I recently found out the founder the Bike Oven opened his own bicycle store down the street from the Oven. I dug around his website and found that he organizes a “Get Some Dim Sum” ride every Sunday morning. Last Sunday was the 9th iteration of such a ride.

Coincidentally, my schedule allowed me to take part on this ride last weekend. I woke up early on Sunday morning and pedaled my way to the South Pasadena Gold line station and rode the train one stop south to Highland Park station. Upon arriving I was accompanied by a few others who also wanted to be part of this morning’s adventure. There were 2 other bloggers who joined us. Shannon from Sha In LA and Pat from Eating L.A. (stunning picture of me on this post). Check out their blogs for additional point of views.

I was joined by a few familiar faces besides Josef. Veronica, DJ Chickenleather, and Martin showed up. We casually strolled through Northeast LA. The bikes looked really cool but seemed restrictive. I kept hearing that the brakes were as effective as any coaster brakes. Also they were more of a sit back and cruise bike. I wanted the option to cruise and the ability to kick it up a notch should I need to. Luckily I was on my fixie. During the ride, I finally realized the beauty of riding fixed. I didn’t have to use my brakes as much as some people while we traveled on a slight decent and was required to stop frequently.

Our pack made it to the San Antonio Winery and we immediately made our way to the kitchen. The food took awhile for some (they were cooking 20 meals just for our group) but when it came I polished off my Italian Omelette without any hesitation.

We were invited to tour the winery. Our tour guide guided us through the few rooms explaining the history and process of making wine in the middle of LA. You don’t have to drive to Napa or even Temecula to get your winery fix. We had the opportunity to try some wine (Pat’s blog should have details on what was given to us).

By the time we were done and ready to go, the sun came up and warmed everyone up. It was pleasant a pleasant ride back. I especially like that Chickenleather was documenting the whole experience. One of these days I’m going to see if I can get a copy from him. We passed by a group where someone yelled, “Are you guys Midnight Riddazz??” CL wittingly replied, “Of course we’re not! It’s daytime.” That made me chuckle. Riding in a group like that made me feel like a kid again. It’s similar to riding in a group of motorcycles but slow enough to carry on conversations. Hard to describe unless you’re there.

I bid farewell to the group when I stopped at the Oven to help out for the rest of the afternoon. I’m definitely going to do this again. Hopefully more peeps can join me.

After receiving recommendations to go to this restaurant, we decided that this would be a good weekend to go down to San Diego and see what the excitement was all about. Getting there wasn’t an issue given that Google Maps gave to the point directions. Upon arrival I thought the parking situation was going to be horrible. Fortunately we found parking just a block away on the street adjacent to a scarcely full $8 parking lot. We surveyed the waiting area and the large array of dessert cakes and drinks. We decided to pull up a couple of seats at the dessert bar and proceeded to order their Tortamisu. It’s basically a tiramisu cake and a couple of soy latte. The cake was moist and lightly sweeten. Just the way I like it! It also came with a small bowl of ice cream. That was absolutely delicious. It cost about a little over $20. Yes, it was kinda steep for considering it was only dessert. The premium you pay for was the atmosphere and novelty. Most people there was eating the dessert even though they have a full course menu. I would have to say that this would be a good first date place if you were to bring someone who’s never been there before. Very impressive and relaxed atmosphere. I highly recommend stopping by next time you’re near downtown San Diego.

As for the food… Well, they’re hot dogs. Only thing special about them are the numerous items they top these things with. I ordered a regular hot dog and the Char-Grilled Maxwell Street Style Polish, 2 regular drinks, and a regular french fries for $13. The regular hot dog came with a slice of pickle, tomatoes, relish, onions, and chili peppers. The polish dog came with grilled onions and mustard. The bread was a bit moist because of the wrapper. The hot dog was too sour for my taste, but the polish dog was delicious. Even had to order another one to satisfy my hunger. Because of the atmosphere of people looking and waiting for seats, we felt rushed eating our meal. So for a total of $20, my girlfriend and I walked out of the chaotic scene with filled bellies.

The food is delicious but I wouldn’t say it was worth the price I paid for it. Perhaps the bustling crowd was just an anomaly considering that it just opened last Tuesday. For what its worth, I would definitely come back here instead of driving to the famous Pink’s Hot Dogs in Hollywood and wait in a much longer line to pay for overpriced hot dogs. Why drive so far to spend so much on hot dogs?

Click on the image above to view more pictures of Portillo’s.