Duration: 12 Days 11 Nights (Feb 23~Mar
05, 2016)
Day 2-4: Work Hard = Eat Hard =
FAT Hard!!!
Day 2-4 were basically training
& working days so nothing much to blog about other than the foodsss. =p
Breakfast
Westlake Village Inn provided
complimentary breakfast during weekdays thus every morning I would walk to the
Mediterraneo Cafe for breakfast. It was quite a walk from my room
and morning in Westlake Village seemed to be really chilly. Anyway the walk was
still enjoyable due to the music & gorgeous setting of the shaded walkway.
Yes, they have jazz music playing along the way - how nice!
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| Sammy enjoying a good night sleep! |
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| Coffee Machine in the Bathroom |
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| Walking towards Breakfast... |
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| In the nicely decorated walkway with Jazz Music... |
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| Overlooking lake view... |
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| Our little Mediterraneo Cafe there |
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| Gorgeous View huh? |
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| Mediterraneo |
One funny thing about the
complimentary breakfast - only cold choices, pastries & drink are free. A
make-on-the-spot omelet would cost around usd12+ extra. Bummer!
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| Inside the Cafe |
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| This is complimentary |
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| The "Hot Station" is extra charge though |
However, I still enjoyed the
breakfast as they provided tons of berries! It was really heavenly (&
healthy as an afterthought) to eat the berries with yoghurt or cereal. Another
good point? The orange juice was freshly squeezed orange juice rather than the
generic juice from the box. Thumbs up!
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| Breakfast on Day 2! LOVE the Berries! |
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| Breakfast on Day 3: Didn't like that cereal bunches though... overly artificially SWEET... |
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| Breakfast on Day 4: Note the amount of Berries! |
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| With Bagel & Cream Cheese! |
Lunch
Few things I realized on day 2:-
Sunglasses is a MUST
- or at least in Southern
California at this time of the year, the sun was really bright & shinny so
one could not drive nor walk towards the sun direction without squinting one's
eyes - dangerous I must say. Thus I was so glad that I actually bought my
sunglasses on Day 1. *proud* I couldn't even drive to the office at Calabasas
without the sunglasses!
Mediterranean Food is IN
- or at least my colleagues &
company here loved Mediterranean food.
On Day 2, my colleagues brought
me to this Mediterranean cafe by walking along the sidewalk and that's when I
realized - gosh! I needed my sunglasses even during lunchtime! They were all
wearing their sunglasses and I was squinting so hard under the bright sun.
Anyway, I ordered the shrimp
& chicken kebab and it was great. I loved the shrimp and it was really
fresh but the chicken would be better if it were tenderer. Anyway, one could
even request brown rice to round up this set for a healthier choice. The set
cost usd11.43 including tax. They even provided pita with the set.
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| The Yummy but super HUGE set |
On Day 3, lunch was provided
on-site by company due to a communication session and guess what? They catered
the food from the same Mediterranean restaurant we went yesterday. Since it was a buffet spread thus I had the chance to sample more choices such as beef kebab & falafel. The beef was really hard to bite while the falafel was okay. I still preferred the shrimp yesterday though. =p
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| From the Mediterranean Spread... |
My last lunch with my Calabasas
colleague on Day 4 was Japanese food. I must say the menu from an American
Japanese restaurant was so much different from the one I used to see in
Malaysia or even Japan. Basically rice roll (maki) would be a main course!
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| Sushi Nishi @Calabasas! |
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| Let's have some green tea! |
My colleagues introduced me the
maki+salad combination and it turned out to be really different from any
Japanese food I'd ever tried but thankfully delicious. Basically it was maki
with spicy crab mayo inside and topped with sashimi salad. What a combination!
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| Seaweed as Appetizer |
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| I think this is Dragon Roll with Unagi on top.. |
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| The Maki + Sashimi Salad Combination |
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| With Spicy Crab inside... |
Dinner
Since I has limited time in US, I
tried to squeeze in some shopping or a bit of sightseeing during the evening if
I was alone. However, since dinner would be claimed per receipt, the common
sense was to try more expensive restaurant around the area which generally took
more time.
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| My Trusted Companion GPS for 6 days |
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| Sammy is always waiting for me in bed... |
On Day 2, I managed to get to Ross at Thousand Oaks - Ross is my favorite mall ever in US since stuffs were cheap there! Their Samsonite luggage was even cheaper than those in Samsonite outlet. I managed to grab a Samsonite laptop bag since I was looking for a laptop backpack. =)
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| Taking some selfies with the pond before departing for dinner & shopping |
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| ROSS!!! My Favourite! |
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| My new Samsonite Backpack! I had to borrow scissor from my col to cut off the tag & she told me not to kill anyone with it. =P |
After boosting America's economy
at Ross, I drove to a nearby Outback Steakhouse to try their herbs roasted
prime ribs. I ordered medium well and the meat was juicy but hard at certain
part. It was really well-marinated though. The meal cost USD23 including tips.
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| Let's go Outback! |
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| They even list down the calories in the menu and make me do a double-take on my choices.. *sweat* |
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| The Interior |
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| My Medium-Well Herbs Roasted Prime Ribs |
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| Sammy is enjoying the food! |
Day 3's dinner was back at
Westlake Village Inn Mediterraneo Cafe with my counterparts in Calabasas thus
no shopping could be done this night. The cafe was really expensive and they ordered
red wine, flatbread (USD16+) as appetizer and I ended up with salmon served
with brussel sprouts (a whopping USD34+!!!). The salmon block was huge and nice
and I liked the Brussel sprouts a lot. Anyway it was definitely a very
different ambience to walk the walkway at night to my room. There were even
stars visible in the sky, not to mention the ever refreshing jazz music. =)
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| Walking the walkway for Dinner this time |
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| Italian Flatbread |
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| Some Red Wine |
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| Salmon Block with Brussel Sprouts |
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| Light-up Tree at Night |
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| This does look different at night |
Day 4 was Friday and I drove to
Fallbrook for dinner & shopping. I had my eyes set on Red Lobster but it
required a waiting time of 30mins! *gasp* I ended up leaving my name there and
went to the nearby Trader Joe's to buy breakfast for tomorrow since there would
be no complimentary breakfast at Westlake Village Inn during weekend.
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| Looking for Red Lobster! |
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| Here it is!!! |
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| Other restaurants around the area |
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| Going to Trader Joe's since i had 30mins waiting time |
After more waiting, it was
finally my turn and of course I ordered the "Ultimate Feast"! I was
served some 'biscuit' first and it was really fluffy & cheesy.
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| Look! Lobsters!!! |
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| The Menu! |
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| Ultimate Feast it is! Ignore the Calories!!! |
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| Fluffy Biscuits |
I almost fainted when my main
course arrived as it was huge! I loved the shrimps & the lobster but had
problem eating the crab since I'm a crab dummy! Lol!!! The meal cost USD38
including tips.
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| Oh dear! What a Sight! Colesterol Overload anyone? |
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| I should take a Selfie with this! |
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| I give up! |
After the fulfilling dinner, I
continued to stroll around the area and went into TJ-Max & Ross at
Fallbrook to grab some stuffs. =p
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| This is so cute.. =P |
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| More Bargain Goodies here! |
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| There is Ross too!!! |
I made a turn to old town
Calabasas to reach The Commons at Calabasas to take some pictures since it was
a landmark in Calabasas.
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| The Iconic Clock Tower at The Commons |
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| The Barnes & Noble is HUGE here! |
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| The L'occitane Shop looks pretty huh? So unlike what we have here in the mall... |
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| The Theatre! Looks like something from movie with fancy red carpet . =P |
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| They even have starts projected on the floor |
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| The Tower |
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| The Clock Tower from the front |
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| Fail in Selfie with the tower! *facepalm* |
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| Heard this Bakery is good! |
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| Some nice Landscape there but too dark for my camera phone |
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| It's time to say Goodbye! |
It was late by the time I reached
the hotel and I think I was too excited about my tour tomorrow (or plain ol'
jetlag) until I could not sleep well. *sadness overwhelms*
Next Day (A Day in LA)
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