LA trip (part 3)
Aug. 28th, 2016 03:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
On Friday, after dropping adelagia off at the airport, I decided to take Jade to Ho Ho Kitchen (which in Cantonese means “very good” kitchen – not anything to do with Santa ;) ), because in the past they have served some of the most delicious Shanghainese food around, including dumplings. According to my family, it's not as good as it used to be, but their spring rolls are still the best. Still, when pressed, they couldn't come up with a good alternative for this type of food, and I'm not sure I believed them anyway (their interests come and go, and they can afford to be a lot pickier given where they live), so I decided Jade and I should try it for ourselves.
Well, we ran into a snag because it turned out that they closed between 3-5pm, and we had got there at 4:30pm. It was way too hot to wait around outside or in the car, so we had to go to McDonald's across the street to kill 30 min. When we returned, there was someone inside – the waitress who always serves us when I've been there before – and she was gesturing that she wasn't open. I was like, not open yet because it's like 4:58pm, or not open at all...? She opened the door and explained in Mandarin (which I can get by on in the basics, but am very poor at in general) that they were closed and were not going to be open that day. Dismayed, I asked if they would be open tomorrow. She said no, that she was very sorry, but they were not going to be open. Then she explained – I think – why that was the case, but I couldn't understand a word of it. So bizarre! Why was she there, if they weren't going to open for several days? WHY wouldn't they open? Of course, that meant I couldn't risk coming back at any point, since we could never be sure that we could eat there!
So, thus thwarted, we went to Sam Woo in San Gabriel. Sam Woo is a popular Chinese BBQ chain, but the food quality differs from location to location. This one was FAR superior to the one we had gone to in Irvine. When we first sat down, the waitress asked us what we wanted to drink – Jade said iced tea, I said water. Then I noticed a sign that said certain drinks were free! So then I told the waitress that I would have an iced tea after all (Jade didn't care for it, but it just tasted like Snapple to me). And she kept grumbling at me that she had OFFERED me a drink at the beginning, and that I had turned it down. She did this at least 2-3 times. Sheesh lady! I didn't know it was free when you asked! Chinese people can be so grouchy.
Anyway, all the food was really good. We ordered: plain congee, beef chow fun, fried chicken wings, and a 3-BBQ combo platter with roast duck, BBQ pork, and roast pork (that had the most delicious crispy skin).
Saturday was a really busy day for us. We swam in Jade's pool, then ordered pizza from Pizza Rev for lunch (it's like MOD Pizza where you can specify as many toppings as you want for an individual pizza). On mine I got: pepperoni, basil, jalapeno, sausage, anchovy, green bell peppers, and mushroom... though come to think of it, I can't actually see any mushroom in the pic. Oh well. They totally got Jade's mom's order wrong, too.
After that, we had to head to the Getty to do the Watson Adventures Harry Potter Scavenger Hunt that we'd signed up for. We've done one of these hunts before (different museum/different theme), but there was something wrong with a couple of the clues, so no one could actually finish it. Because of that experience, they gave us free admission to another hunt of our choice in the future, which we used for this one. It was a SUPER hot day, and the Getty was PACKED, so as soon as we found the Getty people we found the nearest bit of shade and waited there for everyone else to check in. (Everyone else was late because of how busy the Getty was and how we had to wait for the tram... it felt like Universal Studios all over again.)
There was a really decent turnout, and they split us between adult teams and kid teams, because there would be separate competitions. (Kid teams were ones were defined as any group that had even a single child in it.) The guide told the kids that she'd seen kid teams do better than adult teams at this hunt, because of the Harry Potter theme.
Me: *scoffs* That's because they weren't playing against THIS adult team.
We had to come up with team names, and ours came about with true teamwork.
Jade: Okay this is the bad idea, but like -- the Trio! We want something with three that has good wordplay!
Me: Let's use something like The Three Broomsticks. How can we play off that?
Ropo: The Three Broomchicks!
Me and Jade: Perfect!
Then we were off. We got lost for 10 minutes while trying to find the North building. The one we went to didn't have an entrance, or seemed to be for staff or whatever. It turns out that the main museum has North/West/South/East Pavilions, and that's really what was meant by the building numbers on the sheet. Sheesh! Anyhow, we made good time despite this snafu, and the fact that the buildings were really confusingly laid out. There were a few instances in which the clues were a bit vague, and the answers could be different depending on what was actually meant. You probably didn't really need to know Harry Potter all that well in order to do the hunt; the clues were things like, “In this painting, a man is dressed like Professor Quirrell while the boy opposite him could be Harry. How many serpents tails can be seen?” (That was an amalgam of a few clues. I can't actually remember one word for word.) It helped if you could remember what Professor Quirrell looked like, but they also gave out a cheat sheet if you needed it (we didn't).
Anyway, after all that, we got back to the meeting place on time, and after turning in our paper and looking at the answer sheet, we knew we'd done well. In fact, we got every single question right, and even won a bonus point for “best team name”! (Haha, when they said our name, a murmur went through the group repeating the name LOL because people were so impressed.) We totally crushed all the other teams, including the kid teams... it was a little embarrassing, but oh well. Among the kid teams, there was a tie. One team was made up of teenage boys. The other team was made up of like FIVE ADULTS and one, single, solitary 14-year-old. We were rooting for the teenage boys because it didn't really seem fair that the other team was mostly all adults. The tiebreaker question was: How old was Dumbledore when he died? The teenage boys won – they not only came closest with their answer, but they were right on the money (150 years old).
I heard a little kid ask: "Does everyone get a medal?" NO KID. ONLY WINNERS GET MEDALS. I swear, we are so warping people by giving "participation" medals these days. You're all winners! UM, NO YOU'RE NOT. In life there are winners and losers, so helping a kid learn that early and want to be a winner is a GOOD THING, imho.
After that, we raced to Chop Stop to get some salads before heading to The Cupcake Theater for a performance of Avenue Q. Jade and I had seen it years ago in New York, and I wasn't sure what this tiny theater was going to offer, but it was a great cast, and we had a very good time. (The actress playing Gary Coleman forgot her lines a couple of times, and had to be prompted. That's probably the first time I've ever seen that happen for a show that I paid to watch. No big deal, though.)
After that, we were starving, so we went to In-N-Out to pick up burgers for dinner. Gah, still the best burger in the world, and so reasonably priced. Their fries are super terrible, though. The normal way they cook them makes them kind of boring and limp, while getting them well done makes them so crispy they're like air. McDonald's has way better fries, but my favorite fries hands down are from 5 Guys. I ate one and a half burgers, because one of Jade's mom's burgers was not prepared correctly (it had sauce all over it). I SACRIFICED MYSELF SO AS NOT TO WASTE THAT BURGER. I'd do it again, too.
On Sunday, we went to the Promenade to play Pandemic Legacy, Season One (a game where every game you play impacts the next game – you rip up cards and put stickers down and everything. Once you've played it through once, it cannot be played again) and watch movies.
But first! We went to a fruit cart. I'd been wanting to go to one of these for awhile, and finally the timing worked out. It was SO COOL! These carts are all over LA. They have various kinds of fruit that they keep on ice/refrigerated. You tell them which fruits you want, then they cut it up and season it for you however you like, then place it all into a big container. I sadly don't have a shot of the full container, because we got this twice and both times I started eating it right away. >.> I seasoned mine with Tajin, extra lime, and salt. It was so good! My only gripe is that the seasoning is all on top, so the top is over seasoned, while the bottom hardly has any. It was a revelation how good fruit can be with a little extra lime and salt. I also liked the Tajin, but thought it worked better on coconut than on any other fruit.
This first time, Jade and I both got: watermelon, mango, coconut and pineapple. A whole big tub is $6.
Next, we stopped by Cricca's Italian Deli in Woodland Hills. Initially we had gotten two meatball subs, but I whispered to Jade that we should have gotten one large meatball to share, and tried another sandwich. The really nice woman who took our order overheard us, and she not only let us change our order, she even threw in a couple of free cannoli. She was so awesome. However, we changed the order to two large sandwiches, when really we should have just gotten two regular-sized sandwiches. I have no idea what we were thinking, lol. Anyway, both sandwiches were really good. The meatball was on their soft bread and could have used more sauce, while the turkey and capicolla (a type of spicy ham, but it wasn't spicy at all) was on their crusty bread.
We played Pandemic Legacy, and then we wanted to watch a couple of movies: Jason Bourne and Sausage Party, so we didn't really have time to go anywhere special for dinner and ended up at The Rack, a sports bar attached to the mall. Jade and I shared chimi rolls (chicken and beef), which we had to send back because they arrived cold. I also had a Waldorf salad, which was okay.
I really enjoyed Jason Bourne. I was super sad about Nikki, but it wasn't really unexpected. It was basically just like every other Bourne movie, which is I guess what most of the criticism is about, and I can understand that. It didn't really move anything forward... it was basically the last couple of movies, with different antagonists. I guess I just didn't mind that. Sausage Party was insane. It was really funny, but also pretty fucking disturbing. I think Seth Rogen/James Franco is my new Ben Affleck/Matt Damon duo. Separate, they can be hit or miss (mostly miss on the part of Seth/Ben), but together there's some kind of mad genius going on.
The next day, I guess it would be Monday (it's awesome how when on vacation, all the days of the week are the same), I made Jade take me to Fab Hot Dogs. I've been there a couple of times before, but I recently saw the episode where Guy Fieri goes there, so that made me want to go again. The hot dog that he got, the Bald Eagle Ripper, was OK. Nothing that special. (It looks kinda weird in the picture because the hot dog is deep fried. You heard me.) They also recommended some kind of chimichurri dog that isn't on the menu, and that was also only OK. It was better than the Bald Eagle, but I probably wouldn't get it again. The best thing was actually not a hot dog at all, but their LaFrieda Prime Steakburger. Delish! But at $11, I'd still rather get a burger from In-N-Out. Oh, and we got a giant pickle. That was nice.
We got fruit from a fruit cart again (a different one, who actually seasoned after putting half the fruit in, so it was more evenly seasoned), though this time I got: mango, coconut, papaya, pineapple, and cantaloupe.
Then we were off to play Pandemic Legacy at the Promenade again. Jade and I got into a fight, lol. It was about the game, but also not? We were both PMSing and it was more an argument that resulted from external factors like familial responsibilities and what not, I think. Anyway, we both realized we were being silly, while Ropo had to be the Voice of Reason. :))
For dinner, Jade took me to this fabulous sushi place called Sugarfish. We both got the “Trust Me,” which included: edamame; tuna sashimi; albacore, salmon, yellowtail, halibut, and snapper sushi; a toro hand roll; and a blue crab hand roll. It was super delicious. The place was SUPER dark though, so even though I realllly wanted to take pictures of all the beautiful food, the previews I saw on my camera were terrible, so I gave up. It'll have to be one of those experiences that can only be recalled by memory. Which is nice, in its way. (After playing around with it on Photoshop, however, this one and only pic I took didn't turn out too bad. Now I wish I'd just carried on with the others. >< )
(They don't take reservations, so we had to wait about 45 min. We went to Marshalls to kill some time, and Jade found two really fabulous purses that we admired but didn't get. I couldn't even read the designer name on one of them, so I haven't been able to find it again. :/ It's one of those things that I could kick myself for not taking advantage at the time, because now I'll always think about it, lol. If I'd known about my promotion/bonus then, I def would have splurged. I've looked at Marshalls around here, but ... yeah, nothing doing, lol. That Marshalls was in Studio City so had more upscale merchandise.)
Later that night, we wanted to have tacos from Priscilla's again, but it turns out Priscilla's isn't open on Mondays. So then we had to go on a hunt for tacos. We ended up at Casa de Tacos, which was disappointingly mediocre. I've made better Mexican food in my own kitchen. >.> And... let's just say I was grateful and slightly surprised that none of us came down with food poisoning afterward. It didn't seem like the cleanliest place. It reminded me of the "great" Mexican place thatadelagia and I went to in San Diego that was also super mediocre. Jade and I both got nachos; she got beef while I got chicken, and I think I must've also gotten a taco because I took a picture of one, but I don't remember eating it and it def wasn't Ropo's, given that it's covered in onions and cilantro...
I think this was the night that we went to Salt & Straw and I got a full pint of the sea salt & caramel ribbons, while Jade got pints of gooey brownie (SO good), roasted strawberry and white chocolate (also, SO good), and Stumptown coffee (good). Man, I wish Salt & Straw were near me so that I could get pints of it whenever I wanted. *dreams*
The following day, Tuesday, was my last in the Valley. We had lunch at Lido Pizza in Van Nuys. I got the spaghetti and meat sauce, while Jade got eggplant parmesan, which came with a side of pasta. Except the side of pasta was the SAME SIZE AS MY ENTRÉE, and had I known that, I would have just gotten the eggplant parm, too. I mean, honestly! The pasta was homemade, and yummy, and their rolls came hot. That is all I ask of rolls. Ropo sat and watched us eat, because they didn't have low-fat ranch dressing. The waiter did not seem to understand that she was on the diet, and kept trying to tempt her with gluten-free items from the menu, until she was finally like, GLUTEN ISN'T THE PROBLEM, SIR. I meant to take pictures – in fact, my camera had a test shot of the condiments – but once the food came I apparently abandoned photography in favor of stuffing my face.
From Tuesday until I left on Saturday, I had meals with my family. Since there's very little of interest to report other than what I ate, most of the following will just be food pics, lol.
I'm sorry to tell you,adelagia, but I had two of my favorite Chinese meals during this time. They were new places that I'd never been to before! And to be fair, it's unlikely that we would order some of the food my family ordered with just the two of us, so I don't think you really missed out or anything...
My favorite meal was probably the one my aunts took me to that Tuesday evening, at Happy Duck House. They did all the ordering. We had:
Peking duck:
Steamed whole black cod:
Garlic lobster:
Tofu omelet:
Wood ear mushroom and... I think Chinese yam?:
It was way too much food, but that's the only way my family likes to order, so I stuffed myself to the gills.
Wednesday night, I treated my whole extended family to a meal at Wood Ranch, a steakhouse/BBQ place. It was good, as usual, but I didn't take any pictures... not sure why... I got the two-item combo with tri-tip and pork ribs. I also had some of my uncle's rib eye.
On Thursday I visited my aunt and uncle at their new place, a condo in a retirement community known as Laguna Woods Village. It used to be known as Leisure World. It's incredible. Basically this retirement community takes up 90% of the city, and they have all sorts of services and neighborhoods and recreation dedicated to them. What an awesome place to retire, seriously. I'd seriously consider doing the same when I get to be 55! Anyway, the bad news is that my uncle was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which has one of the worst prognoses of any cancer. :/ He's undergoing chemo now, and he seems to be doing as well as he possibly can, but this is a scary one so I'm kind of holding my breath. They took me and my other aunt to lunch at the restaurant that's attached to one of the golf courses, and it was surprisingly good. I had the sand dabs meunière. I've never seen sand dabs on a menu before!
Friday, my aunts took me to another delicious Chinese meal, this time at Chef's China Kitchen. They knew I had been thwarted in my attempt to have dumplings, and this place serves that kind of food. But it turned out that I didn't really much care for their dumplings, while the rest of the food was quite good.
Stir-fried rice cake and beef wraps:
Pot stickers and soup dumplings:
Scallion pancakes, which are simple to prepare, but hard to get exactly right. These were very good, thin and not doughy:
This is... “di pong.” I don't know what it is in English. It's a type of braised pork that falls apart when you cut into it, and has a big bone in the middle. Usually di pong is served with a rich brown sauce; this is the first time I've had it so plain, no sauce, and yet it was delicious. They took away the bone, then added it to the soup made from cooking it. The soup was SO GOOD, with veggies and vermicelli noodles. It was probably my favorite dish overall at this meal.
Pork kidney noodle soup:
That night, we went to visit my cousin B. in Irvine. He doesn't get off work til 7 or 7:30, so it was easier for us to go to him. He asked me if I wanted "the best Korean BBQ" or "the best Vietnamese," and I chose the latter. He was super surprised, but I said it was because I've had really good Korean BBQ, which generally tends to be the same, whereas really good Vietnamese is a lot harder to come by (it's usually just pho, pho, pho) and is probably my favorite cuisine.
He took us to Brodard Restaurant in Garden Grove, and it was suuuuper yum. I wish I could have tried a lot more things. :/ Stupid Pacific Northwest and your lack of good Vietnamese food! *shakes fist* At least I have Pasteur's... but it's all the way in Everett. :/
Brodard is famous for their spring rolls. While they do have the traditional shrimp ones, the ones they're actually known for are the nem nuong cuon, pork spring roll:
And the chao tom cuon, grilled shrimp paste roll:
What was so good about the rolls was not only the flavors and quality of the ingredients, but the fact that, right in the middle of the roll, they put a crunchy layer. It's like fried wonton skin wrapper or something. It adds a super awesome texture and flavor.
We also got the banh khot (luna rice cake), but I didn't care much for this one, as the flavor of the coconut was weirdly strong:
I think I love Vietnamese food because they use a lot of fresh herbs and you do a lot of wrapping and dipping. That appeals to me, I guess!
My cousin did all the ordering. He got beef curry and a type of dry noodle with beef and broccoli that his wife wanted to try. The curry was not as thick as I like my curry to be, and the other dish was fine, but it seemed more Chinese than Vietnamese, so I was ambivalent about it:
He also got a chicken dish that was basically Hainan chicken, that we knew his mom would like, and an egg noodle soup at the insistence of our other aunt, who just has to have Chinese-type things, even though, as anyone could have predicted, it wasn't good because IT'S NOT THE SAME KIND OF NOODLE AS YOU'D GET IN A CHINESE RESTAURANT. Sigh.
The next day, my other aunt – the one whose house I was staying in, who lent me her car, and who took me to and from the airport – took me to a local Italian restaurant that was pretty good. I ordered the chicken piccata, while my aunt got spaghetti and my uncle a calzone. The best thing about this meal was the salad bar; it's been YEARS since I experienced a good salad bar at a restaurant, and I'm not sure why it's so great, but it is. I had two helpings of salad and tried a couple of the soups, which made me full, so they took the rest of my entrée home.
And thus, at last, we come to the end of my LA trip.
/collapses in exhaustion
Edit: My cousin drove us to the airport, but on the way back she wasn't able to give me a ride, so I had to either shuttle it or Uber it or taxi it. I couldn't get Lyft to give me an estimate, but UberX (which enables a single rider; I didn't want Uber pool) was estimating $89-105 for a ride to my house. (A shuttle would have cost around $60+tip.) Since I had the $5 discount that Lyft gives new customers, I decided to give it a shot. (Lyft also has a "pool" version, but it said my address was out of its service area, even if I wanted to use it.)
First, it's a little confusing where you're supposed to meet them. There's actually a specific place in the garage where they all are, close to the taxis and shuttle service. *I* had thought that you had to meet them out on one of the islands where the hotel shuttles go through, but no. Apparently, they're not supposed to meet you where regular cars would go, because taxis don't get that benefit either, but I read online that if you call for the service, then move your pin, you can call them to tell them where you are and they will go get you there, circumventing that restriction. However, since I've never used the service before, I wanted to do it by the book, even though I had a lot of luggage and it would have been easier to just meet them out on the curb in front of baggage claim.
I requested the Lyft, which didn't seem to take, so I hesitantly did it again. It asks for a down payment of like $3.50 when you do the request, so I didn't want to accidentally keep charging that amount. It works very much like Uber otherwise. The guy had to call me because he couldn't see me, and that's when he explained about where I should go and such.
We met up, and he seemed perfectly nice, but a weird thing happened where my ride ended, right as I got into the car. Maybe he accidentally pressed something on his phone when he was putting my luggage into the trunk, I don't know. Anyway, so it charged me for that ride -- the ride plus airport service fee of $5 minus the $5 coupon came to about $10. I didn't realize that the airport had a service fee, but I'm sure all the taxis and Ubers get charged the same fee.
After that came the tough part of making sure my next request went to him. We had to wait until we were out of airport range, because the first time I did the re-request, another driver came up. "I don't know what to do," said my driver. Luckily, I'd been through this with Uber a few times. I said, I'll just say my starting location is this hotel (that we were passing), and that worked. And because it wasn't the airport as a starting location, I also didn't have to pay that $5 service fee, lol. Didn't do it on purpose, but am not crying about it, either!
My driver had been driving for Lyft/Uber for about 2 months. I think 7 months is the longest tenure I've ever heard for a driver. It doesn't seem like it's really feasible long term to make a living.
Anyway, a single occupant ride from the airport to my house cost $45. I tipped the driver $8, so the total cost of the ride was $53. Totally worth it! So much better than a shuttle, which waits around until you have enough people to comprise a pool, and then you have to wait for everyone else to get dropped off (I'm never the first). And it would have cost more! If I'd used UberX, it would have cost twice as much, and Uber Pool is only slightly better than a shuttle! Granted, I don't have to tip with Uber, but the total cost of my trip was nearly half with Lyft, so who cares?
adelagia off at the airport, I decided to take Jade to Ho Ho Kitchen (which in Cantonese means “very good” kitchen – not anything to do with Santa ;) ), because in the past they have served some of the most delicious Shanghainese food around, including dumplings. According to my family, it's not as good as it used to be, but their spring rolls are still the best. Still, when pressed, they couldn't come up with a good alternative for this type of food, and I'm not sure I believed them anyway (their interests come and go, and they can afford to be a lot pickier given where they live), so I decided Jade and I should try it for ourselves.Well, we ran into a snag because it turned out that they closed between 3-5pm, and we had got there at 4:30pm. It was way too hot to wait around outside or in the car, so we had to go to McDonald's across the street to kill 30 min. When we returned, there was someone inside – the waitress who always serves us when I've been there before – and she was gesturing that she wasn't open. I was like, not open yet because it's like 4:58pm, or not open at all...? She opened the door and explained in Mandarin (which I can get by on in the basics, but am very poor at in general) that they were closed and were not going to be open that day. Dismayed, I asked if they would be open tomorrow. She said no, that she was very sorry, but they were not going to be open. Then she explained – I think – why that was the case, but I couldn't understand a word of it. So bizarre! Why was she there, if they weren't going to open for several days? WHY wouldn't they open? Of course, that meant I couldn't risk coming back at any point, since we could never be sure that we could eat there!
So, thus thwarted, we went to Sam Woo in San Gabriel. Sam Woo is a popular Chinese BBQ chain, but the food quality differs from location to location. This one was FAR superior to the one we had gone to in Irvine. When we first sat down, the waitress asked us what we wanted to drink – Jade said iced tea, I said water. Then I noticed a sign that said certain drinks were free! So then I told the waitress that I would have an iced tea after all (Jade didn't care for it, but it just tasted like Snapple to me). And she kept grumbling at me that she had OFFERED me a drink at the beginning, and that I had turned it down. She did this at least 2-3 times. Sheesh lady! I didn't know it was free when you asked! Chinese people can be so grouchy.
Anyway, all the food was really good. We ordered: plain congee, beef chow fun, fried chicken wings, and a 3-BBQ combo platter with roast duck, BBQ pork, and roast pork (that had the most delicious crispy skin).
Saturday was a really busy day for us. We swam in Jade's pool, then ordered pizza from Pizza Rev for lunch (it's like MOD Pizza where you can specify as many toppings as you want for an individual pizza). On mine I got: pepperoni, basil, jalapeno, sausage, anchovy, green bell peppers, and mushroom... though come to think of it, I can't actually see any mushroom in the pic. Oh well. They totally got Jade's mom's order wrong, too.
After that, we had to head to the Getty to do the Watson Adventures Harry Potter Scavenger Hunt that we'd signed up for. We've done one of these hunts before (different museum/different theme), but there was something wrong with a couple of the clues, so no one could actually finish it. Because of that experience, they gave us free admission to another hunt of our choice in the future, which we used for this one. It was a SUPER hot day, and the Getty was PACKED, so as soon as we found the Getty people we found the nearest bit of shade and waited there for everyone else to check in. (Everyone else was late because of how busy the Getty was and how we had to wait for the tram... it felt like Universal Studios all over again.)
There was a really decent turnout, and they split us between adult teams and kid teams, because there would be separate competitions. (Kid teams were ones were defined as any group that had even a single child in it.) The guide told the kids that she'd seen kid teams do better than adult teams at this hunt, because of the Harry Potter theme.
Me: *scoffs* That's because they weren't playing against THIS adult team.
We had to come up with team names, and ours came about with true teamwork.
Jade: Okay this is the bad idea, but like -- the Trio! We want something with three that has good wordplay!
Me: Let's use something like The Three Broomsticks. How can we play off that?
Ropo: The Three Broomchicks!
Me and Jade: Perfect!
Then we were off. We got lost for 10 minutes while trying to find the North building. The one we went to didn't have an entrance, or seemed to be for staff or whatever. It turns out that the main museum has North/West/South/East Pavilions, and that's really what was meant by the building numbers on the sheet. Sheesh! Anyhow, we made good time despite this snafu, and the fact that the buildings were really confusingly laid out. There were a few instances in which the clues were a bit vague, and the answers could be different depending on what was actually meant. You probably didn't really need to know Harry Potter all that well in order to do the hunt; the clues were things like, “In this painting, a man is dressed like Professor Quirrell while the boy opposite him could be Harry. How many serpents tails can be seen?” (That was an amalgam of a few clues. I can't actually remember one word for word.) It helped if you could remember what Professor Quirrell looked like, but they also gave out a cheat sheet if you needed it (we didn't).
Anyway, after all that, we got back to the meeting place on time, and after turning in our paper and looking at the answer sheet, we knew we'd done well. In fact, we got every single question right, and even won a bonus point for “best team name”! (Haha, when they said our name, a murmur went through the group repeating the name LOL because people were so impressed.) We totally crushed all the other teams, including the kid teams... it was a little embarrassing, but oh well. Among the kid teams, there was a tie. One team was made up of teenage boys. The other team was made up of like FIVE ADULTS and one, single, solitary 14-year-old. We were rooting for the teenage boys because it didn't really seem fair that the other team was mostly all adults. The tiebreaker question was: How old was Dumbledore when he died? The teenage boys won – they not only came closest with their answer, but they were right on the money (150 years old).
I heard a little kid ask: "Does everyone get a medal?" NO KID. ONLY WINNERS GET MEDALS. I swear, we are so warping people by giving "participation" medals these days. You're all winners! UM, NO YOU'RE NOT. In life there are winners and losers, so helping a kid learn that early and want to be a winner is a GOOD THING, imho.
After that, we raced to Chop Stop to get some salads before heading to The Cupcake Theater for a performance of Avenue Q. Jade and I had seen it years ago in New York, and I wasn't sure what this tiny theater was going to offer, but it was a great cast, and we had a very good time. (The actress playing Gary Coleman forgot her lines a couple of times, and had to be prompted. That's probably the first time I've ever seen that happen for a show that I paid to watch. No big deal, though.)
After that, we were starving, so we went to In-N-Out to pick up burgers for dinner. Gah, still the best burger in the world, and so reasonably priced. Their fries are super terrible, though. The normal way they cook them makes them kind of boring and limp, while getting them well done makes them so crispy they're like air. McDonald's has way better fries, but my favorite fries hands down are from 5 Guys. I ate one and a half burgers, because one of Jade's mom's burgers was not prepared correctly (it had sauce all over it). I SACRIFICED MYSELF SO AS NOT TO WASTE THAT BURGER. I'd do it again, too.
On Sunday, we went to the Promenade to play Pandemic Legacy, Season One (a game where every game you play impacts the next game – you rip up cards and put stickers down and everything. Once you've played it through once, it cannot be played again) and watch movies.
But first! We went to a fruit cart. I'd been wanting to go to one of these for awhile, and finally the timing worked out. It was SO COOL! These carts are all over LA. They have various kinds of fruit that they keep on ice/refrigerated. You tell them which fruits you want, then they cut it up and season it for you however you like, then place it all into a big container. I sadly don't have a shot of the full container, because we got this twice and both times I started eating it right away. >.> I seasoned mine with Tajin, extra lime, and salt. It was so good! My only gripe is that the seasoning is all on top, so the top is over seasoned, while the bottom hardly has any. It was a revelation how good fruit can be with a little extra lime and salt. I also liked the Tajin, but thought it worked better on coconut than on any other fruit.
This first time, Jade and I both got: watermelon, mango, coconut and pineapple. A whole big tub is $6.
Next, we stopped by Cricca's Italian Deli in Woodland Hills. Initially we had gotten two meatball subs, but I whispered to Jade that we should have gotten one large meatball to share, and tried another sandwich. The really nice woman who took our order overheard us, and she not only let us change our order, she even threw in a couple of free cannoli. She was so awesome. However, we changed the order to two large sandwiches, when really we should have just gotten two regular-sized sandwiches. I have no idea what we were thinking, lol. Anyway, both sandwiches were really good. The meatball was on their soft bread and could have used more sauce, while the turkey and capicolla (a type of spicy ham, but it wasn't spicy at all) was on their crusty bread.
We played Pandemic Legacy, and then we wanted to watch a couple of movies: Jason Bourne and Sausage Party, so we didn't really have time to go anywhere special for dinner and ended up at The Rack, a sports bar attached to the mall. Jade and I shared chimi rolls (chicken and beef), which we had to send back because they arrived cold. I also had a Waldorf salad, which was okay.
I really enjoyed Jason Bourne. I was super sad about Nikki, but it wasn't really unexpected. It was basically just like every other Bourne movie, which is I guess what most of the criticism is about, and I can understand that. It didn't really move anything forward... it was basically the last couple of movies, with different antagonists. I guess I just didn't mind that. Sausage Party was insane. It was really funny, but also pretty fucking disturbing. I think Seth Rogen/James Franco is my new Ben Affleck/Matt Damon duo. Separate, they can be hit or miss (mostly miss on the part of Seth/Ben), but together there's some kind of mad genius going on.
The next day, I guess it would be Monday (it's awesome how when on vacation, all the days of the week are the same), I made Jade take me to Fab Hot Dogs. I've been there a couple of times before, but I recently saw the episode where Guy Fieri goes there, so that made me want to go again. The hot dog that he got, the Bald Eagle Ripper, was OK. Nothing that special. (It looks kinda weird in the picture because the hot dog is deep fried. You heard me.) They also recommended some kind of chimichurri dog that isn't on the menu, and that was also only OK. It was better than the Bald Eagle, but I probably wouldn't get it again. The best thing was actually not a hot dog at all, but their LaFrieda Prime Steakburger. Delish! But at $11, I'd still rather get a burger from In-N-Out. Oh, and we got a giant pickle. That was nice.
We got fruit from a fruit cart again (a different one, who actually seasoned after putting half the fruit in, so it was more evenly seasoned), though this time I got: mango, coconut, papaya, pineapple, and cantaloupe.
Then we were off to play Pandemic Legacy at the Promenade again. Jade and I got into a fight, lol. It was about the game, but also not? We were both PMSing and it was more an argument that resulted from external factors like familial responsibilities and what not, I think. Anyway, we both realized we were being silly, while Ropo had to be the Voice of Reason. :))
For dinner, Jade took me to this fabulous sushi place called Sugarfish. We both got the “Trust Me,” which included: edamame; tuna sashimi; albacore, salmon, yellowtail, halibut, and snapper sushi; a toro hand roll; and a blue crab hand roll. It was super delicious. The place was SUPER dark though, so even though I realllly wanted to take pictures of all the beautiful food, the previews I saw on my camera were terrible, so I gave up. It'll have to be one of those experiences that can only be recalled by memory. Which is nice, in its way. (After playing around with it on Photoshop, however, this one and only pic I took didn't turn out too bad. Now I wish I'd just carried on with the others. >< )
(They don't take reservations, so we had to wait about 45 min. We went to Marshalls to kill some time, and Jade found two really fabulous purses that we admired but didn't get. I couldn't even read the designer name on one of them, so I haven't been able to find it again. :/ It's one of those things that I could kick myself for not taking advantage at the time, because now I'll always think about it, lol. If I'd known about my promotion/bonus then, I def would have splurged. I've looked at Marshalls around here, but ... yeah, nothing doing, lol. That Marshalls was in Studio City so had more upscale merchandise.)
Later that night, we wanted to have tacos from Priscilla's again, but it turns out Priscilla's isn't open on Mondays. So then we had to go on a hunt for tacos. We ended up at Casa de Tacos, which was disappointingly mediocre. I've made better Mexican food in my own kitchen. >.> And... let's just say I was grateful and slightly surprised that none of us came down with food poisoning afterward. It didn't seem like the cleanliest place. It reminded me of the "great" Mexican place that
adelagia and I went to in San Diego that was also super mediocre. Jade and I both got nachos; she got beef while I got chicken, and I think I must've also gotten a taco because I took a picture of one, but I don't remember eating it and it def wasn't Ropo's, given that it's covered in onions and cilantro... I think this was the night that we went to Salt & Straw and I got a full pint of the sea salt & caramel ribbons, while Jade got pints of gooey brownie (SO good), roasted strawberry and white chocolate (also, SO good), and Stumptown coffee (good). Man, I wish Salt & Straw were near me so that I could get pints of it whenever I wanted. *dreams*
The following day, Tuesday, was my last in the Valley. We had lunch at Lido Pizza in Van Nuys. I got the spaghetti and meat sauce, while Jade got eggplant parmesan, which came with a side of pasta. Except the side of pasta was the SAME SIZE AS MY ENTRÉE, and had I known that, I would have just gotten the eggplant parm, too. I mean, honestly! The pasta was homemade, and yummy, and their rolls came hot. That is all I ask of rolls. Ropo sat and watched us eat, because they didn't have low-fat ranch dressing. The waiter did not seem to understand that she was on the diet, and kept trying to tempt her with gluten-free items from the menu, until she was finally like, GLUTEN ISN'T THE PROBLEM, SIR. I meant to take pictures – in fact, my camera had a test shot of the condiments – but once the food came I apparently abandoned photography in favor of stuffing my face.
From Tuesday until I left on Saturday, I had meals with my family. Since there's very little of interest to report other than what I ate, most of the following will just be food pics, lol.
I'm sorry to tell you,
adelagia, but I had two of my favorite Chinese meals during this time. They were new places that I'd never been to before! And to be fair, it's unlikely that we would order some of the food my family ordered with just the two of us, so I don't think you really missed out or anything...My favorite meal was probably the one my aunts took me to that Tuesday evening, at Happy Duck House. They did all the ordering. We had:
Peking duck:
Steamed whole black cod:
Garlic lobster:
Tofu omelet:
Wood ear mushroom and... I think Chinese yam?:
It was way too much food, but that's the only way my family likes to order, so I stuffed myself to the gills.
Wednesday night, I treated my whole extended family to a meal at Wood Ranch, a steakhouse/BBQ place. It was good, as usual, but I didn't take any pictures... not sure why... I got the two-item combo with tri-tip and pork ribs. I also had some of my uncle's rib eye.
On Thursday I visited my aunt and uncle at their new place, a condo in a retirement community known as Laguna Woods Village. It used to be known as Leisure World. It's incredible. Basically this retirement community takes up 90% of the city, and they have all sorts of services and neighborhoods and recreation dedicated to them. What an awesome place to retire, seriously. I'd seriously consider doing the same when I get to be 55! Anyway, the bad news is that my uncle was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which has one of the worst prognoses of any cancer. :/ He's undergoing chemo now, and he seems to be doing as well as he possibly can, but this is a scary one so I'm kind of holding my breath. They took me and my other aunt to lunch at the restaurant that's attached to one of the golf courses, and it was surprisingly good. I had the sand dabs meunière. I've never seen sand dabs on a menu before!
Friday, my aunts took me to another delicious Chinese meal, this time at Chef's China Kitchen. They knew I had been thwarted in my attempt to have dumplings, and this place serves that kind of food. But it turned out that I didn't really much care for their dumplings, while the rest of the food was quite good.
Stir-fried rice cake and beef wraps:
Pot stickers and soup dumplings:
Scallion pancakes, which are simple to prepare, but hard to get exactly right. These were very good, thin and not doughy:
This is... “di pong.” I don't know what it is in English. It's a type of braised pork that falls apart when you cut into it, and has a big bone in the middle. Usually di pong is served with a rich brown sauce; this is the first time I've had it so plain, no sauce, and yet it was delicious. They took away the bone, then added it to the soup made from cooking it. The soup was SO GOOD, with veggies and vermicelli noodles. It was probably my favorite dish overall at this meal.
Pork kidney noodle soup:
That night, we went to visit my cousin B. in Irvine. He doesn't get off work til 7 or 7:30, so it was easier for us to go to him. He asked me if I wanted "the best Korean BBQ" or "the best Vietnamese," and I chose the latter. He was super surprised, but I said it was because I've had really good Korean BBQ, which generally tends to be the same, whereas really good Vietnamese is a lot harder to come by (it's usually just pho, pho, pho) and is probably my favorite cuisine.
He took us to Brodard Restaurant in Garden Grove, and it was suuuuper yum. I wish I could have tried a lot more things. :/ Stupid Pacific Northwest and your lack of good Vietnamese food! *shakes fist* At least I have Pasteur's... but it's all the way in Everett. :/
Brodard is famous for their spring rolls. While they do have the traditional shrimp ones, the ones they're actually known for are the nem nuong cuon, pork spring roll:
And the chao tom cuon, grilled shrimp paste roll:
What was so good about the rolls was not only the flavors and quality of the ingredients, but the fact that, right in the middle of the roll, they put a crunchy layer. It's like fried wonton skin wrapper or something. It adds a super awesome texture and flavor.
We also got the banh khot (luna rice cake), but I didn't care much for this one, as the flavor of the coconut was weirdly strong:
I think I love Vietnamese food because they use a lot of fresh herbs and you do a lot of wrapping and dipping. That appeals to me, I guess!
My cousin did all the ordering. He got beef curry and a type of dry noodle with beef and broccoli that his wife wanted to try. The curry was not as thick as I like my curry to be, and the other dish was fine, but it seemed more Chinese than Vietnamese, so I was ambivalent about it:
He also got a chicken dish that was basically Hainan chicken, that we knew his mom would like, and an egg noodle soup at the insistence of our other aunt, who just has to have Chinese-type things, even though, as anyone could have predicted, it wasn't good because IT'S NOT THE SAME KIND OF NOODLE AS YOU'D GET IN A CHINESE RESTAURANT. Sigh.
The next day, my other aunt – the one whose house I was staying in, who lent me her car, and who took me to and from the airport – took me to a local Italian restaurant that was pretty good. I ordered the chicken piccata, while my aunt got spaghetti and my uncle a calzone. The best thing about this meal was the salad bar; it's been YEARS since I experienced a good salad bar at a restaurant, and I'm not sure why it's so great, but it is. I had two helpings of salad and tried a couple of the soups, which made me full, so they took the rest of my entrée home.
And thus, at last, we come to the end of my LA trip.
/collapses in exhaustion
Edit: My cousin drove us to the airport, but on the way back she wasn't able to give me a ride, so I had to either shuttle it or Uber it or taxi it. I couldn't get Lyft to give me an estimate, but UberX (which enables a single rider; I didn't want Uber pool) was estimating $89-105 for a ride to my house. (A shuttle would have cost around $60+tip.) Since I had the $5 discount that Lyft gives new customers, I decided to give it a shot. (Lyft also has a "pool" version, but it said my address was out of its service area, even if I wanted to use it.)
First, it's a little confusing where you're supposed to meet them. There's actually a specific place in the garage where they all are, close to the taxis and shuttle service. *I* had thought that you had to meet them out on one of the islands where the hotel shuttles go through, but no. Apparently, they're not supposed to meet you where regular cars would go, because taxis don't get that benefit either, but I read online that if you call for the service, then move your pin, you can call them to tell them where you are and they will go get you there, circumventing that restriction. However, since I've never used the service before, I wanted to do it by the book, even though I had a lot of luggage and it would have been easier to just meet them out on the curb in front of baggage claim.
I requested the Lyft, which didn't seem to take, so I hesitantly did it again. It asks for a down payment of like $3.50 when you do the request, so I didn't want to accidentally keep charging that amount. It works very much like Uber otherwise. The guy had to call me because he couldn't see me, and that's when he explained about where I should go and such.
We met up, and he seemed perfectly nice, but a weird thing happened where my ride ended, right as I got into the car. Maybe he accidentally pressed something on his phone when he was putting my luggage into the trunk, I don't know. Anyway, so it charged me for that ride -- the ride plus airport service fee of $5 minus the $5 coupon came to about $10. I didn't realize that the airport had a service fee, but I'm sure all the taxis and Ubers get charged the same fee.
After that came the tough part of making sure my next request went to him. We had to wait until we were out of airport range, because the first time I did the re-request, another driver came up. "I don't know what to do," said my driver. Luckily, I'd been through this with Uber a few times. I said, I'll just say my starting location is this hotel (that we were passing), and that worked. And because it wasn't the airport as a starting location, I also didn't have to pay that $5 service fee, lol. Didn't do it on purpose, but am not crying about it, either!
My driver had been driving for Lyft/Uber for about 2 months. I think 7 months is the longest tenure I've ever heard for a driver. It doesn't seem like it's really feasible long term to make a living.
Anyway, a single occupant ride from the airport to my house cost $45. I tipped the driver $8, so the total cost of the ride was $53. Totally worth it! So much better than a shuttle, which waits around until you have enough people to comprise a pool, and then you have to wait for everyone else to get dropped off (I'm never the first). And it would have cost more! If I'd used UberX, it would have cost twice as much, and Uber Pool is only slightly better than a shuttle! Granted, I don't have to tip with Uber, but the total cost of my trip was nearly half with Lyft, so who cares?
