I Have the Hookups at Tofu-Ya!!!

I love this place!!!

The banchan (side dishes)

Bubbling Tofu Soup

My favorite place on Sawtelle to eat at is this place called Tofu Ya. If you know me and have visited me, there is a good chance I have taken you to this place. Now, I know all the Korean people I know are against this establishment. But I don't care!!!! I'm not Korean. I love this place for what it is....good short ribs and tofu soup. Now, it may not be the traditional tofu (soondobu)....but like I said I don't care!!!! I equate it to this: when I was a kid I would eat Ichiban instant Ramen all the time. I never ate fresh made ramen. One summer I went to Japan (I think I was like 8) and the family we were with took us to this real ramen place. I hated it...I said to my mom, this doesn't taste like ramen because it doesn't taste like that Ichiban Ramen. Of course they laughed. But I always remember that incident and Tofu Ya reminds me of that. So I will continue to eat there because I love it for what it is. And of course the people there are so nice. I must go quite often because they always recognize me and Angie. One time I went there and I wanted to order takeout. There was this huge line of people waiting and the guy told me it would take like at least 30 minutes because of the crowd. But then he told me "you come here all the time, so let me see what I can do." I kid you not, he gave me the food in 7 minutes. Yesterday, I went with Angie after our run. The same guys were there and kindly refilled out chapchae (noodle) bowl twice. At the end when we were leaving the guy told us to wait and came out with two really large takeout containers of noodles for us to take home. It almost brought a tear to my eye.

Tofu Ya
2021 Sawtelle Blvd
LA, CA 90025
(310) 473-2627
www.tofuyabbq.com
closed thursdays!!!

Afternoon Tea Luncheon with the Girls

After visiting London and having a wonderful afternoon tea/champagne luncheon at Fortnum Mason, I have become obsessed with throwing afternoon teas for my girlfriends. I think this one is number 3. I invited one of my best friends, her cousin, and her cousin's daughter. There were two kinds of tea: a hot darjeeling and a iced tea. For lunch, I made a ramen cabbage salad, deviled eggs, cranberry scones, and four types of sandwiches: egg salad, cream cheese and smoked salmon, cucumber butter, and caprese tortilla rollup. I attempted to make Beignets from this boxed mix I bought when I went to New Orleans. Somehow, they didn't puff up quite as nice as I remembered from Cafe Du Monde. I was a little disappointed, but I will try to make them again in the future. All in all it was a relaxing sunday luncheon and I can't wait to throw another tea party!

Bodega Bar and Arsenal - My New Favorite Combo

To die for sandwich: Fig Challah and Brie Grilled Cheese

Very Spicy Chicken Pizza

Hey, someone left all their crusts!

Last weekend before my friend Gina moved to New York, we went to Bodega Bar in Santa Monica for dinner and wine, then headed to the Arsenal for drinks and dancing. This weekend, the same thing occured, with different girls. My sister Angie, Daniella, Jessica, and Julie and I stopped off at Bodega for some dinner and wine. Bodega is one of my favorite places to go to after work for some no frills wine and food. Julie and I shared a carafe of the Malbec red, then another one of the Grenache. The 5 of us shared a Chopped Salad with some spring greens, zucchini, jicama, mushroom, and chickpeas all tossed with a light balsamic vinagrette. On came the Grilled Cheese...my favorite dish the whole menu. Bodega orders this special fig challah from some bakery, place slices of brie cheese and grill it up to melt the cheese. Mmm....I love it and luckily we ordered two of them. Next we had the Margherita Pizza...nothing too spectacular, yet just goes well with the wine. Later on we ordered another pizza...the Spicy Chicken...which was exactly what the menu said, very spicy. Not sure what the spice was that made it so hot. We also had the PLT (Portobello, Lettuce, and Tomato) sandwich. Also very good with a light spread of pesto and goat cheese.


After a filling meal at Bodega which included a few glasses of wine, I was nice and toasty. We trekked over to the Arsenal. This bar/lounge is my new Lounge 217. For those of you who ever went to Lounge 217 with me, knows what I am talking about. The Arsenal is just one of those places that you can have a drink, dance, talk to the friendly bartender (Paul), and just always have a good time there. It is reliable and I love it. I love it so much I was there last week, this week, and going there again next week! But that's just me. They play good hip hop/top 40s which you can dance to. Or you can sit in the two side rooms. One of the room is an outdoor lounge with a modern feel. The other room feels like a pub with a bunch of guns/ammo (hence the Arsenal) on the wall. The latter is my favorite, because my beloved Paul the bartender is in this room.

If you are ever in town and want a good time.....visit both of these places!!!

Bodega Bar: 814 Broadway (near Lincoln) Santa Monica, CA 90401 (310) 394-3504 www.bodegawinebar.com closed mondays!!!

Arsenal Bar: 12012 W. Pico Blvd (near Bundy) LA, CA 90064 (310) 575-5511 www. arsenalbar.com closed sundays!!!

Southeast Gakuen Obon Festival

This past weekend was the annual Japanese School Obon Carnival. I used to hate going to Japanese school every Saturday from 8am to 12pm. I mean it was torturous....but I always loved attending the annual Obon Carnival. They have games, Japanese food, performances, and Obon dancing. And when I was young, I used to always go to flirt with the guys from the Japanese school or the youth basketball league :)

This year I went with my parents (who are on the board of directors) and with the Kishiyama clan (along with part of the Miyahara clan). I ended eating the Kalua Pork plate, a spam musubi, snocone, and some Okinawa Dango (this yummy fried donut). It was fun watching little Evan, who was wearing a cute Hapi coat and hachimaki (headband). He loved the Taiko drums and even tried to dance a bit. I hope that when he gets older, he will join the Taiko group and we can watch him perform during the Obon.

Finally Visited the Newer Father's Office in Culver City

A must try: Lindemanns Pomme (Apple) Beer!!!!
The ever so crispy sweet potato fries

The always reliable gourmet burger with fries

Today I finally had a chance to visit the newly opened Father's Office in Culver City with my friend Gina. Gina is sadly moving to New York in a week so we decided to celebrate and have as many get togethers before she left. Father's Office in Culver City is much larger with a long row of tables that remind me of the elementary school lunch tables. Of course these are much nicer. Ladies, FYI, if you are looking for a man...chance are you can mingle with the many many groups of men only tables. And since you are sitting like school cafeteria style you can easily make a move. Gentlemen...a great line to use is...."what kind of beer/wine are you drinking?" There are so many different types of beers there, that can definitely spark conversation. And then, of course there is the famous gourmet burger.....yum! It is as delicious as the Santa Monica one with the crispy sweet potato or skinny fries. I think if I had to choose where to go, I would pick the Culver City one since it is larger and you won't have to worry about eating your burger standing up!

A Delicious and Cheap (but not scary) Sushi Experience

Ok, so I am going to cheat on this blog....my friend Julie started a blog (www.sappyslappy.blogspot.com). I have the link on my blog as well. She did a blog on Sakura Sushi and because I think she does a much better job (literary wise), I decided to cut and paste and basically plagiarize. I hope you don't mind Julie but you are truly a much better writer than I. So here it is.

A few of my friends mentioned that Sushi Sakura on Centinela was good, so good in fact, as my friend Marnie from New Zealand said, "It really is the best, you have to try it!" I'll admit, I was dubious. From the outside, it looked hokie. The sign is faded and it is located in a run down strip mall in Mar Vista-- not exactly an area of LA where foodies flock to try the latest and greatest.However, I wanted to keep an open mind and after reading the many glowing reviews on yelp.com, I decided to give it a go, so I met my friend Michelle there for lunch today.I was really impressed because the sushi was not only really great, but the prices were very reasonable too. I think the most comparable place to Sakura would be Hide Sushi on Sawtelle, but to be frank, I'm not really THAT crazy about Hide (their sushi seems a little catered to white people in my opinion), but I LOVED the sushi here.I ordered a 12 piece sushi lunch combination, which included one of the following: Octopus, Shrimp, Yellowtail, Halibut, Salmon and Tuna, and a 6 piece spicy tuna cut roll. It also came with miso. It was reasonably priced at about $12.00.To begin with, I am very picky about my miso soup. I had a friend in college who was Japanese and schooled me on what makes "good" vs. "bad" miso, and how to tell the difference between higher and lower quality bean paste. I think Sakura's miso was really delicious, it was light and flavorful and not too salty. They used soft tofu diced into small pieces, and the fresh scallions added a nice additional layer of flavor.Their sushi was also very good. It was obviously very fresh, served at room temperature, and some of the pieces of fish melted on my tongue. I'm not the biggest fan of salmon because I think it has to be extra fresh to be good, but the salmon was perfect, as was the yellowtail. I also really liked the flavor of their spicy tuna roll, it was the perfect ratio of mayonaise, sriracha to fish.The entire experience, I thought was reminscent of authentic, delicious fresh sushi without too much emphasis on the superficial (like decor and fancy fusion plates).All in all, I would DEFINITELY return to Sakura!

Sakura Japanese Restaurant
4545 S Centinela Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90066
(310) 822-7790.

Marsha Wong's Bridal Shower

This past weekend was my dear friend Marsha's bridal shower. Marsha and I met at USC while we were both getting our Master's in Occupational Therapy. We became good friends at school (along with Onelia, Sarah, and Jamie) and have continued to be close throughout the 6 years we've known each other. I was honored to be asked to be a bridesmaid in her wedding and thrilled to help throw her a memorable bridal shower. Sarah (the other bridesmaid) was gracious enough to host the party at her house in Torrance.

I woke up at 6am to get flowers at the downtown flower mart, which I always love going to. They had some beautiful green dendrobium orchids, green pom poms, and green astor. The astor was a last minute buy which I'm glad I did because I had just the right amount of flowers for about 9 vases. Sarah trekked over the farmer's market by her house (the one in my previous blogs) and picked up the kettlecorn for our favors, breakfast for us (yum!), and some extra flowers for the bathroom and entrance. She picked some nice mums and green hydrangea. I always think flowers spruce up a party and add to the color theme. If you haven't noticed in the pictures, the theme was brown and green....modern versus nature as Marsha describes it.

The guests arrived around 1pm and we enjoyed lunch together. Lani picked up our sushi order from Noshi. Our shower was centered around all things that Marsha loves...sushi being at the top of her list. The california roll from Noshi was very good....they use real crab and not Krab in their rolls which made it taste so much better. Sarah grilled up the Kalbi which was nice and seasoned with just the right amount of fattyness.

The games were organized by Lani and they were so much fun. Lani really put a lot of thought and work into the games. We played bridal bingo and then bridal boggle. It was funny because Marsha and I use to play boggle in grad school during class. She had this mini keychain boggle which we would pass back and forth until someone couldn't come up with a word. So of course Marsh, being the master at boggle, killed everyone at the shower with a whopping 72 words. I think I had like 22.

All in all it was a great shower and fabulous effort put forth by bridal team Marsha! Thanks ladies for all your help.

The Lovely Bride to Be in her special chair

Orchid Centerpiece

Green Pom Pom Centerpiece

Astor Centerpiece

The Spread: California Roll, Spicy Tuna Roll, Sweet Eel Roll, Salmon Sushi, Yellowtail Sushi, Vegetable Platter, Crab Wontons, Spinach Dip, White Bean Dip, Chapchae, Kalbi, Ramen Cabbage Salad

My attempt at Dessert Sushi

The Maid of Honor Lani and Marsha: Lani made the rehearsal bouquet out of ribbon and tissue paper

Lani playing Bridal Bingo

Marsha playing Bridal Boggle

The Kettlecorn Popcorn Favors

Marsha with her XL popcorn favor

Me and Marsha

Spoonhouse: Pasta, Japanese Style

The crusty and very chewy french bread
This salad is a buck!
My favorite little friendo
Carbonara Pasta

I had the opportunity to spend the day with Joni, Evan, and Chiyo today. We all went to Spoonhouse for lunch and then off to the Lakeshore Store in Carson for their annual sale and outlet center. Since Chiyo lives in Hawthorne, we decided to go to the Torrance/Gardena area of some lunch. I hadn't been to Spoonhouse for awhile so I am so glad to have gone back. It was just as I had remembered....perfectly cooked al dente pasta, crusty chewy french bread, and the dollar salad. I love Italian food, but hate those places like Macaroni Grill, Olive Garden etc. If you want some great tasting pasta, check this place out. They have some different, Japanese style pastas, like Tarako pasta, Natto pasta, Curry pasta, etc. I still never venture too far from either the Vongole Bianco (clams in wine sauce) or the Carbonara (cream, egg, and bacon sauce).

We also went to the Lakeshore Outlet Center and Store. It was so awesome! They had some great things on sale in the outlet center, but you did have to dig through some stuff. If you need toys or kids furniture for discount definitely check it out. I got some great things. Thanks Joni for taking me there and spending oodles of time browsing through everything.

Emeril's in Las Vegas

I had the wonderful pleasure of spending my 4th of July weekend in Las Vegas. It was a fun filled weekend of laying at the "beach" at Mandalay Bay, walking the strip, dancing at Tao, relaxing at the Bathhouse Spa at the Hotel, and of course eating some delicious and innovative meals. The first night was at Table 10, Emeril's new restaurant at the Palazzo Hotel. I stupidly did not take any photos, so you will just have to rely on my words to picture the fabulous meal there. It started off with two tasters which I have embarrassingly forgotten, I think there was crab in one of the dishes (thanks Anthony for not remembering either - yeah...who needs the ginseng shots now???). I do remember the wine...a very nice Cakebread Cabernet...in fact a very nice 2 bottles of it. For my entree I had the Lobster Pot Pie...a very decadent display of lobster, a entire lobster claw and some rich truffled sherry cream sauce. It was delicious and the restaurant as a whole had a casual and comforting ambiance to it.

The next night was spent at Delmonico's at the Venetian. We also started off with tasters which I took pictures of. Our server's name was Michael Jackson...haha...he was wonderful.

Anthony ordered Homemade Potato Chips with truffle oil....yum...makes it hard to eat Doritos now!

For appetizers, we all shared the Oysters Rockefeller....very decadent...and by this point, I was feeling full already.
One of my favorite parts of the meal was the Tableside Ceasar Salad. Michael Jackson came out with a rolling table and a bunch of ingredients. He proceeded to make the dressing from scratch right in front of our eyes. I never really like eating Ceasar Salad, but this one was to die for.
For my entree, I ordered the special which was Scallops, Shrimp and Pasta with a cream sauce. It was really good, but by this point my stomach was hurting from all the good eating. I thought I was going to pop at this point.
The dinner ended with some Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee (Latte). Apparently this is some sort of special coffee. Having been off the sauce for awhile, I loved the richness of the coffee. It made me reminisce about the good ole' days when I used to drink coffee everyday. It was a great way to end off a wonderful meal.

Bar Hayama: Kozara (Small Plates)

The OT girls came by today for some dinner. I thought that Bar Hayama would be a great place to enjoy some sushi and variety to Japanese food. I hadn't been here for awhile and noticed that their menu changed, well at least the specials had changed. We started off with an Albacore Seared Salad. The dressing was really tasty...a sort of asian soy sauce based dressing.

Next we had the Blue Fin Tuna Tartar with with wonton chips. It was so light and fresh tasting, I absolutely loved it. My favorite dish of the night was the Grilled Squid with Mayo Sauce. OMG....the whole squid (yes tentacles and all) was perfectly cooked. It reminded me of when I was little at the neighborhood Japanese school carnivals where they served grilled squid in teriyaki sauce. I want to go back for some more!

The next two dishes were fabulous as well: a Sauteed Black Cod in Mushroom Sauce and the Hayama Cruchy Spicy Tuna Roll.

If you want some good, innovative, Japanese food with lots of variety (small plates style), Bar Hayama is a definite must try restaurant. Just give me a call and I will meet you there (it is on the same street I live on about 4 blocks away).

Danskin's Women's Triathlon - Disneyland

Pre Race
Post Race!

Today Angie, Julia, and I swam/biked/ran the Danskin Women's Triathlon located at Disneyland's California Adventures. You wonder, "where do you swim"? If you've ever been to DCA, we swam in the lagoon next to the large ferris wheel. Let me tell you, it was gross. I mean so murky you couldn't see your hand in front of you. The race started at 6am, so Angie and I woke up at 430am and trekked ourselves over to DCA. After setting up our transition area, we walked over to the swim and proceeded to line up like cows by cap color (I was a yellow cap, Angie was blue in the heat after mine). I snuck my way up to the front so that I didn't have to swim over people. The gun went off and I basically tried to sprint the 1/3 of a mile swim finishing in 10minutes 27 seconds, which placed me at 103 out of 1300 which made me happy. After climbing out of the murky waters, I ran to my bike and started the 10 mile bike ride around Disneyland. It was nice and flat. I cursed my bike as all the people with road bikes whizzed on by me on my hybrid. I don't like to blame my bike, but I swear I could be much faster with a road bike. I ended up placing 850 out 1300 in the bike portion. The last leg of the race was the run which was cool because we ran through DCA, in the back lots passed the Hollywood Terror and then through the park past the Bug's Life ride and other rides. It was nice and fast course at 2.5 miles. My normal pace is 11 min/mile for my longer runs. Even though I felt like molasses and my legs felt like bricks, I surprised myself and ran a respectable 9.5 min/mile. Before the 1 mile mark, Angie (who mind you started 3 minutes earlier) flew by me in her usual hyperness she somehow pulls together at the end of all the races we do together. I never thought she would beat me, but looks like she is the better racer/athelete beating me by 4 minutes. All in all, it was a fun race. A great race for first time triatheletes, especially women since it is a women only race. No testosterone allowed!

Back into Jewelry Making

Here are a few pieces I ended up making for some co-workers as end of the year presents. I never took a formal jewelry making class, which could account for the fact that I got really frustrated while making these earrings. I couldn't figure out how to connect some of the pieces together. I had seen some great designs on the fusion beads website and I was trying to copy them, but I could not figure it out. I think I will eventually have to take some classes just to learn the proper technique. I thought some of them came out really cute, if I do say so myself!