After three months at home with the only road trips back and forth to Nevada to prepare the condo for new tenants, we were ready to head for Southern California and spend a few days relaxing with Jana and Bashir. We try to avoid holiday trips and leave the road and restaurants to the working crowd, but a long weekend was too good to pass up. We arrived Thursday evening, meeting the kids at our favorite Japanese eatery, Musha’s. There’s not much I can say about Musha’s that I haven’t already said…it’s located in the heart of downtown Santa Monica, alive with conversation and good food smells, and has an extensive menu of small plate items that are fresh, innovative, and delicious. We love the place!
Jana had planned Friday, July 4th, beginning with breakfast at our other favorite restaurant, Flake. We arrived to find it closed for the holiday. Disappointed! We went on to eat at a place called Milo and Olive. I don’t know if it’s a recent trend or just something I’ve only recently noticed, but these “hip” restaurants often dedicate half of the tables to communal seating, especially when floor space is limited, which is often the case in high rent districts like Santa Monica and Venice. I made the first of several very good choices this past weekend and had an interesting breakfast: creamy polenta topped with coarsely chopped bacon and two soft poached eggs. That’s another trend I’ve been noticing for the past few years…poached eggs are everywhere. They top pasta, sandwiches, hamburgers, salads, and more. It’s an interesting idea, if you like soft cooked eggs (and I do), but it can make for a very messy sandwich or burger. It was actually a perfect addition to the creamy polenta, which included Parmesan cheese and a hint of tarragon, and is something I plan to make at home in the near future.
Mid-day was spent at the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA) attending a special exhibit – Van Gogh to Kandinksy. Most people must have been at home celebrating the 4th with a back yard barbeque, because the exhibit was very lightly attended. Actually, that’s good, because we were able to leisurely view the paintings and then go on to view a few other installation exhibits. One that kept us riveted for almost an hour was called Metropolis II. It’s a “miniature city in motion consisting of 1,100 Hot Wheels-sized cars, 25 large buildings, 18 lanes of traffic, 13 trains and a human operator. The cars zoom at 240 miles per hour to scale, meaning upwards of 100,000 cars circulate through the urban network each hour.” It is fascinating and something to be enjoyed by all ages.
After that fun experience, Jana wanted us to see Levitated Mass or more commonly referred to as the LACMA Rock. It’s another artist installation amounting to a 340-ton boulder affixed above a concrete trench. Here’s a picture of us beneath the LACMA Rock to put its size into perspective…
The rest of the afternoon was spent at their Venice apartment enjoying several bottles of wine, admiring all of Jana’s plants (she has quite the green thumb) and her cats, Olive and Izzy, and sharing food, wine, and cat stories…all common interests with the exception of the cat stories. Jana and I never tire of stories or pictures of our adorable creatures. In contrast, the men just grouse about cat hair on their clothing (I ask you, what are lint brushes for?) and the dirt and destruction related to owning a pet. Thank goodness, they didn’t get into the expense of owning a pet (vet bills, grooming, special diets, pet furniture, pet sitters – the list goes on). They know it’s a hopeless argument, so it never goes much further than a few exasperated, repetitive complaints.
Our Independence Day dinner celebration was at Mercado in Santa Monica (not really appropriate, since we weren’t celebrating Mexico’s independence, but all the same it was delicious), where we enjoyed margaritas (I won’t go there again without ordering the cucumber-jalapeno margarita – it is amazing!), house-made chips and guacamole, and shared several small plates, including a delicious Choriqueso dip and Rajas Poblanos served with fresh tortillas. Their desserts, including flan and tres leche cake, were as excellent as everything else we had that evening. I think we may have another Santa Monica/Venice favorite restaurant.
Saturday morning we met at Flake for our Super Cro-Jo fix...
...and then drove on to Santa Barbara for a visit with our dear friend, Sally. We spent the afternoon watching a delightful movie, Chef, and then had an early dinner outdoors at Killer Shrimp on State Street. This was another one of my good choices: fried shrimp with coleslaw and fries. I know this sounds very ordinary, but I assure you, it wasn’t. The shrimp were butterflied, skewered, battered, and fried lightly. They came standing upright on the plate with the gathered ends of the skewers held together by a single piece of cucumber, thus, forming a teepee of shrimp. I’m sure this is impossible to visualize…just trust me, it was one of the more artistic presentations of fried shrimp I’ve ever seen. It was no ordinary batter, either, but included a bit of cayenne or some other source of heat, which left my mouth tingling with spicy pleasure. Only after I’d eaten each of the six delicious shrimp did I tell my fellow diners how extraordinary they were. I still feel a bit guilty about selfishly hoarding the best thing on the menu, especially after we’d all agreed to share. Hmmmm…I guess they both should know by now that I can’t be trusted when it comes to good food!
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