LOS ANGELES

It has been a long, fun, hot summer... with few posts.  We had a couple more trips away, to Maine, upstate, Cape Cod, and were lucky enough to get to end the summer in the sunniest of places, Los Angeles.

It is official: I love LA.  I like the weather, the architecture, the landscape, the food, the proximity to family, even the driving.  While I hatch my plan to get back to California, from whence I came, enjoy the highlights of my week of in our future place of residence:

First of all, Joans on Third is reason enough to want to move.  Above, the cheese counter.  This is where I would eat lunch every day if I lived out there.

Second: the Santa Monica Farmer's Market.  It makes the Union Square market look like a supermarket in 1970's Stalingrad.

Third, and most important... proximity to my family.  I spent a couple days down in San Clemente as well.

CALIFORNIA BIRTHDAY

It was my own big 3-0 last week... but the real fun was getting to attend my close friend Elizabeth's birthday party in Oakland, California.  She put on a beautiful little cocktail party with great food and drink, and I got to help set up and then enjoy some fun east bay shops, food and treats the day after.

The ham was my boyfriend's idea.  It was popular.

Delicious chocolate dipped potato chips.

Elizabeth served special cocktails mixed up by a local bartending legend from Oliveto... one of the area's best restaurants.

A popcorn machine rental added some fun.

Here is a gorgeous Victorian in the hostess' hometown of Oakland.  I walked around the place several times in order to fully appreciate the interesting landscape design.


Speaking of landscape design, on a tour of the area we stopped in on housewares store Lola, and I bought a great book on the work of Northern California based landscape architect Andrea Cochran.  Cochran sites some of her strongest influences as Luis Barragan and Robert Irwin, two of my favorite architects/artists, and she has does some great work herself.  Her favorite project of mine is Stone Edge Vineyard in Sonoma.

Lola was a fantastic shop.  The entrance had a copper screen door... something I would like to see more of on all the world's windows and doors.

One of my favorite home stores: Tail of the Yak.

Even more charming deliciousness at Ici ice cream shop

THE best ice cream I have ever had, with the most interesting flavor combinations.  Candied tangerine and lime!  Yum!

And, of course, the crowning glory of the east bay food scene... Oliveto.  I had my departing meal here before boarding a red eye back to New York.  Lamb crudo, an insane hen ragu, and wild boar sausage.  It did not disappoint.  Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

ADIOS, SAN CLEMENTE

And it was time to go back home to New York. Here is the little apartment by the beach I was lucky enough to stay at, and which I decorated, all from Craigslist and La Tienda thrift store finds. I am particularly happy with how little we spent, how quickly we did it, and how fun it turned out.

Happy Labor Day, everyone. Enjoy the last days of summer!

TACOS: IT'S COMPLICATED

Mexican food is better in Southern California. It just is. Don't even talk to me about San Francisco burritos. Please. And the east coast? When I first moved to New York, you couldn't get a decent taco if you were willing to pay $20 for it. I remember almost killing my friends one night in college when I had to substitute scary generic taco sauce for real enchilada sauce when making enchiladas (it was all they had at the grocery store). This has changed significantly in recent years thanks to an growing Mexican population in the city. For me, however, nothing will match the tacos of my homeland. Above you see the restaurant that is my first love in the world of Mexican cuisine: Lucy's El Patio Cafe in Capistrano Beach.

The interior is junky, painted 1000 times with the same weird pink, filled with crappy posters and old arial photos of the area before anyone lived there. El Patio is a local institution since the 30's. We used to go as a family every Friday night.

The tacos at El Patio are chicken with a deep fried flour shell. They are topped with iceberg lettuce and mixed cheddar cheese. This is not an authentico taco, but it is mine. Still to this day, when I walk into the place, my favorite waitress, Joyce, greets me with a hug and puts my order in before I sit down. This place is home.

Next on the list is Pedro's Tacos. Pedros is a small fast food style chain (2 locations in San Clemente and 1 in San Juan). The fish taco is fried, with crema, cabbage and Heinz hotsauce in a corn tortilla. Again, not the most authentic, but so unbelievably good. Sitting on a deck overlooking the Pacific helps make anything taste good, though.

Finally, a new discovery for me: El Jefe Mexican Cafe. Muy authentico, family run, and my new favorite.

Like I said, El Patio is like a first love... awkward, tender, nostalgic, but in actuality not as satisfying as a more mature, more developed relationship. Pedro's is great too, but more like a summer fling... good for filling up after a day at the beach. El Jefe's carnitas tacos with salsa verde and onions on a corn tortilla are a serious, deep love that fits you just right. Plus they are $3 for two on Taco Tuesdays. I mean, really, how can you top that?

GARDENS OF THE MISSION

The Mission San Juan Capistrano has a beautiful series of gardens scattered over its property.

One thing the (still Catholic Church consecrated) Mission is short on is accurate history.  The gardens are so quiet and peaceful, and the presentations in the mission museum paint a romantic picture of pastoral community.  In reality, the Spanish enslaved the native population to build the place, and essentially wiped out the local Juaneno culture.  What little was left was paved over by American settlers.

Orange County has always been friendly to the forces of development, and these forces almost always win.  A recent victory against the developers, however, was the nixing of a highway that was to blast its way through a state park, treasured surf spot, endangered species habitat and archeological site south of San Clemente.  The fact that it was even proposed shows how weak opposition usually is in the face of a money making proposal.

To learn more about the native heritage of Orange County, efforts to preserve what little is left of it, and of the natural environment in Southern OC, check out the local division of the Sierra Club or the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.

FINDING HISTORY

When I tell someone that I am from Orange County, they usually look amused and ask if people are actually as trashy as "The Real Housewives" on TV. Well, there are plenty of shallow, out-of-touch people who drive Hummers with stickers on the back of Calvin kneeling before a giant cartoon cross. There are plenty of Republicans, plenty of "professional" surfers, plenty of brand new stucco tract homes, plenty of malls, plenty of bad, overwrought cuisine... but there is also a interesting and rich history that many locals themselves don't know much about.

All of California was once part of the Spanish Empire. When the Spanish came up from Mexico to colonize, the Catholic church was at the forefront of the effort. They founded a chain of outposts called Missons up and down California. Near San Clemente is the Mission San Juan Capistrano, founded in 1776. Once Mexico gained independence from Spain, the church's land holdings, including the Missions, were divided up among private rancheros. There is an extensive record of life in Mexican California written by Richard H. Dana. My elementary school was named for him, as was the town of Dana Point.

Even decades after the US conquered the west, most of Southern California was still large cattle ranches and huge family farms. Development came slowly at first, and the towns of Santa Ana (the new county seat), San Juan Capistrano and Newport Beach were sleepy rural retreats a day's travel from burgeoning LA. The Los Rios district in San Juan Capistrano is a picturesque remnant of a late 19th and early 20th century neighborhood in Orange County.

The oldest house in California occupied by a single family is the Rios Adobe, built in 1794. It forms the heart of Los Rios district.

My town, San Clemente, was founded in 1925 by former Seattle mayor turned developer Ole Hanson. It was designed to be a vacation retreat from LA or San Diego. All the buildings were designed in a Spanish Colonial Revival style popular in California in the 20's. Hanson built a pool and beach club, theatre, dance hall, pier, and laid out the streets of the entire town. The depression stopped development, and most of Orange County still remained a sleepy farmland until World War II, when the defense industry brought an influx of arrivals from out the midwest (including my grandparents) and the freeway system allowed the suburbs to expand down from LA.

One of the original Hanson homes, Casa Pacifica, was owned by Richard Nixon. It is a spectacular example of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture.

Casa Pacifica is situated at the southern most point in town, and right at the edge of Orange County at the boarder with Camp Pendleton Marine Base, which stretches for miles down the coast, development free, until San Diego. Here, Nixon retreated after Watergate, and walked on the sand in his hard black dress shoes, thinking about what an evil person he was.

BACK FROM THE BEACH

I spent the last week visiting my family out in California. My hometown, San Clemente, is situated on the coast almost exactly halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. It is a pretty little town that feels tucked away from the sprawl of the rest of Orange County. There is, of course, an influx of tract homes and chain stores just like anywhere else, but the beaches are still some of the cleanest and least crowded in Southern California and the vast majority of the architecture is a great mix of 1920's Spanish Colonial Revival and 1960's tacky-but-charming modernist funk.

They say San Clemente has the world's best climate, and the weather during my trip supported that claim. While Los Angeles baked in 90+ degree smog, the ocean breeze and early morning fog meant sunny afternoons and a pleasant 80 degrees down on the beach. As an adopted New Yorker, I would never consider moving back to Orange County... but for a few amazing days, watching the surfers at Trestles, eating perfectly ripe locally grown fruit (see below) and some spectacular Mexican food (more on that later) and getting the chance to spend some time with my family... it was just perfect.

Cantaloupe perfection and cool ocean breeze. More please.