Mr. Ramen

This place offers about 10 different kinds of ramen broths, a few of which are actually vegetarian. You then select from a variety of toppings. This is a soy sauce broth with tofu and seaweed. We also got a side dish of spinach marinated with sesame seeds. It's still tough to find a good selection of vegetarian dishes, but I'm starting to come around to Japanese cuisine.

Hollywood Reservoir

This is H-llywood Res-rvoir, the water supply of the stars, and one of the locations used for Chinat-wn, one of this swineherd's favorite neo-noirs. After a short walk around the lake, we took a drive up the hill overlooking the area. This scrub jay perched next to us several times. At one point a mourning dove tried to steal the perch, but the jay stood his ground.

Haru Ulala

Frankly, Japanese cuisine is not my favorite--I tend not to find much in the way of vegetarian selections. Because sushi is particularly trendy in NY, I usually end up paying 20 bucks for some rice with avocado in it. The great thing about LA, however, is that with its large Japanese population, there are more options than just sushi. There are tons of ramen shops and many other kinds of less trendy, more affordable, more vegetarian options.

So we tried Haru Ulala, a place that specializes in grilled meat, fish, and vegetables, but also makes noodles and pancakes called okonomiaki. This is the green soba noodle soup, which came with garlic scapes and an unidentified green vegetable with the texture of kale; and the vegetable okonomiaki. We also got agedashi tofu, grilled asparagus, pickled plum sushi, a pickled plum rice ball, and green tea and mango ice cream coated with a sticky rice paste called mochi. The broths were almost certainly fish based, but I wasn't complaining. Although this meal would have cost $50 easily in NY, we got out for under $30.

Blessing of the Animals

This is a big annual event in L.A. where people celebrate their animals and have them blessed. There were all kinds of animals there, including these goats. We got to see C-rdinal M-honey do the blessing, and May-r Vil-eregosa was there to work the audience.

Spicy Mint Noodles

This is our favorite dish from our favorite Thai restaurant in L.A.: chewy flat rice noodles, a brown sauce, spicy mint, fresh chili and cilantro. We went there on a cold rainy night and these noodles hit the spot.

The restaurant is Mae Ploy, on Sunset about a mile from our apartment.

Grand Central Market Pupusas

These pupusas are from the pupuseria in Grand Central Market in Downtown LA. The market has a number of fast food vendors, including Mexican, Thai, and Chinese, as well as bakeries, tortillerias, and produce stands. The pupuseria has the most extensive menu I've ever seen. These are spinach & cheese and potato & cheese. They also have squash, bean, and lorroco, with and without cheese. I strongly recommend the cheese! These best part is getting to see the ladies making the balls of dough and filling, then slapping them out into the flat shapes you see here.