Eat. Travel. Eat!

After lunch a t Ts ujita LA Artisan Noodles , and exploring part of what Sawtelle Blvd. has to offer (Cocos, Ni jiya Market, Curry House, Hide Sushi, Seoul Sausage, Gottsui, to name a few of many great places!) , we de cided we wanted a dessert to cool o ff from the walking we did and to quench our thirsts after th e heavy noodles we had earlier in the day. By this time, Blockheads Shavery was filled with customers, all of who seemed to be experts in ordering what Blockheads Shavery calls " snow cream" , or what is generally called shaved snow-- combinin g elements of shave d ice and ice cream together. Ordering is simple and is done in 3 steps: 1. Choos ing a flavor (Original, green tea, black sesame, sea salt, and a special brown sugar created with soymilk were offered during our visit) and size 2. Choosing toppings (60 cent s each)   3. Choosing a d rizzle, of which include condensed milk, strawberry puree, coconut pur ee, chocolate sauce, and carame...

Tsujita LA Artisan Noodles has been in my radar on places to try for quite a while, given the wide media press ( LA Weekly , Jonathan Gold ), and recently, I was finally able to try it out! To avoid the lines, we had a late lunch around 3PM. Still, the restaurant was over 70% capacity, with lots of people seated outside, enjoying the LA sunshine.  After being seated, we were handed a simple menu, consisting of ramen, tsukemen, sides, and rice bowl options. The drink of choice seemed to be water for the day--pitchers of water were placed at almost every table--so we went with that too!

Around April, my companions and I decided to go to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books event at UCLA in Westwood. Why now? Just a early hint for you to go in April 30 - May 1 this year. Like my usual pushing back of posts, these photos are also more than six months old. However, unlike last year, this year's Festival of Books will be at University of Southern California (USC). The irony! But the apparent reason is that USC will allow more room for the Festival to grow and it will be a nice change in pace. For me, well I do not mind as much, although I know plenty of people who are biased on either side. I'll just be able to see another university if I go to this year's edition! Parking did take quite a while during the afternoon and it was not free (I think 10 USD or so), but signs to various parking structures were labeled clearly and thus they were easy to find. Not all were in very close proximity- you still had to walk some. I suggest if you want to take the mo...