Katuray salad

[Retro post - recently looked for these pix which were taken in summer of 2017 but am posting them Aug 2019 so I can have a post during that month, ha ha]

My parents recently gave us these interesting flower...

which were placed in a ziploc bag...

Our 24th Anniversary - Dinner at the Bali Hai (plan B)

[Retroactive post - Actually  written on 6/27/20]

It was our 24th Wedding Anniversary...

Our original plan was to have dinner at Supannee House of Thai near Shelter Island...

Maui Day 1 - McD's for lunch, plus quick stops at Walmart & Safeway for local stuff

Sadly, because the Geste Shrimp Truck was closed on Monday...

we ended up going here...

Maui Day 1 - First stop, Costco

Last week we went on a much needed vacation...

We hadn't been to the airport since our Portland trip last year and I don't remember the new sitting areas complete with outlets in the tables (nice!);

This year, we would be off to Maui for about a week...

LASA LA

[Retroactive post - 6/26/20, heh heh]

We made it to our hotel in Burbank to unpack and freshen up....

LA's Chinatown looked so close on the map, but traffic was going to make this "fun"...

Tatang NoHo

[Retroactive post - written and posted on 6/26/20]

FYI - With the pandemic, this place may not be doing in-house dining. Instead, they are doing Takeout according to the four lettered site.

In a small strip mall with a nearby Mexican market is a new (at the time) Filipino eatery...

Tilt Coffee, DTLA

[FYI - This is a retroactive post...dated 4/14/19 but written and published on 6/26/20]

Due to Covid-19, this coffee bar is most likely operating quite differently than when I first visited in Spring 2019. Take heed.

After our quick snack at Sari Sari Store at the Grand Central Market...

we took a walk to find this "hidden" coffee bar...

Sari Sari Store at the Grand Central Market in L.A.

The publish date for this post may say April 23, 2019, but really... it is June 25, 2020.

Yes, I am posting retroactively...

My birthday morning - Cream Pan in Tustin + Hopper & Burr coffee in DTSA + Mexican fruit cup from vendor

Bert's bro was kind enough to let us stay in his pad overnight. TC and her cousin were able to catch up while we were crashed out...

My birthday morning was started at one of my favorite bakeries...

Irenia Part 2 - The Food

As promised...

this post will feature the food we had for my pre-bday dinner at Irenia in Santa Ana...

Irenia Part 1 - The decor + the art exhibit, "Maiden Voyage" by Patricia Ybanez

I'd recently read about Irenia and was excited to know that it was written up favorably by the late LA Times food critic, Jonathan Gold.

Since we were staying overnight at my brother in law's pad for the evening, Irenia was the perfect spot in keeping with my birthday crawl theme...

Seal Beach pier

The last time we were at Seal Beach was several years ago for a road trip.

We were passing by the area and Bert realized he had forgotten to bring his jacket...

Snacks at Thanh Tam Bakery, Garden Grove

Not too far from Bonchon was a bakery I saw that popped up on google maps.

Thanh Tam is a Vietnamese bakery and usually those establishments have pate chaud....

Bonchon, Costa Mesa

TC hadn't tried the Bonchon in San Diego yet but looked online to see that one was fairly close by...

when we came upon it, the place looked familiar...

Rapport Coffee

It was the day before my birthday and both Bert and TC were off from work and school...

That meant weekend road trip to celebrate a milestone birthday for yours truly...

Day after highlights...

Here are some highlights from the Day After My Birthday...

at a coffee stop in Eagle Rock...

Birthday Highlights - I'm now 25 x 2

Well now...

I remember when my parents hit the half century mark...

Pre-Birthday Highlights

I know it's been a while since I blogged but we were in the midst of a remodel.

Through the magic of backdating (this is really 5/16 folks...), I will be posting highlights from my milestone birthday last month...

(passing by the deactivated San Onofre nuclear power plant, but I just call it the "tits")

in which Bert, myself and TC took a Friday off to spend a 3-day weekend in the OC and LA...

Lucky 13 - PCaRH's 13th Blogaversary

Yes...it's true

It's the thirteenth year of existence for this blog here...

The St. John's Bridge & Cathedral Park

Finally publishing this on 6/16/2022...yes years later.  Blog had been on a long hiatus.  Trying to tie up loose end with a trip that happened during the Spring of 2018...

Just wondering if people read blogs anymore?

Pok Pok Noi

[Retroactively dated post - written on 7/8/20, posted on 3/15/19 for our trip taken Spring 2018]

[Update - As of June 2020, The owner of Pok Pok has closed almost all of his locations due to the economic strains wrought by covid-19, see info here]

Fueled caffeine...

we headed over to the NE quadrant...

Kopi Coffee House

[Retroactive post - written on 7/8/2020 but backdated to 3/14/19 - which is funny since our actual trip was Spring 2018]

Our next stop of the day after having had lunch at Nick's ...

was this coffee house specializing in coffee and drinks from Southeast Asia. It is also next to a popular brunch spot, The Screen Door (which was mocked in an older Portlandia episode)

Nick's Famous Coney Island

Steps away from the Bagdad Theater is this old school sign proclaiming, Nick's Famous Coney Island Food...

I remember seeing it back in 2010 and again in 2012...

Stuff seen on Hawthorne St...

We hadn't been back to this area since our visit in 2012...

Hawthorne St. is part of the Hawthorne District...

The now defunct I Heart Retro, Portland OR

Next door to Carnelian Coffee was yet another vintage store.

It was always fun checking out the many cool vignettes within...

Carnelian Coffee

After our quick snack at An Xuyen, we headed off for coffee in the Foster-Powell area...

Before our trip, I saw that there was a just opened coffee shop called Carnelian...

Portland Spring Break Trip 2018 - Day 6: Return to An Xuyen Bakery

For our 6th day of the Portland 2018 trip, we revisited a bakery we enjoyed back in 2012...

which was An Xuyen in the SE Quadrant...

Karangalan Scholarship Fundraiser dinner at Tidal (Spring 2017)

Although this is dated March 8, this was supposed to be posted back in Spring 2017.

Yes, more than 2 years ago.

I am going through my drafts and realized I never posted on this Filipino fusion dinner, so here goes.

The occasion was for a Filipino American scholarship fundraiser for my district...

The return of the Dolphin Statue at Cali Baguette on El Cajon Blvd

A place we wanted to go wasn't opened yet,

so we went here for a bite to eat to kill time and also because we were hungry...

Dixie Pops, Mission Hills

Recently Bert and I gave this new ice cream place a try...

There used to be a location in Little Italy but it closed...

Sights en route to and from Kenton + giant Paul Bunyan

We passed by the Buckman Community mural on SE 12th & Morrison...

as we headed east towards a quirky roadside attraction that we couldn't pass up...

Pips & Bounce, Portland

Even in Portland, we saw a San Diego based brewery,

which was Modern Times. But this post is not about them, it's about Bert's choice of venue for entertainment...

Little Big Burger + NOLA Doughnuts, Pearl District

It's funny for me posting this after almost one year...

Lucky for me, I remember details and all. During this time span, a Little Big Burger opened in Mission Valley...

The newly expanded Project Reo Collective

[Update as of 2020 - Sadly, PRC was a casualty of Covid and closed late May 2020] 

Bert and I have been enjoying our Saturday coffee dates...

It is usually coffee + urban art and lucky for us, PRC had both!

Another look at these murals in Paradise Hills - "Succulent Landscape" + "Radiating Vibrance"

The rain had abated and the skies were a glorious gray...

with nice and even lighting throughout...

Heading to lunch and not seeing a certain statue...

While en route to our as yet undetermined lunch venue...

We wanted to see an iconic statue that was near the Portland Museum of Art...

"Animating Life - The Art and Science of Laika" at the Portland Art Museum (Spring 2018)

We didn't have to walk to far from St. Honore Boulangerie; get to the Portland Art Museum...

The familiar figures for Laika's four movies greeted us in the distance...

St. Honore Boulangerie, downtown Portland

Freshly caffeinated from our visit to Deadstock Coffee, we three trekked along the Portland streets to get to the museum...

(Bert and TC above)

I even took a sip of water from this four-bowl Benson Bubbler...

Return to the Portland Spring Break 2018 Posts - Day 5: Deadstock Coffee

Hey folks, it's the return of the Portland Spring Break posts. This was our vacation from last fkg year man.

It's my goal to finish it within less than one year since we went on vacation, ha ha. So, starting today, the return of these posts, featuring Day 5...

Guahan Grill, Imperial Beach

[Update - CLOSED as of 2020]

Yesterday we finally checked out the newest location of Guahan Grill in the new'ish Breakwater Town Center in IB...

We'd only been to the one in Oceanside years ago...

Soups & more from Hoai Hue

A few weeks ago, we tried coming here to try their version of crab soup...and found this sign:

(photo from my "Bun rieu + bun suong at Saigon" post, Feb 2019)

Dammit!So we ended going to Saigon that night, but ended up here a few days later...

Red Hat Coffee, East Village

[Update  as of 10/19 , which was the last four lettered review; This place is now CLOSED]

Bert and I were up pretty early to head over here...
[
the rapidly gentrifying East Village neighborhood in downtown San Diego...

North County Coffee Crawl Stop 4: Baba Coffee

Our last stop of the day was a few blocks from Sleeping Tiger.

In fact, we parked so far out, we passed this place by while on our way to Sleeping Tiger, ha ha...

North County Coffee Crawl Stop 3: Sleeping Tiger Coffees

We made the short drive down to Carlsbad for our third coffee stop. Around the corner from this colorful mural...

("Catnap" by Michael Summers, 2013) 

 was our next coffee stop which is housed in a winery of all places

North County Coffee Crawl Stop 2: Panels Coffee Bar and Comics (revisit)

It has been a while since we were last at Panels...

You can't beat the combination of coffee and comics...

North County Coffee Crawl - Stop 1: Steel Mill Coffee

During this holiday weekend, Bert and I made an improptu trip up north...

We were actually planning to go to Steel Mill tomorrow, but changed our minds...

Seven Seas Roasting Co., South Park

Yay, there's a new coffee shop in South Park,

which is a good thing. The other place that is there (Communal) is a bit too frou frou for me...

Valentine's Day 2019

Picked these up a few days prior...

The new ladybug and the Happy Heart crystal Pez...

Bun Rieu #4 + bun suong at Saigon, City Heights

Last night brought us to Hoai Hue which is located in that three story building in Little Saigon in City Heights...

We saw this sign (sadness),  but it made sense since it was Tet...

Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, Pacific Beach

The newest location of Bird Rock Coffee had opened not too long ago,

and we had a free Sunday morning....

Revisits: Rice King, Bonchon, Pop Pie Co

La Ley and I went out to lunch the other day...

I hadn't gone to this place in two damn decades...