Another great yogurt place

Boy, how can I not love this fro-yo fad? I went to another yogurt bar in Palo Alto today called "Culture Yogurt" Not only they are focusing on the healthy aspect of yogurt, they are so eco-friendly. all the cups and utensils are natural, recycled and decomposable (is that a word?) Basically, they can be dumped directly to the compost pile.

I start to become yogurt connoisseur. I would rate this one in the same level as Yo-swirl.

But I love Culture's eco-friendly style more. This yogurt bar is selling $3.99 reusable cup and if you bring back the cup to reuse next time, they will give you 0.20 cents discount. A little steep for a price of the cup but the idea is great!

Cheap & Cheery Eating Out - Indian Buffet

Indian Buffet is the best cheap and cheery eating out. All you can eat curries at fix price. This is the best one I found. Bombay Garden in Fremont.

Yoswirl

Our whole family loves... frozen yogurt. My co-worker introduced me to Yogurt bar last year and I become an addict. I found one yogurt bar in Fremont called Yoswirl and become frequent buyer ever since. Erin thought it is an ice-cream and I am happy to let her enjoy it.

Here how yoswirl works: You pick up the cup and fill with any flavors of fro-yo that you like. They have several varieties like original (tart), lychee, thai tea, strawberry, chocolate, vanilla and etc.

Then you can select toppings from nuts, chocolate chip, yogurt chip, oreo, gram crackers and etc. Then, you move over to select fruit toppings like lychee, coconut, kiwi and etc.

Once, you are done, you weigh the whole cup on scale. My favorite are tart yogurt, lychee and mango. I think this is a great alternative to ice-cream shop like Cold Stone or Baskin Robin.... Much healthier.

I like the paper cup containers as well. I wash them and reuse them as crayon holders.

Alma's vase

Here is another great tip for saving water. I had lunch at my friend's house the other day. (Her name is Alma.) I saw this vase next to her sink and wondering what is it for. (no flower??)

She said when she or her husband can not finish the glass of water, instead of pouring down the drain, they pour into this vase. When it is full, she uses it to water her plant. Nice tip!

I am doing similar thing with my house plant. I pour left over water into my plant. However, I found that sometimes, my house plant can not hold all the water that I am wasting. I am thinking of doing the same thing as Alma. Or may be I should add more house plants?

Garden Vegetables

I can not wait till the weather gets better to start planting vegetable. Last Summer, I had great success with squashs and tomatoes. I hope this year will turn out great too. Here are my two vegetables waiting to be planted; kafir lime and lemon grass. These two are staples in Thai cooking. Nothing beats the freshness and convenience of having fresh herbs and vegetables at hand. I can pick fresh ones out of the ground to the cooking pot!

Good find (2)

Here is the pressed glass I got with pot holders. I use one of them to hold Erin's pony bands.

Good Find - Estate Sales

Want to show these cute stuffs I found at the estate sales. For those who dont know, estate sales is like someone open their house and sell every contents in the house. (This concept does not exist in Thailand-- We dont have a concept of garage sales either) Anyhow, commonly are the old people who either pass away or moving to the nursing home.

I stumbled into this estate sales near my house one weekend. It is a great fun shopping there, I found several antiques and unique stuffs like this one. The seller (actually not the owner but the company the owner hired to manage this) told me that the owner is moving into the retirement home so the money will go to support her expense there. -- Make me feel a little better about this. My first time when I went to estate sales, I was surprise that people just put their personal stuffs on sales. But it is kind of make sense if you are downsizing from big house to just one bedroom in the retirement home.

My last visit, I found these pot holders. I think they are so cute and unique. All of them are hand-made. And the best part, I dont even know how much did it cost since it comes with six pressed crystal - like wine glasses for $3 :) It is truly cheap and cheery! I even subscribed to the seller's newsletter. I think they are very specialized in my area (Fremont) As a matter of fact, I only see them doing this stuff around fremont. If you are interested, you can email him at curtiswdenisar@comcast.net, he will send you a schedule of his next sales)

I think garage sales and estate sales are good for environment and good for everyone's pocket. I hope we have something like this in Thailand

Take Out Containers

I found indefinte use of this stuff. I heard that there is a new SF law that all take out containers have to be either 'reuseable' or bio-degradable. No more foam!

I dont think that law is being issued in Fremont yet as I still see some restaurants use foam containers. Anyhow, i wash all these take out containers that I got and reuse them in so many ways.

In these pictures, I used them to freeze soup when I made a big pot of vegetable soup. One Thai girl I met told me that it freezes pretty well. Another time, I used them to store dry stuff like shredded coconut. I labeled the containers with item and expiration date so I know what it is and when the item will be expired.

Now, when I go to the place that I know I will order take out or (having a left over), I even bring my own containers so they don't have to give me a new one. Restaurants in Bangkok start giving out 5% discount for people who bring their own containers and bags for take out. Why don't we do it here in the US? Will reduce remarkable amount of trash!!