Los Angeles
Alex and I got to take a brief road trip down to LA for Labor Day weekend since I had a wedding to photograph down there. Our friends Jon and Pei were kind enough to host us, and we managed to squeeze a lot into our brief visit!
First, scenes from our drive down: a view over some California farmlands, and two peahens at Casa de Fruta.
I chose this pupusa truck as our lunch spot, not knowing it was a truck. It was 100 degrees outside, so perhaps not the best choice. But delicious!
Hours later, after checking in to Jon and Pei’s place, we met up with Pei for dinner in Chinatown at Lasita. They had each left the house separately and showed up wearing the same exact Goodfight x Vans shirt, haha.
Matchy matchy!
Lasita is a Filipino rotisserie restaurant and a natural wine bar. All very very delicious!
Jon unearthed his mahjong set that he wasn’t sure he had ever used, and of course we made them play mahjong with us.
The next morning, a spread of the fruits from our fruit CSA that Alex and I drove down from the Bay, haha. Plus, Jon gave us a spare copy of his explosions in the sky!
Wandering about Larchmont. Hello, Levain!
Very cute stationery shop.
Great White, which we first had mid-pandemic in Venice (California). I really like their shark logo which is somehow both cute and mean.
Two record shops that weren’t really our style.
One record shop fullllll of classical music. But quite pricey and they were extremely eager to help verging on aggressive. But this old man even climbed up on a ladder and spent quite some time helping to find my obscure Beethoven quartet that I asked for.
Sports things we did not buy. These shorts were $400.
Visited the Tortoise General Store in Venice to look at some Hasami, but we didn’t end up buying anything. They seem to be low on stock everywhere… are they not making Hasami any more?
More wanderings around Abbott Kinney.
Back at Jon and Pei’s, I helped give some advice on the pennant wheel that Jon is working on for his new zoom background. Very specific pennants representing all different parts of his life! Of course this speaks to me, haha.
And of course some KBBQ in K-Town.
Big fan of the kalbitang at this place! We had it last year when we visited and will likely do this again next time too.
Young was kind enough to drive from almost an hour away just to hang out with us. He came bearing interesting Taiwanese snacks, and we made him play mahjong with us.
We even started watching some youtube videos of mahjong tournaments, which was… strange.
Brunch at Superba.
More record shops, didn’t find anything.
Hollywood Farmers Market… wow, very popular.
Picked out a tiny yellow Taiwanese watermelon. And then I drove off to photograph my wedding, and Alex went off on foot to have his solo LA day.
Final morning! Watermelon breakfast. Followed by lunch at Open Market. I considered this interesting Taiwanese tea kombucha but I wasn’t sure I would like it. Maybe I would get it if I come back next time.
Got the “Alhambra,” which was basically a Savoy Hainan chicken in sandwich form, in honor of our usual visits to SGV. But we didn’t make our way out east this time!
And finally, Alex and I decided to go to The Grove, for some reason? We rode this funny little trolley up and down the very short length of the mall.
Stopped in the Apple store.
And then it was time to go home! But of course first we ordered several boxes of Porto’s to take with us.
Always lovely to visit LA! Thanks for hosting us, Jon & Pei! See you next time.
Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.
