Category Archives: U.S.A. Eating & Travel

Gjelina, Venice, Los Angeles, USA

gjelina review, venice beach, los angeles, usa

Landing in LA is always a slightly surreal experience. For us it is made even stranger by the fact that we are  exhausted and on the tail end of our Canadian adventure and we have an afternoon to check out L.A. before we head home. We hop into a taxi to the Venice area to Abbot Kinney Boulevard. I’ve got to do some last minute gift shopping and we’re a little bit early for our reservation so I thought I would see how much shopping I could do in an area with tempting shops a-plenty. On this stretch of road that we’re wandering down there are a proliferation of home ware stores and young designer fashion boutiques. They’ve certainly got a way with merchandising here with eye-catching window displays designed to lure one in and hand over the credit card. Well this is my story and I’m sticking to it ;)

gjelina review, venice beach, los angeles, usa

Plantation

gjelina review, venice beach, los angeles, usa

Remy the adorable French Bulldog. I want to keep him.

Venice has the chilled beachy aspect of Bondi meets fashionable Paddington. I go slightly crazy at Plantation where I buy three hourglasses and a Voluspa candle in what other flavour but “macaron” (a steal at $35!). Plus they have the cutest ever little French bulldog Remy who has the most charismatically soulful face. We hear from the helpful owner Ashley that he is about to grace the cover of a dog magazine!

Absolute essentials dahlinks!

And it was a given that I’d buy a macaron scented candle no?

gjelina review, venice beach, los angeles, usa

We also visit Bountiful, a gorgeous shop overflowing with some absolutely arresting displays of cake plates, jewellery, candlesticks and matches among many other things. Matchboxes you say? Yes, matchboxes in every colour and design imaginable!

gjelina review, venice beach, los angeles, usa

This is just a few of the matches…

gjelina review, venice beach, los angeles, usa

And even more matchboxes!

gjelina review, venice beach, los angeles, usa

Wheee pink!

gjelina review, venice beach, los angeles, usa

Before I know it I’ve spent my time shopping, darting in and out of shops collecting boutique shopping bags and Mr NQN is getting fidgety at the amount of money I’ve spent in this short time so we make our way to Gjelina where we meet Robin. Gjelina is all about fresh and simple dishes and great pizzas with a very pretty but not intimidating crowd.  Inside it’s all wooden tables with bowls of rubied red tomatoes and lush overflowing silver bowls as well as a lovely courtyard out the back. The menu tell us that “changes and modifications politely declined” and “we support local, sustainable & organic practices wherever possible.”

gjelina review, venice beach, los angeles, usa

Courtyard

gjelina review, venice beach, los angeles, usa

Watermelon and ginger Italian soda $4

The watermelon and ginger fizzy soda is refreshing (hey shopping is thirsty work!) with just the right amount of sweetness.

gjelina review, venice beach, los angeles, usa

Kumamoto (Washington) oysters $16

We start with some Kumamoto oysters. I love trying oysters from the different regions that we visit as they vary so widely. Having said that, these are very close to the Sydney Rock Oyster! We take our waiter’s recommendations for other dishes and service is very friendly.

gjelina review, venice beach, los angeles, usa

Salt and pepper frites with romesco and aioli $8

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44 comments | August 4th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella

In N Out Burger, Los Angeles, United States

in and out burger, los angeles

Dining room-ha!

After stepping off a long, arduous flight to L.A. my first instinct is to reach for food, particularly as we are in the land of some of my favourite foods. While we are in the cab speeding to the nearest In N Out Burger I clap my hands together in excitement and chant “In N out! In N out!”. The cab driver looks at me like I have taken leave of my senses and Mr NQN rolls his eyes and smiles. For the entire flight here, he has been listening to me chattering about the burgers I will order: a 4×4 burger and the fries “animal style”.

in and out burger, los angeles

Umm.. that looks a little close!

In N Out Burger isn’t fancy stuff. It’s a burger chain which is frequented by celebrities (Gordon Ramsay is apparently a fan and it was mentioned in the film The Big Lebowski), celebutantes and regular folk with over 200 branches across the Western United States. We pull up nearby and the cab driver asks “Would you like me to drive through or do you want to eat in?” which we chuckle at. I haven’t quite gotten to the stage of hailing a cab to take me through a drive thru (but give me time). We alight and I promptly almost get run over in my excitement (ack, we keep looking for cars on the wrong side of the road!). A plane flies just overhead. There’s a row of cars that snakes around the Drive Thru and there is an In N Out employee with an electronic ordering board taking orders.

We walk in and it’s very busy this Fourth of July. In N Out has a (not so) secret menu with items that do not appear on the in store menu.  The in store menu is simple and features just three types of burgers: a hamburger, a cheeseburger and a double double (two patties and two slices of cheese). There are also fries, soft drinks (including pink lemonade-weee!) and shakes in strawberry, chocolate and vanilla. The secret menu however has items such as a 3×3 (three  patties, three slices of cheese) and a 4×4 (four patties and four slices of cheese) . You can also bling up your fries by asking for them “Animal style” which are French fries with melted American cheese, “spread” and barbecued onions. Or you can go “low protein” by getting it in lettuce instead of in a bun.

in and out burger, los angeles

Open since 1948 they proudly boast that their meat is without fillers or preservatives and is not frozen. There are no freezers, microwaves or heat lamps and everything is made fresh to order. They reportedly have hand sliced vine ripened tomatoes and they slice the fries daily at each store.  Shakes are made using real ice cream. I place my order with the friendly clerk and he asks

“Are you going to give the 4×4 a go?”.

“Well I’m going to give it a go. Have you tried one?” I ask him.

“Well I tried a 3×3…once…” he admits.

*gulp*

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99 comments | July 19th, 2010 by Not Quite Nigella