Wow, I was pleasantly surprised find out that so many of you do pray from reading your comments on my last post! But it also seems that most of you struggle with prayer, too.
A dear reader of mine once asked me how to pray. Well, guess what, that’s something I’ve been asking my own dad so many times. My dad always says that prayer is a 24-hour walk with God. It’s not an occasional request from God when you want something, nor a once-a-week greeting to God when you go to church on Sundays. It’s a living, continuous communication with the Living God who is always inside you. And the effects are sometimes miraculous, but most of the time, it is a quiet, yet powerful, spiritual movement within your soul.
I think it’s so important to know who you are praying to in prayer. Just like in any relationship, it’s important not just to talk, but to listen to the person with whom you are communicating. And in all honesty, the biggest problem I have with prayer is being able to listen to God and hear what He has to say. Which also means that I have to know who He is, what He wants, and how He is working in my life so that my communication with Him is not one-sided or directionless.
My dad sent me some quotes this morning which coincidentally pertained to this topic of prayer:
“The Christian Prayer is not an option but an opportunity”
“In prayer; expect setbacks, but refuse retreat”
“Don’t tell the Lord how big the problem is,
tell the problem how Great the Lord is!”
“Merely going to church doesn’t make you a Christian,
any more than standing in your garage makes you a car!”
By the way, God must also have heard my prayers for a good bowl of French Onion Soup, because guess who’s back? 
Doughboys Cafe! (Do you see the two beauties below the sign that is Kathryn and Mimi?)
It’s been closed for more than 2 years because of (a-hem) vermin problems, or something like that. But apparently, it had really, really good food, and Los Angeles foodies were all very excited over their re-opening. Of course, I couldn’t resist dragging my dear friends Mimi and Kathryn over to taste their food and see what this LA hype over Doughboys is all about. 
Actually, when I visited the place, they had only opened a couple of days ago. I got a kick out of watching this man pasting the “Doughboys” sticker on the windows:
Hee, hee, hee! This still cracks me up for some reason.
Thankfully, I also saw no sign of cockroaches. It looked mighty clean and even chic to me.
Now, please, please take a look at their menu. Do you see what you want? If you said “everything”, that was exactly what my reaction was too when I opened up their menu. Seriously. Does every single dish not sound fantastically drool-worthy? Ah, the torture of too many good food and too little money (stomach space is not a problem here)!!
We took a good hour to decide on what we want. The servers were no help. Their answer to our pleas to help us choose was: “Everything’s good. You can’t go wrong with anything.” Wow. Thank you, you totally helped me narrow my choices down. Not.
Anyway, we finally made our decision. Kathryn ordered the soup au pistou: 
Delicious french tomato based vegetable soup topped with a big dollop of homemade basil pesto. Served with grilled french bread. 
This is a bad picture. But can you see the freshness of that soup? It’s not the usual lukewarm junk sitting around in big pots that you get from other cafes. This came hot and steaming.
Mimi ordered the Red Fennel Hash: 
Braised beef, potatoes, sweet potato, onion, and a little roasted beet (hence the name) all grilled, then topped with griddle fried eggs. With cheesy focaccia bread pieces, and gravy on the side. 
The only change Mimi made was to switch the fried eggs to poached eggs. 
This girl is seriously learning how to order good food. You’re welcome, Mimi. 
I loved the focaccia that came with it: 
Because it’s cheesy, of course, but also because it was so pleasantly chewy. Mm…I love chewy bread.
I ordered a Tuna Melt Sandwich and a bowl of French Onion Soup: 
A grilled tuna melt made with butter-toasted sourdough bread, sharp cheddar, and a big slather of tuna salad made with solid white tuna (no goofy pickle relish). With a bowl of French Onion Soup, topped with garlicky toasts and lots of goopy swiss cheese. 
Holy shit. I don’t know what to say, this stuff was SO freaking good. It’s such a far cry from that soup I order from the French Crepe Company! 
The broth was extremely intense, greasy, and rich. Chock-full of beefy flavor from caramelized onions and beef broth. The toast was chewy, heavily buttered, and the cheese, though lesser in quantity, was perfectly toasted and gooey. 
This tuna melt sandwich completely changed my perspective of the ordinary tuna salad sandwich. Honestly, I always thought tuna salad was boring. But broiled until hot, with cheddar cheese? Totally elevated to an ethereal level! 
It was mostly tuna, with bits and bites of red onion and pickles. Creamy, but with substantial meat. Lovely, absolutely delightful. 
And those yelpers weren’t kidding (Yes, I had to resort to Yelp.com for suggestions again, but this time with a grain of salt). The portions were HUGE. I couldn’t finish the sandwich, but I licked up every last drop of the soup. Kathryn couldn’t finish her soup either, and neither could Mimi eat more than half her hash. On the bright side, I got to take home her leftover focaccia. Yippeee!! xD
By the way, my plea for good French Onions Soup wasn’t the only prayer God answered. There’s been a testimony I’ve been meaning to share for quite a long time, and I think I will on my next post. It goes way back to my trip back from the Foodbuzz Festival, but better late than never!
Question of the day: Do you have any good experiences with prayer?
And (sorry for dominating this post with my faith…) what is your favorite soup? You guys already know which is mine!
P.S. If you have time to kill, please check out my feature on the Brendan Hayward, a finalist for the Doritos Crash the Superbowl competition, here on The Daily Trojan 
It’d be great if you took a look at his commercial…It’s pretty funny (in a slapstick kind of way), and he really needs your vote!
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Aaagghh so I read the entire menu per your suggestion (because reading menus is like looking at porn- and I do it in my free time
) of Doughboys, you were so right! I wanted everything. And I didn’t even look at the lunch menu, strictly breakfast. Since I am a breakfast loving gal. Gah. I love all the cute little places in LA like alll over the place. I think LA gets a bad rep for their food, but it seems like there is always someplace to try or some new trend coming up in the food world!
I loved what your dad said about this “Don’t tell the Lord how big the problem is,
Great post! XOXO
tell the problem how Great the Lord is!” So so so true. I remember as a kid my dad always prayed before our day for the family, and at night my mom would pray over me before I went to bed, and never did they complain about something when we were sick, they always put the emphasis on the fact that God had already healed me. Like there was no way for those bad guys to get me anymmore.
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