LA, LA, LA, I love you.

Jeff & I went to Los Angeles last year. I surprised him with tickets to see Conan & off we went! Photos from this post are from the Getty Museum & Venice Beach. Both come HIGHLY recommended! And if you love vegetarian thai food.. check out Bulan Thai in West Hollywood. We had the most delicious vegetarian hot wings ever.

I’m a pretend foodie. I’m obsessed with Top Chef & I watch way too many of Gordon Ramsay’s shows (OMG I’m obsessed with Kitchen Nightmare). Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations? Basically the best show ever. But I rarely eat fancy food. For someone who is vegetarian, things can be tough when you live in a city where the culinary claim to fame is HOT CHICKEN.

Cut to the CatBird Seat Restaurant in Nashville. It’s so different than other fine dining experiences, I knew I had to try it. Bon Appetit even named them one of the top 10 best new restaurants in America! I dropped hints at Jeff that I wanted to got here for my birthday, & of course, he got reservations for us. It’s a pretty tricky situation to get reservations for the day you want, so kudos to Jeff! I couldn’t have been more excited.

I’m not the best with words so I’ll let a NYT review do the talking. It said “What many fine dining establishments shun and consider off-limits — engaging directly with chefs, dietary restrictions, boisterous chat — the Catbird Seat embraces. And rather than being typically tucked away, the kitchen here is out in the open and cradled by a bar where people eat, drink, and watch every culinary move. ” That’s right. The kitchen is right in the middle of the dining room. AND I can ask for a vegetarian meal!

You pay a fixed price of $100 per person & you get a multi-course meal of whatever the chefs want to give you. You can opt to add in drink pairings- I chose the non-alcoholic pairing for $20.

Here we are before we left. My man is looking so dapper here! I love it.

When we walked in, this is what greeted us. Porcini mushroom & Parmesan “Oreos”. So creative!

This is the snack course. It is hard to remember exactly what everything is because it’s so different. Apologies if I get something wrong! Jeff likened it to listening to someone give complicated directions- so apt! On the left is a baby radish with a seaweed paste. Jeff was obsessed with that radish! On the right is a vegetarian version of hot chicken made with a potato chip. That one was my favorite of the dish! I’ve always wanted to try hot chicken so it’s a good substitute.

This dish is a lobster mushroom- so yum. See the ash? Very delicious!

This was one of my favorite dishes- an heirloom tomato salad with tobacco sauce, pickled okra, and other stuff I forgot. Yes, TOBACCO.

Here’s another favorite of mine- grilled fennel with other stuff I forgot. I’m sorry! So yummy though!!

The best. dish. ever! Gluten free SEITAN cooked in some traditional Brazilian style. Seitan is a meat alternative & it’s hard to make it gluten free. SO nice of them!

Chef Erik Anderson making the magic happen. This place is so small! Definitely intimate & unique.

Gluten free dessert. SO GOOD

A custard in an egg shell. Can you believe it?

Oh gosh, I’m getting hungry just looking at this. I never once felt like anything was substituted to make a vegetarian meal. Everything was so deliberate. Amazing!

Some of my drink pairings. I didn’t know what to expect, but it was so tasty. One of the drinks was an apple cider infused with lavender :D

Such an amazing experience. Can you believe how beautiful the food looked? I almost didn’t want to eat it! I’d rather pay for unique experiences than anything else, so this was right up my alley. If you’re in Nashville, check it out! But make sure you get reservations a month ahead of the date you’re looking for :)

Thanks to Jeff for the best birthday dinner ever!

xo

If you got into my blog for the wedding photos, you may not know about the Uyghur people. Most people don’t. If you know about this conflict, the beginning of this post might bore you.  Just a warning!

The Uyghur people are an Turkish ethnic group living in Central Asia, specifically the far west Chinese province of Xinjiang. They do not look Chinese & they do not act Chinese, but they are governed by the Chinese. As we all know about China, they do not give up land easily. Long story short, many Uyghur people want to govern themselves & there is no way that the Chinese government would let that happen. What use to be a province populated completely with Uyghur people & other central Asian minorities has become a province of 50% ethnic Chinese & 50% central Asian minorities. The Chinese are moving into Xinjiang in huge numbers (which actually means ‘the New Frontier’ in Chinese). They don’t mix or make friends with each other.

If you live in areas of China that are ethnically Chinese, you probably know the Uyghur people because of their kebabs. Uyghur migrants set up shop all over China to sell their famous kebabs on the streets. In many areas, the Chinese are just not that nice to them. They often get accused of things they didn’t do & BOY do many Chinese have mean things to say about them.

So as you can guess, the Uyghur people are starting to get a little mad. They are having their historic centers destroyed to build Chinese high rises, they have restrictions to practicing their Islamic faith, and Uyghur students are requred to learn Chinese but Chinese students are not required to learn Uyghur, etc.

So basically we have Tibet 2.0, without all the American hippies putting bumper stickers on their cars. It’s the same arguments. The Chinese argue it is for the Uyghur people’s own good & the Uyghur people do not buy it. There have been violent protests & riots.

In 2010 I had the pleasure to travel to Xinjiang & spend time there. It was one of the highlights of  my year in China! The food, ah! So good. And the people were insanely friendly, both the Chinese & the Uyghur people.

But it was weird at first. I went a year after the huge scary riots in the capital city. My Chinese friends warned me & were scared for me, even though I had no reservations about the trip at all. Tensions between everyone where still high. I didn’t speak Uyghur & many Uyghur don’t want to or can’t speak Chinese. It was the language of the opressor & I was trying to speak it to them. SO weird, right?

So I worked on learning a little bit of the Uyghur language. I learned simple phrases like “how are you?” & “how much is this?”. I had an absolute blast doing this. I learned that just speaking ONCE in Uyghur could completely open a person up. I’d speak as much as I could in Uyghur, then switch to Chinese, and people would open up to communicating with me in Chinese. All I had to do was recognize their language & their culture.

So my month in Xinjiang was awesome after I realized that little gem.

After my trip, every time I saw a Uyghur in ethnic Chinese areas I would say hello. I loved seeing them so surprised. An American speaking our language in a Chinese city?! Craziness.

So that was my pattern. When I visited China again in February, I found myself in my old ‘hometown’ & saw a familiar face. The same young Uyghur man with dyed hair selling kebabs in front of one of my favorite restaurants. Hello, I said. He smiled. Hello!

I can’t change Chinese policies. I can’t change the racism many Uyghur experience. But I sure as hell can say hello.

I went through all my work from last year & I for real chose my favorites. It was completely instinctual. I tried to stop from thinking about my audience. I purely chose what I loved, not what I thought others would love. And you know what I found?

Lots of smiles. Lots of dancing. Lots of sweet moments & a few hilarious ones. And last but certainly not least, lots of love.

You know what I didn’t find? Cakes, bouquets, shoes, and other details. I didn’t choose one photo without a person in it. That was totally unintentional, but I think it’s pretty telling. People are the most important thing about my work.

2011 was a doozy. I’d like to thank every one of you for making this year possible. Thank you. It was my first full year as a wedding photographer & to say it was awesome would be an understatement. 2010 was the year I fell in love with wedding photography, but 2011 is the year I came into my own. I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings.

I’ve already got so much lined up that I’m excited about. 2012 couples, get ready. Your wedding will be here before you know it.

Again, thank you thank you thank you. Here’s to a great 2012 for everyone!