CA: Los Angeles and Joshua Tree
1/23/06: The drive from Cambria to Los Angeles was quick. After dropping off our things we had a late dinner at
Swingers with Nancy and Darian. It's a popular late-night diner that sure
sounded good to our hungry stomachs - french fries always hit the spot - but unfortunately the food was terrible! Portions were huge, sodas huge, service good, nice booths, many vegetarian options, but bad food! The fries were overcooked and although edible, not satisfying nor crisp nor delicious. Our grilled cheeses were filled with waxy strange cheese and somehow dry. D, however, seemed to enjoy his large dish of fries coated in chili, cheese and other stuff i can't recall. Maybe we just ordered the wrong stuff but i think fries is something a place must get right.
1/24/06: Nancy, be and i started the day at
Real Food Daily, aka LA's premier organic vegan restaurant. We shared an order of the lentil walnut pate, which was very tasty and much better than the version at
Angelica Kitchen in New York. To drink, be and Nancy had "juice cosmopolitans" made with chilled tea and triple berry juice: surprisingly refreshing and good, while i had an espresso. It didn't automatically arrive with sugar but upon requesting, i was presented with a sort of brownish crystalline sugar i'd never seen: good but it took a lot to get it sweet enough. For the main course be had the Cesar wrap, N had the Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes plate while i had the taco plate. Everything was extremely tasty and filling with good sized portions. My tacos came with a generous serving of rice and beans which were really yummy, while N's plate was humongous! And as you know, i don't like wraps but be's was really good. I'd definitely go to RFD again.
Next we met Arjuna at the Apple Store at the
Grove Mall. We walked around the "farmers' market" which was really more of an outdoor county-fairish gourmet set of food stalls, where we had a smoothie and got the East Coaster-turned SoCAL opinion of things. He took us to the 8th floor parking lot where we got an incredible view of LA; nothing is really tall so you're able to see quite far. For the rest of the day we did some random things, like: driving up to the Hollywood Hills to
Morrissey's house on Sweetzer and feeling like stalkers, going to the LA
Amoeba for even more CDs, and another
Trader Joe's for more supplies.
For dinner we took JR's advice and went to
Hide Sushi on Sawtelle, which was only a few blocks from N's house. When we got there it was already packed. You have to add your name to a list and wait for seats to open up but for a table for 3, it was only about 15 minutes. The three of us ordered A LOT of food: shrimp and vegetable tempura, the nigiri combo, Catalina maki, inari, ume-shisho maki, yasai maki, beef teriyaki, eel roll and tuna sashimi. The fish was very fresh and everything was so good and tasty! I loved the busy, friendly atmosphere inside which reminded me a bit of Go! on St. Mark's in the East Village - when someone started joking with Nancy we assumed it was her friend, when she really had no idea who it was! Overall, we had a lot of fun at Hide and would definitely go back. N says she's so happy there's a great sushi place so close to her house!
After accidental naps, we ended the night at the
Velvet Margarita cantina. I was told that the food was good but we were so stuffed from earlier! It was fun meeting some of N's friends at this red-walled, striking place.
1/25/06: Up early, we got some coffee and headed east on I-10 towards
Joshua Tree National Park. I won't deny that be and i are both huge
U2 fans (especially albums pre-1988) but it
is true we always visit some national parks and landmarks when possible. Unfortunately, we didn't have time for
Death Valley this trip but Joshua Tree is only a few hours away from LA.
We stopped in the strange Floridian-like city of Palm Springs for lunch. Neither of us knew anything about Palm Springs but we sure saw a lot of retired folks and the color pink. There seemed to be numerous food options but we stuck with Mexican, which hadn't failed us in CA yet. We sat outside on the patio at
Las Casuelas. For starters, the two fresh salsas and tortilla chips were tasty. Unfortunately, be's fish tacos were "not so good" and my spinach & cheese enchiladas we "eh." The food reminded me of American-style Mexican food: too cheesy, too oily, too much tomato, cooked down into mush - stuff like we used to eat at Chi Chi's in the mall.
Finally at the park, we checked out the visitors' center, walked around the oasis, drove around the main loop, used 4-wheel drive on the Geology Tour, stopped at a lookout (where one can see into Mexico on a clear day!) and pulled over at a stop to wait for the sun to set. A quick dinner of hummus sandwiches and an hour later we're craning our necks up for stargazing. It was incredible seeing so many stars but honestly, the night sky in Cambria was better. There it was pitch black while at Joshua Tree, you see a 360 degree glow from the other side of the mountains all around you.
be did the drive back and since it was our last night in LA, we ended up also driving down Sunset Drive, to Morrissey's house again (where we saw some lights on!), through Rodeo Drive and then ended up at
Norm's Restaurant, a 24/7 diner in SoCAL. The grilled cheese and fries were much better at Norm's, plus our waitress was hilarious! I liked the way our food came with an automatic bottle of hot sauce, too.
1/26/06: Our last day on the West Coast meant we had to pack it in! Our first stop was the
La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum which was very interesting although a bit dated. We liked the dire wolf skulls display and it was fun seeing just how thick tar was. be bought some sort of "popcorn rock" that he's currently soaking in a bowl of vinegar to make crystals form.
Next, be needed a good fish taco to cancel out the bad Palm Springs one, so we found La Playa Siete Mars, a Mexican seafood/taco stand off Sunset. I had a large horchata while be filled up on 2 fish tacos. He thought they were "very hot" and although good, not as good as his first ones in Cambria at Medusa's. He preferred the fish grilled over battered and fried. I ended up getting an order of pad Thai from
Ocha Classic a few blocks away. The serving was huge, filling up an entire styrofoam container! It was super flavorful and the noodles were cooked just right, not too soft. I liked how my take-out came with a small container of chiles in vinegar and hot sauce. be had the Thai iced tea which really hit the spot.
We then did some touristy things: Venice Beach (where we tried some kettle corn), the Walk of Fame and Grauman's "Chinese Theater" where be found his handprint twin, Johnny Depp. A quick stop to get our bags, say goodbye to N and her sister and off to the airport...
Except first a huge dinner at
Atlacatl Salvadorean restaurant on N. Berendo, which N's friend's friend recommended to us. be was trying to see if Salvadorean food on the West Coast was really that much better than on the East, and the food did not disappoint at Atlacatl. I was one of two non-Salvadoreans in the entire place full of families and couples. We gorged ourselves on giant pupusas (be had queso while i had queso con loroco, a sort of vegetable in little bits), two deep fried tamales de elote with crema and black beans (we both agreed that pan fried is preferable to deep fried, although it's still good), another horchata and be had atole - this thick milky corn drink. I LOVED the fact that the curtido (vinegared shredded cabbage and other vegetables with chiles) came in a giant plastic jug so you could eat as much as you wanted; i ate about half the jug! Very filling and good.
Taking the red eye back to New York, we arrived in time for the morning rush crush but it was sure great to be home. In sum:
Number of Trader Joe's visited: 3
The best Amoeba Music location: San Francisco
Surprise favorite town: Cambria
Times we drove by Morrissey's house: 2
Number of blood oranges consumed: 26
CA: Rt 1
1/22/06: Up at a surprising 8am, we left the Bay headed south on the beautiful and famed US Route 1 - right after a quick stop at
Trader Joe's in Berkeley,
Berkeley Bowl Marketplace for 22 more blood oranges and
Peet's for 2 more lbs of Lost Toraja. I suppose we didn't need to stop at Trader Joe's and Peets again but we certainly needed the blood oranges. They were so amazingly good: dark blood red insides, sweet and tangy intense flavor, wonderful peel aromatics ... it was obvious be and i had never eaten a real blood orange until CA, even though the ones from
the box last year were good.
(I really wanted to stop in Soquel to eat at
Theo's but the timing unfortunately didn't work out; they're closed Sun and Mon. Nicci Tripp is the only chef in Santa Cruz who
makes his own cheese, and is perhaps the only one in the entire Bay area! Check out this
review on Tana's site, who pointed me out to Theo's. It's definitely going to be a stop the next time we're out in CA.)
We lunched in the town of Monterey where we found a small placed called
Ocean Sushi Deli. I ordered some inari (fried tofu pockets filled with sushi rice) and the vegetable roll while be had the sushi regular. We were grumpy from waking up so early and a bit freaked out by how quiet it was in Monterey, so i guess you could say we didn't know what to expect from a tiny sushi place with no one in it, but it was awesome! The rice was great and salted differently than we were used to, but the main thing according to be is how fresh the raw fish was. Granted, it made sense being that we were in a fishing town, but from what looked like a local neighborhood place and not a fancy Japanese restaurant, the fish was top notch. be gobbled up his sushi regular and ordered 2 more rolls to go!
I had done the white-knuckled Rt 1 drive a few years ago so this time be did the best part along Big Sur. The views are breathtaking but the drive is nerve-wracking, with mountains on one side and cliffs on the other, a weak metal guard rail protecting you from falling to your death. The turns are really slow and winding at many points. As a passenger you're able to enjoy all this stuff while the driver is concentrating so intently on death-prevention. We made it to Cambria just as the sun was setting; it's not a drive one can do in the dark!
We stayed at the
Blue Dolphin Inn on Moonstone Beach which included a whirlpool tub and light-switch-on gas fireplace! Cambria seemed pretty deserted and lonely on a Sunday winter night but we found a pizza place open on Main Street, which was filling but only okay. Afterwards, we pulled over on the side of the road a few miles from town to do some star gazing in absolute pitch blackness - it was so dark we couldn't see the car inches away from us! The stars were incredible but we only spent a few minutes doing this since we heard a lot of rustling and crunching nearby, which prompted us to hurry into the safety of the car!
1/23/06: The hotel breakfast included a strange waffle machine. Paper cups of pre-mixed waffle batter were available for one to pour into the waffle iron, which beeped and prompted you to flip the contraption over. In 3 minutes you could open the machine to pluck out your hot crispy waffle. It was cool but unfortunately the waffle wasn't as delicious as it smelled.
We found a stretch of Moonstone Beach that was filled with semi-precious stones instead of sand or regular rocks! Later that morning, we drove about 11 miles north of Cambria to San Simeon and saw hundreds and hundreds of
elephant seals and their new babies! It was crazy amazing to see SO MANY of them all over this one stretch of beach. Winter is a great time to see them along certain parts of the CA coast since they stop there to give birth. We took the main tour of
Hearst Castle and watched the introductory movie as well; once i learned how ambitious and incredible the project was i could appreciate it much more. Did you know it was designed by
Julia Morgan, one of the only two certified female architects at the turn of the century?
Back in Cambria, we had lunch at
Medusa's Taqueria, where be had his first and best fish taco ever. It was so good that he still pines over it to this day! The fish was grilled instead of fried and it came with a great thin cilantro sesame lime sauce. I had a big vegetarian burrito which was yums: non-doughy tortilla, flavorful and perfect beans and rice, tasty fresh salsa and crunchy homemade tortilla chips. Again we were the only ones in the entire place and the food was amazing. I suppose winter really is down time for tourism along the coast. For the rest of the day we drove down to LA; more on that to come!
Sandwich Mania
I have to interrupt our CA trip story with the sandwich mania i'm currently experiencing. Now, i'm no lover of the sandwich and keep in mind that my mom HATES sandwiches with a passion, but i've recently had 2 excellent sandwiches and i'm terribly sad i can't actually eat them for lunch every day.
The first one was at
Pret a Manger near Bryant Park. For some reason they make the best egg salad sandwich i've ever had. They call it the "Florentine" and it's a hearty grain bread with tomato, spinach, red onion, cheese and the perfect egg salad mixture - not too full of mayo, good sized chopped egg and well seasoned with black pepper. be claims that Pret also makes the best tuna salad sandwich ever, one that doesn't have offensive celery chunks and too much mayo either. They seem like a socially responsible company, plus they actually post the
secret recipes for some of their goods. That's pretty tuff!
The second excellent sandwich was the #13 "Vegan Chicken with Lemongrass: (NOT Meat)" at
Viet Nam Banh Mi So #1 in Little Italy. I had
previously blogged about sandwiches #11 & 12 and those amazing vegetarian fresh spring rolls but until tonight, hadn't experienced the wonders of #13. The "vegan chicken" was made up of pressed marinated tofu chunks, soft and slightly textured. It wasn't too much like meat so those who hate freakingly accurate fake meat products will be okay with their version. The vegan chicken was served up in a toasted baguette with carrot, cucumber, cilantro, homemade mayo and hot sauce. I didn't get the hot peppers this time and regretted it when i found the hot sauce too mild. Regardless, even without hot peppers and sauce - it was an amazingly delicious sandwich, so fragrant and hearty yet crisp and creamy at the same time. Definitely worth slogging through the slush after work!
Lastly, check out this soy milk maker
review! I thought about getting one since we do drink a good amount of soy milk.
CA: More SF
1/21/06: Our third day in the Bay was mainly spent in San Francisco. Starting at the famed farmers' market at the
Ferry Building, we sampled a ton of items: rosemary and lavender salt from
Eatwell Farm, dried persimmons and other tasty fruits, countless cheese cubes and lots of apples, oranges and breads. For the middle of winter, this farmers' market was sure rockin; the one at Union Square in Manhattan is quite sad when compared with it! After walking through the outside market, we sat on the pier and drank more
Peet's coffee, then finally decided to have some tamales from the
Cocina Primavera stand at the market. be and i shared a big plate of 2 potato & spinach tamales with a scoop of black beans and white cheese plus some fresh hot sauce = so yummy and satisfying! I haven't had that many tamales so i'm no expert, but these were very delicious, super flavorful and filling.
Inside the Ferry Building are even more shops, food stalls and restaurants! We walked around twice, sampling a few kinds of olive oil, vinegars and breads. be was tempted to get some raw oysters on the half shell (craving due to Chez Panisse the day before) but didn't. For dessert we got 4 kinds of sorbet from
Ciao Bella: blood orange, pear, ginger lemon and watermelon. Watermelon was okay but the pear was extremely tasty.
We walked down Market Street, stopping at a crafts fair, an old skool toy shop, the Apple Store and a few other places. At the first
See's Candies we spotted, we ran towards it in anticipation of chocolatey goodness, only to have to wait in a longass line because one person was basically purchasing the entire store's contents! The line was worth it though; both of us chose a few select pieces and we enjoyed them the rest of the day. Of note were all the nutty See's pieces. The only "eh" piece was the kona truffle; the coconut coating didn't match the coffee interior.
be loved the Berkeley
Amoeba Music store so much that we took a bus to the San Francisco location in Haight-Ashbury! (This time he got 13 CDs for $42.00!) We took a quick stop for hummus sandwiches and ginger beer, then later met up with Crack at the
Citrus Club which specializes in various Asian noodle dishes. The wait was very long but we had a fun chance to catch up and get an East Coaster's opinion on living in the Bay. Crack had been there before so she recommended the garlic edamame and fresh Vietnamese spring rolls to start. The edamame were still boiled in the pod but were extra delicious from a quick saute in garlicky fragrant soy sauce and oil. The fresh spring rolls were light and tasty, with a good contrast of textures. For the main meal, Crack got a giant bowl of hot & sour soup, be ordered the shrimp & mushrooms over noodles, and i had the coconut curry noodles. be and Crack both seemed to love their dishes while i thought mine was okay. The noodles and fine shreds of vegetables were good but the coconut curry sauce was a bit soupy. They had a good number of vegetarian options so next time i'll try something else. Be sure to get the garlic edamame though!
Things close early in the Bay. We had to rush back to Oakland to pick up our rental car, which ended up being a Jeep Wrangler 4x4! Apparently they ran out of compact cars so they gave us the SMALLEST car they had! We ended our long day at ff's weekly gig "Magic Milkcrates," where i ran into 2 people i knew from college and be played card games for a while. We didn't stay out too late since the next day was the start of Rt 1 driving!
(PS: for dinner tonight we made:
Quorn roast with fresh rosemary & sage, stuffing, cranberry sauce, brown gravy, sauteed kale with cumin seeds and roasted garlic potatoes plus ice cream on crushed cookies for dessert! It was like November all over again!)
CA: Oakland & Berkeley
Blogging sorta feels like homework when there's so much to do, no time to do it and your camera busts right before you get a chance to upload the pictures to your computer! In sum, our California trip was much fun; the random food story follows:
1/19/06, we fly out of JFK in business class! It totally pays to have family members working for the airline. Did you know that American Airlines is now charging coach passengers for "snack boxes?" On longer flights i believe you get a turkey sandwich, but basically it's a box with assorted snack packs. Good thing we got upgraded, because in business we got some delicious portobello, spinach &
Boursin baguettes; assorted nuts, a roll with butter, a wilty salad and cookie dough ice cream.
Airline food generally isn't so great but i was quite surprised with the baguette.
We arrived in San Francisco and took the BART to downtown Oakland. XJ and ff were still working so be and i tried some burritos at
La Salsa. For a chain the burritos were very tasty: the tortilla wasn't floppy and doughy, the rice and beans were made well and the fresh salsas were quite yums. We also noted that
Coca-Cola from the West coast is less sweet than the original Atlanta formula.
A bit later we had dinner at the famed
Golden Lotus restaurant, the vegetarian Vietnamese place that 5 people have told me about. I opted for a bowl of pho with fake meats while the rest of table had lotus salad, caramelized fake chicken, green beans and battered fake shrimp. Everyone's dishes were very good (especially the lotus salad) but honestly the pho could've been better. It was served up with the basil leaves, lime wedges and chiles, the noodles and fake meats were good but the broth was lacking, a bit too bland. It didn't need to be "beefy," just more flavorful. Overall, i would definitely go back to try more dishes - it's not every day you can have vegetarian Vietnamese food. We rounded off the night at an art gallery opening and at Luka's bar, eating frites and playing pool.
1/20/06: our Berkeley / food fest day. We started off at the famed
Berkeley Bowl Marketplace, where we counted a dazzling array of: 5 kinds apple pears, 38 kinds oranges/tangerines, 14 kinds avocados, 18 kind of apples, fresh turmeric, edible flowers, assorted cactus, banana flower, fresh bamboo shoots and countless other produce items - enough to shame any gourmet market to tears. We barely saw the rest of the supermarket but it looked like 3 rows of bulk food items, a grand olive bar and enough goods from worldwide cuisines to satisfy the diversity of the Bay's residents. Berkeley Bowl was so amazing, be and i were each secretly okay with leaving New York if we could live near it! We ended up buying 6 blood oranges, a big avocado, 2 croissant muffins and some dry snacks.
On Shattuck Ave in Berkeley we checked out
The Other Change of Hobbit bookstore, the
Cheese Collective (although we didn't get any pizza since the day's pie contained onions and peppers, which be hates), the original
Peet's Coffee & Tea where we sampled and bought whole "Lost Toraja" beans; a paper store, bead shop and three other bookstores.
For lunch we decided we had to eat at
Chez Panisse. For those who don't know, its founder
Alice Waters is credited with developing Californian cuisine and a food revolution in American dining-out. The Cafe upstairs is more affordable than Downstairs - even so, lunch cost us $50 per person but it was really worth it! Lunch began with a crusty sourdough and creamy butter. be opted for the raw oysters plate while i chose the blood orange salad. I expected orange chunks tossed with lettuces but received something much better: sliced blood red and sunny orange rounds arranged on a large plate with crushed olives and thinly sliced red onion, drizzled with good olive oil and pink sea salt. I loved the contrast of juicy sweet intense orange with the salty olives and fragrant oil. be claimed the oysters were so fresh, they "tasted like the ocean." His oyster half-shells came arranged on a mound of crushed ice, with a savory thin sauce. For the main dishes, be chose the percale sole with potatoes and fresh artichoke salad, while i had the vegetarian cencioni pasta with wild mushroom ragu. My fresh pasta was shaped like thick leaves (for lack of a better term), tossed with finely chopped mushrooms. The pasta looked doughy but upon tasting, it was nothing like any fresh pasta i'd ever had - an excellent al dente bite, hearty and dense but thoroughly cooked and not raw or floury at all. The mushrooms were earthy, salty and juicy. be isn't one to enjoy eating fish off the bone but he loved the percale, which was a very generous portion that he finished to the last bite. He said it had been smoked over a fragrant wood and that the meat was so soft it slid off the bones. For dessert, we shared the ginger cake with poached pears and fresh whipped cream. I was expecting more pear than cake but it was the opposite - a big slice of dark brown spicy ginger cake, a few slices of lightly poached pear and a scoop of cream. I loved the cake's intensity; it was super flavorful without being too sweet, plus it had a slight gingery bite! be also had a glass of wine but i forget what it was. In sum, eat at Chez Panisse as often as you possiby can!
Unbuttoning my pants, we took the bus to the
Scharffen Berger chocolate factory for a tour. With about 40 other people, we sat in a classroom-like setting and learned about the process of making chocolate, from the bean to the bar. Tasting everything from mixed cacao nibs to 41% milk chocolate to 82% extra dark, i got my chocolate fill from the big pieces passed around! Then, donning hair caps (and facial hair caps for those with) we lined up and walked through the factory. I was quite surprised at how close we could get to the machines. Of course, the tour ended up at the gift shop where we bought some mini bars and some gift boxes. I almost bought a dark brown t-shirt that said "extra bitter" but i guess i was too pessimistic to actually buy it?
XJ and her friend picked us up and we all headed to
Amoeba Music, where be went nuts and bought countless
Morrissey and
INXS CDs for $1.99-$5.99 each! Amoeba was quite an overwhelming experience. Too bad there isn't a record store like that in New York!
Finally for dinner we went to
Greens Restaurant in San Francisco with ff and XJ. It's rated one of the best vegetarian restaurants in the Bay and after our experience, i do agree! It's slightly difficult to find since it's on the wharf at the end of a wooden walkway with a tiny sign, but the restaurant overlooks the water and contains a giant table/seating structure made from a washed-up redwood tree! We started with more sourdough bread & butter, biodynamic and organic wine, fresh lemonade and chai. For appetizers, XJ and ff shared the wilted Savoy spinach salad, be had the potato and parsnip pancakes and i chose the Mediterranean plate of hummus, pita, grilled artichoke, feta-filled filo, lentils and tomato chutney. The homemade pita bread was incredible! be's pancakes were quite tasty and the spinach salad was very fresh. The main dishes we had were: mushroom ravioli for be, the Mesquite Grilled Brochettes (skewers of mushrooms, peppers, garnet yams, fennel, potatoes, cherry tomatoes and marinated tofu with charmoula, served on almond currant couscous) for ff and myself and the Filo Pastry (filled with artichokes, crimini mushrooms, leeks and pecorino cheese, served with braised French lentils and sauteed rainbow chard and dinosaur kale) for XJ. Everything was very good and for some reason, the Brochettes plate was a giant-sized portion i couldn't finish! I really liked the fluffy cous cous, too! As a finale, we all shared the Meyer lemon & tangerine sorbet with lemon cookies, and the chocolate mousse with cherries and cream. The tangerine sorbet was amazing, the Meyer lemon one pretty fresh and sour; both were so citrusy and fragrant from the oils in the rinds. Overall, a yummy dinner and a place i'd definitely look forward to again. I totally should've brought stretchy pants!
Next up, more SF, our drive down Rt 1 and Los Angeles!
