Aunt Jemima, Lempicka, Pho, Dorian, and the Eiffel Tower

This morning we were craving a big Kerbey Lane breakfast. I guess after 11 months here, I'm allowed to crave a pancake. We actually found a place run by a guy from the US that serves typical diner food, including something roughly equivalent to Kerbey Lane breakfast. We tried it out for the first time this morning and had a nice big breakfast, including the first pancakes we've had in a year. It was pretty dang decent.

We also went to the Lempicka exhibit, it is closing in a week, so this was our last chance. It was at a museum out in the burbs, so we treked out to see it. Lempicka did sleek art deco style paintings, mainly of people, but also some still life. The exhibit was really good, it's always interesting to see something in person that you've only seen in art books. Her paintings really came alive in person.

After that we decided to do a run to Chinatown. We have a few things we like that we can only find there (wasabi peas, candied ginger, reasonably priced japonaise beer). We had lunch at a great Vietnamese dive. Really good Chicken Pho. In the asian grocery store they had a weird fruit I've never seen before. It's roughly the size of a football (american football), and very spikey on the outside. One of our friends had warned us about these, saying they have an overpowering stench. I was still curious, but didn't want to lug a football sized fruit back with us. We happened upon some cookies flavored with the fruit, so we got those. When we opened the cookies, a bad smell filled the air, but we were determined to try them. They were *hideous*. I had one bite and had to go brush my teeth, and rinse with listerine. The fruit is called dorian, if you ever see one, run the other direction...fast!

Tonight we went to the Eiffel Tower to try out Suzy's new tripod, and also scope out the turf for next Friday night, when they shoot fireworks off the Eiffel Tower for Bastille Day. It looks like we'll be celebrating Bastille Day with some friends that have an apartement a few blocks away, and wandering over to watch fireworks with the masses.