BBQ Lover Blues at Baby Blues BBQ

Baby Blues BBQ is a chain BBQ restaurant in California. A coworker raved about it, and it's got a 4 star rating on yelp, so I thought I'd try it out... boy, was I disappointed. It sucked! It was probably one of the worst BBQ I'd ever had. The meat was super dry and didn't even seem to be fresh, the spice rub had no flavor whatsoever, gosh, I've had better baby back ribs from Ralph's!

Afterwards, we walked off the ribs by going to Santa Monica Pier... there was an art event so it was super crowded.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

In a sign of the times, I celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival at a Jewish Deli, Factor's. Mooncakes just don't do it for me... they have really good pickles, I like the fresh type, it's got this pickle crunchiness without the extreme sourness.

My pastrami sandwich which I devoured... yum. The pastrami was not too salty and almost got this buttery creaminess to it. Mmmm... pastrami sandwich. I wish they had stuffed more in there...k, I am greedy :-P

Good Morning America!

I've been getting into a healthier routine lately, go to bed early and getting up early, or maybe I am just getting old :-) Must get early bird special at IHOP! Today I got up at 6 and did my morning exercises, yay! Chubby tummy, here I come, you've got nowhere to hide, chaaarrrrge!

Orris

C was visiting from Hong Kong, so L and I took him to Orris, a Japanese/American fusion tapas place in Little Osaka.

Ceviche...Never thought of eating Ceviche with tortilla chips, perfect combination.

Albacore salad on endive lettuce cup, it was good, but a tad bland.

Softshell crab with punzu sauce, mmm.

Eggplant with mozzarella, simple and delicious.

Shrimp mousse raviolis -- the mushroom sauce is also very good.

Last but not least, foie gras and Japanese eggplant!

The Binoculars Building

Binoculars sculpture created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. They did a real good job cuz I even saw China from those binoculars!

Photo courtesy of Bella

Laguna Beach

For those of you who live in dreary cold cold places (for example, San Francisco :-), I apologize in advance for these beautiful pictures from sunny SoCal. But on second thought, eatcha heart out, haha :-P

Venice

Venice (California)... where are the gondolas?

Dumplings Weekend

Mmmmm... homage to my northern Chinese heritage... thanks C and R for inviting all of us over, it was a ton of fun!

Matsuhisa

L and I were looking forward to going to a new Asian fusion restaurant called Red Medicine the other night. But alas, when we drove there, everything's all dark, it turned out it hadn't opened yet. So we swung around to La Cienega and decided to give Matsuhisa a try. We were seated at the bar, which I like lots... unlike Nobu, this place has a small intimate feel to it.

Poor little uni sushi, all by itself, sigh, if you weren't so expensive, I would've ordered a girlfriend for you...

Aww, oyster sushi lovebirds... they look so chummy together.

Isn't this a beautiful pic. L's BB has the best flashlight... I think we deserve the award for best team work photography. Oh btw, this is grilled scampi.

Soft shell crab roll... again the pic came out so pretty.

Last course, courtesy of a gentlemen at the bar (we just look too cute:) --uni shooters! Then we met Mrs. Matsuhisa and chatted with other restaurant goers at the bar. Such a fun night...