SoCal in December: A Photo Post

I'm back in my parents house now, it's been months since I've seen them! I'm sorting through the massive amount of photos from my 12 day stay in Southern California with family to find post-worthy one for your visual enjoyment. Here's what I got:

Like I said, LA has its artsy side too

In the UCLA area, horrible service but pretty cool environment (as are most university-area hookah cafes).

Of course you gotta do the Universal Studios thing, can you guess what classic movie this reenacted scene comes from?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

More Universal Studios stuff. It was so cold that that was my favorite moment!

These people were actually selling hot chocolate and churros in front of their house, I guess they really needed some help paying that electricity bill

Some times this is all I need for a good time

Used record stores are always fun stops

The mysterious abandoned parking garage level with nothing but Range Rovers. It was unexplainable and kinda creepy

Sneaking a picture at the no-photography-allowed Hollywood Museum.

Frozen yogurt kicks ice cream's butt any day. Socal has quite a few local establishments including Pinkberry with unique flavors (pomegranate) and every kind of fresh fruit topping. I also discovered this thing called Moshi (sp?) which is a floury white gummy cube that reminded me of an arabic desert.

Family conversations on booty shaking, adolescent boys, and snoring monsters

Conversation 1 at the mall
Cousin: (to baby cousin) yalla shake your booty
Aunt#1: wakto il booty? halla mish wakto il booty
Aunt#2: ya3ni lazim bil engleezi 3ashan nit'akad inno kul il nas fihmat
Cousin: booty booty booty booty rockin everywhere, booty booty booty booty rockin everywhere

Conversation 2 at the guest bedroom 6 of us sleep in
Baby Cousin: Mommy there's a monster
Aunt#2: no that's not a monster that's just aunty snoring
Baby Cousin: Mommy whose blowing their nose
Aunt#2: Noone's blowing their nose that's just aunty snoring
Baby Cousin: Mommy whose keeps saying 'whose there'
Aunt#2: Noone is saying anything anything, that's just aunty snoring

Friend: mish inti darasti fee amreeka, kan 3indik boyfriend bil jam3a?
Aunt#2 la bakayt mitzawja, zay il habla

Calling mom from airport
Me: Ok don't scream, but I just missed my flight. so I'm coming home Monday
Mom: ok. oo dalik miss flights tool 7ayatik. On Monday make sure to go to the aiport 30 minutes after your flight leaves zay ma dayman bti3mili. And make sure titfa3i another 100 dollars fee like you always do. Tayib? ooo kaman it'akadi all your luggage is overweight.

Aunts comparing adolescent sons
Aunt#2: Besides being annoying my son is really weird. Unlike my 17 yrd old daughter he has no social skills. He's 15 and a half and he's not even into girls
Me: How do you know he's not into girls?
Aunt#2: Because he doesn't spend hours locked up in the bathroom..hahahahaha (laughs at herself)
Me: Who are his friends
Aunt#2: In s3oodia (KSA) he has a couple of close friends that are all like him. All they do is play video games and they're all smelly. I'll know he's interested in girls when he starts wearing deoderant. At that point me and hubby we'll proceed to block msn and aim from the house.

Los Angeles Famous Restaurants: Ketchup

Ketchup is another restaurant owned by the Ashton Kutcher and gang group (AKA the Dolce group). This one sits on Sunset BLVD in West LA. If you regularly watch The Hills you may have seen LC dining here. This place has a more fun, casual feel with a totally Hollywood-themed menu. I stole the below picture from losangelesrestaurants.com; the rest are mine.

I was most excited to have dinner at Ketchup for what their famous for: the appetizer known as the 3 some. It's 3 different types of fries-spicy cajun, sweet potato, and thick cut, with 5 different types of ketchup dips-mango, maple, ranch, chipotle, and classic. They should seriously consider bottling up those ketchups and selling them; I would totally buy at least the maple and the ranch.

My cousin got the Shake N Bake: a pistachio-crusted chicken in a rasbery-dijon sauce. The best thing about the dish was the pistachio covering and the sauce, so I liked to just chip off the pistachio crust and stir it in the sauce to eat over the actual chicken.

I was disappointed that they didn't have what I really wanted, The Wharf which is a Chilean sea bass dish; So I settled for the grilled mahi mahi. The food was good but in all honestly doesn't compare to the black cod from The Geisha House.

Dinner at Ketchup was a good experience. I would definitely go back but I think we would order a few appetizers/soups/salads over any entrees. The 3 some was very satisfying and they had a lot of cool sounding stuff on the menu like the parmesan-garlic ring tower and scandalous lobster wraps.

Los Angeles Famous Restaurants: Geisha House

Dinner at the Geisha House may probably be the best restaurant dinner experience ever as far as my memory serves me! This is another one co-owned by Ashton Kutcher and gang that sits on Hollywood BLVD. It's a Japanese themed establishment that looks a bit sketchy on the outside.

This time there were three of us and once we were all we were seated right away on a 7:30 Tuesday. There was much more of a crowd than Dolce the day before. We immediately noticed how cool the place looked and wondering if the big and loud Arab-looking family next to us was really Arab or not. There were 2 floors and some more exclusive seating rooms on the first floor.

The servers and staff in general were really great and totally on top of their game. There was always someone available within sight and our server made some great suggestions for us. The sushi we ordered to start with was definitely the best sushi I've ever had. My favorite was a spicy tuna topped with avocado, grape tomato, and serrano pepper they call the red samurai.

I ordered a beef udon noodle dish that came out first; the beef was really tender and flavorful. However I just couldn't figure out how to eat noodles with those large Asian soup spoons.

However the best thing that came out on the table that night was my cousin's black cod. We always share our food, but the 3 of us couldn't keep our chopsticks out of her plate. I'm telling you people, fish is just not meant to taste this good! It literally melted in our mouths and left a lasting tangy yet spicy flavor.

We were planning on doing desert somewhere else, but the food was so good that we couldn't leave without trying the deserts. I was rather disappointed that they didn't have a specialty coffee menu like they did the teas. After too many oohs and aahhs we settled on the fruit-filled wontons and the fried banana tempura.

Desert was really good but not as great as the food was, in fact we've had better banana tempura. I think the wontons would be amazing if they stuffed them with more fruit and cream. The dipping sauce was a bit too sweet for me especially because the wontons already tasted sweet.

One thing I loved about this place and is probably why we had such a great experience is the atmosphere; we were having so much fun! They had a great DJ there that played jams like Galvanize by the Chemical Brothers and Tom's Diner by Suzanne Vega. The music wasn't too loud that you couldn't hear people talking to you but loud enough to make you feel like breaking down. At one point he played a remix of some old school Backstreet Boys and we got a good laugh when we realized everyone, including the Arab family, was enthusiastically singing along. We took pictures galore in and out of that place!

The food was all on the light side so we weren't overly stuffed, just comfortably full. Our bill was less than $140 which we all agreed was well worth the money especially considering all the stuff we ordered. If you're ever in the Los Angeles area make sure dining at the Geisha House is on your list of things to do!

Los Angeles Famous Restaurants: Dolce

I'm spending a few days in Los Angeles where my cousin has her own place since she works here. Before coming I didn't think there was too much of a culture beyond the one that revolves around the superficial Hollywood entertainment industry. I was wrong, it's actually quite the artsy city with it's own unique culture aside from what it's famous for.

ANYWAY, my pre-made plans involved not too much more than that walk of fame and, of ocurse, dining at celebrity restaurants! Our first stop was Dolce, a trendy Italian joint on Melrose founded by members of the cast of That 70s Show including Ashton Kutcher and Wilmer Valderama. It also stands as the #1 restaurant in Los Angeles on Losangelesrestaurants.com .

So it's at this point this review will turn amateur since long formal detailed reviews are not my thing. My point is to communicate to you "good" or "bad" and to give you something to think about next time you're around the Los Angeles area.

At 7:30 PM on a Monday the place was relatively empty. We were seated immediately and everyone who worked there was hot and trendy yet super friendly. So yes the service was excellent! There was always a server lingering not too far from our table to the point where it got a bit awkward, but always there when you need them. Our drinks were like instantly refilled when half empty.

The decor was cute....lots of candles and fires. It was very dimly lit inside so that you couldn't see peole from a distance except if they happened to be wearing fully sequined tops like the hostess. Also the place was on the small side so you could easily find yourself sitting a little too close to strangers.

We were informed that on Mondays the food is half off the menu!!! So try to go there on a Monday if you're broke. We ordered a shrimp, calamari, zucchini appetizer that was out in less than 10 minutes. I went with the lobster dinner and my cousin a scallop dish. Everything was pretty good, not excellent but pretty good.

So there were no Ashton Kutcher sightings but it Dolce was well worth the money we paid. Our bill in total was less than $65. Stay tuned to hear about what was probably the best restaurant experience I've ever had!