We were flying out Tuesday evening, so we decided to check out the Punk Rock Museum. It was smaller than I expected, but also had a bar, a performance space and a tattoo parlor.
Some items on display were arranged by era, some by city, not really anything cohesive. But it was well curated with cool items. I have to wonder if they have more items they rotate in or if they will add anything more. Maybe it’s too small for media, but I think some videos or recordings would have brought it to life. There wasn’t really the feeling of getting lost in another world or time that often happens in museums. But my friends in LA were well-represented. White Flag!
An LA band was doing a tour, and they had little puppies under their merch booth. I said, “That’s sweet! You’re adopting out puppies.”
They said, “Oh no, we sell them. We figured since this [the museum] was so close [to LA] we would just bring them.”
That’s the first band I’ve ever seen with live merch.
I wanted foie gras, which is illegal in California. Since we had evening plans Sunday and Monday, I needed to find a place that had foie at lunchtime. Hell’s Kitchen was the only place. I wasn’t happy with Gordon Ramsey’s short-lived London in LA, but we liked his place in New York. His famous beef Wellington was almost $75 and used mushroom duxelles instead of foie gras, so we just ordered apps.
The foie gras was fantastic, strangely served on a shortbread cookie, with stewed cherries and a hibiscus gastrique.
We also ordered the lobster risotto, which honestly, was meh and the lobster was overcooked.
The smoked crispy pork belly with a chili glaze was weirdly marked as being vegetarian on the online menu. It’s that kind of casual sloppiness in contrast to Ramsey’s TV persona of demanding perfection that turns me off. The pork belly was kind of tough. I let Bob eat it all.
The sticky toffee pudding with speculoos ice cream (windmill cookies from my childhood that have been newly popularized by Trader Joe’s) was the best thing I ate all week. It was worth the trip alone.
For dinner we had bagel sandwiches from a place called Bagelmania at the airport that were awesome.
