{"id":3543,"date":"2018-02-26T03:33:04","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T08:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/?p=3543"},"modified":"2018-02-26T03:33:04","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T08:33:04","slug":"la-la-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2018\/02\/26\/la-la-land\/","title":{"rendered":"La La Land"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018.02.25.a.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-3560\" src=\"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018.02.25.a-100x100.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018.02.25.b.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-3561\" src=\"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018.02.25.b-100x100.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a>My folks arrived just days before my trip to Beverly Hills for this year&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.maculasociety.org\">Macula Society<\/a> meeting. After groceries, dim sum, and a quick orientation for our new childcare routine, we celebrated the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chinese_New_Year\">Year of the Dog<\/a> with an attempt at a tea ceremony and a hearty &#8220;gung hay fat choy&#8221; from Westley. I arrived in LAX Wednesday morning and headed directly to <a href=\"http:\/\/tsujita-la.com\">Tsujita LA Artisan Noodles<\/a>. Not knowing the difference with their annex across the street, I did a quick web search and opted for the heartier tsukemen at the annex. But the salty broth was overpowering and I made the mistake (again) of paying an extra buck for the large size that left me uncomfortably stuffed on the way to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beverlyhilton.com\">hotel<\/a>. The poolside reception after the first conference session included the usual suspects from the retina world, and I went to bed rehearsing my talk. The next day, I left the meeting early and enjoyed springy noodles and a rich, nutty broth at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tentenyu-us.com\">Tentenyu Ramen<\/a>. I tried to let it digest during the new member reception before having dinner with my friend Raj at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gwenla.com\/homepage.html\">Gwen<\/a>. The overpriced Blackstone Wagyu flat iron steak at this manly restaurant\/butcher shop however left me reminiscing about Matsusaka marbling. On Friday, the meeting ran later than expected, and I once again braved the agonizing LA traffic for french bistro fare at Ludo Lefebvre&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/petittrois.com\">Petit Trois<\/a>. The soft, cuddly omelette and scrumptious escargot were to die for, although the onion soup felt a bit undersalted and underflavored, but enough to keep me satisfied until our gala banquet. I was coming down with a cough by the last day of the meeting, but managed to get through my talk and met my friend Jeff for lunch over bacon-wrapped dates and a delicious Spanish fried chicken and cornmeal waffle at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aocwinebar.com\">A.O.C.<\/a>. I was ecstatic to see Melody bring Westley and my parents to pick me up from the airport, and we indulged in a lavish <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yuehuangsacramento.com\/menu.aspx\">meal<\/a> of fresh abalone, peking duck, and conch before returning home. With Melody leaving again soon for her conference, we took advantage of some <A HREF=\"https:\/\/www.mondaviarts.org\">Mondavi Center<\/A> tickets from a colleague to enjoy a little alone time without the baby on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My folks arrived just days before my trip to Beverly Hills for this year&#8217;s Macula Society meeting. After groceries, dim sum, and a quick orientation for our new childcare routine, we celebrated the Year of the Dog with an attempt &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2018\/02\/26\/la-la-land\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}