(By the way, hello Los Angeles again!  I’m here this time for a week while I sort out my visa to stay in China. I chaffed at the thought of flying another 13 hour journey just two weeks after getting back from England, but now that I’m here, breathing warm but dry and relatively clean air, I’m actually pretty psyched!)

Tin Roof Bistro is like Olive Garden crossed with Mumford & Sons. The menu contains pizzas, pastas and some Continental mains, but also “in” foods like quinoa and brussel sprouts. The outside creates a faux-Tuscan/SocalMexican vibe, but the inside is all old timey knickknacks and empty wine bottles artfully employed as chandeliers. The waiters are all “gosh how are you” friendly, but they’re all dressed in flannel.

If that paragraph makes me sound like I think I’m somehow making fun of them or totally better than all of this, I’m not! I enjoyed Tin Roof Bistro tremendously. It helps that the food tasted really good.

For instance the brussel sprouts appetizer (SOOOO TRENDY RIGHT NOW), which derived hints of saltiness from capers and diced anchovies: delicious!

The hangar steak with a side of smashed potatoes topped with gorgonzola and shaved asparagus: wow!

The fish en papillote: admittedly a little dry, but those steamed vegetables were packed with flavor.

And the dessert, one of four (all of which came in cup form) – a blueberry compote with ginger snap cookie and real vanilla bean ice cream: delightful!

You can actually see the little black dots of real vanilla in there. Mm hmm.

Mall dining. Who would’ve thought, right?

Tin Roof Bistro // 3500 N Sepulveda Blvd #100  Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 // telephone: 310-939-0900

Okay, so here’s the thing. Thanks to recent food scares and stuff here in China (and also to me being on a budget as I try to regain the savings I lost over the last 18 months of not working), I’ve been cooking a lot. The problem is that most of the time, I take a snapshot of what I cook, but then don’t bother posting the recipe because… well, honestly,  not all recipes need to be posted.

Like this one, which is basically pork slathered in Worcestershire sauce, a salad with a simple sweet basil-balsamic vinaigrette and something called Sidekicks, which is the Canadian version of Hamburger Helper.

But this blog could use SOME updating and goodness knows, I’ve now got a crap ton of these pictures occupying my camera, and who am I really trying to impress anyway? HUH?! So screw it. Here’s what I ate for dinner today. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

That special thing being the Mexican holiday that’s basically only celebrated by Americans.

Besides that though, much of what Maya offers is the same: decent food, a fun atmosphere and entrees that veer slightly towards the smaller side. Their Eggs Benedict (ahem, Huevos Benedictos) are nearly identical, for instance:

Seriously, you should check out the post from two years ago for what looks like a better picture of the exact same thing.

So rather than try to come up with interesting talky talk about something I’ve already talked about, I’ll just post pictures. Forgive the sometimes iffy quality, I’m still trying to figure out the wonders of my new camera phone. So very many websites have talked about how the HTC One has the most amazing picture taking quality ever for phone cameras, but I am only semi-convinced so far.

The Cinco de Mayo buffet stand.

And the loot you can get from said buffet stand.

One of the mains: A strange culinary mash up of North Britannia and Central America – Scotch Huevos

And this. I coulda sworn I ordered Huevos Rancheros, but this was more like Huevos… Fried Onions. Good thing I love fried onions.

Dessert!

And finally, one room shot:

In case you wanted an answer to the question: “Did Maya do anything special with the decor for Cinco de Mayo?” Yes, yes they did. And it looked like some kid’s Mexican-themed birthday party.

Verdict: Would do Cinco de Mayo at Maya again. Unfortunately I wasn’t in the mood to take advantage of their bottomless Margaritas or Sangrias this particular Sunday, nor was I with people who were particularly down with Americanified Ethnic Drinking Fests, but now that I know I’ve got such a spread awaiting me, you can bet next year I will be here.

Maya // Clubhouse 2nd Floor, 568 Julu Road near Shaanxi Road, Jing’an District, Shanghai // 静安区巨鹿路568弄四方新城俱乐部2

I’m also really excited about taking these more-than-twelve-moons to really actually try my hand at gardening, which is extra exciting because I moved here in late winter, just in time to think about what I want to plant. In the first month, I got myself to the Bird & Flower Market (the same one I went to two years ago) to buy some herbs and a tomato plant. Turns out it was a great time to plant shop, because about a week later, H7N9 hit and now we’re all afraid to go anywhere near where there might be birds in Shanghai.

Anyway, this is what the haul looked like in late February:

A box full of mint, rosemary, lemon balm and thyme…

An itty bitty basil plant that I sometimes wonder if I only bought because I felt sorry for it.

A new experiment: tomatoes!

I have no idea what kind of tomatoes they are, but am excited to find out. It’s neat that two months later, the red is starting to come in… and the basil is sparser, but bigger too. Does anyone know if you can replant stems you cut?

As for the herbs, the lemon balm and mint is going insane. I’ve been pruning them regularly for lemony chicken and mint salads, and they’re taking over stronger than ever.

The thyme’s in the back, doing its own thing and not causing much of a fuss. But the sob story is the rosemary, which I think might be being ganged up on by its two leafy neighbors. It’s hanging on… barely. I think I might have to move it to its own pot.

I wonder what to get next!

Anyway, this marked the first time I actually tried the V&A Cafe for real and that’s a shame. It’s a pretty dang good museum cafe. I get that Beluga – the catering company responsible for the V&A Cafe – supposedly supplies to most of the cafes in museums, but for some reason the food seems to have been cared for a little more here. What’s pictured here is a steak & ale pie with boiled vegetables and beef gravy – going British!

Meat pie, David Bowie, one of the best museums in the world… You can’t ask for a better day to end a London trip, really.

I’m really bad at sentiment, and my life’s been pretty great at ensuring I travel a lot, so I generally don’t say goodbye to places. But for some reason, I feel like I may never return to here again (at least I can’t think of a great reason why I would) and it makes me feel like I should do SOMETHING eulogy-like. Even if it’s on a food blog and I’ve never been the biggest fan of the cuisine available here.

Oh speaking of which, I will take one last pot shot. I get that Darwin is one of the more casual colleges you can enroll yourself in, but it was a little disappointing to find out that not only did they dispense with the one formality of ringing a gong and saying a bit of Latin to start dining service, the meal they’d prepared for us graduates was this:

Chicken Stew on Rice or…

Ratatouille on Rice for the vegetarians

It was canteen food. It was tasty and filling canteen food, but it was definitely canteen food. Even the nice tablecloth, the pretty bottles of water and a selection of salads couldn’t hide the fact that it was canteen food.

I mean, c’mon. People FLEW here for this. At least have the main course match the setting.

It will bum me out forever that my parents finally got to try out a formal hall and it ended up being this rather than this. Alright, that’s it. Last gripe about Cambridge food. HONEST.

Luckily, despite being disappointed with the meal before graduation, the graduation itself was pretty fascinating to watch.  It took place in the Senate Hall, close to Gonville & Caius, and had a curious ritual which went something like this:

1) Four graduates each take a finger of the Provost’s hand.

2) He says a lot of phrases in Latin while tipping his hat.

3) Each graduate then comes forth to kneel in front of a person in a big, red robe trimmed with white fur. The graduates clasp their hands together in what we were assured was a completely secular way and not prayer-like at all.

4) The person in the big, red robe trimmed with white fur (Santa?) then places their hands on the graduate’s and – depending on whether that particular graduate was the first in line to graduate with their specific degree – says either a lot about the degree or, I’m paraphrasing here, the Latin equivalent of “Ditto, next.”

5) Everything’ s official! Hurrah! Take pictures!

It’s scenes like this that remind me why I applied to this place to begin with.

Anyway. Since, barring maybe one or two straggling retrospective posts, I probably won’t have much to write about regarding here anymore, I wanted to give anyone who actually liked my sparse coverage some much better options. There are people out there in Cambridge food blogging, and doing well at it, and here are three of them I wish I had discovered when I first got here:

Finding the Golden Mean

Just like a Cambridge food blog to have a bit of math thrown into the title. But yeah, it focuses on food and slices of life and its author is much more daring about taking pictures in formal halls than I was. Also, it has a lot of great recipes featuring fresh British produce, which is something that I absolutely did love about this country. What I wouldn’t give for the ability to buy lentils, kale, artisan cheeses and homemade jams off of a quaint street market.

Pudding Pie Lane

This blogger has left Cambridge already (I suppose it’s natural for a college hub to not have very many people there for life), but even if the Cambridge posts are getting scarcer, the stuff she cooks up is insane. Like fantastically insane – cupcakes and bento boxes so delightful it makes me wish I was her best friend.

Under Pressure at Pembroke

Probably the only one of these that will stay about Cambridge into the future, this is the blog by the people who cook Pembroke College’s formal hall meals. I never got a chance to go to Pembroke formal hall, but their lunches – when I had time to actually leave the school for lunch – were always a treat. And isn’t it interesting to see what a college that really cares about food thinks about?

…

Oof, I can’t think of a good way to conclude this and I’ve got to leave for my flight back to Shanghai. I’m just going to sign off now. Goodbye Cambridge. It was really nice getting to know you.

The interior is sunny, with yellow paint on the walls and big ol’ sunflowers set up at every table. It’s cute, and gives you something to brighten your mood while you’re waiting for your food.

Our drinks came pretty fast – they do a mean mocha (accompanied with a little bite of a cookie) and a refreshing pink lemonade.

But we were ravenous by the time the waffles came. It’s a good thing I was with my cousin, whose automatic inclination is to pull out her own camera, reminding me to pull out mine. Ha. Asians taking pictures of food. You know. Big shrug. We got three waffles from different sections of their waffle menu:

The basil pesto Chicken & Waffle because… look at it! God, I love sweet things that go savory instead.

The Popeye waffle scramble, with spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes… and…

Banana Split waffle. As much as I like sweet turned savory, it seems silly to go to a waffle joint and not get a bit of a sugar rush.

As hungry as we were when we came in, the portions were large enough so that we couldn’t finish everything. That’s a lot of waffle! I should also mention that the menu was so comprehensive that, if I had more time there, I’d really want to do repeat visits. Look at all these options:

Almost makes me want to buy a waffle maker.

Bru’s Wiffle // 2408 Wilshire Blvd  Santa Monica, CA 90403

I have trouble justifying standing in line to the most amazing restaurants in the world, and so when my cousin insisted on us trying a  kiosk snack at the West Covina Mall, I told her I’d meet her later in Zara. Everyone should be so lucky as to have a cousin willing to stand in a 20 minute line for french fries while you shop around.

Well, not technically french fries – waffle fries dusted in sour cream & onion powder…

… and curly fries (or as they call ‘em, LOOPY FRIES) tossed in chili BBQ powder…

Which were both damn good and something I probably would get for myself on the regular… as long as there wasn’t a line.

As a thanks to my cousin for doing the legwork for me, I’m going to mention her company:

If you’re less of a line pansy than me and you come across a Potato Corner in California, you should remember to use your Five Stars loyalty card there. Don’t have one? Sign up for it here! It’s basically a rewards card that helps you rack up points in thousands of locations all over the U.S. (though mostly in the Cali area) and it even comes with a handy map so you know where you can use it.

Five Stars! It’s free! You might as well get something back for all the money you spend on boba, yogurt and the multitude of other things for which Five Star runs a loyalty program.

Also, here’s a link for finding your nearest Potato Corner.

And here’s the menu, in case you didn’t think 20 minutes waiting to make your order is enough time to contemplate it:

I’m nothing if not helpful.

They certainly have the most choice of sandwiches in all of California. The menu has so many options that it gave me a strong case of analysis paralysis when I first encountered it. Do I want my bread to be “Mom’s Seeded Whole Wheat” or “Buckwheat”? Should it be panini grilled or toasted? Which of the 17 proteins on offer should I get and do I want some of those options “upgraded”? How do I want the sandwich accented – with “jalapeno relish” or “spicy giardiniera”? What’s the difference? Oh wait, I need to choose two? And then which three of the 24 veggie possibilities do I pick? Would my “ancho chili cranberry sauce” accent go better with “mustard pickle slaw” or “pickled red onions”? If I do both and add a “pickled daikon and carrot” is my sandwich too pickled?

Which is why I think you see a lot of people standing at the counter. I think this lady was debating options for the entire half an hour we were there.

Okay. You could also just go with their pre-mades, which includes items like “A Sandwich Study of Heat” (turkey, gouda, avocado and spicy stuff) or “Drunk’n Goat on Highway 128″ (goat cheese, brie and a lot of cranberry compotes). And, if you’re experimental, they do a whole bunch of day of creations. In fact, it’s almost better to just treat the place kaiseki-style and let the sandwich chef choose for you what you want. That’s how my cousin first came across the roast pork pretzel roll sandwich…

…or this Thai salad sandwich, which isn’t even on the menu anymore. But it was super spicy and amazing.

Or just get a classic.  This steak sandwich was as juicylicious as it looks…

…and I’ve got nothing but compliments for the grilled caprese (with basil pesto).

Add some artisan lemonades and sodas and you’re golden.

There’s currently five Mendocino Farm locations around Los Angeles and the creators now have a recently opened restaurant as well. I wonder if the restaurant menu will be just as customizable – sure you want eggs for breakfast, but do you want them scrambled in white truffle oil or garlic olive oil? Sprinkled with sea salt or kosher salt? You’d like a steak? Here’s seventy sides, of which you choose two, to accompany it. We recommend getting the aioli black pepper as your sauce but if you want a hit of heat, there’s the Thai pickled chili or the wild chipotle or the creamy jalapeno or the spicy tangerine.

Um… is there some way to choose it all?

I’ll work on this – honest. In the meantime, let’s try to get through this repository of food pics with something I absolutely remember tasting: Diddy Riese’s ice cream cookie sandwiches. Ironically, the only thing I did take of Diddy Riese was their Ice Cream Sandwich. Luckily, it’s been blogged about so much that I might as well just pull from internet pictures like so…

Picture from Michelle With One L

Diddy Riese is apparently a Westwood (and thus UCLA) institution. There’s almost always a line, and when it gets to especially snack-tastic times (like finals), the line can stretch way down the block.

Picture from Our Awesome Planet

Inside, there’s no question about what you’re here to get. There’s a place for cookies, and a place for ice cream, and they clearly want you to put the two together.

Picture from The Gluttony

In any case, here’s what we got:

White chocolate cookie with mint ice cream and a chocolate chip cookie with coffee ice cream

They were both pretty fantastic.

My sister loves this place so much she wanted me to try and open up something similar in Shanghai. After having some of their wares, I’m not against it. There’s gotta be a market for ice cream cookie sandwiches in China, right?

Diddy Riese // 926 Broxton Avenue, Westwood, CA 90024