My Very Own Eating San Diego Blog

Mmm! 4th of July BBQ!

2011-07-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th!

Anyone ready for some Texas BBQ? Spent a week in Texas not just too long ago. Sampled ribs and brisket at a couple of places. These aren't quite the absolute most talked about joints or the absolute best, I'd suppose, but they were both pretty damn tasty.

And best of all, the buildings have the right look!

http://www.texaspridebbq.net/

http://www.ironworksbbq.com/about-us.asp

Hey now?

And you walk in and tell 'em what you want and you can haz BBQ right as they slice it off for you. And there are plenty of places to sit and chow down!!

I think I might actually start getting fired up about posting a blog post or two. I give it a 78% chance!

I remembered my password!!!

2011-07-03T11:11:00.000-07:00

OMG I can haz posts again!

I really do need to post sometime again. Wouldn't it just make you giddy?

Yeah now!

Breaking News!

2010-04-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

And we're back!

I wasn't gone in real life but I guess I haven't posted here for a while. Big news! Starting today you'll be getting 3, count 'em 3!, posts a week out of your, I mean, my VERY own eating San Diego blog! Wow!

What fun!

Oh, you'll get all kind of eating talk that you can't get anywhere. Oh, you'll get junk about overeating at The Tractor Room - a place brought to you by the Hash House guys! Yummy! What about The Linkery? You can't go wrong there!

And what about recipes? Remember some cooking guy named Sam? He has given off one of my favorite creamed up enchilada recipe! Grab a rotted chicken! Or two! I mean a rotisserie chicken. Shred. Add a cup of salsa verde and add in green chilies or chipotles as desired and roll 'em up in tortillas and toss in a glass baking dish. Dump as much whipping cream over it all and then as much shredded monterey jack cheese as you want. Bake it up at 350 for a half hour. Eat.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

2 days late.

And many many months since I said "Hi how's it going?"

Still here. I read the normal San Diego Food Blobs. Some of them. Anything that Yummy-Oh-So links to. I could share some vacation pictures or some eating pictures I suppose. I'm still a little stuffed from Thursday. We feasted like no other feast plus all the snacking I did during the day. Oh, my belly was packed! And does anyone have a report from the Wine and Food festival?

That's THE DOG up in the Lake Tahoe area. Still some snow at 8,500 whatever feet at the end of August.

Happy...uh...January 24th!

2009-01-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

I have not passed on! Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all rolled in to one. I'm not very good with this blog thing. Never have been quite honestly. Anyhow, we've been feasting quite nicely. Of course I read all the big blogs, mmm-so-yummy-o-so, 3 dogs run around in a kitchen, what we dig up, of course, the blog from Ms. Foodie, Alice Q., I'd call these the preeminent SD blogs, plus there is the Linkery blog. And others I missed.

Of course we've been eating quite well, mostly at home, we absolutely feasted over the holidays, but in our area neighborhood joints too... Opera in Sorrento Valley of course, the Thai place we like just off of Scripps Poway Parkway, the Cuban place in Poway, etc... plus this last week was restaurant week in our very own San Diego so there was that going on too. More on those meals some day. Maybe...

But rewind to our Thanksgiving-fest feast. Turkey of course, and cranberry sauce with port, potatoes with a fennel puree and a very winning "Country Bread Stuffing with Smoked Ham, Goat Cheese and Dried Cherries". Yummo! As you can probably figure out we hopped on to epicurious dot com to find some delicious recipes.

The desert winner for Thanksgiving was a....

Pumpkin cheesecake with Marshmallow-Sour Cream Topping and Gingersnap Crust. Looking at the reviews on the site, it looks like others had quite a good time with it at Thanksgiving too! A new tradition is born!

Delicious!

I can't help it...

2008-11-06T07:02:00.000-08:00

Hey, how's it going everyone?

2008-09-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

They (whoever "they" are...) say that you really can't take a bad picture of a dog. But...maybe once? Here our boy is apparently chomping away deep into a chow down session (he loves his food as much as I do) in the heart of our June vacation. I have a couple of posts from then to type up if I care to and then it might be back to our very own San Diego foodie talk.

Taos! New Mexico!

2008-07-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

You might find yourself in Taos sometime, you know, just traveling across the country – this time well north of I-40 – yep, the journey into the great southwest continues! Here we were able to leave the vast Interstate for awhile to explore northern New Mexico.

Let me guess, another La Quinta and a brewpub?
No no no! Here we had the best lodging of the trip – a great dog-friendly B&B. We'd highly recommend a stay here should you find yourself in the area for a few days.

But then you blew your budget on your room and went to McDonald’s right?
Oh my Lord, no, here we had our push into Taos finer dinin’ at Lambert's. All out with a shared heirloom tomato salad, mains of roast duck (for her) and elk for me, drinks (a couple) and a good chocolate mousse dessert. There is other good eatin' in Taos but this was a very good choice.

Boring. What about that Crapper Barrel?
What?

Oh, did I misspell Cracker Barrel? Oops.
Oh, yea, we went to a Cracker Barrel once in Colorado Springs after a tiring (and surprisingly cold day in June). Normally you go here and expect this great pants splitting amount of food.

Did you say pants splitting or pants shitting?
Oh my God, you have to stop this. I think this screwy Q&A format exists just to give me – I mean you – the opportunity to say inane things.

*Crickets chirp* ... Back with more soon!

Flagstaff! Arizona!

2008-07-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

You might find yourself in Flagstaff sometime, you know, just traveling across the country – this time on I-40 – hell, it’s the summer of love roadtrips (Orange Popsicles and Lemonade as the B-52’s famously sang) and decide it’s a reasonable stop along your trip. Let’s stick with that Q&A session…I don’t care about the nasty emails requesting I immediately be fired from the newspaper staff.

Should they at least cancel their subscriptions?
Sure, I don’t care.

Okay, what’s this about Flagstaff?
Cool it – I’m getting to it. It turns out that Flagstaff (after a hot and zesty drive thru AZ) was our first stop on our road trip.

You took a road trip? Have you seen gas prices?
Oh my Lord. Anyhow, Flagstaff is at an elevation about 7,000 feet above sea level so it’s cooler. In early June, when we were there, daytime highs were probably around 78 with lows around 50. I’d say it’s the gateway to the Grand Canyon.

I’m sure you ate.
Naturally! We checked into our DogFriendly™ hotel – and from my advance research on Chowhound and Yelp I saw that a place in downtown Flagstaff called the Beaver Street Brewery got some highmarks.

Wasn’t Cracker Barrel an option?
Yea probably.

Beaver Street just seems … a little sexual.
You have to stop this.

You know you are arguing with yourself…
Shut up.

Okay, you went to a brewery or something?
Oh yea, they’ve got the brews, burgers, woodfired pizza, the works. Of course I had to check out the beer sampler – 5 oz tastings of everything they make. And a burger for me – the Beaver Street Burger. Yum.

Anyhow, how are those DogFriendly™ hotels or *yikes* motels working out?
Great! AAA has a book about 2 ½ inches thick of woofer-friendly lodging. Technically, you really aren’t to leave your pup unattended in the room but hey we have to eat right? Our dog did great in the car and with each new experience nightly in a new spot.

Thumbs up for the Beaver Creek Brewery, right? Oh sure!

Restaurant Week 2008! Summertime eatin’!

2008-07-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

Just some quick notes on our two eatings for the summer Restaurant Week – we went to George’s (the longtime La Jolla favorite) and Nine-Ten just down the street. Not the same night - we aren't nutty. This is the first time for a summer RW.

What about that road trip?
Seriously, the Q&A format continues? I’ll get back to the road trip next time.

Why couldn’t you real-time blog from the road like any normal dude from the year 2008?
Next time!

So you went to George’s California Modern?
We were last there at one of the first times they did restaurant week – really probably nearly our first so-called “high-end” dinning experiences. Now flash-forward 3 or 4 years we are much more foodie-ized.

The menu?
Unlike most of the restaurants with these special three course menus for $30 or $40 that limit you to three choices per course, George’s gives you the full menu. Now that comes with a slight hitch – some menu times have a supplemental charge (normally 4 bucks with a few higher).

Uhhhh…almost sounds like a bad thing.
Not really – at least the options are there. And included in the $40 RW price were about 5 options each for starters and entrée’s. And 8 desserts.

The food dammit.
Okay – L had the (copied directly from the menu) Black Olive Cured Fresh Albacore – this was a real winner! Main was the Loch Duart Salmon (farm-raised off the coast of Scotland – I don’t know if that is a good thing or not.) Salmon wouldn’t be my first choice – it’s kinda like ordering chicken. But it was a big hunk and came with a variety of interesting little sides and L was pleased. Dessert was Marscapone Cheesecake with rhubarb salad.

I started with some pork meatballs - just okay. And I had Pacific albacore – two nice sized pieces, seared on on side only, on top of some grain, surrounded by a mix of salad and a veggie or two. Dessert was a gooey chocolate tart.

Who’s food won?
Is it a competition? I think we decided that the Albacore was the winner for starter and entrée. Desserts were both good – maybe not quite great. We had cocktails to start us off – I had something called a Pisco Sour – apparently a Peruvian drink.

How about Nine-Ten?
It was good too – but I’d pick George’s again before Nine-Ten. Especially the way George’s did RW plus the food was just more interesting. Here is the quickie rundown of Nine-Ten: sashimi and heirloom tomato salad, braised short rib, potato foam!, duck breast, white chocolate mousse, strawberry rose shake with beignets. Started off with a cocktail for each.

Oh shit, do they a mandatory gratuity?
Nope – neither did. I don’t care either way but I know some people get their panties bunched up about that stuff.

Omaha! Nebraska! Whhhhaaaat?!?!

2008-06-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

You might find yourself in Omaha sometime – you know, just traveling across the country on I-80 on one of those sum-sum-summertime roadtrips and decide it’s a reasonable stop along your trip. Let’s try it like a Q&A session…

Uh, what? A trip?
Sure, a trip. You know in a car – gas $$$ be damned!

Okay, what’s this about Omaha?
Stop that – I’m getting to it. So we probably saw about 10 states along the way between our very own San Diego, CA and our destination and back. I won’t blog about it exactly in order – but by the end you’ll see everywhere we’ve been.

Pictures?
Maybe. Not many. Took trip pics and a very few really almost none on the iPhone which will be called the iDude going forward. Like it?

Ehh.
Anyhow, it happens to be a Monday and after a full day of driving we checked in to our DogFriendly™ hotel (maybe it was a motel) and looked around and saw a Village Inn. Urp. Things are looking mighty familiar – turns out we stayed here when we first moved out to California those many years ago – okay six years ago. We looked around a little more and saw something called “BrewBurgers” up the hill and across the street.

No Hooters?
I guess not. A quick search on the internets on the iDude brought up a review that made it sound pretty good – a sports bar with pretty decent food. We headed over – no hole in the wall here, it’s a pretty big place – and what’s this, a sign on the door said that Guy Fieri of Food Network fame would be there later that week? Okay that legitimizes the place!

You can’t go wrong with “The Guy”!
I read that he’d be in Omaha – hey I had time to read the weekend section of the Omaha local paper! So we sat and found out that they have this great Monday drink special: pretty much any “M” drink for $4. For food they have burgers, salads, dinner specials (yes, you can get a steak!) and the owner’s old school favorite: the beef brisket sammich! It’s all about $10 if you want say, a regular cheeseburger or something a little different like a lamb burger or bison, salmon or tuna and so on…plus your choice of side. Go for the onion rings – battered in-house. This is key I think so so much better than those pre-battered Sysco turds.

Uh, crude, just get back to the alcohol!
So, it was any Margarita, Martini, Mai-Tai or Mojito for $4 all day on Monday. This “M” drink happy hour could cover a lot of drinkin', my friends! Any they have a nice list of specialty martinis, etc – all just $4. I don’t know what they normally charge. I got a “Millionaire Martini” with several shots of liquor – it was a strong drink! They also have a great list of brews.

Thumbs up for the BrewBurgers?
Oh sure – a great local find – exactly what you want on a roadtrip. Great food, fun, casual place to kick back and drink a few (hey it was the end of the day). I’ll be watching for it on the Food Network. But browse the menu at the link and feel free to drool. And good news, I’ve got a 10 blog posts stuck in me – lots of trip talk so if I can push them out you’ll be seeing some activity in my little ghost town on the web. And I think I just might stumble onto Omaha again! And points east and west.

So now, what about this Q&A format?

Uh…not so much. Skip it next time.
Okay.

And now what about Restaurant Week 2008, the Summer Edition?
Shut up!

http://www.brewburgersomaha.com/

Rice Krispy Treats

2008-05-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

Or is it Krispie? Maybe it should be Krispies since you need many of them. Anyhow. I am baaaack! I didn't go anywhere but still. And it’s a rare recipe post. Hell, a rare post at all. I was always going to post some pictures of our South Pacific vacation but I didn’t even take any foodie pics. It would just be pics of sand, sky and water. I’ll probably get around to it.

This is one of our favorite simple desserts. Do you think it is too “white-trash”?

Crunchy Fudge Sandwiches

(1) 12 oz. package butterscotch chips
1 cup crunchy-style peanut butter
8 cups Rice Krispies
(1) 12 oz. package chocolate chips
1 cup powdered sugar
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons water

In a large saucepan, combine butterscotch chips and peanut butter; heat until chips melt and mixture is smooth. Add Rice Krispies; stir until well coated with butterscotch mixture.

Press half of the cereal mixture into greased 9 x 13 baking pan. Chill in refrigerator while preparing fudge mixture. Set remaining butterscotch mixture aside.

Combine in medium saucepan over low heat: chocolate chips, powdered sugar, butter and water. Stir until chips melt and mixture is smooth. Spread over refrigerated butterscotch mixture. Spread remaining butterscotch mixture evenly over top. Press gently. Chill in refrigerator until firm, about 1 hour. Cut into squares.

Sooooo….we’ve got a road trip coming up in June. I’m thinking I might blog from the road from an iPhone. Is it possible to do this without swearing? If I do it will be at a new website – of which I will provide my reader a link. (Hi, reader!) Hey, many new SD food stuffs blogs have popped (and probably pooped) up in the last year – one that I just noticed that looks really great is at http://5-ds.blogspot.com/ from a dude named Roger.

McFish McYum?

2008-03-20T23:01:00.000-07:00

I’m lazy about this bloggin’ stuff. I’m not even eating all that good. Last week on Friday knowing that the McFishy Sammich was just $1.29 I thought I would swing thru the drive-thru and get one to bring home for a snacker mcsnack.

Yum? Does it look any better than the one last year? Anyhow it kicked off a short discussion with my wife:

“Oh, no, are you going to eat that?”

“Sure!”

“Why? It doesn’t look like anything.”

“It was just $1.29!”

“That still sounds like a rip-off”

And so it goes. Maybe she remembers Hardee’s doing them better back in the day. Hopefully everyone is eating good out there. And I'd think with the end of Lent that fish sandwhich will be back to normal price. And what does Jack in the Box do?

A.R. Valentien

2008-02-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

I’m many weeks late and probably a couple of dollars short, but to recap the Sandy Eggo Restaurant Week I’ll start off with our first of two restaurants we tried out: AR Valentien at someplace called The Lodge at Torrey Pines. Someday I’ll get around to Arterra.

We sat down and I said bring all the food I can eat for forty bucks. Instead we got menus. WTF? Anyhow I thought I should probably play along. This is not my normal way of ordering food. I mean, at Carl’s Jr. I can ask for $40 of food and they WILL bring enough hamburglars and chicken nougats to stuff you up.

So we got glasses of water poured out by the water guy, bread served up by the bread server guy (with 3 choices including corny muffin) and we got a bowl of olives (I can’t remember if it was from the olive server-up guy or just one of the other guys) and a fancied-up deviled egg amuse-bouche.

I’ll lay out what we had as copied from the SDRW website on the internets:

Charcuterie Plate with House Made Pickles
Tuna Carpaccio, Crispy Capers, Parsley, Horseradish

Braised Beef Shortrib, Roasted Vegetables and Anson Mills Polenta
Swordfish with Manilla Clams, Toasted Orzo and Tapanade

Chocolate Pound Cake, Ice Cream
Chamomile Panna Cotta, Caramelized Pink Grapefruit

The charcuterie plate (try saying that 5 times fast) was the winner here that had three nice sized squares of meaty sausage, hammy something and a pate square along with some toasted bread and pickled veggies. (Have I warned about my run-on sentences yet?) The tuna carpaccio was sliced thinly across the plate, topped with herbs.

I had the beef shortrib - yum, on the bone, comfort food! The swordfish had tapanade spread on a small toasted bread slice along with an anchovy. In addition they served up a complimentary side dish of sautéed tiny turnips. Dessert was nicely done and delicious.

Then along with the bill just because we weren’t full enough, they set down a little plate with a couple of berries and 3 small cookies (one with a tiny section of citrus on it). We had also bumped up the bill by going for wine pairing at $25 extra a person - California wines, with an icewine for the dessert course. Service was professional – friendly and no stuffiness detected. In case you are wondering, no automatic gratuity added.

http://www.lodgetorreypines.com/

San Diego Restaurant Week - Yay or Nay?

2008-01-27T17:23:00.000-08:00

This is the week in San Diego that if you are any kind of restaurant at all you participate in the annual Dancing With The Stars competition – no wait – that is something else entirely, this one is the $30 and $40 3-course meal "deal" we all call Restaurant Week 2008.

It might not be as exciting or as much of a deal anymore but it gets people out in the rain – including me! So heads up. This doesn’t happen often! Yes. Plan on seeing a couple of new blog entries this week! And this year, we get a double dose as they repeat the whole thing in June. I have a few restaurants in mind for summer – it will be a good opportunity to get a summer menu versus a winter menu at some of these places.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-24T09:23:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to everyone! I have posts I could be getting up but they are only in my mind so far and that is a problem if you want to blog publish! Anyhow, I wish everyone, especially the San Diego foodie bloggers, the happiest of all holidays! I lurk and get around to most of the blogs at least weekly.

A couple of random things: went to Brett's BBQ for a second time - I didn't think it was as good as the first time there. And I see Joey's Smokin' BBQ has opened up (with little fanfare) up in Carmel Mountain Ranch, near the Rubio's, near Sears, across the street from Trader Joe's.

Heads up if you work in Sorrento Valley (or drive by on the 805, or hell, in Carlsbad or La Jolla) you might have been to the newish Croutons already - it's a good quality soup, salad and panini shop that's got a few San Diego locations. Most people at work have been pretty impressed with the quality and the interesting salads and soups.

Next time I'll get around to the 1500 Ocean meal or maybe even finally share pictures of our island trip.

Turkey Weekend Is Over

2007-11-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

Back to work. Thanksgiving is over – on to Christmas dammit all.

Just a short post today. We had our turkey dinner in Poway at House On The Hill. They had a fixed price menu: $24.95 per person with a choice of three entrees. Turkey! Ham! Or Salmon!

The price included a serving of cheese spread (homemade, they said) and a few crackers to start you off, a choice of corn chowder or house salad (it was really good!) and then on to the main that was served up with a small little pile of sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce along with bigger piles of green beans (traditionally my least favorite, but they were really good) along with stuffing and garlic mashed. Oh yeah, a bunch of slices of turkey too.

Dessert was a choice of pumpkin or apple pie. Both were served cold. And then in a cool little move, when they bring the check you get leftovers. Yes, extra leftovers of turkey sammich to go, as they said, “so everyone has traditional leftovers!” Overall, a nice restaurant and good service – they look to have a decent American menu of fish and steak. They have a large patio which would be pretty nice on warmer nights or hell, most lunches through the year.

Big Bear!

2007-11-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

A recent weekend was the perfect time to check out Big Bear. Well, maybe not completely since a fire was still burning in the Lake Arrowhead area to the west and one of the three highways into town was closed but why let that stop us?

Yes, but how was the food?

If you’ve been there you’ve probably driven by The Log Cabin advertising THE BEST BREAKFAST! We stopped in since we could eat with the dog on the patio. If you get the German Breakfast it winds up being the wurst breakfast! Ach ya! Yes, you get eggs however you want them plus knackwurst, kielbasa AND bratwurst plus 2 potato pancakes and applesauce. Nice place, it’s been there since Hector was a pup (that means a long time) and they have a friendly staff. Another doggie option for breakfast or lunch, I’ve read, could be the North Shore Cafe. And I think there is a Grizzly something that apparently does the biggest lumberjack breakfast but it is in a tiny little place.

There doesn’t seem to be any shortage of BBQ restaurants – I picked Outlaw BBQ for take out one night. I was attracted (or maybe just intrigued) by a beer battered rib option. Now, I’m not that big on deep friend food though once I had a deep friend hard-boiled egg that had been wrapped in bacon and all those deep-fried cheese curds I’ve had so I should know what I am talking about. I got a half and half order – half normal and half deep fried. I would compare the breading to what is on a corndog. Honestly, I wouldn’t get them this way again but the regular ribs were really good.

Another evening meal was at the Mandoline Bistro in “The Village”. I had a delicious Pork Tenderloin with (as copied from their website) a guava BBQ sauce, apple and chili chutney, vegetables and tamale. Wow. This was good! And The L had the Cedar Plank Salmon, served up with mushroom risotto and a lemon sauce. We didn’t take the dog, but if you are wondering, I’m pretty sure they allow dogs on the large outdoor seating on warmer days. This place probably winds up being one of the better restaurants in the Big Bear area – and they have music upstairs on weekends.

Lodging was found going through vrbo.org – ended up being cheaper since we booked with the owner and not through the property management company though we did pick up our keys from them.

Wine and Food Fest

This was the “Grand Tasting” at a park behind Seaport Village. If you saw a guy there with food slopped on his shirt – that was me. I had a couple of mishaps. Jeez. It was a little hectic and rushed – though it doesn’t really need to be. The food was good and plentiful. Even more so for the wine. So much wine. We sampled all the food and got the heck out of there before the drunkards completely took over. It was fairly crowded – I think they could space out the booths a little. They have booths on both sides of the 8 or 10 foot wide sidewalk that circles the park. It’s not until you get to a large grassy knoll that you really have room.

Brett's BBQ

2007-11-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

Depending where you live this place is way up or over or down or out there or even WTF. Brett’s BBQ is in the oddly named 4S Ranch. No doubt a nominee for worst neighborhood name yet. I’m assuming that a Sam, a Shirley, a Sue and a Steve are the main investors. Or the main dude said, “Let’s call it Forest Ranch” and they secretary got it wrong.

Anyhow, I read about it in a North County Times article that said they do it "low and slow" in an "Ole Hickory smoker … from 12 to 14 hours". Yum. And talk of the famed smoke ring? That was enough, I checked the website and phoned in my order of a rack of spare ribs, asked the girl, “where da heck are ya?” and drove off.

OMG. Delicious. Meaty and tender. I’m not sure if they offer up more than one sauce or if it is from Sysco, nor do I know if they have homemade sides but they got all the normal ones. And you don’t get a corn bread muffin with the rib meal.

The place is in a strip mall environment, order at a counter (or phone in the order) pick up and eat at one of the few tables in or out. There is a pizza place next door – maybe Del Mar Pizza. I remember seeing ads/coupons for a Firehouse Pizza earlier this year. Is this where it was? Or is it still around.

So, big thumbs up for the BBQ – I should note that while I was raving about the ribs, my wife didn’t care that much for them. I also got a ½ pound of beef brisket that she liked (though I thought was just so-so, but hardly paid attention to it.)

Wine and Food Fest – San Dee-ag-o Style
Grand tasting on Nov. 17th. Anyone going? Let me know, we might be able to say hi to some other bloggers. I’m thinking we’ll pick up a couple of designated driver tickets (discounted to $50) just to sample the foods. We like going to wineries and wine tasting but neither of us quite want to get into that this time.

Blog stuffs…You’d think I’d update this more often. I have a couple of posts written in my head, I just have to take time to get them in. Maybe I’ll have a goal of once a week. Maybe a Sunday morning post. I have a couple of trips I can write about.

All is A-OK

2007-10-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

I thought I should check in at least once a month - and especially now after the week that San Diego has had. No fires in our very own Scripps Ranch this time.

And if there was anything good it was that we had two days off of work.

Yet, we were mandatory evacuated from our neighborhood by the police department Monday at 2 pm. We spent a lovely night sleeping in the car with Cooper in the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot as all the hotels were full by the time we were ordered out.

Of course, area businesses and local people donated everything imaginable to people at Qualcomm (people food, pet food, water, pillows, blankets, cots, camping chairs, tents, etc.) plus all the volunteers. The effort at the "Q" was organized and well handled and now today the Chargers won 35 – 10! But how was the food? Delicious and there was plenty of it!

Carmel - by - the - Dog

2007-09-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

No, don't worry, this isn't a cheesy attempt to make it look like this post is by my dog: our very own Cooper. So, a recent weekend we made the drive to the Monterey Bay area – specifically Carmel-by-the-Sea. Besides being a quaint village, Carmel is also very dog friendly. Lots of lodging options – some being bed and breakfasts – and lots of dining options that allow dogs. I think to some point, they are hoping you’ll just bring your “rich person purse pet” but hells to that! We’ll bring our 75 pound pup.

If you are just staying in town, you can pretty much park your car and walk to wherever you want to go. Naturally, the beautiful white sand city beach is a big draw. Open to off-leash dogs all year long and all hours of the day! And for the girls, lots and lots of shopping. There is seemly no end to the amount of galleries and boutique clothing shops for the ladies. I’m not sure what a guy is to do here besides eat and beaching but supply credit cards – I guess there is golfing.

After getting settled at our bed and breakfast (fruits and pastries in the morning, wine hour in the afternoon) we walked down Ocean Avenue to the beach. Carmel does get plenty of foggy days – which is nice to keep things a little cooler than the inland areas. No doubt a nice relief from the blasting heat San Diego is getting right now. Still we had plenty of sun while we were there.

For eats, we had dinner at Forge in the Forest – kind of a “claim-jumpers” type place – burgers, ribs, steak. We sat on the large patio – they have a couple – I think this one was reserved for people with pups. The food wasn’t anything too great but not terrible – we got a mixed grill of meats and a half a bbq duck. I’d maybe stick to sandwiches instead of dinner entrees. And every entrée comes with some bland vegetables. But they were great with the dog – you can expect a bucket of treats on the table, wait staff giving out pets on his head and a busboy rushing out a bowl of water. They also have a doggie menu.

As mentioned breakfast was provided – if a hot breakfast was desired we heard good things about Katy’s Place. Open for breakfast and lunch, they have a great looking breakfast menu: a huge list of eggs benedicts and all the other breakfast goodies. It didn’t work out as they have a maximum doggie limit of 20 pounds (I called and checked so we weren’t disappointed standing there at the door.)

And we picked up a lunch sandwiches from a deli after a long hike in the Garland Ranch Regional Park in Carmel Valley – not the San Diego suburb, but Carmel Valley just east of Carmel. Highly recommend hiking the trails out there.

I think Cooper was a little surprised at the amount of activities he was involved with this day – after hiking and an afternoon at the beach, he would have been happy just napping in the room. Nope, it was off to eat at The Village Corner – this site has apparently been a restaurant for years and years dating back to the 40’s. They serve all day long – so they would be a good option for a hot breakfast too. Here we informed the host at the front door that we were here with a dog and he met us at the side entrance to the large patio. We liked the food here – crab-stuffed halibut and some sort of spiced lamb chops. It is a tourist town – so service leaves maybe a little something to be desired. Not much time for discussion – just “here is your food, eat” sort of stuff. No food services for dogs here – just what you’d care to feed him off your plates. A young girl passing by asked her mom a couple times, “why do those people have a dog with them?”, I don’t know if anyone had a real answer for her.

Dessert was at The Bubbly Fish – no website that I can find but there is this article – which serves up wine, chocolate, caviar and cheesecake tastings but probably not in that order. It’s a splurge type place or a everyday place depending on your wealth status. Here we had a couple of tastings and some wine – including ice wine which we hadn’t tasted before and don’t even quite buy into the story to this process but it's on Wikipedia so it's true. They have about 10 tables inside and 6 or 8 outside in a courtyard in front of some other shops. Of course, puppy got a treat and some attention from the staff here.

Guy and Alton

2007-08-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

Guy.
Heads up! There is a guy coming to our very own San Diego. Not just any guy, but Guy Fieri of Food Network fame will be at the Fashion Valley Mall next Saturday, August 25th, for a "Super Chefs Live" event. I met Alton Brown a couple of years ago at this event. Expect some cooking demos, a signing, some samples and maybe a local chef or two.

Alton.
Heads up part two! It's been on for a few weeks, my favorite food show right now is Feasting on Asphalt with Alton Brown. This is season 2 and they travel roads up along the Mississippi River. Last season was marred by a motorcycle mishap that left our very own Alton with a broken collarbone - none of that this year. Just, ahem, good eats all the way. Unlike the other travel foodie shows, this one seems like they just happen along various places without an advance team or notice - but I could be wrong. The show runs for a total of 6 episodes.

I'm back!

2007-08-04T08:12:00.001-07:00

Sorta.

Not that I was on vacation, in jail, running from the law or even sick with the flu. Just too lazy to write and post. I've justbeen hitting up the old favorites: that Thai place, the Indian place on Activity Rd., the pizza place that starts with a Z and oh that other place too.

And I've been reading all the local foodie blogs - great job gals and guys!

Did have a weekend breakfast at Cavaillon - saw some bragging about it on our very own Chowhound - and it was excellent. They don't seem to get too busy but the patio filled up while we were there. Smoked Salmon Scramble Eggs with Scallions and Cream Cheese $10.00 Yum! Eggs Benedict with Bacon and Spinach $11.00 Start off with the fresh donut things. I swear the menu showed weekend brunch hours from 8 am to 2 pm, Sat. and Sun., but call and check to confirm as the website shows Sunday hours only.

I should have more posts coming up.

Don't laugh. It's possible.

Really.

New blogs
I've noticed a couple: longtime (I think) Chowhounder, Koko started a blog. And I think our very own "L" from Poway also started a blog. Lots of posts already on each including some restaurant visits - always my favorite part.

Just a bunch of...

2007-06-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

TV Time
There is no shortage of chef competitions on TV this summer. I count 3. That I am watching anyhow. The classiest is Top Chef but the most entertaining is Hell’s Kitchen. How many times can Gordan “Mr. Grouchy” Ramsey scream the “F-word”? Falling somewhere in between is the Next Food Network Star. I could probably skip that one. But I won’t.

If you missed Hell’s Kitchen, be sure to watch next week. They have assembled a prime bunch of trembling foods. Slack jawed yokels even. I don’t see any potential winners yet like the girl that won last year.

And don’t miss the winner of the last Food Network Star, Guy Fieri in his newest show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. He’s the latest they have roped in to eating his way across the country.

Red Pearl Kitchen
Eh. It was okay. I’ve read better things about it but we weren't overly impressed with what we had: Strawberry-Cinnamon Ribs (they weren’t exactly hot, temperature-wise), Black Pepper-Caramel Shrimp (not bad but with that brown goopy sauce that isn’t that great but there were lots of shrimp and they were huge) and the Spicy Chicken Drunk Man Noodle (drunken noodles – we’ve had much better). One minor highlight if you like the place is that you can bring back your stamped receipt the next Monday night for half off your food bill. (Walking by The Oceanaire, I really want to get down there for that ballpark special 3 course $30 menu available 5 pm – 7pm weeknights as the menu looked great that night.)

Market
We splurged on the tasting menu (4 courses) with wine pairing a few weeks ago at Carl Schroeder's Market Restaurant. Yum. I’ll just provide the menu (see photo) and let you fill in the rest since I didn’t take pictures (I hardly ever do) and I’m terrible at describing meals. Service was great: he explained the highlights of the menu in detail before we ordered and seemed quite knowledgeable about each wine, explaining each one when he brought it out and why it worked with the course. Yea, probably BS but still an experience – one that we haven’t quite taken part in. The most memorable were the tender braised beef ribs.

It was probably a 2 ½ hour meal – the timing was just right, never too long of a wait. The menu is perfect for a table of 2 since there are 2 menu options for each course. All in all, a great night and I wasn’t even embarrassed to valet my 3 year old Lexus.

Alice Q. Foodie sez it is time fer a new post.

2007-05-31T23:59:00.000-07:00

It’s been a month, I couldn’t have gone a whole month without eating, dammit!

Yes, I forgot about the blog for all of May so I have time-traveled (if that is possible) back in time to get this post in. We went to Market Restaurant in Del Mar nearly a month ago – I’ll get to the post in a few days. I guess I have some writers block going on with that one and so much time has gone by I can probably just write, uh, the braised beef ribs were good. I do have plenty of chain eating to write about though. Applebee’s! Outback! Famous Dave’s! Chili’s! Those gems will have to wait. So will going the Downtown Disney™ way with Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen. And then there was that brief stop at Napa Rose after hours of drinking. Oops, probably said too much…

Cavaillon

2007-04-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went to Cavaillon in someplace called Santaluz (just north of THE 56) after seeing an excellent rating in The Reader review and high praise on Chowhound. I made reservations for their Monday night $32 fixed price 3 course “meal deal”. Reservations on a Monday night? Seems odd, but they have a fairly small dining room (unless I missed a larger back room?) with a small bar left of the entryway so reservations may be suggested on potentially busy nights. We were offered either a tiny table inside or our choice of any table on the empty patio. Since the weather was nice, we went outside and had the patio to ourselves.

Starters included French Onion Soup with Cubes of Beef Short Rib and Onion and Eggplant Tart with Sautéed Calamari. Both were great.

My entrée was the slightly famed "Coq au Vin" with Creamy Potatoes and Vegetable Brunoise. As you might know, I’m a “foodie dummie” and don’t know much about anything, so I wasn’t aware of Coq au Vin before Naomi’s review. At Cavaillon they serve up two meaty chicken thighs. Plenty to eat here!

My wife got the Shiitake Mushroom Risotto with Green Asparagus and Aged Parmesan. Filling! Seinfeld fans know this! And they do a Shrimp and Lobster Risotto – either as an entrée or a smaller appetizer.

Dessert was an Almond Macaroon with Fresh Berries and Raspberry Coulis plus another Coconut Ice Cream, Pineapple & Golden Raisin Marmalade. Yum.

The food overall was excellent, good portions and great service, but from the looks of the dinner menu, that $32 meal deal results in just maybe a couple bucks off. I probably wouldn’t bother with that again – just go whenever you want and order whatever you want – most of the menu is under $25 (a couple under $20) for entrees and the full dinner menu is available on Monday nights. Cavaillon also serves brunch on weekends (alert to Jim, the Brunch Master!) with plenty of options right around $10. That patio is calling me for breakfast some weekend!

Pump-beer-kin

2007-04-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

Trader Joe's has been discounting (down to $2.99! for six bottles!) this seasonal beer recently all the way from Sea Dog Brewery in Bangor, Maine. I liked it. And it's the home of Stephen King. The beer has a sweet flavor - maybe a little bit like a beer and creme soda combo. Not a hint of nutmeg thankfully.

I like Trader Joe's many tasty chocolate covered goodies. And other treats.

Reuben Tuesday

2007-04-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

Last week, I guess the old fashioned taco Tuesday got upgraded some how as The Linkery introduced Reuben Tuesday™ for all us masses. After apparently disappointing many fans around Saint Patty’s Day, a large batch of corned beef was commissioned and last Tuesday the Reuben had reappeared on the menu.

My wife had the Sausage Tacos ($11.50 – yes, taco Tuesday is back!) made with a link of Chicken Curry Sausage – take your pick of any link available that day (they usually have 3) served up on grilled corn tortillas with fresh pico de gallo, cabbage, and queso fresco and served with jicama black bean salad. Yes, I took that from the website menu. And it’s probably a run-on sentence.

I got the Reuben ($15.50 – is it okay to say Yikes to my lunching buddies? Hey, it is what it is.) paired with the Death and Taxes black lager from little ol' Moonlight Brewing in Sonoma County. The Reuben is served as an “open-faced” sandwich, topped with white cheese with the sauerkraut hidden beneath the meat. Delicious. Yet, I couldn’t help notice that a neighboring table got a bigger portion. Eh, call it “plate envy”. Pickle slices and homemade style potato chips finish off the plate. Of course, we started out with a cheese plate (around $12) and finished the meal up with a couple of desserts: their homemade pound cake topped with cream, kiwi and strawberries. Plus we got the awesome Linkery made Oaxacan chocolate ice cream with cacao nibs. (Each around $6.) This was a huge success!

Maple Syrupin' 2007

2007-04-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

It’s a bloggin’ field trip! Far away from our very own Southern California is a place that people might make maple syrup. Mrs. Butterworth and Vermont be damned, this post will be about the upper Midwest maple syrupers. Specifically, my Dad’s small time maple syrup shack which is all new this year! It’s just a fun time spring hobby with most of the product going to friends and family.

Gone are the old large open pans that cooked maple sap over a closed fire box and gone are the old buckets that collected the sap. Enter a new era! Collection bags! A modern evaporator! The process is easier as the cooking sap runs thru a series of separate pans as it cooks down, eventually measured and then a faucet is opened to pull off a couple of quarts of finished syrup. This is way different than the old method in which 10 gallons (or more) would have to be taken off the fire at once and quickly filtered. The new setup includes a filter press – days later the syrup is filtered and bottled.

But it’s all best shown with pictures. No need for me to blather on.

It all starts with the sap collection.

A time machine?

Wood fired.

Cooking away!

Dad reports that he produced 50 gallons of syrup this year. This is off of 300 taps (multiple taps per tree are typical) with about 33 gallons of sap needed to cook down to a gallon of syrup. In Syrupin' 101 you'll learn that you need nighttime temperatures to hit 25 degrees and daytime temperatures around 45. This gets the sap moving and dripping out of the spouts. Cooking it is just a relaxing time filled with card playing and general shooting of the shit.

What is it?

2007-04-17T23:00:00.000-07:00

Coffee? Err...probably not.

Beer? From the latest brewery tour?

A load of honey? Bee poop?

Be back with a full post in a day. Or nine.

Random Junk

2007-04-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

I haven’t been inclined to post much – but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been eating lots. Oh, I’m been eating so much. Sorry if you have been checking in every week only to see nothing new.

And I missed doing an April Fool’s Day post…
…did any San Diego food bloggers do one? I just didn’t get around to it. I think it would have been something about the superb quality of hot dogs and just would have blathered on and on about how good hot dogs are. (They really are.) Or maybe a lengthy post deconstructing the $1.29 McFish Fishy Samich. It’s a Good Friday tradition. Tiny but still probably 350 calories. Really soft bun. Weren’t these bigger years ago. Anyhow, that is a rare fast food for me. It's some kind of appealing, isn't it?

Thanks to the Chowhound…
…which anyone can find on the Internets I’ve recently checked out the famed Super Cocina on University – yum! The samples! I will be back soon! There is a little place on Miramar a couple of doors down from the BBQ place that does sort of the same thing in a smaller way. (Carnitas, Chicken Mole, more!) Speaking of BBQ, I recently checked out San Diego’s very own Phil’s BBQ for the very first time at their new location. Pretty good stuff – it smells great outside the place.

Poway Restaurant Reviewer
Poway’s very own city councilman, Bob Emery, reviews local restaurants as noted in a recent article. Cool! I checked the meeting minutes and the reviews are brief but glowing.

I’ve got more stuff on the way…I have no less than 3 posts. Unfortunately they are only in my mind and have not been written yet. So more could be on the way. Even this week.

Fish Fry Friday

2007-03-13T23:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, it’s Fish Fry Friday by Fire Fly Fifty Five. Cough cough. I’ve probably written this before but for many people Friday’s equals Fish Fry Friday. For the uncouth, it means the restaurant TGIFridays. But not today! Back in the “old country” you could find a tasty fish fry at any corner bar and all but the worst restaurants. Deep-fried Haddock typically - sometimes served up family style all-you-can-eat. Yum. Deep-fried fish, potato salad and fries – this could be the death of us all yet! But you also will get slaw and buttered rye bread, neither of which is deep-fried.

Once upon a time I even had a hard-boiled egg that was wrapped in bacon, battered up and deep-fried. When I woke up in the hospital I had a special diet to go on. That was fun.

Oggi’s
First up on the Friday fish fry tour is Oggi’s. I think this is pronounced, OH JEEZ, as in “Oh, jeez, I’m so f’ing fat.” It’s been voted at least some years in row as the best pizza. I’m not sure about that, it looked a little doughy to me. But we’ve hit this brewpub (with enough San Diego locations) a few times over the years for hot wings and beer or something similar.

They do fish and chips for $10.95, with their own beer batter anonymous white fish served up with potato wedges. It seemed to be a pretty light batter – with maybe even some breadcrumbs. The whole meal was made better with a starter of artichoke dip with tortilla chips – but even better by a trying out their beer sampler: 7 samples of their beer, each in it’s own 5 oz. glass. What a sight to see our waitress bringing that platter of beer (the sampler is $7) and it was all for me.

Thumbs up big time to Oggi’s – especially after the sampler.

Brigantine
Yes, what about the Brigantine family of restaurants, another local chain? Surprisingly, we’ve never been to one. Now, after a remodel (the place looks great!), the Poway location has been renamed The Brig. We probably overloaded on deep fried fish on that Friday night as my better half ordered the fish tacos (a total of 2) for $9 and I had the fish and chips (3 pieces of fish) for $15. The tacos come with a few hushpuppies and the fish comes with (ta-da, surprise!) homemade potato chips. Each also comes with a choice of slaw or bleu cheese potato salad. These are fairly heavily battered pieces of fish. My wife thought the tacos were a little dry – I thought they were fine and would order those again.

The rest of the menu looked pretty good – we may find ourselves there again if only for drinks (a full bar!) and appetizers. Yet, I get the feeling that everything on the menu was on the Sysco truck earlier that day – I’m sure that chocolate pie was Sysco Chocolate Pie #3.

Next up
Even though I wrote “deep-fried” about 20 times here, I actually don’t really care for deep fried food very much. First off, in my mind it seems unhealthy, plus it all tastes like that who knows how old fry oil. My next post will be totally in a different direction: Cavaillon. By writing it here, I might actually get around to writing the post.

Other blogs...

2007-02-11T08:05:00.000-08:00

I don't have anything new in the works. You never know - there could be a flurry of posts coming your way soon. But probably not.

I see some newish San Diego foodie blogs have popped up recently. If you've been paying attention to the links the other bloggers have you probably know about them already. In no order except the order I am putting them in:

The I Love Food Guy. Food food food! Don't we all. Plenty of pictures of his eating adventures!

The Papaya Lady, Maia, at her very own maiapapaya blog! Mostly home cooked meals - but she flew (and, boy, are her arms tired!) to San Francisco just for a day of foodie stuffs - beautiful photography, Maia!

The San Diego Food Blog Guy. Not quite arranged as a blog with "diary-type" entries but more of a review website. Click on the list of all restaurants for easy access to his reviews. He writes that his blog "...began as a response to other ... blogs on the Internet that .... consist of bad writing and overused cliches...". I think he may be looking at me.

The Food Geek Couple. Again, home cooking. They write that they have a dog - we need doggie pictures!

The What We Dig Couple. Can you dig it, man? Lots of San Diego dining out. Like me, they usually seem to forget their camera.

Downtown Eating

2007-01-25T23:33:00.000-08:00

After eating at The Oceanaire, I thought hmm, should try to get downtown to eat more often. No doubt that Red Pearl Kitchen (right around the corner) is on my list. Well, thanks to nearly a week of jury duty, I had a rare opportunity to lunch downtown for 4 days. That’s a nice side benefit – okay maybe the ONLY benefit unless you are really hardcore about the whole fulfilling your civic duty bull.

Monsoon
First up I had decided that I’d check out that Indian buffet at Monsoon on 4th Avenue if they were doing it for lunch. They were and I helped myself to several plates. Not quite Punjabi Tandoor quality but pretty good. For atmosphere, it’s a 180-degree turn from that “hole in the place” complete with nearly elegant high back chairs and white tablecloths. And at $13.99 you better believe I’m spilling more than a little glop on their nice clean linens!

They don’t seem to do all that great of business for lunch – I only saw about 10 other customers over the time I was there so you might see a heavy skin form on some of the buffet dishes. The Vegetarian Tikka Masala was just okay (again go to Punjabi in Miramar for this one) but Tandoor chicken was good. No doubt there was enough to eat – I thought the Chicken Mulligatawny soup was great. Of course they have that spinach dish and some sort of lamb dish – maybe Lamb Vindaloo. I know I've missed something. A good sampling of food with a couple of simple desserts.

I vaguely remember sampling this buffet on a Gaslamp "taste of" tour.

Samba Grill
The second day I actually got picked to a jury so I needed to find some place to drown my sorrows. A liquid lunch at The Yardhouse? Mmm? Maybe! But what if blurted out the wrong thing in the afternoon session?

Then I decided what about that Brazilian Steakhouse place in Horton Plaza? Passing up other food court choices I wound up at Samba Grill. This is where the servers come out with loads of meat on long metal skewers and slide or cut off a serving for anyone interested. Yes, all you can eat meat! Perfect for an afternoon without a chance at a bathroom break.

San Diego’s very own mmm-yoso guy did a great write up last summer of this place. I think lunchtime is great time to check this restaurant out on the cheap – $13.99. But even at lunch I was offered over 10 offerings of a variety of meats. Sausages, beef ribs, sirloin and filet mignon, marinated chicken, turkey wrapped in bacon, maybe bacon wrapped with turkey that was wrapped with bacon again and then deep fried. Okay forget that last one. As I said, even at lunch, plenty to eat.

Along with the meat served tableside, they have a mostly salad buffet that was just okay. Nothing special there except they did have some sort of doughy bread ball. I don’t recall the name or if I even knew the name there – but I liked it a lot. Besides cold salads they had a few warm items like meatballs and lamb in a dark sauce.

Café Cerise
By day 3 I thought maybe I should ease up on the all you can eat stuff so I thought a visit to Café Cerise was in order. The place gets a few good mentions on Chowhound – and we sampled there for a downtown taste of once and I remembered that they seemed to be a restaurant excels in careful preparation of good products to create some great food. Or something like that.

There have been some rumors that they would be closing – they just don’t seem to attract enough business. At lunch I saw all of 7 other diners – so hardly a crowd. It’s a shame as the food is really good! I started off with a Caesar Salad With Parmigiano-Reggiano, Capers, Coddled Egg And Roasted Garlic for 5.25 and on the waiter’s recommendation got a Open Faced Lamb Sandwich, Covered with Bleu Cheese with Butterleaf Lettuce and Chanterelle Mushrooms for around 12.00 – or that is nearly how I remember it listed on the menu.

Looks like the menu is printed and changes daily. It’s a real steal for lunchtime I think considering quality and the pricing is about the same as anything from Red Blobster to Abblepees – or just a couple bucks more.

Grab and Go
The last day was a simple Grab & Go sub – a spicy tuna that was the special of the day. It was good – right around noon this place (2 blocks from the courthouse on C Street) gets line out the door busy. Around $5.50 or so.

I never did get to the Yardhouse though I think it would be next on my list – maybe.

El Bizarro Wait

2007-01-21T09:34:00.000-08:00

Oops I mean El Bizcocho – one of the top rated restaurants in San Diego. I’d say it would be an understatement to say that this place is a few levels above our economic and social class. But naturally Restaurant Week gives us a chance to try a few restaurants we might not bother to go to otherwise.

Here we were greeted and lead to our semi-private table without any delay – but then there was about a five-minute wait for our menus. The regular menu was on the left side with the restaurant week menu on the right, which seems to very closely match what had been listed online. We must have given the wrong hand signal or maybe didn’t cough correctly as there was an abnormally long wait before our waiter approached for our order. Maybe they though we were reading the wine list. The wait time might be excused if the place was filled to capacity, but upon looking over the dining area, at the time we were seated it was around ¾ full.

Eventually we ordered and the appetizers came out within a couple of minutes. But then there was a long delay before the entrée and a fairly long wait for dessert. Our feeling that the wait time was unusually long was confirmed by our waiter who apologized for the delay in the entrees and the desert courses. Here is what we had as copied from the restaurant week website:

First/Appetizer Course:
Day Boat Sea Scallop with Wine Cured Sausage, Mushroom Flan & Chive Froth

Hamachi “Crudo” with Butternut Squash Puree, Baby Fennel & Ponzu Vinaigrette

Second/Main Course:
Seared Baramundi with Crispy Chorizo, Manilla Clams, Potato Confit & Saffron-Curry Broth

Lamb Loin with Garbanzo Bean Puree, Tomato Confit, Baby Spinach & Olive Reduction

Third/Dessert Course:
Chocolate Veloute with Rum Braised Bananas & Caramel Ice Cream

Goats Milk Cheesecake with Armagnac Infused Winter Fruit & White Pepper Gastrique

The food was good – but extremely small portions. I don’t know if this is typical (French sized portions?) or if they passed out tinier portions because of restaurant week. I guess I’ll assume we were served what we would have received if we ordered from the regular menu any night of the year. I won’t embarrass myself by critiquing food I know too little about. Yes, it there were interesting sauces and reductions. That Chocolate Veloute was sort of a round cake with a soft warm center – we’d call it a lava cake. That Hamachi Crudo and Lamb Loin were just 3 bite sized piece each. Service was very professional – yet friendly and warm. We did see a nearby couple taking pictures but if they were bloggers I haven’t yet seen anything show up online.

El Bizcocho is in the Rancho Bernardo Inn. They do a Sunday Brunch (complete with a Bloody Mary station!) that we may check out at some point – I’m sure they have some pretty great food and since it is all you can eat there won’t be any snacking required once you get home.

Oceanaire

2007-01-08T22:30:00.000-08:00

I imagine most that happen by to read this blog have already ate a meal or three here – Restaurant Week in San Diego kicked off for us at The Oceanaire at 4th and J. This ain’t a Joe’s Crabshack, baby! I went in expecting a seafoodie version of Ruth’s Chris – I think that is pretty accurate. It has a reputation as a $$$$ restaurant so it was a surprise that they remained at the $30 price point when many have went up to $40 (even The Yardhouse fer chrimey sakes! WTF?) Anyway, the week is perfect for bargain hunters.

They present the restaurant week menu a little differently than others. Instead of one sheet of listed 3 courses and the 3 choices for each and that’s it, they present their regular menu with some options highlighted in bold to indicate you could pick them as part of restaurant week (no mention of this until we asked.) And they had an extra 2 or 3 choices for both the main course and apps. Sweet!

Shortly after being seated they set down a half loaf of bread and a relish plate filled with a couple of celery and carrot sticks, a couple of radishes, etc and a little bowl of herring. My wife is a big fan of herring (picked fish – usually in a wine sauce) and it is a New Years Eve tradition to eat it (said to bring good luck even though we’ve had a checkout girl nearly throw up in her mouth at Von’s recently – well, not quite but it did draw a “wha?, ewww” reaction.) Besides the wine list - they have a list of "classic old school" cocktails like the Harvey Wallbanger and the probably the Howdy Plunger and so on. We ordered a Tequila Sunrise and a "James Bond" Martini. Both good!

Appetizer Course

Maryland Inspired Blue Crab Cake. This was a pile, slightly flattened, of crab meat. Delicious! Almost total crab meat – no breadcrumbs to be found in this puppy! Thumbs up.

El Diablo Squid. Let’s not be disgusting and just call it calamari! It’s lightly battered, deep-fried and then mixed with a whoa-nelly hot (to us) sauce.

Main Course

Oregon Stuffed Petrale Sole: Blue Crab, Bay Shrimp and Brie with Lemon Beurre Blanc. You could really taste the beurre. I’m just kidding. This was a real winner.

Swordfish “drunken” with a cherry reduction. It was pretty good – not too dry or anything. There were some nuts mixed in with the cherries (pretty much covered the fish.)

Dessert

Cappuccino Praline and Raspberry/Chocolate Cake. Both of these were a layered cake with either alternate layers of mousse or raspberry filling with a sponge cake.

Value?
A tremendous value as the entrées were listed around $28. The crabcake is listed around $13 and the squid over $10 and I’d assume desserts would be $7 or $8 (no price listed.) Cocktails are in the $8 to $10 range. Because of the way the menu is presented (with RW options in bold) I suppose they caught some unsuspecting visitors paying normal price. I wonder. Of course, they are probably pretty booked up each night – I’d think that reservations would only be available booking with a hotel concierge.

Notes.
The menu did vary somewhat from what was posted online as it was missing Lobster Bisque and Oysters Rockefeller. No biggie – what we got was great anyhow. They were out of a couple of desserts (Crème brûlée and a Fruit Crisp) but still had 4 or 5 to choose from. Maybe their “real” desserts are a little more elaborate. I did pull some descriptions directly from the RW website – if they prove to be slightly incorrect from what was served. In the end, we had lots of food, it was all tasty and oh yea, the service was fine.

No pictures this round – I had the cell phone camera at the ready but without using the flash any previews of photos looked too dark. I wasn’t about to use the flash.

We just have one more restaurant planned for later this week.

www.theoceanaire.com

Knockout Pizza

2007-01-04T22:45:00.000-08:00

After extended weeks of holiday snacking, candy and general overindulgence we needed something to settle our stomachs. Pizza? Sure, why not. Some might try Tums or Maalox Plus – nope, not here. Pizza is the sure cure. For awhile it was no-no food in our healthy house but no more! Enter, maybe?, Knockout Pizza? This location is in a Mira Mesa mall – yep, next to the Food Court, under the stairs. Pretty much all they sell is 18 inch pies. Unlimited toppings for 16 bucks. By the slice is also available.

Pictured here is the “Hells Kitchen” a supreme type pizza. How was it? Pretty good. Still, I wouldn’t mind a little more of each of the toppings, especially the meat. They are said to be one of the best NY style pizza in San Diego. Sure, that is on their menu and website. But I think there are a couple of other Knockout Pizzeria locations in the northern coastal area and I think they were started by someone that worked at Bronx Pizza or ate there once so it’s probably a reputation that is earned by now.

So, thumbs up to Knockout. It had a zesty sauce and you could fold it up and gobble it down. Plus I drive by there every day so it could be a semi-regular stop.

But what about the other pizzas I blogged about? Well, looking from top left with chain pizzeria Domino’s and their cracker thin to (moving clockwise) that Buca di Beppo to the deluxe Coney Island Pizza in the lower right corner and finally over to the Z-Pizza Mexican – hell I thought these were all really good. That Domino’s is sort of our guilty pleasure standby. I wouldn’t mind finding other cracker thin crusted pizzas out there – but I’d also go for some Chicago deep dish. (And you KNOW I think that Beppo does an awesome pants poopage inducing pizza – it was a greasy pie, friends!) And of course, Z-Pizza gets a call from us every once in awhile. They have some great non-traditional type pizzas.

Hawthorn's

2006-12-31T09:02:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone. Or, if you prefer, Happy Nude Bear.

With this extra time off from work, I am finally getting around to the post about the December blogger meet up at Hawthorn’s in North Park. This all might seem a little familiar to you if you read the recent blog post at Oh So Yummy.

I’ll just post about a few of the food items:

Ahi Tuna Tartare with Capers & Olive Tapenade $12: This was the winning appetizer.

Stuffed Roasted Chicken Breast with Goat Cheese & Artichoke Stuffing $18: I think this is what they refer to as the “old” favorite recipe from the previous Fifth & Hawthorn restaurant.

Jumbo Diver Sea Scallops with Corn Polenta, Portabello (bello or bella?) Mushrooms & Truffle Jus $27: Seared just long enough – this was tasty but at this price point I’d expect a little more.

The place is a nice addition to the neighborhood and was busy for a weeknight. We did share a couple of desserts – I understand that they come from Heaven Sent Desserts (just a block away) so you could just have your final course there (and have a lot more selection.) All in all, I’d give the edge to The Linkery in the same neighborhood and would choose to return there before a return to Hawthorns.

Of course, stopping in for drinks and appetizers for happy hour in the bar is always possible! They do offer a “couples” menu for $65 a couple which includes entrees, a shared appetizer and dessert plus wine. I think they only offer this on slower nights.

Sidenote: Service was a little funky at first. It’s my understanding a Hawthorn's staff member invited Brunch Master Jim (Thanks Jim, we own you a meal!) to gather up interested bloggers for a "Meet & Eat" to come out and try their newish location and that they would offer some extra specials and complimentary items. Things didn’t quite work out in that regard so the wait staff didn’t operate as smoothly as they could have.

And thanks to Dennis for the photos.

Trader Joe's Saves Christmas!

2006-12-28T21:31:00.000-08:00

I'm just going to goof off tonight.

Sure, we all want surf and turf meals for Christmas but what do you do when the stock market has brutally stolen all your money and you hate to cook anyhow? Well, you go for the cheap at Trader Joe’s. Grab the ready to go salad in a bag, some marinated beef and some microwaveable shrimpers:

Then you left your oven or the microwave do some damage and ta-da you have a meal! Pop in a movie like Little Miss Sunshine, throw up your TV dinner trays and eat a classy Christmas dinner in front of the warming glow of your TV.

This salad is actually a real winner. For around 4 bucks you get it all, the baby spinach, the dressing, the blue cheese, pecans and cranberries.

The beef and the shrimp were just okay but officially qualify as SURF AND TURF!!!

Oh, and Little Miss Sunshine is a really good movie. And Trader Joe's, you are truly a Christmas miracle!

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-24T09:21:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, everyone! I've really been lazy with new posts. I really don't have anything in the works either except that Hawthorn's write-up I've been meaning to do. We haven't seriously considered any Christmas weekend eating out - seems like many do a (overpriced?) holiday menu. If we can find something that is just doing a regular menu we may go out. Naturally we have a bag of Trader Joe treats to keep us busy.

If you haven't been out to Poway to check out the Christmas lights - here is a hint for a couple of nice blocks: Take 15 to Poway Road, go about 4 miles to Carriage Road, take a left then just follow the cars a half mile to Saddlewood Drive. It's worth the drive! They really go all out complete with driveway karaoke. Park the car and just walk around and take in 100,000 watts of holiday. We just went last night and it was the busiest I've ever seen it.

The Linkery

2006-12-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

We ate recently at The Linkery. At last. This spot has long been on my list to try – plus it is the only restaurant in the world that is vaguely aware that this very blog even exists. (The Linkery blog has links to all San Diego food blogs.)

Again, no pictures so lets just have at it with the eats: we started off with their herb salad: mixed greens, mint, cilantro, clementines and pine nuts, dressed with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and topped with cotija cheese. ($6.50) Really good and a large size for a small.

My wife got the pan-seared wild Mexican huachinango (aka Pacific silk snapper) with fresh organic cranberry, grilled organic sugarloaf squash, and greens in a tangerine vinaigrette ($15.50). It was okay but we thought…

…that my entree was a real winner: I got the grilled pork tenderloin with sautéed crosnes, snap peas, and red beets, and a goat cheese and quince puree. ($13.50) That puree was Excellent with a capital E! The pork was medium rare so damn to you trichinosis! Actually, it isn’t much (if any) of a problem anymore so I’ve read. (And as a sidenote: What the heck was a eating? A crosne? Now I know!)

So then dessert: we had a piece of their Mexican chocolate mousse pie and their strawberry something cheesecake (I don’t quite remember the fruit combo). Both were delicious. ($5.50 each.) Obviously, a big thumbs up to The Linkery. We’ll be back!

(There is a great little blog post on The Linkery from Josh at FoodGPS with lots of pictures.)

I can’t think of another restaurant at this price point (a simple neighborhood restaurant) that cares so deeply about the food they serve, that uses regionally grown ingredients, small farm raised meats, that has an always changing (and interesting) menu to feature what is fresh that week. Maybe there are some, but owner Jay (Hi Jay!) does a great job of promoting this philosophy at his website, on the menu and in person.

Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens

2006-11-29T23:07:00.000-08:00

The long weekend gave us a chance to take a drive up to Escondido for lunch at the new bistro and (of course!) for a brewery tour. If you’re thinking they just opened up a little bistro for the heck of it next to their gift shop – nope! They spent some bucks on this place. This is a large space with high ceilings and a wall of windows that looks out onto their new gardens. They have lots of outdoor seating too. Seating for hundreds I’m sure. Part of that wall of windows are actually large panels that open up like garage doors, so on nice days they open those up. Plenty of heat lamps outside. Naturally, I started out with an Arrogant Bastard Ale – yum. We saw some tables getting appetizers of beer battered onion rings (of course, using that Bastard Ale!) and I also saw that those rings came as a side for a great looking burger. I didn’t see it on the menu but I bet they would do a great beer battered fish fry.

My wife got a plate of the BBQ Duck Tacos ($17) and of course they used their very own Smoked Porter as the base for the sauce. Came with sides of black beans, brown rice with a mango salsa. This was really good. I was drawn to the Chicken Tikki Masala ($15.75), while it was good it could have been made with a jar of sauce from Trader Joes. (That isn’t to say that is what they did – I believe it was made in house.) But it had a nice spice to it. I’d definitely want to get that burger next time. My meal came with a side of mashed yams (and naturally, spiked with that Smoked Porter) and a side of chard. The menu made no mention of the name of the head chef.

We’d definitely be back – the food was good, the rest of the menu looked interesting, the space is great. If you go, be sure to print the map on the website. They are located in a newer area of an Escondido business park and I didn’t even see a sign on the building but you can’t miss it. It’s the large building that is spewing a fermenting yeasty smell.

We skipped dessert so we could make it to the brewery tour – an educational 45 minutes behind the scenes at Stone. Of course, they badmouth the mass marketed beers in any way possible (as well they should). No cost for the tour, just meet up in the gift shop and get a poker chip. This is your ticket to the tasting at the end of the tour.

Photo is compliments the Stone Brew website. I left my camera at home, but they welcomed photography on the tour.

Buca di Beppo!

2006-11-26T09:45:00.000-08:00

Curbside! To Go! Ah, the ultimate for the lazy man! I tried this last week! They took everything great about fast food drive-thru and transferred into curbside to go service. No need to lift your butt out of your car! All the best restaurants like Outback, TGIFridays, Chili’s, Applebee’s and now Buca di Beppo are doing it. Maybe even Claim Jumpers! Just call in your order on your way home from work and stop in and pick up your food.

But Buca di Beppo, you say? Yes! But wait, before you revoke my membership in the Foodie Incorporated Club, please listen to my reasoning: I needed to expand my stomach for a long weekend of Thanksgiving eating. So, what better way?

Here’s what we had: Chopped Antipasto Salad. A salad of iceberg lettuce with chopped pepperoni, mortadella, prosciutto, tomatoes, red onion, cucumbers, feta, provolone and gorgonzola! Yum! ($9.95 for a small.)

Spicy Arrabbiata Pizza Spicy sausage, pepperoni, onions! Greasy! It's a thin crust. The onions are caramelized and I’ve read they use up to four cheeses on this pizza. You can't go wrong with four cheeses! There is the distinct taste of bleu cheese. I really liked the pizza. I'd imagine it would be a little crisper if you got it at the restaurant. I've rarely heard anyone complain about pizza and the Buca. ($13.45 for a small.)

Chicken Cannelloni Stuffed with chicken sausage, provolone, ricotta, and fresh sage, smothered with romano and marinara, and baked to perfection! 6,000 calories! It was either between this or the lasagna. I thought it was tasty. ($14.95 for a small (again!))

I thought it was all pretty good but my wife thought it was all pretty crappy. Go figure! Still, it saved a night of kitchen work. And even though I seem to be making fun of it, that curbside service worked out really well. I could sit in my car and not miss a second of The Tom Leykis Show! They included a hunk of bread (so-so) and all kinds of little containers for topping stuff or dipping: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pizza oil, etc.

Okay, Buca, I’ve said it. Now send me my gift card.

Blogger note
I see the font size on my last post didn't show up correctly for users of FireFox. Sorry about that. Blame Google! But on a happy note it showed up fine for Internet Exploder users.

JRDN

2006-11-24T08:28:00.000-08:00

As you might expect – or maybe not – I was kidding yesterday about having Thanksgiving at Black Angus. You really can never tell with me. Instead, after reading the Reader list and the Union Tribune list of Thanksgiving restaurants, I settled on JRDN in Pacific Beach. This is the restaurant for the newish (and stylish!) Tower23 Hotel, located on the boardwalk with great views of the ocean.

They did a 4 course menu from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. – now, we’d normally avoid restaurants on holidays for the various obvious reasons like overpricing and possible crowds but we’ve had home cooked Thanksgivings the last couple of years and it was time for one out. We decided on a lunch time meal – which ended up being perfect since the weather was beautiful and we could have lunch on the patio with a full view of the scantily clad girls (and guys) walking by! Of course, they served up the traditional turkey day meal – or you could pick prime rib, lamb or salmon entrees. Soup and salad was the same for everyone and dessert was the choice of pumpkin pie or pecan pie. And as you might expect, a little alcohol was required in the form of a T23-tini: a multilayered martini with vodka, rum and fruity juicy juice. Since it was outside I could easily take a bunch of pictures - and that helps out so much!

Roasted butternut squash soup.
With nutmeg crème fraiche

JRDN salad.
Local farmer’s organic mix with fresh herb vinaigrette

Herb roasted turkey with pan gravy.
Sage dressing, sweet potato gratin, almond green beans and house made cranberry sauce

Roasted saddle of Colorado lamb.
Stuffed with swiss chard and almond, mashed potatoes and smoky cabernet sauce

Pecan pie with shortbread crust and bourbon-caramel sauce
It was a good solid meal – nothing mind blowingly outstanding but a nice traditional Thanksgiving in the sun in San Diego. Price was $36 a person. Service was fine – they really weren’t too busy with just a handful of tables filled up outside and probably about the same inside. Maybe people would be there for dinner. I’d definitely try them for a lunch sometime.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-23T10:23:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving 2006! What to eat? Should we go with the all you can eat buffet provided by Black Angus? It’s all you can EAT!!! But what about IKEA? For the budget minded, it’s just $4.99 for a Thanksgiving feast. But damn, what’s this? They aren’t open Thanksgiving! That’s okay, I’m a little worried that their turkey would be mightily close to what they served us in the school cafeteria so many years ago.

Okay, unless I am warned in the next hour, I’m calling Stuart Anderson's Black Angus for a reservation. I always have the option of picking up a Boston Market Thanksgiving In A Box To Go on the way home.

Jack's La Jolla

2006-11-16T00:10:00.000-08:00

Just a short one tonight. Nope, didn’t get to The Dining Room at Jack’s or even the Ocean Room – we intended on going to Jack’s Grille but lo and behold they do not serve lunch. Instead lunch is served in the 2nd floor Beach Bar overlooking beautiful Girard Avenue. I didn’t quite take any proper photos – instead just snapped a few “on the sly”. The place was nearly empty when we got there, but quickly filled up.

We started off with Dungeness Crab Spring Rolls ($13) for an appetizer – it ended up being just two small fried rolls. But they were tasty. Our waiter recommended wrapping that leaf of lettuce around it and then eat – so we did.

I ended up getting a delicious Angus Beef Hamburger – they offer a 8 oz. and a 10 oz. version. Each is topped with Sweet Onions, Shiitake Mushrooms, Choice of Cheddar, Swiss or Bleu Cheese and you have the option to add fries (I did not.) It was thick and meaty and I don’t care who knows! I thought I might have missed out on some great parmesan garlic fries or some such, but I saw a neighboring table get just normal fries. ($9 or $12.) The L got a Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Avocado and Tomato, Chimichurri Vinaigrette – this was really good and huge. Plus served with a side of arugula or similar salad. (And a great value at $9.) Forgot to snap a picture of this but it came with pieces of chicken on a couple of "fire"-toasted slices of bread.

To finish things off we got a chocolate cake – one of those lava cakes with the melted center with some caramel ice cream. ($8) Portion was on the small side. Overall, an enjoyable lunch. I know the almighty hamburger is a pretty standard choice but this was a great version. And that chicken sandwich was a real winner.

I'm also glad that they spelled SHIITAKE correctly!

Restaurant Week 2007
They have had the full list of restaurants and menus up for a few weeks – any places stand out as must eats? Just based on reputation (and that we haven’t eaten at these places yet) I’m thinking A.R. Valentien at The Lodge at Torrey Pines (eh, but the menu looks a little plain), The Oceanaire and then maybe Chive or maybe Café Japengo. We’d either go for 2 or 3 nights out. Any other suggestions?

Forgot the Camera...

2006-11-05T10:00:00.000-08:00

...and damn, it’s nice to have pictures when doing restaurant write-ups. What do they say? A thousand words becomes a photograph or picture can be mentioned with a thousand words. Something like that. Anyhow, except for the normal lunch spots (take and eat) and work lunches at the normal chains (PF Chang’s, Red Blobster, Chili’s if you can believe it and Rock Bottom (I liked the Brown Ale but the bar appetizers? – ehh and overpriced.)), eating out has been happening pretty rarely. There is something about those $100+ dinners that doesn’t seem worth it. But, I know there are a lot of relatively inexpensive gems out there to try…

Yet, I’ve got a couple to mention: First up, La Bastide Bistro in the old Vons shopping center in Scripps Ranch. Looks like that old Vons is getting a makeover. So someday soon we’ll refer to it as the new old Vons in Scripps Ranch. I read on Chowhound that the chef that started things up there has moved on. I guess that doesn’t really matter for lunch. We stopped in on a recent Saturday to enjoy lunch on their patio (yes, overlooking that Vons parking lot) to have their crêpes: Chicken Breast, Tomato, Basil Pesto and Cheese ($9) and a Smoked Salmon, Dill and Lemon ($11). These come with a green salad so at that price you definitely get a delicious and filling lunch. We also started off with a cheese plate ($12) that was just so-so. I wouldn’t bother with it again. Hopefully this place draws in a good weekday lunch crowd (there are a lot of office buildings nearby), but the Saturday lunch crowd wasn’t a crowd at all. They only had 3 other tables occupied when we were there.

Things are equally as slow in Encinitas on Sunday nights – specifically at Meritage Restaurant. (Smooth segue accomplished!) Why Meritage? Well we had a gift certificate burning a hole in our pocket – plus we liked that tasty Shrimp and Lobster Bisque at the taste of event a couple of months ago. The fact that it was bitterly washed down with a 7-11 slurpee did not deter us.

The menu looks great: we started off with a bowl of that famous bisque (yum!) for The L (which is that annoyingly cute way I refer to my dining partner and wife – Oh how I ate that when I see Chowhounders do that) and now back to the food, we also got a starter plate of Chicken Goat Cheese Spring Rolls (either $8 or $10) which weren’t quite as expected, but really good (wrapped with a pastry type wrap and served up with a plum sauce.) I washed these down with a glass of Stone IPA – I guess you can take a brewery tour in Escondido.

After that bisque the desire for saturated fat was at an all time high, so The L got the Seafood Mac and Cheese (about $21) that came with good-sized pieces of lobster, large shrimp and small scallops. I was in the mood for steak so I passed up some other interesting options for the 8 oz filet mignon with garlic-mashed potatoes ($29). Yum – hey it’s steak. I think it had gorgonzola cheese and then came with some asparagus wrapped in bacon.

We weren’t full yet, and the gift card wasn’t used up so we finished with a chocolate dome cake filled with chocolate mousse and since I was driving I got an espresso chocolate martini. A great way to end the dinner. Overall, a good meal – I’d say Meritage is a nice neighborhood spot – service was friendly, prices weren’t out of this world (and much cheaper if you stopped in for lunch – mostly salads and sandwiches with a few low priced lunch entrees). They do a few deals during the week: 50% off select bottles of wine on Monday and Wednesday and then all bar food is half off 4pm - 6:30pm every night of the week.

Taste of?
Did anyone go to any of the “Taste of…” events last month? I missed them all. And damn, those free tickets to that wine and food fest next weekend didn’t come through either.

Jack’s in La Jolla
Next up a report on Jack’s Grille. I guess I signed up on their email list and they say: “Jack's VIP Members dine Sunday through Wednesday at Jack's and receive a 20% Discount. In addition, they enjoy our VIP Half Priced Wine List on Sundays and Mondays.” Just email them to become a VIP member and they give you a card the next time you are there. Sweet!

A Day Late and a Dollar Short!

2006-11-01T20:33:00.000-08:00

Damn…I nearly forgot I had a blog. I was going to do a extrafabulousordinary Halloween post filled to the brim with insane Jack-O-Lanterns. I guess my high school physics teacher, Mr. Klienschmidt was right: I’d always be a day late and a dollar short.

Anyhow, I really like the “thinking outside of the box” of this one. Oh, lordy, it isn’t mine – but run over to Extreme Pumpkins for ideas for next year. Check out those contest winners!

Hope everyone had a super Halloween! I’ll be back soon with San Diego restaurant nonsense.

Seriously.

Pumpkins 2006

2006-10-15T16:26:00.000-07:00

Fall is pumpkin time - my dad and brother had another bumper crop and sold thousands. Of course you can do all kinds of food stuffs from pumpkins - from the very common pumpkin pie to the buying the slightly unusual pumpkin soda or beer. And in between you can get your pumpkin soup, pumpkin ravioli, pumpkin ice cream, oh, lets not forget pumpkin bread (yum!) so at that point you might as well make pumpkin pancakes and then I’m sure the list could go on.

I never really think about eating pumpkins – I’d rather think of them for their decorative purposes. Jack-O-Lanterns! (See my post from last year for some nighttime pumpkin pictures.) And it surely is not too early to get to work (well, maybe a little too early to carve and have them not rot by Oct. 31), but you have to get planning, right?

The totem pole idea is a great one – I first saw neighbors pull this off years ago, so a year or two later I thought I would try it. Heckava job! Unfortunately it got smashed a few days later. A few years later I tried it again at my own house. Again a success, drew raves from the neighborhood and survived until November.

It's easy. Pound a long pipe of metal conduit into the ground, carve the pumpkins and start stackin’. Of course you don’t want to deal with candles, so use the 7 watt Christmas lights to light each one. A good way to spend a late fall afternoon.

If that is too much bother you can always carve the same amount and just leave them on your lawn.

Buffet Time!

2006-10-12T00:30:00.000-07:00

I’ve decided to embrace my fatness and take in a couple buffets. As mentioned in my post about East Buffet, I had a couple of others on my “to try list”. And reasonably affordable. Maybe not as affordable at the 5 for $5 deal at Arby’s but at around under $10 price point and all you can eat well, stop me now but I think that is a winning equation.

Taste of India – San Diego style
First up: a weekday lunch at Taste of India on Miramar. It’s not quite where you’d expect it to be – in that small collection of Indian restaurants at Black Mountain Road – nope! instead it’s a few miles west. Of course, they have tandoor chicken and a chicken curry dish, plus either chicken tikka masala or chicken makhani (I get the two mixed up) but they aren’t quite as creamy as you get from Punjabi Tandoor. And of course saag paneer – the spinachy cheese glop. Oh, man. Time to loosen the belt.

I had 3 full plates and went back to work stuffed.

Completely stuffed.

I guess I should have stopped at 2 plates. But a great deal at $9. Just a buck or two more than a normal combo meal at Sitar in the food court at Scranton Road just off Mira Mesa and potentially 10 times the food! (Sidenote: Sitar does a Saturday buffet – since the rest of the food court is closed they set up serving tables in the middle and pretty much take over that half of the food court.)

Thai Cafe
I’ve been meaning to go to Thai Cafe for months – they do lunch and dinner buffets all at what must be called the Diane Shopping Village right at 4722 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. And my friends, this just a whisper away from the nearly legendary (by Chowhound standards) Ba Ren which I’ll get to someday. But it’s a sad little shopping center since the old Ross Dress for Less store is a ghost town.

But forget about all that now. On to the buffet – which was lovingly covered by KirkK last year so go read that write-up first then come back. Yep, that is what I ate. But if you want to know, they have a couple of salads: larb something and a crab/cucumber salad that was really good. The day and especially the room was a little too warm for soup but you should know that there are two soups every day! There are appetizers chicken and shrimp skewers, cream-cheese won-tons, pad thai and spicy noodles. And of course, the colored chicken curries: I saw red and yellow. I guess green might have gotten tossed out. I’ll dare try the soy sauced up eggs another day as I had already thrown away my belt.

With a Reader coupon it was just around $9. Such a deal.

Bristol Farms
Since I wasn’t just too far away from UTC (just a hop and a skip on Genesee) after Thai Café, I thought I would stop and check out the new Bristol Farms (It’s been open a couple months at least, but I saw grand opening signs and it was new to me.) I was hoping to find more prepared meals – but it’s a real nice store. And the samples! Glory be! Luckily I only had 3 plates of food at the buffet so I had plenty of room to try everything out. If they do this on weekdays I might have to have designate one day a week as “free sample lunch day”. If that doesn’t work out, they have the buffet deli where you pay by the pound and tables to eat at just like Whole Foods.

Holy sheet!

I haven't blogged for a while so I'll make this an extra good one. Get busy posting or get busy deleting I always say!

Upcoming Events
Last month I received (as I imagine other area bloggers might have) a friendly invitation to the Wine and Food Festival next month. I've been told to "Flex your taste buds at this international showcase of the world's premier wine and spirits producers, chefs and culinary personalities, and gourmet foods. Over 700 wines, 50 of San Diego’s top fine dining restaurants and 30 gourmet food companies!" Some part of me hopes that a free pair of tickets might wind up in my mailbox if I mention it enough, so away I go:

Ah, what could be finer than eatin’ in a diner? Well, maybe it’s the San Diego Wine and Food Festival! In November! I’m mostly interested in the food food food, but it’s a deal just to do wine tastings for an afternoon. A real wine lovers dream! When you get there you get a wine glass and plate/tray that you carry around from booth to booth. Some might have a 5 minutes wait, but most you could walk right up to and be drinking or eating.

See my post from last year or the Crazy Salad report.

Taste of La Jolla
One would think that folks wealthy enough to live here wouldn’t need a high school fundraiser but apparently I am wrong. Enter the Taste of La Jolla. Help some spoiled brats! Uhh, I mean, do it for the kids! Think of the kids! Anyhow, it's Oct. 16th.

Taste of Del Mar
Combined with an Art Fest on Oct. 21st. This one isn’t quite the same as most of the area taste of events as they have food booths set up - entry is a flat fee, $30. Goes up to $40 the day of.

Taste of Pacific Beach
This one is part of Pacific Beach Fest. Oct. 14th. I think they offer samples also from food booths, this time for a buck a sample.

Celebrate the Craft

This one is also this weekend – at the Lodge at Torrey Pines. Oct. 15th. Be sure to stock up on Shout (Shout It Out!) to clean those tighty whities if you go to all of these tasting events.

Has it been a year already?

2006-09-23T00:09:00.001-07:00

Spotlight!

Cue the music!

Yep, it’s the obligatory 1 year celebration post. And it’s my 75th post! Wow.

Daaaa daa taaa da! My Very Own Blog celebrates one year. Yep, all run by some dude with an alias of FireFlyFiftyFive. I would have never thought I would have a web based log but here I am. And it’s about food. It seems like the first blogs out there were political ramblings and then maybe branched out from there. Eventually I saw some foodie blogs – some right here in our very own San Diego. So, I decided I am important too. (Not really.) I have something to say! (Um, okay.) Yea, there have been a lot of worthless posts – but that is the fun of it sometimes. My favorite was the great TGIFridays April Fools Day post.

But it all started out with the 2005 Taste of Downtown restaurant tour. I figured I’d be able to come up with a few more – and then once the January restaurant week came around that would give me a few more things to write about. Oh, some weeks I’ve had to rely on cute puppy pictures – other weeks on pure arbitrary wasteful posts.

This blog has never much been about home cooking or recipe exchange – instead I’d rather focus on restaurants. I definitely need to get out more. Yet, I’m a cheap bustard. And after a brief hiatus (this is my 3rd post for the week!) I’ll be back with an all new season of My Very Own Blog.

Restaurant Week
It’s coming up (well, a few months away – in the second week of January) and I’ve got me eye on Oceanaire I’d think and maybe El Bizcocho. But what the hey? The website reports: “This year, diners will enjoy six days of…fixed-price, three course dinner menus for just $30 or $40 (varies by restaurant) per person.” Ouch – I imagine some of the better restaurants will be $40 per person. It’s a less of a great deal at the price – but certainly understandable.

San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival
It’s a ways away, but I did notice that tickets for the Grand Event go up slightly after Oct. 1st. This is the fest in November – I went last year and it is quite a time. I see they have a designated driver discount, which is nice since there are a whole bunch of wineries represented. I’ll have more when the event is closer as there is a lot more than just the Grand Event tasting so read more at the website.

Taste of...
I see a Taste of Del Mar and a Taste of La Jolla are coming up in mid-Oct. I'll be sure to mention again before the dates.

Other weekend eats...

2006-09-20T23:30:00.000-07:00

C Level
This is sort of a natural restaurant to hit when meeting out of town guests since it is right across from the airport. It’s C Level (at Island Prime) on Harbor Island right on the water with great city views. They have a pretty good Spicy Ahi Tuna Sandwhich – which my brother got. I was a little disappointed with the Lobster BLT (came with a side of Lobster Bisque). The L got a Grilled Rosemary Chicken Breast Sandwhich – this was really good with various toppings (melted chedder, bacon, avocado) and came with homemade potato chips.

But the real winner at the table was the so-called special: a Kobe Burger topped with mushrooms, caramelized onions and gorgonzola with parmesan fries. And for a second time in row at this very same restaurant, I have seen a girl order a burger medium rare. Wow. You know what they say about Midwestern girls!

Anyhow, I didn’t think to take any pictures here.

Coney Island Pizza
This is located in Poway, about the last stop on Poway Road before you are off to the hinterlands of Ramona. I thought it was okay – The L didn’t think much of it. But here is a picture:

It’s the medium Deluxe. Takeout. $15.50. Coney Island.

Grino’s Cocina Y Cantina
Luckily slander and libel refers only to what you say and write about individuals, right? I can say anything I want about a company? Okay, I guess then I would say this place is substandard to Chevy’s and that would be a compliment.

*Ducks*

*Looks around*

Okay, it wasn’t that bad. But I have to say I was expecting more - 'nuff said.

But here's what our table had: Shrimp enchilada and grilled fish taco. Free range chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese and roasted corn, with a corn tamale and huitlacoche sauce. Sizzling grilled chicken fajitas - nope, not a sizzle at all. Braised lamb shank, canela arborio rice with caramelized vegetables.

Yet, it seems like it would be a fun place with a group. And the margaritas were good (they have nightly specials) but weak. Gringo's - just a stone throw from Crystal Pier.

Taste of Downtown report.
No not me. We didn’t go this year. Luckily, the fine folks over at Oh So Yummy took over a dozen oh so yummy pictures and have a full report.

Prep yer own meals?
I'm seeing more and more of these places where you can cook your own meals for the week – they buy the ingredients and provide the kitchen space while you spend 2 hours making your meals for the week. You take it home and eat these meals while they do the clean up. Any one try this yet? There was a good article in the paper last week.

Hash House a Whoa Whoa

2006-09-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

With visitors in town wanting to go to the zoo – it was a perfect chance to go to Hash House a Go Go. What could be a better combo? Filling up on gargantuan amounts of food and then spending the day in the sun! What could go wrong? Well, if eating lots of food and downing Bloody Mary’s makes you tired you might fall asleep on the zoo tour bus. Or you might even foul your shorts at the slightest passage of gas.

Yet, let us not think about such unimportant matters and get to the food. Remember, as always this isn’t so much of a review as a report. A report from the edge. We’ve been here before to see the canoe sized plates so we were sure to come hungry. We were not disappointed. The wait was a staggeringly small 3 minutes at a little before 9 a.m. on Sunday – sweet! We rose as early as humanly possible to get there before it became a zoo – plus we were going to the actual zoo (world famous, you know!) and they say that it is good to get there early before the animals take their midday naps.

This is one place that it isn’t considered odd to take pictures of your food. The plates are the size of a tire! This is something to write home about!

The Tractor Driver Combo
Two Eggs w/ bacon sausage or potatoes with griddled french toast with banana cinnamon cream and pecan maple syrup

This one actually looks pretty easy to eat – honestly, I think it needs a little more. French toast was real tasty.

Hash House Farm Benedict
House smoked salmon with fresh asparagus, sundried tomatoes, chili cream and two basted eggs served on a fresh split biscuit with griddled mashed potatoes

Wowsa. Is that a lot of food or what? Here, you really couldn’t ask for more. This was mine and I think the best of the 3 breakfasts at our table. Lots of flavors. I ended up eating most of it, but in the end they took my plate away. And remember these plates (the photos lie!) are 2 feet across.

Another at the table ordered the ol’ Indiana favorite, Andy's Sage Fried Chicken with maple reduction, 2 eggs, bacon mashed potatoes & biscuit.

My wife skipped out on this meal – choosing to catch up on some work instead. Her loss. But she is hella busy. All in all, our visitors from out of town greatly enjoyed this place – or at least they said they did. And me? I give it a big thumbs up! I know the place may have a detractor or two but I think those folks don’t understand a thing or two about what a country boy needs to eat.

On a side note, walking back to the car we saw a sign in front of a building undergoing renovation that declared “Hash House presents: The Tractor Seat!” Or it might have been The Tractor House! Their website reports: “Open the first week of October! Cocktails & Sizzling Meats coming to you soon! It is located a block up from the Original Hash House a go go San Diego and will feature a new direction for the boys with late night dining and a huge signature cocktail list.”

Yum! I hope I get invited to the grand opening!

Zoo
Oh yeah, how was the zoo? Pretty good. The polar bears were frisky and the orangutans were on their best behavior. I saw absolutely NO poop being flung!

Poway BBQ and more...

2006-09-14T22:58:00.000-07:00

You might recall Leanne mentioned Poway BBQ (located next to Del Taco) a while back – I got curious and decided to stop in for takeout one evening. After a quick look at the menu I decided to get a sampler platter of the St. Louis Style ribs. Big problem with the picture. Like the boob I am, I accidentally deleted the photo before I loaded it onto the computer. Oooooops! But you can just barely see the ribs beyond the beans pic I took - follow the arrows!

Yummy! (Yet, I probably need a lesson or two in photography.) Very meaty and delicious but the sides (slaw and beans) were pretty much worthless. I pretty much agree with the review I saw online (via the very ancient newsgroup sdnet.eats – available via Google groups. I’m old school, I go to dejanews (which redirects to Google anyhow) to search and read these boards. But I’m not so old school to actually use a newsgroup reader.) Sorry, that was a bad tangent. Here’s that review. Sounds like the St. Louis style ribs are they best thing they’ve got going.

I thought about doing a side by side comparison between Poway BBQ, Joey’s BBQ Joint (whatever exactly it is called – I’ve mentioned them a few times) and good ol’ Abby’s Real Texas BBQ but money and time prevents me from doing a same day comparison. But maybe a blogger rundown sometime in the future but with that deleted picture I think I will scrap the whole thing.

I really liked each of the 3 sauces – there was a sweet, a Cajun and a one smokie flavor. I probably got them mixed up with each section of ribs. Sadly no bread with this (Joey’s ribs comes with tasty corn bread. I think the sides at Joey’s were better too.) Yet, the ribs was meat and quite tasty.

On to other recent eats:

Pho Viet Cali
This one is in the food court in Mira Mesa near the San Diego Credit Union. I’ve had pho here once – pretty decent and filling. Was it different than the other pho place I’ve been to in the converted Coco Restaurant just east of Camino Ruiz on Mira Mesa? No, not really – even the menus look alike.

I also had my first Banh Mi here – ehh, so-so. I’ve read about them on Chowhound and on Kirk’s blog. I guess I fall in with the people that think “what’s the big deal with them”. It’s a pretty good spot to pick up a quick dinner – go for the spring rolls and maybe an order of a stir fry of chicken and veggies with noodles.

East Buffet
This used to be (I believe) an Acapulco restaurant on Miramar - you know, next to that one furniture store. That place failed miserably. But from that rubble someone somehow turned it into what is marketed as the largest Chinese Buffet this side of the Mississippi. And man, it is large. And cheep. (Yes, so inexpensive I have no problem spelling out “cheap” with two “ee’s”.) I guess it must be “authentic” because I saw fried fishheads, tripe and chicken feet. Good God, chicken feet?

I definitely had a quite a few plates of pretty okay food – nothing too great yet there was a lot of it, which always (hey, nearly always) makes up for the other. And did I mention that the lunch price is just $7.49? Wow.

I have my eye on a couple of other area buffets: Taste of India and Thai Café. It’s not that I’ve heard anything particularly great about them – or anything at all really but I’m aware that they exist.

Cook it again, Sam

2006-09-07T22:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, I might be the king of cheesy titles. Cook it again, Sam. Bad. Maybe I should mention that is only because I am doing this post "on the fly" - quickly and directly into blogger. Watch fer errors! By "Sam", I mean The Cooking Guy from the Red Kitchen. Folks out there in San Diego bloggernation might know of a dude named Sam the Cooking Guy. You can see him in action next week (Sept 18th) at the Macy's kitchen in Mission Valley as part of a Learning Annex class. I think it is around 30 bucks or so plus a registration fee for Learning Annex. Details at his site.

Save us, Scott!
No, there is no saving you now. But if you've seen me mentioning using a gift card for a meal out here at this very blog, yes, my very own blog, it's possible, nay, likely that I got it as a half priced gift certificate through a radio station. So I guess I can, ahem, save you some $$$ that way. Current offers out there:

Mighty 1090 (the sports station - now called XX Sports Radio.)

Star 94.1 Super Star Deals (and check out the two sister stations.)

Cough, cough, and JackFM (coupons)

Oh? So! Yummy?
And now to fulfill a contractual obligation, I need to make mention of a great new San Diego (mostly) blog filled with many blogging bloggers that go out to eat a lot. Give a warm welcome to Oh So Yummy! It’s a collaborative effort between a bunch of college students that DON’T think it is strange to take pictures of their food at restaurants. Thumbs up!

I'm McBloggin' It!

2006-09-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

Ahh, the Deluxe McBreakfast!

Yum!

It’s bigger than the Big McBreakfast from nameless fast food restaurant but really not all that impressive. Can’t anyone do an Ultimate Supreme Breakfast? Maybe someone has (I’m thinking Carl’s Jr.) but I guess I don’t do fast food breakfast that often.

The hash brown was the best thing on the Styrofoam plate. As pictured, it’s a whoa nellie 1220 calories according to the McDonalds website. And it really doesn’t even look like it. To think I’ve had 5 times as much food at breakfast buffets. Scary.

Okay, I'm mostly goofing around today, I'll be back within 3 months with more posts. But for now, does anyone know of any good breakfast restaurants in the Poway area? Yes I know there is an IHOP (in PQ), a Le Peep, an Original Pancake House, a Denny's (or two) and then The Incredible Egg in RB. All are decent enough for breakfast but is there anything else?

Carlsbad Dog Pond

2006-08-24T23:42:00.000-07:00

Yep, another doggie post so skip to the end if you are looking for food junk. This time it’s all about the little known Carlsbad dog pond. I doubt many dog owners know about this place. I guess the original owner of the property built this park for his employees to have an area to bring their dogs. Pretty amazing. When the property was sold, the city of Carlsbad took over the "pond" and left it as a dog recreation area.

Mortons $99 meal deal
Once in awhile I’ll share food deals I run across – this one seems pretty good. Any thoughts one way or another?

USA Dine Out – San Diego
Some sort of premium bottled water is spewing out a two week USA Dine Out in several cities. Around 20 or so restaurants (so far) will be participating here. $35 will get you a so-called “special three-course prix fixe gourmet menu”, it’s just $20 at lunch. 3rd and 4th week of September. No weekends.

Poway BBQ
A reader named Leanne left a comment (that’s pretty rare itself) but also left a recommendation (now THAT is really rare!) of a newer BBQ joint in Poway near the Del Taco. I drove by one day and didn’t see it – I’ll have to look again some day. She left a slight impression that it wasn’t all that anyhow. But still…

*** Update! Google is my friend! I ran across this blurb about the new Poway BBQ restaurant called, what else, Poway BBQ.

F.A.Q. About Tasting Encinitas

2006-08-23T00:08:00.000-07:00

Q: Tasting Encinitas, California?

A: Please, please, pu-leeze, someone slap some sense into me and stop me from going to this shite.

What’s that?

The Taste of Encinitas. Okay, officially it was the 17th Annual Taste of MainStreet International Food Festival in downtown Encinitas. Man, what a mouthful.

The best thing that can be said for it is that it was an embarrassment. That being said, there were some fairly tasty things being served up. Like the Lobster Shrimp Bisque at Meritage.

*Crickets*

A tumbleweed rolls by.

That’s about it.

Come on now, what else was good?

Well Starbucks gave a little sample of latte something or other plus a chocolate chunk cookie.

Yum.

Oh, Chuao Chocolatier offered up some tasty treats. So did a couple of other restaurants. And going on the same night was a classic car show, so that made things a little more interesting plus they had 4 or 5 bands set up at various locations so that added a street fair feel to it all.

A tumbleweed?

The short run down, and please do know that this isn't everything: Something called the Sakura Bana Sushi Bar served up a teriyaki chicken with a piece of sushi, the Potato Shack served up a nice sized bowl of potatoes with onions and green peppers, covered in cheese, D Street Bar & Grill served up mini plates of hot wings (2 per plate with the celery sticks and ranch dressing) and were thoughtful enough to provide a wetnap. El Callejon had a greenish chicken goo – that was pretty good.

There were two wine bars on the tour – neither served wine. That’s a little odd. One had an olive sample (and that place is now dead to me) and the other served up a little appetizer of skirt steak on a little slice of bread. That was really good. And then there were a half dozen so-so Italian places that could only think up some sort of sauce with penne pasta. Mostly those got tossed in the trash.

The whole thing probably jumped the shark for me when I discovered 7-11 was on the list. Wow. Now I’ve seen it all. They had delicious slurpees or slushie or whatever the hell they are called. Before this, the closest I’ve been to a slurpee has been the Quik-E-Mart on the Simpsons. Seriously.

You saw a shark?

No, but to add to the horror of it all, we got our tickets and a lanyard so we could hang it around our necks. Kind of a good idea if we wanted to look like jackasses. Actually, it was a pretty good idea – map on one side with the restaurants on the other that would be marked off at each stop.

Okay, so it wasn’t as horrible as I jokingly wrote at the beginning of this post. But it was probably the least favorite of this sort of event I’ve been to. So, if I might borrow a bit from Stephen Colbert, bring out the big board, attention all “Tastes Of”, you are on notice!

Isn’t there a Taste of Downtown coming up?

Heads up! Forget everything I just said, this one I am really interested in!!! The Taste of Downtown San Diego is coming up on Sept. 13th. The website shows a total of no less than 53 participating restaurants. I outright defy anyone to make all of them!

What about Taste of Slow Food?

Forget about that last one. This is the ONE. It’s a whole different beast than those other events. This might interest someone even though I like my food as fast as possible. $65 if you aren't a member.

Mendocino Eats

2006-08-19T10:00:00.000-07:00

After a night in Carmel that had been mostly beach, eats and sleep (we had been in the Monterey Bay area a few years ago after a northern CA trip – the aquarium is tops!) we drove north, through and beyond San Francisco as our main slightly hastily planned August getaway had us for three (count ‘em, three!) nights at an inn in the Mendocino area – actually a couple of miles outside of this little tourist town at The Inn at Schoolhouse Creek in Little River, right off Hwy. 1 with a good view of the Pacific Ocean (this is about a 3 hour drive (a 3 hour tour!) north of San Francisco well on your way to Oregon.)

Man, is that a run-on sentence or what? Grammar fiends out there must feel their stomachs tightening or gurgling or whatever happens when they see foul sentence construction.

Of course, our pups, Belly (that would be Scully, of course) and Mr. Cooper were along and welcomed at Schoolhouse Creek – a collection of a dozen or so rooms and cottages. Super dog friendly – at least half the people we saw and talked to also had their pups with them.

Mendocino is much more of a Bay Area getaway destination, I would think, but here we were. No need to drag out every detail of our escapades since this is going to work out to be one damn long post – I’ll focus on the eats:

Little River Inn
Our first night we ate at the restaurant at the Little River Inn – a recommendation of one of the innkeepers. Those with more cynicism might think there is some monetary interest in that recommendation (maybe her brother’s housekeeper works there – ah who knows?) But it’s vacation – no time to be skeptical. Anyhow, the bar of this inn has a few windows that overlook the ocean with the dining room in back that has windows showing off the gardens.

I had the pinenut crusted salmon with spinach purée, parmesan polenta, and basil coulis – all really good as I gobbled it up quickly. I’m a clod. The L got the ribs, which took quite awhile to eat – it was one of a couple specials that night. The ribs were meaty and the sauce had a good taste. Dessert was something chocolate (what else, right?)

Just before we left a server dropped all the plates he was cleaning up – the entire room clapped.

http://www.littleriverinn.com/

Café Beaujolais
How many times can you be served by Albert Einstein himself? It is true! We had read that this is a not to be missed restaurant. We had also read that Robert Redford eats here when he is in town – or maybe it was that he ate here once or maybe glanced in the direction of the restaurant. Located in an old house – nothing special compared to some of the other beautiful house here – the space was painted an attractive sage green with white wainscoting. A sharp look. Just two servers were working – possibly the owners (we didn’t ask) – and heard one say that the restaurant had been there for 40 years.

We started with a special appetizer of stuffed figs (I think with goat cheese) that was really good. (Yum! says The L.) We had some great local wine that I can never remember and for eats I had (as posted on the website dinner menu – good God no, I don’t take notes!) the pan roasted duck breast, buttermilk spaetzle, carmelized onions and sautéed kale with fresh Bing cherry sauce. I was warned that the sauce might be a bit tart but the sauce and the duck were excellent. The duck was cut into thinner pieces than I would have expected.

The L had the pan seared local wild king salmon served with horseradish mashed potatoes, green beans, blackberry demi-glaze and onion confit. Very tasty – as always we make up a tiny plate to share with each other. The sauces made things a little more interesting.

Dessert was French chocolate mousse cake with ice cream – pretty good.

Plus Albert Einstein works there.

http://www.cafebeaujolais.com/

Mendocino Café
A causal eatery in Mendocino with dining inside and outside – a patio where we would take our doggies! We had lunch here. I had the Thai chicken burrito and The L had a chicken sandwich with melted gruyere, pesto, and aioli – this was served on a good looking roll with a really tasty side of pasta salad. That burrito didn’t come with any side. Damn. I wonder why not. Anyhow, I added on a local Red Tail Ale (err, maybe it was Red Seal Ale) and The L had a tasty organic iced tea.

I liked the attitude of this place – they use local organic produce, free-range meats,hormone-free dairy and wild harvested seafood.

The puppies got a bowl of water. They did a good job until a cat ran across the patio and birds were landing on the patio looking for food.

http://www.mendocinocafe.com/

Mendo Bistro
This restaurant is not actually in Mendocino even though the name might suggest it was, but instead it’s in Fort Bragg. This town of about 7,000 people –10 miles to the north of Mendocino on Hwy. 1 – a so-called working class city where you can leave the tourist life behind and eat with the locals. Mendo Bistro is located on the second floor of what looks like had once been a department store (like a Monkey Wards) so it is pretty spacious with floor to ceiling windows that look out over the street.

This was probably my favorite meal. We started with the seared sea scallops appetizer with tarragon and tomato garlic confit. I had St Louis style spare ribs with blackberry barbecue sauce. Oh yum! This is one plate I can still picture while I write this. I had asked if there would be enough meat for me and the waitress responded that I would get plenty of meat. It ended up being pretty big – 5 or 6 meaty long bones plus potatoes and veggies. I was stuffed and that BBQ sauce was thick, spicy and excellent (I surely ruined a white cloth napkin.) The L had pasta shells stuffed with ricotta and spinach covered with marinara and topped with mozzarella.

No room for dessert this night.

http://www.mendobistro.com/

Tasty?
Sorry for the seemingly overabundance of the word “tasty”.

The L?
Apparently “The L” doesn’t want me to use her real name as she removed it from a draft – thus The L. Is it Lori, Lindsay or Lokelani?

Berry berry good
Blackberries are very much in season up there right now – we saw plenty of blackberry plants along the road/streets/trails. Unless they were the apparent cousin olallieberry as we saw olallieberry cobbler on the menu a couple of times. I never heard of an olallieberry before. I’m not even sure I spelled it right.

Prices
Who cares? It’s vacation. But for anyone interested, pretty normal, typically mid to upper $20’s for entrees, desserts around $7. The lunch at the Mendocino Café had many selections around $10 (website shows lower prices – they must up them a buck or two for summer?) The Mendo Bistro had all pasta at $14 and the ribs I had were $18. Great value there!

Chocolate
We picked up $8 or $10 worth of treats at the Mendocino Chocolate Company. We weren’t too impressed. It’s no Chuao, baby!

Where else to eat?
No shortage of $$$ places to eat at with a number of inns in the area like the MacCallum House in Mendocino or Rendezvous Inn Restaurant in Fort Bragg. If we had a little more time there, I’d try the North Coast Brewing Co. in Fort Bragg – I think they do a 10 beer sample thing with better than average pub grub. But I’d recommend all the places we ate at.

Food at the Inn
Every day they had wine and cheese with a light mix of other snacks at 4:30 pm and then a hot breakfast in the morning (leek tart, blackberry crepes and an Italian egg cup (scrambled eggs with veggies made in a muffin cup which was lined with a mini piece of toast) were the three hot breakfast items (one each day) along with a mini-breakfast buffet filled with tasty breakfast goodies.

Carmel goes Woof!

2006-08-15T23:42:00.000-07:00

Carmel goes the dogs, in fact. No, I didn’t write a camel goes woof, I said Carmel. And not that wealthy San Diego suburb Carmel Valley – we’re leaving (NOT on a jet plane) but leaving San Diego all behind for Road Trip 2006. It’s Carmel-by-the-Sea in the Monterey Bay area! This little town (right on the ocean, ya know!) made the news some years back when some old cowboy was elected mayor. Yes, you might know that Clint Eastwood was the mayor of this little city, uh, by the sea for a couple of years.

We decided that this place would be a nice stop on a road trip (with two doggies, no less) to points further north (more on that later this week) and discovered that Carmel is super dog friendly. Consider: dogs allowed off leash on the entire length of the Carmel City Beach – a beach that rivals our own Coronado beach in beauty. A dozen hotels/inns that welcome dogs – and these are those crumby bowel-dumped on holes, but real posh lodging. And a dozen restaurants in this small town fully welcome puppies of all sizes – on the patios of course, but they have some nice patios.

Sure, San Diego offers up much of this scattered about the city (we have 2½ off leash dog beaches (Del Mar makes up the ½ beach as it isn’t year round) plus a slightly festive island) along with some dog friendly lodging (not needed, we live here) and some dog dining.

Cooper (aka The Boy) and Scully (aka Bits) had a fun afternoon of running on the beach – we got out there again before hitting the road the next morning. The weather was perfect. This is one beautiful beach. Parking was a little bit hard to come by – but we lucked out with a spot right on the street that runs along the beach (Scenic Road).

We didn’t do any real restaurant research for the trip except printing off a few pages from Chowhound, plus a Moon Handbook on Coastal California (they tell it like it is) and our trusty Dog Travel book for activities. We decided we did not (but we would later this trip) want to take two wet and easily excitable Golden Retrievers to any restaurant that evening.

So, the two of us wound up at Porta Bella – and sorry, didn’t take one damn picture of our eats the whole trip. This is a pretty good place – seems like a few restaurants share ownership as we received a coupon card with our check good at 4 or 5 other “sister” restaurants. We did see a few other dogs – and you truly haven’t lived until you see a waiter following a dog and his owner with a white cloth napkin and nice dog water bowl. Some restaurants do serve a doggie menu – others I think might just offer up a doggity biscotti. I guess the doggie dining thing might be more for the toy doggies that live in purses, but we sat right next to a 80+ pound lab that took up a walkway between tables (everyone had to step over him.)

Oh yea, the food? Um, pretty good. I wasn’t overly hungry so I stuck with appetizers (a Roasted Corn and Crab Bisque and then a Tapas Plate made up of a little skewer of meat, smoked salmon and I think some cheese on a bed of salad. Linda had a Grilled Halibut with (pulling this right from the website menu) Citrus Confit, Almond Rice Pilaf and Asparagus. I got a share of this and it was all very tasty. So thumbs up from me.

Our dessert here was the best of our trip, we think, the Espresso Chocolate Mousse Cake! Yum, smoothy rich! Those looking for a strong coffee flavor might be disappointed; it was mild – but just right for us.

Oh, no doubt there are better restaurants up there - but another dog friendly one that is said to have good food (in a Claim Jumper way) is The Forge in the Forest.

Where do we land next?

The Dining Diva
I usually make mention of new to me foodie blogs in the area, so here is another: The Dining Diva – she just had a great Oceanaire post. My birthday is coming up too! Hint hint, anyone?

What I did on my summer vacation…

2006-08-11T00:35:00.000-07:00

…or maybe it would be better to title this one “Never buy a new pair of shorts for a trip that has a snap instead of a button – you’ll pop that snap like a hernia six hundred times while on vacation.”

Yes, because of the overeating. South Beach Diet 2006 starts on Monday!

Maybe sooner.

Oh, I'll get around to my write-ups some time and I’ll post them, but for now any guesses where we were?

Rachael Ray Does San Diego

2006-08-02T23:30:00.000-07:00

No, it wasn’t in the same way that Debbie Did Dallas (although, any guy who saw her FHM photo spread might really want to see that), instead it was as part of her Tasty Travels series. Since she pretty much covered the US (and other parts of the world) with her $40 a Day series, she’s gone back to show more favorite eats in each city. It’s part travel guide, part a showcase for the next Martha Stewart conglomerate and part foodie promo for the city.

What the ^%#$ you talkin’ ‘bout, Willis?

Shameless promo for Rachael Ray.
It was on Tuesday night, on the Food Network. Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels, San Diego style. Yea, people either love her or hate here. I enjoy most of her shows (she’s had 4 on the network so far), but sometimes in limited doses. In theory the travel show showcases a dozen or so local favorites that tourist foodies would like just as much as the local folk do. Oh, no doubt there is a small advance team working closely with the chamber of commerce / visitors bureau / restaurant association or maybe the restaurants are straight out paying a promotional fee (that might be the cynic in me) but I’ve never watched the credits that closely. Maybe it is more of an honest organic discovery of some local places by her production team.

Spoiler alert!
So each of the following restaurants gets a little treatment: Anthony's Fish Grotto, World Famous, Peohe's, JRDN, Rice and The Gas Lamp Strip Club with smaller mentions of The Big Kitchen and The Wine Encounter and a couple of low profile little places. All looked pretty tasty and fun with the exception of Anthony’s.

If you missed it, catch it later this month – see the Food Network website for details.

More foodstuffs.
I keep meaning to get around to posting about other food outings of the last month – that is about all you can hope to get out of me – you know damn well you ain’t getting any recipes here. Oh, I could talk about the Anaheim Hilton and their breakfast buffet (pretty good at $15.99 I think, a nice breakfast spread with everything you could want plus toast and made to order omelets (a big time requirement in my book)) or an all out dinner (on an all expenses paid work trip) at the Italian restaurant, Pavia, where I overstuffed myself once again before going to Disney but there is little time for that now.

Or maybe I could write about the near car accident (right in the parking lot!) before going to Yummy Sushi in Carmel Mountain Ranch. Or maybe how I stumbled across the parking lot only to hear a work acquaintance call out my name from the near by Mexican hole-in-the-wall joint, Jalapenos. He said that place is the real deal. I went back a few days later and it’s pretty good – but no better or worse than a dozen other places I’ve been to. Yet there are more to try!

What’s next?
Don’t expect anything new here for a wee bit, but I’ll be back with lots more later in August. Pictures galore! Restaurants a-plenty.

Maybe lords-a-leaping?

Probably not.

Postscript.
Full disclosure: I've been drinking heavily (and heavenly) tonight. I'm sure it doesn't show.

Pumpkin Report 2006

2006-08-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Wee! I have the absolute first August 2006 San Diego Food blogger post.

I rock!

So, anyhow, how are those pumpkins growing?

Pretty darn good, I'll say. This one will be plump and orange soon.

Don't go nuts - this isn't quite pumpkins as far as the eye can see - it's soybeans further away from the camera.

And this is what the field looked like just a short month ago. These pictures come from my Dad back in the great midwest. One should set up a time lapse system to provide photographic history of the growth. Or just take a picture at noon each day.

Of course, these pumpkins are grown (in my mind anyhow) to be carved up - not eaten.

August food fun.
There is the Taste of Encinitas on Aug. 17th. I think I’m going to this one.

And then the same exact night a food and wine event and the Bernardo Winery. Hmm.

And then the San Diego Taste of the Nation event on Aug. 23rd might interest someone.

Bernard'O

2006-07-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

It isn’t much of a drive to get to Rancho Bernardo for us, but we don’t that often. Had a Friday night dinner at Bernard’O (where is it? Rancho Bernardo of course!) where the old folks live and dine. No disrespect of course, the area just seems to have the highest concentration of gray hairs. Again no disrespect! (I’m digging a hole here, aren’t I?)

Of course the 15 was moving sluggishly – so a detour on Pomerado seemed necessary. Not problem, they are right at Rancho Bernardo Road and Pomerado.

The place is a little budget busting if you go all out (we went half way with entrées, wine and a dessert for each of us.) My lovely wife (is that better than Mrs. Firefly?) had the Ahi Tuna – she loved the sauce that was drizzled over it and I had the pork chop – your pick the starch and sauce from a list of five each. Even in this blasted heat they had the fireplace burning away just in case you felt a chill coming in from windows – ah atmosphere! Overall a pretty nice place – comfortable room, although pretty open. They weren’t just too busy for a Friday night – but I see they do live music (?) a couple of nights a week.

Of course we saved plenty of room for dessert by skipping salad or an appetizer. (Plus we decide we eat enough frickin’ salads for lunch during the week!) Normally we might share a dessert but we saw two interesting selections: a chocolate pecan tart and a molten lava type chocolate cake. Both were good. But overall nothing quite overwhelmed us. Solidly a 12/20 as GAYOT suggests.

There is a French Market Grille nearby that I’ve heard a good thing or two about and might even be a little better - plus I think, open for lunch on weekends.

Blogstuffs
For a brief time (like 5 minutes) I tried the TicTac Blue (but it seems so familiar) template before settling on this one. I almost want to change to the plain old Minima but I see San Diego’s very own Alice Q. said this one wasn’t too hideous (I forget the exact comment.)

Meet the new blog, same as the old blog!

2006-07-28T00:07:00.000-07:00

I thought I might wait until the blog (yes, My Very Own Blog, the very one you are reading now) was a year old (it’s coming up, believe it or not!) before I rolled-out a makeover but I decided that the old colors must go now.

So tada, welcome one and all to My Very Own Blog 2.0. Well, maybe version 1.1, it’s just a simple selection of a new template. Refreshing and new to me. Yay. But still vaguely familiar – I may be duplicating another blog I read? I might have to change it again. I had given some slight thought to introducing a photo banner but that will have to wait. I really liked doing my April Fools post so I think I’ll try to do a few of those this year yet – you’ll never really know if I’m being serious or not, but I’ll try to drop some subtle hints.

Upcoming eats
This blog seems quite incomplete since I haven’t been to some very well-loved San Diego restaurants. What am I missing out on? Bronx Pizza? Phil’s? Ba Ren? (sorry, or is it Ben Ra – I know it is Kirk’s absolute fav – I’m going to get there soon!). Also on the list to try just because are The Linkery (can you roll out the red carpet for me, Jay?), Spread (just because), Porkyland and maybe one more I can’t think of right now.

A recent eat
I didn’t bring my camera again, but I wrote about Miami Grille in Poway a few months back – I remembered liking enough so I’d suggest it every once in a while – so a recent extremely warm Saturday seemed like a good time to go back. It was nearing 10:00 p.m. before we decided we were hungry and didn’t feel like making anything at home… Enter the Miami Grille! Open until midnight on weekends!

Last time we went on a fairly cool evening (a Southern CA winter evening) and they were quite busy – to the point that there was a half hour wait. This time, at a later hour, they were mostly empty with just a few tables of people (some finishing up and a few more showed up while we were there.) And as a special bonus, in order to fully emulate the Miami experience they shut off the air conditioning for the weekend and set up fans. Or maybe the chiller broke down. Otherwise the space is real comfortable and inviting plus overlooks lovely Poway Road.

They have a variety of rum based drinks that looked tempting (and pretty attractively priced) but I got a Red Stripe beer. Delicious enough. We started off with a shrimp cake appetizer – it was served up with a couple of dipping sauces (wasabi mayonnaise and a soy/citrus sauce.)

The menu is really affordable (I think anyhow – maybe my price tolerance is out of whack – but I don’t think so) with most items around 10 bucks. They did have an extra menu of specials that had a couple of $18 salmon entrees – I saw one served to another table and it looked pants poopage inducingly huge. (You might be sensing on ongoing theme – and you are right!) I got a Cuban sandwich (under $8) which came with a mix of regular fries and sweet potato fries while Mrs. Firefly (ugh, I shouldn’t refer to her as that, huh?) got the Katsu Chicken ($10). I really liked the sandwich, the fries were fresh from the fryer and the chicken was a nice portion (but nothing like Da Kitchen serves up) and tasty.

They have UTC location opening soon or maybe it just opened so you don’t have to drive halfway to Ramona to eat there.

"Hot enough fer ya?"

2006-07-24T23:14:00.000-07:00

You need some F words and S words to describe the heat this weekend. No other way to say it. Fantastically splendid? Nope, lets just try pants shittingly hot. Does that make sense? No, I guess not. But it is funny to write.

And like grandpa always said, it’s not so much the heat but the humidity! Damn muggy!

Picnic time
105 degrees on Saturday. Wow. One-hundred and flippin’ five damn degrees. And this is before noon. Ahh, luckily we had a company picnic set up in Mission Bay Park where is was a (relatively) refreshing 88 degrees. It was lovingly catered by Abbey’s Real Texas BBQ. Ribs were pretty good – not exactly fall of the bone stuff, but meaty and tasty anyhow. Add in chicken and all the sides (potato salad, slaw and beans) and you’ve got a pretty good summer time picnic. Yet, the sides were merely average.

Blogs
I’m really impressed how San Diego area bloggers keep it going with new posts. Lots of good foodie talk out there. Me? I’ve got bottom of the barrel scrapings. Yes, I might even say that the Bottom Of Barrel Dangerously Overscraped. Anyhow, a week or two ago I noticed that traffic to my site, yes, my very own blog had nearly doubled. Well, that got me to sit up and take notice. Do I want 12 daily readers? I’m stuck between, well, it would be nice if someone read this and oh, don’t read this crap.

So, I noticed something called the FoodBlogBlog had linked to me. And low and behold, it was run by our very own Tyler and Amanda Inc at What We’re Eating. Again, I say wow. Tons and ton of food blogs to work through. Thanks guys. I’m going to say this is the definitive list of all things blogging eats.

Weiners on the Grill

2006-07-08T14:14:00.000-07:00

Well, not weiners but that great all-time American favorite, the brat. I kind of think of it as a Wisconsin favorite, but I think Johnsonville pretty much took it national years ago.

I grilled these beauties up over the long 4th of July weekend. No doubt these are a "once in a while" type of food, because of the high fat content and other junk. A lot of the fat drips out to get the fire going a little extra. I also tossed some boneless chicken breasts on the grill, the combo of the brat smoke gave the chicken a little special favor (mmm, carcinogens!)

Otherwise the 4th of July weekend didn't quite go as planned - so we didn't eat out as expected. Oh sure, there is always time for Punjabi Tandoor. And it's the lazy time of summer - it will probably be a couple weeks before I get another post out.

Of interest to those that don't read Chowhound, posters have a listing of local favorites in the What's On Your Rotation? thread.

Sheerwater MooTime

2006-06-29T00:40:00.000-07:00

Wha? "Sheerwater MooTime?" This one starts the same as the last… a recent warm evening seemed like a perfect time to use up a gift card at The Hotel Del in Coronado and escape the blast furnace Sunday. Their Sheerwater restaurant offers up some nice patio dining, plus a perfect chance to cozy up to the wealthy folk (I think I saw James Woods!) It really was a last minute choice – my wife said, hey you want to use that gift card we got as a Christmas present, wha? a year and a half ago? It was far short of actually being able to pay for a night stay there, but a righteous amount to pay for a meal for 2. I’ll be short on words tonight (okay, early morning) and let the pictures do the talking.

So, we drove down and took our chances – for what it’s worth, a 7:00 pm arrival on a Sunday night equals about a 40-minute wait for an outside table. Not too bad considering the bar had plenty of room to wait and enjoy a tasty beverage.

We were seated before sunset (it sets well behind Point Loma anyhow) and quickly ordered drinks to settle our stomachs. The menu is fairly simple, a steak choice or two, spare ribs, several fish options along with some cheapers like pasta and wood-fired pizza. My wife started off with the Crab Bisque ($12.50). It was fairly rich and tasty, with a midsize crab cake floating around in it.

For entrées, I had Sea Bass with mushrooms, a pile of spinach and potatos:

And my wife had the Tuna:

My wife really liked that lemon sauce on her plate. Both tasty enough (and priced at just under $30 each) but somehow fairly unspectacular – as one might expect. A place like this only strives to be just so good. It’s not going to wow anyone probably, but solid enough – yet obviously with maybe a 30% premium what you’d expect to pay at a regular neighborhood restaurant. And of course you are in a fricken 100 building steps from the mighty Pacific.

We ate here a few years back for a Christmas Eve – we remember that the place was a little nicer, with better-dressed wait staff, a somewhat more interesting menu, but of course, they have gone under an ownership change since then. Emph, change.

For maybe a few bucks more one could eat at the very new 1500 Ocean just a few steps away from Sheerwater. The newspaper just had an article.

Of course, what visit to The Del would be complete without a stop for a $7 ice cream cone from MooTime Creamery? Again, probably not quite as good as we remembered – where’s the chocolate dipped waffle cones? Damn change! But maybe they were out from a long day of selling as the website does mention them. We got a midsize bowl (no “scoops” here, just bowl sizes) of Double Dark Chocolate mixed with cookie dough. Dense and rich – but it might have been a little better to choose go half and half on two ice cream flavors. Ice cream here starts at $4, plus 95 cents for each item mixed in.

Ideas for the long weekend?
I like these long weekends - when we don't go anywhere, I like to treat it as a vacation in San Diego. What would be your top choices for eats?

Thee Olde Brockton Villa

2006-06-21T23:17:00.000-07:00

A recent warm evening seemed like a perfect time to use up a gift certificate at The Brockton Villa in La Jolla. It’s right across the street from the ocean so views are excellent. We hadn’t been there yet – I’ve read that breakfasts (they sell Coast Toast by the truckload) were great with lunch and dinners a little less so. We had both remembered it being in a certain location but Yahoo! Maps showed it two blocks down on Coast Blvd. Well, of course it was where we thought it was (damn you, Yahoo!) so we got straightened out, walked an extra block or two and found it. Parking right on Coast Blvd. would require a bit of luck, I think.

I had made reservations for outside, and got a table for two right on the narrow front patio area. Oh, yes a great view! Uh…but what do they say about restaurants that have great views? Don’t think about that now. We started with the Thai Chicken Spring Rolls with Ginger-Jalapeño Dipping Sauce ($8) and a couple of drinks. Ehh, so-so spring rolls. I had a Bloody Mary – they also served up bread with a dipping sauce that was about the same as what was in the Bloody Mary.

And the entrees…for once I felt it wouldn’t be out of place to bring my camera in full tourist mode. So, check below for my entrée pictures. My wife didn’t seem too impressed with her salmon, I was very pleased with my lamb – served with some tasty meat juice and the potatoes were great.

Horseradish Crusted Organic Salmon served with Artichokes, Tomato, Asparagus, Orecchiette Pasta with Caper Vinaigrette ($24)

Mint Crusted Lamb Rack with Parsnip-Potato Gallette and Grilled Asparagus ($26)

Service was just fine up until we were done with our entrees and then it was a ghost town. Did you see that tumbleweed? Maybe he thought we wanted the table until the sun set, maybe they were short and were busy, who knows but it took a while before our plates were cleared and offered a dessert menu. At that point we passed on dessert, opting for a possible ice cream cone at Häagen-Dazs.

They could probably stand to invest in new patio chairs and tables – but that is a minor complaint. More unappetizing is the yellowing (they used to be clear!) plastic water “glasses” they use – yet drinks are served in “real” glasses so what gives? Other than those minor items and the service delay in the end (which wasn’t that big of deal) it was a pretty good meal and a great end to the work week. And hey, they are in a fricken’ historic 100 year old cottage.

For people watching from a story up, it is also really good – saw plenty of passerbys and folks trying to parallel park in an especially tight spot (but hey, who can figure that out anyhow?) I’d probably go with others I’ve read and recommend it for breakfast or a cheaper lunch to take in the great view. And of course, you could take a picnic and sit in the nearby park for free.

Fish Tacos

2006-06-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

It was bargain day on Saturday at Macy’s School of Cooking in Mission Valley – I’ve mentioned the classes before – usually they run 25 or 30 bucks, but once in a while they do a charity drive where you just need to donate some cans of food or $6. Chef Deborah Schneider was the guest instructor, promoting her new Baja cookbook. I wasn’t sure if we would get a taste of anything (as we normally would) but thought it would be interesting to see what she had going on (I recalled she was involved with the opening of Jsix last year) plus it would be good to get out of the heat for an hour.

She shared numerous recipes from her cookbook (available for purchase that day!) including a couple of salsas, made batter, deep fried fish (on a hubcap – err I mean disca, made soup and so on for an hour and a half. As a chef and teacher I really liked her. The one sample that day was a goat cheese tostada with chipotle sauce - made a few in the room cough for a minute or two.

From her point of view, a true fish taco is only beer battered and deep fried and served in a corn tortilla with a bit of avocado sauce, white sauce and salsa. She just had a short article in the paper last week – there she shared a grilled fish taco recipe. I’ve never deep fried anything in my kitchen and I don’t plan to.

The next cheap class is this Saturday at noon with Chef Bernard. Check his site for details of upcoming classes if interested.

By Sunday this talk of fish tacos got me interesting in checking out South Beach Bar and Grill in Ocean Beach. Somehow my wife has been there a few times with coworkers on one of those “Long Island Ice Tea and Fish Taco” lunches – I don’t know how they manage THAT – but she said they were pretty good. And they got a mention in this article (thanks to Gayla of Chowhound for posting that article.)

So we drove down – got lucky with parking in front of Hodad’s (great burgers there I said! Maybe we could stop in for one if we weren’t full) and walked the short block to South Beach, found a table and ordered.

Tacos are under around $2.75 I think, grilled Mahi or Wahoo or you could get a Baja deep fried fish taco. We both ordered two (skipping the rice and beans that were offered) including one deep fried for me.

Yum – the Mahi taco was okay but the deep fried really good - crisp crunch and hot – plus the fish was pretty big. Tons of toppings – but a bit too watery since juices would drip out, but not really a problem.

After a walk out on the pier where tiny fish were being caught for tacos later that day we decided that Hodad’s would have to wait for another day. Or many months. Someday. And to think I always thought that fish taco meant something else. Go figure.

Swishkaaaabobs!

2006-06-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

I usually don’t talk home cookin’ (there have been a few times) but this recent grilling turned out pretty well. Bought some beef (we rarely eat red meat anymore) and decided to make kabobs, yes shish kabobs! Marinated the meat in a mix of soy sauce, water, olive oil and a spoonful of horseradish for fun. A couple hours later I shoved the meat on skewers with onions and on the grill. I had some asparagus in the fridge so I drizzled some olive oil on them and threw them on the grill for a couple of minutes too.

The result:

Yum. The hotness of the horseradish didn’t really come thru, but the meat was delicious and tender anyhow.

We also got some cherries from the Scripps Ranch farmers market (on Scripps Poway Parkway, not far from the 15 if you are heading out to Vegas on a Saturday morning between 9 am and 1 pm be sure to stop in). They have a lot of people selling their whatevers, but there is some fresh produce and 5 to 8 food stands to buy lunch at. Sign said $5 a pound but they charged $4. Really good cherries – didn’t ask where they come from.

OB Fest
It’s here next Saturday. Features a chili cook off – I think there is a time for public tasting of the cook off for a Peoples Choice Award. Ocean Beach Street Fair.

A few links…
…to other blog postings that I liked. First, the real life Taco Town taco. It’s huge. And then a little person post and finally a joke foodie post that happened to someone when his blog password was borrowed.

Coming up...
I’m prepping a couple of other posts for My Very Own Blog - but blogger is being a brat with photo uploads - should be a bit more active around here than it has been. Plus I'm really going to lay off the cheap and coupon shit - I'm NOT an old codger sitting around writing complaint letters all day. Really I'm not! :)

Taste of...

2006-06-12T23:39:00.000-07:00

Heads up, in case anyone is interested, there are a couple of “Taste of…” events coming up this month. This weekend is Taste of Gaslamp, $25 or both days for $40. Taste of Adams Avenue is next weekend. $10 if you buy your tickets ahead of time. Another link also here.

Both can be a lot of fun and filling. For us, the first time we had the Taste of Gaslamp, we were new to the area and it was great exposure to the restaurants. At that time, it was still in the evening. Since then they have changed it to weekend for 2 afternoons – you can do one or both days as there are some different participating restaurants each day (some are the same). The food probably isn’t anything just too out of this world for foodies but always expect some gems. It is what it is. No doubt you’ll get enough to eat.

And of course it is on Father’s Day weekend – no doubt a few sons and daughters will bring out ol’ Dad to have a feast. I might go instead for Adams Avenue skip Gaslamp unless free tickets from the Gaslamp Quarter Association land in my lap. *Wink wink*

Free Burrito Day!

2006-06-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

The free burrito day at Chipotle (by McDonald’s™) was a colossal success. Well, maybe not colossal but a great deal (of course you needed a zoo membership that costs many times the cost of a burrito but never mind that now) as we ended up with 2 burritos (one chicken and one pork), a beer (Dos Equis) and a margarita (pretty strong actually) for a total of around 7 bucks. I don’t remember if they charged for the extra guacamole (usually a $1.40 charge). I do like the “build-your-own” structure of Chipotle where you can tell them exactly what you want in there. They usually use a bit too much rice to fill them up and can be a little skimpy on the meat. I’ve been there a handful of times over the past few years and I always wish they would put more meat on. I’ve asked and sometimes they halfheartedly shifted the meat around and maybe added a little. And I forgot my camera.

We went just before noon and it was busy and got even busier – we did see a few people showing their zoo memberships. Sweet! Nothing finer than free food! I can probably wait another year to go back. And certainly you could do worse. ...

Carl’s Jr.
Such as perhaps the taco bowl from Carl’s Jr. I’m not saying it was bad (fending off a libel suit (or would it be slander?)) but I wouldn’t rush out of your way for it. Had a buy one, get one free coupon so it was hard to resist. They are sort of small, packed with refried beans on the bottom, with lettuce and hints of cheese and some tomato, some beefy substance – probably leftover chili dog stuffs.

I avoid fast food drive thru for the most part – hey who can resist a Sausage McMuffin (err bad example) but it’s tempting with buy one get one free coupons. They have other offers ready to fatten me up. Double the food for half the price! (Fun fact: Carl’s Jr. is known as Hardee’s in other parts of the country and is where I had my first real job.)

Edelweiss Bakery
I got off track, so, after the burritos, the thought of dessert rose up and I remembered the hidden bakery in the same Mira Mesa shopping center that Chipotle is located in. Surely they would have something for us. They deal big time with wedding cakes and cakes for other big events (we usually get our office birthday cakes there) but also have cases full of individual cakes brownies, cookies, pastries and such. Yum. Got a serving of white chocolate cheesecake and chocolate mousse pecan dessert. Total came to all of $5something.

Oh, by the way…
…for those living in Albuquerque or points beyond, the San Diego Zoo annual membership is something like $80 for a couple. Included is free entry (to two properties) for membership holders, freebies and discounts plus a couple of guest passes.

What’s next?
New restaurant reviews have been few and far between – we just haven’t been eating out much. Plenty out there to try – I’ll probably post a restaurant wish list soon. And…to San Diego bloggers, anyone up for a meet? Maybe a restaurant outing?

Old Town Event
Someone might be into this one: “International Flavors of Old Town” features cuisine from Acapulco Mexican Restaurant, Cafe Pacifica, El Fandango, Korky's, Old Town Mexican Cafe and Zocalo Grill, 5 to 7:30 p.m. June 8th at Old Town Marketplace, 4010 Twigg St. Wristbands are $5 and can be purchased at the event. See link of events (it’s the first one). I won't be going but let me know if you do.

And if you are wondering part 1
And if you are wondering, no we didn’t go to Chipotle a second time on Saturday - my wife shot that one down.

And if you are wondering part 2
Yes, I am aware of my bad grammar - I have to do something about sentence structure, commas, run on sentences and those terrible hanging prepositions.

New Blogger in Town

2006-05-31T21:31:00.000-07:00

Yep, there is a new blogger in town. Alice Q. Foodie. Looks to be a great one – she’s had several insightful posts so far and seems well versed in San Diego food stuffs. Angie, I’m going to work on that list of 30 Some Favorite San Diego Food Experiences.

Zoo News
If you have a zoo membership, you get free food at Chipotle on Saturday June 3rd. All Day. Morning, noon and night if you want. Sweet. They aren’t the greatest thing since sliced bread (they have a certain taste that you instantly associate with Chipotle brand burritos) but for free it can be worth it.

Another week, another post...

2006-05-25T00:19:00.000-07:00

Once again, I really have nothing – haven’t been eating out much – and I don’t want to do another “run down to the kitchen and take pictures of random foods” type of post. And my wife mentioned that we’ve spent nearly 3 times as much this year as last year (year to date, of course) on eating out. What the *&%&$%? Ah, the joys of having an accountant in the family. I’d say last year was low because I was in the middle of drum roll please the South Beach Diet – something I do not believe I have mentioned yet. I don't dare! Oh, maybe I do dare.

My Indian food kick continues with pretty much weekly trips to Punjabi Tandoor – lovin’ that place – also tried the lunch special at The Indian Tandoor at the Mira Mesa food court next to KFC and the credit union. Great deal, just $6 for two meat selections, veggie, rice, naan and yogurt. But just alright in total flavor – the Chicken Masala wasn’t as creamy and rich as Punjabi. Ah, the bathroom scale is slowing moving up.

The same food court also has Amarin Thai – a rare food court restaurant with table service. Went recently with a group of coworkers – most had the beef salad, which looked tasty (around $7.25), I had the Yellow (or was it red?) Chicken Curry, tasty and just $5.95 as a lunch special, came with a watery soup, small salad and a mini egg roll – really tiny, which was fine with me.

Hope to get some real restaurant reviews going sometime...

Mixing It Up

2006-05-16T23:24:00.000-07:00

I’ll post today - just a mix - because I wonder if there has ever been a food blog entry that has stooped so low as to mention a Sunday night Sopranos time meal of Domino’s Pizza? Probably, but here is another. We like the thin crust – we’ll get it a couple times a year when any other ideas fail us. I never understood the people that order their pizza with just one topping – most of the coupons are like that. Maybe kids like just a plain pepperoni – but I want mine with everything. And a tasty cold beverage.

What to post about?
I often thought about having a workplace blog called “Over the Wall” writing about the trivial comments I hear from over the cubicle wall. Samplings from this week: American Idol, Potty Breaks (no kidding!), Boyfriend This and That, American Idol….rinse, repeat, repeat, repeat. And so on…

Suck on it!
As you well know I’m in no way a BBQ connoisseur (or any other kind of expert) but I found this sauce at Henry’s, marked half off. I looked at the label, liked the name and found it nearly all natural and made with tomato paste, honey, molasses, mustard, horseradish and so on. Good stuff. Ah, and thank God in heaven, no high fructose corn syrup. Heck of a lot better than your typical grocery store sauce – many of them I find are not quite right for me. Great just for dipping chicken pieces in – I might even make up some ribs. But probably not.

I mentioned it was half off – once I got it home I thought, oh maybe I should have looked for a “sell by” date. The only thing I could find was 030605. Whoops. Bottling date or sell by? Who knows!

Pho Ca Dao
With the San Diego Restaurant Blog Master (or is it meister?) running a huge Pho retrospective (but leaving out Pho King – okay, whatever) I thought I would mention the only Pho restaurant I’ve been to, on Mira Mesa Blvd, in an old Coco’s restaurant. Pho Ca Dao – it’s a lunchtime, line out the door, type of place. I’ve been there several times with coworkers – for some reason I am usually disappointed with the amount of meat I get. Maybe I eat it too fast.

Service is always fast and friendly – bowls big, the eating is messy, prices are cheap (big spring rolls for under $3 for two of them, pho is $4 or 5 depending on the bowl size.) I don't care for the tripe or fatty meats - but give me some thinly sliced beef and I am lovin' it.

I did find another blogger entry on this place.

Nuts to you!
And the answer to entry yesterday. I do like nuts – I’m a little undecided by these Thai Lime & Chile Peanuts. I’m not craving them and the fact that the bag still around, half full, a week after purchasing should tell you something. But they aren’t bad. I guess I’ll just stick with my favorite – Spicy Hot Peanuts from Vons. Those things are tasty. I probably do a whole entry on nuts some day – maybe with a favorite nut to gobble on theme.

Aw, nuts!

2006-05-16T00:21:00.000-07:00

There he goes, screws it all up with another post: Where is it from?

And what is it - of course peanuts, but what kind? I am frantically – no wait – furiously writing another post which will be my 50th post (by my records) and will have it up by the end of summer. Really, I’m actually pretty casually writing it – no need for me to get worked up over it.

Anyone get to that Taste of Escondido or La Bastide Wine Dinner? Yeah, me neither.

I've got nothing today...

2006-05-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel, kids. I’ve gots nothing to report on. I suppose I could do a Trader Joe food finds report or something similar. Maybe a report on McDonalds (dig those tasty big breakfasts – actually I haven’t had one for years.)

Heads up for Mom’s out there.
I did see an ad in the weekend section of the paper last week that said that Mom eats free at the Gaslamp Cohn restaurants on Sunday. The link on their website doesn’t work but the ad said entrées up to $30 were free 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the 4 downtown restaurants.

Random Bits

2006-05-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

Just a few random bits today...

A Taste of Escondido
It's happening May 13th - they call it Tour de Fork. $25 - I think I'll pass since we just did the other one, but it sounds pretty good but I have no idea on the number of restaurants. I've never been to downtown Escondido, I knew there were some nice restaurants but I didn't know about all the art galleries. It sounds like a fun area to explore - although, I would imagine just a few blocks or is it bigger? Is it quaint? Or not so much?

One last cheese curd link
Can you stand it? Forgot to post this one last time: a curd entry on something called Slashfood. I see another entry on the site just linked to all the San Diego blogs including this very one. Lots of good reading on that site.

Indian food in Carmel Mountain Ranch
I've noticed this place for awhile, but Delhi Kitchen, near Trader Joe's, does a weekend buffet for all of $6.99. Pretty good - you get the Chicken Makhani (or am I thinking Karhai or Vindaloo - I can't keep all these straight!) and of course Masala, many veggie dishes plus the Tandoor Chicken. I wonder if they change it up? Missing was Chicken Saag which is usually really good. The website says Sat. and Sun. buffet, but the sign on the door says from 11:00 to 3:00 so it may not be ALL day. As always, I overeat at these things - I'm probably better off with a couple item combo.

Scott's Bookmarks

2006-05-03T21:31:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been writing my posts at work in Word, storing them on a little USB storage thingie (yes, that is the technical term!) and bringing it home to post and add links and pictures but tonight I'm writing this on "the fly" right into blogger. Yes, with the other way I could get fired - but it has helped with boosting the number of posts per week! I imagine some long time readers were pretty flabbergasted to find new posts on a couple of consecutive nights!

And from website stats, I find that my number of unique hits per day has doubled to 6! So, welcome everyone! When I started this, it was sort of a "me too" type thing as a couple of other San Diego blogs had started up.

I guess it still it.

Me too.
With no clear plan tonight and no posts ready to go I was just going to post a cheese curd follow-up but then I saw a few bookmarks of area restaurants in a favorites folder (of course called San Diego Stuff) and thought I would just toss these out. These are places that must have sounded interesting - so I had saved a link - but I have not yet been to any of these:

http://www.tartinecoronado.com/home.htm

http://www.shakespearepub.com

http://www.elagave.com/1.html

http://www.candelas-sd.com/CANDELAS_VERSION2.html

Anyone been?

And that cheese curd follow-up.
The website for Real California Cheese has a search section where you can search for different types of cheese by area. Here they list the cheese curds I talked about - Chedder Curds "Squeakers" - a very good name for them! One place has them - in the CA Central Valley region.

Joey's Smokin' BBQ
Picked a slab up last night, after a little BBQ discussion on Chowhound. I couldn't resist! Yum! $20 gets you a full slab of baby backs, with beans (very good, nice and sweet), slaw (not too creamy) and corn bread muffins. Enough to share, but I was hungry enough I could have gone for more. A poster on Chowhound mentioned that a 3rd location was planned in Poway - I asked about that and the guy behind the counter said no, the deal fell through.

Eatin’ the North County Way Part 5

2006-05-02T22:24:00.000-07:00

Many of the places I’ve been mentioning would be a great choice to get off the highway for – say, you might be stuck in traffic on “THE 15” on the way to that weekend getaway to Vegas (or maybe Hemet) and can’t take it anymore.

La Bastide Bistro
It’s the newish Scripps Ranch French restaurant – well, not that new, they will be celebrating their one-year anniversary in May with some special menus. I'd say it gets mentioned more than any other in the immediate area. Looking at their website, the first time we had been there for dinner I had a very good Sautéed Sea Bass, Red Bell Pepper, Chorizo, Garlic Confit with Italian Parsley Sauce (copied straight from the online menu – it’s also featured prominently on the webpage). We had also been there for lunch – my wife had a great Smoked Salmon Crepe with a delicious dill and lemon sauce. She also loves that chocolate mousse. I read that the chef came here from El Bizcocho – a little more about that in this newspaper article. You could probably just eat light and have dessert. I believe they may do half-priced appetizers in the bar area. Service is always friendly - and the owner usually is there to greet.

Takhrai Thai
We’ve probably hit this place more than any other in the last year – it’s just a comfortable place to end the workweek. In a previous incarnation this spot had been a pizza restaurant. They closed down, the place was remodeled and ta-da!!! I know little about Thai food, but I’ve been pretty pleased with what we’ve eaten here. Like Indian food, I don’t know Thai food from shinola – hey, I grew up on midwestern meat and potatoes! They have all the normal stuff - sizzling shrimp that, green curry this, pad see-lw, yum nuah and so on . I imagine it is your typical suburban Thai restaurant. I was a little disappointed in a recent takeout order – the shrimp were smaller than expected – otherwise we’ve been pretty pleased here, and lots more menu to try. I cannot find a website for them – but the first thing that comes up in a web search is a great little defunct blog called Table for Two which has a great report (and scroll to see more - included the farmers market report.)

Etc.
I’ll get around to continuing this multi-part series once I hit a few more restaurants (I haven’t mentioned any of the sushi restaurants yet) but for now I’ll put North County Inland Quick Ones™ on hiatus. So, there you have it the top 10 restaurants that I might recommend though I don’t really know about Jose O’Rielly’s so skip that one – and my wife reports that Miami Grill was just sorta ehh. That takes us to 8. Or maybe 5 eats.

I’ll be back with other reports and probably a doggie picture. Rorie had a great comment which I think applies to us – we either eat locally, within a short drive from our house, or we go downtown or to the coast. She also has a collection of Rancho Bernardo restaurants on her list – I hadn’t been including RB and Escondido even though they should be on a full San Diego North Inland report (maybe soon!) Here is her list:

Bernardo's
French Market Grill
Pearl
Passage to India
Spices Thai
Kabob House
Fortune Cookie

We’ve been to Pearl once for dim sum and I do want to go back – it was filling and plus dirt cheap. I've been meaning to hit Bernardo's or French Market.

Squeaky Cheese Curds

2006-04-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned this Wisconsin delicacy yet? Yes, that ever elusive squeaky cheese curd. I’ll be lifting much of this post directly from Wikipedia because sometimes someone else can say it better. I’ve interspersed a few photos I have harvested from the web.

Give me what you’ve got, Wikipedia:“Fresh curds are roughly the size and shape of peanuts or, perhaps, Cheetos. The flavor is a mild "fresh-dairy" taste. The texture and mouth feel is unique. They have about the same firmness as cheese, but have a springy or rubbery texture, rather than the yielding, clay-like texture of cheese. Fresh curds squeak against the teeth when bitten into. This squeak is perhaps the defining characteristic of fresh cheese curds.”

There is a stand at the Hillcrest farmers market that sells something called cheese curds – but it really isn’t quite the same. They are more like little hunks of cheese – of course the key here is the freshness – right from the cheese factory. Plenty of dairy is produced in California so they must be able to be found. Any leads? I honestly haven’t looked hard at all. It’s just chedder cheese before it’s been formed into squares and aged.

Help me out here, Wikipedia: “Cheese curds are little-known in locations without cheese factories, because they must be eaten absolutely fresh, within hours of manufacture. After twelve hours, even under refrigeration, they have lost much of their "fresh curd" characteristics, particularly the "squeak." They have not become unwholesome or distasteful, but they are not fresh cheese curds any more—they are simply insufficiently aged cheese.”

That call for purchasing absolutely fresh curds is slightly overrated – we could pick them up in bags at any grocery store – practically the corner drug store – and be pretty happy with them (hopefully they were packed that day or the day before). But to get the best taste and texture with the squeak – you’ve got to get them from the source. (I wouldn't recommend doing that mail order thing.)

And of course it wouldn’t be Wisconsin with deep frying these things – I once ate an egg wrapped in bacon that was dipped in batter and deep fried proving anything is possible – so you can also buy deep fried cheese curds at fairs, local restaurants and bars. Grease covered and filled, it’s a cardiologist’s worst nightmare (well, maybe that egg was – but this is close!) Wikipedia says; “Deep-fried cheese curds are covered with a beer based batter, like to that used for onion rings, or are breaded and placed in a deep fryer.”

Yum-mmmee!

My Weekend Doggie Picture

2006-04-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

There is something called Weekend Dog Blogging at Sweetnicks. I don’t quite understand it either but I like sharing dog pics. Is it okay if they are from last year or do they have to be from this weekend? Here we have Cooper playing in Lake Tahoe:

Eatin’ the North County Way Part 4

2006-04-27T22:55:00.000-07:00

Be sure to scroll down – I’ve posted several times this week. I also see I mistakenly mentioned that this would be a definitive list of my area restaurants but I mistyped – I meant this would be an incomplete diminutive list. Sorry for this misunderstanding. Basically I’m just wasting time until I have a new full restaurant review (those are rare in these parts) to post or maybe a recipe to share (that has never happened!) So, each part will have two restaurants mentioned, so in the end I guess this will be the top 20 restaurants of the area close to my house? And hey, in my comments section on some past posts on North County Eatin’, Leanne has been kind enough to post some lengthy comments on her recommendations. I’ll write a bit more about a couple of those now.

Miami Grill
This is a newish (opened last summer) place well east of the 15 on Poway Road past Henry’s (where I make weekly trips for dirt cheap veggies and fruit plus bulk nuts and candy) but before you get to the car dealerships. The time we went (on a Friday night) it was pretty busy and we waited longer than we normally would for a seat. Nice enough place – that Miami Grill – we were on the patio and it seemed pleasant inside. They have Cuban sandwiches for around $7 and entrees for around $10 (like Jamaican Jerk Chicken or Slow Roasted Pulled Pork). I’d like to go there again. Newspaper article here.

Yanni’s Bistro.
I like this place though I remember being disappointed with my meal last time. We’ve been here a few times for dinner – last time was around Christmas and I remember it was quite busy even on a midweek night. They do have quite a large patio for the warmer months. Their website says they “reflect a fusion of northern Mediterranean cuisine with predominant influences of Greece and Italy.” They offer up a variety of meat skewers and chicken dishes. I remember my wife got a memorable Fried Calamari Steak with saffron cream. Don't forget the chocolate! The bistro also has very good desserts – I’d probably go back next for a light snack and a couple of shared desserts.

Your gateway to Yanni's Bistro is ---> here!

Etc.
Remember when Jack opened up is very own bistro on Three’s Company? That seemed like a pretty good place! Now, that was a show! And the theme song kept getting better each season. Maybe it wasn’t as good as ChiPs – but what could be?

Eatin’ the North County Way Part 3

2006-04-26T23:36:00.000-07:00

Attack of the Two Cafés
Just a couple of casual mentions this round – I don’t have great descriptions nor have I been to either of these more than a couple of times. Except for my lunch (I could write a book on the Qualcomm cafeteria – which is quite good!) I find that we would rather try new (to us) and different restaurants rather than become regulars at the same place. But I wanted to toss these out for your review in part 3 of a 10 part series I'm calling Firefly Fifty Five’s Quick Ones™

Café Luna
This is a little hidden treasure – an Italian restaurant! – in Carmel Mountain Ranch behind an Olive Garden that I don’t think gets too many mentions – yet they have been pretty busy especially on Friday and Saturday nights. We’ve just been there twice over the last few years – but I remember it as being quite good. Pasta and meat entrees rule the day here – oh, I’m sure they have a few fish specials. I remember them serving a very good tomato based dipping sauce with their bread. I don’t know if she is still there, but they had a relatively young head chef that really seemed to energize the menu. Service is friendly.

I don’t have much else on the place – but wanted to add it to my definitive list of my area restaurants. And remember, if you are waiting an hour for a table at that Olive Garden, just look across the parking lot and find out if Café Luna just might have a table for you. I know Google is my friend, but I can find no webpage for this restaurant – but here is the newspaper write up.

Athens Market Café
As long as I’m talking Carmel Mountain I might as well mention this little Greek restaurant next to a movie theater in this shopping center that also houses that great T.G.I. Fridays. We’ve only been there once – a couple of years ago – but it seems that they serve up home-style meals – none of that crumby slop. They do the flaming cheese (saganaki) while shouting out “Opa!”. Our meals were fine – but Greek isn’t a cuisine we crave just too often – though I like those little grape leave things. Looking at their website – I imagine I got the Greek Combo with a couple of baked dishes like pastitso and moussaka. (I wonder if Scott Bakula likes baklava? Probably.) On the other hand, my wife mentioned that she preferred the Greek restaurant very near the Trader Joe’s in the same area.

Back to the Athens Market Café – we’ve driven by since we dined there and see that they took over the space next door (a hot dog joint I think) to double the size of their dining room so business must be hopping.

Heads up!
If you read this before Thursday evening, something called Infusion Culinary is offering up a free seminar at the Macys Home Store in Mission Valley:

Come and get some technique, and a taste, when Chef Joey Nerenberg of Infusion Culinary, a San Diego culinary school for serious cooking enthusiasts, presents “Pan-Fry/Pan-Roast.” This free 90 minute course is open to everyone and includes demonstrations, helpful hints and plenty of food samples.

Thursday April 27 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Macys Home Store in Mission Valley, 1555 Camino de La Reina, San Diego.

Taste of Hillcrest - the big finale!

2006-04-25T19:38:00.000-07:00

…and we spent the rest of the afternoon eating.

The end!

Okay, just a short wrap up from the post yesterday.

Longest line award: Hamburger Mary’s – went out the door. Once you got in thru the patio you still had to wind your way to the back. People leaving said it was good – chicken wings. And they were very good – though I hardly ever have chicken wings. I didn’t see any actual wings – all legs and meaty with a good spice. But worth the 20+ minute wait? Nah. I suppose it was the failing of the staff to serve it up – we were forced to scoop out our own lemonade from a punch bowl and grab how many wings we wanted. They could have just had it in cups and plates ready for us like everyone else. By far, the longest wait.

The “Rules” at Mary’s. I can’t say I agree with #6.

Wine: A couple of places had wine samples: Wine Steals and The Wine Lover. Just a small sample of one wine at each. Wine Steals also had little tasty sandwiches.

Mexican: Mama Testa Taqueria: a choice of a beef taco or a small caesar salad. Baja Betty’s: chicken or carnitas tacos with small margaritas samples. Both places were tasty.

The worst?

We were waiting for the elevator to go up to Martini’s Above Fourth (on the second floor, apparently no stairs since people were waiting for the elevator) and someone getting off said that the crabcakes were the size of dimes. Automatic skip for us. An hour later we overheard someone complaining about those tiny crabcakes. Yet, I can’t confirm since we didn’t go up.

And so that is it.

Betty’s and Mary’s were the busiest with regular lunchtime customers – and is the mid afternoon meal called “linner”? And one final word of advice: If you go on one of these all afternoon eating adventures be sure to take a clean pair of undies – you just might befoul your shorts without even knowing it with all the eating and walking.

Oh, and on that note, I should say we skipped that burrito place.

Etc.
Let me know if you hear of other tastes – I do know about Taste of Adams Ave. in June. Smaller, but just 10 bucks! There is an homemade ice cream shop there that is to die for!

I’m slightly disappointed in how the pictures turned out on the blog posting from yesterday. The originals are pretty good, but they scaled down and lost sharpness and they aren't clickable dammit. I usually resize before posting but left these in the 1280 x 980 size that I took them in. Whoops. I’m in awe of some of the pics posted on area blogs – Kirk always does a great job and the blog “What We’re Eating” has crystal clear photos. Surely one of them is a professional photographer. I have lots to figure out here – I’d like to add my very own banner to the page.

Taste of Hillcrest

2006-04-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

This blog, yes, my very own blog, started with a “Taste of…” last September. Anyone remember when I vowed never to go to one again? Well, we did it again. Taste of Hillcrest was on Saturday from noon until 4.

We got down there about noon, picked up our tickets from will call and got started. We did this “Taste of” in the rain 2 years ago and skipped last year. 30 restaurants were on the list – even Chipotle! I had ticket number 1500 (they told walk ups that they had sold out) so I’d assume at least that many people ate. We got our red map (perfect for spotting fellow participants!) and started off – $25 got you a sample at each of the 30 restaurants. You go right to the restaurant – thus the need for that map. I’ll try to give a short burp about each. And I did snap a few pictures – but I perceived a few odd glances and forgot about that after awhile. I don’t know how others do it.

Hash House a Go-Go

I nickname this one Hash House a Yum-Yum. Tasty large portions rule the day here – reviews sometimes say the portions are TOO oversized – now that is something my mind can’t comprehend. Too much food? It doesn’t make sense. Here, for the taste, the sample was served outside, so the line was short and we had our first sample: a small cup of corn chowder. We agreed, it was delish!

Dessert case at David’s Coffee House

David’s Coffee House was up next – here the line was longer as the samples were served in the rear, on the back patio, so the line went nearly out the door, but it moved quickly. They had carrot cake, and two types of coffee cake – plus what must have been the house coffee blend. I remember this place was a real dessert winner with us last time. They say they get their desserts from nearly 20 different local suppliers – the coffee cake, I was told, was made by a woman in Mission Beach.

Jamba Juice (which I have never been to – I know, it’s like saying you’ve never been to McDonald’s) served up 8 oz cups of a variety of flavors. I had mango something. Next door, Starbucks served up a couple of Frappuccino in thimbles.

Now I get the order mixed up – were we at Nami Sushi first or was it Rannoosh? (I’ve already tossed out that aforementioned map) I think it might have been Rannoosh – billed as Lebanese / Mediterranean cuisine. We waited in line and after a brief wait, were seated – that’s a new one! – at an empty table, waited a minute or two and were served a couple of falafels and a couple of small pastry squares. In their haste they gave us an empty bowl that was supposed to have the dip. No – it wasn’t used, just (as my uncle would say) dry as a fart.

Then it was on to Nami Sushi

Just as you see – a couple of pieces of teriyaki chicken with a couple of California rolls. Sushi Itto and Ono Sushi also served up samples – one had a line that was too long, the other had a short buffet line. Crush gave out your choice of baked goat cheese & smoked salmon bruschetta appetizers or little crackers with a small piece ahi tuna. Tasty – and I guess the most inventive so far. Taste of Szechuan in a strip mall next to Hue’s Hair Treatment Center (or something like that) served up Peppery Beef with a Cream Cheese Wonton.

Taste of Thai plate

A nice sample at Taste of Thai – cucumber salad, chicken satay with peanut sause, pad thai and something else. I overhead one woman say this was absolutely her favorite restaurant. I’ve read that Celadon across the street is better.

The Saigon on Fifth sample

Coincidentally, Master Blogger Kirk just reviewed this place. Seems liked a nice place and they had the line moving quickly, zip, right around that statue. I heard a couple complain that the sauce was too sweet – I thought it was fine and not too thick.

Dad always said you can have dessert first – what if you don’t have room for it later? Ben and Jerry’s gave a small sample of any ice cream you wanted – just the right amount! Dessert courses could also be found at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (do it yourself chocolate covered strawberries dipped in the flowing milk chocolate) and Kemo Sabe (a nice brownie with ice cream - we think they did the same 2 years ago).

Corvette Diner

Corvette Diner served a fairly dry hamburger from a heated tray – we could put a couple of toppings on it and got out the door. Terra served up Kobe Beef Sliders – yum! I tried to gobble it down in one bite – but couldn’t quite get it….

Cliffhanger!

How will it all end? Will he throw up? Will he get to Chipotle? Stay tuned, same Bat Time, same Bat Channel!

Etc.
And now, I ask, would it be crude to suggest that some of you click on those little Google Adsense ads up there in an effort to line my wallet?

Oh. It would be? Sorry!

Eatin’ the North County Way Part 2

2006-04-20T20:17:00.000-07:00

Da Kitchen
I got an email wondering how I could possibly forget Da Kitchen in Scripps Ranch – way on the southern end on Carroll Canyon Road a block from the 15. Tons of offices here – a real business park – so it gets a big lunch crowd. I just made it there today – had a pleasant meal on the patio. I asked order girl what their specialty was or what was her favorite and heard Teriyaki Salmon or Chicken. I find the teriyaki can be overwhelming so ordered the Kalua Pork – pork cooked so tender it falls of da bone!

$7.75. Meat, rice and macaroni salad. Holy tomkat kids, you get a ton of meat for that price – the entire large section of the Styrofoam takeout box was packed full with pulled pork! It comes with a red sauce that was slightly/moderately spicy. I really should have just ate half of it, but ended up gobbling the whole thing down. The macaroni salad really wasn’t anything. Maybe next time I’ll get the Loco Moco which Kirk gives a thumbs up. This place is right next door to one of the best Carl Jr.’s in the whole west coast. Also next door is a sushi place (seemed pretty empty) and Chez Nous (went there when we first moved to San Diego – I had a sandwich as I recall. I’ll eat there again before I report on here. I would not want to rush judgment.)

Etc.
Anyone ever eat at Shozen way at the east end of Mira Mesa Blvd.?

Eatin’ the North County Way Part 1

2006-04-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

Inland that is. Not coastal. Every now and then I’ve been told that I put pen to paper appallingly terribly with horrifying run on sentences but let us stop thinking about that now but wait this an web log and paper and pens makes little sense and because as mentioned before, now it’s time to do a quick run down of the restaurants of the San Diego Inland North County area – for these purposes I’ll keep it centered on Poway, Scripps Ranch and Rancho Peñasquitos and that nearby surrounding area, but I’ll leave out Rancho Bernardo and points north, surely the area is surrounded by a fair share of chain restaurants – On The Border, Buca di Beppo and Applebee’s to the south in Mira Mesa and Chevy’s and Marie Callender's (never been to that last one – good pies, I’ve heard) to the north in Carmel Mountain Ranch not to mention that place where you can jump a claim. But I will skip those and concentrate on the local restaurants. I’ll call these FireFlyFiftyFive’s Quick Ones™

Jose O’Reilly’s
I remember (a few years ago after we first moved here) eating at a restaurant right in the Peñasquitos “town center” shopping area called Jose O’Reilly’s – said to be a mix of Irish and Mexican. I didn’t really see it – I probably had a fajita special. I asked my wife if she remembered it and she said “Oh, God, it was shit”. I don’t think she meant it was “the shit” in a good way either so I’ll just move on. I don’t know if the place is still there – they still have a somewhat defunct website. Are they still there? I'd give them another try.

Mesquite
I’ve mentioned Mesquite a few times here – it’s close by, dark blue inside, and something of a special occasion restaurant for us when we don’t want to drive far, plus it feels like you are under water when you are there. The name of the game here is fish and meat prepared simply over a mesquite fired grill served up with a couple of dipping sauces (I wonder if they come from a bottle or are homemade?) and your choice of side. Fish seems fresh, service is friendly – it’s a nice place to share a bottle of wine and have a dinner out. Most entrée’s are around $20+, a few cheaper rice bowls – they also have a Mon. – Thurs. foodie happy hour until 6:30 in which the appetizer menu is half off. Hmm half off – reminds me of that old Michael Jackson joke. Anyhow, this place is right off The 15 at the Scripps Poway Parkway/ Mercy Road exit (look beyond the KFC!)

Etc.
That is about it. Let me know if you hear of any others so I can do part two. Yes, there is that Thai place in the place that used to have a pizza place and that French place which I’ve mentioned here. Yanni has a bistro. Plus surely there are restaurants on Poway Road worth mentioning – I’ve heard that Italian place is good. So, over the course of a full ten part series I will mention or refer to many more restaurants – all no further than 5 miles from my bed.

Another blog
Saw another area blog – from GarlicLover28 called Good Eats in San Diego - this one is jam packed with restaurant visits.

Tax day!

2006-04-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

Pay them up. Did you have a special tax day meal?

I did not.

Costco
We’ve never stepped inside a Costco until this weekend – we might start doing some of our grocery shopping there. Any favorites? Portions are better suited for families but depending on what it is - we should be able to find items that work for us. We are always looking for quick and easy meal ideas. The rotisserie chickens looks big and at just (I think) $4.99, a great value. Other things don’t appear to be that inexpensive. Now, do they do samples daily or just on weekends?

Random notes.
I see the Cohn Restaurant Group has added longtime OB restaurant, Thee Bungalow, to their collection of restaurants. A check of their website also shows a 3 course prime rib meal deal served up at Dakota each Monday for $25.

Speaking of local restaurant groups, I’ve lived in San Diego for 4 years and have yet to eat at one of the Brigantine family of restaurants. The Brig seems like a steak and fish place – we’ve often had Zócalo Grill in mind when we think about Old Town but have not been there either. Yay or nay for these restaurants?

Anyone watching Top Chef on Bravo or The Next Food Network Star on (obviously) The Food Network?

Eatin’ the Coronado Way
We took a rare weeknight drive down to Coronado for a meal on the patio at Costa Azul on Orange Ave. They have a large patio that is great when the weather is warmer. Food is your typical American Mexican, you get your rice and beans. I had the “Carnitas Ole” – pretty tasty. Entrees are around $10, margaritas $7. Dessert was a winner – chocolate mousse pie. Probably from Costco or Sysco or another “co” but surprisingly good. Service is young and friendly.

There are probably another nearly dozen restaurants in that few block area – Lotsa Pasta, Rhino Café, Moo Time, another pizza place and couple of sushi joints, etc. And there is Chez Loma (the French restaurant in a house) that has a early bird special - and all night on Tuesday - 3 course prix fixe for $25ish). And of course, you can walk a block to the ocean and walk on the beach in the moonlight.

...And that answer!

2006-04-12T23:41:00.000-07:00

My gosh! Looks like I have stumped everyone! :) Those playing "WHERE IS IT FROM?" at home, if you guessed Taste Pilots' Grill at Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim California, you guessed correctly!

You can expect your prize in the mail any day now! It's where Great Food IS Rocket Science! I guess they mean that you get to order from a kiosk. The hint of course was the napkin on the lower left corner. Of course I will accept just plain Disney as the answer. The burger was pretty dry, the fry "chips" okay, somewhat soft and barely done. Besides several fun rides, there was a very good live action Aladdin show - be sure that catch that!

Where is it from?

2006-04-10T23:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first part of my 100 part series: Where is it from?

Today, I present this meal to you, I consumed this meal nearly entirely on Sunday. And now, where is it from and please note there is NO vomit on that tray. Also, you might see a hint there somewhere.

Just a quick post today...

2006-04-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

I had gotten a nice email from a guy who directed the movie Slut Diaries: "I'm the director of Slut Diaries with Mike A. from Digital Sin. I found your blog by random and I would appreciate comments in your new adult movie blog about it. I always like to have feed backs from people. Check out the footage on Venice beach! Greg L. BTW : Sorry if my english isn't that great... I'm from Europe LOL"

Okay - sorry Greg. My last post was an April Fools joke. Wikipedia says: April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends and neighbours, or sending them on fools' errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. In some countries, April Fool's jokes (also called "April fools") must only be made before midday.

And so no immediate change is in store.

And a couple of links for the week:

Readers' Choice, Best of 2006 from Ranch & Coast Magazine. Oh, you might laugh at some - agree with others...

Larry from Chowhound has a great Las Vegas travel diary - includes lots of restaurant reports.

I also finally added a few San Diego blog links over there on the side - though if you've found this one, you've probably seen those already.

I'll be back later this week with part one of something... :)

T.G.I. Fridays!

2006-04-01T09:17:00.000-08:00

God, this place is some damn kind of yummy I can’t stop myself from going there every Friday. They have the best $12.99 three-course meal deal. You know how I loves a deal and this one, baby, is it! This puts every restaurant on the big restaurant week $30 showdown to complete shame.

Not much mystery about this restaurant, eh? I used to think it was only open on Friday, but no way man, it is open and ready for everyone 7 DAYS A WEEK! Now, the atmosphere is busy and noisy. There are lots of servers running about and the executive chef clearly has his eye on the dining room at all times. As one might expect, service is generally efficient, friendly, yet professional and courses always well paced. And the food? Both the flavors and textures were top notch. Now, don’t go in expecting truffle infused foie gras and poached baby kumamoto oysters and you’ll be fine.

“Tell me more, dammit, about that $12.99 meal deal, Scott!” you are all screaming now, I’ll bet.

Well, gather up the kids, here it is: You can pick either the indulgent menu or the “Guilt Free” (without being Taste Free!) menu and it’s all just $12.99 for 3 freakin’ courses! Naturally, you get a special selection of six appetizers (I nearly always go for the Chipotle Queso Dip – YUMMMMMY!) Then your choice of twelve entrees (but you can only pick one unless you want to pay extra). You might like that Key West Shrimp or the world famous RIBS! And then a choice of three desserts (my pick: Cinnabon Cheesecake made with a real cinnamon roll chopped up into a cheesecake, drizzled with hot fudge and topped with a flaming banana.) How could you go wrong?!!??

Of course, this place has garnered mostly rave reviews, but a few people have been under whelmed but I clearly can’t agree with those (classless?) people. All in all, well seasoned, very light, very fresh and very good food. And seriously folks, this place is going to have you running home to your underwear drawer – it’s so good you’ll be filling your pants! (Note: I did find out that this deal has expired in some regions).

And now…
After 7 months and as April begins, with this post I end my foodie blog and announce I will be converting it immediately to adult movie discussion – the first topic: the movie Bra Breakage 17!

Anyone?

Wha? Another post already?

2006-03-30T21:35:00.000-08:00

Wine
Anybody ever go to the Wine Vault and Bistro? I signed up for their newsletter months ago and get emails a couple of times a week, promoting their wine flight tastings and dinners – they have an ongoing $45 five course meal with an almost crazy amount of wine pairings – 12, if you can believe it! These usually happen on Saturday, but sometimes they add a Wednesday. I’ve never gone – but it’s on that long list in my head.

Punjabi Tandoor
The California Chowhound board has been buzzing slightly over this place – honestly a post or two almost seemed like advertising – so I thought I would swing by for take out after work. Usually I’ll pick up from Sitar in the food court at Scranton and Mira Mesa near the 805 since it is close to work. But Punjabi is just a quick swing down Camino Ruiz on the way home. I knew it was on Activity Road, but it took a second pass to find it amid the various businesses.

I found it and ordered a couple of $7.49 combo plates – 2 choices of meat curry in each combo with nan (they have it as nan, I thought it was naan?) so I got 4 varieties of chicken: tikka masala, chicken palak, chicken makhni and chicken curry. It also came with some sort of dessert than neither of us cared for. We got more than enough nan – well, we still ate it all, but wow, I was full.

It might not look like much here – just colored glop – but oh man, it was all so delicious with just the right amount of spice for me and so flavorful!

I’ll have to try some of the veggie curries next time – priced around 4 or 5 bucks – or the lamb. When I think of lamb I think of that greasy lamb that comes off that log in Greek places – I wouldn’t imagine it would be quite like that.

Now, I know very little about different ethnic foods but I thought it was great. I see another blog did a big write up last summer – the defunct (hey, we’ll all be there eventually) Lunch on Friday.

All in all, it was a little better deal that Sitar which charges about the same for one type of meat, but then comes with the lentils and cucumber yogurt. I’m a big fan of meat so bring that on! (Completely unrelated – I’ve got to try the Brazilian steakhouse downtown some time – Rei Do Gado – I pointed it out to my brother when he was here.) I imagine this place is packed at lunchtime - just a few tables inside but lots of outside seating.

Visiting San Diego

2006-03-29T23:53:00.000-08:00

And by daylight this is what was left. I forgot to mention that maple syrup really isn’t my favorite pancake or french toast topping – I’d rather go with a fruitier syrup. There is a small dark berry called the elderberry that grows in clusters that makes a great syrup. I’d say that is my favorite. That was also a homemade syrup.

Visitors
I hadn’t been posting much as we had a couple of visitors from out of state in March (my brother and his girlfriend for a few days and my wife’s sister for another couple of days) so that is always a good time to go out to eat. Oh, we made it to a half dozen or so restaurants but at this point I don’t have even enough mental notes left to put together any decent write-ups.

I had a pretty good sea bass at Claim Jumper of all places – listed on the menu as New Zealand Sea Bass Cut Thick & Sauteed, Braised in a Spicy Traditional Oaxacan Tomato Herb Broth & Served over Steamed Rice.

It was the simple restaurant of choice after a day of sightseeing driving (to the desert (Anza Borrego State Park) where it was 70 degrees and to Julian on the way back where it was snowing (and of course we just happened upon the obligatory pie at Mom’s) and to the beach at La Jolla Shores.) Whew – quite a range of weather.

Other than that, we had meals at all the normal rotation places: Just Fabulous (my brother nearly knocked over the wine rack and I nearly knocked over a table – oops! – they may not allow us back!) always a nice place for a meal and dessert, Mesquite and Takhrai Thai, both in Scripps Ranch – I think I’ve written about both of these here – if not I will eventually – and a mid afternoon dessert stop at some Extraordinary place not to mention a lunch stops at The Fish Market and Island Prime/C Level.

I was pleased enough with the meals I had at each place.

San Diego Restaurant Reviews
He mostly lets the photos tell the story; the San Diego Sunday Brunch Master is a great site to check out. He spent last year going to a different Sunday brunch each week, now, with his belly busting, he is checking out the rest of the restaurants that serve breakfast/brunch items on the weekend.

Restaurants I would like to try...
I’m pretty much thinking I’d like to go to Chilango's in Hillcrest and Mama Testa.

Any food events going on around here?
I just saw a BBQ and Chili cook-off show on The Food Network. I would LOVE to go to one of those things!

Maple syrup

2006-03-25T21:16:00.000-08:00

A new post! I have restaurant reports to write up, birthday cakes pictures to post, dog pictures waiting and ready but first let us talk about buckets on trees. Wha? Yep, that is where maple syrup comes from.

In San Diego seasons barely exist but 2000 miles away in Wisconsin, where I grew up, spring time for some means maple syrup season. Yep, that real from-the-tree stuff. Oh, when you think of real maple syrup you probably think of Vermont and Maine, but northwoods WI makes its own little share of the stuff. When mid-March hits, it’s time to tap the trees (drill a hole, pound in a spout) and hang a bucket to catch it. The sap looks just like water and tastes, as you might expect, slightly sweet.

The maple sap only “runs” in the spring as the thawing temperatures arrive. You need below freezing nights and daytime temps in the upper 30’s and lower 40’s. The sap is collected, boiled down, filtered and bottled. (There is a measuring device that tells you when the syrup has the right sugar content.) Mom made the pancakes and the Schwan’s man delivered the ice cream. (Did you know? Maple syrup is tasty on ice cream!)

It isn’t unusual to drive around the countryside and see buckets (or the more modern bag) hanging from the trees (sugar maple trees only – don’t try to tap a oak tree!) As I recall, as kids, my Dad’s family would make maple syrup with his brother continuing for years. Eventually by the late 1980’s, the next generation, my brothers and I wanted to make syrup – we had the land and the trees (we owned 80+ acres)

It was a success; a cabin in the woods was built, with an attached cooking shelter and the tradition of sorts continued on. 100 gallons or more would be produced each year, to be sold or given away to friends and family. Our family would be involved, along with a few neighbors. The sap cooking was fairly low tech, over a couple enclosed fire pits, each with a large pan. There are better systems – evaporators and such – but this is a typical small time operation. The sap takes a while to cook down (40 gallon of sap need to cook down to equal one gallon of syrup) so there is plenty of down time. The cabin would be a little retreat, a half mile from the house, near a river (it flooded a time or two in the spring), a place to hang out, play cards, have a beverage or a cook up a steak over one of the grills all while the gallons of sap cooked down.

And so it went for on years. My last year of helping was 2002 and I would kind of miss it each spring. I got the call from my brother that there was a fire on Thursday night. Yep, another year of syrup making was starting. The sap had been collected; wood added and the fire stoked in the afternoon. When the my brother and Dad went down there after supper they could see the glow as soon as then went down the hill to the cabin. The fire department was called – no doubt the fire could be seen for miles – and put out and thankfully no one was hurt…

…but the cabin was gone.

My very first chocolate

2006-03-12T08:20:00.000-08:00

No notable food stuffs to post about this week. At some point I might do a San Diego North County Inland restaurant roundup – an area rarely talked about. And we have guests over the next couple of weeks – that may provide some restaurant experiences. But for now, I will post a picture of myself enjoying what is thought to be my very first taste of chocolate. Is it your standard jello pudding? Or maybe melted chocolate chips (always a favorite!)

And the year? 1970! And if any of my 3 readers (may be down to 2 at this point) has any of these “baby's very first taste of…” type photographs feel free to email them – I’ll post in my next entry. Or post to your own blog and leave a link! I also thinking of doing a “Scott’s birthday cakes over the years” type post offering up a photographic history of my Mom's cakes.

Chowhound
It’s been sold to CNET – it will be a little sad to see the old-fashioned message board go away but it should make for a better site overall. Should happen sometime this summer.

Taste of Hillcrest
April 22. I said I wasn’t going to do another one of these – but I might try this one out again – it is such a great way to discover the restaurants in an area. We did this one on a rare rainy day a couple of years ago. Any other “Taste of…” coming up?

Taco Truck Run In A Limo II

2006-03-03T01:03:00.000-08:00

Get a load of this post from Chowhound LA board! What seems to be the 2nd annual event, his company takes out “a stretch limo stocked with top-shelf tequilas and spends the better part of eight hours touring the LA area for the best in taco trucks.” Wow. Sounds like a blast. I’m ready for it!

The place where food gets made.
We are in the middle of a kitchen remodel so I would think that I would have some restaurant reports – nope, haven’t been eating out much. Laying low. Playing it cheap. Taking it easy. Getting Von’s turkey breast (more meat than the rotisserie chicken it seems), or take out from Wong’s Wok (can’t go wong with Wong’s Wok, we always say) or El Pollo Loco (such a crazy chicken!)

And of course…

Have you met Cooper and Scully yet? It's true; dogs like to hike up Black Mountain.

Scully

2006-02-26T10:28:00.000-08:00

Dog photo of the day:

Our pup, Scully, at the dog park.

Website link of the day:

Farmgirl Fare - I really like the farm photos especially the ones that show the season changes (same view, different seasons.) I always wanted to do that when I lived in the midwest.