May 2007, hopefully, was the end of the worst season of my life, but did I really think 1) it could get any worse than what it was and 2) that my Birthday Month would let me down? Of course I did because I am ever the eternal pessimist. It’s easier that way – never setting myself up for disappointment.
Life surprised me, though. June was the turnaround month. Work was not any less hectic, and in fact, the pressure to outperform the previous months during a season when the normal course of business slows down, never let up. I just learned to let go a little. By “let go,” I mean I let it go emotionally, not drop my actual productivity and performance. Because I invested so much time and energy into my job over the course of the previous six months, I couldn’t help but let the burden of my workload take over as Priority One in my life.
It’s no secret that as a supreme workaholic, nothing gives me a rush like running around spreadsheets with my hair on fire. I could never realistically lighten my workload, but my Birthday Month reminded me of what my real priority in life is. It’s not that it was *my* birthday so **I’m* my own priority. It’s that my birthday forced me to make time to spend with friends and family. I went out for dinner almost every night in June.
The month was, in one word, delicious.
I haven’t blogged about most of my June birthday experiences yet. It was just too much to go out to eat, come home late, and spend three to four hours manipulating photos, writing, and formatting posts. They will come in due time.
So, my Birthday Month has come to a close, but that doesn’t mean that the foodish fun, nor the renewed understanding that life is more than my work, stops. June was only the beginning, and what started innocently as back-to-back-to-back nights out on the town has transformed into the Summer of Sarah.
It’s going to be a riot.
June 2007 in Review
Friday, June 1, 2007 - Sushi Roku - Sushi By Day, Roku by Night
"the Tuna Sashimi Carpaccio was beautifully presented, like a fishy stonehenge of garnet flesh, though slightly over accessorized with unnecessary fried garlic chips that were bitter"
Saturday, June 2, 2007 - Westwood Farmers' Market - Pornographic Purple Diamond in the VA Rough
"nothing gets me hotter after being bothered with babies than a curvaceous purple pepper"
Saturday June 2, 2007 - Westwood Farmers' Market - Chili Today, Hot Tamale
"I peeled the skin -- dark, crisp, and covered with flecks of salt, spice, and herb -- from every piece, dipped it in hot sauce, and enjoyed it like Amelie's neighbor enjoys the oyster"
Saturday June 2, 2007 - Cantaloop Frozen Yogurt - Dip Trip Flip Fantasia
" a slight tang and a very familiar taste that at first, I could not identify, but hurled me, like Flip Fantasia did, into a previous lifetime"
Sunday June 3, 2007 - Shik Do Rak - And I Call Myself Korean?
"snapped as many pieces of the thicker, fattier galbee meat from the grill as I could with my lightning, Karate Kid dexterity on chopsticks"
Sunday June 3, 2007 - Kimchee, Like A-1, Goes with Everything
"While it kills my Delicious soul to see someone violate the virgin purity of a piece of meat with some sleaze like A1, or any sauce for that matter, I took unholy joy in smothering every single bloody bite of my steak with Hot Cock and suffocating it with a flap of fermented cabbage"
Monday June 4, 2007 - Curry House - Fraternity Rush at the CRY House
"Curry House's curry was "earthy," and like I have said before with the definition of the word, the curry was faintly reminiscent of dirt"
Tuesday June 5, 2007 - Cafe Crepe - 3rd Street Prom King
"ever since crepes became so trendy that there are two different resturants within 100 yards of each other in Santa Monica and even more trendy that there is a creperie on Sawtelle, I bristle when I think of their puffy whipped cream cuteness perfectly folded inside a fragile wisp of nothing and sprinkled with Hello Kitty sugar and giggles"
Wednesday June 6, 1007 - Bay Cities Italian Deli The Godmother is an Offer You Can't Refuse
"Maybe when the sandwich is cut in half, the almost indecent exposure of a gluttonous amount of provolone pinned beneath vegetables that have been worked into a creamy, dripping tangle, and pressed from below by an orgy of slippery, slimy, salty meat – is all kinds of delicious naughty"
Thursday June 7, 2007 - Chinese Gourmet Express - What We Eat Out of Stress-peration
"But filthy Chinese fast food that is deep-fried and left to bathe in two inches of yesterday's greasy ghetto oil on a steam table for a minimum of three hours at a time is totally healthy for my waistline!"
Friday June 8, 2007 - Comfort Cafe at Fred Segal - I'm Too Healthy for My Shirt, Too Healthy it Hurts
"The last thing I want for lunch, and that’s assuming I have the stomach to consume anything other than two Alka Seltzers dropped into a bottle of Pedialyte, is a salad."
Saturday June 9, 2007 - Citizen Smith, Hollywood - Jalapeno Mac N Cheese Update
"I am going to make Jalapeno Mac N Cheese at home. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But damned if I don't make one that's better than Citizen Smith's."
Tuesday June 12, 2007 - Around the Promenade in 8 RiFWoLs (Reviews in Five Words or Less)
" restaurants are on or around the Promenade, which alone relegates them to third class by association"
Wednesday June 13, 2007 - The Dive - It Pays to Be Pretty and Pink
"Should we be appreciative that he got them to heat up frozen Jeno's cheese pizza in the microwave oven and slap the day's leftovers onto an obscenely mountainous pile of tortilla chips as nachos?"
Saturday June 16, 2007 - Harper's Express, Century City - Do I Have to Get Married to Be a Housewife?
"I don't know why I ask for my omelets to be made with egg whites only when I know that the calorie offset from no-yolks is diminished to zero with 1) overcompensatory amounts of cooking oil and 2) cheese."
Sunday June 17, 2007 - Sunday BBQ in the OC - "Galbee" is Korean for "Carne Asada"
"pile our paper plates with glassy, glittering jahp-chae, gogi-jun (battered and pan-fried ground beef patties), ggae-nip (seasoned perilla leaves) and kimchee so high you’d think we were at a Korean church picnic where you can’t go back for seconds because really, would Jesus seventh sinfully go back for seconds?"
Monday June 18. 2007 - Taka Sushi - Shh...Don't Taka
"Each bite required careful strategy -- either an awkward maneuver of a whole, heavy slice, or haphazard shredding of fish flesh with chopsticks on a plate that was flooded with ponzu"
Tuesday June 19, 2007 - "First Look" at Charcoal (and at Sarah)
"The steak wasn't horrible, but I am always more critical of a piece of meat that has to come with a lot of accessories. What is it trying to hide?"
Thursday June 21, 2007 - Jonathon Gold's Essential 99 is the Best Birthday Present Ever
"JGold himself popped out of the cake waving this gmap of all 99 restaurants"
Friday June 22, 2007 - i Cugini - Sacrilege on a Caesar Salad
"I fall all over myself when whole anchovy fillets sheets of parmesan blaspheme uncut hearts of Romaine that have been tossed with a dressing made with cooked eggs and an unholy amount of garlic."
Saturday June 23, 2007 - Bridge LA - Cross (Off) That Bridge When...
"I waited too long."
Sunday June 24, 2007 - Sexy Seven - Seven Random Facts About Sarah to Remember Who I Am
"Somewhere in the last three years, I’ve become a shell of the being I was before, and that's assuming I remember -- yes, "remember" -- who I was."
Monday June 25, 2007 - Fresh - LA Times's 2007 Restaurant Guide is Full of the F Word
"35 restaurants on this list, of which I have been to 13. That makes The Delicious Life about exactly 37.14% fresh. If this were a test, I would have gotten an "F minus." That's flunking"
Tuesday June 26, 2007 - Literati Cafe - The Delicious Dictionary
"mental bakedown - n. Handling a mental breakdown, extreme stress, or a mid-life crisis by withdrawing into the kitchen and making ridiculous amounts of fattening baked goods (usually followed by eating at least half of it)"
Wednesday June 27, 2007 - Red Lion Tavern - Ticketless, Timeless Travel to Berlin
"I think it was the 1970s hors d'ouevre presentation that put me over the giddy edge"
Thursday June 28, 2007 - Phoreign - Rather, Faux-Reign
"I am talking about the depth of flavor that comes from simmering a veritable barnyard of four legged animals until every molecule of their animal essence has been rendered into a deep, dark, meaty infusion"
Friday June 29, 2007 - Epicurious Lists LA's Hamburgers to High End to Hot Right Now
"For some reason, it feels like there is some ulterior motive with this list, but I can’t figure out what it is."
Saturday June 30 , 2007 - How a Birthday Month Reset Priorities - The Delicious Life June 2007 in Review
"The month was, in one word, delicious."
** a year ago today, j gold was my essential hero **
** two years ago today, i stuffed my french toast with strawberries and cream and i vowed to eat cheap **
tags :: food : and drink : jun
e : birthday : restaurants : reviews : los angeles
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