I eat: From OC to LA

October was a crazy month. My birthday, a wedding, a half marathon, and almost a house! Even though my birthday was at the beginning of the month, we continued the celebration a few weeks later with dinner in LA with B and P.

On the way up to LA, we stopped for lunch at Anaheim Packing District, which is basically a large food court. I love this concept as it allows me to try a variety of things without having to drive to and park at different locations. We circled the entire food court before stopping at our first destination: Kettlebar. In order to not get toooo full, we shared a pan roast and mussels. We continued with two of the most popular items of the whole place: poutine from The Kroft and popsicles from Pop Bar. Given their popularity and the rave reviews, I wasn’t impressed. The poutine was overly salty and I’m just not a big fan of dipped popsicles, or maybe dipped anything. My green tea popsicle had a really bitter taste, his hazelnut was OK.

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Another stout that’s yummy!

The highlight of our day trip to LA was dinner at Maruhide Uni Club, which I’ve wanted to try for a while now. If you love uni like I do, this is the place for you! They have uni EVERYTHING! B & P recommended the uni club don and uni cream pasta. The uni club don even came with soup that had pieces of uni in it. We were really tempted to bring some uni home but decided against it. SD has some pretty good uni options anyway.

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We ended the night by checking off another place on my must try list: HoneyMee. The ice cream is good on its own and the honeycomb adds just the right amount of sweetness. The green tea milkshake is delicious as well!

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Verdicts:
Kettlebar 4/5
The Kroft 3/5
Pop-Bar 3/5
Maruhide Uni Club 4/5
HoneyMee 4/5

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First

This is officially my first real post of 2013. I’ve been trying to finish my Foodcation 2012 posts for like the last 3 months. FAIL.

Since my vacation in September, I’ve started a new workout schedule, come to the realization that I no longer want to live in NYC, gone to Mammoth twice and attended a funeral.

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Part of my workout schedule consists of Pure Barre classes Tue, Thur, Fri-Sun. I started Pure Barre classes when I saw a friend post on FB about how great of a workout it was. At that time, I hadn’t worked out consistently in a very, very long time. I would run on sporadic occasions, but was never able to maintain a schedule. This really all changed with Pure Barre. One class and I was hooked. I’m about to finish my 5th month and be part of 100 club (100 classes completed)! I’ve made it this far and plan to continue because I absolutely love the workout and the class schedule just fits perfectly with my work schedule. And though I’ve taken classes for a while now, the exercises are still challenging. They haven’t gotten any easier. TRUST. If you take a class and don’t feel the burn, you’re probably not doing it right or you’re not working hard enough!

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In addition to Pure Barre, I’ve been taking Turbo Kick classes on Mon and Wed at 24Hr Fitness. I used to take these classes like 3 years ago, but stopped because of my work schedule. Now, 3 years later, the class schedule has changed and I’m back! I loved it then and I still love it now. The best part is that Turbo Kick doesn’t feel like a workout, but I always leave the class DRENCHED in sweat!

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J, A and I visited V in NYC this past December. It was a great trip filled with delicious food and late night talks. It was also an eye opening experience for me. I was in love with the city after my first few visits. I was in tourist mode. Everything was new and exciting. I loved the fast paced nature of NYC. I wanted to move there! But my love has waned after subsequent visits. This last visit made me realize that at this point in my life, living in NYC is not for me. First, I don’t think I could afford to live comfortably AND enjoy the finer things in life. I don’t want to share an apartment with anyone and I don’t want to live in tiny studio apartment. I do want to go out and try all the fantastic restaurants and maybe catch a Broadway show, hockey game or the Opera sometime. Living in NYC and not being able to enjoy it is pointless. Second, I’ve always thought that NYC public transportation was really great. And to a certain extent, it is. But from my last visit, I realized that it’s not as fast as I previously thought. On my last day I went to Laduree in the UES and round trip from Stuyvesant Town with a stop at Halal Cart took over an hour and half. Third, Henry hates NYC. So yea, for now, I’m fine with just visiting NYC and delicious food like…

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Uni at Soto

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Pork and Crab Soup Dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai

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SmokeShack and Frozen Custard at Shake Shack

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Miso Black Cod at Gotham Bar & Grill

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Halal Cart!! We had this twice during our trip and I even brought two orders home!

Right before my trip to NYC, Henry and I had our first Mammoth trip of the season. And seriously, what a difference a season makes…

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It was early December, but coverage was great since it dumped the weeks before. I’m happy I rekindled my love for Mammoth’s backside!

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Our 2nd trip to Mammoth was during MLK weekend.

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We were fortunate to stay with our new snowboarding pals, B and P. They’re great to ride with because they’re fast and they have endurance! And they have the cutest, most well-behaved dog ever!

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Henry doesn’t want any dog besides a Husky or Chow Chow so for now, I’ll just have to obsessively lurk on Instagram for Bulldog or Corgi pictures. 🙂

And onto the sad news. Last week, I attended Henry’s grandma’s funeral. She lived a full life, for sure, passing away at the age of 100. It’s really sad to think that she won’t be at our wedding, I mean, if we decide to have one that is. Henry’s cousin liked to joke that I was grandma’s favorite. And while that probably isn’t true, it was nice to feel the love from her when she would hold my hand while we watched TV. RIP ♥

I eat: Petrossian [2]

I first dined at Petrossian back in Jan 2010 and it was one of the best experiences of the year. Fast forward a year and a half and my feelings have slightly changed towards the house of caviar.

Petrossian may look the same from the outside, but it is very much different now. The ever-so-popular Chef Ben Bailly left mid-November to helm the kitchen of Fraîche in Culver City. He was replaced by Chef Giselle Wellman, most recently of Bouchon Beverly Hills. With any change in head chef comes a change in the menu and unfortunately, one of my favorite dishes from the first time around got the ax. RIP best mac and cheese EVAR. 😦

Good thing the Caviar Flatbread – Crème Fraîche, Chives, Red Onion, Capers, Chopped Egg was still on the menu! And it was just as delicious.

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Since my beloved mac and cheese was gone, I ordered another pasta: Squid Ink Fettucini – Wild Californian Sea Urchin, Curry, Salmon Roe. While the flavors were great and I am a self-proclaimed uni slut, the pasta was undercooked.

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The only entree on the menu that caught my eye was the Striped Bass – Yukon Gold Potato Noodles, Vodka Creme Fraiche, Chives, Caviar. Notice the common ingredients? Yes, the flavor profile was very similar to the Caviar Flatbread. It’s funny that I didn’t recognize that when I ordered. Anyway, the striped bass was perfectly cooked, but the potatoes were a bit disappointing. The thickness of the potato “noodles” were not consistent thus some pieces were softer than others.

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Like last time, I went with a crème brulée for dessert. And also like last time, no complaints. Just YUM.

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Verdict (2.0): 3/5
Petrossian Restaurant & Boutique
321 North Robertson Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90048