Category Archives: Drinks

Happy Birthday, Limzer!

07/30/2011 – 11:05 PM

Yellow Polka Dot Top – H&M, Sunglasses – Prada

Okay, so Limzer’s birthday was actually some time this past week, but his birthday party was today. He had a combined birthday celebration along with a few of his friends, kindly hosted by another one of his friends. BeiBei, Allan, and I hit up Limzer’s friend’s house in the LBC (Long Beach) sometime in the afternoon. Their little shindig was complete with DJ, bar, and a ghetto dog/taco cart! Sweeeeet.

When we arrived, Limzer was standing in as DJ. It was definitely nice seeing him as we hadn’t seen each other in a while. He used to work with us, and we haven’t really hung out since he left the company. He’s an awesome dude – I think we should definitely hang out with him more often.

The party was filled with fellow Filipinos (I’m half). Most of the highly-Filipino populated parties I attend are family occasions, so it felt a little strange for me to be surrounded by so many Filipinos at a party yet only knowing one of them. (Haha). In any case, the party was good. I only regret that I didn’t try a ghetto dog or taco because I was just too full from the food and drinks I had earlier.

I hadn’t had any coffee yet when we got to Limzer’s friend’s house, so I decided to look up coffee shops around the area. I figured we could stop by to grab some coffee while we waited for the taco cart to arrive – it was scheduled to arrive at 4PM! I used my handy-dandy Yelp app on my phone and found Portfolio Coffeehouse on 4th Street. Luckily, we were very close to 4th Street – only a few blocks away!

What struck my interest were the number of stars this joint received on Yelp (4 stars!) and the fact that they were supposedly voted the “Best Coffee House in Long Beach.” It was a short walk from the house to the coffee shop, but I still wished I had my bike with me so I could have gotten there faster; it was a hot day!

I opted for a regular latte and indulged in a slice of Oreo cheesecake. BeiBei got an iced Mexican mocha and a Napoleon. Allan purchased a paradise iced tea. Everything was pretty good, though nothing really stood out to me in a special way. Walking over to Portfolio did remind me of how long it had been since I had visited 4th Street. That street is known for its plethora of vintage shops. I think I’ll just have to visit 4th Street again sometime soon and do a little bit of shopping.

Tags Allan Chiou, BeiBei Chen, Birthdays, Coffee, Friends, Limzer Lagrimas, Long Beach, Parties, Portfolio Coffeehouse | Comment (0)

Coffee Drinks Food Museums Restaurants & Cafes

Dinosaur Hall Member Preview at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

07/10/2011 – 11:59 PM

Today was the members-only preview of the new Dinosaur Hall at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. Fortunately, I am indeed a member. My Sunday afternoon was well-spent with the dinosaurs!

Upon entering the dino hall, you are greeted by a triceratops and a brontosaurus (I believe it is a brontosaurus. Please correct me if I am wrong). The long neck of the brontosaurus left me awestruck!

I tried tweeting a photo of the fossils upon entering, but unfortunately, I had no signal in the hall.

This exhibit seems to love T-Rexes. It seriously seemed like they were everywhere!

These little guys are oddly cute, despite how strange they look.

Apparently no blog post about a museum visit is complete without obligatory photos of me looking at some type of interactive display or looking at my cell phone. Alas, I am doing both in the above.

The sizes of some of the fossils are amazing. Can you believe this is only half of a dinosaur’s leg? It’s as big as I am!

This dinosaur was found with an unborn baby inside! If you look closely, you can see the fossilized fetus in the center, through the bones on the bottom.

I fell in love with this quote upon reading it. I completely agree with Proust. I am a sucker for quotes.

I was very pleased to find that the Dinosaur Hall actually extends into two halls for more dinosaur fun.

The second hall is home to the Tyrannosaurus Rex family – adult, teenager, and child!

Overwhelmed by all the awesome displays, I had almost completely missed this guy! This stegosaurus is definitely one of the exhibits I found most interesting. The poor stegosaurus has to fight off the T-Rex, who is about to attack him from behind! It is amazing how this stegosaurus display consists of mostly casts of fossils, with a few actual fossils connected. Apparently a T-Rex fossil was found with a stegosaurus’s spike (from its tail) stuck into it. Defense!

Overall, I was very impressed by the Dinosaur Hall. I wish I had more time to read each and every description for all the displays. That shall be my goal on my next visit!

With a few minutes to spare and having never seen the Butterfly Pavilion yet (even though I’m an NHM member!), we headed over to catch a glimpse of some butterflies before closing!

I have never been very intrigued by butterflies and moths, but the two above were pretty interesting! Butterflies attempting to make butterfly babies? Oh, my!

Dress – Banana Republic, tote – One Language “Moi” Tote

The great weather and beautiful natural sunlight was too good to pass up!

I love the grassy park area right outside of the Natural History Museum, and I apparently also loved this tree.

Right before arriving at the Natural History Museum, I was on a quest to find good coffee close by. I hadn’t had my coffee fix for the day yet! Using my handy-dandy smartphone, I was pleased to find Spring for Coffee. Granted, Spring for Coffee is a few miles passed the Natural History Museum, but it was totally worth it. Spring for Coffee is a tiny little coffee shop on Spring Street that serves a wide array of different coffees, including Blue Bottle! Apparently the owner of Spring for Coffee has exclusive rights with Blue Bottle, and only his establishments can serve Blue Bottle coffee in the Los Angeles area. Blue Bottle Coffee is a small chain of coffee shops available in the San Francisco Bay Area, with, I believe, one location in New York. I absolutely loved my latte at the Blue Bottle location at SFMOMA on my last visit to San Francisco! Back to Spring for Coffee, I don’t think they used Blue Bottle coffee for my order, but regardless, my latte definitely goes on the list of one of the best lattes I’ve had. Remember to order a “regular” size as the “small” is seriously quite small.

Tags Banana Republic, Blue Bottle Coffee, Coffee, Dino Hall, Dinosaur Hall, Dinosaurs, Drinks, Museums, Natural History Museum, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, NHM, NHMLA, One Language, Restaurants & Cafes, Spring for Coffee, YL | Comments (2)

Drinks Food Reviews

Hubert’s Lemonade, Revisited

04/28/2011 – 11:31 PM

Yesterday, I was intrigued to find an email from Blair Owens, the VP of Marketing at the Hansen Beverage Company. Blair had apparently come across my post, where I had given a brief review of Hubert’s Lemonade. Apologizing for my dissatisfaction with the product, Blair offered to send me other flavors of the beverage to try. Impressed with the Hansen marketing department and the company’s concern with customer satisfaction, I figured it would be good to give the Hubert’s Lemonade line another chance. Even more impressive was how the company had overnight-shipped a box of Hubert’s Lemonade beverages along with various goodies, all of which I received in the mail at work today.

To my delight, Hansen had mailed me four bottles of Hubert’s Lemonade in the following flavors: Raspberry, Limeade, Mango, and Strawberry. The package also contained a business card, sticker, shirt, and a handwritten note apologizing for their lack of smaller sizes in shirts (they had sent a large). Beverages aside for a moment, in case I had failed to mention before, I absolutely love their lemon logo; the lemon with a winky face is absolutely adorable. I found the business card they had included to be well-designed — simply a cut out of their lemon logo with important contact information on the back. The shirt, too, is well-designed. I love the vintage look, colors, and simplicity.

With that said, proceeding to the beverages…

I tried each of these flavors and found the strawberry one to be my favorite among the four. I had actually tried the mango previously, as BeiBei had purchased the mango flavor whilst I had purchased the original flavor several weeks ago. The strawberry lemonade seemed the mildest of all the flavors, and the strawberry flavor was pleasant to the tongue. I still stand by my original opinion that these drinks taste too artificial. In fact, I still don’t quite understand their “All Natural Since 1935″ slogan. If you try these drinks, do not expect to taste a bottled version of fresh-squeezed lemonade, but rather, expect to taste a fun, flavorful, and sweet lemonade. Although I did not drink these this way (now that I think about it, I wish I had), these lemonades would probably taste the best served on the rocks (iced).

I really, really love the design of this product. The bottles look charmingly old-fashioned, their fonts are simple, and the logo is great. Hansen must have an excellent design team behind this product. Take note of the different lemon head featured on the limeade bottle! (Thanks to BeiBei for modeling with the bottle with her impression of the lemon head. ;])

Special thanks to Blair and Hansen for sending over these drinks for me to try, along with the goodies. Excellent marketing and customer outreach. I definitely spread the word about Hubert’s Lemonade around the office today and let my co-workers try a bit of these bottles I had received.

Tags Blair Owens, Drinks, Hansen, Hubert's Lemonade, Lemonade, Reviews | Comment (1)

Coffee Drinks Food Friends Restaurants & Cafes

Thanks for the Coffee, Grande!

04/28/2011 – 10:54 PM

If you’ve heard of The Conservatory for Coffee, Tea, and Cocoa, located in Culver City, then you’re probably aware that this joint has a wopping four-and-a-half star rating on Yelp. I had heard of this place from Johnny (a.k.a. Grande), a friend from work. I have been wanting to try out their coffee but unfortunately haven’t had the time to drive over to Culver City and pay them a visit during the Conservatory’s open hours. Grande was nice enough to surprise me with a bag of Guatemala Antigua to try out!

Jeremy (pictured above, behind the French press), Grande, BeiBei, and I each tried a cup and were pleasantly delighted to find that the coffee was smooth and easy to drink completely black. Take note that this coffee, Guatemala Antigua, is supposed to be low in acidity.

I must say that I’m pretty satisfied with their coffee from trying out this particular bag, but I’d still love to pop into the actual coffee shop and give their Mexican mocha a taste. The Mexican mocha happens to be all the rage on Yelp.

If you’d like to give the Conservatory a visit, head on over to 10117 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232. Be sure to bring me back a Mexican mocha!

Tags Coffee, Culver City, Drinks, Guatemala Antigua, Jeremy Nissen, Johnny Grande, Los Angeles, Mexican mocha, Restaurants & Cafes, The Conservatory for Coffee Tea & Cocoa | Comments (2)

Coffee Drinks Food Restaurants & Cafes

Royal Cup Cafe: Gourmet Coffee and Tea House

04/12/2011 – 10:02 PM

After adding it to my bookmarks on Yelp upon noticing the quaint cafe across the street from Dean’s Pizza (see Lent, North End Caffe, The Dears, Eulogies, Viento y Agua, and Dean’s Pizza) and seeing that it had a four-star rating on Yelp, I finally had a chance to have dinner at the Royal Cup Cafe in Long Beach.

Upon entering the cafe, you are immediately greeted by a room filled of random trinkets, furniture, and various artwork – many paintings cover the walls. Looks like someone did a lot of garage sale shopping. Observing the floor plan and general design of the building, this venue looks to be an old Long Beach house-turned-cafe. There was musical entertainment this evening as someone was playing the piano, which is located in front of the register counter.

The cafe is dimly lit to create a more homey ambiance. Unfortunately, the lack of light also resulted in dark photos (the flash made it too washed out) and more emphasis on how tired my eyes appeared. This place seems to put emphasis on their home-like atmosphere. They even have an area that looks like a living room – complete with antique couches and a television. In fact, this place was filled with antique furniture.

The Royal Cup Cafe has a diverse menu of food and beverages.

Here we have the natural mango iced tea. The flavor reminded me of that of dried mangoes. I did not find this drink super tasty though. I wish it had actually tasted more like natural fresh mangoes other than dried mangoes. They most likely used unripe mangoes, thus the flavor. I did, however, enjoy the fact that they used a large jar to serve this drink.

I ordered the triple caramel latte. I found it to be the perfect sweetness, which was good considering I am usually worried to order coffee drinks with syrups since I tend to find them too sweet. This drink probably would’ve been better had I ordered it after my meal as a dessert rather than ordering it with my meal. By the way, both the natural mango iced tea and the triple caramel latte are marked on the menu as Royal Cup specials.

The most extensive portion of their menu, aside from the coffee drinks, is the gourmet panini sandwiches. I definitely had to try one of these.

The roast beef French dip (roast beef marinated in au jus sauce, provolone and Swiss cheese, au jus sauce, and mayo), with an addition of portobello mushrooms, was absolutely delicious. The sandwich was juicy, perhaps even tastier and more delectable than that at Champagne (see Champagne French Bakery Cafe). I also enjoyed the small pickled pepper that is served with their sandwiches.

The chipotle chicken sandwich (grilled chicken, chipotle sauce, tomato, provolone, light ranch, and mayo) was delicious as well, full of flavor. This sandwich is definitely more rich than the roast beef French dip, but if you’re in the mood for something more creamy and flavorful, this is the sandwich for you.

Aside from the prices, which I found to be slightly high for sandwiches like these, I really enjoyed my meal. I love a good French dip.

After finishing my meal, I perused their random furnishings. I found this giant chess set rather amusing. There’s a book and my latte mug for size comparison.

Yes, I really loved that giant chess set. I wish I could have taken it home! By the way, I was wearing my new Sam Edelman high-heeled clogs. ;] These are indeed taller than I am used to, but they were pretty comfortable to walk in all day. Great with skinny jeans!

I noticed they had replaced a couple of the knights with these makeshift wooden horses (on the right). There was only one original knight left (on the left). The poor thing was injured – its head was all taped up. I suppose the other knights took a beating as well or were perhaps misplaced.

A perfect ending to this evening was finding this giant metal installation of a coffee cup, complete with steam! This must be part of the series of installations (flowers, bicycles, etc.) that are all over Long Beach, as I mentioned toward the end of this post. Could I take this home along with the giant chess set please?