Food: Not Your Average Lemonade Stand

 Hi, hello. I would like to share my favorite place to get lemonade and giant macarons. "Lemonade"  offers interesting lemonade flavors like cucumber mint, blueberry mint, blood orange, watermelon rosemary (my favorite) and more I can't think of. I still have yet to try their "Southern California Comfort Foods."

She always has the prettiest nails.

See? I told you they're huge! This giant is only 4 bucks! & to satisfy your screaming sweet tooth, my roommate tried the blueberry mint. This combo will definitely shut your sweet tooth up!  In my opinion, it was a bit too sweet after drinking my watermelon rosemary lemonade.

Who need's to holler 911 when you have this baby. I adore my roomie's A. Wang and the hardware. This will definitely leave a beautiful imprint on the side of your face.

Food: Banh Xeo

Banh Xeo or Vietnamese Crepes, by far is one of my favorite Vietnamese food to eat (besides pho). It is extremely fresh when wrapped around fresh herbs and lettuce. I can eat this dish for days...oh wait..I did eat it for four days.... The thought of this still makes me salivate. Did I mention all this for under 25$?..So cheeep.

The ingredients are so simple: pork belly, shrimp, white onions, and mung beans. I marinaded the pork belly the night before with garlic, dash of salt and pepper and nuoc mam (fish sauce). I cooked the pork until the fish sauce carmelized on the outside, and cut it into thin slices. The shrimp was also marinaded with the same ingredients and cooked beforehand, but was not thoroughly cooked to avoid overcooking when placed in the crepe.

Thankfully, my mom told me to avoid buying the pre-made banh xeo packages at the oriental markets since they tend to mix potato starch with the rice flour. This makes the crepes less crispy. Try making your own by buying pure rice flour and add a teaspoon of turmeric, coconut milk, and thinly sliced scallions! I didn't even need to add beer or baking powder to make this crispy. Unlike the pre-made mix, the crepes were thinner and crispier.

With the help of my two roommates, we prepared this entire meal under 1.5 hours. Go teamwork! Don't forget the classic newspapers for easy clean up.

Thai chili is the cherry on top.

A Hike to the Hollywood Sign

Last weekend, my roommates and I hiked to the very top of the Hollywood sign. If you pace yourself, it is a 45 minute hike uphill from the Griffith Observatory...

We meandered along the mountainside...You can clearly see how polluted LA is from here. It's pretty disgusting and sad to know that I am breathing this air...:X

"She'll be comin round the mountain here she comes..."

Since there aren't that many annual trees around my apartment, it's nice to see signs of Spring here. It's always nice to see changes around you. It makes you appreciate the smallest things.

In a few months, these plants will dry up so fast to await the fire season to regenerate!

Beautiful tree trunk...The vegetation is so sparse here that I was literally thanking every tree for shade!

More hauntingly beautiful trees. There's something about bare naked trees that I absolutely loveeee. You can almost paint this tree.

You can slightly see the smog in this picture through the gradient in the sky...

"She'll be driving six white (brown) horses when she comes..."

Can I have a lift? It's quite awful smelling your crap while hiking uphill.

The closest we could get to the sign. Look ..the state flower..California Poppy!

Ah Ha! After a million huffing and puffing uphill under the blazing hot sun, we finally made it to the top. --African Savannah anyone?

I knew I should have rented out that Nikkor wide angle lens from Bel-Air Camera! :( I guess I'll take part of the sign...

Yup, no trespassing...Not gonna lie. I am so out of shape...
The "wood" in Holywood.