CHEAP BITES IN CHINATOWN

Last week I activated a free one week membership at the SportClub LA. I have no idea how I got invited to join this club, since I am not in the income bracket of someone who could afford this place (the most basic membership comes out to $200/mo.) but whatever. They were inviting me to try it for free and I got to bring a long a friend! So Leah and I headed down there on a Fri night to figure out what all the hype was about.

To be honest, the LA Sports Club is not all that great. Leah made a great point that it looked and felt like the fitness/spa deck of a cruise ship. Sure, it had lots of space. And I got to watch a thunderstorm take place while sitting on an exercise bike overlooking the Commons (and watching cable on my own flatscreen tv), but as far as the amenities went, it wasn't that much greater than my own gym. We did fall in love with the locker room, though, with it's lovely sauna, showers, plentiful towels and sheer cleansliness.

After the gym, we were starving and we wanted to eat fast, so I suggested we visit Pho Vietnam.

It's not the best Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown, but it certainly is cheap. When we arrived, the restaurant was nearly empty. I ordered the chicken bun while Leah ordered some summer spring rolls and the beef bun. I ordered a chicken bun.

Ok, so i gotta say, I always get the bun at Pho Pasteur and Pho Vietnam mixed up. But once I got my order, I remembered that I didn't like the chicken bun at Pho Vietname as much as the one at Pho Pasteur. It's true that as I kept digging down in my bowl, I'd find more and more veggies, and that kept me happy. But the chicken here is always a bit dry, tough and kinda disappointing. At least it was an inexpensive dinner, though, costing me less than $7 for my bowl of bun, but we should've gone across the street to Pho Vietnam, which I will remember next time.