As the weather warmed up, we decided to bring the heat back to our kitchen with noodles galore – from linguine with clams in white wine sauce, to a big pot of pho bo which we learned to make in Vietnam. Even our friend Leo fired up his backyard grill, and invited us to share his excellent burgers, ribeye steaks, artichokes, corn, and my first taste of s’mores. In return, we cooked up our own Indian buffet dinner, with egg curry, saag paneer, butter chicken, and cumin-flavored cabbage. Toss in the basmati rice, chai tea, and a decadent strawberry Napoleon dessert, and we’ve got ourselves some satisfied house guests. Meanwhile, although recent news remind us that we still live in a mad world, the exciting rumors trickling from E3 has gotten me hyped up with anticipation. Just take a gander at what EW calls the most amazing animated commercial … ever.

We celebrated our 2-year anniversary with a two-person Chinese seafood banquet – steamed striped bass with ginger & scallions, honey-glazed walnut shrimp, deep-fried sweet cream, garlic-sauteed peapod stems – all our favorites. To ensure our place on the high throne of geekdom, we also checked out the new Star Trek movie, which featured an entertaining new cast and jaw-dropping edge-of-seat action sequences. And after 2 months of being away from my wife and video games, we donned our shady hat, ranger battle armor, and our A3-21 plasma rifle, and returned to the world of Fallout 3 to battle the ghouls and super mutants once again. Now, as we enter the third year of our adventures together, we look forward to exploration beyond and going where no one has gone before.

My first shift in the Emergency Room, and people were piling in asking to be ruled out for swine flu – which pretty much includes anyone with a fever and cough. It’s amazing how the media can really affect the direction of healthcare. Fortunately, emergency medicine does offer more variety than my last rotation on cardiology, where I spent the month ordering the same three tests: EKG, stress test, and echo. Speaking of echoes, we’re sad that our new TV addiction, Dollhouse, has come to an end. Featuring the visually-titillating Eliza Dushku, the new Joss Whedon series about programmable people who’ll submit to our every desire, has kept us glued to the screen. Sadly, even our other favorite Fox show has been terminated for the forseeable future. At least we’ll finally have time to actually get some work done.

It was Melody’s turn to join the 30’s club, and since she was working in NYC for the month, I joined her for my golden weekend to celebrate the occasion. Having read a recent Times article about the hidden treasures in Flushing, we brought along my parents and visiting aunt from Germany on an eating tour of this mecca of Northern Chinese cuisine. We started in the basement of the dilapidated Golden Shopping Mall. Sitting on wobbly fold-up stools and eating out of cheap, disposable plastic bowls, we dined on Lanzhou handpulled noodles (oxtail and brisket varieties), Xian-style lamb and pork sandwiches, Fujianese “smooth fish” (fish paste) soup, and fat Shandong boiled dumplings that were so yummy to the tummy, we got some to go. Though already full, I was craving the stinky tofu I had there years ago. So we wandered the streets searching for the pungent aroma, bought some silken tofu fa along the way, but only to find that the street stand I remembered was gone. Lucky for me, locals referred us to Flushing Mall a few blocks away, where the subterranean food court provided not only Taiwanese-style stinky tofu, but also oyster pancakes, green tea ice cream, boba milk tea, and custard-filled pancake balls. The 2.5 hour lunch experience was soul-satisfying and light on the wallet, especially compared to Melody’s upcoming dinner reservations at Momofuku Ko, Per Se, Babbo, and Jean Georges. Since I won’t be able to join her, I can only salivate thinking of her adventures ahead.

After a long month on oncology and being away from Melody, I was glad to see her again when I landed in Ho Chi Minh City to kick off our spring vacation. Since she had already been working there for a month, we spent the evening re-organizing our luggage before our flight to Siem Reap next morning. Our first impression of Cambodia was that it was dirt poor, with the emphasis on “dirt.” After dousing ourselves with sunscreen and mosquito repellant (welcome to malaria country!), we set out on our tuk tuk to explore Angkor Wat. The ancient wonder was incredible, but the humid heat left us exhausted. So we had to enlist the help of a friendly neighborhood elephant to climb Bakheng Hill to view the cloudy sunset. We awoke next morning to watch the cloudy sunrise at Angkor Wat with our private guide before exploring the rest of the area, from the gargantuan stone heads of Bayon to the writhing tree roots that devoured Ta Prohm. By lunchtime, the temples were blending together and we had our fill of amok curry and hu tieu noodles, so we decided to leave for Vietnam a day early. Our first encounter in Hanoi left us miffed, however, when our cabbie’s scammer friend tried to convince us that our hotel was fully booked, and diverted our cab halfway across town to his own hotel before we broke his cover. The next day was spent touring the Old Quarter, where the real highlights were street foods like bun cha, bun bo, and oh-so-delicious banh cuon nong. We ended the evening with an extravagant dinner buffet followed by a fun water puppet show, but not before getting scammed again by another cab driver who took the long route to the show. Seeing that we get what we pay for, we splurged on a 2-day cruise of Halong Bay aboard the classy Emeraude. Our trip included a tour of Surprise Cave, kayaking around the rock formations, and even a free upgrade to the luxury suite. Back in Hanoi, we checked out some more sights like the Hanoi “Hilton” and the Temple of Literature before saying goodbye to Scam-town. Our next stop was my parents’ hometown of Nha Trang, a fishing village now turned into a resort town. Through my uncle’s connection, we got a discount stay at VinPearl, a private island resort, accessible only by cable car or speedboat, that encompasses a theme park, water park, aquarium, private beach, and even its own Buddhist temple. The place was eerily quiet, however, with seemingly more employees than actual customers. We also booked a private boat to Mun Island for some snorkeling action (or in Melody’s case, near-drowning action), and to Tri Nguyen Aquarium for a safer alternative to observe ocean wildlife. When we flew back to Saigon, we decided to take things more slowly. Aside from seeing the gritty exhibits at the War Remnants Museum, we also joined a half-day tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels, where we crawled through parts of the tunnel network, examined booby traps and bomb craters that dot the site, and fired an AK-47 for a dollar a bullet. The rest of the time was spent on gastronomic adventures, including Pho 2000, where Bill Clinton enjoyed a bowl in 2000, and foodie favorite Quan An Ngon, where we munched on banh xeo, banh cuon, banh beo, and steaming bowls of bun rieu and bun bo hue. On our last day, we bought a cornucopia of local fruits like jackfruit, vu sua, rambutan, custard apple, and mangosteens from Ben Thanh Market, and learned how to make a sublime bowl of pho from my mom’s childhood friend. In the end, even Melody’s iron stomach could not withstand the microcosm of Vietnam’s street grubs, necessitating a course of Cipro. Nonetheless, we were still sad when we got back to Boston, knowing we would have to pay more than a dollar for our meals again. Check out our other photos!

My last night on call on oncology, and it’s a black weekend … and daylight savings time is about to begin. It would’ve been nice to have one less hour of call. But of course, we admit patients until 2am anyway, so it’s really just one less hour of sleep. Nevertheless, it’s my last call night before my 2-week vacation, and I feel like nothing can hurt me now. Looking back, my oncology rotation opened my eyes to how horrible, and unpredictable, cancer can be. With Melody away from home, I’ve spent my evenings working furiously on a vacation album from our previous trip (from last year). The need to clean out my fridge before leaving has also led me to some creative concoctions in the kitchen with the few remaining perishables. Fortunately, my busy schedule both at work and at home has helped me drown out events that have unfolded on the home front. All in all, I’m just looking forward to better times ahead.

It’s been 2 weeks since embarking on my exhausting ride through the world of oncology. Whether we were dealing with “liquids” (leukemia) or “solids” (organ tumors), my typical day involved doling out a variety of painkillers from fentanyl patches to IV dilaudid, making me a highly-underpaid yet legitimate drug dealer. The rest of my efforts are spent suppressing nausea and getting patients to move their bowels – an art that all interns have more or less perfected. Even if the Colace/Senna doesn’t get you going, we’ve got lactulose, Fleet enemas, and my favorite: Dulcolax BLAST kit. On a different note, but still related to this entry’s title, we finally finished the epic battle between Solid and Liquid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4. After a 6 month hiatus and forgetting most of the controls, we resumed the final chapter of this exceptional game just before Melody’s overseas rotation. With the help of our camo suit, the Mk.II scout unit, and other spying gadgets, we stealthed our way through the rubbles of war-torn Middle East, the cobblestone streets of Eastern Europe, and even nostalgic Shadow Moses Island from the first MGS circa 1998. The gameplay blended seamlessly with impressive full-motion cinematics, though the nearly 2-hour ending was somewhat exhausting. What better way to spend Valentine’s Day?

As my cold winter month at the Faulkner draws to an end, I decided to treat myself on my last call night with not one but TWO meal tickets at the hospital cafeteria (my only two left). The $11 credit got me two basil & chive chicken entrees, mash potatoes with gravy, string beans, a large cup of clam chowder, an Odwalla Chocolate Protein Monster, and chocolate mousse – a feast with enough calories to put an elephant to sleep. Unfortunately, I was not spared the usual craziness as I ended up sending an obtunded patient from the ED to the ICU, stave off another cross-cover from going to the unit, and section my last admission for suicidal ideation. Of course, it didn’t help that we stayed up late on Friday night to watch the last seven episodes from the first season of Heroes. As we wrapped up our couch potato marathon, we pondered the possibility of having super powers ourselves. Sadly, as NBC has taught us, only incredibly hot, good-looking people are blessed with such gifts. We also finally completed our journey through space, the final frontier. The finale episode to the 7 seasons of Star Trek TNG reminds us that all good things must come to an end.

I passed by a lot of people yesterday asking me what big plans I had for my 30th birthday. I told them that I was just gonna spend a quiet evening at home with my wife and family. Perhaps it’s a sign of my age, or general laziness. Or maybe after working in the hospital for 80 hours a week, I appreciate more the few extra hours I can spend at home. I also find it interesting that some people congratulated me on my birthday. I think it’s the only occasion when I get to be applauded for just eating and breathing. Speaking of food, we did meet with some friends this evening for a celebratory meal at New Jumbo Seafood, where we also celebrated Chinese New Year with some of Melody’s co-workers. When things get you down, it’s amazing what a steaming spoonful of fish maw soup can do for you.

I started off Chinese New Year by discharging all the patients on my service. In intern-talk, this is called “winning the game.” Sadly, it lasted only an hour before I had another new patient to admit. Nevertheless, being back at Faulkner’s medicine service has given me more time to relax. Even better, we’ve had the chance to mooch off the many interview dinners for prospective residency applicants. Our dining experiences varied widely, including Eastern Standard, La Morra, Fugakyu, Tasca, Lineage, and Petit Robert Bistro – all at the expense of our generous department. Last weekend, we even got to dance the night away at the Boston Park Plaza for our annual Winter Ball. These moments certainly offer some reprieve from the harsh, cold winter.