Anyetsang's Little Tibet

I've never tried Tibetan food before, and at one point my hometown had TWO Tibetan restaurants downtown.  But we're not the most adventurous family, so I never ate there.  On this trip home, after picking up Sissy and her boyfriend, we decided to grab lunch at Anyetsang's Little Tibet.  Located on our 4th Street "restaurant row" of sorts, where a bunch of old houses became restaurants, it's definitely not the kind of place you'd find in every city.

Sorry I forgot to take an exterior photo of my own... this one is from a lovely TripAdvisor review!

The menu has a lot of vegetarian and gluten-free options.  There are options labeled Thai, as well as some that resemble Indian cuisine.  Tibet is landlocked by other nations, so that makes a lot of sense to me!  To start, I chose the Temo, which are steamed Tibetan bread rolls served with melted butter.  They tasted like eating dough, if that makes sense.  It was very tasty, hot, and soft.  I think I might have liked them with a little honey or cinnamon sugar too!

Temo

For my main dish, I ordered the Sha Balay, pan-fried dough patties filled with seasoned ground beef and yellow onion.   After the temo, the portions were so big I could only eat half of the delicious patties.  I liked alternating dipping them in the hot sauce and the soy sauce.  To me, they tasted kind of like pot stickers or dumplings.  I took the rest home, as they would be great snacks later!
The service as a bit slow, and I was never brought the rice I requested, but that's okay... I had way too much to eat anyways!

Overall, I'm glad I tried out the food at Little Tibet.  It's funny how I never gave Bloomington credit for its food scene until I left, and I'm only now just working my way through a number of them.  Just one more hometown restaurant I've been able to cross off my wishlist.

Road Trip with the Cats

My cats have never really been great travelers... especially old Cally and Bear.  They cry so much, even on the 5-minute drive to the veterinarian.  So when I decided that I would be taking Bear and Bourbon to my parents' house for the holidays (9 days is a long time for us to have someone watch them!) we knew we needed a different strategy.
Since Bear & Bourbon are buddies, we thought it might be best to put them in a big, comfy carrier together.  The cat carrier we mainly use is quite big for one cat (the Sleepypod) but our second carrier from their kitten days is too small.  We ended up purchasing a Nature's Miracle dog crate (I believe the 26" one) and a super comfy dog bed to place in the bottom.  The crate can collapse flat when we are done with it.

I liked how they could see out of the screens and have plenty of room to move around.  We left the crate out in the living room, and Bourbon took quite a lot of naps in it.  I also spritzed it with a cat-calming spray before the trip.  We loaded both kitties into the carrier and strapped it in with seatbelts.  We were able to carry both cats (under 10 lbs. each) and the crate up and down stairs no issue.

Bear cried for a few miles, but then both of them because SUPER well-behaved.  They lay side-by-side in the crate, moving from time to time, and watched me through the screens.  Lots of kitty naps!  It was the smoothest road trip with cats I've ever taken; the 4.5 hours went fine for them!  When we arrived at my parents', both cats used the litter box within 15 minutes of being let out of the crate, and everything has been smooth since.

The kitties at their grandparents' house

Mom and Dad secretly love their grandcats, I'd say!  LOL.  They're better behaved than their kitten days.  I'm really glad I took the chance and had them ride together for this trip, because I believe separately they would have been more anxious.  They enjoyed exploring a new (and much bigger!) space.
P.S.  One lesson learned, when your normally quiet kitty starts mewing consistently, he has to go potty.  Just saying.  Listen up, fur parents!

Friday Favorites, v.7

HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!  There's been some awesome stuff on the internet this week... here are my favorites in the last week of 2014/first week of 2015.

Korean illustrator Nayoung Wooh transformed Western fairytales into Korean-style illustrations...  BEAUTIFUL!  This Beauty & the Beast is my favorite.

This is the truth about grad school, people!  Just one more year...

When this bride was left at the altar, she had a photo shoot to trash the dress.  Brilliant!

I love Taylor Swift's 1989 album, and this mash-up of Black Space & Style is so good Taylor actually gave her blessing!

+  This (long) article was written in 2011, but I still like its perspective... a sort of history of being single and how men and women (and marriage) continue to change.
+  Great video on why you should only take people's Facebook (and other social media) lives at face value... it's not the whole story!
+  I love looking at tiny houses, and this 280 square foot home is not only small, but luxe and zen!
+  Love these stories of celebrities going out of their way to appreciate their fans... Peyton Manning tracked down a military couple that forgot to give him their contact info, and Taylor Swift personally shopped for gifts for some fans.
+  Flashback Favorite:  January 2012 when I sewed this adorable citrus skirt.
Oh, and this is my MOST FAVORITE THING this week...  Dan and I are engaged!

A photo posted by aubreyland325 (@aubreyland325) on Jan 1, 2015 at 11:18am PST