Walking the Border

My adventures in Stepford, also known as the city of Santa Clarita, continue. I was able to escape to LA proper yesterday, and explored the downtown. I realized pretty quickly what most other tourists dont need to be told. There's very little to see downtown. The only places I would reccomend in the downtown is El Pueblo and the Grand Central Market. El Pueblo is a historical californian-spanish-themed tourist trap, but who cares? It was a lot of fun. There's probably one in every southern city, but its all new to me.

Hidden down an alley there was a restored Californio residence. The historical details were interesting, but what struck me the most was the garden in the centre of the home. Cacti grew the size of trees, and the orange and lime trees were in full fruit.

I bought this amazing melon sugar candy. I thought it would be fruit juice flavoured sugar, but they had actually candied a whole slice of veiny melon. It had the texture of a pomello, and they left the seeds in the candy. They had pumpkin and lime versions too. I think i know what i'm going to do with the end-of-season pumpkins next fall!

The Grand Central Market satisfied my love of fresh produce and streetmeat served by shouting cooks from big steaming pots, serving odd and unusual food at bargain basement prices. I planned to have dinner there, but it closed before i got back. Instead, i got a bean and cheese burrito at a little canopied shack. The weather allows for outdoor eating, even outdoor buffets under plastic canopies, so i get the feeling that I'll be eating at such places a lot in the next month.

Speaking of pumpkins, in my rambling i found a farm by the highway. The winter compost heap was filled with all the unsold melons.