23.9.15 - Day 19 Wednesday - Washington to LA, Santa Monica, The Georgian - Pier, Beach, Maude.

Alarm at 5am was like a bolt from the blue, packed half awake, paid and left the Harrington by about 5.30am.

The Dulles airport, was indeed a long way out of Washington, and cost almost $80.00.

Thankfully traffic was not problematic and we arrived in plenty of time. Our cabbie was helpful in warning us that once our bags were checked (which cost us $25 per bag) and through security then we would travel by train to the concourse.

The train to concourse at Dulles airport.

Lyn on the train.

Me on the train.

 Breakfast  of fruit, yoghurt and granola with a coffee to take on board.

View of the new looking terminal at Dulles Airport.

 The terminal etc at Dulles was new and modern, our plane was very empty so we had plenty of room.

These shuttle type things seemed to be moving folk around the airport.

Little houses dotted neatly on take off.

Clouds and hills.

Managed to get a blog off before boarding.

Flight time is almost 6 hours. Wi-fi was available at a cost (I managed to type up all the journal, to save paying for poor connection). We were on the cheap flight, food was at a cost, drinks complimentary, no inflight entertainment, meant time to relax and read.

No in flight entertainment meant time to read. Lyn has been wanting to ditch this book for weeks and is determined to finish it. Left on the plane.

 We flew over some interesting territory including deserts, large cities, rivers (maybe the Mississippi), may have also seen the Grand Canyon.

Interesting landscape below, very desert like.

Maybe the Grand Canyon, it was below the plane and hard to take a pic.

LA, spread out forever

A football field.

 Landed almost an hour early, waited about 20 mins on the tarmac for a gate to become available, then baggage arrived pretty quickly.

Taxi-ing in and waiting for a gate to become available.

 We got a cab to Santa Monica ($53). The Georgian Hotel is on Ocean Avenue, close to Santa Monica Pier, the beach and the Pallisades.

We gained 3 hours, so arrived at Hotel around 11am, left our luggage and took a walk along the Santa Monica Pier before returning for... 

Santa Monica Beach, with Baywatch lifesaver towers in place.

Santa Monica Pier.

Lyn and the beach.

The beach and I from the Pier.

One of the numerous sellers on the pier.This was lots of 'End of Route 66' stuff.

The amusement park at end of the pier.

Pier marker.

Under the pier. Lots of people fishing, not many successes.

The obligatory "Forrest Gump" Life is like a box of chocolates scene.

The Georgian’s Veranda Café for lunch – best burger yet!

Lunch at the "Veranda" of our hotel

 We checked in and spent some downtime in the room before getting ready for our dinner at Maude – Curtis Stone’s Restaurant.

Nicely folded washer at The Georgian.

The bathroom looks great.

Room is pretty good too. Roomy.

We make a mess of any room though.

We got a car, a big black Chevy – very nice for $45. 

Our big black Chevy to Maude.

 Arrived early so walked around to Beverly Willshire Hotel (home of Pretty Woman) for a squiz and photo. Back to Maude for our 5.45 booking.

OMG – what an unassuming frontage, inside a small space – we sat at the bench , overlooking the kitchen and two chefs working in front of us – ‘close to the action.’ 

Outside Maude, that's the black one, with white in the door with the M on it.

 There were 8 chefs and at least 6 waiters for the staggered 25 guests.

One of the chef’s working in front of us was an Aussie from Abbottsford.

Golden beet, with passionfruit marscapone.

Curtis was there and came and spoke to us a couple of times, delivering one of the courses.

The theme for the month is Passionfruit so each of the 10 courses had passionfruit included. We also had petit fours with tea and a take home macaron.

Hot and sour soup, with green tomato and Beech Mushrooms (that lookednlike fish eyes)

 I tried to document it all on the phone, even with Lyn’s help we couldn’t recall the description and contents of each course.

Here is exactly Maude’s description [sic] straight from what I tried to capture quickly on the iphone.

Baby corn with pass aoli

PEI muscle with a pass couli 

Cauliflower panne cotta w pass crumble 

Golden Beetroot crepes with p mascarpone and marjoram leaves

Beech mushroom pass soaked tomato Hotnand sour soup. There was coriander and other stuff. 

Something shell fishy Nova Scotian (maybe marron) with passion fruit froth. Kiwi reconstituted basil seeds. Basil  and mint leaves 

Foie gras - Nori brioche toast. Kohlrabi blah. Japanese watercress. P ponsi (sauce)

John Dory dried capers. Some pass sauce and herb. 

Spaghetti w pass sauce. Garlic chilli. Passion fruit seed and breadcrumb. 

Duck breast. Dehydrated sweet potato. Seeet potato purée. Pass yoghurt  with sunflower petals and sunflower seeds. Marsala sauce

Seattle cheddar with black and green peppercorns. Pass mustard. Salt and ? Crakcdrs

Soy bean sorbet Paso fruit tuille pass foam. Palate cleanser 

Passim fruit  curd with Yerba mate on chic sauce. sherbets meringue bibs 

3 things

Pass pastilles 

Chic button

Sugar puff. 

John Dory, with reconstituted capers,

 I took some pics on iphone, as it really didn’t seem the done thing.

Duck Breast with Marsala sauce, a passionfruit yoghurt with sunflower petals, re hydrated sweet potato, sweet potato puree and sunflower seed crunch.

Cheese and Crackers. 

 It was all a taste sensation, each course had pops of flavour that went off on the tastebuds. Some amazing ingredients and combinations and fancy words and complex descriptions.

Soy sorbet with passionfruit foam and passionfruit seed tuille.

Half eaten Yerba Mate Pavlova, with passionfruit curd, choc sauce with cocoa nibs and yummy little meringues.

 All courses were served on different crockery ranging from old china collections from flea markets, to newer platters and plates. Served sometimes directly over the counter by the chef’s, sometimes the chef’s came around to serve and other times the wait staff and maitre’d did it.

Then there were the petit fours.

A nice Antsy Pants Riesling from Oregon to accompany it all, went down very well.

We were all done in just over a couple of hours.

A brief walk on Rodeo Drive before cabbing home to another well earned sleep.

Home along Rodeo Drv.

A shot along Rodeo Drive.