At the end of our stay in California we tagged on an extra 10 days as a holiday. I know it probably sounds like we were already on holiday but Nick had been working really hard and we definitely needed the break. Granted, driving 8 hours down the coast with a toddler in the car isn’t the most relaxing way to spend a holiday but Nick had been banging on about going back to LA from the moment we returned home from there in 2010. Being a food writer, LA is obviously the place that gets talked about the most. It always has the newest, most innovative restaurants and most trends seem to stem from whatever is happening there. So, it was only natural that our entire trip was based mainly around where we were going to eat! (No changes there!)
Our first stop was a place called Ohana Poke Co on Sunset to try a poke bowl, which are all the rage right now and I can’t seem to open a website without a mention of one recently. And rightly so. It was light, fresh and totally delicious. Just what you want in the beating heat of a bustling city (or a nice beach in Hawaii I’d imagine!)
After that, we went straight to Grand Central Market, which is a little bit like Borough Market in London and is the home to the famed Egg Slut, whose line was by far the longest! The cool thing about Grand Central Market is that there are tables scattered around all over the place so you could go with a bunch of friends, all buy something from a different vendor but still all sit together at the same table without having to feel awkward about it. Not only that but it’s a photographer’s dream, with all it’s neon signs, cool hipsters and Instagram-worthy food porn shots waiting to be taken. (Sadly not for me though as mine are all blurry!)
Now totally full of food we drove to Griffith Observatory which is somewhere that we didn’t make it to on our last trip to Los Angeles because we were stupid enough to ditch our hire car! Personally, I think the trip to LA is worth it just for this. Not only are the views from the observatory arguably the best in the city, there are tons of awesome hikes you can do from there all while being watched over by the Hollywood sign. Add to that the fact that when the observatory is open it’s totally FREE. It’s a beautiful building to wander around and has some fascinating displays inside.
After that, yep, you guessed it, more food. This time at Guisados, a Mexican place that Nick really loved. I wasn’t quite so sold on it but I think that’s because we ordered a mixed platter so I had no way of knowing what was going to be spicy and what wasn’t and that along with being pregnant and nauseous meant that I didn’t have the best time there.
As I’m writing this I can’t quite believe we did this all in one day but after that we went to Echo Park. Rather than staying at a grotty motel on the side of a freeway, we were staying in an awesome Airbnb in Silverlake. This meant that we were much closer to all the cool restaurants and our stay had a really lovely ‘neighbourhood’ feel to it. Our Airbnb hosts were amazing and I’d highly recommend their place to anyone looking to stay a few nights. The view of Downtown from the shower is unreal! Anyway, I digress! So, we went to Echo Park and it was golden hour and the light was dreamy and the air was warm and it was just so perfect. I actually spotted mega bloggers Evelina & Racquel Natasha snapping outfit photos a few meters away as we watched the turtles swimming in the lake! They are both SO BEAUTIFUL. Echo Park is another must-see when visiting LA for me, especially if you have kids.
The following day we got up nice and early and made our way to what is quite possibly the hottest brunch spot on the planet right now, Sqirl. We were a bit anxious as it’s notorious for having queues around the block no matter what time you arrive so we were pleasantly surprised to find no more than 4 people stood in front of us when we got there! I have to admit that a lot of the time I’m not that adventurous when it comes to food and it’s usually Nick forcing me to try stuff, and with also being pregnant, all I really wanted was a fry-up. But Sqirl is definitely NOT that kind of place. They are credited with being the ones who made #avotoast what it is today. They serve theirs with hot pickled carrots, garlic creme fraiche, sorrel and za’atar. See what I mean? Not your ordinary breakfast offering! So, I did initially turn my nose up at a lot of the menu offerings as some of them sounded truly bizarre. I played it safe and chose the quiche (which was probably the best quiche I’ve ever eaten alongside Tartine in San Francisco & Big Sur Bakery) and a side order of bacon (which was also out of this world) and Nick ordered their famed crispy rice salad. We added an order of ricotta on toast at the last minute after seeing someone tucking into it at the table and I can honestly say that was the best decision we made that day. It was truly life changing. You wouldn’t think that ricotta and toast would work. But trust me, it REALLY DOES. I also had a homemade rhubarb lemonade that was insanely scrummy. Seriously, if I could eat there everyday for the rest of my life I’d be a very happy lady.
We’d planned to spend the rest of the day at the beach and playing in the sea. Unfortunately for us, the weather had other ideas. It was beautiful and warm and sunny in Los Angeles, until you got to Santa Monica. I’m not even kidding. It was literally just the beach that was shrouded in fog. You could see the clear-cut line where the cloud ended and the rest of the sunny city stretched away from the ocean. Being British, we of course soldiered on and settled down on Venice Beach despite not being able to see more than a metre in front of us. To be honest, once I laid down on the sand, it was actually gloriously warm and I could easily have fallen asleep there.
After about an hour, we decided that we wanted the sunshine back so we parked up outside a Starbucks to use the free wifi like total tourists as our mobile phone credit had run out and Googled ‘water parks’. Unfortunately, due to it being only April, most of them were still closed but then Google threw up a lovely looking little park called Coldwater Canyon Park nestled in the middle of the mansions of Beverly Hills. It was amazing. There was a beautiful little manmade creek running the length of the grass which Huxley happily played in for hours. It was nice and shady and there were toilets and a regular play park right next door. And you could ogle all the incredible houses and keep your eye out for superstars at the same time. Dream!
After that we decided to return to Griffith Observatory to watch the sunset. It was crazy busy but totally worth every second. The sky turned a million different colours in the space of about an hour and it was great fun watching all the lights gradually switch on and it felt like the city came to life beneath you. They had the huge telescope open so you could get a look at Jupiter but the queue was quite long and Huxley was already getting a bit grouchy at this point so instead I queued up outside one of the smaller telescopes on the front lawn and got a glimpse of a teeny tiny ball of light. It was awesome.
If you’d like to see a more detailed account of what we got up to in Los Angeles then you can watch my vlog here.
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