Exotic LA Eats (Part 3)

This final installment was the most fun to write. Food explorers eat many things with not everything panning out. It’s those moments which you eat something so different, so unique, it forever changes your palate knowing you can never go back. These rewards are the reason we are constantly seeking but never really finding.

Parts one and two 

Live Uni - Sea Urchin is a tasty treat, live sea urchin is heaven. Sea Urchin are bottom feeding echinoderms found on the bottom of every ocean around the world. California Sea Urchins are found off the coast about 50ft deep in kelp beds. They are blackish purple to red and covered in long spines weighing about a pound. At the Quality Seafood, you pick one from the tank to be masterfully cracked opened to provide access to that deliciously sweet roe. It tastes like essence of ocean distilled into one bite. I should mention the uni still move during the entire process. Bless their little hearts - if they had any…

Quality Seafood, 130 S International Boardwalk, Redondo Beach, CA 90277

Goat Birria - In most parts of the world, this meat isn’t exotic. While 70% of the world eats goat, it isn’t common in North America. Perhaps the lean qualities requiring additional care or maybe the sometimes strong flavour limit its popularity. Regardless, goat meat has quite unique flavours and El Parian exquisitely captures them with their stew. Rich, deep and succulent goat stew is accentuated with appropriate peppers and spices. One bite and you can taste the care going into this Mexican dish.

El Parian, 1528 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90015

Live lobster tail sashimi - This momentous event was during the live octopus night. While live octopus proved more experience than flavour, that night's most memorable dish was lobster tail sashimi. Perhaps ignorance of its existence prevented me from trying lobster sashimi before that enlightening night, but this is absolutely worth trying. The upside down severed tail shell holds the tail meat and presented alongside the head. The taste is clean and velvety similar to raw crab but sweeter, more plentiful and a flavour that lingers just so.

Chung Hae Jin, 3470 W 6th St Ste 8A, Los Angeles, CA 90020

Immature Egg with Sac - This new discovery in Orange County is served with Chicken pho. As far as I know, Pho Dakao is the only place in SoCal serving this. Immature eggs have undeveloped shells with a bright yellow appearance. Harvested after the hen is slaughtered, these are sometimes still attached to the egg sac. The taste is like an exceptionally delicious egg yolk that is denser yet silky texture. If you like egg yolk, you will like this. Word of warning, if you cannot speak Vietnamese, expect an extremely difficult time to get these exquisite morsels of goodness and it isn't always available. The pho it comes with is also extremely tasty.

Pho Dakao, 15532 Ward St, Garden Grove, CA 92843

Foie Gras Cotton Candy - This was eaten before the unfortunate California ban on foie gras so there was a debate whether this entry should even be written. I justify this entry because the cotton candy was part of a much larger culinary experience involving some avant-garde molecular gastronomy techniques. Blending childhood memories with a very adult flavour made this dish the most memorable. Whether you choose the air bread philly cheesesteak or nitrogen margarita, it will be an experience like no other. The menu is split up by modern and traditional cooking techniques and I advise to order some heartier offerings from the traditional side. New age is cool, but it just didn't seem to provide that same level of satisfaction.

The Bazaar at SLS Hotel, 465 S La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048

Rattlesnake and rabbit sausage - While rattlesnake and rabbit are generally uncommon in North America, they are also pretty tasty. Wurstkuche fuses them together into tube format. It’s served in a hot dog bun with all the usual condiments available.The sausage is tasty, but tasted mixed with pork presumably to lower costs since it’s only an $8 sausage or perhaps pork was added to counterbalance the lean rabbit and rattlesnake. Regardless, I would rather eat the meats individually to provide the full effect, but the rabbit and rattlesnake definitely add different dimension to the sausage. They have other exotic meats (for sausages anyways) such as Buffalo, Duck, Crocodile, Lamb and Pheasant.

Wurstküche, 800 E 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA, 90013

Exotic LA Eats (Part 2)

As promised, the second installment of exotic eats in LA. This list are OK tasting things, but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat it. (Part one, Part Three)

Drunken shrimp - Live shrimp are doused in rice wine (presumably ShaoXing) and served alive. Shrimp ‘swim’ in the alcohol which act as sanitizer, marinade and a lethal sedative for the happy shrimp. They stop moving after a about minute which is then ready to eat. While live shrimp itself is generally pretty tasty, the rice wine is often harsh and overpowering. I've had this dish on different occasions and the wildcard is usually the wine. I often wonder if swapping a higher quality sake would elevate the tasty categorization, but this isn't exactly a dish you can try at home.

Seafood Village, 1463 S Nogales St Ste A, Rowland Heights, CA, 91748

Sannakji - A couple of variations of live octopus in Korea exists, the smaller octopi which comes whole or the larger ones which tend to be cut up. Whichever version you get, take care chewing since the moving tentacles can stick to your throat.  The restaurant was serving cut live octopus served with a salt sesame sauce. I’m not sure whether eating octopus live adds to the flavour, but it sure does add a memorable experience. For that reason alone, I would recommend trying once.

Chung Hae Jin, 3470 W 6th St Ste 8A, Los Angeles, CA 90020

Pigs head - Top chef winner Ilan Hall opened up his restaurant in the historic core in downtown Los Angeles. All his offerings are fairly unique, but perhaps the most memorable was the half roasted pig head served with tortillas. The best parts are the cheek and neck with the remaining mostly fat. I would highly recommend doing an entire pig, but just the head is somewhat lacking.

The Gorbals, 501 S Spring St, Los Angeles, CA, 90013

Crawfish - These freshwater crustaceans resembling little lobsters are naturally found in streams and rivers. The fairly tasty little creatures contain little meat found mostly in the tail and claws. These are typically steamed or boiled with seasoning and served with butter. I noticed crawfish I had at Long Beach Crawfish festival contained more grime in its intestines. Apparently crawfish should be purged for 24hours in an aerated water bath. Skipping this step definitely diminishes the experience. It could be fun getting a huge bag of crawfish poured onto your table with your buddies and beer. Personally however, I would prefer something with a lower effort/meat ratio.

Boiling Crab, 3377 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90017

Squid ink pasta -  Ink is extracted from ink sacs of dead squid and is a black colour. To be honest, I don’t really know what squid ink is supposed to taste like. The squid itself overpowers the ink flavour and I have never just eaten the ink by itself. This ingredient isn't very common but I feel it doesn't contribute much in terms of flavour once cooked in pasta. For those reasons, its hard to be excited about squid ink anything.

Ración, 119 W Green St, Pasadena, CA, 91105

Boudin Noir - These are french versions of blood sausages made blood or dried blood along with some filler. They are black in appearance and look like a normal sausage. The taste is earthy, dense and uninspired. It’s always difficult for me to get excited about blood sausages for some reason - especially when compared to rib eye, liver or just about anything on the menu.

AOC, 8700 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90048

Exotic LA Eats

Last weekend, somebody asked about the strangest things I’ve eaten. At the time, I couldn't answer because that list is long and stretches far back. Being a problem solver, I broke the problem down with list of weirdest things eaten in SoCal, but even this list is long, so its broken into three parts:

1. Things that I would probably never eat again
2. Things that are OK but I won’t actively seek to eat
3. Things that are super tasty but uncommon in SoCal

Part 1: Not tasty List

Stinky tofu - The Chinese name literally means Stinky Tofu and the product is exactly as advertised.  It is tofu and it stinks. Traditionally, it is fermented with brining liquid comprised of milk, vegetables and meat for up to several months. Needless to say, the smell is quite pungent for the uninitiated.While many Chinese find this to be a tasty delicacy, I apparently lack the gene to process the smell. You can go head first and try this at Tofu King or ease in at boiling point where the odoriferous tofu is diluted in hot pot.

Tofu King, 713 W Duarte Rd, Arcadia, CA, 91007

Boiling Point, 153 W Garvey Ave, Monterey Park, CA 91755

Natto - This traditional Japanese food is made from soybeans fermented with a specific strain of bacteria. It is apparently a breakfast food which, conceivably could be more effective than coffee. This has a strong smell, intensely unusual flavour and a slimy texture. This is the few foods breaking my three strike rule. I tried once in Los Angeles and once in Tokyo after which felt it was no longer necessary to try again to make sure I don’t like it. You can pick this up at any Japanese grocery store.

Nijiya Market Little Tokyo, 124 Japanese Village Plaza Mall, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Balut - Many have seen this southeast Asian delicacy on Fear Factor. It is a developing duck embryo boiled alive and eaten in shell with a spoon. This is often served with beer, which I apparently haven’t had enough. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not ethics or the visual of a veiny developing embryo, it was the inconsistent flavours coupled with undeveloped feathers and some crunchy bits. While I didn't hate it, the taste wasn't enough to overcome the oddity of this dish for me.

Hot Vit Lon Long An, 8942 Bolsa Ave, Westminster, CA 92683

Durian - Regarded in many Asian countries as the King of fruits, to which I humbly disagree. While its size and spiky appearance has some royal traits, its smell, taste and texture brings its status closer to court jester. In Asia, many high end hotels actually ban this fruit for fear the smell will prompt refund requests from foreigners. Most in my family actually enjoy durian which encouraged me to try multiple times. I could not get past the smell. It is indescribable, but let’s just say most analogies describing the nefarious odour would be dangerous to consume. The texture and taste is not worth mentioning because that odour depraves all other senses.

Ranch 99 Market, 140 W. Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776

Chapulines - Eaten in Mexico, these whole grasshoppers are toasted with garlic, lime juice and salt containing extract of agave worms. It was served as a side dish in a Mexican restaurant. It’s texture is different than insects I’ve eaten in Asia because of the toasted cooking process with inside still containing liquid of a salty and sour nature which sometimes popped like a water balloon. That popping sensation was quite not enjoyable.

Casa Oaxaca, 3317 W 1st St, Santa Ana, CA 92704

Sweetbread - This tasty sounding culinary term is actually an animal gland which can sometimes add to the ambiguity. Sweetbread can actually refer to several different animal glands. I had calf pancreas at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago which was flavoured and cooked well. The gland is similar to brain in taste and texture which is mushy and doesn't have much inherent flavour. It was ok, but not something I would crave.

Spago, 176 N Canon Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210

Does bacon make everything better?

During my time on this Earth, I have yet to find any food not enhanced by bacon. From spicing up to sweet desserts, adding bacon escalates anything. With bacon, bodies are nourished and souls are nurtured.

Today however, somebody could have possibly brought the concept of bacon too far. Introducing the bacon suit. Where, not only the wearer resembles bacon, it is a "chemically treated latex fabric smells exactly like bacon cooking in a skillet". For a mere $99, it is impossible to make a more impacting statement for your dollar.

Need a reason? Drink and Prosper.

Everybody hunts for it - the reason to drink. From the nutritional benefits of beer, to the cardiovascular benefits of red wine, a legitimate reason is constantly sought to justify the drinking. The problem however, is all these reasons limit consumption to moderate quantities. Those weak benefits do not justify those days of slurred speech, but not anymore my friends.

Drink and make more money.

A recent study has found a correlation between drinking and education level. The higher the education level, the higher the proportion who has used alcohol in the past month. Since education level and income are highly correlated, we can extrapolate that drinking and income are also correlated.

There is your legitimate reason to drink without limits. I challenge you to find a flaw in this argument. If you think you have, you have not drank enough. Drink forth and prosper.

Ever wonder why the obesity rate is high in the south?

So disgusting, even for me.

Watch these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC-Yc_qvr30&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIJKCVWtNAc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbEjSI6JmWY&feature=related

Apartment hunting shoots back

The quest for a new apartment had begun with the first setback already hitting. Pangs of lust and excitement stirred after viewing a beautiful apartment at a beautiful location in Santa Monica on 6th street -- a bachelors going for a very affordable $1295. Instinctually thinking was something was wrong with the apartment I went to go see it over the weekend regardless. Expecting to see fecal matter and a missing wall, I was pleasantly surprised to see it was clean and weighing in at large 620sqft. In fact, the only problem seemed to be was parking for an extra 100$/mth and perhaps the 24mth lease. Suddenly, all I could think about was getting this apartment and finally living in a walkable neighbourhood.

Like a 6 year old on Christmas day, I woke up early on Monday to go submit my application which requested for W-2 tax forms. Without thinking I gathered, pay stubs, bank statements and W-2 and blithely skipped to the management office. After completing details of the application and discussing terms of the lease, she asked me about my income. My response was acknowledged with a pause and an audible breath. Her next three words saddened me like the unmasking of Santa – “You don’t qualify”.

“What?” I replied

The housing apparently is set aside by the city of Santa Monica for moderate income people, meaning individuals whose income exceeds $55,000 do not qualify. My heart was broken and I was desperate again. After about 10 minutes of brainstorming solutions to this problem, she flatly said that nothing can be done. So now I know what was wrong with the apartment after wasting about 1 hour. Now all I can do is imagining life in that apartment.

Earthquake!

Felt my first earthquake last night. I was woken up from an apparent 4.5 earthquake that originated in the porn capital of Chatsworth. The event was rather unremarkable – it felt akin being on a bumpy road in a car for a few seconds. After emerging from my bed, I dawned on me that absolutely no preparations have been made for a greater magnitude earthquake. So if you are in California, you should probably make an earthquake kit:

• Water and food to last at least three days


• Water purification tablets


• Heavy-duty gloves


• A first-aid kit


• A minimum of $100 in cash


• Family photos and descriptions to aid in finding missing people


• A flashlight and portable radio


• Extra batteries


• A personal commode with sanitary bags

Venice Beach

Venice is named after the Italian city. According to history, some rich tobacco dude decided to drain the marshes, build and dig canals on this beach front property. Shops and town buildings closely followed Venetian architecture – with gondolas and all. After being incorporated into Los Angeles in 1925, Venice had descended into the “Slum by the Sea” for the next 50 years.

Today, most of the canals have been filled in and its image has been vastly improved. Venice’s slum history gives this area its bohemian/eclectic charm. Perhaps the most famous point of interest is Muscle Beach – where the governator trained before reaching celebrity status. The boardwalk is quite interesting because it doesn’t feel as commercialised as the other beaches. Artists, independent shops and weirdos who believe in doomsday are found along this walkway. Incidentally, I find it difficult to fathom anybody would think doomsday is coming when the sun is shining and the ocean breeze is blowing. Cheap $5 sunglasses and sombrero hats are the kind of things you will find while shopping on the boardwalk -- I heard this is a great place to find smoking materials too. If you are looking for something fancier, but still unchained from commercialised USA, then you should check out Abbot Kinney Street. Higher end Art stores, furniture stores and independent clothing stores are speckle the strip.

If you do decide to come to Venice, I would recommend park off the beach and ditch the ride – Venice is a walking neighbourhood. I would even recommend walking all the way to Santa Monica. It is beautiful and you don’t need to deal with parking there. Only people from LA whine when walking more than two blocks. The beaches are nice, but can get crowded at times during the summer weekends and traffic can also get rough as the major freeways are a few kilometres away.

Beach: Not usually crowded with a mixed 20-30 something crowd.
Parking: $0-15 and scarce during summer weekends.
Shopping: Few chain stores, independent artwork. Boardwalk, Abbot Kinney are great
Restaurants: Ranges from boardwalk stalls to high end spots on Abbot Kinney
Recommendations: Beachwood(bar), The other room(bar), Baja Cantina(bar), The Brig(bar), James Beach(bar), Chaya Venice(Restaurant), Primitivo(Tapas Bar), Ben & Jerry's (Ice Cream)

LA amore

It has been about 2 years since coming to Los Angeles. Everybody told me it takes a year to get used to it. There were right. California is probably the most amazing place in North America. Zen is achieved once you accept the crappy parts of LA. Traffic sucks – so does taxes and death. Cost of living is high, but you are paying to be in California. Sure the Hollywood crowd sucks, but there are over 16 million people in Los Angeles County. If you cannot find people you like – it’s you, not the city.

In celebration of my new found Zen. I am going to write a series of articles of each beach along Los Angeles and Orange County. Hopefully, you may find it helpful if you ever decide to come to California. My next instalment will start with the closest - Venice Beach.

Living the American dream and out of control.

Ok. So in the past 6mths, I have took vacations to Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Vancouver, Toronto, San Diego, Napa Valley, San Francisco and Lake Tahoe. While these have been incredibly fun, they have destroyed my savings goals. These do not include the business trips of course which are mostly company comped. I just realised no money have been saved and seriously problematic spending habits are forming which needs to be kept under control.

After realising that I have saved nothing for the past 7.5 months, a warranted review of my financial picture ensued. Horror and almost disgust overwhelmed me while recounting the vacations, restaurants and drinking expenditures. My resolution during the New Year was to not be so tight with money, but didn’t really define what that meant. I was good a saving and apparently very good at spending. I need to find a balance between saving and spending – a skill which has eluded me for a while now.

What is happening??? Help!

In the Red

Today, I have officially lost all my gains for the year and then some. The past month, I have been secretly wanting to sell my stocks, but greed got the best of me.

As robust as it is, the American economy seems unsustainable. Record deficits year over year, negative savings, unaffordable housing, as well as a slew of economic indicators pointing to a recession, all seem to tell me to get out of the market. Last year was an excellent year and perhaps I should bail while the bailing is good.

Where is the Snow?

It's weird how perspectives change. My friend was telling me how he spent two hours shoveling his back car into his driveway. As he unfolded his tale of woe, I couldn’t help but miss the snow. Somebody had earlier described to me that LA feels like a time warp where the lack of seasons offer no clue to the passage of time. I remember seeing coniferous evergreens strapped on cars and wondering why so many people drove around with trees, only to realize it was almost Christmas. It would be nice to see the first snowfall again.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t miss shoveling.

Land of Giants

A comment from Chris G had brought back fond memories of reality. They don’t call this the land of excess for no reason. From the country that brought you the Hummer, the restaurants reflect the big ass American dream.

Back in Canada, I gained a lot of weight after forcing myself to finish my food portions in restaurants. The portions were just a bit too big, but doable almost every time. This behaviour can be attributed to my Mom who always described colourful pictures of hungry starving Africans at every unfinished meal. My American stint resulted in losing 30lbs. Not because the portions are smaller but they are designed for giants. I quickly became accustomed to throwing out food, which resulted in eating less by not even attempting to finish. Believe me, getting me to throw out food is not easy, yet somehow it’s now a regular thing.

Words will do no justice to the unbelievable sizes. Instead I have opted for pictures for this blog. And yes, these are all places in California.

California Economics.

Anybody who knows me will know that I am a champion of Capitalism. My thinking is that there should be no limits or taxes on making more money. By allowing this, the economy attracts and drives productive individuals who eventually spread wealth by best allocating capital. The assumption being that productive individuals allocate capital that generates the most wealth and eventually spreads throughout the population. For example, cell phones were the domain of the rich but now its infrastructure is used by all.

Lately, I feel some flaws in this thinking as pangs of yuppie guilt hit me when seeing the amount of wastage going on here. By far, California is the richest state with Gross State Product clocking in at $1,621,843 million and exceeding second place Texas by over 60%. Incidentally, California GSP exceeds all of Canada’s GDP. So what do Californians do with this wealth?

Perhaps the most interesting sight of wastage was during my walk in Santa Monica near Christmas. Everybody wants a white Christmas, but what happens when living in a place that never snows? The answer provided by the City of Santa Monica is to truck in snow every few hours into the middle of a busy shopping district. There was a moment of disbelief to see children making snowmen and throwing snowballs in near 20c weather. In Beverly Hills, there is a $20,000 mattress for sale. The rationale behind this mattress goes as follows: “You can pay $50,000 for a car and is only used a couple hours in a day. A mattress is used 7-8 hours per day in your life and only costs half that. Hence it’s a good investment”.

Yeah.

Three in Three

It has been a crazy two weeks. My company, Tandberg Television has been bought out. This makes me involved in 3 buy outs in 3 years. This is pretty insane and I am not sure if I am prepared to stick around to see this through.

2005 Liberate Technologies ->TVWorks LLC
2006 Goldpocket Interactive -> Tandberg Television
2007 Tandberg Television -> Arris Technologies
2008 ??? -> ???

Washrooms in LA

To any visitors, I shall impart my accumulated knowledge of washroom hunting. While for us men – despite that “the world is our urinal” – some delicate situations require the usage of designated facilities and hopefully this post will allow relief anytime you desire.

Some may regard this topic as odd, as clean washrooms are abundant in many cities. However, this city has few clean public washrooms and most establishments are unwilling to share this scarce resource. We all hear natures’ call and when she screams, there is nothing more annoying than getting denied entry to the throne.

First tip: Don’t ask permission! While this may seem rude to Canadians, why bother chancing a denial of entry? Act as it’s your right as a citizen of a democratic country, to freely use any washroom at any time. If needed, ask “Where are the restrooms?” rather than “May I use the washroom?”. Note that Americans say restroom rather than washroom. Saying “washroom” instantly signals tourist and could potentially confuse the other party.

When seeking guaranteed quick relief, pick an upscale but busy restaurant. This gives you a comfortable and clean place of business with very little negotiating and waiting. Be careful in picking too high-end as tipping the washroom guy is never fun. During peak hours, you can usually just walk right into the washrooms, especially if many people are waiting for a table. The hostess will likely think you are waiting with the crowd. Off peak hours, requires a bit of negotiating, but the easiest is saying you are meeting a party and walk in. If she looks the name up, act confused and say you need to double check the name but you need the washroom first.

Hotel washrooms are another excellent choice and being a guest is not required. They are usually located in the hotel lobby and have zero wait times. The nicer the hotel, the better appointed washrooms – the sky is the limit here. Personally, I always pick the nicest hotel around. Walking in and asking will almost always do the trick. On occasion, you may find the hotel washrooms require a guest key card to gain entry. Do not fret! Almost all hotels have attached restaurants and bars that open late. Using these facilities require very little effort.

Using other washrooms requires a lot more waiting, negotiating or buying. Most Starbucks washrooms require a key and almost always require a wait. Gas station and fast food washrooms are typically disgusting. Other stores indicate “customers only” and require purchasing something you don’t need or want. Using these tips will let you get relief like a rock star.

Saving Money

Many times, I have been asked: “What is with your obsession with saving?” So here is my blog about why I am obsessed with saving money and why it is good to.

To me, if all earned money is spent there really is no point working. Imagine a business that generates $100,000 per year. Every year, after expenses and taxes, it generates $0 profit. What’s worse is this company invests all its money into depreciating assets such as cars and equipment, but not property or cash generating assets, so the value of the company remains constant. It seems ludicrous that anybody would run such a business and surely few would invest such a company, including me.

My entire purpose for growing wealth is financial freedom in retirement, not just to have a big bank account. The ideal situation is to have enough money-generating assets to cover your expenses into retirement. This does not include your primary residence, vehicle and cash but does include stocks, investment property, RRSP, mutual funds and the like. Although you can annuitize your assets to conver how long you expect to live, it seems far less stressful knowing your interest income (minus taxes of course) can cover your expenses.

Although, I perceive myself as a good saver, my good friend Sam K is legendary. I have so much to learn from him and will post any saving tips I learn. Stay tuned for my next post on my annual financial goal setting session. Right now, I have to get back to work and make money for my retirement. Man, I am so far off...

New Blog for the New Year.

New blog for the New Year.

It is hard to fathom that I have been in Los Angeles for one year already. My feelings are mixed. On one hand, I am relieved from the torment of extreme Ontario, Canada coldness. On another hand, my life got turned upside down moving here. Los Angeles. It really is a love-hate relationship and here is why:

LA the good:
Weather; the weather is truly remarkable. It is literally sunny everyday. Temperatures barely fluctuate and LA “cold” is understood as 10C during the “cold” winter nights. Weather-wise, it’s everything I dreamed about.

Beach and the city. Rightly so, it’s hard to think of LA without thinking of the beaches. Long stretches of beautiful beach border the west of LA and OC with tall mountains guarding the east. The rest of the city is spattered with pockets of diversity.

Money. This job in LA has greatly increased my income to a level which wasn’t realistic just two years ago. Of course, this is not saying I am super rich now, but rather I was dirt poor then.

LA the bad:
The façade of Hollywood. The movies make LA seem glamorous, exciting and fun. On the surface, it really looks like the movies, but digging deeper and there really isn’t much. It’s all so superficial and all so annoying, but I suppose it can be expected from a city populated by aspiring actors.

Sprawl. Living in Marina Del Ray, means driving 30min minimum to get anywhere interesting. How far is 30min in distance you ask? 10km. Yes, that works out to about 20km/h. You can literally bike faster. Except of course, you have a high chance of injury when biking on roads designed solely for motorised vehicular traffic.

Money. Making more just means spending more as demonstrated by my $1350/mth 1 bedroom rent by the ghettos. I have yet to figure out how people afford to live in this city.


Sometimes I love being here, sometimes I hate it. Lately, it has tended to be the latter. This is one of those cities you either love or hate. Most people coming from densely populated cities as Toronto, Boston and New York tend to hate this city. Incidentally, I met a Texan who seemed to love it here, but then again, she is Texan. Others, who grew up in Socal, tend to love it. Very few people who live here are actually from LA, so most people I know are not particularly fond of it. For me, LA seems like a terrific place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live here.