lacma | Food (and Other Things)

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes! It was nice to get the e-mail alerts throughout the weekend. I am sure you are dying to know how it went (humor me), so here it goes!

FYI: I am currently driving up the 5 right now. For you non-Californians, it is probably the most boring and smelliest 5-1/2 hour drive you can do. I figured I would write up this blog post, but it is becoming a horrible idea because every bump makes me want to lay back and wake up in front of my drive way.

Going down to SoCal was a different story. Highway 101 is one of the most b-e-a-utiful drives there is, in my opinion. We have the sun setting behind the mountains, creating this beautiful Kodak image.

Then 40 miles down, you have the sun setting behind the ocean WITH a mountain to the side. How lovely is that? The coastal view never gets old, take my advice and try it one day.

As I said in my last post, I had a wedding to attend on Saturday. It was not my smartest idea to go for a plethora of reasons, but I told Chi back in May that I would be his +1 and I had to stick to my guns.

Usually, I look like a hot mess and can not even bother to comb my hair, but I like to think I clean up pretty nice.

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D + J had their wedding on a resort and she looked like a bombshell, her dress fit her perfectly. The groom, who is one of the goofiest people I know, was so emotional during the ceremony and it touched my heart (/end corny).

PS: I am excited to see what their half Korean/half white babies will look like in the future. 🙂 Mixed kids for the win.

I could not be assed to bring my camera, so you will have to make due with the iPhone.

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The next day, we made the drive from Irvine (aka BFE) back to Hollywood and the group unanimously decided that Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles would be our brunch destination. Thank you, Rocio, for driving from Santa Barbara to hang.

The original plan was to attack Porto’s, a LA cult favorite, but the lines were outrageous and we had some museum exploring to do.

As a person who has taken the secret foodie oath, I have promised to treat each and every plate with dignity and love every carb, fat and protein the same. However, I can not get into the groove of chicken and waffles. I love fried chicken and I love waffles. Together? It does not make much sense to me.

I ended up eating the chicken, nibbling on the waffles and devoured the mac ’n’ cheese.

When deciding between which museums I wanted to attend, LACMA (LA County Museum of Art) was on top of my list. The Treachery of Images, my favorite painting, is part of a permanent collection there. I was so excited to be able to see it for the first time, only to find out that it is on tour at the Met and a few other stops before returning to LA. Hopefully I will be luckier with attempt #2 next year.

Although a little disappointed, I did not let it get in my way. The LACMA is the largest art museum on the west coast and holds more than 100,000 works spanning from the ancient world to the present. Outside and center is the very famous, highly filmed, Urban Lights. Chris Burden installed over 200 restored street lamps from the 1920s and 1930s and set them up in front of the museum.

You can see them in a bunch of movies, commercials and music videos.

I do not have much to say about each individual image, but you can see why it is so easy to spend the whole day at the museum.

Out of 100+ images, I randomly selected a few of my favorite pieces of eye candy.

I really love retro posters in general. This was part of the final exhibit I got to see, the Latin American exhibit. I will find a way to be able to incorporate these into my future home someday.

My friends always joke that I take pictures like an Asian tourist, so take that. Now that’s a photo taking pose!

I inquired in my last post about ramen spots and one of my loves, Bailey, called me in the morning to tell me about a place her boyfriend l-o-v-e loves for ramen.

Sorry, Goretti, but it was hard to convince everyone to go vegan for the night. Maybe next time I am in town, you can take me. 🙂

The wait was not that long and one of my favorite hapas joined in on the birthday celebration.

I liked how they decorated the interior to look just like Japan. I felt like I never left!

I ordered the spicy miso ramen and also snuck food off everyone else’s plate.

Mel and Rob did a six month Europe trip last year and told me they got me a special gift. A whomping 363 days later, they finally remembered to bring it. And I love it so much!!!

These are the kind of gifts I love getting. It is a handcrafted piece of ceramic from Nove, Italy.

Her words, when I texted her to get more info about this beauty: It is a little town in northern Italy, tiny tiny town in the boonies countryside but it has over 100 ceramic stores- everything you see in Macy’s, Tiffany’s etc…at factory prices! All gorgeous stuff! Wish we could have bought and shipped everything that caught our eye, but it would of been too much. We went to the largest store in the town and Robert was running through 1000’s of pieces and he didn’t know what to get you. Then, the tiles really caught his eyes and that’s when he knew. 😉

It can either be hung on the wall or used as a pot rest. The colors are SO vibrant in person.

I honestly think it is one of the best gifts I got in a while. Thank you so much Mel and Rob! Love you guys to the moon and back.