Skating Around

Christmas might be over, but it feels like winter's finally kicking in. I can finally appreciate my steaming cup of tea for the way it warms my stiff, carpal tunnel syndrome pending fingers!! Call me a Southern Californian anomaly, but I love it... the biting cold, bright pink cheeks, and having all the more reason to burrow under my jacket like a cozy mole.

Last week, I took the Gold Line to the Memorial Park stop and ventured over to Pasadena's Paseo Colorado, an outdoor shopping and entertainment "center" that spans three city blocks and boasts a 14-screen movie theater, a gourmet supermarket, retail stores, restaurants, and even luxury apartments. Southern California's especially great at providing "centers" like this (the Grove, Third Street Promenade, Hollywood & Highland, etc.)... and while the idea of driving to a designated space just to walk around and be entertained can feel a little too contrived at times, it's nice to have places where people can congregate and feel a little more connected. It's a good thing, because frankly, we can all be a little too isolated in our individual cars...

After grabbing some dinner with my friends at the packed Yard House, we headed over to the Pasadena Ice Skating Center, ready to make a fool of ourselves in an attempt to hobble among the little kids whizzing past us all. Christmas music blaring over the speakers while skating around in worn out rented skates, ankles burning from using muscles in areas we never knew we had, and some crepes and hot coffee at IHOP to warm ourselves up in the aftermath... I hope that I'll never get too old for moments like those.

*On a related note, for some outdoor skating, check out Pershing Square's Downtown on Ice, open seven days a week until January 21st. And the 119th Rose Parade (which runs along Colorado Boulevard) also passes in front of Paseo Colorado. Last year's Rose Parade featured George Lucas and Star Wars characters!

-Sarah Koo, ExperienceLA Arts/Cultural Marketing Assistant

Los Angeles Magazine Food Event: Home Grown

With an opportunity to see several LA based chefs and taste food from a dozen restaurants, my wife and I paid to attend the Los Angeles Magazine Food Event: Home Grown - A Celebration of Ingredients Grown, Baked, and Raised Close to Home. Plus, the LA Mission would benefit from the event which was held at The Kitchen Academy in Hollywood and along the walkway to the ArcLight Theater complex...

With the popularity of Bravo's hit TV reality series, Top Chef, one saw a cook-off between contestants "CJ" Chris Jacobson of Season 3 and Betty Fraser of Season 2. Judging the competition with tomato as the secret ingredient were four from the audience plus the Master of Ceremony, Jake Hanover, who cast the deciding vote to Betty. During this 3 hour event, one also saw cooking demonstrations inside the Kitchen Academy from Kerry Simon (Simon L.A.), Michael Cimarusti (Providence), and Suzanne Tracht (Jar and Tracht's). One received souvenir cards of their respective recipes for their cooking demonstrations. Pictures of the event can be found on my Flickr account.

The offical wine was La Crema featuring their Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, while LA Mill Coffee, the soon to open coffee house in Silver Lake, was the official coffee and Gail Silverton, Nancy's sister, brought her Gelato Bar in from Studio City. There were also craft beers from Sang Yoon of Father's Office. I thoroughly enjoyed each of these, while tasting each of the craft beers, and making my way through samples of almost all of the gelatos by the end of the event.

My wife, Karen, who is an accomplished cook and watched each episode of Top Chef many times from season one to three provides the following commentary on the CJ - Betty cook-off.

The challenge was to combine ingredients and cooking styles from 2 different countries to make one dish. They could use any of the ingredients that were provided in the pantry. Betty's countries/cultures were American and Latin, CJ's were Asian and Italian.

Betty pureed scallops with cilantro and jalapeno. She put the puree on an egg roll wrapper, topped with a "tomato ring", which was filled with a raw egg and topped with provolone. She folded the turnovers into triangles and deep-fried them. She served them over a salad of mixed greens and topped them with a chunky guacamole.

CJ sauteed batons of eggplant and apples, and then topped them with sauteed chicken breasts that were rubbed in Asian spices. There was a brunoise of tomatoes and celery root with cilantro, basil and lemon zest. Then he made a sauce of pureed tomatoes, sriracha, and herbs and drizzled that on the plate. And my apologies if I got anything wrong in CJ's dish. It looked and sounded delicious.

The challenge was 30 minutes long. Betty's plating was very rustic and homey looking, CJ's was much more refined (different styles, different looks).

Rooney and Ozma at the Roxy on Sunset

One of LA's most famous venues, the Roxy on Sunset, is featuring Rooney on Monday nights in April! The show is hosted by hilarious Andy Dick (not for tender ears!) and features different opening acts each night. Last night's show proved to be one of the best evenings I've ever had - in addition to hanging out with some of my awesome friends, I saw two of my favorite bands: Rooney and Ozma.

The evening started out with delicious cheeseburgers at nearby Rainbow Bar and Grill where my friends Frank, Jay, Esteban, Elaine, Matt, and I met up with our friend Sarah and her friend Andrew (we had a big group!)

After dinner we had a short walk to the Roxy where we were surprised to see Mischa Barton (of OC fame) with her friends (which I suppose isn't too surprising given that Rooney played on the OC and the Roxy is a famous venue). She politely asked us to not take any pictures of her and her crowd while they were inside.

Then we were thoroughly entertained by Ozma, Ben Lee, and Rooney with Andy Dick providing transitions in song. I can't describe these transitions because this is a public friendly blog. Needless to say they were pretty amusing. Ozma was great and I even heard my favorite song - their cover of Tetris music. Rooney provided a mix of new songs for their upcoming album release, some old favorites, and then surprisingly two cover songs - the Beach Boys' California Girls (muchly appreciated by this California girl) and one by the Beatles.

Prior to last night, I had previously seen Ozma at the Knitting Factory when they had gotten back together, but I had never had the opportunity to see Rooney perform live (and I've loved the band since they first formed) so it was a particularly awesome experience. My friends would be quick to note my bias, however, since they know that I'm apt to call talented and good-looking lead singer Robert Schwartzman my "future husband" (jokingly, of course...).

-Charity Tran, ExperienceLA Web Coordinator

LA Cultural Week/end: Classical Music, 80's Clubbing, Mash-ups, and Late-Night Dining

I had a jam-packed week and weekend of evening events - from eclectic music events to a variety of late night dining to Hollywood clubbing options - it's been quite the whirlwind. It reminds me why I love living in - and experiencing - LA. There always something to do.

Tuesday: At the Viper Room in Hollywood, I went out with my friends Matt, Elaine, and Frank to see one of my favorite bands play - Hello Stranger (formerly Vagenius). Frank managed to snag us a pair of drumsticks for souvenirs! Prior to the show, we ate at the Red Rock Bar & Eatery and after the show we went shopping randomly at a shop near the Viper Room.

Thursday: My friend Bill invited me to join him and our friends Jay, Nick, and Kevin for dinner and a LA Phil event in downtown. We had a delicious meal at the Taipan restaurant in the Wells Fargo Tower. After dinner we headed off to nearby Walt Disney Concert Hall with a classical concert by the LA Philharmonic featuring Sir Neville Marriner conducting Mozart & Mendelssohn and violin soloist Martin Chalifour.

Friday: I had fun with 80's clubbing in Hollywood at the Ruby (which hosts Clockwork Orange on Friday nights among other great clubbing events!) with friends Jay, Jon, Jessie, Diana, and Jen. We mostly stayed in the main room of the Ruby which played 80's pop/rock, but we did spend time in its two other rooms: one which hosted hip-hop/trance/modern pop and the other which held some indie rock. The night out was followed by late night dining at one of my favorite 24-hour eateries in LA: Canter's on Fairfax.

Saturday: The day was spent at the Westminster Dog Park in Venice with Jay and his pet pug Ezri. The monthly pug meet-up was occuring on that day and we spent a couple of hours watching pugs of all shapes, ages, and sizes run around the small dog area. To our amusement, Ezri even found herself a boyfriend named Monty. We followed the dog park adventure in Venice with roaming around the Beverly Center (having lunch at CPK, shopping at H&M).

Later in the evening, Matt and Elaine invited me to a mash-up club called Bootie LA at the Echo night club every 1st Saturday of the month. I had never been to a mash up club before and I had a fabulous time listening to all the great mash-up mixes. My favorite mash-up (which I did get to hear) is Jay-Z's 99 problems vs. Nena's 99 Red Balloons. For those going "what's a mash up?" Here's the Bootie LA definition in brief: Also known as "bastard pop," a bootleg is a song that's "mashed-up." Usually, this means the vocal track of one song is mixed over the instrumentation of another.

After dancing at Bootie LA, we went to the 4100 Bar in the Silver Lake area, which is a lounge and bar with a great ambiance, long couch cushions, and an Asian-influenced interior design. We followed 4100 Bar with some late night eating at nearby Brite Spot Diner which features late-night eating in a cozy, casual diner style restaurant.

Sunday: After such a whirlwind few days, Sunday was thankfully a little bit quiet, but still filled with LA culture and outings. On Sunday morning I attended services at the historic First Congregational Church of Los Angeles. The church is home to the the world's largest church pipe organ and is the oldest Protestant church of continuous operation in the city of Los Angeles. Founded in 1867, the current gothic cathedral on 6th/Commonwealth was built in 1932 and modeled after the great cathedrals of Europe.

The evening was spent with dinner at Mel's Drive-in West Hollywood with Nick, Sarah, and Bill. I love the Mel's Drive-in diners (there's also a Mel's Drive-in Hollywood near Highland) for its classic diner feel and food.

Perhaps, needless to say, I close this entry with: whew!

-Charity Tran, ExperienceLA Web Coordinator