Houston, Texas: Houston Rockets

I forgot to mention in my previous post so I'm writing about it in this post! Before we left Austin for Texas, we went to ihop ( international house of pancakes) for brunch. I was super excited about it as I have read it numerous times in books and my secondary 1 class was named after it! So it was definitely on the top of my 'to eat' list in America, especially since this country has ihop stores almost everywhere you go.

Oh yeah baby. here at last.

I got so excited I started taking photo of everything at the table! Here's 4 different types of pancake syrup available: old fashioned ( original I guess?), blueberry, peanut butter (??!!) and strawberry.

To me they all tasted the same haha

The menu! Contrary to what I previously believed, ihop is not ALL about pancakes ( unlike Strictly  Pancakes in Singapore). They also serve other all-day meals such as pastas, omelettes and many more which I forgot- because I only had one thing on my mind and that was PANCAKEES!!<3

My brother ordered their signature New York Cheesecake Pancakes.

There were 4 stacked up pancakes in a plate and drizzled with generous amounts of raspberry sauce! We shared everything so I got a pancake. It was good. The pancake itself had little mashed up bits of cheesecake in it and it tasted like cheesecake albeit in a pancake form. I liked that it wasn't too sweet and tangy enough :)

My order- Harvest blueberry whole grain pancakes! ( yeah yeah healthy me) Came with a side of scrambled eggs. I liked the nuttiness of the wholewheat pancakes- this is definitely one for the health freaks.

And my dad ordered a Chicken with waffles to share! There were 4 waffle halves in a set, and 4 chicken tenders- just nice for the four of us! Served with whipped butter on top. It was quite a good combination! Just that the waffles were rather cold and too chewy for my liking.

Pancakes are really filling, and I felt really full and satisfied after my meal! Despite it being a chain store, ihop gave me a good impression :)

So why exactly did we have to pick that particular day to go back to Houston? Well it was the day of an NBA game between the Houston Rockets ( of which the only player I knew was Jeremy Lin) and the Philadelphia Sixers ( of which I didn't know anyone- and still don't), and the male half of my family are basketball fans, my aunt and uncle had previously booked tickets for all of us to watch an actual NBA game and fulfill some people's wishes ;)  Before we went ( which was around dinner time) my aunt kept telling us that we were in for a 'surprise', and told us that we didn't need to bring any water or snacks. ( which was surprising already, as we usually lugged snacks wherever we went). In fact, my uncle and her told us that water was 'not allowed'! Bahahaaha ( On hindsight it was strange that we didn't figure out a thing.. how on earth can water NOT be allowed??) 

Well we knew about the tickets..but what we DIDN'T know was that they had booked an entire SUITE for all of us!!! ( ok we had to share but it was mostly to ourselves) I didn't even know about the existence of suites at basketball games actually ( proves how little I know about them) but apparently only  rich people actually book them usually! My dad was saying how he had always envied the lucky people up there in the suites when he watched basketball matches..well now he was livin' it.We were definitely VERY pleasantly surprised. ( 二姨，if you/your family are reading this thanks so much once again!!! <3 :D)

A buffet table always looks appealing no matter where one is.. especially if you haven't had dinner!

One big conical bucket of buttered popcorn! Perfect for watching a basketball match!

Sofa with some pictures of the Rockets above it..

A TV on top of the buffet table so that you won't miss the match while getting your food!

The actual stadium..Huge. Amazing views from where we were.

The whole room!

And at last..what's in those metal trays??

Chicken fajitas, with onions and red+green peppers!

Stacks of tortillas!

Roasted potatoes with chicken!

Mexican food is sooo good. I totally fell in love with tortillas <3

Pre-match singing of the national anthem!

Beside the buffet table.. A bucket of corn chips with various salsas :)

The match started promptly at 7pm and was exciting from the very start!! To be honest I wasn't looking forward to this basketball match since my impressions of the ones in Singapore weren't very good and I remember being bored out of my wits even before the match was halfway over. Well I should've known better, NBA and those little matches in Singapore are entire leagues/countries/worlds apart. I was entertained throughout the entire match and there was nary a dull moment as we watched the players perform dunks and passes that requires years and years of hardcore training to perfect. Even during the breaktimes, the Rocket's cutely annoying bear mascot strutted around blowing streamers of foul tooth-paste smelling stuff at the audience ( How do I know? He came directly above us and sprayed the stuff right at us!), flinged free T-shirts around using a huge catapult, and even acted as Santa Claus; giving presents to little kids. There were also games that involved the audience such as a hilarious couple build-a-burger game, and the flawless cheerleading. ( Some of those cheerleaders even came to our suite to take pictures with us!!)

Halfway through the game, a dessert cart came over and stopped outside our suite. It was crammed full of every type of dessert one could wish for and we could pick ANYTHING WE WANTED!! How I wish I got a photo ): At least I got a pic of my amazingly HUGE carrot cake on top!^ Which was probably a million calories but who cares when you're watching an NBA game??

My mom and brother got American Cheesecake and my dad got a chocolate cake ( I didn't take a pic)

The match ended without overtime, with the Houston Rockets easily winning the Philadelphia Sixers ( 125-101 i think). The time passed so quickly when I was watching the engaging match! And it was a night full of incredibly pleasant surprises, we couldn't stop gushing about it on the way back. Definitely one of the highlights of this trip, and that's why I thought it deserved a blog post all on its own ;)

Austin, Texas- Food, Nature and a big dog: A picture story

**photos may not be in chronological order**

A day after we reached Houston after leaving Orlando, we were on our way to Austin, the capital of Texas, where my eldest cousin and her husband lived, which was a 2.5 hours drive away.

Here's our breakfast the next morning- Pancakes and waffles using the same batter! Served with ice-cream, noms!

This is Sydney, my cousin's labrador retriever, and probably the most hyper dog I've ever met. When we first entered the house she was so excited she rammed into the back of my thigh ( all 75 pounds of her) and it hurt for minutes after!! She's so freaking adorable though <3

We went to this place for dinner of the first day I think... I have no idea why they would call themselves 'the worst'...Reverse psychology perheaps? :P

This store is a vegetarian's nightmare O:

We got a whole loaf of bread to share amongst our 2 families- still warm!

And a whole lot of meat to eat with it :P Sausage, chicken, moist brisket..

And the sides are so good too! Creamed corn, coleslaw and baked beans with pulled pork.

The food was awesome but we couldn't finish it so we took quite a lot of leftovers home :P 

We went shopping after and bought this gingerbread kit!

In the kid: Readymade gingerbread, assorted candies, a bag of icing sugar for frosting and a lil gingerbread man.

Ready to begin!

We spent like 3 hours++ doing it..but it was fun, and worth it :)

Cousin popped us some corn halfway to eat using her cool popcorn maker and the recently bought blue popcorn! Super cool, I wish I had such cool gadgets at home :'(

Check out our creation! Looks good enough to eat ;)

Random photo of Sydney and I awwww :')

Fast forward: We had lunch at this place! P Terry's Burger Stand

Their lemonade is really good and authentic! :)

Look at the mound of burgers and fries we got

Was a bit sick of meat so I ordered a veggie burger!

The inside of the burger..It was sooo good!<3 I told myself that I needed to replicate this at home...all I know is that there are black beans in the patty though. I didn't miss the meat one bit ;)

Huge amount of freshly made shoestring fries! Since they were so skinny they weren't very filling so we managed to finish em :)

Next we headed over to Cosco ( a wholesale megamart which sells things by the bulk) where I was so amazed by the variety of stuff sold!

We were planning to have an early christmas dinner that night so we bought steak- ribeye, which is the most premium cut and could cost up to US$40 per portion in restaurants. Here we got one steak each amounting to a total of US$99 for 10! O:

Our dishes for that night: I made the one in the middle; sweet potato pecan casserole and the one on the right is green bean casserole made by my cousin.

The table setup- so pretty and christmassy right?? <3 

Our starter soup was a chinese dish of sweet corn with potatoes, cabbage and carrot in a chicken broth. So yummy!

And some honey butter cornbread which tasted amazing with the soup :)

Close up of the side dishes!

And the star of the show: The steak! Broiled to perfection, medium rare and so tender and juicy <3 My cousin can open a steak restaurant!! However a good steak must have its fats but I felt that it was too oily for me ): Steak is not my thing I guess but I do appreciate the deliciousness of this one!

Oh yeah, cousin and I baked some christmas cookies using the new cookie cutters bought from Walmart. They turned out pretty successful! We wanted to frost them too but ran out of time ): 

The next few days were spent walking a lot and seeing the nature in Austin!

Mckinney falls- one of the state parks we went to. Unfortunately due to the dry weather there was not enough water for it to 'fall'...The pic above^ is supposed to be the 'upper falls' part :P

Umm, a little fall maybe?

Love the sky!

Sydney came along! She was soo excited to go out and had quite a fun time splashing about the water.

After our hike we went to a German town whose name I can't remember, and had dinner at an authentic German restaurant, which was supposed to be very popular and people even had to take queue numbers on good days!

Fortunately we went on a weekday so it wasn't crowded at all, in fact it was quite quiet.

Brother ordered a signature dish of pork sausages with sides of green bean, potato salad and served with multigrain bread. His was the first to come and the portion was SCARILY huge. Like even if i were starving I may not be able to finish it kind of huge O:

Dad ordered a mexican salad as pictured above^. Well if I thought my bro's one was scary this was worse! It's much bigger than it looks in the picture and one cannot see any veggies in this 'salad' at all! Smothered with shreds of cheese and oily tortillas- a dieter's worst nightmare haha

This was our appetizer! Deep fried mushrooms served with sour cream- one of their signature dishes. It was gooood as far as fried vegetables go <3

Mom and I thought we were being healthy by ordering the soups, a potato one and a hungarian goulash for me( beef stew, essentially) but the portions were quite big too and rich. I didn't take a photo though..

I could see why this place is so popular! So much rich food at reasonable prices with humongous portions, which American wouldn't like it? ;)

Sunset that day- taken from the car

We also visited Enchanted rock which is this huge looking rock as pictured above^

It was surprisingly easy to climb to the summit, and we took quite a short time. As usual, the beautiful azure blue sky amazed me!!

This looks like autumn in winter

Cute Sydney got her paw 'stuck' in her leash! She wants to be a 3 legged dog haha

On one of the days we had dinner at Panera Bread again-yup, the same eatery we went in Austin!

This time my aunt ordered a Bear's Claw for us to try. It was really sweet and the pastry was nice and flaky :)

We ordered black bean soup with the same tuna sandwich! I totally fell in love with black beans after drinking this <3

On our last night we went for this Christmas trail called the trail of lights.. It was pretty crowded so we didn't manage to see many of the lighted up sculptures.

We did see this HUGE christmas tree though! We even went UNDER it ;)

I had a great time at Austin and I really love my cousin's house!! So many kitchen gadgets and such a huge oven, my dream kitchen <3 We went back to Houston the next day, the 19th in time to catch the Houston Rockets ( NBA show), to fulfill my basketball-loving brother's wildest dreams.. and it was definitely fulfilled and more ;)