25 October 2012

recent cookings.


we've been eating at home quite a bit lately, and eating well at that: festbier and brats for oktoberfest; garlic and green onion marinated rack of lamb; pork neck (aka pork toro) and eggs.

glanville and babinski at sqirl.


a new coffee shop, glanville and babinski, opened down on virgil in the sqirl space. so we stopped by, and it was great! we met both owners and chat with them for awhile, as well as had some brioche toast with nut butter and jam from sqirl. they also sell their delicious iced coffee in bottles. we'll definitely be back.

19 October 2012

ramen yukinoya in arcadia.

there is some great japanese food, and thus great ramen, in los angeles. however, it rarely graces the SGV. and when it does, it's usually a second outpost of another place and not as good as the original. but a little place called ramen yukinoya has opened up in a plaza dominated by a 24-hour CVS very near where my parents's house is. so, we had to try it out, and it's pretty good.

i really liked the thick, chewy texture of the noodles, and the soup is tonkotsu-style but not as heavy and fatty as say, daikokuya or yamadaya. well, it's a bit lacking in flavor honestly, BUT they do have soy-marinated whole garlic cloves and a garlic press at every table, so its easy to pump it up. we also ordered a side of chicken kara-age, which was good, but pretty disappointing. it's still good to have that option in arcadia though.

neighborhood bites : fix and pie.

on our big move weekend, we didn't have time to cook so we stopped by some cheap, good local eats. first was for some burgers and fries at the fix burger (by my old place), another was for a hearty breakfast at house of pies (by james's place) before doing heavy lifting. even though i hate leaving my neighborhood, it is definitely nice that james's neighborhood as lots of good eats, too.


17 October 2012

wordless wednesday : signs of fall.

MESSHALL.


after a day of moving big furniture items from my apartment into storage, as well as taking some of it back to my parents's house for my brother, we were very exhausted, and in need of a good meal. we decided to try messhall, a recent addition to the los feliz hillhurst food scene that we've been driving past for the past few months.

12 October 2012

coffee + milk ( + pastries!) at LACMA


we went to the LACMA the other day to scope it out a bit since we were planning on having our engagement photos taken there a few days later. we had to stop by the new coffee + milk to try their coffee and pastries. i had a macchiato and james had the angelina (iced double shot latte with simple syrup, shaken) to drink, and he had the elvis cupcake (banana, peanut butter, bacon) and i had the bacon and fig pop tart. very delicious! it's a great addition to LACMA, where they already have a really great bar in stark bar.

HUGE portions @ alcove.

we discovered a new brunch place in los feliz recently. it's kind of sad because it's very well known, and really close to james's place, but we just so rarely venture to hillhurst, and we have our staples we don't usually like to stray from. all that said, alcove is awesome and we will definitely be back.




despite being super busy, they are super efficient; both the host and our server were extremely nice and accomodating. the coffee is good and the portions are ridiculously huge. neither of us got through our plates. i had the meat lovers omelette and james had his usual huevos rancheros, but with a side of texas chili.



09 October 2012

seafood for peas annivesary.

after getting back to LA, it was my parents' 38th annivesary! so we took them to newport seafood in san gabriel for a huge, seafood-y meal. it's pretty much known as the best chinese-style seafood you'll get in the SGV. we ordered all this for only four people! and there was definitely lots of leftovers to be had the next day.


the thorntons.


this post is really just a collection of some of the family we hung out with while visiting alabama. the first few take place on james' grandparents's property. there is lots of awesome old stuff there! and i staked claim to the old fridge above. it still works! don't you think it'd be so pretty in a nice seafoam green?

08 October 2012

cracker barrel and hot and hot fish house.

so after philadelphia and boston, we headed down to alabama to see james's family and friends. i'm only going to mention two places that we ate (most of the time we ate at someone's house anyway). the first, obviously, is the cracker barrel. i think we went at least twice, if not three times. i still can't get over their blueberry pancakes. they're so good. at all of them. and they've ruined blueberry pancakes (and pancakes in general really) anywhere else for me.


boston : the sights.


05 October 2012

boston : the food.


after all the great eating in philadelphia, we continued eating well in boston, but this time with family! john picked us up from the train station and took us back to his place friday morning; his wife went to a bakery, whose name i can't remember, and bought us croissants and morning buns!

01 October 2012

celebratory dinner @ alla spina.


this is the problem with traveling and blogging - i don't keep good records of things! so now that i'm getting around to blogging about my amazing meal at alla spina in philadelphia, right after james proposed!, i can't go anywhere near into the level of detail it deserves because i don't remember the details! here's what i do know: james had just proposed. i'm deliriously happy. we are meeting matt, one of my favorite people from my college days. i am completely overwhelmed by the menu. so we asked our amazing waiter to just order for us whatever he thinks is best, and to order lots, because james and i can eat for four, honestly. we also order the publican special, which is basically a six-pack of beer for the kitchen. what can i say, we were very happy, and when we're happy, we're generous.