Scribbles

Time keeps flying. It’s been more than half a year since moving to the west coast and settling into downtown Los Angeles. Whenever people ask about it, I tell them that not only has it way exceeded dreadful expectations, I really enjoy it. Aside from the obvious benefits like work, being closer to loved ones, and the weather, how has my LA experience been so far? Being in NYC right now presents the perfect time and space to reflect on that million dollar question.
 
I didn’t hold any false notions of replicating my previous NYC lifestyle, one requiring a density of people and happenings. Different cities have their own character so it doesn’t make sense to clone an existing lifestyle (that is not completely suburban) from one geography to another. The important thing is getting a feel of LA life and figuring if it could grow on me.
 
I started with the food scene since I enjoy it so much and also am quite picky about what I eat. I began with a simple strategy – follow Yelp recommendations. But soon I found the reviews requiring too much sifting through and the accusations of extortion made me uncomfortable. So I moved on to leveraging social media in full, sweaty embrace. With the indispensable Google Reader, I follow numerous foodie blogs whose authors share similar tastes with, as well as the latest from the LA Times food section. I also access specific news for downtown LA through several excellent local sources. And yes, Twitter has also been a fantastic resource. Who can ignore it, especially after all the attention on the roving, twittering Kogi BBQ trucks that have been all the craze in LA?
 
Back on the topic of my eating habits, I suffer from what the Accordion Guy calls a “socially acceptable eating disorder”, namely a vegan diet. The history of that traces back to about 5 years ago, when I attended a motivational seminar that challenged me to change my diet, with the intent of attaining higher energy to accomplish all of my personal goals. Impossible as it seemed, being the irredeemably hardcore carnivore that I was, I went vegetarian for a while and realized its benefits. The difference in how I felt was night and day. It’s hard to deny the truth once you know it and I couldn’t go back. Still, it was difficult. But since then, through much exploration, my options from a taste perspective have vastly improved, no more bland and nutritionally empty foods. Also the amount of new literature out there supporting this eating philosophy has contributed to further improved health benefits. At the end, the main motivation is to feel better and have more energy for things like reading that book everyone recommends or writing this blog post, things that we never have time for. And it works for me. I will gladly share more on this topic in the future.
 
While I strive to eat healthy, I don’t always; cultural and social obligations often get in the way. And I find that acceptable, since it’s not a religion and I’m not part of PETA. Sometimes there are dishes so wonderful that I simply have to have every so often. As a result, when I do break the routine, I won’t settle for mediocre, run-of-the-mill stuff. That said, access to healthy food choices in LA has been comparable to NY. Not like moving to Dallas or anything like that.
 
It’s reached the point to expand my activities in southern California beyond the food scene towards more social and local events. I still miss tremendously my incredible group of friends in NY. Yet I accept the need to building a new network of friends, through reconnecting with old ones in the area, and putting on that out-going persona to befriend new ones. Expanding my geographic coverage requires venturing out of downtown into the other neighborhoods. And while my curiosity of LA’s myriad pockets has often been tempered by my aversion to driving and parking, my past efforts to get out of the comfort zone have usually paid off. And then there are always more foodie trips.
 

Our beloved friends from NY arrived last Thursday night and kicked off our extended MLK weekend. Putting to the first true test of how my apartment handles guests, I think we managed it quite well. For one of our friends – it was her first time in California – we strung together a diverse itinerary stretching from the beaches of Santa Monica all the way down to Orange County. And for good measure, we even trekked out to Magic Mountain for some amazing roller coasters, eleven of them to be precise. And heavy partying in Hollywood and tons of food filled in the gaps. Believe me when I say that I’m exhausted, mostly from the eating. That and some unhealthy eating this weekend for CNY, should be grounds for another detox session.
 
Whenever I travel, I usually hate the tourist traps. And this time around, I’m sincerely glad that we didn’t overdo them. I always enjoy a walk along the ocean so Santa Monica works for me regardless. Walking down avenue of Stars along the Chinese Theater was something I hadn’t done in years. The rest of it was relatively localized: Chinese food in San Gabriel Valley felt like my weekly visit to see gramps; brunch at Farmers Market is already becoming part of my weekly routine; and reliving my youthful days in Magic Mountain, a theme park you don’t expect to beat out Disneyland or Universal Studios when it comes to tourists. Not that I could possibly bear Disneyland anyways.
 

Our laundry list of merry eating and drinking:
LA-y places: Brunch at Farmers Market (meet me at 3rd and Fairfax), 3 am vegan meals at Swingers, self ordered grub from terminals at uWink in Hollywood, the obligatory pit stop at In-n-Out Burgers (where I unfortunately had a small bite after years of successfully avoiding);
Downtown: Shojin (my adopted family in downtown), Nickel Diner, drinks at the Association;
San Gabriel Valley Taiwanese Food Tour: Din Tai Fung, Tea Station, yam porridge at Lu’s Garden;
and a long haul down to the OC for raw Vietnamese food at Au Lac.

 
When I review that list I realize that we crammed too much into too short of a time period. Next time I would tune things down a notch and include a real beach trip for lounging around. Sand under the toes has to be a crowd-pleaser. As for consecutive nights of clubbing, hindsight says they’re excessive. Although it did make for two separate instances of negotiation training. On the first night out, the parking attendant tried to rip us off by charging us another $10 for picking up the car after 2am. He threatened to make us wait until the parking office opened in the morning. I made him unlock the doors so the girls can rest in the car while I talked his ear off for 10 minutes. I’d like to believe it was my fast talking instead of his fatigue that led to him “doing me a favor” and handing off my keys. And on the second night, four members of the crew managed to wrangle themselves into the club for free after missing the time limit on guest list access. The money saved was eventually spent on Tequila, which may not have been such a great deal after all. Nonetheless, I can’t help thinking that our over-partying resulted in missing our planned visit to the Getty Center, one of my favorite places. But hey, no regrets, c’est la vie.
 
All in all, the timing was perfect. After freezing in NY, our guests enjoyed perfect weather here, with most days nary a cloud and temperatures friendly to t-shirt and shorts. On they day of their departure, we bore witness to the Inauguration at home while watching the crowd congregate 2 blocks down at LA Live. An inspiring and memorable send-off to a great visit, undoubtedly with more to come.
 

Let me preemptively acknowledge the irony of this posting and me being on detox right now.

After finding out from Column 1 of LA Times that the Nickel Diner was in downtown, I knew I was in for a treat. While everything sounded honky-dory in the article, nothing could quell the inner skeptic like a good outing.

Well, the first try was a strike. Good friend from SF was over on Friday night for a game at Staples Center and we wanted to grab a quick bite before hand. Silly me didn’t do my homework, otherwise I would’ve known that the place isn’t open for dinner yet. No problem, take two the next day for lunch. We had a late start and were famished. As we vultured for parking, we noticed a line out the door. Undeterred, by either the line or the lack of parking in downtown LA, I eventually settled for the paid parking lot across the street. Upon walking in, I immediately felt at home. The decor, the set-up was exactly as I expected, comfortable, cosy, and pleasantly busy. One of the owners, Monica, took down my name and seemed apologetic for us having to wait. No problem, we only waited 5 minutes before settling down in a nice booth in the corner. The attentive server quickly offered us drinks while we scanned the menus. What better start than having some fresh OJ.

Now the food. It has the typical diner items from hamburgers to entrees. What I enjoyed though, was the breakfast menu. I’ve been searching for a good brunch place a la NY for a while, and this place definitely brought it. A lot of choices, including pancakes, and vegetarian friendly dishes as well. Don’t be discouraged by the “vegan” chili, it totally rocked with their fresh salsa. We had that and their homemade blueberry sauce with an order of French toast.

After stuffing our faces silly, the other owner, Kristen came by with two plates. First a small dish of sample-sized puffs, which turned out to be their Peanut Salt, an amazing blend of salty and sweet, peanut butter and chocolate. The second, was a full tray of desserts, so many I can’t even recall all of them. There was a mystery muffin that Kirsten said she couldn’t tell us what was it was made of, other than we’d have to have the “balls to find out.”

We wimped out and went with the vegan tapioca. Did I mention that we were already stuffed? Well, it was delish – very subtle in sweetness and flavor, but cool and light. I loved it.

all photo credits to Dave Lee

We were quite delighted to have tried out the diner, with its charming character serving up great food in our gritty neighborhood. Needless to say, you’ll find me there once I’m off my detox.