Let the vacation fun continue! We’ve been home almost a week, and I guess we’re back in the swing of normal lives. I think I’m experiencing post-trip depression. There’s nothing to look forward to for awhile. 🙁  I need a project.  I’m thinking I’ll take Jude on a field trip this week to the Bass Pro Shop or something. I wish we had an aquarium here. I may have to haul it up to Tulsa to visit a friend and go to their aquarium.

Ok, some more Los Angeles fun. One of our hobbies is food. I really think that my husband missed his calling as either a chef or a food critic, because he loves food that much. Apparently, he has just come into this realization, because at some point during the trip, he says out loud, “You know, I think food just really makes me happy.”

No! No way! SHOCKING! 🙂  I’ve only known this for years. I look at him and say, “Um, and you’ve just now realized this?!”

taverna tony's - malibu

Much of my love for LA stems from my year at Pepperdine. I had a lot of fun experiences, just exploring the city, so anytime we go back, it’s fun to revisit those favorite places, but also to find new ones too. We like to go to eat at Marmalade Cafe (in Malibu, or at the Grove in LA) as well as (OF COURSE!) In-N-Out. I confess, we drove straight to In-N-Out the second our flight landed. We’re that addicted. Jude decimated his cheeseburger — as if  all cheese on earth was to be eradicated for eternity tomorrow.

Simon had heard about Crumbs Bake Shop. Apparently there are several outposts of it around the country. Similar to a Sprinkles cupcakery, but with a more old-world/circus design (and less I-could-care-less-about-your-baked-goods attitude from the hipper-than-thou employees), Crumbs had a wide variety of delicious cupcake flavors to try. My personal fave was the Boston Cream Pie cupcake. The chocolate frosting was thick and rich, much like the Guittard chocolate frosting you can buy from Williams-Sonoma, a special treat.

Other good eats in Malibu: Howdy’s Taqueria, Malibu Seafood (inexpensive, delicious seafood – a mile north of Pepperdine on PCH), Paradise Cove Beach Cafe….

Since we had the convenience of a kitchen at our apartment in Venice, we were able to do a lot of grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods Market. We remarked numerous times that if we had either of them here in OKC, we would spend soooo much money, but we would be eating oh-soooo good.  The farmer’s market in Venice was also particularly fun. Those grape tomatoes were so sweet — and so poppable!

I wish I would’ve bought some of those snap or snow peas. I loooove them. And every time I look at this picture, I want some.

Let’s see, where else did we eat….  Oh! Pink Taco! I didn’t get any photos of it, but we enjoyed sitting out on the terrace and enjoyed eating some delish tacos after Jude FINALLY passed out after a no-I’m-not-gonna-nap showdown. Yeah, that was a delightful day.

On our last night in town, Simon had a special request for dinner. He wanted to go wait in line at Pink’s hot dogs, the legendary hot dog stand on La Brea & Melrose. To be frank (ha!), I don’t get the appeal of Pink’s.  I’m a Ball Park hot dog kind of girl. So this didn’t really do it for me. But my boys love hot dogs, so to Pink’s we went, and Simon is still raving about it. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes, we finally got our order in and sat down on the terrace back behind. Jude also got in a great poopy diaper change in the trunk of our car, much to everyone else’s delight, I’m sure. Hey, it was cleaner than the Pink’s bathroom floor! I hate it when public bathrooms don’t have baby changing facilities.
Because I was a good sport to go along with the hot dogs (FYI, the seasoned fries were totally worth it), I got to pick where we would go have dessert. That last day in LA, we had spent the day cruising town, exploring Griffith Park and far eastern Los Angeles. I happened to spot this cute little place called MILK, and after a quick perusal of Yelp.com on my iPhone, I decided this was it. To be fair, I was first captured by their fab logo, but it turned out it was more than just form — it was function, too!

Two words, my friends: Blue Velvet.

Yeah. You heard right. Blue. Velvet. It’s a blueberry cake with LOTS of blue dye, and DELICIOUS cream cheese frosting.  

They also have a wide selection of ice cream sandwiches (homemade ice cream!) made with enormous macarons (not macaroons — macarons, little French cookies). Oh, and the homemade chocolate milk? Uh huh. Yup. Divine.The little red velvet poppers were pretty delish, too, although more red than chocolatey. (FYI, red velvet really should be a chocolate cake w/ red food coloring. If it’s too red, it’s minimal on the chocolate and is not true red velvet).

Here’s me and Jude, showing off our blue tongues. There was other, um, blueness, too. But that came later. Just be forewarned if you eat heavily-dyed food. You will see it again.

Ok, moving on from dyed, um, stuff. Lemonade! Once again, we were attracted initially by the cute design, and then we stuck around for the great food. Four fruit-blended lemonades every day round out the beverage choices, but there’s also a variety of lemon-themed desserts as well. But if you’re needing more than just lemony sweetness, we were surprised by a variety of other choices too. Pot roasts, mac & cheese, and other items were there for the taking, cafeteria-style.

All in all, a delightful culinary experience! Now, who’s hungry?