July Photo Dump

It seems that every month is speeding up. Does anyone else feel that? It's like I go through my life as normal, then all of a sudden, it's like, oops! It's almost August! In the spirit of filling you all in as best as I can with photos, here's a quick little post full of snapshots about what my life has been like this July.

I made these skewers for a Fourth of July party that I attended! I bought strawberries, blueberries, and a premade pound cake. I cut the pound cake into cubes and made as many skewers as I could!

I spend a few hours on the 5th of July with my family in Dana Point. I could honestly look at this view all day.

I travelled to Seattle in the second week of July, and while I'm not normally a person to take plane-window photos, I found this too beautiful to ignore. I'm sappy, get over it.

The most amazing french toast ever at Portage Bay Cafe near the University of Washington--this is three thick slices of challah, french toasted with an oatmeal crust, berry compote, and vanilla crème anglaise drizzle. There's a berry bar as well, so we got some fruit as well. I'm still salivating over how delicious it was. (I shared this and the dish below with a friend)

Summer vegetable frittata at Portage Bay Cafe! It had peas, spinach, fava beans, and ladysmith cheese. It was topped with arugula and a vinaigrette, served with fruit and this awesome toast on the side. If you're at UW, definitely make time to eat here, it's amazing!

So if you squint, you should be able to see Mt. Rainier in the picture! This was taken as we walked around UW's campus. In all, I think we walked eight miles before two p.m. that day.

Naturally, we had to stop for coffee and a snack at Cafe Solstice, where I had an iced chai tea latte, my friend had a latte, and we split an (enormous) oatmeal raisin cookie. So tasty! I don't understand how people don't like oatmeal raisin cookies. 

The library at UW. The architecture at the school reminded me a lot of my high school's architecture and the East Coast, so I simultaneously felt homesick and at home. But this library is gorgeous and, even though I don't ever study in libraries, can definitely appreciate such a beautiful home for books.

I ran a 5k in Gas Works Park the day I left Seattle--it was a women's race, and pretty much an entirely flat out-and-back course, so it was a lot of fun! I haven't run a 5k (or even more than a mile) since November, so it was cool to see that my time actually didn't change at all! You could also read this as me saying I'm really slow. 

It was along the water and so green. I really had a fun time. I walked two miles each way to get to the race, and it was a very fulfilling start to my day.

When I finally got back to LA, I made a trip to my local Trader Joe's, stopping at Native Foods Cafe for a spot of lunch on the solo. I had their amazing vegan taco salad, which I highly recommend, accompanied by half lavender lemonade/half green tea. It's always so amazingly delicious!

My boyfriend and I met up with some people for Friday night Jazz at LACMA, where we sat on the grass and hung out for a few hours. However, after seeing so dang many Instagrams of this lamppost installation, I was so gutted to see that this thing is tiny. Maybe fifty feet by fifty feet. I had expected something a little more impressive, I think... needless to say, I will not post an Instagram joining the ranks of artsy LACMA-inspired ones. 

What do you have planned for the rest of the month? I'm hoping to get a banana bread recipe photographed and posted, so get excited! 

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Headed Down South...

Well, I've kind of been keeping a secret for the past few months. But now, the cat's truly out of the bag, so I can fill you all in! On account of my dad's work, my parents are relocating from Boston to Alpharetta, Georgia! My dad's been down south since January, and my mom has been splitting her time between Massachusetts and Georgia. However, they move into their new house at the end of this month!

Since it's my spring break, I figured I would fly out to spend a few days with my parents in their current digs in Alpharetta, and to see what the town's all about. I flew out on a red-eye on Friday night, and landed in Atlanta ready to boogie. Dad picked me up from the airport, and we spent a quiet morning at home with mum. Then, off we went for a busy afternoon!

We started off by walking the Big Creek Greenway. The Greenway is a trail system through the towns of Alpharetta and Roswell, meandering about eight miles through the woods along Big Creek. Apparently, we went at a pretty quiet time--however, we still saw tons of walkers, joggers, rollerskaters, and bikers traveling both ways on the trail. We only walked a few miles, but took our time enjoying the beautiful weather.

After our walk, we headed into downtown Roswell and parked along Canton Street. Downtown is a short, bustling bit of the street, packed with restaurants and little shops.

We poked around in stores like The Chandlery and The Painted Monkey, pictured above. While we didn't leave with anything, it was fun to explore some of the different things they had to offer!

We then headed across the street to Roswell Provisions, where we poked around the deli (so much cheese) and decided on a little afternoon treat! It's not a vacation without a mid-afternoon afternoon ice cream, let's be honest. My parents each got Moose Tracks, which was apparently good, but could have benefitted from more chocolate and peanut butter. I ate the coconut ice cream, which I really enjoyed. I love coconut, so this was an unexpected surprise. It was creamy, sweet, and perfectly coconut-y.

After our ice cream, we drove back home and I promptly took a nap on the couch, then groaningly rose to do some laundry, then headed off to dinner. My parents have sampled many of the local restaurants, and decided on Spice, a tapas-style restaurant. To take advantage of the nice weather and to escape the too-loud live music, we enjoyed our meal outdoors.

We started by splitting the spinach salad, which featured sun-dried tomatoes, onion, crumbled walnuts, and blue cheese. The bacon was omitted for obvious reasons, and it was dressed with a lemony vinaigrette. It was pretty darn nice! Nothing too special, but executed well. There was a minor debate over whether the nuts were bacon or not, but they turned out to just be nuts.

My parents then ate the blackened tilapia fish tacos, which were quite good, but could have done with more fish and slightly less seasoning. They both agreed that they enjoyed the tacos, which is sometimes a rare thing.

They then had the mussels fra diavalo, which were mussels in a spicy pomodoro sauce served with toasted focaccia. I nibbled on some of the focaccia, which was buttery and awesome, but mom and dad said that the mussels were somewhat drowning in the sauce.

Finally, finally, the grilled vegetable flatbread came out of the kitchen. Crispy flatbread topped with zucchini, onions, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, tomatoes, and goat cheese, this was exactly what I wanted. It just worked really well and all of the vegetables held their own flavor-wise.

And in a surprising move, we ordered dessert! We generally don't order dessert at restaurants, but we were told that the tiramisu was the kitchen's specialty... sadly, it wasn't that good. It could have done with less cream, more liqueur, and more powder atop.

We rolled on home and I immediately fell asleep, exhausted after a long day.

On Sunday, eleven hours later (yikes), I woke up to pouring rain outside of the window. We spent the morning inside watching a few Premier League matches and doing various work, and then mum and I did a spot of grocery shopping at the local Publix. I almost had a bit of a freak-out because I couldn't find any hummus in the whole store, but at the last minute, we found some tucked away in a small display. Phew, am I right?

Later in the afternoon, we went to see The Monuments Men. It's a movie based on the true groups of art historians and scholars rushing to save stolen European artwork during WWII and the fall of Nazi Germany. While it may have been a bit lacking in terms of historical accuracy, it was certainly a fun watch! I would definitely recommend it--there's some serious acting talent represented and the true story it's based on is absolutely fascinating.

We're cooking dinner on Monday to avoid the St. Patrick's Day crowds, so we ate out at PURE tacqueria following the movie. It's this cool little converted gas station, and it now has five locations throughout Atlanta. Ours is the original though!

We were greeted with some really dang salty chips. Nevertheless, we inhaled the first basket and were immediately given a second basket without question... unnecessary, but the second batch were fresh, hot, and less salty, so they were a lot better.

I thought I ordered one of the specials, the vegetable quesadilla, but I'm pretty sure this was the vegetable enchilada. I didn't realize it wasn't what I had ordered until about halfway through, but I had thought about the enchilada anyways, so whatever. It was filled with cheese, spinach, mushrooms, and onions, and had a pretty serious kick to it! The corn salsa atop was also a nice touch. It wasn't what I had wanted, but I'm glad I got it!

Mum ordered the chicken burrito, which was easily larger than her head. It came with black beans and rice on the side, and the (apparently tasty) burrito was topped with green sauce, onions, lettuce, guacamole, and cheese. She said the guacamole was nothing special, but she did get the uneaten half of the burrito wrapped up for lunch tomorrow, so I'm assuming she liked it quite a lot!

Last but not least, my dad ordered the fish tacos. I'm not sure he thought it would be a DIY operation, but he said they were alright. He didn't like the tortillas, since they allegedly tasted "like cardboard" and had a bit of a strange texture, but the fish and vegetables were nice.

A huge part of the charm of PURE was definitely the atmosphere. It has a funky, almost Los Angeles vibe to it, and the restaurant proudly proclaims their reliance on sustainable and organic ingredients. The restaurant felt like it could have been in Venice, not the South!

So that's a little summary of the weekend! I'm here through Wednesday morning, so expect a few more posts from the south detailing our various shenanigans. I'm making dinner tomorrow, and on Tuesday my mom and I are exploring Atlanta itself, so stay tuned!

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48 Hours in New York City

Note: I wrote a complete draft of this post on my flight back to Los Angeles. I somehow lost it, and I may have shed a tear. Maybe. Here's my (probably improved) re-write.

I managed to fit a lot into my Christmas break this year. After my exams ended (on the last possible day, naturally) I beelined to Boston and kept busy with cooking, skiing, working, and seeing my friends. Luckily, I was able to see just about everyone I wanted to, even with so many crazy college break schedules. However, one of my favorite parts of break by far was my quick trip to New York City. I met my high school roommate, Tayler, in New York last Thursday, and went back up to Boston on Saturday. It was a short little visit, but we managed to fit a ton in!

I spent a solid few hours before our trip planning our itinerary, so we knew pretty much exactly what we were doing the whole time. I had restaurants, addresses, opening times, and prices for just about everywhere we went! But, you know, we are college students, so we kept it flexible!

Armed with our plan, we met up at Port Authority around noon, after spending our mornings on our respective buses. Hungry and eager to stretch our legs, we headed about ten blocks uptown to Tom and Toon, a really cheap and allegedly delicious Thai restaurant. The main appeal was their $8 Express Lunch menu--Tayler and I both ordered Pad Thai and split an order of dumplings, and only ended up spending $15 a piece. I will say, Yelp did me well. Tom and Toon's food was very generously portioned and really delicious.

Once we ate our lunch, we continued walking uptown to our hotel, the New York Hilton Midtown. We expected a lot of walking all over the city, so we definitely wanted a more centrally located hotel. My dad was also extremely kind and donated his Hilton points, so the hotel room cost next to nothing. Thanks, dad! Glad I keep you around.

We unpacked quickly and immediately walked way, way downtown towards the High Line, an urban park and walking path constructed on an elevated freight rail line. It's about a mile long, winding between buildings and above streets, and adorned with various metal sculptures. At one point, you can even see the Statue of Liberty in the distance!

It's also pretty nifty that there's a ton of art on display. Whether it's the aforementioned metal sculptures or the painted building walls, there's a million places to look. While we didn't walk the High Line in both directions, it's said that if you do, you notice completely different things on your way back.

Once we reached the end of the path, we descended to street level and wandered for all of a minute until we found Bubby's High Line, a restaurant and coffee shop. Guys, this place was so hip. Wait staff in flannels, all the men had beards, lots of reclaimed wood, great coffee, and what looked like delicious pastries... I think Tayler and I stumbled into the right place. We sat around chatting and warming up for about an hour, then made the forty-block trek home.

Near our hotel, we saw this nifty little holiday decoration. While it was sadly gone by the time we left, we really enjoyed seeing it as we came to and from the hotel. It was absolutely stunning, and the trees wrapped in fairy lights made it magical. I almost thought it was December, not January!

Once we arrived back at our hotel around five, we watched the Food Network for a while and leisurely got ready for dinner. We made a reservation for 7:15 at Trattoria Trecolori, and got seated as soon as we showed up. It's a really cool place--exposed bricks and beams, what appeared to be three decent-sized dining rooms, and wine bottle decorations (my favorite).

We started with some crusty bread, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping. I'm a sucker for warm, homemade bread, and this was really, really delicious. Tayler and I may have eaten the whole basket...

Just as Tayler and I were fumbling over the menu, our waiter came by and immediately sensed our dithering. We had decided on splitting two vegetarian pasta dishes, and knew we wanted the gnocchi. I explained the situation to our very knowledgable, very New York waiter, and before I finished two sentences, he interrupted and suggested switching to a pesto sauce for the gnocchi, and a vegetarian house special. Kind of blown away by his confidence and understanding of what we desired, we agreed and he zoomed off.

Both dishes came pre-split, because our waiter knew that Tayler and I were sharing. We started with the gnocchi, which were pretty good, but the gnocchi themselves were fairly heavy. While the mushrooms added a nice depth and umami to the dish, it was pretty heavy. I'm glad that I only had half the dish, as it would have been hard to finish a full portion. However, it was overall a nice dish, and I'd probably order it again, given the chance.

The kitchen special was absolutely unbelievable. It was a linguine in a tomato cream sauce, with shiitake mushrooms, and a variety of greens tucked within the pasta. This was absolutely incredible. I'm sure that it was entirely in the sauce--Tayler and I decided that it was more like a vodka sauce than a strict tomato cream sauce. We talked almost exclusively of this dish. Homemade pasta, rich mushrooms, the freshness of the greens... definitely our favorite!

Once we settled our bill, we wandered over to Times Square. We walked around, stopped into the Toys R Us to take some pictures and hang out with Clark Kent Superman.

Tayler and I then grabbed some mini cupcakes from Baked by Melissa, and finally returned to our hotel room for the night. Exhausted after a long day and many miles traveled, we ate our cupcakes, changed into pajamas, and went to sleep!

The next morning, we slept in, but were still out of the door by 9:30 to grab a quick coffee and pastry at Le Pain Quotidien. Unfortunately, the weather was absolutely nasty. It started with rain, turned to snow, then went back to rain. The streets and sidewalks were unbelievably slippery--so much so that as I stepped into a crosswalk, I lost my balance on some slush and fell into a puddle in the street, completely soaking my skirt. Let me tell you, New York puddle water is not the nicest. We rushed into the New York Public Library with plenty of time to spare before our scheduled tour, and immediately headed to the bathroom so I could stand in a stall while Tayler attempted to dry my skirt in the hand dryer. If that's not friendship, I don't know what is.

After that whole debacle, we made our way back up to the lobby and people-watched for about fifteen minutes before the tour started. The lobby is only a small sample of the beauty to come in the Library. The stonework is really breathtaking, especially when thinking about the years that it must have taken to complete the art in such incredible detail.

Naturally, the tour departed from the lobby. Our tour guide spent about ten minutes telling us about the history of the library, as well as some of the animals hidden within the various carvings around the building. Can you spot the lion in the above picture?

Among other rooms, we took a quick peek into the exhibition "The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter". Above, see the original toys of Christopher Robin: the real-life Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Kanga, and Piglet. Pretty cool, huh?

We were led up to the third floor, where we learned that these lamps purposefully displayed the lightbulbs at the urging of Thomas Edison. The Library has always had electricity, Edison was still around during its construction, and naturally he wanted the Library to show off his invention. The more you know, right? I certainly had no clue that was why the lightbulbs weren't obscured.

Our guide led us through the Rotunda and a few other rooms before concluding the tour. I had never visited the Library before, so it was really incredible to get a personal grasp of its scale and grandeur. It's also cool how it's still a real library as well as a cultural landmark. I hope that I will be able to visit again in the future!

We left the Library in a lucky spell of clear weather, made a quick detour to Grand Central Station, and then walked up 5th Avenue for about forty blocks with the intention of reaching the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tayler and I made a pit stop on Madison Avenue, just two blocks from the museum, to Neofytos Deli to grab a quick sandwich, and then we returned to the Met to pay our $12 entrance fee and wander around.

We started in the Ancient Greek and Roman sculpture room. This is only one example of the unbelievably intricate and detailed works that were produced many centuries before common era. There were many layers of carving in this piece, and Tayler and I spent a solid five minutes just admiring this one work.

We then headed to the South American exhibit, where gold featured prominently, and there were incredible headdress ornaments just like this one on display. Can you imagine having that atop your head? I feel powerful when I wear a five-dollar tiara, what would a priceless headdress feel like?

Tayler and I then paused for a brief selfie in the exhibit about vanities throughout the ages. Oh, the irony. There were various vanities from the mid-16th century up until the 1970s, so it was really quite fascinating to see how the basic form and function hasn't changed over that time, just the way in which they were decorated.

We then came to some (relatively) more modern sculpture. Again, the detail is just unbelievable. Especially in the second sculpture, there were even indents on the central man's leg where the other bottom-left man was holding him. Also note the tendons in the central man's foot. This was another that we just looked at for a number of minutes, contemplating the time and effort that it must have taken to create this work of art.

We made a quick swoop through one of the Egyptian rooms, where they have rebuilt an entire arch and tomb, as well as creating a reflecting pool and installing statues.

Tayler speaks Japanese, so we spent some extra time in the Asian gallery. While she was off exploring the Japanese Brush Strokes exhibition, I was staring wide-eyed at this room covered in the Chinese writings of one man. The picture doesn't do justice either--the panels hanging from the ceiling were about fifty feet long. There were thousands and thousands of characters written, and the precision with which they were all written was astounding.

This was one thing that I thought looked cool, but I didn't understand; a taxidermied deer (taxideermy? no?) was covered in glass balls by a modern Japanese artist. I think the meaning was completely lost on me, but it was funny to hear other people approach, remark on how cool it looked, then realize that a dead deer was inside.

After nearly three hours, we made our way out, stopping for some stained glass and some good ol' horse armor. Isn't it weird how armor, by nature used for war, can be something so gorgeous?

We then met up with our friend T on the Upper West Side, and huddled under shelter at the Lincoln Center while we figured out our game plan for our Friday night.

We decided on Japanese Barbecue, and headed back to Times Square to eat at Gyu-Kaku. We managed to make the last call for happy hour, so we enjoyed some cheap edamame and, for T, a huge half-priced beer. Win-win. We ended up barbecuing a variety of meats (for them) as well as a lot of assorted vegetables, and we all enjoyed it. There's something rustic about cooking (burning) your own food, and taking your time consuming it.

The three of us spent the rest of the evening hanging out as well as wandering around Midtown and a bit of the Upper West Side. We all turned in before one am, just because there really wasn't that much happening! Of course, Tayler and I were again tired from standing on our feet all day.

The next morning, the three of us went out to brunch at the Brooklyn Diner in Times Square. Tayler and I both had the egg white, spinach, and feta omelette with toast and polenta cubes, while T had eggs over medium and some of the grossest-looking sausage patties I've ever seen. Apparently they were pretty inedible, and they strongly resembled Jimmy Dean microwave sausage. Not ideal.

However, my omelette and polenta were really nice! The polenta was definitely the star--and the tomato sauce only helped! While the meal was good and kept me going throughout my bus ride back home, it was pretty pricey for what it was.

We parted ways shortly after we finished brunch. We headed back to the Hilton, Tayler and I packed and checked out, then I made my way downtown to catch my bus home. T and Tayler spent about another hour together before she had to catch her bus. Of course, my bus took forever to get home, but I'm so glad I spent the time in New York.

For a very reasonable price for a college student, and for the amount of activities that Tayler and I squeezed into our schedule, it was an awesome 48 hours. Great food, great people, great city... I can't wait to be back on the East Coast to take another detour to the Big Apple.

Of course, now I'm back in the other cultural hub of America, Los Angeles, so expect lots of posts coming from me in the next few months! I'm really looking forward to exploring LA and writing some restaurant reviews. Stay tuned!

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