Must Eat: Malibu Seafood, Malibu, CA

After a day of hiking, J and I usually treat ourselves to something good to eat. After hiking the Mishe Mokwa trail to Sandstone Peak, we were exhausted and starving so we decided to stop at Malibu Seafood on PCH.  This is a laid back, no frills, oceanside seafood spot. We ordered the fish and chips based on the rave reviews on yelp, and were not disappointed. 

Hike: Mishe Mokwa Trail to Sandstone Peak

A few weeks ago, my friend Monica came to visit us.  We wanted to take her somewhere special, so we took her hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains.  We've been meaning to do this trail for awhile but it is a little farther out than the trails we usually do (Solstice Canyon, Temescal Canyon - see prior posts in the "Hike" category for more info).  It was awesome! The drive up the PCH (gorgeous ocean views) and through the winding mountain roads was spectacular in itself.  It was a 6 mile moderately strenuous hike that took us about 3 hours.  The views were absolutely breathtaking!  As an added perk, we stopped by Malibu Seafood (review to come) and Grom Gelato on the way home.  This is probably our favorite hike so far!  

Cook: Zinfandel-Braised Beef Short Ribs with Rosemary-Parsnip Mashed Potatoes

We wanted to cook a hearty fall meal so we searched epicurious.com's recipe database and settled on this one.  For those of you who have been following this blog, we paired this main course with the radicchio fennel arugula salad, and finished it off with the caramel apple tart dessert.  J made the short ribs as I prepared the salad and the dessert. Don't be intimidated by the gourmet sound of this recipe, it was actually pretty simple. However, you do need to plan ahead because it needs to simmer for a few hours. 

Must Eat: Ramen Yamadaya Culver City

We love Ramen. It one of our favorite comfort foods. We got hooked on ramen at Momofuku noodle bar and Ippudo in NYC and have been searching for a good ramen spot in LA since we moved out here in 2010.  Granted, we'd probably have more luck if we drove down to Torrance, and we still need to make the pilgrimage out to Daikokuya downtown - but during the week, we just want to go somewhere convenient and close to home on the West Side.  We were pretty psyched when we found a new Ramen shop not to far in Culver City!

The tricky part is finding a place that doesn't put a ton of MSG in their broth. MSG gives me a headache and makes me dizzy - which kind of ruins the fun of eating.  True story - when I went to local favorite Santouka Ramen, the broth had so much MSG I almost passed out after eating it!  At Yamadaya, the broth was rich and flavorful and delicious - as far as I could tell either very little or no MSG!