Why so silent, good monsieurs?

Today was a good day. A foodie day, an artsy day, a fun day.

Headed out with mi madre to Hollywood. Phantom of the Opera's in town, and I refused to miss it. So we made our way over to the Pantages Theater and went through a lot of trouble to get a couple of Mezzanine seats.


Had some time to kill before the showing, so we went to this place to eat.


Yum. Katsuya. One of those overpriced sushi restaurants geared towards celebrities, socialites, the art crowd, and anyone else with too much money on their hands. Not a big fan of spending inordinate amounts of cash on food, but it's across the street from the theater and we were pressed for time.

The interior decoration is quite contemporary, with blown up pictures accentuating female eyes, glossy lips, and whatever else us guys are supposed to fall for. Also, they have the most interesting bathrooms of all time. Seriously. Trippy. I also think it's a requirement to be ridiculously good looking to work there. Ha.

The food was good, but just alright considering the price. Started off with the Softshell Crab, which was the same as other softshell crabs I've had. The greens it came with were good, though.


I had the Kobe Beef Filet with Foie Gras. Can't complain in any way with this. The meat was tender and juicy, the foie gras was buttery and awesome. The whole dish was lightly bathed in a teriyaki-ish sauce. Sweet, but not too sweet. Yummy.


Mi madre had some seared tuna with spinach. The tuna was tasty, the spinach was really salty, but filled with random flavors. Good, and surprisingly cheap.


Left the place in a hurry, headed inside the theater, and snapped off a few shots before the show started.

I looked up, and saw this.


Another example of my obsession with long hallway shots.


And then, I got to enjoy Phantom of the Opera. I was floored. I have the songs running through my heads. I want to run around in a tailcoat and halfmask. I want to live in a labyrinth underneath an opera house.

It was stylistically very similar to the recent movie, for better or worse. Other than a lackluster chandelier-crashing scene, I could do nothing but sit there, entranced by the awesomeness that was the musical.

Mi madre and I left the show, smiling and giddy. But we were hungry, so we drove over to the Pacific Dining Car (which thankfully is open 24 hours). The place is pretty much a train car with a building attached to it. See?


I felt like having breakfast for dinner, so I ordered the Creole Benedict. It's like an egg benedict, but with crab cakes instead of ham or whatever. Yum. Thoroughly satisfying.


Mi madre got a Chocolate Souffle. It was airy but unbelievably rich. Slightly sweet with a hint of dark chocolate bitterness. It also came with whipped cream that beat the crap out of any canned product.


My mom also drove me around downtown, pointing out all the places used to frequent during her younger days. I'll have to check these places out. My mom's a pretty cool person. Ha. Who would've guessed.

And that was my day. I'm quite proud of it. I actually managed to take out two of the places on my must-try restaurant list in one night. Yeah.

So how was your day?