West Hollywood

West sssssside! Whut whut?! Whassssup?!

....

Oh...it doesn't go that way for West LA? Can't throw the cross-the-middle-finger-over-the-ring-finger-to make a W sign? I guess not.

Melrose Avenue is anything but the ghetto. High end stores, Aston Martins, tall, slim beautiful girls and handsome guys all wearing stunner shades. This is L.A. Welcome to all the scenes I've religiously watched on The Hills and Entourage.

We went to Taste on Melrose (http://www.ilovetaste.com/) where there were beautiful young people all around us. Included in the mix was Shaun White and yes, a hot date. I was star struck. He is a snowboarding icon! I was so star struck I couldn't get myself to snap a photo of him while the camera was still in my hands. What I do have are pictures of my day in West L.A. at Taste and Urth Caffe (where Entourage scenes are frequently filmed).

Urth Caffe on Melrose Ave. (http://www.urthcaffe.com/) They're known for their organic estate grown coffee farms. Coffee was delicious.

30 more days of LA

Thirty more physical days of being in Los Angeles and I have 30 more places to dine at in LA. Can I do it? Can I go to all 30 before I leave LA? I barely have enough friends in LA to go to 3 places, let alone 30. If there's a will, there's a way. As a friend once put it "There's no Will, but there's still a way".

Highlights from 8 oz Burger Bar on Melrose Ave (http://www.8ozburgerbar.com/):

Family in LA

Family.


Nothing beats the bond of family. Ever. No matter how badly I mess up or how long it's been since I've seen my family, they are always there for me. They will always think I am #1, as I them. Family is my blood. My soul. My genetic bond.


When I was younger, I would always see my cousins every year at Chinese New Year events, birthday parties and weddings. We used to have a kiddie table at the weddings where us kids would wreak havoc. We'd break glasses and hide our evidence in the trash. As we got older, we would go to Barona's casino after Chinese New Years (the hustling/gambling thing runs in the family too). Then as we'd gotten even more older, years would lapse before we would see each other again.


Eight years have passed since the cousins, the same group of kids who mixed soy sauce with coca cola at the wedding tables, all saw each other again. This past weekend, we all got together to celebrate my birthday at Lucky Strike at LA Live! in Downtown LA.


Lucky Strike was a club-meets-bowling alley venue that includes a bar, lounge area, DJ, cosmic lighting and bowling. Strict dress codes and club-drink prices apply. It's not meant to be a casual neighborhood bowling alley. In fact, I see it as a typical LA lounge with the convenience of a bowling alley ($75/hr). Prices were steep and expected. And obviously, the company was funtastic.

Silver Lake

I am rich. I am rich, not by money nor by assets, but I am rich with friends. I have always been lucky to be surrounded by wonderful friends from every stage in my life--elementary school, high school, college, graduate school, and now residency--all of whom I value, trust and keep close to my heart.

I've also learned to value my independence, my alone time, my "me" time. The time when I can sit, relax, people watch, and be alone. Today was one of those days. Ironically, I decided to explore a part of town in Los Angeles with a name that speaks of richness--"Silver Lake", except today I was not surrounded my one of my life's riches: my friends.

I was by myself. And I was happy. In Los Angeles. Silver Lake, to be exact.

Los Angeles continues to amaze me with the different types of restaurants, cafes, and innovative dining options.

Intelligentsia (http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/) is a free-trade coffee cafe down Sunset Blvd that offers outdoor and some indoor seating, has free wifi, and serves probably the best coffee I've had. After tasting my latte with a nicely designed foam leaf, I was not surprised by how packed Intelligentsia was at 430pm on a Thursday.

I even watched the barista design the leaf on my latte and it was amazing how he did it.

Across the street was Forage (3823 West Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, CA http://www.foragela.com/ ) which is a market-driven type restaurant that had just opened January 2010 by Jason Kim, a former sous-chef of Lucques. The restaurant is white, plain and simple--characteristics that mirror the food. Ingredients that Jason Kim mixes up are fresh, simple and good. You can either pick 3 sides for $10 or 1 protein and 2 sides for $13.

I ordered the mac'n cheese, Glazed rainbow carrots, asparagus, fennel and chives, and the pork belly sandwich:

The mac'n cheese...let me just say, was the best, let me emphasize, it was the BEST mac'n cheese I have ever had. And I absolutely love mac'n cheese. The richness of the cheese, crunchy crust, and the balance of salty and creamy made it perfect.

Vegetables tasted organic, naturally sweet and was wonderfully tossed in an olive oil dressing.

Lastly was the pork belly sandwich. Amazing. It came as a layer of lean pork belly, followed by tomatoes, and a pickled cabbage salad, sandwiched between toasted baguette. It reminded me of the sandwich I had at Sandwich Story (see previous blog). It's rare that I've had a meal (or 3) at a restaurant where every dish I had was mindblowing.

Today, even though I was not surrounded by one of my riches (my friends), I was welcomed by another gift this Silver Lake city had to offer--delicious food. Today, my "me" day, was the most absolutely wonderful day I've had by myself...and I can't wait to share these new places with my friends.

Breakfast of Champions at Auntie Em's Kitchen

Auntie Em's Kitchen
4616 Eagle Rock Blvd
Los Angeles, CA

http://www.auntieemskitchen.com/

I've heard about Auntie Em's from one of my food-blogging-friend-slash-guru. She swore by the red velvet cupcakes here. Of course, my next step was look them up on Yelp. I found out that they have breakfast and red velvet cupcakes? My two favs! I'm there.

Auntie Em's is located in Eagle Rock (between Pasadena and Downtown LA) and stands out as a red building down a street of neighboring Filipino stores. They're known for serving food made from organic ingredients. It was an absolutely beautiful day in Southern California, it was only natural that we sit outside. The sun captured the boyfriend really well:

And there's excited me:

Auntie Em's had a fair amount of breakfast and lunch options. The boyfriend ordered the open-face steak sandwich, which came with eggs, salsa, gruyere cheese, atop ciabatta bread. And as you can tell from above picture, I ordered the french toast with strawberries and bananas:

The open-faced sandwich was delicious--the strong bold taste of gruyere cheese complimented the simple eggs and steak like yin and yang.

And of course, we couldn't leave Auntie Em's without trying their red velvet cupcake ($3.50):

The cupcake had a slight crumble and was topped with light cream cheese frosting--not too sweet and not too rich.

After trying Auntie Em's, I understand my foodie friend's love for their cupcakes here. I thought they were good, but hands down, the breakfast took the spotlight.

Only 3 months left of sampling LA

I have been cheating. I have been cheating on you, blog. With Yelp. It's been 104 dates with Yelp. Yelp was there for me with friends and people who think I'm useful, funny and cool. And they send me compliments. And with enough reviews, I mean dates, they even slapped a red badge on my page and called me "elite". It was like receiving a gold star next to my name. Yelp made me feel special.

I decided that we (me, you and Yelp) can make this work together. I'll be moving to New York City in July for another year of residency. So that only gives me 3 more months. Three more months to sample LA...one bite at time. And I'm going to make this work.

In 3 months, I'll be sampling the best of Yelp and LA and share my adventures with you, blog. We will make this work.

The Sandwich Story

The Sandwich Story. 12 Harness Ave. Pasadena, CA

Sandwiches are one of my favorite foods...vietnamese sandwiches, meatball sandwiches, tea sandwiches, PBJ sandwiches...if it has something meaty, cheesy or nutty in between two slices of delicious bread, I will love it.

So for this reason, I had to come to The Sandwich Story.

The Sandwich Story is a small (obviously) sandwich shop that is set up to cater the young, backpack-bearing students at Pasadena City College. I forget too, that these PCC folks have a life, since I was the sole person at this joint on a Friday afternoon. Cool with me, I had the whole place to myself. On a Friday. Just me and my sandwich.

The menu included smoothies, shaved ice, the traditional cold and hot sandwiches (turkey, ham, tuna, BLT, club, pastrami, etc), and their "Story Special" which cleverly listed 4 sandwiches in chapters. I had to start with Chapter 1: Toasted pastrami sandwich with coleslaw.

Chapter 1 had page-turning bites of lean cuts of pastrami, juicy coleslaw and toasted bread. The sweet and saltiness of pastrami and coleslaw made for a pleasant mixture of ingredients to taste. They classified this sandwich as "hot" but I could use a bit more heat to the meat.

One regular sandwich was about $5 and was more generous than the average Subway sandwich....even though it's a bit short of a foot long.

I ended Chapter 1 quite happily and can't wait to flip to Chapter 2.