myPic: A Neo-Romanesque Christmas

While I was in LA, I wanted to go on a tour of some buildings on the National Registry of Historic Places. I thought that I had included the Bradbury Building in blog.  However it also was one the buildings I wanted to see.  I took this photo of the elevator, decked out for the holidays. 

Wish List: City Island

Usually when I’m in an airport first thing in the morning on Monday, it’s because I’m heading out early for a day trip somewhere. Today, however, I’m still in transit, connecting from a red eye out of Southern California to Philadelphia. Thinking about my recent visit to the LA metro area, I want to go somewhere where I don’t have to drive at all.

The traffic in all throughout the region was hellish. Even my beloved US 101 Songline was more like a parking lot than a freeway. It reinforces why I love cities with great public transportation.

City Island Nautical Museum, image courtesy of Wikipedia

When I turn the phrase “city with great public transportation” I immediately think of New York, our most populated city in the US. While the traffic can be as nightmarish as Los Angeles (have you ever tried to get into the city through the Lincoln Tunnel at 4:30 in the afternoon?) the subway and bus system as well as the taxis of NYC eliminate my stress of needing to drive.

New York is a megapolis – a super city. However just off to the side of this almost unmanageable mass of humanity and skyscrapers lies a relative peaceful, New-England-like oasis: City Island. In Long Island Sound, this charming island with only one way in and out redefines living in the city.

Sea Shore Restaurant & Marina

If you have heard of City Island, it may because of the movie starring Andy García, Julianna Margulies and Alan Arkin. However my love affair started when I had noticed it on a map many years ago. It seems to be in my DNA to appreciate and gravitate toward all of the quirky or superlative places on the earth: the most Western point in Ireland, the most Southern point in California, the most unlike New York City in New York. This simply named island stood out to me and I have been curious about it since.

About 2 years ago, I had seen an article on one of the travel sites that I follow about the charm of New England without leaving New York. When I finally read the name of the location, I was excited to see there were others who wanted to explore the off-the-beaten-path places in the word and that someone penned an article about the spot. City Island isn’t a tourist destination. It’s nowhere near as densely population as Manhattan and it’s sparse with famous attractions. There was only one place for lodging on the island, Le Refuge Inn Bed and Breakfast, which, according to latest google search, is closed.

A house on City Island

City Island provides a slice of life that’s more in tune with the rest of America than NYC; City Island Avenue serves as the island’s Main Street. While the subway doesn’t go to City Island, a bus does. However, bus schedule is limited since the island is a residential area of the city and not a destination like Ellis Island. For me, though, that’s the adventure – just being reliant on public transportation and exploring an area on foot makes the island alluring. It’s like exploring Astoria, Park Slope or Washington Heights for the first time.

It’s a wish of mine to get there next year, and I hope to share my visit with you. However, there is a certain irony that, in the getaway destination where I want to go, most of the residents use and need cars to get along. Yet this is the place I think when the traffic in LA got to me and I needed a place to get away from the automobile.

Images, excepted where noted, are courtesy of Nabe Wise.

Wish List: What to do in SoCal?

I’ll be traveling to Southern California this weekend for work. Since I have a red eye home, I hope to be able to go to Got Kosher on Sunday and get some more of the pretzel challah that didn’t survive the trip to San Diego last time. Yet, I still haven’t decided either I’ll stay in LA or Anaheim (I have reservations at hotels in both cities.)

The majority of time working will be in Anaheim and to get an affordable flight, I’m taking United/Continental in and out of John Wayne Airport. The Airport is an hour from the LA hotel, in good traffic. The event, a reception and game, is at the Honda Center, but the tickets for the game are up in Westwood. Once I am finished with my responsibilities, will the convenience of being close to the work event be outweighed by the ease of being close to downtown LA?

Gamble House in Pasadena, CA

So I googled “LA travel blog” to help me decide. I found The Los Angeles Consortium for Online Travel on Christopher Elliott's The 11 best new travel blogs of 2011. Christopher calls this site “easily the best new regional travel blogs to come along in a long time. It’s from a consortium of well-known LA area travel writers, including Jennifer Miner. You can tell that these folks love LA!”

I jumped into reading some of the entries and read Noah Albert’s entry about Art Deco Buildings in Los Angeles. From the 20’s to the 40’s the population of Los Angeles tripled and to match this growth in population new buildings were erected in the Art Deco style. Albert continues his entry focusing on two specific Art Deco structures, the Eastern Columbia and The Wiltern. these are two places that are his favorites, and one of the reason why is “when the light is right, the turquoise terra cotta covering both these structures looks just like blue-green magic.”

The Sunset Tower, West Hollywood, CA

Ah, architecture! The LA area is known for its art deco style, as well as its earlier arts and crafts movement, which is a personal favorite. I will take in the wonders. I think I’ve just decided that I’ll stay in LA.

Hopefully, I can sneak a peek and head out to the Gamble House in Pasadena, California on Friday. This outstanding example of American Arts and Crafts style architecture is also a favorite location of my dear friend, Rosie. Designed by Charles and Henry Greene in 1908 for David and Mary Gamble of the Procter & Gamble Company, the house is a National Historic Landmark.

The Edward Alexander Kelley Hackett House, Los Angeles, CA.

Inspired by Hollywood and Albert’s entry, I think that I’ll go check out the Sunset Tower. This hotel, is which has host many an Oscar and Golden Globes party, is located on the Sunset Strip. Architect Leland A. Bryant designed the building in 1929 and it opened in 1931. Also on the National Registry, the Sunset Tower is considered one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in the Los Angeles area.

Also in my searches, I found the Edward Alexander Kelley Hackett House is a historic Craftsman-style house in the Pico-Union neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Built in 1901, the house is known for its well-preserved Craftsman architecture. After viewing the house, I can stay in the Pico-Union area, a Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrant community, and get something tasty for lunch.

Any other suggestions for great architecture in Los Angeles?

Images courtesy of Wikipedia.

Wish List: Where the Streets Have No Name

After the waterlogged weekend that we had on the East Coast, I’d like to take a trip to the desert.  Seeing the Schuylkill flooded carrying debris and speeding out to the Delaware made me long for someplace dry and arid. For me one of the more famous and accessible desert is the two-desert Joshua Tree National Park.

An eponymous Joshua Tree

I’ve been to Joshua Tree in the winter of 2006.  It was an ambitious day trip that I took with my friend, Denise.  I had a red eye flight to take back to Philadelphia so we left early in the morning to make the 2 ½ hour trek out to Twentynine Pines. 

A rock formation along Park Boulevard

Clichédly, we queued up the U2 as we got onto California Route 62 and followed the sign to the Park. The entrances from 62 put you into the Mojave Desert, the habitat of the Joshua Tree. The name sake of the park was named by Mormon settlers because the shape that reminded them of a Biblical story of Joshua praying with his hand up in the air.

Ecologically, this park is unique for the meeting of the two deserts.  We entered the park through the Mojave Desert, which is generally the higher, drier, and slightly cooler of the two.  The landscape features bare rock hills peppered with loose boulders and sparsely vegetated flatland.  To our east is the other desert – the Colorado Desert, part of the larger Sonoran Desert, which features scrub and cactus.  

View from Ryan Mountain

The park offers a lot to see.  In our foray, we drove through the Mojave, taking in the vast land and pointing out many of the Joshua Trees. We spied down several of the trails that intersected the main roads, but we knew that our time was short.  We headed to climb Ryan Mountain and catch a glimpse of the Colorado Desert.  In the distance, there looked a like a noticeable different between the flora around us and what was off in the east.  However, time was short and I would need to return to Los Angeles, get my bags and return the rental car before my flight.  We descended back to the car and I knew that I would plan to return

Another Joshua Tree with San Gorgonio Mountain, Southern California’s highest peak, in the background

From the NPS site, short visits of a ½ a day or less should involve the main park roads with many pullouts for wayside exhibits to learn more about Joshua Tree. On a clear day, the NPS suggests the Keys View which vista looks beyond the Salton Sea to Mexico.  For a full day, there is time to discover the Park on foot, either on one of the guided tours or on a solitary backcountry hike. Also the park has nine campgrounds for an over-night visit and for the most adventuresome, backcountry camping is permitted.  For me, my ideal visit would be a day in park from opening to close and a comfortable night in Palm Springs.

Images are courtesy of Trip Advisor. 

Not yet named food entry: Pretzel Challah (Los Angeles)

When I travel or in my own city, I always find foods that taste so incredible or that are prepared in innovative ways that I always remember that they are special.  They can be from a friend’s recommendation or a serendipitous find at a hole-in-the-wall.  So as a self-proclaimed foodie, I have my favorite places to go and I am always looking for new suggestions.

When I checked in with foursquare and announced: Got the pretzel challah! Can't wait to have a bite. (@ Got Kosher) http://4sq.com/lfU3l6, a few followers wanted to know about the bread.

When I saw Wendy earlier in my trip to Los Angeles, she kept telling me that I needed to try some pretzel challah.  I kept hearing “I need to take you to glatt kosher to get this incredible pretzel challah.”  I understood the meaning of each individual word, but I couldn’t glean a meaning when they were strung together.  I inherently trust Wendy’s taste in food, so I didn’t worry about going to some kosher deli for food even though I didn’t understand.

Well, my first first comprehension error was cleared up when I drove to South Robertson, Los Angeles, on Pico Blvd.  The store front is Got Kosher? Provisions, with a tag line: haute glatt to go. Without context, I didn’t understand the name of the store was a reference to the Got Milk? Ad campaign, and not just how kosher the food was. 

It’s a small store front with a bakery in the back, a glass counter displaying their meal offerings of sandwiches made with meat and parve foods, a refrigerator for kosher gourmet chicken and turkey sausages and three tables and some chairs in the front to serve as a dining area. It was the bread rack that was the goal.  There were large braided loaves of bread, turning out to be kalamata olives and rosemary challah, Belgian chocolate challah, whole-wheat challah, fennel seeds and fleur de sel challah, and a sole pretzel challah.

Now my second comprehension error had been cleared it.  It's a loaf of challah this is treated in rinse and then baked to get a pretzel-like finish and taste to the crust.

“Is this pretzel challah fresh?” Wendy asked.

“Hmm,” the lady behind the counter mused as she grabbed the bread to test.

“Normally, I don’t ask, but he’s never had this before and I want it to be good.”

“Would you like me to get one from the back?” the counter lady asked, smiling.

Wendy nodded and the lady asked a co-worker to bring out the fresh loaves. Wendy handed me one of them, and it was big.  It weighed in at two pounds.  I’ll admit, I thought that it was a burnt loaf of bread.  Yet, I know Wendy wouldn’t lead me a stray.

We leave with our challah and I’m just astonished how heavy it feels.  After getting into the car, Wendy asked me if she could open the plastic bag and get some pretzel challah.  She ripped me off a nice piece of the bread.  The soft, fluffy, almost-white dough was a contrast to the very dark brown crust. I bit in for the taste, and I was sold.

It was incredible. The challah consisted of six ingredients (in no particular order: flour, water, yeast , baking powder, salt and oil) and it was a magical food. Though there is no potato or butter, it tasted buttery, deceptively dense, sweet and yet fluffy with a caramel burnt dark pretzel taste in its thick bread crust. Had Jesus tried some, He wouldn’t have started his metaphor with “man cannot live on bread alone.”

With that purchase, I drove Wendy back to her place and thanked her for hospitality.  Originally planning to take Santa Monica Blvd to the 405, I double backed and headed to the 101 south to continue onto San Diego.  I wish I had some photos of my loaf of pretzel challah, but it didn’t last 3 days in my possession and it was nearly reduced to crumbs by the time I thought to photograph it.  When I get back to Southern California in December, I will get more and that time get a picture.

Got Kosher? Provisions is located at 8914 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA.