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i don’t think there was a better way to spend a saturday.  the weather was beautiful and the location was smart.  it was at rainbow lagoon park (across the street from shoreline village).

gates opened at 10:30am; we got there sometime after 11:30am and the line for @grlldcheesetruk was super long.  we sought out @kotacotruck – more specifically cause their truck was wrapped for robert rodriguez’s new movie, “machete“  with art done by @misterctoons.  machete comes out september 3rd, btw.  sadly, we didn’t try any of their offerings and opted for @donchowtacos.  we really wanted to try their kung pao chicken chimale (chinese tamale) but they were only offering a 3 taco sampler for $6.  the tacos were kung pao chicken, chinese bbq pork and LA taco (carne asada with bacon & grilled onions)  – c & i liked the flavors on all of these but our favorite is the kung pao chicken.  i’m used to kung pao chicken being so heavy but this was really light.  it seemed to be all white meat cuts of chicken and excellent seasoning.  i could’ve gone for another kung pao taco but again, they were only offering the $6 sampler, boo!

after snacking on those we agreed to try @coolhaus.  was bummed to hear they only offered a sampler as well.  i guess it makes it easier for the food fest scene.  each mini was $2.  c got rocky road and i got red velvet.  talk about teasing your mouth.  the ice cream sandwiches were SO GOOD.  so good that we chased the truck the next day, heh.

we set up our blanket in front of the stage and listened to the band, “blue steel” – they were actually good, they played a lot of cover songs and i won a cd for naming a sublime song.  duke brought his legos and we just had a good ol’ time.  c ended up getting a watermelon drink, beef brisket slider and fries from @unclelausbbq – i still can’t decide if the fries are their creation or something you can buy from a food distributor, they were decent, i’m not complaining.  the brisket was good.  i would’ve preferred it to be a little hotter (temp-wise, this is always a complaint of mine) and the watermelon drink was pretty yummy.

the big winner for me was @thesweetstruck – they get a bunch of local favorites and sell ‘em.  my fave was the peanut butter & marshmallow cakewich from cake monkey.  i would’ve got another one but $4 each is a hard one to swallow for my cheap ass.

we got our tickets presale so it was $6 each, it’s going to charity so i didn’t feel bad having to shell out money.  we spent about $30 total for 2 people and another $8 for parking.  we parked at shoreline village rather than $10 at the long beach convention center. thanks to the organizers of this event, it was well planned and definitely someone’s “baby”  – GOOD JOB and can’t wait to spend more money on one of your events!

20+ food trucks will be in one location tomorrow from 10:30am-5pm!  including @COOLHAUS @ButtermilkTruck @grlldcheesetruk @KOTacoTruck @donchowtacos

$8 gets you in!  ticket proceeds will benefit adopt-a-teacher program and long beach city college student scholarships!

@LBStreetFood or Long Beach Street Food Fest

another FREEBIE in LA if you aren’t at san diego comic con this weekend!

my husband & i attended last year’s rebel 8 event with famous stars & straps at the fast life and it was pretty sick.  don’t sleep!

craft, art, design and DIY spectacular will feature over 250 of today’s finest indie-craft talents from all over the nation, free workshops, entertainment + other features!

i love the .99 store – more specifically the .99 only stores some people might call me cheap but i like thinking of it as getting the most out of my money. yes, i know how to stretch a dollar, sue me. the best thing about the .99 store is that each location carries different stuff and some are better than others… but shopping there is always a fun, cheap surprise.

today’s haul:

not pictured:
-palmolive antibacterial dish soap
-bag of california red plums
-bag of nectarines
-2 mini seedless watermelons (i got asked by 2 different people how to choose a watermelon!)

and in that area, we saw a homeless dude with a cold starbucks drink. only in california!

P.S.

do NOT buy the kalima hawaiian hard creamer malt beverages (pictured^)  they are .59 each and taste like the creamer expired.  the label on the back says, “blended with rich creamy dairy” and i don’t think they knew the shelf life on their creamer.  i wasn’t expecting much but it was raunchy – after a few google clicks it looks like they won some awards in 2007 and were still in business in 2008 but the info pretty much died after that.  if you work for kalima and business is still very much alive, holler.

i LOVE free stuff. couldn’t resist hitting up orange county’s chick-fil-A customer appreciation week which kicked off on monday, july 5th and ends on thursday, july 8th.  but after 2 days, we’re officially chick-fil-A’d out.

day one was a spicy chicken sandwich.  mine happened to be heart shaped ;x

day two was 3 piece chicken strips

i think tomorrow is a regular chicken sandwich and thursday is 8 piece chicken nuggets – so if you want to get your free grub on, hit up any of the orange county locations between 4-7pm: Irvine (2), Orange, Santa Ana, Tustin, La Habra, Laguna Niguel, Foothill Ranch and Yorba Linda.

the lines weren’t as crazy as i thought they’d be.  my husband insists it was because people didn’t know but there was a sign on the door.  the food was hot & fresh and the staff kept up with the demand.  it was our first time trying chick-fil-A’s sauce and i recommend it.  THANK YOU CHICK-FIL-A!!!

stanton is a small city in orange county to the west of anaheim and it isn’t known for much.  other cities in orange county point at them and laugh.  well maybe not anymore, there has been a good growth of QUALITY foodie establishments making stanton their home.  probably because of cheaper rent.

one such establishment is a cute little mom & pop ice cream parlor called neveria la flor de mexico.  the pink & white striped walls remind me of old school ice cream shops.  the people running the place are very helpful and friendly.  i had a ton of questions regarding their wide array of flavors and they didn’t treat me like an idiot.

from what i gathered, they make all the ice creams and paletas (ice cream bar) right there.

my favorite is angel’s kiss (cherry ice cream with almonds, raisins & cherries maybe even marshmallows?).  i also tried coconut pineapple but didn’t really care for the super frozen pineapple bits in it.  their scoop portions are huge, for my 2 scoops i paid $2.60

frozen goodies!

Nevaria la Flor de Mexico

(714) 761-2813

last wednesday afternoon my husband surprised me with a trip to LA. it was our first time leaving the house at 1pm and we didn’t know what kind of traffic to expect… yep, it was bad. it took us about an hour to get there. our first stop was scion space in culver city. i wanted to check out the 2009 vice magazine photo exhibition.

the place is a little bit hard to find since it’s in the neighborhood. it’s a nice gallery though, really spacious and we had a good talk with kenton! he hooked us up with all kinds of shit too. i appreciate good convo with a genuine motherfucker, thanks kenton!

our next stop was the michael kohn gallery on beverly/crescent heights to check out the david lynch show. the photos were inspired by danger mouse & sparklehorse‘s music from the “dark night of the soul“. i was a bit floored by the visuals only because i’m familiar with lynch’s films. my 3 year old favored the piece which featured a bloody arm.

the main gallery is connected to either another gallery or an office space. it was cordoned off but we were nosy and it was worth a peek…because there lived a beautiful ryden piece.

afterwards we indulged in chicken bowls at yoshinoya and had yummy scoops. i usually only have a bowl (it’s considered 2 scoops for $2.75 – can ya beat that?!) but the flavor selection was so good i got a refill (2 more scoops for only $1.75!) so in total i had blueberry marscapone, strawberry coconut, mango grapefruit and malt toffee. c had banana oreo and chocolate almond. the grapefruit in the mango grapefruit was a bit overpowering but still good for a hot summer day. i couldn’t resist!

i was hoping tae (owner and flavor creator) was around so i could tell him about my scoops photo that was published in the july/august 2009 issue of LA confidential magazine! THANKS SCOOPS!

there is so much stuff to do in LA, get out and see art! try different food! enjoy the city!

we didn’t hide colored eggs for the kids.  we got them up, dressed and headed out to LA.  our first stop was at Yoshinoya on the corner of melrose & vermont.  mmm yummy easter lunch!  after that we cruised on melrose to see what stores were open, nothing really caught our eye so we headed up to sunset to hit Meltdown.  they changed the layout since we last visited months ago and i prefer it so much more.  it’s much roomier and you can see the displays better.  the kids had fun playing on the rodys.  C & i picked up the hi-fructose box set.  it’s a beauty.  the 5 prints alone are worth the cost ($39.95) – i’m planning on doing a review in the next couple weeks.  2 things were depressing: looks like the secret base display cabinet is gone?! and that i didn’t have crazy money to blow.

but what we really went to LA for is SCOOPS.  turns out they were closed which we kinda expected.  it’s ok, they deserve a holiday lol  not wanting to go back home we went to check out the idiot box show at gallery 1988.  it was a really good show.  all the pieces were fantastic!!!

click on rudy to see the rest of the idiot box set!

i’ve bought restaurant.com gift certificates in the past and given them as gifts to family, friends and coworkers.  i heard about them years ago on ebay, i think they can credit their popularity to them.  sometime in october, i came across a promo code… every $25 gift certificate for only $2.  i was all over it.  the site had a major lag but i was determined to pick up at least 10.  in addition to the lag, their search isn’t by city but by area and a los angeles county search gives you at least 200 restaurants – which wouldn’t be a problem if you didn’t care about specific restaurants’ special instructions, terms & conditions.

most of the special instructions are that the gift certificate can only be used sunday-thursday, dine-in/dinner only, minimum purchase $35 & 18% gratuity.

i bought a few extra so i could treat out C & i, we decided to try out lascari’s italian restaurant.  we got there at 4pm. there were about 7 full tables and i was shocked to see that many people out!  when we sat down i noticed the tent specials and saw that seniors eat for $6.99 everyday from 2-5pm, no wonder they were rollin’ deep.  take note in case you are scared of seniors. the menu seemed a little similar to olive garden (except for the sandwich page), i was expecting a bit more.  maybe it’s the anthony bourdain/andrew zimmern/guy fieri hopeful inside of me.  i settled for a chicken florentine and C chose chicken parm.  each of our entrees came with soup or salad & sourdough rolls.  i went for the minestrone soup and C picked caesar salad.  my soup was tasty but nothing to call my mama about.  when our entrees came out, i was happy to see a little bright green peeking at me.  my chicken was perfect.  good cut, good fresh well cooked spinach on top (not overdone yay!) with a light marinara sauce and real cheese!  it also came with spaghetti and fresh veggies.  the squash was fresh and good. as with most authentic italian restaurants we’ve eaten at, i couldn’t finish my dish!  since we had to shell out $35, we asked for a canolli.  now this is my 2nd time ever having a canolli and the first small bites we shared were just eh.  it wasn’t till the end that i actually enjoyed it.  would we go back? maybe if we’re seniors or we get hooked up with a discount.  lascari’s was good but it wasn’t franco’s.  franco’s is the type of place i would handwrite and snail mail a letter home to mom.

our total was only $17.64!

LASCARI’S RESTAURANT / 16255 WHITTIER BLVD. / WHITTIER, CA / (562) 943-1113

FRANCO’S / 4453 CERRITOS AVE. / CYPRESS, CA / (714) 761-9040