From China to Mexico in 3 Blocks

In furthering my quest to be a tourist in my own town, some friends and I took the train to downtown LA this past weekend and explored Chinatown and Olvera Street. There is nothing like taking public transportation to make me feel like I’m a tourist. I never take public transportation at home, only when traveling. I hadn’t been on a train in a long time and I loved it! All hail the Metro!

Chinatown looks just like a Chinatown should. The architecture, the paper lanterns, the shops full of paper fans and parasols all said, “Chinatown!”

I wasn’t that interested in the cheap Chinese-esque knickknacks you can find here. A lot of shops had pretty much the same inventory and what do you know it all said “Made in China”. Duh. I went to the historic Central Plaza and there I found a store called Realm. Now I could have spent a lot of money in this place. No tacky kitsch here, just really interesting and unique art, home accessories and tea sets, and fun books and crafts. I fell in love with a tea set here. It’s hand painted by Asianera from Hong Kong. The set included a tea pot and four dainty little cups all in pale green with the most precious little sprays of white cherry blossoms on them. My favorite part? Each cup had a tiny little cherry blossom painted on the inside. Too precious! Oh wow, if any of my family or friends are reading this you know what I want for Christmas now. Seriously, opening a gift to reveal this tea set would make me squeal like a five year old getting her first Barbie. In fact I nearly squealed when I saw it in the store. Asianera also makes the most beautiful tea and dish sets with little koi swimming on them and they had these at Realm as well. (Unfortunately I could not take any pictures.)

One of the best parts about going to Chinatown is eating. Who doesn’t love Chinese food? The funny thing is we actually didn’t eat at a Chinese restaurant. We ate at a Vietnamese restaurant. Hey it’s America, we’re diverse here. The place we ate at is called Via Café. I had spring rolls and Queen Shrimp which was awesome. I’d never had it before but it’s shrimp rolled in a batter that sort of looks like small oatmeal and then fried. The seasonings they put in the batter are tast-y and not too spicy, just flavorful. (Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of this either. My picture taking on this trip sucked. Sorry.)

I DID take some pictures of this great fountain.

I also threw some pennies in. I’m proud to say that I got a penny in the cup for “Happy” on the first try. I also aimed for “Money” and “Love” but my pennies fell short. So it looks like I’ll be poor and loveless in my life but I’ll still be happy! Thank goodness for that.

After browsing the shops in Chinatown’s Central Plaza we headed down the street a couple blocks to Olvera Street. This is like the Mexican version of Chinatown. There are lots of vendor stalls filled with Mexican handicrafts and Mexican food. There is a stall right by the entrance, where rumor has it they make the best tacquitos.

The entrance to Olvera Street and the line for tacquitos.

Everywhere I saw those little “Day of the Dead” dolls. Forgive me if I’m not calling them by the right name, but these are the dolls that are skeletons like the kind you see everywhere during Day of the Dead festivities. I think these skeleton dolls are kind of cute, if something made to look dead can be cute. They had them dressed up in different outfits and again I nearly squealed like a 5 year old when I found some that were brides and grooms. My future sister-n-law informed me though that I’m not allowed to use a bride and groom skeleton doll set as my wedding cake topper. No one lets me have any fun around here.

To make up for it she bought me a churro and this magnet.

Also at Olvera Street you will find bands playing Mexican music everywhere and people dancing. Some better than others. Olvera Street is pretty much where Los Angeles began and there are 27 historic structures located there.

Olvera Street is located right across from Union Station so we hopped over there to catch the train home. While inside Union Station we ran into a television show filming in progress. This is one of the perks of living in LA. A fellow onlooker told us they were filming a scene for the new Law & Order Los Angeles. So here’s the scoop: When you are watching the show and you see a scene where the actors are walking through what looks like a big marble walled lobby, that’s Union Station in downtown LA. It might even show up in the opening credits.
If you love Art Deco and trains you will love, love, love Union Station. The place makes me wish I worked downtown so I could ride the train everyday.

The lobby of Union Station.

As my friends and I hurried to our train I looked out a window and saw a wedding being held in the garden courtyard. Rails and romance, how perfect!