Monday Bites - The Eveleigh, A Pleasant Place to Land

So what do you say to a hidden garden entrance steps from the Sunset Strip overhung with olive trees 

and scattered with rustic tables?

Inside, the Eveleigh is cool tones, spacious and comfortable seating.

Filtered light.  It has an old-world flavor, part New Orleans or New England tavern, part parts UK, part your favorite place in France.

If you don't get waylaid and end up spending your visit at the cooly marble topped bar enjoying an exotic sounding cocktail......

you can continue to the back of the restaurant, and end up eating well-but-simply somewhere that is neither outdoors nor in, overlooking almost all of West L.A.   The roof is made of "sailcloth", we'll describe it romantically, with cool breezes blowing through.

Unlike many other places in L.A., it is open all day long on the weekend and if you amble in

sometime after brunch and don't mind a seriously abbreviated menu, it's a lovely place to have to yourselves and catch-up with someone you really care about.  Strictly speaking, the Paradis' are not "Westside" people.  But the Eveleigh could yet become one of our very favorite places. 

Because it's not really very "Westside" either.  It's sort of something of an other world.  Should you ever alight in L.A.,  the Eveleigh would be a nice place to land.

Would I steer you wrong?

Steve McCurry - I Want to Be Him When I Grow Up

Although, frankly, I get exhausted, just thinking of how many planes this man has been on in his life.

You know that expression, "be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!"?  I wish there were some Star-Trek-ky way to just tele-transport oneself to all the remote corners of the world WITHOUT the preliminary housecleaning, packing, petcare manual writing (see Gennine's post - so glad it's not just me), light and internet checking as you rush out the door, the mini-panics on the way to the airport, the traffic delays, the lines, the belt-sweater-shoe-and-metal-hair-clip removal, the patdown.............

But to get to that other place.  And to find this - - -

Burma

Yemen

I''ve been meaning to post about him for ages.  He's famous for that "Afghan Girl" photo.  His blog has thousands of followers, but oddly I've never run into him on the blogs that I frequent.  

I'm now firmly planting my Steve McCurry flag in the terra firma of Passage Paradis.  See, I've added him to my blogroll.  If you don't know him, you will possibly find that you like him as much as I do.  If you do know him.  Well, what do I need to add?

Any good plans for the weekend?  Hope it's a terrific one!

Small Art, Not MALL Art!

A little smile perhaps?  For Friday?

For our first week of autumn in L.A.?  What do you think?

These are by Steve Mcpherson of the UK who I found via Tracy at boboho.blogspot

I'm thinking Damien Hirst - miniaturized?

A witty use of refuse gathered from the SeaShore.  Yes?

A Parallel Existence (A Gratitude Post)

I know that I am not the only person in today's world who has these feelings

about the furry and four legged who walk among us.

Joyful shadows.

They serve our vanities, our caprices, and faithfully tolerate

our excesses.

Sometimes they even seem braver than us.  So why do we so feel like we need to protect THEM?

Is it because they wait?  Because they seem capable of a much greater patience and loyalty and forgiveness than we are?  And they make us feel terribly terribly grateful?

I'm guessing............something like that!




*****  We lost two "Aquarians" today (Wed.).  Steve Jobs and Fred Shuttlesworth both came of age in the 60's and 70's and made "a dent in the universe".  We live on the shoulders of giants.


From Wikipedia:
On December 25, 1956, unknown persons tried to kill Shuttlesworth by placing sixteen sticks of dynamite under his bedroom window. Shuttlesworth somehow escaped unhurt even though his house was heavily damaged. A police officer, who also belonged to the Ku Klux Klan, told Shuttlesworth as he came out of his home, "If I were you I'd get out of town as quick as I could". Shuttlesworth told him to tell the Klan that he was not leaving and "I wasn't saved to run."

   

Corner View - The Last Thing I Learnt

O.K., well it's something that I've learned fairly recently:

Pierre Herme is now at Selfridge's!  Oh. Yum!

For more Corner Views:  

Francesca, Jane, Ian, Don, Anna, Dana, LaNinja, Theresa, CherryB, Joyce, Natsumi, Lumetta, Kari, Bonnie, Cate, Dorte, Skylar, April, Lollipop, Janis, ibb, jgy, IdaNielsen, Liza, Likeschocolate, Isabelle, Lucylaine, Allegria, Pienduzz, Elisabelle,RosaMaria, Elizabeth, BichosdaMatos, Juniper, Victoria, Annabel, Angie, Emily, Kamana, Tikjewit, Tanïa, Barbara, Moetjatja, Dorit, Flowtops, Valérie, Juliette, Castor, Wanderchow, LouetTom, Lise, FashionCampagne, Tzivia, Cole,Juanita, Li + Belle, Sophie, Menthe blanche, Leslie...

L.A. Modern

At LACMA, an exhibit about Modern California design opened last weekend.  With 300 objects, Living in a Modern Way "is the first major study of California mid-century design".  The living room furnishings of Charles and Ray Eames have been removed from the Eames House in Pacific Palisades, and reconstituted in the museum galleries.  Across the street at the A+D Museum, a further exhibition.....which you can hear about in this KCRW interview here further explores the influence of this extraordinary Californian couple (Ray and Charles Eames) and the "movement" that they inspired and encouraged.

CalTrans (California Department of Transportation) building, Thom Mayne, Morphosis Architecture, Santa Monica

L.A. has always it seems, been at the forefront of Modernism in the United States, particularly, in residential architecture - see my previous post here.

L.A. Police Building, Paul Dana and Jose Palacios, Architects

In the course of our recent boom

downtown institutional architecture

has taken a giant leap forward, in a departure from the Deco styles that mainly characterize

L.A.'s Downtown.  It has provided wonderful opportunities for architects, artists and contractors.  Occasionally too, these "grands projets" have involved massive cost overruns and financial mismanagement.  The bill for which will be footed by the taxpayer.  And, as in the case

of two controversial highschools, teachers will pay, since the city can now no longer afford to employ many of them.

Ain't that the way?

Monday Bites - A Simple Something

I have been dreaming of this.

And so I made it today.

Do you also have a dish or a treat, from the past, from someone you can no longer visit, a restaurant that has changed hands, or chef, or menu - and you come to the realization that you may never taste that taste again?  Does it make you a little crazy?  A little sad?  Or maybe just a little determined?  (See also here.)

Some people patently do not like to cook.  Like Holly Golightly, they would rather keep their furs in the oven, and their jewels in the frig.  And run out to Mickey D's..............

But moi, emphatically NON!

Because when I've been dreaming, who else but me can I turn to, to make that taste again, and bring it back into my present life instead of it forever hovering, hauntingly in the distance beyond some olfactory and gastronomicly unattainable horizon?

THIS IS WHY I COOK.  Or well, in this case.......shop, squeeze, smell, assemble.  Instead of just reaching for the phone and ordering in!

This comes from a restaurant called Moustache in the West Village in NYC which has since expanded to include two other branches around town.   Link, here.

The flavors and the colors of this "dessert" make me hyper-ventilate with pleasure and surprise.  It might have the same effect on you.  It is really ONLY desirable to make this when you have this fruit available and they are at their peak of freshness.  It is obviously possible to make it with other fruit but with resultantly perhaps not quite the same punch of sunshine.  

For one person, in the following order (p.s. sorry, you know I don't measure, and multiply accordingly for company!) I suggest you assemble:

3 plus v. large tablespoons of thick, good quality, yogurt, either Greek or my old reliable, Trader Joe's French Village Cream Line yogurt, mixed gently to a creamy consistency

1/4 of one large bigger than your head red papaya in season (tender and whiffy but NOT squishy), cut into smallish bite sized cubes (or happy big chunks - please yourself!)

1/3 to 1/2 of a tender fragrant mango (not stringy!) also cut into smallish bite sized cubes (chunks ok too!)

a handful/sprinkling of lightly toasted but not dry ( and preferably not, or only slightly salted) pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped

a generous but not excessive drizzle of sparkling not-too-sweet honey

Treat yourself to a bowl of it!  Truly.  TRULY.  Something that a God would eat daily and probably have invented for himself.  If you get the proportions right, you will know it by the taste, and you too, will dream forever more.

Such a gorgeous Indian summer weekend we all had.  Was it good for you too?