Seeing Red

Yesterday, I had an adventure around Mei's apartment. While the day started out a dark brown, it ended red--in the best sense!
After having tried The Coffee Bean, I decided to check out the local Peet's. I ordered a cafe au lait, and rushed to grab any available seat. I was pleasantly suprised by the atmosphere of the little cafe. It was literally bustling. I didn't expect much at first because it was located next to a car wash and a tire shop across the street. While there was no patio seating, there was still ample opportunity to people watch. It also brought me straight back to the Peet's right by the Den up at school. The decor was very similar and the people that were there had similar purposes; to wind down even though it was the start of the day. Except for the kids that wanted to leave ASAP to catch Saturday morning cartoons, the people there shared my philosophy about breakfast. It's meant to be slow as a deep breath before the hectic happenings of a day takes place. ahhhh. Besides the eclectic gathering of people, I loved the HUGE display of pastries. Mmmm I wanted to eat them all.

Then, after lunch, I headed out to Westside Pavilion to do some window shopping which sadly became actual shopping. The good news? I got 2 (that's right TWO!) samples from See's. The bad news? $$ gone AND See's chocolate isn't all too yummy (waaay too sweet). After shopping for a while, I got hungry and so, I headed out along Pico BLVD to see what I could eat for dinner. And then, I spotted this :
A Thai restaurant; Chilli Thai. I've only had Thai food once in my life and thought, "heck why not again?" So I went inside and sat myself down. It was like Peet's in that the interior atmosphere and decor completely contrasted the outward appearance. It reminded me of a cottage and it was cutely decorated. All the tables had some sort of pink tablecloth underneath with a white lace placemat. Each table had a china set of dipping sauces and the wooden wall was lined with cottage-appropriate mirrors. After perusing the menu, I decided on the vegetarian red curry. Why red? Well, after looking it up on Wikipedia, red curry uses the red chili pepper so it should have a sweeter, spicier taste than the yellow curry. While all the curries (red, green, yellow) have similar ingredients, it's how it's prepared that also affects the overall taste and consistency of the curries.
Anyways back to the meal, when my curry came with a bowl of jasmine rice, I was glad because it was steaming and I was hungry. The melange of veggies were baby bok choy, baby corn, peas, carrots, basil, water chestnuts, and broccoli. The curry was sweet, creamy from the coconut milk, and slightly spicy with the heat being more of an aftertaste. It was good to say the least. The table next to me also got veggie spring rolls which looked pretty good. And next time I eat Thai food, I will go with a bunch of people so that I can order and taste more dishes!

And for dessert! I took a little walk to Red Mango and got a frozen yogurt with blueberries. Red Mango has a sweeter taste and thicker consistency than Pinkberry does and the blueberries were not fresh at all; they were frozen and not completely thawed. While the tagline is "treat yourself well" I did not feel like this was a huge treat. It was more of an "eh" and I would have preferred a different type of frozen delight. Nonetheless, it sufficed for my frozen yogurt craving, but I would not be venturing there again.

All in all, I had a good adventuresome day!