I have always been a lover of the Vietnamese soup called Pho’(pronounced “FUH”). I ate it when I was on a dating my husband at the time, who by the way is native Vietnamese. He taught me what to add as far as condiments and how to enjoy this wonderfully fragrant and tasty soup.

If I can’t make it to “Little Saigon”(Westminister), Alhambra or El Monte for this delicious soup. Than I go to local Pho’ restaurant near where I live. Pho 2000. They have several locations. The one I would frequent moved due to the high rise condos being built on Western and Wilshire. So I go to Pho’ 2000 other location which is on Vermont and 7th. It isn’t as busy as the Western and Wilshire location when it was opened. But nonetheless, is a good place to get a deceint bowl of your favorite type of Pho’.

Pho’ is a basic broth and noodle soup. One may have ox tail, steak or seafood as the meat of choice. When the bowl of soup arrives to you at the table, you smell the fragrance of the broth, meat, onions, anise seed, ginger and nuc mum(fish sauce). You may add some additional things that the waiter/waitress brings to your table. Usually, you may fresh sweet basil, green chile and bean sprouts. Some others may offer cilantro and thinely sliced onions as well. As far as condiments go, one may hoisen(a sweet thick soybean sauce), nuc mum(fish sauce) and siracha chili sauce. My favorite Pho’ is the Pho’ Tai, than the Pho’ Chicken, than the Oxtail.

I also do like ordering on ocassion the egg rolls with romaine lettuce and nuc mum dipping sauce.I also like ordering the “Bun Thit Nuong and Cha Gio”. Which is grilled pork chop, egg rolls and vermicilli noodles. For those who are crazy about coffee, I would recommend drinking the cafe’ su da. Which is the Vietnamese Iced Coffee. Patience is the key with this drink. It is recommended to order the coffee at the time of your pho’ order. By the time you are finished with the soup, the coffee would have finished dripping into you coffee cup from the Vietnamese coffee maker. At the bottom of the cup is a spoonful of condensed milk. Once you have the amount of coffee. Stir and add the coffee mixture to your glass of ice and stir again to get the full taste.

Having Pho’ is a wonderful dish to experience. If you ever get a chance to sample or eat some. Go for it. It is worth the taste and experience.

I know in many major cities across America have enclaves, or better know as “little towns”.  Such as in Los Angeles.  Here are but a few Los Angeles enclaves.  All are wonderful for their unique cultures, foods, festivals and contributions to the Los Angeles community.

Chinatown
Little Armenia
Little Tokyo
Koreatown
Thai Town
Little Ethopia
Little Manila
Jewish – Beverlywood
Little Persia
Little Italy – Which is now Chinatown. Yes odd I know.

I know in Los Angeles we have many of these inner cities as well. Such as East Los Angeles – Echo Park and City Terrace, West Los Angeles, South Central Los Angeles – Leimert Park and Watts as well as Hollywood. Many of them make up small businesses and have great restaurants, and annual festivals highlighting their country of orgin and its cultures.

Now you probably wonder why I would mention Los Angeles enclaves. Well I am sure you do realise the diversity of the “Little Town’s”. And this is one of the many things I enjoy about the Los Angeles community. The best of many countries being brought to one community is a difinite highlight of living or visting such large cities. This is not counting the many districts as well in Los Angeles. Los Angeles also has a financial district, clothing district, jewelry district, toy district as well as a few other districts. So you can do one of two things, visit all the “little enclaves” or shop in the many districts, or do both, your choice. Los Angeles is a must definite visit for a vast cultural and shopping experience.

Yes indeed, I took another visit to Farmers Market the day after Christmas. I had some cash to use from a present I recieved. So I had the time and cash to splurge on myself. After browsing the stores like, Victorias Secret, Barnes and Noble, Bath & Body Works, Crate & Barrel, Bannana Republic, Apple Store and Table La Sur at The Grove. One could only imagine how hungry one can get after the long day of shopping.

There is a restaurant in Farmers Market I always wanted to try out. The name of it is Kado -Ssushi – Teppan Lounge. It’s on the more pricier side. But I thought what the hey, it’s Christmas time and I had a little cash left over. Well, it so happens that on the way up the stairs a Kado Hostess was passing out flyers on their specials. Which was a $20.00 all you can eat sushi bar. the special runs till February 15, 2008. Much better than paying the typical $4.00 – $8.00 per plate of sushi. and I wanted to try different kinds and didn’t want to be limited to one to three dishes to try. So I opted for the all you can eat. the hours to for the all you can eat sushi is from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm.

I got there roughly around 2:30 pm with my daughter and a family friend. There were a few patrons there and was not overly busy. Once we walked through the front door we got a big greeting from the sushi chefs who shout out their way of welcoming you in Japanese.(mind you there were four of them). Once we sat down and the waitress handing me the drink list(which i bypassed and choose to have water). Chopsticks and a dish of fresh wasabi(green of course) and gari – fresh pickeled ginger were set to the side. A placemat of pictures of the different types of sushi was at my table setting so I can identify them on the conveyor belt. Kado primarily serves futomaki, hosomaki and uramaki styled sushi.

The first dish I picked was of course was the freshly cooked soybean. I love seeding the pods for the delicate soy bean. And it’s a good thing to have a friends with you. whatever you may not care for, you may share with your friends. We chose these types of sushi off of the conveyor belt:
temaki – spicy tuna rolls
california rolls – crab and avocado
himachi – yellow tail
hotato – scallops
sake – salmon
amaebi – sweet shrimp
eel
edamame – soybeans

So make a visit to Kado – Sushi – Teppan Lounge in the next few weeks to take advantage of the special pricing on their all you can eat sushi. The pricing, ambience and excellent tasting sushi is well worth it.

Kim Kardashian DASH Clothing Store, DASH Boutique a well renowned store among celebrities and high profile people was established by Kim, Kourtney and Kloé Kardashian. These three sisters have been seen on the E! series, Keeping Up with the Kardashians. In Calabasas, California, its original store is located, near the Kardashian family’s home. DASH Boutique is co-owned by all the three sisters. The inauguration of this store was done in 2006.The store is known for its clothing and accessories of many brands like Alice and Olivia, Alvin Valley, Moscino, Mark Wong Nark, Serfontaine, Folley and Corrina, Sass and Bide and last but not the least Dalia are some of its clothing lines. Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton are some of the notable customers of this store.

Its branch in Miami, known as DASH Miami, was opened in 2009 which is mainly run by Kourtney and Kloé Kardashian as Kim Kardashian is not much involved with Miami store. This store does business in night wears and bathing suits in addition to DASH merchandise.

DASH is famous for its Junk Food T-Shirts and also sells scented candles and water bottles of its own brand. Recently, Men’s clothing line has also been created and started by DASH as “Vote For Kim Shirts”.

There is an online DASH store, ShopDashOnline.com. The items in the store are also available on this online store from where one can purchase. This was started by the three Kardashian sisters only. There is a page with the name DASH dolls on the website where one can find the personal favorites of the Kardashian sisters from the store.

DASH Boutique
Los Angeles address: 4774 Park Granada, Ste 5, Calabasas, CA 91302
Los Angeles Phone: (818) 222-4122
Hours: Mon-Fri 11am-6pm, Sat 11am-5pm

If you are an art lover of sorts like I am. Than can I recommend visiting Los Angeles County Museum Of Art. Commonly known to Angelenos as LACMA. LACMA with their permanent and special events has many family oriented programs.

The hours are generally 12 PM to 8 PM and closed Wednesday and all major holidays. LACMA is located on Wilshire Blvd on Museum Row. The admission is $12 for adults, children 17 years and under free. One adult can get in free with their child 17 years and under if the child signs up for NEXGEN. After 5 PM anyone can get in for free. As well as on certain holdays that fall on a Monday are free admission.

I have gone after 5 pm on a few ocassions and found that the museum was not as crowded as in the mid afternoons. I am able to enjoy the massive art collection with little pressure to rush from room to room. I love the costume and textiles exhibit. Viewing textiles from the east to seeing the fashion from the French Court of Louis XIV. I also love the American West paintings of Bierdstat to Gifford and Morgan. I also love the photography section as well as The Pavillion which hosts the Japanese collection. One may view the majestic and awesome size of the Samurai suits.

There are also several other museums within LACMA such as The Pavillion which hosts a collection of Japanese Art. There is the Bing Center as well. I usually see modern art in this section. There are also a few garden sections to stroll through when you need some fresh air and a break from indoors.

LACMA also has a library that is open to the public by appointment only. They have over 175,000 books, periodocals and journals.

There are several other museums close by to LACMA. Such as the Peterson Automotive and La Brea Tar Pits Museums. Both museums are family friendly just like LACMA. If anything you can make an entire day out of visiting Museum Row. There is a giant park located between LACMA and the La Brea Tar Pits.

If you are hungry you may bring a picnic to the park or choose to eat at the cafe’. I would also recommend for those who want a more casual restuarant and that would be Marie Calanders that is one block east of LACMA.

Tiger at the Los Angeles Zoo

Los Angeles Zoo is a place where you can find a perfect combination of flora and fauna. We all know that it is a unique concept as Zoos are only meant for animals. The main principle behind this concept is to preserve natural habitat for the animals as plants are considered as the foundation of each and every habitat on this earth.The mission of the Los Angeles Zoo association is to protect and conserve the rare species and also those which are at the verge of existence.

LA Zoo creates such an environment of recreation that everyone likes to come and want to explore about the different animals and the plants. The appreciation they give to wildlife and the biodiversity inspires people.

This is the place where you can take the glance of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and off course the unique thing about this Zoo, the botanical gardens. Different kinds of birds are found there. In reptiles, there are alligators, boa, dragons, gecko, lizard, snake and tortoise from various countries. Over 200 different mammals are present in this Zoo. The invertebrates that are exhibited by the Zoo include cockroaches, millipedes, tarantula, walking-stick, spider and scorpions. Diverse varieties of amphibians are also there. As it is said above, it is not a simple Zoo; as it has botanical gardens. In these botanical gardens you can see various trees which generally fill the landscapes such as eucalyptus, ficus and mulberry. These trees help to provide food for the animals. There are also very unusual and distinct species of plants such as cycads, bald cypress etc.

The Zoo recently introduced a program A.D.O.P.T. in which people can adopt a meerkat or any other endangered species in just $35 so as to support the funds for the endangered species. To enjoy the benefits of the Zoo throughout the year you can also become the member of this marvelous place.

The cost of admission to the Los Angeles Zoo:
Adults (ages 13 – up) – $13
Seniors (age 62 and up) – $10
Children (ages 2 to 12) – $8
Children (under 2) – Free
Group Rates: Discounts are available for parties of 15 or more people. With a group discount, adults are $10 per person, and children (ages 2-12) are $7 each.

How to get to the Los Angeles Zoo
The Zoo is located at 5333 Zoo Drive, at the junction of the 5 and 134 freeways. Parking in the Zoo’s more than 2,600 general and handicapped spaces with the main and south lots is free.

The Los Angeles Zoo is serviced by MTA line 96, which runs from Sherman Oaks to downtown’s Union Station. The bus makes frequent stops in both directions at the southwest corner of the Zoo’s main parking lot. A timetable can be found at www.mta.net

Guo Nian! which means to Celebrate The New Year in Chinese. Chuc Mung Nam Moi! means Happy New Years in Vietnamese

It is 2008 and the year of the rat. And the world is gearing up for this wonderful celebration of life and family. All the way from Los Angeles, to China, Vietnam, Korea, San Fransico. and to New York City.

Lately we have been going to the celebrations in Los Angeles due to travel and convience because of where we live. Chinatown businesses in Los Angeles pretty much closes down 1 – 3 days prior to the celebration to adhere to some of the New Years traditions. So roughly from Thursday and Friday of February 7th to the 8th many of the business will be closed. And the celebrations pick up on the morning of February 9th.

Chinatown in Los Angeles has a parade on February 9th, 2008. Get your seat early. There will be huge crowds. At times exceeding over 100,000 people plus. Be sure when the dragons pass you during the parade that they pass directly in front of you. You will be more blessed with luck during the year. And for the children, be mindful, and respect your parents and other adults and wish them a happy and prosperous New Year. There are many red envelopes to be had. The children will find money in the envelopes. Usually one will find anywhere between a nickel up to no more than $4.00. You are considered real lucky if you receive an envelope with $8.00(for its homophone for “wealth”). Sometimes they will find chocolate coins in the envelopes as well.

Prior to the parade you may want to enjoy some of the traditional Chinese and Vietnamese styled restaurants with more of the authentic foods. Not really much of the American-Asian fusion food one would eat outside such enclaved cities. All are wonderful in taste and variety. I always enjoy the traditional bowl of Vietnamese soup called Pho’. One of the many pho’ restaurants I frequent is on Broadway by the name of Pho’ 79. Order the simpliest soup called Pho’ Tai. It is pretty much a steak and noodle soup dish. One may top the soup with bean sprout, basil, hoisen sauce, nuc mum(fish sauce) and a green chile or two.

You may want to do a walking tour of the many shops that have great deals on textiles, art, clothing, toys and food at reasonable prices. You may also be surprised of the many Asian and American galleries spotted throughout Chinatown. It is also rumored that a few Hollywood stars have bought lofts in the area as well. I hear that Quentin Tarantino may be one of them. You know the producer/director/writer of such films as Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, and From Dusk to Dawn.

If you are unsure what Chinese Zodiac(Horoscope) you fall under, you may find out your animal sign here. Your sign will come every 12 years. If you would like to know more about the legend of the 12 signs, you may read more about it at Chinese Zodiac Page.

Many Angeleno’s consider Olvera Street as a center for Hispanic/Mexican history. Olvera Street boarders between downtown Los Angeles and the Los Angeles river(East Los). And South of the street is the historic Union Station, a major mass transit station for Los Angeles. North of Olver Street is Fort Moore. LA holds an annual July 4th celebration. Which includes antique cannons. To the North East is the historic Chinatown. And further North East is the famous Dodger Stadium. So you may see that it is centrally located amidst much LA activity and is not to hard to find.

Olvera Street dates back as early as 1877. The street is named after Augustin Olvera. The first LA County Judge. He also owned a house at the end of the street as well. Within the street is the Avila Adobe House(built 1818) which still stands. Francisco Avila was one of LA’s first mayors. You may visit the Avila Adobe, roughly between the hours of 10AM – 4PM. Admission is free. Olvera Street also housed many Olympians during the 1932 which was hosted in Los Angeles. Many famous and important people would visit or frequent the street. Such as: Ronald Reagan, Charlie Chaplin, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, Selma Hayak, Penelope Cruz, Ceasar Chavez, Oscar de La Hoya as well as many others.

In between touring the street and the Avila Adobe you can find some restaurants and sidewalk cafes to eat at. Many of the plates range between $4.00 – $15.00. You may be so lucky to hear live Mexican Folk to Mariachi music. Each group has anywhere between one to five singing and playing accordias and acoustical guitars.

At the end of Olvera Street is the plaza. One may be entertained by Aztec dancers and Peruvian music. During Cinco de Mayo(May 5th) there is always a festival that last 3 days. With pinatas, food, Mariachi music and more. The Plaza also has another festival Mid September in remembrace of Mexicos Independance from Spain, You may also find one of many other Olvera Street festivals. Anything from the Blessing of the Animals, Dia de Los Muetros(day of the dead is around Halloween), to the Annual celebration of the founding of Los Angeles(In 2008 it will be 226 years old). And the mural of the Blessing of the Animals was done by an Angeleno by the name of Leo Politi. The mural can be found on the Biscailuz Building in El Pueblo which is at the end of Olvera Street, across the street from the plaza. Politi was an artist as well as an author.

Virgin’s Richard Branson put on a Wonder Woman custom and mooned reporters with the American flag stuck in his pantyhose to make a point. Virgin is offering tickets as low as $119 from New York to Los Angeles. Fares do not include all government fees & taxes and are per person in U.S. whole dollar amounts. With prices this low, you can’t afford not to take a vacation.

You can check out Virgin America to confirm prices and make reservations.

Some interesting places to visit on your trip to Los Angeles are:

Disney Land

Getty Center

Hollywood Bowl

La Brea Tar Pits

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

NewPort Beach

Universal Studios Hollywood

Venice Beach

A hot spot for great laughs is the Downtown Comedy Club in Los Angeles. It is hosted by Garrett Morris, former Saturday Night Live(SNL) cast memeber. Yes, indeedy Morris hosted the entire show and had his own stand up moment as well.

Tickets run for $15.00. In which you may purchase online at the Downtown Comedy website. But I was able to purchase mine for a discounted price at Goldstar for roughly $5.00 plus a service fee of $3 or $4.00. The comedy shows are typically on Friday and Saturday nights and start roughly around 9:00 pm or so and runs approximately 2 hours. Age mininium is 18 and over.

The comedy club can be found in the Hotel Alexandria’s Charlie O’s bar (at Fifth and Spring streets). The decor of the club reminds me of something that Frank Sinatra would sing at. It had that kind of feel to me. A very nostalgia type of moment. In addition the comedy club is a smoke free environment as well.

And if you want to do something prior to the show. On Spring street is Gallery Row. There are small galleries one may view many up and coming artists. There are plenty of bistro’s and sidewalk cafe’s to visit.

The night I went, the headliner was Jason Stuart. There were five other acts that went on. In addition there was a house band by the name of Eden Tree. Before the show started one of the bartenders got up and asked two questions from the audience. If you got one of the questions right you would get a free alcoholic drink. They also have wonderful sliders(baby hamburgers with caramelized onions and mustard) and a great chicken nachos.

The experience overall is great. All the acts were great and the sounds that Eden Tree provided were worth the money. The ambience of the club gives one a feel of the Frank Sinatra 50’s club feel. So if you are ever looking for a great place at a inexpensive price to go to on the weekend in Los Angeles, I would recommend the Downtown Comedy Club.