Lamplight Lounge - dinner - June 25, 2018

While we didn't go very often, we were fans of Ariel's Grotto restaurant.  So we were intrigued when Disney announced that they were re-theming the restaurant to Pixar.  Lamplight Lounge - oh, how cute.  I'll admit I was baffled when I heard some people say they didn't understand why it was called that.  Ummm, hello, what's one of the iconic symbols of Pixar?  The lamp!

We were lucky enough to get a reservation for the downstairs dining area the Monday after opening weekend.  We know that normally, there are some growing pains when a new restaurant opens, but we were excited to try it.

The outside marquee for Lamplight Lounge, which is still unfinished.

 

This is my favorite picture, on the side of the restaurant.  Gorgeous.

This is the logo on the floor after you walk in to check in.

We checked in and then waited for our name to be called to be shown to our table.  The waiting area has beautiful concept drawings from various Pixar films.

Slinky Dog from Toy Story.

Merida from Brave.

Wall-E and Eve.

Hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the circular staircase is a gorgeous paper chandelier with lots of cool drawings.

Even the normal restaurant signs had a Pixar touch.

The exit sign includes a reference to Up.

The maximum occupancy sign is watched over by Wall-E and Eve.

After a while, we were called to our table and descended the stairs to the downstairs dining room.  It was fun to see the ball wall.  We'd seen a version of it at the D23 Expo but I don't think that version was illuminated.

After we were seated, we perused the menu.  One section had "bites", smaller items, and the other section had more entree-type selections.  There was also a separate extensive list of alcoholic beverages available.

After we ordered, we were brought coasters for our drinks.  They all had the same picture on one side, with the Lamplight Lounge name and logo, but there were different pictures on the other side.

One side of all of the coasters is the same.

One of the coasters we got happened to have Mr. Incredible on the other side.

The husband and I each ordered an entree and we also ordered a smaller plate to share.


For our shared plate, we ordered the crab and tuna roll.  We both enjoyed this, though I mostly avoided the sauce on the bottom since I don't generally care for sauce on my sushi rolls.

Crab and tuna roll.

The husband ordered the salmon plt - a salmon sandwich with pancetta, lettuce and tomato, which comes with a side of fries.  He liked the sandwich.

Salmon plt - salmon with pancetta, lettuce and tomato.

I have in recent years become a huge fan of ratatouille, so I was excited to see it on the menu, so I did not hesitate to order that.  I was a little surprised at the presentation of the dish as I had come to expect ratatouille with sliced vegetables, so clearly, I didn't read the menu well enough to see that it was a ragout, but no matter, the ingredients are the same.  I was not, however, expecting the large hunk of cheese in the dish.  I've only had ratatouille on several occasions, but it's always just been the zucchini and eggplant and tomatoes and maybe a few other vegetables/squash, and after our dinner and I was doing a search for recipes, all the ones I found only included those ingredients and not cheese.  Again, I probably didn't read the menu very closely because I knew I wanted the ratatouille, but even if I'd paid attention that the dish included warm burrata cheese, it would not have occurred to me that it would be such a large portion of it, almost as if you were getting a protein-size portion of cheese.  One of the things I particularly like about ratatouille is that it's generally a very clean and light dish, since it's all vegetables and squash.  The burrata cheese, especially in such a huge portion, made the dish incredibly heavy, and I ended up leaving much of the cheese on the plate and trying to eat the vegetables around it.  I do have to say that I was pretty disappointed with this dish.

Ratatouille ragout with warm burrata cheese,

On a completely different note, because of the Pixarfest celebration at the Disneyland Resort this summer, there were many other Pixar-related food items available around the resort.  Cafe Orleans at Disneyland was offering a three-course prix fixe that included a cheese plate, ratatouille with shrimp, and dessert, so we had the chance to try that in July.  The ratatouille was so good in that instance, and even with the added protein of shrimp, it wasn't heavy, which it might have been if they'd added some other protein instead.  I was told that after Pixarfest, the prix fixe menu would be taken off but that the ratatouille would stay on the menu.  I'm really hoping that's true.  Here's a link to my Twitter post with pictures of the ratatouille at Cafe Orleans.




So being less than satisfied with my dinner was not the only negative experience I had at Lamplight Lounge.  When we were taken to our seats, we were actually taken to the extensive bar area that was added to the downstairs dining room.  I often like to sit at the bar in restaurants, and it's not what I had in mind in this case, but ok, no problem.  Except that for the seats they took us to, one of the seats was actually behind a pillar.  Ummm, really?  I told the hostess that those seats weren't going to work for us, and she suggested that we could move over if we wanted to.  It's not like the bar was packed that night - there were plenty of seats, and yet they felt the need to take us to seats where one was behind a pillar?  And really, who designs a bar so that two of the seats are facing a pillar?  I guess I could understand if the bar was totally packed and someone really wanted to eat there and was told that the seat was in front of a pillar and they wanted to sit there anyway, kind of like a "blocked view" seat at a stage show.

They originally told us to sit in the two seats next to where the husband is sitting.  We moved over one so that I wasn't sitting in front of a pillar.  You can clearly see that no one else was seated at the bar on that side at the time.

After we had ordered and were waiting for our food, we were looking around at the restaurant, and really, all of the seating was weird.  This is the outdoor section to the right of where I was sitting.

One of the other problems with the new ginormous bar is that it's open to the outside - one side of patrons at the bar are sitting inside while the other side of patrons (like the husband and me) were sitting outside).  That also means that during a certain portion of the day, the bartender who is serving us and anyone else sitting on that side is staring directly into the blinding sun.  Who thought this was a good idea to do to the bartenders?

The sun had gone down a little at this point but was still blinding for our bartender.

This was the rest of the bar to the left of us, and you can get an idea of how huge the bar area is.  The little outcropping "table" jutting out from the bar is not nearly long enough to make seating comfortable.  Let's say a group of 3 is sitting there, with one on the end and one on each side.  That's great - until you realize that it means the next seat at the bar is unusable because you can't possibly have someone sitting there because there's not enough room.  Again, design considerations that make no sense.

The side chairs on the outcropping block anyone from sitting at the bar at that spot.

I get that with the whole Pixar Pier reboot (which will presumably remain even after the end of the official Pixarfest after Labor Day), it made sense to re-theme the restaurant.  But the concept they came up with completely does not fit the area.  Even with the bar upstairs, the restaurant downstairs has had a family feel to it.  You know what would go with the family-themed Pixar Pier concept?  A hip and trendy gastropub!  Really?  Really.  In other reviews and things I've read, Lamplight Lounge has been referred to as a gastropub, which makes the limited menu and heavy alcoholic offerings and weird seating groupings make much more sense, but it's completely out of place in that setting.  Guests with children aren't going to be able to sit at the bar area, and some adults can't manage to sit at bar seating either.  Many of the tables are set up in a way that limits the amount of seating, which again makes no sense in that environment.  And none of these are a matter of "opening weekend" bugs.  The design of the restaurant isn't going to change.  The ginormous bar isn't going to magically get smaller.  I suppose the menu can change - I haven't paid attention to whether any changes have been made since our visit (as I'm writing this in mid-August).

I can tell you that while I'm very interested in the restaurants and other food offerings at the Disneyland Resort, I was decidedly not happy with our experience at Lamplight Lounge.  It's not a place I'd recommend to my friends or anyone asking for dining advice.  The menu (and the ratatouille) could be fixed, to some degree.  The design and seating issues cannot.




That being said, while there were clearly things I was not happy about, there were some non-design decor elements that I really liked - the whimsy that I'd have expected from a Pixar-themed restaurant.  Let's end on a happy note, shall we?

In the outdoor seating area, I love that the "don't feed the birds" sign is accompanied by a seagull from Finding Nemo.

The walkway area to the restrooms had some great designs and well-known phrases.

Beautiful "chalk" drawing of the restaurant logo.

This was my favorite bit since my favorite Pixar film is Monsters, Inc.

And this was one of the funniest things from Up.

Fin.

record Cal - ifornia roll

OK, so I found out about this article from November 2009 where a record-setting California roll was made by Cal students. OK, that seems funny, and had this happened when I was back in school, I'm pretty sure I would have gone to see it just because it would be funny. Hmmm, but thinking back some more, I didn't eat sushi back then, so I might not have cared after all. Who knows.

Anyway, as I was reading the article, odd thoughts popped in my head. Yeah, I can hear the comments that the peanut gallery is making in response to that.

First off, the article says they made a sushi roll. But then it says they made a California roll. The sushi snob in me doesn't consider California rolls (which I will eat on very rare occasions under very particular circumstances) to be actual sushi since there's no fish or other seafood in them. But, ok, I know that's just a personal quirk of mine.

The article then goes on to say that the students "got their hands fishy". Ummm, and how would they do that making a California roll? The article then continues with a list of the ingredients that were used to make the roll, which include 180 pounds of fish. OK, so they used fish. But that no longer makes it a California roll. A California roll is avocado, cucumber and Krab. There are a lot of variations of this, and in some places, they use actual crab rather than Krab, but then that's specified, and the roll is then given a different name. If actual fish is being used in the roll, then it's just a roll of whatever fish is being used (like a tuna roll, salmon roll, yellowtail roll, etc.). It's not even a California roll with , because I've had that before, and that's a California roll with pieces of fish layered on top. The article doesn't say what kind of fish was used, which I find a bit annoying because I want to know.

So, I don't understand why they called it a California roll. I wondered if it was because the roll was made at Cal, but when they mentioned the previous record-setting attempt in Hawaii, they also called that a California roll. I wonder what ingredients were used in that. Since it was in Hawaii, I wonder if they used Spam instead of Krab.

All these thoughts popping into my head from such a short article.

And yes, many of the comments on the article annoy me. So many people have complete misconceptions about what goes on/went on at Cal because of its history. And even when stuff happens/happened on campus, it's not like every single student participated. But that's a rant for another time. And I also object to the snarky comments about the students APPARENTLY not having anything better to do with their time. Because, you know, a couple hours on a SATURDAY afternoon are going to ruin their lives. Puh-leeze.

the best of two worlds

First of all, note the date of this post, so I am so not kidding.

Regular readers of my blog know that I'm a fan of sushi and I'm also a fan of Peeps. Well, what if you combined two great tastes together? No, I'm not talking about Reese's peanut butter cups, although those are really yummy too, especially if you have a nice tall, cold glass of milk to go with it. (And those in the know will be virtually staring at me because of how many rules that particular little snack would be breaking for me, but I digress.)

I'm sorry, what was I talking about? I got distracted there for a second.

Oh, right, sushi and Peeps. Now, it's not as bad as you might think. My first thought was, ummm, marshmallows and cold dead fish wouldn't seem to go very well together. But it's not really sushi, it's "sushi".

Here's the article that @thinkgeek tweeted today about Peepshi. (Hey, I didn't make up the term. I did almost make a huge mistake with that word though. I posted about the Peepshi in another location, and I added an exclamation mark after Peepshi to show my excitement. Ummm, yeah, that ended up looking really odd and was conveying a negative connotation that I totally didn't intend, so I left the exclamation point off. Wait, I think I'm sort of digressing again, aren't I?)

Beheading Peeps is a concept I can't quite wrap my head around.



[crickets chirping]





This picture is just so wrong.




I like the suggestion for what to drink while eating a Peepshi. But here's my favorite instruction.

5. Don't let silent Peeps screams deter you from your task. You're a professional.

Peepshi would make a terrific Easter treat!

in space, no one can hear you make sushi

I was amused when I read this article that sushi was going to be included on the menu when a Japanese astronaut heads to the International Space Station. I'm not sure how they keep their food fresh, but I hope they do a good job with the fish. Food poisoning in space would suck. I wish they'd elaborated on what fish they're exactly bringing. Cause, you know, I like those kinds of details.

this would have been perfect to take onto Star Tours

So, yeah, yesterday was April Fool's Day. Someone I follow on Twitter posted a link to a product on thinkgeek (which I love, btw - they have a ton of cool stuff) - tauntaun sleeping bag with intestinal inside lining.





Here's what the sleeping bag itself looks like.




I love that it even comes with a mini lightsabre, you know, to have cut the tauntaun in half so you can crawl inside it.


Here's the full ad for the sleeping bag.




Really cool, huh? Yeah, not real. Totally made up for April Fool's Day. If you clicked on the "BUY NOW" button, here's the page it took you to.




I did like that they also messed with the little tagline right underneath the thinkgeek logo on the top left of the main page. Guess that should have been a clue!

But, APPARENTLY, a ton of people wanted it for real. Later in the day, a friend tweeted that thinkgeek had put up some more information about the "product".




On the Star Tours ride at Disneyland, they always tell you to stow your carry-on in the compartment below your seat. The husband and I, being language geeks, have instead decided that they're actually telling people to stoy their CARRION in the compartment below. Well, in the Star Wars world, the carrion would be your dead tauntaun. So how perfect would it be to bring this sleeping bag on the ride and stow it under your seat?

Yeah, I can see you looking at me that way.


I hope Lucasfilm actually either licenses it or makes it themselves.


Oh, and the Squeez Bacon was pretty funny too! :)




And, speaking of thinkgeek, here are some more spiffy products from them:


I do really need to buy this shirt.



This one is funny, if a bit obvious, and it might not be allowed in some places.



I *love* the concept and execution of this one. Perfect!



Yes, I'm definitely in the club of those wearing this shirt. I'd actually prefer it on a bumper sticker.



This one's just a fun mix of two worlds.



I saw this shirt a little while ago, which would be very relevant.



But now, there's this even more relevant shirt!





This is just a completely brilliant representation, though I will admit that it took me a minute to get it. And it would be highly inappropriate for me to have this in my office at work.



These are cool, but INCREDIBLY expensive.

that picture seems kind of fishy

Someone on a mailing list I'm on posted a link to this page of a website, which has some pretty funky food pictures.

OK, whatever.

But this picture caught my eye.


Click on the picture for a larger version,
where you can see the details better.
Picture originally taken by Carl Warner.

What a pretty picture, huh? Oh, and the picture is actually made from food. The rocks look like potatoes, and I'm thinking the dirt mounds/hills/mountains are chocolate cake. Oh, and the sea? Strips of salmon. Yeah, I think it's cool and creative, but mostly, I think it's a waste of perfectly good salmon sashimi.

Kushiyu - restaurant review

On Sunday night, the husband picked Kushiyu as the place where he wanted his birthday dinner. The husband had been introduced to Kushiyu by his boss, and the husband usually goes there with co-workers at least once a year. Kushiyu specializes in multiple varieties of sushi and kushiyaki, though they do have some other traditional Japanese items as well.

Kushiyu is a smallish restaurant in a strip mall in Tarzana on busy Ventura Boulevard - not where you'd necessarily expect to find great sushi, but I've come to not be surprised at what treasures you can find in unexpected strip malls. There's a parking lot out front as well as some underground/covered spaces as well.

We arrived shortly after 8pm, and the restaurant was very crowded, with people waiting for tables outside the restaurant. On our last visit, which was on a Saturday night, the restaurant wasn't nearly as crowded, so I was surprised at how busy it was. That had been in late August of last year, so maybe the mid-summer crowds are heavier. The bar was completely full, and it looked like the restaurant was as well, but luckily, there was a small two-person table available in the front corner, so we were seated immediately.

This was only my third visit, so since the husband was much more familiar with the restaurant, he did most of the ordering. They have one sheet of sushi items, one sheet of kushiyaki items, one sheet with the regular menu, and one sheet with the daily specials. Oh, and then there's the separate sheet of hot and cold sake. Yes, there's a lot of stuff to look at.

The husband initially ordered several items, and then we kept some of the menus in case we wanted to order more. One of the things I love about sushi places is that you can order a couple items at a time, so if you're still hungry, you can order more, and if you're full, you're not stuck with too much food, and you don't have to decide at the outset of the meal how much you might want to eat.

The first items brought to us were two items of kushiyaki - lotus root with chicken paste (which had two pieces on a skewer) and chilean sea bass (one long piece). The lotus root was quite tasty, but then, I'm a fan of lotus root. I like its crunchy texture - lotus root can sometimes be overcooked - and the seasoning on the chicken and what tasted like teriyaki sauce on top was delicious. The chilean sea bass was just heaven, moist and tender, melting in your mouth.

Next up was the halibut sashimi with yuzu sauce and caviar. I loved the spicy citrus flavoring on the light halibut.

Next was the salmon tower, which the husband likens to sushi nachos. I've had this every time I've been there, and it's definitely something he has every time he's there as well. Cubed salmon sashimi is mixed with chopped tomatoes in a sauce with masago on top, and it's all placed on a crispy fried won ton wrapper, with three of these stacked on top of each other. The mix of flavors is just really nice, and the crunch of the fried won ton adds a bit of interesting flair to the dish.

Next up was the only regular sushi we ordered, though "regular" is definitely not the way to describe yellowtail belly. It was very tender and buttery and moist. Yellowtail belly was one of the best things (right up there with spanish mackerel) that we were introduced to a few years ago. As I mentioned, while we did have a lot of other raw fish (which were technically on the appetizers list), this was the only regular presentation of sushi that we had. All the other dishes were on a plate with sauces and other things. One thing that I've come to notice about the distinguishing features of a good sushi restaurant is the quality of their rice. The rice that came with the yellowtail belly was soft and not too thick, a nice complement and accompaniment to the fish, but not enough to overwhelm it. I find that at lesser sushi restaurants, the rice can end up being a hard rectangular block, and it really detracts from the taste and texture of the fish.

Last of the dishes originally ordered was the salmon sashimi with diced vegetables, which included okra, tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini. I'm not sure what the sauce was on that, but it was really just amazing, and the coolness and texture of the finely chopped vegetables were a real complement to the salmon. The plated sashimi appetizers came with about 8 generous slices of fish, so there was plenty to share between the two of us.

At this point, we decided to order a couple more things. The husband ordered the spicy tuna on rice cakes, which came with four pieces, and I ended up having one of them. The little rectangular rice cakes were crunchy, but not hard, and it was a nice mixture with the spicy tuna on top.

I ordered a regular tofu and seaweed miso soup (they have a couple different varieties of miso soup), and it was a very generous serving, with the bowl filled to the top. Very tasty too. I also ordered the monkfish liver with tomatoes. I've been a fan of monkfish liver since being introduced to it by a friend, and I find it interesting the different ways that different restaurants serve it. It slightly changes the taste, and it definitely changes the presentation of the dish. Well, when they brought the monkfish, I was definitely impressed with how it looked. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but what I got sure surpassed that.




It was apparently impressive enough to catch other people's attention, as I heard a nearby table ask our server what the dish was after she'd dropped it off. The flavor and texture of the monkfish liver was very good, and the hearty tomato flavor was a nice addition, not to mention the ponzu-based sauce.

For dessert, we decided to split the mochi, getting one mango and one strawberry.


Because of how crowded the restaurant was, I was expecting a wait for our food, but our first dish arrived in a fairly short amount of time, and subsequent dishes arrived with good timing - not all at once, but we also weren't having to wait around for the next dish because we'd already finished the dish we had. Our server was running around the restaurant pretty much the whole time, and our glasses (the husband had water, I had water and green tea) were generally refilled promptly, and she was very helpful and pleasant, as were the rest of the staff. The freshness and flavor of the fish was outstanding, and the kushiyaki was very tasty. One of the dilemmas you'll find at Kushiyu is deciding what to have from the sushi menu, what to have from the appetizers menu and what to have from the kushiyaki menu, because you can't possibly have it all. I'd love to go back when I've prepared myself that I won't be having much sushi because I definitely want to try more of the kushiyaki. There was a duck breast on the specials menu that was quite tempting, but I was just too full to try it.

Given the amazing quality of the food and the terrific service, this is a restaurant I would highly recommend.




Kushiyu
18713 Ventura Boulevard
Tarzana, CA 91356
(818) 609-9050

Daichan Kaiten-Sushi - restaurant review

While driving up Sawtelle Blvd. one day, I happened to just look over at the Olympic Collection plaza, which I used to frequent when Mishima was still located there but haven't visited still Mishima moved to Third Street. I noticed a sign for Daichan which also indicated that it was a kaiten sushi place, so I decided I needed to try that sometime. It turned out that they've been there for three years, so I must really have not been paying attention.

One of the nice things about the Olympic Collection is that they have underground parking, with the businesses providing validation stamps. Daichan's validation is for an hour, which is plenty of time for lunch. The businesses can be a little hard to find because for some reason, the trees have been allowed to grow so that they cover the front of the businesses. Yeah, it looks nice from the street, but it sure hides the businesses too. Daichan is located right next to Sawtelle, which is why I even saw the sign in the first place. There's a really slow elevator that you can take up or you can opt for the stairs or escalator.

It was about 1:15pm when I got there, and it wasn't too crowded. It didn't look like they had anything other than seats at the revolving sushi bar (I didn't look around the restaurant that much), but there were two four-top tables adjacent to the bar. I ended up sitting right in front of where the two sushi chefs were situated, so that was kind of nice. The other revolving sushi places I've been have been set up so that the conveyer belt goes in a circle, but this one was almost like two half-moons, one going one way and the other going the opposite direction behind it. The seating wasn't completely circular, more like the half-moon, so that's probably why they have to have the second belt to double back to the start.

Conveniently enough, someone has posted a short video of the bar from the perspective of the four-top table at the end. I was about 5 or 6 seats away from the end table. I guess *everything* is on YouTube now.




I ordered hot green tea and water from the server and then turned my attention to the belt and menu.

There was a sign posted on the belt that they had some kind of revolutionary technology where they track the plates so that any plate that sits on the belt for past an hour is automatically discarded. That sounds well and good, but I'm not sure I'd want sushi that's been circulating for 45 minutes, so I think I'd expect any kaiten sushi place to be able to somehow keep track of the plates and take them off if they've been on there too long.

The menu had a listing of non-sushi items that were available as well as a listing of the prices and items that came in each plate color.

There weren't too many things on the belt, but given that it wasn't too crowded, that sort of made sense. You wouldn't want to have too many things circling with no one to take them, and since the chefs were readily available to make orders on request, that wasn't a problem.

I had a plate of seaweed salad, which was very tasty, and I tried a couple of different types of fish like salmon, yellowtail and halibut, as well as a spicy tuna roll and a salmon skin roll. The spicy tuna roll was a decent size, cut into five big pieces, but the salmon skin roll was five smallish pieces. However, that wasn't a problem, because the salmon skin roll wasn't too expensive, and normally, a salmon skin roll is so big that I'm not able to eat much else. The fish was generally quite good, but the rice with the sushi was packed harder than I prefer.

They had ankimo listed on the menu, so I ordered that. When I've had it in other places, it's either been kind of smooth, like uni, or shaped into a cylinder and then cut into slices. This version was like it had been shaped in a cylinder and then cut into tiny little cubes and then put into a seaweed and rice cup. Made this way, I didn't think you could really get the flavor of the ankimo, which was also a bit drier than I prefer. I won't be ordering ankimo there again.

I also had an order of uni, which was good but not quite as flavorful as I generally prefer. My last order was ikura, and the chef asked if I wanted it with a quail egg, so I then decided to explain to him the tres huevos, which he did manage to make, and it looked good too, so I give him credit for that. One thing I did notice with the ankimo, uni and tres huevos is that the cups they make to hold them are smaller than I've seen pretty much anywhere else, so it ends up being a smaller portion. It was especially noticeable with the tres huevos since the quail egg took up much more space than normal.

The sushi chefs were very nice, and the older one made it a point of greeting me and another party when we were first seated. The younger one was who ended up making all my cup sushi, and he was nice as well. Otherwise, the wait staff was ok, but I noticed that whereas the people seated next to me were offered refills of their iced green tea, I had to ask for refills of my hot green tea on two separate occasions. Now, that may have been because it was easier to see how much liquid there was in their glass containers rather than my ceramic one, but I would think that making sure tea is refilled would be a standard concern at a sushi bar, especially when there's not as much for the staff to do.

Overall, I was satisfied with the restaurant. The fish was good, but it didn't blow me away. The prices are ok, and I figure I'll visit periodically and just know what to order and what not to order.

Here's a link to a page that has a link to their menu. Not really sure why they have a different name for the restaurant.


Daichan Kaiten-Sushi
Revolving Sushi and Fine Japanese Dining
Olympic Collection, Second Floor
11301 Olympic Blvd, Suite 203
Los Angeles, CA 90064
310-914-5028

add one to the downline

As I mentioned last week, Saturday was my day to skulk around J-town in search of treasure. Now, don't get me wrong, I've been to J-town before, on a number of occasions, but it was usually to just wander around for the heck of it or for a very specific purpose - I need this item from this place, go there, get it, leave. In this case, it was going to be a mix of the two - I was going to be wandering around, but not just for the heck of it, and I did have very specific purposes, but I wasn't sure those items would be available, and I had no idea where they might even be if they were available.

My friend and I arrived at Weller Court at about 10:30 in the morning. I'm not usually a fan of paying for parking, but in this case, I had remembered that street parking was metered, and I didn't know how long we'd be there, and I didn't want to have to worry about running back to the car to feed the meter, so I decided to lump it and just deal with paying for parking. It turned out that various establishments in Weller Court validate for parking, but it's usually good for no more than two hours, so because we ended up being there longer than that, I paid the Saturday max, which was something like $6.50, so that wasn't too bad. On future visits, I don't think I'm going to end up being there for more than two hours, so the validation should work fine.

Our first stop was the grocery store that I don't remember being there before - it's been a while since my last visit, and I can't remember what used to be there - and when we looked around and found too many good things, we decided to come back when we were all done so we didn't have to make a special trip back to the car to drop stuff off or carry everything around all day.

We then went to the second floor to the Kinokuniya Bookstore. My friend has recently started reading a few manga series, and she found a book that she'd been looking for. At the front of the store, I found a selection of t-shirts and in browsing, found this Domo t-shirt that I really liked. I ended up finding a similar shirt later in another store, but that one actually said "Domo" above the pictures. I like this more subtle version because it doesn't proclaim who he is. It does say "Domo" on the top back of the shirt, but my hair pretty much covers it.

And it's not like I don't already have a billion t-shirts, but I also saw this one. Again, no clue who, how, what or why, but I just thought it was really cute. I especially love the kitties on the fries. So I got this t-shirt as well. I didn't see this shirt there, otherwise, it would have been hard to decide which one to get. And then I found this online listing. Oh my gosh! How incredibly cute are they! But they're a bit too pricey, even for my tastes. These are really cute too.

In the bookstore, I also found this book. I've read some articles and seen lots of pictures of various really interesting and sometimes weird inventions, so this book was right up my alley. I'm wondering if they really meant to use that for the title or if it was a translation mistake that no one caught.

I also took the opportunity to pick up a copy of Sushi&Sake, which is generally available for free outside major retailers.

After our purchases, we wandered around and looked at a couple of the restaurants on that floor. Curry House is a place that my friend's brother had recommended, and I've eaten there once before and thought it was ok. We'll probably go back sometime to try it. I liked looking in the window because it has displays made of plastic food, and I've always liked that. Hmmm, it's too bad they don't make miniature versions of plastic food. I'm sure that would sell really well.

The restaurant next door to that, whose name escapes me, used to be a favorite of mine when I worked within driving distance of J-town. They're open for lunch only on weekdays, so on occasion, I'd make a dash to J-town for lunch there, ordering the bento box with lots of little tastes of different things. Big surprise that it appealed to me, huh? That was the place where I discovered that I liked raw cabbage. They served it with a side of some kind of miso-based dip that was yummy.

We then walked down 2nd Street, heading for the Japanese Village Plaza and stopping in a store or two along the way to take a peek. Just as we got close to the Plaza, I saw this store across 2nd Street near the Pinkberry that caught my attention. On my last visit to J-town, I had been in search of a store that I'd been to years ago with friends who were Japanese. Their mother would make visits to J-town, and I'd be invited along, and I remembered this store because it had a lot of cool stuff in it - collectibles, dishware, all kinds of neat stuff. When I didn't find it on my last visit, I was disappointed that it appeared the store was no more. When I walked into the store, I was so happy to see that it was in fact the elusive store that I hadn't been able to find last time. (The real irony is that the store is next to a celphone accessory store/t-shirt store that I'd gone into last time because the husband needed to pick up something.) It looked exactly as I had remembered, and now I know where to go when I need the kinds of wares they sell.

We then headed into Japanese Village Plaza and wandered into various stores looking around, including the bakery which had a lot of yummy looking desserts. It was getting close to lunchtime, so the smells wafting out of various restaurants and the pictures of food outside the restaurants was making us a little nuts.

After scoping out various places that we wanted to go back to after lunch, we headed for Frying Fish restaurant. Frying Fish is a place that this particular friend and I had discovered years ago. It's a fairly small restaurant with no tables - just a bar. When we entered, we were taken to seats and our drink orders were taken. Seating can be fairly cramped as the high-back bar chairs are right next to each other, so much so that you pretty much have to pull a chair all the way out to be able to get into it and then try to slide the chair closer to the bar.

The sushi chefs generally make the more popular items and then put each order on a different colored plate, based on the price of the order, and then they put it on the metal conveyor belt (this is referred to as a kaiten sushi bar) that runs the perimeter of the bar, so the sushi goes round and round. They will also generally put a plastic cover over the food. Sometimes, you can see really well through the plastic, and other times, you have to lift the plastic up to really see what each dish is. Whatever dish you want, you just take it off the conveyor belt, and then when you're all done, they count the number of plates you have in each color to determine the price of your meal. They have a list of specials posted on the wall and also a paper menu, so if there's something you want that doesn't come around, you ask the sushi chef, and they'll prepare it for you.

Generally, it's not the most spectacular sushi place I've been to. It's not fancy or anything, which is ok, but they don't have any of the more non-common items that I generally like, but in addition to the nostalgia value of going back to a place that we'd discovered so many years ago early in our foray into sushi, the main appeal is that this is the restaurant where we were introduced to Tres Huevos. I have since successfully managed to get other sushi chefs to duplicate it, but that only works if the chef speaks English well enough to understand what I'm describing. Anyone who orders ikura (salmon roe) or masago (smelt roe) knows that they come in a little hand-made container made from taking a small pat of rice and wrapping seaweed around it that's about twice as tall so there's space to spoon the roe into it. Well, Tres Huevos is a like a combination of the two with an addition. Half of the cup contains ikura and the other half of the cup contains masago, and in the middle of the two, you put the egg yolk of a quail egg. Frying Fish actually includes the entire quail egg, but I'm not a fan of the extra gooeyness from the egg white.

Here's a picture of Tres Huevos that I had re-created at another restaurant.




We enjoyed a nice lunch with good sushi (yes, we did order Tres Huevos, and as far as I can tell, another group of people watched as the sushi chef made our order, and the look of it intrigued them enough that they ordered it right afterward) and good conversation.

So when we'd had our fill, we were waiting for the waiter to come around to give us our bill. One peculiarity I've had when at sushi places with colored plates is that after I'm done, I like to stack them so that the same-colored plates are together. I figured that makes it easier for the waiter to count, instead of hunting through the stack for same-colored plates. After we were done doing that, we sat for a little longer, after which my friend said, "Do you want to stack them in order of price?" There was a display on the wall that had the price right on each color of plate. My response was, "Don't think I haven't already thought about that and managed to suppress that urge." Since the waiter hadn't come yet, I finally gave in, and we re-arranged the stack in descending order of price per plate. When the waiter finally came by, he laughed at what we had done and thanked us for making his job easier.

It was now time to go back to two stores to do actual shopping. A store a couple fronts down from Frying Fish had the little boxes of joy I have mentioned previously. I didn't find the set I was really looking for, but then I hadn't really counted on being able to find it. I'm not even sure it's available in the States.

I picked up two boxes in the Bread & Butter collection, and I was really happy that one of them was the one I've wanted the most.

I also bought one box from this sushi collection. I had briefly told my friend about these collections and sent her the link to the main website, but it wasn't until she saw the boxes themselves that she really understood the appeal of them. Being a sushi lover herself and a purveyor of collectibles, she decided she was going to collect this blue box sushi set. She got three boxes of these and one box of a white set that had different Japanese food. Later, we sat down to examine our treasures. With all the boxes I've purchased so far, I have not yet gotten one duplicate, so that's been nice. This time, my blue box yielded this set, which is pretty cool. This was one of the sets that my friend really liked it and had wanted because she is a lover of ikura like me, so I decided to trade it to her for this set that she got from the white box Japanese food collection. I liked that one too, and I figured I'd be buying more blue boxes, so it wasn't a problem.

We did see one item on display that we both just went crazy over. I've seen the various display cases and kitchen sets and a number of other display items for use with these miniatures. But they actually had on display a kaiten sushi bar setup. You could even see the little marks of the conveyor belt bits, and there were pictures up, and they'd put some of the sushi pieces on the belt. Oh my goodness, this was just too cute and amazing. However, while I did see boxes of various other display cases, I didn't see any of those, and I figured if they had any for sale, it would be out. It was a bit crowded in the store, so I didn't want to take up their time by asking about it. I can't even find any reference to it or pictures online, so I'm wondering if it was something that came out a long time ago and is no longer available. I'm figuring that on a future visit to this place when it's not as busy, I'll ask about it. My friend later started to say to me that if I ever found one of those, to which I cut her off with, "then I'm going to buy it, and if they have two, then I'll get one for you too." Yeah, she's my friend and all, but hey, each collector for herself! ;)

There was another little gift shop that we had to go back to because my friend had noticed that they had tofu plush. She had seen them on a trip to Japan last year but had only managed to get a little one, so she was excited to see them here and more of them. They had them in two different sizes, in a couple of different colors, and they were pretty cute.

I didn't end up finding anything of Yesterdeer, and the bookstore had the Tofu Robot t-shirts I'd already seen online, and an anime store had a vinyl toys of Domo, but I didn't find anything else of those I liked.

We then made our way back to the grocery store that we'd browsed earlier. It was fun to look at all the various items, and we even discovered that we used to eat a lot of the same treats as kids that we'd never talked about before. I bought various kinds of groceries, some I'd had before and some because they looked interesting to try. The J-town location of this store is a membership-optional store, which means you don't have to be a member to shop there. They have one for members only that's closer to me, and the $10 per year membership fee doesn't seem bad, so I might check that one out sometime.

My friend isn't particularly interested in sake, but she likes cool bottles, so she mentioned that she really liked this particular bottle. I figured heck, it's a small bottle, and I'm up for trying different kinds of sake now, so I bought one and told her I'd give her the bottle when I was done. We both laughed, though, when the cashier actually carded me for buying the sake. Are you serious?!?!?!?

We sat at a table in the little courtyard to open and examine our little boxes of joy, so it was nice to sit for a bit after walking around so much, but then, it was shortly time to go.

It was a really fun day, partly because I found some good stuff, partly because I had sushi for lunch, and partly, I had someone fun to share the experience with who is excited about the same kinds of things I am and who shares some of the eccentricities I have.

There are a few places that we saw from across the street that I'd like to go back and see, and there are places a few streets down that I'd like to browse at, and of course, I have to go back to some of the same places. I also just found this list, so you can see there are various other places I'm going to be needing to visit in and around Los Angeles and Orange County.

Hmmm, I seem to be breaking my "one box per week" rule.

my friends hate me

They want me to ignore all my responsibilities, go around like some drug-addicted crack whore, and watch my life go in the proverbial toilet as my obsession spirals out of control. My entire life has now been derailed.

OK, maybe it isn't quite that bad, but I'll start from the beginning. Several weeks ago, a friend gave me, among other things, two little boxes, which I opened when I got home. They were really cool. And I looked on the box, and in what now turns out to be an unfortunate discovery, I saw that there was a website printed on the box.

I now need to quit my job because I'm going to spend the rest of my life looking for all the different sets of stuff and then creating a spiffy environment for them.

This is one of the boxes I got. It's a grab bag of sorts as there are 10 different sets that can potentially be in the box, but you don't know what's actually in the box until you've opened it.

This is the one I actually got.


I love that the cup has tea in it.


This is the other box I got. It's also a grab bag box.

This is the one I actually got in that set.


We can't figure out what the yellow stuff on the plate is. It looks kind of like tamago, but I'm not sure that makes sense.


I love pretty much every one of that set, but I really want this one.


I love the sweet shrimp, though I prefer the heads fried, and I think it's funny that the tea bag is just floating in the cup.


Here's a page that lists their products.


This is a set that I really like.

I love the little lobster.




And I love the little bbq set.


Everything is just so cute - the hot dog and corn and skewer, and even the little compartmentalized plates. Yeah, I know the scale is off compared to the size of the grill, but who cares.


This apple pie set from another collection is really cute.


It even has a corer with an apple in it.


This jello set is cool - it even includes the molds.




I love this table set-up.



And no, I have no idea what any of that stuff says.


I love this cake.




This whole set is incredible.

The turkey one is cool, but the birthday one with the banana split and cake is awesome.




And then there's cabinetry and stuff to stock them with.




I wasn't sure if I should be down on my knees being thankful to my friend or cursing her name! But then the plot thickened.

About a week later, another friend got me a box in this set, which is so incredibly cool.

This is the one I actually got.


I love the cinnamon roll, though in real life, I prefer it without the icing.


I love this one too.


It's even got a cracked egg in a bowl.


And then about a week after that, another friend joined the party and got me a box from this set, which had the following in it.




However, this box led to the discovery that there was ANOTHER WEBSITE full of more products. Whiskey tango foxtrot.

This is the set I'm really wanting, probably for obvious reasons. But come on, how incredibly cute are they?


I love the Mickey-shaped burger buns and the Mickey-shaped plates and the random Mickeys everywhere.


This is a really cool set, and this is another cool set. And if you're going to be making all those goodies, you've gotta have this set to make all the stuff with and to do other household chores.

I can't read much of anything on the website, but I sure didn't have a problem finding the full products page.

At this point, I was still trying to resist the temptation of going in pursuit of little tiny boxes.


And then yet another friend joined in the fray, and last week, I got from her two boxes out of this collection, which is also a grab bag.

Here's one of the ones I got.


The milk carton doghouse is just too funny.


And here's the second.




I think this one is so incredibly cute.




There are so many more products on this site, which is the Japanese one, than there are on the U.S. site that I haven't even gone through them all. And even though I now own "only" 6 boxes of the stuff, I've already developed a snobbery of sorts - some of the collections are meant for U.S. distribution and the box is labeled with a bit more English. But the ones I prefer are the Japanese version that have very little English on the box, and each also comes with a little square gum, which is taken out for the U.S. packaging. I'm not sure if that's for health reasons or whatever. The first one I got with the Japanese packaging was the Bread and Butter one, and when I opened it, I at first thought it was a little pillow because I didn't know what else it could be. Now that I know - I still would rather believe it's a little pillow. Who needs gum? So I'm finding that I prefer the Japanese-packaged ones, but I'm not sure if everything comes in both versions, and I'm not snobbish enough to only want the Japanese ones.


That being said, I found myself completely obsessing over the entire collection. (No, that never happens, right?) I know that Japantown would have a good supply of them, but do I dare go? Do I dare trust myself to venture into a box-filled store with my credit cards in hand? The boxes are about $5 a piece, which isn't too bad - unless I buy a billion of them. This particular collection really captures my interest because it combines two things I've loved and been interested in for a long time - miniatures and plastic food. So miniatures OF plastic food? I'm toast.

I think I've decided that I'm allowed one box a week - that's not too bad. And then immediately after that, I thought about how much I generally spend on lunch a week, and if I cut back on that, I could instead use some of that money to be able to buy an extra box. Nope, not obsessed at all.

I know that there's a store in the Northridge Mall that carries some of this inventory, and at first, I decided that going there was a really bad idea. Well, I'm supposed to be having dinner with a friend this Friday night, and I've decided I do want to go. By the end of the week, I will technically be allowed to buy 3 boxes - 4 if I pre-buy for the following week. I've not seen the store yet, so I have no idea the quantity of stuff they have there. We'll see if my head just explodes from trying to figure out what I want. Do I buy 4 boxes all in the same set so I have a better chance of getting everything in that set? Or do I buy 4 boxes from different sets so I can guarantee I don't get duplicates? But in a lot of cases, having duplicates is fine. What kind of bakery would only have ONE cinnamon roll to sell?

This whole thing started less than four weeks ago, and it has really escalated, literally, week by week. I am so amazed to have friends who not only know my interests so well as to get me completely addicted to something totally new, but who also share my interest and who contribute to the growing addiction.

Everyone should be so lucky to have friends who hate them this much.