Ann Whatever

Typical Sunday morning ritual for us:

Me: What do you want to eat?
Him: I don't know. What do you want to eat?
Me: I always pick. It's time for you to pick.

Him: We're here. Let's look at the Fraiche menu.
Me: Okay (looking)
Him: Well, what do you think? Do you want to stay or try another place?
Me: Let's eat here.

Hold on a second. What just happened?! He got me to make the final decision. AGAIN!

Boyfriends are sneaky...

Gyoza Daikokuya

I've been reading about this place forever and every attempt to eat here has driven me elsewhere or to Mr. Ramen, home for waiting-in-long-line quitters. This time I had Him by my side and He wouldn't let me quit. So, we shivered in the autumn wind, huddling close to the glow behind Daikokuya's famous yellow awning with hopes of eating a warm bowl of ramen.

Standing outside we, well I, had the chance to thoroughly read the menu and decide on our orders. We were getting the ramen,  gyoza for me, fried rice and sausages for him. The gyoza made me curious - they were rectangle and not the cresent shape I grew up with. Must. Have. Them.

Sausages Daikokuya

Instead of gyoza a plate of green onions came out with a garnish of gyoza. There was so much green onion, I brushed them aside to save them for my ramen. I thought the gyoza and sauce was pretty weak. I'm used to more ginger in the dumpling filling and the ponzu sauce wasn't as citrusy. They were fried nicely though, so not a total fail.

The sausages (really hot dogs) were very tasty with the mustard on the side. Not cut into octo-dogs, but that's okay. I've never had Japanese fried rice. It just tasted like fried rice. I prefer my mom's version (I guess it's Vietnamese fried rice?) since it has Chinese sausage in it.

fried rice Daikokuya

From where we were seated we got a great view into the tiny gally kitchen. It was cool to watch the cooks dance around each other in a flurry,hustling to get our order out. I noticed one guy at the wok and I knew he was making the fried rice order. Another guy was stirring a large stock pot with the ramen soup base in it. He was obviously preparing our Daikoku ramen.

Making fried rice at Daikokuya

Making ramen at Daikokuya

Finally our ramen arrived. I turned mine into negi (green onion) ramen by adding all that green onion from the gyoza to the soup. Maybe I'm just so used to Santouka's strong soup, but I found Daikoku's soup rather lite in flavor. But it might also be because Daikoku's ramen is soy sauce and pork flavored. At Santouka you can pick from salt, soy, or miso flavors. I really loved that Daikoku's ramen includes an egg. It was soft boiled, so the yolk was slightly runny inside. Perfect.

Daikokuya Ramen

He and I headed to Barnsdall Park in Hollywood to see the Beyond Eden Art Fair. 15 galleries, some of them my favorites, gathered to show off some of their collections. It was a great afternoon in a little piece of L.A. I'd never explored before.

Barnsdall Park is also home to the Hollyhock House by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I didn't recognize it as an FLW house and jokingly said to Him, "Well, it's no Frank Lloyd Wright." Oops-y!

Not my birthday, but K's birthday. Us ladies went to Musha, a Japanese izakaya restaurant. The only thing I've heard about this place is that they serve a cheese risotto in a wedge of Parmesan cheese. The bigger the order, the larger the cheese wedge/wheel.

Cheese risotto at Musha, served in a cheese wedge

In action...

And the result?

Cheese risotto at Musha

Terrible Yellow Eyes

http://www.galler...

Nucleus proudly presents Terrible Yellow Eyes, an exhibition by guest curator Cory Godbey, creator of www.terribleyelloweyes.com This exhibit is the selected physical gallery show of the online collection of artwork inspired by the beloved classic "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak.

I missed a lot of art openings last month because of other plans and illness. Here's one of them, Terrible Yellow Eyes, art inspired by Where the Wild Things are. The movie opens today.