＜ＯＣ＞ Girl's Night Out @ Mesa

As we get older and have our own families, it's harder for all friends to get together, especially for those who already have kids. Sometimes it would take a long conversation to just decide on "save the date". IMO it's crucial to have someone in the group to be the reminder, to give everyone a little push to meet up and catch up.

This past Saturday me and some of my good friends finally had a girl's night out, which was long overdue. The location was at the CAMP in Costa Mesa. It's a big plaza with a lot of stores, and a good place for friends to spend time.


Actually the girls went to a watch the movie "Magic Mike" first, but I had to take care of some personal stuffs so I met up with them directly here. It's a restaurant lounge called "Mesa". The parking lot is almost always full on weekends, lucky for me, I was able to spot someone leaving and got a space. If you really can't find parking, the restaurant offers valet at a cheap price, if I remember correctly the valet costs $3.

This is the entrance to Mesa, modern, sleek and simple design.


The interior is decorated with lots of black and white photos, there are also a few large murals, quite artistic.



This place is pretty popular, if you come here during the weekends, a reservation is always recommended, otherwise the wait for a table could take a looong time...and...there is a dining time limit of 2 hours!! This is the first for me, I have never dined at any other restaurants in So Cal that has a time limit.

Better order appetizers quick haha.
These are what we had:
Shishito peppers -
Pickled peppers, the green ones are not too spicy, but the big red one is the one to watch out. One of the girls chewed on the seeds and had to gulp down her cup of water.

The lighting here is very dim it was hard to take nice pictures of the food.

I tried 3 times using different lighting settings,
first time I took the picture while another friend fired her flash.
second time I used my own camera's flash
third time I used the "no flash" setting on my camera


After I took a few peppers to my plate, I tried again with the candle light, still didn't turn out good...
Oh well...


Cast Iron Skillet Mussels -
I think this is considered their house special, however, I do not eat shellfish, wouldn't know how they tasted.


Farmhouse Cheeses -
Cheese lovers should order this, but portion is rather small for us 6 people to share.


We were too hungry and talked too much, we didn't order our main entry until after we finished the appetizers lol. I just randomly took a few pictures of the plates around me, they are not good at all so bear with them :)

Roasted  Beet  Salad -


Grilled Angus Steak -


WOOD OVEN PIZZA - Sweet  &  Spicy


Pan Roasted Local Halibut -
This was what I ordered. It actually tasted good, the Beurre Rogue Sauce is very well made, and the crispy parts of the fish was my favorite. The only thing was that the risotto was a tad under cooked. Regardless the sauce still made it quite tasty.


Shoestring fries -
For everyone to share.


Since there will be another party coming for our table, we had to wrap things up before 10pm. We thought about staying here for drinks, but considering that we all wore high heels, it would be painful to stand in them while waiting for another table, and who knows how long that's gonna take...so we decided to go to a different place.

3 Lamborghini lined up right outside the restaurant.
(hmm I wonder if I can pretend to be one of the valets and just go for a short drive.....)



So we drove to another lounge just 5 miles away - OPM restaurant lounge.
This place was pretty big, has a nice vibe with all the cool purple lights, the seats here were more comfortable, too.



But...it's kinda dead here...a lot of empty tables.
We asked our server if it's like this on weekends. Our server told us that because they were relatively new, and that because it's the last OC County fair weekend, people all went there, otherwise it's usually lively during weekends.

Hmm I didn't know OC fair runs late into 10pm at night? Anyways, we sat there and were feeling a little bored, and guess what? The server from Mesa called and told us that they have a table for us! Almost immediately we all got up and left OPM, and drove back to Mesa :P



Too bad for this place, ff it weren't so quiet and empty it could've been nice.

OPM Restaurant & Lounge
8901 Warner Ave
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
(714) 848-1188
opmhb.com

So here we are again, what a big difference! Mesa was packed with people and the DJ was spinning upbeat music, it just feels more fun here.


Besides the drinks we ordered a couple more bites:
Tempura Green Beans -
This forcefully reminded me of a Chinese green beans dish that I really liked.


The dessert that my friends wanted was not available (I think she wanted the bread pudding). Therefore instead we got 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream (we already ate one scoop)
These are some really expensive ice cream haha


But the most important thing is that -
We all got together and had lots of fun! Can't wait to do this again :D

Mesa
725 Baker St
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 557-6700
mesacostamesa.com

Maldives & Dubai - Trip Planning

I think I am mostly a frugal person.

I rarely spend money on things that I don't use or need.
I don't have to have brand name stuffs and I don't need to have the newest iphone (I don't even own a tablet). However, when it comes to travel, I am willing to spoil myself a little.



But I have never thought that I could go to my top 2 dream destinations on my long list in one trip!
This is how it all started...

 





Thus I started planning for this big trip, and all still seemed so unreal.
While looking for flights, we found out that there was no direct flights from Los Angeles to Maldives, and one of the connecting city was Dubai. My husband Andy suggested: Why not visit Dubai as well? We can transfer our flights there and stay for 2-3 days.

At that moment I was both excited and worrying that the expenses would go over our budget. After carefully considering this option, it is a reasonable course of action, since it'd be like spending the same amount of money on flights but we get to go to 2 places.

So it's decided! We booked our flights directly on Emirates Airline, and will be staying in Maldives for 8 nights and on our return trip, 3 nights in Dubai.

Let's familiarize with Maldives a little:
Maldives,officially the Republic of Maldives; also known as the The Maldives, is a sovereign island country and archipelago in the Indian Ocean. It is located southwest of India and Sri Lanka in the Laccadive Sea. The chain of twenty six atolls stretches from Minicoy Island to the Chagos Archipelago. The capital and largest city is Malé, traditionally called the "King's Island".  [source: Wikipedia]

There are approximately 1200 islands, and amongst the 200 islands that people live on, 106 are resort islands. Vacationing in Maldives is so easy, since all the resorts own their own islands, all you need to do is picking out the one that fits the budget. Or of course you can also choose to stay at a hotel or B&B on one of the local resident islands.


Kurumba Maldives -
This was the resort and island that we picked, with a shape of an egg lol.
Transportation from the airport to the island was hassle-free, because everything is basically arranged by the resort. Most places were reachable via speedboats, some others could get fancy and take you there on a small water plane. Oh yeah, I said "hassle-free" but these services didn't come free, they were not included in the room rate and require extra fees. Therefore most travelers just stay on one island the entire trip, unless they are willing to spend more money and time.


So in my next post I would share with you the overall look and feel of this resort and its facilities


In the next posts that follow, let's check out our rooms.
Yes I said rooms haha. We took advantage of the promotions at the time of making the reservation and booked a standard room for the first 4 nights, and upgraded ourselves to a more luxurious room type.


Unless you own a private charter, and can drive to anywhere else at will, my suggestion is to have all meals on the island. Only breakfast was included in the room rate, all other meals and drinks were extra spending but they do offer different tiers of meal plan. On Kurumba there were quite a few dining choices, and food was actually pretty good, I will show you each restaurants that we went to and how we saved some money on food.


Here is another reason why I said that vacationing here was so easy:
No need to spend time on what to do, there were different activities everyday, as you may have already guessed, most of them were not free...


Our first activity was sailing with dolphins, that was the first time I ever got so close to wild dolphin! 100x better than the trained dolphin show at Sea World. BTW I don't remember when's the last time I was there and definitely not going back...


Second one was picnic on a sandbank


The sandbank was absolutely beautiful! Being there was like being in heaven...


As heavenly as this place could be, there still lay hidden dangers, we had experienced something very scary that would never be forgotten. I will share that horror story with you later.


Wondering what kind of clothing to bring if you go there in the month of May?
I will also show you what worked for me :)


Maldives is an Islamic country, travelers should be respectful of their religion.
No drinking alcohol outside the resort area, and no nudity.


After leaving Maldives and arriving in Dubai, I will take you straight to a nearby desert resort, not the city. I spent nearly one month to plan our 3 days in Dubai. Because it's such a long flight there, I felt that it would be very unlikely to visit there again, just picking hotels alone took me a lot of time.

Bab Al Shams - I decided to stay 1 night at this desert resort to fulfill my imagination for a magical Arabian night haha!


Dinner buffet was awesome!
This was the resort's signature dinner show.


All those food and performances were surely something to remember this magical night by.
It's like attending a king's feast, also I had some brief moments of embarrassment, want to know what happened? Please wait for my posts:P



The rest 2 nights at Dubai we stayed at Raffles Dubai
I definitely would recommend this hotel, both room and service were top-notch.


Shopping centers are big in Dubai, ever want to skii in a mall?


Dubai Mall - the world's largest shopping mall.
We went to the aquarium and that was totally worth the time and money.


All these will be shared in my future posts.



We almost lost our sense of time inside this aquarium, were almost late for our next stop...


which was going to world's tallest building - Burj Khalifa
Oh yeah there was also a huge musical fountain just outside of the Dubai mall, it's bigger than the one in Las Vegas


An reservation had long been made at the AT.MOSPHERE lounge on top of the tower.


Sipping on tasty cocktails and watching the sunset.


Third day, the day that I had been looking forward to the most, was the day that we set foot in this iconic ship hotel - Burj Al Arab!


We went up to the 27th floor Skyview Bar for afternoon tea.
(Reservation was also made 1 month in advance)
Expensive but IMO worth it.

All those will come in my future posts so please bookmark my blog and check back!

Lastly let's talk about a few things to take notice if you are traveling to Dubai for the first time.

Duer bai - the financial centin the Middle Eastern area,
It's the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is located on the southeast coast of the Persian Gulf and is one of the seven emirates that make up the country. Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the only two emirates to have veto power over critical matters of national importance in the country's legislature. [Source: Wikipedia]

If time allows, I would totally consider spend a day or 2 to visit Abu Dhabi.


This is where I book hotel rooms


Syb's Blah:
www.facebook.com/Sybsblah