Of Summer - 3 weeks in California (Part 1)

I have been long-enthralled by California, first from my childhood spent reading the Sweet Valley series (time well-spent!), and later in life, from my (admittedly) odd obsession of the 1970s Californian food movement. So, when my sister in LA invited me to visit her for a bit, how could I say no?

When I finally arrived in LAX after the 20+ hours flight, clutching my bags of Royce Chocolate from Narita Airport, I was a little out of it from the jetlag. We took it easy for a bit, first dropping by Chinatown for roast ducks and chow mein for dinner, then a stroll around the nearby park as the sun set.

Most of my first couple of days was spent unpacking the goodies from my online shopping spree, such as the kilos of chocolate I bought from Chocosphere (the Californian chocolate-makers Scharffen Berger and Guittard), as well as my new baking supplies from Amazon. I'm not going to lie; that made me more excited than should have been humanly possible. I ripped right into the chocolates, opening them all and doing side-by-side comparisons. Even my five-year-old niece showed some hesitancy at opening every chocolate bar and bag at the same time, but I was a horrid influence.

In-between more chocolate blind-tasting tests, we made a day trip to The Original Farmer Market in LA, where I similarly couldn't resist Temecula Olive Oil Company's excellent balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

A quick lunch at Koreatown later, we made an opportunistic visit to the California Science Centre. It was huge, and my nieces, with the boundless enthusiasm of children, bulldozed their way through the interactive exhibitions. But I, with my body still lagging behind in a different time zone, and after a full course of Korean food, and the warm afternoon sun, I admit that I was a limiting reagent. I was intermittently dozing on the benches of the exhibitions. Drat! It's not you, it's me. It's my incurable jet lag.

Jet lag makes it impossible to work my facial muscles into a smile, but I'm trying!

It took me a few days, but with the help of some cold medications to help ease my sleep-wake cycle into a new routine, I finally got into the swing of cooking. We retested recipes old and new. I ended up revamping my old matcha cheesecake recipe, and taking full advantage of the farmlands of California, we tested a bunch of fruit and nut-based ice cream recipes. There was a blueberry ice cream, fantastic with fresh blueberries, and a roasted strawberry ice cream that surpassed any other strawberry ice cream I'd had. There was an absurdly simple Cuisinart recipe that produced a sweet milky ice cream and was perfect with the contrast of salted whole pistachio. Best of all, the recipe which did not require eggs or cream cheese. It didn't even require us to cook the ingredients.

Sometime in between churning our batches of ice cream, I started describing Jeni Bauer, and how her cookbook introduced me to the wonders of Philadelphia-style ice cream. One opportunistic Google search away led me to find out that Jeni Splendid Ice Cream is just close by over the next suburb! I finally made it into her store, and had some of the most finely crafted ice cream. We both got a double scoop on a cone, and no regrets.

We took advantage of a weekend to visit Malibu. Aside from the famous beaches, I shook off the remnants of my jet-lag just in time to experience the Getty Villa. It was named after the oil magnate J. Paul Getty, who had a deep fascination with Roman life. When his personal collection of Roman artifacts outgrew his home, he bought a piece of land along Malibu's coast to house his hobby. But he didn't just want to settle for a regular building; in the spirit of the good ol' American can-do attitude, the Getty Villa was designed to be a replica of the famed Villa dei Papiri.

The ancient Villa dei Papiri was located in the town of Herculaneum, and during the eruption of Vesuvius, was buried in 79 AD together with the city of Pompeii. Reportedly home to a Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, father-in-law to Julius Caesar, Villa dei Papiri was considered to be one of the most luxurious housing of the Roman world in its heyday. Villa dei Papiri was named after the collection of papyrus scrolls unearthed during the excavation, and even today, it remains an active archaeological site. During our time there, an ongoing exhibition was showcasing recently excavated relics from a recent dig.

Mr Getty passed away before the building was completed in 1974, but the project was close to his heart. He had a hand in every aspect of the structure, from the prized Roman symmetry of the mansion, to the mosaic floors and frescoed walls. Attention was given to every aspect of the estate, from the types of plants they grow within the walls to the interior design. Multiple tours run at regular intervals, and are split according to the subject of the tour: there's one dedicated to the discussion of Roman architecture, while another may bring you out into the grounds to explore the herbs and botanics of ancient Rome. It was terrific, and the demarcation of these tours allow the tours to be led by subject specialists.

Aside from the tours, a virtual tour via handsets were available as well. Done in collaboration with the book series Percy Jackson, the family-friendly tour leads you around the Getty Villa estate as they talk about the ancient Roman culture and described the personalities of gods and goddesses of the Roman pantheon.

Though, not every section is family-friendly, and a particular walled-off section has a raunchy and explicit carving of Pan getting it on with a goat.

The undisputed place to have a meal in the area was Malibu Seafood. It was a long wait especially during peak hours, but as we feasted on perfectly-battered fish and oysters, there was no better way to spend a summer's sunset by the seaside.