home.

there will be two blogs from my trip back to los angeles. the reason i went home was for chinese new year. i love the tradition that comes from this holiday or the festivies that come with it. family and food. now that's what i call life. going home and eating the traditional chinese new year eve, dinner with everyone in my family (all 30 of us) it was great. then in the morning snacking on chinese snacks while waiting for all the relatives to come to my house to send well wishes for the new year to my grandma and my parents was fun. talking and taking lots of pictures was all that was done for a whole day.

i should discuss more of the traditions of chinese new year but i'll do that later.. i am still a bit tired from the trip...

along with the trip i was able to go to a few of my favorite places to dine in los angeles. cafe laurent in culver city is one of my favorite places to have lunch. it is just a little cute place with a nice outdoor dining area. the french manager is adorable. and the cappuccino there is to die for.. actually i dream about the capps when i'm in pa. second spot in which i have to hit up is houstons. get my ribs and grilled artichokes. sometimes i look back fondly on the times i worked there other times i am amazed i worked there for so long.. 9 months.. .but mostly i remember the food... always consistent.
next topic is my sushi spot. i have two of them. and of course they are secretive. i might tell you one day where and what they are called but until i am ready to let the world know. and i'm sure when and if my sushi chef reads this blog he will laugh.. or be annoyed i'm not plugging his place. but the thing is.. both places are kinda unexpected places, holes in walls as some may put it. but they both have the most amazing sushi in all of los angeles. and i say this with the most confidence. i've only taken a handful of people to these places. one is in little tokyo. and the other. somewhere in the westside. i'm very serious about the secrecy placed on these spots... its bad enough that the little tokyo has a 2 hour wait now...and i've been going to this place for about 11 years now.. my westside spot is fairly new.. but by god is it special.

phil is his name the sushi chef. and you walk in welcomed like it is his home. but with the time he spends there and the family hanging out and his daughters munching on sushi during lunch time... you are coming into his home. this is a place where you just smile and say.. give me what what you want. i let phil take the reigns of what to order... and sit back and enjoy. this time going back home i took three of my friends. janell, jeff and luke. janell is turning vegan sooo i wont discuss her much yet. jeff is the only person in the group to have gone to my other spot and now that he's gone to this one he loves this one just as well. luke is a friend who has happened to have spend some time in japan, and he liked the sushi here too.. so i'm pretty confident that i pick the best sushi places as my favs... anyhow having dinner at the westside secret sushi spot made my trip back to los angeles finalized as a good trip as far as foodie life goes.

so with that everyone. read the next blog regarding.. bouchon....

eat extrordinary everyday!