Thursday, September 18, 2008

Good cheap eats

Being a self-proclaimed chowhound, I've been trying to look for the best places to eat. So far, so good. One good thing I will say about Southern California is that it has great cheap authentic ethnic food. On top of that, the clientele is not the same people you find in the Mission (i.e. hipsters or folks who think it's so cool to eat something ethnic). So far here are my favorites so far:

Little India in Artesia:
(1) Udupi Palace: great place for dosas, but this may not count since I've been going to the Udupi Palace in the Mission up north. Great dosas nonetheless.

(2) Rasdahni: the place for thali! I'm not going to attempt to describe that thali is because I'll fail miserably.

As for great coffee places, I've only found Peet's so far. I need an independent coffee shop now!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Why am I here and where I'd rather be

My fiance, our pets, and I recently moved down to the Orange County/Los Angeles County border. I am originally from San Francisco. I went to Berkeley for both undergrad and law school, and I am a self-identified urban dweller. I love city living-the large, hectic crowds, the noise, the energy, mass transit, and the culture. How is a San Franciscan doing in her first full week in Southern California? HORRIBLE!

I've always hated the Southland, but living here a full week has made me realize that I actually hate it even more! I don't understand why everything is at least 20 to 30 minutes away by freeway (or in our case "the 5"). Every "city" has its own mini-mall with the same exact store as the other mini-malls in other "cities". They all have a Starbucks, a Target, a Corner's Bakery, and some crappy restaurant like Mimi's Kitchen. There are very few independent cafes and the one I went to is as best as good as Strada's in Berkeley. I'm not asking for Blue Bottle Coffee, but a Peet's that's not 15 minutes away would be acceptable. I hate this place. I hate it!

The traffic sucks. Why is there this many cars on the freeway at 6AM?

Downtown LA is only slightly better than Downtown Oakland. It's depressing, dirty and lifeless.

I'm going explode.

The one thing I like about Southern California is that there is a lot of great CHEAP food. Little Saigon and Little India are nearby. Other than that, there really is nothing redeeming about Southern California.

I am counting down the days until we can go back to San Francisco (or even more to NYC). If it weren't for the bar exam, I would be looking at NYC right now. Heck, Seattle and Chicago are looking pretty attractive right now.