The Past Two Weeks

It's been three weeks since I've been back from my crazy trip to MN, and life has been nothing short of a whirlwind!  I've been working crazy hours (leave for the hospitals at 6 AM and not back home until 7 or 8 PM at which point I'm a walking zombie completely ready to pass out!) and have been SAVORING my weekends for leisurely activities not involving too much eating, drinking, and talking!  I feel like I do a lot of that for work and anything to get away from that has been a huge relief!

Some highlights:

Daniel turned 20 and Minky, Adam, Dave and I took him out to Bazaar By Jose Andres for an elaborate birthday dinner.  The food was amazing and most importantly Dan enjoyed it a great deal so all in all it was a success.  We also had a family dinner with my Uncle Charlie and his family at our good old go to spot-- Young King Chinese Restaurant in Ktown for some Korean-Chinese style food and it truly was an awesome time celebrating Dan's birthday.

Dave and I also celebrated our 1-year dating anniversary by checking out Animal.  They had a really delicious coconut porter that I highly recommend for all my craft beer loving friends.

Their asparagus salad with bacon vinaigrette was amazing. A nice blend of tang and savory flavors... yum! I'd definitely come back for more of this!

I also really enjoyed the hamachi tostada... a corn tostada with avocado, hamachi sashimi, cabbage/mixed greens salad with a fish sauce dressing.  This is something I also looooved and would definitely come back again for!

We also had a oxtail poutine and well as this hanger steak on a bed of artichoke hash with a parmesan cheese fondue.  It was hearty and delicious, but definitely really heavy and I don't think I will be getting both of these on the same visit ever again!  I felt like I was swimming in fat when I was done.

Lastly, but not least, we had a vanilla custard with a lavendar crumble with fresh berries and some kind of purple basil atop the custard.  It was SUPER GOOD!  I never knew lavendar and custard went so well together.  I will definitely be trying to recreate the custard sometime soon.

Dave and I also got to check out the Tim Burton Exhibit at the LACMA, finally!  It was my first time at LACMA and what a fun exhibit to get acquainted to the museum with!  

And after pouring through the museum, we found ourselves famished, so we went to a BBQ...

... in the comfy confines of my favorite Korean BBQ joint, Gilmok (Corner Place), enjoying no nonsense good food-- their delicious meat and refreshing cold noodles!  It was strange to not be going to any 4th of July BBQ, and I felt almost guilty for not attending... but it was one of the best 4th of July holidays I've ever had.   It was great just going to a museum, barbecuing without having to prep before or clean up after, then going home to rest and read the rest of the Hunger Games Trilogy on my new iPad... which I FINALLY set up and started to use!