
“17th annual”, so I guess they’ve been doing this a while, hahaha. Well, this is the first time I’ve been, and luckily my friend Dominique clued me in because I had no clue.
Not only did I go, but I hit up several others friends (Sharon, Hans, Lilee and Kero One, thanks for coming down. BTW KO, this could be an annual thing vs. every three years to check out). Since it was a charity event, I thought I’d do my small contribution by getting several friends to come on down to the event.
In 2017, I assume they’ll be doing an 18th annual toy drive, so I thought I’d put this piece together so that you can come off like you’ve been going and supporting the cause for years. Now you can cite some of the things from the 2016 event.
The Toy Drive

So who gets these toys? Low-income families in the Los Angeles Asian community do, and they get these gifts when you contribute either $20 (or more, yea you can donate more) or bring in a toy(s) worth at least $20. I was tempted to go out and buy something, but I know I would have kept it (like an Attack on Titan Mikasa action figure), so I stuck with cash.
In the Year 2000
The first toy drive was way back in 2000 when the people of Earth were facing imminent doom from electronic calendars not being able to comprehend a 1999 transition to 2000. Somehow with that looming over, the organizers were still able to put together this event.
The event is made up and was founded by lawyers (don’t let that scare you in wanting to go because they seemed harmless), so majority of the orginizations seem to be all similarly related such as APALC, KABA, APWC, AYC, CPAF, just to name a few.
The Food
The food was provided by a mix of small restaurants, chains, caterers, to manufacturers.

Surprisingly enough I liked the salad amongst all the items at the event… maybe I was having a salad kind of day, or it was that good. After all Feast from the East (1949 Westwood Blvd, LA) has been open for more than 35 years.
Minus all the sexual innuendo by Starry Kitchen with their signage or Mr. Banana dude offering up his balls, these saucy slathered balls were tasty and were meant to be gobbled down on like any well produced Bang Bro’s video. Although the table partner, Boo’s must have ran out of their Philly cheesesteaks which I didn’t get to try. I wish I got to try them since the owners were Jersey’ites, but now they’re straight out fixtures of LA.
Who would have thought a kimchi gumbo would be good which is one good reason for these events. If it weren’t for this event, I wouldn’t have heard or known about the Food Laboratory (LA based) which is in their words “Our mission is to inspire people to support communities who face food insecurity and nutrition inequality, while always fighting for equity in health.” If you want to find out more or get involved, go to their website cookinglaboratory.org.
Don’t you love people who love the camera which is one reason to check out Chado Tea. They have 3 locations (one inside the JANM), and they also sell online.

I love to drink, so I made frequent visits to Emil, and I think Jason who was working the Brewyard taps. They quickly ran out of a couple of the beers they had offered, so that you’d have to visit their Glendale micro-brewery – I must do that after getting a taste.
The Rest of the Image Gallery
Very friendly and great staff (Halal Guys)



































Who We Have to Thank
APA Event Website
Title Sponsor
- Island Pacific Supermarket: Islands in the pacific? So you’re thinking Hawaii, but this is actually a Filipino Supermarket that I’ve been to a couple times to pick up some snacks and a slab of tocino for my topsilog.
Gold Sponsors
Co-Sponsors
- Asian Business League of Southern California
- UCLA APA
- Asian Pacific American Women Laywers Alliance
- APEX Asian Professional Exchange
- Japanese American Bar Association
- KABA Korean American Bar Association
- NAAAP
- OCA-GLA
- PABALA
- SABASC
- TALA
- Thai American Bar Association
- SCC LA
- APA BA
- Taiwanese American Professionals
- Project by the Project
- Asian Pacific Community Fund
Beverage Sponsors:
- Johnnie Walker
- Crown Royal
- Brewyard, 906 Western Ave, Glendale, CA
Food Sponsors
I had to throw in the address because there’s nothing I can’t stand more is to visit a business at an event, and they simply don’t have any follow up information such as where they’re located.
- The Halal Guys
- Baladoria, 243 S. San Pedro St. Los Angeles, CA
- Starry Kitchen, it said permanantly closed.
- New Moon, 5 locations
- Cooking Laboratory
- Boba life
- Spin fish poke house, 4 locations
- Cafe Dulce, one location in Little Tokyo
- Yogurtland
- Boos Philly Cheesesteaks
- TNT’s Aloha Cafe, 24032 Vista Montana, Torrance, CA
- Spitz, 1725 Hillhurst Ave, Los Angeles, CA
- Island Eats Hale ‘Aina, 19106 S. Normandie Ave Ste #2, Torrance, CA
- Feast from the East, 1949 Westwood Bl Los Angeles CA
- AFC Soy Foods, established in LA in 1975
Entertainment
- Jason Chu. Never heard of the dude till this event, but this is one of his music videos.