Welcome to another edition of mmm-yoyo!!!, the food blog with variants on the acquisition of said foodstuffs. Kirk is very busy with work this week and Ed (from Yuma) is very busy with retirement (in Yuma). Cathy is writing today.
Last Monday, January 2, was the official New Year holiday and the Tournament of Roses held its annual parade and Bowl Game. The following morning, The Mister and I drove North to see the parade floats lined up end to end, at the Showcase of Floats. 
The Banner float, which was first in the 96 unit parade entries (floats, bands, equestrian units), reflected the theme of this year, "Echoes of Success". Of the 44 floats in the parade, five are not judged (this is one of those) and 24 of the remaining floats are trophy winners. I'll just show you some details from some of the floats. Walking along to view takes at least two hours and that's if you aren't paying attention to the details that went into the meticulous decorations. You can see the work and thought that went into the design and execution of each float.
Cal Poly Universities entry, 'A New Leaf' featured three chameleons, with that yellow one changing color via an elaborate system of dowels. (YouTube video, 1:45 in length). 
The California Milk Advisory Board, with its entry "Legacy of Generations" provided a surreal view of a good variety of California Dairy products and emphasized the generations of California dairy families who helped to make California the most successful dairy state in the nation (The 'raisins' are covered with real raisins and the 'cereal flakes' are dried apple skin).
Ragu sponsored this "Simmered in Tradition" float, which was meticulously detailed in its design. 
Dole Packaged Foods, "Spirit of Hawaii" won the Sweepstakes Trophy for the most beautiful entry in parade with outstanding floral presentation and design (The inside of the robe is lined with dried banana chips). 
The float that The Mister and I helped to decorate in early December was finally revealed and left in this position to display at the Showcase. The meaning of 'We Came, We saw, We Covered' was finally revealed during the parade. We were happy to be a part of the Farmers Insurance entry.
So much detail went into the decoration of every float. I will add some thumbnails to the end of this post and you can enjoy a few more photos, but now…it's time for the food portion of this blog post.
We had parked near the North entrance for the Showcase of Floats (there are three entrances) and walked, so on the way back to our car, we again stopped at the House of Cookies/Arsen Bakery, where we were recognized and warmly greeted.
Such a small area holds a great deal of delicious treats. 
This box was $4. Everything was so fresh, crispy, creamy and flavored wonderfully. A great, local, family run bakery. Arsen Bakery House of Cookies 2451 East Washington Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91104 (626)794-4280
A block away,
we'd been seeing this signage (and outside lantern decor) for years, but never were here when Egg Roll Express was open. We had finally the chance to dine here!
Simple decor, a pitcher of hot tea and weekday lunch specials! 
Each lunch special comes with a choice of either hot and sour or egg flower soup. This was a wonderful, fresh, chicken based, creamy and very eggy egg drop served in a quite large bowl. I wanted more.
The serving plate of the special(#30-fish filet with Szechuan sauce)($7.29)was so cute! The food was even better. The spicy fish and vegetables were so fresh and flavorful. 
The egg roll? Well, it was fried right (not greasy and nicely crispy) and filled with fresh and bright flavored vegetables. Quite good.
Since this was our first visit to a new Chinese restaurant, our standard , Egg Foo Young (with chicken) was ordered ($8.99). Wow! Every restaurant makes EFY their own way and The Mister and I liked this version. Filled with bean sprouts, onion and eggy goodness, the pancake was crispy even under the (not salty) gravy, chicken and fresh vegetables.
Egg Roll Express 2397 E. Washington Blvd Pasadena, Ca 91104 (626)791-2398 open daily 11a.m.-9:30 p.m. Website
We walked over 6,000 steps that day- starting off the year with a good habit. Soo and Maggie were here too, each wrote their own post! Here are some thumbnails of a few more floats. Here and Here is a link to 2017 float road testing, This is a link to one of the 'dry decorating days'.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful photos of the Rose Parade floats. It was exciting seeing the floats on TV, especially the ones we saw in the summer during the float road test (City of Hope, Kiwanis and and early version of the Farmer’s Insurance float (I love that commercial!). So much rich detail, hard work, and planning goes into this. I was hoping that the Sikh float would have dancers like last year though! But still, all of the floats were spectacular in their own way.
It’s fun being able to enjoy this American tradition, cc. The theme for 2018 will be announced this week, along with the next President of the Tournament (I’ve heard it ‘celebrates the power of kindness’). I thought the Sikh float was again magnificent and guess they wanted to change up the presentation. (I added a photo of City of Hope and Kiwanis to the thumbnails).
Your float turned out great! Thanks for documenting details about the floats over the years. Inspired me to see them in person this year. 🙂
That bakery looks good! We went to Porto’s after the checking out the floats.
I want the divided plate from your fish special! Now I’ll have to look for that plate at the Asian grocery/restaurant supply stores. The Farmer’s Insurance float was so impressive on tv; I can see why they didn’t want people to take photos during the assembly process.
Thanks, Soo- I am so glad you could see the final result of almost a year of planning and work in person! The House of Cookies is a great place (just up the street from the entrance you used) although tiny; I think if four people walked in at the same time, it would be too crowded inside. Porto’s! Great place.
I completely understand, Sandy- isn’t it just useful and pretty? The ‘surprise’ of the float was just another well executed engineering feat. There was a real motor home that is lent to homeowners in a disaster right next to the float- it was a bit smaller than the float and had an attached BBQ grill as well as very nice amenities.