Finally visited the Museum of Jurasssic Technology in Culver City, a bizzare collection of obscure historic ideas and artifacts, like a cabinet of curiosities. It just sounds too cool. The entrance door looks like a closed society. Inside is dark, creepy and gloomy…awesome atmosphere for a surreal ‘lost in Wonderland’ afternoon. The exhibit is a curious mixed of factual antiquity (17th century scholar’s wacky but forgotten theories), natural abnormalities (giant stink ant in Africa; woman with horn) and whimsical dubious ideas from the past (remedy such as ‘sticking a goose beak inside people’s throat to treat illness’). The bookstore inside has an awesome collection as well, DVDs such as Jan Svankmajer’s Alice, black & white midget silent films…
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Museum of Jurassic Technology
//// By Freda in CollectionAya Kato
//// By Freda in Siteseeing
The upcoming Tori Amos‘s music video will feature these amazing artworks by Aya Kato. It’s like Japanese Traditional art meets manga meets Audrey Beardsley + Kay Nielsen + Arthur Rackham. Actually the music video is work-in-progress, a friend of ours will be working on it. It’ll be extremely Maya/3D heavy (imagine her artwork became these amazing 3D spaces). It’ll be a tough project with only short period of time, but it’d be all worthwhile to able to bring such beautiful illustrations to life.
Tombo (Torrance)
//// By Joan in 17: South Bay, Favorite Food Entries
A fellow motion freelancer recommended us Tombo , the “best” (according to him) Okonomi-yaki and Teppan Yaki place in LA. There were 4 of us and none of us had experience in cooking Okonomi-yaki before, in fact, none of us cooks at all! ^^;; But we went in regardless, facing this challenge fearlessly. Plum Wine $3.75
So we got the seafood mix (Oyster, Shrimp, scallop) and cheese + sausage mix. We got a little instruction/demonstration from the waitress, and then we just looked at the obasan at the other table and followed her every step…^^;;;
So look at our brave effort ^^;; We flip the pancake clumsily, ingredients occasionally fly out from the pancake, the bottom burnt and stuck on the teppan here and there, accidently add wrong sauce, and…
Ta-da! Not too bad…ummmm..errr…^^;; ok they’re ugly and messy looking (compare with the perfectly round ones the obasan made), but they taste good nonethless! ^^;; The seafood one is much better than the sausage & cheese one.
So we further challenge ourselves with Monjya-yaki! When the waitress brought the ingredients (Mentaiko + Mochi + cheese), seeing the big bowl of liquid we were nervous. So we just let her do it for us and were amazed during the whole process (“you have to cut the cabbage like that? a circle?! eh?!?!?!”) ^^;;; This taste really yummy, it’s fun to use that little thing to press and stick up the food. I love it better than Okonomi-yaki!
Since we were having too much fun “cooking”, just so we got Yakisoba too so that we tried “everything”! At last including tips+tax+drinks, the bill was $72 for 4 people.
This is totally fun and yummy~ Even the large and obnoxiously loud table of FOBs behind us couldn’t spoil it. ^^;;
Tags: Japanese, Okonomiyaki
Beacon (Culver City)
//// By Joan in 13: Culver City
No.1 in LA eh? So we went there out of curiousity. It’s inside a plaza I’ve been to before, nearby there are nice furniture stores and cafes (and ‘Last Chance‘, the little designer brand fashion outlet that you all ought to know ^_-). The interior is cold cement & minimal designy (in fact quite like the Art Center building) and the crowd is the older “artsy/upscale westside” yuppie type. And like the usual westside yuppie crowd, everyone seems to know each other. I overheard the couple next to us telling the other couple on the other side, “I heard from radio about this place being No.1 Best in LA…” ^^;;
Beacon Bento Box $14.95: Miso Soup, Kazuto’s Sashimi, Chilled Vegetable Crudité, Sumiso Sauce Grilled Thai-Marinated Chicken, Kazuto’s Selection of the Day, Hijiki Onigiri. I was a little bit shocked at such small portion of the food But everything taste really good except for the chicken which is normal. All the fishes taste really yummy. Even the vegetable are flavorful. The miso soup taste so delicious! Maison Akira ‘s bento box was much bigger portion and has more premium items (not just green beans).
Ahi Tuna Pizza $7.95 Ahi Tuna with Wasabi Mayonnaise and Pickled Ginger. Tasty~ It’s meant to be an appertizer, so I devoured it in 2 mins. Coconut Rice and Mango Brûlée $6.25 Very yummy!! Even coconut-hater Freda find it delicious!
Conclusion: the dishes are crafty, taste unique…but I dunno, one glance overlooking the menu there’re ‘Crispy Springrolls,’ ‘Chicken Pad Thai’, ‘Green Tea Soba Noodle,’ etc., giving me that western-appealing hip yuppie trendy Asian fusion vibe that’s…errr… The dinner menu isn’t too much different from lunch menu too, either. The chef is a Japanese chef who used to work at Spago and other famous high end restaurants. I guess the reason why the article award it No.1 is because of low price for such ‘stunningly high quality’ (quote from the article) for yuppies. The five dollar ‘kaki fry’ seems nice. Not sure I’ll recommend it, maybe to “gwai-lo.”
LA’s Top 25 Restaurant
//// By Freda in 18: Greater LA
Latest Jan 2005 issue of Los Angeles Magazine is out with an article on their best LA restaurant ranking. Most are upscale expensive place that I heard of but couldn’t afford. I went to the No. 1 one and hmm…comment later. The Chinese dim-sum restaurant Mission 261 ranked No.6! *_* Here’s the list for reference. (Extra recommendation list from my boss Adam, self-proclaimed LA gourmet expert)
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Tags: Guide
