Sunday, April 30, 2006

Vacationing in a Hammock in West L.A.

The genesis of our vacation started over drinks (naturally), when Noah innocently mentioned he was a whizz in the kitchen and would be happy to whip up a meal for us at some point in time. Not one to turn down an offer for a well-cooked meal--no matter how vague of an offer--I pounced with questions (demands) "Really? When? Do you make everything from scratch? What do you want to make for us? How about this weekend?"
"Sure, I just need a theme"
After pondering a Hubcap Themed Night (in honor of my tire woes...see below), we decided the novelty of eating round-shaped items might wear off somewhere between the homemade mini-pizza appetizers and donut desserts. Then, inspiration hit; I announced I wanted to feel like I was on vacation, a vacation that involved a hammock.

"Vacation in a Hammock" dinner party was born!

Luckily coming up with a theme was the only contribution expected out of me...I wasn't even asked to bring chips and Trader Joe's artichoke-parmesan dip (my go-to staple when expected to bring a somewhat 'fancy' party snack) to the tropical-inclined soiree.

Chef Noah, took care of everything... yay, guests weren't even expected to politely offer the obligatory "um, do you need me to help wash the veggies?" type menial cooking tasks, instead, he threw together a couple of mojitos (with homemade peppermint tea brewed syrup and fresh sprigs of mint) and ushered us to chitchat in the living room while he cooked away...only taking a short break to fondle the boob of our life-sized hula girl.Chef Noah's hammock-inspired menu included shrimp & mango skewers, steak with homemade chimchurri sauce (which I could have drank, it was so good) and fried plaintains.mm-mmm! Tobie Sims waits impatiently for scraps to fall onto the floor and into his mouth but alas, the food was too tasty so there are no scraps left on our plates for our hungry hula dog. Aahh, delish food and a dinner party with leis and a coconut monkey centerpiece for ambience--we pretty much captured the essence of vacationing in a hammock.

With our bellies full, we wondered out loud why we didn't go all out and hang a bunch of hammocks in Cira's living room to pass out on.

I don't know how much the food was (thank you again Noah) but it's good to know that you need less than $20 to recreate the ambience of Vacationing In A Hammock at home (Party City rocks):
Leis: 99c each
Life-sized Hula Girl with moveable joints: $4.95
Coconut Monkey: $6.95

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Noah looks like the shrimp went to his head!