September Showers

If it does take a village to raise a child, our boy is going to be just fine. Why? Because he's already blessed with an amazing circle of family and friends who never fail to blow his parents away with their generosity.



Our memory cards are packed with pics from the two baby showers we've had in just as many weeks (click here for more pictures). And our place is overflowing with bibs, baby monitors, bouncers, and balloons.

In Pasadena, Auntie-to-be Lisa took our nursery's Jungle/Safari theme and planned a girls-only baby shower around it: Jungle Juice punch, jungle-print dress, and even these amazing cupcakes, which she made with auntie Maxine:



Yuri's Mom, friends, and relatives brought trays and jars of sweets and other good eats. (Unfortunately, the only boys allowed to the shower were the little guy himself and Linh's son, Trevor, so Chris dined on paint fumes while he turned the nursery green!) Alex even pitched in with decorations and the diaper cake before heading off to school.


Kathie and Wendy


Grandma, Lisa, and Yuri's old principal, Margo

Gifts like this gown, hand-knit by Yuri's Grandma, totally blew us away. ("How am I going to get into this?" she thought at first, before Grandma explained it was for her first great-grandchild.)


A hand-knit gown from the great-grandmother-to-be

In Woodland Hills, Yuri's coworkers invited Chris over for a late afternoon feast of good wishes and cake, then sent us home with a cartload of gifts, including a Flip video camera, a humidifier, a stylish new diaper bag, and so many clothes that our son will probably only get to wear everything once before he grows out of it!


Baby Shower at Yuri's Work

We were really, truly touched by the outpouring of kindness and generosity. Thanks again to everyone who baked, cleaned, sorted, shopped, and toiled to help us welcome our baby into the world. We can't wait to pay you back by spamming you with baby pictures! :)


Linh and Yuri

For more shower pictures, click on the album below:

Baby Shower Photo Album

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One on Sunset

When it comes to the Sunset Strip, we're like most folks who've lived in L.A. for more than a few months: we love to hate it. Still, a few times a year, we find ourselves down the street from Mel's or The Laugh Factory, trying to squeeze our car between a limo and a TMZ van.

Mostly, this is due to out-of-town guests drawn by Hollywood's siren call. At least that's how we ended up at Ketchup earlier this year with Lisa, Tommy, and Tommy's brother and sister-in-law, Peter and Tracy, who are from the Bay Area.

Since everything in Hollywood has a sequel, we weren't surprised when the same crew wanted to meet up again on the Strip last month, this time with Colleen (Tracy's sister) and Edwin, at One on Sunset.




"One" Stop Shopping

One has a bar and a split level lounge with low tables set between plush banquettes. Everything's bathed in a dim, clubby ambience, since One wants to be the "one place" you come to for food, drinks, and clubbing. Their motto could be "eat, drink, and be merry," if merry = dance, attempt to dance, or pose and leer.

Dishes are mostly small and tapas style, meant to be shared while everyone chit-chats about the most recent episode of The Hills. Careful, though: if you come with a big group, One's pushy wait staff will want to do all the ordering for you.

Food

We ordered a dozen or so plates and passed 'em around.

Seafood: This is supposed to be original chef Chris Ennis's forte. The halibut sashimi was perfectly seared; the tuna tartare was served on a bed of eggplant deep-fried to a golden tempura crisp. But the miso-glazed salmon skewers? Too sweet. And too fishy.

Erica's "Kick Ass Cheeseburgers": Blame it on Harold and Kumar, but slider-sized gut bombs are all the rage in La-la land these days. One's aren't bad, especially since they're draped with gruyere and saga blue (did we also mention that they're $15/pair?).

But since this is L.A., and you can get better gastropub burgers at Father's Office, Hungry Cat, or Pete's, we suggest they paraphrase our local anchormen and rename these the "We know you have many choices for burgers; thank you for choosing ours!" burgers.

Also good: the sweet potato fries; the lobster-shrimp-goat cheese quesadillas (can you say "California cuisine?"), if you nix the pineapple salsa; the (crumble-in-your-mouth) ground turkey meatballs doused with marinara; the buffalo chicken wing lettuce wraps (which packed a decent kick), and the flatbread margherita, topped with mouth-watering buffalo mozzarella.

From August 2008

Biggest disappointment: The porcini mushroom ravioli, especially since it barely beat dessert out of the kitchen. Ixnay on the avioliray.

Dessert: We let Lisa and Tommy order dessert, of course: they have a Sixth Sense about sweets! Sure enough, One's butterscotch bread pudding was warm throughout and buttery, topped with a dollop of good blueberry ice cream.


Being Merry

We liked One's atmosphere: at first. As the night went on, though, it got loud. Really, really loud. We had to use large hand gestures to communicate with Edwin.

Then the casting call rolled in (along with an off-duty HGTV host and his C-list entourage), and the place started to feel more like Pure in Vegas, with the DJs stitching '80s hits with the latest VMA-friendly hip-hop. When Chris popped out to feed the meter (call us cheap), dudes were lining up to get in like One was the last lifeboat on the Titanic.

Drinks

Non-preggers folks can take the edge off with one of One's house drinks. Chris had the Johito, a nasty concoction of J.D., lime, mint, and ginger ale, and wished he'd ordered the White Orchid instead, a well-mixed, light cocktail with a clean finish, with some Ketel Citroen and White Cranberry Juice thrown in.

Brooms Gone Wild

Besides the noise, our main gripe was the way the waiters force-fed us bottled water. Despite our protests, they kept twisting open new Fiji bottles and rushing over to top off our glasses. We understood how Mickey felt in The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

In One's defense, though, our waiter did serve us a huge, wire-tree, Rube Goldberg-like contraption full of shots, on the house. Way to close that sale!

One Sunset
8730 Sunset Blvd., WeHo, 310-657-0111
Daily 5:30 p.m. - 2 a.m.

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Back to School

After several months on the sidelines (thanks to an early high school graduation and a late college start date), our little sister Alex (pictured here playing her last viola recital a week ago) is finally off to college in Seattle, the home of Fraser, Fleet Foxes, flying fish, and a chain of coffee shops you just may have heard of.

While we'll miss her dearly, we're at least happy to know that we can follow her adventures on her new blog!

We also have to give Al a big thank you for the amazing Diaper Cake she helped Lisa and Tommy make for Yuri's baby shower before she headed off into the horizon:

From September 08

Thanks, Al! We're sorry you couldn't make it, but you were there in spirit! (Or in diapers?!)

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Long Beach: Pie, Paintings, and Retro Row

photos: Chili omelet at Bake 'n Broil; Untitled, Wifredo Lam; MOLAA; Bake 'n Broil's Red Velvet Cupcake; Shelter Surf Shop; at the beach

When planning day trips, most Angelenos don't think of Long Beach. If anything, Long Beach makes them think of ugly harbors, oil rigs, the 710 freeway, or Snoop Dogg.

Long Beach, though, is up and coming, with plenty of hidden treasures. Since we felt like getting away for a Saturday, we drove down for a huge breakfast at Bake N Broil, some art at MOLAA (the Museum of Latin American Art), and a stroll down 4th Street (dubbed Retro Row by Los Angeles Magazine) to the beach.

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Bake N Broil

Behind every great day is a great breakfast. Jongewaard's Bake N Broil, a family-owned gem on Atlantic with loyal regulars who pack the booths and counters seven days a week, was the perfect place for us to load up on carbs, before loading up on culture.

Unless you make it yourself, Bake N Broil is probably the best place for pie in So Cal. BNB also serves killer cupcakes, but unfortunately, we didn't have room for dessert after stuffing ourselves silly on old school diner breakfasts.

Yuri had an omelet crammed full of chili, and Chris had one with bacon, avocado, potatoes, and sour cream. The hash browns, packed with summer-fresh red and green peppers, were cut thin as crepe paper, crisp and delicious.

We also had biscuits, which could’ve been a full meal in themselves: crumbly, buttery, and smothered with to-die-for gravy.

The manager of Jongenwaard’s (and son-in-law of the original owners) knows most of his customer’s names. Chris learned to love this place when he taught Kindergarten at the Robinson Academy since, as everybody knows, the only people who love coffee and sweets more than cops are teachers!

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Museum of Latin American Art

It was a short ride to MOLAA, where we caught the Wifredo Lam retrospective. An unsung force in 20th-century art, Wifredo Lam rubbed elbows with people like Picasso and the post-colonial poet Aimee Cesaire (if Cesaire and Edward Said were still alive, they'd probably be on each other's Fave 5).

Lam's art is electrifying. We compared it to Modigliani, Braque, Miro, and Picasso.

But where these other masters were Europeans basically ripping off the visual language of native African and American cultures, Lam was actually of Cuban and Chinese ancestry. He had a primitivist style just like his Cubist buddies, but he used it with a more genuine power and authority.


Sculpture outside MOLAA

MOLAA's permanent collection, too, left us dazed and inspired. Latin American artists seem to use color, texture, and form more confidently than American artists, the same way Latin American writers seem to be able to write magical realism in their sleep.

We liked this piece by Antonio Segui, especially since it reminded us of the book Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino:


Ardoise, Antonio Segui

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4th Street

After MOLAA, we hit 4th street, a corridor of vintage shops and good eats. We ducked into a cool used bookstore, then cut through the slick Shelter Surf Shop with its arted-up boards into a back lot, where we found ourselves in the middle of a party.

No joke! An honest to God party, complete with open bar and live music.

Some lady, apparently, was throwing this bash to celebrate the new wine shop she was opening. Nose-pierced strangers ushered us in, and Chris snagged a couple of free (and strong) Mojitos, while Yuri attacked the all-you-can eat spread.

We had delicious bành mi from Number Nine, the restaurant a few doors down that was shouted out by LA Magazine for its slick and modern interiors and organic take on classic Vietnamese cuisine.


Did somebody say "party?"

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Dessert


Red Velvet Cupcake at Bake N Broil

It was just a few blocks down Juniperro to the beach, where we breathed in the ocean air and soaked up enough sun to get us through the winter.

Before we got back on the 710, we actually stopped at Bake N Broil -- AGAIN! -- since we didn’t have room for pie the first time.

The place was still full of locals and regulars, but we sat at the counter and had a slice of boysenberry pie and a Red Velvet Cupcake.

Much praise has been heaped on BNB’s Red Velvets, and it’s a good thing we got there around 3 p.m. Fresh out of the oven in preparation for the dinner rush, the cupcakes were already starting to disappear.

The verdict? Soft, moist, delicious, and HUGE (and half the price of most frou-frou cupcake shops on the Westside).

We've had red velvets from the new wave of cupcake smiths, like Dots and Sprinkles. It's nice to know that when it comes to down-home recipes like this one, Mom 'n Pop still know best.

From August 2008

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Kam-panile (Take Two) and Chang's Garden

We liked Campanile so much the first time we tried it that we had to round up some of our peeps and go back. This time, we brought Tommy and Lisa, as well as Kam and Mark, who we owed for spoiling us with dinners at their house, along with free pickins' (zucchini, cherry tomatoes, Armenian cucumbers) from their garden, which we affectionately call "Trader Kam's."



We also owed Mark and Kam for dinner at Chang's Garden in Arcadia, where they took us back in July, along with two of their Japanese student boarders, for a feast of good, saucy, savory Shanghai-style Chinese food.

Chang's, which is one of Mark and Kam's favorites, is a clean and decently priced place to eat too much, especially if it involves noodles, dumplings, and all kinds of varieties of steamed, fried, or boiled beef, chicken, pork, and shrimp. It's also right across the plaza from SinBaLa, where we recently ate with Ren and Chris). We liked the shrimp and pineapple dish and Chang's hot and sour soup.

Chang's Garden, Arcadia

Since we liked it so much, we wanted to treat them to one of our favorites: Grilled Cheese night at Campanile.

Once again, Campanile's Elijah Wood-look-alike host showed us to our seats. And once again, he plopped us in the picturesque, high-ceiling'd, Roman-arched first floor back room. This time, though, we were just a holler away from Green warrior and St. Elsewhere star Ed Begley, Jr.



We started off with some fresh mozzarella and Campanile's mouth-watering plate of marinated olives, marcona almonds, and roasted garlic.

Then we cut to the chase: Kam ordered the fresh burrata mozzarella sandwich (which Kano also ordered the last time we came for grilled cheese) and Lisa ordered the Classic Grilled Cheese.

Mark wanted the Reuben, and Chris had the waiter-recommended Autostrada, with cured meats, aged provolone, and cherry peppers, served open-faced on hard-toasted bread:



As usual, Yuri and Tommy wanted the same thing: Campanile's version of a Lobster Roll:



All of the sandwiches were fabulous, though the lobster had more of a seafood tang to it than the fresh rolls we had in Maine for Kathy's wedding. Chris and Lisa swapped sandwiches halfway through, since the Autostrada was good, but nothing, in Chris's eyes, beats that original grilled cheese!

As always, the sammies came with heaping mounds of deliciously fresh, shoestring-cut fries and mounds of green salad. But the thing that really blew our palates away that night was dessert...



...a cheesecake flan that packed an Encyclopedia Britannica's worth of heavenly flavors into every tineful. Mmmmmmmmm, goodness!

From the last snap we took that night, you can see that Tommy didn't get Chris and Mark's memo about the dress code:

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Baby Classes, Classy Babies

Are you ready?

This is the question we get most often from people about being pregnant. The simple answer is: OF COURSE NOT!

No matter how many books, pamphlets, and handouts we read, no matter how many onesies or burp cloths we get from Target or from our friends and family, no matter how spot-perfect we manage to make the nursery, we're not going to be "ready," because being a parent won't be like anything we've ever done before.

Still, like Michael Phelps, we're trying to train a little bit every day. OK, maybe it's not quite Phelps-like: we're not training five hours every morning, and although it sometimes feels like it, we're not eating 25,000 calories a day. (It's more like 22,000 calories...)


Part of our training has been taking baby classes at Huntington Memorial, where we plan to deliver. So far, we've taken My Labor, My Support for Birth, Breastfeeding, and Infant Care.

We've seen videos of live births, slideshows of circumcisions (before, during, and after...*shudder*), charts detailing all the different kinds of poopies our baby might make, and even changed and swaddled dolls. (Even holding a doll, I have to say, is an enlightening experience: almost every little girl in history has had this experience, but few men have).

For the last couple of classes, we've had a special treat: LooLu(Nate and Steph Lu) has been "IN DA HOUUUUUUUUUUSE!"

LooLu likes to change diapers
There's something so relaxed and easy-going about LooLu. We're sure they're just as worried about being parents as we are, but something in their kick-back manner and sense of humor is both refreshing and comforting.

Nate complained out loud that the doll he'd been given didn't look a lick like him. A nurse was game enough to play along and brought us all some "ethnic" babies:


Affirmative Action Figures!
Inspired by the dolls' surprisingly flexible limbs and Asian-inspired facial features, we staged a couple of Matrix-style baby fights. Our little guy seemed to be more of a boxer than a wire-fu master, though.

The class was very informative, especially with LooLu at our side. We learned that this, for example, is a perfect example of bad parenting:

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Shakespeare in the Park

From July

"If music be the food of love, play on!"
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

Summer's slipped through our fingers once again, but at least we've got some pictures to prove we made the most of it. For example, back in July we packed a picnic with Michael and Sabrina, two lovebirds set to wed in December, and plopped down on the grass at Barnsdall Park (home to Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House) to watch the Independent Shakespeare Company's production of Twelfth Night.



It was a gorgeous, balmy evening -- even when a ghetto bird chopped its way into the skies above the third act (the actors got a chance to flex their improv chops) -- and we enjoyed sweeping views of the park and Los Feliz. More importantly, though, we got to eat, drink, and be merry with the future Mr. & Mrs. Cham.

Mike and Sabrina brought white wine, bread and cheese (with a cute little portable cutting board), and Sabs' homemade salmon farfalle; we brought Chris's first-ever batch of spam musubi, which Yuri taught him how to make the night before: yummo!

Nerds that we are, we skimmed over the first couple acts of "Twelfth Night" at Border's the night before the show (and the Wikipedia entry, of course), which always helps to get back into the Elizabethan groove.



It's one of the hallmarks of the written word that 500 years after a guy dies, he can still make you laugh. Great acting helps make this possible, and we especially loved the actors who hammed up the subplots. But it's also much easier to enjoy things when you're laughing it up with friends, when your stomach is full of good food, and when your surroundings make you feel like this is the best of all possible worlds.

From July

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The Great Mall of China

When Yuri started craving fried chicken, Chris was absolutely thrilled. Fried chicken in all its glorious forms had always greased his wheels; now, thanks to the mysteries of pregnancy, we could enjoy fried chicken together.

Since our Wednesday Night walking buddies Ren and Christina told us their favorite Chinese-style fried chicken is at SinBaLa in Arcadia, we met up with them there a few Wednesdays ago, before trying to walk off a few of the calories -- oof! -- at a nearby high school track.

SinBaLa is a Taiwanese restaurant in "The Great Mall of China," the seemingly endless swath of San Gabriel Valley strip malls stretching down from Arcadia to Monterey Park. It's a hole-in-the-wall, but it's clean, brightly lit, and popular.

Unlike most Chinese restaurants we frequent, SinBaLa's menu is mostly made up of set combos that'll fill a single stomach for six or seven bucks. We copied Ren and Christina and ordered the fried chicken and Chinese sausage combos. The chicken didn't disappoint. The breading was crisp but the meat was succulent, and came with a huge dose of veggies and rice.


Fried chicken combo at SinBaLa

But the place is actually famous for its Chinese sausages. We're not always crazy about Chinese sausages, since the not-so-great ones can annihilate every other flavor on a plate or palate. But SinBaLa's are good. People were lining up at the counter to take them home. (The menu also features several kinds of specialty sausages, as one of our favorite bloggers discovered with Anthony Bourdain.)

SinBaLa also has some intriguing shaved ice concoctions on their menu, but we followed Ren and Christina's lead and ended the night on a sweet note next door at Genki Living. Alone in a sea of Chinese and Taiwanese shops, Genki Living is a Tokyo-style dessert shop, featuring crepes, Japanese sweets, and also some savory Japanese treats normally sold at food stalls, including okonomiyaki.

We got our crepe with just nutella -- the only way to go! -- and tried it crispy, which may be how people like it in Asia, but was a little too crispy for us. Still, the flavor was good, and the atmosphere was charming, so we may just be back to switch things up: fried food at Genki Living and a sweet note of shaved ice at SinBaLa.

Sinbala
651 W. Duarte Rd., Ste. F
Arcadia, CA 91007

Genki Living
651 W Duarte Rd., Ste. C
Arcadia, CA 91007

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Farmer's Markets: Larchmont Village

From August 2008

Recently, while trying to kill some time before meeting Yuri's Scripps buddies at Mario's, we stumbled on the Farmer's Market at Larchmont Village. While our favorite farmer's markets are still Santa Monica's (the Sunday market on Main, not the Wed/Sat market on the Promenade) and South Pasadena's, Larchmont's market has its charms, not least of which is the clean and trendy yuppie/bo-ho neighborhood around it: sushi, rare books, Peet's coffee...the complete gentrification package!

From August 2008

Chris had been craving some good almond pastries since leaving Minnesota (in the Twin Cities, Wuollet's and Byerlys' are too die for), so we were thrilled to find L.A.'s best (so far) bear claw, and even bargained the baker down to two bits.

A French couple was giving out some free macaroon samples outside, which were spectacular (and rival Paulette's), but the price tag was too high for us to take the bait.

From August 2008

We also picked up a small bunch of sinfully sweet red grapes and sampled other pregnancy-friendly goodies like almond peanut brittle and strawberries. Can you say "sympathy weight gain?"

From August 2008

Click here for The L.A. Times' hit list of area farmer's Markets

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