Phan Photography » Personal

WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011

phan photographers — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:44:44 +0000

Press Release:

Los Angeles, CA – January 25, 2011 - WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, is thrilled to announce Phan Photography has been selected to receive the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 for Wedding Photography!

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation.

Phan Photography stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud Phan Photography for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.”

We are happy to announce that Phan Photography is among the very best Wedding Photography within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at http://www.weddingwire.com/biz/phan-photography-los-angeles/8f51979bab26a427.html.

For more information on the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

2010 Christmas Eve

phan photographers — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 01:23:59 +0000

The best part about the holidays is that we get to celebrate it twice – once with my family and a second time with Kenny’s side. Everything is doubled – the fun, the food and the gifts! This year we had so much good food and hardly any leftovers. The two kiddies and a few big kids had a ton of fun ripping open presents. =)

On the menu for the Lam’s this year:

- baked lobster tails in garlic butter sauce
- rib roast w/au jus
- yorkshire pudding
- roasted veggies

Stay tuned for photos from Christmas with the Phans. =)

Baked lobster tails

rib roast

au jus

yorkshire pudding (before)

yorkshire pudding (mid-way)

yorkshire pudding (after!)

roasted veggies

Kyle’s 2nd Christmas

Kareena’s 4th Christmas

Lakers Tickets!

We hope you all had a merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

phan photographers — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 08:22:18 +0000

Wishing you and your family a very happy and safe holiday season! Merry Christmas!

TGIF! – Alex Di Peppe’s Italian Restaurant, Arcadia CA

phan photographers — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 00:37:07 +0000

We love Italian food. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many Italian restaurants in or around our area that we can regularly go to for good pastas or pizzas. The other night we decided to get on Yelp to find one. We noticed a place called Alex Di Peppe’s Italian Restaurant on the top of the list and remember passing by it countless times – but never actually stopped by to try it out. It’s a very small hole-in-the-wall type of restaurant, but they always look really busy and have a lot customers going in and out.

That night, we decided to give it a try and ordered a small “Alex’s Special” pizza. With the Alex’s Special, we get to pick 6 toppings – Pepperoni, Salami, Olives, Pineapples, Mushrooms and Roasted Garlic. We thought it would simply be cloves of roasted garlic, but they actually throw the entire garlic in the pizza. It was SO good. They are very generous with their pizza toppings. Our son Kyle, who just turned 1, was screaming for some pizza and it was really hard to find him a cheesy doughy piece because the entire pie was covered in chunky toppings.

We also ordered their “Pasta Sampler”, that comes with a sampling of their Lasagna with Meat Sauce, and choice of two pastas. We chose the Penne Pasta with Meat Sauce and Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. A lot of Italian restuarants have marinara or meat sauce that’s more on the tangy side – but theirs was just right. I’m generally not a big pizza fan, but I found myself craving for more the next night – especially the roasted garlic. I think we’ve finally found ourselves a good, authentic Italian restaurant to frequent. =)

If you’re in the Arcadia area, this place is definitely worth stopping by.

Alex Di Peppe’s Italian Restaurant
140 Las Tunas Dr
Arcadia, CA 91007
(626) 445-0544

Alex’s Special

Check out those whole roasted garlic in the center of the pizza! YUM.

Pasta Sampler

Kareena wanted a picture with the pizza. =)

Mr. Handsome’s One Year Portraits

phan photographers — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 00:37:25 +0000

I was 33 1/2 weeks pregnant the night my water broke. Kyle arrived 6 1/2 weeks early and weighed only 4lbs. He was so tiny that he didn’t fully fit into preemie sized baby clothing. I still remember the night like it was yesterday – the fear, anticipation, excitement, joy, and the extreme labor pains. All the pain was worth it the moment he arrived healthy and full of life. We are so blessed and thankful that he was as healthy as a full-term baby with no major complications. The first year went by extremely fast and it’s hard to believe how much he’s endured as a preemie.

He’s growing fast, way too fast. He’s sweet, handsome, funny, extremely yappy, wild and drives his big sister nuts. He turns our house upside down. He drives us crazy too, but one smile from this little guy and you’ll forget what a menace he can be. And he’s totally a mama’s boy. He instinctively knows how to work his charm on me. I’m a sucker. =)

Below are a few of our favorites from his mini one year session. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving 2010 – Dinner #2

phan photographers — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 08:38:30 +0000

It’s our second Thanksgiving dinner (with Kenny’s side of the family) and I made a Turkey for the very first time. It’s a recipe from Bobby Flay and it turned out great! I didn’t have to do any brining and it came out really flavorful and moist! Kenny wanted to try to make Sangria, so we took a stab at that too. It was a total hit at the family dinner. :)

Turkey seasoned and ready for the oven. I made some parsley butter for the rub and seasoned the bird with good ol’ pepper and salt. :)

About 1 hour into the roasting time, I took out the bird and brushed lots of garlic butter over it.

And there she is, ready for another 2 hours of roasting. :)

While we waited, we made some Sangria. We threw in a bunch of our favorite fruits…oranges, apples, strawberries and pomegranate seeds.

After a total of 5 hours worth of prepping and cooking time, here’s my very first turkey!! I was really happy with how it turned out!

I garnished the dish with some roasted green beans, brussels sprouts and baby carrots. YUM!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and loved ones. Happy Thanksgiving! Let the holiday shopping begin!! :)

Thanksgiving 2010 – Dinner #1

phan photographers — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 09:20:26 +0000

This Thanksgiving is probably the most exciting one ever. This year, i’m cooking Thanksgiving dinner for both my family and Kenny’s side of the family. I’ll be making a prime rib roast and a turkey for the first time! I thought it’d be fun to photograph my progress along the way. =)

rib-eye bone in roast – marinated with garlic, kosher salt, pepper and Lawry’s seasoning.

Rubbed and ready for the oven!

Roasted at 350 degrees for 2 hours, and voila!

The inside was just perfect – medium rare.

The other dish was roasted cornish hens.

The cornish hens were marinated with emeril’s essence, kosher salt and pepper.

Roasting at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

The skin came out so crispy and the chicken was soo moist!

A brussels sprouts side dish inspired by Bobby Flay!

Creamed corn, so good!

Cooking was tiring, but it was well worth it. Thanksgiving dinner #1 was a success! I haven’t seen Kareena eat so much all by herself . She had 1/2 cornish hen and 2 bowls of creamed corn!!

Wishing you all a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!!! Check back soon for photos from Thanksgiving dinner #2 @ the in-laws.

tgif! The Open Door – Monterey Park, CA

phan photographers — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:17:53 +0000

We have been making more of an effort to go out on mini date nights, happy hour or a quick dinner without the kids. It keeps us sane, especially after a crazy month of the kids being sick, a busy month at work and month full of weddings and photo sessions! We’ve heard about The Open Door through friends and have been wanting to try it out. The restaurant is small, but it was clean, the service was great and the food was super yummy. We loved their menu, which is broken down into small bites (munchies), big bites (appetizers) and bigger bites (full entrees). We like variety in our meal so this place is perfect for us. We ordered a few things from the small and big bites – and although the dishes looked small, it filled us up quick! They also have really good fruity drinks. The best time to go is during their happy hour, which is between 5:30 and 7pm. They have a pretty good happy hour menu that’s almost 50% off the regular priced menu. We can’t remember the last time we went out alone and drank with each other. Or did we ever? We ordered a Lychee Shochu carafe to start. It was SO good. Everything we ordered was really good and tasty – enjoy the photos!

Lychee Shochu
Lychee juice mixed with Shochu aka “asian vodka” – so goood!

Albacore Sashimi with Gochujang Miso

Salmon Sashimi with Garlic Citrus Soy

Fried Shishito Peppers

Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab

Beef Tataki

Braised Beef Short Rib
I just have to add that the meat melts like butter – it was so tender and the sauce was sweet and flavorful!

Go try this place out if you want to sample a bunch of little different dishes with awesome flavors. Aside from these unique dishes they also have a sushi/sashimi menu. :)
Happy Friday!!

TGIF! Hot Pot Hot Pot – Monterey Park, CA

phan photographers — Fri, 14 May 2010 22:50:14 +0000

We love hot pot! We often make it ourselves at home, given that it’s fairly easy to prepare and it requires no cooking skills at all. =) Food prep is very time consuming though. We’re always trying to find a hot pot restaurant that is clean and serves fresh food. It wasn’t until a couple of months ago that we found Hot Pot Hot Pot in Monterey Park through Yelp. It had good reviews so we thought we’d give it a try. After all, what can be worse than wilted veggies, brown looking meat and sauce that gets put back into the jar after it had been served to someone? Yes, we’ve seen it all.

This place was nice, but it’s still your typical chinese restaurant with extra bright florescent lighting. It was clean though, and the food was fresh. Service wasn’t too bad either so we were happy. If you like hot pot, give this place a try – their broth looks bland but it is sooo yummy and flavorful! A word of caution though – if you get the 1/2 and 1/2, order the spicy side with a level 1. Your mouth will be on fire even at level 1 (the lowest).

Another cool thing about this restaurant was that we ordered our plates from a menu sheet and everything was brought out at the same time. They had good portions too. The meat and veggies came in small plates that’s probably good for 2-4 people.

It’s such a great idea to serve the dishes on a cart! We loaded up on veggies. :)

They also serve fresh hand-made noodles.

Our veggies simmering – you have to order the pumpkin. It’s so tender and sweet after it’s boiled in the pot.

Oh boy. This is making me droool. We need to go back for more this weekend. =)

Happy Friday!!

tgif! Newport Seafood (Tan Cang) + Half and Half Teahouse

phan photographers — Fri, 07 May 2010 23:47:20 +0000

We eat out a lot. The other night we ordered take-out from Newport Seafood – their House Special Lobster is SO GOOD.

Milk Green Tea and Mango Green Tea from Half and Half Teahouse – currently our favorite boba teahouse!

That was our 11pm dinner! Lobster and boba. I can’t think of anything else that can top that. :) Happy Friday!!