Foodies – Page 10 – thosecoolkims

Plain Wicked.

This past Christmas, Carrie’s parents decided to send the kids & the spouses to see Wicked (the Musical) and have a swanky pre-theatre dinner at Lawry’s Prime Rib. The four of us agreed that it was a pretty slammin’ gift! Yesterday we finally got to redeem our gift, and it didn’t disappoint – the show was absolutely fantastic and the dinner (of course) was superb. We were pretty excited about the evening of course, but we were even more excited to spend some “adult time” with Eric & Shirley (having 5 kids means they don’t get to be sans-children very often!). We talked, told stories & laughed without being distracted by the kids (don’t get us wrong – we love to see the nieces & nephew!). We had a really good time and got a kick out of seeing Eric & Shirley enjoy the show so much.

A few highlights of the evening:

The Kims do Lawry’s.

Eric & Shirley.

Eric is thrilled by the menu.

Ed is anxious to get the grind on.

Carrie’s the big sis, so she was in charge of tha $$$ (cha-ching!).

We love 3-day weekends.

Yesterday we ventured out to Yen to have Japanese food on 2nd Street. We’re sad to report that it was expensive – and it didn’t taste so great, either. We were very underwhelmed and say if you’re gonna get sushi on 2nd, stick with Apengo.
Yen does get points for presentation though…

And they also get points for a sunny outside location that makes you feel like it’s summertime…

We then decided to venture up to MOCA to check out the Poetics of the Handmade exhibit. It was very, very cool. This exhibit featured all Latin-American artists who made things by hand – and it was really fun to see. 100’s of lipsticks carved into intricate chess pieces, giant atomic structures hanging from the ceiling that you could walk through made of glue and q-tips…it was fun…

Downtown LA is cool though – but there’s always this really eerie feeling about it, because it’s always seems deserted. “Nobody walks in LA…” isn’t just a catchy song, we suppose.

Just a few pics from the day…

SF, Day 3.

So much today – where to begin?!? We got up early with yummy breakfast in mind. We tried to hit up the local spot we kept reading about, Dottie’s True Blue Cafe, but much to our disappointment, there was a line around the block! So, we decided to keep the splurge alive and head over to The Clift Hotel, which was designed by Phillippe Starck. Ed stayed there last time he was in SF on business (lucky guy!) and he said I had to see it. Boy, was he right! It was a grand place and very exciting. Unfortunately, I was too intimidated to take pics in such a fancy place, but I have to say that it was the best breakfast we’ve ever had! We’re still salivating.

Today was also “Bay to Breakers” here in SF, which is a BIG DEAL. Ed coined it as “Burning Man, the Marathon”. There were people everywhere, in all kinds of outfits, with all kinds of alcohol and various other things that were making the 7+ mile trek across town. It was pretty cool, but pretty overwhelming – it was already pretty busy in town being a Sunday and all. But with this giant event, we figured we’d skip the sightseeing and take the road trip we wanted to go on to Bodega Bay. Of course, aside from thinking it would be a pretty drive with excellent seafood, this was the major source of inspiration:

(Yup, the spot of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds!)

The drive didn’t disappoint, it only took a little over an hour and we had the chance to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. So pretty!

Ed was hungry….

but Carrie squashed the thought…

heh.

Here we are!

Then it was off to Bodega bay where we had great scenery and awesome Dungeness Crab and Chowder at a great Restaurant!

We looked all over though and we couldn’t find the schoolhouse and the playground in the teeny-tiny town! But it was definitely a nice time getting out of the city and it really felt like we were on vacation today. Now, we’re getting all settled in at our new home for the evening, The Phoenix, and we are gonna get drinks at the Tonga Room, a Tiki Bar that has a live band doing cheesy covers on a raft that floats through the indoor lagoon. Sweeeet!!!!

SF, Day 2 addendum: Frisson!!

Yep, Frisson was incredible. It was even all orange inside, and we all know that’s Ed’s favorite color! Carrie continues to amaze me with her ever increasing tendencies to try new things…she ate chicken pate knowing full well what it was! Anyways, the food was delicious. Some pics…

Weekend Success

Back to reality now that the Palm Springs weekend has come to a close, and it couldn’t have been better. On Saturday, we went to a fantastic restaurant called The Falls. They’re known for great steaks and greater martinis, so it was an apropos place to have dinner on Carrie’s birthday. We were given a great tip the night before to request the table on the balcony with it’s very own firepit, and our wishes were granted! It was a very special dinner.

The dinner crew (you can just barely see the edge of the firepit in front of us):

The view from the table:

The next day we were off to take our very own Modern Architecture tour. We saw so many great houses that were absolutely drool-worthy. We decided that we wanted to move here:

Or here:

Amongst many of the houses we drove by, we saw Neutra’s iconic Kaufman House. This is as beautiful as architecture gets!

The last of the bunch was driving by one of Mr. Frank Sinatra’s homes. We were shocked at how accessible this place was! Right off the street, no palatial gates or enormous barricades to protect it. You just gotta figure Frank wanted to stay close to the action.

It was pretty modest from the outside, but you know it has to be slammin’ indoors. The only slight clue that it was something out of the ordinary was the fact that it had a small door to the left of the driveway saying “Service Entry Only”.

But of course, we also had to fit in a ride on the infamous Sky Peoplemover, aka the Aerial Tramway. We’d always wanted to do it, but never got a chance. It was super cool! We wish the tram cars still looked like this one:

Now the cars are all fancy and the floor rotates so you can get a view from all angles. We were not so prepared though – there was snow at the top! It was hard to imagine because it was sunny and warm down below! Guess we shoulda known better, but it didn’t stop us from going up anyway! The pics don’t do it justice, but it’s a magnificent view – and VERY high!!! This shows part of our path to the top.

Now it’s back to the good ol’ LBC.