This Blog

I’m becoming less and less interested in this blog.

It’s not me, it’s WordPress. It’s just not Vox.

Vox is like that one true love that got away. I thought I’d be happy with WordPress, but it just doesn’t encourage me to write and share like Vox did. Vox captivated my voice.

WordPress does not.

But I still want to share something, somewhere. Right now the place that is right for me is Tumblr. I’ll be sharing my life more abstractly at Tumblr. Tumblr is like a digital scrapbook of my life and roamings on the internet. The only thing about Tumblr is that it’s not conducive to holding a conversation.

For now, this place will be on hiatus.

Pop Champagne and Dessert Bar

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We spent one afternoon East of the 405. First, wine tasting at San Antonio Winery. Then we wrapped up the afternoon with some treats and sparkling wine flights at POP Champagne and Dessert Bar in Pasadena. It was happy hour when we arrived, so we ordered a few hors d’oeuvres. I tried a sparkling wine flight called Around the World.

The World sucks.

The best thing we had from POP was their version of the churro. It was a soft, doughy texture that wasn’t greasy. In fact, I’m pretty sure their churros are baked because they were flat on one side and shaped a bit like a madeleine. We rated them our second favorite churro, after Tavern’s churro.

Donut Night at BLD

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The first Friday of June is National Doughnut Day. There’s a legitimate and important story behind this national food day. So important that even Huell Howser dedicated a California’s Gold episode to the day. For the special occasion, BLD held a doughnut flight, an off-shoot of their popular doughnut night special menu.

The doughnuts we tasted this evening were pulled pork, proscuitto, blueberry ricotta, and finally banana cream pie. Our favorite was the proscuitto one as it most closely resembled a doughnut, but still different enough to be…different. The pulled pork one was just odd. The blueberry ricotta was tasty, but didn’t reach far enough to be special. And the banana cream pie? Well, He and I discovered that we don’t like banana cream pies, especially in doughnut form.

Aside from the doughnuts, we had dinner which we agreed wasn’t as successful, or as tasty, as the BLD brunch. My braised lamb was just bizarre. I think the Moroccan influence didn’t sit well with me, or my stomach. His steak was just a typical steak and nothing more.

Our favorite item of the evening was trying Neal Fraser’s entry into LA Magazine’s Island Style Cook-Off competition. We’re still big fans of Neal.

The New Santa Monica Market

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Like everything else in LA, the Santa Monica Place got a facelift. The third floor Dining Deck recently added a new addition – The Market. The Market is supposed to simulate places like San Francisco’s Ferry Building or Chelsea Market, but it’s only a fraction of the size. Maybe a 4th of the size of the Ferry Building, if I was being generous.

Granted, it’s small, but some people would say intimate and all the purveyors hit on the standard ones you’d find. There are breads, cheese and cured meats, cookies, gelato/sorbet, ice cream sandwiches, chocolate, cooking school, florist, and most importantly a wine shop.

Churros Fries

Churro Fries from Knott's Berry Farm

Flatiron Truck

It’s all about the meat.

steak with duck egg

steak salad

Pigging Out at The Oinkster

the oinkster

After visiting the Friends Forever show, we took my friends’ recommendations and went to The Oinkster down the street. I’ve always been curious about this place because Diners, Drive-ins and Divesvisited. When we arrived He and I discussed which category this place fell into.

belgium fries

Not knowing when we’d be on this side of town again, we ordered a few items. I got a small salad and the pulled pork sandwich. He got a reuben, fries AND chili fries.

pulled pork

The pulled pork was great. The caramelized onions threw me off making the sandwich too sweet. Pulled pork is classic Carolina barbeque is more vinegar-y and spicy. I didn’t try the Reuben, but He wasn’t impressed either. The regular fries were alright and the accompanying garlic “aioli” became the topic of a long “what is this really” discussion. Conclusion – it’s not aioli.

Our favorite thing that day were the chili cheese fries. Yum! I love how the fries get soggy with chili juice.

chili fries

Pourtal to Fun

An egg or a yellow cherry tomato on burrata

Prosciutto

Friends Forever at Leanna Lin’s Wonderland

I visited the epicenter of cute at Wonderland. Fat Rabbit Farm and Bored Inc. really are Friends Forever.

Rustic Canyon

Yum