Food Travel

 On my recent trip to LA, we purposely found a Russian restaurant to try. I really like food and enjoy trying things I haven't had before. I have been thinking about it a lot lately. And in today's paper, in the food section, there was a whole article on different restuarants around town that specialize in different national cuisines.
I have been to the ones in the article, or ones like it, that serve food from Bosnia, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, India,  Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Phillipines, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Venezuela, Veitnam.
Some I still have to try that have resturants here in the valley: Afghanistan, Australia, Jamaica, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sweden, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
The Russian food was good, but it didn't wow me. It was a little too heavy on the carbs, I think. The one thing I really didn' t like, was when dumplings or something were supposed to be stuffed with meat, the meat was pureed to the consistancy of baby food. Really a turn off for me I discovered. Not a lot of spice going on either.

 We stopped for dinner at another place that was called Paradise Bakery and Deli. We didn't realize until we were inside that it was an Armenian place. I was excited to try Armenian food. Above was a combo plate I got. Buckwheat, a big chicken/herb meatball, "green salad" with sour cream dressing and they cut big hungs of bread. I'm pretty sure that is Armenian diet coke too. Again, it was fine, but didn't wow me. The bakery, however, was amazing. I will do a separate entry on the bakery.

 Above is a mexican hot dog we got in a hole in the wall place on the street in the fabric district in LA. I have to say, that for my personal tastes, this was the best food I ate while I was in lA. The most flavors and fresh tastes. LOVED IT!

 This was the strawberry tart I ate for breakfast from the Armenian bakery. We went back there for breakfast after having dinner there the night before. It's in Glendale, CA if you you want to go. We also, by chance, wandered into Phillipino Bakery, Red Ribbon, in Glendale. It was good, but not anywhere in the same class.

 To go along with the theme, this was my recent try at Korean food. Again very tasty. I think I like asian, french, italian and hispanic flavors the best.

 This was my lunch at Sekong by night, just down the street in Phoenix, Cambodian food. Fresh and tasty.

 Thai food at Thai Lana. I really like the flavors of Thai food, but can only eat it moderately spicy.

These were one of the two appetizers we ordered at the Russian place. These were Zlatsky's I think. Mashed potatoes, with pureed meat or cabbage inside, then crusted in fine bread crumbs and fried. Served with a mushroom cream sauce. The other appetizer was really pretty and I lost my head and forgot to take a photo. Mini cheese balloons. Kind of like, bread crumb cheese balls, rolled in spices with a prune at the center.
So have you eaten anything interesting lately?

Who Shot Rock and Roll

While we were in LA, someone told Juanita and I about this photo exhibit at the Annenberg Foundation. It was called Who Shot Rock and Roll. It was about the photographers of Rock and Roll artists from the beginning up to now. It was really interesting. There was about a 30 minute documentary film that gave a lot of information. One of the things we learned was that the photographers really had a lot to do with how we , as the public, saw the artists and the developement of their image. Prior to rock and roll,  singers were generally portrayed static, in posed portraits. Then energy of rock and roll performances inspired the photographers to do things differently to try and bring that feeling and experience to the viewer. It was very interesting.

 I was impressed by the size and scope of this lobby on our way to the exhibit. A lot of wasted space maybe?

Art in the lobby of the facing building. The exhibit is there until October if you want to catch it too. It's in Century City. No photography was allowed inside. This was a photo of a poster outside. There weren't any signs forbidding taking photos there. Hope this was allowed. A young Bruce Springsteen.

Warhorse, the play, in LA

I went to LA for a quick trip last weekend with my friend, Juanita. She forbad me to take any photos of her, so you won't be seeing her.

One of the things we did was go see the play Warhorse at the Ahmansen Theatre in downtown LA. This is the same theatre that about 25 years ago, 13 of us young single adults at church, had season tickets to the Saturday matinees. At that time, we could fly over in the morning for 25$. Then we would rent two or three cars, go do something, and then meet up for the play. The impetus behind this was Phantom of the Opera. That was the way we all got awewome seats to see Michael Crawford, the original phantom.

Anyway, there was a Warhorse the book, then the play and finally the movie. I had not read or seen any of them, but I had heard the play was way better than the movie.

 At the music center there are actually 3 venues, the Ahmansen, the Mark Taper Forum and the Dorothy Chandler Pavillon. This is the fountain that was in the middle. It was also National Dance Day and the Dizzy Feet foundation was having it's gala at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion at the same time.
No photography was allowed during the performance, so I took a photo of my program and the photos inside.

They used these amazing horse puppets. They were life size and had 3 puppeteers per horse. Even though the puppeteers were clearly visible, it was still a very believable technique. The did a great job, especially with the horse's head and ears.

It was an enjoyable evening. The fact that I was sitting next to a really nice, good looking, single man didn't hurt either. Just a guy there on his own. He told us about another exhibit that we went to the nexct day.

Old Town Cottonwood and Camp Verde

Today Penny and I headed out of town for some fun. We went to Old Town Cottonwood first. Verde Valley Olive Oil Company is there and we had some purchases we wanted to make. Afterwards we wandered in and out of the shops. I have never spent that much time there before, but it was really fun. Above is the Tavern Hotel. We thought it looked like it might be a nice place to stay. We had lunch in the Tavern Grill across the parking lot.

 I saw these see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, saguaro's in a gift shop. I thought they were hilarious. But they wanted too much money for me to buy them. I did find a few vintage salt and pepper shakers that I got though.

A look down the street. After our shopping and lunch. We went to Camp Verde to hit the corn festival. We think we missed out on some of the festivities, but we did indulge in some corn on the cob. It was yummy. Then we found a roadside stand with fresh tomatoes. I had to pick some up to take home. BLT's tonight!

Right around New River we came to a stop on the way home. Down farther we could see lots and lots of emergency vehicles and flashing lights. All on the opposite side of the road. Our traffic was stopping to look. We saw the helicopter land and take off.

As far as we could tell, it was two pickups that were involved in a very bad accident. This black truck was the first one. It was really messed up.

 This photo turned out really badly, but this is the second pick up. Torn to bits, on it's side in the middle of the road. There was stuff from the truck spread everywhere. And traffic was backed up forever. We felt badly for whomever was in the accident and felt lucky it wasn't us.

How to soak your feet

My neice Keegan is on her feet alot at work. After a couple of 12 hour days, her feet hurt so much that she tries various things to make them feel better. I am always telling her to soak them in the tub. This is what I saw. She says she doesn't like to take a bath and sitting on the side wasn't comfortble. So she put a plastic chair in the tub, filled it up and was sitting there reading her Kindle. The things I missed when I lived alone.

Watson Lake

Keegan, Cindy and I rented kayaks at Watson Lake in Prescott last Friday morning. It was a beautiful morning. We saw blue herons and cormorants.

 There were some nice looking dragon flies. This blue one landed on my kayak.

 Just as we landed the kayaks, the skies opened up and it poured. We had managed to kayak in just the perfect time! It's a beautiful place.

Hairband Storage

Since I have been letting my hair grow out, I seem to be wearing hairbands a lot. As I have accumulated them, I have started having a storage problem. They get tangled up together, it 's hard to see what they all are and which one I want. And I always seem to be in a hurry when I am trying to get one.

I've been thinking about it a lot. What kind of storage system would work. So I went to Michael's today, thinking I would get a cylinder of stryrofoam and cover it with fabric. They didn't have any styrofoam cylinders. So I started roaming the store, trying to find anything that would work. I found a wooden wine case on sale and a basket. The wine case seemed to be the right size for the hairbands, but I needed something so they wouldn't roll all over. So here is my finished project. It seems like it will work!