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Published: August 5th 2015
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LA
Mr Hanks and his prints Well,
We've been able to make a couple trips out to the west coast since planting ourselves on the east coast. Mostly California. Generally California is not our first choice as the travel time to California, Europe and South America is pretty much the same so we prefer international over domestic. We do have some friends in California so most of these trips were made to visit or celebrate events - weddings, birthdays, baby showers, etc.
Food is obviously always the first thing we look for and LA does have its fair share of good restaurants. First up was GORDON RAMSEY AT THE LONDON WEST HOLLYWOOD so we could cross off eating at a GORDON RAMSEY RESTAURANT (actually we already accomplished this, but let's just say we wanted to cross this off in California as well). We made reservations and it was pretty empty - never a good sign to start.
- we started off with a couple glasses of Moet Chandon and Simi Merlot
- the bread and butter was extremely good. The bread was a herb crusted bread and was some of the best we have had
- as appetizers we had the bone marrow toast
Gordon Ramsey
Rarely I would report on the bread and butter, but it was really good w/ parsley and a caper salad (pretty good)
- also the lobster soup w/ lemongrass, mussels and jasmine rice, lemon and tomato (really good)
- I had the beef filet w/ garlic herb crust and black peppercorn sauce, potato fondant, and beet puree (good)
- Nikkie had the braised pork belly and scallops w/ manila clams, curried lentils, and a soft egg (good, but extremely large and really rich)
- we finished off with the creme brulee which was ok
Really good meal and glad we did it. I booked a night at the HOLLYWOOD ROOSEVELDT HOTEL. A hotel that oozes history, pomp and glamour. Usually not a hotel we will stay at because of the price, but they were running some kind of discount so why not. The room was modern and funky, but pretty average I thought (again when I say average I compare to other hotels of similar status/ price we have stayed in so still a very nice room, but comparatively average). Really cool pool and the halls are decorated with all kinds of old historic pictures from years past when this hotel was really in its prime. Still a good option and we probably
LA
Just finding the stars and their prints just got the average room for the money we were able to spend.
Since we've never really done the LA scene thing we decided to be tourists for a couple hours and explore. First up was the HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD WALK OF FAME since it was right there by the hotel. Cool to walk the sidewalks and see the stars' stars and finding the names of your favorite past and current stars. Right there also is the GRAUMANN'S CHINESE THEATRE (or MANN'S CHINESE THEATRE) FOR THE FOOTPRINTS OF MARILYN MONROE and many other stars. There are some hand prints, nose-prints and many other kinds of prints of the celebrities immortalizing their prints in wet cement. Also right there is the Dolby Theatre listing all the past best-picture Oscar winners (which we have all watched by the way and is something that I highly recommend). Many tours start from here so probably a good spot to start any sight-seeing tours. Also many little souvenir shops where you can pick up as many gifts as you want for all the people back home.
We checked out and drove around more before settling on THE IVY FOR BRUNCH.
- the bloody
LA
Proud to say we have seen every movie listed on these "beams" at the Kodak Mary was really good and spicy with fresh celery
- the scarlatti (champagne with strawberries) was also really good
- Nikkie had a papaya, avocado, butter lettuce salad w/ balsamic vinagarette and mesquite grilled shrimp and it turned out to be one of the best salads we have had
- I had the India's hamburger (grass fed natural beef, smoked bacon, brie, and basil on a sundried tomato brioche bun with french fries and garlic-basil mayonnaise). Also a really good choice.
For some reason we were really surprised by the food and were kind of blown away as it was definitely one of the best brunches we have ever had. Probably should have figured as much as this is one of those hot spots for celebrities. So for a really good brunch spot definitely keep this in mind.
We had places to be and Palm Springs was waiting so we headed out. We rented a big house in Palm Springs with some other friends and just spent the weekend lazying around the pool. Just relaxing. Did not see much of Palm Springs, but looked very desserty (which it is I guess) so can't give you
Hollywood Rooseveldt Hotel
I am sure the pool scene gets crazy in the summer much info on the town itself. Well it was only a long weekend so on the way back we hit In-and-Out Burger (a must in our household as we do love the burgers and these are not available on the east coast). We always just get the hamburger and cheeseburger and fries. No secret menu orders for us.
On a separate trip we planned a long weekend to San Diego and again flew into LA to just spend a day there. It was more of a "explore the fast food joints of LA" day as this is pretty much what we did. First we hit up NATE & AL's. We really had no idea that this was a true Jewish deli, so much to our surprise when we walked in and it totally looked like and reminded us of Katz's. Just imagine we flew across the country having all the Jewish delis where we live and we ended up at a Jewish deli. We could just laugh at ourselves. I had the BEEF BRISKET SANDWICH (good moist brisket) and Nikkie just got POTATO PANCAKES with apple sauce which unfortunately was not the best. We drove down the coast and
The Ivy
Really good food just explored the area without really doing much else. We stopped at FATBURGER (good burger) and FATBURGER FOR CLASSIC ONION RINGS (really good and not too doughy). Check that one off. At the end of the trip we also stopped at PINK'S. Not gonna lie - we are not familiar with the restaurant scene on the west coast at all so always exciting to read about these institutions that has been around for forever and gets frequented by celebrities. PINK'S HOT DOG SHACK FOR A HOT DOG WITH CHILI SAUCE (sauce was very beany, but OK) was what I went for. Not the greatest dog with the chili sauce. I also did PINK'S FOR A STRETCH CHILI DOG and PINK'S FOR ORANGE CRUSH SODA. Not the best I've had, but did it and can check it off. The line was pretty long, but really just one of those experiences waiting in line looking at all the dogs on offer (many dogs were developed and are named after celebrities and these dogs get pretty intense and over the top). Definitely will go back to try more dogs.
This time San Diego was our destination to visit some friends. Since we
LA
Mandatory stop each trip had the experts on hand we checked out some of their local favorites. We went to Jayne's Gastro Pub for dinner with them. We had the:
- chicken gnocchi (ok - pretty rich and not much gnocchi)
- gambas al aljillo (sauteed shrimp, garlic, chilis, olive oil and a baguette) - ok
Apparently they are more known for an awesome burger so probably try that. Next we tried Swamis Café:
- good bloody mary
- waffle with fruit (good)
A great college dive with good food (and really cheap). Also check out Bottlecraft (local brewery run by our friend). Many beers on tap in an awesome setting in sunny San Diego with an awesome setting right on the sidewalk.
Likes
- the weather is always a plus
- San Diego is always a good call for some good fresh seafood, especially a good fish taco
Dislikes - traffic is pretty bad. We avoided it for the most part when we could
- like most metropolitan areas the more touristy areas tend to be pretty expensive when it comes to hotels. We actually found in both LA and San Diego that the hotel rates dropped significantly
Nate and Al's
We flew all the way across the country and ended up at a Jewish deli of which we have many right on our doorstep. Oh well. once you get out of the metropolitan areas just a little bit.
And that's it for Cali. We did not check-off any items on our list so still 253 down and 5,528 to go.
Til next time from constantly sunny-no rain-or snow-or cold ever California
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