Kelocity.com

A runner with an appetite for adventure!

Royal High Tea July 9, 2011

Filed under: Dining Out,Food,Friends,Los Angeles — Kelocity @ 9:00 pm
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In honor of Prince William and Princess Kate’s royal trip to Hollywood, my friend Janet and I decided that having afternoon tea would be the perfect way to celebrate.
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Ok, so that’s not entirely true. We bought a groupon a few weeks back and scheduled our Tea Date long before we realized the Royals would be in town. But it seems appropriate, don’t you think?
Our destination was “Two A Tea”, a cute little tea house about an hour away. And we agreed it was definitely worth the drive.
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The tea house is set up like an old Victorian home. Complete with crystal chandeliers, baroque art and antique linens. It was so fun to dress up, act proper (as proper as snapping photos of your meal can be) and enjoy some dainty foods.
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They have various menus to choose from, each varying in the amount of courses you can enjoy with your tea. We chose the “Royal High Tea”. It was my first visit to a tea house, so might as well go all out, right?
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The tea list is pretty big, and it’s hard to decide on a flavor. We each got our own pot, so in the end, decided on Vanilla Coconut and Peach Apricot. While the tea brewed, we started up a great conversation. It’s fun to catch up with friends without distractions. I really needed an afternoon of girl talk.
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Before long, our tea pots were ready. Freshly brewed tea is so delicious. And even on a hot California day, it hit the spot. It was so fun to drink out of beautiful teacups too. It felt fancy schmancy.
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Our first course was a freshly baked blueberry scone. It was the perfect mix of crumble and sweetness. Served with lemon curd, clotted cream and berry preserves. I admit I was scared to try the clotted cream, but it was really good.
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Next up was the soup course. I got the pureed red pepper with feta cheese and croutons.
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And Janet ordered the carrot ginger that also came with croutons.
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Next up was a citrus salad. This was so perfect for a summer day. The dressing was sweet and refreshing!
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Meanwhile, we were sip sipping our tea the whole time. Cup after cup.
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Soon a scoop of sorbet came out to cleanse our palettes. I thought it was adorable that they served this on a tea bag rest.
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Then we were ready for our tea sandwiches!  We had a turkey, cream cheese & cranberry sauce, egg salad, roasted vegetable, curried chicken and cucumber. I had one of each (minus the egg salad). My favorite one was the cucumber, although I was too full to finish it.
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And finally, we had dessert. We decided to each get one and split it half and half. One was a warm berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce and the other was a black forest chocolate cake with a chocolate mouse with raspberry drizzle and fresh whipped cream.

Oh my, they were amazing. Sadly, all my camera wanted to focus on was the whipped cream, but you’ll have to trust me that it was beautiful and yummy.
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I think we sat and chatted for almost three hours! The waitress refilled our teapots once, so I’m pretty sure I drank almost two pots of tea in all.
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What a great afternoon, hope to do it again someday. Thanks for the great company, Janet!

 

Happy Fourth! July 4, 2011

Filed under: Los Angeles — Kelocity @ 10:09 pm
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We really didn’t do anything to celebrate the 4th today. Part of me kind of wished we had elaborate plans to kayak somewhere, or bbq with friends, or cozied up to watch fireworks on a summery patch of grass near a river…. but this year, we were content relaxing and enjoying the day uneventfully at home.
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A few weeks ago, I bought us matching patriotic shirts and I told asked Irving if we could be twinsies!
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I slept til almost 9 this morning, and spent the rest of the day reading Eclipse (Yep, I finished New Moon at 1:30am on Saturday night!) This time, I downloaded it as an ebook to the kindle app on my phone. I wasn’t sure if it would be too small or too annoying on such a small screen, but I’m totally engrossed with it and it’s working out great!

Other than a quick excursion to Best Buy and Trader Joes, we didn’t leave the house. Irving played his new FIFA World Cup xbox game and I did a bit of scrapbooking and more reading.

Once it got dark, I went up to our roof to watch some fireworks. One of the perks of living in “the valley” is being able to see so many fireworks displays close by. I had SIX shows to watch all the way around! But the best ones were the illegal ones being blasted off in a parking lot right behind my building. I’m pretty sure that’s illegal and probably dangerous though!
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Even though we love to travel the world, I know that we are both happy and proud to call America our home.

Happy Independence Day!

Did any of you watch fireworks from a grassy knoll or BBQ on the beach?

 

Superior Donuts at the Geffen June 29, 2011

Filed under: Friends,Hollywood Events,Los Angeles,Theater — Kelocity @ 7:31 am
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My friend Chely scored some free tickets to the Geffen Theater in a fundraising raffle last year. I was thrilled when she invited me to be her guest for a show last night. I don’t go to the theater nearly as often as I should and it was a great excuse for a night on the town.
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We had a communication mixup and I was parked in front of her house, and Chely was parked in front of my house. We kept telling each other “I’m out front” “Me too” “Where are you?” “Right in front!” Oops. We laughed about it later, too funny. We finally met up and headed over to the theater.
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The Geffen is really beautiful. It’s an intimate theater with all the right touches.
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With our tickets, we also had entrance into the Founder’s Room, a VIP area to hang out before the show. That’s how we roll!
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I know, I had the opportunity to snag a free MINT CHOCOLATE Clif Builders bar or a cookie and I didn’t take it. Day 3 of eliminating sugar. And you know what? I’m not even really missing it yet.

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There weren’t too many people in the room with us, but everyone else was fairly older. I love people watching. I think it’s so cute to see older couples get all dolled up to see a show together. The men wear their suit coats, and the women put on their lipstick. It’s so beautiful.

I also noticed that old people LOVE Hershey Kisses. LOVE them! They’d sneak over, and grab a whole handful. One woman winked at me and said “I took 7. One for every day of the week”. So cute. When I’m old, I hope I can enjoy life’s simple pleasures with such enthusiasm too. If you pay attention, you really can learn a lot from the older generations.
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The play was Superior Donuts and it was just amazing. It starred Gary Cole, who I know from Entourage, but he’s been a bunch of other things. Also starring was Kathryn Joosten (known for her role as Mrs. McClusky on Desperate Housewives) and Edi Gathegi (OMG, he plays Laurent in Twilight!!!!!!!!!)
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It was witty, funny, emotional and brilliantly written. I loved it from start to finish. The set was very impressive and the way the used the space was really smart. I laughed out loud several times. I have to say this was probably the best play I’ve ever seen in LA.
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We had great seats, but behind us was a group of kids on a field trip(?) that were quite loud. The play was riddled with cuss words, adult jokes and (a little) bit of violence, so I was surprised to see so many kids there. But regardless, I think it’s great that they enjoyed the show. I just wish someone would have schooled them in theater etiquette before hand. See, I fit right in with the old people. I’m probably more cranky than they are. ha!

If you’re in the LA area, definitely check out this play before its run is over. You have another week or so. It is definitely worth it.

 

Red, White and Blue….Pancakes! May 29, 2011

Filed under: Dining Out,Food,Los Angeles — Kelocity @ 5:45 pm
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A while back, my friend Erica told me about Larchmont Bungalow. They are known for their Red and Blue Velvet Pancakes and ever since I heard about them, I’ve been DYING to go!
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Just a few days after I saw her post, it popped up in Groupon and I bought it right away! I was saving it for the perfect weekend, and since it is Memorial Day and all, it seemed appropriate!

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It was such a great, cute restaurant with lots of tables scattered around and outdoor seating aplenty. You really do feel like you’re walking into someone’s house when you enter, everything is very cute.
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You order your food at the counter and they bring it to your table when it’s ready. We had $30 to spend with our coupon and came up a few bucks short. So it made sense to drool over the dessert selection and grab one for later!
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We got a chocolate chip cookie whoopie pie. I don’t know what it is, but there are cookies, chocolate, marshmallows and chocolate. I’m sure it will deserve it’s own post when we attack it, so just sit tight for now.

We sat outside and sipped our coffee while we waited. Boy, was their coffee strooong!
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And then, this beauty appeared in front of me. Behold, the Red and Blue velvet pancakes!
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I was expecting it to be cakey, but it wasn’t, it had the consistency and taste of a pancake, but with a hint of red velvet in it. It was awesome. In between the warm deliciousness was a layer of cool cream cheese frosting. Topped with walnuts and powdered sugar.
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I don’t know how they get it to be so blue, but I’m not asking any questions. It was fabulous.

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Irving got the Larchmont French Toast which is “Stuffed with Nutella and plantains, then topped with toasted hazelnuts and served with a warm hazelnut syrup.”
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We both saved about half to have again tomorrow.

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[Edited to add: I couldn’t wait til tomorrow and have already eaten the leftovers for lunch!]

On the way back home, we saw some angry looking clouds, but they were just passing through.
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We’re looking forward to a cookout later today and a nice walk in the evening…. and a long night of playing video games too!

 

LA Galaxy with J&J May 9, 2011

Saturday night, we took Jake and Janie to an LA Galaxy game (sort of a late Christmas gift!) We got to the stadium really early and had fun walking around before the action started.
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Instead of watching the game from our seats, we had reservations at the Stadium Club!
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They had a great buffet and the food was amazing. Everything was fresh and tasted homemade.
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Our seats were pretty good too. A neat perspective on the game.
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Irving loved it. He’s a huge soccer fan, remember?
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Rumor has it that Leonardo DiCaprio was at the game too. They showed him on the big monitor, so I whipped my binoculars out (not kidding) and tried to find him, but I guess he was hiding.
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The game ended at 1-1.
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Hi David Beckham, you looked dapper at the Royal Wedding!
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In other news from the weekend, we saw Jay Leno on Saturday at Menchies! He pulled up in an old Bentley and parked right next to me!
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He said hi, got his ice cream and left. Just a typical Saturday living in LA. We were with Erika and Timmy and Jake and Janie too, it was fun to see a celeb so up close and personal.
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Yesterday, we had brunch at Porto’s in Burbank (so good!) We sat outside and dined al fresco. It was so relaxing and nice.
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Yesterday, we both felt a little blah. Just not motivated, a little sluggish and sad. Clearly, we were lacking endorphins. So we laced up our sneakers, gave ourselves a pep talk, and headed out for a four mile walk. Muuuuuch better. The fresh air and exercise were just what we needed to end a great weekend on a high note.

Happy Monday!