Food Porn to the Rescue

First I wanna say that I just logged in to write this blog entry and saw a photo of myself in the beautiful Caribbean from a previous blog entry---and it looks like I have armpit hair! I don't though, I swear. It's unfortunate shadowing and pooling of the water. Anyway, I was just thinking about food...and what I love to call food porn...my personal past time...talking and fantasizing about food, especially when I can't have it. It's kind of sadomasochistic, because it really hurts to talk about it and not be able to have it, but it's also very satisfying. I realized I found my ultimate food porn TV show---"Paula's Home Cooking". There's something about Paula Deen's unapologetically unhealthy recipes and her speaking with that slow, Southern twang. It's madness. I once caught myself staring at the TV screen with my mouth slightly open. Anyway, an easy recipe I got from her show is Guinness Chocolate Cake. Yes, with Guinness Stout. It's super easy, and very impressive. Now it's not a fancy looking cake, but it tastes so incredible. I made it for my father's birthday and he was raving about it. You can get the recipe on her website, and believe me it's worth it! YUM YUM YUM. Speaking of food porn, I recently went to Hill Country, a Southern style BBQ restaurant that serves up fresh cooked mouth watering meats and sides. I got to hang out with my vet school crew which was great. It was pretty good and I ate like a lumberjack!

Old Fashioned Film

When Marcus and I went to Aruba last December, we got one of those disposable underwater cameras. I just got the film developed and it's funny because with these types of cameras, you hope half of the pictures turn out. We had some fun ones turn out. What's funny is that the photos make it look so overcast or that a storm is looming, and it was blazing sun. But that's the fun part---you never know what you're going to get! Today I'm home sick...about 6 months ago I had a bout of idiopathic positional vertigo (BPPV) aka when you place your head in certain positions and the room starts spinning. It took a week to go away, so I was dealing with moving horizons when I walked, constant nausea, and out of nowhere room spinning, so much so that I fell once. Once you get it, it can happen again. Which sucks! Since then, I've had very mild relapses...yesterday I woke up with the room spinning and I knew. It's mild, and today I just feel nauseous, but it's really frustrating. Luckily my great friend Jennifer happens to be an audiologist specializing in balance (and is about to graduate medical school!) so I luckily have her to give me recommendations, because for most people I would assume, who would you turn to if you woke up to the room spinning?! No pun intended. My friends are awesome. Oh this is really random, but I just realized that I had a dream last night that I was working with Harvey from TMZ?!

Cali: In-N-Out-Quick-Weekend

This past weekend Marcus and I headed out west for a quick trip to San Francisco and Los Angeles. Marcus had a meeting in SF, so while he was conducting business, I headed over to the Hayes Valley area to check out the scene. San Fran is kinda sorta like California's take on Seattle--maybe? Clean, laid back, I enjoyed it. Hayes Valley had a lot of maybe Soho-L.E.S. type stores, good coffee, and some nice restaurants. I only compare to NYC cuz that's what I know. We stayed smack in the heart of Tourist Trap USA, but it's all good. We stayed at the Argonaut Hotel, and it was really nice! Nautically themed, but not cheesy or campy. We ate at Zuni Cafe, which is supposed to be one of SF's best restaurants, it was pretty good. Good service and nice vibe. And can I say how wonderful the SF Airport is?!?!? I ate gourmet food there waiting for my flight! Then we headed to LA to check out Marcus' friend Linus, AKA Style of Eye, perform at Swedish House Mafia's Masquerade Motel. It was a huge show, so it was really nice of him to hook us up. He was AWESOME. We also watched Swedish House Mafia, and it was pretty amazing to see thousands of people there to watch---I remember the old school days and I never could have imagined the graphics, pyrotechnics, and groupies at a house show?!! We had met up with Marcus' college friend Matt and his girlfriend Nicole and went to the show together. The night was a lot of fun---and I made some dancing friends, bless their hearts, these kids invited me to dance with them and then asked me if I went to college at UC. Hahahahaha. After the show we ate at a 24 hr diner joint and I had chocolate chip pancakes, bacon and poached eggs... Pretty good. Even though it was a quick weekend we got to meet up with some key people so I was really happy. We ate dinner with Azon and Anthony, who had recently moved out to LA, so it was great to see them. Then the next morning we brunched with my cousin Norrel and her husband Larry. Before the show, Linus met up with us for a short while, too. Marcus and I stayed at the Redbury Hotel, and as amusing as it was, I would stay again---I got sucked into the hype. We had a sweet room. But the hotel reeks of uber-hipness, so be prepared to be kept up all night from the loud music either from the club next door or the bar in the hotel. I joked that the hotel's goal is to make you feel like a partied out rock star---whether you party or not....because the first night we got there, we didn't stay out late, but I was up till 2AM listening to club music, so I woke up the next morning as if I had been out all night. And the rooms are dark so when you walk outside you feel like a vampire. Otherwise Marcus and I had a little downtime to walk around and we saw the famous Capitol Records building, I had a burger at Umami Burger which was pretty solid, and we went to Amoeba Music and I bought some old vinyl. I could have spent hours in that store...oh, and we didn't go to In-N-Out Burger, but it fit my title for this blog....