Pursuit of the Magic Piece: Book Signing and Tasty Eats

Posted on by Diversions LA

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Looking for something fun for the whole family this weekend? Something celebrating a cute children’s book, and serving up healthy, tasty eats for both kids and adults? Jeanne Cheng, owner of Kye’s Montana in Santa Monica, Calif. has a treat for you.

On Sunday the 27th from 3-5 pm, restaurant owner and book author Cheng is hosting a special book launch party to celebrate the release of her “Pursuit of the Magic Piece.” As fun as this book is for kids, having recently dined in Kye’s sunny, cheerful location, we can attest that there’s something even more fun afoot: the food. Primarily inventive, vegetable wrapped burritos,  Cheng describes her food as prepared to have the whole family “eating happy.”

We approached dining here with some caution: organic, healthy fast casual that’s actually tasty can be tough to find. But her claim is justified: the conscious food movement cuisine served up here is something everyone will enjoy – because it’s all about flavor.

Featuring Kyeritos, gluten free wraps with organically sourced ingredients and enough taste to appeal to Cheng’s young son, to try a bite is to believe you’ll clean your plate: in fact, you’ll want to eat here all the time.

And what better time to sample the cuisine than at a family friendly book launch where there will actually be samples.  Cheng calls the launch a “nutritional adventure. There’ll be a fun activity page, a book reading, samples of the book’s recipes, and children can even roll their own mini-sweet chicken kyerito.”

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The delightfully spicy Vegan Bean Taco wrapped in collard greens on top; below, the Macro, wild seared salmon in nori.

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Reading material!

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The drinks are delicious too, from herbal teas to smoothies – like this caramelized banana shake made with banana, Chinese yam, coconut milk, and coconut milk ice cream.

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Kye’s is located at 1518 Montana in Santa Monica. And this is the weekend to grab a bite and a book.

356 Mission – Rebecca Morris, Seth Bogart, and a Whole Lot of Fun

Posted on by Diversions LA

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A couple of confessions here. 356 Mission is one of my favorite galleries in LA. It’s huge at around 12,000 square feet, the work is cutting edge without having the least little bit of attitude around it; last year at this time I got to see “Another Cats Show” there which featured 300 plus artists all depicting my favorite creatures: cats.

So I knew I would love the current exhibits, and I did. I also loved the buffet of vegan food, keg of craft beer, coca-cola, and d.j. tracks in the courtyard strung with white lights and filled with the happiest party you’ve seen in a long time – all art lovers.

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Well, you might’ve missed the great hummus, but you won’t miss the fantastic art. Last Friday’s opening was for Rebecca Morris: “Rose Cut.” Running through November 1 in the main gallery space, these are large, lovely, geometric paintings that rush at the viewer with images that feel like modern tapestries. Morris titled the show after “the big salmon-pink-red colored painting (Untitled #04-15) that is included and some of the paintings that led to it. A rose cut is a particular cut of diamond,  a round half circle divided into equally shaped triangular facets.” Rose colors and rose scent also played a part in her choice of title, and in the delicate quality of these rich and wonderful patterns. “I also love the scent of a rose and am really drawn to perfumes that are rose based…perhaps the lightness/ thinness of the paint handling I use, could communicate an aspect of scent as much as the color relationships might create an attitude.”

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In the downstairs gallery, The Seth Bogart Show holds forth, a fantastic spread of color, sound, media – like an art amusement park gone wonderfully mad.

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Musician and artist Bogart says “It’s based around this new album I’m recording, so I wanted to create a whole world to present it in.  So there’s music videos projected with songs that I’m making, and I wanted it to be more special than seeing a touring band –  I wanted to have someone step into a world I created… kind of like beauty school meets Pee-wee’s Playhouse and very plastic…I like the way it looks and feels,  like a safe place to hang out.” The contained, magical, funky, fabulous world of Bogart runs through Oct. 2nd.

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Head just east of DTLA’s arts district and check out both of these shows. Trust us. Go, go, go.

356 S. Mission Road
Los Angeles

  • Genie Davis; Photos Genie Davis/Jack Burke

Taste of LA: The Big Picture

Posted on by Diversions LA

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Taste of LA is the definitive Los Angeles Food, Wine, Beer, and Craft Cocktail festival held annually Labor Day weekend. Hosted by The Los Angeles Times and held on the Paramount Studios back lot, there’s a copious amount of treats to feast on, and a whole bevy of restaurants, wineries, beer, and spirit purveyors to explore. Enter the back lot and you’re immediately at home in LA, because what’s more quintessentially Los Angeles than the film industry.

While the backdrop might be a fake city, the food here is anything but false. Attending this event for the second year, the overriding impression is that the food showcased represents the real Los Angeles. Trendy new spots, check. Comfort food favorites, that too. Great vegan treats, in delicious abundance. New dishes never seen, signature dishes, menu items that seem to shout out, you want to taste Los Angeles? Then taste me. Co-hosts for this year’s Taste were Chef Michael Fiorelli of the Manhattan Beach new-Italian Love & Salt,  Chef Gary Menes from downtown Los Angeles’  Le Comptoir, Chef Carlos Salgado from Costa Mesa’s  Taco María, Master Bartender Vincenzo Marianella, Chef Corina Weibel from Canele, in Northeast Los Angeles.

What were our favorites? Gadarene Swine’s astonishing coconut pudding. Freshology’s spoon of porridge and spice and edible flowers. Dandy Don’s chocolate ice cream, Rosatello wine’s Moscato, Doomie’s vegan “pork” sliders, Art of Tea’s incredible iced tea, Lamill coffee’s iced coffee, M Cafe’s everything, Skinny Pop popcorn.

Saturday, we attended Field to Fork, which celebrated fresh produce, locally sourced ingredients, root to stem sourcing, and a surprising amount of ice cream. The sweet treat was perfect on a day when temperatures crested in the high 90s.  Field to Fork was hosted by LA Times Food Writer and Columnist Russ Parsons, Chef Gary Menes of Le Comptoir, Leona’s Na’esha Arrington, Squirl’s Jessica Koslow , Niki Nakayama of n/naka, and Akasha Richmond of Akasha/Sambar.

Now the best way to experience this event is to taste it – and you should put it on your calendar for next year to do just that. But the second best way to experience it is to see it – so here’s Saturday and Sunday events in photos.

At Choctal, single origin ice cream is a delicious tribute to global rain forests – where their cacao and vanilla grow.

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Beautiful greens, mushrooms, avocado gazpacho. So many bites, so little time. The Hudson, The District, Squirl, M Cafe…

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Refreshing and caffeinated Bai? Or Star Vodka craft cocktails?

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Brussel sprouts with goat cheese

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Sweet corn was quite a treat from MRG Michael’s Restaurant Group in Long Beach.

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Quenelle’s delicious gelato

 

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Is there a food or drink event these days that isn’t served well by Stella Artois on tap?

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Liquid nitrogen fruit flavored bliss – alchemy as dessert.

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Australian delight: Sauvignon Blanc from down under – Matua wines.

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Demos all day and into the night – learn from the best and taste their signature dishes.

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Premium meals delivered to your door at Freshology. A flavor explosion in a spoon including edible flowers.

Made to order limited menu from Le Comptoir.

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Asian cuisine delights.

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Best ice cream of the day – and we did sample almost all of them – Dandy Don’s.

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Flavor award: chocolate plus raspberry sorbet plus hot fudge. Keep it simple.

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Gluten free, gourmet vodka from Deep Eddy out of Austin, Texas.

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McConnells ice cream. That was pretty incredible, too.

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Matcha Green Tea donuts from Hinoki and the Bird

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Sunday brunch brought out the kind of cheerful crowd that could serve as extras on that back lot. Drenched in sunshine and heat slightly mor intense than Saturday,  the iced cold press coffees, frozen Kirin, and cool, sweet wines flowed; ice cream continued to be a big hit, too.

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Rosatello winery’s delightfully light Moscato, sweet, dry, crisp, and perfect for a summer day.

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Vegan pork sliders? You bet. This flavorful bet-you-can’t-eat-just one slider was flying off the platters. Doomie’s is located in the heart of Hollywood, and serves up meat-free versions of American classics.

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Brunch is one of the highlights of any Los Angeles weekend, and this was an essentially bottomless brunch, offering tributes to LA favorites like honey Sriracha chicken biscuits from Free Range LA, scones with clotted cream with sugarplum jam from Canele, shaved mango ice with salted plum powder from Fluff Ice.

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Taste of LA Photos by Jack Burke

All Taste of LA Photos by Jack Burke and Genie Davis

  • Genie Davis

Transcendant – The Art of Angelica Sotiriou – San Pedro Art Walk

Posted on by Diversions LA

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The San Pedro art walk continues to be a wonderful opportunity to find exciting art. A highlight of this month’s  walk was discovering the work of artist Angelica Sotiriou. Her paintings have a mystical, magical quality that draws the viewer into her unique vision.

“It’s my voice. I’ve known since I was a child, the only way I can survive is my art. It’s my world,” Sotiriou says. Working with acrylics, she considers herself a contemplative, narrative painter. “My work – I get lost in it. It’s like little portals have opened.” Viewed, this makes perfect sense. Spend any time looking at the paintings and there is the sensation of being pulled into the paintings.

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“All my pieces have to do with looking for light,” Sotiriou relates. Viewing her paintings with their mix of deep blues, rich gold, and shimmering white, she has found it. There is a dimensional quality to her work that reaches beneath the surface of the canvas, and exudes spirituality.  The golds and blues have the resonance of 12th Century icons that have time traveled to the present. When first viewed, we were unaware that the artist was raised in a Greek Orthodox family, or that she had incorporated her religious faith into her paintings. And yet, knowing none of this, to the viewer, her work radiantly expresses pure faith, wonder, and belief. Possibly the best way to describe these pieces is transcendent.

Sotiriou's studio - photo by Jack Burke
Sotiriou’s studio – photo by Jack Burke

In Sotiriou’s studio, the artist’s work, past, present, and in process, all stunningly present images of light and life. “For the first 20 years I created large narrative bas-relief figurative sculptures. Currently I’m working on a crepuscular series, inspired by the beauty of light coming through clouds.”  On her website, the artist says “My recent drawings and paintings have been a personal journey of uncovering and revealing pathways, windows and portals of light and of spirit.” The paintings seem to glow, as if light came from inside the canvas, or the canvas itself was a window.

While many of the artist’s works are large scale, averaging 8′ by 4′, some are more diminutive in size.

Contemplative Narrative Paintings - Angelica Sotriou - Photos by Jack Burke
Contemplative Narrative Paintings – Angelica Sotriou – Photos by Jack Burke

The artist has this quote posted around her gallery and studio:

“I don’t know how
But suddenly there is no darkness left at all
The sun has poured itself inside me
From a thousand wounds.”  – Nikoforos Vretakos

Sotiriou has taught art throughout California, and holds masters degrees from UCLA.  From sculptural pieces to acrylic paintings, the artist has been exhibiting in San Pedro since 2001. See her astonishing work at Loft 2, Second Floor gallery  at 401 Mesa Street in San Pedro.

Artist Angelica Sotiriou right, author left - Photo by Jack Burke
Artist Angelica Sotiriou right, author left – Photo by Jack Burke
  • Genie Davis; Photos by Jack Burke and courtesy of artist