Carmel is like a seaside village out of a children’s storybook. The streets are filled with small boutiques, art galleries and antique shops inside quaint cottages. The pic on left is The Tuck Box English Tea Room, doesn’t it look like a Hobbit’s house? ^_^ Right pic is just a miscellaneous alley that’s everywhere in that area.
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September 8, 2004
4
Carmel-by-the-Sea (Part 2)
//// By Freda in Collection, Travel
September 8, 2004
2
Monterey Bay & Carmel (Part 1)
//// By Freda in Travel
Last year at the Old Fisherman Wharf there were no sun and the weather was rainny and sky was grey, so I didn’t feel like I went to the sea/beach side. But this time, gosh the sky was so blue and clear, the killer sun was super hot…-__-;
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Tags: Travel Report
September 7, 2004
6
Seafood by-the-Sea (Monterey + Carmel)
//// By Freda in 04: SF+Bay Area, Travel
So let me do a food report first on our seaside get-away trip to Monterey Bay and Carmel-by-the-Sea (central California, 5+ hours drive from our home)! We first went to the Old fisherman Wharf at Monterey Harbor. We went to this seafood restaurant Rappa’s which locate at the end of the dock, so there’s a nice ocean view. It’s also famous for its clam chowder.
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Tags: Oyster, Seafood, Travel Report
September 3, 2004
21
Joymart (Little Tokyo)
//// By Freda in 06: Downtown LA
Joymart in Little Tokyo is a very yummy Japanese/Asian restaurant in non-traditional style. Their food is so yummy that even normal pan-fried vegetables are really delicious too! We go there for lunch during work sometimes (a 2-3 hour lunch break ^^;;). The interior is very pretentious exotic mixed of Tibetan, Japanese, Thai, Chinese and so on. The walls are in daring deep red walls, hence the intensity and darkness. There are Buddhist statues and caligraphy of Buddhist prayers all over walls, and there’s always Asian new agey music.
Left: Salad Middle: Volcano Rice (Spicy Tuna, Scallop, Shitake mushroom, Mentaiko with Mayonnaise) Right: Cold Noodle (very yummy special sauce). The paper mats are supposed to have some Buddhist verse on it, but just so happen the ones at our table were bad copies without enough ink 🙁
Tags: Japanese
August 29, 2004
Off
Vanille de Pastissarie (San Marino)
//// By Freda in 01: San GabrielAs for cakes, there’re more and more nice Taiwanese-owned pastries and bakery opening here these days (maybe it’s a sign of the growth of Chinese community in LA has reached the point where not only essential things but delicate/luxury things are starting to be in demand?). Such as this one Vanille de Pastissarie at San Marino (10 min drive). The cakes are quite nicely decorated and delicately made. Taste-wise it varies from okay to good. There’s a comfy cafe area inside, and a sample tasting tray. They also have a cake-buffet thing which you get to all-you-can-eat smaller (and simpler) version of their cakes.
The Raspberry Jelly+mousse taste a bit too strong and flat (compare to the fresh fruit authentic taste of Portals‘s Raspberry mousse and even RJ‘s). The mousse is not light enough. The other one is Coffee+Hazlenut Cream which is very good. We bought 3 more for home (+1 Greentea which is free).
The bell-shape one is called Rose Petal, they said it’s made with real rose petals, not artificial flavor. Haven’t try it yet. The grapefruit smoothies is very good.
Though as always for most chinese thing, there’re plenty of rooms for improvement in the cultural deparment. They were playing some Yanni crap~~GOSH!!! Please….Cafe music is something like…taste 101. Just grab some Astrud or Bebel Gilberto (since you can never go wrong with them), or even any compile CD that’s named “cafe bossa parisian something” is already good enough…^^;;
Tags: Cake, Patisserie
