Thurs, July 31 - Richard's Preview/Premiere

7.48am - porridge oats w/ peaches, strawberries, walnuts and hemp and sesame seeds, at home9.48am - grapes and cherries, at work

10.45am - a chocolate cookie during another Future of Television meeting, this one regarding American Gladiators, Gladiators UK and Gladiators Australia. It's all they can do to feed us chocolate cookies to prevent us from running out of the room screaming. At work.

13.51h - club sandwich from Breadbar, at work

19.04h - Richard premiered his new film tonight. After Egypt, New Zealand and Morocco, the latest installment of his "Adventures with Purpose" took him to Switzerland, so the premiere was held at a brand new Swiss restaurant (technically not open until some time mid-August) with the ominous name of Chalet Edelweiss. Now, if you had grown up in Germany, you wouldn't feel terribly excited things like Edelweiss either, but I'm always excited about Richard's (and Laura's) projects, plus was curious to see what the restaurant would present as Swiss food. So here we go - it was a buffet affair, so this is the first appetizer platter - looking decidedly German

19.04h - sausages! Can't get more German than this.

19.04h - pretzels - crossing the Alps between Bavaria and Switzerland

19.07h - but here's something originally Swiss (and it's not just the glass with the cow in a hammock...). Rivella, as was explained to me by a proud Swiss server, is a soft drink made "from the liquid that's left when you make cheese". This doesn't sound so good (here's a better explanation) but it's actually very tasty. Light and refreshing, with a slightly fruity taste. And apparently it's very healthy, too! This one's a winner, and I can't get over the fact that they imported these glasses from Switzerland, what with the 3 dl mark and all...

19.13h - a Swiss gentleman heating cheese for, you guessed it, Raclette... he swooped the molten piece off with a large knife and...

19.13h - ... here it is on my potatoes, onions and gherkins. I'm not a big friend of blobs of molten cheese even on the best of days (i.e. when I'm not vainly attempting to go dairy free), but this really was a too much... but it was fun to watch him swoop...

19.16h - and more sausages! These were actually very good, spicier than the first lot above. Ritesh liked them, too. Very nice. I guess we do have something in common with the Swiss...

19.58h - ok, now this is a French dessert if ever I saw one - Parisian macarons? But who's to argue, they were just what was needed after all that sausage. Between Kathleen, Jasmin and I, we pretty much had all the ones that are missing on this platter... except for one that went to Ritesh

20.14h - we even got Swiss chocolate to take home! Yay!

Wed, July 30 - Laura's B-day at JiRaffe

8.04am - turkey-potato-chili pancake from Bristol Farms w/ chili toppings and fresh peach, at home10.53am - pistachios and grapes, at work

12.38h - simple potato curry and jackfruit curry from Samosa House, at work

15.27h - turmeric hazelnut roll from Breadbar, outside work

19.53h - chilled pea soup and walnut-raisin bread at JiRaffe, with, let's see, Laura, Richard, Laura's brother (who's also called Richard), Kathleen, Inger, Christine, Katherine, Katherine's husband (Kenny?), Pam and Jasmin.

19.56h - we all shared a bunch of appetizers: this is the Purple Peruvian Gnocchi (made w/ Peruvian potatoes, presumably), some shrimp ravioli, and a lovely melon and tomato salad that we'll have to try and reproduce at home

20.49h - What an underwhelming picture. Really doesn't look like much, but I can't even begin to describe how amazing this was - this is the Alaskan halibut with English pea puree, blistered grape tomatoes and Maui onion in an herb infused black truffle sherry vinaigrette. Oh my. Will have to come here with Ritesh - shame he had to stay home and work on his grant proposal...

21.22h - the birthday girl and her cake...

21.35h - and a piece of it for dessert... lovely, lovely evening, and the most expensive meal on the blog so far.

Tue, July 29 - earthquake

8.24am - cereal, walnuts, hemp and sesame seeds, strawberries, coconut rice milk, at home12.45h - daal (Indian lentil soup) from the Hare Krishna temple, salad from home w/ the great sweet basil dressing from the Krishna temple, at work, after the 5.4 earthquake at 11.42am. I was hesitant to put that in the header of this post since nothing really happened but hey, it's for the record. I'll never find it again otherwise...

14.37h - plums, at work

16.24h - the rest of Nady's tasty low-fat curry potato chips, at work

19.17h - chili spaghetti w/ skinny chicken chili from Bristol Farms and Ritesh's toppings, at home, with Ritesh

Mon, July 28

8.01am - cereal, nuts, seeds, strawberries, coconut rice milk, at home10.48am - pistachios and cherries, at work

12.56h - veggie buffet ("natural and karma free") outside at the Hare Krishna Temple. Got myself a pre-paid meal card, too - buy five lunches and get the sixth free - not bad. Am really liking this food these days...

18.44h - Satsouka's salt ramen, in the Mitsuwa store, with Ritesh

18.49h - the unagi (eel) egg rice bowl from the place two windows to the right from Satsouka's - totally didn't pay attention to the name, with Ritesh. Front right is some tofu, and the covered bowl is miso, of course

Sun, July 27

10.17am - cereal, walnuts, hemp and sesame seeds, fresh mango, and coconut rice milk, at home14.35h - orange-braised fennel, at home, with Ritesh

14.36h - how to do justice to Nady's tomatoes? We tried little pita-pizzas, cheese-free thanks to some flavorful olive bruschetta and roasted red pepper and artichoke spread. Very tasty, but these tomatoes are so good, they really don't need anything other than some salt and pepper... if that.

17.27h - Ritesh's Indian eggplant and omelette sandwich, with some of Nady's tasty curry potato chips (a bag of which somehow ended up inside our bigger bag of tomatoes - thanks, Nady :)

17.38h - I'd had a hankering for some Kaffee und Kuchen (mostly Kuchen, cake that is), so Ritesh (who's a sweetheart) picked some up from the Santa Monica Kosher Market. At home, with Ritesh.

17.43h - and more Kuchen! Danke, Schatz!

Sat, July 26 - Nady's B-Day BBQ!

9.40am - hibiscus flower tea w/ fresh lemongrass, at home9.56am - a yin-yang experiment involving porridge oats and blueberry-flaxseed smoothie, at home

14.24h - the salad we're taking to Nady's barbeque, still sans avocado and my notorious garlic dressing

15.40h - one of Nady's famous spicy turkey burgers (the first of many, but mysteriously the only one that got documented - what happened??), in Nady's famous garden, with Ritesh and a whole lot of Nady's and David's friends

15.49h - a plate of Nady's legendary home grown tomatoes - fabulous as ever... (and we got the rest to take home! Thanks, Nady!)

15.51h - Ritesh fixed himself a tasty hot dog, at Nady's
16.30h - some lovely fruit salad under Nady's orange tree, with Ritesh (he had his in a glass topped with white wine, very nice!)

16.38h - Hong Kong style barbeque chicken (w/ Hoisin sauce), made by Ryan and Josh

16.48h - David bringing out Nady's very photogenic b-day cake

16.56h - and my little portion of it - very yummy!

After this, I must have had a couple more turkey burgers, I think. Good thing they're small, but still... outrageous amount of food, all within like what, three hours? But boy was it tasty...

The best thing is - Nady's birthday isn't until late August (she just had the party now since her uncle is in town from Germany), so we can have another birthday dinner at our house for her! Yay!

Fri, July 25 - Laura's Dad's Memorial Dinner

9.06am - cereal w/ nuts and seeds and coconut rice milk, at work12.55h - veggie pizza at Whole Foods, shared w/ Ritesh

12.55h - sauteed spinach and chicken pasta, at Whole Foods, with Ritesh

19.02h - bacon-wrapped figs, at Laura's for her Dad's memorial dinner, with a whole bunch of people. Laura's Dad passed away a few weeks ago, and since he was a vet, he got a military ceremony today, way out east in the desert. I didn't have a chance to meet him, and we didn't make it to the ceremony either. But it was lovely to have this dinner in his honor.

19.16h - two different kinds of Hedy's chicken, grilled potatoes, asparagus, out on the balcony, with Kathleen, Jasmin and Michael. Way too many people inside...

20.21h - flourless chocolate cake from Whole Foods (that's how we ended up having lunch there today - went there to pick up the cake), some lovely carrot cake, and some vanilla ice cream, still at Laura's

21.25h - a glass of water (I swear) at The Daily Pint, with Ritesh and Greg. Swung by there on the way back from Laura's to meet up with them.