grom gelato

a lovely sunny saturday afternoon spent in malibu capped off with some delicious grom gelato.  grom is an italian based gelato shop which recently expanded to the states, first in new york and now to malibu. it is by far the best gelato i've had in the states - perfect, delicious, rich and fresh flavors. july's flavor of the month was croccantino al gianduja, a chocolate hazelnut scoop of heaven, and starting monday, for the month of august, they will be serving one of my all time favorites, fig. needless to say, this may become a weekly excurision for the next month - a half scoop of fig alternating with a half scoop of nocciola, espresso or cioccolato extranoir. 
buon appetito!

chocolate hazelnut & melon

back to black

amy winehouse died this past week.  a talented, beautiful vocalist and brilliant songwriter who is the predecessor to much of the female talent we are listening to right now (a business that allows for predecessor's at age 27)!
her 2007 album, back to black won 6 grammy's and was the third best selling album in the 2000's in the uk. 
here is a great new york times article about her and below is my favorite song from her last album.

tweetin' pope

from the pages of the july 25th issue of the new yorker, a brilliantly funny little piece written by paul rudnick about the pope's tweets. 
happy friday...

cinquecento

the little classic italian fiat 500 has finally arrived stateside and i for one have a little crush on these little cuties. if you have spent any significant time in europe in the past 50 years, you will no doubt have a sentimental attachment to these italian designed babies. if not, now is your chance to get behind a wheel of a modern symbol of italian design.
ciao bella!

jean-georges's fried rice

this is a great, had a long day and in need of starch, last minute dinner. i've made it twice now, when nothing but a hot steaming bowl of comforting rice and fried egg will do.
bon appetit!

1/2 cup peanut oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced ginger
Salt
2 cups thinly sliced leeks, white and light green parts only, rinsed and dried
4 cups day-old cooked rice, preferably jasmine, at room temperature
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons sesame oil
4 teaspoons soy sauce

1 - in a large skillet, heat 1/4 cup oil over medium heat. add garlic and ginger and cook,   stirring occasionally, until crisp  and brown. with a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels and salt lightly.
2 - reduce heat under skillet to medium-low and add 2 tablespoons oil and leeks. cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until very tender but not browned. season lightly with salt.
3 - raise heat to medium and add rice. cook, stirring well, until heated through. season to taste with salt.
4 - in a nonstick skillet, fry eggs in remaining oil, sunny-side-up, until edges are set but yolk is still runny. (this is key, yolk has to be runny)!
5 - divide rice among four dishes. top each with an egg and drizzle with 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil and 1 teaspoon soy sauce. sprinkle crisped garlic and ginger over everything and serve.

- serves 4

no news is good news

i've been making a conscious effort not to watch the television news lately, something downright revolutionary for the news junkie in me. there are just too many one sided, no content and not fully reported stories and reports and i frankly have found that it leaves me with no new information, just a headache. 
print media however, is my daily shadow and through it there is thought, explanation, questioning and horizon broadening. 
here are two articles i came across today- some insight and some light at an end to a never ending occupying tunnel. 
the first is from the new york times, about israeli and palestinian women coming together and the other from foreign policy, about a revolution's philosophy, yesterday and today.
and just in case you are looking for a place to get thorough in-debt stories and investigative reporting, look no further than propublica.

*photo courtesy of the nytimes

garden of eden

saddam hussein may not have had any weapons of mass destruction, but that didn't stop him from destroying and murdering thousands and thousands of lives and livelihoods in his own country. here is a report from last nights rerun of 60 minutes on how a land and a people saddam tried to destroy is slowly flowing back to life.

garden of eden

sunday funnies

a dash of

with a sprinkling of

a squeeze of

topped off with

some of my little ingredients - and yours?

bookshelf

i'm in massive need of de-cluttering - out with the old and in with the new - and if there is anything i need in my little apartment after all the old has been thrown out and donated is a nice big bookshelf to stack with books i no longer remember having because they now sit stacked two and three thick behind each other on an old ikea shelf. 
here is a beautiful simple bookshelf designed by studio parade (sold at suite new york) called paperback. i love the simplicity in its design and the idea of displaying books horizontally. it’s made of lightweight resin-fortified paper, requires just four screws to mount to the wall and contains special tabs to make room for larger coffee-table books or frames. lovely. 
now if we can just work on a new, bigger apartment... 

omar khayyám

drink wine. 
this is life eternal. 
this is all that youth will give you. 
it is the season for wine, roses and drunken friends. 
be happy for this moment. 
this moment is your life.  
- omar khayyám  

‎"شراب بنوشید... این زندگی ابدی است؛

این است که جوانان به شما بدهد.

این فصل برای شراب، گل و دوستان مست است.

خوشحال برای این لحظه، این لحظه زندگی خود را... ".

have a lovely (rose, wine and drunken friend filled) weekend!

pretty posters

beautiful concert posters designed by a this graphic design studio.  
so much nicer than the options we had for our walls in in the 80's!

a nomad soul is never lost

i've always had this crazy nomad sense of direction and never understood how some people always get lost, unable to find their way around their own neighborhoods let alone a foreign city. i dislike using maps and navigation systems and love the idea of just getting in the car and driving down a new, undiscovered road. want to see me at my most excited, with a wide eyed sense of wonder and joy?  just drop me in a foreign town and ask me to find a delicious local bakery or museum or shoe shop or deserted beach. the possibilities and discoveries around every right (never wrong) turn are to me, the best part of the trip.
matt gross writes a series of articles called "getting lost" for the new york times travel section and here is my favorite of that series, published last september, about the joy of losing ones way (and it turn finding it) in tangier, morocco. 
the travel bug continues to bite. 

*photos courtesy of the new york times.

joan's on third

i'm not a big cupcake girl. i never understood the whole wait in line for an hour for a cupcake craze and tend to think that the frosting is too sweet and the batter is too dry. there is however one local bakery that has what i think are the most delicious cupcakes in town.
joan's on third is my absolute favorite local gourmet marketplace and bakery. they make the most delicious baked good, salads and sandwiches on this side of town and if there was just one place i could eat lunch or grab a coffee and afternoon treat on a daily basis, it would be at joan's.
it is at joan's where we shared this picture perfect vanilla raspberry cupcake over the weekend  - no sweet frosting, perfectly moist vanilla cake and delicious raspberry filling hiding inside. bon appetit!

desk with a view

the daydreamer in me wants to drive up the coast and reenact this scene;  me, old typewriter, ocean front desk and a pot of coffee. even the pipe in this tableau looks appealing - only i'll be keeping my shirt on.
happy monday!

madrid wins, peru scores

cristiano ronaldo and his merry pretty men of real madrid were in town last night, where they beat papa beckam and his l.a. galaxy lads 4-1. it really was an unfair, one sided match-up, david vs. goliath, but nevertheless, we cheered with glee at each of madrid's four unchallenged goals. 

afterwards we had an amazing dinner at picca, ricardo zarate's newest addition to the local restaurant scene.  it's heralded as a peruvian cantina with a japanese twist (a grown up, full service version of his downtown mo-chica) and it was one of the most delicious, original meals i've had in town, elevating peruvian food to the next level on the west side.  my phone camera couldn't capture the deliciousness in the dimly lit room, but i wanted to share a list of the tapas sized dishes that found their way to our table.

empanada trio. beef, chicken, eggplant, salad

choritos. steamed mussels, pancetta, aji amarillo butter

spicy yellow tail. spicy mayo, green onions, wasabi tobiko 

unagi. avocado, cucumber, eel sauce

ceviche crocante. halibut, leche de tigre, crispy calamari

tomatoes. burrata, black mint pest

papa a la huancaina. potato, quail egg, pancetta, chives

camote. sweet potato, honey, serrano chili sauce

chicharron de costillas. crispy pork ribs crostini, sweet potato puree, feta cheese sauce, salsa criolla 

bisteck a lo pobre. skirt steak, egg, pan fried banana, chickpeas tacu tacu

churros. passion fruit cream with three dipping sauces

the cocktails were delicious too, an amazing best in town pisco sour and a tangy, complex and fruity martin ricky! welcome to town picca - we're going to be fast friends! 

lovely photos

i love these series of images taken by iranian photographer mohammadreza mirzaei as part of his humans series. he sets his camera up a distance away and waits for strangers to walk through his viewfinder, silent subjects set against a white sky. 

beautifully simple and serene. 

Carmageddon

if you have been anywhere near a 100 mile radius of los angeles the past few months, you've no doubt heard (over and over again) about this weekends freeway shutdown. a 10 mile stretch of the 405 will be closed from midnight tonight until early monday morning in what has been dubbed 'carmageddon'.
as usual, the local and national media has been on overdrive, spreading gridlock fear and urging people to stay off the roads because apparently this 10 mile stretch of pavement is the glue that holds this city and humanity together. yes citizens, we all better stock up on milk, bread and flashlight batteries and hunker down until the sun comes up and the traffic flows again on monday. two consecutive snow days, southern california style.
and while you are sequestered in your neighborhood, forced to walk down your street and say hi to your neighbors (horror)!, take a minute to look at this hilarious video commemorating this crazy, fear hyped weekend.

practicing my french on bastille day

en l'honneur du jour de la bastille aujourd'hui, je suis à l'écoute de cette

et de manger ces

french macarons

tout en rêvant je portais ce

alors qu'il était assis dans un café de lire ce classique

j'ai étudié le français pendant plus de six ans et est aujourd'hui le seul jour je me sens obligé de mettre en pratique ce n'est presque jamais utilisée...voila!

fabulous felt

i'm in wanton love with this macbook sleeve 

and this yummy red for a yet unpurhcased ipad

beautiful handmade felt sleeves by polish designers rib and hull.

summer reading

i've been reading mostly non-fiction books this past year, but summer is in full swing and i'm itching for the perfect beach/bedtime/lazy afternoon novel. 
i borrowed these four books last week and they are now stacked on my bedside table. 
i started the intimates last night and reviews of all four books will be forthcoming in the coming weeks and months.
what are you reading this summer?

monkey around

while in indonesia, photographer david slater had his camera hijacked by a crested black macaques who took a series of photographs, including these awesome self portraits. perfectly focused and lit!
guaranteed to put a smile on your face this monday morning.

*photos courtesy of the guardian

dear photograph

take a sunday drive back in time with some of your most cherished photographs. a perfect way to recapture some long past places and memories.

*photos courtesy of dearphotograph.com

the birth of south sudan

in january 2011, after years of conflict and war, nearly 99 percent of southern sudanese voters approved a split with northern sudan in an internationally backed referendum. today, southern sudan will be christened the republic of south sudan and take its place as the 54th african nation.
here are two great recent new york times articles covering the past and future, the doubts and hopes and the problems and solutions that encompass the world's newest nation.
a new nation stands on wobbly feet
happy birthday southern sudan

butcher babes

amelia posada and erika nakamura, better known in local food lover circles as lindy & grundy, recently opened a locally sourced and naturally raised butcher shop. they have received amazing nationwide press coverage and local customer reviews and i have to say that everything i've had has been truly fresh, delicious and praise worthy. the grass fed, organic, ground in the shop beef; the delicate, free range, house roasted chicken, the homemade local lamb bacon and tonight, amazingly fresh, pastured, locally raised pork chops. 
they are two of the friendliest, most passionate store owners i've ever come across and their love for the quality and art of preparing and offering locally fresh organic meat is infectious and until now, impossible to find in los angeles. 
i predict much deserved success for this dynamic butcher duo. 

lindy & grundy

801 n. fairfax ave
los angeles, ca 90046
(323) 951-0804