miami - #sobewff day two

day two:

denise and i went looking for a place to get lunch and on our walk, we came across this cute, quaint street - espanola way.  felt like a italian village.

at night, we went to #sobewff second night, wine spectator's best of the best event.  this was by far, my favorite tasting event for the weekend.  the event was at the fountainebleau, another beautiful hotel in miami.

there were over 75 wineries participating at this event!

this is a yogurt lollipop prepared by the FIU students - this was amazing!  that's a frozen board - he piped down a strawberry yogurt, adds a lollipop stick, adds a dollop of whip cream on top and THEN soaks it in nitrogen really fast to give a quick flash freeze.

amazing AND delicious!

look how gorg!

black truffle.

does she look familiar?  yup, this is anita lo - she was on top chef.

you can see her again in september at our festival!

and of course, we went to go eat after!  tonight, we went to scarpetta, an italian restaurant in the fountainebleau.

hamachi.

mediterranean tako.

ummm, yah, that's a steak tartare under alllllll that shaved black truffle.

burrata.

from top left to right to bottom:  tagliolini (butter & parmigiano AND shaved black truffle - my FAV), spaghetti - simple but delicious, and butternut squash raviolini with veal cheeks.

long island duck.

polenta crusted cheesecake with strawberry gelato.  i've never had polenta crusted before, but it worked well!

pistachio souffle.  eaten together with the cherry gelato was perfection.

this was my fav.  budino di mascarpone with mango sorbet with homemade crisp mango fruit roll-up!

dinner was amazing.  there was an after party at the sls hotel, although denise, roy and jackie didn't want to go with me, i wanted to check it out - so i went solo.  and i left solo.  ;)

mastercard was a sponsor, can you tell??  the after party was cool - they had a cigar bar, a oyster bar, and a photo booth.  if only i had someone to party with....!!

i left shortly after making my round.  miami has lots of interesting people walking around late at night.  reminded me of my life in downtown la, but a bit more crazy!  sophisticated men trying to start a fight with a bum (as if the bum doesn't have enough problems..), people yelling at cars passing by, cab drivers yelling and throwing their hands up, security guards scolding pedistrians...  haha, jeez.  it was quite entertaining walking and watching all this happen!

i was able to fall asleep around 2am that night.  one more day of excitement and learning~

miami - #sobewff day one

here's my day one experience in miami for #sobewff..

i must say, miami is kinda nuts.  different than waikiki nuts.  drivers are ruthless, cab drivers are mean, people on the street are.. interesting, i rarely saw any asians!  haha.  plus, they tack on 16-18% gratuity automatically on your tab, regardless of how many people in your party!  

during the day, denise and i walked around, shopped and ate.

i HAD to stop by the kardashian sister's miami shop.  it wasn't as impressive as i hoped for, the store was empty.  they did have a security guard at the door and their service was nice.

at night, we went to #sobewff opening event beachside of the delano hotel.  

the size of the event is amazing.

the decor at #sobewff was spectacular!  i mean, the amount of people the event had was outrageous!

probably about 3,000 people?

art smith - he used to be oprah's personal chef, he was on top chef.. 

and he will be at our festival in september!

robert irvine and i throwing up the shaka for hawaii~

i know you must think it's weird, but we went out to eat after checking out the event.  :P  we went to michael's genuine food & drink - it was a casual place, with an open kitchen and patio seating.  the food was great and our server was so knowledgeable and entertaining!

deviled eggs - bomb.

hmmm those small oysters were so good! my fav.

denise & roy, it's always fun going out with them. <3

fried pig ears - the first time i had pig ears was in la at the lazy ox.  i haven't had it much since then and this one was so good.

fried hominy - you know, corn nuts!?  those white corn that's in those spicy mexican soups?  add some lime and pop it in your mouth.

desserts by james beard foundation pastry chef nominee, hedy goldsmith.

that beer float back there was amazing~

after i got back to the hotel, i didn't fall asleep till 5:30am!!  but all in all, day one was really fun!  i'm ready for more food!

miami trip

i'm in miami biaaaatch~  

gawd, first off, can i just say...  traveling to miami from hawaii SUCKS.  there's no direct flight, you're traveling to the other side of the united states of america, literally.  and it took a total traveling hours of ten to twelve hours (i lost count).  i left home at 10:45am wednesday.  i got to miami at 6:30am thursday.  i'm in miami for "business" - really.  it is a lot of eating and drinking, but lucky for me, that's my job!  roy is a participating chef for the south beach wine & food festival and i'm here to check out how things are done on a grander scale.  hoping to take some ideas back for our hawaii food & wine festival coming up in september.

this is the first sign i see as i walk out of my terminal to baggage claim - genius.

sunrise in miami.

this is TOTALLY the image i had of miami - palm trees dividing the freeway.

i'm staying at this fancy-pancy hotel.  loews will probably be one of the nicest hotel i'll ever stay in my life.

i got to the hotel waaaaay too early.  obvi, my room wasn't ready, so i tried to nap by the pool.

rough life.

this is my room at loews!  click the link --> aya's fancy room

(and if you're not one vine yet, you don't know what's up.)

that's all i'm going to share for now.  coming up will be my adventure around miami and the south beach wine & food festival (sobewff).

stay tuned.  xoxo.

bubble nails by aya - valentine's day

although i don't care for valentine's day, i must say, i'm pretty excited for this year's.  this is the first valentine's day that i am off in 10 years!!!! yup, TEN. i do feel that valentine's day is a silly, but hey, it's good for business so i'm all for it!

pa'a and i don't have anything planned for the actual day. we enjoyed a very nice dinner on friday night at japengo at the hyatt waikiki and we have dinner plans with friends from oc on wednesday so that's more than enough celebrating.

anyway, lets get to the important stuff!  nails!

here's my special valentine's day nails.  (got the idea from pinterest!)

sexy hot lovely nails

pink:  gelish - pink smoothie

red hearts:  gelish - hot rod red

glitter:  gelish - high voltage

iridescent holograms 

mid-january hawaii weather

**i was suppose to post this in mid-january when i first wrote it, but then i thought my shiitake rice was more interesting.  :P

am i so spoiled that i get to enjoy beautiful mid to high seventy-something degrees weather in mid-january??  although, it's been pretty cold at 5:30am...

should you be jealous that i'm wearing my hot pink bikini, soaking in vitamin-d and working on my tan?

hahaha, yah you should.

this was a sunset image i captured real quick as i was driving home from the gym.

it doesn't get better than this.

i'm lucky to live in paradise~