Mothers Day and 85 Degrees

 Mom, Grandma and Bobby, Uncle Barry and JJ, Adella, Grandpa, and Me

So this is the first Mothers Day I've actually been with my mom in say 9-10 years, though I've always tried to send gifts and I always called, it was nice to be able to participate.

I made a delicious lunch for everyone of Tian Provencal (kinda like a french pizza), and Drunken Grapes. All of which was completely decimated by the time I managed to snap this picture.

Uncle Barry and his fiance Adella brought a cake from 85 Degrees Bakery, which I will get to in a moment.

He loves his mommy!

Me with my mom! I know we don't look much alike, maybe in the eyes. It's weird though, because my brother is the spitting image of my dad when he was younger to the point where I get pictures mixed up sometimes if I'm not paying close attention. But I don't really look like one person in particular on either side of my family, more of an amalgamation of everyone I suppose. After this my mom and I went to get a Mothers Day Special Mani-Pedi.

 

 

85 Degrees is this fantastic Vietnamese/French Bakery in Irvine we went to early on in my stay. I believe they make the trek once every 2 weeks or so and I privately think of it as the LA version of Voodoo Doughnuts with huge lines whenever you go.

 

The pastries at 85 are made on premesis and are beautiful and tasty with less sugar that it looks like, but it might surprise you to know they're not the main draw, in fact when I was there I didn't see anyone buying pastry because at 85 Degrees it's all about the bread.

Basically you pick up a tray and start piling it as high as you can manage, it's not uncommon for people to buy 6 boxes at a time, my favorites were these breads shaped like leaves that tasted like honey, and the very popular custard rolls. My mom likes the brioche which are those two giant buns on her tray above.

 It's mostly a well kept asian secret, which is why it's lucky my grandparents are friendly with Vaughn pictured on the far right. She's this really cool lady who buys like 10 Coach purses at a time. She makes jewelry for a living and keeps my family up to date on the latest in happening asian food. You might also notice in the above photo, everyone has a drink. The most popular beverage at 85 is their salted coffee which EVERYONE buys. I don't like coffee so I had an iced green tea, and I'm not fond of green tea, BUT IT WAS THE BEST FREEKING GREEN TEA EVER! I still tell people about it, it was milky and tasted faintly of jasmine, so good!

 Down the way from 85 Degrees was a ramen place, I had spicy beef ramen my mom and grandma had ramen with peanut sauce in it that they talked about for days. Here I am with the store mascot!