4×8 Meme

The lovely Bea of La Tartine Gourmande tagged me for this meme:

Four jobs I’ve had in my life:

1. Front counter at the local Chinese takeout place.

My very first "real" job  – taking orders over the phone, bagging orders, working the cash register, and filling hundreds of little individual containers with sweet and sour sauce. The cooks actually made really good "non-takeout" Chinese for us employees, but I can tell you exactly what 90% of the customers ordered: lemon chicken, sweet and sour pork, house special chow mein.

2. Clerk at the local library.

The perfect job for an incorrigible bookworm. The best part of the job, of course, was being able to see all the new releases first, and hiding them away so I could check them out first!

3. Research Assistant at University of Hong Kong

This was only a summer job – the biggest benefit was that my Chinese improved tremendously.  Also I remember being asked, "Why do you want to be a civil engineer?  Women don’t do that." To be fair, I think they thought I wanted to be in the field, working out of the trailer, dealing with construction workers. Guess what? I still do that as part of my job.

4. Structural engineer. 

What pays for my increasingly expensive cookbook and baking equipment habit.  The best part of the job is that my firm is international and thus we get a constant flow of visitors from our other offices around the world.  You never know when you’ll see Jaffa Cakes or Japanese biscuits in the kitchen.

Four movies I could watch over and over:

1. Before Sunrise/Before Sunset

2. Fellowship of the Ring

3. Hero

4. In the Mood for Love

Four places I’ve lived:

1. San Jose, California

2. Berkeley, California

3. Hong Kong

4. New home TBD in the Bay Area – yes I’m a California girl!

Four TV shows I love:

1. Lost

2. Scrubs

3. Battlestar Galactica

4. Sex and the City

Four places I’ve been on vacation:

1. Paris

2. Rome

3. Canada

4. Japan

Four websites I visit daily:

1. Salon

2. NYTimes

3. Television Without Pity

4. Egullet

Four of my favorite foods:

1. Anything from Pierre Hermé’s pâtisserie

2. Miso black cod

3. Dim sum (from Hong Kong, preferably)

4. Either chocolate chip cookies or shortbread – I go back and forth between which is my favorite cookie

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. A beach on a remote tropical island

2. Baking in the kitchen

3. On the couch reading a book

4. Anywhere with my sweetie

Four tags to continue this meme:

Kiki of Kiki’s Midnight Bakery

J.T. of Pastry Life

Nicky of delicious:days

Hanna of Cooking with Chopsticks

*The picture at top is from a dessert class I took at the CCA last year.