Living in Las Vegas...

Here is a fabulous quote from a local Las Vegas resident (and someone I know) about buying water from Northern Nevada:

"Oh we'll get it - we're bandits out here!"

I love it.

Cupcake Adventures Part 1 : Sprinkles

Today, even though I am proudly American, I’m going to play the foreign card. I grew up in Australia, and lived in England briefly before deciding to make Los Angeles my home. I’ve also seen quite a large chunk of the globe as traveling was almost a second career. However, until I lived in America, I had never understood the amazing phenomenon of The Cupcake.

Sure, cupcakes exist in other parts of the world – that’s not a surprise. It’s the zest in which Americans embrace the whole Cupcake Culture that is truly astonishing to me. I can even make quite a lengthy list of cupcake stores – which are simply stores that only sell cupcakes. And to my surprise some months ago, my colleagues were discussing which ones they preferred and why! I stood back in awe. I then discovered, when researching cupcakes on the internet, that Los Angeles is the second biggest cupcake city in the country.

So, in an attempt to embrace more American pop culture and understand more about where I have chosen to live, I too have started sampling cupcakes from different outlets in LA.

Presenting: Sprinkles!

This is actually my second foray into the world of cupcakes. I will revisit my first taste in a later blog when I can add a photo. So this is a dark chocolate cupcake from Sprinkles in Newport Beach and it was the first time my friends had been to a Sprinkles when there wasn’t a line out the door! Remember that people. 3pm on a Tuesday seems to be the magic hour. 

The Verdict... The frosting was very sweet and there was almost as much frosting as there was cake, which, for me is a little much. The cake was also quite soft and if you are going to load the cupcake with that much frosting, I would have preferred the cake a little firmer. It had a nice flavor though and overall I enjoyed my cupcake, but I will be able to compare more when I have tasted others.

There will be more cupcake adventures. Stay tuned.

This post can also be read at www.simple-gourmet.blogspot.com

The Quandary

I'm at a loss. This really doesn't happen that often either. I've been back from my holiday for some time now, and my plan was to continue blogging. But I discovered, on my return, that it's not as easy as I once assumed... I simply don't know what to blog about!

Although my travel blog was about travel, food and all-round adventure, finding that in my regular life has been a challenge, to say the least.  I don't have a lot of "adventure" in LA and I don't travel every weekend like I used to in Europe. But there is one thing. I eat. I'm not a foodie like those that can be found on chowhound or the like, but I like to try stuff, for lack of a better word. So that's what I'm going to do. I'll write about my food adventures!

But don't be mistaken - I am not a typical 'foodie' or even a critic. My intention is not to annihilate food joints with the pointy end of my pen! I'll write more from the human side, as this is a far more comfortable angle for me.

So there you have it. Keep your eyes peeled.

Life As I Know It

Photos by Jet Tila

For the first time in a long time, I have jetlag. And it's not the average kind that I used to get when traveling between England and Australia when I would wake up at 3:00 in the morning and then promptly go back to sleep. This is complete exhaustion where I simply can't stay awake any longer and fall sound asleep at 4.30 in the afternoon. I must be getting old.

These girls were on our city tour bus.

Not even the amazing sights of London could wake them.

I'm thinking jetlag.

I've come back to reality and it's really not bad at all. Perhaps my European adventure was a little premature in that I hadn't really let go of that nomadic life that I once led. Or maybe I just hadn't realized yet that I can actually apply my stellar navigation and planning skills that I once used to make 'traveling' my comfort zone, and applying them here - making LA my comfort zone. My home. My Santa Monica sanctuary!

I visited my Sensei who imparted some sage advice about life, and who was truly excited about the trinket I found for her at Portobello Road. She then sent me home for that afternoon nap I mentioned earlier, recognizing the glazed eyes, pale face and wan expression as exhaustion. And then I was to re-awaken and start putting into action all my ideas of jewelry and such like! So many ideas, so little time. Especially when you have jetlag.

St John

Photos by Jet Tila

As promised, the belated St John experience!

My expectation of St John was actually, embarrassingly, quite low. My impression of English food was not that good, even though I was always fed extremely well by my friends and family, and the foodie TV always looked appetizing and fabulous.

The anticipation of Taillevent (being a Michelin restaurant) was really built up, especially as they specify a dress code, and required a 2 month advance booking. So you can imagine my surprise when I actually sat down to the meal in London in jeans, then being served the most amazing array of food I think I have ever had.

We were joined by Jet's cousin Meg which was a lovely treat, and it also allowed us to try extra dishes as there were three of us rather than just two! And it allowed us to indulge once more in the familiar accent of home.

The restaurant seated us right by the kitchen, which would be hell for most other patrons, but for us, it allowed Jet to spy into the kitchen and watch the skilled chefs prepare everyone's meals. There was one particular chef that we watched with fascination. The intensity in which he prepared the salads for each dish was amazing. And if it's even possible, just seeing that made the food taste even better.

We started with:

 Roast Bone Marrow & Parsley Salad

Deep Fried Skate Cheeks & Aioli

Cured Beef, Beetroot & Pickled Walnut

Followed by:

Bath Chaps & Dandelion Salad

Pigeon & Radishes

Smoked Eel, Bacon & Mash

Then (as if we could fit any more in):

Apple Crumble & Custard

Ginger Loaf & Butterscotch Sauce

Chocolate Mousse & Hazelnut Biscuits

The meal was just so rich in taste, that even I, with my usually insatiable sweet tooth, couldn't finish off the desserts!

After dinner, we walked the long way back to the tube, said farewell to Meg (whom we will hopefully be seeing again soon) and made our way back to our digs, happy, full and exhausted.

The Departure Lounge

We are already at the airport, getting ready to leave Europe. How very, very sad! I have really loved being back here. Mainly because I do really miss having family around and being swept back into the bosom of the Family Markham. And also because the people here understand my accent! Just kidding...

We had an amazing few days in London. I truly expected that the weather in London would be rainy and horrible and the weather in Paris to be fabulous. Ironically it was the other way around and we had an almost totally dry 4 days in London! In Paris we had hail. Crazy.

We fast-tracked our visit to the London Eye which was the best investment of the century! From arrival time at the ticket office to actually stepping into the capsule, it could only have been about 3 minutes. Queues are for suckers!!!!!!

Our trip on the Eye was only marred by some other very loud tourists with children who were equally as loud. Then one of the parents dropped the baby which was probably as embarassing for everyone else as it was for them. It's times like that one realizes whether they are ready for children. I am clearly not.

So after a quick trip to Buckingham Palace where we cleverly made it in time for the Changing of the Guard, we cabbed it to Simpsons in the Strand where we indulged in an English Sunday Lunch. Jet had the Scottish Beef, while I had my first ever Beef Wellington. English food always seemed to scare me - not when I was eating with family, but when I was eating out. I think that even the idea the the Brits eating fare as appalling as blood sausage just put me off! However, as I was dining with a food officianado, I could get a full interpretation and knew what I was getting. Or did I? My Beef Wellington was surprisingly outstanding! So much so, that I have requested this very dish to be made for me back in LA. And of course, being the avid carnivore that he is, Jet has obliged.

Again, the meal we had on Saturday night at St John's deserves a post of its own. As does the amazing Gujrati meal we had with the Mehtas on Sunday night. They are coming soon. I promise!

London without a brolley (that's an umbrella...)

Photos by Jet Tila

My broken French that got us around Paris is not required anymore. However even though most people around me in London are speaking English, I still find myself thinking up sentences in French before I start speaking.

So lets return to Paris briefly...

We went to a show at the Moulin Rouge (at my insistence) in the evening after the amazing Taillevent lunch. As I have never seen a Vegas show or anything even remotely similar, I was shocked into silence once it kicked off! I expected nudity. Even some gaudy costumes. I even expected to be surprised. What I didn't expect was men. On the stage. Dancing like the Village People. Even just watching the female Moulin Rouge dancers parading around the stage in sexy jockey costumes with miniature horses in tow, really, has to be seen to be believed.

The best patisserie in the 9th!

We went up the Eiffel Tower, walked the Louvre (the Mona Lisa was actually larger than I remembered), went to the top of the Notre Dame (400-odd steps), walked around the Sacre Coeur, had my portrait done at Montmartre and ate enough French pastries for the next year. Ok, maybe 2 years...

Gargoyles on the top of the Notre Dame

I even got to catch up with my best friend from high school that I haven't seen in 12 years! She lives in Luxembourg and caught the train into Paris for a night. You know you have a good friend when 12 years pass and you can still talk to each other the same way you did when you were 17! It was like no time had elapsed and it was great.

Jet and his very large cafe au lait

So we said farewell to Paris (I was definitely more sad about this than Jet) and landed in London just an hour later.

This morning we went to the Tower of London to get some very serious English history and to see where Anne Boleyn got her head removed! We were shown around by a very entertaining Beefeater (Yeoman Warder) who actually also moonlights as a guide for the Jack the Ripper evening walking tours! Who knew that the nursery rhymes Humpty Dumpty and Mary Mary Quite Contrary were all references to very important English historical figures. I certainly didn't and was very impressed that these English rhymes had crossed oceans as both Jet and I had grown up with them in America and Australia respectively!

We had a mid-morning snack of fish & chips (which were surprisingly good), and then a late lunch at Wagamama which was better than Jet expected, and worse than I expected. It's a fast Asian food restaurant that has a lot of 'fusion' food, is GMO free and has communal seating. I then made a weary Jet hit the Harrods food hall which was great! We picked up some bits and pieces for dinner and made our way back to our hotel on the tube.

So right now, we are just catching our breath and catching up on emails and American Idol! Tomorrow we are going to the Notting Hill Farmers Market, dining at St John and I get to skive off and do some shopping in the afternoon. I will sign off now as Jet just insulted me by saying I am going to look like Neil Diamond's mother when I'm old. Bollocks to that!