Last week.... I visited Ck!!!!! It was so amazing. Ed joined us for the weekend but I stayed a couple extra days just to have girl time. We had the most ridiculous dinner out together at Animal, an incredible restaurant that leans to southern cooking. We had:
-Chicken Liver Toast (Ck's first time having liver, and she didn't hate it! I'm always a fan of liver, reminds me of my Omi)
-Marrow Bone, Chimichurri, Caramelized Onions (Ck's face was hilarious when she saw it was served from the bone. But she really liked this too. It was pretty good, the toppings were unbelievably flavorful. Probably my favorite marrow dish to date - still not in love Mr. Bourdain no matter what you say)
-Crispy Pig Head, Chow Chow, Sour Cream, Ginger-Scallion Vinaigrette (It's not what you're thinking, or what we were thinking, it's just a couple discs of fried pulled pig head meat. So different and good with all the components, especially the pickled vegetables of the Chow Chow)
-Beef Heart, Baba ganoush, lima bean, tomato, harissa (Ck really liked this. It was really fresh and herb-y, I thought mint maybe... surprised me. I told her she should now start cooking up the organs you get in whole roaster chickens. She did not seem to be as into that idea) :)
-BBQ Pork Belly Sandwiches, Slaw (SO GOOD. Of course this was irresistable because anything with any form of bacon on it is amazing. If we didn't have so much else to eat, I'm sure we eat could have cleaned a whole plate of these on our own. I've had some bad pork belly [at Againn in D.C. - I shudder at the thought of that tacky feeling, funky tasting dish I had years ago], but this refreshed my good opinion of pork belly. And as a temperate fan of slaw? I'll take that tangy bright topping from Animal any day of the week!)
-Poutine, Oxtail Gravy, Cheddar (Hoo, we got this as one of the last two dishes to come out and it was so rich and unctuous and impossible to eat at the end because we were just too full. It's the kind of delicious, naughty food you can imagine seeing on TV and thinking, I need to immediately leave the house and put this in my belly. Wish we had more room for this! By the way, if you don't know what poutine is, check this out for s&g's or this if you're looking for actual information)
-Braised Rabbit Legs, Green Beans, Mushrooms, Potato Puree, Mustard Jus (This was the most disappointing of the dishes. It looked beautiful. The green beans made it look like some architectural masterpiece. But taste wise? Just alright. Nothing mind blowing or unique here. If you like rabbit, you'll be pleased with it. But it was no where near all the other dishes, which were, as ridiculous as it sounds, other-worldly-good.)
-Tres Leches, Dulce de Leche (Picked on recommendation from just about everyone including Michael Voltaggio of Ink., this cake was the perfect finish. Perfect amount, just as creamy and sweet as you want at the end of a massive meal. Lived up to every compliment)
All in all, such a great meal. They had these cute and kind of silly little glasses for beer and for their mint tea. The tea comes out in a french press which seemed appropriately hipster-y. Unfortunately I managed to break my french press and stab my foot with the falling glass. The waiter was very kind about it all. I didn't even realize it was falling glass (honestly, I didn't notice until the end of the meal when I tried to pour tea and it ran out everywhere through the broken glass. I thought someone had just dropped silverware on me!) Sorry about the press guys! Highly recommend this place. Be prepared to wait though, we were only able to get a 9:30 pm reservation, were told to come 15 mins early, and then had to wait until 9:50 pm under the heat lamp outside. Popular place - worth the wait.
On our own, Ed and I visited the Getty because he missed out on the family trip to check it out last year before Thanksgiving. We had a pretty good day and had a chance to see all the famous works and not get caught in too much traffic driving around.
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| Skyline |
We hit up Matador Beach which was incredible. It looked like every California beach scene you've ever seen in the movies. I think I've mentioned it before, but you don't really notice it until you live in California - so many movies are so obviously filmed in California no matter where the plot claims they are... It's a struggle to find movies where they are outdoors and the trees actually look like east coast trees. It's hard to describe but once you've seen what the flora looks like out here, it's so very different than everything else on the east coast and middle America.
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| Ed's new home :) |
We had brunch at Duke's which was awesome. Pretty much everything you could ever want: pancakes, poke, ceviche, waffles, sausages, chocolate strawberries, omelets, bagels and lox.... so much goodness.
After Ed left us we kept it pretty low key, went shopping (which was SO nice to do, I'm sure you can guess how enthusiastic Ed gets when I talk about clothes shopping...) and to Ed's relief we did not stroll into any Kate Spade or Ferragamo stores. Ck took me to her Salon and we got to play allllll day long. I don't know how she did it, she was on her feet for hours and hours. Started at 11 and finished at 6:30. I think the only thing we didn't do was strip my hair! (Fun fact, the longest I've been at a salon is 8 hours when I went in with long very dark brown hair and came out with very blonde, very short hair)
We did this smoothing treatment on my hair that Ck said changed her life and so far, I'm going to agree with her. I've never had such manageable hair. It reminds me of high school when the girls with great hair claimed that they just woke up and dried their hair without any fancy products or brushes. I remember thinking 'yeah right' at the time, but now? Man, having this treatment makes me think they weren't lying! Too bad I didn't have this back then. I told Ck I already think this is at the top of my birthday wishlist :) I think Kate from Ben & Kate is my current hair-spiration... not intentional but seems to be about right.
It was a really great visit and I'm sad it flew by so quick. I even made a new best friend with Ck's cat Creature. I love that little thing. It's so cute and weird and noisy, and that's pretty much love to me with animals. It even drools when it gets really happy. Such a special cat. There's also a hilarious video of me trying to babysit the dogs and creature and being tackled by all of them trying to get petted. It was a good visit!
Ck is home visiting Mom now for the holidays and she's under very serious instruction to somehow mail me back Omi's delicious dinner rolls. Those are my faaaavorite.
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| Poor Fonso was not interesting in joining the family picture :( |
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| Creature! You drooly cute thing you! |
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| South bay view from Los Gatos-ish |
P.S. New Robbie Williams video, enjoy!
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