My Dreams - In the Sky

Recently I've been playing in the water and I do love the beach.

But there's something that nothing else can top... the sky. Since I was little, I've been dreaming about flying. Not in the airplane, not with a hang glider, just all by myself nothing attached.

Pretty much like these guys... They are my heroes... One day, one day!
It's really too bad humans don't have wings.


I almost cried when I first saw this... imagining how wonderful it would feel to be flying so fast in these beautiful mountains


What a rush, what a rush!

Junk Snack of Doom X_x

What kind of snack will make you squirt bloody red shit? What kind of snack will give you diarrhea even when you don't have food allergy whatsoever?

THIS KIND DOES!!!

Flamin' Hot Cheetos used to be my lunch when I was in high school. That was pretty much the only thing I ate for lunch for at least a year. I loved the vivid fake chili-red color and the flavor of spice you can't quite figure out what it was from.

The other day when I got to the office, I got really hungry. So I went to the vending machine and threw 85 cents. I was going to buy something else but I heard Flamin' Hot Cheetos calling me. Hmm... it brings back good ol' lunch memory. To answer its voice, I pressed the button and saw it drop at the bottom of the machine with joy scream.

If you haven't eaten Flamin' Hot Cheetos, let me tell you, its artificial red color is notorious. The moment you lay our fingers on it, you can't tell if they are your fingers or a bloody tampon. You'll have to wipe your mouth with a paper napkin like 10 million times after you're done or your lips will stay like a vampire mouth. How hot is it? It's pretty damn hot for junk snack. Some people who don't have spice tongue cannot eat one. What's making it hot? I don't want to know, so I never looked at the back. But it is hot enough to make you suck the air to let the cold air in sometime.

So I ate it around 11am. Time past by and I had a late lunch at pho place around 3:30pm. As soon as I started walking back after eating around 4pm, my stomach started to hurt. As soon as I got back to the office, I rushed to the washroom. HOLY SHIT MY ASS HURTS!!! Ok people, it may sound gross but I looked at what kind of bomb I dropped. Well, it wasn't a solid bomb... I saw a bloody red lake down there.

Let's look at a paragraph above that described what would happen to your fingers and mouth. Now, imagine that is happening to your ass. Well, that exactly was what happened to my ass. Yes, it forced me to wipe my ()*() 10 million times.

Flamin' Hot Cheetos is the Junk Snack of Doom.

Food Junkie #5: The Lido Grill [BYOB + Tapas Bar]

Bring your own wine, enjoy great tapas and indulge yourself with live flamenco show. Introducing The Lido Grill, a Spanish tapas restaurant located in Marina Del Rey, a couple blocks from Venice Beach where social eating/drinking is brought to another level.

The Lido Grill is a Spanish tapas restaurant that can hold probably maximum of 50 people. I was there Thursday night and all tables were occupied. I went there with a group of 8, we wouldn't have had a seat without reservation. It's a BYOB restaurant. When I got there, I saw 5 bottles of wine sitting on the table already. That made me happy already (I didn't know it's a BYOB place so I got there empty handed... ding it). Oh ya, before I forget, they ask you $5 for a cover charge. Valet parking is only $3, though (street parking is easy to find around the block as well).

I didn't check the menu thoroughly and didn't have a chance to enjoy all the tapas dishes brought to the table (long story but I was on the phone the half of the time), but their food is pretty good. I tried their Garlic Olive (hmmmmmmmmmmm!!!), Mussel, Skewer Chicken, Lamb, Pork, Steak on bread, etc etc. You drink your wine munching on these little dishes and chit-chat for a while.

Then here comes the flamenco live show. There is a hard-wooden floor stage where everyone in the restaurant can see. I enjoyed the show fully.

It's hard to see but you get the idea...

Because it's a BYOB, you don't have to worry about $$$. We were there drinking and chatting for about 3 hours and the total cost, including tips and tax, was only $15 each person. Sweet!

The Lido Grill is a great place to hang out on week nights getting together with your friends to socialize. The food is good, live show is great, the atmosphere is very nice, and it's very economical. The only thing is that I did not see small tables (there were 1-2 small tables but rather in an awkward spot), so it may not be suitable for dating situation.

The Lido Grill
417 Washington Blvd
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 577-3030
Reservation recommended. Flamenco shows are available during certain periods. You should check with them before you go.

By the way, though I don't agree with the reviews, they are getting rather poor ratings on review sites. There are other tapas bars if you want to check other options in Greater LA area. I would still go to The Lido though because it's so close to my place :P

Food Junkie #4: Tara's Himalayan Cuisine

One of my good colleagues sent me a Yelp restaurant review link for Tara's Himalayan Kitchen (formally known as Katmandu Kitchen). This Nepalese/Himalayan/Tibetan restaurant is located on Venice Blvd. in West LA, a few blocks from 405 Venice exit. My colleague who sent me lives in Hollywood and it would take him some effort to come to this place without knowing how good it is, so he wanted me to try this first. Well, he knows that when it comes to food, I wouldn't say no.

And, he was right. I decided to try out this restaurant the same night. Luckily enough I was able to grab a good friend of mine whose passion for food is as much as I do, if not more, so I was able to try more than one main dish. Anyways, below is the review I wrote to my colleague.

----------------------

So I went to Tara's Himalayan Cuisine last night. Supposedly they close at 10pm, and I got there around 9:20pm. I asked them when the last order was and they said "hmm around 10pm, it's ok, we can make it." I ended up staying till around 10:45pm and they did not complain a thing. All waiters/waitresses are very nice and polite. The atmosphere is semi-casual, ok for dating as well. There are 1hr- and 2-hr street parking around the restaurant. There are also a couple parking spots available just around the restaurant, but it's not easy to recognize that they are parking spots. If you can't find a spot, go into the restaurant and ask them where you can park. Someone there walked out and showed me where I can park last night.

DRINK (I didn't have alcohol)
Anyways, the food was pretty good. For drink, I had Strawberry Lassi. It's a flavored yogurt drink and it tastes pretty much like slightly sour frozen yogurt in liquid form. I liked it a lot. It's very refreshing. Some other Lassi has spice in it, too. My friend had some kind of hot tea and she said it goes well with the food.

APPETIZER
For appetizer, I had Vegetable Momos. It's basically dumplings with some beans and some other vegetables with curry-based dip. Pretty good. I only had vegetable momos since my friend is a vegetarian, but there are meat momos, too.

Vegetable Momos

MAIN DISH
For main dish, I had Chicken Sekuwa. Ovened sizzling chicken on the hot plate, marinated with herbs, garlic, ginger, etc. This was pretty good. I would recommend you include this in your order option. Rice comes with all dishes with the green sauce (I forgot the name). The green sauce can be applied to your dishes to boost up the flavor. Oh, when the dishes come, DON'T FORGET TO SQUEEZE THE LIME. I didn't do that till the end but dishes taste much better with lime juice.

Chicken Sekuwa

Besides white rice, I had Onion Naan. It's baked with minced onion and it was rather flavorful. Good to eat with your meal for sure.

Their specialty is supposed to be tandori dishes. My friend ordered Fish Tandori (salmon). To my disappointment, it did not have unique flavor that's different from other places. It was not bad, but you can get it somewhere else. I would not recommend this.

Fish Tandoori

DESSERT
For dessert, we had Gulab Jamman. It's a fried flour with very sweet syrup. For sweets lovers I guess it's good but it was way too sweet for me. The taste was good, though.

Gulab Jamman

Next time I go there, I want to try some lamb dishes. But I was pretty satisfied with Chicken Sekuwa this time.

Tara's Himalayan Cuisine is not a fancty gorgeous 5-star restaurant, but I would definitely go there again.

- Break down for 2 people -
Drink
1. Strawberry Lassi
2. Hot tea
Appetizer
3. Vegetable Momos
Main and Side Dish
4. Chicken Sekuwa
5. Onion Naan
6. Regular Naan
7. Fish Tandori
Dessert
8. Gulab Jamman
-------------------------------
Total Only $33

Good deal eh?

Tara's Himalayan Cuisine
10855 Venice Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 836-9696

Smile for No Reason

Woke up early in the morning when the sky was still dark.

Took a quick hot shower got my eyes filled with spark.

Hopped in the car and drove to the beach.

Dolphins already there playing in my reach.

Slipped into the suit and rushed to the water with a long board.

Sun came out.

Had fun surfing for an hour.

Got off and took a cold shower.

Hopped back in the car and drove slowly to work listening to music completely chillaxing.


[fuck rhyming I got lazy]


Smile popped in my face for no reason.

Let the smile take over my face.

Kept smiling all the way to work.

Just felt great as if earth spirits casted a spell on me.



What a great feeling.

The whole day was fun for no reason.



The next morning I went back to the beach this time without a board just to say hi.

Sat on the sand watching people play with the waves.

Walked around the beach to feel the breeze.

Smile popped out again just because.



What a great feeling.

Smiling for no reason.