Mon, June 23

8.51am - fresh squeezed juice from Nadya's oranges, toasted English muffin w/ peanut butter and rhubarb jam. And the first peony opened up! And it's my mom's b-day today...13.53h - sandwich de milanesa de pollo (basically a chicken schnitzel sandwich) at Gran Casino Panaderia Argentina, where I buy the Argentinian mate that I drink every morning.

15.16h - and another Argentinian specialty from Gran Casino: an alfajor de dulce de leche, which is basically a crumbly cookie with caramel filling. At work.

20.09h - Ritesh's Chinese-style broccoli w/ tofu, my stir-fried mung bean sprouts, brown rice, at home, with Ritesh.

20.32h - coconut sticky rice w/ fresh mango, at home, with Ritesh.

21.09h - limoncello sorbet, at home, with Ritesh.

Sun, June 22 - avocado ice cream

8.02am - treasures from Nadya's garden: oranges, lemons, three plums, and fresh rosemary and lavender! Thanks so much, Nady! Didn't eat all of this at 8.02am, of course, just wanted to show it off...9.25am - watermelon, at home.

9.47am - fresh lychees, at home. Surrounded by the beautiful peonies Nadya brought - can't wait to see them open up!

10.54am - blueberry-flaxseed-aloe vera smoothie, at home ( I use frozen blueberries for this, hence the lumpy bit in the middle)

12.39pm - Ritesh's Indian green beans and potatoes, w/ leftover coconut rice.

13.16h - some home made avocado-coconut ice cream, fresh out of the ice cream maker. This is such a great recipe, just milk, coconut milk, some sugar, and an avocado. No cream, and none of that sweetened condensed milk...

15.37h - tortellini in brodo, w/ porcini broth, at home. Now that I'm posting this I keep wondering if I ate all this on my own and where on earth Ritesh was last Sunday. But it just occurred to me that he went to finish his game of D&D...

19.04h - ... and brought home some more junk food - Cheddar jalapeno Pringles. Would be nice to make a real food version of this, some kind of potato gratin w/ cheddar and jalapenos. Someday, when this heat wave is over...

19.21h - some more avocado-coconut ice cream, now properly frozen, at home, with Ritesh.

20.47h - and some more watermelon and lychees, before heading out to see Hotel Very Welcome at the LA Film Festival, with Ritesh.

Dengue Fever on the BBC

A better article on Dengue Fever, from the BBC.

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.

Dengue Fever !

Tomorrow is the summer solstice and we're going to the first ever Fete de la Musique in Pasadena, above all to see Dengue Fever live - one of my favorite bands. They're local, from LA, but their singer Chhom Nimol is Cambodian and their thing is Californian-Cambodian fusion. Very cool. They do a lot of out-there psychedelic covers of Cambodian rock from the 60s, but they also did a great Khmer version of Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now, and of course also have a lot of their own stuff that's a little more quiet.
I've been scouring YouTube to find something to show you but unfortunately their videos are godawful. Seriously. It's a real shame. You're better off going to iTunes and checking out I'm 16 or Lost in Laos, from their first album Dengue Fever, Both Sides Now from the City of Ghosts soundtrack, or Sleepwalking through the Mekong. Actually, Sleepwalking is on You Tube without a video, so check it out if you like. This is one of their own songs, and about as slow as they get. And here's a trailer for a documentary about their first tour outside the US, which took them, of course, to Cambodia.

Fri, June 20 - another heatwave

5.59am - omega 3 bar before bootcamp, w/ Ritesh. Doesn't look very summery with all the fog over Malibu, but it's barely 6am and already pretty warm. 24 Celsius when the alarm rang this morning at 5.10am. 5.59am - moon over the Pacific

7.03am - and an hour later, the sun is out. We've had some stunning, deep red sunrises all week, but this isn't bad either.

8.23am - blueberry-flaxseed-aloe vera smoothie, at home, with Ritesh.

13.26h - two fish tacos, rice, beans, chips and salsa from Baja Fresh, at the food court near work. This is the first time this year that I ate inside - just too blazing hot out.

19.35h - Fiji water bottle, on the bus ride home from work. Don't normally take pictures of the water I drink, and don't normally drink it out of disposable bottles either. But did I mention how hot it was today? Jesus Christ...

8.21h - and with all this heat, I come home to find Ritesh with four pots going on the stove: He made daal, green beans and potatoes and brown rice. Thanks, hon!

Thurs, June 19 - Germany vs. Portugal, Pink Taco and Akasha

7.05am - omega 3 bar, after bootcamp, with Ritesh.7.22am - some green juice, at home.

7.50am - fresh mango, at home.

8.12am - Nady bread sandwich w/ boiled egg, at home.

10.56am - a salt bagel, courtesy of Marla, at work, while trying to set up ESPN 360 and video streaming on my computer to watch the game. Too much work to do to go back to the pub. But then, the game was so gripping and the Germans so unexpectedly inspired, I bailed at half time anyway and ran over to Greg's house to watch it on the big screen.

14.14h - tarragon egg salad from Gelson's, back at work, after the game.

14.14h - plus another corporate bagel, sorry for the crappy picture.

14.36h - a fuji (from the farmers market), at work, while reading through Tom Lutz' entire game commentary on the Guardian website and just relishing the fact that we made it to the semifinals after all.

18.34h - a pink margarita (w/ hibiscus), chips and salsa during happy hour at Pink Taco, with Ritesh, Elvira, Cynthia, Alison, Marina and a bunch of other people from his work.

19.38h - and finally, the long-awaited and oft-rescheduled dinner w/ Laura at Akasha. This is Akasha's bread and butter, and a dry French red that Laura picked. Akasha is the new popular deal around here, on grounds of it being all local, organic and sustainable, in terms of food and furnishings. With the exception of the wine, apparently.

19.40h - onion rings, at Akasha, w/ Laura. As long as they're local and organic, they're good for you, right?

19.50h - honey-glazed peach and arugula salad w/ goat cheese

19.50h - grilled artichoke w/ paprika aioli

19.51h - a bite of Laura's turkey burger and fries

20.441h - and a pretty sensational salty chocolate tart w/ caramel and nuts and some creamy gelato.