BACK TO LA, MY DAD'S 60TH BDAY

Well, I'm looking back on my pics and I'm realizing, Wow, I haven't blogged in a long time. I have a whole back log of posts to write about. So while Tom's off in Boston, I figured a get a little caught up. About a month ago, I went back to LA to help celebrate my dad's 60th birthday. I had booked a later flight in the day, but when my mom called to say that if I was landing earlier, we could have Chinese foods in Monterey Park, which is what my father really wanted, I changed my flight to land earlier in the day.

But somehow, we ended up going to have Italian food in Melrose anyway. My little sister picked the restaurant, Osteria La Buca. She had had dinner there a few weeks earlier and enjoyed the pasta. It took us much longer to get there than expected, almost an hour due to the traffic (plus my older sister who I was riding with had gotten last and headed south rather than east at some point). When we finally arrived, I realized that we were in the not so great part of Melrose. It wasn't the loveliest neighborhood (later when we left, I realized how close we were to K-town), but the restaurant we walked up to was very pretty, with big glass windows going from floor to ceiling.

When we finally got there, our entire party had arrived. I think there were 10 of altogether (including cousins and Cathy's boyfriend). The seated up in this nice second floor space, which was open air and overlooked the rest of the restaurant. And there was a fire place up there. Here's a pic of it.

After perusing the menu, I decided to start with a salad and follow with one of their specials of the day, a duck dish. Meanwhile, almost everyone else at the table ordered a pasta dish (except for my older sister, who also ordered a salad and a pasta).

We all started off with some shared appetizers- duck prosciutto and some pizzas. They were pretty good. Unfortunately, the waitstaff wasn't very helpful, and the timing of the meal was off. After serving our appetizers, my older sister and I should've gotten our salad. But instead, they served everyone's pasta first and we waited around getting our salad next. Also, the salad were a primi size- meant more as an appetizer or side. They waitstaff really should have let the entire table know this, because it ended up not being enough food (at least for my dad).

Here's my arugula salad with parmesean below. It was pretty good, and was a nice large salad.

Meanwhile, everyone else had finished their entrees, and my older sister and I still hadn't received ours. When they finally arrived (and there was a lag in time), everyone else sat around while we ate our entrees. See, thats one thing that I like about great restaurants- how toheydeal with the timing of the meal. This was not well timed. As for my entree, the minute it hit the table, I knew it wouldn't be good, because the duck had clearly sat under a heat lamp for a while. The edges of the meat were dried and a bit shriveled and the color of the meat was bordering on well done. (come to think of it, they didn't even ask me how I wanted my duck cooked). But I was hungry, so I chewed away at the meat.

We finished with two large platters of dessert. These actually weren't too bad. And they decorated with some nice plump vanilla beans, which I promptly removed to use later at home.

Overall, this wasn't my favorite restaurant, but perhaps that was my fault. I really should've ordered one of the pastas, which is what they're known for. And everyone else did seem to enjoy their dishes. However, I don't plan on going back any time soon. Meals in LA should be like the one I had the follow night at Osteria Mozza.