Another Tapas entry! It’s in Studio City, an area I’m not too familiar with and never really been to. It’s a nice pretty area, even the apartments by the freeway are sooo nice! Electric Magarita, there’s a masquito in it, we asked for another one, and it’s still there (either they didn’t really change it, or the whole bottle is invest with bugs)! So gross…so we didn’t want it anymore and got Sangaria instead, good! Vieras de Peregrino Chamuscadas Seared scallops w/ eggplant caviar & mango sauce.
Placa Caliente, Tapas plate w/ Calamar Vasco (Calamari), Setas y alcachofas (sauteed mushroom and arichokes), Queso frito (fried goat cheese w/ honey), y Patatas Bravas (roasted potatos). The goat cheese taste the most delicious! Next time just get that alone. Filet a la Plancha, Grilled rosemary flatiron steak w/ anchovy butter. Normal. Ostras de Ole!, Oysters on the half shell. The oysters are so small 🙁
Anguila y Pina Asadas, Grilled eel and pineapple. Carpaccio de Halibut, Thin sliced raw halibut w/lavender habanero, lychee sauce, basically taste like Sashimi ^^;;; Can’t really taste the lychee sauce though. Torta de Congrejo . Sautéed snowcrab cake w/ scallop & cucumber relish.
Chocolate Fondue, served with fresh fruit. Overall pretty good, though I think A.O.C. is better. The bill is about $43 each person for a party of 3.
I like how your food photos are taken
low angle and close-up!
Makes it look professional （＾∀＾）！
Yeah, the angles are very pro. I always tend to take from the top, very centered, so that I can take in every single piece of food on the plate clearly without wasting space – too “informative” to look good. Hahahaha~~~ ^^;;;
Scallop and caviar and mango wowowowow~~~~
Pineapple with eel…really Spanish????
But bugs in the drinks errrrrr……
I figure most plates here aren’t decorative or neatly present like the ones in japan, so I compensate by tighter crop and camera angles ^^;;; While most dishes Seat ate are always so prettily presented, it would be a waste to crop like that (maybe you can try doing weird closeup with normal looking ramen or something..^^;;)
I think this place, the menu sounds better than it really taste…^^;; And upon reflection, the food aren’t that special either (unlike the previous entry A.O.C., where the sauce/combinations were craftily coordinate). Tapas are supposedly these cheap dim-sum equivalent style in Spain (dim sum go with tea, while tapas go with alcohol beverage), and it has a popular boom in LA , but here it became some pricey thing…
that face Tomoko made is so cute! Is it something only Japanese keyboard can do?
and Tomoko, tell me about that middle-of-no-where place!! How did it go?
yeah, I learned this face from 電車男！
ｷﾀ—(゜∀゜)-!
(unfortunately, I think its only possible on japanese keyboard….?)
I learned a lot of otaku terms from the book!
oh you didn’t get my email that
I wrote about the place?
I know, Japanese are genius in making faces with the keyboard~~I can’t do them at all. Apparently there are some pluggins you can install so that you can choose from a library of elaborate designed faces.
Ha that Otaku BBS 2ch, people there are creative with those faces! btw Tomoko, This is the anti-Trainman article on otaku Joan mentioned~
Interesting article~~~
Moe is 燃え？萌え？
But I agree, the 電車男 should keep his principle and turn his girlfriend into a otaku, haha!!
AHAHAHA!!!
I never thought I’d see the word moe here!
(yeah, its 萌え ＾ー＾；；）
I heard that Japanese entry for this year’s venitian biennale was “wabi-sabi-moe”…
even the pamphlet for the biennale was otaku!
its….so….humiliating……!!
which worries me cuz thanks to artists like takashi murakami, otaku is BIG now around the world!
even ANA was selling otaku stewardess figurines on flight the other day! eeeeeeewwwwww!!
freda>thanks for the link!
geez, the guy has had a hard life!
yeah, I’m sure he wouldn’t like the book, he’s a true otaku, but the book was geared for mainstream acceptance.
otaku used to be so taboo but recently it’s just another media phenomenon. otaku is being made to look harmless and cute. (sort of like how bob sap was)
Hey Tomoko, I didn’t get your email, perhaps I accidently delete it or something. Can you re-sent it?
It’s weird that Otakus been around for so long but it’s only recently the mainstream media pick it up to pay attention to it? But hey, I do think Otaku are harmless…but cute? errrr…..^^;;;;;; They are really just social rejects who can’t deal with the non-perfect reality.
in the article: “He says he thought he could start a new life in a new environment, but soon came to the arguable conclusion that women only go for guys who are either handsome, have money or a nice car.”
Well…I bet you that guy only go for rbeautiful girls (since most otakus have really high beauty standard becoz they’re so used to anime/video game girls) and ignore the average or unattractive girl who are nice with good personality. They can blame women all they want, it’s really their own problem.
Otaku culture is more internationally widespread than certain Japanese tradition/mainstream culture because it is ‘unique’ only to Japan ^^;;;;
Still not sure what “moe’ meant ^^;;; If that guy like fantasize all these imaginary girlfriends (ex: in the form of a 10 years old looking child in maid costume with cat ears/tail and in total obedience and serving him as ‘master’), whom he adored and spent tons of $ on, that’s *moe* and it’s supposedly some form of pure love???? o.O It’s just sound like ultimately self-gratification/satisfaction. I understand there are always those who are unable/unwilling to conform to normal social expectation, being otaku is just one of the ways to ‘belong’ to some collective niche. Though that guy sounded like his otaku-ness is his self-indulging and self-protective way of coping with feeling totally useless and a waste of space, and unable to handle rejection and failures, cannot function to be of what was expected to be a ‘grown-up responsible adult’ and inablity to connect and relate to other human being. That still sound sad, no matter how he claimed it’s the only way that save him (which I don’t believe), and asked society to leave him alone and not condemned his as misfit…it’s just… I once read another editorial article that compares female otakus with male otakus, the studies said the female counterpart are in a way ‘healthier’ with emphasis on human interactions and friendship, because it’s actually more about ‘sisterhood bonding’ (in worst case they turn into something like cliques, I guess females’ queen bee and cliques dynamics are somewhat universal ^^;;). I wonder how that “Train man” cases felt toward these so-called ‘true otaku.’
Though remember Chris Ware’s stories? His characters are otaku (in American way) too, and I found it very interesting to read and they’re always so sad, pathetic and painful to read. I like his “Rusty Brown’ series (hope the book is coming out soon).
I sort of differentiate between real otaku and “train-man.”
cuz I remember back in the 90s, there was a terrible famous case where this otaku guy raped/killed a little girl.
theres still bunch of cases where otaku guys kidnap girls and confine them.
I always thought real otaku was something more like depression or something and they’re the kind of people who could benefit from treatment.
I mean, I’m not surprized the guy in the article has problems with women, he’s too traumatized!!(in the U.S. everyone would tell him to get counseling, or take prozac, I think…)
otaku used to be like sanctuary, maybe, for people terribly terribly abused and traumatized.
but now the mainstream is trying to drive out the hard-core otakus from the otaku world.
so I think that’s why the real otakus like the guy in the article feels left out.
(geez, I sound so passionate about otakus!
＾－＾；；)
I’m still not really sure what moe means! ^^;
but in the book, it just meant “strong attraction”
(there was a list of otaku words and its definitions in the book! :D)
but it seems different from how the article guy is using.
I think as long as there is a deficiency in social life and self-esteem, then all the defenses these otaku talk about are just excuses to escape from reality lo.
Haha yeah I’m sorta interested in subjects on ‘social misfits’, that’s what drawn me to the works of Chris Ware and Daniel Clowes in the first place.
True there are difference (or different levels) between geeks/fanboys (of an actual show like Gundum) and the hardcore otaku (more about moe cat ear 8 year old girls, maid costumes and H-games). That’s why I found it -__-|| when some American anime geeks so proudly used the word ‘otaku’, as they weren’t familiar with the origin of the term and its context in Japanese society.
I think that guy wrote that book precisely for the effort to clarify the misconception that all otakus = psychos, or all otakus = traumatized screw up people with mental problem. Not sure if he himself came across alright to dispell the stereotype (what’s with the comment about having violent nature, and how he had to stay at home so he won’t hurt anyone?). ^^;;;
yeah that infamous case in early 90s, horrifying. I remember awhile back there was another of this otaku kidnapping and murdering of a little girl, who was suspected to have left ‘drawings’ on 2ch bbs of his intented crimes previously. What’s repulsive was afterward how the otakus on the board react, instead of sympathy, they were all laughing and mocking the victim and her family, and all they care and worried about was ‘gosh media is going to further blackened us, so UNFAIR~~~”, just confirm the stereotyping of otaku being cold and no concern of anything outside their area of interest.
I never appreciate the idea of stereotype anyway, like otaku must be like this, fanboy behave like that, hardcore otaku are this and psychos are that. Human beings are all individuals and although there is a trend for people with same interests behaving certain ways, it is so dangerous to categorize individuals so blind-faithfully according to stereotype…
tonight’s the first episode of 電車男 on TV!
yeeey looking forward to it! ^-^
There’s TV version…? (why whatever hit there’d always translate multi-platforms ^^;;)
Saw tomoko’s post and rushed back home to watch 電車男. Though I ended up watching the bombing news in London which was too shocking….Did get to see the scene where the otaku guy first saw the girl on the train and that girl was reading the English version of Dan Brown’s novel….wahahaha. ^^;;; Seems like the usual cliche romance drama with an unnatural collection of “interesting” characters with unnatural, over-contrived acting.
f> yeah, theres tv AND movie!
s> oh so you didn’t like it??
I started identifying with denshaotoko
and felt so sorry for him!
but actually I only saw the last 10min…
got caught up watching a different show ^^;
what is dan brown’s novel like?
Why would you identify with him?!! You are nothing like him!! ^^;;;
I missed the first 10 mins, then probably watched for 15 mins and gave up and went to shower….
The girl was reading Angels and Demons and she was “smiling”(supposed it is acting) while reading it….so weird…
haha I must have an otaku inside me!
it was tear-jearking!（T∀T)
so is the novel not the laughing kind?
What? I thought you have read the book?? I haven’t read it yo.
oh, no I meant dan brown’s novel ^^
Ooops~~ I am stupid. ^^;;;
I only read Da Vinci code, not his other books, but I bet they are all action/mystery thrillers and not the kind that you will ニヤニヤするよ。
haha I think we all have our otaku side…hehe…
that other dan brown book is similar to Da Vinci code, those conspiracy mystery type. I guess it’s pretty good in the guilty pleasure type of way…
oh he wrote the davinci code!
now I see what you’re saying!
yeah, she looked like she was reading flowery
poetry or something!