Ying Yang Oriental Kitchen

My sister was complaining the other day about how I never write on the blog or when I do, it is always boring. I have to say I would agree with her. She has two adorable children to make any boring entry more interesting. However, I have to rely on my creative writing skills and photography (which, might I add, are limited) to even keep my family members interested. Just because of that, I do want to do a short review of the restaurants here in Rexburg just to keep myself satisfied and my sister off my back. This may not be helpful for all the family members out there that actually take time to read this, but hopefully at least on person in Rexburg will read my review and be influenced on whether or not to spend money at a restaurant.

Not to sound like a spoiled little brat, but going to Hong Kong, China, living in Taiwan for over a year, and having nearly authentic Chinese food living in California, I know what Chinese food taste like. But in writing this, I'm going to try to put myself in the shoes of a typical Idahoan and rate this restaurant strictly on how "Chinese" I think it is and not on the authenticity.

In Rexburg, if you crave Chinese food, there are only two places to go that claim they serve Chinese delights. First is Fong's restaurant which I give a 1/10 rating. As my Chinese teacher puts it, Fong serves "yucky sauce on top of rubber meat". Don't even think about going there. It will be the worst $5 spent. Second there is the Ying Yang restaurant which I want to give a full layout on how I would rate each category. (I took the categories from another website, so don't think I thought of them up on my own)

Here are some pictures off the internet so you can have a short eye break from paragraph writing.


Notice that the Chef really is Chinese. It just feels almost real.
And here's the real review:

Food Quality 5/10
We had some sort of pot stickers and sweet and sour chicken. The pot stickers were way too hard and lacked seasoning or any real flavor on the inside. The sweet and sour chicken was edible, but if someone brought that to my house and didn't tell me it was Chinese food, I would have never guessed. There was no sweet or sour flavor to it. Just cut up, unflavored, not juicy chicken with some sort of sauce that kept it moist. I wouldn't consider it Chinese food. Take a look at this picture someone else took.



Price 6/10
The "pot stickers" were $2.50 for 4 and the sweet and sour chicken was 8 bucks and it came with fried rice. The price wasn't horrible, but considering that it is one of the more expensive restaurants in Rexburg and I could have gotten three times as much at Panda Express (and better tasting), the price is just reasonable.

Customer Service 8/10
I was a bit disappointed when I noticed that 4 Chinese looking people worked there, but two were chefs in the back and the other two looked like they were just cleaning people that stayed in the back. They were really nice and my cup was always refilled, but the score could have been a 9/10 if they had slanted eyes or black hair.

Cleanliness 9/10
It was clean. There was even a huge windows so anyone can look into the kitchen and see how it was in the back. No problems.

Atmosphere 6/10
I wasn't in the Chinese mood while I was there, but they did do a few things so that it wouldn't look like a Denny's, but not much. All their tables were squared, and everyone knows that Chinese restaurants have at least two or three large round tables with the glass spinner thing on the top. Again, doesn't scream Chinese.

Overall, I don't think I am ever going to go there again. It might be worth trying once, but honestly, your money will be better spent driving 30 miles to Idaho falls and getting some stuff at Panda Express.

Big Jud's

Just 15 minutes away from Rexburg, there is a burger shop in the middle of Archer where each house is a quarter mile apart and has at least 10 cars in the front yard that don't start. Middle of nowhere, but they have the best burgers I've ever tasted except for the burgers at Super Burger in Santa Rosa (more grease). They're famous for their 1 lbs burger. I was shocked to learn that several people in my Chinese class had never heard of Big Juds before! To Honor Big Jud himself, here's his picture with the 3 pounder burger.



John and I went a couple of days ago and ordered the 1/2 pound burger. We shared it and still could only finish half of the burger. Each burger is perfectly seasoned and juicy. Come visit us and we'll take you there.

Word on the street is that the real Big Jud works at the Big Juds in Ashton.

18 Weeks and Abs of Steel

Here's a baby update. 18 weeks into the pregnancy and this is how I look. I don't even look pregnant, so posting the picture is almost pointless, but some people wanted to see. Ignore the terrified look on my face. I was never a fan of cameras.



Okay, that was me sucking in, which I think is the right way to show how pregnant I really am. My sister disagreed, so here is a picture of the real way I walk around. What some refer to as lack of abdominal exercise or a spare tire, I call water weight, or a baby. You can choose to call it whatever you want.



We find out the sex of the child October 28th. We'll keep you updated.

Utah and a Ridiculously Big House

Conference weekend, John and I went down to Utah. We didn't go to conference, but we did go to my mission reunion Friday night. It was fun to socialize with all my old mission buddies, but it was every more fun to hear from my mission president and his wife.

I don't really want to write much, but I do want to show pictures of my mission president's home. My mission president and his family have mostly lived in Asia as his children have grown up. They even lived in Hong Kong for 18 years! It's about time they lived in the US. Here are pictures of their huge house.

The first two we took after we left because we didn't think enough in advance to take it was the sun was still out, so the pictures are a bit lame.


The back of the house which in daylight looks twice as big as the front.


The front. All the missionaries were in the garage and the driveway because that is where we could all fit to listen to our mission pres. Plus their garage alone is bigger than our DOUBLE WIDE mobile home. (I had to add the double wide. It's a pride issue.)


Their house in the daylight, not taken by me, but stolen from a facebook album.

That's all.

Rexburg Unplugged: Kan Do Kandy Extravaganza!

Last Saturday was Rexburg Unplugged. It has been an annual gathering where bands or wannabe singers come and preform while businesses advertise. It was from 2-6 and we got to sell cotton candy for the first time!

For those of you who don't know, John has started a business called Kan Do Kandy! We sell cotton candy at events and rent out our cotton candy machine! Feel free to check out the website!

kandokandy.com

We started at 2 in the afternoon, but John was still at work, so his old roommate Glenn came to help me out for the first few hours. I think I would have had a panic attack and fainted if he didn't help out. He flirted with all the girls and brought in business. I just stood there and smiled. It was a good combination.

Here are a few pictures!


John and our friend Glenn who helped out a ton while John was at work.


All three of us together at the stand.
For all of you who are wondering, Glenn is 6 feet 6 inches tall.

Yellowstone

Last weekend we went to Yellowstone. We'll just post pictures.

Tetons

Labor day weekend we took a trip up to the Tetons with John's brother Jared and a few of his cousins. Unfortunately John's car broke down and was in the shop that weekend, so we had to fit everything in out little Dodge Neon. Half the trunk was full of firewood, half of the backseat was taken up by food and sleeping bags, and I had a cooler on my lap. Here are some pictures! I won't go through and explain them all. My sister said that my last post was "too long, boring, and lacked personality". I'll just spare everyone the pain.

But I do have to describe what we did. On Saturday, we hiked a 9.2 mile hike up to Surprise lake. John hiked up in front of me because he was going further up to disappointment peak. I was just settling for the lake. John made it up the trail in 2 1/2 hours and it took me just a shade over 5 hours. What I did learn is that I am never going to do another 9.2 mile hike as a pregnant lady. Maybe it would have been fine if I were in shape, but that hike was just bad timing. It was the hardest for me, but I think I would have been fine had I not been with child. Luckily, a couple of nice ladies on the trail offered me some chocolate and dried fruit and said that every pregnant lady needs chocolate. I agreed and took it from her. It was heavenly.


Bear on trail.


View looking down on the trail.


John climbed Disappointment Peak which is a summit that is immediately in front of the Grand Teton but it 2,000 feet lower. It's called Disappointment Peak because it is so close, it looks like one could touch the top of the Grand after summiting. Unfortunately, it's another climb.


This is Surprise Lake and Amphitheater Lake from John's view on Disappointment Peak. That is where I stopped.


John at the top of the peak.


Kalvin, John's cousin, at the top with the Grand Teton in the back.


Surprise Lake.


Antler arch in Jackson, WY


Sunset on Jackson Lake


Story: We got out of the car and started walking towards Jackson Lake when suddenly Jared pulls something out of his pocket and says, "Look, a giant gummy bear." It really was a giant gummy bear. It cost seven bucks, but we all agreed after that that it was a reasonable price to pay for a giant gummy bear.


Top of Signal Summit


Tetons