Mon, Sept 22

10.21am - fruit nut bar, at work2.14pm - a crappy lunch from Ralphs: a BLT wrap, with bacon so undercooked I took it all out and tossed it, and some Szechuan chicken salad

2.34pm - green pepper orange chocolate from Germany, at work

7.32pm - Ritesh made dinner! Indian-style black eyed peas w/ rice, salad and poppadums. Yum!

7.50pm - Karlsbader Oblaten, a very thin and crispy wafer filled w/ sugary bits of hazelnut and almonds, a specialty of Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic (where some of my family is from). I used to eat these a lot growing up, but Ritesh hadn't tried them yet. And he liked them!

Sun, Sept 21 - Anisette

10.38am - Silver Palate oatmeal boiled in coconut-rice milk, with caramelized apples and walnuts and some leftover chocolate sauce, at home, with Ritesh.2.07pm - leftover Indian food from last night, at home.

2.13pm - the cherry-lychee-vodka sorbet I made last week is still good!

Spent the afternoon reading through the Bouchon and French Laundry cookbooks and I can tell you, there are only so many recipes for French onion soup and other bistro fare that you can read before you begin to get some serious craving. French onion soup, apparently, needs to be started a couple of days before consumption, and involves, amongst other things, caramelizing onions for five hours. While stirring every 15 min. Having obviously missed the boat for today (we don't even have any onions in the house, for starters), I had no choice but to head over to Alain Giraud's new bistro, Anisette.

Anisette does manage to have a French feel, half a block from the Third Street Promenade. Love the red leather banquette, and the tiles on the floor remind me of my grandma's kitchen. Did I tell you my grandma owned a restaurant? Not for nothing that I'm a little obsessed w/ food...

5.31pm - and here it is, ta da! Anisette's famed soupe a l'oignon!

5,50pm - moules frites, at Anisette. Best fries I've had all year! Perfect!

6.19pm - an impeccable creme caramel, with a nicely tart passion fruit caramel. On the side, a couple of lemon cookies (hiding in the handle of the cream container), and some real whipped cream w/ vanilla bean. Heaven!

Sat, Sept 20 - Bosnian

12.51pm - Bosnian lamb soup, at Aroma Cafe, with Ritesh. After last night's feast, we skipped breakfast this morning.12.51pm - bread at Aroma Cafe, with Ritesh

12.51pm - Bosnian salad, kind of like a Greek salad as it has feta cheese, but no olives. At Aroma Cafe, with Ritesh.

1pm - cevapi (Bosnian kebab) w/ onions, at Aroma Cafe, with Ritesh.

1.15pm - Ritesh's Turkish coffee, at Aroma Cafe

1.16pm - a Bosnian dessert recommended by the waitress: a poached apple stuffed w/ walnuts, served w/ whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Shared w/ Ritesh at Aroma Cafe.

4.03pm - a piece of Amandine's tarte rouge, at home, with Ritesh.

7.59pm - poppadum and chutneys, at Agra, with Ritesh

8.15pm - this is what we trekked out to Silverlake for: a balti! God knows what the difference is between a balti and a regular curry, but this dish is Agra's claim to fame and the reviews likened the place to an English curry house. So there. This was a perfectly spiced, delectable fish balti, by the way.

8.16pm - mango lassi, naan and spinach w/ chickpeas, very tasty, too. I wish this place was closer, this is much better than the Indian food on the Westside....

Fri, Sept 19 - Warszawa

9.09am - plain coconut yogurt w/ walnuts, flax seeds, hemp seeds, blueberries, at work.12.36pm - 1/2 a bland turkey club sandwich and some lousy, card-boardy garlic French fries that all the garlic in the world couldn't save, at the nasty, smelly and over-priced Damon & Pythias in Westwood, with Ritesh.

1.04pm - Ritesh's cobb salad, at Damon & Pythias. As thoughtlessly thrown together as it looks. Will so never go back to that place.

1.52pm - ice cream sandwich, just to erase the bad memories from lunch, back at work. Didn't really help. Plus there's hydrogenated oils in this.

3.04pm - thankfully, Caroline is back from France and brought some chocolate...

7.36pm - and thankfully, Greg and Phinney took both of us out to Warszawa for Ritesh's birthday - this totally saved the day! Thanks, guys!
Warszawa is Polish restaurant in Santa Monica, somewhat divey looking from the outside but a real gem on the inside. It's basically someone's lovely old house that was converted into a restaurant, so there's several little rooms with tables, and it all has a very homey, old-world charm to it. They also have an outside patio with a bar and a big-screen TV, totally different vibe, and this bar seems to be more popular, at least amongst the crowd who writes online reviews - leading Ritesh and me to believe we'd have a very mellow, cheap dinner at a low-key sports bar. Instead, to our surprise, we're finding ourselves in a really nice restaurant, white table cloths and all. We were very impressed, and the food was outstanding. In fact, Greg and Phinney are planning on having their rehearsal dinner there! Can't wait...

7.45pm - bread and olive tapenade, at Warszawa, with Ritesh, Greg and Phinney

7.50pm - the grilled sausage appetizer, with an amazing horseradish sauce, shared w/ Ritesh, Greg and Phinney

7.50pm - the mixed pierogi appetizer plate - there were some w/ braised beef, some w/ cheese, onion and potatoes, and some w/ mushrooms. Again, shared w/ Ritesh, Greg and Phinney.

7.55pm - the wine we were having, a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2007 from New Zealand. The menu promised guava undertones in it, and we could actually taste them, so we were chuffed.

8.09pm - my "Bigos", a Polish hunter's stew w/ lots of cabbage, different kinds of meat and sausage, plus some mashed potatoes, peas in the pod and carrot puree. Loved it!

8.09pm - Ritesh's stuffed cabbage, with a tomato sauce and the same sides I had. And I loved this even more than I loved my dish! Will have to have this again, or learn to make it at home. Ritesh went to high school with a guy from Romania whose mother used to make this a lot, so hopefully we can get her recipe!

8.09pm - just for dramatic effect, as I didn't actually try this - this is Greg's half duckling, with a knife sticking out, and some cinnamony apple-plum compote.

8.44pm - dessert No.1: a chardonnay poached pear w/ two sauces, vanilla-cream and I think cassis, very nice.

8.44pm - and this is Phinney's favorite: a crepe filled w/ lemon ricotta, served warm with some hot raspberry sauce. She loves this so much, I'll have to try and reproduce this next time they come over... doesn't seem like it would be that hard.

10.05pm - wait, we're not done yet! We cracked open some of the amazing aged sipping Tequila Ritesh got from his brother Prashant for his birthday, and we got to try some of Delphine's mind-blowing and highly addictive home made spicy maple walnuts, at Greg and Phinney's.

Thurs, Sept 18

8.31am - sesame baguette w/ Nadi's mom's home made jam, chococlate spread, some fresh cantaloupe and mango (possibly the last one of the season), some Argentinian mate, at home 9.50am - some chili lemon pistachios, at work

1.06pm - decided to give Take a Bao another try - these are their veggie sesame ginger noodles, at work. Very disappointing, btw. - bland, sugary, oily.

7.44pm - vietnamese spring rolls at Pho99, with Ritesh.

7.49pm - veggie pho at Pho99, with Ritesh

Wed, Sept 17

8.12am - Ezekiel almond cereal w/ walnuts, blueberries and coconut-rice milk, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and a boiled egg, at home. I seem to notice that when I skip breakfast, I eat a lot more during the rest of the day. So I told myself: Not today!10.17am - of course, the one time I have a decent breakfast at home, there's a surprise team breakfast at work, to say farewell to Scott and Louis, with all kinds of goodies: three different kinds of bread from Breadbar, cold cuts, cheese, muffins and cantaloupe.

10.59am - and here's breakfast No. 3, ahem. Didn't eat the banana, though - maybe tomorrow.

2.33pm - got some super-crunchy sesame baguette from Breadbar and made sandwiches at work: German peppered salami first...

2.49pm - then peppered brie from Germany

2.55pm - along with some champagne grapes

5.34pm - another peppered brie sandwich, in the pantry at work, before heading out to class

5.41pm - and a honey goat milk yogurt with a bunch of seeds, at work. God knows why the Canadians call this 'cheese'... I would swear it was yogurt.

9.23pm - and some spicy peanuts, at home, after class.