putting the knit in shizknitz

So after our little tire mishap, we eventually made it onto the freeway and of course ran into evening traffic. We made it a tad late to the South Coast Winery Resort and Spa, and barely enough time to grab a bite to eat at their restaurant. It was a lovely place, roomy and each booth is large and private. T got a gorgeous prime rib and I got one of the best lambs I’ve had in a loooong time. We also shared a salad (came with a machego toast) and french onion soup.

The next morning we were awakened at 5:15AM to be picked up for our 5:45 AM hot air balloon ride with California Dreamin. We had absolutely no idea what we were in for, but we dressed warm. They picked us up in a van, then drove to two locations where they tested the wind with some balloons. There was a storm coming in, and so we were a tad worried… it turned out to be an absolutely amazing journey. The setup took less time than I thought, as we hopped into the basket and quickly flew away. I was shocked by how little we shook, it was a gentle ride. I didn’t realize how little control there was in direction of the balloon - you go up and down to catch different drifts in order to move in certain directions at certain velocities. Our pilot and co pilot were awesome… really knew the area to explain all the different areas we were flying over. I got some gorgeous shots as well given the clouds and the incoming storm. The landing was a little rough, and the rain started to come in a little. The best part was talking to the pilot and owner, Dave afterwards. He explained his history with ballooning, going back to high school and traveling around the world to balloon. His perspective of the world was a different one and after being in the air for about an hour, can see why.

They took us back to the room where we napped for the next several hours. I awoke to starvation as we first visited Maurice Car’rie Winery for lunch. Steph had shown me pictures and recommended their brie… and it was amazing. There was brown sugar baked in with it so for you sweet and salty lovers, it was heaven. T had chicken and I had another round of french onion soup and salad.

Stuffed, we then hit up wine tasting at Stuart Cellars, a cute place on a hill… I started to get a feel for Temecula wine country. Small and cozy, locally owned. Similar to Santa Barbara area (than Napa), but even more personal. There we picked up Malbec 2004 - Limited Reserve and Tatria 2002 - Limited Estate Reserve

We then visited Bella Vista Winery, previously known as Cilurzo, the oldest winery in Temecula. My professor had worked with the winery for her PhD dissertation and so I decided to stop in. Another small place with a larger tasting room. There we picked up 2 x Petite Sirah 2004 Late Harvest (OMG this was so yummy with Champagne), Petit Sirah Rose 2005, Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 (labeled Cilurzo).

We then visited Falkner Winery, which was next to Pinnacle Restaurant (its set up high so you have gorgeous views), recommended by Dave the pilot from the hot air balloon. Here, we picked up one bottle of 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon.

We then visited Ponte Winery, which was actually next to our place which had a large tasting room and fancy setting, something more of what you would expect in Napa. They had a huge selection and great history to the names of their wines. My favorite, the Graciela was named after the grandmother who now splits her time between San Diego and Italy. We picked up two bottles of the 2005 Graciela there.

We then drove back to South Coast, parked, and walked to our tasting room since there wasn’t much chance of us driving after this point. Most of the tasting rooms in Temecula give you about 5-6 tastings for about $6-$10, much more than what you get elsewhere. T and I shared, but even then I was really starting to feel the wine at this point. Here we bought Black Jack Port, Cabernet Rose 2005, Pinot Grigio 2006, 2 x Gewurtztraminer 2006. I think I fell asleep at this point, skipping dinner altogether.

Lunch the next day was at Ponte Winery. All seating was outside which was a little bit of a challenge, since it was windy and cold. The food was delicious though… so it was worth it. The bread came with this dipping sauce that was amazing. We had steamed mussels and clams with an olive tapenade, my salad had fried green tomatoes and T had a mahi mahi sandwich that he loved. For dessert, the homemade apple pie with candied rosemary was perfect.

To finish off the trip, we stopped by Hart Winery, where we were greeted by their mascot. There we purchased 2005 Syrah Rose and 2003 Zinfandel. We left Temecula after driving through old town, and stopping by a yummy cheese store for some die-for brie. What an amazing trip… we have nearly doubled our wine collection!

First things first. My Pineapple Plant has finally decided to reproduce. After many years of TLC, it is finally starting to sprout! Several years ago while visiting Hawaii, I learned that you can cut off the top of the pineapple (leave some meat on the bottom) and soak in water until the roots grow. You then plant it and wait. After several years of patience, it has finally started to grow!

Next up is my new love, Tano’s Hot Sauce Bag. I wish I had a link to take you to, but this bag has been discontinued and cannot be found anywhere (except for a green one on Ebay). I saw it yesterday at the mall, fell in love with it, but held back due to its price tag of $189. I then came home to do research to find how rare it is to find one… and ran back today to rescue it from the mall. They don’t sell their bags in the dept stores, so only small places seem to carry them. The leather is sooooffffttttt and the smell reminds me of the fine leather back in Buenos Aires.

The other day I visited the Skin and Bones exhibit at the MOCA downtown with my friend Arden. I had never been, and it really was a great exhibit to go to. Both being Cognitive Science majors with a love for fashion, we really knocked ourselves out. We then took a stroll down to the Grand Central Market to find some grub, and grub we did find. Huge tacos… the photo doesn’t do it justice.

The remainder of the day was just as fun - after picking up Hiroko for some Pinkberry (yes, my addiction has gotten a little out of hand) (oh, they reassured me that mochi would be in on Tuesday), we watched The Notebook and the Finale to Sex & The City back at my place before heading over to NoHo to drop Arden off. Hiroko and I decided to be a bit adventurous and stopped at an Argentine BBQ place in the Valley (LaLa’s). I was delighted to find that they carried Quilmes, and the meat was pretty good too although nothing compares to the meat you get in Argentina.

In the meantime, T has been shipped overseas back to Shanghai for a few weeks… and so now we’re on this reverse 16 hr schedule (midnight for him, I’m just waking up) which is quite strange.  I am, however, enjoying that I now get TWO flat pillows instead of ONE

After my car started severly veering to the right, I finally decided to take it in for alignment. I have this fantastic place I go to for tires in Culver City called Davis Bros Tire. They’ve always been fantastic. The owner is the first one to get his hands dirty and the service is always great.  Anyhow, I had a wait so he told me about a little coffee joint down the street called Cyber Cafe (I can’t seem to find it on citysearch) next to a laundromat.  It was on the corner of Washington and National(?) close to Surfas.

The place was cute - there was a monkey theme and nice 80’s music playing.  4 free internet stations and a “happy hour” in the mornings, which means 50% off all coffee.  I got a pretty decent latte for $1.50.  No wireless here, but I got plenty of work done in the meantime.

By the way, I have a fantastic mechanic in Culver City too, Ed Little Auto Service which I’ve been going to for several years now.  I never worry about getting ripped off, most of their clientele are the local elderly who have been going him for decades.  In fact, Ed and Davis have been doing business together for over 40 years.

OMG. It was just on a whim, I saw this link “Pinkberry” next to the link “Titos” on my friend’s blog. I really had no idea what it was, except that there was a location in WLA. We sped over there (esp after seeing 1 oz servings were only 25 calories) to give it a try. No photos inside the place, so I took one of the store front. Cute, hip, funky music, and two flavors of yogurt. One tastes like regular plain yogurt but with the texture of soft serve and you get to choose different toppings like fruit, cereal and mochi. It really was yummy. Tangy and yummy. The medium was huge, it was more than enough for T and I (and it was 8 oz, so you can do the math on the calories). I do have one complaint - the plastic spoons they use have this funky shape to them, which actually aggravates your top lip. Its a good thing we picked up a digital scale at Linens N Things. BTW if you weight yourself on one of those things on top of your bathroom mat, it will take about 30 lbs off of your actual weight (imagine my excitement as I saw a number that was a complete lie).

An old friend of mine, Long performed live at the Grand Star in chinatown. I’ve never seen him perform live, so we took the drive downtown. It was a fundraiser complete with live art, music, DJ, yada yada. I’ve never been in Chinatown during non-Dim Sum hours, and it was strange to see the streets completely empty. Great performance! I had a really good time.

Now speaking of Cobras and Matadors from my Fri night post, I just couldn’t shake the idea of NOT going there. After a few wrong turns, we finally made it! As usual, the food was amazing. I love this place, I really really do.  Look!  T with a good hairday (with his new hairdo) LOL!

Nestled on Abbot Kinney was this “little” place called Primitivo Wine Bistro. I say “little” because the first 30 min we were there in the bar area, we literally thought that the dining room consisted of the area in front. Lo and behold, we were taken to the back where there are 2-3 HUGE dining areas full of tables.

The bar was great, there was a HUGE selection of wines (we had a red from France that I couldn’t pronounce or remember but it was delicious) and their food menu was tapas-style, so little plates of stuff, of all varieties. The wait was a tad long (we didn’t have reservations) but it was Friday night, and I can see why people love this place. The guys at the bar were uber-attentive, and altho we were in the waaaaay back right in front of the door, they still got us menus and drinks. Once we were seated, the food came really fast - good thing we were fast eaters. Our table was small so we could only fit a few plates at a time. In addition to the above photos, we also had calamari (pretty standard) and shrimp something or another (which actually tasted great when you dipped the bread in the sauce). Now I’m craving REAL tapas - Cobra and Matador’s type……

One of my classmates gave Cafe Ugo rave reviews on cheap, quality Italian food. Rokes and I went to downtown Culver City in an effort to grab dinner and a movie and instead modified our trip to only dinner. It’s a good thing we did because there was a pretty long line… its a small little place connected to a wine bar (which I need to make a separate trip to visit!) and the wait is always quoted as “15 to 20 min”. What was confusing was that there always seemed to be an exception and there was always another party in front of us. It got a bit frustrating since we were all hungry.  The food was affordable, but the bread basket left something to be desired.  Overall my vote still goes to Il Forno.

Surfas is well known for their kitchen supplies and goods (it seriously is paradise.. and for kitchen retards like myself, its still fun to look at all the shtuff). They opened a cafe a few months ago, and Rokes and I finally got a chance to check it out. Its a small little place to the left of their main entrance with tables outside to sit and enjoy. The cement at the entrance had imprints of various kitchen utensils - real cute! I wish they had some table heaters - it was a chilly day!

Lunches came in brown boxes, your napkin and utensils are found under the red tissue paper. Salads are just thrown on top of the tissue paper, and items like the above macaroni and cheese are found in little containers. Each box comes with its own unique quote about food, or eating, or something of the like. They have recycle bins available so nothing goes to waste. Also - the guy who was working the cheese counter (they have a HUGE cheese selection and have some special event on Sat’s at 4 PM for cheese and wine pairings) was pretty cute - even in his white getup.

    

For $20, you have your choice of teas, 3 kinds of scones (they come out warm!), all you can eat sandwiches, salads, caviar, cheese, desserts….. yummmmm! The plates are small but don’t be afraid to get seconds. I saw people go for seconds and thirds and who knows.. Afterwards we walked around to see the sights (and to walk off some of the food). We went as far as the Japanese garden when it started to POUR. We were able to seek refuge at one point, until the sun came out.

      

Last week I seemed to have some problems with hot wings and salsa, my body doesn’t seem to tolerate spicy foods like it used to. Now this time I think I got food poisoning, we were at Sushi late last night followed up with popcorn and soda at the movies (BTW, The Last Kiss is pretty good!)… This morning I was awakened by a pain that felt like needles poking the inside of my stomach, I started sweating and almost hurled. I was able to get back to bed, haunted by dreams of eating glass. But now its back, and its holding up progress (I have more work to do than imagineable)… Ugh!

I haven’t even had a chance yet to post about how AWESOME the Blackberry Pearl is… (and those that have known me for years know how I’ve bitched and moaned about the lacking features of my cel phones and PDA’s) I will soon. I promise.

I was at titos this morning, around 9:50 AM after our Sunday hiking at Temescal. I saw a sign outside that said “Titos Express“. So what’s the deal?

Minimum order, $75, you can order online and you don’t have to wait in line.

Damn. Anyone else want Titos? We can order together.

I think Y recently wrote about structuring your day around food. Well we started the morning hiking out in Temescal Canyon. Almost two hours later we found ourselves sitting in Marmalade Cafe in Malibu enjoying some awesome food. I had a frittata with some of my favorite things - bacon, spinach, mushrooms and goat cheese… yum!

We then went to 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica to fulfill some Victoria Secret needs, then my craving for an Oreo Milkshake kicked in. Now I have to admit that I can’t remember the last time I craved a milkshake, but this was definitely it. After a to-go order from Johnny Rockets we were on our way.

Tonight, after some desperate searches for Hot Wings, and our usual Hot Wings Cafe seemed to be closed as well as our 2nd and 3rd backup locations. A quick search on Citysearch found us another HotWings place, even closer to home.

Hoagies and Wings, baby!!!

Just down the street from us we found a little hidden find. Great service, its just a little place on the corner with some tables on their patio. We got 30 wings (20 of the hot wings, 10 of the lemon pepper) plus 3 large sodas, dipping sauces, and a steak sandwich for $30. The steak sandwich was like a melt with grilled mushrooms. The lemon pepper was amazing - crispy, tangy, salty all of that good stuff. The hot wings were just… well just what I needed.

I must run tomorrow morning… and go to the gym…

First off, I want to welcome Hiroko back!! I know Hawaii is beautiful, but there’s nothing better than being back with your friends and family (altho I’m a tad biased in this statement). I’m so happy to have you home!

Last night we went out for dinner with some new friends, Kate is a first year at school - her and her bf Jack (USC Marshall student) are int’t students from Korea who happen to live really close to T and I. We decided to go somewhere different (not your typical K Town meal which don’t get me wrong, I love) and do Spanish tapas.

My favorite Tapas place, Cobra Lily seemed to be undergoing some sort of renovation. In fact, their phone number has been disconnected. No worries because we were able to get reservations at Cobras and Matadors, which I was told were owned by the same person but we’ve also heard otherwise.

The place is smaller than Cobra Lily and the ambience is just as nice - different, but nice. Dark, small tables, and the walls are adorned with wine corks. I don’t know what their deelio is with drinks as they didn’t seem to have the same Sangria as they do at Cobra Lily’s. No worries, T ran to the wine store next door and procured us some amazing Spanish wine. There’s no corkage fee, and the food is very reasonably priced (for all 5 of us + dessert, it came out to about $120 with tax and tip). The food was fan-tastic, all of our usuals - the bread and cheese platter, oven grilled mashrooms, lentils, the lamb, oh my god I can’t even remember it all but trust me, it was all very, very good.

Our reservations were at 8:30 so we decided to take a detour prior to, to visit The Grove. Kate or Jack had never been, and this is always a nice place to take people for the first time. We walked around for awhile, until we saw the Abercrombie and Fitch model at their door. Kate (I gotta give it to her, is gutsy) walked up for a photo and get this - they have a polaroid camera where you can take home a souvenier of the model! Of course, I dragged Hiroko up for our own photo with the 2/3 naked model (I say he’s more than half nekkid).

All and all, a fantastic night. Now I have 2 days to catch up on all of my school work…

There’s an old Chinese saying “In heaven there is paradise, on earth Suzhou and Hangzhou“. Apparently Marco Polo agreed as he touted Hangzhou as one of the most beautiful cities back in the 13th century. I would agree, but only partly, because as most cities in the area, its been modernized to house high rises and more modern buildings. There are sections of the city that has been left green, and buildings rebuilt (most of which were crushed during the Taiping Rebellion and the Cultural Revolution) which has left the beauty of the area that once lead on for miles on end. The previously rainy weather cleared up for a perfect day - not too hot, little humidity and sunshine most of the day.

Views from the Lin Ying Temple. The place was packed full of people, even though it was a Thursday. You saw many Buddhist traditions here, including the rubbing of one Buddhist statue’s foot which was supposed to help bring you a son. There were about 4 levels of temples, all with statues of Buddha. Even with the crowd, it was a very serene place to be, I wish we could have spent more time there.

Lunch was a little dissapointing, I suppose since I was on the “English speaking tour” they decided to feed us a more “Americanized” version of Chinese food. I peered over at the Korean tour and they seemed to have some pretty good food being served. After lunch was the West Lake Cruise and fish park. Another gorgeous, gorgeous area. We saw a few people getting married - its been a trip, everywhere we go, there seems to be someone getting married, everyday.

Of course to every tour, there is an experience that is associated with trying to get you to buy something. We visited the Longjing Tea Plantation, the makers of the Dragon Well Tea. They explained the differences in tea quality and the reasons why. Their premium blend is picked in March, their second quality is in April and the least quality is in the summer time when the leaves grow faster than they can pick them. The leaves are picked in the morning by women, then hand dried by men which takes about 5 hours to dry properly. We did some tea tasting, and it really was amazing tea. The drive each way was almost 2.5 hours, which was quite bumpy freeways - every bridge had a bump (the bridge seemed to be a little higher than the freeway) and because I was sitting in the very back of the van, got the full shock of each and every one.

Last but not least, dinnertime found us at another dumpling place. People in Los Angeles know that you can find Din Tai Fung in Arcadia, but I wanted to try it right here in the homeland (well, that’s Taiwan, but at least we’re close). One big difference is that they use the bamboo steamers here - in Los Angeles, the health dept keeps them from using them and instead use a stainless steel version. It was just as good, if not better than in Arcadia. If you think I’m on a dumpling kick, you’re right. I believe we have one more place that we were told not to miss!!

I found a Coffee Bean AND a BK in one place!

… “you don’t have an American name?” I’m still not sure what the Chinese obsession is over having an American name. This is true back home with my international colleagues from parts of China, they all have American names. T’s officemates here all have American names, and were surprised to find out that I don’t have one too. This came after the surprise that I’m not Chinese. I must have that stereotypical E. Asian look since people mistake me for Korean, Chinese, but not Japanese.

Duck tongue, snails and suppon (turtle) soup. Check out the paw in my bowl.

Although prevalent in most large and growing cities around the world, the struggle between old and the new seem to be even more rampant here in Shanghai. They are building at unhuman speeds, with skyscrapers and high-rise apartments/condos towering the skyline. The older buildings are being torn down to make room for more. During my city tour today, the tour operator mentioned the government regulating the tear down of older buildings (well, this is a communist country, after all) which seemed to be a shame - certain historical areas such as the Russian, Japanese concession will be replaced by modern high rises. One thing I’ve realized is that although the cost of living seems inexpensive here, these high rises aren’t cheap - on the Pudong side, a 1300 sq ft condo can cost you an easy $400K USD which is pretty close to prices in the westside in Los Angeles.

Stark differences between the old and the new.

One of the things I love about the old is the hole in the wall food places. We went to the most amazing dumpling house yesterday (there were two next to each other) with lines down the street. You pay (about 1 USD for 8 huge pan fried dumplings), then get in line to get your food. You can take it to go, or eat there - but you gotta be quick, people have no qualms over cutting in front of you in line (if there even is one) or grab a table fast (there is no such thing as being nice, hesitation or looking tacky). We walked up 3 flights of these tiny, tiny stairs (I have small feet and still had problems) and each floor had a small room with tables. I have to say that my experience from eating at Titos had trained me well for this particular task. There is a tea pot at each table filled with vinegar that you drench over your dumplings - then you eat. Caveat, the juices inside these delicious little suckers can get all over you if you’re not careful.

I visited the Shanghai Aquarium the other day, which was perfect for a rainy afternoon. It was a multi-level adventure which was quite interesting because I went during feeding time (3:30 PM). The beginning of the exhibit features many smaller tanks of animals, similar to the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, but once you take the tunnel like escalator down, you’re surrounded by tanks of various fish, sharks, corrals, etc. It’s all quite beautiful.

This could have been dinner.

A trip to the Chinese National Museum was also well worth the trip, especially the travelling exhibit on gemstones. I got to see a 600K carat rudelized quartz as well as many other pretties that were purely amazing (unfortunately, no photos in that exhibit).