Randy "nanonoko" Lew
Blogs @ www.randylew.com but copied here for your viewing pleasure!
Words with Daniel Negreanu?
Words with friends is so much fun on the iPhone! Was looking through some old photos and found this image. This was the VERY first move Daniel made against me in our first game ever…”RAISE”
EPT Madrid – Westin Palace Room Tour
A tour of my room in Madrid, Spain at the Westin Palace hotel! The room was definitely a step up from the tiny rooms in Paris, France!
Hello from San Remo, Italy!
So my body is still adjusting to the jet lag over here in San Remo, Italy but I’m getting a bit more use to it! The city is very sweet and historic. There exists a lot of different elevations where often times you’ll find yourself walking uphill or downhill. I like trying local foods when I get the chance as I feel it lets me absorb the culture much more and overall have a better experience. So I did order some prosciutto and melon! It’s mighty delicious and from what I understand, it’s something you won’t be seeing over in the USA very often.
I did learn a couple of tips that may help you out if you ever visit Italy and one such thing was the extra charge ‘coperto’ when eating at a restaurant. I was always wondering why there was an extra item in a language that I didn’t understand on my tab every time I ate. Well, google is always the answer to unsolved mysteries! Basically, ‘coperto’ is a small charge “1 to 3 euros?” which is like a cover charge. It’s like a charge for giving you a table, bread, and service. You aren’t expected to give additional tips on top of it.
The other thing is that apparently in Italy, Italians only drink bottled water at restaurants. I usually drink bottled water anyways when I’m away from the USA but I didn’t know that it wasn’t much of an option down here so if you’re coming down towards Italy, definitely expect to be paying a few extra euros for water. Hopefully, the little bit of information helps ya if you ever come out to Italy! If not, hope you’re liking the blog!
Exterior look of the Royal Hotel in San Remo, Italy
The opposite side of the exterior look of the Royal Hotel lies the swimming pool overlooking the ocean
Outside of the Casino San Remo before the tournament starts!
Prosciutto with Melon!
Royal Hotel at San Remo, Italy
Salve from San Remo, Italy! Here's the video tour of my room in San Remo, Italy at the Royal Hotel! The internet is a bit slow here but I'll be sure to give you guys updates! So keep coming back if you wanna see some more! I'm playing tomorrow so good luck us!
Randy Lew!
My Messy New Office!
So as of lately, I’ve been catching up on a lot of busy things and I haven’t exactly been the most organized person out there so finding documents that I need tends to take a lot more time than it needs to. But I can say that as messy as it may be, I’m still very happy to be in my new office! This is my current set up which is an upgrade compared to my set up in my apartment (you can see it in 'I AM NANONOKO') where you see myself with an older smaller desk and a very hard chair, etc.
My setup! Try to imagine it without the mess because it looks a LOT better!
To the left of my setup is my PS3, practicing my marvel vs capcom 3 skills!
Sushi Samba!
I love love eating food! You might not think that given my weight but I really do! It’s one of the things, I really look forward to when I leave home. When I went to shoot the PokerStars Big Game about a month ago, for dinner we went to ‘Sushi Samba’ in Las Vegas. I never knew about this place until Randy Dorfman (yes cool name like me!) told me that it was a must go while I was down in Australia for the Aussie Millions. He pretty much said hands down this is the place to go …you must go! Dorfman and I kept on running into each other during the Aussie Millions and was always very friendly! So meanwhile, I was in Vegas, why not try it out!
So Sushi Samba is a fusion type tapas style food using Japanese, Brazilian and Peruvian style. I love tapas style food since you get a bunch of little dishes in which you get to try a huge variety of foods! I must say that some of the dishes were quite interesting to say the least. We had the waitress choose a bunch of stuff for us since the menu was a bit overwhelming so we were definitely in for a surprise!
Mini Yellowtail Tacos! These were soooo delicious!
Tuna Tataki! I love seared tuna…and no that’s not a rock under it!
Berkshire Pork Gyoza! They have kabocha (Japanese Pumpkin) puree under it…like HALLOWEEN!
Salmon Sashimi Samba Style!
This plate had a few different things. On the top left was some sort of steak…wasn’t that impressive. And those yellow looking popcorn things are Peruvian Corn. They are soft on the outside but kind of hard in the core and can be a bit annoying to eat. The top right is Miso Sea Bass skewers which was outrageously delicious but not enough of it to eat! And the big thing on the right was Alaskan King Crab Leg which was very meaty!
For a place named sushi samba, I was a bit disappointed by the sushi she chose for us. On the top was a vegetarian roll which consisted of rice, CHEESE (WHAT!?!), sauce and fried stuff. This wasn’t so impressive. The other sushi below which was pretty decent. It was rice, avocado, bell pepper and I want to say eel inside but it could have been shrimp.
Now this dessert was a SURPRISE! It was a lot of fruit in it which is really nice because I love berries in this fashion. It was accompanied by yuzu (lemon) sorbet but on top of that was ‘POP ROCKS’! I don’t know if you’ve ever had pop rocks but basically it touches your tongue and it feels like your mouth is having a firework show within. Don’t know if I loved the ‘POP ROCKS’ but I love the creativity.
Overall, would I go back? Yep, I was actually reasonably content eating here and now that I’m familiar with the menu, I would be able to pick and choose my items to my palette!
Amazing camera strap finding!
Check out this amazing camera strap finding I've found for my compact camera that I take everywhere with me for my blogging!
The top white strap is the new strap! That I took from my Wii Remote!!!
The bottom black strap is the old strap which is what came with the camera.
As you can see the black strap is very loose! I have to hang on to it very tight otherwise I risk dropping it! That could be very bad if I'm planning on going on more roller coasters!!! THUMBS DOWN !!!
Now, with the new finding, I've switched out the cord for the Wii wrist strap. This one can tighten and lock onto my wrist. Look how tight it's on now!!! THUMBS UP !!!
I'm going to Los Angeles this weekend with my friends so that will be super fun. I'll be taking this camera with me and maybe take some shots while riding some rides at Universal Studios! Until then stay tuned!!!
I AM NANONOKO
I'm super excited to present this video! I want to give a special thanks to PokerStars and Ryan Firpo for creating this masterpiece! Check it out!!!
In the meantime, I'll be answering a bunch of questions related to the video and stuff over in this thread on twoplustwo:2+2 nanonoko short film thread
Pre-Big Game Preparation!
So upon my arrival to Vegas, I decided to shop for some new attire, eat some good food and watch a show! In general, just having a clear mindset going into the Big Game was my plan and overall having a good time. Now that I reflect on that thought a bit, it’s definitely something I recommend for poker! Whether it’s being antsy for a big tournament or coming off of a downswing, anything that relaxes you is always a great thing. For me, I ended up watching a show that I knew I would love! It’s “Le Reve” over at the Wynn and I’ve seen it before a few years ago and I watched it again. Definitely just as good as I remembered!
Room @ the South Point!
Hey everyone!
Got back from Vegas about 4-5 days ago and been getting situated back at home! Definitely going to ramp up the blogging again so look forward to that. Here’s a quick video tour of the room I got over at the South Point Casino during my stay there while I was playing the Pokerstars Big Game! Can’t spoil the results but I’ll be sure to let you know when it airs!
