i discovered a new place this weekend! it’s called Hermosa Beach. Many of you may have heard of this area before, and I’ll admit I’ve heard of it myself too, but I finally got to hang out there a little bit. Went there to check out this one really good hot dog shop, but the place was closed for President’s Day! :( So we went to the NY style pizza place next door instead. My gosh, the pizza was even better than Pedone’s near our place! and Lamonica’s in Westwood! They had a baked ziti pizza that brought together all the best of pasta and pizza, a way-too-good chicken-tomato-feta cheese pizza, a kick ass house special pizza that had too many toppings to name here, and more of the usual pizza place fare. Excellent.
And to top it off, we found a used-and-rare book store next door to the pizza place! the place is amazing… such a neat repository of odd and interesting books covering almost every topic imaginable to man. there were a bunch of interesting looking books on European history and the like, but i wanted to wait till i found more info on them before I purchased anything. :) however, i did walk home with something: a really good chinese cookbook! i’ve been looking for a really good Chinese cookbook for years. My mother had a few by Pei-Mei, who is the Julia Child of Chinese cooking, but they’re all out of print now and I don’t think my mom has them anymore. :( I looked in Asian bookstores and such for decent cookbooks, but everything I had found so far was either impractical or simply not the Chinese food *I’m* used to. I guess I’m used to more Taiwanese fare, although I’ve also grown up with a lot of Szechuan and Beijing style dishes.
But I found a book that deals with my kind of eatin’! And it has pictures! and it’s big and easy to lay flat to read while cooking! woohoo!! It’s called “Chinese Cooking for Everyone,” and while it’s all in English (I just couldn’t find a bilingual one I liked…), most of the dishes are pretty true to how I remember them (just slightly altered a little bit). But the dishes are there, and the pictures remind me of all the yummy stuff i like to eat. :) and they inspire me to bug my mom for recipe tips!! kekeke.
so yes, I only got to explore one very small part of the Hermosa Beach area, but i’m definitely going back. I saw a really cute pink Hello Kitty shirt at one of the boutiques on the same block of the bookstore, but it was $28!!! ridiculous! maybe they’ll have it on sale next time. :) There’s so much I want to see there… aaaah!! more to explore! =) =) =)