Banana Date Smoothie

This one is a little more caloric than I normally go, but it's rich and delicious and almost tastes like dessert without any added sugar.

Banana Date Smoothie

1/2 cup lowfat yogurt
1 small banana, cut into chunks and frozen
1/3 cup of dates, pitted
1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp chia seeds
1/2 tsp. flax seeds
1/4 cup of water
2 ice cubes

Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Makes one smoothie, about 375 calories.

Is $11 Guacamole Ever Worth It?

It's the age-old question. Is designer guacamole really better than the stuff you get for $5 at your local taco stand? Bar Ama answers the question with a resounding, YES! 

The guacamole at Bar Ama is the best I've ever had. There's no garlic, or if there is it's undetectable. There's serrano, but it's not spicy. There's cilantro, but I don't remember distinctly tasting cilantro. There's lime, but it doesn't taste citrusy. There's celery, but, again, I never detected celery. With all that description, you may ask, Well, what does it taste like, then? Sounds like a lot of nothing. 

Now, I like garlic. I like spice. I don't find cilantro to taste like dish soap. I love the acid of citrus. But the truth here is that all those ingredients in minute doses add up to the perfect combination to make the fresh avocados sing. Hubs noted, It tastes like the avocados are still breathing. He's good with words, that's why I married him.

So, I'd say the guacamole was a success. And you get a large bowl of it, so the sting of the $11 price tag doesn't leave a mark.

We also had the pig tails.

Fried porky goodness covered with pickled salad with hint of sweet from oranges, and  hint of spice from peppers.

Hubs enjoyed his old fashioned (made with tequila!) so much that he ordered a second. All in all, this is a place I definitely want to come back to. I also loved the ambiance: low lighting, exposed brick walls, high ceilings, lots of buzzing energy. I can't wait to try more dishes and maybe get a cocktail.

Peach, Blueberry, and Strawberry Smoothie

Another delicious breakfast using in-season peaches and strawberries. Don't be afraid of the spinach, you can't taste it.

Peach, Blueberry, and Strawberry Smoothie

1/2 cup of lowfat yogurt
1/4 cup of orange juice
1 peach, cut into chunks
1/4 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries, I use the little Boreal ones (frozen) from Trader Joe's
1/2 cup of strawberries, halved
1/2 cup of spinach, fairly tightly packed
1/8 cup of rolled oats
1/2 tsp of flaxseeds (optional)
1 tsp of chia seeds (optional)
3 ice cubes

Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Makes one large smoothie. About 295 calories with seeds, 255 calories without seeds.

A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD by Jennifer Egan

A book review. Full disclosure: I listened to an audio book.

I've read a few books this year where every chapter tells a different character's story from his/her point of view. While I like the idea of different perspectives, it always leads to the same frustration: I spend enough time with a character to feel connected to them, and I always want to know more about a different part of the story than they are sharing. OLIVE KITTERIDGE overcame this by having intimate character studies as each chapter/short story that had definitive beginnings, middles, and endings. A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD has plenty of compelling characters, but we only see brief glimpses of them, and as the characters appear in other stories, I was left with the longing to revisit some of them. But the design of new POV's for each chapter doesn't lend itself to that. The beginning, middle, and end weren't always so clear.

The prose itself was lovely. The transitions from one character/chapter to the next always felt clever and organic. The individual voices of the characters were distinct, and that's difficult to pull off with so many characters. Unfortunately, the book ended with a whimper. Endings are hard and AVFTGS is a testament to that. I felt it ended with one of the book's weakest chapters, and that's not how you want to go out. ***

Rating System:

**** = Amazing, Fantastic, Life-Changing
*** = Excellent & Worth a Read
** = Not a Complete Waste of Time but I Probably Wouldn't Recommend It
* = Blech!

And I don't do that half-star nonsense.

TAKE A BAO

We've eaten at TAKE A BAO in Studio City a couple times now. The food is good and they have a decent selection of draft beers. Here are the spoils from our recent visit. It seems there's always a Blackboard Eats special for this place, so we take advantage.

Popcorn tofu. Because everything tastes better when it's deep fried.

Buffalo chicken wheat bao. Overwhelmed by a spicy (not buffalo) sauce.

Chinese chicken salad. Gigantic, sweet, and tangy. I gobbled it all up and would do so again.

And a couple cold beers on a warm spring evening to wash it all down.

Strawberry, Mango, and Orange Smoothie

Another great breakfast smoothie, perfect for the amazing strawberries in season at the farmer's market. I also recently tried chia seeds and enjoy the flavor, and I have some flax seeds I'm trying to use up.

Strawberry, Mango, and Orange Smoothie

1/2 cup of plain lowfat yogurt
1/2 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup of fresh or frozen mango chunks
1/2 cup of fresh or frozen strawberries
1/4 cup of rolled oats
1 teaspoon of chia seeds (optional)
1/2 teaspoon of flax seeds (optional)
ice cubes, depending on how much fruit is frozen

Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Makes 1 large smoothie, about 310 calories (chia and flax seeds included, without seeds it's about 270 calories).

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO by Junot Diaz

A book review. Full disclosure: I listened to this one on audio book while on trains travelling through Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic.

I know this book won about every award out there, and I see why. Junot Diaz's style and voice is a standout. His asides are witty and poignant. I look forward to reading DROWN and THIS IS HOW TO LOSE HER. But, I sadly admit, I didn't love OSCAR, the character or the book. It was a little too all over the place for me, jumping from one perspective and character to another with no real closure or sense of an ending. All the jumping back and forth created a puzzle that I put together for myself, deciding what parts of the characters' lives I would find the most interesting and waiting for them to come. Sadly, for me, those sequences never came. ***

Rating System:

**** = Amazing, Fantastic, Life-Changing
*** = Excellent & Worth a Read
** = Not a Complete Waste of Time but I Probably Wouldn't Recommend It
* = Blech!

And I don't do that half-star nonsense.