final LA thoughts

i had a moment not long before i left LA where everything was perfect.

i was at huntington beach, at night, with some friends, sitting against the lifeguard station, staring out into the black ocean, with the full moon behind me and the sound of ocean waves crashing against the sand around me.

everything in that scene was perfect and epitomized everything i thought about LA.

it's weird to think that four years ago when i first landed in LA, i didn't want to stay. everything was too southern california, where there is only one season, where people are so healthy and only eat organic, and where you can't get anywhere by bus or subway.

flash forward four years and everything has changed. i love this city. there are lots of flaws about it (public transportation could get better, things could be cheaper) but it's become my adopted home and i love all the different neighbourhoods. now that i don't really know where i'm going and where i'm headed, i know i'm going to miss my adopted city, the city that helped me overcome my canada withdrawal.

i think my move to LA really shows the three steps of acclimation to a new environment:
1) excitement - i was beyond excited to move to southern california
2) shock - why did i move here?! i don't like LA!
3) acceptance and assimilation - alright, since i'm so savvy with the bus and subway, let's go to monterey park by bus and eat at this awesome vietnamese restaurant, maybe later we can go to the tar pits and get in for free with our student IDs, then we can get some awesome dessert in koreatown and catch karaoke in little tokyo...

i know when i first left, everyone back home said i would just become a socal girl and not want to go back home and i scoffed at them. and while i love home, there is a part of me now that's in LA.

i'm starting my new life as a vagabond now and i'm excited for it! but i'll still call LA my "american home", just like how toronto is my "canadian home".

so here are some final tips about living in LA:
1) a car is great but you don't need it all the time - take the bus or subway, it'll surprise you how convenient it can be sometimes
2) the coolest stuff isn't where you think it is - beverly hills and hollywood can be great...but it's exploring places like downtown where you can find some of LA's gems
3) there are more free things than you think - free movie screenings at the grove/century city/universal citywalk, free tapings of jimmy kimmel/price is right/conan o'brien, free visits to museums, free performances of shakespeare plays...
4) JUST EAT! food is honestly the gateway to this city and without further ado, here are my final food suggestions:

- square one dining - for french toast
- spitz - for kebobs and gyros
- haus - for light korean desserts and cakes
- fat fish - for cheap sushi after 9 pm (only $2/plate! mind you, i never said it was quality sushi)
- lucky boys - for breakfast burrito
- banh mi che cali - for BOGO vietnamese food (BOGO - buy one get one)
- the griddle cafe - for decadent pancakes and gorgeous omelettes
- fritto misto - for authentic italian pasta

i have a lot more but i just can't think of all of them right now. for all those food lovers out there, i hope this helps! and if you don't love food that much, give one of these a try, i hope they provoke more gastronomical desires.

a carnivore's dream come true

the first ever korean bbq festival took place last week in los angeles. i almost cried when i saw posters for the event because i love korean bbq. but a whole festival just for korean bbq? i had to calm myself down and take deep breaths before i could speak again. i love korean bbq that much.

when i arrived, the first thing i saw was all the smoke. i could SEE the smoke a block away. it was a column of smoke with the wonderful sweet and crisp korean bbq smell intertwined within the smoke.


there were about 10 booths of korean bbq restaurants just grilling away and there were tons of people packed into that small LA city block (i had to include that it was an LA city block because LA city blocks are about one third of the size of a normal city block). lines for each korean bbq restaurant snaked around and beside each other. when i got into line, i was praying that it was the correct line for the restaurant i wanted to try since the lines were so intertwined, i couldn't tell one from the other.


then it was the waiting game. i waited for ONE HOUR for a plate of korean bbq. mind you, it was awesome when i got it but i almost didn't get it! after waiting for an hour, when i got to the front of the line and the ordering table, the woman behind the table said their barbecues were out of gas! i almost had a heart attack...but thankfully there was just enough meat on their grill for three plates and mine was the last plate.



i should have felt bad for the people behind me, but i really didn't. i was too hungry and so desperately craving for korean bbq to feel bad about having a plate of the most delicious food. the bbq was exactly what i hoped it would be - sweet, tender and delectably delectable. though it was hot, the line was long, and i almost didn't get a plate of food, the korean bbq festival was worth it. i'll definitely be back next year (if i'm in LA that is).

welcome to the fair

i had never been to a fair before (we don't really have fairs in canada) so this summer i went to the orange county fair. as soon as i walked in, i had a couple of thoughts:

1) there was so much stuff! there was an overflowing amount of food, cute little farm animals to look at, games to play and prizes to win, exhibits, a 3D exhibit, dance shows, a hypnotist performance etc etc...


2) everything was fried

fairs are great because they are excuses to eat unhealthy food and to eat lots of it. huge turkey legs the size of my face, foot long hot dogs, fried avocado strips, chocolate covered bacon...now i'm not going to say what i ate and what i didn't...but let's just say going to the fair really pushed me into physical activity after a summer of without physical activity.


while i was chowing down on food, i took in the sights of the fair. there were huge trailers supporting roller coasters and other rides (i questioned their safety). there were enormous booths for carnival games like throwing rings over bottles and throwing balls through wooden panels with a small hole in the middle (i questioned whether the games were rigged). there were cute farm animals such as little pigs and then gigantic farm animals like the cow the size of a small car (i questioned their hygiene, particularly when a pie eating competition was held inside the pig petting area).


the fair was a feast for my stomach as well as a feast for my eyes. i took it all in because it was my first american fair! i spent more money than i would have liked as i tried lots of different food but in the end, the fair is a great place to hang out with friends and watch people become hypnotized, watch as your friend gets her face shoved into a bosenberry pie, watch two pianists play almost every song requested (except for journey - don't stop believin'), watch a 3D weird al yankovich talk about the brain...

you never know what you're going to get at the fair. that's why we ended up staying there for over 8 hours. and even though we do know what will be there next year, we'll be back...you couldn't keep us away from all that fried stuff even if you tried.

a day of shakespeare

shakespeare was a pretty cool dude. he wrote great plays with complex plots, witty and sarcastically hilarious characters...and he did it with a frilly collar! no i'm kidding, he was a great writer who could use a multitude of characters to bring out the nuances of his handful of major characters (mercutio, paris, the capulets and montageus in romeo and juliet; ganymede/rosalind, touchstone, phebe, silvius in as you like it).

so what better way to spend a day then to spend it with shakespeare? i got the chance last weekend to watch the american ballet theatre's presentation of "romeo and juliet" at the dorothy chandler pavillion. i'm not a dancer (though i wish i was) and i don't really know much about ballet, but it was amazing for lack of a more amazing word. watching the girl playing juliet dance was like watching a cloud flutter around the stage. with the beautiful costumes and the ornate sets, watching a ballet presentation of romeo and juliet was like watching the emotions of the characters fly out of the dancers and fully understanding everything that is going on.


afterward, i watched an outdoor presentation of "as you like it" in front of the cathedral of our lady of the angels. it was such a contrast in performances. whereas "romeo and juliet" was filled with lavish costumes and glamorous sets, "as you like it" just had a stage and at max, five props. it was like watching a shakespeare play back in the time of shakespeare, when people didn't huge sets or props to understand a story, they just listened.
and it was so great to just listen to a story and watch the characters move with it. i really had to listen and to strain to listen because missing a line or two of dialogue could mean i miss the entire point of a scene, of the motive of a character, or the play completely. it sounds nerdy, but it was nice to just appreciate a play and appreciate good acting from actors who really filled out the shoes of their characters.

wow, i feel like i'm singing the praises of shakespeare but i guess i just had a good day spending time with the guy. me thinks i should do it more often.

the next food network star

the first picture is a seafood white-cream sauce pasta. the second picture is bruschetta. they look better in person. they also taste better in person.

i've been watching a lot of the food network this summer. i mean, A LOT. i'm down with the neelys, ready to throwdown bobby flay, cook everyday with giada and go barefoot with contessa (i mean, ina garten, whatever). it's getting to the point where i watch to learn new recipes as well as just to watch.

sometimes it's like subjecting myself to torture. here is delicious food but haha, you can't eat it! that's what inspired me this summer to cook and bake more. not only do i have the time, but i have so many random ingredients in my kitchen that i want/need to get rid of and i have the freedom and flexibility to cook whatever suits my fancy.

i think i cook for a couple different reasons. it's relaxing, one, to throw ingredients into a bowl (in a systemic order and way) and to get something out of it. it's fun, two, to make new things and to know that if i really had to, if it came to the point where a mob boss said i needed to cook him an authentic italian dinner or i would be done, that i could save myself and cook up an italian storm. and it's challenging, three, to make different types of things that i never thought i would be able to make, like tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlets) and kimchi soup.

sometimes i wish i could go to culinary school and learn crazy new things about how to enhance flavours and work with spices and stuff. who knows, maybe in the future, after i become an award-winning journalist, i can settle into a quaint little town and open julia's bakery...julia's diner...julia's fancy, schmancy restaurant.

hmm, i'm going to work on names later...they all kinda sound the same...

santee alley

i went to the fashion district the other day. i had never been there though i heard a lot about it. and what i saw is not really what i expected. i don't really know what i expected but i was surprised that what i got was like a hong kong "mong kok", alleys and streets and rows upon rows of stalls selling everything from clothes to jewelery to shoes to accessories. and all at below average price.

there were tubes of cloth and barrels of ribbons, bulk supplies of dresses and trendy tops, boxes of purses and cartons of shoes. it was shopping...stripped of all the fancy, supermodel posters, pretty signs and nice locales with palm trees out front. it was real shopping.

i had to restrain myself from buying everything that looked cute or stylish. it was really hard because i knew the things that i would find here are cheaper than what i could find at the mall. so i only ended up buying one sundress. that's ok, that means i can go back to buy more later.

B3 - beach bonfire barbecue

sometimes three of the best things of los angeles can be summed up in words beginning with the letter B: beach, bonfire, barbecue.


ok fine, barbecues can be done anywhere i suppose...but isn't it much cooler to have a barbecue on the beach? with a bonfire? the correct answer is yes.

i wanted to have a cooler than normal barbecue on the beach, and thus the menu included steaks! and mashed potatoes! apple pie! guacamole! and much more, yum :) yes, i took forever to make (i will never forget how much butter we used, egads) but it was worth it when after splashing around, running around, fooling around on the guitar, we could all dig into mac and cheese, corn on the cob, and ribs!



the beach was surprising cold that day. the sky was overcast and it was windy until 2 pm! only in the afternoon did it actually start feeling like a nice summer day with the sun out and about and the water feeling warm and crisp against my skin. but the day also got broken up by the sound of airplanes taking off the ominous sight of airplanes disappearing into the clouds above our part of the beach.

i just realized that i didn't even take a picture of the bonfire...oh well...it was a good bonfire. very nice and orange and hot. it really kept us warm when the sun set and the cool ocean breezes finally hit us.

and i think that's when i realized (though i know and think it everyday): LA is awesome. it's a city of opposites. the rich (beverly hills) live with the poor (skid row). the artsy (the getty) live with the scientists (caltech). the young and hip (downtown LA) live with the old and wise (also downtown LA). the ocean hits the beach hits the city hits the mountains. i probably sound like a PSA for LA right now, but oh well. i live in one of the best cities in the world...cause i can have beach bonfire barbecues here.

the madness of mj

it was paparazzi madness but this time no one protested. fans, lovers of michael jackson's music clustered and held vigil near the king of pop's star in the walk of fame in the days after his untimely death.

flowers, cards, and posters almost completely covered mj's star; his name could barely be seen through the presents from adoring fans. trying to catch a glimpse of the star involved wrestling and pushing because everyone - local, tourist, fan - wanted to be close to it.


and in downtown LA, by the nokia theatre, crowds clustered to watch videos showcasing mj's life. the night before his memorial, hawkers were trying to sell tshirts with mj's face on them, his music was blasting from every car that passed by, and people were already lining up to be first in line for his memorial.

tastes like hawaii

loco moco and spam musubi...it's like a hawaiian party in my mouth! my friends and i decided to have a hawaiian dinner...just because we felt like it. my roommate made loco moco, which is like a big hamburger patty covered with gracy and topped with an egg. and while lots of people dislike spam because of the various animal parts that go into it, spam musubi makes one forget about what one is actually eating! the stickiness of the rice and saltiness of the seaweed and spam do quite a delectable dance in the mouth.

protests on the other side of the atlantic

this summer, revolutionary protests overflowed in iran. after results of an election announced mahmoud ahmadinejad had been re-elected president, voters didn't buy it...and they began to do something about it. they've brought their protests to the streets, called for a re-election, and tried to make their voices heard. citizens have been trying to inject democracy into the authoritarian state.

and on this side of the atlantic, iranian americans have been listening and supporting them. the pictures below are examples of the protests that have been happening in LA of iranian americans supporting their fellow iranians:

this picture was taken on wilshire boulevard east of the 405. protestors demonstrated consistently for about two weeks after the election, from the mid-afternoon into the evening. this particular picture was taken near midnight on a saturday night. protestors held signs on the sidewalk and when the light turned red, walked across the intersection egging on cars to honk.

this picture was taken outside the nokia theatre in downtown LA. protestors believe nokia provided the iranian government with surveillance technology that allows them to censor what iranians are desperately trying to tell the world. they believe the government is trying to withhold citizens' pictures, videos, and texts about what the revolution looks like and what is happening to those protestors.

meet george

he's my bamboo plant. i bought him in chinatown and i think he's grown a lot since i brought him back to LA. i've been giving him water and trying to get him in the sun (it's hard because if i put him on the windowsill behind the blinds to get some sun, i forget he's there...). i'm excited to watch him grow. i think it's better for me to have a low-maintenance plant. i still remember the vegetable garden fiasco of 2007.

even with george's low-maintenance, i still wanted to make sure i was taking good care of him, so i looked up how to take care of a bamboo plant on ehow.com:

Step One

Water the bamboo plant with filtered water or rain water to avoid the chemicals in tap water. For an even healthier plant, use soiled water from a fish tank or bowl.

Step Two

Keep the water level in the container high. It should never be less than half-filled. The roots of the plants must be completely submerged.

Step Three

Empty the water, and refill about once a week.

Step Four

Allow the bamboo plants indirect light at a moderate level. Bamboo grows in thick, shady forests. Too much light will kill the plant. The plant will turn yellow if it is too dry.

Step Five

Feed the bamboo plant a few drops of aquarium plant food about once a month. Do this by changing the water.

Step Six If the bamboo plant is kept in a soil pot instead of water, make sure the soil is constantly damp, but not over soaked. If the top inch of soil is dry then it’s time to wate

my first red carpet affair

in the four years i've lived in LA, i've never gone to a red carpet premiere. so what did i do? i went to one: the transformers 2 premiere!




celebrities were going to start coming around 6 pm. when my friends and i got there around 3:30 pm, lots of the prime spots were already filled. so we found a good one right where the celebrities got out of their cars and before they hit the paparazzi line. let me set the scene:

now the only thing that is missing is the celebrities! there were some D-listers...like random playboy bunnies, a couple singers, a couple athletes and then the big names: megan fox, shia labeouf, and josh duhamel.

tyrese actually came up to us and talked to us to get us more pumped.

shia labeouf didn't come over, but i guess he's a pretty big name, he head straight for the photographers.
yeah that's right. josh duhamel was waving to me.

this is the best one i could get of megan fox. EVERYONE was all over her.

shawn johnson, the US olympic gymnast. she was really sweet and signed autographs and let people take lots of pictures of her.

michael bay, the director of transformers. he actually went all the way around the red carpet and then came back around!

an SC representative: reggie bush! we screamed "fight on" to him but he didn't acknolwedge his fellow trojans. oh yeah, kim kardashian is beside him too.

chester bennington, leader singer of linkin park. i saw the rest of the band but wasn't fast enough to grab a picture of them.ciara coming over to where we were to sign autographs. she was pretty cool, she stepped over the barrier to come over to us.

the premiere was pretty awesome. it was a lot of waiting, a lot of being pushed and shoved around when celebrities came over. but i mean, i don't really do this kind of thing often so it was really cool. i didn't get great pictures of the celebrities but this is probably the closest i'll ever get to some of them. and even though i'm not a super movie person or celebrity know-it-all, i still got a little starstruck. i think everybody, no matter what they say, gets starstruck.

the LA film festival

i've always wanted to go to the LA film festival so i decided this summer to volunteer there so i could experience the festival. the movie business is definitely not my industry but i've always been curious about it. it's like learning a whole new world.

my volunteer shifts have been very uneventful. i spent one shift taking tickets at a theatre from movie watchers and then collecting ballots for the viewer's choice award. i spent another shift at the movie lounge where filmmakers and producers and high up movie business gurus get to chill. the lounge has live music and art on the wall...it's a very artsy environment where people can mingle (and enjoy an open bar).

basically there were too many volunteers and not enough things to do so i ended up meeting some pretty cool people. there was the security guard who has "secured" some pretty high up celebrities and worked lots of premieres. there was the irish woman who is a screenwriter who i ended up having one of the best and most stimulating conversations with - we talked about art, movies, school, and personal life stuff. and then there was the korean producer who offered me free tickets to the screening of "my dear enemy", a korean movie opening at the festival.

i think it's the people who make any type of festival interesting. and i think especially in the entertainment/movie business, there are lots of interesting people. these people are very different from most of the friends i've made at school because they are in the arts and humanities. with arts and humanities people, you can end up talking to them about almost anything (world issues, art, films, culture)...and i love it! i feel like i've been so mentally stimulated these past few days because of the interesting people i've met who are so passionate about the festival and because of the films i've seen and will be going to see.

the stoning of soraya m

i saw a free screening of this movie at usc the other day. now i know i'm pretty dramatic so i use the word "intense" a lot...but THIS movie was really intense.

i don't mean intense like, omigosh look at that car crash or dude look at all the fire and bombs. it was mentally intense. the movie, based on a true story, is about this woman named soraya whose husband wants to divorce her. she doesn't want to because she doesn't want her kids to end up on the streets. so in the end, he concocts this false story about how she is having an affair with another man. he manages to convince the religious leaders of their town that this lie is actually true. he even gets the accused man to go along with his story.

after she is tried and found guilty of having an affair, she gets tied up and placed in a hole, buried up to her waist. and she is stoned.

the last 10 minutes of this movie are of her stoning. and the director doesn't hold back. it's 10 minutes of very uncomfortable moments. you can see the stoning from her point of view as rocks are thrown in her face and blood drips down her face. you can see the stoning from the men, including her father and sons, who are throwing the rocks at her and how fast the stones are going.

it was difficult for me to watch. it was very, very uncomfortable because you could see her pain and her helplessness.

there were so many thoughts that ran through my head: people shouldn't be able to get away with this, some people take their religion to an irrational extreme, women have no rights or freedoms (the movie was set in iran). these were just a couple of my thoughts.

then i started to wonder, i was so impacted by this movie because soraya's death was so graphic. but what about the types of execution the US does? just because a man dies by lethal injection doesn't make the way he died any less heinous than a stoning.

the US always turns the looking glass on other countries, other people, other religions and points fingers at what they are doing wrong. but in this country, there are so many problems: healthcare, the economy, homelessness...the US needs to stop looking around and just look into a mirror to see what it is doing wrong to its own people.

baking adventures

after many episodes of the food network, i decided it was time to stop watching delicious desserts being made and instead make them myself. now i can't take all the credit...since a lot of my baking is thanks to betty crocker. HOWEVER, i still try to add my own twists, decorations, etc.

this is a raspberry filling i made for a berry crumble. it's two packs of fresh raspberries, a couple teaspoons of water, about a cup of sugar, and a teaspoon of baking powder (now these measurements are very lax because, well frankly, i don't remember the exact measurements, but just more or less these amounts should be fine).

then i put a crumble mixture on top, poured a quarter of a stick of melted butter on top and baked for 40 minutes at 325F. the final product is above. the filling was a little runny, maybe next time i won't put in the berry filling in the box. but other than that, it was berry-licious!

now this was my attempt at a strawberry shortcake. the cake was made from a shortcake mixture and i cut it in half, covered in whip cream and put sliced up strawberries on top. it was good BUT next time i know to cut off the tops of the cakes so they are flat.

i kept them with their natural baked dome-ness and after the first 30 seconds, the whipped cream and strawberries were falling down the sides *tear* a lesson for next time...layered cakes shouldn't be round!

quali-TEA

a random walk through the SF chinatown brought me and two friends to a tea shop. really, the only thing we saw before we walked in was the "free tea tasting" sign. i thought the guy would just pour us a cup and that would be it.

WRONG. this master tea man made us 10 PLUS cups of tea...all ranging in price from $60/pound to $1500/pound. i've never had tea that expensive before!


the picture below shows the master tea man making one type of tea...first pouring hot water, straining the tea then serving us. we tried ginseng oolong, green needle, peurh, and rose tea amongst others...i had never really thought that much about the different tastes in tea...tea can be bitter, hard, coarse, sweet, strong, weak...i feel like i learned so much from this master tea man! he told us which types give energy, which types are good for the skin (important for every asian female...or so our mothers tell us), which types were weaker in caffeine and thereby good to drink before bed...


we ended up spending a lot of time in the tea shop, chatting with the tea master about teas and the bar he owns at night (such an interesting man!). we all left empty handed...oh well...at least now, i know how to be a tea connoisseur.

from socal to norcal

one of the best things about living in socal...is taking a roadtrip up to norcal. so that's what i did this past weekend. it was hard to adjust to SF at first because i'm so used to the open space, need-to-drive, living in the ghetto-ness of LA. SF was crowded, there were buses and trolleys and a MUNI system (i kept pronouncing it moon-y) and the BART, everything was dense and compact...it was like hong kong but with more diversity.

i didn't really know how to react at first. it wasn't my first time there but it was the first time i lived smack in the middle of SF...but after the first night, i loved it. i miss public transportation, i miss easy access to things, i miss walking around for food and just walking around in general and taking in different neighbourhoods.

here are some pictures i took of SF: