This trip report is FINALLY coming to a close! I do have ulterior motives, since I promised to myself and my nine readers that I wouldn't post anything else until I finished writing about this trip. And this morning I went to Cream Pot, a restaurant I've been wanting to try for eons, so I'm itching to write about it. So onward with my final full day in LA!
I didn't have anything planned during the day of my third and last day in LA, so I decided to go shopping. I really am not that much of a shopper, and I do 95 percent of my clothes shopping on the mainland (especially Vegas) or online. If I buy clothes at home, it's usually because I need something in particular. I know, I should patronize business at home so at least my tax dollars stay there, but this is just one of my quirks. Ironically, I find things that fit better on the mainland too - ironic given that I am relatively short and you would think that short people stuff would be more readily available in Hawaii.
Anyway, I'm straying...so I decided to go to Del Amo in Torrance, one of my favorite malls. It's pretty large, and it would be easy to spend hours there, which I did. I managed to do a fair bit of clothes shopping. I also ate at Chick-fil-A for lunch. I didn't know that they had locations on the West Coast. The one and only time I ate at Chick-fil-A was in Nashville, TN, in 2006. I don't eat a lot of chicken, but Chick-fil-A is so good! I can't really describe why, it just is. I probably appreciated it even more since it's not something readily available to me.
I was scheduled to meet Florist Girl and her hubby at Glendale Galleria after she finished work. After shopping at Del Amo and dropping off the loot at the hotel, I decided to head over to the Glendale area early to avoid traffic. I think I left at about 2 or 2:30, and I still got stuck in traffic going north. I still made it to Glendale Galleria with sufficient time to look around before meeting up with Florist Girl. Glendale Galleria was a favorite of mine, but I didn't find much this time. I was also disappointed to see that a cute little tea shop had closed.
The reason I went up to Glendale was to find the ever-elusive Kogi BBQ truck! (Okay, maybe not that elusive...) Kogi gathered a large following by using Twitter as a tool to communicate its location to clientele. Jujubee and Eggo are big fans too. Unfortunately, they were unable to come out with us on our journey to Kogi bliss.
This was quite an experience that I was unusually excited about. I can't even fully explain my excitement, other than the elusiveness of the whole thing. And I'm not even one who necessarily cares for the elusive, and I definitely am not a fan of crowds, which I knew would be waiting at the Kogi truck. But I was still excited. I think it gave me some kind of adrenaline rush.
Florist Girl, the D-man, and I hopped in a car and went in search of the Kogi BBQ truck. I make it sound like it's hard to find, but it's not that bad. On Twitter they usually post what street or location they plan to be at a particular time. On this day, it was Eagle Rock. The D-man, who is also a Kogi fan, did some research and knew exactly where we needed to go. Parking can be a challenge - the truck was on a pretty busy street near a 7-Eleven and close to a strip mall with a Longs Drug Store. We parked on a side street near Longs.
We walked just a short distance to a street corner, which was the end of the line. My guess was that there were about 40-50 people in front of us, and the line wasn't moving. Florist Girl noticed that people weren't walking past us with food, and the truck may not have even been officially opened yet. Despite the wait, it remained an exciting experience for me. Several people walked by commenting on the line and wondering if it was "worth it." After waiting about 20-30 minutes, the line started moving.
Once we got close enough, we took a look at the menu. Not too complicated - tacos, burritos, and a few "Kogi Favorites" including Kogi Dogs, Kimchi Quesadillas, and Kogi Sliders. There was also a "Chef's Choice," which in hindsight we regretted not asking about. After we ordered, we moved off to the side and had to wait a few more minutes before our food was ready. And not everything was ready at the same time, but that allowed us time to wrap up the items we did receive. It's a pretty no-frills operation, so everything is served in little trays, and they have foil on the side for you to wrap up your food, as well as bag it and grab utensils and napkins.
While D-man waited for the food, Florist Girl and I walked over to the 7-Eleven to pick up drinks. They actually had a horchata fountain! I never had horchata before, and cheated by just putting a splash into the cup and tasting it before filling it all the way. I liked it a lot! Very cinnamon-y. Perhaps not the greatest choice of drink to accompany the Kogi BBQ food, but it was probably a one-time opportunity for me to try horchata for a while.
After we got all of our grub, we had to find a place to sit and eat. By now, the line had gone down significantly, and we wondered if we should have just waited until a little later (as opposed to the time the truck was scheduled to arrive)? But, we rationalized our decision by stating that they might run out of some food items at some point. We walked toward the car and noticed a little loading dock area behind Longs with a nice little sidewalk we could park ourselves on. Works for us!
We shared several items: the kimchi quesadilla, Kogi sliders, tacos (kalbi, spicy pork, and chicken), and a spicy pork burrito. The quesadills contained an interesting combination of cheese and kimchee - not as strange as you might think! It was topped with a sauce that tasted like it contained sriracha, but other stuff as well. I think D-man thought it had a hint of peanut sauce. This was okay, but not my favorite. Worth a try once, but probably would skip it next time. The sliders, however, were yummy! It included kalbi, a veggie mixture, cheese, and whatever special sauce they put on it. You can't go to Kogi without trying the tacos. They are only $2 a piece, and 3-4 of them would be a decent meal for most people. Although the combination of ingredients is tasty, the sauce is what makes these things so addictive. The D-man ordered a spicy pork burrito. On my next visit, I think I'm gonna order myself one of those. What's nice about going with several people is that you can share and try different items. Even as we sat there, a woman walked by and said, "was it worth the wait?" I think so!
After we finished our meal and our chatting, Florist Girl and the D-man dropped me off at my car and we said our goodbyes. It was nice being able to see Florist Girl every day of my visit to LA.
The next day, my flight wasn't scheduled to leave until late afternoon, so I had a lot of time to kill. I slept in and took a walk along the water, something I intended to do earlier during my stay, but surprisingly never found the time to do! When it was time to checkout, I piled my stuff in the car and headed for South Bay Galleria, a mall I came across while driving around the day before. This might be my new favorite mall in Southern California!
I was hungry since I hadn't eaten breakfast, so I went to the food court to scope things out. I came across a great place, Khan's Mongolian BBQ. Fast food Mongolian BBQ! I don't think I've had Mongolian BBQ since the place in Kaimuki closed. It was fast, good, and cheap! After eating, I shopped, not really intending to buy anything. After all, I had already packed my bags. But some kind of weird shopping bug suddenly took control of me and I went on a shopping rampage! In my own defense, I had been searching for pants the entire trip and couldn't find anything to my liking, until this last day. And there were some unbelievable deals all around! I think stores had marked items down in anticipation of the upcoming 4th of July weekend. I walked out of the mall barely able to carry the bags! I stood in the parking lot shoving everything into my luggage wherever I could find space, and one of my bags was overweight. However, the Hawaiian Airlines agent was nice enough to let me slide by!
And that concludes my trip report. It was a terrific trip, but after being gone for two weeks, it was really nice to be home and eat a home-cooked meal. I love eating out, but there is something comforting about preparing your own meal in your own kitchen. And yay! I actually completed an entire trip report for the first time ever! I have Florist Girl to thank for periodically bugging me and motivating me to finish what I started! Hope my nine readers enjoyed this report. And now on to other things!
(photos to follow)
I didn't have anything planned during the day of my third and last day in LA, so I decided to go shopping. I really am not that much of a shopper, and I do 95 percent of my clothes shopping on the mainland (especially Vegas) or online. If I buy clothes at home, it's usually because I need something in particular. I know, I should patronize business at home so at least my tax dollars stay there, but this is just one of my quirks. Ironically, I find things that fit better on the mainland too - ironic given that I am relatively short and you would think that short people stuff would be more readily available in Hawaii.
Anyway, I'm straying...so I decided to go to Del Amo in Torrance, one of my favorite malls. It's pretty large, and it would be easy to spend hours there, which I did. I managed to do a fair bit of clothes shopping. I also ate at Chick-fil-A for lunch. I didn't know that they had locations on the West Coast. The one and only time I ate at Chick-fil-A was in Nashville, TN, in 2006. I don't eat a lot of chicken, but Chick-fil-A is so good! I can't really describe why, it just is. I probably appreciated it even more since it's not something readily available to me.
I was scheduled to meet Florist Girl and her hubby at Glendale Galleria after she finished work. After shopping at Del Amo and dropping off the loot at the hotel, I decided to head over to the Glendale area early to avoid traffic. I think I left at about 2 or 2:30, and I still got stuck in traffic going north. I still made it to Glendale Galleria with sufficient time to look around before meeting up with Florist Girl. Glendale Galleria was a favorite of mine, but I didn't find much this time. I was also disappointed to see that a cute little tea shop had closed.
The reason I went up to Glendale was to find the ever-elusive Kogi BBQ truck! (Okay, maybe not that elusive...) Kogi gathered a large following by using Twitter as a tool to communicate its location to clientele. Jujubee and Eggo are big fans too. Unfortunately, they were unable to come out with us on our journey to Kogi bliss.
This was quite an experience that I was unusually excited about. I can't even fully explain my excitement, other than the elusiveness of the whole thing. And I'm not even one who necessarily cares for the elusive, and I definitely am not a fan of crowds, which I knew would be waiting at the Kogi truck. But I was still excited. I think it gave me some kind of adrenaline rush.
Florist Girl, the D-man, and I hopped in a car and went in search of the Kogi BBQ truck. I make it sound like it's hard to find, but it's not that bad. On Twitter they usually post what street or location they plan to be at a particular time. On this day, it was Eagle Rock. The D-man, who is also a Kogi fan, did some research and knew exactly where we needed to go. Parking can be a challenge - the truck was on a pretty busy street near a 7-Eleven and close to a strip mall with a Longs Drug Store. We parked on a side street near Longs.
We walked just a short distance to a street corner, which was the end of the line. My guess was that there were about 40-50 people in front of us, and the line wasn't moving. Florist Girl noticed that people weren't walking past us with food, and the truck may not have even been officially opened yet. Despite the wait, it remained an exciting experience for me. Several people walked by commenting on the line and wondering if it was "worth it." After waiting about 20-30 minutes, the line started moving.
Once we got close enough, we took a look at the menu. Not too complicated - tacos, burritos, and a few "Kogi Favorites" including Kogi Dogs, Kimchi Quesadillas, and Kogi Sliders. There was also a "Chef's Choice," which in hindsight we regretted not asking about. After we ordered, we moved off to the side and had to wait a few more minutes before our food was ready. And not everything was ready at the same time, but that allowed us time to wrap up the items we did receive. It's a pretty no-frills operation, so everything is served in little trays, and they have foil on the side for you to wrap up your food, as well as bag it and grab utensils and napkins.
While D-man waited for the food, Florist Girl and I walked over to the 7-Eleven to pick up drinks. They actually had a horchata fountain! I never had horchata before, and cheated by just putting a splash into the cup and tasting it before filling it all the way. I liked it a lot! Very cinnamon-y. Perhaps not the greatest choice of drink to accompany the Kogi BBQ food, but it was probably a one-time opportunity for me to try horchata for a while.
After we got all of our grub, we had to find a place to sit and eat. By now, the line had gone down significantly, and we wondered if we should have just waited until a little later (as opposed to the time the truck was scheduled to arrive)? But, we rationalized our decision by stating that they might run out of some food items at some point. We walked toward the car and noticed a little loading dock area behind Longs with a nice little sidewalk we could park ourselves on. Works for us!
We shared several items: the kimchi quesadilla, Kogi sliders, tacos (kalbi, spicy pork, and chicken), and a spicy pork burrito. The quesadills contained an interesting combination of cheese and kimchee - not as strange as you might think! It was topped with a sauce that tasted like it contained sriracha, but other stuff as well. I think D-man thought it had a hint of peanut sauce. This was okay, but not my favorite. Worth a try once, but probably would skip it next time. The sliders, however, were yummy! It included kalbi, a veggie mixture, cheese, and whatever special sauce they put on it. You can't go to Kogi without trying the tacos. They are only $2 a piece, and 3-4 of them would be a decent meal for most people. Although the combination of ingredients is tasty, the sauce is what makes these things so addictive. The D-man ordered a spicy pork burrito. On my next visit, I think I'm gonna order myself one of those. What's nice about going with several people is that you can share and try different items. Even as we sat there, a woman walked by and said, "was it worth the wait?" I think so!
After we finished our meal and our chatting, Florist Girl and the D-man dropped me off at my car and we said our goodbyes. It was nice being able to see Florist Girl every day of my visit to LA.
The next day, my flight wasn't scheduled to leave until late afternoon, so I had a lot of time to kill. I slept in and took a walk along the water, something I intended to do earlier during my stay, but surprisingly never found the time to do! When it was time to checkout, I piled my stuff in the car and headed for South Bay Galleria, a mall I came across while driving around the day before. This might be my new favorite mall in Southern California!
I was hungry since I hadn't eaten breakfast, so I went to the food court to scope things out. I came across a great place, Khan's Mongolian BBQ. Fast food Mongolian BBQ! I don't think I've had Mongolian BBQ since the place in Kaimuki closed. It was fast, good, and cheap! After eating, I shopped, not really intending to buy anything. After all, I had already packed my bags. But some kind of weird shopping bug suddenly took control of me and I went on a shopping rampage! In my own defense, I had been searching for pants the entire trip and couldn't find anything to my liking, until this last day. And there were some unbelievable deals all around! I think stores had marked items down in anticipation of the upcoming 4th of July weekend. I walked out of the mall barely able to carry the bags! I stood in the parking lot shoving everything into my luggage wherever I could find space, and one of my bags was overweight. However, the Hawaiian Airlines agent was nice enough to let me slide by!
And that concludes my trip report. It was a terrific trip, but after being gone for two weeks, it was really nice to be home and eat a home-cooked meal. I love eating out, but there is something comforting about preparing your own meal in your own kitchen. And yay! I actually completed an entire trip report for the first time ever! I have Florist Girl to thank for periodically bugging me and motivating me to finish what I started! Hope my nine readers enjoyed this report. And now on to other things!
(photos to follow)
