Sat, June 21 - hot, hot, hot

8.11am - fresh mango, at home. 29 Celsius inside the house. 9.31am - pink lemonade, at home. Found out only afterwards that this is sweetened w/ high fructose corn syrup. This is Paul Newman's supposedly wholesome and organic brand, explicitly marketed as "all natural" and sold at Whole Foods.Wtf.

10.24am - Thai style peanut-lime salad - made in advance for dinner tonight, at home, with Ritesh.

14.41h - chips and some super-spicy salsa at El Toreo Cafe in Pasadena, with Ritesh, Greg and Phinney. If we're technically in the desert in LA, Pasadena is even more so as it's further inland. At least in West LA, you get some breeze from the ocean - Pasadena was just relentless, about 40 Celsius, and we practically fell into the first air-conditioned restaurant we found just to get off the street. As an aside, I have to confess that after 10 years in LA without air conditioning in either car or home, we finally gave in this week and got the air conditioning set up in our car. Not in the apartment, mind you. But the car nevertheless. Not sure how we would have made it to Pasadena otherwise.

14.41h - Mexican combo plate, shared with Ritesh - he got the taco, and I got the chile relleno that's buried somewhere under the cheese, mole and lardy refried beans. There was also an enchilada under there, according to Ritesh.

15.23h - Phinney is still on a mission to find the perfect cupcake for their wedding and treated us to some for research purposes (thanks, Phinney!). This is a strawberry shortcake and a Neapolitan cupcake from Violet's Cupcakes, which was conveniently located on the block where one of the bands Phinney wanted to see was playing.

15.32h - and this was the one we liked best: the banana bread cupcake w/ chocolate frosting.

16.12h - and this is Chhom Nimol and Dengue Fever playing on the World Stage in Pasadena, on what was still the hottest day of the year.

16.15h - more Dengue Fever (I never thought that beard was real. It is.)

16.27h - and more Dengue Fever

18.25h - fresh lime w/ sparkling water, after a cold shower, back home, with Ritesh.

20.07h - Thai/Cambodian-style peanut-lime salad w/ bell pepper, radishes, snow peas (due to the Japanese origin of this recipe), mung bean sprouts and cilantro. Made this variation of the regular soba-noodle salad w/ coconut milk as we're having a bit of a South East Asian theme going tonight, what with Dengue Fever and all. At home, with Nadya, David, Mingus and Ritesh, who bravely put up w/ my Dengue Fever albums all evening.

20.43h - Cambodian amok (fish coconut curry), made w/ fresh black cod and a lot less chilies than last time.

21.59h - coconut sticky rice w/ fresh mango, at home, still w/ Nadya, David, Mingus and Ritesh.