Places: Natural Cafe in SB

Natural Cafe in Santa Barbara is pretty delicious. It is no AMAZING place, but it is definitely tolerable. The top is a smoothie...it had berries in it. Berries are delicious. Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries. Did you ever notice that the p in raspberries is silent? Did I spell raspberries right? I blame the US education system. Oh, catholic school/public school, what have you done to my spelling abilities!?!

The bottom is a tamale (my sister says that in Spanish, one tamale is a tamal...and more than one tamale is tamale...WHAT!? Tamale is plural for a tamal!?!?!). I ate this tamal when I was very hungover sick last year, but I forgot about it until now. It was alright. The only really good thing about this place is that it is very veggie friendly. You can pretty much add tofu to anything...and I mean ANYTHING. With a name like Natural Cafe...yeah you better add tofu to my eggplant BIATCH! After watching a man hammer a goat to death on TV, I think vegetarianism is the way to go yo. 

WOAH WOAH. Does anyone know how to rotate photos on this blogger thing....I cannot figure it out for the life of me. So for now, my smoothie will be sideways.

Sorry for the poo poo pictures...these are from my phone.

Things you put in your belly: Veggie/ Vege Spring Rolls

Vege spring rolls from Thien Tam Vegetarian Restaurant on Garvey Ave. in El Monte. I wish I was eating this right now, and it is so cheap!!! I AM SO HUNGRY.

Things you put in your belly: New Capital Dim Sum

So I went to dim sum with my family at New Capital Seafood in Hacienda Heights a few weeks ago when I thought I was getting better but actually wasn't getting better. Being a vegetarian, it is difficult to find things to eat at dim sum that are not sweet or that come in a salad form with seaweed in it. Luckily, at this place there were a few options like the fried tofu and things wrapped in rice noodles or tofu skins. They were actually pretty good. I can see why this place is always crowded, even at 9:30am when we went.

I am back in SB, and I, luckily, bought some dim sum bao back here. DID YOU KNOW!?! If you freeze dim sum bao as is and re-steam it or re-bake it, they are delicious once again!!!!! HOORAY FOR MODERN REFRIGERATORS!

Places: Carmel By The Sea

A winter day at the beach, pub lunch, and fancy coffee. har har har!

Places: The Counter in Pasadena

Went to The Counter in Pasadena with British cousin and friendies. We split the fries/ sweet potato fries. I appreciated their shoe stringy like quality. I had the veggie burger bowl (I love bowls, taco bowls from CHIPOTLE AKA THE BEST AND MOST WONDERFUL FAST FOOD EVER). For the set price you get to choose what you want from each list (if you want extras, they list the price added on the side). I had the organic greens, veggie patty, sharp provolone, olives, jalapenos, sun dried tomato vinaigrette, and pickles. The ingredients were FRESH, and the only worry we had was if the combinations we picked would work together or not. IT WORKED. Service was friendly, but I felt like I had to be really friendly back. All in all super duper duper duper. BECAUSE BOWLS ARE THE WAY TO GO. GO. GO.
 

Food/ Places: Veggie Life on Garvey in Rosemead and their steamed buns

I went to Veggie Life, which is a Vietnamese restaurant that serves all vegetarian food, and usually I just eat there because they give you tons of yummy herbal veggies. This time, I also bought home the steamed bun. It was JUST OK. It was expensive (I think $1.50), so I'll stick to eating the noodle dishes at the restaurant. Slightly SAD FACE for the bun because it was expensive, but other than that no bad points.

Places: Fosselman's Ice Cream in Alhambra

So I went with friendie to Fosselman's in Alhambra and had the coffee cookie ice cream. It was pretty good! It was two things that I LOVE, so I don't see how anything could have gone wrong. Friendie had matcha (ground up green tea leaves), which was pretty ok, and isn't her top cute! She is so fabulous. I do suggest going to http://fosselmans.com/ to check out the flavors they have. It is pretty awesome. The flavors are pretty yummy, but the base it basic so expect no SUPER AMAZING reaction. But very much tolerable, very much so.

PS: Sorry I have been MIA for the last few days/ weeks. I have been BUSY ok? hahahahahahaha LOVE YOU

Places: Balboa Park in San Diego

Went to Balboa Park in San Diego with the sister. Hiked for an hour and an half. Tons of fun fun fun. A little warm, but saw a lot of fun things. IT IS FREE! the museums are not though. It is a long long long drive from LA. A two hour drive.
A lot of nice architecture to see, although I don't know if it is authentic or not. If you have time to stop by, why not?

Places: Perfectly Sweet

I had the carrot cake, and newly relocated friendie had the raspberry mousse. OH MY GOD. SO GOOD. I would punch someone in the face to live there.

http://www.perfectlysweet.com/

I encourage you to go, but you know a better suggestion? I encourage you to take me with you. K thx bye.

Places: Honey Badger + Newly relocated Friendies

I went to Honey Badger Cafe in Alhambra. Only two words can describe the way I feel about that place: FREAKING AWESOME. They had a ricotta and portabello mushroom sandwich, which was really really really really really good. I had the honey chrysanthemum tea, which was light and good for summer, but the flower petals kept falling off and in my mouth. That was not as awesome. It seems like a good place to study, chit-chat, and eat delicious sandwiches. Newly relocated friendie went there with me. Welcome to Alhambra and LA my dear! 

On another note, Honey Badger also had art hanging on the walls, which made it seem very comfy. I will definitely go there again. Who will go with me? It is lonely to go by myself. I'm a big baby, DEAL WITH IT.

Places: Art in the Streets @ the Geffen Contemporary in LA

So I went to the Art in the Streets with Office Hubby before Big Man Bakes. It was pretty interesting. We talked about the irony of putting street art into an indoor exhibition and the commodification/ commercialization of an alternative lifestyle.
I do suggest that people go a take a look, because it's free on Mondays and Thursday evenings.

Places: Big Man Bakes & Blossom in LA

I spent the day with my office husband yesterday. We went to the Art in the Streets exhibition yesterday at the Geffen Contemporary. (Will post about that later). We also were planning to go to Nickel Diner, but sadly it was closed. Note: IT IS CLOSED ON MONDAYS. BUT we found other wonderful things. We went to Big Man Bakes (http://bigmanbakes.com/), which had AMAZING CUPCAKES. Now, I love baked goods, and this was a delicious baked good. OH had the chocolate on yellow cake, and I had the lemon. Big thumbs up on both. I heard that their red velvet is delicious as well. I really want to try the carrot cake one next time.

We also went to Blossom( http://www.blossomrestaurant.com/), which is a vietnamese restaurant. It was really good too! Prices were reasonable. Service was good. They had young coconut ($3.50). HUZZAHHHH!! I had the veggie spring rolls ($4.50), which was super good. I liked the atmosphere the best. There seemed to be two parts to this restaurant. One side was more traditionally restaurant-ish, whereas the side we sat on was like a wine bar/ cafe/ tea house. It had a more modern feel to it with big windows. LOVE BIG WINDOWS.

Next post will be art in the streets, which is free on Mondays!