from the roof.

We stayed there until 10pm which is the time the observatory closes. Afterward, we drove to Phoenix Boutique for dinner. This place was still busy so late at night.

The price for food was very reasonable. For examle, the plain porridge costs $3 and the seafood porridge costs only $5. For some group members, it was their first time to try Chinese food and they had a great time.

Tonight was a great night. We had a lot of fun at the Observatory and had an enjoyable dinner. Yummy!! Burp.

Some more photos from the hiking trip:

"Yummy for my tummy."

Everybody say I love "YOUUUUU"

And the looser is.... the happy group.

"Hey waitta minute, you can't tickle her!"

"Is that a mouse or a lion? Common make up your mind."

"Snack, anyone?"

Quality Control: "Let me see!"

Hiking at the Monrovia Canyon Falls -- May 16, 2009

Sixteen people participated in the hiking last Saturday. The weather was excellent. The hike uphill took three times more time than the downhill trip—since along the way up we took turn in reading some of the nature guides and learnt a little bit of the natural riparian ecosystem along the trail and took a lot of pictures. Jo found not one, but “two” acorns while everybody else found none. Who knew Jo has some serious squirrel instinct. We are so proud to have Jo in our group.

When we arrived at the fall, some of us rock-climbed the wall behind the falls, but some were just busy taking pictures. We played a couple group games and had a lot of laugh, mostly at each other. Watch out for Teresa and Yok! They are some serious super-teaser! After the hiking, we sat down at the picnic area and ate lunch together. What a great, fun way to enjoy a southern California Saturday morning. At 1:30 PM we were all done playing and went home to finish our schoolwork because final week is right at the door. Thanks to Yok, here are some photos from the trip:

Next Friday: Griffith Observatory and Phoenix Food Boutique

I am excited to announce that next Friday, May 22, 2009, we are going on an outing to Griffith Observatory.  Here is the website: http://www.griffithobservatory.org/vshuttle.html

We will meet at the Adidjaja's at 6:00 PM.

After exploring the sky at night, on our way home we are going to eat in Phoenix Food Boutique. This restaurant is famous for having great porridge, desserts, and killer boba. Check out a food critic blog on this restaurant:  http://wanderingchopsticks.blogspot.com/2007/02/phoenix-food-boutique.html

The observatory is free, but bring money for dinner.   

It was so great to have you guys over last Friday. Everyone enjoyed a delicious hot-pot dinner and engaged in an exciting discussion.We would like to invite everyone to hang out with us during this week's events.

1. We will meet at Jakub & Egid's house this Friday at 6:30pm. The location is 2182 N. Mills Ave. Claremont, CA 91711. Dinner will be provided, but you are welcome to bring something to share. Our guest speaker will be Jessica Briggs to speak at our group. Don't miss out.

2. The hiking trip to Monrovia Canyon Falls is scheduled on May 16, 2009, meet at Jakub & Egid's house at 8:30 AM. We will have lunch there, and will go home at around 12:30 PM. The website is: http://www.simpsoncity.com/hiking/monrovia.html Please invite your friends to join us. We would love to have you with us!

ISI Glendora and ISI Claremont picnic at San Dimas Canyon Park

The joint ISI Glendora and ISI Claremont picnic at San Dimas Canyon Park last saturday was attended by approximately 50 people--students and American friends.  We had a volleyball as well as badminton set-up.  The weather was perfect and we played two group games: water balloon toss and loop-throw game. Through this activity, we introduced picnic and barbeque as a part of the American culture to the international students, while fostering friendships with one another.  

Friday night gathering with Jessica Briggs

Jessica Briggs gave a talk in our last Friday’s gathering. We hope she would come back to give other talks in the future or just come for fellowship.  She got everyone’s thinking for while.  It was that good.

The food was amazingly good.  Our main entrée was beef steak and almost everyone had second.  We also had Vietnamese spring rolls with shrimp.  We will make more spring rolls next time. Thanks to Yiling and Yok who helped so much in the food preparation.  [together, forever]

Our deserts were also spectacular.  Despite of Egid's reputation in baking unsucessful cakes, a chiffon pandan cake was actually made, not bad, not bad.  The only sorry part about it is, Darrin was not there to enjoy it. :(  

Betty brought a homemade fruit-pudding pie to-die-for. I am not kidding about the "to-die-for" part.   She was giving her whole afternoon to bake this pie.  Thank you Betty. We love you very much.  Although, Teresa was not able to make it, she sent Taiwanese wedding cookies which are pretty yummy. The price of a box of this type of cookies is approximately $30.  Really? So, on your mark, get set, go, everyone dig in!!   Furthermore, Jessica brought ice-cream and lots of toppings.  So much dessert that we didn't get to open Betty's treat from the Cal-Poly farm store, "The notorious" popcorn.  We promise, (Egid especially), will not eat it before the next gathering on May 1, 2009.  Yeah, it was a super fulfilling evening, not only mentally, but also physically.

In the next gathering on May 1, 2009, we will have Angelis Chevalier, a phenomenal piano teacher from Brazil,  as our guest speaker.  So, mark your calendar you guys!

CHIFFON CAKE (Kue Pandan)

This coming Friday you guys (04/17/2009), Yok and I are going to be busy in our kitchen starting at 5 PM.   Other than making beef steak and other dinner stuff, we are also planning to bake this cake.  Promise, not too sweet and not too oily! Those who are dieting are guaranteed to not gain weight because of this very light cake. If you do, it's probably the steak not this cake. :P

And because we love Darrin so much, there is no milk OR butter in this cake!!  Woohoo... finally Darrin get to eat some dessert.

We even want to make vietnamese spring roll if we have enough time.  So, come and join us! 

Love, 

Egid

=============================================

Jan 10, '08 1:05 PM 

Pasted from:http://chriswillard.multiply.com/recipes/item/1

 Description:

 Some of my Indonesian friends asked me the pandan chiffon cake recipe. As I posted these recipes they can try to make them.

 Ingredients:

 2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup cold water (we can replace with coconut milk)

1/2 cup oil

7 egg yolks

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

4 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel (we can replace with 1/2 teaspoon pandan essence or 1 teaspoon pandan flavored paste with green coloring food).

7 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

 Directions:

Heat oven 325F. In large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add water, oil, egg yolks and vanilla. Beat on low speed until moistened; beat on high speed 5 minutes or until very smooth, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.

Fold in lemon peel. Transfer to another large bowl.

Thoroughly wash mixing bowl and beaters.

In large mixing bowl beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form about 3 minutes. Gradually add egg yolk mixture to egg whites, folding gently to combine. Pour into ungreased 10 inch tube pan.

Bake at 325 ' F for 60 to 75 minutes or until top spring back when lightly touched. Immediately invert cake onto funnel or soft drink bottle (turn it up site down); let hang until completely cool.

To remove cake from pan, run edge of knife around outer edge of pan and tube.

Remove cooled cake from pan. Glaze with lemon glaze if desired. For pandan cake no lemon glazed.

Up-coming activities

We are going to have some activities during the following months.

April 9- We are going to play badminton in the gym at the church.

It will be from 6:30 to 8:00 PM. The address of the gym is at the Pomona First Baptist Church. Church is located at:586 N. Main St.Pomona, CA 91768 (Drive on Garey, Turn right on Holt, take your first right on N. main St. then take your first right into the church. Drive straight until you reach the gym on your left). Here are some photos from last time!




April 12- We invite you to attend Easter service at the Fairplex, Sunday at 10:30am, Gate 17. Free Coffee and Donuts. Special guest, Bryan Clay-World’s greatest athlete.

April 17- We will meet again at Jakub & Egid’s house at 6:30pm. The location is 2182 N. Mills Ave. Claremont, CA 91711. Dinner will be provided, but you are welcome to bring something to share.

April 18 – A cool Saturday afternoon picnic from 11:30am-2:30pm. Location: San Dimas Canyon Park & Nature Center, 1628 Sycamore Canyon Road

May 15-16 - San Diego trip in La Jolla.

August 28-30 - Grand Canyon Trip

Please invite your friends for these activities, We would love to have you with us.

March activities

We are going to have two activities for the remaining days of March.

 

1.      We will meet again at Jakub & Egid’s house on March 20 at 6:30pm. Dinner will be provided, but you are welcome to bring something to share.

 

2.      Come on out for a cool Sunday afternoon picnic, March 22, 2009 at 1:00PM at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park, San Dimas.  Address: 120 Via Verde Park Road, San Dimas, CA 91773

 

Notice: Please bring extra clothes just in case you join in water activities. You are welcome to bring snacks, drinks, fruits, and deserts to share.

 

Here is the park’s website: http://www.sandimas.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=27

 

Please invite your friends for these two events, and kindly let us know ahead of time.

Also, please make a note on your calendar, and more importantly, make yourselves available!  :)

 

Let me know if you need pick-up or carpool; otherwise, I hope see you guys there.

Post Piano Concert - March 2009

This past Friday we were meeting again and got a special treat from Yok who prepared us Thai vegetable dish and spicy apple with lemon juice. Yumm. We played scattergories and boy, what a creative group we are. Not! The game itself was not that fun, but we sure can make it super-fun-ny. The chef for the day (Yok) won and Rachel came out as a runner up.

Looking forward to see you all on Thursday-night badminton at the church’s gym!

Up-coming Activity-Valentine's Day

You are warmly invited to our second gathering of February to celebrate Valentines’ Day, next Friday, February 20th, 2009, at 6:30 AM.