A week ago we had two pairs of visitors, one on their final day in Thailand after a month-long vacation and another on their first day in Thailand on the start of a multi-week vacation.  While the two pairs had never met, I rented a van and driver, bundled them all in, and took them down on a Friday night to the floating market in Amphawa, a town about 90 minutes southwest of Bangkok.

I've been to Amphawa many times but on each visit I discover something new or, at least, a new way to approach it.  As such, I feel like I'm refining this "tour", if you will.  Each subsequent guest gets a better experience.  For example, I have decided that Fridays are a much better day to go than Saturday or Sunday because the market is much less crowded.

I've also decided that it is best to hire a boat and visit several of the temples along the river in the hour or so before sunset.  This way you get few tourists but lots of interesting "golden" light.  This temple, which has been abandoned to the forest, is at Bang Gung (literally, "Area of the Shrimp") and while I've visited here on bicycle before, I didn't realize it was an easy walk from the river.  Add that to future itineraries.

Riding a long-tail boat down the Mae Khlong River just after sunset it a breathtaking experience.  The sky is so beautiful and the water is so calm.  Afterwards we explored the floating market, ate lots of tasty, fresh, and inexpensive seafood and other treats before heading back to Bangkok.

Previous entries about trips to the market:
October 2010 - A trip to the market finds is nearly flooded.
June 2010 - A grade school friend and his children visit on a "top secret" assignment.
January 2010 - a trip to the market with a Xangan from London.
December 2007 - An early trip there with an American friend and his mother.

About two years ago, Gary and William took me to the Santa Monica branch of Musha, a Japanese izakaya, or small plates, restaurant.  They have another branch a few miles south in Torrance and I took the opportunity during our June visit to Los Angeles to take Tawn there.  It remains a satisfying place to dine.

An izakaya is a drinking establishment that, in the same way that Spanish bars serve tapas, provides small plates of food to patrons to accompany their drinks, encouraging them (or, perhaps, enabling them) to drink longer.  After all, you can't continue to sell drinks to someone who has passed out and a little food in the stomach delays or prevents that happening.

While at first Torrance may seem an unlikely location, the city is home to many Japanese businesses, including Toyota's North America headquarters.  As such, there are countless restaurants and other services geared towards the many Japanese who live and work in the area.  Musha is located in a strip mall on the northwest corner of Carson Street and Western Avenue.  With its dark green awning, the building could just as easily house a Starbucks.

The restaurant is a small space with a large table running down the center.  Smaller tables line the walls and on the left is counter seating facing one of the two kitchen areas.  The interior is a cozy and several fans are running to dissipate fumes from the grill-your-own dishes that are on the menu.

We opted for the counter, giving us a good view of the action in the kitchen and a tempting view of plates and bowls full of some of the previously prepared foods that we could order.  It took a lot of will power to not help ourselves.

A must-order item is the Aburi Shimesaba.  The description on the menu, complete with spelling errors that seem to authenticate the Japanese ownership of this restaurant, is as follows: "New creation from the great chef of Musha!!  Fresh mackerelmarinated with rice vinegar, sliced like a sashimi then torched at your table.  Try the taste of "Holly Mackerel !!"

While I'll avoid speculation about the holly mackerel, I will say that this is a wonderfully complex dish made of only the simplest of ingredients.  The rice vinegar helps to cook the fish in a ceviche-like way.  It adds a sweetness to an otherwise fishy tasting flesh.  Then the torching give the skin a crispy texture with caramel flavors.  To top it off, the banana leaf on which the fish is placed starts to char a bit so you get the smoky fruit aroma.  While the dish is really only two ingredients - fish and vinegar - the flavor is multi-layered and complex.

The second dish was the lobster roll, a riceless bit of sushi that uses a thin springroll wrapper instead of seaweed filled with lobster and cucumber.  Very tasty.

One of my favorite dishes is the spicy tuna dip served with rice crackers.  The name pretty much describes what it is, but doesn't have any superlatives that convey how tasty this dip is.  Might I suggest something like, One of the Tastiest Things You Will Ever Scoop with a Cracker?

Another Musha signature dish is the Takotama.  This is their take on okonomiyaki, a "Japanese style pancake".  In the case of Takotama, you have the two-layered omelette (pictured sitting on the counter above) with chopped octopus, Tokyo leek, red ginger, bonito flakes, chives, and nori seaweed.  The sauce is a thick, sweet sauce topped with mayonnaise.

To finish we had a plate of Typhoon Char Han, a spicy fried rice prepared with ground pork, chili, bamboo shoot, ginger, garlic, and Tokyo leek.  Tasty and filling.

Stuffed and running out of time to head to LAX and pick up my sister and her family, we skipped dessert, cleansing out palettes with the complimentary salted plum tea.

All in all, I think Musha offers tasty food at a fair price.  Like all "small plates" restaurants, you have to watch out because the bill can rapidly increase.  That isn't a matter of the prices being high; instead, it is a matter of ordering more food than you really need.  If you are in the South Bay part of Los Angeles, or in Santa Monica, a stop at Musha would be worth your while.

The bedroom, according to Thai culture, is a private place.  It is a place into which you do not normally invite others, whether they be strangers or even friends.  But I am going against convention and inviting you into my bedroom because I have a story to tell about my quest to silence a squeaky bed.

A local metal worker made the bed frame we have used since moving into this condo more than three years ago.  It has all the stylings of an expensive Martha Stewart Living frame (upon which the design was loosely based) at a fraction of the cost.  But in the past year or so, the bed frame has started to make noise.

Cue the obvious jokes and smart-alec comments.

Somewhat ironically, it doesn't make any noise from those sorts of activities.  In fact, it only makes noise when you turn over and, even then, only intermittently.  The noise isn't the full-throated "squeak, squeak" of mattress springs.  Instead, it is a subtle but high-pitch chirp that echoes through the frame and is at just the right volume and frequency to momentarily wake you up, producing something like an auditory sleep apnea.

We tried many things to troubleshoot the problem.  For example we cut up an old yoga mat and used it to cushion every point at which the frame came into contact with anything else.  We tightened all the screws and connections.  Initially, we didn't realize that the frame was held together with hex key screws and were just tightening the decorative knobs.  When that didn't work, Tawn had the makers of the bed frame come out and they revealed the hidden screws, tightening all of them.  That lessened, but did not eliminate, the chirp.

Notice the little bits of pink yoga mat cushioning the frame.

Working our way through the problem solving process, we turned our attention to the board under the mattress.  Ever since moving out of my parents' home decades ago, I've never had box springs, not seeing the point of them.  But I started to rethink the wisdom of living without box springs because every twist and turn of our bodies was being transferred to the frame, which would in turn protest with that shrill, sleep-interrupting chirp.

The next-to-final solution was to purchase two box springs to replace the boards and transfer the full weight of the mattress to the floor rather than to the bed frame.  Workers from the department store came and measured to ensure the box springs would fit inside the frame.  We placed an order and last night, some six hours after the scheduled appointment, the delivery men arrived and installed the box springs.

The fit is good and the box springs are only about an inch higher than the boards on which the mattress previously sat.  Tossing and turning to test them, we could not induce a single chirp from the bed frame.

Waking up the following morning, I'm glad to report that there were no interruptions to our good night's sleep.  The weight of the mattress now bypasses the frame and with two box springs, one person's turn causes less disturbance to the other sleeper.  There appear to be only three resulting problems:

The first problem is that the frame, which no longer has any lateral support, shifts easily.  This means you cannot sit up in bed, resting against the headboard to read a book.  The second problem is that there is no longer any under-bed storage now that there are two box springs taking up what was once free space.

The final problem is trying to figure out what to do with the two large plywood boards.  Any takers?

Near the end of our trip to Los Angeles last month, while driving down the Pacific Coast Highway to visit Janet for tea, we stopped for brunch at the Starling Diner.  Located on East Third Street in Long Beach, the look and feel of the Starling Diner is that of an old-time neighborhood institution.  The food is comforting, the service friendly, and the fellow diners are, well, neighborly.

Starling Diner is all this despite having been around for less than five years.  It is no surprise then to learn that owner Joan Samson made a very conscious effort to create a space that had that neighborhood institution feel.  From their website:

In times past, neighborhoods were Communities where everyone casually knew each other and the gathering places were icons such as the front porch, the corner store and the neighborhood diner. It has always been our personal mission to create gathering spots that provide a sense of place along side the highest quality food and drinks. We live in and love Long Beach. We just made a place where we would like to meet our friends and connect.

My cousins had first brought me here in 2009 and I was eager to share the cute restaurant and tasty dining experience with Tawn.  He wasn't disappointed.

This pale green cruiser parked outside seems to exemplify the Starling Diner.  Located amidst houses on a quiet street, this is the type of place you would hop on your bicycle and ride three blocks to meet some friends for breakfast at.

The tables are crowded with little tin tubs of all the condiments you might need.  Interestingly, they serve water in these biodegradable corn-based plastic cups in order to save the environment.  As I pointed out to the server (in a friendly, non-complaining sort of way), they would do more to save the environment to serve their cream, jellies, sugars, etc. in bulk containers rather than individual sachets and packages. 

The fact that our server took that suggestion with a thoughtful smile and remained friendly and welcoming is a good example of the type of consistent service I've enjoyed during both my visits.

The highlight of the menu is the San Francisco stuffed French toast.  Unlike most French toast, this is broiled not fried, and is made from baguette, not square loaf bread.

It does not disappoint!  The result is something that is light and crispy rather than heavy and soggy like most French toast.  This is a recipe I would like to learn to recreate at home.

Tawn had the crab cakes sandwich, which had these wonderful, large lump crab meat and tons of fresh greens.  This was really tasty, too.

All in all, the only disappointment at the Starling Diner was that there were just the two of us and, as such, we were only able to try two items on the menu.  Mark this on the list of places to come back to on a future visit!

Gardening is probably in my blood.  After all, my father was born and raised on a farm and when I was growing up in suburban San Francisco, he tended to an extensive backyard garden.  But in the nearly twenty years since I moved out of that home, I've had only two summers when I was able to garden: 2004, when Tawn and I were living in San Jose and I had five tomato plants growing from 5-gallon buckets, and 2005, when I was living in Kansas City before moving here to Thailand.

Finally, I am going back to the land, getting the dirt under my fingernails, and fulfilling my birthright: to grow my own food!

In the more than three years we've lived in this particular condo, we have wanted to hang plants from our balcony but the wire planters they sell locally are really wimpy - good only for petunias and shrinking violets.  We finally found a gardener who said he could make some heavy-duty planters for us.  It took a year to actually get them made, but finally he delivered. 

But they look pretty flimsy, don't they.  Sure enough, just hanging on the edge it looked like they would hold maybe 10 pounds at best before collapsing four stories onto the backs of cars parked below.  So the gardener went back to his workshop and returned a few hours later with three metal brackets to put below the planters, providing better support. 

I'm still petrified that the planters will crash to the ground below, seeing as how they are actually attached to the balcony railing with wire!  I've purchased some plastic cable straps to provide greater security and am inspecting the planters frequently to look for signs of distress. 

We have two balconies, one in each unit.  For the balcony outside the bedroom, Tawn wanted a hedgerow so we don't have to look at the abandoned building next door.  These trees provide a nice sense of greenery outside and with the bamboo blinds, one can wake up almost imagining being in a tropical resort.

While in the US in March and June I did some seed shopping.  Faced with limited space, I whittled down my selection of seeds to these five: mini bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, beets, carrots, and heirloom tomatoes. 

Didn't get a picture of me actually mixing the soil, which was a bit of a mess given the small work space.  However, we now have five 37-cm pots hanging over the edge of the balcony.  I mixed chopped coconut husks into the bottom two-thirds of the soil to ensure it drains well and to reduce the weight of the pots. 

Some Starbucks stir sticks were purloined to make for row markers.  In addition to vegetables, I did one pot with mixed herbs.  I think I'll have to purchase a few more pots and place them on the floor of the balcony.

One challenge we face is that our units face southwest and during the summer months the sun is actually to the north of us (since we are so close to the equator).  During the cooler months, though, we get direct sun.  I'm worried this might throw the plants off a bit, especially the tomatoes which I think will do best if they have hot days but, as the fruit sets, relatively cool nights.  We'll see. 

I planted the seeds on July 4.  Three days later, the first sprouts were pushing their way through the soil.  Here, a cherry tomato seedling.  It occurs to me now that I should have planted first in some small containers, then transplanted into the bigger ones.  I'm going to have to thin out all of the larger pots since I can't grow multiple tomato plants in a single pot. 

Sweet Italian basil "micro-greens" - ha ha!  Of the four herbs - basil, rosemary, parsley, and cilantro - the basil is the only one that has so far made an appearance.

Well, stay tuned over the coming weeks and months to see how this experiment at gardening goes.  To be sure, my maid is fascinated by my interest in this.  You have to reach a certain level of the bourgeoisie, I guess, to see growing your own food as a hobby rather than a necessity.

Near the end of our trip to Los Angeles, Tawn and I drove south to Oceanside, CA to spend the night visiting some friends.  Along the way we stopped in beautiful San Juan Capistrano, a small town on the south side of Orange County, to visit Janet, a fellow Xangan who keeps us enthralled with her photos.

San Juan Capistrano is a mission town, home to one of the 21 missions and settlements founded by Father Junipero Serra and his band of merry Franciscan friars.  At the heart of the town is a railway station, at which Amtrak and commuter trains regularly call.  On the left side of the tracks is the old town area, Los Rios, where several antique shops and tea rooms are located.

Antique shower from Paris, filled with rocks and sitting in the garden of the tea house.

In her entry on the meeting, Janet has more pictures including a better one of the three of us.  The tea shop was very cute, though, with all sorts of fussily elegant cups, saucers, tea pots, and creamers, hilariously mismatched.

Their scones were very nice with locally made preserves and fresh cream.  Was it clotted cream though?  Not sure.  Anyhow, it was a pleasant visit and I've glad we had the chance to meet Janet in person after several years of knowing her virtually.

Tags: @slmret

The first few nights we were in Los Angeles in June, Tawn and I stayed at the Travelodge Culver City on Washington Place just east of Sepulveda Drive.  As down-market as you would expect a Travelodge to be, this one has received well-deserved high rankings in TripAdvisor and other review sites.  In addition to the really tasty Metro Cafe located downstairs from the motel, just around the corner was the timeless Johnnie's French Dip Pastrami.  Of course, I wanted to try it.

Established in 1952, Johnnie's is this small shack of a diner.  As their menu explains, the jukeboxes are originals and some of the waitresses are, too. 

The restaurant is open until 2:30 am and an hour later on Friday and Saturday nights.  A wide mix of people stop by, young and old, well-off and those barely making ends meet.  They all are there for one thing: good, honest food.  The menu is simple: burgers, dogs, and sandwiches, with the pastrami taking center stage.

Complimentary dill pickles, sliced thick.

Combine the pickles with a root beer float made with hand scooped ice cream and, despite it sounding like the food cravings of a pregnant woman, I was in heaven!

The ambience is all chrome and naugahyde.  The pastrami boils for a while then finishes in a steam bath, coming out moist and thinly sliced.  What's that machine on the left?  Well, for you youngsters out there, that's how a real milkshake is made!

The pastrami on rye arrived.  While pastrami is generally a fatty meat, I found my cuts to be quite rare.  The fat that was attached was well-cooked and not overwhelming.  Compare the construction of this sandwich to a pastrami I tried at a wanna-be place in Bangkok called New York Cheesecake, which served me only a thin layer of meat topped with a third slice of bread and several inches of lettuce and other veggies.  Needless to say, Johnnie's came a lot closer to satisfy my pastrami craving.  As for the flavor, it was fantastic.

Tawn ordered a veggie burger.  What's that!?  A veggie burger at a place like Johnnie's!?  Well, as my dearly departed paternal grandmother used to say, if we all liked the same things the world would sure be a boring place.  Truth be told, it was a pretty tasty veggie burger probably thanks to all the burnt-on beef bits on the grill!

Overall, we could debate whether Johnnie's has the best pastrami in LA or not.  People have different preferences, of course.  I just know that Johnnie's hit the spot for me, filling a need for good pastrami that I had been carrying with me for many months.  Next time I'm back in LA, I may return.  Or I may seek out some of the other recommended pastrami shops.  We'll see.

Before we headed to Los Angeles last month, Tawn and I were invited to a special foodie dinner held at Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin restaurant.  Sra Bua is known for its molecular gastronomy take on Thai food.   Organized by CatAndNat.com, a Thai lifestyle website, and WorldFoods, I was invited to attend because of the writing I do for CatAndNat.

Dinner was held at the beautiful Siam Kempinski Hotel, tucked away right behind the Siam Paragon mall.

Opened less than a year ago, the Siam Kempinski is a beautiful 5-star hotel.  Their fresh flower arrangements in the lobby make it worth a visit just to "stop and smell the roses".

The building also features gorgeous architecture and decorations throughout.  I enjoy visiting nice hotels like this just for the ambiance.

By coincidence, fellow blogger Angel and his partner were on holiday in Bangkok, staying at the same hotel.  We were able to meet them for a late afternoon tea before proceeding across the hall to our dinner.

Our host didn't have Tawn's full name handy so used my surname for his place card.  Tawn was very excited as this is the first (and only) time after our wedding that he's had my surname!

Each dish was made with a WorldFoods sauce and was paired with a wine from Monsoon Valley Wines, a local Thai winery. 

WorldFoods is a Malaysian based maker of high quality Asian-inspired sauces, marinades, chutneys, and pastes that previously has given me samples of their products and invited me to try and, if I like, to write about them.  While I've been given no compensation, Tawn and I were invited to this very nice complimentary dinner.

The restaurant,Sra Bua, is the sister restaurant of Henrik Yde-Andersen's Kiin Kiin in Copenhagen, the second Thai restaurant in the world to receive a Michelin star (which I understand has since been lost). 

Appetizer - Yum Som O, which is a traditional salad made with pomelo.  Pomelo is basically a large, less sour grapefruit.  Here, the chef added frisée and fish roe, which was meant to have a similar texture to the individuals pulp sacs of the pomelo.

Close up of the pomelo salad.  This wasn't much of a success, in my opinion, with too little pomelo and too much roe, which overpowered the flavor of the salad.  The pairing wine was a Monsoon Valley Colombard, a fruity white.

Next dish was a Laksa Soup, which used the Singaporean Nyonya Laksa Paste.  This was a very pleasant, curry-type soup that was flavorful but not too spicy.  It was paired with a Monsoon Valley Cuvee de Siam, another white wine from grapes grown in the hills above Hua Hin, a beach town about three hours south of Bangkok.

The fish course was a pan-seared white fish (bass, I believe) with fish mousse and red curry.  This used the Red Curry Sauce and is actually based on a classic Thai dish called haw mok, in which fish is pureed, mixed with a red curry paste, and steamed in banana leaves.  I really enjoyed this course.  It was paired with a Monsoon Valley Shiraz that was pleasant, although not very complex.

The highlight of the meal was this beef with basil curry sauce.  The chunks of beef couldn't have been more tender and it was served in a lightly fried pastry shell that is balance (although you can't see it) on a small mound of jasmine rice.  This dish was so good that Tawn, who rarely eats beef, had the whole thing.  It was paired with a Monsoon Valley Cuvee de Siam Rouge, which was also the highlight wine of the evening.  It is a blend of 70% Shiraz and 30% Sangiovese grapes and has nice fruity flavors without too many tannins. 

Dessert was a jasmine ice cream served wrapped in phyllo dough and a jasmine rice panna cotta served with mixed tropical fruits, wrapped in a banana leaf.  These were really nice as the flavors were very delicate and refreshing.  The wine was a Monsoon Valley Muscat Dessert, which was sweet and syrupy.

After dessert a variety of hand-rolled truffles were set out.  If you like chocolate, you'd like these!

What the room felt like after the dinner.  Ha ha...

Me and Tawn with our friend Linda, who was able to join us at the last minute for dinner.  Conclusion: the menu, which was specially prepared for the event, worked very well in some areas and less well in others.  Attention to detail in the preparation was very high, though, as was the quality.  Service was also very attentive, which of course can be a challenge when you have some 30-40 diners.  Kudos to the chef and staff of Sra Bua for pulling this off.

(Updated Monday am) Sunday afternoon, the polls closed in Thailand's second general election since the 2006 coup that saw Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra ousted by factions of the country's military.  The results, announced last night by the Election Commission, are that Thaksin's sister Yingluck Shinawatra will be the kingdom's next Prime Minister, and also the first female PM in its history.

Tensions have been high because this election is seen, more than anything, as a litmus test on how the political situation will go forward.  First, let me make clear that I have no particular interest in any of the parties involved in this election.  Here's the long and short of it:

• Thaksin was removed from office by a coup in September 2006 despite his party having won majority votes in two prior elections. 
• After a new post-coup constitution was ratified, a subsequent election saw the reincarnation of Thaksin's political party (dissolved because of charges of breaking election law) again winning a majority. 
• The next two PMs, both from Thaksin's party, were removed from office upon being found guilty of minor offenses and after a minority coalition party switched sides, the military-backed Democrats were able to form a government with Oxford-educated Abhisit Vejjajiva as Prime Minister.

Now, it looks like we'll be back where we started, pre-coup.  Or, at least, something close to it since Yingluck and her Phuea Thai ("For Thais") party have run on the slogan, "Thaksin thinks, Phuea Thai acts" and a proposed amnesty for Thaksin has been openly discussed as a leading policy position.

Election campaigns in Thailand are every bit as much of a circus as they are in the United States, although they take place in a much more compressed period of time - less than 60 days elapsed between the dissolution of the previous Parliament and these elections.  Yesterday, while waiting on the Skytrain platform at the Asoke station, Prime Minister and Democratic Party candidate Abhisit and his supporters were waiting for a train on the opposite platform, shaking hands and taking pictures with people.

Here's a closeup of the man, described in one US Embassy cable that was leaked during the Wikileaks scandal as handsome and ineffectual.

Something that I will be glad are gone now that the election is over, are the large campaign signs that are tied to trees and poles along the streets, blocking the sidewalks.  In some areas they are so thick that the footpath is entirely hidden from the street, which I suppose is not necessarily a bad thing! 

These posters by the Phumjaithai ("Proud Thailand") party showed male and female athletes with the face cut out, encouraging you to see yourself as one of the winners.  I couldn't resist.

Driving around the city after the polls closed at 3pm, I noticed many people in small motorcycle driven push-carts, collecting these election posters.  "So quick to clean up!" I thought, until Tawn explained that these people were collecting the posters to use as building material.  The heavy corrugated plastic sheets can be used as roofs and ceilings in the slums.  Sadly, this may be the most any of these candidates actual do to improve the lives of the kingdom's poor.

Even though Tawn and I had a chance to visit with them in Los Angeles just a few weeks ago, it was a pleasant coincidence that Gary and William had scheduled a trip to Bangkok for the end of June.  We were able to see them several times during their visit, and they invited me to travel to Kanchanaburi Province with them to visit the Tiger Temple.

First stop was the town of Kanchanaburi itself, about two hours northwest of Bangkok.  This town, located on Maenam Kwai ("River Kwai" - pronounced "kwae"), is the site of the bridge made famous in the 1957 David Lean film, Bridge Over the River Kwai.  We made a quick stop at the very good Thai-Burma Railway Centre, the better of two museums in the city about the building of the bridge.

Next, after a delay of about 45 minutes, we jumped on a train pulled by a 40+ year old GE diesel engine for a trip across the bridge and about an hour towards the Burmese border. 

Riding in a nearly antique (but still considered standard, third-class quality by the State Railways of Thailand) car, our interest quickly faded as the passing scenery blurred into a hazy green.

William, leaning out the window, takes a few shots of the countryside.  Fear not, we were actually stopped at a small country station when he did this.  Otherwise, he would have been whacked in the back of his head by overgrown bushes alongside the tracks.

A lone motorcyclist travels a country road as we pass a pair of houses.

Young rice grows a vibrant green in rich, volcanic soil.

Can you identify these crops?  Our tour guide disappeared for most of the train ride, but I was eventually able to learn that these are cassava plants, from which tapioca starch is obtained.

After much too long on the train, we disembarked at a dusty whistle stop and boarded our van, which had been chasing after us.  About twenty minutes later we arrived at the Tiger Temple.  The temple itself started out as a forest monastery in the mid-1990s.  Over time, the monks came to care for insured birds, an injured boar, and other animals they either encountered or were given to them.  The large grounds of the monastery developed into something of a wildlife sanctuary.

In February 1999, the first tiger cub was brought to the temple.  The cub had been orphaned by poachers and then had been sold to someone who was going to have it stuffed.  The cub survived the botched procedure to euthanize it and was brought to the temple.  Over the next few years, other orphaned cubs were brought to the temple and the head monk cared for them in following the principles of compassion for all living beings.

My last visit there was five years ago and the temple has developed quite a bit.  It remains a very popular tourist destination and the visitors' fees go to support projects to protect the tigers.  The temple has also come in for some criticism from animal rights activists, which I won't go into here other than to say that I did not witness any signs of ill treatment of the animals.

Okay, not a tiger, but a very large fire ant.  I was impressed with the macro focus on my camera!

The tigers, much like all cats, were napping in the warm afternoon.  There were about three or four staff members and volunteers for each cat and we were instructed about how to approach the cats and then the staff would take pictures. 

There were also plenty of other animals roaming about the large temple grounds, including this very friendly deer named Ta Waan - Sweet Eyes - who knows our tour guide because he always brings a bag of dried corn with him to the temple.

After feeding her, Ta Waan became our new best friend, following us around the temple.

Many of the tiger cubs are handled by various monks.  They play with them and keep them out of trouble.  This one made a lunge for Ta Waan, who bounded away, and the monk literally had to grab the tiger by the tail to keep him from running after the deer.

Since my last visit, the temple has introduced several programs that allow more interactivity with the cats, all for an extra price.  One of the programs was being able to feed and play with the cubs.  Gary and William opted for this and ended up with some wonderful pictures and great memories.  You'll have to stay tuned to Gary's site for those pictures.

Another program was being able to exercise the big cats.  Visitors are escorted by staff members into the exercise enclosure (Daniel in the lion's den?) and get to play with them much in the same way you play with your cat at home: by holding something at the end of a stick that they will want to pounce on.  The enclosure has good vantage points from which you can see the big cats enjoying themselves.

As for the danger level, these are definitely wild cats and I observed that a lot of work is done by staff and volunteers to ensure that visitors don't do anything that would startle the cats or cause their natural instincts to kick in, causing harm.  I suppose that also keeping them fed (boiled chicken) and happy do a lot to minimize some of the risks.

While I was standing there filming from the wall (standing about where the man in the white shirt is taking a picture in the photo above), I suddenly sensed that there was something just over my right shoulder.  Sure enough, the tiger cub (pictured with the monk several photos above) was walking along the top of the wall and had stopped because I was in his way.

This picture, one of three that turned out very nice, wasn't taken with any zoom lens!  I was about two feet away from his whiskers.  Beautiful animal but a bit unnerving to be caught unawares.

I'll leave you with this video compilation, about three minutes of footage of the tigers playing in the water.

All in all, I think Gary and William had a fantastic time and I'd include a visit to the Tiger Temple on the itinerary for other guests.  It is certainly an experience you won't have at home.

Whew!  The big day has come and gone: cooking for a group of up to 80 for a community event called the River Space Dinner Party and Talk.  Reservations for the event were coming in faster and earlier than ever before in their several-month history and the day before, Yvan, one of the organizers, suggested I prepare for as many as 90 diners.  Thanks to a little rain, we ended up with about 70 people, still more than any previous dinner.

Much like I imagine one feels after running a marathon, I'm very glad I had the opportunity to tackle this challenge.  Now I know I can do it.  But it was exhausting and took a lot of hard work, not to mention the support of several friends who pitched in, so I'm probably not going to volunteer to cook for such a large group again anytime in the near future!

The preparation was spread over three days leading up to Tuesday's dinner.  Most of the prep work involved careful planning - extrapolating my recipes into larger batches, creating shopping lists, and checking prices to ensure I would stay within my budget of 80 baht (US$ 2.63) per head.  When it came time to do most of the shopping on Tuesday morning, I had to go to three stores, managing to clean out two stores of their supplies of cilantro, radishes, and cherry tomatoes.

Tuesday morning I also baked more than 80 buttermilk shortcakes, which would be part of the dessert.

The grains for the mixed grain salad were cooked in batches and then sealed in bags.  Note the carefully-written labels.  Four parts (each serving about 20-24 people) with bags A, B, and C providing the different mixtures of grains.  Bag A contains brown rice, GABA rice, and Job's tears.  Bag B contains brown rice, black beans, and small red beans.  Bag C contains pearl barley and corn.

I used large plastic storage containers to divide the ingredients by dish.  Some dishes took several containers, which completely filled our car.

The River Space is located on the second floor of a building in a local market on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, next to the Millennium Hilton hotel.  Since the street is some distance away from the building entrance, we temporarily parked (during rush hour!) and Tawn hired a porter from the market to help us move everything into the space.  That cost 200 baht (less than $7) and was the best 200 baht I've ever spent.

While I thought I had prepared a pretty simple recipe, one that required only one dish to actually be cooked on-site, there was still a lot of peeling, slicing, chopping, and dicing that needed to be done.  Thankfully, a half-dozen friends came early and rolled up their sleeves.  Little did they realize they would spend the next four hours in the kitchen!  From left to right, Bee, Ken, me, Sophie, and Linda.

At moments like this, I imagine that a Cuisinart food processor might be a worthwhile investment!  Except they would have decimated the tomatoes.

Very organized, I had instructions for pulling together each dish, including plating diagrams, prepared and taped to the kitchen walls.  These aren't exactly a recipe, but helped everyone keep track of what steps we needed to complete and what the finished items were to look like.  This is for the dessert, a buttermilk shortcake topped with macerated mango and ginger whipped cream.

We had two burners to work with, although a second-hand stove was recently acquired that has three burners, significantly expanding the capacity.  Here, I start frying batches of the green curry marinated chicken while organizer Yvan prepares his signature garlic bread recipe.

Done with the mixed grain salad, my volunteers (now joined by Tammy and Tawn) slice mangoes for dessert while Doug, the friend who roped me into this event, supervises.

Doug also wandered around with my camera, documenting the action.

By 8:30 the crowd was ravenous, the best way to have them!  People started pouring into the kitchen and my friends expertly plated the meal, controlling portion size and garnishing with chopped cilantro and sliced almonds.  Unfortunately, in the chaos, nobody snapped a picture of the finished product!

After everyone ate, the guest speaker took the microphone for about 20 minutes.  Since this is an art space, they try to have someone at each dinner who can talk about a project they have worked on, usually with some relevance to Thailand or the local scene. 

In this case, it was Thai photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat and German writer Tom Vater, the photographer and author, respectively, of Sacred Skin, a book about the history and contemporary practice of Sak Yant, Thailand’s spirit tattoos.

These tattoos, written in ancient Khmer, are said to provide powers of protection from accidents, misfortune, and crime.  You see these tattoos peeking out from under monks' robes, the shirt collars of young men, and even on Angelina Jolie.

The crowd seemed very interested in what Tom and Aroon had to say and enlargements of Aroon's photos had been placed on the wall, startling images that sparked many discussions throughout the night.

As the talk concluded, we served our dessert, complete with a mint garnish.  Again, in the rush we managed to not get a picture of the finished product!  Next time, I need to bring my own media people, right?

We received a lot of compliments and had no troubles convincing people to take zip-loc bags of the extra mixed grains salad home, which is perhaps the best compliment of all.  We ended up with about 70 people and a final cost of 7,400 baht.  Based on the 90 people we prepared for, this was just ever-so-slightly over budget, coming in at 82.2 baht per person, or US$2.70.

To say I was exhausted when we returned home at about 11:00 is an understatement.  I've rarely been so tired, ever.  Working in a space that is not well-equiped for group cooking, I gained a new appreciation for the work of caterers and restaurateurs.  Thanks again to all my friends (and my husband) for helping me pull it off!

This weekend I've been scrambling to prepare for a dinner on Tuesday night, at which I will cook for up to 80 people.  This will be the largest group I've ever cooked for by a factor of three, and I'm excited to take on the challenge.  Oh, and an added challenge: I'm working on a budget of 80 baht (US$2.63) per head.  How did I get roped into this?

Two months ago, my friend Doug, an expat American to whom I was introduced by a friend from the San Francisco Int'l Asian American Film Festival, invited me to an event called the "River Space Dinner Party and Talk".

The dinners are inspired by Jim Haynes and his famous Paris dinners which have lasted for more than 30 years. Jim's son, Jesper, helped launch the Bangkok dinners at the River Space a few months ago.  Jim described his dinners during a piece on NPR's All Things Considered:

Here in Bangkok, the dinners are held twice a month in a second floor flat on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, immediately next to the Millenium Hilton hotel.  The space is used for various arts events and is mostly just a large, open space.

The space is spectacularly situated, though, just above a small market and adjacent to the local ferry pier.  The reflection of the setting sun bathes the banks of the river in shades of purple and pink as residents who live on the west side of the river commute home.

The dinners are cooked by volunteers in a kitchen that is, to be generous, under-equipped.  But there are plenty of hands willing to pitch in, which is the important thing.  As I'm preparing to cook on Tuesday, most of my thoughts are about the strategy of how I'm going to do this in the most organized manner.  What tools will I need, what equipment, what supplies?

The meal served when I attended in April.  Potato salad, green salad, quiches (made at home by the head chef), and a wonderful strawberry triffle.  One of the things I've realized is that to cook effectively in this space requires a lot of advance cooking at home.

When I say "under-equipped", you get the idea when you watch Doug contorting himself as he tries to make garlic bread for what was about 50 people using only a tiny toaster oven.  Needless to say, I was dragooned into the kitchen, willingly, and helped prepare the garlic bread.

So that's the challenge I'm facing.  Having given a lot of thought to the meal, I've adapted, updated, and revised my proposed menu several times.  Finally, Friday night I cooked a "proof of concept" meal, to make sure the recipes worked (at a small scale) and would be on-budget.

The menu as it stands today: Mixed grains and vegetable salad with a sherry vinaigrette; stir-fried chicken marinated in green curry; and a yogurt relish with cucumbers and tomatoes.  The homemade bread and hummus will not make the cut.  Instead, the garlic bread and a green salad will be provided by another person.  And for dessert?  Saturday night I did another "proof of concept" and served homemade buttermilk shortcake with mangoes and ginger whipped cream. 

Stay tuned to heard how it all turns out!

One of our dinners, per my sister's request, was at Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner restaurant at Knott's Berry Farm amusement park in Buena Park.  Knott's Berry Farm is "the other amusement park" in Orange County, located just up the road from Disneyland.  Jennifer requested that we go to Mrs. Knott's as she had fond memories from a visit there when we were children.

The history of Knott's dates back to 1920, when Walter Knott and his family sold berries and preserves from a roadside stand.

In 1934, to make ends meet, Knott's wife Cordelia (1890–1974) reluctantly began serving fried chicken dinners on their wedding china. For dessert, Knott's signature Boysenberry Pie was also served to guests dining in the small tea room. As Southern California developed, Highway 39 became the major north-south connection between Los Angeles County and the beaches of Orange County, and the restaurant's location was a popular stopping point for drivers making the two hour trip in those days before freeways.

These days, the wait for dinner is still long.  Admittedly, we were a larger group than normal - about 10 people - but the wait was still about an hour.

Prices have gone up over the years (by about 100 times) but the menu remains pretty much unchanged.  Frankly, this was more food than I wanted to have, as I was more interested in the boysenberry pie than anything else.  Walter Knott was responsible for naming and popularizing the boysenberry, a blackberry, raspberry, loganberry hybrid cross-bred by Rudolph Boysen of nearby Anaheim.

The interior of the restaurant, made up of several medium sized dining rooms, looks very run-down, badly in need of a makeover or, at least, a deep cleaning.

Buttermilk biscuit - okay, but not nearly as flaky or tasty as mine.

Rhubarb compote served chilled as a starter.  Very, very sweet.

Very sad salad.  "Farm fresh"?  Pathetic, really.

The main course itself - three pieces of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and corn.  The food was okay, although I found the chicken a bit oily and, like pretty much all chicken in the US, the meat lacked any discernable flavor.

The dessert - the boysenberry pie with ice cream - was pretty good.  So good that I managed to not get a picture of it!  But overall, the meal proved the conventional wisdom that things are better in our memories than they are in real life.  At least I was surrounded by family, so in good company for an otherwise mediocre dinner.

A nearly full moon climbs over the structure of GhostRider, the park's wooden coaster.

One of the biggest highlights of our vacation was spending time with Tawn's relatives.  Some time ago, I wrote about the complicated relationship I have with Tawn's father.  While he has acknowledged that I exist and we met on two occasions before I moved to Thailand, he doesn't want to confront that aspect of who Tawn is.  This is, broadly speaking, a typical "Asian father" sort of mindset. 

Because of that, we have had no interaction in the nearly six years that I've lived here.  Tawn's mother is very welcoming but around here, the man rules the roost, so I only rarely manage to see Tawn's mother or any other relative.  This has left me feeling a sense of disconnection from Tawn's side of the family, a stark contrast to the very close relationship Tawn has with my family.

Tawn's cousin and his family, me and Tawn, and my sister and her family.  When considered as a whole, I would call it "my family".

One big exception to the gulf that keeps me away from my in-laws is Tawn's aunt and uncle in Los Angeles.  Tawn's aunt is his father's older sister.  She and her husband moved to LA more than four decades ago and raised a family there, three boys who are around our ages, and now five grandchildren.  Since first visiting them almost a decade back, they have been very accepting, supporting us, welcoming us into their family, and advocating on our behalf.

Two of their three sons still live in Los Angeles.  I hadn't seen them since that first visit but we stay in touch regularly through Facebook.  This vacation presented the perfect opportunity not only to see them and meet their children, but also to introduce their family to my family and bridge that disconnect I feel.

We were able to meet with one cousin, Pete, and his wife and two girls Saturday afternoon at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.  (A mighty fine aquarium, I'll add.)  The girls are roughly the same ages as my nieces (although Emily is a head taller than Jessie), so it provided them some new friends to meet and made it easier to break the ice.

Both Jessie and Sydney are very cute and outgoing.  After about a half-hour of walking through exhibits, Sydey tugged on my pants leg and asked if she could hold my hand.  Later on, Jessie stopped me and said, "Can I tell you something?  You're really nice."  I'm not sure what she expected, but am glad I made a good impression.

Lots of interactive exhibits kept Sydney, Jessie, Ava, and Emily entertained and engaged.

After spending several hours together, we met up for dinner with the other cousin, Don, his wife and three children, and Tawn's aunt and uncle.  Spread across a very large table - we ended up being 17 people! - I got to know Tawn's cousins better, seemed to be the center of attention for their children, and for a few hours felt less disconnected to Tawn's side of the family.

Unfortunately we didn't take a picture as I'd love to show you that lovely group.  But picture or no, it was still a wonderful opportunity to get together and, for me, helped a bit to bridge the gap that I feel.  I know many married couples don't have close relationships with their in-laws.  Ultimately, though, I'd like to have as close a relationship with Tawn's family as he has with mine.

For our vacation with my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces, we opted to rent a three-bedroom house in Hermosa Beach, just two blocks from the Pacific Ocean.  Not only did this work out quite reasonably financially - roughly $400 a night - but it gave us a lot more room than a hotel would have, plus the ability to easily cook our own food and do our own laundry.

Tawn leads a junior yoga class, which was surprisingly effective at helping the girls calm down, focus, and not get into squabbles with each other.  Maybe we should sign them up for daily classes?

Actually, we didn't rent one house, but two.  The initial house was booked for our final three nights but the property manager had another similar house just three blocks away, so we moved into that one.  I have to really credit this lady, she was super friendly and very helpful.  If you are ever looking to rent a vacation home in Los Angeles, I'd be happy to recommend either of her two properties.  (This is the first house, a 3br/3 ba and this is the second house, a 3 br/1ba.)

We did a little less cooking at home than I had anticipated, but we did eat at least breakfast at home each day, allowing for some cost savings.  As soon as we moved in I made a big (2 pound) batch of pizza dough and kept it in the refrigerator for use in a couple of meals.  Who doesn't like pizza?  Here's the girls shape their own pizzas.

And there's the finished but not-yet-cooked product, ready to go into the oven.  Their dough ended up kind of triangle shaped, huh?

And of course there was room for everybody to pitch in with cleaning up and loading the dishwasher.

Once you do that, we can bundle up (it was chilly by the beach in the evenings) and head to Pinkberry for some dessert.

The second house we were in had TVs in each room, something I wouldn't approve of at home but certainly fine for a vacation home.  That provided everyone with the opportunity to lounge in bed in the morning and watch cartoons.  As you can tell from this picture, we had already gone to Disneyland and everybody (including Tawn) had their stuffed animal.

A view of Tawn walking along the Strand, the 22-mile class 1 paved pedestrian/skater/bicycle path that stretches along pretty much all of Los Angeles County's western coast from Pacific Palisades to Torrance.  This grey overcast was a fixture of our vacation, at least when we were near the beach.

Late Sunday morning, Tawn and I returned home from two weeks in the United States.  While I still have a bit more to share about the trip, and will continue to blog about it in the coming days - including about some other restaurants we ate at! - I wanted to let you know that we were back in Bangkok so that you don't get confused about what would otherwise seem to be a month-long vacation!

Here's a short video I shot on the taxi ride in from the airport, where I discovered some helpful and slightly shocking tourist materials.

The main objective for our vacation in Los Angeles was to take my nieces, ages eight and five, to Disneyland.  They have never been to California, nor to any of the Disney parks, and the last time my sister went was at least two dozen years ago, so it seemed like the right time.

At their California location, Disney now has two theme parks: the original Disneyland and California Adventure, which is more geared to the Pixar characters than the classic Disney ones.  Since there were two parks, we decided to get a two-day park-hopper pass.  One thing we learned was that you do not have to use the passes for consecutive days.  This is helpful because going to an amusement park can wear you out.  Doing it two days in a row with young children can be overwhelming.  As I observed while walking around the park, Disneyland may be the "Happiest Place on Earth" but it is also the most tearful!

We arrived a few minutes before opening time the first day, a Thursday, tickets already purchased online and printed out at home.  Thankfully, the typical Southern California weather pattern known as the "June gloom" lasted most of the day, giving us cool temperatures (around 70 F) and an overcast sky that made walking around the park a pleasant experience.

Crowds were not too heavy and we used the FastPass system to secure tickets to the most popular rides - the recently reopened Star Tours, for example - so that we did not have to wait in line for a long time.  One thing we learned is that when the park opens, most people head to their right into Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, and not to their left into Frontierland, Adventureland, and New Orleans Square.  If you want to beat the crowds, head to the left and do those rides first.

I was shocked to discover a sign leading into Mickey's Toon Town that has a spelling mistake!  Do these things really happen in the Disney organization?

For lunch we ate at Cafe Orleans in New Orleans Square.  For amusement park food, it was pretty decent eating.  I may write a post with the pictures of the food later on.  For now, I will share a picture of the Mickey Mouse shaped beignets.

Among my niece's many objectives was collecting autographs from the various characters, including the princesses.  At the back of Fantasyland is a Princess Pavilion, which offers various princess-themed activities as well as the opportunity to meet princesses from the different Disney films throughout the day.  Ava and Emily met Belle, Cinderella, and Mulan (pictured above), to name just a few.  I'll give credit to the young ladies who play the princesses: they do an amazing job of being tirelessly friendly, gracious, and engaging for their young guests.

Something fun to do at Disneyland is to look for the hidden Mickeys.  These are representations of the Mickey Mouse silhouette that are intentionally, but subtly, placed throughout the park.  Can you spot the hidden Mickey in the above picture of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad?

Our first day at the park went very well.  We were there about twelve hours - from opening to closing - and except for one minor bit of lunchtime moodiness by niece number one, everyone was in good spirits the whole day.  Above, the section of the It's A Small World ride that is themed after Thailand.

The following Monday we headed back to Anaheim, this time to spend most of our day at Disney's California Adventure.  This newer park is themed around various areas of California, including Hollywood, the aviation industry of Southern California, the beach boardwalks and amusement piers found along the coast, etc.  As you can see from the above picture, it was a sunnier day.  While the temperature was only about five degrees higher (75 F), the intense sunlight made it a much tougher day for everyone.

There is an area of the park called A Bug's Land, themed around the Pixar animated film, A Bug's Life.  It offered a number of fun rides that were perhaps just a little too juvenile for our nieces.  The above ride is called Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, named after the caterpillar in the film with an insatiable appetite.

On the Hollywood Studios Backlot, the girls pretended to talk to each other on a variety of different phone booths ostensibly used in different movie sets.  With the hot sun shining on us and a greater amount of open space reflecting that heat, we experienced some after-lunch defections.  Tawn left the park and went to the next door Downtown Disney shopping and entertainment district to seek out some air conditioned comfort in a movie theatre and my brother-in-law and older niece went back to the Disneyland park, which has a bit more shade.

My sister, younger niece, and I persevered, though, and took a ride on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.  This drop tower thrill ride is a lot of fun and my adventurous five-year old niece (who is only an inch taller than the minimum height requirement), announced upon exiting from the ride, "Let's go again!"  

We concluded our visit to the Disneyland parks by stumbling into Mickey Mouse back on Main Street USA, letting the girls collect their most prized autograph of all.  Hindsight being 20-20, I think we could have stuck with just a single day of Disney, visiting Disneyland and not the California Adventure park.  But it was a fun visit nonetheless and was probably the highlight of the trip.

As my last few days of work came to an end, it was time to head to LAX and pick up my sister, her husband, and my two nieces for our week of vacation together.  They arrived on an early evening flight, just as the sun was setting over the iconic Theme Building and the newer, although still modern, control tower.

Our first lunch in LA was at the Southern California icon, In-N-Out Burger.  The chain, which dates from 1948, introduced the idea of a drive-through hamburger restaurant.  While this may seem like an incredibly pedestrian idea today (pun intended), back in the 40s, carhops served food to customers in their cars.  The idea of driving through the restaurant was a perfect fit for the budding car culture that helped define Los Angeles.

While we can debate who has the best hamburgers, something that is a matter of personal taste as much as anything else, In-N-Out provides very high quality burgers and all the ingredients are fresh, never frozen.  The company makes their own hamburger patties in-house and potatoes are cut into fries throughout the day at each location.

Nearly every In-N-Out has the same basic layout and cleanliness prevails.  This is the only restaurant at which I've ever seen employees cleaning the underside of tables.

The kitchen is open, so you can look on as your burger is made.  It is organized chaos, a system that is impressive to watch.  From what I've heard, employees are treated quite well.  Minimum wage is $10 an hour and various benefits are offered, unusual for a fast food employer.  Service is always friendly and helpful.

Here's the food itself - a Double Double (two patties, two slices of cheese) with freshly-leafed lettuce, grilled onions, and a slice of tomato.  The fries are very different from fries at most restaurants.  This is because they have never been frozen and aren't pre-treated with sugar sprays or anything else like that.  Just fresh potatoes, sliced by hand, then plunged into the fryer.

We took the girls to the In-N-Out that is located just off the end of runway 24R at LAX, the perfect place to sit, sip a shake, eat a burger, and watch the jets come roaring in on final approach.  An excellent introduction to Los Angeles for first-time visitors!

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I'm fortunate that I have a very good working relationship with my boss and colleagues and enjoy my job and the company at which I work.  Because of the twists of circumstance surrounding my move to Thailand more than five years ago, my current manager was my subordinate's subordinate before I moved.  For my trip to Los Angeles, she and another of my colleagues traveled out to meet me for two and a half days of meetings.  One evening we dined at an Italian restaurant in Hermosa Beach called Buona Vita.

Buona Vita is on Pier Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Hermosa Beach.  I first went here back in 1995-6, when I lived in LA for my second time.  A colleague, who was of Italian heritage, loved going here because the food reminded her of her grandmother's cooking.

There are actually two dining rooms, located about four doors apart.  One is the trattoria, pictured above, and the other is the pizzeria.  My recollection, though, is that you can order the same menu items at both restaurants.

We started by sharing the Insalate di Pollo e Formaggio di Capra, mixed greens served with chicken, tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, basil, and goat cheese.  I remember this salad from my visits more than a decade ago and it is every bit as good today.  In fact, with a little bread, two people could share this salad and have a perfectly healthy meal.

Our main courses looked a little more "American Italian".  I had Polenta Bolognese - grilled polenta (a cornmeal cake) with meat sauce and melted mozzarella.

My manager enjoyed Lasagna Di Carne - a meat lasagna with Bolognese sauce and ricotta and mozzarella cheeses.  Both these dishes were very good but even before digging in we cut the portions, placing about two-thirds in a two-go box and eating only a third.  Portion sizes were too large.

My colleague had Spaghettini Alla Checca - thin spaghetti noodles, fresh tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, dressed in basil and olive oil.  Portion size was more reasonable and it was overall lighter in composition. 

For dessert we tried two things.  The first was the tiramisu.  This seems very different at each restaurant.  I like that this version was less gloppy.  The espresso and liquer mixture was much lighter and the dessert didn't taste boozy.

I had the cheesecake which was fine but uninspiring.  The whipped topping doesn't taste like cream.  I might be wrong, but it tasted more like whipped "topping" rather than whipped cream.

And here is my colleague and my manager.  All in all, the meal was very enjoyable and food and service were good.  The pasta dishes are a bit heavy and portion size is large, but the salad was certainly a hit.

Sunday morning (last Sunday, a week ago), Tawn and I concluded our visit with high school friends, enjoying a tasty brunch in the home of Aaron, Lalima, and their family.  A simple meal of Indian style scrambled eggs, chicken sausage and gravy, and buttermilk biscuits.  We really enjoyed the opportunity to visit our friends and appreciate that three of them made the flight down from the Bay Area so we could spend this time together.

In the afternoon, we headed to Venice Beach and met Gary and W for a spot of tea at Jin Patisserie.  This cute place is on Abbot Kinney Boulevard and is a regular stop for us when we're in Los Angeles.  We also made a brief stop at Three Square Bakery, located across the street from Jin, to pick up some pretzels and whole grain bread.

The cake of the day was, if I recall correctly, a sponge cake with mango mousse and strawberries.  Or something like that.  Clearly, I should have taken notes.

Gary had a chocolate cake that was very pretty.  I didn't try it, though.  He didn't leave any crumbs, though, so it must have been tasty!

As Sunday came to an end the first "vacation" portion of my trip came to an end, too, as I returned to work all day Monday and Tuesday and the first half of Wednesday.  My manager and another colleague flew into town for meetings with me, and then my manager's manager and her manager came into town, too, resulting in an impromptu multi-level meeting.  While I generally would not want to interrupt vacation with work, I enjoy my job and am close to my colleagues so it was nice to be able to see them and have the sort of strategic meetings that are difficult to do via teleconference.