Sunday Letter • November 17th, 2024
My Cali Travel Revue, a song to transport you to the southwestern coast, and what's (still) to come
Welcome to this week’s
Hello from California!
You are likely receiving this very late in the evening, or just finding this in your mailbox the next day. I’m sitting in my San Fran Airbnb wrapping up and rounding up these past two weeks while eating my grass-fed burger takeout from Calibur (linked below!), sticking to my commitment to getting you all my bi-weekly Sunday Letter! Thank you for tuning in.
I’m at the very end of my two-week trip out west for recruitment travel. It’s been a real joy to both work and play here, but I am very much so looking forward to being back in my own home.
While it’s been my fourth time to CA in the past two years, this was my first time heading down to San Diego, and my first time ever in the Bay area. Los Angeles has started to feel like a second home for me. My community continues to grow and I always feel so inspired here. It was certainly nice to catch a bit more direct sun while I was there, too.
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San Francisco has some [kinda scurry, but] beautiful hills and homes. I found many lovely moments to capture in my short time here.
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In this week’s Letter, I’m going to share some of my favorite stays, eats, and places to go from this trip to Cali.
“Dulce Sol” by Norman Brown
I’m a big smooth jazz mama, I get it from my dad! I got this quintessential Norman Brown album on tape at the beginning of this year and it’s a delicious album from beginning to end, featuring covers of some of my favorite R&B tracks like Janet Jackson’s “That’s the Way Love Goes” and the Isleys’ classic “For the Love of You.”
The tracks on this record give me big Southern California vibes, and when I read the credits on the tape’s J card and saw that Norman Brown recorded this album in Beverly Hills, it all made sense. The vibe is on point, and “El Dulce Sol” always transports me back to the California coast, even when I’m back east!
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My Cali Revue and Recommendations
San Diego
Accommodation
I spent one night in San Diego on this trip, and found the cutest most thoughtfully designed Airbnb for my short stay.
Located in the Lincoln Park area, this ancient-Greek inspired home immersed me in beauty.
Equipped for efficiency with basic necessities like a mini fridge, electric kettle for making a cup of tea, microwave and silverware to reheat your takeout, and a dedicated workspace, it’s the perfect place to rest if you are in need of a brief one- or two-night stay.
My favorite parts of the home were its beautiful decor, skylights in the living and bathrooms, and the amazing plaster calla lily wall on the inside of the bath―I most definitely will need to recreate this wall in my future dream home.
For dinner, I ordered Vietnamese pho from Pho Kha. Any Pho restaurant that serves oxtail pho is a good one in my book. My order: meatball, beef tendon, and oxtail pho for extra collagen.
The amino acids from the collagen-rich protein in the oxtails, tendons, and Vietnamese meatballs paired with the rich pho broth made from simmering beef bones with aromatic and immune-supportive herbs like ginger and star anise make it one of my favorite comfort foods and nutrient-dense meals to get when traveling.
Before my 3 hour drive back to LA, I stopped at Holy Matcha for a boost. I picked up a steaming hot cup of “The Hulk,” which contains two shots of their quality matcha and maca, one of my favorite superfoods for supportive energy without the crash.
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Los Angeles
Accommodation
I found a great place for my week in LA that was central to where I needed and wanted to to be, on the eastside of Los Angeles in the Silverlake neighborhood. It was a short distance to Sunset Boulevard and not far from all of my favorite shops, like Moon Juice and Gil Rodriguez. It had everything I needed for my week stay, including a dedicated parking space for my rental car, a comfortable living room and kitchen with plenty of fixings. Can’t forget sweet host pup Marshmallow who came over one evening to say hi to me and my friend Victoria!
Check it out: Tranquil and Private Cottage in Silverlake
To Do
Tea at Shiloh started off as a late night tea house, and now offers a variety of themed evenings, workshops, and daylight café hours with a communal twist. As someone who doesn’t drink alcohol or take part in traditional nightlife, I loved the idea of enjoying cups of warm, herbal tea in a cozy and dimly lit setting when I first heard about them.
I have visited the teahouse 3 out of the 4 times I’ve been to LA, and always make it a goal to make a reservation during either their daylight hours to get some work done on my computer, or in the evening to partake in one of their many workshop offerings or as an alternative to meeting with a friend at a bar.
This trip, I made a reservation to visit the teahouse during their weekend daylight hours and got to enjoy some lovely herbal teas and a cream top matcha latte from their secret menu (they offered grass-fed milk which made me happy happy in my heart in a predominantly almond and oat milk world).
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Going Underground Records is my favorite record store in LA, located in Little Tokyo. I always come away with a few records and tapes, all for under $20.
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Eats
Here are some new places I tried specifically on this trip:
Little Fish in Echo Park
Yummy warming congee rice porridge for breakfast and the tastiest shrimp sausage!
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Dada in Echo Park
We ordered (almost) everything and it was all delicious.
Dada also has a market on Sunset that sells all sorts of goodie-goods during regular daytime business hours. Little Fish, mentioned just above operates just next to it! Shout out to my friend and their buyer,
, for putting me onto the Ume miso which I’m excited to use when I get home!•
BunGraze in Little Tokyo
I was so psyched to try BunGraze during my Little Tokyo stroll on this trip. BunGraze is a burger joint that serves up grass-fed beef burgers on house-made flatbread buns and fries their french fries in beef tallow (a healthier frying option than conventional vegetable cooking oils). I tried their SunGraze burger with alllll the fixings and their curry truffle fries, which were SO tasty. I wish more fast food joints used better-for-you ingredients!
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Barr Seco in Silverlake
Beautiful interior, very chic vibes, and a tasty menu. I tried them for both lunch between high school visits on Friday, and for dinner with my friend Victoria on Saturday. They serve glasses of Ghia Le Fizz, my favorite sparkling non-alcoholic aperitif, and just started serving matcha during the day, as well.
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Little Dom’s in Los Feliz
They serve a Monday night supper deal for just $25! We had braised beef with a delicious brussel sprout salad and chocolate pudding to finish. No pics, but definitely a delicious meal with good vibes to match. Highly recommend you see it for yourself!
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San Francisco-Bay Area
To Do
I met up with my friend Anissa on Saturday for some record shopping in Berkeley. We went to two spots: Rasputin’s and Amoeba Berkeley, which were conveniently just a block away from one another.
I hit the jackpot on some real goodies that I’m excited to share with you all soon and add to my record and tape collection once I get back home. My 100 capacity cassette shelf has officially been maxed out, so I’ll be needing to install my second shelf over the holiday break!
Eats
Traveling for work can be a lot of fun, but also very tiring. Realistically, I don’t always have the energy and patience to venture out into the city to explore and hunt for a particular place to eat.
Nourishment—plain and simple―is the priority. I typically start my longer work trips with a trip to a grocery store to get basic staples like milk, boiled eggs, greek or skyr yogurt cups, fruit, arugula for salads, etc. I also often find myself ordering meals through Uber Eats or DoorDash for convenience. That’s exactly what I did once I got to San Francisco on this trip: it’s realistic, I save time this way, and I can get settled in after a day of travel and get a head start on much needed rest. Here are two spots that I ordered from and would certainly order from (or visit) again:
Taisho offers Hawaiian and Japanese cuisine with a modern twist. I ordered this my first night here in SF when I had the craving for Japanese curry. I ordered the Curry Loco Moco based off of the Hawaiian classic: a beef burger patty and fried egg over rice and gravy, with the upgrade being Taisho’s warm and spicy Japanese curry instead of regular gravy. I also ordered their Oxtail Rice Porridge for later, which ended up being a delicious and collagen-rich breakfast to warm up with. I added some boiled eggs that I picked up from a nearby Whole Foods for extra protein when I reheated it this morning.
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After four hours of reviewing student artwork back-to-back today, I had a craving for a burger and fries. I wanted to see if I could find a spot in SF similar to BunGraze in LA that served grass-fed beef burgers and french fries fried in beef tallow and quickly found Calibur. My order: cheddar double cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, mushrooms, caramelized onions, and an organic fried egg on brioche bun, tallow fries, and a vanilla malted milkshake. They also offer organic veggie burgers and french fries fried in rice bran oil, another veggie-friendly and healthier alternative to the inflammatory cooking oils conventionally used in fast food restaurants.
This totally satisfied my craving, and I soooo appreciate having better-for-you fast food options nowadays! Now, I just need Philly to get on board. ;)
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Did you catch my recent post?
I shared my gift guide for the 2024 holiday season:
It’s also now live on my Instagram if you want to flip through my gift guide catalog-style:
This gift guide was a labor of love. Your support and engagement with my content mean a lot to me!
Still to come:
How to make fluffy, protein and collagen-boosted marshmallow milk foam for your hot cacao and lattes
My recipe for a caffeine-free coffee alternative that supports energy and hormones
Where I shop and keep my eye out for vintage home decor
A round up: what I listened to in 2024 (on tape)
I appreciate your patience and the bit of lull as I’ve been on the road these past couple of hectic weeks! As always, thank you for reading and for being here—it means the world to me. I’m excited to get more content to your inboxes soon!
I’m off to pack up my bags for my next flight. I’ll see you soon,
Kendyl
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