The new Hood- a brief overview

Some folks (my mom) have been wanting to see the apartment. I'll post pics of that soon. In the meantime I'll tell you a little about the neighborhood and the building

DJ and I are located here. It is in an area of LA called Mar Vista. We are right off 2 pretty large intersections, Venice and Centinela.

You can hear the traffic from our apartment, but it does die off in the evening. The time I have been here I have become more accustomed to the sounds of the traffic and the kids in the neighborhood (we live next to a school and our building has a lot of families).

Here are some pics of the building

Entrance from Centinela


The corridor to our place. Our apartment is right on the left hand side:


It's not the best place in the world, but it's cheap and it feels like home. It seems like a nifty building, with families. I talked to the woman who lives next door and she has been there for20 years. The place can't be all that bad. DJ, Moe and I are settling in nicely.

The neighborhood had quite a few places to frequent.

Here is Venice Grind, the outside. You can barely make out the coffee sign. It's the huge arrow pointing to the sidewalk.


My apologies for the bad pic.

DJ and I wandered out for dinner last night and headed towards a Taqueria right around the corner. I have been pretty excited for a little Mexican joint like this and it met my expectations. I had the Tacos Doracdo with Refried Beans and Rice. DJ had the Carnititas Burrito, which he liked, but didn't love.

I didn't realize how much of a Gringo I really was until I went into a real Taqueria. I didn't know what any of the meats are that they had on the menu, so I went the safe route and ordered the tacos.

Here are the meats they offerred. I looked them all up to see what they were.

Carne Asada- Steak, that I get.....I can do it and probably will at some point
Al Pastor- I had no clue what this was. I did some googling on it and realized it was pork. It actually sounds tasty
Lengua- This is Tongue.....Ummmm....no thanks...
Buche- Pig Tummy. I dont' think I can do that one also.
Cabeza- Cow Brains. Absotuely not. The thought of it makes me ill.
Chorizo- Sausage. I love Chroizo
Pollo- Chicken. Good for a white bread girl like myself in a place like this.
Chicharron- I am still not entirely sure what this is, but I think it is a fried pork rind of some sort. For now I think I'll pass

I'll say that I am glad I went for the Tacos. I am not that adventurous when it comes to meat.

Another nifty little place around us is the Mitsuwa Marketplace. It's a Japanese Grocery Store, with a nifty food court in the middle that apparently serves up some tasty sushi, noodles and other treats


I headed there last week to get some sushi and other goodies:


mmmmmmm......sushi.

It was a cool little place with lots of fresh sashimi and other meats. I plan on shopping there more often as we get settled and I start cooking more.

We have also explored further west on Venice and there is a few porn shops, my yarn store, a great looking Thai restaurant and some other interesting places.

Not a bad place to live.