Bibigo

Bibigo - now open at Westfield Century City!

Yum!

Love the Future 愛未来 - Ai Weiwei 艾未未

Ai Weiwei - Never Sorry.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alisonklayman/ai-weiwei-never-sorry
Artists must have the freedom of expression.
The artist is detained, but the artwork still travels. 


My humble homage to the artist -love the future.

Tsuru T-shirts - Benefiting the recent Japan Earthquake

From my co-worker Abby who is doing her part to be a good citizen of the world community!

Hello!

I’ve been working on a non-profit t-shirt company for a while now and we finally have our very 1st t-shirt printed!

While the organization is still a work in progress because we don’t have shirts for other causes yet, you can now purchase our Tsuru t-shirt benefiting the recent Japan disaster. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to IMC (International Medical Corps: http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/ ) which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives through health care training and relief and development programs for emergency relief.

Shirts can be purchased online here: http://ohmy.bigcartel.com/product/tsuru (unfortunately, sizes are limited due to printing budget constraints)

You can also learn more about the organization through our general web link: http://ohmyshirts.org/

Additionally, we are always welcoming t-shirt designs for the other causes listed on our site. Please pass our web link along to anyone who might be interested in designing for a good cause.

Thanks!

Abby

The Chocolate Test

Years ago, when I was soooo in "love" with my French boyfriend, I became quite enamored with many things French along with him. Macarons de Paris from Dalloyau, crisp Sancerre wine from the Loire Valley, goose rillettes, tea from Mariage Freres and last but not least, really GOOD chocolate. 

So now with the macaron craze here in the States (and still earlier in Japan), macarons de Paris is no longer a novelty. Over the years, I discovered that I no longer enjoy Dalloyau as much.(My current favorite macaron is from Pierre Herme -the rose flavored one is incredible!) 

I still enjoy Mariage Freres (Earl Grey Silver tips being my Earl Grey of choice), but with tea, I have always been fickle. I explore teas from various purveyors and find that the more I try, the more chances to discover wonderful surprises.

I always wondered whether my opinion of chocolate bars from Bonnat would stand the test of time. I decided I should give it a go with some taste-testing! 

So internet shopping I did go! (I heard that Bonnat had a falling out with their U.S. distributor so it's now more of a challenge to find)

Bonnat is just as I remembered it!  Dark and pure with complex flavors!

This time around, I did compare with other high quality chocolates such as Valhorna. Even then, Bonnat came out the winner. 

All I can say that this wasn't a nostalgic sense of good, but the real thing!

Bonnat is still my favorite pure chocolate goodness! And for that, vive la France!

KCRW Global Street Food Event at the Broad Stage

My sister's birthday present to me this year was a ticket to the Global Street Food event hosted by Evan Kleinman of the Good Food Show on KCRW.  (She couldn't find any reasonably priced tickets to the L.A. Phil with Gustavo Dudamel)

She's also been curious as she's been missing out on the Food Truck trend living out in the 'burbs. This of course kills two birds with one stone. A nice b-day present that I won't resent spending sister time with (sort of...) and her being able to try different foods sans a picky 11 year old son (my nephew) without whining or complaining. (she wisely left the kid with her hubby.)

As interesting as the panel/lecture was, the true calling was from the Food Trucks on hand that day.

Firmly grasping my food voucher coupons, we decided that the first truck to hit would be India Jones Chow Truck.

I was not disappointed!   

The butter chicken was YUM!

But the hands down BEST of the BEST had to be the shrimp taco from Marisco Jalisco!

Scallops in miso butter glaze

I normally wouldn't do a miso glaze, but today, I was inspired. Scallops, pan fried in butter with miso and deglazed with equal portions of a nice Cotes du Rhone and sake.  Too lazy to plate separately, I served it donburi style (over rice).

Artisanal L.A.

I stopped by at Artisanal L.A.'s spring show last weekend.
(A happy accident in finding a re-tweet from McCall's Meat & Fish.)

Not so subliminal messaging?

Chicken Pot Pie! The reason I came!!

  

Homemade Graham Crackers!

Shortbreads!

the most AAHSOME FUDGE I've had!
(and I normally hate fudge)

Caramel from Le Bon Garcon! Tres tres bon!

Laura Ann's Jams! About as local as it can get!