Life Begins at 30

Wandering Southern California

As much time as I spend in Southern California, I don't often get the chance to play tourist in my own hometown -- I grew up in LA, went to college there, and lived there until I was 26.  When a good friend from here wanted to experience the true Southern California, I was happy to play tour guide last week.  It was fun to show her some of my favorite places, and take a lot of photographs at the same time.

The above sign can be found at Zuma Beach in Malibu.  To tell you the truth, I have never seen the stand open, but love seeing the food stand as you turn the big curve on Pacific Coast Highway heading north.  The first couple days we were there were unseasonably warm, and the beach was lovely -- complete with a pod of dolphins playing in the nearby water.

The Southern California growing season is always a bit ahead of our Northern California season.  The Wednesday Santa Monica farmers market was full of visions of spring, and it was really wonderful to see the abundance that we have to look forward to in Northern California soon.  My find of the day was La Nogalera walnut oil -- a nicely balanced, light walnut oil that is grown and processed in Central California. 

While firmly in the "Californian Mexican" camp, I have always loved Border Grill for their appetizers and cocktails.  We stopped in one afternoon and shared a shrimp & hearts of palm salad, and a mushroom quesadilla along with about 20 pounds of chips and their wonderful salsas.

Nearly every Southern California trip in the past couple years has included a stop at Patisserie Chantilly in Lomita.  A Japanese bakery with French-style pastries, everything I have ever eaten here has been impeccably executed.  The epitome of perfection at Chantilly is the cream puff.  As soon as I walk into the patisserie, I usually have a huge smile on my face that remains during the whole trip.

We stopped by the old farmers market on Fairfax and Third -- just a quick run-through to check it out.  This particular farmers market (much more of a tourist destination with permanent store booths than the modern farmers market) makes me feel very old and curmudgeonly as it's hard for me to believe that a modern mall has sprung up around the market in what used to be the parking lot.  This photo is of the famous diner called Du-Pars which is famous for its pies and breakfasts.

The trip was great.  Additional food highlights included Mozza Pizzeria and Sunday Supper at Lucques, a vegetarian dinner we cooked for my family,  along with other bites and nibbles throughout the Southland.  Even five days felt short, and I feel like I didn't do my hometown justice. But there's always next time ...

I'm on the bandwagon

I'm a bit stubborn. 

Anyone who knows me and is reading along is probably chuckling right now, as "a bit" is probably an understatement.  It runs in the family.  One day, my mother asked the ex how the three generations of women in our family are alike.  He deadpanned, "well you're all stubborn!"

Weird things make me dig my heels in.   When it comes to food, I get incredibly stubborn about going to places that are wildly popular, or that everyone seems to love.  I don't want to be one of the herd of cattle, all shuffling off to the Cheesecake Factory, so I often try and find a lesser known restaurant or one that's not as popular but just as good.

This was the case for years with La Super Rica Taqueria in Santa Barbara.   It's the taqueria that Julia Child allegedly loved when she lived in Santa Barbara.  It's the taqueria that was mentioned by Michael Vaughn on Alias when he was trying to woo Sydney up the coast on a vacation with him.  It's the taqueria that is on the top of the "must go" list of many Californians.  Every time I drive by LSR, there are lines out the door.  And so I got stubborn.  I found excellent tacos nearby and decided that I wasn't missing much by never going there.

Last December, I drove down the coast with my friend Jeanne.  She and I were both going to visit our respective families in Southern California, and so we decided to make a fun road trip out of the journey.  The theme of this road trip?  Tacos along the coast.  It was a fun drive, and I believe we tasted 20 tacos over two days.

One of the highlights of the trip was La Super Rica.  I took a deep breath, and prepared myself not to like it.  When we snaked through the line and into the door, I noticed fresh tortillas being made in the back.  My resolve began to crack a bit.  By the time we got to the counter, we had broken our "two tacos per location" rule and tried four tacos.  The one that stood out -- the one that still makes my mouth water 10 months later -- was calabacitas in a dark sauce with pork. Delicious with an herbal flavor made from a generous helping of epazote, the taco was one of the best that I've had this year ("I think it was epazote," Jeanne said when I just called her to fact check, "I don't remember, I was in a taco haze.").

I stopped by LSR for a second time yesterday.  It was late afternoon so the line was relatively short, and I had an article that I'd been wanting to read, so I didn't mind the wait.  After about 10 minutes, I tucked into my rajas taco and a taco of pork adobado -- a marinated pork with chiles.  Rajas has been my dish of the summer, and I have made it several times at home.  This rendition had a small amount of heat and was runny with cheese and studded with onions.  Though it didn't make for a very good picture, the result was delicious and worth jumping on the bandwagon for.

La Super Rica Taqueria
622 N. Milpas Street, Santa Barbara
Closed Wednesday

(P.S. - I'm home!)

Cyclo Ride, Hanoi

In a couple places in Vietnam, we took a cyclo ride.  For some reason, I imagined that it would be a relaxing, quiet ride through the town to see the sights.  It was basically anything but.  It was loud, and right in the middle of traffic.  But it was a super interesting way to watch the way that this city works.  Watch this video to see the cyclo crossing through a couple of intersections.  And remember while watching this that the zoom length on the camera I was using (my powershot sd700) was very short.  So when you see, for instance, a bus right in front of me, it's about 2 feet in front of the cyclo.

Haircut II, Saigon

Haircut, Saigon

Streets of Saigon

Friends and family are asking to see more Vietnam photos on a daily basis.  I have yet to figure out an efficient work flow for editing from RAW to web (and to print) effectively, so the photos may be coming one or two at a time for a while. 

Vietnam UFO Fruit #2

Thanks, everybody, for your help on UFO Fruit #1: Wax/Rose Apples.  Now what can you tell me about this next one?  I've been told that it can't be eaten raw, and is used to flavor/color sticky rice.  It has a bright orange, spiny exterior and a blood red interior.  It's pretty large - size of a large grapefruit or small pomelo.  I think that the seeds are put on top of sticky rice too.  Anyone know?

Mother Knows Best

There's a high likelihood that my mother is going to freak out when she reads this blog post, so a couple of disclaimers:  I am fine.  I am healthy, and not injured.  The incident described below happened nearly a week ago, and I am completely ok.

When I was in college, I spent my sophomore year abroad in Florence, Italy.  Before I left home, mom gave me only two absolute rules:  no hitchiking and no motor scooter riding.  Though many of my friends did both while I was there, I stuck to the rules and did not do either.  I was about 18, and still completely dependent on her, so it seemed like a good idea to follow her rules.

I'm 33 now, and still have not ever hitchiked or ridden a motor scooter.  Until last week.  As a part of the tour, we took an awesome bicycle ride through the country.  The scenes were amazing, and the small villages that we passed were enchanting.  All I wanted to do the next day was to spend more time in the same area.  We were in Hoi An at the time, which is a fairly sleepy town (especially relative to Saigon, which is where I am writing this post from).  So I asked Malik, who is still in Vietnam, if he would be interested in renting a motor scooter with me and driving me around.  He had already expressed an interest in doing so, and though I remembered mom's warning, I knew that it was going to be the best way to explore the countryside.

We went outside my hotel and rented a scooter from the first person we saw.  It was a manual transmission, so Malik rode it around for about five minutes to get used to it and make sure that he knew what he was doing.

Everywhere that we go, we kind of attract attention - being foreigners means that there are usually several pairs of eyes on us, either bemused by what we're doing or curious about it.  Add to that the fact that Malik loves to joke around with the locals, and we had quite a crowd watching. 

If you have read my blog for any amount of time, it probably doesn't surprise you that the next paragraph talks about a random injury (see posts about me falling off a bike, cracking my rib while running, and slicing through my finger as examples)

So as I hopped on to the back of the scooter, Malik took off.  He swears up to this day that he has no idea what happened, but the scooter immediately reared back, and in my first 30 seconds EVER being on a scooter, I was tossed off the back on to my ass in the middle of the street.  After the commotion of all the locals who watched this happen, I realized that I wasn't really hurt and we continued on.  Though my ego and my bum were fairly bruised, I hopped back on and we went through the countryside and I was able to snap quite a few pictures (notably this one of the guy who sold us a coconut).  A week later, I hardly feel the effects save for random bruises on my legs and such.  I was really lucky that I didn't get more hurt.

So, I guess this probably goes to prove that, even at the age of 33, we should all listen to our mothers.

Day Thirteen, Dalat

Thanks for all the compliments about the photography.  This country is infinitely inspiring me to take more and more photos.  Since I posted last, we've been in Nha Trang, a beach town toward the south and now we are in Dalat which is a town like no other that we've been in.  It's high in the mountains and is a vacation/honeymoon destination for Vietnamese.  So while it's a "touristy" town, it caters much more to the Vietnamese tourists than to Westerners, which is refreshing.  It is highly influenced by the French colonial period, so it reminds me much more of a village in Switzerland or elsewhere in Europe than a Vietnamese city. 

I spent a lot of time at the market here today -- it's a large market for such a small town.  It was the first market where I saw many vendors in a row selling eggs, then another set of vendors all selling dried shrimp.  The market photos below are from today.

The land here is so fertile.  I want to talk more about Vietnamese agriculture when I have a little more time, but generally the land is studded with very small farms one after another, all growing different crops.  According to our tour guide, the largest cattle farm in Vietnam has about 100 head of cattle, which should give you an idea of how incredibly small the farms are. 

Today, we went to an organic farm that is owned by an American man.  The farm mainly supplies vegetables to the Hotel Sofitel Dalat Palace, and grows many European/Western herbs.  In fact, our tour guide had not seen many of the herbs.  I introduced him to sage and had him smell it.  He hilariously told me that the sage smells just like roasted dog.  I'll have to take his word for it as dog is the one thing I have religiously avoided seeing or eating in this country!

I did, however, try "cafe chon" yesterday.  It's coffee that, as a fresh bean, is fed to a small animal (I think it's a civet, but haven't had time to completely investigate on the 'net).  It is then "excreted" by the animal, cleaned up, roasted, and turned into a delicacy-type coffee.  To me, it was really good coffee, and I'm glad I tried it, but it wasn't revelatory or anything.  Unlike eatstuff, I didn't find it to smell repulsive -- the one I tried had a pretty basic coffee smell.  In fact, eatstuff's reaction to it makes me a litle curious as to whether I was swindled.

We're off to Ho Chi Minh City next.  I am trying to gear myself up for the heat, and for the busiest city in Vietnam!

And now for a few photos ...

 

Buddha, Hoi An


Organic farm, Dalat


Woman selling green mangoes, Dalat


Grains, Dalat Market


Dried shrimp, Dalat

Day Eight, Hoi An

I am having trouble finding words to describe this trip.  So I am going to just give you some images from my days here.  All the pictures below are from the past two days in Hoi An.

I am happy and healthy and eating wonderful, glorious food.  The people here are really unbelievable.  I am enjoying them more than anything else, though the food is a close second. 

The best thing I ate today?  Meat on a stick in the market.  I stopped at the stand of a woman who only had a small charcoal fire and was grilling pork marinaded in a ginger sauce.  I bought four of them (for about 70 cents) and she just motioned that I should eat them as-is.  After I got through the first meat stick, she decided she liked me enough to offer me a chair.  After I got through the second meat stick, she decided she liked me enough to wrap each one in a rice paper wrapper, give me a peanut sauce, and add herbs to each roll.  I bought two more, and she patiently wrapped each one for me as I was ready for it.  Heaven.