Los Angeles, Ti amo!

Captain and I have been toying with the idea of retiring away from his homeland Italy and mine, Malaysia and one place that we both agree is the best place on earth is Los Angeles!  Boy, I love LA.. I love everything about it.  I just can't explain it in words but everytime I was there, I feel like things moved in a slower pace and people are healthier or attempt to be healthy, tanner, leaner.  I can see myself 10 years from now walking down Wilshire Blvd towards Santa Monica beach, shopping at Whole Food down the road, browsing one of those vintage/consignment shops or just simply having an espresso in one of those little Italian cafes.. Well, it could happen...

But for now, let me share some of the shots we took from our trip to LA last October. We are thinking about returning already!

Our cozy little 'home away from home' 15 minutes walk to Santa Monica Beach, nested among the quite residential area on 20th Street

The best place to view the Hollywood sign in my opinion, from the Grifith Park.  Locals, what do you think?

I had the chance to meet up with Dana of Dana's Lookbook at  The Grove for dinner and some shopping! What a great gal she is :)

Wish I live in one of those houses on Santa Monica beach

One thing hit my mind when I snapped this shot "Who needs treadmill?"

We were hoping to see the Endeavor at the Science Museum but she was not there yet, she arrived there a few days after we left :(

For lunch we loved to take a walk and discover little eateries like this Greens Up that served healthy salads in a portion so huge that they were served in huge metal bowls!  I mean humongous! 

FOODIE WEEKEND - Steamed Lobster tail with Lemon and Dill glaze and Mango Salsa

This year Christmas feast came early in my house hold as Captain had to work :( For that reason we had a mini Christmas dinner with this dish as our main.

Lobster dish is tricky.. if we are not careful it can turned into a rubber dish instead of a full flavour and delicate dish.  The easiest, simplest way to cook lobster in my opinion is to steam it with light glazing.  To accompany the lobster, a sweet and sour side like this mango salsa is perfect! If you are still undecided on what to cook for Christmas eve dinner or Christmas lunch, I would recommend this simple, easy to prepare dish to try!

The most important thing to bear in mind when steaming lobster is that timing has to be perfect.  Over steamed would lead to tough flesh so best follow this rule - 1 minute per ounce of lobster. Meaning, if the lobster is 4 ounce big, the steaming time should be 4 minutes.  I would check the lobster at 3 minutes just to be on the safe side. Under-cook is better than over-cook :)

Happy trying!

STEAMED LOBSTER TAIL WITH LEMON AND DILL GLAZE

Ingredients:

Lobster

Lobster tail (I used the whole tail with incision in the middle for adult and for the twins I de-shelled  the lobster)

Water for steaming

Some garlic lightly crushed

Sea salt

Lemon and dill glaze

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon of chopped fresh dill

1/2 a teaspoon of garlic paste

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Ground black pepper

Salt

Mango Salsa

1 whole medium ripe mango flesh, diced

1 small red bell pepper diced

1 red chilli, seeded and diced (optional)

1/2 red onion diced

1 tablespoon of chopped mint leaves

2 table spoons of chopped parsley

1-2 tablespoon of white vinegar

salt and pepper

Method

Glaze

Mix all the ingredients together

Add salt and pepper to taste

Mango Salsa

Mix all the ingredients together

Season well

Let it rest for at least 10 minutes before serving

Lobster

Boil water in a  steamer bottom pot, add generously salt and garlic.  The water should be about an inch close to the steamer top

Steam the lobster according to the time and remove immediately

Glaze the flesh with the lemon and dill glaze

Serve with mango salsa on the side or over the flesh

Hope you all like this recipe as we do but the most important thing is to enjoy it with your love ones during this time of the year, that goes for whatever recipe for that matter.  Me, Captain and family would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you the regular readers and those passing by a warm Merry Christmas!

Las Vegas - Part 2

There were so much to do in Vegas but since we had only a weekend, we tried to compressed our visit and did a bit of everything.  Honestly I am not much of a gambler, well never got lucky so I figured why bother? But while in Vegas, it is a must to visit at least a few of the casinos, apparently.  Which one to chose? Well, we had a problem deciding ourselves.  We finally settled for Luxor!

We also figured that since this year marked the 100th anniversary of Titanic, it would be nice to pay tribute to the iconic ship and visit the Titanic Artifact Exhibition, also in Luxor.  I tell you, I found it hard to breath at some point while inside the exhibition being among the personal artifact of those who were actually there... many of them didn't make it.  At the entrance of the exhibition, we were given a boarding pass each and on it was written randomly name of a passenger, the class she/he was travelling in and a little background that lead them on Titanic, and at the end of the exhibition we got to check the list and see if that person made it or not.  It was truly a moving experience and I highly recommend this exhibition if you happened to be in Vegas.

Captain is a huge fan of a show called 'Pawn Star', a reality show based on a pawn shop based in Vegas. So we made it a point to visit the store and see for ourselves all those unusual stuff we saw on the show.  It was fun, especially for Captain :)

When we travel, me and Captain try to catch a show or two and Cirque du Soleil is one of our favorite production. I have read and watched on TV or Youtube the hand on hand act by the Peres brothers in Mystere and while in Vegas we took the opportunity to watch them live! It was amazing and I am pretty sure my jaw was actually on the floor! We had one of the best seats and it was worth every single cents! I was hoping to watch more than one Cirque du Soleil show  as there are so many of them in Vegas but time didn't permit.  Next time I would  watch Ka!

On the last day we took a drive to Lake Mead for lunch just to get away from the hustle and bustle of the Strip and see the other side of Vegas. I must say I love the houses and love how cozy it was around there. Nice place to live, definitely. And guess who was there at the same time? President Obama on his campaign trip! 

Another treat for Captain was to visit Shelby America museum.  It was a perfect time especially since this year is Shelby's 50th anniversary (yup, another pleasant coincidence!) Captain was drooling over one of the 50 '50th anniversary' black/gold Super Snake Shelby.. well, it was a beautiful car indeed.

Well, a weekend in Vegas is actually not enough but for my first visit, I thought I saw Vegas as a whole and understand why it is a unique city.  I hope to return again and next time may be we stay longer!

Las Vegas (Part 1)

Arriving LA, I was thankful that the line at the immigration booths were not too long.  In fact it took us less time than we did the year before when I was lead into an interrogation room and questioned... no that's the movie Salt but seriously, my passport was pulled out and brought to the back room.  Apparently they just wanted to make sure that I was who I said I was, and not some Evelyn Salt haha! But this year, smooth sailing through the immigration and we were out of there in half an hour.

In the beginning when we were planning for this trip, we thought of hopping on a flight to Las Vegas from LAX but last minute we changed the plan and opt for driving instead.  This way, we would have the car and since this trip was my first to Nevada, Captain thought it would be a great idea for me to indulge in some scenery along the way. First, trying to get out of LA during rush hour was insane! Our navigating system aka GPS we called Posh B***h kept on re-routing us! We were everywhere and had it not been for Posh, we would not know about the little Korean Town (I really do not remember the name anymore) and rows of cute little houses with well maintained garden.  Things like this only happens when you got lost, ironically.

So, the plan was to split the journey into 2 parts with a short over-night in Barstow. I (yes, me) did a quick booking over Booking.com for us in this cute (based on the pictures on the internet, of course) little hotel just next to the highway and boy, were we into some surprise when we got there! It was far, I mean ions away from cute! It was dodgy with capital D! Captain was pissed but we were tired from the flight and driving, we took the key and head to the room.  The room was ok-ish and thankfully, clean but I didn't sleep at all because I kept having this thing at the back of my mind that any moment somebody's going to kick the door open like in some movie (try No Country For Old Men) and rob us or worst! Captain slept 5 hours straight and I was sorry for him due to my stupidity.  Lesson learnt, do not trust internet pictures! 

We checked out at 5 am (in order to be in Vegas by 9 am) and had a quick breakfast in a diner near by before continuing our adventure into Vegas.  The view of the sun rising over Vegas from far was breathtaking! Not everyday I get to see the scene like this.  As the light touched the ground, I could see the cacti, lots of them! What's missing was some cowboys on horses or Gil Grissom and his team digging the ground like in  CSI!

Arriving into Vegas I could already feel the energy of the city, it was 9 in the morning and the city  was ready for the weekend. The casinos were already filled or still filled hence the title the city that never sleeps. We head straight to collect our pre-booked tickets to the shows we were going to watch over the weekend before heading to our friends' house (John and family) in Henderson.  Yes, we were the house guests of our darling friends that weekend and it was good to catch up.  

Come back soon for part 2 of my weekend in Vegas and our journey back to LA!

Up in the air

I was a bit bummed out to know that our journey to America was not going to be on the Airbus 380 as the fleet does not have any flight to Los Angeles.  I heard so much from Captain, the boys (from their unaccompanied travels) and friends about the Emirates A380 but have never been.  Oh, well I thought, there'll be another time.  So for the trip we were on Emirates Airlines Boeing 777.  

So there we were, arriving not too early or too late at the airport with 2 check-ins and 1 carry-on (hmm, not a light traveler unfortunately).  I always try not to overdress when I travel, a true believer of comfort over style.  So there I was in my beloved well worn cashmere sweater (grey) with a pair of black leggings and soft pair of black flats (and I forgot to get pictures of course, not so clever there, must be the travel bug).   

My suite, I specifically asked for window suite.  I feel less claustrophobic if 

I had a window to look out once in a while.  

Talk about luxury in the air, Emirates truly goes the extra miles to bring this to reality.  Ok, where do I begin - Fabulous wine list (not that I drink any), serve on demand meals chosen from a variety of cuisine, always available counter top snacks, flat bed with fabulously soft and comfy duvet, pijama and bedroom slippers (I love!), personal closet, bar and snack basket... well, the list goes on and on.  

Captain's suite across from mine, door closed. He had late dinner, 

read something and slept most of the way! 

There are only 8 first class suites on Emirates Boeing 777

Personal bar filled with junks I didn't drink. 

Food was quite good (considering airline food) as well, not that I remember now specificlly what I had but I remember it being something in the line of sumptuous salad, fillet mignon over a nice bed of green something and roast vegetables on side, fabulous selection of dessert I didn't touch and green tea with Godiva chocolate. I had a small bottle of 250 ml of fancy looking mineral water and some soft drinks/juices in my personal bar, pre-flight stored there by the crew and I kept on chiming them for more water (yes, I drink like camel when travel, and I drink only water) I think after a while they must have gotten so annoyed with me and send me a large 1.5 liter bottle instead (got the message woman?) and after that I was a good passenger all the way into LA! ;D

 Vanity table!

In flight entertainment of Emirates is truly top of the range and in a class of its own.  Hundreds of movies, series, CDs and news channel that can be viewed on demand.  The movies are well updated and you can find the latest ones surely.  I watched The Hunger Games (mental note - must read the books) and Safe before bed and Captain did some catching up on his Top Gear.  Wished I could watch more but I had to sleep so that I will arrive LA nice and fresh!

Suite control panel.  This is cool but annoying when I was trying to sleep!  The lights would not turn off fully and I hate eyeshades!  So I covered it with a little towel :) 

Ok, take a guess, which is the main focus of this shot?  The beautiful orchids or the gorgeous Jason Statham? No brainer...

My real life Jason Statham... <3

All ready for bed in this comfortable pijama and dodgy socks... good night!