Eat. Travel. Eat!

On yet another recent trip to the Orange County area, we found ourselves in Fashion Island hoping to eat yet again at one of our favorites, True Food Kitchen. However, it, as well as other notable options in Fashion Island, happened to be full. Not desiring to wait, we went to Great Maple instead, seeing happy customers enjoying giant noodle-sized bowls of salad and being satisfied with the menu options. As the outside of Great Maple alludes, the interior was likewise rustic, with dark wood tones and minimal light. It was in fact, extremely difficult to take the pictures, and all of the pictures have been post processed so that you can actually see the food-- in person, this would be pretty dark, and very yellow hued. Dinner began with an appetizer of crispy calamari (12 USD), accented with chili flakes, fresh olives, and lemon caper mayo. (No bread and butter was provided-- perhaps this is only on request.) We enjoyed the freshness and creativity with the dish-- the chili f...

It happened to be Easter on a recent trip to Irvine (coincidentally, we did this also three years ago ), so was it the time to take chances and drive to an unexplored area of town for lunch? Not really. So, we headed to a familiar location -- Fashion Island -- and finally tried out True Food Kitchen, which was under construction back when we visited its next door neighbor, Flemings .

I like to visit the OC during the weekends. And last week, I did! Yay! Every visit to the OC pretty much starts out with a visit to UCI through the Bison entrance. There is an advantage to this. It's closer for those who live in communities like University Hills, Middle Earth, Arroyo Vista, et cetera to come through this entrance. Secondly, the entrance is grand, with two of these beautiful welcome signs to greet you. They are most certainly the best welcome signs in the entire UCI. :) I took a picture of one of the buildings at Arroyo Vista for fun. After dropping stuff off at UCI, we headed off to Fashion Island, but meanwhile, a bronze bull had suddenly become one with bunny ears for Easter as we waited at a stoplight. Unfortunately, Fashion Island was closed, but there was still plenty of scenery to see. Like the fountain that you see here. Crows made funny faces and ate what they could. They did not look bored at all! And this cute bird was staring into the construction taking...