SimpleEats: LA Bound: Mini Trip Day 1

I am back my fellow bloggers! I just came back from my trip to Seattle, you can see it here (when I post it). I completely skipped out on my post for the Christmas holidays which I will make up for hopefully. The good news is that I have a few trips a couple months back to share and will be posting them regularly.

Around September, I had a mini trip to the city of Los Angeles. It was four days of fun. First day was the 626 night market, followed by little Tokyo and Koreatown on the second day, relaxing at the beach and going to the city of Irvine on the third day, and a visit to Griffith observatory on the last.

LA Bound: Mini Trip Day 1
It's been quite some time since I flew on the plane so I was mucho excited.

Ready for take off

Leaving the bay

To infinity and beyond

First meal of the day

Here's our ride for the next couple of days. A very nice white car. Our first stop was our hotel for checking in.

Toyota Corolla 2014

Our Hotel

The fun begins at the 626 Night Market! I believe this is only the 3rd annual event that they had, so it's relatively new. Its comparable to Eat Real Fest in the Bay, except more Asian fusion delicacies. You can check out the vendors here. There's so many to count. To name a few that I did try: Miister Potato, Miniyaki Fusion Grill, Tastea, Main Squeeze ~

The admission fee was $3 per person, a good price for the entire day.

626 Night Market

Front Gate

At this point, the weather was so hot that I didn't have much of an appetite.

Thai BBQ

Lemonade and Potatoes!

I tried the miister potato stand and got myself a sour and cream flavored twisted potato chips. There's something about potatoes on a stick that makes it mouth-watering. I got to say that the ones in Santa Cruz beach boardwalk are still the best. They are bigger portion and you can add any flavor you want and how much you want. Miister potato sold it as one flavor and it was a bit soggy. Sorry!

Twisted Potatoes

Takoyaki

Coffee & Tea, not good for a very hot day...

Gotta have boba. Notice mason jars everywhere

Ramen burger!

Flipping burgers

The ramen burger will be mentioned later in the blog. The hot weather made it hard to have an appetite for anything sizzling.

The cotton candy stand was pretty entertaining. The cotton candy were creatively crafted into a shape of a flower or a top with different shades of colors. Too bad I'm not much of a cotton candy eater.

Unique cotton candy

Another cool stand was the nitro pop. Popcorn made with nitrogen. I didn't try it but I assumed it tasted like cold popcorn?

Nitrogen popcorn...interesting

Popcorn rotating in nitrogen -- live demo

Dragon Whisker Candy

I couldn't pass up the chance to try some dragon whiskers, even the name sounds cool.

Live demo!

They have strawberry flavor

We bought a box to try. It was good but the size of it was very small, not a lot of filling in it. I definitely tried better ones.

Tastea!

I tried the peach me sweetea, it was nice and refreshing for the hot day. Thanks Tastea!

Peach Me Sweetea

We pass by several takoyaki stands and finally decided on this one.

More Takoyki

Working the grill

Sizzling Takoyaki

I'm really disappointed in both the takoyaki and okonomiyaki, it wasn't that great. Both were a bit raw, must have been because they had to make them quick to feed all the hungry customers.

Okonomiyaki

Mediterranean Kebab House

Stinky...fermented tofu!

We came back the second round to try out the main squeeze, by this time the long grew longer than before. Since it was getting darker, they added some light effects to the bottled jar. How fun and festive!

Main Squeeze Lemonade!

Putting in the light

Awesome drink! Strawberry lemonade

As mentioned, we walked back to the ramen burger stand to try it out. I could smell the beef patties as I waited in long. The burger was good but nothing too crazy about.

Flipping patties

Flipping ramen

Voila, a ramen burger

After grubbing, we saw that there were lots of other vendors selling merchandises. I also snagged some free earphones sponsored by AT&T for playing a game app about a bunny catching moon cakes. Cute.

Carved-in design iphone cases

Pokemon Art

Gotta Catch'em All

Hip Hop Dance Performance

Cute Minions

We walk by a flower souvenir stand. These flowers were called forever love flowers. They are very low maintenance to take care of and can live without water for a long time. They are specially made through a drying process that allows these flowers to close when there's moisture and open when dry.

I couldn't help but buy one and they were 40% discounted! Great deal! You can check out their site here. If you're wondering which one I got, its the M smush with purple and white flowers.

Forever love flowers

Aren't they gorgeous?

Beautiful colors

Great for valentine's day

The night market was a great place to try food and to take a night walk. If I lived in Southern California, I would definitely visit annually.

After the night market, we headed off for a midnight snack at Half & Half. I got the green tea since I was pretty full already. I love the drink but was really disappointed in the food and shaved ice.