White Boy/White Dog Move To Skid Row

Certified Beach Dude Moves To Downtown Los Angeles

I was ready for a “bah, humbug” Christmas- I really don’t like the holiday too much.  Out of nowhere, an old friend called on Christmas Eve and said that she was blowing-off her family festivities due to some disagreements, and what was I up to?  When I said “nothing” she said “great, I’m coming downtown”.  I was pleasantly surprised, but a little worried as I was not sure where to eat on such a short notice.

I thought about all the options that should be open- Pacific Dining Car, Hotel Otani, Biltmore but then it dawned on me that we had eaten Dim Sum for Christmas many years ago (I believe it was at Seafood Star in Santa Monica, related to the Ocean Star in Monterey Park).  The Chinese restaurants seem to always be open on Christmas, so with Chinatown so close, I decided to start researching and making calls.

I generally start my restaurant research with CitySearch.com - they have been pretty good with both editorial and user reviews, although they focus more on Hollywood and west.  Their “Best of Dim Sum” page showed me that 3 of the top 10 choices were in Chinatown- perfect!  Due to time constraints, we selected the #2 choice- Ocean Seafood (other 2 closed at 2pm and Ocean Seafood closed at 3pm; you don’t want to be at Dim Sum close to closing as the food choices get less and less).

So she arrives and we immediately walk to Ocean Seafood at 1pm.  It’s a very large, beautiful place on 2nd floor in heart of Chinatown.  BTW- Chinatown was bustling yesterday- sidewalks were packed with people and stores moving products on to sidewalks.  This was in contrast to Little Tokyo where nothing was open, and sidewalks were dead when I walked White Dog around at noon looking for a sushi place- what different cultures.

We get seated in a corner table with nice view overlooking all the action- I think this is great- WRONG!  We had an extremely obese couple right next to us, honestly looked like 2 Sumo wrestlers.  As the carts of food came down the aisles, these 2 kept grabbing all the food we wanted!  And then they took a huge bag to go, but now we could get the shrimp dumplings and all the other items we wanted.

The food was tasty, although sometimes not as hot as desired since we were furthest from kitchen.  Service was more pushy than I’m used to, even at pushy Dim Sum places- we did not even have our coats off and were being shown plates of food that we did not desire.  We kept saying “shrimp- bring some shrimp” but it appears only one cart had that, and as mentioned, it didn’t always make it to our table.  But all-in-all, a great experience.

We walked home on Spring St. and as we got into Olivera territory, the Mexicans had many street food vendors lining sidewalk and it was a true “fiesta” atmosphere.  That looks like it would have been fun to try too.

As a side note, my friend forgot her jacket at Ocean Seafood, so after getting home we had to turn around and go back- this time with White Dog.  That was an adventure in itsself, but the crowds had dissipated a little.  She met a little chihahua that she liked as she seems to be less imtimidated by dogs smaller than her.  My friend picked up a huge bag of assorted pastries for dessert and it cost only $4.50.  Some very good deals up there (our whole Christmas dinner was only $50 with tip).

To walk off the lethargy after eating, we hit Pershing Square ice rink to watch a little.  I was amazed at the huge percentage of Hispanics- I’d say 90%.  It was funny to see teen guys skating in their “gang banger shorts”, the ones that are falling down and come past the calves.  I’ve never seen anything like it.

Then we headed over to California Plaza Water Court to see the decorations, which were beautiful.  Then back home, with a tired dog and 2 full and content people.

Christmas was better than expected this year… (sorry for long post, but it was an event-filled afternoon of downtown activities).