Weekend eats and my grandfather’s 92nd birthday brunch

This weekend was really relaxed, which is necessary in preparation for the next months. I have a TON of travel coming up, and will be on anywhere from 1-5 flights every week from now through the beginning of January. Blog world - does anyone have any recommendations (restaurants, activities, etc) for Phnom Penh, Shanghai or Hong Kong? Please, please shoot me an e-mail! Nate and I will be celebrating Thanksgiving in Cambodia, and then be traveling to China with my family over the holidays. Okay back to the weekend - I did lots of cooking, blogging, running, saw Nightcrawler (!!) and most importantly, celebrated my grandfather’s 92nd birthday. Thursday travels included these two out-of the-ordinary in-flight experiences…

Well hello there you middle seat surprise!!!!!

Check out the alien with the face mask next to me..

Friday eats included this insane tuna melt from Mendocino Farms in Downtown LA. I can’t believe I’ve never been to the LA institution before! Dinner was sushi on Sawtelle Ave at Hide with my parents.

Saturday I met my friend Adam on the newly bougie-fied Rose Ave in Venice for brunch at Flake. More tuna..this time in salad form. We also went next door to Moon Juice, which has a cultish following here in LA. Sampled a hibiscus lemonade (amazing) and then a Raw Vegan Carrot Cake with Cashew Probiotic “Cream Cheese”. I was really excited about this because I LOVE carrot cake and enjoy most raw desserts, but it was actually really disgusting. Adam could barely bring the fork up to his mouth. I would recommend Moon Juice…for the juice. We walked around Venice boardwalk after to admire the drum circles.

Avoiding these next time.

Sunday was brunch at Joe’s Restaurant on Abbot Kinney for my grandfather’s 92nd 29th birthday! He is the MOST remarkable man and has been a truly wonderful grandfather to me. I am lucky that I grew up right around both sets of grandparents, and most of my family as well. Always a great time to get everyone together.

All the ladies!

Publicly shaming my mother for picking around the crusts…

We enjoyed a lot of different brunch dishes. Here my uncle so artfully displays his salmon bowl with kimchi and a fried egg. Potential future blogger right here!

My mom had the smoked trout eggs benedict (hollandaise on the side - now you see where I learn these tricks!)

I steered away from tuna (for once) and dug into the Huevos Rancheros.

Afterwards, we did a slow walk down Abbot Kinney to admire the $6,000 purses.

Camera never too far

And I’ll leave you with this great shot of my parents. Sally the dog is infamously un-photogenic.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekends, as well!

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