Sweet Butter Toast

Hmm…food, travel, books, and just random stuff that I like.

My First Trip to Seattle May 13, 2013

A few weekends ago I visited Seattle for the first time. The weather was a little fickle, ranging from gray skies, light showers, heavy rain, hail and perfect sunshine. The sun poked its head out for a few hours during our walk through Kubota Garden in Rainier Beach and also on the day we were leaving. I think I saw a glimpse of it when we were trying to take pictures in front of Pike Place Market too.

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We rented a condo in Belltown, which turned out to be within walking distance of every restaurant that we had planned on eating at. It was only about 5-6 blocks from Pike Place too. Some of my favorite dining spots were Bedlam Coffee, Local 360, Serious Pie, Tilikum Place Cafe and The Crumpet Shop.

I wish I could have a lavender mocha from Bedlam Coffee everyday.

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 There was something about the fries at Local 360 that was extremely addictive.

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The baked egg at Tilikum Cafe was delish.

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I don’t often eat pizza, but I have to say the pizzas at Serious Pie were one of the better ones that I’ve had. Oh yea that’s an egg on top.

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My first crumpet from The Crumpet Shop was amazing. Ricotta, honey and walnuts? An excellent combo. I am going to try to make this at home.

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We also did some touristy things and two of my favorite were the Chihuly exhibit and the Underground Tour.

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There may not have been any strip clubs or drunk bar hopping activities, but we still had a great time. For anyone who is planning on visiting Seattle, I highly recommend booking a condo with Seattle Oasis Vacation Rentals. Our condo was pretty,clean, well stocked and included parking.

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2012 Vacation Part 2 – Paris July 5, 2012

Filed under: French,Travel — RenRen @ 1:31 am
Tags: , , , , , , ,

My first trip to Paris was interesting. I had some delicious food, bought an expensive purse and went to a Chinese wedding. Every day that I was there, I felt like I was in a movie. I couldn’t believe how beautiful some of the buildings were. Now if the subways and stores had just crank up the air conditioning a bit, I can truly say that my first trip was perfect.

Did you know that the pho in Paris is better than LA? Sad, but true.

My idea of a perfect breakfast is the Croque Madame. Oh…I only had it everyday.

Of course I visited the Louvre. I’m sad I missed some parts of it because *coughs* the ventilation was *coughs* so bad. It was so warm inside I’m surprised the paint didn’t start to melt off some of the paintings.

I swear all the signs point toward the Mona Lisa. I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. The painting was tiny.

I went to a Chinese wedding in Paris and there were a lot of food. Congratulations Lina and Alex.

There were a lot of little alleys with cute cafes. The Parisians does their coffee right.

Crepe. I like it. I really really like it. I should have ate more of it.

 I didn’t go inside, but I did snap a few pics in front of Notre Dame. I was not about to get in line with all the tourists and I doubt the place has air conditioning.

The Eiffel Tower looks better from far away, far far away. It doesn’t look so romantic up close, but that didn’t stop Pearl and Lina from taking pics with their cute glasses.

Guess what this group of people are waiting for…

They were in line to get into A & F. Yes…there were two models guarding that grand entry gate.

 One of the last places that I visited in Paris was the Sacred Heart Basilica of Montmarte. It was a long trek up many many stairs to get out of the subway and then there were more stairs to actually get to the Sacred Heart. The view from the top was pretty amazing though.

According to Lina, the cheapest place to buy souvenirs in Paris is at Montmarte. I picked up a few magnets for my fridge.

 There were so much that I didn’t get a chance to see, I must visit Paris again very soon.

 

2012 Vacation Part 1 – London July 3, 2012

Today was the first time in over two weeks that I had to sit in traffic on my way home. Oh how I miss the Tube in London. It may have been a little warm in there, but at least it moved and I could distract myself with a book while waiting to get to my next destination.

My trip to London was interesting. It was the first time that I had to explore a new city on my own and I loved how London made that so easy. Figuring out the Tube was brain dead, there were maps at nearly every bus station and people in general were friendly and helpful. I only got lost once.

While in London, I stayed with a friend who lived near King’s Cross/St. Pancras station. I developed a morning habit of eating breakfast at the Benugo inside the station.

This was one of the few times that I actually wished I knew how to ride a bike.  They all look so shiny and new.

I didn’t take any taxis in London, but I wouldn’t mind getting into this one. COACH! I think we should probably paint the “Look Right” and “Look Left” on the cross walks in LA too. The hipsters in town can’t seem to follow the traffic lights, maybe they can read.

London has the cutest food trucks. These two were parked outside of the British Museum.

There was a house near Brick Lane that was named after me. I wished it was yellow.

My first taste of London was a visit to Covent Garden. I watched a football (aka soccer) at a Canadian pub. England won. I think I may be in love with Covent Garden. The food looked delicious. For all the macaron lovers out there, Laduree has a shop Covent Garden.

My first tourist attraction was Piccadilly Circus (or was this Oxford Circus?). My friend compared it to the Times Square of NY. I prefer Piccadilly. There were way less people and lot cleaner. Who loves double decker buses? I do.

The British Museum was huge and a little cluttered. There were too much to see. Admission is free.

I was only lost once when I was in London and that was in Regent’s Park after visiting Queen Mary’s Garden.

Aside from fish and chips, one must try the Indian food while in London.  It was pretty good.

Windsor Castle was probably my favorite place in London. Well…near London. I wish I could live here. Queen Mary’s Doll House was amazing. Too bad I couldn’t take any photos.

I did the most touristy thing you can possibly do in this country – I watched the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace then… I took a photo of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament at the other side of St. James Park.

My friend highly recommended visiting the Tower of London. I’m glad I listened to her. It was fascinating and a little gruesome.

On my last full day in London, I visited Kensington Palace and St. Paul’s Cathedral. Warning – there are approximately 250 steps that you will have to climb to get up to the Whispering Gallery at St. Paul’s and about another 160 to get to the Stone Gallery. I don’t believe the cathedral has air conditioning.

The best meal I had in London was at Jamie’s Italian in Covent Garden.

 The gelato in London was pretty good too. Banana Stracciatella. I want some now.

 

President’s Day 2012 – San Francisco (Again) February 23, 2012

It’s true. I love SF. I love the city so much I went there twice already. However, this was my first SF trip ever with Lena aka Amazing Sapphire Eyes.

On Friday afternoon, Lena and I took the scenic route up north because the damn Bay Bridge was closed. We were determined to eat at the Shabu House in Burlingame, so we starved ourselves for 6 hours to save room for dinner. Well kinda starved ourselves. Lena had some blueberries, I ate some dried seaweed and then we split a banana during drive. We were a little ravenous by the time we were seated for dinner.

After we picked up Peian from the airport Saturday morning, we met Judy and Hubert at the Farmer’s Market for lunch. Roli Roti, Namu, Boccalone, Blue Bottle Coffee – we had it all.

After stuffing ourselves at the Farmer’s Market, we did a little bit of shopping at Union Square. We heard the bras at the GAP were super comfy. I didn’t find one I liked this time around, but that’s okay. There is always next time. Later, we had afternoon tea at the Samovar Tea Lounge. We sipped tea, Lena signed autographs and Peian conducted some business.

We were sleep deprived, so we took a short nap (sorry no photos) before heading to dinner at Tropisueno, which was across the street from the tea lounge.  The food was delicious. The service was meh.

After watching the Knicks game Sunday morning we had brunch at The Brixton, which was the only place that would take a reservation for 12 people. We had to pace ourselves so that we had room to eat crab at Fisherman’s Wharf afterwards.

I think I let a crazy person take this picture for us. I was pulling out my camera and this dude just popped out of nowhere and offered to take the picture. He could have just ran off with my camera. What the hell was I thinking?

Sunday evening, I made dinner reservations at Thai House 530. It had some decent reviews on Yelp so I decided to give it a try. Luckily Yelp did not fail us this time.

The restaurant was right by Bi-Rite, so we dropped by after dinner for some ice cream. I chose the roasted banana and salted caramel. I can’t wait until the balsamic strawberry is season again.

Before we left on Monday, we stopped by Golden Gate Bakery for some egg tarts. It’s so fattening but so good. *sigh* I need more three day weekends.

 

Las Vegas – Wynn, Tryst and Dragons February 2, 2012

Last weekend, Nahae and I took a last minute road trip to Las Vegas. Last minute for me means that I booked the hotel the Friday prior instead of a month in advance. I actually found a pretty good rate for the Wynn on Hotels.com, only $160/night. It was quite an adventure while leaving Los Angeles due to the strong winds – car swaying and debris floating about. We finally made it safely to the Wynn around 1:00 am and checked-in with Danny at the front desk. He found us a bigger suite at the Encore, but since I’m not that fond of all the red decor in that hotel, I decided to just stayed at the Wynn.

After a much needed night of sleep, Nahae and I had our first meal at Max Brenner inside the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. I introduced her to my three favorite items on the menu, the mac n’ cheese, waffle fries and the golden latte.

So that Nahae can have the Ocean’s Eleven experience, we did a walk through of the Bellagio hotel. Naturally we had to snap some pictures at the Conservatory with all it’s dragons, tangerines, and chrysanthemums. We’re looking very tall huh? That’s because we found a slightly shorter person to take our picture.

Before taking the tram to Aria so that I can introduce Nahae to my favorite gold fish slot machine, we made a quick caffeine stop at Jean Philippe. I ordered a white chocolate mocha (it’s amazing here) and exercised a lot of self control by not ordering any brioches or croissants. Ooh we also bumped into the ladies of The Red Hat Society. The focus of the picture below were the red hats, not the split between my bangs.

I like to take a moment to rescind my love for the gold fish slot machine because while at Aria, I fell in love with the Sex & the City slot machine. Oh it was so much fun!

After Aria, we went back to Wynn and we found a gift basket filled with Chinese snacks and chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us. I wish there was a fridge in our room. We couldn’t finish all the strawberries and had to tossed them the next day. What a waste. Perhaps the strawberries were Danny’s way of apologizing for not getting us the room with the view of the golf course and waterfall? Oh but thanks to Danny, I stained my white shirt with chocolate.

Our next stop was the atrium at the Palazzo. After seeing the insane amount of Chinese New Year decorations in every hotel that we had stepped into so far, it was no surprise to also find a dragon at the atrium. However, this wasn’t just any dragon, it was a fire breathing dragon. I’m not joking.

I still think the CNY decor at our hotel was the best though. My god Nahae and I are tall.

Anyhoo. Time for dinner! Nahae and I met up with my sister, cousins and some family friends at Postrio for an early dinner at the Venetian. We split a calamari and rock shrimp appetizer, the wild mushrooms agnolotti with black truffle butter and a side of roasted cauliflower. My sister and my cousin split a prosciutto pizza and crab cakes. Oh and there was bread. Unfortunately, it wasn’t warm.

On our way back to the Wynn, we stopped by Espressamente Illy for an affogato. Later in the evening, I met my sister, cousins and Christina at Tryst for an evening on the dance floor. Grandma would be so proud.

My party buddies later left me to go to Lavo so that they can see J.Cole. I didn’t know he was the guy that did the “Work Out” song. On my way back to the room, I snapped this photo of the pretty roses at the elevators. Why were these not delivered to my room?

The next morning, Nahae and I ended our Vegas trip with brunch at the Tower Suite Cafe. The virgin Bloody Mary healed Nahae’s headache and our hunger was sated by the elk sausage and the duck hash that we ordered. We had a perfect view of the garden/pool area too.

I must start planning the next Vegas trip!

 

 
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