hayao miyazaki in july!

hayao miyazaki (totoro, spirited away) is coming to the states in july! john lasseter and the academy are hosting him at this event and we got tickets! so excited. time to rewatch his previous (fabulous!) films, and catch the ones i haven't.

from dancer to runner.

from the dreamworks lagoon.

i've always considered myself a dancer. i still do, but i realized recently that i haven't taken a dance class in almost two years and who knows if i can even pick up choreography at this point. i also realized a couple months ago that i hadn't done any form of real exercise since starting work last summer. so i started running. and i hate running. i used to give so much shit to my friends who are runners, and call them crazy all the time. but i started feeling so gross that i had to do something, and running was the easiest and cheapest thing to do. at first i would just run a couple miles on the weekend, maybe once or twice during the week. then dan moved to a new place by the beach and we started taking 3 mile runs after work a couple times a week, plus both days on the weekends. then we designated one of our weekend runs to be a 'long run' a couple weeks ago, which was 4 miles. and we decided to get bikes this past weekend, and have already logged 12 miles on those. i've started to actually want to go running. the me-of-5-years-ago would scoff. i think i'm becoming a runner / exercise-nut. *sigh*

spicing things up.

the one-year-of-employment watch gift at DWA.

last tuesday i had officially worked at dreamworks animation for an entire year. so they gave me a watch (which i have heard breaks real quick if you ever wear it) and a little card "signed" by JK. more importantly, i still have a job. (=

as usual, we went to the wine tasting in hollywood after work again on friday - this week featuring 4 california wines (1 white, 3 red). it was fun, and i got particularly woozy as mike wasn't as pleased with the wine selection this time and kept pouring the rest of his glass into mine. both let's be frank and coolhaus were there serving up their truck-made delights. i ordered an ice cream sandwich from coolhaus with the chocolate cookie and vanilla bean ice cream. it was amaaazing. their chocolate cookies are halfway between a cookie and a brownie. yuummmm.

afterwards we hopped over to the westside for our other friday night fixin - kogi at the alibi room (it's usually either kogi or wurstkuche). they had a special pork belly tacos with sesame leaf instead of a tortilla. yum yum. and the kimchi quesadilla was even better than i remember. and of course, the short rib tacos were just delightful (in case you haven't noticed, i've been using delightful to stand for really freaking delicious).

we did two long runs this weekend, mostly in anticipation of having all-you-can-eat korean bbq sunday night in hollywood with the fam - my brother harvard was in town for just sunday night - but due to unforseen circumstances we opted to eat some spicy szechuan cuisine at fu shin in pasadena instead.

also, we went and purchased bicycles! or to be more specific, the specialized globe vienna 2. we made our purchase at cynergy in santa monica and they called today to say they're ready! hopefully we can make it out to santa monica before they close sometime this week.. otherwise it'll have to wait until the weekend. it's a pretty major purchase, so i've decided to wait awhile on getting the palm pre after all (not that i have much of a choice with it being sold out still...)

fish are friends and food.. and idiots?

signage at 99 ranch market in arcadia.

my first braising adventure : part 2.

plus recipe & photos!

so my first braise was a success! but man, it's a lot of work both before and after (the cleanup is a bitch.. perhaps its time to invest in some cast iron). we made garlic rosemary roasted potatoes and sauteed napa cabbage as sides, and had an italian red with the meal. it was all very delightful.

[braising adventure photoset]

ingredients
_4.5 lbs bone-in short ribs cut into ~2 inch wide pieces.
_750 mL bottle of a dry red wine.
_salt, pepper, olive oil.
_1 yellow onion, peeled and chopped.
_1 carrot, peeled and chopped.
_1 celery rib, peeled and chopped.
_4 thyme sprigs.
_5 garlic cloves.
_3 cups beef or chicken stock.

preparation
_preheat oven to 350.
_season ribs with salt & pepper.
_brown ribs on all sides in olive oil over moderate heat until crusty.
_transfer ribs to plate.
_add onions, celery, carrot, garlic over low heat until soft and lightly browned.
_pour off excess fat.
_add wine and thyme sprigs.
_deglaze and reduce the wine at high heat until thick and slightly syrup-y.
_return ribs to pan.
_add stock and enough water to cover ribs.
_braise in oven for 2-2.5 hours.
_allow to cool.
_refridgerate overnight.
_remove excess fat that has solidified at top.
_heat uncovered over medium heat.
_cook until reduced by three quarters, about 1 hour.
_move ribs around to ensure ribs and glaze don't burn.

my first braising adventure : part 1.

chihuly @ phoenix desert botanical gardens.

went to bodega wine bar in santa monica for drinks on wednesday night with mike, dan, mattJ, ray and his gf. they have a $15 carafe special, which was nice. the place was pretty dead but the tempranillo i had was quite tasty.

a week or so ago, dan and i realized we had a bottle of red sitting around that we weren't too keen on drinking. we had purchased 2 bottles of it at one of the bevmo 5cent sales, and while it was alright, it's been lonesome on the rack through many other bottles. so i came up with the brilliant idea that i would try my hand at braising something! that something ended up being the quintessential short rib. so we bought 4.5 lbs of bone-in short rib at whole foods and i did part one last night (with short rib, it's a two step process, requiring an overnight refridgeration). browned the meats, browned the vegetables, reduced the wine added chicken stock and braised for 2.5 hours at 350 degrees - and man, did it smell delightful. afterwards i poked some of the meat with a chopstick and the bone fell right off! i'm so excited. the plan is to do part 2 and serve on saturday night. i'm hoping it turns out fantastic, but i'll settle for 'pretty good' since it is my first attempt at braising and all. i shall post photos and recipe after the weekend.

hong-chih kuo for subway..?

taiwanese subway commercial starring hong-chih kuo, the dodgers taiwanese relief pitcher who is currently on the DL. it's pretty awesome. (=

btw, NT$69 is about 2 bucks.

w(h)ine-y weekend.

wine tasting on the hollyhock lawn in hollywood.

headed to the friday night wine tasting hosted by silver lake wine at the barnsdall art park again this weekend with mike, dan and rob. despite it having rained earlier that morning, the sun was out and it was actually quite nice. this time they feature four argentinian wines - one white (pinot grigio), three reds (tempranillo-malbec, malbec, cabernet). stangely, even though i tend to prefer tempranillos and malbecs, i actually wasn't too big a fan this time, and enjoyed the pinot grigio and cab much more.

afterwards, we headed to downtown to grab some much-craved wurstkuche sausages. it was considerably later than we've been accustomed to going so the line was out the door, but the sausages were delightful as always. i stuck to my favorites (mango jalepeno, rattlesnake & rabbit) and tried a new delicous belgian beer called kwak but they sadly didn't have the special glasses that they're supposed to come in on hand - next time!

went for our weekly long (4mile) run on saturday morning and grabbed brunch over in brentwood at new york bagel. then we went to a sprint store so i could get my grubby hands on a palm pre. sadly they were sold out and the rumors of restock run from as early as next week to as late as july. grrr! at least i got to play with one a bit in the store - it is fantastic and i absolutely adore it.

for dinner, dan made (and introduced me to) halupki casserole. we opened up the bottle of lasorda classico chianti (yes, that would be tommy lasorda, the dodger legend.. and yes, we bought the bottle because i'm a silly dodgers fan and thought it would be interesting to at least try and YES it was surprisingly good!) and watched terminator 2 : judgement day. now we just have to make sure we watch the third one before terminator salvation isn't in theatres anymore.

dan ran the brentwood 5K on sunday morning. conveniently, the finish line was right next to tavern, which has a bakery called the larder that was open so i stopped in for a small latte and a croissant. the small coffee is an actual small (not a starbucks small 'tall', but actually small, which i can see some people not liking, but i prefer it since i can never finish) and really really good. but the most mind blowing thing was the croissant, which are made in-house. i'm kind of a croissant snob, and try the croissant at every breakfast/bakery i go to (at least once) and i'm usually pretty disappointed and kind of wasn't sure why i even still liked croissants anymore. i will definitely be going back often just to get my croissant fix here because they are so so so soooo freaking good, exactly what a croissant should be i think. flaky with a slight crunch on the outside, soft, light and buttery without being too air-y or bread-y.

[brentwood5K photoset]

later we lunched at king's road cafe with ben and andrew, did some shopping at crate&barrel (two orange pillows and glass pitcher), and went foodshopping for dinner. we ended up making grilled salmon and crispy garlic rosemary potatoes, paired with they encylopedia riesling. a lame end to a lame post, but *shrug*

wtf, june?

koi.

whew, this week has passed quickly. AND it rained / thunderstormed yesterday. it never rains in LA past april - this is beyond the usual june gloom and i don't like it one bit.

burgers&beer @ rustic canyon.

griffith park observatory lighting up at dusk.

rustic canyon has a new special for monday nights - specialty burgers and artisanal beer. dan and i decided to check it out tonight. basically they have 2 special burgers on top of their usual $16 niman ranch burger, plus 3 possible beer pairings. tonight's options were a burrata burger (with burrata cheese, baby heirloom tomatoes and niman ranch bacon) for $18 or the short rib burger (with braised short rib and a fried egg) for $21. the toppings are literally added on top of their niman ranch burger - which made the braised short rib burger too meaty for me, but both were delicious albeit a bit expensive. their fries are delightful, and the pickle was especially good since it packed some spice. i don't remember the name of the beer we ordered, but it was light and apple-y, but again, more expensive than we were expecting ($25 for a 750mL bottle). so, our verdict at the end of the night: it's good and worth trying, but not something than we can do too often (maybe just once a month or so), for both the sake of our wallets and our stomachs, which were full to bursting by the end.

a lot to digest.

casualties (0r spoils?) of wine tasting.

so i woke up tuesday morning suffering from food poisoning and took a sick day. the food poisoning didn't fully run its course until saturday, but i was well enough to go to work, but man it was a long, painful three day week. plus, i think my body just hates me in general - a bunch of weird little ailments have hit me and i can't help but feel like i'm being punished for something. blehk.

after work on friday, dan, mike and i headed to barnsdall art park where silverlake wine was having a wine tasting at frank lloyd wright's hollyhock house. it was a nice selection of four french wines (a sparkling, a rose and two reds) with generous pours and a gorgeous view (it's on a hill in hollywood) despite the june gloom. afterwards, we hit up jitlada - a nearby thai place of some acclaim for its authencity - and we were sure glad we did. we ordered several dishes but the most amazing and delicious by far was the mussels (which as it turns out, is one of jonathan gold's top 10 dishes of 2007). all the spicy food was a bit rough on my recovering digestive system, but it was worth it.

[wine tasting photoset]

tried a new spot for lunch on saturday called marmalade. simple but delicious, and a bit price-y even for me. we then spent a good portion of the afternoon at the annual culver city art walk. there were fewer galleries on washington than last year, but more on la cienega so i guess it evened out. i fell in love with a $7,500 painting but obviously opted not to do more than look at it. i considered getting a couple other pieces though, priced in the $500 range, but decided i would rather save up that money for the three things i'm really looking to get next (a bike, a camera and the palm pre).

we made dinner at dan's place - honey walnut shrimp and spicy green beans, then headed to arclight sherman oaks to catch a showing of pixar's UP. it was amazing. i absolutely loved it. it's everything one could ask for in a movie - a love story (beautifully told in a 15 minute montage that had me bawling my eyes out), adventure, comedy and LOTS and LOTS OF PUPPIES! i may have to go watch it again..

sunday was a relatively lazy day. we finally got around to watching the first terminator movie (borrowed from a coworker). we decided that we wanted to see the previous ones before seeing the new one in the theatre, so hopefully we'll get through them all before it's not in the theatres anymore.