Last Minute Visitor

Found out a few days ago that my big brother is coming today to visit form Japan! I wish he told me a few weeks in advance, but nevertheless, I am excited to see him! Right now in Japan, Gold Week is going on. It's a week containing a few public holidays such as the Emperor's birthday, Greenery day, Constitution Memorial day, Children's Day, etc. hence many vacation during this week. I'd like to think that my brother is coming to visit his family because he misses us, but the reality is, he misses the infamous American fast food :P

This morning, after going to yoga, I decided to make French Toast since I had sourdough bread from Le Boudin bakery (pretty rare occasion). I also have a lot of banana to get rid of. So I decided to make French Toast with a banana instead of an egg! Not only was it one of the easiest things I've ever made, it was SCRUMPTIOUS! I gobbled it down in a flash. Surprise. Recently, my good Pentax camera's battery died and I caved in and bought an iPhone 4, the I'm trying out the new iPhone camera (The recipe is below.)

After sitting through 2 hours of lecture, I met up with my brother! My, did he gain weight! I sort of teased him about it (it's called karma. My brother called me fat my entire life. And I was never really fat!). Since it was lunch, we decided to head to downtown and eat at Phillipe's French Dip Sandwich shop. My brother has been dreaming of this place for weeks it seems. I've personally never heard of it, but it's supposedly one of the best sandwich shops in the whole of the US and also the original founder of the French dip sandwich!

Located in the outskirts of Chinatown, I ordered a lamb French dip, while my brother also got a lamb French dip AND a beef with swiss French Dip. The atmosphere reminded me of an old diner, which would make sense since it's been around since the 20's!

The sandwich literally melted in your mouth and the lamb had lots of flavor! I am definitely a fan of the French dip sandwich! For those of you unfamiliar with French dip, as I was until today, the bread used is a French roll dipped in the gravy of the roasts (that is freshly oven-roasted!). It is a must-eat before you die! So if you're in downtown LA, head over to Phillipe's (unless you're vegetarian/vegan), you won't be disappointed!

I remembered that my beloved Urth cafe opened a new coffee shop somewhere in downtown. Looked it up on my new iPhone and discovered that it's only a 6 min drive away. It's a really cute Urth Cafe, but I would have to say a really random location. This Urth attracts the business crowd, I think. Stuffed from eating our sandwich's like crazy, we only ordered coffee: I got the small Honey Vanilla latte and my brother got the Large Italian Cappuccino.

Checked into his room at the Hilton, I watched a rerun of Top Chef as he passed out. Jetlagged. We headed back to my school early (to beat traffic) since I had rehearsals to get through. The last stop for food for the day: Chipotle. Of course, my brother will get better stuff once he's in San Diego tomorrow, but the craving was too strong to hold off! Japan has a lot of good food, but when it comes to Mexican food, it's not the same. I don't think Japanese people really like spicy, and that's the component that seems to be missing (claims my brother, anyway). He got meat burrito of some type and I got a vegetarian bowl. Stuffed. No more food please :P

Although, it was a short visit, I got to catch up with my brother on many things, find out the situation in Japan, and also found out some interesting news which I won't post just yet! It was a fun day and couldn't have asked for more :)

Eggless French Toast

Ingredients:

Four slices of sourdough bread

1 ripe banana

1/2 cup of vanilla soy milk (I use Silk's Vanilla flavor)

grease for pan

Toppings:

1/2 cup of sliced strawberries

Agave Nectar

Anything you desire, really

Instructions:

1. Puree banana and soy milk in a blender. Pour into bowl.

2. Grease pan and heat on med-high.

3. Dip slices of bread into banana batter, soak up as much as possible. Bread will crumble easy so I did it two at a time (you can do four at a time if you're gonna cook them all together immediately).

4. Place on hot pan and fry for 3mins, or until browned on each side.

5. Place on plate and serve with strawberries and necar!

Divine.

Lunch at Damon and Pythias

Back in school (-_-)

But what's the best way of starting another daunting school week? Grabbing lunch with a good friend! As much as I despise the Westwood Bubble, this quaint village does have a good handful of places to eat. For instance: Damon and Pythias Food for the Gods. I fully agree with "Food for the Gods."

I've been here once a year ago and had their Kobe burger with garlic and sweet potato fries. I don't recall any negative feelings, only positive :)

Since my friend wanted to try somewhere new in Westwood, I took him to this little treasure trove. With the help of a very good waiter, we ordered the LA Cheesesteak and the Wild

Strawberries Steak Salad, both their most popular item on the menu. On top of that, we split a 12oz beer and Chocolate mousse cake. Behold the feast:

Most satisfying meal (^^). And it's only lunch time on a Monday.

La Provence Cafe on San Vicente

Went to a new cafe for a change! Still love Urth, but I should really take in all that LA has to offer. La Provence is a French style cafe that is primarily known for their macarons. Definitely had to try this place! They were apparently in Cupcake wars and are considered one of the best cafe's in Beverly Hills.

So one of my partners in crime tagged along and we had tea. We both ordered Rose tea and split two macarons (rose and salted caramel) and a chocolate raspberry mousse.

The rose tea was nice. I liked how I had my own pot, but then again, that's typical at cafes. I just don't drink a lot of tea when I go to cafes, I guess. The mousse was light, not too heavy, with a nice hint of raspberry. The macarons were amazing! The cookies were probably the one of the best I've had! Perfectly crunchy on the outside (but not too crunchy! Phew!) and soft and moist on the inside. The rose flavor was nice and buttery and produced a cool feeling in the mouth like mint would. It's hard to explain, really. The salted caramel was a bit chewy. It was good, but I definitely prefer the rose more! Will definitely make a trip back!

Thai Lunar/Curry Festival

Second time going to Thai Town's New Year's Day Songkran Festival! Actually ate food this time around :P The event is also called Los Angeles Curry Festival, but I did not see any curry at all this time... I'm not sure if the curry comes out/ends at a certain time?

Regardless, it is a very beautiful festival! So much color, food, people-- it is definitely an overload to the senses! Parking is ridiculous, but I guess the gods were somehow pleased with me and allowed me to find a randomly open spot that was literally a walking distance of a minute to the festival! A good start!

So, we start out by walking down the street, scoping out what there is to do. There was a Singha Beer garden full of drunken men watching the kick boxing event right across from them.

Walked past a plethora of beautiful art work such as carved fruit/vegetables, silk flowers and dessert displays. Very intricate works.

Now for the food! Definitely started off well with a nice plate of Mango and Sticky Rice. I have been dying to try this for a well and I was pleasantly surprised at how yummy a simple dish can be! The texture, sweetness, visual were all wonderful! Following this are the BBQ Beef, BBQ

Chicken and Fish Ball Skewers. Yum yum :)

And lastly, I got a "Today's Special" plate that consisted of BBQ Beef, Egg roll, fried rice and stir fry noodles. A.k.a. a plate of happiness. Definitely did some grocery shopping after since the

food at the markets here are so much cheaper than the grocery stores!

Overall, it was a fun event, I just wish there was curry, as the name insinuates. Guess you can't have it all. Happy Thai New Year!

Royal-T Cafe/Maid Cafe

Went to my first maid cafe today at the Royal-T Cafe. i wouldn't say it's as legit as the Japanese Maid cafe, but it'll pass.

http://www.royal-t.org/

The industrial, cement floor building contrasts with the very artsy decorations (not to mention the Andy Warhol exhibit!). It is a feast for the eyes!

Ordered the Royal-T High Tea Set: a brew of Royal-T (black tea steeped in soy milk) with assorted canapes and desserts. The Royal-T was amazing! but the sandwiches could've been a tad bit better. I personally thought the bread was a bit stale. The desserts were pretty good, but I'm a sucker for anything sweet :)

Our waitress/maid was very bubbly and fun to talk to! I get the feeling she may be one of their top servers. There are other waitresses there too, who are Japanese, but their English is very limited so they don't make the best "sociable maid":/ In the end, the service was very good.