paru's

paru's in hollywood makes you feel like you are so cool because you have to approach their white gate and get "buzzed in". thanks to miss phd who introduced me to this hidden gem.

i wish we got to sit out on the patio but it was totally booked! inside, the place is surprisingly big and cozy at the same time. it doesn't look like much from the front - just a tiny sort of ghetto building heavily armed with white gates - but when you walk in, the space is sprawling and it just keeps going.

miss phd and i split this entree. it's called the "punjab glory" on the menu and it consists of poori, papadum, raitha, and your choice of 2 vegetable curries. we chose the the spinach with lentils and the yellow split dal. i absolutely loved everything on this plate. the poori was very fresh and not too oily. the spinach was just a bit creamy but not overwhelming, and the yellow dal was perfect (i love lentils). i tried the chickpeas, cauliflower and potato, and masala dosa as well from the boys' plates and enjoyed that too. our order took awhile to come out but i think i saw a lot of people waiting. or, i'd like to think that because we requested "no cilantro" in everything, they were diligently remaking some of the stuff in the back without cilantro.

4 meals in 1 day

last saturday was a day of eating. we started with cuban sandwiches from porto's (not pictured here, was too hungry). this was a late lunch, but we proceeded to meet our friends for an early dinner at 15 in silverlake. we had been wanting to hit up the $15@15 special for a long time (note! just saw on their site that it is now $19@15. lame.). between 5 and 6:30pm, you could get a nice 3 course meal for $15. so it didn't matter that we had just barely finished lunch. we had to have it.

olive tapenade. a classic and very delicious here.

tomato bisque. i liked it but i've had better. it was a good balance though - not too creamy and not too sweet. i despise sweet tomato soup. the portion was just right as well.

mac and cheese. didn't try this one but can you really mess up mac and cheese? maybe.

hearts of palm salad. beautiful, and HUGE. the four of us couldn't finish this.

destructor's pork chop - a little citrusy with really delicious corn salsa (no cilantro!), which was tangy and sweet.

i think this burger was bigger than my face.

ah, my salmon dish. i'm not a big fan of cooked salmon, but i didn't want anything heavy. the salmon was okay - nothing special, but the rice was a pleasant surprise.

it's black rice with pieces of fennel, and watermelon. i have to say the watermelon confused me. it didn't taste bad, but it didn't go with the rice. it just kind of was there, trying too hard. the blend of rice and fennel was so savory; the rice was also really moist and well seasoned. i could have just eaten that alone.

dessert! at this point i'm not sure how i managed to eat the whole piece of bread pudding. considering i'm not a big dessert person, this means a lot.

so after dinner, we went out for drinks. later that night, we had our 4th meal. you see, with gas prices being so ridiculously expensive now, we have to maximize every trip we make to the east side. otherwise it's just not worth it.

one thing on the east side we always want is thai food. so of course, we had to stop by ruen pair in thai town that night. i think i really should have stopped eating after dinner, because i felt so sick after my 4th meal.

this is our friend's duck plate. okay, that's fine...but THEN -

my friend miss phd ordered duck feet stew. yes. i grew up watching my grandmother eat chicken feet but this? the webs freaked me out. however, miss phd taunted me until i finally agreed to try one. conclusion? still gross. all i tasted was soft webby skin.

this is the egg salad. i remember thinking the whole time, "is there cilantro in this?" it was one of those weird things where i could taste something that was a little sketchy. i felt that at any moment i might vomit from full-on cilantro flavor, but that never happened. this was really delicious (except for the moments when i thought i tasted cilantro): tangy, a little spicy, and an interesting mix overall. good with rice, too.

after this we went home and i went to sleep, and i never wanted to eat again (well, just for a day).

world on wheels

saturday night a group of us went to world on wheels for a friend's birthday. i was really excited to roller skate, thinking it would be as easy as getting back on a bike. when i really thought about it hard, i realized that the last time i roller skated was probably over 15 years ago.

so, it was actually kind of hard. i fell several times and have the bruises to prove it. unfortunately, there was also a bar upstairs so you can imagine how hard it was to skate after visiting the bar. that was when i tried to impress destructor by skating backwards (which he couldn't do), only to fall down after 5 seconds.

the place looked like it hadn't been updated since the 70s. saturday night was their 7th year anniversary, but they have a special disco roller skating night every last saturday of the month. one can only wonder what happens on the other weekends. people got all decked out here. topher grace showed up in a long brown wig and mustache. that one girl from heroes (the one who tried to seduce mohinder) was part of his entourage. she is a pixie: rail thin and half my height. who knew??


afterwards, i made destructor pull into a carl's jr and ordered a double western bacon burger. it was the first thing i saw on the menu and i thought, mmmm.


it wasn't until we got home and i was halfway through eating it that i realized i had ordered a double. gross! we split the burger but it was still way too much food. i decided to take out the second patty, only to eat it later after i finished my portion of the burger. and fries. and coke.

roller skating is hard work.

taverna kyclades: greek feast in astoria, ny

sincere salmon and her boyfriend took us to this amazing greek place in astoria called taverna kyclades. it was by far the best greek food i've ever had. i'm drooling just looking at these pictures again. there are really no words to describe this; the photos should say it all.


we arrived on a saturday afternoon and had to wait about half an hour for our table. so when we were finally seated, we were of course all starving. this warm, toasty crusty bread welcomed us.


greek salad. fresh feta, tomatoes, olive oil, onions. seasoned perfectly.


this is the sampler appetizer plate. from left to right: skordalia, tzatziki, taramosolata. sometimes taramosolata can be really fishy and overwhelming, but theirs was just right.


i am a huge potato fan. naturally, this is my absolute favorite greek appetizer/side. the traditional roasted potatoes with lemon - i have to get these everytime. taverna's was very very lemony/tangy, and i really liked that. they were perfectly roasted and really soft; i couldn't stop eating these.


spanakopita/spinach pie. what else is there to say?? feta + spinach + filo dough + olive oil = amazing flavors.


sincere salmon had the scallops. this was very buttery and overwhelming, because i think there were seriously 50 huge scallops on her plate. we couldn't finish these.


sincere salmon's bf's lamp chops! mm. i had a little taste. very yummy.


ok, so to this day i cannot stop talking about this fish, because it made me feel really special. i love the style that the fish is typically cooked in: really clean and simple with a good dose of olive oil. i was probably pretty annoying because i asked the server to tell me all the fish they had that day and interrogated her on each fish (with destructor interjecting everytime and asking, "so is that a big fish?" because he was a hungry monster), and when she said "brazzini - a white fish from the greek isles," i was sold. why have some pedestrian snapper when you can have a fish from the greek isles?? i forgot to take a picture of it before they de-boned it for me. it was a beautiful longish skinnyish fish, but still very substantial. i loved this fish: it was such a good choice.



dandelion. actually not very good. kind of bland, bitter, unseasoned and blah! but it's okay - we had to try it.

destructor ordered the grilled quail. their portions are huge. i think there were 3 quail on his plate! isn't this picture kind of creepy?

this is the dessert the restaurant gives you at the end of your meal. so delicious, i ate all of it even though i was stuffed. it was some sort of rice pudding wrapped in a blanket of sweet doughyness.

greek dessert from sincere salmon: she bought this at the bakery down the street for us to consume after lunch!

not enough shoes

i have completely neglected the "stilettos" side of this blog. therefore, i had to go on a shoe binge this past week. we were bored today and went to the most boring place available to us: westside pavillion. how was i to know that nordstrom's had just gotten these new, beautiful jeffrey campbell shoes? sorry, wallet.


while i was trying on a pair of gladiator sandals (i know, i know. do i really need to investigate what everyone else already has? still...they were really nice), i saw these shiny black things in my peripheral vision. I was barely able to pull the sandals off my feet before i grabbed the display shoe and tried it on. sold!


they are so shiny and pretty. actually comfortable too. the best part about them is that the straps close with VELCRO! yes. velcro.

no more fumbling around with buckles. thank you jeffrey campbell.