Food, Food, And More Food

Al was out of town last week for work so I had to be extra creative with my time alone. The first day he was gone it rained like it rains in the movies (when you think to yourself it never rains like that in real life). I guess it really does rain like that and afterwards the sun came out just in time to set. Half of the sky was covered in black clouds and the other half was orange. It was one of the coolest sunsets I've ever seen. If you've seen a cooler sunset you should post pictures on your blog or maybe even start a blog
Later that week I went to dinner with my friend Jeni in Santa Monica. Suprisingly I haven't had any really good sushi since we've lived here, so she took me to one of her personal favorites, Hide Sushi. The first clue to a good restaurant is how busy it is and this place was packed. The second clue is how the service is and it was great. The third and most important clue is how fresh is the fish and it was amazing. This is authentic sushi so there are no fun rolls named The Rockstar Roll which is my favorite one at Happy Sumo. The nigiri and sashimi melt in your mouth
and the salmon skin salad below was my favorite.
The best part about Hide sushi is the prices. 2 pieces of sashimi are $2-$4 which is how it should be and if you go to Hide they only accept cash. I will definatley be taking Al asap!!
Afterwards we went to a famous cookie place in Westwood by UCLA called Diddy Riese. Kathryn & Jeff told us about it last week. I mentioned it to Jeni because she went to UCLA and she said "OMG I gained Freshman 15 from that place, I will take you there, but I'm not eating any cookies." She broke down and had an ice cream sandwich with me and somehow told me I should get 6 cookies for myself. The line was out of control, but when you got inside the smells were all worth it. Flashbacks from the Seinfeld Soup Nazi came to me when the worker yelled NEXT!! I had about 5 seconds to state the 6 different kinds of cookies I wanted and 2 more to pick the flavor of ice cream and cookies I wanted on my ice cream sandwich(big decisions). I didn't really need all those cookies, but lets be honest a lot of those people in line didn't either. While we ate our ice cream sandwiches we walked around Westwood and Jeni showed me all the sites including the famous Fox Theater where all the movie premieres are held. She used to wait outside all the premeires with all the other college kids when she went to UCLA. If I could redo college I definately wouldn't go ANYWHERE in Utah, but that's only if I could have still met Al.
On Friday I went to Mastros Steakhouse in Beverly Hills with Jeni and Jenna. It's pretty impossible to eat there on a Friday night unless you have reservations, so we sat upstairs at the piano bar and watched the Opening Ceremonies with all the cougars and old guys that had way too much to drink, however it did make for really good people watching. We shared the lobster mashed potatoes and crab stuffed mushrooms which were delicous.
Jeni & I
On Saturday The First Annual LA Street Food Festival was downtown and Al still wasn't home, so I talked Aaron & Celia into going with me. The minute we drove up we just kept driving because the line to get in was way too long, plus it was $5 to get in. We decided to make our own food festival and headed to the Fashion District which is just like China Town in NYC. We started off with bacon wrapped hot dogs with grilled peppers and avocado pico de gallo
Celia & Aaron Good deals on fabrics and dolls.

Quick stop at the taco truck.

Knick Knacks or junk....whatever you like to call it
This was my favorite find of the day. Staunion markers for $2.99 that look very similar Sharpies.

I've been wanting to try this fruit forever. There are random fruit carts all over LA and the beach that sell "this" fruit. Sometimes they just have mango, but we were lucky and got watermelon, pineapple, mango, pomegrante seeds, and cucumber(I'm pretty sure that's a vegetable). I had them hold off on the cucumber. They douse the fruit in lemon juice and cayenne pepper. Kind of a weird combination, but it enhances the flavor of the fruit. Aaron named it Fire Fruit because all of our lips were bright red afterwards.
Downtown LA Don't be jealous but it was 75 degrees and it's only February
Our last stop was Olvera street which is a hidden gem in LA. Olvera street is filled with authentic Mexican restaurants, vendors with a variety of souvenirs (not junky ones) and most importantly Churros. I love churros and nothing compares to Disneylands churros until I tried these.
They infuse them with custard or carmel. Don't worry I tried both.
It was a great way to end our Food Festival Day.

Puppets and leather hirachis

Spicy Candy

Shopping for Sombreros

Al got back just in time for Valentines Day with flowers for me. I love him
We went to a Valentines party with some friends. Jeff, Kathryn, Alexis, Ryan
Al, Me, Celia, Aaron. There were also a bunch of other people...Anna & Scott who threw the fabulous party, Taylor & Sarah, Heike & Sean, Lacey & Henry and I think that's all. If you're reading this sorry I didn't get your pic. Next time for sure.
Since we didn't have time on Sunday we celebrated Valentines Day last night and went to dinner at STK in Hollywood. It was amazing...once again food. The bread and special green sauce was divine.

and the tuna tartare was my favorite

It was a perfect Valentines Day and even more perfect when Al suprised me with a trip to Mexico!! He's the best and I don't know what I would do without him.