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Another Sunday Funday in Los Angeles

This past Sunday we headed up to Van Nuys for the annual Best of France and Italy car show. This show was basically Ed’s dream – it featured French and Italian cars mostly from the 1950s-1980s. It was not your typical car show! I have learned quite a bit through osmosis just by being with Ed for so long – so I must admit, I really enjoyed it too! Many of the cars you just wouldn’t see here in the States, and we were impressed by the variety and condition of the ones on display!

This little number was one of our favorites – a 70s model Citroen DS21! Ed and & I LOVE these cars. They look so space-age and so unique. Just a bonus that this car was red!

The DS models have these really cool lights on the back and just don’t look like any other car! We’d love to own one, but they are really tough to find stateside, and they are waaay out of the price range!

This is a fun 60s era ad for the Citroen – so space-age!
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Some other favorites were this Caravelle Convertible …

And, who could forget the Renault “Le Car”?!?

Then, as if Ed’s morning couldn’t get any better, he unexpectedly spotted his favorite car ever – an East German communist Trabant! These are extremely rare and even more random – this car had Hungarian plates!

Ed stands happily by the Trabi

After leaving Van Nuys, we decided to do something completely different – we headed down to Culver City to see Sanrio’s Three Apples art exhibition, which was celebrating 35 years of Hello Kitty!

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Hello Kitty was such a staple for girls in my generation growing up … the pencil cases, stickers, lip gloss, you name it – every little girl coveted their Hello Kitty stuff, and she’s certainly maintained her staying power through the ages! Three Apples was cool because in addition to showcasing TONS of HK merchandise throughout the years, they also had a lot of favorite low-brow artists showing work inspired by HK. The space was impressive and we had an awesome time!

Here are a few favorite art pieces from the show:

(L): Mermaid w/Hello Kitty by Gary Baseman, (R): Awesome Velvet Hello Kitty Elvis!

Tara McPherson’s HK piece

Loved the colors and “classical” twist to this one.

Crazy Lady Gaga Hello Kitty Portraits!

A darker side to HK

As I mentioned earlier, the show also did an entire product retrospective. All the stuff they had there was amazing! Our pictures don’t really do it justice – there were entire rooms just filled to the brim with stuff – but here are a few:

Notice the dress made of stuffed HK’s!

An obsolete “plug in” phone I would’ve loved as a kid! And, lots of HK sweet treats.

Just when our day couldn’t have possibly gotten more fun, we had dinner plans with our dear friends Britt & Wade. Wade was making us dinner – and when he cooks, its ALWAYS amazing! He ended up serving a beautiful salad and the tastiest beef stew we’d ever had!

Salad with greens, avocado, yellow and red tomatoes, onions and toasted walnuts = YUM!

An amazing Beef Stew to welcome the fall – who cares if it was 90 degrees that day? :)

And that concludes another Sunday Fun Day!

Las Vegas … in food!

Ed & I braved the crowds and headed out to Las Vegas this Memorial Day weekend. We have to say, a big motivation was all of the great food we’ve been hearing about, and we decided it was time to make the trek. We are pleased to report that it definitely lived up to the hype – we were very impressed. We felt like we barely made a dent in all there is to offer there! Guess that means we’ve got reasons to go back!

MESA GRILL – CAESAR’S

We got right down to business shortly after arriving by hitting up Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill at Caesar’s. Ed & I are big Iron Chef America fans, and we have watched – and salivated, over many dishes we’ve seen Bobby “throwdown” on TV. With his specialty southwestern style cooking, he creates a lot of what our Southern Californian palates crave … bold, spicy flavors and ingredients like chiles, avocados and beans. We were really excited about having lunch at Mesa Grill, and weren’t disappointed.

We began with the Tiger Shrimp + Roasted Garlic Corn Tamale with Corn-Cilantro Sauce. This appetizer tasted just as good as it sounds! We were so eager to gobble it up, that we forgot to take a photo first! Delightful in every way.

The menu all looked so good, that Ed and I opted for the Prix Fixe Lunch. We ordered opposite selections from each other so we could (literally) try it all! Here’s how it all went down:
First Course:
Green Pea + Green Chile Soup
Crispy Serrano Ham + Mint-Cumin Crema
OR
Blue Corn Pancake
Barbecued Duck + Habanero Chile-Star Anise Sauce

Ed chose the Pea Soup, and this was the highlight of his meal. Even I had to admit it was incredible, and I am not usually a fan of Pea soup! How it had so much flavor was beyond me … this dish was a 15 out of 10. Perfection.

I chose the Blue Corn Pancake with duck. It was very bold, and extremely flavorful … but ended up being a little rich for my tastes.

Second Course:
Pulled Pork Sandwich
Chipotle-Molasses BBQ Sauce, Cole Slaw + Bread and Butter Pickles
OR
Grilled Sea Scallops
Blue Corn Tortilla, Avocado Relish + Jalapeno Pesto

Ed chose the Pulled Pork. We’d have to say it was a little light on the chipotle, and a little heavy on the molasses … it was very sweet!

I chose the Scallops, and this was so delicious I don’t even have words! Actually, I do: JALAPENO PESTO. Yes, please!!!

The third course was an espresso flan … we spaced and didn’t get any pictures of that one! All in all, Bobby didn’t let us down. Our lunch was fantastic!

TAO – THE VENETIAN

On Friday night, we visited Tao at The Venetian for one of our favorite cuisines – Asian Fusion. The menu is very inticing, and the decor is incredible! It was extremely dark, and my pics didn’t quite turn out … so I “borrowed” a few from the web:
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As you walk in, the entryway is lined with bathtubs filled with rose petals and water … true rose water!
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We sat right in front of this super cool wall lined with backlit ancient opium pipes.
The food was amazing … we had a little of everything. Lobster wontons, Yakitori swordfish, asparagus tempura, kung pao chicken and a veggie roll. We’d say that the food was about a 8 out of 10 … but we enjoyed it immensely. The highlight was definitely the Lobster Wontons.

BEIJING NOODLE NO. 9 – CAESAR’S

The next day, we had an awesome lunch at Beijing No. 9, which is easily the highlight of our trip. It had it all … real, authentic chinese food that was fresh and not greasy! The noodles were hand made, the dumplings were hand rolled – it was casual, but stunning, all at the same time.

Hand made shrimp dumplings, and Ed’s chinese beer.

Okay … we went nuts over the decor of this place. We can’t help it, when it comes to a restaurant, the ambiance matters to us – and boy did this place have style. The entrance is lined with goldfish tanks … the walls and ceiling are covered in this lacquered white cutout pattern … and the hostess wears a 60s airline stewardess-type dress that’s orange. It’s AWESOME.

Needless to say, we fell in love with Beijing No. 9.

FIX – BELLAGIO

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Last but not least, our final hurrah was at Fix in The Bellagio. Fix is classic American food, done very, very well. We were drawn to look of this place of course, but once we peeked at the menu, we knew we had to dine there! We started off with Pineapple Mojitos, shared a delicious Rock Shrimp and Red Pepper appetizer with amazing chile sauce, and shared that evening’s special – a steak for two. It was awesome … the selection they gave us was cut so that half of it was porterhouse, the other half a filet mignon. With two sauces to choose from (a red wine reduction or white peppercorn), we had lots of options in how we wanted to enjoy our meat! But truth be told, it was prepared so deliciously, we didn’t even use the sauces. It was excellent. But there was absolutely no room for dessert after that one!

All in all, we’d say we are now completely satiated – this was hedonism at it finest, folks!

Carrie’s Birthday Fun Day!

Today was Carrie’s actual birthday and we decided to celebrate in numerous and diverse ways. It was truly an action-packed day, starting off in Palm Springs and eventually ending up at Disneyland. All in all, it was a great way to ring another fantastic year in the life of Carrie Kim!

As you know, we stayed overnight at the Viceroy and relished its swankness. Our first stop this morning was the Parker Palm Springs to get the birthday girl (and her husband) all pampered up at the spa and for a crazy good brunch.

The Parker is an incredibly fun-loving homage to early ’70s style, designed by Jonathan Adler. The grounds themselves once belonged to Gene Autry, but after Adler’s revamp, it’s a pleasure palace that will make anyone who experienced the ’70s smile. Anyways, after getting rejuvenated in the spa, we walked over to Norma’s, the Parker’s in-house breakfast/lunch eatery.

As it was my wife’s birthday, I saw fit to wear a shirt showing my birthplace and year of birth!

We started off with these amazing crab cakes – some of the best we’ve ever had.

I had Norma’s Eggs Benedict, which had asparagus and pancakes instead of the usual English muffin. Carrie had Claw’s and Chip’s Gone Fishing, aka fried sea bass and lobster done fish & chips style. Wow.

But a birthday lunch wouldn’t be complete without a cake. So I had them bring out the big guns: Chocolate, Chocolate Ice Cream Cake. But I had no idea it would be THIS big! We barely made a dent in this giant thing! But it was unbelievably delicious.

What next? How about spending the rest of the day at Disneyland? So that we did. Since it was Carrie’s birthday, she got a button announcing the occasion…and since I was celebrating with her, I got one that said “I’m Celebrating!”

Here’s the birthday girl in front of It’s a Small World.

Carrie even got a picture with Mickey and Minnie!

What a fun day it was…I think we’ve decided that from here on out, we should always not work on our birthdays!

Happy Birthday, Carrie!!!

Pics from the whole birthday trip are here:

Palm Springs Weekend 2009

Dinner at Circa 59

So after we got fully settled into the Viceroy, we headed out to dinner at Circa 59, the restaurant in the newly remodeled Riviera. We pulled up to the Riviera, completely unprepared for what we were about to see!

In short, it was visually amazing, if ever so slightly slightly derivative. It’s a little bit Philippe Starck in its grandness and glamour, but no worse for it. It’s very impressive to look at, and very well thought out. It deserves to do well, and we hope it succeeds. Here’s the view as we pulled up:

Here’s me sitting on one of the fancy couches:

And here’s Carrie!

Some neat shots of the interior:

Our meals were OK…Carrie had salmon with a jalapeño pesto sauce, and I had red snapper with Spanish chorizo and shrimp. Both were pretty good, but not enough to knock your socks off.

In all, we’re glad we went as the Riviera re-opened in October and we love checking out the newest stuff, but we’d probably rate the food as a 3 out of 5. Definitely not bad, but lacking the sort of bang and innovation you’d expect from the sheer looks of the surroundings.

Still, we were plenty happy, as you can see here!

See the rest of the pics here.

Palm Springs 2009 – We have arrived!

Carrie and I have a tradition of going to Palm Springs for her birthday. Each year, it gets just a little bit swankier and swankier. Now all these years, we have visited the glamorous Viceroy, whose interior design was done by the fantastic Kelly Wearstler (designer extraordinaire and one of our favorite Top Design judges), for dinner, drinks, and even massages, but we’ve never actually stayed here.

Well this year, we decided to finally make it happen. No matter that we’re currently in the middle of a huge rainstorm; it’s just a reason for more indoor cocktails! ;)

Here’s us walking up to the door…the Viceroy Palm Springs’ signature yellow and black theme is foretold by the big yellow doors!

And the swanky lobby!

Love the yellow chandelier.

They gave us champagne when we checked in, so here’s me happily settling in. :)

Carrie more than dressed for the occasion in her yellow cardigan!

And here’s Carrie reveling in the big comfy bed.

We’ll be updating the blog throughout our stay, and you can find all the photos from our trip here. Much more excitement to come – we’re going to dinner tonight at Circa 59, the restaurant at the newly remodeled Riviera, and we’ll have some good fun at the Parker tomorrow! Stay tuned!