New Year's Time in California

Having finally made it to Los Angeles, we were soon getting down to activities like piling into cars and visiting Uncle Bob. When we found him someone said "It's good to see you, Uncle Bob" and he responded "Well, I'd rather be seen than viewed."

That night a Kogi Truck was in Alhambra.  So Mom, Greg, Owen and I placed a small order there. 

Clockwise from top: Blue Moon Mulitas, a Pac Man Burger, plenty of tacos, Blackjack Quesadilla, Chilaquiles and a Wet Burrito

Friday. Friday was rainy and dreary, we were going to go see nature but instead we saw a nature center. WITH A REAL LIFE ALIVE RATTLE SNAKE (and plenty of dead animals).

Then, with the Rose Parade just a few days away, we went to the Rose Bowl and watched the decorating of floats.

For lunch we followed up on a lead from Greg and tried out a place in Highland Park called El Huarache Azteca and it was spectacular. Every single thing that came out of kitchen, from taquitos to tacos, huaraches to sopes, pambazos to tostadas, was perfect. 

Oh and I guess I didn't take a lot of pictures because I was too busy eating and enjoying?

What's a pambazo? A pepper-sauce dipped torta of potatoes and chorizo. A great special-occasion treat.

Shoot, you know what I just realized? All that stuff I posted happened on Saturday, not Friday. I could either switch around my photos and text or just power through this. Ok. I'm going to just power through this.

On FRIDAY, for real, we had lunch at Twohey's and I tried the Lil Stinko for the first time in my life. It's a simple little burger topped with raw onion and pickles. This was Twohey's trademark creation back in the day. Trademark creations sure have changed.

And then we rolled up on the Huntington Library to see what was good.

Books are still old and good there

They'd let a contemporary artist have a little fun in the mansion.

Spot the In n Out cut with the cacti

Not contemporary, but could be

There was a special show rocks that look like things

But an even more special show of totally wild origami. These are all folded pieces of paper! Like folded single pieces of paper!

I assume the pot and the cactus are two papers here.

Then, for dinner, Lucky Noodle King!

Ok, NOW, Saturday night, New Years Eve. For real. I met up with some socially-generous Los Angelenos that let me tag along to "drinks" and jazz in Hollywood (no pics, really) and the big Los Angeles New Years celebration downtown in a park that's by City Hall. Listen, I don't live in LA. I don't remember the name of every big park/plaza I go to. 

More streets named for astronauts, please!

Ok, that's it for 2016! I should have the next to LA posts up before April!

Christmastime in Chicago

Christmas Eve I got up super super early to catch that 6am flight home to Chicago. I made it in plenty of time for our annual-ish trip to the Rockefeller Chapel Christmas program at the University of Chicago. I think my family would agree I was pretty well-behaved this time. Before that we ate cemitas and went to the bookstore, after it we ate roast and read our traditional Christmas Eve stories.

Christmas morning was good and chill and grown up and we opened our stockings before church. I think Mom got a good deal on Cubs shirts. Did you forget that the Cubs won the World Series? Seems so long ago now, right?

Home from church the real present opening begins.

Ordered Mom some A+ papercut prints from Cindy. But she also got her old original Little Red Riding Hood papercut framed.

Still a Joyce head. Got this buzzing in my brain that I might re-read Finnegans Wake later this year. Full official Ulysses read #3 probably has to wait until 2019.

Emily got me gloves. They were hard to get off because they were still connected.

Got Owen a cavatelli maker. YOU BETTER USE IT, OWEN!!

Family with presents

Parents with presents

Then the big thing of Christmas: I made everyone my new carnitas recipe. Third time was the charm. But so was the second time. And the first time. This recipe is perfect.

I'll admit that I now lose track a little of the days. I know there was a day I went to the dentist. I know there was a day I ate Johnnies. Then one night we had Las Fuentes and after it I think that's when we went and saw the Nutcracker...unless we saw the Nutcracker on a totally different night? It was a version of the Nutcracker set in Chicago during the Colombian Exhibition. It was great. Just like Las Fuentes nachos, which we may have eaten that night.

Grilled shrimp on mole. Nice.

Then one night we went and ate at this modern Korean restaurant called Parachute (it's famous in Chicago and New York but I'm still saying things like "called Parachute"). It was clear the family was doing me a big favor by humoring my curiosity with this restaurant but GUESS WHAT. Parachute was a gigantic hit, we all loved it! I mean I expected it to be good but I was over the moon about it and Mom liked it so much that she gave me a fist bump at the end. That's how good it was! Pictures didn't turn out perfectly, but here's a sampling of our dinner. So so good. You gotta go.

This was broccoli with middle-eastern spices and it was a showstopper.

Loaded baked potato bread. I know, I know, I said it was Korean food.

Steak and brussels sprouts and stuff. Such a great piece of meat, I can't think of a better piece of cow that I ate in 2016.

Good bathrooms, too, with Aesop soap.

The next day I went with Owen to Au Cheval for lunch. Of course we had the burger, but we also had their Chinese chicken wings (and a side of their incomparable mashed potatoes and gravy). And while we waited for our table at Au Cheval we picked up a Tlayuda (this is half of it) from Cruz Blanca, Rick Bayless's new beer hall/tlayuda eatery. What's a tlayuda? A pizza-sized tostada. They're going to be big (not a pun) in 2017. We also drove by our neighbor's toy company. Look at that silly gigantic door! Fun, right?

Don't have any pictures of it, but the next night we saw Rogue One (I liked it so much better the second time) and went to an apartment-warming, grandchild-welcoming party thrown by some old neighbors at their new place and it really was nice to catch up with people I used to babysit for now that I'm the age they probably were when they paid me to watch their kids. Then we came home and I made cheeseburgers.

And then early early Thursday morning we went to Midway for our flight to California because it was time to have adventures in California. Of course, our first adventure would be the plane being held hostage (in a way! Don't freak out) for an hour and a half by a woman pretending to have bought a seat for her child when she hadn't. Long story. Maybe you my Facebook statuses about it?

Ok, come back soon for a real fun three part California post!

Oh Yeah! Let Me Show You Some November and December Stuff

Here are things that happened in November and December besides Jeff and Ryan coming to town and Mom and Dad coming to town and me going home to Chicago (post forthcoming in that case).

For starters, on November 8th I lucked out and got in on a dinner at the Polo Bar with Ray, Kelsey and Tamara. Food was good, ambiance was top notch, everyone was fancy and there wasn't much phone reception down there.

Just imagine what a great picture Ray must have gotten of me here!

So imagine our collective surprise leaving the restaurant and discovering Donald Trump was leading in the election? Or not just leading, but had it locked in? Our restaurant was just a couple blocks away from the Hilton where the Trump camp was waiting on the results, so we went by to see what was going on. 

What was going on was Red Hats were celebrating.

What a weird night.

Anyway.

The next day I met up with Steve and child at Marcus Garvey Park and we had a little walk around.

This one day this dude was on the subway and he was like there to make the ride good for everyone. He must have given up his seat three times to people. Santa Claus in his city clothes disguise? I don't know.

Had a brief mouse situation which I tried to take care of in a very traditional manner. Then the mouse just stopped showing up. 

Look at this fun mural!

(Insert here Mom and Dad's visit to the city)

Thanksgiving Time: The night before Thanksgiving I went with Chaunte to Tanoshi Sushi on the Upper East Side. It's like the very well known secret place to get world-class sushi in the city. A $250 meal for $90. Very good, wish I liked sushi even better than I do. I mean this is probably the best sushi I've ever had, but I'm not eating good sushi often enough to remember/recognize the difference between this night's meal and the second best sushi I've ever had. Whatever that might have been. 

We had a lot more fish than this. Just wanted to give you an idea of what we ate without filling this post with every piece.

A little glimpse of my Thanksgiving dinner. More talking and eating than photographing.

Right before Thanksgiving I watched this incredible movie called Christian Mingle on Netflix and I talked about it so much that night that my hosts turned it on. I thought I wasn't going to stick around and watch the whole things again, that I'd just stay until the part where she says a prayer at the coffee house, but nope, I watched the whole thing and probably if I ever walked in on someone watching it again I'd sit down and watch the whole thing. This movie is amazing. If you have seen it can we talk about it? For a long time?

This is another great Netflix movie. I learned a whole lot about cats.

Saturday after Thanksgiving? Oh Hello, the popular Broadway comedic play. Our surprise celebrity guest was Itzhak Perlman, the famous violinist from Sesame Street.

Post-Thanksgiving also checked out the portrait exhibit at the Whitney once more. And I'll probably see it again! Look at these two kids on their DS's. 

Worked on my avocado toasts and chongqing chicken 

In fact, worked on my chongqing chicken so much that Ned had me cook a whole fake-Mission Chinese dinner at his house for a bunch of people. It went pretty well!

Happy December 12th, everyone!

Carol was in town for a class and we were able to grab three lunches. Three! Most noteworthy: Good ol' Momofuku Noodle Bar

Al pastor buns,

Rice cakes,

Roast pork bowl

December 15th: Rogue One Day! I went with Chaunte and Omar (crazy how many people had office Holiday parties that night) up in Harlem. Pre-movie: Chaunte and I ate at Don Paco's, a neighborhood place that has really been growing on me. Rogue One? It also has grown on me. A bit.

Every Christmas time I never miss the Pop-Up Flea. And I also (just about) never buy anything. But this year I did buy a slice of Emmett's deep dish pizza. This year's flea was at the 165th's armory down in the 20's. I'd never been in there before. Very cool.

Something cool: Sariah was in town from Paris with her boyfriend's family. I hadn't seen her since 2011, it was great. We went to Wendy's. But the only picture I took was this candid spy shot.

We celebrated Victoria's birthday one night and then continued the celebration with breakfast at Tom's in Brooklyn a few days later. I hadn't been there since my very very first trip to New York in March 2003. Nothing had changed! 

Another important end of December activity? In a Curious Kittens throwback moment, Steven and I recorded Episode 0 of Talkeria el Taco!

Also big news: The Mapps came up to New York for a daytime with some of Mallory's family as part of their traditional east coast holidays. I got lunch with them in midtown and then we ate dinner up here and recorded Talkeria el Taco Episode 1. 

This is the Bati-Taco from Delicias Mexicanas

And this is an Egg and Hot Dog torta

I couldn't get over Collin's new hair cut. 

Ok, I'll be back soon (no, really) with my Chicago trip and three posts (Three!!) about California!