Humming with HUM Nutrition Vitamins & Supplements.

By Laura Medina

http://www.sephora.com/hum-nutrition

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https://humnutrition.com/

Let's face it, the reason we sweat it out and jug down juices and eat oddly-flavored raw vegan dishes is because we care about our appearances.

Remember, it's the inside that counts...i.e...your health.  Your outside reflects your inner health.  However, while following quickie but weight-loss diets, fitness lifestyles, and meals, you're missing out on vitamins and minerals that actually improves your appearance such as bone density, glowing skin, and shiny hair and nails.  

How to make up for missing nutrients?  It gets confusing with a myriad of vitamins and supplements that never describes exactly what they tackle; and there's only so much pills a girl...or guy can take.  Besides, we aren't all extreme athletes or bodybuilders.  We just exercise to fit in our Size 8 and just want the healthy but beautiful skin, hair, and nails to go along with it.

This is where HUM Nutrition comes in.  Their vitamins tackles directly what the everyday gal and guy, to enhance what we already have and make it fabulous.

Unlike most vitamins or supplements are just one vitamin or mineral.  An HUM Nutrition pill contains a combination of essential oils and antioxidants to fortify and hydrate for supple, radiant skin and hair.

Besides, there are only so much stuff you can slather on that masks the problem but doesn't improve the situation.  There are times you need that extra boost to super-charge those cells to bump up your radiance. It's one of those times when you need supplements and vitamins that tackle those pesky blemishes directly, through nutrition, vitamins, essential oils, and antioxidants that directly target those depleted cells.

Yes, this scribe enjoys guzzling those bottles of juices but they get heavy, awkward, and bulky.  There are times this scribe just wants to pop a beauty pill.

"Red Carpet" HUM Supplements, https://humnutrition.com/products/20

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http://www.sephora.com/red-carpet-P386763?icid2=Hum_Nutrition_FromtheBrand_Carousel_P386763_link

The founders behind HUM Nutritions know what people want and what's important, how to look smashing enough for the red carpet.

Their Red Carpet Supplement tackles the scrutinizing glare of flashing camera and High Definition television by packing each pill with GLA, ALA, and Vitamin E for healthy skin and hair.  

GLA is a great Omega 6 fatty acid, and is powerfully concentrated in Black Currant oil.

Omega 6 fatty acids are necessary for human health, but the body can't make them, so you have to get them through food. 

They're also known as Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs), they help stimulate skin and hair growth, maintain bone health, regulate metabolism, and even maintain the reproductive system.

Runway Ready Supplement Packets,  http://www.sephora.com/runway-ready-P386765?icid2=Hum_Nutrition_FromtheBrand_Carousel_P386765_image

HUM knows it's target markets and what their lifestyles need.  If Hollywood's "Red Carpet" supplements aren't your thing and you live in New York and you need something to make you look smashing for the endurance race called New York Fashion Week then HUM comes to the rescue.

In pocket-sized packets, HUM's Runway Ready supplements packet is already prepackaged with that day's essential combination of Red Carpet formula for boosting your weary hair and skin; and Killer Nails supplement to fortify your nails while dashing from one show to another.

Call HUM's Runway Ready Supplement Packets, vitamins for Fashionistas and Stylistas.

"Here Comes the Sun," http://www.sephora.com/here-comes-sun-P386762?icid2=Hum_Nutrition_Urbanistas_Carousel_P386762_link

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https://humnutrition.com/products/16

If you're boozing during Los Angeles' "Foodie & Booze" Festival Season like this scribe (someone gotta do something with all this fresh produce), you've been socializing underneath the sun.

Now, this scribe is no fan of  Melanoma but you gotta find a way to better synthesize Vitamin D for stronger bones and internal skin protection without frying in the UV rays.

Sneaking HUM's Here Comes the Sun supplements are a sneaky way to boost bone growth (especially for you vegans out there) and fortifying the skin without losing face in the sun.

Whether your concerns are how to sneak in vitamins during Summer parties or have to gain that additional boost while running the fashion week circuit or how to look healthy like an Hollywood celebrity, HUM Nutrition tackles those issues so you wouldn't have to.

 

DSTLD Jean Shorts for the Ladies

By Laura Medina

https://dstldjeans.com/shop/womens/shorts/?email=larigene@aol.com&utm_source=DSTLD&utm_campaign=f4778444c3-09_cutoffshort&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_50238f4de8-f4778444c3-50390013

This down-home Southern scribe understands the need for denim cut-off shorts a.k.a. "Daisy Dukes."

They're thrifty in salvaging a pair of ripped up jeans, giving them a second life as shorts.  They're ecologically-minded, not adding up to the landfill dump.  Again, they're economical since you're getting two item in one, from full-length jeans to shorts in a nanosecond.

However, there are times like right now, yachting, sailing, or just hanging poolside and beach-side, you desire a "decent" pair of jean shorts that are short enough to be cute enough with your polo shirt or striped Nautical sweater and short enough to gain a golden tan while covering a reasonable amount of your posterior.

Jeans shorts, yes.  Butt-cleavage baring "Daisy Dukes" best saved for Coachella and other bohemian muddy and dirty music festival...have to be shelved for the next round next time or next year.

Sometimes, you wish your jean shorts come in more refined fabric than your usually  heavy denim canvas for better breatheability.

 https://dstldjeans.com/shop/womens/shorts/?email=larigene@aol.com&utm_source=DSTLD&utm_campaign=f4778444c3-09_cutoffshort&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_50238f4de8-f4778444c3-50390013

Have no despair, DSTLD Jean Shorts has come at the right time during the Dog Days of Summer.

Since they're made fresh from scratch,  the edges and seams are refined for a cleaner, "preppier" appearance.  They're also constructed from lighter, more flexible Tencel and Modal for a lighter, softer feel, better for Summer.

https://dstldjeans.com/products/mid-rise-roll-up-short-in-summer-vintage

Talk about flexibility!  DSTLD Mid-Rise Rolled-Up Shorts for long enough for those not yet comfortable with flashing their butt cheeks.  However, you roll it up short and high for a slight peek if you want to.  Either way, the leaner tailoring in dark but lightweight Dual-Flex Tencel® still makes this light and adjustable for Summer.  Rolled all the way down, it's still appropriate for that Back-to-School Week in the middle of August.

Remember, this is DSTLD Denim.  You can order three pairs of shorts or jeans, try and test them for 10 days.  Keep and pick the one(s) you like the best then ship the rest back to the company.  They will only charge you for the amount you keep.  Still, remember there is a 10 days trial period.  If you keep them any longer, they will charge you for the full amount of all three.

DSTLD Jean Shorts, sassy but classy.

Fitness for Foodies. "Belfies" & Pilates MegaReformers for a Summer Bikini Body then a Hot Body for the Holidays.

By Laura Medina

"Belfies," the new Selfies.

Whether it's America's changing demographics, Jennifer Lopez's curves and her bodacious butt, mainstream America is finally embracing a fitter, meatier physique, Americans are returning to their hunters & gathers' evolutionary idea of ancestral fecund, a fertile but more

athletic body built for survival of the fittest to reproduce the next generation.  People are proud of their "Belfies," selfies with the focus on a loud and proud buttock, one of the curves of fertility, a.k.a. sexuality.

After the Sixties' "Youth Quake" and the over-dose of Seventies' anorexic aerobic, coupled with Eigthties' eating disorders, we're a nation of, what Lindsay Vonn said, "skinny-fat," skinny lacking muscle tone to efficiently burn calories, brittle-boned fatties without tone but flab.  Those people don't age very graciously.

The "Belfie" Movement is the "back" lash against the bony-butt weaklings still roaming the streets of Hollywood as starving starlets and dying-to-please-and-dying-to-comform low-level entertainment assistants who deeply yearn for the camera's attention when, in fact, they're million miles behind the camera, long enough that they have no business in front of it.

The "Belfie" Movement is sexuality through fitness, "health as your wealth."  ESPN Magazine's "The Body Issue" is about highly-esteemed athletes, of both gender and of various physiques and age, who don't have personal body issues but they have issues about the difference between being "skinny fat" and being truly fit at one's optimal physical peakiness.

Sure, some people (especially in Hollywood) cheat by having butt implants either because they're pressed for time or they're just too lazy to burn and tone a very large muscles group called gluteus maximus.  People are just realizing a very large gluteus maximus isn't just fat and cellulite but a rack packed full of muscles that one attains from disciplines called track & field, gymnastics, body-building, and the martial arts.  These disciplines aren't for "twinkies" suffering from eating disorders, and real athletes are too in love with their sports to care.  Honestly, most physical trainers say, the bigger the muscles, the more they'll eat and burn calories for recovery and fuel after a very intense work-out.  Truly sexy, huh?

For the mere mortals who want a fecund, fitter physique but not professional athletes?  Don't worry, there are aplenty of exercises and fitness methods and work-outs that tackle and build a better, firmer butt.  Whether it's MegaReformer/Lagree Fitness™ Pilates to the ballet-inspired Barre Method, both share something in common...butt work-outs.  

Thanks to former Police Academy drill instructor, Corrections Officer, Bounty Hunter, and celebrity trainer to Carmen Electra and Jenny McCarthy, Gino Caccavale is Manhattan's "Belfie Whisper;" and here are his tips...

Gino's 5 Best Belfies Exercise Moves...

SIDE KICK OUTS

Start by standing on your right leg approximately 12 in away and facing a fixed barbell or any counter located at hip height.

Place both you hands together to the far right of barbell or counter and lift your left knee just above bar height coiling it inward toward left elbow.

Extend your left leg laterally as if performing a martial art  “ side kick”, keeping it parallel to floor and in line with barbell or counter

Re-coil your knee back to left your left elbow.

Perform 2 sets of 30 kicks each leg.

Works your thighs and glutes

BARBELL GLUTE BRIDGE ( can be done without barbell)

Start by lying on floor with your knees at 90 degrees

Hold a barbell across front of your hip, just below your waistline

Pulse your hips upward until your back and hips are in line, keeping balls of feet elevated.

Slowly lower your hips without having glutes contact the floor

Perform 3 sets of 20 repetitions.

Works your glutes and core. 

TICK TOK SQUAT ( can be done without band)

Start by standing on an exercise band with feet hip width and holding handles at shoulders.

Squat down until thighs are parallel to floor.

Raise from squat and simultaneously lift your right leg to the side, keeping it straight.

Return to squat and then repeat for left leg

Perform 2 sets 15 lifts each side which is 30 squats

Works your abductors, glutes, and thighs 

KETTLE BELL CROSS BACK LUNGE (can be done w/o kettlebell)

Start by holding a single kettle bell in front of your body with arms extended and your feet hip width.

Cross and lunge your left leg to the rear and slightly to the right , dropping your knee about 8 inches behind and inline with right knee.

The kettle bell should be directly over shoe laces, keeping your arms extended.

Return to start position and immediately cross back your right leg.

Works your thighs, hips, glutes, core.

PRONE GLUTE LIFT

Start by lying on bench , face down, with your waist positioned at back edge of the bench

Have your legs extended in a “v” position with your feet approximately 6 inches from the floor.

Lift both your legs upward as one unit, squeezing glutes until lower abdomen is slightly elevated from bench.

Perform 2 sets of 25 repetitions.

Works your glutes

 "Yogalite" exercise moves on MegaReformer, http://www.carriespilatesplus.com/index.html

Imagine if you took the standard butt lift exercises on the ground then take them on a wobbly but very flexible and adjustable shaky platform that forces you to stabilize your core abdominal muscles while pulling and pushing your limbs into curls using and against your very own body weight.  Then, taking this contraption even further, when you take the usually healing but passive yoga stretches into muscle-building and toning exercises onto this wobbly platform.

If you feel like your body is plateauing, doing the standard pilates, yoga, and butt lifts, curls, and squats-turning-into-butt kick-backs are amped up on a MegaReformer, a shaky exercise platform bed with adjustable pulleys and handles that pushes the average exercise routine beyond average with squeezing the core abdominal to keep you stable, all developed on a former bodybuilder's Lagree Fitness™.  Pardon the pun and forgive this scribe who tried and practiced the Lagree Fitness on MegaReformers, those MegaReformers will make your boring "yogilate" and Barre Butt Lifts on steroids then take them into the stratosphere.  Warning, doing your routine yoga and pilates moves on a MegaReformer really targets then burns those muscles into defined but bodacious muscles, where your muscles are your curves.  Nothing burns fat and tones a.k.a. "kicks" butts like an everyday lunge on a MegaReformer!

MegaReformers are so efficient and so intense (Jennifer Aniston and Brooke Burns love them) that instructors warn people "not to over-train on them" due to injuries and muscle fatigue.  The MegaReformer instructors and practitioners limit themselves to no more than three-days of "MegaReforming."  The norm is once a week.  The average fan does twice a week.  The hard-core do three-times a week then they give it a rest.  This is a well-deserved excuse for a pampering massage. 

 Ky Evans teaching & training, http://www.thestudiomdr.com/

 In Los Angeles, this is "Top Chefs" secret weapon in staying fit and fast, while being surrounded by food all day and all night long-an one hour burn and stretch on a MegaReformer.  The two "Top Chefs" of Melisse and Jiraffe, do MDR Studio's MegaMen MegaReformer Class on Saturdays only at 11am.  If this is good enough for busy top chefs, then it's good enough for foodies, making more room to enjoy this Foodie Season...like real adults.

Yoga & Pilate Moves on MegaReformers, http://www.carriespilatesplus.com/index.html

The common thread running through the routine butt exercises to the more advanced MegaReformer Pilates is this...a person so focused on mere dress size, usually Size Sub-Zero with a very early and dangerous on-set of Osteoporosis, wouldn't survive a day doing down-to-earth butt exercises, much less one session on a shaky MegaReformer.  One must have average build with a real and average fat to fuel the average amount of muscle just to do the necessary push-pull and leg and arm curls on a MegaReformer to actually watch instant sexy and sensually fit transformations.  Sub-Zero "Skinny Fatties" are the weakest link in the "belfies" revolution. 

Now, aren't those the "Belfie" curves that everyone wants and desire so much?!

From Poolside to Garden Party then back to Yacht, Bobi's Striped Cover-Up/Dress.

By Laura Medina

Whenever the Sun pops up at the beginning of Spring then blazes through Summer, the never-fails French Striped Sailor Shirt signals Nautical classic of sailing, pier, yachting, and the beach.

Many a women have borrowed or bought specifically over-sized nautical sweaters and shirts as a Summer Dress or a really preppy beach cover-up but the fitting wasn't quite right, until now...

Bobi USA came out with lush, plush velour striped Sailor Dress with a drawstring belt at the waist to cinch in for form and figure.

If "Mad Men" Joan Harris were to hit the beach, she would be wearing this, knowing she'll move onto a cocktail party later on.

At Angeleno's Live and Dine LA Food Festival, http://luxurist.blogspot.com/2014/07/fit-fab-food-festival-angeleno.html, this was an easy grab and go for instant Preppy chic, making this travel-worthy from Santa Monica to Charleston to The Hamptons.

Thank god for California's well-tempered climate that it was in the perfect '70's because the plushness of the velour carries it over into Fall.  Switch your sandals for rugged riding boots, this Bobi Sailor Dress will feel right at home in a Manhattan Fall.

Can't go wrong with Bobi's Striped Sailor Dress.

Free & Fit, Free Exercise Classes at Westfield Century City Mall & by SHAPE Magazine & Free Latin Dances at Glendale Galleria

By Laura Medina

ShapeRSVP@shape.com

Love it, how here in Los Angeles, Bikini Season is the same season as the Food and Booze Food Festival Season.  Blame it on the God-given climate and soil but just because all this ripe fruit and vegetables are bursting out, it doesn't mean you have to burst out.

Bless these free fitness classes for arriving at the nick of time.  They'll help you deal and burn calories and detox so you'll be bikini-ready on the beach then foodie festival fab later at night.

SHAPE Magazine & Men's Fitness Summer Takeover tour with Jamba Juice! FREE workout classes, giveaways & Jamba Juice samples is happening this Friday in West Los Angeles for all those stressed-out office workers.

Friday 7/25 at Speed X (LA) - 3pm, 4pm, 5pm
Saturday 7/26 at Fitmix Studio - Endurance Pilates + Tread (LA) - 1pm, 2pm, 3pm
Sunday 7/27 at Mansion Fitness (West Hollywood) - 10am, 11am, 12pm

Email ShapeRSVP@shape.com to reserve your spot NOW!

Westfield Workout Wednesdays,
events@burnthis.com

This scribe wishes malls, especially ones carrying upscale, fancy fitness wear boutique chains, would do of what Westfield Mall in Century City is doing, Westfield Workout Wednesdays.  If they do more of these free fitness classes, people will have the reason to shop better and newer fitness clothes.

These are the free exercises under Westfield Century City Mall's "Burn This" Fitness Series:

Last Wednesday was the first free workout, July 16th Body By Simone - Cardio Dance.

Tonight, it's July 23rd's Pilates Platinum - Mat Pilates.

July 30th is Best U - Cardio Barre then August 6th's Physique 57 - Barre / Toning.

Take advantage of all these free fitness, ShapeRSVP@shape.com for this weekend's SHAPE Magazine & Men's Fitness Summer Takeover tour with Jamba Juice andWestfield Century City Mall's "Burn This" Fitness Series, for the next 2 Wednesdays by emailing events@burnthis.com.

 http://www.glendalegalleria.com/events/summer-pop-up-series-at-glendale-galleria

If all those fitness classes sound monotonous and routine and you want to exercise your knowledge and brain as well, Glendale Galleria and Glendale Arts are offering Free Latin Dance Classes, taught by Sergio Leal, owner of Latin Dance Pro in Pasadena, California.

Starting July 29th to September 23rd, at 2nd Level of the Bloomingdale's Wing, Summer Pop Up Series at Glendale Galleria will have Sergio teach 5 different types of Latin dances over a nine-weeks course.  Glendale Galleria and Glendale Arts will be hosting free dance classes every Tuesday for our Summer Pop Up Series. 

Each Tuesday night, starting at 6pm until 8pm, will offer different style of Latin Dance:

July 29th:Salsa
August 5th: Bachata
August 12th: Merengue
August 19th: Cumbia
August 26th: Salsa
September 2nd: Bachata
September 9th: Merengue
September 16th: Cumbia
September 23rd: Bobby Rivas & Band

As a reward for hanging in there, on the final night of September 23rd, Bobby Rivas & Band will play while the students show off what they learned.

Not only did you learn something new for your brain and burn calories, the next time you hit any dance floor, you got new moves.

Want to get your groove on, go to http://www.glendalegalleria.com/events/summer-pop-up-series-at-glendale-galleria, to find out more.

 

 

 

Lucky Rice LA 2014 is moving to Create Nightclub in Hollywood on August 7

By Laura Medina

There's more to Chef Sang Yoon, other than the reinterpreted classic cheeseburger, gooey and gourmet, at the game-changing My Father's Office.  He used that as his launch pad into a Chinese restaurant he always dream of, Lukshon with it's Bhutan red rice dotted with lamb bacon.  He makes the basics fancy.

This Summer, Chef Sang Yoon is taking the booming Lucky Rice LA, Asian food festival/party and decamping to Create Nightclub in Hollywood next month on August 7th.

Yes, to all you cultivated Culver City folks, this is a big cultural shift and shock but there's only so much hungry party people H.D. Buttercup and Book Bindery can hold.  Besides, progress and growth are signs of success.

For those who are too busy to take advantage of DineLA Lunch and Dinner special at Lukshon or too busy to hit every hip Asian restaurant there is in greater LA, Lucky Rice LA is collected and gathered the best of the best Asian restaurants underneath one roof, such as:

Lukshon, Jet Tila, Hamasaku, Sunny Blue, RockSugar Pan Asian Kitchen, Parks BBQ, Ayara Thai for Thai Tourism, Komodo Food, BEP Vietnamese Kitchen, Carb & Nation, Hopscotch, Asian Box, Phorage, Seoul Sausage, Bling Bling Dumpling, Michael’s Santa Monica, Fluff Ice, Doma Kitchen Café, Starry Kitchen and Katsuya.

Basically, you're eating and sampling the best of the best of Asian cuisine under one roof in one location.  How convenient is that?

In addition to the best Asian munchies, the best bars and mixologists are pairing and matching meals with the best and freshest cocktails from No Vacancy and Pour Vous.  To refresh and wash down the cocktail, you can guzzle all you want from the snappy Bruce Cost Ginger Ales.  Their bottles of ginger ale have bits of real ginger floating in them.  This is when you know you'll get the real snap of healthy snap and heat of ginger.

Lucky Rice LA is Lucky Rice's second stop on August 7th, http://luckyrice.com/upcoming-events#los-angeles-feast.  Actually, Luck Rice is a touring Asian foodie festival, selecting the best of each city's Asian chefs and restaurants.  After Los Angeles, it'll hit San Francisco Feast hosted by Chris Cosentino on September 5th,  Las Vegas on Oct ober 16th and Miami November 14th.

New Yorker founder, Danielle Chang, has a special spot for Los Angeles,..

“We are excited to bring the Feast to Los Angeles and San Francisco, which is home to every conceivable type of Asian cuisine and culture, from creative Pacific-rim dining to street food grub,” said LUCKYRICE Founder, Danielle Chang. “With California’s large Asian population, brilliant dining culture and proximity to Asia, Asian food is everyday grub." 

Okay, now that Angeleno Magazine's Live and Dine LA foodie festival is done and over with, it's time to put your party hat on then eat and drink like crazy at Lucky Rice LA on August 7th.

 

Fit & Fab Food Festival, Angeleno Magazine's Live & Dine 2014 with Bai Ling.

By Laura Medina

https://www.tastemade.com/@the_arriviste/eust00aJSuO9u_hGPItHqQ

Chris Gialanella, the publisher of Los Angeles' high society magazine, Angeleno Magazine, was really amazed at yesterday's turn-out for Angeleno Magazine's 12th Annual Live and Dine LA' sip and nibble food festival where brand new restaurants and established restaurants with new dishes burst out with new flavors.  Mr. Gialanella kindly reminded people that the deeper purpose behind all this fun in the sun is to raise funds for Share Our Strength, ending childhood hunger.

He was so looking forward to meeting this year's guest celebrity, Bai Ling.

As the publisher, Chris was bummed he missed her.

 https://www.tastemade.com/@the_arriviste/eust00aJSuO9u_hGPItHqQ

The more apparent reason for the foodie fete is this is the formal launch party for their annual Restaurant Issue, a tableaux of a glossy profiling and highlighting the hottest chefs, the hottest meals, and the hottest restaurants.

Fishing with Dynamite's simply shucked oysters.

https://www.tastemade.com/@the_arriviste/eust00aJSuO9u_hGPItHqQ

The less but more steadier reason behind Angeleno Magazine's 12th Annual Live and Dine LA/Restaurant Issue is this...regardless, if there's a drought or not, California is always bursting with a bumper crop of ripe produce and fruit right about now, Summer time.  Not everyone can eat it fresh, much less having the skill and the knowledge to cook them.  Leave it up to the professionals to do something with all this ripeness. 

Fishing with Dynamite's booth is a simple but classic bounty of freshly shucked oysters where people patiently lined up in a long line to slurp down all you can eat oysters.

Jose Andre's Saam Beet Meringue & Parmasan Macaroon.

https://www.tastemade.com/@the_arriviste/eust00aJSuO9u_hGPItHqQ

With all this bounty of fresh vegetables and great diary up in "Nor Cal," (Northern California), you gotta do something with all this stuff.  Spaniard Gastromonist Chef, Jose Andre took a step further and debut his new "restaurant-within-a restaurant" concept, SAAM, at Live and Dine LA 2014. 

As always, his dishes were the most innovative.  They were savory desserts, diabetic-friendly.  The plating were Beet Meringue and Parmasan Macaroon.

This pairing was a mere tasting teaser of what to expect when you and your friends reserve a multi-course tasting dinner.  SAAM is Jose's challenge to the newcomer, the theatrical Barton G while digging his feet deep in that it is he that pioneered the whimsical, experimental cuisine genre.  Dining and feasting as theater.

Kalamansi Lime Creamsicles Pops.

https://www.tastemade.com/@the_arriviste/eust00aJSuO9u_hGPItHqQ

Another innovation was pushing a traditional tropical fruit then making it even more Summer-time appropriate-Kalamansi Lime Creamsicle Pops smack dabbed in the middle of Summer when people desire it the most.  The dry ice wasn't theatrical.  Its purpose was to keep the popsicles frozen, coated in white chocolate...drool...

Crispin Apple & Pear Cider

 https://www.tastemade.com/@the_arriviste/eust00aJSuO9u_hGPItHqQ

Since it is the middle of July and the dog days of August are a mere two weeks away, people...especially the ladies...happily quaffed beer's sweeter cousin, Crispin Apple and Pear Cider, http://www.crispincider.com/

For the British guests, this was a sweet taste of back home where cider is just as accepted as a pint of beer.

For the Americans, this was a big "Wow" moment.  They were shocked this wasn't heavily syrupy apple juice that you fed babies and toddlers.  Crispin was certainly living up its brand name.  Their apple and pear cider was certainly bubbly and crisp but a tad sweeter to the usual sparkling white wine.  It was a big hit among the ladies, across all generations.  Cider is the unassuming girl-next-door to the usual suspect of sparkling wine.  If you're searching for a simple but surprising alternative to beer, give cider a try.  Certainly, not your kid's fruit juice.

This scribe may had highlighted the hits and innovations but the running of theme, for this year's food festival, is hamachi, raw Japanese Yellowtail.  Chefs had slipped it out of its sushi rice blanket then made it a stand-alone meat, a low-calorie protein.   Angeleno's true foodies commented this was a lighter switch compared to last year's heavier and richer pork theme.  A counter-reaction to the rich and heavy pork fest of last year, Hamachi was the fit and fab backlash where people can feast on Yellowtail without the fear of fat.

Feasted they did because, within, an hour and half most of the food was gone! 

Angeleno Magazine's 12th Annual Live and Dine Food Festival is always about celebrating California's bountiful bumper crop of produce, America's "fruit basket" then twisting them into inventive dishes and unexpected cuisine.