30 Things Before 30

Dudes.  I'm getting fucking OLD.

I was at a dinner the other night with a 19 year-old and three 22 year-olds.  I wanted to cry.

I've been having back issues.  Like pains and tightness.  IN MY BACK.  That is something old people have!

Tomorrow I turn 29.  As mentioned previously, I've been fortunate to have traveled quite a bit and have had many incredible experiences (jumped off a cliff and swam with sharks in Palau, surfed and sailed in Australia, saw the Mayan ruins in Mexico, hiked the Great Wall in China, floated in the Dead Sea in Israel, etc.).  But for some reason THIRTY seems like a deadline by which I need to make a lot of check-marks on the grand ol' bucket list.  So I've decided to make a list of 30 things I need to do before I turn 30 in order to feel ready for my next decade.  Some of these are general goals I've had for a long time, some are things I feel I need to leave behind in 20's, and some are things I feel will prepare me for my 30's:

1. Eat at Providence
2. Book a trip to Africa
3. Leave current job / start a new job
4. Drink the champagne in the fridge that I've been saving for a "special" celebratory occasion
5. Run - actually RUN - in a race (even just a 5K)
6. Use the cooking class gift certificate my boss bought me for my LAST birthday
7. Get some sort of waterproof casing for either my iPhone or my Rebel so that I can document it when I...
8. Swim with whale sharks
9. Re-read The Great Gatsby, and read 3 other classics for the first time
10. Attend a beer fest
11. Try snowboarding or skiing for real
12. Test-drive the Tesla
13. Develop a proper regimen for taking good care of my skin (e.g. using face cream - ick)
14. Go a whole month without eating any meat whatsoever
15. Buy a pair of Louboutins or a designer bag
16. Watch at least 10 more of AFI's top 100 (I've seen 32 from the 2007 list)
17. Help an animal give birth OR be present during a surgery
18. Create something (e.g. a full script, short story, painting, etc.)
19. Learn how to make the perfect dirty martini (yum)
20. Go through all the junk in my room at my parents' house (and get rid of most of it)
21. Shoot a gun (at a target range)
22. Buy a new, carefully-chosen bicycle
23. Have a meeting with a financial analyst
24. Keep a plant alive for more than 2 weeks - preferably lavender
25. Go back to Best Friends
26. Try absinthe (the real kind)
27. Assemble an earthquake kit
28. Plan a reunion / vacation with my besties from college (this may already be in the works).
29. Answer the phone "Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?"
30. Forgive.

Anything I missed?

Restaurant Week: IMBT

Yesterday I went to lunch with my boss at Susan Feniger's Street.

image source: gourmet.com

It was amazeballs.  

We took advantage of the semi-annual DineLA Restaurant Week, during which restaurants all over town offer special 3-course prix fixe menus.  It's a great chance for people like me, who want to taste EVERYTHING but can't really afford it, to try highly-rated places without breaking the bank.  More about Restaurant Week in a bit.  First, here's what we ate**:

The first dish brought to our table wasn't on the menu.  Basically they was like savory rice-crispy treats with all kinds of interesting spices and currants in it.  It was like nothing I'd ever tasted before.  The waiter described them more accurately, but I couldn't remember most of the details.  However, there's this little website called Google, which helped a find a picture and this recipe:

image source: thisisgonnabegood.blogspot.com

We also ordered the Honeydew Cucumber Mint Coolers (described as having a touch of fresh citrus and agave), which were just lovely and the perfect accompaniment to our lunch on the patio.  We then shared all three of the following appetizers (bonus! - we didn't know we would get all three):

Angry Eggs
 deviled eggs with Malaysian hot chile relish topped with green sriracha

*Perfectly creamy, perfectly seasoned.  The green sriracha provided a great little kick.

Burmese Melon Salad
 fresh seasonal melons, toasted coconut, peanuts, lentils, fried onions and gin thoke style ginger dressing

*This was the most interesting, surprising and delightful dish of the day.  It was so tasty, lots of flavors, refreshing but also substantial.  I don't even usually like coconut, peanuts OR lentils, but I kept piling it on to my plate.

New Orleans Laundry Day Fritters
 soft red bean and rice cakes fried crispy; served with crystal hot sauce cream and scallions  (non-vegan version with andouille sausage crumbles available)

*Yummmm.  Who doesn't love something deep fried and served with a cream sauce?  I'm glad these were small because I wouldn't have been able to restrain myself.

For my "main course" I chose the following:

Tunisian Chicken Shawarma Wrap
 braised chicken with olives, African peppers, currants, and smoked paprika. Wrapped in warm lavash with harissa tahini ketchup, tomatoes and lettuce

*This was, again, very tasty and filled with all kinds of flavors new to my taste buds.  However, after all those fantastic and surprising apps, this didn't knock my socks off.  That didn't stop me from taking half of it home though ;-)

And for my dessert I selected:

Egyptian Basbousa Cake
 with lime curd, whipped cream, and fresh berries

*WOWZA.  So so delicious.  My boss said, and I agree, that lime is totally underrated, and we both though this dessert was wonderful.  If I wasn't already so full I would have licked the plate clean.

What a truly fantastic meal.  So many new and interesting flavors.  And we certainly got the full international street food experience thanks to the Restaurant Week menu.

For a list of all the participating restaurants, their special menus, prices, and more information you can visit the DineLA Restaurant Week website by CLICKING HERE.  I definitely hope to hit at least 1 or 2 more before it ends next Thursday.  And if you've been/are going, tell me about your experience(s) in the comments!

**I've never written about food before so I apologize if my descriptions/reviews aren't up to par yet.  I'll get better with practice, I promise!