vacation: los angeles, california

My sister in law, Morgane, took these two pictures. I took the same pictures and hers were 10x prettier.
Check out her website.

I'm back from vacation! I managed to eat my way around LA without seeing one single celebrity, just my luck. But the celebrity homes tour we took was almost as good as seeing a star considering we got to see the houses of Sandra Bullock, Katy Perry, Jennifer Aniston and another two dozen stars. I asked our tour driver to show us where the Housewives of Beverly Hills ladies lived and he replied 'this isn't a D list tour.' Maybe next time...

I made a list of all the food stops we made in the five days I was in LA and I would go back to any one of them. I don't have a favorite because honestly all the food was great but if I had to choose one food day to repeat it would be Friday. At Joan's on Third, I ordered the short rib grilled cheese sandwich that was stacked with tender meat, melted jack cheese, arugula and red onions on grilled white bread...seriously, delicious! Then we went to the famous New York based bakery, Magnolia's, right down the street and ordered the best banana pudding. It was extra fluffy, rich and creamy because it's made with sweet condensed milk and homemade whipped cream. For dinner we went to Akasha in Culver City and the fig and prosciutto pizza hit the spot, I can never find figs in Charlotte so it was such a treat. After dinner we stopped by Diddy Riese and waited in a line of 50 plus people for one of their famous cookie sandwiches, it was well worth the wait. They let you design your own cookie sandwich so I picked vanilla ice cream sandwiched between a freshly baked chocolate chip walnut cookie and a chewy peanut butter cookie.

Friday
Joan's on Third: short rib grilled cheese sandwich
Magnolia's Bakery: banana pudding
Akasha: grapefruit mojito and a fig & prosciutto pizza
Diddy Riese: $1.50 ice cream cookie sandwich

Saturday
Uncle Bill's Pancake House: sourdough bread french toast
Al Hamra Halal Cafe: chicken tikka masala

Sunday
Lemonade in Abbot Kenney: rosemary watermelon lemonade
Urth Caffe: the 'New Yorker' pastrami sandwich
Bay Cities Italian Deli: pastrami sandwich
Sweet Lady Jane Bakery: slice of apple pie (voted best of LA)
Tender Greens: grilled prawns salad

Monday
Umami Burger: manly burger, umami burger & onion rings
Pink's Hot Dogs: chili cheese dog
Millions of Milkshakes: justin shake with snickers and bananas

Tuesday
Tea exchange: mango coconut tea
Cupcakes Couture: apple pie cupcake
Cafe Rio: mahi-mahi fish tacos
Simmzy's: bacon & blue cheese burger