RunSenoRun

Eating My Way Through Los Angeles

Spending a week in LA is a little like spending a week in Hell, but minus the really cool fire. Well, actually, LA does seem to burn quite often. But, it didn't on this particular trip.

Here are my three favorite things about Los Angeles:

1. The weather. Fantastic.
2. The beaches and wee little "mountains," which look nice and make for an easy hike.
3. The food. Wonderful restaurants with food from all regions of the world.

On this trip, I spent exactly zero minutes on the beach and in the mountains. The weather, though, was perfect... cool in the mornings (nice for running) and sunny and warm in the afternoons. And I ate. A lot. Shocking!

I was there for work, and the big boss was on the trip, so I ate much better than I normally do on business trips. We had sushi twice, once at hoity-toity Koi and once at a strip mall joint called Katsu-ya, that dishes up some of the best sushi in the city. Both were excellent. We also had lunch at a great Greek restaurant called Le Petit Greek.

Prior to the boss arriving, I had burgers on back-to-back nights, once at In-N-Out (it's not a trip to LA without a Double-Double) and once at the very cool 8 Oz. Now that I think about it, I had a third burger on this trip at Kitchen 24 in Hollywood. I'd rank the burgers in this order: In-N-Out, 8 Oz, Kitchen 24. Also, had an amazing sandwich, called the Godmother, from Bay Cities Italian Deli. Probably the best Italian sandwich I've ever eaten. Finally, had some pretty good Tex-Mex at Marix in West Hollywood and some decent wings at The Den, also in West Hollywood.

When traveling for work, or any trip for that matter, the first thing I do is stop by a grocery store and pick up some fruit to eat for breakfast. The thought of paying hotel-prices for breakfast, when I don't even particularly like breakfast, makes me ill. So, not a whole lot to report on the breakfast front, unless you're fascinated by bananas and grapes.

Delta Airlines Sucks

Want to know why Delta Airlines sucks? I'll tell you.

I missed Delta Gold status by 86 miles. I flew 49,914 miles last year. Delta would not credit the missing 86 miles. When I went back, I found two Alaska Airlines trips for which I did not receive Delta miles. When I pointed those out to Delta, I was told I needed to send them copies of my boarding passes to prove I actually got on the plane. Who the Hell keeps their boarding passes?!?! Delta would not budge on this.

Oh well. I thought being Delta Silver Medallion would be fine. However, Delta added a new higher level of status, Platinum, so with that, Delta Diamond, Platinum and Gold get all the goodies like pre-boarding, hustling through security, and their own check in counters. With Delta Silver, you can get upgrades, but that seems to be about it. 

So, from now on, I'm not paying for any more Delta flights, I have 230,000 miles, and I'm going to use them all. Alaska Airlines, I'm coming back, baby.

Just Stayed: The Ace Hotel

First, if there's one thing in the world I can't stand, it's a smelly hipster. Actually, hipsters don't really smell, but they look they should. The "old" ironic t-shirts, the scraggly beards, the unkempt hair. It just looks smelly. Fortunately, to get that fresh out of bed look actually takes quite a bit of grooming.

So, what does this have to do with the Ace Hotel in New York? Well, the place is staffed by hipsters, and the hotel lobby seems to be a clubhouse for them.

With that in mind, you would think I would despise the place. Especially with rooms, literally, the width of a king size bed and a bathroom so small, I had to drape one leg into the bathtub to fit on the toilet.

However, I actually really liked the Ace. Despite the cooler than thou look of the staff, they were incredibly friendly and cool. Probably the best check-in experience I've ever had. The bartenders and servers at the hotel lobby bar were prompt and courteous. The waitstaff at Breslin, the hotel restaurant, was fantastic. The Breslin, by the way, is owned and run by the folks behind the Spotted Pig. In other words, it's a hotspot with some interesting food.

At "just" $250 a night, the hotel is one of the cheapest you can find in the city for a room with a private bathroom. I full on enjoyed my stay. It's definitely on my shortlist for top hotels in New York.

My Home and Native Land

So, right, I stole the title of this post from the Canadian anthem. I love the Canadian anthem, OK? The one good thing (outside of the hockey) about this year's Winter Olympics was hearing the Canadian anthem so many times. Good on you Canada. Way to "own the podium."

But this post isn't about Canada. It's about Maui. I love it here. 

The trip started out horribly. I mean HORRIBLY. Had the worst back spasms I've ever had on Saturday morning, less than 24 hours after arriving. I seriously thought I was going to be laid up the entire week. In fact, I looked into coming home early so I wouldn't be burning vacation days. But, by Tuesday, I was able to move. On Wednesday, I finally reached the beach.

I had a great week. Sadly, I leave tomorrow. But, I have a feeling I'll be back soon...

Hong Kong's Hygiene Obsession

Maybe with so many people in such a tight space you need to be a germ freak, but this town is obsessed with hygiene. The elevators all have a layer saran wrap over the buttons that gets changed out every two hours.

Most public places with railings have signs like this one...

Hong Kong: Xiao Nan Guo

On my last day, we hit went to dim sum at Xiao Nan Guo in the Times Square Mall. It was probably a good sign that Doug, Kenwyn and Esme were the only gweilo (white people) in the restaurant.

I let Doug and Kenwyn do the ordering, and they didn't let me down. I've learned that eating a sitdown meal with an 8-year old and a 4-year old can be an unpleasant situation, but they did a masterful of bribing them. The older child needed to eat from three of the dishes and the younger one had to eat two. In return? They got to play with their Nintendo DS's. Genius parenting! If I ever have children, I'll remember this.

OK, the food. Awesome.

My favorite dish was the soup dumplings. I haven't had these since living in New York and eating at Joe's Shanghai (a place I frequented often). At the end of the day, soup dumplings, dumplings filled with so much juice, you eat them by placing them on a ramen spoon, nibble a bit of the casing away to suck down the juice, before swallowing down the rest, are probably my favorite Chinese dish. I have yet to find them in Seattle. If anyone knows where I can get them, please let me know!

Here's a quick rundown of the other food we sucked down:

Not sure what to call this other than "crispy little fish." This is some sort of deep fried little fish, served like potato chips. Up close, they kind of look like little sperm. Kenwyn was a little off-put by the eyes, but I kind of like them. Gives them personality, you know?

Bok Choy. I have to admit, I have a really hard time eating bok choy. When eating it in a restaurant, I often preface my first bite by saying "just so know, at some point while eating this, I may stick my fingers down my throat to remove the stringiness before it chokes me." I enjoy the taste of bok choy, but Lord do I have problems eating it.

These barbecue pork buns were really good. The barbecue pork itself was excellent, but what really set them apart was the bun. Moist, yet flaky, they were topped with a sugar to provide some crunch and offset the saltiness of the meat. However, some may find the sugar a little strange or off-putting.  

Roast Pork. As you know from my Kau Kau addiction, I love roast pork. From the salty crisp skin to the succulent, juicy pork itself, I can't get enough of it. Kau Kau is probably my favorite International District restaurant because of the roast pork. But, this roast pork is even better for one reason: it's not as salty. This was perfect roast pork.

The shrimp dumplings and chicken dumplings get a dual post. I love dumplings. Again, I haven't really excellent dumplings here in Seattle. You would think it wouldn't be an issue, so I think I just haven't searched hard enough. It's not like I live in Chinatown, or anything. The dumplings served here, like the rest of the food, were really good.

Shrimp Shumai. Shumai is kind of a staple in Hawaii. You can pick it up at 7-11 from the 'hot box' like you would a hot dog here on the mainland. But this shumai is on a completely different level. It's like comparing an AM/PM hamburger with Shake Shack. Lightly fried, to provide a crisp bottom, and juicy and moist in the middle, the dumpling is then topped with caviar to provide a little saltiness. It's a perfect little bite.

I'm so glad I didn't escape Hong Kong without experiencing a first class dim sum meal.

Photos Up On Flickr

OK, I've posted all of my photos to my Flickr account. Enjoy!

Signs, Signs Everywhere are Signs

As I go through the photos again, I'm just going to start posting random shots.

Here's one from the Po Lin Monastery. Obviously, I can never become a monk. No meat even near the vicinity? The horrors!

Hong Kong: Day 8

My last full day in Hong Kong. So sad.

The day started with a walk with Doug and his dog Alice. We went down to Hong Kong University then did a winding loop back to the escalators and back home. Along the way, we walked through some of the crazy street markets and saw some of "old" Hong Kong. It was a great walk.

Following the walk, we went to a really good dim sum at Xiao Nan Guo at the Times Square Shopping Center. Probably the best dim sum I've ever had. OK, not probably, it just was. I can't believe nearly escaped Hong Kong with no dim sum, but Kenwyn and Doug said I must do it. Oh, the peer pressure.

We then did some shopping in the area. I bought sweat pants since Doug convinced that if there's ever a reason to wear sweats in public, it when you're traveling for 17 hours. I'm guessing I lost some weight on this trip, and sweats aren't exactly loose, so this may be the one time I can wear them...

When we got back to the house, I was able to title all of my photos. Now, I just need to consolidate them prior to uploading them to my Flickr account. Since I plan on doing that on the plane, the photos should be up by end of day on Monday.

For a final meal, Doug and I took a taxi to the top the peak to eat at the Deco Cafe. While the food was quite good, the view unfortunately was marred, as it was the first rainy day of my trip.

And, that's it. Trip over. I'll do some sort of wrap-up when I get home.

Hong Kong: Istanbul Kebob

Kenwyn and I hit this little hole in the wall joint in Kowloon for lunch. There's enough counter space for four people to sit. We got there at about 11:30, so we actually snagged seats.

Holy balls, this was so good. I had the lamb doner, which was basically shaved lamb meat over rice with three magical sauces. I'll call them the green sauce, red sauce and white sauce, since that's about all I know about them.

This little shack puts all the street carts in New York to shame. I loved loved loved it.