Proudest Culinary Moment?

What culinary achievement has made you the most proud? Was it dinner guests singing your praises as you carried your beautiful Thanksgiving turkey to the table? Or was it when you finally baked the most perfect chocolate chip cookies in the world? You know the kind, crispy around the edges and soft and chewy in the center, oozing with warm melted chocolate.
My proudest moment was when my dad told me my fish sauce tasted just like his. Yep that's right - fish sauce. It defined my culinary achievement.

My dad makes the best fish sauce in the world. Every Vietnamese family has their own way of making it, but from all the ones I've tasted, none can compare. Talking about it now makes my mouth water. It's the perfect combination of spicy, sweet, sour, and salty and I've been eating it all my life. I remember at family parties, my aunt or sister-in-law would try making the sauce. But i could never eat it, or at least never enjoy it, and I'd always have to ask my dad to make me some of his so I could get through the meal.
As a snotty little kid, I refused to eat anyone else's fish sauce. All the other sauces were too sweet or not lemony enough. And I would actually tell them to their face that it "wasn't as good as daddy's". Looking back, I know I was being incredibly rude. But hey! Kids can be honest and get away with it!
One day a few years back, I was helping my dad cook for another family party. I was washing salad when my dad said to me" "Pho (my nickname) make the nuoc mam(fish sauce)." I looked at him and I said "Me? I don't know how to do it! I only like it when you make it!"
"I'll show you how to make it. It's easy." He replied. Easy? The sauce that elevated every dish onto a higher plane?
And he showed me. And it was actually pretty easy.
My brothers couldn't taste the difference. They said it was just like my dad's=) And since then, I've been making the sauce for the parties=)
I might share the recipe sometime, but not right now. Its sort of a family secret=)

To Buy or Not to Buy? Benefit's "That Gal" Face Primer

So I'm looking at my makeup collection and I'm wondering, how did I accumulate so much stuff? I just buy and buy and most of the stuff I have I don't even use! I mean, on days when I try - i manage to put a lot of stuff on my face. But on a regular day, I just need eyeliner and chapstick. So I'm starting a series of posts entitled To Buy or Not to Buy in order to help evaluate my newest craving. I hope that by blogging about something, I'll be able to determine if I really need/want it or if Its just a temporary lust.
The first object of my desire is Benefit's That Gal Brightening Face Primer.

I'm always looking for face products that give me that healthy youthful glow that seems to come from within, and this product seems to promise just that! The product's description claims to "Prime your skin to pretty - go from dull to darling with "That Gal"! It's a "silky pink primer that makes skin appear smoother and brighter"
Reading the description made me want to buy it already! The problem is, its $24 and I'm a little broke right now. *Sighs* I reaalllly want it though, despite the fact that I already own 3 perfectly good primers. I did some research on it to see what other people thought. The comments on Sephora's website were generally positive. People claimed it made their complexion even out and brighten. But others said that it did nothing whatsoever. I think I'm gonna have to go and try it out myself! I'll blog again to tell you what I think!

A New Beginning?

I think I want to change the direction that this blog is going. I'm still going to blog about food and makeup, but I think I'm gonna include my own bits of randomness every now and again, just to keep things interesting=)