The Imperial House: A Flash From The Past

Before attending a Saturday night performance of Kinky Boots in late September, Ron, myself, Richard and Laura dined at The Imperial House.  It's right next to Balboa Park, only five minutes from the Civic Theatre, and they even take the Passport Card.  I had never heard of it, but Richard and Laura had been there many times, and assured us we would like it.  We did.

It's like an old fashioned restaurant from the 60's or 70's.  The overstuffed leather chairs, as well as the roomy booths, are red.  In fact, everything is red.  The fare is everything you remember from the past that you loved:  escargots, mock turtle soup, Caesar salad prepared table side and  warm spinach salad prepared table side.  The main courses included steak Diane, prime rib, salmon filet, lamb chops, and several other kinds of steak.  All come with baked potato, creamed spinach or roasted vegetables and fruit.  The main courses range from $23 for salmon (I had it and it was delicious) to steaks that range from $29-$35.  There were very few tables occupied when we arrived at 6pm and when we left at 7:30pm, and this was Saturday night.  Service was excellent.  I would go there again when I'm in the area, as it offers comfort, value and good food.

Languedoc Roussillon: One of the Prettiest Villages in France

I'm a great supporter of the public library, and all it has to offer.  Book clubs, lectures, movie series, and much more.  I recently attended a lecture by local author Susan Vreeland, where I learned about her most recent novel, Lisette's List.  She is a New York Times best selling author of numerous books, including The Girl in Blue Hyacenth and Clara and Mr. Tiffany.  Many of her books are related to art history, specifically the impressionist period, and many of her books take place in France.  If you like these two themes as I do, you will probably like her books.  I had not read anything of hers prior to hearing her speak, but have listening to her for an hour, I went into the library and checked out The Boating, based on the painting of that name, by Pierre August Renoir.  Her most recent book takes place in the village of Roussillon, located halfway between Avignon and Aix-en Provence.

Lisette's List is about three artists, takes place in the village of Roussillon, and critics are saying it is Vreeland's best work yet.  I have been to France many times, yet did not know anything about this small village.  It is considered one of the prettiest villages in France.  It is well known for its ochre mines, which are then turned into paint.  In fact, the entire village has a reddish/gold hue to it.  It is charming looking, and possibly a wonderful place to visit.  You can get the ambiance of the south of France without all the crowds.  However, it is not a high interest destination.  The ochre mines are interesting to visit, but other than that, there are no well known monuments, churches, or history.  It's just a beautiful little village, much like dozens of others in France.  I might have to visit this village on my next trip to the south of France, if only overnight.  It just looks like what most of imagine when we think of France.  Big cities are great for the sights, art and shopping, but the small villages give you a taste of what makes France one of the most popular destinations in the world.  I can see myself in a small square, sitting in a café having a latte.  Since that's not possible right now, I'm off to Starbucks in my local shopping center.

More Restaurant News in San Diego

It's hard to keep up with all the openings and closings of restaurants in San Diego, but I do my best.  I have some new places to tell you about, none of which I have actually tried, but I'll tell you what the buzz on the street is, and what kind of food they have.

Kettner Exchange calls itself a Progressive American Restaurant.  It reminds me of many other recently opened restaurant, with shared plates to start, small plates, and large plates.  The large plates include things like pork chops, short ribs, scallops, and chicken.  The small plates include interesting salads, and the shared plates include things like hummus, olives, cheese platter.  It's right near Little Italy, a happening place for food right now.  Another interesting new restaurant is called Underbelly in North Park.  I can't wait to try this place.  I guess you'd call it a ramen restaurant mainly, but it's got so much more to offer.  The ramen dishes come in beef, pork, chicken or vegetarian, and have lots of add ins.  They also serve octopus salad, trio tartare, tuna tataki, chopped seafood salad, and buns.  I think the buns are like bao's, but they're filled with a variety of interesting mixes like tempura eggplant and shitaki mushrooms and pork bell and pickled cucumber.  I hear lines are out the door for this place. Another new place is right in Balboa Park and it's called Panama 66.  It's right next to the art museum in a big space with a sculpture garden in back.  They have lots of craft beers, salads, hot and cold sandwiches, and a great (cheap) children's menu, like Nutella and banana sandwich for $5.  I'd like to order that!

A few other hot spots that you might like to check out include Crushed, Sab-E-Lee, Iron Pig Alehouse and Blue Smoke Sushi Lounge.  I'm sorry to say that none of these new restaurants are in North County.  Someday we'll get a better selection of top quality restaurants.  In the mean time, I don't mind driving 30-40 minutes for a great meal.  I've been doing that for a while and I'll continue to do that.

Wandering La Jolla: The Murals of La Jolla

I always enjoy taking a group on a walking trip around San Diego.  Over the many years I have been doing this, I've discovered so many little known sites.  The murals of La Jolla is one such site.  If you never look up, as most people don't when they're wandering around a city, you will never see them.  The 13 murals are on the sides of buildings, scattered around La Jolla Village.  On a beautiful fall day Fran and I took a group of 20 women on a wandering trip to view the murals of La Jolla, then lunch on the terrace at George's.  What a perfect day.

After finally rounding up all 21 women at our meeting place in Del Mar, we carpooled to La Jolla.  We met on the corner of Wall St. and Ivanhoe, just steps from our first mural.  Fran and I had previewed the walk a few weeks ago.  It was necessary to map out the best route, to see as many murals as possible.  We saw ten murals, as one has been added since I was last there.  The walk was about 2 miles total, which was a nice warm up for a wonderful lunch.

The concept for the murals began in 2010, when the Arts Council of La Jolla got together.  They decided they wanted to beautify the city, and make art available to everyone, 24/7.  They decided to commission murals to be painted on the sides of privately owned property.  Their first two commissions were painted directly on the walls.  After that they decided it was better to paint them in studio, then transfer them on to vinyl and hang them in a billboard style.  That way they could be moved if necessary, or easily repaired.  So most of the murals are movable.  They have commissioned artists such as Fred Tomaselli, Cathryn Opie, Julian Opie,

 John Baldessarri, and William Wegman, to paint the murals.  Each artist does his own theme, so the style and subject matters are varied.

Since our initial visit several weeks ago, one mural on Prospect has been moved.  In it's place is mural #14, by William Wegman.  He's the famous dog portrait artist, and I love his mural.  It's of a Weimerander breaking through a yellow background.  It's right near the Valencia Hotel.  If you're interested in learning more about the murals and where they are located, go to www.muralsoflajolla.com for background information, maps and pictures.  If you take a walk, be sure to include lunch at George's.  You will not find a better view of La Jolla Cove and the blue Pacific.  We had a wonderful day, made even better by the wonderful group of women who made it so much fun.

Monet Discovered in Suitcase of "Nazi Art" Hoarder

The recent death of Cornelius Gurlitt unveiled yet another painting stolen by the Nazis worth millions of dollars.  When Gurlitt died early this summer at age 81,  a Monet painting was found in the suitcase he had brought to the hospital where he died.  He was a reclusive man, the son of a Nazi-era art dealer who amassed a giant secret collection of hundreds of works of art either by seizing paintings from Jews or seized from German art galleries when the government deemed them degenerate.


Many of the works, which were seized in early 2012 in an unlikely way, are believed to have been stolen or extorted from Jews under a Nazi scheme to systematically plunder valuable art collections.  They were discovered by chance in 2012 during a tax evasion probe.  1,200 paintings, drawings and sketches had been hidden in his Munich flat for decades.  He never married and called the paintings "the love of his life."

  When the government discovered the art work, Gurlitt struck a deal with the German government, to help them track down the rightful owners of the artwork.  Apparently he did not part with all of his treasures in his deal with the German government.  A Monet painting completed in 1864, "Vue de Sainte-Adresse" may be the painting he smuggled into the hospital with him before his death.  It's amazing that even 75 years after artwork from the Nazi era was seized, stolen, or otherwise acquired by Nazis, we are still finding hidden works.  In his will, Gurlitt left his estate to a Swiss museum.  I don't know how many of the hundreds of paintings he had from his father's theft of art in the 1930's and 1940's, but he must still have quite a lot.  The Swiss museum is considering whether or not to take the paintings.

I'll Be Home For Christmas

As I've been making the rounds of numerous holiday parties, I hear many people talk of "going home for Christmas."  What does that mean?  I thought they were already home!  Home can mean different things to different people.  Many people feel nostalgic at holiday time, and want to return to the family home, to the place they were raised, to their hometown.   They want to see parents and siblings and talk about past holidays and catch up with family that they are separated from.  They remember traditions that they want to carry on.  Others, like me, consider home to be wherever you are that you feel warm and safe and loved.  That might be on a camping trip with your husband and children, or in the living room of a small apartment with good friends, or in a new home with people who are important to you.  For me it's not so much where you are, but who you are with.  I've lived in San Diego for 11 years now, and I consider it home.  Yes, I love going back to LA to visit my mom in the house I grew up in, but that's not home anymore.  Home is in Carlsbad, with Ron and Pepper, and visits from family and friends.

I thoroughly understand people that want to get together with the whole family, reminisce about days gone by, share the season with them, and it's great that so many do that, and enjoy it.  I find home right here in Carlsbad.  Sure, I love to visit with family, but I find I have a better time when we are NOT all together at one time.  For me, it's a better experience spending time with one family at a time.  That's just me, and when I write it, it sounds like I'm anti holiday.  Not really.  I just enjoy mom, kids and grandkids in smaller groups,  I don't know if they would rather be all together, but I know I have a better time this way.  As for being anti holiday, maybe I am a little.  I have lived my life  with each day being a celebration, not waiting for a birthday, Mother's Day or Father's Day to tell someone I love them.  Hallmark and the toy companies created these holidays to increase their bottom line.  I like to enjoy life to the fullest each day.  Sorry I have digressed a bit, as I wanted to write about home.  Home is right here in Carlsbad, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Cold Eggplant Salad

Sitting on the rooftop terrace of Georges, in La Jolla, my friends and I enjoyed a spectacular view on an October afternoon.  As usual, our conversation turned to food.  Here were are eating delicious food, and talking about more food!  Anyway, Sharon shared with us a recipe her daughter had made, that she just loved.  I decided to try it yesterday, with a little twist of my own.  Here it is, and I've included a few ideas on how to use it to create other meals.  Enjoy.

                                                   Cold Eggplant Salad

1 large eggplant
1 large red pepper
1/2 onion
1 carrot
1/2 zucchini
handful of flat leaf parsley, well chopped
2 large cloves garlic, well chopped
fresh or dried dill, to taste
2 T. vinegar (I used cider vinegar)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Cut the eggplant into long strips, like fat French fries.  Sprinkle with salt, and transfer to a bowl.  Let them sit for 8 hours, or overnight.  Remove accumulated liquid, and use a paper towel to squeeze more water from the eggplant.

Prepare the rest of the veggies.  Cut the pepper into long strips, then in half, so that pieces are about 1/2 inch wide and 4 inches long.  Also cut the carrots into thin strips, the onion into strips, and slice the zucchini and then halve each circle.

In a fry pan, heat 1 T. olive oil, and cook eggplant until soft.  Add remaining ingredients, and cook for 5 minutes, until veggies are cook, but not limp.  Transfer to a plastic container and refrigerate for several hours.

This is a great salad to put on a lunch or dinner buffet, serve as a side dish with any meat or fish, heat and top pasta with this salad, put it on top of brown rice (heat veggie salad), or serve it cold over farro or quinoa. Also, create a Mediterranean lunch, with pita, eggplant salad and hummus.  You can even add feta cheese to the eggplant salad for a real Mediterranean treat.   Or, eat it right out of the container as an afternoon snack.  Almost no calories and it's a perfect food if you're on the Weight Watchers "Simply Filling" program.  Enjoy. 

New Research At The Salk Institute

I was a terrible science student in high school and college, yet I am fascinated as an adult by many areas of science, especially research in the sciences that are improving man's quality of life.  I get newsletters from the Salk Institute that keep me up to date on such things, and a recent article about the work of Ronald M. Evans, professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory, got my attention.

Dr. Evans' lab discovered a large family of molecules, named receptors, that respond to various steroid hormones, vitamin A and thyroid hormones.  These hormones help control sugar, salt, calcium and fat metabolism: thus they impact our daily health as well as treatment of disease.  The receptors Evans discovered are primary targets in the treatment of breast cancer, prostate cancer and leukemia, as well as osteoporosis and asthma.  Additionally, Evans' studies led to a  new hormone that appears to be the molecular trigger controlling the formation of fat cells, and represents one of the newest and most important advances in understanding problems arising from excess weight and obesity and the potential treatment of Type 2 diabetes..

Without getting too scientific, what this means is this:  Evans' team has identified the missing link in the regulation of metabolism.  This linchpin is a protein known as fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF1), which may open new avenues to the treatment of diabetes. FGF1 activity is triggered by a high-fat diet, and mice lacking the protein swiftly develop diabetes.  This suggest that FGF1 is crucial to maintain the body's sensitivity to insulin and normal levels of sugar in the blood.  Additional findings were found by Evans regarding the sleep patterns of mammals (sleep is a fasting period), and synchronizing rhythms of behavior and metabolic processes is important for cardiovascular health, and for preventing metabolic disease.

Everyday, scientists are discovering new treatments for diseases we thought we had the answer to.  It seems the more we know and find out, the more we realize how little we know.  It's all so interesting to me.

Jewish Community Forced To Leave Guatemalan Village

Six years ago, a group of ultra orthodox Jews moved to the remote area of San Juan La Laguna, 200 miles from the capital of Guatemala, Guatemala City.  The 230 Jews who live there come from several countries, but mostly from the USA, Israel, Russia, Great Britain and Guatemala.  About 40 in the group are children.  They moved there six years ago, living in an area inhabited by an indigenous population.  Why they moved there in the first place is still a mystery to me.  I researched this group and try to find the answer, but all I found out is that they were an ultra orthodox Jewish group, interpreting the Torah and Bible literally, and that they just wanted to live in peace.

The indigenous tribes in Guatemala are protected by the government against outside influences that threaten their culture.  Since October the local indigenous population has accused the Orthodox Jews of discriminating against them and of violating Mayan customs.  The Council of Indigenous Elders said that the Jewish community wanted to impose their religion on them, and that they were undermining the Catholic faith, the predominant faith of the village.

With threats of lynchings if they didn't leave the village, the Orthodox Jews decided it was better to quit than fight.  They say they are people of peace, and when the Jews and the indigenous representatives failed to reach an agreement to respect one another, the Jews are leaving.  They have already begun to leave.  They know they have a right to be there, but they don't want to be where they are unwanted and in fear of violence.  Who knows where they'll go next?  If anyone out there knows how they even got to Guatemala in the first place, I'd like to know.

Frontiers in Medicine: Advancement in Digital Medicine

Charlene invited me to attend a most interesting lecture at Scripps La Jolla in November, on the subject of the advancement in digital medicine.  I was blown away by what is just around the corner.  The evening was moderated by Dr. Steven Steinhugel, cardiologist at Scripps.  He worked with Dr. Eric Topol, formerly from Cleveland Clinic, who we are now lucky enough to have in San Diego.  The evolution of digital medicine has progressed by leaps and bounds in the past 20 years.  Super computers have gotten smaller and faster, in fact there has been a 2,400% improvement in their performance in just two years.  In the future everything will be on your smart phone.  We are so much more connected than we were just eight years ago.

Right now 61% of Americans own a smart phone, and by the year 2019, the seven billion people on the planet with own 5.6 billion smart phones.  Companies like Samsung, Google and Microsoft want to get into the health care industry.  Here are some of the ways digital medicine will be used in the future.  BP, EKG, pulse, temperature, output of CO2, glucose, oxygen saturation and respiration rate will all be monitored by  wearable sensor data.  This would be a bracelet or watch type band on your wrist.  Diabetics can constantly monitor their glucose level, and be notified when they need insulin.  Athletes can monitor their pulse, blood pressure and other vitals during workouts.  Heart patients can have immediate access to ekg's or other tests that might tell them they need doctor assistance.  High blood pressure, which accounts for 40,000,000 office visits per year, can be self monitored, medication can even be administered as needed.  In other words, health consumers will become more actively involved in gathering medical information, without the need for expensive visits to the doctor.  The information will be immediately, which will lead to more immediate treatment and possibly better results.  Shut ins who can't get to the doctor will be able to perform many important tests at home, transfer this immediately to their doctor, and be told how to proceed.

This is all very exciting to me, as we will see big changes in medicine in our lifetime.  These changes will cut costs, and lead to more efficient diagnoses and better patient care.  Dr. Eric Topol who is credited with inventing many of the initial medical uses for the cell phone, was way ahead of his time.  He has been using his smart phone to administer immediate EKG's to patients in his office, and giving them immediate results.  There will be no more waiting days for test results! 

Qualcom has partnered with Scripps in moving medicine forward.  Look for big changes to be available for us all very soon, and be prepared to become proactive in your own medical care.

Surprising Fran Was So Much Fun

Fran is one woman that is hard to surprise, so when her long time friend Judy called me and wanted to surprise her with a small birthday lunch, I was skeptical.  Could everyone keep a secret?  Yes they could.  Six of us met at Fig and Olive in Newport Beach.  The look on Fran's face when she approached our table was priceless.  At first it was one of confusion, then it was shock.  She was so surprised, and we were so happy to have pulled it off.

Any meal at Fig and Olive is memorable.  The restaurant has several branches, including Melrose Place in LA, Chicago, several locations in New York, and Newport Beach, where we ate.  The restaurant is big, bright, and beautiful, done mostly in white and shades of beige.  It's hip and contemporary, and so is the food.  The philosophy of the restaurant shows their passion for the best olive oils, flavors and cuisine from the Rivera and Coastal regions of the South of France, Italy and Spain.  They have a large variety of extra virgin olive oils, selected and paired with each dish.  Here is some of what we had for lunch.

We started out with an array of crostini, little round of bread or toast, covered with deliciousness.  Prosciutto, ricotta, fig, olive and walnut were on one crostini, another was covered with mushroom, artichoke, truffle, scallion and parmesean.  We ordered a platter of six, cut each in half, so we could each sample two.  The starter menu also includes crudo, or raw salmon, tun or beef tartare.  A variety of cheeses and olives are available, as are soups, bruschetta, and carpaccio.  Main courses include salads, tarts, Panini, burgers and several entrees.  The lobster roll on a brioche bun with truffle oil French fries was wonderful, as was the fig gorgonzola tartlet.  The chicken Panini that Judy ordered, was delicious, too.  I loved my salad filled with wonderful fruits and vegetables, including manchego and gorgonzola cheese, apple, fig, tomato, walnut, olive and greens.  Main courses include salmon tartar and favorite of mine, chicken tajine (Moroccan chicken).  It's a very ambitious menu, but everything I ate was outstanding.

To top off this fabulous meal, Judy ordered thin homemade sugar cookies, topped with marscapone cheese and special cherries, somewhere between fresh and dried.  Really special.  The whole day was special.  A chance to have lunch with six wonderful women, and surprise Fran.  My birthday is in February and I told this group we're all going back to celebrate again.

A Birthday Celebration At Herringbone In La Jolla

Birthdays are always fun to celebrate, and with my friends, it's also an opportunity to try some of the fine dining restaurants in San Diego that we don't ordinarily get to.  For Paula's birthday this year, we settled on Herringbone in La Jolla.  I had never been there, nor had I been  to Searsucker, another restaurant founded by Brian Malarkey, celebrity chef.  I was at the now defunct Burlap in Del Mar and was not impressed.  That's probably why they closed down, redecorated, and reopened as Searsucker.  However,  I loved everything about Herringbone, and would certainly go there again.

There were five of us who shared Paula's big day with her, and we got a good sample of what Herringbone offers for lunch.  First, the décor is fabulous.  With 100 year old olive trees in the center of the restaurant, the main room is a real show stopper.  Everywhere you look, up or down, there is something interesting on the walls or ceiling.  One thing there were not many of were customers.  We arrived at 12:30, left around 2:20, and noticed only about five occupied tables.  We didn't care, as we were enjoying our conversation and our meal.  Here's what we had.

I ordered a salad called Field Peas.  It was a combination of cranberry beans, haricot vert, argula, pecorino, sherry vinaigrette, and roasted beets.  I thoroughly enjoyed this unique salad, and would order it again.  Ellen ordered the salmon salad, a mixture of greens topped with a perfectly broiled piece of salmon.  The lobster roll, on a brioche bun with French fries and salad was a big hit.  Other interesting items on the menu included an oyster po boy banh mi, an albacore nicoise salad with argula, soft poached eggs, roasted red peppers, olives, and fingerling potatoes.  Several types of oysters are available, as well as a number of delicious flatbreads.  Of course a burger, fish 'n chips, and shrimp tacos are also on the menu.  For dessert, even though no one was still hungry, we ordered a decadent looking chocolate torte, with soft mousse on one layer and a layer of dark fudge like chocolate below.  Looked beautiful, but I didn't eat it.

The dinner menu is loaded with fish, from roasted whole fish, to seared diver scallops, wahoo, skate, and seared albacore.  Many sides like herb fries, sweet corn and roasted cauliflower are available as well.  The restaurant prides itself on preparing fresh foods using farm to table ingredients wherever possible.  Brian  Malarkey, the celebrity chef who started the fabric restaurants (searsucker, herringbone, burlap), has sold majority interest, but his touch can still be seen.  The restaurant takes pride in doing it right.  The presentation is beautiful, and the food is delicious.  For dinner it's an expensive meal, probably about $50 per person without wine.  Lunch, however, can be enjoyed for much less, around $22 per person.  Well worth it for a special treat, and lunch with Paula for her birthday was a special treat.

A Morning With Richard Lederer

You might not be familiar with his name, but Richard Lederer is someone you should know about.  If you take the UT, you can read his American Trivia Quizzes in the UT (page 2) everyday, and on Saturday you can read Lederer on Language in the "Local" section.  He's a linguist and a history buff, and the one hour talk he gave at the Cole Library in Carlsbad to promote his new book "Monsters Unchained," enticed me to purchase one of his books.  He has written over 30 books on everything from American Trivia, to books on aging (that's the one I bought), to puns, riddles, and other plays on words for children, age 8 and up.  He's funny, witty and totally engaging.  I loved listening to him.  He has such a way with words.

I did not know that the English language has four times as many words as any other language.  This makes it ideal for limericks, poems, palindromes, homophones, and other word riddles that I can't remember.  Richard was constantly using play on words, which I found quite witty.  He opened his talk by putting on a clip on bow tie, which he called a "beau ties," because means both beauty and male, and when you connect beau and ties, you have the word beauties.  Pretty clever.  He talked about poetry, and the first few letter of the word spelling POE, one of our great poets.  He talked about our the upcoming election, and called it "electile dysfunction."  He asked the question, "When is enough not enough?"  The first three letters of the word are eno, which when shuffled around spells one, and the last three words, ugh, spell hug when turned around.  The answer to his question is, "One hug is never enough."  Word play like this went on and on, and Richard remembers it all!

Richard says we are pattern makers, that's why we like limericks, poems that follow a particular pattern, and other plays on words.  Heteronyms (spelled the same, pronounced differently and with a different meaning) are voluminous in our language.  Bow, bow, row, row, entrance, entrance are just a few heteronyms that Richard uses with which to make funny rhymes.  He also loves anagrams (two different words using the same letters).  He has a poem called Daniel Nailed (anagram).  He talked about Donald Sterling (former owner of the Clippers) and Adam Silver (commissioner of the NBA) and the coincidence of the their last names.

His final reading was the story of Cinderella.  He took two words that were placed together in a sentence and switched the beginning sound of each one.  For example, the handsome prince, became the pandsome hrince, and the four horses became the hour forces.  He recited the story with many changes in every sentence from memory, and the audience loved it.  Next time you see his article in the UT or hear is coming to speak somewhere near you, try to get there.  You won't be disappointed.

Meet In Paris: A Neighborhood Bistro

Ron celebrated his 72nd birthday in Los Angeles.  We spent the day visiting our new grandson, Calvin.  He is the newly adopted infant of David and Tracy, who got married about 18 months ago.  He's so tiny!  You forget how little and fragile they are at just a little over six pounds, but before you know it he'll be a big boy.  Ron was afraid to hold at first, but he ended up with Calvin in his arms, fast asleep, for a half hour.  We both just loved our time with him, and enjoyed seeing David and Tracy, first time parents, adapting to everything so well.

There's nothing more that Ron likes to do is to take his children out for dinner, and that's exactly what he did that night.  Unfortunately Phil and Deborah were in Colorado and couldn't join us, but David and Tracy, Brian and Beth and Ron and I had a wonderful time together.  Here's what we did.

We decided to try one of the many upscale restaurants on Culver Blvd, in Culver City.  In the space of two blocks there must be 20+ wonderful restaurants.  As Ron is a lover of French food, he chose Meet in Paris, a neighborhood bistro that couldn't get any more French.  The bistro is small, tables are close together, there's a large outdoor eating area on the front sidewalk with lots of little tables under a big red awning.  Friendly waiters helped us select our meal from so many choices.  We were there on a Tuesday night, which is all you can eat mussels and fries night.  They have over a dozen sauces to choose from, or you can try them all.  No one in our party opted for the mussels, but they did look fantastic.  We tried the tarte tatin a la tomate as a starter (tomatoes, pears and blue cheese in puff pastry) which was delicious.  We also order escargots, my favorite, and they were delicious, served with lots of French bread to sop up the garlic butter.  I also ordered the onion soup, oozing with cheese (love the crusty part that you have to peel off the soup bowl).  Yum.  I ordered steak tartare, which was excellent.  I got the appetizer size, but you can get the entrée size which is served with delicious skinny French fries and a salad.  Ron and Brian ordered bouillabaisse.  The dish was filled with all kinds of fish, swimming in a saffron broth, with a toasted baguette and rouille.  Tracy had a simply prepared fillet of salmon over sautéed veggies, and David ordered linguine aux fruits de mer.  It was really a fine meal.  We finished with coffee and a decadant fondant and ice cream dessert.

The best part of the evening was getting to share the meal with two of our three boys and their wonderful wives.  We swapped stories, made each other laugh, and got to spend some quality time together.  A memorable evening for sure, and just what Ron wanted.  Next time you're in LA, try a meal on Culver Blvd.  Meet in Paris is a great place to eat with family or friends, or try one of the many "in" places in the area.  A wonderful evening was had by all.