Party Like It's Your Birthday

Dear God, I have never had a birthday quite so good as this one. I have already been warned it's all downhill from here.

The weekend started with a surprise date on Friday night. (SHOCKING NOTE: The location of the date was the surprise, and not the fact that I actually had a date. [W00t!]) I swooned when I learned where we were heading - the Culture Clash 25th Anniversary which was one of the coolest things EVER, and my wonderful date even laughed at all the jokes that were in Spanish despite not understanding what the hell was being said. Truly, he is the awesome. We also had super-delicious tacos from the Border Grill truck before the show - and OMFG, that is some good shit they sell. Expensive, but delicious! Much like me. I highly recommend the cilantro chicken taco, crispy Baja fish taco (holy crap, so yummy!), poblano quesadilla (MINDBLOWINGLY GOOD), and the churro bites. The only thing I wasn't crazy about (besides the line) was the lemonade, which was too sweet.

Saturday we went on a hike at Chantry Flat down to Sturtevant Falls and finished off with a delicious beer at Adams' Pack Station before parting ways for a couple of hours (he went riding; I saw The Time Traveler's Wife at the Academy). We came back together for dinner at one of my favorite places, Tarantino's here in Pasadena.

Sunday - the big day, aka Vice Girl's birthday - was pre-planned; we went to Disneyland! I used my free birthday pass and a $50 gift card, so it was fairly reasonable in terms of cost. PLUS! Thanks to the fabulous Corazon, I knew that we could get free! parking! because it was my birthday! FREE! That's my favorite price! We had so much fun. Space Mountain is still the BEST RIDE EVER but Splash Mountain remains a close second. The Haunted Mansion also remains the best place in the park to cop a feel. (Or have a feel copped, as the case may be.) We rounded out the day with dinner at Pizzeria Mozza. Ohhh, butterscotch budino!

Finally, I took the day off today and though I spent half the day waiting for a furniture delivery, I was able to spend an hour with my favorite person* and then finish off my four-day extravaganza with an amazing massage from Kevin at AcuSpa. And now, I'm heading to bed. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

* I think he needs a blog nickname. I can't just keep calling him "my date" and "my favorite person", can I? And I don't really think it's fair to just put his name up on here. Suggestions are welcome.

Buddy, I'll Show You Offensive

Seriously? This vaguely Georgia O'Keefe-ish Absolut ad should offend me?

People are SO SENSITIVE about giant fake vaginas. Sheesh.

Hello, Lover.

I finally got a chance to visit the Kogi truck on Thursday night, after the event I mentioned in my last post.

Wonder of wonders, there was no line at the truck parked behind the Alibi Room, save for a dozen or so Yelpers who were milling about before joining the after party inside. As luck would have it, my loyal minion* EJ was at the front of the non-existent line and asked what I'd like. I asked for one each of the short rib and the spicy pork tacos, sans onions.

Within a few minutes, I was chowing down. I finished what I think was the short rib taco first (it was dark and I'd had a few beers, so forgive me for not knowing which was which). It was tasty and mostly onion free and entered my belly quickly. Alas, I was only able to finish half of the second one (presumably the spicy pork) before I gave in and passed my taco along to EJ's buddy Dave to finish off**.

I dug the tacos, but my mind remained relatively unblown until the fabulous Stephy offered to share her kimchi quesadilla.

HOLY KOREAN MOTHER OF GOD.

I've been dreaming about the single bite I took since that moment. In fact, my stomach is grumbling right now just remembering the cheesey, gooey, perfectly spicy, fermented cabbagey goodness. I lust this quesadilla. I want to marry it and have little half-breed quesadilla babies.

I also find this to be further proof that my yellow fever is justified: nothing melds together better than Korean and Mexican.

* Who is actually neither loyal, nor my minion.

** Wow, that sounds filthy.

Órale, Kogi!

Here is a short but awesome video from holamun2 about the Kogi Korean Taco Truck, which I have yet to successfully patronize. (*grumble, grumble, long lines*)

I found the video on the Kogi Twitter feed which is my venue for spying on the Kogi team and constantly whetting my lust for their meaty wares from afar. (Why must I torture myself?)

AWESOME QUOTE:
"This taco truck would be nothing without the history and the people of Mexico, Central America, and all throughout Latin America....the soul of this truck comes from Latin America; it comes from Los Angeles." - Roy Choi, Executive Chef and Co-Founder

Shout-out to mi gente!