TOURIST DAY IN LOS ANGELES, Part 1

We've been trying to have lunch with Andrew for the last several weekends, and it finally worked out this weekend.  It was a beautiful day to be in Los Angeles:

We had arranged to meet at a new (to us) vegan restaurant in an area of LA known as Little Ethiopia.  I love the juxtaposition of the neighborhood sign for Little Ethiopia and the billboard ad for the new movie about Abraham Lincoln:

Our destination was Rahel Ethiopian Vegan Cuisine at 1047 S. Fairfax Avenue:

A sign in the window quoted a Los Angeles Times article dated October 18, 2007: "Rahel takes the vegetarian-friendly mantra of Little Ethiopia to the extreme with a totally vegan menu.  Feel your intestines glow as you consume healthful injera, spoonfuls of yefasolia wot (mixed vegetable stew) and sip a weirdly delicious besso, a natural barley drink, at this totally vegan restaurant."

There were four or five signs like this one from different years in the window:

The menu looked really good, but it was tough to pass up the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet for just $10.95:

The interior was open, light, and clean, and at 11:30 a.m., we were the first customers of the day:

I loved the silky umbrellas hanging from the ceiling:

The food was wonderful--colorful, flavorful, and so healthy!  That is strawberry mango juice on the right.  I would go back just for another glass of that, although at $5.50, it was a bit pricey.  My first trip through the buffet is pictured below. The grayish roll on the plate is injera, a spongy, crepe-like bread made from teff flour. Just unroll, tear off a piece, and pinch it between your fingers to scoop up your food. Eating with your fingers is pretty fun (although a fork is also provided).

Here is round two:

Yes sirree, my intestines were definitely "glowing." I could eat like this a few times a week.  The nice thing is that almost all of it is also fat-free.  Totally healthy.

I noticed a few more plugs for the vegan lifestyle on our way out:

Our time with Andrew and Lauren was short because Andrew had to go hear his boss give a lecture at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), so we were on our own with a long afternoon ahead.

Yeah, I was incredibly stuffed, but right across the street was Hansen's Cakes.  With a little extra time on our hands, how could I pass up this rare opportunity?  After all, who knows when we might pass this way again?

Clockwise from top left: marble cake with chocolate/vanilla buttercream swirl frosting; chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting; chocolate with chocolate buttercream and chocolate chips; lemon with lemon/raspberry swirl frosting.

Oh yeah, that's the ratio of frosting to cake that I like:

Bob had another destination in mind, so we weaved our way through downtown. It was nice to be in Los Angeles when the traffic wasn't so overwhelming and we could enjoy the diversity of this complex city:

This picture and the one below were taken fairly close to Andrew's apartment in Koreatown

Southwestern School of Law

Note the palm trees growing on the roof on the left, and the flag pattern on walls of the LA Medical Center on the right

I took the picture below in Sage Organic Vegan Bistro where Bob stopped to get some take-home food. (Hey, there isn't a lot of any good vegan food in Redlands.)  We've been here a few times with Andrew and have admired their "paintings" made with pieces of shale.  This one is my favorite.  The couple looks like they have jumped out of a plane.  The title is "Commitment," which makes me smile, but the subtitle ("what the hell") makes me laugh.  

We were finally on our way home when we passed the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (aka the Los Angeles Cathedral, or COLA for short), the church for over four million Catholics in the Los Angeles area.  I said, "Bob, some day I want to go there."  Bob said, "How about now?" and veered into the right lane just in time to exit. Bob is pretty fun that way.

More about COLA in a future post.