eating LA

It was a busy, but relaxing, weekend. Drew and I went to the beach, we went hiking, and we went up to LA to apply for visas to visit China. Did I mention the China trip? We will be in Beijing during the month of July. Drew's research interest is something to do with China, and he is learning the language. So we will be in China so he can hone his skills, and I'm going along for the ride. I guess that this is an advantage to being a grad student, I can work anywhere as long as I have my computer. And an internet connection.

Anyway, we went to LA to apply for visas, and we spent the rest of the day eating and hanging out. We went to Pure Luck, this cozy vegan restaurant. We started off with fried pickle chips:

Here is the story about how I love fried pickle chips: I have eaten these only a few times, and the only place I've been able to find them is...wait for it...Hooters. I have raved about fried pickles to Drew, but my efforts to get him to go to Hooters have been futile. Maybe he genuinely has no interest in going to Hooters, or maybe he's smart enough to refuse. I dunno. So anyway, I was very excited to find fried pickle chips on Pure Luck's menu so that I could share the goodness with Drew. They were good, a nice contrast between the crispy breading and the tangy pickles. But, I still think the fried pickle chips at Hooters are better.

I ate Jack's Super Burrito Wrap, which was jackfruit "carnitas" rolled up with sweet potato fries, cilantro, pinto beans, and barbeque sauce. Mmmmmm, it was so good.

Drew ate the bbq sandwich with rosemary fries and a roasted garlic aioli. Damn, I am getting hungry just blogging about this good food. So here's the thing about jackfruit: If you cook it up, it sort of takes on the consistency of shredded pork and it takes on the flavors of anything you add to it. Amazing. It's like tofu. Now, it doesn't totally simulate pork, but it satisfies any pulled pork and carnitas cravings.

After we ate ourselves into a food coma, we headed over to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. We had never been to an art museum together before, and it was a fun and funny experience. Turns out that we have different tastes in art, so I took him to the exhibits that he would have normally passed up and vice versa. I love modern art, and he likes the more conventional stuff like European paintings.

I can't pass up a sculpture garden! Below, a piece by Alexander Calder, one of my favorites:

Whenever I'm in an art museum, I always wonder what my life would be like right now had I stayed in art school. I had a brief stint at the School of Visual Arts (photography), and sometimes I wonder what I'd be doing right now had I graduated. Oh well, I'll never know.

Below, here's a cool sculpture. I don't know what it is or what it means, but that's the fun part of it.

After the art museum, we headed to Cinnamon Vegetarian for dinner. This restaurant served up a variety of vegetarian food. We went for the Mexican selections- chicken mole and carnitas. The food was good, but since I have no pictures, it might mean that I didn't like it as much as Pure Luck.