August 14, 2013
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Otakon 2013
Was one of THE BEST cons I’ve been do. This was my third Otakon and easily the one I’ve had the most fun at. We only did one panel (cosplaying 101), saw none of the voice actors, but I DID get to see Yoko Kanno in concert!!! TMRevolution also had a concert, but the line was CRAZY long and it was out in the sun so we decided to skip it.
I also had probably one of the best meals ever, and it was in a converted townhouse that was dimly lit, kinda dingy, and was served by the cutest Vietnamese family ever. I’ve heard my friend rave and hype this place up for two years and we were finally able to go this year. When they told us it was small, they weren’t kidding. Literally, picture the average size of a townhouse in the city, take the living room, and add maybe 10 small tables in it for diners. That was the dining room. The kitchen was just your average kitchen with a giant restaurant stove shoved in there. When we first walked in, I had a moment of panic. Like oh shit, this place is going to burn to the ground or something. But you know what? it was fucking FANTASTIC. We got beef lemongrass summer rolls to start, and these things were gigantic. HUGE HUGE HUGE. It was crazy, I could have just eaten 320948320498 of those. We also found out that Fancy is one of those people who cannot stand Cilantro, which explains a lot.
So we’re all (there were four of us) digging into our rolls when I look over and Fancy has torn his apart and is just eating the beef out of it. I ask whats wrong and he said it had a weird taste to it that he couldn’t place. Our friend K gets a look on her face and asks if he likes cilantro, to which he replies he has no idea. So she tells him to take a bite of one of the leaves on his plate, and the face he makes is both hilarious and kind of awe-inspiring. So she grabs the waiter and asks if we can take the cilantro off his plate and yeah, sure, no big. But at least now we know why he doesn’t like Mexican food either! But it worked out, I just got to finish off his roll!
I got a country chicken with vermicelli noodles. It was very plain, but fucking delicious. I don’t know what they did to it, but it was more than just breaded/pan friend chicken and noodles. It didn’t SEEM like there was anything else going on, but there had to have been because SO freaking good. It also came with a fish sauce to pour over, and when I first heard fish sauce it kind of scared me, because I was thinking of the really stinky dirty-vagina smelling sort. But this was kinda sweet. And delicious. Omnomnomnom. So good. And for four of us for dinner plus two things of apps it was only like, $45. We left $60some on the table for them because it was just so crazy good. It’s not far from where I live, so I told Fancy we’ll have to go there again.
Also? Yoko Kanno was AMAZING. I’ll admit it, I teared up. She was promoting her Piano Me project, and it was just superb. And she was probably the most adorable person I’ve ever seen. She came out in bunny ears and no shoes. I wanted to take her home. And she kept apologizing for her english, when I’m fairly sure it was probably better than some peoples in the audience. She played Gravity from Wolf’s Rain, which I didn’t even know she DID, so when everybody started to sing real soft, she kept making the most adorable hand motions/facial expressions, trying to get us to sing louder. Just so cute. And she played The Real Folk Blues, which was hilarious because we only really knew the lyric “the real folk blues!” and kinda only half knew the Japanese part, so there was a lot of mumbled singing which she was encouraging. And she played Tank! TWICE! It was fantastic. And amazing. And I’d so pay a shit ton of money to see a full set from her.
Also, there was some fucking ADORABLE kid cosplays. Like this baby Gohan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyMle1jMV0E
There was also a baby!Link which I can’t find a picture of now. And also THIS AWESOME LADY:
I wanted her to be my grandma.
The awesome beef lemongrass rolls:
My country chicken thing:
Fancy and Myself, after dinner, in a delicious food coma:
Comments (4)
My husband hates cilantro too, which is one of the reasons why he doesn’t like Vietnamese food. The only thing he’ll probably eat is pho. Also, for the summer rolls, he dislikes the taste and texture of the rice paper wrapping. He’s probably the pickiest eater I’ve ever met lol.
@JacquieCooks - The rice paper kind of threw me a bit, cause it was sticky and I had issues like, biting into it. But I’m also kind of special, so hahaha.
I love Gravity! Haven’t gotten around to watching Wolf’s Rain, but a friend sent me the sheet music for that song when I was taking a voice class. Otakon sounds like it was a lot of fun.
I love those tiny little restaurants where it’s like you’re eating in somebody’s kitchen! They always have the best food. It took me ages to come around to tolerating cilantro (it just sort of reminds me of crushed bugs…), but now I am more used to it. Rice paper confused me so much the first time I had a summer roll…I didn’t know if I was supposed to eat it or unwrap it!
@just_the_average_jane - Wolf’s Rain is actually really good. I wasn’t expecting much when I started watching it (it came on either before or after another show) but I was pleasantly surprised!
The cilantro thing still amazes me. To me it’s just like, tasteless leaves. Almost like parsley. I probably couldn’t tell you the difference haha.