5 February 2010.. 9pm appointment

The reason why my gf and I were home on a Friday night ordering zpizza was because Eastbay.com had a countdown for these:

 

 Nike Zoom KOBE V, aka The All Star Games

Limited releases to: Eastbay.com, Footlocker.com, Nike.com, KB24.com

12am ET was the release for these limited edition KOBE Vs and I wasn't going to miss out.  I had my Eastbay.com account logged in already w/ my size highlighted, ready to add to cart when the clock strikes 9pm PT.  Footlocker.com was going to sell these too so I had my account for that logged in as well. 

My gf's the best! She wanted to make sure that we'd be home on time so I could be on the PC ready to make the order by 9pm.  Originally my plan was to order multiple pairs so I could sell the others on ebay and make a profit but things didn't work out that way.  

Anyways.. my heart started racing when the count hit 10 seconds.. SHIT THIS IS IT!!  5, 4, 3, 2, 1.. REFRESH!! BaaMMM!!! my size was ready to be added to cart!  My credit card # was on ctrl V standby and I got so excited from the rush that I forgot to insert the Free shipping code.  I had to wait 1min 30sec after I clicked submit for my order to process and it must've felt like one of the longest shoe minutes of my life.  At any moment, my order could've easily been declined, my pc could've frozen, or my Firefox could've timed out.  All these situations could've occured because it was a limited shoe, and probably millions of other people were probably online trying to order the same shoe @ the same time.  Finally the process was over and I got a confirmation page, a minute later an e-mail confirmation.  *whewwww* what a relief! I was lucky enough to get my Nike Zoom KOBE V ASG shoes.

The shoes arrived thursday Feb 18 from USPS.  Damn Eastbay!! what I hate about ordering from eastbay is that they ship the shoes in a USPS postal bag and when my KOBE's arrived, the box was all jacked up! assholes..

Unfortunately, Mr. Bryant wasn't available to participate in the All Star Game due to his ankle injury but pictures of him wearing the these KOBE V ASGs on saturday was good enough..

5 February 2010.. Dinner!

When my gf and I want pizza.. our GO TO spot is calling zpizza for delivery! Not that Pizza Hut bullshit!

The Lakewood zpizza off Carson street and Clubhouse Dr. is off the hezzy! Their delivery policy is only for houses within 3mi but this place hooks me up all the time.  My house comes close to around 4mi and yet they are still kind to deliver out to the Shaolin 36th Chambers!

My gf and I are always trying something new on their menu because getting the same thing over and over again is wack!

 

Mexican -

Homemade Salsas, mozzarella, spicy lime chicken, green onions, red onions, fresh avocado, sour cream, and cilantro

Even though i'm not a fan of cilantro, everything else on this pizza made up for it.  We got a medium size pie and it was more than enough.  If you like mexican food, get this shit! Even the crust was good!

 

Garlic bread & Penne w/ Chicken and Basil Pesto -

Penne, bulton mushrooms, grilled chicken, basil pesto, fresh basil and pine nuts

We had to get Pasta along w/ our pizza, and what's Pasta w/o garlic bread?! I'm a sucker for Pesto so when 

my gf AXED me if I wanted to get this, shhhhii of course!  Ohhh yes we got our grub on this evening!! 

If you guys live outside the 3mi delivery policy, make the call and ask if they could still deliver anyways.. and if they do, tip the driver well.

zpizza

3221 Carson St.

Lakewood CA, 90712

P: (562) 425-5558

30 January 2010.. Evening

I was in the mood for Pad Thai tonight! You know what Pad Thai is.. Some Thai fizzy! so the question now was "where should we hit up some Thai Food?" Then suddenly I remembered something, yes!! awhile ago, a buddy of mines referred me to this one Thai food restaurant located off Carson st and the corner of Belflower but I couldn't remember the name. Fuck what was it??! errrrr! I ended up giving me him a call and  baaam! The name of the place is called PANVIMARN.  So off we were!

I was impressed from the moment we walked in.  Parking is located within the triangle of shops around the restaurant.  It might be tricky but you'll get it.  There were a lot of people but the wait was only about 5 mins.  We got seated on the 2nd floor and everything was good.  The setting was nice and the mood to the place was very chillax.  A good dining place to hang out with friends, talk, eat some good food and get a little tipsy off wine or something.  Another thing I liked about this place was that it had a 50" LCD I believe which was on the wall on the 2nd floor playing Fast & the Furious Tokyo Drift! haha..

Here's what we ordered:

 

Fish Cake -

Fish cake mixed with curry, Thai spices and green beans. Served with sweet and sour cucumber sauce.

Considered a Panvimarn Fave among customers and I can see why =)  These fish cakes were yummy!  The sweet and sour cucumber sauce complimented the Fish cakes with every bite.  Kinda balanced out some of that salty taste.  

Taste of Garlic Shrimp -

Ward off vampires! Shrimp sautéed with garlic, peppers, carrot and broccoli

My gf originally wanted a chicken dish but it was going to be spicy! One thing about their menu is that asterisk was suppose to represent Spicy dishes but pretty much everything else on the menu w/o an asterisk was spicy.  So my gf thought this dish was aiiiiiight, she's not much of a fan when it comes to spicy foods.

Pad Thai Special -

Fried Thai noodle with shrimp, chicken, bean sprout, onion, carrot, bell pepper, egg, and sweet basil with spicy special sauce

If you like Pad Thai, get this.. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT! ohhh wee! this was delicious! I'm not a chef remember, so I can't even describe it, but it was mad yummy!! get it and drop me off whatever you can't finish =)

Golden Fried Rice -

Fried rice with beef mixed with egg and curry powder.

 This takes out any other kind of fried rice I've had in awhile.. Better than Chinese food fried rice by far. It was shiny and very salty, but yet freak'n good! I did drink a lot of water with it.  Originally we were goiing to order the "Snow crab fried rice" but decided to go with this.  Now I'm curious about that Snow crab...  The taste of this beef fried rice will be a memorable one, and I can't wait to try it again. 

Espresso Ice cream

They ran out of fried banana so we settled for this.. ehhhhhh you can do better at a Cold Stone or even Dippin Dots next door.

Don't forget to hit me up when you guys plan to go to this place because I want more Pad Thai and Fried rice!

Panvimarn Thai Cuisine 

(562) 425-2601

http://www.panvimarn.com/

29 January 2010.. Evening

It was dineLA Restaurant Week and time to take advantage! So the "quadruple date" dinner was set for an 8:30pm reservation @ Chart House in Redondo Beach CA.  When I heard that we had to dress casual elegant, I wasn't feel'n it too much at first but then I was down for it.  Us friends never go out and dress nice for a dinner so hey that would be cool.

Before I go on.. congrats to my buddy n his girlfriend, they're having a Baby BOY!! So the dinner was also a celebration.  We got seated with an awesome view of the ocean.  Our table was at the very corner of the restaurant so we had a nice little view of the incoming surf crashing against the rocks.  Some pretty big swells were coming in and you could feel a little rumble in the floor beneath your feet.

In past dineLA/OC Restaurant Weeks, I've gone away from the 3-4 course meal specials because nothing really caught my eye.  Not this time! Check out the menu:

 

 

Seared Peppered Ahi Tuna -

Served rare with tangy mustard, ginger & wasabi

I like Ahi Tuna a lot so I made this my First Course.  I'm not much of a wasabi fan so I didn't touch it.  The Ahi Tuna tasted really fresh, and dipping it into that sauce in the background made it even tastier.  

 

Coconut Crunchy Schrimp -

Served with sweet plum sauce

My gf got this for her First course and I think I liked this one better than my Ahi.  The sweet plum sauce really complimented the shrimp with every bite.  What I liked about this shrimp most was that it was big and crunchy! haha.

 

Shrimp Scampi -

With garlic white wine butter sauce & angel hair pasta

I was in the mood for pasta and this was under the Second Course.. Perfect! This was pretty damn good! So good that my gf and I ended up trading because she liked this one better than hers.

 

Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi Mahi -

Peanut sauce with hint of Frangelico, mango coulis & coconut ginger rice

So when my gf and I traded dishes, my only problem with it was that it barely had any rice.  Chart House needs to put more rice in this dish! I mean wtf! haha.. Besides that complaint, the peanut sauce was a good combination with the Mahi Mahi.  I didn't mind our trade at all!

Key Lime Pie

I'm not much of a fan when it comes to Key Lime anything but this pie was surprising. Very yummy and very filling.  I almost killed it but I was 3 bites shy.. This was the nail in the coffin though... this made me officially FULL!

 

Raspberry Creme Brulee 

My gf had to settle for this because it was too late to request the Original Mud Pie..Wack!! There isn't any Raspberry because she didn't want it on there.  I don't remember even taking a bite out of this, and I even like Creme Brulee.  I think I was caught up on my Key Lime thats why =).  

So thats that.. Dinner was good and it was fun having a good time with some real good friends.  Our only complaint of the night was our server.. The place wasn't even that full, and our dining area was pretty much empty and yet he was taking forever to come back and serve us.  I give our server a "C".  Other than that, I highly recommend this place for the casual and elegant mood with a loved one. 

Oh yeah btw... some cat that works there looks exactly like Screech from Saved By the Bell!!!

Chart House

231 Yacht Club Way

Redondo Beach, CA 90277

(310)372-3464

29 January 2010.. 3:45pm

I know this is my food blog n all but I did say that often I will post picture of things other than food that are of interest to me.

JUST DO IT:

 

Nike Zoom KOBE V's aka The Dark Knights

BLACK/BLACK-DARK GREY-NPTN BL

I was very fortunate to get a hold of these limited edition kicks from Nike days after its release.  These were sold @ a few House of Hoops stores, Niketown Beverly Hills, and Nike.com in limited quantity on 23 January 2010.  People were lined up days ahead for its release, but I can't do that. I've never done that, nor do I ever intend to. 

 

Inspired by the Dark Knight himself w/ the black representing his overall personality, and the metallic blue color scheme inspired by his armor. The shoe is extremely light @ 10.6 oz and probably considered Kobe's most comfortable shoe in the Nike Zoom KOBE line up thus far.  You would be surprised in the ankle support area for being a low top basketball shoe.  When I speak comfort, I mean COMFORT!! The cushioning of this shoe is provided by 6mm Zoom Air unit in the forefoot and 14mm Zoom Air unit in the heel. That's FULL ZOOM Air support on the bottom! That's comfy! and if you don't know what Zoom Air is, get familiar!  Just when I thought the Nike Zoom KOBE IVs were comfortable, Nike and KOBE keep proving me wrong!  I must say, this is probably the shoe that will make it tough for me to stay "retired from the shoe game".

Stay tuned for future sneaker updates..

27 January 2010, Lunch..

Wednesday was my hump day off.. woke up with a headache and decided to call off.  I don't know why I woke up with a headache but I'm sure as hell it wasn't the Call of Duty from the night before =)

It's been a while that I've gone out with my gf during her lunch break, and so today was the perfect time! called her up and we were set for a 1:30pm lunch.

So before then.. I decided to kill some time and get my "beginners" photography skills on and here is one picture:

  THE WEDGE in NEWPORT

A fading Swell from the past weeks storms was still pushing out about 3-4ft sets at the Wedge.  This shot was taken across Balboa bay set at 180mm zoom.  A little bit grainy because a distance shot is tough to take w/o a tripod. If you look close, the waves got a nice left shoulder to it!

It was finally 1:30pm and I was off to pick up my gf.  Lunch was going to be at Greek Islands.. I decided to pick this place because it was only 2 minutes away from her office, and also I was in the mood for Greek food =)

Here's our lunch:

 

Chicken souvlaki -

two skewers of marinated chicken breast, char-grilled and served w/ rice, hummus an taboule

This was my gf dish and it wasn't that bad.  I had a piece of the chicken and it was juicy!

Here's another angle of her dish..

Lamb souvlaki -

two skewers of seasoned lamb, char-grilled and served w/ brown rice, babaganouj and taboule

Here is my dish!! I love lamb chops!! I'm trying my best to stay away from red meat nowadays but when it comes to seeing lamb chops on the menu, I'm on it!!  I decided to go the brown rice way because hey.. it's a little healthier right? Brown rice has actually grown on me and I think I'll ask for it more often. I love the hummus combination w/ each bite of lamb chops and brown rice.. Yummy!!!  The lamb chops were very tender, but overall, I would pick a Lamb Chop dish from Open Sesame any day.

 

Here's another angle of my dish..

Pita Bread - 

the bread was aiiiiight.  They must have given us about 4 pieces and I only ate half of one.  Normally the Pita bread would be killed! haha

Hope you guys are hungry now!