Tag Archives: Pink Candles at Ridgemont High

Weekend in Pictures: Record Store Day Food!

RSD 2013 Food Collage from Pink CandlesWho knew that our food adventures would be just as eventful as our fabulous finds during Record Store Day?  It’s not so hard to imagine when the adventures happen with a friend who is a food blogger!  As mentioned in last Monday’s post, here is part two of my Record Store Day adventure with CC of the blog Pink Candles at Ridgemont High (who provided photos for the mini-collage of moi above).  We started off the day very early by standing in line at Donut Bar in Downtown San Diego.  I can safely say that this is the first time that I have ever stood in line early just to get into a food establishment.  We left my house at 7:15 am and there were still people in front of us!  The picture below was taken after we had already been inside and then sat down across the street to enjoy one of our donuts (you can see a picture of our day in line on their Tumblr page here).

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RSD 2013 Food Collage 1

RSD 2013 Food Collage 2I’m glad that the menu was posted because we got the chance to think about what we wanted prior to going in (they also post their menu daily on their official Facebook page).  Even then, walking past all of the donut goodness had me changing my mind several times before I made my final decision: German chocolate cake donuts for my husband and mum; a blood orange, a blueberry with meyer lemon glaze, a creme brulee and maple bacon bar all for myself.  CC selected the same ones, sans the maple bacon bar.  Needless to say, I ate the maple bacon bar straight away, but my runaway favorites were the blood orange and creme brulee.  The blood orange donut had a wonderful citrus glaze and the donut was so soft and fluffy.  The combination melted in my mouth.  The creme brulee one was a filled donut, and had the same crunchy candied sugar topping as a true creme brulee dessert, so it was like eating a handheld version.  Overall, quite a delicious start to our day!  We saved the rest of our donuts for later and at that point headed to the San Diego Record Show and then Groovy Records.  After our first two record stops, we headed to Pacific Beach (the M-Theory line was a bit too long).  I took the picture a row of bikes after we parked the car (below).  I just adore that mint and pink one.

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Before we ventured into Thrift Trader and Cow Records, we had lunch at Papa Luna’s Empanadas, an establishment specializing in empanadas.  Being Filipina, both CC and I are very familiar with empanadas, but I’ve never had them like this.  CC had two empanadas:  a shrimp filled one (I don’t think it was on the menu pictured above) and one filled with butternut squash.  I had the special of the month, the Moussaka (lamb, eggplant, garlic and parmesan).  CC explained that you can have them either baked or fried, and she suggested fried, and I couldn’t have imagined having them any other way.  Because I usually have ones filled with beef and potato, the empanadas at Papa Luna’s were so flavorful and unexpected.  I will have to go back and bring my family and try the dessert empanadas.  That dulce de leche and apple one has my name written all over it!

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RSD 2013 Food Collage 4CC suggested that we have dessert at Sugar & Scribe, an Irish bakery next door to Cow Records, which was our last food stop of the day.  Everything that I had at Sugar & Scribe was fabulous and oh-so-delicious.  CC bought a few desserts to take home and also had a quiche in the store.  Here were my goodies: the orange creamsicle and Grandpa Soapy’s lemon curd mini-cupcakes, a spicy ginger chew, a couple of mini sugar cookies and a bag of shortbread cookies.  The mini-cupcakes were light and so very fresh.  I love desserts with citrus in them (such as the blood orange donut at Donut Bar), and both the orange creamsicle and lemon curd cupcakes satisfied that craving.  The mini sugar cookies were as pretty as they were yummy and the ginger chew reminded me of Christmas.  I’m savoring the shortbread cookies, and I still have two more to have with tea.  Not only did I love the baked goods, but I adored the quaint decor, personal pictures on the wall, the stories behind each recipe printed and displayed, and the lovely conversation we had with the owner and her family members.  I had such a great time on Record Store Day because it was an all around spectacular sensory experience for the mind, stomach, ears and soul.  I want to thank CC for a great outing, and here’s to more to come!

RSD 2013 Food Collage 5

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RSD 2013 Food Collage 6

Weekend in Pictures: Record Store Day Finds

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As I mentioned in last Friday’s post, Saturday was Record Store Day.  In celebration of the day, CC (of the blog Pink Candles at Ridgemont High) and I went on our “Record Store Crawl”.  We combined indie record store shopping with good eats inbetween and had a fab time doing it!  I’ll start off with our finds, and part two will be about our food adventures.  Just as a teaser, below is a picture of how we started our morning: coffee and donuts from San Diego’s Donut Bar in Downtown, along with publications and maps of how we would plan out our day of record store hopping.  Also pictured are my 45 RPM adapter earrings (original post here) and my wallet from PopKiller.  I wore the earrings with my Sub Pop t-shirt.  Coincidentally, CC wore her 45 RPM adapter necklace (her post showcasing her necklace here), and we both received compliments throughout the day on our accessory choices.  Part of the reason that this trip was fun was because CC and I both discovered that we used to frequent the now defunct Blue Meanie Records back in the 80’s, which was one of the few places one could get imported records, magazines, pins and memorabilia because the owner used to travel to Europe on a regular basis.  I’m sure we were in Blue Meanie at the same time at some point in our teen years.

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Because we started our day off so early (7:30am to line up for Donut Bar), our first stop was the San Diego Record Show at The Center.  The doors opened at 9am and we paid a $5 admission to get in.  The San Diego Record Show is a collection of independent vendors (some are store owners) selling or swapping their musical merchandise under one roof.  Most of the items are vinyl 45s and LPs, but we found CDs, DVDs, shirts, pins and even video and cassette tapes.

RSD 2013 Finds Collage 1

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My first purchase was at the Record Show was from Akashic Records.  I had a wonderful and interesting discussion with David, the vendor and owner, which led to him recommending some reading material about blogging.  I ended up purchasing that Wire Train album pictured for only $4!

RSD 2013 Finds Collage 3My next purchase was five badges (pins to us Yanks) and that fantastic piece of vinyl: Joy Division’s second album, Closer from Gary (who owns Third Eye Record Shop).  The label says “1st US press on translucent brown vinyl”.  Now I have to find Unknown Pleasures.  CC found some pins to give to her daughter, and if I recall, she also bought a New Edition album for her nephew.

RSD 2013 Finds Collage 4We saw an old school cassette tape player, and I think we used to have that when I was in elementary.  I then bought those Joy Division DVDs from Steve, who is an independent vendor.

RSD 2013 Finds Collage 5My final purchase was from Mr. Skid Roper.  If you remember, he and Mojo Nixon used to make beautiful music together back in the 1980’s.  The vendor a couple of tables before Skid’s had a bunch of oldies, and I asked if they had anything by Timi Yuro (for my mum).  They said no, but when I came to Skid’s section, I found a 45 within about five minutes, and only for $1!

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Our second stop was Groovy Records, which was probably just a few blocks away (I’m directionally challenged, so it may have been more, but it only took us about 5 minutes to get there by car).  When we parked, I didn’t even see the building, but CC pointed out that it was in an odd intersection, so we decided to park on a different block and walk there.  Once inside, we hit the dollar bins, then I hit up the New Wave/Punk section (I have found that these genres often get lumped together).  I loved the juxtaposition of the Public Image Ltd and Cramps posters next to the Country & Western section.  My dollar find was Live and Let Dance by The Untouchables.  I have the 45 single to “What’s Gone Wrong” which is from the same album.  As we were making our purchases, a camera man from KUSI walked in to shoot some footage.  I completely forgot to watch the news that day to see what they had filmed.  Also, the very first image in this post is from a sticker on Groovy Records’ entrance door.

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Next, we attempted to go to M-Theory Music, but saw that the line went around the block.  Not willing to wait that long, we decided to head to Pacific Beach to Cow Records, because CC knew where we could grab some lunch and dessert within walking distance.  Have I mentioned how fantastically awesome it is to have a food blogger as a friend?  I’ll go into more detail about the food in my next post.  After lunch, we headed over to Thrift Trader, which I thought was just a thrift clothing store.  Inside, I saw they also had records, CDs and DVDs as well.  I didn’t look through the music as much as I looked through the clothing.  I found a couple of t-shirts and CC found a couple of shirts, so we pulled our finds together to make the $20 for four items.  It’s great that she loves a good vintage or thrift store find as much as I do!

RSD 2013 Finds Collage 7RSD 2013 Finds Collage 8We when walked next door to Cow Records, where I found many of the Record Store Day exclusives that were on the list on their official site (a few of them are pictured below).  I also found a bootleg Depeche Mode live album called Innocent and Vain (pictured above).  That title truly made me laugh.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted it, so I browsed through what they had in their Depeche Mode section, and found I had everything there except for the bootleg.  I decided against the bootleg album and instead looked around for the Sub Pop RSD compilation, which they didn’t have.  I ended up buying two Depeche Mode stickers for my car and I believe CC bought a DVD.

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Still wanting the Sub Pop compilation, I checked Lou’s Records Facebook page and they mentioned that they still had quite a few RSD exclusives, so I posted a comment asking if they had the Sub Pop compilation still available.  They responded that they did, which then prompted a phone call to their store.  I asked them if they could save me a copy and that I would be in the following day to pick it up.  By the time this posts, I should have a copy in hand.  Ah Lou’s Records, you never let me down!  The last couple of pictures are all my finds for the day.  Hope you had a great weekend!

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