delectation

Tomodachi Sushi & Diddy Riese: Los Angeles

The 23rd began at 8:30am, when I & my lil' sis left the house for our Los Angeles adventure. She had a brief audit to make in Torrance, then we planned to stop off at Westwood for some lunch before heading to see the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA. Finally, we hoped to hit up either the Belmont Art Park or the Venice graffiti pit before meeting our parents for Cavalia in Santa Monica.

The audit, which was supposed to take an hour, lasted 2 and a half. We were ravenous by the time we reached Westwood, and ready for lunch. We didn't really know where to eat -- Marjorie had suggested Westwood since she had wanted to buy some cookies at Diddy Riese, world renown for selling fresh-baked cookies and quality ice cream at Depression-era prices. So walked around and chose Tomodachi sushi. We chose well. They have a fantastic menu with helpful and mouth-watering pictures and descriptions, and the food came out looking more or less like the pictures, and tasting even better.

We started out with some edamame, and fresh nigiri: Marjorie is a fan of hamachi; I of sake, and so we ordered 2 sets of both. I made quick headway with the salmon before remembering to take out my camera.

We proceeded with two rolls: the Salmon Bomb roll in the background: Salmon, avocado, asparagus, green onion, sprinkled with tobiko. The roll in the foreground is the Mango and Tuna roll: Tuna, cucumber, avocado, mango and tuna.

Everything was absolutely fresh and delicious. The manager came up and starting chatting us up, asking us where we were from, he noted that he was familiar with most of his customers, who were regulars.

Our third roll was the Dynamite roll: a melange of assorted chopped fish cooked in a delicate mildly sweet brown sauce over california rolls. Absolutely tasty, but it was the one thing we couldn't finish since we were so stuffed.

We walked around Westwood a bit more, made some holiday purchases at Peet's before heading over to Diddy Riese. Perhaps it was because of the holidays, we didn't have to endure the infamous lines stretching out of the door ... or perhaps it was because I had taken a side detour into another shop that by the time I reached the ice-cream parlour, Marjorie was at the front and quickly asked me what I wanted.

I opted for a vanilla ice-cream and white-chocolate and macadamia-nut cookie sandwich and Marjorie chose a bright green Pistachio between M&M cookies.

The price you see on the sign is correct: $1 for an ice cream sandwich. I think Marjorie spent $6 for her 3 dozen cookies. While I was not blown away, the novelty of spending so little for such a dessert helped make the experience highly enjoyable. And I thoroughly enjoyed getting in some quality time with my lil'Sis.

We proceeded to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and it was everything I expected and more (see pictures here), but we didn't get to see much graffiti that day as soon after the Disney visit we had to get down to Santa Monica to meet our parents. All in all a hugely satisfying, full day.

411
Tomodachi Sushi
10975 Weyburn Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90024
(310) 824-8805

Diddy Riese
926 Broxton Ave, cross LeConte
Los Angeles, CA 90024-2802
Phone: (310) 208-0448
Posted by claudine at January 2, 2005 08:55 PM