Mariposa at Ala Moana

Eating at the Mariposa in Neiman Marcus at the Ala Moana is always a treat. The view is spectacular, the service a perfect hybrid of slightly more formal than casual yet slightly less fussy than ubiquitous, if that's at all possible. We always eat at the bar, which I think engenders more interesting service anyway.

http://neimanmarcushawaii.com/restaurant.aspx

The kitchen at Mariposa always starts you out with a gigantic fluffy and delicious Yorkshire Pudding, this time with a little red bell pepper butter.



Because we always eat at the bar, I am not sure if diners at the tables are treated to this consistently delicious amuse-bouche, but I have been every time. It is a demi-tasse of rich chicken broth. Strongly flavored of chicken bone goodness, yet rich enough that I am sure there are heavy amounts of butter involved. Don't think about it, just sip it and enjoy.



This trip, D started with the corn chowder, another rich a delicious soup, with croutons and paprika (and 2 spoons, natch).



For a main course, we both lunched on the giant crab salad with local micro-greens and butter lettuce harvested from the Big Island.



We managed to peacefully share what the chef called portobello fries with housemade ketchup and truffle aoili. We were perplexed as to why they were called portobello, and tasted each one in an attempt to deduce some mushroomy flavoring. But in the end we were too full and lazy to be bothered to ask why. Or care.



Using as much local and island grown produce as possible is a restaurant trend that has become a norm. This was evident and clearly communicated every single day this week. There was talk about it on the local news program, articles about it in local and tourist magazines and newspapers, and I heard waiters and staff speak of this at nearly every restaurant I ate in, from the high brow to the low end. It was wonderful to be able to feast on Maui tomatoes ripened on the vine in the midst of a mainland national tomato recall.

Carolyn Castano in Honolulu

How cool was it to run across a couple pieces by Carolyn Castano at the First Friday art walk in Honolulu after mentioning her here, in my blog?

http://foodshethought.blogspot.com/2008/04/phantom-sightings-art-after-chicano.html

I was first taken with her work at LACMA during the Phantom Sightings exhibit. Here us a blurb about her from the LA Times.

http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/theguide/la-gd-art1-2008may01,0,1279869.story

She is adjuct faculty at Chapman University, and here is their brief bio about her:

Carolyn Castaño is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work explores notions of desire, consumerism and artifice through mixed-media paintings, works on paper and video. Her work has been recently featured at The Pasadena Museum of California Art in Liquid Los Angeles: Contemporary Watercolor Painting, International Paper at the Hammer Museum, Semi-Precious at The Public Art Fund, New York, and Three Great Walls and Bay Area Now at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. European venues include LA Now: Emerging Artists, Galerie Dominique Fiat, Paris and Honey-Traps at 38 Langham Street in London. She has had solo exhibitions with Kontainer Gallery, Los Angeles and Lombard-Fried Fine Art in New York. Carolyn's work will be featured in an upcoming exhibition at LACMA, Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement, scheduled to open April 2008. She has a Masters in Fine Art from UCLA and a Bachelors in Fine Art from the San Francisco Art Institute."

These are the two installations painted directly on the walls at the gallery in Honolulu's Chinatown.





Chinatown reminds me very much of Hayes Valley in San Francisco, about 15 years ago. There is an interesting mix of ethnic influences, a few dive bars, a couple of edgy restaurants and a crowd (on First Friday anyway) of non-touristy humans roaming the streets, popping in and out of galleries and shops and saying hello to their friends. This was truly a treat.

Un Gout du France dans le Paradis

Our first night in Honolulu, we were treated to a whole new (new to us) side of the city in the Chinatown neighborhood. It was the First Friday art walk, and we started at Brasserie du Vin for wine and supper.



http://www.brasserieduvin.com/

This is indeed a taste of Paris in paradise. And if not really Parisian in feel, definitely San Franciscan, Silverlakian, or maybe even Old Town Scottsdalian.



Brasserie du Vin is a wine bar with a lovely indoor/outdoor dynamic happening. There are several indoor rooms to dine in, even one with air conditioning. I could feel it as we walked past on our way to a lovely table overlooking the back patio, replete with Martini & Rosso umbrellas, cobblestones and shade trees.



We started supper with brie en croute with cranberries and fresh fruit. For supper I ate the catch of the day, what I think was Opa, with manchego cheese served on a bed of chilled white beans. I was trying to be sensitive to the fact that not everyone will enjoy being in the presence of someone snapping away on a camera the entire evening, so I didn't take pics of the rest of the meal. It was truly delightful. I will definitely come here again when I return to Honolulu next year. A refreshing departure from the fried food beachside at Dukes, ubiquitous and mediocre sushi in Waikiki and the celebrity chefs that have taken over the culinary scene in every metropolitan area from here to Timbuktu.

Seedy is not as glanourous as it used to be.

One Sunday evening, perusing Echo Park with nothing much to do, we stopped in at the Cha Cha Room for a couple vodka and sodas.



Now, I love a good dive bar as much as the next red blooded American girl. Always have, and always will.



Somehow, they aren't as glamourous as they used to be. There is a lack of mystery to be had in a low down local cheap ass watering hole.



Or maybe I've reached the stage in life when I just shouldn't visit one before sundown.



This sign does beg an interesting question...

Venice in the Afternoon

One hot, hot, hot, hot, hot dog day afternoon in Los Angeles...



Late last month, during the sudden heat wave in Southern California, we escaped our deficient A/C by packing the kids up and heading out for a stroll on the Venice boardwalk. We visited our friend Larry at his neat-o import store, Ocean Blue. We strolled, we gawked, and we browsed. We avoided the seemingly dozens of inbred, hardened and simply frightening looking pit bulls, and made our way all the way down to Figtree's Cafe.

http://figtreescafe.com/index.html

We ate a simple meal. D ordered an egg sandwich from the breakfast menu. It was a BLT with some simple scrambled eggs tossed in, served on wheat toast with nice roasted red new potatoes.



I nommed on chunks of ahi tuna skewered on rosemary lightly dusted with sea salt. They were served with a delicious tapenade...nothing complicated or unique, but delicious enough to wish I had that plate sitting right here for my breakfast today.



They were very accomodating to the dogs. They brought out bowls of water and didn't make a stink when the kids migrated occasionally from the breezeway onto the actual dining room floor to have a sniff at the food and a cuddle.



Our kids are nothing if not good travelers. Here they are, about 20 degrees cooler and nicely dog tired from all the sight-seeing.

Baby Birds in My Neighborhood

It was early am, on a drizzly late May morning in Echo Park. I sat trying to catch a picture of the teeny tiny itty bitty baby hummingbirds no larger than my thumb humming around the perimeter of our cul-de-sac.



Just a few days earlier a person amongst our group of friends was killed on his motorcycle just several hundred yards from this peaceful idyllic perch.



Rest in peace, Gabe. I got nothing else today.

Hemingway's Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

When vacationing, there is nothing more that D enjoys than a late night cocktail and a cigar.



We discovered this lovely cigar lounge in Cabo called Hemingway's, where they have a lovely drinks menu, a massive and well stocked walk-in humidor, a large, festive patio and a tequila bar that in my experience in unrivaled.



All three nights we were in Cabo we visited Hemingway's. It wasn't just the cigars that drew us in. It was also the friendly staff and the complete absence of frat boy knuckleheads. Hemingway's closes early, to avoid the riff raff strolling in drunkenly. So if you want to sip a tequila and smoke a cubano, go before 10.

The Corners of Los Angeles: What Has Craigslist Done For You?

The concept for this series came to me a couple of weeks ago, sitting in the passenger seat, camera in hand, stopped in traffic. If one has the leisure of paying more attention to their surroundings than the traffic signs and signals, one has the ability to watch flow of humanity through an intersection in urban Los Angeles, or record what gives neighborhoods character in such a vast concrete universe. The concept has come to fruition partially at the request of my friend living in Iceland, and our mutual wonder at the stark contrast between the bloggy observations that can occur in her world versus the type that occur in mine.

So, installation one.



At the corner of Sunset Blvd and Siverlake, heading down the hill from the boulevard and into deep Silverlake. I was dying to get out of the car and scribble all the wonderful things Craigslist has done for me, but alas, the light turned green.

Saturday Evening at the Esperanza in Cabo San Lucas

On Saturday evening, we headed to Esperanza, one of the top luxury resorts, to check out the grounds and watch the sun set. This place had the security of Fort Knox. Our taxi was stopped at the front gates far from the top of the driveway (and by far, I mean about a mile and a half). Our names were requested to check against the guest list of the resort. When the guard discovered we were not guests we were durn close to turned away. We informed him we simply wanted to explore the property as part of planning our next trip to Cabo and wanted to walk the grounds a have a drink. The guard had to call and ask permission, write our names down and the name and licence plate of our driver. WHEW!



Now the Esperanza is an Auberge property, and at least from the short view I had, all that an Auberge property entails. We had a beautiful walk around the main common area and took in the view over the balcony. Far below lies The Restaurant, sitting on the edge of the world as the Pacific Ocean splashes salty sea spray on the far tables. This was so beautiful I took several identical photographs.



We made our way to El Bar, and brought our champagne to the fire pit.



We unknowingly sat next to Emmet Smith and his wife, who were immediately accosted and harassed by a woman from Ohio with bright green eye shadow and a matching dress. Eventually, Emmet's party moved to the bar so they could converse without the interloper commenting on their every word. They were amazingly gracious. I suppose one develops that skill as celebrity develops. Many pro-footballers were in town for Eli Manning's wedding. There were rumors of parties thrown by NFL players all around the town and all the single women who had been invited were giggling with glee.

At the airport, I saw Peyton Manning from afar and convinced myself that he is short. D walked by him nonchalantly to give me some perspective on Peyton's height, and he is indeed about 6'4" or so. Not short. This is D standing back to back with Peyton.



I live in Los Angeles, and star sightings are not few nor are they far between. Frankly, most celebrities hold little interest for me. A professional athlete, though? Now that is a superhero. A god or goddess among humans. For this I will allow my jaw to drop and my pulse to race, if just for a mid-western minute.

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time. ~Steven Wright

When living in a city entirely based on car culture (exceptions given to Critical Mass groups and those subject to public transportation), we see our neighborhoods in a very particular and distanced way. Driving by quickly, through the windshield or side window, abstracted by whatever weighs most heavily on our minds at any given drive-by moment. Last Friday we did a walk about with our friend A in our own neighborhood, and not only had a wonderful hot summer evening kind of time, but saw things from a very different vantage point.

The magical realism of our local liquor store is both a landmark and a beacon.



One of many of the Los Burritos chain:



No one in a car would know they have a mascot. Go figure.


The Gold Room. One of the last local hold outs against the encroaching hipsters. Is there a reason the word "roach" is embedded within the word "encroach"?



I never even knew this taco truck was here. And it was here three nights last week. It is just far enough off the boulevard that it might fly under an autoists radar.



Apparently, time travel is for sale in Echo Park. Where or when do YOU want to go?



The Echo. The current heart of indie music in Los Angeles.



Is there a subliminal message here? Purposefully, or just coincidence? And what is the message?



And finally, we arrive at Taix. The best French sports bar I have ever been to.




Playing at Taix that night was this woman, whose name escapes me. Her music is a lovely little cross between Jewel and Hope Sandoval.



Next act up, Fifty Cent Haircut. They were great. I would buy a CD.