Tag: restaurants

Museum Double-Header and Foodie Introductions

 

As new members of LACMA, we wanted to plan a little outing to check out the California Design, 1930–1965: “Living in a Modern Way” exhibit, as well as introduce Ruby to one of our favorite L.A. hangouts – Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. So we made our way up for a little food before getting our dose of culture!

Ruby was tantalized by all of the selections available on Canter’s ginormous menu

She was definitely a fan of the pickles!

Ed had to get his Corned Beef Hash, and I went for some old school Cabbage Rolls …

After our Canter’s fix, we headed to LACMA for this awesome mid-century modern delight. We didn’t get to stay quite as long as we wanted, but here are some highlights nonetheless:

We also saw Kienholz’s Five Card Stud installation, which was powerful and shocking.

Probably the most fun part was the giant installation that was there formed of all of these yellow translucent yellow bands. We all had fun playing inside!
 

Then – we decided to take advantage of the Member Appreciation Days that were going on that weekend and visit OCMA as well with free admission! Don’t let the Orange County location fool you … they have some of the edgiest modern art on display and we LOVE their exhibitions! We were lucky enough to catch State of Mind: New California Art circa 1970 and Two Schools of Cool, which were both fantastic!

A few highlights:



We love these kinds of days!

5 Years

5 years as Mr. and Mrs. Kim, and this was a milestone anniversary for many reasons! We tend to really go big for anniversaries … we’ve spent them in places like in Miami, Buenos Aires and even The Grand Canyon! So this year, it was tough to think of a way to make this one just as extraordinary (especially with the one-income budget we’ve been adjusting to, and our sweet little baby at home!). But thanks to a really fabulous mother-in-law, this year was no exception. Halmoni stayed with Ruby at our house and got us a room at The SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills!


When we arrived at the SLS, we were told that we’d be receiving an upgraded room … score! As you can see, the rooms are breathtaking and have a modern look that we always die over. We especially loved the leather lounge bench near the window. The SLS’ interior was designed by Phillippe Starck, and we are huge fans. We’ve made special stops in many of the hotels he’s designed, just to gawk. We checked out The Delano Hotel when we were in Miami, we checked out the Clift Hotel when we were in San Francisco, and we saw The Faena Hotel (a masterpiece!) when we were in Buenos Aires. Needless to say, we couldn’t wait to see the SLS.

Just a few more pics of our room …

Aside from the room, we decided to indulge in dinner at the very swanky modern latin restaurant, Rivera.

The restaurant is probably the best take on a modern latin theme we’ve ever seen, and it was very cool inside and out. We thought the food was just okay, though.

If we were really big shots, we could pay for one of these many bottles of tequila embedded in the wall. If you pay a large sum of money, they put your name on one, and you get to have them pull it out for you every time you visit. Big league kinda stuff!


We were pretty anxious to return to the SLS, where a very famous chef, Jose Andres has his very famous restaurant, The Bazaar. We couldn’t get a reservation, but we knew we wanted to grab some cocktails and sample the goods at the on-site patisserie. We ordered cocktails, just a few bon-bons, and two cupcakes. :)


The best part was knowing that we could sleep in and not have to worry about waking up before we were ready to! We rented a movie in the morning (Woody Allen’s, Midnight in Paris) and ordered room service for breakfast! 12 quail eggs sunny side up for Ed, scrambled egg whites with squash blossoms for me, a side of chicken sausage and French Press coffee were delivered to our room as we watched TV. It was pure decadence!

A perfect way to celebrate 5 years!

Our First Family Vacation!


We did it – we embarked on our first family vacation and it was a complete success! Sure, we had to bring quite a bit more stuff than we’re usually used to, and yes – our mornings started lot earlier than trips in our past, but we did it (and can’t wait to do it again).

Ed has to visit Michigan very frequently on work trips, and its always a really long week of him being away while Ruby and I stay at home. Since we’ve got so many frequent flyer miles on the books, and I happen to have a ton of family back there, we decided to tag along with Ed on his most recent business trip. Of course, we’ve been anxious to see how Ruby would do traveling, and we were anxious to get her started since lots of travel is definitely what we envision for our family as time goes on! I also was eager to show Ed a different side of Michigan that what he’s used to. This trip ended up being a total blast, and we got lots of bonding time in with very special family.

Ed had never seen the red barns and silos as you drive outside of the Detroit Metro area … it was a sight that never got old to me, and one that definitely made us feel very far from home … This was on Highway 12 on our way out to Tecumseh and Deerfield to visit my cousins:

We stayed in Ann Arbor for the week, which is a pretty awesome place. Californians may scoff at “awesome” and “Michigan” in the same sentence, but honestly – its a charming town. Of course, with U of M there, there’s a vibrant young feel in town, and there’s a very cool vibe. Most importantly – there are fantastic places to eat!

Foodie Highlights:
Frita Batidos – This is one hip spot! “Frita” is a Cuban burger (usually chorizo) with shoestring fries and an egg on top, “Batidos” are Cuban style milkshakes. Basically, it means DELICIOUS. Its owned by a past Top Chef contestant, and it’s not only yummy, but gorgeous inside & out. You have to look at the photos here.

This was my Fish Frita with a Mocha Batido:

Zingerman’s Roadhouse & Zingerman’s Delicatessen – Zingerman’s is an institution in Ann Arbor! The Roadhouse features “Really Good American Food”, the deli has the most amazing sandwiches and pickles you could ever imagine, and Zingerman’s even has a Creamery where they make their own gelato and cheeses, a Bakery with fantastic breads and pastry and a Coffeehouse, too. We found out that if you hit all 5 Zingerman’s locations within a 24-hr. period, you could get a T-Shirt. You knew these foodies were up for the challenge! We had a lovely dinner at the Roadhouse, lunch at the Deli, picked up coffee to take home, a loaf of bread for the BBQ were going to that evening, and treated ourselves to a scoop of gelato – Mission Accomplished! We were too busy eating to take a picture, but here is one we found on the web with the line out the door at the deli. Yep – the sandwiches are that good. We waited in one of those lines, too!

Tony Packo’s (Toledo, Ohio) – We squeezed in a trip to Toledo because it’s where my Grandma & Grandpa lived, where my Dad grew up, and where the first house my parents bought and my brother & I lived in until we moved to California. My mom knows how much Ed & I love Cabbage Rolls, so she said we had to go to Tony Packo’s! What was even better was when we told anyone that we were going to TP’s, EVERYBODY had an enthusiastic thing to say about it! We are super glad we made the effort … Tony Packo’s is legit! We had cabbage rolls, paprikas dumplings and fried pickles!


Me, very excited about my Cabbage Roll

 

Artistic Highlights:
Also while in Michigan, we wanted to check out the Heidelberg Project, which is an art installation in Detroit that is almost too crazy to even describe here. So much of Detroit is in shambles – abandoned burned-out houses are everywhere. But the houses on Heidelberg Street have been transformed into something pretty surreal.

For a complete album of our visit to The Heidelberg Project, click here.

Toledo Highlights
As mentioned earlier, we also fit a day trip in to Toledo to stop by a few sentimental places. First on the list was the Toledo Zoo. There is an elephant statue at the zoo that is quite a legend in my family – there are pictures of my dad and Aunt Barbara sitting on it when they were kids, a picture of me & brother and cousins on it when we were kids … so of course, we had to get a picture of Ruby sitting on it, too!
Here we are, continuing tradition:

And, here I am – just about 30 years later!

We also drove by the house my Grandpa and my Dad grew up in on Ogden Avenue in Toledo:

And the house I lived in from when I was about 1-3 yrs old on Somerset:

Family Highlights
There are just so many wonderful memories with family through the course of this trip that its hard to fit them all in here. Here are just a few photos of some great times!

On our visit with my dad’s cousins, Wes & Brenda, Ruby got her 1st private concert. She was fascinated by Wes playing the guitar and singing to her!

We got a chance to catch up with cousins Kaily & Carolyn and Carolyn’s daughters, Sahra & Parisa, for a very tasty (and gluttonous!) dinner at Sweet Lorraines.

While out at The Facey’s house on Lake Erie for a mini Facey Family reunion, Ruby put her feet in the waters of a Great Lake for the 1st time!

Getting together with lots of Facey’s!

We got to visit with Kay the Cuz and Dave at JaDo Campground – the Rickard Reunion has been held here for the past few years. It was a very special visit!

Staying with my cousin Rachel and her family was really awesome. We had such a great time with Rachel & Brian and it was so awesome that Ruby could play with their son, Jack!

Ruby & Jack chillin’ at the Zoo!

Finally, some may think this is morbid, but I thought it was really important to take Ruby to the place where my grandparents are buried. I was extremely close to Grandma who passed away in 1999, and I still miss her everyday. So much of my childhood involved my grandma (unfortunately, the rest of my grandparents died way too young for me to really know them) and I wish she could see Ruby, and of course, meet Ed. We stopped by to pay respects, and Ruby got to “meet” her.

There’s just so much more, so please visit the album and see more pictures here!

 

 

Summer Fun Day

Today was wide open and we had an itch to get on the road – Ed sold his beloved Mini this week, but it was happily replaced by his favorite car, a VW Jetta SportWagen! We decided it was a good day to break it in. We decided to head south down PCH and see where the day would take us. Too bad the sun never came out today – but the drive was gorgeous nonetheless …

We were hungry for lunch, so we hit up Yelp to find a new good place to try. We stumbled upon Crab Zone in Laguna Beach. Don’t be fooled by the cheesy name, this place really delivered! It is a seafood restaurant offering traditional type items like Clam Chowder and Seafood Gumbo, but they also have an interesting Asian Fusion twist, too. There was definitely a lot to choose from.

The 5-star ratings were pretty hard to ignore, and everyone seemed to be raving over the Dungeness Crab with Garlic and Pepper Butter Sauce, so Ed went ahead and ordered it. They really weren’t messing around – look at the size of that thing! Although he said it was probably the messiset meal he’s ever eaten, Ed swears it was worth the mess. They actually chop the legs off and cook everything in a wok, and then they “assemble” the crab back on to the plate. You get a lot of attention when its brought out to the table!


I decided to order a cup of the gumbo and get some steamed King Crab Legs. Wow – those did not disappoint either! Everything was delicious! Once again, big thanks to the Yelpers for getting us to a new destination!

After our awesome lunch, we decided to head over to OCMA (Orange County Museum of Art) for their 15 Minutes of Fame: Portraits from Ansel Adams to Andy Warhol exhibition. From OCMA’s website:

15 Minutes of Fame: Portraits from Ansel Adams to Andy Warhol explores a diverse range of photographic portraits from early modernism, to photographs of celebrities from the 1930s to 1960s, photojournalistic street photography from the 1960s, and contemporary portraiture.

All of the photos were fantastic! This photo taken by Lawrence Schiller in 1962 was one of our favorites. See Alfred Hitchcock in the rearview mirror of the car?

They also had a pretty cool photo booth in the exhibit so that you could capture your own 15 minutes of fame. Here we are with our best attempts at celebrity!
 

We also love OCMA because of its beautifully designed modern space.
Here’s Ed looking dapper in the tulip chair …

And me … looking pregnant!

Foodcation Highlights

Okay, so this is sooo belated, but if we don’t stop posting around here with nothing but Baby updates, people are going to revoke our thosecoolkims license. So, here are a few highlights from the epic FOODCATION we took with Brittany & Wade to celebrate Wade’s 40th Birthday! 2 days in Wine Country, 2 days in San Francisco, and many, many Michelin-star restaurants!

While every single meal we had was simply fantastic – both Ed & I probably agree that our meal at Ad Hoc was the most special somehow. Being that it was one of Thomas Keller’s restaurants makes it very special on its own, but the concept of the place was so warm and inviting. As described on the Ad Hoc website:

The building at 6476 Washington Street was originally intended to be a very different type of restaurant. While we were designing it we thought we’d experiment by opening a temporary restaurant and calling it Ad Hoc, which literally means, “for this purpose.” The idea for Ad Hoc was simple – 5 days a week we’d offer a 4 course family style menu that changed each day, accompanied by a small, accessible wine list in a casual setting reminiscent of home.

Casual and reminiscent of home is exactly what it was. We felt right at home as the servers brought out plates and plates of family-style food. As there is no menu, you literally just get whatever is being served that evening. We really lucked out! Our night was Surf-n-Turf night! Check out all of this meat and lobster!

Also what made things very special is that Thomas Keller has his garden directly across the street from his three restaurants on the street. We literally saw chefs outdoors, picking ingredients from the ground, and going right back into the kitchen to serve them. Our first course at Ad Hoc was a salad served with all produce from the garden! It was amazing to eat something so fresh & natural – it was definitely much more special than a usual salad! We walked the grounds after our meal reveling at each thing we saw growing that we had eaten just hours before!

Yes, we ate plenty of these Fava Beans!

Look, there’s a chef out picking from the garden!

Another very special meal was at Redd. Redd is the very best in “California Cuisine”.  A sleek modern setting, a very fun and varied menu and the perfect afternoon to dine al fresco made this a wonderful lunch! Brittany is modeling her gorgeous plate of Pot Roast and I am thrilled with my mini Chinese-style Pork Buns!

Of course, it wouldn’t be a trip to wine country without a wine tasting! Here is Ed looking dapper at Terra Valentine vineyards!

We finished off our time in Napa at Thomas Keller’s other restaurant, Bouchon.

It was very french – I ordered the Poulet Roti …

… and we all indulged in this gluttonous seafood platter!

Leaving Napa was difficult to do, but fortunately we had a lunch at The Slanted Door to look forward to! The Slanted Door has the very best in Asian Fusion cuisine! It was the best I think we’ve ever had!

It was a legendary meal, we just kept ordering food, and they kept bringing out other things they thought we’d enjoy. We felt like rockstars throughout the meal. We can’t wait to return!!!

Beautiful sashimi for everyone but the pregnant girl :(

More oysters for Wade & Ed

Later that evening, we celebrated Ed’s birthday the way he wanted to celebrate it – at an East German restaurant! Everyone knows Ed’s obsession with all things German, but Walzwerk was special because it contained all of the old-school East German communist kitsch that Ed can’t get enough of! The posters, the dishes … everything about the place made you feel like you were in Berlin, circa sometime in the late 60s-early 70s. Anything for the birthday boy!
Ed and his giant plate of Jaegerschnitzel!

My giant plate of traditional schnitzel!

Old posters

The whole gang!

Another foodie stop in SF is none other than the Bi-Rite Creamery.

It just so happened we weren’t far from there after dinner at Walzwerk, so we headed over to try out some of their famous flavors! At Bi-Rite, they’re known for unusual ice cream such as Salted Caramel, Honey Lavender, Balsamic Strawberry and Earl Grey! There was a line wrapped around the corner when we arrived! Being the ice cream enthusiast I am, I wish I could’ve tried them all, but I went with the Salted Caramel and the Malted Vanilla with Peanut Brittle. YUM!

The finale was the big dinner at Hubert Keller‘s restaurant, Fleur de Lys for Wade’s actual 40th birthday. We are all big fans of Chef Keller – he’s been seen a lot as a guest judge on Top Chef, and he also was a finalist in Top Chef Masters.

This was a pretty fancy place, and needless to say, it was a little too fancy for me to bust out my camera at the table! So, there’s not any pics. We had a 4-course menu, and everything from the presentation, to the service, to the food was spectacular. Unfortunately, it doesn’t bode well for blogging purposes – but it was an experience that just can’t be explained! We are grateful to have gone and will remember it as a very special evening always!

I think this wraps up our highlights! We didn’t eat for about a week afterwards, but it was absolutely worth every bite!