Biggs & Featherbelle

I should have posted this last week but we'll just chalk it up to my being a bad person....

See that banner?

<---That one? Yeah. You know you've been all good in this recession, saving your pennies, not going out and buying new sewing machines or designer shoes (ahem, well, moving on...), so do something nice for yourself, at a discounted price of course. I was introduced to the fabulousness of Biggs & Featherbelle at Felt Club, and even discussed them before in this odd little soapbox of mine. But now you can try them without the hesitation of, well, full price. Just use their BIGGSALE discount code until Wednesday (4/1) at 1pm and you get 50% off EVERYTHING.

The real steal is getting their fabulous soap for $2.50 per bar. That's outstanding. But, in the interest of full disclosure, I did most of my damage in the bath soak section. Their bath salts & soaks are just fabulous. And then I decided to try a few of their scrubs...and well, a large box will be arriving at my house hopefully in the very near future.

Enjoy!

Huckleberry Cafe

For the record, I'm a devoted Daily Candy follower. I can't remember how I first heard of them. But they've served me well for years, haircuts, food, sample sales and such what not. So, when they talked about Huckleberry Cafe, I tossed it on my to do list.

We went on a Saturday, about 11ish. I thought we'd be safe, before the lunch rush. We even scored a spot in the parking lot in back. This is already going really well!

Then we walked in.

Total. Chaos.

This contrast off good news/bad news becomes a theme.

Its not super clear how to order but we figured out that there's sort of a line that you stand in until someone talks to you to take your order. But, the HUGE menu board above the counter...yeah, that doesn't apply on the weekends. You can order only from the wee weekend menus on the counter.

The girl taking our order was sweet and answered our questions as far as how to order, what they specialize in and all the things you ask the first time to a place. As luck would have it, what we wanted to eat were on both boards. She hands our order down the line. After we shuffle down to pay. I'm asking the cashier questions....silly things like, can we sit outside, how do we get our drinks. She's ignoring me. Awesome. Whatever, we pay. I'm committed and hungry at this point.

No tables.

Seriously, if I'm paying $35 for lunch for two people (and by I, I mean Todd) and I'm ordering at a deli counter, I don't think a table is too much to ask for.

A few minutes pass and we were able to scout a table. Score! But one of the many, many employees there didn't really appreciate my asking for it to be cleared. As I watch the many, many employees mingle I see they're divided into two camps - 1) those who are serious about the food service industry and are obviously there to learn. They hustle and get stuff done and have a great attitude; and 2) those who are just there for a job and would rather serve food than clean up after the patrons.

I have to say our food was fantastic. For what it is, its expensive, but really good. (In case you're curious, I had the meatball sandwich while Todd tried the Fried Egg Sandwich.) The bread? Outstanding, baked fresh there. The pastries? Yup, made fresh there too. If I could convince someone to bring me lunch RIGHT NOW (whatever I'm hungry), I'd ask for them to go there. Yeah, it was that good. But, would I go there to sit and to eat again? No. For the cost, its far too much work. Should you try the food? Absolutely. And, you should bring me some bread, or at least a pastry.

Huckleberry Cafe - Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica at 10th - check their hours, they're still in their soft opening phase.

Here we Sew again

Apparently Monday has become sewing day here at Dear Diary. I'm not complaining. I just think my odd blogging habits are amusing.

We've covered Sewing 1A, so, lets move onto Sewing 1B.

As I'm sure you've correctly guessed by the outfit and the link above, I made the skirt. (And, seriously, that pose is not my fault. That tree was crying out for some cheese and the confusion on the faces of the IT guys standing out there smoking just strengthened my decision.)

Thanks to this class, I now understand the importance of French Seams, taking a waist measurement seriously and the excitement that comes when people do not ask you if you made something you're wearing. Besides, these classes are just fun. And, the more I take, the more confident I get about my sewing. When I cut the skirt out I had so much extra length (shut up, I know I'm short) that I was walking around class with it pinned up to the correct length as a bubble skirt. I'm not thinking I should have grabbed some tulle and made that bubble. Hmmm, ideas, ideas....

Anyways, here's a close up of the fabric. Something about the red roses on the pink & blue background spoke to me a few months ago at Michael Levine. And, as all knitters know, if fiber talks, you have to buy...or else it haunts.

And haunting is bad, especially in this economy...we have enough to think about without fabric following us around, taunting us because we didn't buy it.

Turtle Pants!

Yes, I did just type the words Turtle pants. See, I just did it again. Crazy right?

Ok, we've already discussed the Sewing Arts Center. But, I've never told/shown you what I've learned.

Sewing 1A.

If you've never used a sewing machine, or if you never really learned how to use a sewing machine, this is your class. Russell walks you through all the basics from fabric selection, to cutting out a pattern correctly to tools of the trade, to measuring yourself and yes, sewing. I dug this class and had a great time.

For the actual object you make, you do PJ pants. (I was even able to sneak in a second pair in a different size, different fabric, different thread.) For both pairs, I lived on the edge, did not measure myself or the intended victims, er, gift recipients, and just trusted that the size in the pattern would be about right. I mean, we're talking pj pants.

And Pair No. 1 fit! (Yes, they're just a smidge long but he wouldn't let me hem them.)

*Happy Dance*

Here's a close up of the turtles:

If you need turtles, Harts is currently out of stock but you could call up the nice ladies at Three Crafty Ladies in Florida. They have the fabric. I saw it a few weeks ago. In fact,they have pretty much every beach, nautical, oceanic, themed fabric in current existence. If you find yourself in that part of Florida, I highly recommend that shop.

Oh I'm Watching

Ok, I didn't love the last restaurant I went to and I have a strong if-I-don't-love-it-I-don't-blog- about-it policy, so we'll switch gears into movies. And, this one goes out to the ladies, and I say that because the movie was about 90% gentlemen and 10% ladies and really, there need to be more of the female persuasion represented.

Ladies, you want to see Watchmen. No really, you do.

I sort of wanted to see it. I mean, it looked like it would be amazing on screen. I'm easily amused by pretty colors and nifty costumes. And then I saw it. Yeah. Ladies, go now. Seriously.

Gentlemen, you can go as well. But judging by the hoards of you in the audience I really don't need to tell you to go.

Curiouser and Curiouser

Day 4 and the hits keep coming...

For anyone going to the Mar Vista Lanes and doesn't want "bowling alley food" have I got a treat for you. Directly across the street The Curious Palate has opened. I've read about it. I've wanted to go. And really, it surpassed the hype.

You walk in and it looks like a local deli. There are meats ready to be sliced, salami ready to be served and pickles ready to munch. But, if you look a little closer you see that every item is hand-picked. The pastrami is from Berkley. The pickles are home made. The drinks are somewhat unusual and somewhat familiar. It all sort of knocks you off your game, but in a good way.

I had the prosciutto panini with a small order of mac'n'cheese to share with the table. And by share I mean everyone got a bite while Steve & I pretty much hoarded the mac. It worked out well. The other sandwiches enjoyed were the pulled pork, egg salad and a meatloaf burger. Everyone was happy and no one shared...always a good sign.

I might have disagreed when one girl exclaimed that it was the "Best Chocolate Chip Cookie I've EVER had. And you know, I'm a chocolate cookie connoisseur." It was good. And they do have samples out so you can try it. And if you try it, you'll probably buy one. But since my mom doesn't bake commercially, I can't make statements like that. Though the "Not Fudge" brownie was tasty. I'm not sure why it was "not fudge" and I didn't think to ask. But it was good, "not fudge" and all.

For drinks, don't expect to order a Diet Coke. They do have the bottled Mexican Coke but their other sodas are fairly eclectic. I tried their Apple Cider. Yum!

Yeah, I don't think you'll go wrong here. Except you might show up for dinner when they're closed. Right now they're only open 10am - 6pm. Hopefully that'll change.

"And it was a land filled wit yogurt..."

Day three and I still have food to tell you about.

Yogurtland

This is Jenny's fault. And, by the way, since she is my self-appointed food Sherpa she really needs her own blog. Anyways.

Jenny comes into sewing class one night...

"Have you had Yogurtland, so good!"

Jenna: "No, what's Yogurtland?"

Jenny: "Its above Beard Papa on Sawtelle."

The conversation ended there; I was getting hungry and there was much sewing to do.

Fast forward a few weeks and I drag Todd in. And by drag I mean I asked if he could forgo Beard Papa for something new and he kicked the dirt a few times and agreed.

It was yogurt heaven. There were flavors upon flavors. And you get to do it yourself. And you can ask for wee cups to try the yogurt before you commit. And they have all these toppings. And its only $0.30 an ounce.

Jenny was absolutely right. It was so good. Unless you're my mom and frozen yogurt doesn't agree with you, you really need to try this place.

I was about to give you the address, but I just discovered that its coming to Westwood Village soon. This is going to be bad.

Santa Monica Seafood - New! Improved!

Apparently its food week here at Dear Diary. That's not a bad thing. Its about time I shook up my culinary routine. Eating in all the time, though good for the waist and the wallet, doesn't do much for the blog.

Santa Monica Seafood has comfortably moved into their new home at Wilshire & 10th. Its a beautiful space with an incredible array of food and, important to any Angelino, a parking lot. You can get, obviously, seafood as well as flowers, spices, beverages, salads and entrees either to eat in or to go. Saturday we seemed to arrive just before the mad rush of people. We even had time to be confused by the new layout. I mean, there are tables but at first we didn't see any servers but we did see the HUGE menu board. Do you order then sit down? Finally I saw a server and she pointed me to the empty host stand. We waited about 10 seconds before we were seated. Approximately 2 minutes after that about 8 different people wanted tables. Obviously, they didn't have my back up plan, so the had to wait and gaze longingly at our food.

Todd started with a New England Clam Chowder (yes, they have Manhattan as well). Why I didn't order a cup will forever confuse and haunt me. It was really good. For lunch I had the cioppino while he had the grilled Mahi Mahi. My cioppino was fabulous and they were kind enough to give me a HUGE wedge of bread with which to enjoy the broth. So. Good.

The food was excellent, the service was good and the prices were totally fair. However, this place is not for the timid. I will give the same advice for going to the market portion as for going to the restaurant: If you don't speak up you're going to get passed over for a table, or for us, our place in line at the market. With that said, I'd go back in a heartbeat and I've already told my mom to tell one of her friends that this is a must visit for her & her husband.

Korean + Taco Truck = Good Food

Anyone who has ever met me knows that I am really bad at math. But, they also know I'm really good at incredibly random combinations of ideas...hence the English Lit. major and the obsession with the legal system. So of course the idea of a Korean Taco truck just undid me. But their hours and locations weren't my thing. So I waited. And eventually they came to my hood at a time I was actually hungry.

8:30pm Friday night:

Jenna: [GPS in hand walking towards the door] "Ok, lets go!"

Todd: [reading the sports section of the paper] "What?"

J: "Aren't you hungry?"

T: [confused] "Yeah."

J: "Ok, lets go."

T: "Ok."

J: "You're driving."

T: "Where?"

J: "Head towards the village..."

And so it began. The area the truck was parked is technically in my hood but its behind fraternity row in that mess of apartments and narrow winding streets. I don't pretend to know that area well. So I grabbed the GPS, plugged in the intersection and we were off.

Since we'd never had their food and there was no formal menu ("Verbal menu tonight") we ordered a few times. Watching everyone order, most people had heard about Kogi but hadn't had it yet. So, don't feel stupid if you have a bunch of questions. They're used to it and were super cool to everyone.

I had the signature short rib tacos (FANTASTIC) while Todd tried the spicy pork (he loved it.) I did try the slider...not quite my thing but Todd was kind enough to finish for me.

After talking to the nice guy who takes your order (Eric?), we learned that there are now two trucks in this budding empire. We had the pleasure of eating from Verde. (Apparently Rojo is the original.)

Pretty much everything is $2. We were quite full when we left and we spent under $20 for the two of us. Honestly, its worth following them on Twitter (or the Twitter feed on their website) to find them; the food is that good and that unusual. For the Santa Monica kids out there, they go to SMC a few times a week. Apparently they could use some love at that location so go try a few tacos. You'll thank me.

Oh, and Ellen, if you'd like some pictures, here you go. Far better than what I would have taken with my camera phone in the dark.

Because all the cool kids are doing it...

1. Favorite Food: risotto
2. Hometown: Los Angeles
3. Favorite Color: Red
4. Celebrity Crush: Russell Crowe
5. Favorite Drink: Diet Coke
6. Dream Vacation: Tahiti
7. Favorite Dessert: Flourless Chocolate Cake
8. What I want to Be When I Grow Up: Grow up?
9. Name: Jenna
10. What/Who I Love Most in the World: Todd
11. One Word Describes Me: Random
12. Username: Radomile (Yeah, I cheated. There were no photos tagged with Radomile.)

You can do this too. Here's how:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search. (Please, go to Advanced Search and choose Creative Commons images only. Otherwise you are stealing.)
b. Pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into this free mosaic maker

A bit more on Ft. Myers

If you're in this area during Spring Training, I really can't recommend catching a game highly enough. The stadiums are small, pretty, new and the fans are super friendly. And, for the crafty girls out there who would sooner poke their eyes out with knitting needles than spend 3 house watching baseball, I've brought both knitting and needlepoint to the games and security couldn't have cared less. Total bonus.

Assuming they survive the recession, next time we travel down there, I'm going to hit one of the Italian markets. In our travels I saw two which didn't really surprise me given the number of east coasters who migrate to this area.

In willing violation of my own no chain rule, I took Todd to Five Guys for lunch on Saturday. He had never heard of it and based on recommendations from friends who had eaten at other branches, I knew he'd like it. What I didn't know is that they have huge open boxes of peanuts to keep you busy while you wait for your food. Yeah, they had Todd at the door. He agreed with my overall review of the place: GREAT burgers, so-so french fries and therefore very similar to In'n Out.

Welcome to Sunny Florida

Growing up in L.A. gives you such a skewed vision of the world. And, my latest trek to Florida illustrates many of those visions and their obvious flaws.

1. I never knew that there were baseball teams that played baseball INDOORS.

Huh? I had sort of heard about domes but growing up watching Dodger games and not really being the biggest baseball fan ever, I just assumed everyone played baseball outside.

Yeah, not so much. There are domes and some baseball teams are forced to play in them. Such is the fate of the sig. other's favorite team, the Twins. So, with Spring Training in effect, we headed back down to Ft. Myers to enjoy a few games in a beautiful stadium OUTSIDE.

2. Flying in winter is the same as flying any other time of year.

Duh, right? My flight to Dallas was early as was my connection to Ft. Myers. Easy!

Yeah, not so much. Todd, flying in from Minneapolis, scheduled to arrive 10 minutes ahead of me, was over three hours late due to a snow storm, de-icing and all fun related to flying in winter.

In case you're wondering, the airport in Ft. Myers has free wifi and super friendly housekeeping staff who genuinely didn't mind that I moved a chair and table next to an outlet so I could work.

Awesome office, right? That view is actually of Todd's gate (C9, at the end) and no I wasn't breaking my computer at the time this picture was taken. I was having network connectivity issues and someone nice remoted into the laptop to fix it.

3. Its easy to find good non-chain restaurants when you travel.


Don't get me wrong, L.A. has its fair share of chain restaurants. But, there are tons of mom'n'pop places to tempt you. So of course, going to another city, finding good local food should be easy.


At our hotel:


Todd: "Any recommendations for dinner?"

Jenna: "Only rule is no chain restaurants."


Front Desk Girl: "Hmm, any particular price range or food type?"


T: "Nope, whatever is good."


FDG: "Are you willing to drive because my favorite restaurant EVER is about 15 minutes away."


J: "Sold, where to?"


FDG: "Vapiano's. Its like Subway but classy. They make all your food in front of you fresh to order. Its SO GOOD."


T: Perfect!


Judging by her description, I was thinking a family place with an open kitchen or even a cool old school cafeteria.

Yeah, we didn't know it was a chain until we got there. (You can sort of tell by the whole "package" of the place.") But, I will admit the food was really good and well-priced and they don't charge you for sharing. (I hate it when restaurants do that.)

You get this card and you take it to one (or all) the three food stations (pasta, salad and pizza) and they charge you based on what you order. They also had a bar and a small dessert section. At first blush you'd think it would be great for groups who want separate tabs or people dining together with completely different eating habits. Oddly, we only saw one large group. Instead it was families, seniors, couples...really a huge cross-section of people. I think its a great idea, even if it is a chain.


4. Its always warm in Florida.

This one I know is stupid. But everyone winters there and I know they get some cold weather but I didn't realise how cold. Don't get me wrong we had a beautiful Friday and Saturday. The game Friday was sunny and fabulous. Saturday we drove around Captiva and Sanibel islands and walked on the beach. But Sunday. Yeah.

Before you assume I really let myself go, keep this in mind. I'm wearing the following under Todd's sweatshirt: Short sleeve tshirt, long sleeve tshirt and a fleece zip up hoodie.

During the game I'd say it was windy and in the 50s. I mean look, Todd even put on his windbreaker and that's saying something.

See, even on vacation you can learn something!