Saturday, April 05, 2008

International Day - LA Style!

What an action packed day it was today! Whew! We officially deemed it International Day as we started out at a Japanese restaurant with a Latin friend, went on to the Mexican section of downtown, then Chinatown, then ended up seeing a Flamenco show and eating Spanish food (with an Aussie!). Yeah, it's pretty international!
We met my friend Karina for lunch at Kaya Sushi, Karina is amazing and it was so good to see her. She's a great friend and a pure soul. She met Mom and Dad on their first trip last year and was eager to see them. We had a great time catching up with her!Then it was on downtown to Olvera Street, the Mexican section of downtown LA that features the oldest building in SoCal, built in 1812! Not this one tho, this is just a cool fire station-looking place.

Naturally we had to stop for margaritas and Horchata, cuz what's Mexico without booze, sugar, chips and guac?*
*Yes I'm going to hell, thanks for the FYI.
Cadillac Margarita? Yes please! It's 5:00 somewhere.
Uck, feel free to throw up on your keyboard a little. Still all cutesy after being married 5,000 years.*
*33 years, but whatevs.
Mom likes to pretend to snort things. Yeah, it's cute, and she learned it from me. Take that, PSA!
This is where I get embarrassed to be white (well, one of the times). These tourists jumped on the donkey, threw on the hats and panchos, and raised their rifles for a photo op. Ugh. Blanco Nino is ashamed of his peoples.
They were playing Andes style music, it was purty!

After filling up on some hot mexican chocolate and narrowly avoiding Death By Churros (it happens people), we decided to head over to Chinatown which is a few blocks up...
And because it had been 30 minutes since we consumed something, I promptly found the best Boba shop in town!
Mmmh, sweet tapioca balls of bliss. Chewy? Check. Tasty? Check. Addictive? Check. Disgusting looking? Check. Don't knock it till you've tried it!
"Vampire boba! Rawwwwrrr!"
"It tastes like deer poop and baby vomit... but I can't stop eating!"
I got some nice plants here... love how colorful the shops are.
I also love how racist the Chinese are and hang shit so if you are over six feet tall you hit your head on every goddamn lantern or toy hanging in their shop.
No, I'm kidding, I know they aren't racist, they just wish a fast death to the tall white Gaijin. It's cool. I grock.
Love the architecture and use of color!
We shopped till we dropped, then shopped some more. It's a really cool section of town! It's like going to China without the 16 hour plane ride and shitty air. Well, OK, the air sucks, but hey.
I don't know what all these shops are, but they looked cool!
A scary lion! ... And a stone statue next to him!
These jars were full of freaky looking roots and liquids. I was pretty sure if I drank them all I'd turn into the Hulk and get superpowers. And be really smart. Er.

Unfortch after drinking them, I just got kicked out of the store and threw up on myself. I felt just like Bai Ling! Only without the stealing.
Yeah, I dunno WTF, but hey, art is cool. I lurve Kid Robot stores!
Devil mask on cute teddy bear = too much Awesome.
This store had a great entrance. The bamboo is welcoming... especially if you are 1/16th Panda like me.
Love that building! Is it bad I wanted to see a Jackie Chan style bar fight happening on that secondary ledge?
These dudes were playing some kind of ancient game of checkers or Mah Jong or something. It was pretty cool to see.
M&D got me a superfly Chairman Mao messenger bag. I totally heart it! It's like the most stylish thing I own right now. Sorry, Armani, you are yesterday's news. MAO SPEAKS FOR THE PEOPLE. ... Ahem.
Look, look, we visited China! Oh crap, I got SARS again. MEDIC!
Fountains of luck = cool.
For the final chapter of the night, we met the always lovely Kirsten at the historic El Cid for Spanish food and Flamenco dancing:
Yum! The food was dee-lish!

And the entertainment was great! The musicians were talented and the old dude was an amazing singer. I thought it was a CD at first!
Dance homegirl DANCE! I don't understand your crazy gibberish words of "Spanish", but you speak with your body!
They were talented peeps, fun show to see!
Oh and they clap with great rhythm. No wonder none of them were white.

It was Mom's bday so they brought out some flan:"You better sing Happy Birthday in a language I can understand or I'm putting that tambourine up..."*
*Mom never speaks like that - at least not before the first few bloody mary's.
Happy Birthday Moms!

Dad didn't feel all the attention was fair, so he put on his best drug dealer sunglasses:
Sadly, 6 people came up and asked how much for an 8 ball, black tar, and a trip to the white rabbit. Yeah.... LA STYLE!

Being of course a full fledged International Day in LA, we saw Adrien Grenier, star of Entourage, filming an episode of his new show Green Earth - for The Discovery Channel. He's green, ya'll!The film crew was all over getting various shots. It was a little awkward, cuz later in the night we were literally the only people in there that weren't apart of the Hollywood crew. :)
So naturally I took photos of the crew. And gawked a little. OK, a lottle. That's how I roll.

I worked up some courage and went over to Adrien to say hi...And got a photo! He was super nice, thanks to his beautiful companion Angela for taking the photo (she was a pro!). He was also there to see his friend's band play. Oh and PS he's not short, I'm just freakishly tall.
It was a very fun full day and we had a blast! Time for bed... more fun planned for tomorrow!

2 comments:

s said...

Oh man I hope they have tapioca drinks in boston!

Mr Benja said...

Ooh...I haven't been to Chinatown yet. Yeah, I know that's lame of me.