It’s Cinco de Mayo today so the three of us went to get Cambodian food this morning. I know, that sentence did not make any sense (especially since Mexican food is on my top 5 list) but that’s how it is when you live in LA, home to Little Tokyo, K-Town, Thai Town, Chinatown(s) and Cambodia Town. We are a United Nations in one sprawling county. And anyway, just a few doors down from this house cum Cambodian restaurant a guy was barbecuing meat in front of his Mexican restaurant for the occasion.
This Phnom Penh Noodle restaurant first caught our attention from the line of people outside its doors. We had to take a few double takes since it looked like someone’s house, and we weren’t quite sure if it was really a restaurant or just somebody having a big party!
As it turned out, it was a little of both. It was definitely a house converted (and I hope permitted for) into a resto. But it was so full of people loudly and excitedly waiting for their food that it felt like a party, even at 11 in the morning.
I’ve never had Cambodian food before, but from what I saw on other people’s tables, the noodle dishes looked fairly similar to Vietnamese/Chinese food. The woman at a table next to us said it was also her first time there but she was referred by a friend who supposedly ate there every day. As in yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The hope odometer shot up in my head. I’m pretty adventurous about most things–well, everything. Just not food.
But how can you really go wrong with seafood noodle soup, right?
It came with broth on the side (you can order it with the soup in the bowl or on the side, as we also do in VN cooking):
So the next time you are in the mood for an escape from Chinese, Japanese or Vietnamese soup, go to Long Beach for the Cambodian version. It’s worth its Yelp ratings, and its Facebook page has more likes than my own FB page for my blog. Maybe I should offer real food with every blog entry instead of just eye candy!
Tags: Cambodia Town, Cinco de Mayo, Long Beach, Los Angeles, phnom penh noodle
I don’t have particularly bad vision, if you don’t count the whole night blindness symptoms and astigmatism stuff, not to mention the reading glasses issue. Though that’s just another excuse for me to collect Chanel frames–hey, aging has to have some upside, right? But right around when allergies get really awful, which is basically 70% of the year for me these days, wearing contacts can be challenging. Not to mention those long rides on the plane. Nothing worse than waking up with wonky contacts and bloodshot eyes right before running into a meeting.
So I took the plunge and booked my Lasik surgery for this past Friday. I kept fairly busy (with CES and all) and had no time for nerves. But the morning of, I began to really see. Looked at the endless view of downtown LA after a night’s rain and thought, let’s hope I can see even more clearly tomorrow without my glasses. As the hour got closer, I went for a Jamba run
and told myself, maybe the mango-a-gogo will look even prettier with my new eyes. Suddenly the evil Larkie said, that is if nothing goes wrong while they zap your eyes! Ugh.
Then I looked at the details of this Gucci jacket I chose to wear for this very occasion. It’s one of my favorite items ever, and if anything is going to go right or wrong, at least I’ll be dressed well. Priorities, people! Honestly, I hope when I wake up from surgery, I will be able to see all the details sharply without the benefit of contacts or glasses:
I hope, I hope.
It was time. At their Newport Beach office I signed all the paperwork, popped a Xanax, and twenty minutes later came out of surgery with new eyes. Of course I have about zero recollection of the whole experience. I only remember sitting in the waiting room for ten minutes after taking the Xanax then stumbling into the operating room when the nurse came to get me. I do not even remember seeing my doctor…just vaguely recall hearing his voice saying “look at the red light” then getting a hug from him when it was done?
Today is Sunday, about 48 hours with my new eyes. I’ve been taking it easy so have not been outside driving or anything yet. But I can tell you that it is the best thing ever to be able to look out of my living room window and see palm trees way beyond the hill with my naked eyes! There’s a bit of tenderness over my right eye, and I have to apologize to everyone who will have to see me without my makeup on this whole week (no eye makeup allowed!), but other than that, this has been an incredible gift.
Tags: Gucci, Lasik surgery, Newport Beach
Happy 2013 everyone! Instead of taking you down the Rose Parade as I had done in years past, this year I’ll show you the parade from scratch by actually volunteering to decorate one of the floats. I’ve probably wanted to do this since moving to Pasadena in 1998 but never got around to signing up for it. But as I always say better today than never, here are some shots of a Saturday afternoon before parade day. It started out by meeting up at this huge warehouse in Padadena…
The exterior belies the behemoth interior (freezing cold) space. And even then, perhaps less than ten floats could fit inside:
I made my way to the City of Glendale float, to which I was assigned:
There were a lot of volunteers already working on the float, but there were even more of us newbie volunteers milling around waiting for our assignments. I’d have to say it was a bit chaotic and unorganized, but the crew manager assured me he’d been doing this for 20 years so I zipped it. While waiting, I wandered around the float…
and then I wandered around the warehouse…
Darn it, how come I didn’t get assigned to this cuddly float:
Anyway, there were a lot of love and hard work everywhere I turned. Some assembly lines were more efficient than others, and there were colors everywhere…
Finally I was called to work! I was to pin those green leafy/thorny branches but after they saw me swinging on the scaffold, one kid brought me back to reality by asking if I was afraid of heights. Then it dawned on me that once I stopped swinging, I’d actually have to stand on a narrow platform about 25 feet above ground. I climbed back down–my walk of shame–and they handed me a brush and some glue to work on the bottom edge of the trolley:
First I had to clear the area of debris, then I applied the white glue as evenly as possible, and finally smudged the red shredded seeds by sponge quickly before the glue dried. After sniffing that glue for thirty minutes, I was dreaming about just watching the parade from the street next year. Or better yet, in my pjs from a comfortable sofa. I have a new level of respect for these devoted volunteers, especially the ones who return for more tours of duty year after year.
So what did I learn from this experience? If there’s a next time, I’ll volunteer the final day before the parade when you actually get to work with more flowers. After all, those are applied last so they don’t wilt. Second, I might still love to own a flower shop at some point in my life.
But most of all, as long as you have the spirit of volunteerism behind you, everything comes up roses. Look how our float turned out on parade day:
Make it a great year!
Tags: Glendale, Pasadena, Rose Parade
It’s Thanksgiving Day here in the US and the holiday season has officially begun. From now through New Year’s Day, the work pace will slow down to a skeleton crew at most places, with people’s minds on their Xmas holidays or parties. The commercialism of it all will kick into high gear this year more than ever, what with Black Friday sales now starting just right after you cut the turkey instead of at 4am on Friday.
I don’t know about you, but this year I’m staying out of the stores. If I can’t find it online, I’ll live without it.
After reading about the recent natural disasters and going through all the family stresses this year, I’m going back to the true meaning of Thanksgiving, when we’re supposed to sit back and reflect on the year that’s about to end and focus on what we are thankful for…the roof over our heads, food in our bellies, shoes on our feet, and freedom outside our door. Very basic needs met for most yet wishful thinking for others, even in this bountiful country of ours.
No turkey for me, but as you can see from all of today’s pics (taken at the Dallas Arboretum), I’m going to double up on everything pumpkin and say thank you to everyone I know, for being a part of this sometimes incredible experiment I call my life. And to all my readers, thanks for another year.
Tags: Thanksgiving
Hi everyone, silly low-tech me tried to do an update on wordpress and caused a major fatal error on my blog. It died a brief death yesterday. Today we are trying to revive it, but the photos are not showing up. So please bear with me till we get over this technical difficulty. Can’t take me anywhere. Definitely not anywhere technical!
