i don't ALWAYS eat mexican, sometimes i eat tex mex

so i was able to get together with my friend on tuesday (postponed from monday) and we had a lovely weho dinner at marix. it ended up being taco tuesday, which apparently means all you can eat tacos for $7.95. let's be honest though, the food isn't all that great. but let's get even more honest and admit that i managed to pound three of those not-so-great tacos. but for $7.95 who cares? the best part about marix, is that at night they open up the ceiling. okay it's not a real ceiling, it's like canvas or something and they roll it up and it's so nice to have the open sky, makes you feel like someone did you a good deed. the other fun thing about marix is that often there is a celebrity sighting. well except for tuesday night, no one. but i did see bob the trainer from biggest loser there a couple months ago. he is adorable in real life.


oh he eats
mexican food.
i saw it.

one of the reasons i love food so much is because it is often the forum for gathering close friends and family. even in a loud west hollywood restaurant you can still have an intimate dinner with a friend that makes your whole week, under the smog hidden stars.

working late and eatin' great

sometimes my job at FG means i have to work until kind of late. well kind of late for me. i do work with a few workaholics that would scoff at my 10 hour day. today was one of those days, which was fine except that my lovely friend invited me over for dinner. it wasn't a bad day at work, to be perfectly honest, but when you know you have to get out of there and drive to santa monica and you want to so bad cause you want to be with good peeps and you can't so then you get grumpy (my aim is to strive for run-on sentences that require you to read over and over until you can figure out what the hell i'm trying to say). so anyway i was at work until 8 and then i had to go pick up stuff from one of my suitcases located in hollywood. in case you were uninformed i have a suitcase at three different locations and one very mobile one (my car). so i went over to john's to grab some stuff and of course mimi freaked out! really freaked out with the barking and loving and it was just ridiculous which really made me sad because i'm a dead beat mom and i have guilt. just look at this baby:

but seriously her dad snores and it drives me INSANE. so i leave and she is sad and crying and i'm starving and poor and of course, just as though god opened the skies there in the horizon i see the arches.

stupid arches.

so with more guilt i order a southern style crispy chicken sandwich (it rolls off the tongue really). note: one must order this sandwich with big mac sauce, otherwise don't bother.


usually mcdonald's is a sign of emotional instability for me. tonight, although delicious, was not the exception.

the thing with mcdonald's is that it's kind of like alcohol. in reality it's a depressant. but sometimes it makes you feel great, like a kid! so free! and tasty! and other times it makes you feel like an ass, a fat ass and it doesn't even taste that great and so wasn't worth the 5000 calorie intake. and now you are depressed. but tonight i was totally fine with it. so cheers mcdee's! thanks for the good times! sorry foodies for the terrible restauranteers blog, but sometimes you got to slum it.

TOWANDA!

remember that from fried green tomatoes?! i loved, loved that movie. incidentally i also really like fried green tomatoes. remember when kathy bates (before she was out) ran into a car and said, "Face it girls, I'm older and I have more insurance." kay even as a young girl i knew she was awesome. also mary-louise parker before she was a dope dealer and mary stuart masterson (also pre-out) and the lovely jessica tandy before she was well...dead. sigh. great movie. especially for little feminists like myself, i was only like 12 when i saw that i think.

anyway....back to food! i was reminded of TOWANDA! when i recently went to Tawanna Thai.
very unsuspecting little thai restaurant in crappy strip mall, mid-wilshire. very, very surprising. first of all it's so cute inside, not cute like, aw...sweet baby cute, like woa! where are we- almost like a club. and can we say lunch special?! yes, yes we can. and we shall. and we shall say that it is $7.95. not bad l.a. not bad. so i had yellow curry with chicken, came with a nice salad and yummy yummerson veggie gyoza. a very delicious meal all in all and the price was so, so right. the winner though was one of my lunch companions. she ordered wonton and noodles with crab. it was these egg noodles (thin one's not the weird big, flat, slimey noodles that i hate) and they were crispy, which is even better. then there were generous wontons (or meat sacks if we want to get technical and gross, which i like to do), bean sprouts, crushed peanuts, lime and last but certainly not least- crab. and i waited to mention the crab last in this crab dish because we are talking real crab people. like in the shell, fresh and delicious. i think her meal was like a whole whopping dollar more. my friends are smart. and the service during very busy lunch hour was good, fast and well...cute. nice job TAWANNA!

i kind of love food, like a lot

and my name is nicki.
sooo.... i thought while i'm here in l.a. and i get to eat at lots of great little restaurants why not do a little restaurant bloggy blog?

so here we go restauranteers! (not a word), but restauranteur is- only it means the proprietor and as far as i know none of you are that.

taste

this is right in my old neighborhood- right off melrose
and this is inside

i had the chicken tortilla soup which was tasty because instead of sour cream they use Crème Fraîche! hello! fabulous! and then i had this salad:


grilled romaine, sliced green apple, applewood smoked bacon (unlike the photo-bacon was crumbling,but still delicious) and gorgonzola dressing. so i have never had grilled romaine. it had these crispy, burnt edges (as seen in photo) and it was so yummy! i was very surprised.

but the real hit of the night was my friend's pizzetta. wow. i'm not sure if this is the exact one she had, but let me just tell you it was one of my favorite things, um...ever.
ladies (and maybe a gentleman...probably not) i give you the prosciutto & fig pizzetta
black mission fig jam, prosciutto (thank you heavenly father), gorgonzola, & scallions

so all in all i had a very pleasant experience. my soup and salad cost around $20 bucks (which was graciously paid for by lovely friend), the service was very friendly (albeit a bit slow on the back end. oh the back end! as if i could ever forget about the back end (specially mine)! i had creme brulée. i know, i know i always get it, but i LOVE it. however, my other dinner companion got the bread pudding, which i would never, ever order in a million years cause it reminds me of dowdy, gross and boring english food- but oops, i was totally wrong cause this bread pudding was like the cool, modern and delicious londony type of bread pudding.
thank you taste, all in all a delightful evening full of good food, bevs and friends!

it's time to buy girl clothes

it's so much fun that my sister is having a girl and so i like to shop and shop for little.... (to be continued.) here is megan demonstrating her excitement for new outfits. you may guess which is her favorite.

first: this is big, fat baby



duh- she's excited

my favorite! ponies!!


doesn't my sister look cute in that dress? p.s. she won't like this, but her bum hangs out a little when she wears this dress, it makes me GOL- (that giggle out loud) people. I continue to encourage her to wear it, especially in public.
p.p.s. we are going to dress aidan up in baby girl clothes because i'm all for gender bending and megan just thinks it's funny. probably carl does not. sigh. so much to teach him.

oh and give me doris day any day of the week!

my taste in movies does not match up with my taste in music and it might scare you. it's true. i love crappy movies. i like kid movies. i like musicals. i like cartoons- like classic ones. i like romantic comedies. i like old timesy movies. i like crappy comedies.
here are some of my faves:
big business, beaches- well anything with bette midler (and lily tomlin)
gentlemen prefer blondes, some like it hot- well anything with marilyn monroe
9 to 5, steel magnolias- well anything with dolly parton (lily tomlin again)
confessions of a teenage drama queen, freaky friday- lindsey lohan style
coraline, up, sword in the stone, winnie the pooh, peter pan- love me some animated movies.
waiting for guffman, best in show, drop dead gorgeous- i swoon for mocumentaries
singin' in the rain, sound of music- dancing and singing!
elf- cause i love will farrell and i don't care what you say



tell me some of your favorites puhleease!

sigh of relief

no i did not quit blogging, but my life was seriously put on hold while i finished up school, moved to l.a., and studied for my clinical exam. i felt guilty if i was doing anything other then studying, however i passed my exam and am an official CSW. now i just need a job, get my 4,000 hours and i'm quickly on my way to becoming and LCSW.

sigh.

double sigh.

this is all i want to do:

alas poor people don't get to do this.

instead i get to do this:

aw well.