Raw Fish, Ravens, and Goths

 

Mixy and I went back to the Hump for a sushi lunch yesterday.  It's the sushi restaurant where Mark and I nearly passed out at this past January when the chef started cutting a fish while it was still alive, right in front of us.  This time we still got omakase, but I didn't go out of my way to say that we had to try the freshest stuff.  It still turned out pretty interesting though, and this time I brought my camera.  The location is fantastic, it's right along the runway at Santa Monica airport, so you can see the planes take off and land the whole time. 

 

I guess Mark and I didn't get a good look at the warning sign on the window before we ate there last time.  I made sure we each had some sake to calm our nerves in case any more disturbing dishes would present themselves this time.  I love it when they serve the sake overflowing out of the glass into the wood box.  It's supposed to symbolize a spirit of generosity.

 

Fuji San was our sushi genius chef again.  The first dish was made of ocean jelly cubes on top of what looked like green tapioca balls, but were actually a type of seaweed.  It was a yummy start.

 

On the left was a Super DHS appetizer plate. The different components from left to right were 1) ginger-like vegetable with fermented soy beans, 2) ankimo, 3) gelatin with piece of sea bass skin inside it, 4) japanese mountain peach, 5) smoked duck on shisito peppers, 6) the additional garnishes were the pink young ginger, and the edible deep fried miniature crab.  On the right is conch that is served steaming in a broth in its own shell.

 

On the left is a seafood and mushroom broth served in a teapot.  It went really well with the conch.  On the right was the infamous platter of a lobster head still alive, surrounded by its own tail meat prepared in several different ways.  Yes, Fuji San did it again!!!  This is probably the best tasting, yet most disturbing dish you can ever eat.  The head is still alive with its legs moving around while you are eating the rest of his/her body!!!  Again, everyone else sitting at the sushi bar was freaking out (except for us, because "Been there, Done that").

 

I have to emphasize that this is the best preparation of lobster I have ever had in my life.  It is a must that it is a Pacific lobster though, because the raw components wouldn't taste good with the Maine type of lobster.  On the right is a closeup of the head (still alive).  Just to the left of that is heavenly raw lobster tartar mixed with truffle sauce, caviar, and gold leaf.  On the right, se have lobster sashimi presented on the shell of the tail.  The orange thing is the underside of the tail shell that has been deep fried, and which is to be used like a potato chip with dip of the lobster tar tar.  To the right of that is tempura lobster meat with vegetables.  The two last greenish tempura items on the right are just divine.  Fuji san has taken lobster meat, and orange lobster innard and wrapped them in a shiso leaf, and then deep fried them.  Can you say out of this world unbelievable!!!  I'll just say Super to the tenth power DHS!!!

 

On the left is a closeup of the lobster tar tar being eaten on the deep fried lobster tail shell "chip".  After you finish the main lobster platter, they make a yummy soup out of the head.

 

To dip the lobster tempura and sashimi, chef Fuji San offered the alternative of special salts.  The picture on the left shows Bolivian salt, and the one on the right is pink Hawaiian salt.  Pictured on the right is Fuji's huge chunk of 300 million year old bolivian rock salt.

  

The sushi was quite excellent as well.  Left is red snapper, and right is blue fin toro.

 

The kanpachi (baby yellowtail) had a perfect texture.  On the right was the Anago dusted with bolivian sea salt and citrus juice (just awesome).

 

We ended with a great piece of Uni.  I definitely think uni tastes better without the sea weed wrapping.  It makes no sense to have soft creamy uni combined with hard dry nori.  On the right is a dish the people next to us ordered, but it was just so beautiful I had to take a picture.  It's made of fanned out thin slices of halibut, with flowers, and scallions in the middle.  The dorks though didn't know enough to eat the flowers left in the middle, LAME!!!

 

We did stay a little while to see Fuji and his assistants to prepare their ingredients for later that day.  On the left is Shad on a wicker-like plate.  I've seen eel being prepped this way before, but not shad.  On the right is a frigging enormous octopous leg as well.  (Many people freaked out when he brought this thing out).

I must again thank Fuji-San for such an amazing meal, and if anyone else is interested you should come check it out.

 

Later that night, Mixy and I joined Toro and her friend Esther to check out the Depeche Mode concert at Staples.  I was probably the only one there more excited to see the opening band the Raveonettes.  The Raveonettes were fantastic, they opened up with a cover of Buddy Holly's song "Everyday" (also featured in Stand by Me the movie).  The highlight for me was hearing "That Great Love Sound" which Gravely Disabled (my band) has been practicing lately.  I'm pretty sure I the only person in the entire Staples Center to be standing and getting into the Raveonettes set.  Depeche Mode was pretty fun as well.  I'm not the biggest Depeche Mode fan, but you definitely get to know so many of their songs just listening to KROQ.  Their music also frequently has dance oriented beats, so even if you don't know the song, you can still enjoy it.  Well, tonight should be fun.  We're going to check out Henry Rollins do his spoken word thing in San Juan Capistrano.  After that I have to work on Thanksgiving, but the in-law side of the family is going to San Diego for Mixy's Dad's delayed 60th birthday celebration (Hmm, I wonder if there'll be any magicians involved).

Jober's 30th Birthday Party-Cruise to Ensenada

 

I still have my sea legs from last weekend's trip to Ensenada for Jober's birthday.  In attendance were Mixy, Toro, Juddy, Turtle, Jober, and I.  On the left is the guys at the Queen Mary Harbor where our Carnival boat, called Paradise was docked at. 

 

Let's just say that festivites got to a quick start.  Early in the afternoon turtle made an appearance and apparently thought he could fit into Jober's suitcase.  On the right is Jober finding his suit that got lost (the suit was for the formal dinner night which as you will see later on, did not end up being necessary)

 

As you can see, our Carnival fun passes were in full effect before even leaving the dock!!!

 

First onboard activity was ruled by Turtle.  He won the contest for being able to name the most TV shows after listening to short snippets of theme songs AKA "Couch Potato Contest".  First prize included a lovely medal and assistant cruise director Julia.

 

No luck at Bingo or the Casino that day for the other people.  On the right is a shot of the cruise ship atrium.

 

The next morning we were greeted by a huge Mexican flag in the harbor at Ensenada.

 

In Ensenada we were greeted by mexican wrestling mask vendors and signs to buy Mexican Viagra. 

 

We started out by eating a small lunch at the sports bar part of Papas and Beer, where turtle had the worst chicken tender in the history of man.  Note that there is only a thin sheet of chicken, and mostly empty space within this chicken tender. 

 

After the meal we kicked it for a round of tequila shots at Hussong's Cantina.  It's the oldest bar in Ensenada (since 1852).  I liked it a lot and it had a real old school feel to it, but we just had one round, because it was off to partying at Papas and Beer. 

 

I've never been to one of those Spring Break Style party places, so I was really excited to check out the legendary Papas and Beer in Ensenada.  It wasn't Spring Break, so the crowd was older than college age, but the party was already in full effect in the early afternoon.  Tons of cruise ship passengers make the trek in there, and just go crazy for the afternoon before having to return to their respective cruise ships in the evening.

 

One of the favored activites at Papas and Beer is the slammer.  A designated employee who wears a whistle goes around the club basically in charge of hyping up the party atmosphere.  If you get a slammer, he makes you down a drink, then starts shaking you around til you swallow it, and then turns you upside down and starts jumping up and down.

 

We were impressed by Toro's beer chugging capabilities.

 

Turtle attempted to chug a bottle, but aborted after two gulps!!!

 

 

Toro had the idea to order Jober a slammer for his birthday, I think the pictures speak for themselves !!!

 

Things got pretty crazy after a while.

 

Jober decided to get a two dollar shoe shine after the Papas experience (apparently this event lodged itself in Juddy's sub-conscious, because it comes up again in a near-violent event the next day).

 

We had dinner at a cool restaurant called el Muelle Viejo, just up the street from Papas and Beer.  One of the waiters tried to sell me drugs when I went to the bathroom.  Like a good boyscout, I refused. 

 

For an appetizer, I had aguachile shrimps which were quite tasty.  We all had Mexican style pacific lobster for dinner which kicked ass (DHS).

 

As the sunset developed at Ensenada Harbor, we retired to our rooms after a day of pretty impressive partying for mostly 30+ year olds.

 

Well apparently everyboy was so passed out, that I was the only one who made it to the formal dinner night. It was quite embarassing to be there alone, but our waiters thought it was really funny.  Well at least I got to have more pacific lobster!!!

 

The last day at sea was really fun.  In the morning we woke up and had bloody marys.  I watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and the Fantastic Four on TV.  We saw a huge pod of (I'm not exagerrating) 100-200 dolphins pass by the boat.  Mixy, Toro, Jober, and I had massages in the afternoon.  By the time we got back from the massage Juddy and Turtle had gotten pretty liquored up.  I met up with them at the Casino later on.  Juddy made a comment to a girl at the black jack table (apparently in a drunken haze).  He said "I like your braids, I'll let you shine my shoes for two dollars".  If you recall, Juddy was off-handedly referencing (although unclear why), the shoe shine experience in Ensenada.  Well, unfortunatley this humongously buff dude at the table thought that Juddy was trying to insult her, and wanted to beat Juddy up if he didn't leave the table.  Juddy in his indignation didn't budge, and the guy left (he was waiting outside the casino to beat him up afterwards, but we left out a different exit).  Jober and I were distressed at the fact that out of all the people to get in an argument with, it had to be with someone five times the muscle mass of an average human!!!  Well, no big deal cause nothing happened in the end. 

 

Later that night turtle made another appearance, or disappearance should I say, behind the "window" curtain.  At dinner we had a final goodbye to our philipino waiter Benny.  The next day was pretty uneventful despite a lengthy disembarkation.  As I recover from my "Mal De Debarquement", I will again wish Jober a happy birthday, and say that we had an awesome time in Ensenada!!!

Arizona Part 2

So, we just got back from an awesome cruise to Ensenada for Jober's birthday, I'll post about it, but first here's a continuation of the Arizona trip from 3 wks ago.  So, the day after the wedding Mixygirl and I took some time to commune with cactus before driving up to the Grand Canyon.  I love these Saguaro cactii, they're just insane.  Look at how big this one is.  Makes the Mojave desert just look pathetic.

 

After chilling with the wedding party in the morning, Mixy and I drove to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.  I had just become obsessed with cactii and wanted to see them in all their glory.

 

As you can see, given that this garden had a cactus house, and cactus forests, we had a very good time. 

 

After waiting in a really long line, we went into a tent that was filled with literally hundreds of monarch butterflies.  It was extremely cool, and a great opportunity to get close up pictures of these beautiful creatures.  In the past when I was considering a tattoo, I always had wanted a large monarch butterfly all across my upper back. 

 

On our way out, we caught some unique Arizona sights.  On the left, these cowboy singers decided to "act natural" when they saw me about to take a photograph of them.  On the right appears to be a person in a Saguaro cactus costume escorting a mentally challenged lady into the garden!!!  The last thing I saw that was equally trippy was the weird puppet/light show at the Wynn in Vegas.

 

So, after the botanical garden we drove to try to find a restaurant that served traditional indian fry bread tacos (I heard it's like a taco made with a fried dough shell).  We kind of saw the street to turn on at the last minute and I veered to the right, not paying attention to the fact that there was a car in that lane.  His car is the red one, and ours is the blue one.  I pretty much just accepted the fact that the accident happened and had to be dealt with, but Mixygirl was so pissed at me, she was literally shaking.  Apparently the kid I hit had just gotten this car yesterday which was his first car ever.  I felt pretty bad about that.  On a side note the rental which was a Chevy Blazer was the worst car I have ever driven.  Who makes SUV's that have less acceleration than honda civics.  What's the point?

 

To add insult to injury, we found out that the frybread restaurant was closed for the day.  We did however find a kick ass restaurant that specialized in Southwest cuisine called Sam's Cafe.  Mixygirl had a much needed margarita to chill her nerves out.

 

I had an excellent seared tuna dish (left), and Mixy had a great little fajita and enchilada dish.  After my automobile misadventures we drove the rest of the afternoon all the way to the Grand Canyon.  The drive was really long, and we got to see the landscape change from desert with tons of cactus, to colder with pine tree forests near the grand canyon area. 

 

We stayed at the Grand Hotel right outside the park entrance

 

For dinner we ate at the Canyon Star restaurant attached to the hotel.  It was pretty cool, because they had native american singing and dancing.  They even played the cool indian tom-tom drums, and a flute like instrument.

 

Mixy had some tasty babyback ribs, and I had roasted buffalo meat brisket.  We turned in to sleep shortly after, little did we know how mind blowing the Grand Canyon would be the next day!!!

Pinecrest Class of '85 Reunion

 

Talk about surreal situations, a classmate from my elementary school named Jennifer Thuma had the idea of organizing a 20 yr elementary school reunion.  It actually came to fruition this past Saturday!!!  Some people came from far away places including Texas, Atlanta, and Philly to go to this thing.  Most of us haven't seen each other since graduating the sixth grade, but we all had fond memories of a more innocent time in our lives together.  It was held at a bowling alley in Montrose (the city, not the rock band).  I got to the area early, but I was really nervous that it was going to be really weird so I parked my car in a residential street and paced around and talked on my cell to try to pass the time. 

Well, it was extremely weird, but in the best way.  I can't even explain how good it felt to see everyone there.  After seeing the name tags,  you could easily tell how the person standing in front of you used to be your 6th grade classmate, but all grown up.  Everyone was really happy to be there, and there was kind of a euphoria in the air (or maybe that's cause I had a couple of beers).  From what I could tell, everyone turned out to be an amazing grown-up and they were just cool to talk to and catch up with.  None of the kind of baggage that you would deal with like say, in a highschool reunion. 

 

Here's just a few of my interesting encounters of the day.  The girl on the left is Jennifer Thuma, the organizer.  I wonder what was really going on in her brain that triggered this plan.  Whatever it is I'm glad she went through tracking as many of us down that she could.  The picture on the right kinda represents a fantasy come true (no joke).  One of my closest friends during elementary school was as some of you already know, a tomboy named Amanda Kraus.  We used to play dungeons and dragons all day, and she would occasionally kick me in the balls.  During college I wrote a song about her and performed it in my pathetic little punk band (Turner Burner Band).  To the song's credit, people seemed to like it a lot, and Amanda Kraus became somewhat of a legend amongst those who heard it (alright maybe I'm exaggerating, but it did happen somewhat like that).  Pictured on the right is the real life AMANDA KRAUS!!!  Holy crap, I never thought I would ever see her again, it was a total trip.  Well Kraus isn't really a tomboy anymore, she's got long hair and a boyfriend.  However she is still into reading fantasy books and her job is a professional videogame tester (Kraus and I won an award from Jenn for being the two people that ended up with the careers that we said we wanted to have in our 6th grade yearbook blurbs). 

 

Before we showed up, Jenn (and friends), had us fill out a questionaire.  One question asked us to fess up to who our secret elementary school crushes were.  I wrote down Micky Weil whom I had a crush on in the 6th grade.  She was only at Pinecrest for one year, but I clearly remember losing it (mentally) if my arm brushed up against hers in Spanish class.  I used to think about her anytime I heard Madonna's song Crazy For You.  She wasn't on the invitee list at the time I filled out the questionaire.  Much to my horror/embarassment, I saw her name on the e-vite the week before the event.  It didn't end up too embarssing in real life though.  Obviously she turned out to be extremely good-looking (that's her picture on the left).  Out of all the people at the reunion she looked the most similar to her 6th grade self.  I also enjoyed talking to her husband with new baby in tow.  Mixygirl made me take a picture with her and preface it by saying "My wife wants to know what my 6th grade crush looks like".   On the right is our principal Mrs. Bailey.  She was really fun to talk to as well.  It was good to talk to her without having to get into trouble in order to do it.  Everyone commented on how great she looked 20 yrs later.

Mrs. Bailey did seem to have somewhat of a bitter edge to her these days though, and we think it's due to her divorce that she kept alluding to.  She was married to GW Bailey of Police Academy Fame (the hated Captain Harris).  I guess she was probably upset that we kept calling her Mrs. Bailey, when she probably uses a different last name now. 

 

After the reunion there was still a group of us (those without kids), that wanted to hang out, so we chilled at Jenn's parents' house.  It was a beautiful place with lots of British flavor (her stepdad is from London).  We had drinks at their very cool bar which felt like being in a London pub.  The bar was made from an actual piece of an English church.

 

We passed the rest of the night, singing our school song, reminiscing, and watching videos of our graduation and sixth grade Christmas play (I had a very limited role, merely chorus member for final song).  On the right's our final group picture, a good cap to a surreal, beautiful day. 

P.S. Happy 30th Birthday Jober!!!  Can't wait til Mexico this weekend.

I've been really sick the past two days.  I had a great time Saturday at my ELEMENTARY school reunion!!! I'll post up the pictures, but highlights included hanging out with the legendary AMANDA KRAUS, and seeing the girl I had a crush on in the 6th grade (she's still cute).  The night after though, I started vomitting.  I was up all night throwing up.  Then I had to work at 6am the next day.  It was the worst workday I think I've ever had.  Last night, Mixygirl made me an amazingly hearty rice porridge, and I slept for about 15 hours.  I was sweating in bed all last night, but I feel great now.  Isn't it weird how sweating in bed is usually a sign that you are recovering?  I guess it's how the body releases the bad humours.  I'm going back to work now, but I won't forget to finish the Arizona posts, and also do the Pinecrest reunion post.  Take care. 

Wild Wild East-West, Wedding!!!

 

Last weekend, Mixygirl and I headed to Phoenix Arizona for my med school friend, Ed and his fiancee Julia's wedding.  The line for security at LAX was going out the door and across the sidewalk!!!  Fortunately it flowed pretty well.  Phoenix from the air looked a lot like LA, but I noticed there would be these little mountains sticking out here and there in the middle of the city, unlike LA.

 

We stayed at this cool little boutique hotel called the Hermosa inn, where the wedding was to be held.  It had pueblo style rooms, and cool cactii in the garden.

 

After a little rest we headed to this really good restaurant called, the Roaring Fork.  It's famous for its new take on Southwest cuisine.

 

We started out with some local brews, but we also had some Arizona Margaritas with huckleberry juice in them, which I learned was native to the Southwest.  All the dishes at this restaurant were just amazing and bursting with big flavors.  Every dish earned a super DHS Status. 

 

Even the bread was great and full of Southwest spices.  The first dish was a New Mexico fondue pot with lambchops, apples, roasted squash, and pistachio bread.

 

Mixygirl had an amazing Sugar chile cured duck breast, with green beans, toasted pumpkin seeds, goat cheese, and dumplings.  I had beef short ribs braised in a Dr. Pepper BBQ sauce served with sauteed mushrooms and double buttered grits.  The duck meat was so tender, it was amazing, and the short ribs just fell apart with a fork, utterly delicious.

 

Despite the fact that we were full, we made room for their signature green chile macaroni and cheese, which was perhaps tastier than the main dishes, if you can believe it.  Dessert was a trio of sorbets from left to right 1) Meyer lemon with huckleberry sauce, 2) Tomatillo served on a deep fried tomatillo skin, and 3) McClendon Farm's key-lime grapefruit.  I highly recommend this restaurant if you are ever in Phoenix.

 

Mixy and I had a wonderful time at Ed and Julia's wedding.  The ceremony was short and sweet, located on the grounds of the Hermosa Inn.

 

The reception was at the Inn's well known restaurant called Lon's.  Albert Woo, AKA Suk, my good friend from med school and undergrad was there with us (we even all slept in the same bed later that night). 

 

The food was actually, some of the best wedding food I've ever had.  I got distracted and forgot to take a picture til 1/2 way through.  After the reception, we went to Ed and Julia's villa for the traditional Korean Peh-Bek ceremony.

 

During Peh-Bek the bride and groom bow to various family members who in turn throw dates (representing boys), and chestnuts (representing girls) at them in hopes of them producing offspring soon.

 

The end of the ceremony is signaled by Ed carrying out his wife Julia on piggyback.  Unfortunately, he tried to piggyback his Mom afterwards and dropped her on the ground. 

 

After Peh-Bek, Suk and I drove literally just a minute away to soak in the sunset at Camelback Mountain.  It was beautiful, except a homeowner got pissed off that we were parked in front of his house.  He's got a pretty cool cactus though in his front yard.

 

When evening time rolled around, everybody returned to the Villa for a home cooked meal by all the local Korean Moms.  It was awesome.  Everybody hung out real late, and I really had fun getting to know Ed and Julia's friends (Daniel Dae Kim from LOST was supposed to go, but was a last minute cancellation due to a Vanity Fair photo shoot).  Julia provided some musical entertainment, and I'm proud to say that I was the DJ of the night with the Ipod. 

Like any good Korean wedding, we did get to see Ed's Dad lecturing the younger generation at one point during the festivities.  One of the most fun weddings I've been to,  but that's not it.  Mixygirl and I used this as a little mini vacation, and there's more to report about from Phoenix, and after that the Grand Canyon and Sedona. 

I was able to find the article I read a while back in one of the LA weekly alternapapers that I first heard of the Sotel gang in.  Here's the section about Sotel.  If you're interested in reading the whole article, here's the link.

Sotel O.G.

The Los Angeles Police Department’s West L.A. Division, home to the lowest crime rate in the city, mainly keeps its eye on two gangs: the Playboy Gangsta Crips, claiming turf along La Cienega Boulevard less than one mile south of tony Beverly Hills, and the Sotel gang, which is named for Sawtelle Boulevard and the adjacent neighborhood.

The Playboys have been around for at least 30 years, but their numbers started dwindling after the city hit the gang with an injunction in 1987. At the time, the gang had 200 members. Today the set, which roams mainly between La Cienega and Robertson boulevards and Pico Boulevard and Cadillac Avenue, has about 20 active members, according to police.

“Originally, it was a break-dancing crew,” says LAPD gang officer E. Saidenberg. “As crack cocaine became more prominent in the area, they saw the money-making potential and evolved into a criminal gang lifestyle. It caused them to become more violent.”

Saidenberg says the injunction and police vigilance – cops and community-service workers both claim some credit for the cleanup – have had a greater effect than rising rents. “Their income is not minimum wage,” he says. “They’re making their income off robbing others, sales of narcotics and weapons, and things like that. Some of them make a lot more than you or I.

“Many have gone to prison,” he adds. “Others have been paroled or moved out of the area or wised up and moved on and started to raise family.”

There are a few other smaller gangs on the Westside’s fringes, sets like Helms Street, Rancho Park, and Criminals for Life, that are but minor troublemakers. And in West L.A. proper, the Sotel 13 gang has a half-dozen core members these days, an expert says, although police contend there are about 25 active members and 225 registered members in the five-year-tracking “Cal Gang” state database.

“The Westside being a predominantly white area, they even told me through interviews that ‘this is not like South Central, where we blend in,’” says gang Officer Tony Umansky, whose job it is to keep a close eye on Sotel. “‘We stick out like a sore thumb,’” he quotes them as saying.

Police say that at least one Sotel O.G. (original gangster) in his 30s who has moved to the San Fernando Valley is recruiting at nearby University High School and even Webster Elementary School in an attempt to keep the gang alive. The result is a handful of pee-wees who stroll Stoner park in crisp, white T-shirts.

Their barrio – Sotel claims turf from the San Diego (405) Freeway to the Santa Monica border and from the Santa Monica (10) Freeway to Wilshire Boulevard – has changed into a yuppie mecca with plenty of high-end sushi bars and grocery stores. Neighbors and shoppers are often surprised to hear that the area even has a gang, but you can still see a little piece of the ’hood in Sotel’s relentless tagging. The gangsters hit the Stoner Park bathrooms and walls with “Sotel X3.” Such graffiti is also found along Pico near the Santa Monica boundary, home to arch-rivals Santa Monica 13.

The shrinking Sotel set, some authorities believe, still has some criminal life left in it. In the summer of 2002, a triple homicide outside a Brentwood-adjacent Koo Koo Roo restaurant at Wilshire Boulevard and Bundy Drive shocked the neighborhood. According to police, four of the restaurant’s employees were waiting for a bus shortly before 11 p.m. on August 27, when someone walked up and opened fire, killing three of the four: Mario Cruz, 24, Avelinao Cruz, 23, and Jorge Rodriguez, 22. The West L.A. residents “were well known in the Sawtelle area as ex-18th Streeters,” says Umansky, referring to perhaps the world’s largest gang, 18th Street, which is spread throughout the region but calls the Pico-Union district near downtown ground zero.

He says one of the victims of the triple homicide had a brother who was fatally wounded following a dispute with a Soteler at Barry and Ohio avenues more than a year and a half ago. Since then, he said, the Koo Koo Roo trio stopped strolling while drunk and disrespectful through Sotel turf and started avoiding the area on their way home from work each night. But on that summer evening, even an attempt to catch a bus west to Santa Monica didn’t save the three. The shooter came looking for them on the edge of Brentwood.

“These guys would actually go out of their way to go to Santa Monica to avoid the Sotel area to and from work,” Umansky says. “They would even try to hitch rides. They were obviously in fear and knew that Sotels didn’t like them.”

The crime, however, remains unsolved, and there are three fewer boys in the ’hood. The area’s geography makes some sense for gangland: The train tracks of the old Exposition right-of-way run along the south end. The homeless-magnet Veterans Administration Hospital anchors the north. Just south of Stoner Park, an industrial corridor, including a city trash-truck lot, runs along Olympic Boulevard all the way through to Santa Monica gang territory. But the area, which also includes Japanese-American residents with deep roots and Zen-inspired gardens, is irresistible to wealthier home-buyers.

“Back in the days, it was happening,” says a 19-year-old Sotel member Monster, kicking it at Stoner Park. “You used to see like 50 homies out here. There were all kinds of Mexicans around here. Now they’re building condos that are all expensive ’n’ shit.”

 

Mixygirl and I caught a blistering set by the Black Crowes at the Henry Fonda on Tuesday.  I haven't seen them since college.  They've developed quite the musical niche since then.  We arrived right before the set started.  It was LOUD!!!  I forgot how loud rock concerts could be.  I thought I have been losing my hearing, but I think I've just been going to concerts that aren't played at as loud of a volume like they used to be.  The stage was decorated with candelabras and Chris Robinson was in his hippy, bearded, skinny, dancing... top form.  Each song sounded kind of similar, but it was a great show nonetheless.  The songs would start with a heavy plodding blues groove, with great vocals.  Then they would always have really long guitar solos and jams, which actually sounded quite good. After a while the jams would crescendo back into an ecstatic re-reading of the chorus.  The music was a perfect blend of metal, rock and roll, and stoner rock.  The Crowes had a lot of stage presence that indie-bands these days seem to be lacking.  It was a good show to see to mix things up a bit.  In retrospect it would've been a good idea to have gone to the "Brotherly Love" tour a couple years ago which featured Oasis and Black Crowes co-headlining.

 

So, I was walking Kapono yesterday when I noticed that someone had tagged the wall surrounding our house!!!  At first, I didn't realize it was graffitti, I thought the writing on the left could've been like some surveying code and I thought it was weird that they would spray it on our wall.  The image on the right though clearly denotes gang graffitti.  We live in a little neighbourhood of West LA, called Sawtelle.  In its rougher days there was a gang called SOTEL in the area.  Does this mean we officially live in ghetto?!?!?!?

Ma-yee's Birthday

 

On Saturday, my family went to Sea Harbour in Rosemead for dinner to celebrate my Mom's birthday.  I don't know what's up with the weird roosters they have flanking the outside doors, but I do know that their dim sum kicks some serious ass.  This was our first time there for a non-dim sum meal.

 

The scene inside was pretty bustling as usual.  We started off with a tasty little broiled pigeon.  Not a lot of meat, but was really good nonetheless.

 

On the left is our awesome shark fin soup with crab meat (DHS).  Red Vinegar is a definite must with this.  The chunks of crabmeat were quite huge.  On the right is a dish we didn't get but were considering.  It's hollowed out papaya with the shark fin soup in the middle.  I think ours was better though because there wasn't that much soup in the papaya version.

 

On the left was the best dish of the night in my opinion.  Hong Kong style (deep fried with garlic and chili salt) Pacific lobster (Super DHS).  After that we had the sea cucumber with braised pork and jellyfish.

 

Next, we had beef in brown vinegar sauce.  On the right was a pretty good vegetable dish with some sort of spongy bamboo product on top.

 

We finished the main meal off with noodles which is a must in a Chinese birthday celebration to ensure long life.  On the right was a tasty complimentary dessert soup made of beans and chinese herbs.

 

We ended with a yummy supplementary dessert of mango pudding.  Here's a pic of the family after dinner.

Jober apparently didn't sleep well earlier in the day and was suffering by the end of the meal. 

My darling Clementine, Where does Will Rogers Live?

Just kicking it in LA recently, and enjoying Mixygirl's new status as an unemployed person.  Monday we had lunch at our favorite cafe in Century city, called Clementine.

 

 

We started out with a three salad split of autumn chicken salad, roasted beet salad, and campanelle chicken pasta.

 

We also split an excellent grilled cheese sandwich made with gruyere cheese, and braised leeks (DHS).  For dessert, we had a gingersnap cookie, and a choco-nut bar.  Afterwards we checked out a movie at the mall called Serenity.  It's based on a short lived sci-fi series created by Joss Whedon.  I thought it was pretty good, although I'm not that familiar with the original series (called Firefly).

 

Later that night, Mixygirl prepared an excellent salmon and green bean dish accompanied by the rose' that we got from Artesa in Carneros last week. 

 

On Tuesday, I got a new guitar and practice amp.  It's a cyclone II, made by Fender Mexico.  Normally I don't buy Fender Mexico, but this one's pretty well constructed and has jaguar pickups, and a stratocaster bridge.  New new little practice amp is pretty cool also, it sounds great and has a bunch of preset effects.  They also make new practice amps now with built in tuners and drum machines!!!  After the guitar store, Mixygirl and I headed out to the OC to check out Evita with Toro and the in laws.  I enjoyed the "Don't cry for me Argentina song", but I thought that most of the songs were so-so and that the plot was really hard to follow.  It was nice to be out nonetheless.

 

Mixy and I drove a short while to Pacific Palisades today to hike at Will Rogers old estate.  There's a 2 mile loop trail that goes up into the hills behind Will Rogers house and ranch.  Unfortunately, although I briefly saw a weather report on TV last night, it didn't register in my brain that it would be 95 degrees out today.  It was hot as hell!  Kapono was getting delirious from the heat.  He even scarfed down a piece of horse dropping!!

 

The apex of the hike is a site called inspiration point.  We were really tired when we got up there, but the views of LA all the way from the ocean to downtown were breathtakinng.  The actually Will Rogers house was closed for renovation.

 

It's Kober, Mixy, and I at inspiration point. Do we look inspired?  Because it's a beautiful trail I thought I'd include some bigger photos of some scenic highlights.

Scene from inspiration point.

View of the polo field at Will Rogers historic state park

Cool shot of a SoCal hillside

Colorful chapparal

Hopefully we'll see a lot more of these in Arizona next week.

Is this artsy?

 

We recharged afterwards at Jamba juice and fatburger.  I bumped into one of my former co-residents Heather Flaherty which was pretty cool. 

 

I thought I'd leave you with pictures of Kapono and his new toy, "Turtle" (no relation to the other turtle whom we all know and love).  Turtle has squeaking eggs in it, that dogs can try to get out of it's stomach.  Unfortunately Kapono can put his snout in and chomp on the eggs, but he can't figure out how to take them out.