Despite the fact that I’ve made it abundantly easy for me to have a healthy breakfast at work (tasty low-fat granola and coconut milk at both of my two desks) cinnamon rolls keep calling my name. At this point, I’m starting to worry that I truly am addicted. No matter; I’ve now found 10 more reasons to indulge — even on the weekend! — thanks to LA Weekly’s list of the 10 best cinnamon rolls in Los Angeles. Uh oh …
I crave Mediterranean/Middle Eastern food like nothing else – and ever since my trip to Egypt and Jordan, I’ve been craving Arabic coffee even more. So it was only natural that my first stop on Los Angeles Magazine’s list of 101 Cheap Eats (Summer Bucket List item #21) was Momed.
Nestled among designer fashion stores and ultra modern cafes lined with rows of glimmering luxury cars, Momed, on Beverly Hills’ Beverly Drive, doesn’t exactly give off the “cheap” vibe. And to be honest, it actually isn’t all that cheap (perhaps by Beverly Hills standards). But it’s worth it.
From the moment we walked in, I couldn’t take my eyes off the brightly colored meze (salads) beckoning to diners from a refrigerated glass case. In fact, my first thought was to start with the $16 three-item meze combo. The boy reeled me back a little and suggested we start with just one meze before the main dish. I reluctantly agreed and before long we were devouring the muhammara, a subtly sweet blend of roasted red pepper, walnuts and pomegranate served with wheat pitas.
As I eagerly anticipated my main course — the absolutely delicious and return-worthy duck shawarma with oven-dried tomatoes, figs and garlic spread – I was pleasantly surprised to see mint lemonade, just about the most refreshing thing you can drink, on the menu.
We wrapped it up with Arabic coffee – just the way I like it, with a hint of cardamom, although I could’ve used just a pinch more – and three desserts. Yes, you read that right. We simply couldn’t decide. With a baklava combo that included regular and chocolate versions of the honey- and pistachio-filled filo dough treat and baklava bread pudding on the menu, who could?!
All in all, it was an incredible meal. Cheap? No. But worth every penny.
My goal was to post this on Wednesday, the official first day of summer, but that didn’t quite pan out. (Not a good start to my jam-packed, goal-filled summer.) I have an excuse, though: I wanted to find the perfect background picture with which to create an awesome graphic that would surely inspire me to zoom right through my 30 summer bucket list items. I’m still working on that part, so in the meantime, I’m making this official …
I’m doing a summer bucket list!!!
Summer has a way of biting me in the butt and making me want to go on a thousand adventures. I think it’s the extra sunshine. I pretty much run on solar power. So I decided to create a list of all the fun things I have in store for myself this summer. The best part is I’m planning to blog about all of it, so you’ll have a front-row seat to my adventures and, I’m sure, misadventures. And maybe you’ll even create a bucket list of your own and post it in our comments. Wouldn’t that be just delightful?! Before I use any more exciting punctuation, let’s get to this list:
Sounds pretty cool, right? I think so. Let the summer officially begin!
Sometimes when I go to places like Ojai or Los Olivos or watch Gilmore Girls or basically any show about suburban life in the ’50s, I wonder what it must be like to live in one of these tiny towns where everyone knows everyone and people spend lazy afternoons eating ice cream in the park. I think I might finally know.
Last week, I started house sitting in Monrovia, a hidden gem (and virtual time warp) just off the intersection of the 210 and 605 freeways. I don’t know if it was just the particular weekend I spent there or if this is the norm in Old Town Monrovia (a stretch of small businesses, shops and restaurants extending down Myrtle Ave), but over the course of a single weekend, there was a street fair, a farmer’s market, a parade, music in the park, a clown on stilts blowing balloons, a woman playing a violin outside the local movie theater … I mean, everything was just so pleasant it was hard to believe it was actually real. I had to resist the temptation to walk up to random strangers to ask if they were actually just extras in an elaborate remake of The Andy Griffith Show. The town is charming to say the least. And it seems so tucked away yet it’s barely 10 minutes from the freeway. Leaving Monrovia for a friend’s birthday party in Beverly Hills on Saturday felt like entering a foreign land — or maybe leaving one, I’m not sure.
Jury’s still out on whether small town life is for me. Perhaps if there were a beach nearby? I’m certainly a fan of the local eats. Here’s what I’ve tried so far:
The Peach Cafe – The Monte Cristo is to die for!
Cafe Massillia – A great spot for classic French dishes at reasonable prices — and they just opened a new location in Yorba Linda.
Mediterranean Garden Grill – All my favorite staples (tabbouleh, kibbeh, shawarma, kabobs, baklava) and a hookah happy hour if you’re so inclined.
I’m still eating my way through this quaint little town and trying to understand exactly how it can stay so quaint, but I would highly recommend a visit if for nothing more than to marvel.
{Photo via Gem City Images}
I’ve started seeing watermelon at the grocery store. Summer is almost officially here! Oh, picnics and outdoor events and beach days, how I cannot wait for you to arrive. So I’ll make you arrive early with this delightful watermelon juice recipe from Sugar and Charm that sounds perfect for an afternoon on the porch.
There’s no way something that looks this good can be good for you. But I really think it might be. I’m loving this snack idea from Caitlin Levin on Justina Blakeney’s blog not only for its healthy yet drool-worthy looks but also because its lets me avoid biting into a whole apple, which I really hate. Weird, I know.
Also, kudos to my lovely friend Irvina for alerting me (via Pinterest) to Justina’s adorable blog and this other scrumptious recipe.
{Photo via Justina Blakeney}
I know we’ve posted a lot about cookies — especially the chocolate chip variety. But when you see an image like this, how can you resist? And this is exactly my kind of recipe: It calls for a muffin pan (check!) store-bought dough (check!), chocolate chips (check!) and a plastic bag (check!). That’s it! Of course, you could get all fancy and make your own dough, but I just love that Kevin & Amanda are all for the store-bought variety, too.
… This could be dangerous.
Happy National Pi Day, everyone! For those of you whose last venture into the world of math was a college communications math class (me), Pi Day is the one day each year when true math fans delight at the aligning of calendar days and the mathematical constant for circles that is March 14, 3/14, 3.14. No matter how you slice it, today’s the day to eat copious amounts of pie and fill your blogs with as many pie/pi puns as possible. So I’m rounding out the day with a list of some of the best-looking pies around, starting with this looker (above) from Bakerella that is pretty much my dream-come-true.
3.14 more pies that strike my fancy:
1. Blackberry Apple Pie from Good Things Grow
2. Pies in a jar from All Jarred Up
3. Apple Pie Caramel Apples from The Girl Who Ate Everything
.14. Blueberry Pie Wontons from Cheeky Kitchen (technically these aren’t round, but put a few of them together and you can probably get something resembling a circle)
Continuing with my breakfast theme for this week, how good does this look? And I love that it’s so quick and easy to make. Time to finally get those steel cut oats out of the pantry and into my stomach.
{Photo and recipe via This Homemade Life}
I love breakfast. And it’s become one of my new favorite things about the weekend: waking up to enjoy a nice big cup of coffee and an old eggy favorite or, every so often, something more unique. I must admit, I get a little disappointed when I travel someplace that doesn’t go all out for breakfast. So I’m loving this list put together by Hostelbookers.com of some of the 50 most fantastic breakfasts around the world.
Time to re-scramble (no pun intended) my top 10 must-go locations … The Moroccan, Portuguese, Brazilian, Italian and Filipino breakfasts (pictured above) are some of my standout favorites.
Also, how crafty and awesome is it that Hostelbookers.com also offers backpacker recipes?
[Photos via Hostelbookers.com]
