Z and I spent the last weekend of March traveling down to Southern California (specifically Los Angeles and Santa Ana) to meet up with friends, family, and to attend Burgerama IV! Before driving down for Burgerama IV, Z and I stopped in Burbank to have lunch at Porto's Bakery & Cafe and feasted on their Cuban sandwiches, potato balls, and horchatta / dulce de leche lattes. Since we were going to stay at our old friend from UCSD's apartment in Silverlake, we decided to drive through Griffith Park and check out the scenery. I forgot that LA does have its beautiful parts that can sometimes be forgotten among the traffic congested freeways and urban sprawl.
We arrived to our friend Di's apartment who's area that had the cutest little streets leading down to Sunset Blvd, where we went and grabbed a quick cup of coffee at Intelligentsia Coffee before heading to see a Comedy Central taping of The Meltdown With Jonah and Kumail at Meltdown Comics. In this comic book shop's backroom basement, we were able to see comedy sketches by Fred Armisen and more thanks to Di's boyfriend! After the show, we drove into the boroughs of South LA to find a little food stand at a Tire Shop that only opens late at night after the tire shops closes. (No permits, but whatever--good food!) This Tire Shop taqueria has Tijuana style tacos that I absolutely miss since leaving San Diego to move up to San Francisco. Finally putting my Spanish skills to use, we ordered tacos upon tacos and I am going to cry right now reminiscing about the handmade tortillas and grilled to perfection meats and spicy salsas. Could I have been shot or mugged going to obtain these tacos? Yes, but at least my stomach would have been extremely happy. TOTALLY WORTH IT.
After spending time with Di, we headed down to Santa Ana to stay with my sister and her boyfriend. I miss my sister so much! Seeing her made me wish that we lived closer to each other, but she is the happiest I have seen her for the longest time and it just makes me happy to see her this way! We ate at BCD Tofu House (for the best silken tofu dumpling soup around) and Alerto's (to fulfill Z's California burrito cravings) while we were there, but also managed to sneak in some Guitar Hero and Mario Party Wii battles in-between.
Burgers, beer, bands and boobs--Burgerama IV definitely brought the essentials. For Christmas, I bought Z and I tickets to Burgerama IV because the line-up was ridiculously amazing and any excuse to come down South and eat better Mexican food is okay with us. The sold-out two-day festival at the Observatory also showed its ability to super-size itself with big-budget headliners while still keeping the local flavor of a packed parking lot festival filled with tie-dyed Burger ilk of all ages. Going into its fourth year, the festival wasn't short on growing pains as it continued to figure out the constraints of holding a massive festival in the middle of a business park. Some of my favorite bands at Burgerama this year were: Cherry Glazerr, Tennis, Death Valley Girls, Gang of Four, Weezer, Bone Thugs, La Luz, The Aquadolls, and ummm...I guess just about every band that played. Thanks Burger!
After that jam-packed weekend, Z and I drove up the 101 North this time instead of taking the dreary 5 North and toured the little coastal town that I was born and raised in: Lompoc. Where is Lompoc exactly? It is probably best summarized by this Fresh Prince of Bel Air clip. Growing up in a predominately Caucasian-small town definitely had its ups and downs for me, but I'll save that for another blog post. We drove by my parents' old house and my old high school--Cabrillo High . The school looks exactly the same from the day that I first attended. Glad to see that some things don't change. Hope you all had a great weekend as well! Cheers!
