California Dreamin' - LA Vacation Part 2 - Ethnic Food Day!

Day 2 of our trip (11/12/18) - Ethnic Food Tour day! If you want to catch up on Part 1 of our trip, click here.  We booked a group tour through Urban Adventures for a 3.5 hour ethnic food tour of LA, followed by a 3+ hr customized private evening tour of Hollywood, focused on food and drink venues with old Hollywood/movie history.  Man what a day!  I have enjoyed looking back through the pictures, and thanks to our wonderful tour guide for emailing all the eats and stops we made throughout the day, or else I never could have kept track!

The tour didn't start until the afternoon, so we had some time to enjoy a leisurely late breakfast at the hotel, and relax by the rooftop pool area of our hotel before heading out for our packed afternoon/evening.  If you didn't read Part 1, we stayed at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills (!!!!!). Amazing place!

No one there but us! Mid to upper 70s on a sunny mid November LA Monday.  Perfection!  

Views Northwest (on and they had a hot tub too of course, which we enjoyed). 

Views West

Views East with Downtown skyline in distance

Perfectly relaxed, we were ready to embark on our all afternoon and evening grazing of ethnic foods and old Hollywood dives!

Our tour guide, Tom Dennis, was just spectacular.   Our group was just the two of us plus a local family that lives across the Hollywood Hills from downtown (married couple and their son).  The tour guide got to know everyone, our interests etc, and put on an awesome tour for us.  Our tour was all in LA proper areas of Koreatown, Little Armenia, and Thai Town.  We walked most of it, and hopped on and off public transportation.  All the food was pre-selected for us to give us lots of variety.  

First up - Koreatown!  We started at the Gaylord Apartments and adjoining HMS Bounty pub. Lots of history there.  This is also near the site of the old Brown Derby restaurant, which has been torn down. Directly across the street from the Gaylord Apartment was the site of Ambassador Hotel, site where RFK was assassinated (The hotel was torn down, it is now a memorial park and school).  Due to proximity to the Ambassador hotel, lots of famous people and world leaders stayed and ate at the Gaylord Apartments. Winston Churchill had his own booth at the pub.  

Koreatown:   

Ham Ji Park: BBQ pork ribs (dwaeji galbi) & banchan & Korean salad:

Zion Market in City Center: Coco Hodo (walnut pastry ball) 

Bungeoppang (sweet custard fish bread) - The only thing "fishy" about it was the shape. This was one of my favorite things all day! No surprise - it was sweet.  

We made a couple other stops (no pictures) to see some historic buildings in Koreatown, old markets, and areas with historical significance.  Neat stuff.  

Next stop - Little Armenia!  We hopped on a public bus to get there, just a few stops from Koreatown.  Being the silly pair that we are, we snapped a pic of us on the public bus "being like a local".   My mom said as a kid when visiting family in Los Angeles, we rode a pubic bus at some point and I hated it.  So I mainly took this to show her how much I've matured since I was 8.  See mom, I enjoy public transportation now! So mature! 

LITTLE ARMENIA

Restaurant = Sasoun Bakery, cheese borek.   Full disclosure, cheese is one of my favorite things.  I am so sorry for everyone that is lactose intolerant.  I should be thankful for each time I eat cheese because it is so wonderful.  Especially hot and melted. 

We have no idea what "yogurt drink" is and did not try it.....apparently quite popular

cheese borek

He liked it. 

Spicy & BBQ (yes that's the name of the restaurant): "Khao Soi" Northern Thai egg noodle soup and Thai iced tea known as Cha-yen (cold tea)

Thai iced tea.  I'll admit, not my thing. Glad I tried it though.  I don't actually like regular tea, so.... 

The soup.  The restaurant has the name "spicy" in it for a reason!  Dang it was good. 

Falafel Arax - Falafel (w hummus).   I haven't had a lot of falafel in my life.  Mostly due to lack of exposure to restaurants that serve falafel.  After this experience in LA, if other restaurants make it like this, I'd eat it ALL. THE. TIME.   It was deep fried with a perfect crunchy exterior, with hummus that somewhat melted with the heat of the falafel.   ALL. THE. TIME.  

From Little Armenia we had good views of the Griffith Park Observatory (look below the red light) and Hollywood Sign.  Later in our trip we visited the Observatory and got up close view of the sign and AMAZING views of the sunset and city lights at night, one of the highlights of the trip!! Stay tuned for that....

Last Stop - Thai Town! Once we got off the bus, we walked past this sign and I couldn't resist taking a picture.  I shared this at the time and informed everyone I'd gone to LA and joined a gang.....(ok not that funny, but a little funny).  

THAI TOWN

Bhan Kanom Thai: Khanom Bueang (Thai tacos or Thai crepes), made of a thin crepe, coconut creme, and shaved egg yolk.   This sounds a little weird, but believe me, it was delicious! 

And that my friends ended our Ethnic Food tour of LA!  When visiting other cities we will definitely look into using this same tour group or something similar, they have locations all over.  Great way to see a city! 

Now for our private evening tour.  We said goodbye to our fellow Ethnic Food Tour family, and off the two of us and our guide went to Hollywood.  This time we took the subway, first time for doing that in LA.  The subway in LA is not well regarded because generally it doesn't take you places you want to go....but in this case, it did.  

We started out at the iconic corner of Hollywood and Vine, and got a view of the Capital Records Bldg (or the round building form all the movies as I called it).  Walked by the Pantages theater (Oscars 1949 thru 1959), and stopped in the Frolic room dive bar for some beverages. The Frolic room is famous for the Black Dahlia, and LA Confidential filming among lots of others. On our walk our guide pointed out the Pretty Woman apartment film location.

Inside the Frolic Room

Pretty woman apartment film site

We then went to Boardners Tavern which is a popular filming location, lots of Mafia history, and a speakeasy cover during Prohibition.....Had some more beverages and snacks.

Boardner's Tavern entrance, old Speakeasy entrance

When it was a Speakeasy, this was covered up with table for gambling.  Part of the Mafia hangout area as well. 

Next up: Musso and Franks historic restaurant walk by, Miceli's Italian (Italian ambiance, chianti, music), Egyptian Theater (Hollywood's oldest...AFI Step and Repeat) and went in the Pig N Whistle.

Outside Miceli's 

Inside Miceli's

During our trip the AFI was hosting an event at alot of the theaters, screening some movies (including Sandra Bullocks netflix movie Bird Box, we saw lots of her fans/stalkers waiting for her to come out....).  A red carpet was set up outside the Egyptian Theater, and we couldn't resist the photo-op. So we hopped the rope and.....

Egyptian Theater

Next up was the Snow White Cafe, yes that Snow White.  History is back when the movie was being written/animated, the staff would come to this cafe/bar to unwind.  They renamed it the Snow White cafe after the movie was released in honor of the staff and movie.  The original animators painted the artwork inside of it, all in Snow White Theme.  This is not on the normal tour, but the guide, through is getting to know us, realized quickly I like Disney things, so made sure to take us here.  Oh, and there is an old area speakeasy upstairs, to which Charlie Chaplin was a regular.

Our route ended at the iconic block of Hollywood with the Chinese Theater and El Capitan Theater across the street.  (The Sandra Bullock movie was being screened at the Chinese Theater).  Think Times Square but literally only one block.   I got more photos of this area in the daylight later in the week when we went to the El Capitan and saw Jimmy Kimmel Live!   

Chinese Theater (Sandra Bullock is inside)

All along the evening tour we were walking on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Got tons of pictures of famous peoples stars, and while not actively seeking it, found these, two of my favorites!! 

Full afternoon of good food, sites, and Hollywood movie history!  

Stay tuned for more on our trip - LA Lakers game, downtown food halls, Griffith Observatory and views, and all our good eats along the way!  

Trip Links: 
California Dreamin' - LA Vacation Part 1

California Dreamin' - LA Vacation Part 1

Tall buildings.  Being up high on things.  Being up high on tall buildings looking down. Sunsets. Food.  The Ocean.  Rivers. Mountains.  Natural beauty.  Snow.  More Food.  Walking around cities. Exploring.  Animals.  Dinosaurs.  Fossils.  Flowers.  Blue Sky.  Clouds.  Big cities at night all lit up. I'll stop now, but those are all things that I really like to do, see, experience.  So, no surprise on vacations these are the things that interest me.  I love being in big cities but I also like being the only one as far as I can see on the side of a snow covered mountain, or listening to the waves of the ocean crash against the shore.  Oh and food, of course that, THAT list can go on an on. 

This past November my husband and I went to Los Angeles for 7 days, SEVEN days! That includes travel, but on both day 1 and 7 we were able to get in some great experiences.  I went a couple times as a kid to visit family and Zac also had been once as a kid, but neither of us had been as adults and certainly not together.  I love California.  So diverse - plenty of all those things I listed at the top and more.  It's been 4 months (life happened and I got behind on blogging) but I've enjoyed recounting our trip. Here you are, the McCrary tour of LA!   Zac gets a lot of credit for our itinerary, it was a team effort for sure!  This post will be Day 1 (really a half day) and Day 2 of our trip.  

View from our room of the Hollywood Hills and Bel Air areas

Thanks to all Zac's work travel, we had enough Hilton points to stay for free for 6 nights 7 days at the brand new Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills.  I have never stayed anywhere so swanky, and let me tell you, that is how to do it my friends.  It was A-W-E-S-O-M-E.  I felt like Kevin McAlister in Home Alone 2 when he was at the Plaza.  (Yes we ordered a dessert cart with ice cream sundaes at some point!).  They treated us very well, it was convenient to all we wanted to do, great view from the room (above), awesome rooftop pool with excellent view (remember how I like being up high on things), and would stay there again in a heart beat!  After taking in the awesomeness that was our room, we timed it right to catch our first LA sunset from the rooftop!  

It was a little smoky this first night, after that did not notice the smoke from nearby wildfires. 

Beverly Hilton was next door

Evening drinks and snacks at the rooftop bar

Avocado Toast with pumpkin seeds, poached eggs, chili flakes, lime. 

We were just a couple blocks from the Rodeo Drive area, and headed there first to stretch our legs after all day of traveling.  No, didn't buy anything, too rich for my taste!

Blurry but this pic below is the Beverly Wilshire hotel. Google it, historic and lots of movie star and famous people have lived/stayed here.  Also, Pretty Woman! 

Now time to head to the ocean!! Yes it's dark, but the ocean is cool at night!  Santa Monica Pier was fun, we didn't stay there long, it's like a big fair/amusement park, but glad to have seen it all lit up at night.

The Pacific Ocean!

Ok, time for dinner.  Zac sleuth-ed out a cool looking menu at Tar and Roses in Santa Monica.

Grilled Octopus would be near the top of my all-time favorite things to eat. This did not disappoint. 

Wood Roasted English Peas.  Man these were good.  Messy, but good.  

Crispy pig tails with sriracha, honey, and cilantro.  They were crispy alright! 

Yep, that's Bone Marrow, with red onion marmalade. 

Singaporean Chili Crab Cake 

Fried Cauliflower with lavender spiced honey and ricotta salada.  After the octopus, prob my 2nd fave dish of the night. 

We headed back to the hotel for the night after dinner (it was pretty late local time, still adjusting from Central time).  I could write an entire blog post about how awesome our hotel was, one thing I never got over was the turn down service!  Too bad someone can't come do that at my house every day.  They even coiled our chargers.

Day 2 began with our sleeping in a little bit (it's vacation after all!).  The smoke/clouds had cleared and we had a beautiful day in store!  It was Sunday, which was farmers market day in town, so our plan was to hit a farmers market, get some brunch, walk around a bit / people watch, and by late afternoon have made our way down to Hermosa Beach where we had tickets to see Jay Leno at The Comedy and Magic Club.  

We started out in Brentwood strolling through the Brentwood Farmer's Market.  I love farmers markets, so much cool stuff to see! 

succulents! 

oh, and they have lots of free samples! 

Chicken and waffles and Strawberry-Nutella waffles in one! 

These flowers were all over the place

Next up was the Brentwood Country Mart, lots of movie stars have been seen here, known for good places to eat and shop.

All of these things but the cinnamon roll were vegan!  Never would have known. They were all delicious! 

Should have bought these. 

After Brentwood we Uber'd further up the hills to Pacific Palisades.  First stop there was Gelson's market, Zac had heard various comedians and movie stars mention it.  Check out all the dragon fruit!  Bought some for a snack.  

Palisades Village area, Bay Theater

WE SAW ADAM SANDLER.  That's right, in the flesh, just wandering around the Palisades Village. The area had a lot of restaurants and coffee shops, had lots of activity, and there he was just like any other person going about his business.  Zac made a sort of head gesture hello to him, and he looked at us as he walked by and said "Hey Guys" and did a little wave.  We are BFFs now.

Closer to our hotel we stopped at Eataly LA, and Italian market/restaurant that Mario Batali started, there is one in NYC that we didn't make it to when we went there, so wanted to check this one out. It's in Century City (Die Hard Fans - Nakatomi Plaza is in Century City, you could see a part of the building from our hotel roof!). 

at Eataly

After some afternoon rest, time to go see the ocean again!  Next stop = Manhattan Beach a little sound of Beverly Hills.  The weather was perfect!

Manhattan Beach

on the Manhattan Beach Pier, Malibu way off in the distance

Manhattan Beach sunset.  Perfect! 

The beach along LA shore (there is a lot of it) is very pedestrian (and bike) friendly.  We walked a little over 2 miles down the beach to Hermosa Beach.  A personal side note - this is where my grandmother grew up.  It was neat to see areas that were there (like the pier) when she was there, and just experience the area in general.

Hermosa Beach Pier.  Back in the day my grandmother walked to this Pier to go to the library. 

And now to see Jay Leno!

The puffy shirt! 

Zac snuck this photo, glad we didn't get kicked out! No photos allowed....

After all that, we were hungry again.  We had a late dinner at the rooftop restaurant at our hotel (THE WALDORF REMEMBER), in perfect weather.  Can't describe what a fun thing it was to be on top of a building, outside, eating a great dinner, looking at views of the LA skyline and surrounding areas all lit up, temperature was perfect, dang I'd love to be there now!

Zac's dinner, pasta obviously, it was good! 

Crab cake burger and fries

Hollywood Hills

And that my friends ends day 2, look for the next chapter coming soon!!