L.A. Farmers Market

After a week in Carlsbad, we drove up to L.A. to spend a couple of days. My younger daughter had some birthday money burning a hole in her little pocket and really really wanted to go to the American Girl store at The Grove in L.A. and give it all to them.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the AG phenomenon, just count yourself lucky. All I can say is that it's masterful merchandising, both at the kid and the adult level!

The best thing about The Grove is that it's next door to the old L.A. Farmers Market. I remember going there on my first trip to the U.S. in 1974. I have a photo of little me, with a big grin on my face, eating a huge corn on the cob. A lifelong glutton!

Anyway, aside from the addition of a Pinkberry, the market is remarkably similar to what it was like 30 years ago. It's not like a true farmer's market in the current sense, but a combination of a unique food court, lots of food-related shops, bakeries and a few stalls selling fresh food. My family's favorite place to eat is Singapore's Banana Leaf, where we had some nice roti prata, chicken satay and a beef rendang. Plus really good mango juice and limeade.


Thus fortified, we wandered around to look for dessert. The kids shared a nutella crepe at the French Crepe Shop where they let you serve yourself whipped cream after the crepe is prepared. This is a not a good thing for us. After we were done, we could barely see the crepe for the whipped cream mountains on it. I couldn't even pause to take a photo - for fear of not getting a bite edgewise as my kids inhaled it!


We also bought some toffee, fudge and various chocolates at Little John's.

And finally, some nice donuts at Bob's Donuts, reputed to be the best donuts in L.A. The kids said it was a cross between Krispy Kreme and a more cakey donut. It was very good...

I had wanted to get some Pinkberry but was feeling a little ill at this stage, so practiced some restraint for once.