Giant Robots, Mahi Mahi & 85 degrees

Lynnette decided to take me into LA for the day. There were several places we gonna go to....Ginat Robots store, an art exhibition by Mike Shinoda at the Japanese American National Museum, Farmer's Market, The Grove etc. However LA traffic limited us to going only to the first destination I had decided to go to....the Giant Robots Store. The Giant Robots store is a small shop heavily influenced by Asian American Pop culture, somewhere in West LA according to Lynnette. The store was a lot smaller (about the size of a corner shop) than I had originally expected as I was told that the store contained a restaurant/cafe as well (The restaurant cafe was loacted across the street). It sold some t-shirts, manga, comics,, art books and other random books. Lynnette and I were transfixed by a book about "Unuseless inventions from Japan". It contained some of most random inventions which included an inverted umbrella that collects water to save on water bills, umbrellas for shoes and a leg powered washing machine powered by walking.

For Lunch, we went to the Giant Robot's restaurant called GR/eat. It was a really small restaurant with a simple but stylish-ish decor. I ordered the Mahi Mahi with Misoyaki sauce while Lynnette ordered the vegetarian omelette rice. The Mahi Mahi is a popular fish eaten in Hawaii. The Mahi Mahi was served with rice and some vegetables. Meanwhile the omlette rice consisted of a vegetarian fried rice stir fried with a sweet and spicy sauce with an omelette on top of it all. Both dishes were delicious!
The Omelette Rice

The Mahi Mahi
Lynnette had a meeting at K-town after lunch so we couldnt go anywhere else. I was dropped off at The Coffee Bean, all by myself in an unfamiliar area only with a mocha frappaccino and a copy of the LA Times to keep me company.

K-Town
After the meeting, it was off to 85 degrees in Irvine to meet Aryn. However we ended up at BIOLA instead, due to traffic on the freeway. Lynnette showed me around the campus. It is a very small but cosy campus. We joined Aryn outside her dorms for a BBQ...even though I didn't eat anything.
BBQ

We then headed off to 85 degrees after picking up Garrett for pre-dinner. we were met by Lynnette nad Garrett's parents at 85 degrees. 85 degrees is a taiwanese bakery in Irvine which is always extremely busy...apart from when we got there. It was immediately busy after we brought out milk pudding buns. Later we were met there by Aryn and Steven.

Despite already being a bit full, we originally decided to go to dinner at Popeye's, which served fried chicken. But we couldn't find the exit on the freeway so we went to The Hat instead. The Hat serves big portions of pastrami sandwiches and fries with chilli dips and cheese dips which we would mix to make chilli and cheese dip. It was quite filling. We were joined by Ariel, who had made Mochis. I don't really know what mochis are but they were delicious!