eats - paulette (macarons)

headed to a friend's birthday later, and instead of bringing over the usual cupcakes or whatnot, i was inspired to find something else. remembering a tasty treat i wolfed down in siem reap, today's revelation was the macaron - the festive parisian almond cookie characterized by its smooth, dome top and ganache filling.

my search lasted all of 12 seconds - the overwhelming favorite in los angeles appeared to be paulette in beverly hills, so i jumped in my ride and made a beeline over. it's a cute and appropriately white shop, to better enhance the kaleidoscope of colors and flavors. today they had 14 selections to choose from - 12 everyday classics and 2 of seasonal variety (raspberry & passionfruit). all are made fresh by hand, so you really can't go wrong in choosing.

since my primary purpose was gift-giving, i picked up a box of 24 - which came in at a hefty $36 - along with 3 individuals (milk chocolate hazelnut, salted caramel, and violet cassis) for myself. once you bite into these delectable treats, all remnants of the price fade away and instead one focuses on the incredible texture of these macarons. the outer cookie is both crispy and chewy, and the filling is amazingly firm yet gooey and bursting with flavor. the delicate balance is quite simply, striking.



i'm kicking myself now for only picking up 3, but maybe everybody will be too full after dinner and i'll be able to sample the other 9, haha. one can always dream, no?

paulette
9466 charleville blvd.
beverly hills, CA 90212
www.paulettemacarons.com

warrior dash - the results are in

amazingly, i placed #551 out of 5361 warriors-for-the-day on saturday (landing 40th in my age group) and #935 out of nearly 8000 for the weekend in total.

not too shabby - being the first race i've ever entered and that i've never ran or even trained for distance - but i still feel like i left a minute or two up on the board. nevertheless, i'm glad that i finished, for one, and that cold beer was awaiting my arrival at the finish line. i mean, first things first...

warrior dash 2010 - socal

just got back from a fantastic day courtesy of warrior dash - a hellish 3.08 mile race combined with 12 'obstacles from hell.' my training partner vim and i decided to sign up a few months back on a whim, since neither of us had heard of it or knew much about it. all i knew was that it was a race, it had obstacles (perfect w/my parkour background!), and it had beer. sold.




we arrived in lake elsinore (about 80 miles SE of los angeles) a shade early of our 1:30pm start time to scope out the festivities and to get in a 3/4 mile jog to get warmed up. since we didn't want to get trapped, we got in line around 1:05pm so that we could stay near the front of the pack. the race started with about a one-mile sprint before coming upon the first obstacle - a increasingly high stack of hay bales that you had to scale and then jump down from.

believe it or not, 11 more obstacles were to follow, with such names as 'junker jump' (climbing over strewn wreckage), 'tunnels of terror' (scampering thru black tunnels), 'cargo climb' (making your way up/down cargo nets), 'breathless bog' (trudging thru waist-deep water and over huge logs), 'warrior roast' (jumping over fire) and 'muddy mayhem' (scrambling under barbed wire thru a ginormous mud pit).




3.08 miles isn't too bad on its own, nor are the 12 obstacles when broken down one-by-one. but combined, it makes for an arduous journey, so i was proud to finish and to place in the upper tier of our wave. when you consider the fact that i've never ran distance in my life, it makes it extra sweet to accomplish something in a short amount of prep time. next stop, half marathon? results haven't been tabulated yet, but i'll post a follow up as soon as i find out...




afterwards, each competitor gets rewarded with a t-shirt, a viking helmet, a sweet medallion commemorating the occasion, and free beer - sponsored by pyramid brewery! my friend hillary actually volunteered to help out today, so she was one of the select few beer wenches on the premises. both vim and i were also able to recycle our crusty shoes to green sneakers, so all in all it was a glorious day. now if you'll excuse me, i'm going to soak myself in hot water in hopes of cleaning up all the mud...

this... is american idol

forgot to mention that my cousin finally landed a full-time job last week (yay line!), so a few of us went out to celebrate with dinner at park's BBQ in k-town followed by karaoke at rosen. it should be mentioned that rosen now has wireless mics, so one can be totally inhibited in owning his or her performance, with no risk of upending a stray sake bomb on the table.

since my fellow boy band member joseph wasn't in the house, i had to save the NKOTB and *nsync performances for another day. but here are some of the select tunes that i was able to belt out for the evening:

the backstreet boys - show me the meaning of being lonely
the killers - mr. brightside
pearl jam - jeremy
the beatles - all you need is love
USA for africa - we are the world (the only performance to garner a perfect score, btw)
justin timberlake - cry me a river
starship - we built the city
bon jovi - livin' on a prayer

parkour at angkor wat

even though it's one of the most revered temples in all the world, i still couldn't help myself...

day 15 - los angeles, CA

reality bites.

our flight arrived at LAX shortly after 7pm, and since i flew thru customs and didn't check in any bags, i was curbside by 7:30pm and in my cousin's car minutes after. since i parked my car at work, it took me a few minutes to get adjusted to sitting in a car again, and driving on the right hand side of the street, at that.

otherwise, re-entry hasn't been difficult, outside of the whole GOING BACK TO WORK thing. i forced myself to sleep on the front half of the 14+ hour flight, so i had no problem falling asleep in my own bed. go figure.

woke up at 7am, did a light morning workout, and made it work on time - early in fact. cold, harsh reality kicked in immediately, as several hundred e-mails stared me in the eye and refused to disappear without incident. however, thoughts of white sand and gorgeously clear turquoise water somehow got me thru the day...

day 14 (cont'd) - ko phi phi, thailand

after i got back from the exhilarating day trip, i roamed around the island and came across a real boxing ring in the middle of a sports bar (not everyday one sees this), along with some locals playing hacky sack with a makeshift ball...



i also kept seeing signs that pointed to a viewpoint, so since it was nearing sunset, i thought hey, i might as well take advantage of this great island to get even more pictures. what they don't tell you is that ever 300km or so, there's another sign that says 300km this way, so it ends up being this cruel exercise straight out of an escher print.

there were human detritus littered all along way, some furiously panting while their shirts were soaked thru, while others were straight up laid out on the side of the road. i was sweating balls, but remained undeterred in my quest up the hill. the one bright spot is that the entire way was quite delicious in smell, as native rose apple trees were in bloom:



still climbing skyward, i finally saw signs of tangible progress. if it weren't for this, i was ready to pack it up and turn around. but the fruits of my labor were not in vain. one can see both sides of phi phi don in one fell swoop: to the left is ton sai bay and to the right is loh dalum bay.



after a few minutes to collect my breath, i scurried down towards land and caught a last few remaining pics before the sun disappeared. on the right is a local fire dancer running thru his routine - without flame...



the phi phi islands are simply a wonderful slice of heaven and quite the majestic beauty of a natural habitat. this is definitely one place i was embarrassed to carry around my digital camera, as it simply can't do the landscape justice despite my best efforts. i can't recommend this place enough, and only wish we had ditched phuket and stayed here the entire four days. but there's always next time, right?

day 14 - phi phi islands, thailand

before i forget, here's a snapshot of me churning out last night's post from the sports bar for their free internet. i managed to milk a can of chang for 2 hours, much to the chagrin of the bar owner. on my stroll home, i locked up a half-day trip for saturday to a myriad of places including phi phi leh for a scant 450 THB ($15).

day 14 started with a breakfast buffet at our hotel, which included omelettes, bacon & fresh fruit. what am i going to do when i return home to a plain ol' breakfast of a measly bowl of cereal?

and here's a look at our bathroom sink and the view from our balcony. i was out here drying off some laundry i attempted to perform in said sink...

our trip met up at 10:30am at loh dalum bay, where about 10 of us hopped in our longtail boat and pushed off for the island of phi phi leh. first up was maya bay (site of the aforementioned "the beach"), where we parked just outside it for some snorkeling - which i had to partake in, seeing as the clarity underwater was brilliant.




our driver bao pulled us into shore, and maya bay was immediately recognizable from the film.




and yeah, my skin was pretty red from phuket, when the scattered t-storms masked the hidden sun. needless to say, i was slathering aloe vera all night and day in hopes of quick rescue. and here are a few snaps ashore.




our 1/2 hour was up, so i scrambled for some last pics ashore. the girl in the first is posing for her man (unseen), and i managed to scale a tall rock for the other prime photo op:




something about how our longtail was parked seemed very picturesque to me, so here's yet another of the boat. the color scheme of thailand's flag (red/white/blue) really pops against the background.

next up on the itinerary was snorkeling at loh samah bay, and it did not disappoint. keep in mind that this photo was taken above water, w/visibility up to about 30 feet down below. it's like using a waterproof camera without having to go underwater!

we then made our way to pi leh cove, which is a strikingly beautiful inlet (the phi phi islands are loaded w/inlets, and only a longtail or kayak can successfully maneuver into them) on the other side of maya bay. pay particular attention to the change in water color the deeper it gets - turquoise in the shallow section and a pristine aquamarine further in. pic on the right i got as a dude from a neighboring boat dove in:



our last stop at phi phi leh was viking cave, home of the rare bird's nests. edible bird's nests are among the most expensive animal products consumed by humans, and it can be found in the chinese delicacy bird's nest soup.



our last stop on the program was monkey beach, which is exactly what it sounds like. first pic is the side profile of us leaving phi phi leh, bottom left is a mother carrying its child. i kid you not, one of the monkeys we encountered had the sole job of protecting the others, so if any of us drifted too close, he would storm towards us like a bat outta hell. i hadn't run that fast since doing wind sprints at the UCLA track, but he didn't catch me. i still got it... barely...

part 2 of day 14 still to come, but i can't believe this is my last night on holiday! such a sad day, but i've had such an incredible experience, it's like your sports team winning the championship. there's a grace period where you can't complain about anything, no matter how poor your team may do the following years...