Echo Park Lake... It Looks Like A Painting

I've blogged about Echo Park Lake many times before, but it's because I love it and don't use it enough.  I get amused when people from West LA ask me if it's safe.  To them I respond with the picture above.  It looks like a fucking painting... but with people of color.. that's how safe it is.

In July we enjoyed the return of the Lotus Festival  which brought us some culture dance shows, festival foods and dragon boats.

But I guess it's good that people think Echo Park is dangerous because it keeps them out of the neighborhood. For your organic kale and cupcakes, please stay west of the 405.  The fact of the matter is, this neighborhood is ethnically diverse and if you're scared to come here please stay away so that we can enjoy it.

PADDLE BOATING

In June, Tommy had a low key birthday celebration at the lake.  We had brunch at the boat house where they served us food at our picnic spot (So as long as our number was visible from the kitchen)  What wonderful service.  Tommy wanted us to paddle boat and pretend we were mario karting... but we quickly realized how tiring padding was.   Though we got pretty close to the fountain and got a little moist.   We noticed a drone above our heads and I found the video clip! If you squint, you can see us!



I also made a video using a simple video editing APP.  Check it out!

Kush Sake Bar

I usually do a what-I-ate monthly round up, but I thought I would try something different using my camera phone pictures and VSCO cam app and focusing on a restaurant.  I wanted to treat out Jimmy this Monday evening by taking him to Kush.  A new sake bar in Echo Park that opened just two weeks ago.  It's exciting to be an "early adopter."  Is this tech term transferable to food?  Anyway, we thought it was just going to be overpriced Japanese bar food on sticks, but we were delightfully surprised by every dish that we ordered.

While I was enjoying my usual tsukemen at Silverlake Ramen last week, the server handed me the menu to Kush - a restaurant closer to my house by the same owner.  I felt like I was getting tipped off on a brand new exciting place! I love Silverlake Ramen - despite the implications of its name, Silverlake Ramen is not water-down Americanized ramen.

Anyway, we drove 1.5 miles and found residential parking and sat at the booth.  Only one other person was there.  We started the meal with mushroom with truffle salt (4) which was the perfect appetizer.  Jimmy looked up at me with surprise, "this is really good."

The dips that come with the meal are great to enhance the flavors, but everything was very well seasoned.  The dips included: pepper/salt magic, sweet Japanese mayonnaise and soy sauce daikon.

Jimmy loved the chicken liver pate, brie cheese, honey on toast (4.50).  The berry on top added perfect sweetness.  The japanese pumpkin with honey sauce (3) was tasty and a good filling dish if you're worried about getting full.

The Japanese Meatball (9) which is a chicken meatball, poached egg and mashed potato was so savory and amazing.  We licked the bowl clean.  We also ordered marinated pork belly (3.5) which is always a winner.  I found myself really savoring each bite and dipping it in each dipping piece to see how the flavor would be enhanced.  The pork belly is definitely better than the wagyu beef (6) probably because it was fattier.

Kush is really pushing to be a sake bar and offered tastings of the "Mirror of Truth-seiko."  This was recommended to us by the server as the best pairing to our order.  Jimmy declared that it was really refreshing and perfect.  We will order this next time we come!  We also had the hot sake which warmed our bellies!

The bill came in this cute vintage cigarette box that looks like it came from the Rose Bowl Flea market.

5 stars! Trendy, classy and very affordable for refined and exquisite taste.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/kush-sake-bar-los-angeles-3

From Echo Park to Santa Monica

My wonderful boyfriend bought me a Nikon J1 for my birthday.  I was so surprised!  I took it for a test run in Echo Park while hanging out with Tommy.

I enjoyed a Salmon Tartine from Valerie Echo Park.  I love this local spot.  No lines, open seating and amazing food.  A hidden treasure, that's for sure.  I'm sad that Delilah's closed down, but Valerie is a nice replacement.

When I told my coworkers about walking around Echo Park they asked "were there a lot of homeless people?"  Sure... but there were also picnickers, joggers, brunchers (there's a brunch spot at the lake), dog walkers and paddle boaters.  If you're disgusted/scared of the neighborhoods east of La Brea, I welcome you to stay in West LA.  This amazing park is for me to enjoy.

The lotus blossoms are blooming.

I love this view of the downtown city scape with the fountain and paddle boats.

I do enjoy my time in Santa Monica when I visit Anthony and Jon.  These boyfriends hold wonderful parties inviting different people from all walks of life.  Their friends are very talented, charismatic and just good people.  We celebrated Anthony's PhD over the weekend!

He was serving longanisa hotdogs complete with sliced jalapeño, grilled onions, ketchup, mayo and bacon.  Probably one of the best hotdogs I've ever had.

Grill em!

Floral patterns are in.

I was allured by Ashley.  We posed in spread eagle.

Anthony's friends were in a band.  So we enjoyed some live music.


A little Beyonce.

Looks like I don't have to steal as many pictures anymore now that I have my own nice camera.  Muah.  I wuv this guy.

BootieLA Prom - Blurry Night

We took a nice stroll through Echo Park Lake to get to the EchoPlex where it was Prom Night with BootieLA!  I couldn't get my camera settings right, but it made for fun party pictures.

Toward the end of the night, it looked like most people were done.  Except Phil.  I encouraged everyone to keep going for the party.  "Just once a year!"  Let's stay longer than midnight for once.  Though I was getting pretty tired.

The prom king and queen.  Cute hipster girl and buff nerdy guy with no shirt.  Not as cleaver as a couple years back.  Someone came as Carrie and had blood running down her dress.  She was amazing.

Looks like we're judging someone do the warm.. BUt it was just little people getting it on in the middle of the dance circle.

Happy Birthday Phil!