We had 2 new friends (Fu’s co-workers from Tokyo) that joined us during the week, and one more we picked up just yesterday, so it was a busy weekend going around Austin!

Saturday

Pho Dan

Had Vietnamese food for the first time! We saw this restaurant, googled it and it had high ratings (4 stars on yelp, 4.5 on google plus, etc) so we checked it out.

I had a soursop smoothie and Fu had a durian smoothie. Both were authentic and tasted true to the actual fruits! 5★ for the smoothies!

Fu had no idea what main to order (there were 16 kinds of beef pho!) and asked for recommendations. This was how the conversation went:

Fu: What would you recommend?
Staff: I don’t care.
Us: …

We were literally stunned into silence. 0★ for service and friendliness.

This was my bowl of noodles. This was everything.

Needless to say, I was surprised at how… void of ingredients it was.

The fishballs and shrimps (buried beneath the noodles) were ok, but the crabmeat pieces were a travesty. I finished everything anyway. Because well, there isn’t very much to go with the noodles.

Although the food was quite decent, we won’t be returning. Fortunately, this place didn’t require tipping.

MT Supermarket

This is HEAVEN.

Almost everything I could possibly want, I found here!!!

The size of this Asian supermarket beats even our largest Sheng Shiong or Cold Storage! They had everything from aisles and aisles of instant noodles to an unbelievably large selection of fresh vegetables to even FRESH FISHES!!! It’s madness.

We came here to buy mooncakes because Dave was very intrigued by them after Fu told him about it!

Fu bought Dave his first mooncake ever in his life and chained Dave to the obligation of fondly remembering Fu everytime he sees a mooncake! Lol.

Round Rock Outlet Malls

Ok, this is not Austin. We ventured out to the Round Rock outlet malls for a quick stop at Adidas so that Dave could buy cleats for the soccer game. Fu and Dave are now cleats twins!

Spirit Halloween

We made a quick stop here because we were researching ideas for our Halloween costume. We didn’t find any costume ideas, but the boys had fun scaring themselves witless by the halloween props. Basically, if you pass by these props, a sensor would trigger and either something will jump out, spring out or violently convulse.

Not so sure what was so scary about them. But they looked really happy to be scared.

Michi Ramen

Rounding up the night, we met up with 2 other friends for dinner. RAMEN!!! Omg. My first taste of Japanese food!!! Such a glorious, glorious taste!

We had to wait about 20-30 mins though because it was so packed. But it was totally worth it!

I had miso ramen (my FAVORITE kind!) and Fu had tsukemen (dipping noodles). He didn’t like his because the sauce was too strong-tasting for his delicate palate. On the other hand, I LOVED MY RAMEN. So good! I could even finish the pork because it wasn’t stinky at all!

Sunday

Main event

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Fu’s coworker introduced us to place she frequents with her family, and this place is AWESOME.

Whole-day, all-you-can-play rock-climbing, laser tag, bowling, and more! All for $5 per activity!

Fu only looks good in this photo. He fell right after I took this lol.

But those inclines are tough! My goal is to conquer the incline at the beginner’s side!

Fu really loves rock climbing though, and I suspect we will be seeing more of this place…

We also played Laser Tag! I was looking forward to it the whole week because it’s been aaaages since I played! Partway through the game, I was out of breath as if I’ve been running a marathon and regretted not asking how long each game lasts. Oh man, I guess this body is not what it used to be! (not that it was ever in great condition… LOL)

It was fun, but I think I was the only one who thought so haha.

Airport

After strenuous exercise early in the morning, we headed to Austin-Bergstrom Airport to pick up Fu’s friend and coworker arriving from Tokyo.

Fu actually only has one motive in picking said friend up.

His table tennis racket -_-

This table tennis nut went to bother about 50 different people (person holding our keys -> person to travel to our house to pick up his rackets -> pass to friend coming to Austin) just so he can play with his favorite racket -____-

Table Tennis Club

The moment the racket reached his hands, he bolted for the table tennis club.

All so that he could upgrade the rubber padding.

When I saw his racket, I burst out laughing. It looked so pok, like it was gonna fall apart anytime!

But the coach said it was a good racket and still usable, so we slapped on the expensive $65 rubber sheet.

Btw, I also bought my own racket!!!

Meet ViVi! (the model is “Viscaria” and “ViVi” is also the name of a Japanese fashion magazine heh)

Wah, it’s really quite expensive. $110 for the blade alone!

But the coach says that it can possibly last me the rest of my life! (if I don’t break it first, she says)

I inherited the rubber sheet that Fu recently bought for his temporary racket and another rubber sheet from the coach. The sheets are not the correct size and don’t fit properly on my blade, so I feel a bit bad for my brand new blade. ViVi must be thinking, “What’s this?! How dare you put hand-me-downs on my supermodel body!” Lol.

But eh, they’re free! You already cost a bomb and I have to recoup my losses so don’t complain ok, ViVi.

We played table tennis for a couple of hours before heading for dinner!

Salt Lick BBQ

We heard a lot about this place, so we thought to bring TH there for his first meal in Austin!

We had to drive about 20 mins to this place, and we expected a queue, but there was none!

Now I get the fuss about Franklin’s BBQ. The brisket here is not as tender. But on the upside, it is not half as greasy as Franklin’s.

I also wanted to try the peach cobbler since it was raved about on a food blog.

A FOOD BLOG RAVED ABOUT THIS?

Clearly that person has never eaten decent desserts in her life.

Don’t you hate it when a review is so horribly different from what you expected?

Mental note to self not to use any dessert recipes from her blog.

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All in all a busy weekend for the stomach and muscles!

My arms are aching, but we’re going for Krav Maga later… oh boy.