Oh, Coachella – how we miss you. We love being out on the grass, or inside the tent, or as close to the stage as we can get, watching bands play all day and enjoying the sunshine. We love Coachella, and we know we’ll be back one day … but the last few years we have been lucky enough to catch the live webcast footage and watch things from the comfort of our very own couch. Go technology!
We have been doing our best since Ruby’s been with us to expose her to as much music as possible. It’s our hope that one day she decides to pick up the axe … or bang the drums … or even strum a bass, we’re cool with any of those options! However, we don’t wanna push things, so we just hope being excited about music around her evokes enthusiasm to pursue it.
The great thing about the Coachella webcast is that its toddler friendly – coverage starts around 3pm, and that’s plenty of time before Ruby goes to bed to catch a few sets! Actually, we made quite a weekend of it – we spent Friday with our friends and caught sets by Yuck, Madness, Pulp, Mazzy Star, M83 and The Black Keys.
On Sunday, we hung out at home and we were happy to catch Real Estate first. We love their sound and Ed even featured one of their tracks on his Best of 2011 Mix. Ruby liked it, but it may have been a little too emo for her – she was really restless.
Things really picked up when Wild Flag came on! They put on a great show, and I think Ruby just might have inherited the same affinity I have for Grrrl Rock! Wouldn’t it be cool if that love continued and we could send Ruby to Carrie Brownstein’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, OR? We definitely spent most of Wild Flag’s set on our feet.
Then, as the night got later and after Ruby went to bed, it was time for the grown up show: Dr. Dre + Snoop Dogg were back! We kinda got our minds blown as we watched it. It felt good to be watching in the LBC! Hard to believe that it’s been 20 years since they got so popular. How are we really that old?!?
Last Saturday was the 1st Annual Long Beach Street Food Fest in Rainbow Harbor! Basically that meant some pretty awesome gourmet food trucks were all parked out in one place (check out all the trucks that were there) , and we got to spend the day walking around the park, hanging out with friends, lounging on the grass and sampling food after food … pretty much a perfect day in our opinion! Here’s a short clip we took from our shady spot in Rainbow Harbor:
It’s no secret that the gourmet food truck phenomenon has been growing strong over the last few years. Ed & I credit the original Kogi BBQ truck for all the hype (We chased them around L.A. one night – you have to get their location by following them on Twitter). Many, many chefs have followed in Kogi’s direction, and now there’s a truck for just about any food you can possibly think of.
Where do we begin with Ahn Joo? It was amazing – we ended up visiting this truck twice, and we decided it was our favorite truck of the food fest. If you watched the Food Network’s “Next Food Network Star”, you may remember Debbie, who was one of the contestants. This was her truck! She was known on the show for being Korean, but growing up in the South. Mixing up bold flavorful Korean flavors with Southern Comfort food is an absolute winner!
Left: This was my “KFC” – Korean Fried Chicken! Yep, juicy on the inside, crispy on the outside – and glazed with a sticky sweet garlic sauce. I want to eat this everyday! Right: Ed was loving his Mama Lee’s Meatloaf! And these were the simple, yet perfect, showstoppers: The “Seoultown Spuds”. Potato Wedges with a spicy chili sauce & green onions! LOVED THESE!!!
We also sampled Bacon-Wrapped Rice Skewers and Kimchee Citrus Pork Skewers with Grilled Fuji Apple. We WILL be searching out Ahn Joo in the future!
Buttermilk was a fun truck! They kept it simple – and indulgent! – by offering three things on the menu: Glazed buttermilk doughnut holes, Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Pancake Bites and “The Brick”. The Brick consisted of hashbrowns and an over-Easy egg smothered in chorizo gravy, with a buttermilk biscuit right on top. Ed was all over it – and this was a big fave from the day as well.
Ed & I were super excited about hitting the Border Grill truck. Border Grill is none other than Chef Susan Feniger, who is an inspiring and energetic chef who we especially loved watching on Top Chef Masters (you may also know her from The Two Hot Tamales?). Unfortunately – the food we got on the truck was just “meh.” We tried the Yucatan Pork Taco, the Crispy Baja Fish Taco, the Potato Rajas Taco, the Carne Asada taco and an order of Cumin Fries w/chipotle ketchup. Maybe it was the crowds (this truck had a HUGE line) or maybe something was off, but the food was kind of a disappointment. Oh well, we still love you Susan!
Okay – technically, this is just a 1/2 stop, because while we were in line at Border Grill, people kept walking away with food from this truck that looked AMAZING (like that cute little meatball slider you see on your right!) and we had to get in line. But, we were too late – by the time we got near the front, they were sold out of many items and all they had left were bigger plates (which we didn’t want to indulge in, because we had to pace ourselves – there was a lot of food to try!). But I definitely want to find these guys again soon … they have a really fun menu (“Ballafel”, anyone?), and we are intrigued!
5th Stop: COOLHAUS I could not wait to check out COOLHAUS, where I’d saw online that they are known for their “architecturally inspired ice cream sandwiches”! (The truck itself also rules – notice the rims!)
They have unusual (and some classic) flavors like: blood orange, brown butter w/ candied bacon, chocolate chipotle, cinnamon, coffee toffee, dirty mint chip, meyer lemon, vanilla bean, lambrusco, baked apple, sea salt caramel, mascarpone balsamic fig, ed velvet, peanut butter, strawberry, carrot cake, pistachio w/ black truffles, and even foie gras! They come sandwiched in-between two yummy freshly baked cookies.
My pictures didn’t really turn out (this one comes from their website) – but they come as minis, which is optimal for trying multiple flavors/combinations! Unfortunately, by the time we hit COOLHAUS it was later in the day, and the infamous Brown Butter Ice Cream with Candied Bacon was sold out – as well as the Red Velvet! But my Minty Brownie sandwich was awesome. It’s gonna be a long hot summer, so I guarantee The Kims will be seen chasing this truck in the future as well.
And for some summery refreshment: Del’s Frozen Lemonade There’s not much better on a hot summery day than a Frozen Lemonade. Del’s was a classic. You could also consider this a palate cleanser, no?
Overall – it was a great day in Long Beach. We can’t wait for next year! (Or maybe this weekend, we we just go search out all the trucks again on our own?)
This past Christmas, our present to the Facey kids was a trip to the wonderful Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank Gehry, to see Beethoven in the House, one in a series of concerts for kids put on by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. As Kendall, the oldest, is now a clarinet player in her school orchestra, we thought it would be really cool for the kids to see a renowned symphony orchestra in one of the coolest concert halls in the world. We think it’s awesome that the LA Phil has a kid-friendly concert series that exposes kids to classical music and the arts, so we were only too excited to take the kids here.
Not surprisingly, all of the kids knew the iconic opening of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, but none of them knew that it was Beethoven that had composed it. So, they were in for a treat as we piled in the Land Rover I was testing for the weekend and headed off for Downtown LA.
One cool aspect of the Symphony for Youth series is that during the hour before the concert begins, kids can participate in all kinds of creative activities to learn about music, theater, and art. We decided to make masquerade masks for an imaginary ball. Here we are making them, and wearing them:
The concert itself was great, and the kids thought it was really sad that Beethoven couldn’t even hear his final 9th symphony (which contains the famous Ode to Joy) because he had gone deaf at the early age of 32.
After the concert, it was time to leave the concert hall for the next destination!
It was recently Chinese New Year, and this is the year of the Tiger. To celebrate, the Chinese American Museum held its Lantern Festival near Chinatown. The event had live performances as well as tons of arts and crafts projects for kids.
The kids made awesome paper lanterns, fans, embossed metal plates with their own drawings, and even abacuses!
No trip to LA is complete without a stop at Sprinkles for some gourmet cupcakes. Kendall and Jordan had been here before, but this was the first time for Mikayla and Ethan.
Despite the hour-long cross-town drive to Beverly Hills to get these cupcakes, the kids declared the trip worth it. Ethan summed it up best when he bit into his Peanut Butter Chocolate cupcake and exclaimed, “This is the best cupcake ever!!!” No argument from us; look at them!
Another awesome weekend with the Facey kids. We miss them already! Click below to see the album.
Ed & I missed the fair last year, so we made sure to make it this year! We were seriously fiending for some of that grilled corn on the cob, and we always like seeing the wacky homegrown produce and all of the animals. What we weren’t expecting was to be spectators at the Pig Races! It was surprisingly fun … and those little pigs are adorable! Ed snapped the camera at just the right time:
Amazing, right?!? Those guys were fast! And we are proud to report that our section’s pig, Yukon, brought home the bacon and earned first place in the race! He’s pictured below – the brown little guy with the red bib:
Here we are, happy to be spectators!
After all that excitement, we had to get our corn on the cob fix!
All in all, it felt like a very summery day, and we even took a ride on the skyway …
No fried twinkies, but we did get our rings cleaned. It was a pretty good trip to the fair!
We braved the crowds today and headed down to Ports o’ Call in San Pedro for Lobsterfest 2008. We love a good Lobster and we were anxious to check it out.
We decided to go for the “two-on-a-plate”. One for him, one for her.
Ed got pretty excited once he saw those lobsters, and he just couldn’t contain himself.
Carrie was pretty enthusiastic as well …
Unfortunately, the inside of those lobsters were a little more than we’d bargained for! It was pretty messy, and um … pretty gross! Ed was determined though, and he ended up polishing them right off!
Carrie decided to opt for something equally as delicious for a substitute – kettle korn.
Although we enjoyed the experience, we both agreed we prefer just the lobster tails – expertly cleaned and dissected by a professional!
Oh, Coachella – how we miss you. We love being out on the grass, or inside the tent, or as close to the stage as we can get, watching bands play all day and enjoying the sunshine. We love Coachella, and we know we’ll be back one day … but the last few years we have been lucky enough to catch the live webcast footage and watch things from the comfort of our very own couch. Go technology!
