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So far vivilinh has created 129 blog entries.

Wedding Ring

so. kyle’s wedding ring has been all over the place. he lost it on a beach in maui during our honeymoon (but was lucky to find it in the sand! i know, right?); he lost it for a few months (but my mom found it one morning underneath the car seat); etc. let’s just say he’s had pretty good luck. well, i get this picture text from him (i’m at work. he’s fishing. standard):

along with the text: “The only way to catch the uncatchable fish, is to offer them a wedding ring.” i laughed so hard, i thought i’d share. this is definitely why i love the guy.

By vivilinh | May 21st, 2012 | Instagram, Marriage | 1 Comment

Sapp Coffee Shop | Los Angeles, CA

so. soup…in the morning. feelings? i know some people are a little weirded out by the idea of this… but the husband and i have been growing up eating soup for breakfast on the regs: pho (vietnamese), miso soup (japanese), menudo (mexican). and, we love it! we recently found an amazing thai soup that is eaten in the morning: thai boat noodles! this delicious (we got it spicy) soup is comforting and hearty, everything we were looking for this weekend!

what we ordered:

thai iced tea
thai ice coffee
boat noodles
jade noodles

i loved both noodles. boat noodles are wet and the jade noodles come dry. depends on what you are in the mood for. maybe it’s because i’m used to eating soup in the morning but they didn’t feel heavy at all.

the nice thing about this place that you wouldn’t expect to get amazing noodles here… it’s called sapp coffee shop! just a note: the jade noodles are a little sweet (which i loved… savory/sweet? bomb!).

ambience: small, quaint shop in thai town.
service: quiet but very nice. food came out quickly.
parking: there is a small lot right in front that you can park in. it fills up rather quickly so you might have to do street parking.
overall: i would definitely recommend this place for noodles!! be adventurous and try both!

Sapp Coffee Shop
5183 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Neighborhood: Los Feliz

By vivilinh | May 6th, 2012 | Food, Restaurants | 0 Comments

Newport Tan Cang | San Gabriel, CA

home sweet home. i’m finally home from traveling throughout the midwest (work, not pleasure)! one of the things i look forward to me given our differing work schedules (me: finance job. husband: fireman) is having time to eat dinner together. simple, isn’t it? i know but it means the world to me.

anyway, he found this new chinese restaurant! newport tan cang restaurant…and away we went. even though i have been eating steak and seafood dinners all week (aw, poor me), we decided to have a lobster night! it was his first time eating lobster chinese/vietnamese style…he loved it more than me! i leave you with pictures of our glorious meal last night. my picture of our 5lbs of lobster does not do it justice. because it’s bomb (but on the expensive side).

our beef dish was ok. the meat was a little tough.

it’s hard to rave about the calamari and clams after eating that lobster since it’s the main affair. they were ok… nothing spectacular. i got the three colored dessert as a little sweet treat for myself! it was pretty good!

food: lobster is what they are known for. that is what you should get.
service: nothing to rave about here.
ambience: pretty spacious. good for large groups. lots of natural light.

ps. i also had to point out how absurdly he eats his so-called favorite fruit-the orange. as shown above, you will find his (right) and her (left) way of eating a slice of orange. this cracked me up and i thought i’d share.

Newport Tan Cang
518 W Las Tunas Dr
San Gabriel, CA 91776

By vivilinh | May 4th, 2012 | Food, Photography | 3 Comments

Italy: Ciao Ciao

we travel all over italy with contiki. have you heard of it? if you havent, i would definitely recommend it! we had an amazing time traveling to rome, sorrento, capri, florence, la spezia, cinque terre, verona, milan, and venice (whew). of the course of 12 days, we spent time with 50 amazing people from all over the world, a lot of gelato, saw amazing places, and took over 8,000 photos combined (yeah, i know). since i am currently in the process of making an italy book, i thought i’d share some of my favs. (sadly, they are not taken with my SLR since i did not have it at the time)

By vivilinh | April 29th, 2012 | Italy, Photography, Travel | 3 Comments

Adventures on a Sunny Saturday

so! our saturday adventure started in west hollywood. it was 12pm and we hadn’t eaten anything yet (i get a little cranky when i’m not fed in 5 hour intervals). we stumbled on this amazing gem called fresh corn grill (i LOVE corn. i’d probably wear a t-shirt professing my love for this awesome food). anyway, as expected (thank you fellow reviewers), it was UH-MAZING! if it were a little closer to us, we would probably eat here at least once a week.

we got the fresh corn veggie bowl (with both the asian bbq and the ginger curry) and tacos with a side of grilled corn and grilled zuchini. delicious!! our favorite is definitely the bowl. i’m obsessed with the sauce…i can drink them both.

service: super friendly
parking: we parked on the street (metered) not to hard on a sunday.
overall: we are coming back here anytime we are in the area. fo sho.

Fresh Corn Grill
8714 santa monica blvd
west hollywood, ca 90069

note to self: it is really hard taking pictures when the sun is uber bright outside. main thing-you cant really see the screen very well so you really don’t know if your pictures are coming out too bright, too dark, or in this case, a little on the yellow side. also, although i love my 50mm, it is difficult to take a picture of the whole plate. the best use for this lens is indeed food pictures but to focus on one thing on your plate. Maybe get another fixed lens 24mm or 35mm?

since we felt lunch was on the healthy side, we went into mid-wilshire to get dessert at simplethings sandwich and pie shop and got these little babies: (banana cream pie, salted caramel pie and strawberry rhubarb pie accompanied with a black cherry soda.

this place is stupid cute. minimal chic interior design (most things white and mirrored). mini pies? im in. i wanted to spend my whole day here.

parking: its on 3rd street so parking isnt the easiest. we had to circle a few times to find a metered spot.
service: good
overall: cute, cute place. pies are good. my favorite is the banana. kyle loved the salted caramel.

Simplethings Sandwich & Pie Shop
8310 W 3rd St
Los Angeles, CA 90048

we had a friend in town (down from the bay area) who was staying on a boat in marina del ray (cool idea, yeah?). we met up, enjoyed some wine on the boat, made new friends, and tanned in the sun. i am going to name this series “i’m a boat.” enjoy!