July 6, 2013: L.A. Day #2! Now THAT’S more like it!

As strange as it sounds, I really miss having the dogs around at night, especially their snoring, snarfling, and hacking that has, in time, become comforting background noise that lulls me to sleep.  Still, I managed to get in a good night’s rest in preparation for the big day.

By the time we woke up, it was too late for breakfast (given our noon lunch reservations) so we headed up to the 9th floor hotel restaurant and enjoyed drank tried a couple of breakfast “juice” blends. Akemi got a swamp green concoction that contained kale, green apple, cucumber, spinach and possibly moss, grass, and Fern, Shamrock, and Electric Lime color variations of Crayola Crayons.

Bottoms up!

It tasted pretty much how you’d expect something that looked like that would taste. My drink, the carrot-ginger-(something that tasted like old flip-flops left out in the sun), was actually worse.

We strolled around a bit, picked up a couple of bottles for tonight’s birthday festivities, then walked the single block down from our hotel to our lunch destination: Spago.  I know, I know.  The restaurant and its owner, Wolfgang Puck, have become L.A. cliches of sorts – but I must admit that, of all the places we had booked for our four day stay, this was the one I was most looking forward to.  I have never had a bad meal at Spago.  I have never had an okay meal at Spago.  I have never had any less than a great meal every time I’ve gone to Spago.  And – let me save you the suspense – this time was no different.

Ah, MUCH better.  Should’ve started the morning with this instead.

We took a seat at the bar while we were waiting for our table and, while scanning the top row, I happened to catch sight of a bottle of 18 year Yamazaki Japanese single malt whisky.  Wow.  Ungettable back home, so I ordered a glass.  Pricey liquid perfection!

We sat down to a spectacular lunch.  A little of this.  A little of that.  And, the piece de resistance, the ever-awesome Wiener Schnitzel: the breading crisp and thin, the meat melt-in-your-mouth tender…

The spicy tuna tartar cone.

Squash blossoms stuffed with goat cheese.

Sweet corn stuffed agnolotti with black truffle.

Sweet corn soup and mushrooms.

The Wiener Schnitzel.

The chocolate and hazelnut bar with banana sorbet.

While Akemi was off having her nails done this afternoon, I was at the hotel having a massage.  I am now relaxed and ready for action.

A full rundown of the birthday festivities in tomorrow’s entry complete with pics of the mayhem!

Tagged: Spago