Ventura: Paradise Pantry and Mission San Buenaventura

One of the last days in Los Angeles, I decided to go on a mini-roadtrip to meet Susie from Relentless Writings. We’ve known each other online for years. In fact we date back so long that none of us remember our first online encounter.

Susie lives a couple of hours outside LA, so we decided to meet at Paradise Pantry in Ventura, which was approximately the same distance for both of us. Paradise Pantry specializes in cheese so most of the dishes are cheese-based. I use to say that I don’t like cheese because until a couple of years ago, the only sort of cheese I would eat were the small cubes with the laughing cow on, and I don’t even think that counts as cheese?

Though I’ve learned to like (and even love) many different kinds of cheese recently, and Poul always jokes that for a person, who doesn’t like cheese, I really eat a lot of it.

At Paradise Pantry I had a stunning mac and cheese, Spanish serrano (always a winner) and a slice of pâté, while Susie had a selection of hard cheese and a grilled cheese sandwich.

It was great to finally meet Susie. Her blog is a lot more personal than mine so I already felt that I knew her. Susie is a very sweet person and she’s also really funny. I’m not sure whether she would like the comparison, but she somehow reminded me of Abby from Navy CIS minus the goth features:)

I usually never drink and drive, but I’ve noticed that in the States most people find it perfectly acceptable to have a glass of wine or a beer with their meal and then drive home. The maximum blood alcohol concentration compatible with driving in California is 0.08%, which is quite high compared to Denmark (0.05%) and Dubai (zero-tolerance), so I decided to have a glass of wine with my food. Though I didn’t want to risk anything, so I only drank half of it.

After our lunch, I joined Susie for some afternoon sightseeing at the nearby old Mission San Buenaventura, which dates back to 1749.  I’m not religious but old buildings fascinate me and the mission was a very beautiful and tranquil place. Besides, I wanted to make sure to eliminate all alcohol from my body before my drive back to LA. I know it’s silly, as I was way below the limit for drinking and driving, but I also know that if anything happened, and I’d had even had the smallest sip of alcohol, I would blame myself forever. How do you feel about drinking and driving? Is it acceptable  in your country to drink and drive?

My blog about Los Angeles