The fun continued on Sunday as I met up with my friend Daniela, blogger for Eater LA, and general gourmet extraordinaire.

Sunday 11 am

Daniela picks me up from Maison 140 in her shiny new Prius and whisks us off to Suzanne Goin’s newest restaurant, Tavern, for brunch in Brentwood. We eat lemon ricotta pancakes with blueberry compote and a smoked fish plate with toasted rye and goat cheese. We gawk as servers pass by with house-made desserts like a softball-sized sticky bun and mile-high carrot cake.

1 pm

Off to the main event! Daniela has to attend a charity event for Alex’s Lemonade Stand, which raises money for childhood cancer research. It’s a chef’s cookout, bringing out the likes of Gabrielle Hamilton (who’s book I just read), April Bloomfield, Jonathan Waxman, Michael Tusk, Paul Kahan, Nancy Silverton, David Lentz, and more. The event is hosted by Neil Patrick Harris and Jimmy Kimmel and raises over $400,000 in one afternoon.

I introduce myself to Coco alums Russell Moore of Camino in Oakland, Bloomfield, and Tusk (below), and help myself to farro salads, roasted lamb, blue cheese toasts with fennel slaw, and desserts by Zoe Nathan of the Huckleberry Cafe.

4 pm

All chef’ed up and ready to go. The plan is for high tea at José Andrés’s Bazaar at the SLS hotel. When we get there we realize we could barely ingest tea, let alone little sandwiches and scones. Not only am I still digesting pork belly sliders from last night’s meal at Animal I’m also now digesting pork belly from this afternoon’s bacchanalia. So we sneak into the restaurant which we’re told is closed until 5:30. Daniela shows me around the Alice-in-Wonderland-esq landscape of neon skulls, oversized chairs, and general doo-dads. On our way out we shut the door by accident and lock ourselves in. It really is like Alice in Wonderland now. We sneak out through a service door, and a long hallway later slip out through an exit near the dumpsters. I don’t think José wanted us to see that.

8 pm

We’re meant to have dinner at Robata Jinya in West Hollywood, a Japanese grill joint that also promises to serve tofu made before your eyes (as Jonathan Gold found so delightful). But we’re tired (and full) and sore and achy from lots of walking around. I know, walking around? This is LA. I should be in a car. So we book it to Thai Town for massages in a strip mall where all the other businesses are Thai restaurants. Thai Sabai didn’t disappoint, $45 for an hour of pulling, kneading, and hot stones.

We ditched our reservation at Robata Jinya and brought home Thai food from the beloved Jitalda instead, located around the block. We order off the Thai menu instead of the American menu and are practically sweating in the car just smelling the stuff. (If you click on the link to Jitalda’s website you’ll see a post from Oct. 20th that says, “Yes we were robbed again last night at gun point, thankfully no one was hurt.” Interesting.

That’s all she wrote folks. The next morning I was whisked via Prius to the lovely LAX and sent on my way back to New York. Until next time Los Angeles.