LA – Day 2

Good morning! Yesterday was a lovely low-key day here in LA. It started off fairly early (when have I ever gotten up before 7AM on vacation?!) so we could take a long walk before it got too hot.

Mine and 2 of her friends walk in the morning about once a week, and I'm pretty jealous. The weather is gorgeous and you get to see the ocean! (I'm still in tourist mode where getting excited about seeing the ocean is ok.) We got some coffees and then headed down to the water for a nice 4 mile walk & chat. When we first got to the water, Katie spotted some dolphins playing - so cool (even Mine & her friends thought this was cool, so I didn't feel too dorky for squealing with delight).

After our walk, Mine, Katie & I headed to breakfast. We went to one of Mine's favorite breakfast spots, John O'Groats, where apparently the biscuits are the best. I rarely crave something super sweet for breakfast, like pancakes, waffles, or donuts, so I was happy to see the menu had lots of salty/savory things to offer. I was tempted to get the 'Cilantro Potato Pancakes', but ended up ordering the 'Poached Eggs Bruschetta'. This was 2 poached eggs on top of olive bread, smothered in tomato, basil, & feta confit...and it was delicious! It also came with a side a hash browns.

After breakfast, we did some grocery shopping for breakfast and lunch items for the house, as well as for the Turkish dinner party we are having tonight - more on that in another post.

Mine had some work to do this afternoon, so Katie and I went to the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica.

We walked around for a little bit, and then decided to get a late lunch and cocktail. We found this great French brasserie called Anisette that was offering an interesting aperitif (happy hour) menu.

We started with some yummy bread that tasted like slices of croissant. Katie got a Hendrick's (best gin ever) and soda, and I had a glass of sparkling Rose.

For food, Kate ordered the scallop ceviche, which she liked...but immediately regretted not ordering the oysters when she saw them bring some out to the guy sitting next to us at the bar. We're here for a week, so I'm sure she'll get some before we leave. We also ordered pomme frites (French fries) and gruyere grougere (cheese puffs) to share.

I was very excited about the pomme frites, which were served with really good roasted red pepper aioli.

After lunch we decided to catch a movie. We saw Shutter Island...anyone else seen that yet?! Just a little bit disturbing...

We met up with Mine & Colin for dinner at Real Food Daily. This is a vegan restaurant that comes highly recommended. I was in the mood for veggies - probably because my lunch consisted only of bread, cheese, and potatoes! I got a green juice that was made of cucumber, celery, spinach and parsley with a little apple and lemon. It was really good, and very refreshing! It kind of tasted like lemonade (I know, that would be a hard sell.)

For my entree, I ordered more veggies. It was a ginger stir-fry of julienne vegetables on top of your choice of brown rice, soba noodles, or cooked greens. I went with the greens, which I was really happy with, but it would have been quite good on top of soba noodles as well.

Ok, time to wrap this up. I am planning on recapping our cooking adventures in a separate post (or 2 or 3!). Plus I still need to introduce you to our hosts!