Craving Katsu-Ya in Studio City

What’s the best Japanese restaurant in the Los Angeles Area? I’d have to say Katsu-ya, the “original,” in Studio City. The best time to go to this restaurant is right when it opens, otherwise, be ready for a long wait. Known for their specialty rolls and chalkboard specials, the food served at Katsu-Ya is always consistently fresh and satisfying. In addition to the Shishito Peppers, House Salad, and Agedashi Tofu starters, we tried one of the chalkboards specials: The Garlic Albacore with Crispy Spinach and Onions, which was so good we ordered another special, but made with Blue Fin Tuna instead of albacore. We also had some of the must-haves: Crispy Rice with Spicy Tuna, Yellowtail Sashimi with Japaleno, Creamy Popcorn Shrimp Tempura, and Baked Crab Roll on Soy Paper. Although the other SBE Katsuya restaurants have trendier atmospheres and offer an array of specialty cocktails, patron would have to agree that nothings beats chef Katsuya’s original sushi creations.

Feeling Gilty?

How many flash sale sites are there on this World Wide Web? Many of us are “members” of sites like Hautelook, Rue La La, and Gilt, just to name a few. We can browse sales for specific brands, categories or styles. It’s interesting that now with the internet and technology, we no longer have to go to a store to take advantage of sales, sales now come to us via our desktops, laptops, iPads and even cell phones that we usually carry with a death grip at all times that bing or chirp of vibrate when we receive emails or notifications of something to purchase at a discount for a specified amount of time. The Gilt app on my iPhone notifies me at 9am every weekday morning of their sale and if I’m feeling “Gilty,” I’ll take a quick peek, but I have to make sure that don’t feel guilty after I hit that so easily accessible “buy” icon. Since items in our carts only remain “on hold” in our carts for 15 minutes, these sites use the tactic of preying on our emotional response to act quickly before another shopper snatches it up and if the item is that sought after, it usually does sell out fast. I try not to get suckered into this type of mentality, and will wait, often telling myself that I can be added to the “wait list” in case an items becomes available and often times, if that notice comes I would have either received a pleasant surprise or have gotten over the item and had time to think about if the item was something I really need.

One day while browsing the Gilt app, I committed to buying a pair of cream snake pumps by Casadei for $249 from $660, which is almost 2/3 off original retail for these pumps. These prices almost make me not want to ever pay full price for designer shoes. I did say almost… there may be times a pair is too irresistible to wait until a sale or a better deal. These pumps; however, were definitely something that didn’t make me feel guilty after purchasing. Do you have a favorite flash sale site?

Wow Brow! Raving about Zooey Van Jones

If eyes are the windows of our souls, what are our brows? They must be the shutters, or the curtains, depending on if we’re looking from the outside in or the inside out… either way, they’re pretty important. Brows frame not only our eyes, but also our face, making everything look symmetrical and balanced. After years of over-plucking, over-waxing, over-threading, I learned to stay true to my brows and their natural shape. This meant finding trustworthy professionals that understand that when it comes to brows, missteps of over-anything can cost years of trying to correct botched jobs and possibly waiting for regrowth that may never ever happen. At Zooey Van Jones Brow Studio in Old Town Pasadena (http://www.zoeyvanjones.com/), a salon that specializes in full natural brows, all of the brow artists understand this philosophy and instead of completely trying to refashion our arches, they take time to listen to clients and also take the time to make recommendations, give explanations, and offer unique instructions on how to keeping brows looking great everyday. Mandy, my most recent artist was exceptionally helpful, giving me tips on how to comb my brows, how to fill them in, and how to maintain the shape with simple “clean-up techniques.” I appreciated the personal advise from Mandy, who didn’t suggest coming back every month, which makes one visit last several months (or more).

The products that I purchase from the studio that work great for me are the Vanity Mark Ultra Brow Powder in Blondie (https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/ASP/home.asp?studioid=14017) and the Tweezerman Brow Mousse (https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/ASP/home.asp?studioid=14017). These rave worthy products keep me brows full and groomed and at times, they are the only products I use. Even on those usual sans make-up days, my brows would be the only thing I don’t leave home without styling. I’ve said goodbye to those days of the super thin brow and said hello to the modern and bold Wow Brow.

Craving For, Raving About, and Savoring My Favorite Restaurant Giorgio Baldi

If there was one last meal you could have before leaving this world, what would it be? It’s a silly hypothetical question that we would never likely have to answer. Still, last night when my boyfriend took me to Giorgio Baldi, my favorite restaurant in the whole world, to celebrate Valentine’s Day, I posed this question and responded with my answer. I told him if I knew I were to die tomorrow, I could probably be ok going after having what I ordered for dinner. Not a very romantic statement to make, but I sincerely meant it because I ate like I wasn’t going to see the next day. Off of the Pacific Coast Highway on 114 W. Channel Rd in Santa Monica, this little Italian restaurant that seats about 60 people at capacity has people packed to the max to be served food that is simply out of this world good. We each ordered the Mista salad: Butter lettuce, radicchio, carrots, and tomatoes in a red wine vinaigrette and we shared the Clams, Langostines, and Agnolotti: homemade ravioli filled with sweet white corn in a white truffle sauce. I dream about this ravioli, it’s the best, I love it so much that I get butterflies in my stomach in nervous and anxious anticipation of having it. I had one order as an appetizer, one order with my main course, the Dover Sole with spinach and potatoes, and another order before my dessert. I call them “crack ravioli;” I have become a fiend for them. For dessert, we had the Butterscotch pudding, which I die for.

The first time I had this pudding was an unforgettable and funny story, which will always have me order this dessert before we even get seated at a table. A few years ago when eating at GB for by birthday, there was a table behind us with three men who were all eating something out of this tiny glass, all just going at it with spoons in hand, they all stopped talking; I had never seen anything like it. I mentioned that I just had to have what they were having. Keep in mind, GB is tiny, so the people at the neighboring tables can hear your entire dinner conversation; it’s unavoidable, the tables are so close. The men heard what I mentioned and then offered to share theirs with me. Pulcone (my favorite server, the entire staff; however, is is very sweet) then took a spoonful from their dessert and offered it to me. I told him that I couldn’t accept a bite from their pudding and I would just order my own. To my disappointment, they were sold out. Considering the restaurant’s clientele, of course there was a good reason why three men in a restaurant were all eating out of one cup, they were having the last one. Or so I thought… Pulcone then took a spoonful out of the very last pudding in the restaurant that the men had paid for to-go and had already wrapped in a doggie bag, so I was obligated to try it. That spoonful was heaven and every time I order it, I think of that night. We offered to pay for the dessert, but it was actually for the wife of one of those men and had already been paid for. Poor woman will probably always wonder why a bite was missing from her butterscotch pudding; however, GB no longer allows any one to take the cups home or take this dessert to go (cup shortage issue).

Thank you Il Ristorante di Giorgio Baldi, you are my favorite! I crave, I rave about, I savor you forever!

For Sweethearts Who Savor Sour Hearts

What does Valentine’s Day usually entail for a girl or guy with a sweet tooth? Some crave worthy candy, that’s what! One of my favorites are in the form of Jelly Belly petite sour hearts. Luckily for me, I have an amazing and uber generous friend with a cravy love for candy as great as mine, Bananniekins, who gives me so many of these little chewy and perfectly textured tiny bites of joy that I have to beg her to ration her generosity. This is because these things are so addicting and irresistible, that some one with poor self control may find one’s self staring at the bottom of an empty bag with a tummy full of little hearts. These pink, red and white sour candies in berry flavors are available in limited quantities in obscure candy shops every year around Valentine’s Day. I swear we need a secret password to find these shops, then a secret handshake to get some one at the shop to tell us that they are available for purchase. Every time I try to buy them at The Sweet Factory, they are always sold out. That means they are that popular or people like Bannanniekins hoard pounds of the stock allotted for the general public and allow only a special few to partake in the allotment. Although I crave these petite sour hearts all year long, I am able to savor them around this time thanks one of the sweetest girls I know. Rose are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet and these sour hearts are too! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Style Valentine: Kate Bosworth

Kate Bosworth, will you be my Style Valentine? Kate Bosworth is insanely beautiful and has the most amazing style, it’s not hard to fall head over heels for this young celebrity icon. My Bosworth crush began while watching Blue Crush and since then, she has become one of my favorite celebrities to watch and has topped my list of Hollywood trendsetters. I always anticipate what she’ll be seen wearing next and like her beauty, KB’s style is classic. I always get inspired by her fashion choices, and although I don’t think I can ever get tired of seeing Kate Bosworth, I found myself getting a little too inspired and wanting so many of the lust worthy items and shoes she has been seen in. There are so many things that can be said about KB, but more often than not, I am left speechless. so I will let her images speak for themselves.

Craving The Boiling Crab

Is food ever worth an hour and a half wait? It appears there is food that’s worth the wait. An example of this is any day on a weekend at Alhambra’s The Boiling Crab on Valley Blvd, where we seafood fanatics put our names on the long list and patiently wait for a table in a packed restaurant with the aroma of the freshly cooked seafood filling the air. If we’re lucky enough we can wait at the bar, where we can order a dozen oysters, fried calamari, and sweet potato fries among other small appetizers. When we finally get seated on a table lined with white waxy paper and nothing but a plastic napkin caddy full and ready to be utilized. Since we’ve already built our appetites, we ordered five pounds of food: one and a half pounds of king crab legs, one pound of crawfish, two pounds of clams, white rice, half a pound of shrimp, red potatoes, and 4 pieces of corn on the cob that come in the same bag as the shrimp. That’s right, the food comes in plastic bags and we can order different seasoning, but the best is the “whole shabang,” which is like a garlic butter cajun sauce thats made from mild to extra spicy, depending on our liking. Mild to medium is plenty spicy. Once the food starts coming, we are allowed to dig in and appease the crave of the crab, The Boiling Crab, and appeased our cravings were.

Saving At The Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market

Where do droves of bargain hunters flock to when we want to find a deal for some of the most unique items in town? Every second Sunday of each month, like bees to nectar, we go swarm to the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market in the tens of thousands. Admission is $8 starting at 9am, but if we’re feeling hard core and want to get express admission from 8am-9am the price to get in is $10. If we’re feeling super hard core, early admission from 7am-8am will cost us $15. If we are just in a serious savings craze and do not require sleep or sunlight to shop, VIP admission is $20 for special preview 5am admission. Even if we don’t end up buying anything, the experience is one of a kind, just like many of the items for sale or for bid, and the experience is worth the price of admission. The greatest thing about a flea market is the ability to talk down prices and score some really great deals, especially when vendors are packing up and heading out in the late afternoon. Our likes and interests always very, but there is something (sometimes least expected) out there for all of us. There is a lot we can learn from a trip to this flea market, such as realizing never to buy t-shirts from Disneyland ever again. The same exact shirts sold at the Disney Store for $50.00 is priced at $15 (or less if you buy more than one). We can also get ideas for do it yourself projects if we’re crafty enough. Also, people who know how to make jewelry, can often make things we see at a retail store for a fraction of the price. What’s also fantastic about the market is the sense of community. While meeting shop owners, vendors, and local artists, we are able to support the people who are trying to make it in this world full of big businesses and commercial stores. Vendors are also not usually shy about where to find them again, such as other markets they go to (more places to score great finds) and can educate us personally about where their products come from, the materials those products are made of, or how something is made. A lot of jewelry, artwork, and novelty items are handmade and even when something is not in our minds to buy a particular day, we have an option to grab a business card in case we ever want that lighted sign, oil painting of our dog, or image printed on wood that we browsed at the market and decided later we just can’t live without. The best shoppers know; however, that even though we have set aside some cash to blow, the best savings is to walk away with cash in our pockets when we haven’t quite found exactly what we were looking for. Not spending unnecessarily on items that will never be use is smart shopping. At this month’s flea market, I spent less than twenty dollars (including admission) and have two new cross knuckle rings to show for it.

Craving Fortune Cookies

Is getting a good fortune in a cookie just as rewarding as eating the fortune cookie? I have always loved fortune cookies (the way the look, the way they taste, the way they make me feel: happy) and have always looked forward to having them after a meal at a Chinese restaurant or while strolling though China Town in San Francisco. When I was a little girl, my parents would open their cookie to see their fortune and allow me to eat their cookies or at least half of theirs. I would give them the small white paper that was inside since it appeared that they were more excited about what my fortune said than the tasty treat that it came in. Yay, more for me! I was just going to end up throwing away the small piece of paper with the one-line phrase and lucky numbers. My mom or dad would stash the fortune in their purse of pocket and hope that those numbers really were lucky and the phrase indeed came true since who has ever gotten a bad fortune in their cookie? That’s if it really was a fortune and not a statement like “People are naturally attracted to you” or a suggestion like “You are a an artistic person – let your colors show.” Now, when my family and I go to Chinese restaurants, my dad would have to request from the server that every one at the table get two cookies so that every one can eat their own cookie and the others can be pushed my way.

Fortune Cookies are always a happy experiences, no matter if we prefer eating the cookie or receiving the fortune; Well, unless on a rare occasion Mr. or Mrs. cookie-maker forgot to slip the fortune in or it fell out some how, then that’s a bummer. Today is Chinese New Year and it is officially the year of the snake, which get a bad wrap in my opinion, but I have a feeling that it’s going to be a great one. Since I’m sharing my fortune cookie cravings I will also share my fortunes: May we live long and prosperous lives and may success come to our plans. Happy New Year!

Raving About A Raincoat

Is it raining today? If so, we can’t leave home without something that will keep us nice and dry. Since umbrellas can be quite cumbersome and they only leave one hand free, having a raincoat could be a lot more handy ;). Free People’s ‘Lacey’ Raincoat (which is 69% off here http://www.6pm.com/free-people-lacey-raincoat-aqua-combo) is the perfect and most stylish raincoat at an affordable price. The raincoat is light-weight and comes with a little pouch that can tote around the folded coat (or anything else if the coat isn’t in there) and can easy fit in a purse. The lace pattern and the scalloped trim has every one asking wear it’s from and in additional to being functional, it’s versatile enough to wear with any outfit. All of it’s features make this raincoat rave-worthy, rain or shine.