Bottega Louie Lunch and MOCA

As some of you may know, I went to boarding school in New Hampshire for high school and made some truly incredible friends during my time in the most boring state capital in the country. Naturally, it's hard to keep in touch with some of them, being in California, but I'm lucky that Cara goes to school with me still. We somehow became friends in my freshman year, when she was a junior, and have stayed friends until now. She is just about to start her fifth year at USC for her second degree and she and I try to get together every month or so to just catch up.

Now that it's summer, she and I both had a totally free Friday to do with as we wished. We concurred that we should try and get cultured, so we took the Metro downtown and started the day at Bottega Louie for an early lunch. I started with an iced tea, which was accompanied by lemon, mint, and orange on the side. 

Cara went for a soy milk latte, and found it fantastic. I regarded the foam with great interest, since it was particularly thick and delicious-looking! 

She and I split the bruschetta for a starter, and it was truly delicious. The bread was crunchy, the tomatoes fresh, and there was a great garlic flavor. The garlic still had a pretty raw flavor, but it was tempered with the tomato and bread, and didn't overpower the rest of the dish. It was a little messy to eat, but so good!

I ordered the Louie salad without shrimp. It consisted of iceberg lettuce, hearts of palm, avocado, sweet onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, and dijon vinaigrette. I was impressed with this salad! The avocado gave a great deal of creaminess to the salad, even though all the ingredients remained very crisp and fresh. The hearts of palm were also a fantastic addition--I rarely encounter them and have actually never cooked with them, so it was nice to be reminded of an ingredient that I'd like to add to my homemade meals.

Cara chose the Ceppo Gamber, which was made of jumbo shrimp, ceppo pasta, broccolini, cherry tomatoes, and garlic, with a fleur de sel and pepper topping and an olive oil broth. She really enjoyed it! It looked very fresh, and while an indulgence, not too heavy.

We sat in the restaurant eating and talking for well over an hour, until we finally decided to mobilize and walk over to the Museum of Contemporary Art, or MOCA. I understand very little regarding contemporary art, and Cara's the same, but since it is an important museum in Downtown Los Angeles, we figured it would be good to experience it. Also, tickets are only seven dollars with a student ID!

This painting here was created by Andy Warhol--while he's obviously famous for other more psychedelic works, it was fascinating to see a more technical and simple painting of his.

Cara and I both stopped to admire this wall of photos, and in particular, their arrangement. We almost simultaneously said that we'd decorate our future houses like this--birds of a feather, perhaps? The photos displayed were all black and white subject photography pieces, ranging from a gas mask to a grandfather clock.

These little carved dogs were created by Jeff Koons, the artist most famous for his giant balloon dogs. I looked at this piece for a few minutes--they were intricately carved and their expressions, minutely different in person, give each of the dogs such a genuine and real personality. 

This is why I don't understand contemporary art--it's pretty and I love string lights, but I find it hard to discover more meaning behind lights hanging from the ceiling and pooling on the floor. Folks, that's why I stick to science!

This is simply a painting of Jane Fonda with the feminist logo coming from her eye. She has been known as an active supporter of feminism for a long time, so this was an interesting conceptualization of her opinion.

After we wandered through the gallery, we headed on foot to their other gallery downtown, the Geffen Contemporary, which currently houses an the largest exhibition of artist Mike Kelley's work to date. No photos were allowed in the exhibit, but trust me when I say that this is worth a visit. It's weird, unsettling, and thought-provoking, which I truly believe is its point. Both weird and cool at the same time, I enjoyed walking through and experiencing the mixed-media art, but Cara and I agreed that returning to the quiet sunshine was certainly welcome after such an immersive experience.

Since the Geffen Contemporary is right in Little Tokyo, Cara and I decided to grab an afternoon coffee and people-watch at Café Dulcé, which specializes in various coffees and pastries. We decided against their crazy doughnuts, which range in flavors from fruit to Cinnamon Toast Crunch to bacon!

However, I got a delicious (if not overpriced) Vietnamese Iced Coffee... after I ordered, I immediately turned to Cara to explain that I had no idea what I just bought. Luckily, it was delicious. Vietnamese Iced Coffee consists simply of a dark roast coffee with sweetened condensed milk, and it's addicting. It's quite sweet and rich, but the depth of the coffee makes it extremely pleasurable.

Cara went for an iced soy milk latte, which she really enjoyed as well! Café Dulcé had a lot of very good reviews on Yelp (my best friend) and I think its main strength was in its well-executed coffees and creative, unique combinations. If you factor in its location in a bustling square in Little Tokyo, it's very easy to see why it's so popular!

After we finished our coffees and people-watched to our hearts' content, we walked back to the Metro and parted ways. According to my FitBit, she and I walked 15,000 steps and about seven miles together! I always enjoy spending time with Cara, and the added culture and delicious food really made it fantastic. However, she and I have had great nights alone and with takeout, so maybe it's just the company!

She's actually moving downtown soon, so we're planning on exploring more of what Downtown LA has to offer. Stay posted for some more delicious eats and cool sights!

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Laguna Beach

In what's becoming a President's Day tradition, my roommates and I got away from school for the long weekend. J's grandmother lives in a beautiful house in Laguna Beach, so we headed down on Friday afternoon with a quick pit stop at In-N-Out. Tradition, right?

In the true spirit of Valentine's Day (or Galentine's Day), we headed out for a romantic dinner (ha) at Gelson's. We picked some stuff up at the deli, then headed back to eat and watch the sunset.

Embarrassingly enough, after dinner, I fell asleep on the couch right as the Olympics started, and only roused myself to wash my face and slip into bed properly for the night.

The next morning dawned bright and early, so we nabbed ourselves a spot on Aliso Beach right at the crack of 11:30 am. Since I don't really do sunbathing, I went for a jog in the sand while J and N soaked up the rays.

When I re-joined my friends, I did some thrilling assigned reading on the kuru disease in Papua New Guinea and eventually burrowed under a towel because I thought I was burning. Why I live in Southern California sometimes escapes me, I will say.

We spent the afternoon doing a spot of shopping downtown, I got in a spot of reading, the usual. I read Sun Tzu's The Art of War and got through about 75% of Dale Carnegie's influential How to Win Friends and Influence People. Don't worry, I'm still working through it before I go to bed every night!

For dinner, we drove to downtown Laguna to eat dinner at El Ranchito, a Mexican restaurant. We waited for our table outside... gotta love Southern California in February!

After a twenty minute wait, we were seated and greeted with some fresh tortilla chips. Don't mind if I do!

Naturally, we ordered some guacamole to share. It was great--very simple with huge chunks of avocado. It was a huge bowl, came with extra chips, and we devoured the lot before our entrees came!

J ordered the Baja Bowl with sautéed vegetables. She thought the portion was perfect and that the vegetables were "very nicely sautéed". She says she would definitely order it again! She had no complaints about it.

N ordered the same Baja Bowl, but with Carne Asada instead of vegetables. While she did really enjoy it, she thought it was too salty. Logical reasoning led to the thought that it may have been the steak that made it that way--while I think she enjoyed it, the bowl was not finished. Interpret that as you may!

I ordered the veggie fajitas. Just as J vocalized about her vegetables, I thought mine were sautéed wonderfully. The marinade was truly excellent. Unfortunately, El Ranchito cooks their rice in chicken broth, so I went without. The black beans were fine, and the (not pictured) tortillas were pretty good. A very solid dish!

Before heading home, we stopped for a coffee at Koffee Klatch.

We all got various lattes--I ordered a Chai Tea latte, N a regular latte, and J a raspberry Chai Tea latte. While my and J's lattes were truly excellent, N's was a bit too sweet. However, it was good enough that we went back on Monday!

Similarly to Friday night, we watched the Olympics before crashing embarrassingly early. Hey, it was a vacation!

Now Sunday, J and I actually got up sort of early. We headed to the Dana Hills high school track for a bit of a run. After we drove home in the sunshine, we got ready with N, and then the three of us took J's grandmother out for lunch at Taco Surf. It's her favorite restaurant, so we treated her as a "thanks for letting three college students take over your home for the weekend" sort of thing.

Like all of the best restaurants, we were greeted with food before we even ordered. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of ordering the guacamole. It was really not that good. It tasted sweet somehow, and not like avocado. The guac had a runny, strange consistency... not ideal. It didn't even look good on camera.

Luckily, before we knew it, our food arrived. J ordered the veggie tacos, which were apparently a perfect amount of food, and very tasty.

Grams got the huge chile relleno, which she apparently gets every time she visits Taco Surf. She loves it! The inside was absolutely stuffed with cheese. I debated ordering this, I will say, and I'm kind of craving a chile relleno now. Next time!

I decided on the very colorful and delicious taco salad with sautéed vegetables in the absence of meat, with balsamic dressing on the side. I only used a tiny splash of the dressing, since the vegetables had a marinade that permeated the rest of the salad. Let me tell you, the salad was awesome. I couldn't finish it--so many vegetables, textures, tastes... I would definitely order it again.

N ordered the three tacos, one each of Baja fish, regular fish, and carnitas. While they were all allegedly good, the carnitas were apparently amazing. The carnitas are a specialty of Taco Surf, according to J and her grandmother, and N thinks deservedly so!

Happily full, we dropped Grams off at home before heading to Fashion Island for an afternoon of shopping. We stopped at Whole Foods deli to grab dinner, then went back home to begrudgingly do some homework.

As the sun set, we had an impromptu photo shoot, as well as a proper shoot for J's fashion blog.

What a wonderful place to rest for a weekend. I woke up during the night and saw the moon reflecting beautifully off the ocean. I swear this isn't real life.

On Monday, after I took a brief trot around the neighborhood, we packed up the car, grabbed coffee at Koffee Klatch, and headed back to Los Angeles.

In somewhat related news, this exact weekend and posting date marks the first birthday of a Chef in College. I've hit over six thousand page views in the past year, and it's amazing to think that there are so many people besides my parents who care about my life.

To everyone who has read a post, liked, commented, followed one of my recipes... thank you for your support. What started as a simple way to keep track of what I do and what I make has turned into something so much more.

This weekend was a magical way to celebrate my plunge into the blogging world. I'm so grateful for it all.

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Umami Burger

Recently, J, N, and I had a little girls' night out. We dressed up, hopped in an Uber, and traveled downtown to the fabled Umami Burger, famous for their culinary exploration of the fifth taste--umami! It's one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. According to Wikipedia, umami is a word borrowed from Japanese, which can be translated "pleasant savory taste".

We were seated immediately at a cute little table, and made ourselves at home. It's so nice to get away from school, even if it's only for a few hours. Umami Burger is certainly a cool place to sneak away--think lots of exposed wood, cool bar, friendly waiters, very Los Angeles.

As we pored over the menu, our awesome waiter served our drinks and delivered their umami ketchup. Curious, we all sampled straight from the spoon to see what was so different about this ketchup from normal Heinz. I would say it was more like a marinara sauce in taste, rather than ketchup. It was tasty, but I wouldn't have exactly defined it as "ketchup"... I suppose there's not a better word. We enjoyed it so much with our meals that our waiter had to bring over extra!

Up first came J's sweet potato fries. Slightly sweet and wonderfully crunchy, we all noshed on these quite contentedly. Oftentimes, sweet potato fries can get a little soggy after cooking, but these maintained a great crunch throughout the short time it took us to devour the lot. After our meal, we agreed that these were the best fries out of the three we tried.

Next, N's fries came out. She told the waiter to "make 'em manly"--aka smothered in beer cheddar, bacon, and onion strings. I didn't eat these because of the bacon, but N and J both agreed that they were sinfully good. I do have to say, it's pretty hard to go wrong with cheese, onions, and potatoes.

Finally, my fries! I got the classic Umami thin fries, which were crisp but still very potato-y. Is that how anyone else quantifies their fries, by their potato-ness? I am definitely not the only one. Anyways... these were just plain good fries. Well executed, and a great accompaniment to my meal.

J and I both ordered the same entree, the lentil sloppy joe. It was a heck of a lot of food, and we both cleaned our plates. Even when I ate meat, I was not a fan of the sloppy joe... but this has totally changed my opinion. The lentil, mushroom, and tomato mix was topped with umami-ed crema, cheddar cheese, onion strings, and jalapenos. The bun was great as well--nicely toasted, great flavor, all that jazz. Each bite was a really great combination of all of the "five flavors", and I personally think that the jalapeno added the perfect amount of bite.

J loved hers as well. She said that the sloppy joe's main strength was its consistency. Many vegetarian options lack a general density, "when it doesn't really feel like you're eating anything", according to her, and this meal was extremely hearty. J also praised the tomato flavor of the lentil mixture.

N ordered the straight-up truffle burger. While it came out looking less than impressive, it apparently tasted quite nice. There was truffled cheese, garlic aioli, and truffle cheese on this baby, but N thought it could have done with more truffle flavor. She still ate it all very happily, and it was apparently a very perfectly cooked burger. She also praised the bun... she particularly wanted that classic "U" stamped on top!

After we demolished our entrees and our fries, we settled the bill and decided to stroll up Broadway a ways to digest. We popped into Urban Outfitters to do a spot of shopping, then, with slightly lighter wallets, carried along down the street until we came to Bottega Louie. Known for their awesome desserts, we grabbed a few, ordered coffee, and headed back home to enjoy our spoils.

J bought this monster macaron, which was the usual almond flavored with vanilla cream, raspberry jam, and fresh raspberries. She praised it heavily for being light yet very flavorful.

N ate two regular-sized macarons--salted caramel on the left, and raspberry on the right. She said that the salted caramel tasted a bit burnt, which was a huge bummer, but the raspberry was apparently incredibly delicious. Luckily, she ate the salted caramel first, and saved the best for last!

To finish it all off, I ate a little mini hazelnut chocolate thing. I have no idea exactly what it was, but it was like a very dense, fudgy-frosting thing inside a chocolate shell. It was extremely rich, but incredibly good. My pastry was really small, probably about two inches in diameter, but I savored each tiny bite.

It was a fantastic, laid-back girls' night out, complete with delicious food and great company. While it's a bit of a splurge meal, we all loved being off campus and having a well-executed meal. Downtown LA is really going through a revival. There's all sorts of shops, cool restaurants, and things to do besides just offices. I go to CrossFit downtown, and have the firsthand chance to see the dozens of restaurants, clubs, and stores that look interesting. Whenever you have a chance, I recommend exploring Downtown a bit. It's changed a lot in the past ten years, and I think you'd be surprised to see some of the cool things it has to offer.

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