A Breakfast Tour of Downtown LA's Grand Central Market

Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles is one of the most exciting food destinations lately, with tons of new vendors opening up shop. I was recently invited to a breakfast tour of some of these vendors, new and old. Since it's breakfast, we of course started with G&B Coffee.

Not only do they have amazing coffee and cappuccino (with almond milk!), you can also get Donut Snob's amazing donuts here.

Our next stop was Sticky Rice.

What we had for breakfast was actually a snack that they will have in the afternoons, Kanom Krok. They have a special pan to make these delicious little coconut custard cakes.

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Amaya (La Jolla, CA)

It's been almost a year since Amaya opened their La Jolla location (the first is at The Grand Del Mar). 

The fancy interior may seemed old school and stuffy, but the servers were very friendly and courteous, and the young female wine director walked us through a fun pairing throughout dinner.

Bread Bowl

The menu is quite promising, with a nice variety of seafood (lobster pot pie!) and game meats. We started dinner with an amuse of lobster bisque.

We ordered the half dozen chilled oysters, served with a carrot and ginger granita on top, which complemented the oysters very well. These were paired with an Alto Adige Chardonnay.

She told us that Chablis and oysters is a textural, while this Chardonnay is similar to Chablis but crisp. It brings out notes of apples and oranges.

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Lunch at Wilson Creek Winery (and their Pig Mascot!), Temecula, CA

I'll just admit it straight up. I'm biased. I loved visiting Wilson Creek Winery in Temecula because ... they have Molly Merlot, their pig mascot!

Isn't she adorable with her tutu, though? I don't care as much about taking photos with celebrities or chefs, but I made sure I got one with Molly.

Wilson Creek Winery is one of the larger ones in Temecula Valley.

It's beautiful and well equipped for weddings, with a stage already built for special occasions and perhaps live music concerts.

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