Today Bay, Mariko, and I drove up to Monterey Park so Mariko could meet up with her friend. Bay and I decided to join them for a light Taiwanese breakfast. It was pretty good, although it was more fried food than I was expecting.
After that, Bay and I visited a record store where I bought a few albums for myself and a couple gifts for friends, and then we met up with my family for a trip up to an escape room in North Hollywood. It was lot of fun, and we successfully escaped!
After the escape room, we asked the guy working there if he knew a good Mexican restaurant, and he immediately recommended Salsa & Beer. His suggestion was right on, as it was an excellent meal! I’d have to rate it towards the top of my Mexican restaurants. Delicious, inexpensive, and huge portions. Definitely worth a visit!
Tonight we ate our traditional Hawaiian feast: lau lau, kalua pig, dried fish, lomi salmon, mac salad, char siu, poké, and musubi. This meal is one of the highlights of my year! I hope you also enjoyed a nice Christmas dinner with your loved ones. ❤️💚
Hello! Happy Christmas eve! This evening we went out for dinner at Din Tai Fung, which is a popular Taiwanese restaurant. The dumplings were so good!
This location we went to was at the Del Amo Fashion Center, which is the mall that we always used to go to when I was growing up since it was only a few minutes away. But nowadays, so much has changed that I hardly recognize it! But, I’m glad that this restaurant is there. 😄
Earlier in the day, I went with my mom to King’s Hawaiian Bakery to pick up a cake for Christmas day. It was super-crowded, but they had plenty of cakes to go around. Can’t wait to dig into the Haupia cake tomorrow!
Today we drove up north to being a three-day trip to Monterey. It takes about 6 hours to travel by car from Torrance, but it’s a very scenic drive, and we stopped at a couple really cool places along the way.
In Santa Barbara we had a nice lunch at The Shop Kitchen, which is a cool cafe/restaurant attached to a auto-shop. Our avocado toast, chilaquiles, and salmon eggs benedict were delicious, and I sipped on the cold-brew coffee on the drive up to Paso Robles. But before hitting the highway again, we stopped at Renaud’s Patisserie for some snacks and gifts.
Our next stop was Paso Robles, to visit Sculpterra Winery for a tasting and shopping. It is a pretty cool winery with lots of sculptures to look at in the garden, and a yummy wine-tasting.
After that, we drove straight up to Monterey, and had a somewhat disappointing seafood dinner before finding our way to the hotel where we conked out big-time. It was a long drive, but we’re thankful to make it safely and we’re excited for tomorrow!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/100 sec, ISO320 “Stealing a Kiss” Los Angeles, 2017
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Today we woke up to a wonderful Fujimoto traditional breakfast: bagels, lox, pastrami, corned beef, roast beef, etc. It’s a tradition that started many years ago when my Aunt and Uncle would come down from San Francisco with a big bag of bagels, meats, and a block of cream cheese. Ever since then, this has been our holiday breakfast, usually on Christmas morning.
After getting fueled up, it was time to head to downtown Los Angeles to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art, both the main gallery on Grand and the Geffen installation near Little Tokyo. It was cool to see the art, but also a lot of fun to walk around downtown, including taking a ride up Angels Flight, which is the shortest incorporated rail line in the world.
We also went to Grand Central Market for lunch which is always fun and delicious! This time I shared a burrito with Koa, Thai food with Mariko, and Salvadorean food with my brother. I can tell I am going to gain a few pounds during this vacation. 😆
We returned home to my parents’ house and celebrated the family being together by eating an amazing Jamaican feast. Scroll down to the last picture to see the gigantic crab claw in rundown sauce. It was delicious. 🍴
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/90 sec, ISO3200 “Bagels and Fixings” Los Angeles, 2017
