8 posts from July 2009

How has technology impacted the quality time you spend with your family?
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I'm going to use this QoTD as an opportunity to talk about one of my pet peeves.

I have some friends who mess around with their iPhone while we're supposed to be hanging out and interacting. This is annoying, and it makes me want to leave. I'm ok with things like quickly checking a text message. But I don't check email, create playlists and surf the Internet while we're hanging out, and I expect the same courtesy from my friends. :-)  I want to toss that iPhone out the window!!

Last night was the honey's birthday, so we went to Kitchen 1540 for dinner. It's in the L'Auberge hotel in Del Mar, which underwent a really nice renovation last year. I had already been to Kitchen 1540 for brunch, which was fabulous.

The decor at Kitchen 1540 is really nice - California beachy modern. Nice lighting, cool bar. The patio is a great place for summertime evenings:

Kitchen1540

The hotel bar just outside the restaurant is annoyingly loud with the post-race crowd who's typically already half in the bag by the time they get there. (Can you say "meat market"?)

On to the food - The ingredients taste exceedingly fresh and most are local, which is a big plus in my book. Overall, the dishes show a flair for creativity and a respect for the ingredients - particularly the starters. I had a sweet corn agnolotti which was "to die for". Little ravioli-type things with sweet corn and big hunks of Maine lobster. The honey had a mushroom risotto, which came with tempura vegetables on the side. Both were prepared excellently. The risotto was nice and creamy, not too sticky, heavy, or cheesy, which I've found at other places. 

I'd like to see more variety on the dinner entree menu, as there just eight entrees, including some of the things I see on a lot of menus, which I wasn't in the mood for - short ribs, fancy burger, roasted chicken. Yawn. The honey ordered the May Ranch beef tenderloin, which we split along with an organic green salad and the starters. The beef was a disappointment. A steakhouse steak it was not - no crusty outside. It was very tender, but had a semi-pasty and gristly texture. It also was not very flavorful, although the tenderloin is a pretty delicate flavor so I wasn't expecting big beef flavor anyway. I think it could have used a lot more seasoning.

The organic green salad came with cherry halves, marcona almonds, and a large hunk of Humboldt Fog cheese, one of my favorite cheeses. Great combo. I didn't order a cheese plate, but would have loved to, as they had a really nice selection.

For dessert, I had the root beer trio - a little root beer float, root beer brittle, and these curious little brown and white cakes that actually tasted like root beer on the bottom (brown half) and foam on the white half. That was pretty cool and very original. The honey had the vanilla cheesecake, which was extremely light, but in my opinion, too light. It didn't actually taste like cheesecake. But if you dislike cheesecake because it's too heavy, you'd like this.

I would definitely come back for drinks and appetizers, and also brunch, but would probably skip the dinner entree next time.  

The final word
(1-5 rating:  1=BAD, 2=mediocre at best, 3=ok, 4=wow, pretty good!, 5=one of my all-time favorites)

Food (Taste, Quality): 4.3 for breakfast, 3.8 for dinner
Value: 3.6
Service: 3.2
Ambience: 4
Memorable Experience: 4
Price: $11-19 brunch entrees; $16-28 dinner entrees
Menu recommendations: Brunch - California omelette, almond crusted french toast. Dinner - sweet corn agnolotti, risotto, organic green salad (all starters)
Notes: I prefer it for brunch.
Would I make a point to go again, paying full price?:  Yes for brunch, no for dinner.

An old friend emailed me an article called "World's Strangest Ice Creams," reminding me that several years ago one of my goals was to try every flavor of ice cream. I totally forgot about that goal, but I have been trying all these years.

Here's Travel+Leisure's 11 weirdest ice creams (click here for slideshow):

1. Viagra Ice Cream: Mérida, Venezuela. Ok this is not real Viagra. Bummer.
   

2. Haggis Ice Cream: London: I don't know if I could think of anything more disgusting. Scratch that - see #9.
   

3. Lavender Ice Cream, France: Tried this and love it. Subtle, not too sweet.
   

4. "Fox Testicle” Ice Cream, Turkey: This is not made of fox testicles and it's actually not that weird. It's made from a wild orchid tuber that apparently looks like fox testicles. I haven't tried it yet, but supposedly it's like taffy and not actually frozen.
   

5. Beer Ice Cream: Munich and Alexandria, VA: Tried it and actually made a guiness chocolate ice cream that turned out great. You don't really taste the beer too much except for a nice malty aftertaste. Great for a St. Paddy's day finish.
   

6. Salty Licorice Ice Cream: Sweden. Haven't tried this, sounds really strong. My Swedish friend says she sometimes thinks her people have forgotten that we now have refrigeration, so there's no longer a need to eat salted buried stuff.
   

7. Durian Ice Cream: Philippines This sounds like a good way to eat durian, which is a fruit known for smelling like rotting flesh but tasting quite sweet.
   

8. Pineapple Shrimp Ice Cream: Taiwan Hm. I don't get it.
   

9. Raw Horseflesh Ice Cream: Tokyo:  OMG!   Funny enough, the Japanese market rejected Ben & Jerry's "Chunky Monkey" flavor because they thought it had monkeys in it. Now I see why. This flavor breaks my entire goal of trying every flavor. Great. Btw, it is described as vanilla ice cream with little bits of 'horse sushi'.
   

10. Garlic Ice Cream: Gilroy, CA:  I'd try it, but really only for the sake of trying it. They say that at first it tastes just like vanilla -- until you're hit with a nasty and overwhelming aftertaste!
    

11. Bacon Ice Cream: Rehoboth Beach, DE:  Does it go with breakfast?

Have you ever tried one of these weird ice creams?  What'd you think?

Now that I work in Sorrento Valley, I'm in one of the top two centers of lunch convenience of San Diego (the other being Kearny Mesa, home of cheap ethnic eats, in my book). Come to think of it, I'm only a 10-minute drive from Kearny Mesa anyway.

So far, I have only tried a few places -- not even scratching the surface. But here's a review of what I've tried so far.

Opera Patisserie
I've eaten here several times, and it always fulfills my croissant sandwich craving, which happens every month or so. Nice French style sandwiches, great salads, a small bakery of French pastries. Usually around $7-10. I wouldn't say it's a place that's super special, but it's one of my ol' reliables.

Habaneros
My first-day lunch, courtesy of my company. I had the two taco combo: a taco al pastor, a carne asada taco, rice and beans. It was a lot of food, even more than a typical Mexican restaurant. The tacos were great. The salsa bar was pretty standard - like what you'd find at Rubio's. Don't expect Habaneros to compare to "real" Mexican food joints, but for a Mira Mesa lunch place, it's solid, and I prefer it to a place like Rubio's. I'll be back again. There are also flat-screen TVs for sports junkies.

In n' Out
Well, I don't think I need to review this place. Oh manna from heaven. Had a great lunch there, but I will have to limit future visits, as I looked up the calorie count for my lunch (burger + milkshake, no fries or soda) -- it came out to 1,170 calories. I'm not freakish about my diet, but that's just overdoing it.

Yoshi Sushi
I was stoked to find a sushi place within .5 miles of work, but this place is just mediocre. I had take-out sushi, and the hostess was pretty un-friendly. The sushi itself was pretty good and tasted fairly fresh. It was kind of pricey. I wouldn't balk at going back to get my sushi fix, but I'd rather find a better sushi place.

Fresh & Easy
This is a sort of convenience-meets-grocery-store. I love the concept, because I'd like to replace fast food with healthy prepared foods when I don't have time to make lunch. I would like the store much better if as a brand they embraced healthy, organic, and local as their thing. There were a lot of items that weren't -- like Lunchables, and really high-sodium, high-fat frozen meals. However, they also had plenty of produce and some healthy deli selections. You have to look at the labels to really find out if you're buying something that's any better than the fast food. I would love to see something more along the lines of a Whole Foods meets convenience.

Sorrento European Bakery
Don't let the name fool you -- this is a Vietnamese-French banh mi (baguette sandwich) place and bakery. They have a menu selection of four different American sandwiches on baguettes (tuna, ham, etc.), and four Vietnamese banh mi - pate, grilled pork, barbecue pork, and meatball. They also have a full size bakery. I ordered the barbecue pork banh mi for $3.10.

Banh mi

1 comment

It's a foot long, and had plenty of barbecue pork, pickled carrots, cucumbers and daikon, cilantro, and a jalapeno (hold the mayo). The baguette was crusty and soft on the inside, freshly baked. Overall the sandwich was great, and $2 cheaper than a Subway footlong sandwich that wouldn't taste nearly as good, IMHO.

I also ordered some oatmeal lace cookies dipped in chocolate. 16 cookies for $3.99. Yum!

Cookies

Since I'm amongst thousands of lunch places here, I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot more reviews from me. Which I like, as my food reviews have died down lately, as a result of a combination of getting the veggie box, spending less, and eating healthier.

Oh, and this company is foodie workplace heaven. We have a supper club that meets once per month to try some new food. Tonight is Korean taco night!  We're also having a potluck next week. Awesome.

Today marks the end of my blissful week of unemployment. I feel so "Ahhhhhhhhh" now. Maybe I can actually be productive at work!

The Human Stain: A Novel

What vacations would you most like to take in the next five years?
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Hawaii.  Almost everyone I know has been there, but I haven't. I'd love to meet some other hapas and enjoy all the nature. Maybe for my honeymoon (assuming I get one of those in the next five years).

Vietnam. I've been once, but really want to go again soon. I went to Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Hoi An, Saigon and Can Tho.  Vietnam is an incredibly diverse country, both in terms of ecology and the people. I'd like to visit Sapa, which is along the northern border of Vietnam, Da Lat (a very colonial city where a lot of coffee and chocolate is grown), and Phu Quoc, a quirky and beachy little island off the southern coast. 

Brazil. The honey is Brazilian, so I'd love to check out the culture first-hand. Rio beaches, here I come! 

South Africa. I'm not sure I'll get there within five years, but this is my dream vacation. It looks like South Africa has everything - city life, dramatic cliffs, beautiful beaches, safaris, not to mention an amazing cultural heritage.

Right now, I'm enjoying my stay-cation before I start the new job Monday, which is also pretty darned nice.

Actually, the second-to-last day. At my job.  I'm enjoying it. I've cleaned out my office, which cemented that "new start" feeling.

If I wasn't happy enough already for an exciting new start, the office politics at my old place have gotten insane. They are literally incapable, thanks to inept executive management, of making any decisions. Working at a place like this really makes you do funny things -- at first you say, "Am I the crazy one?" Then you get mad, and eventually you realize the only way to keep from being mad and sour all the time is to detach yourself emotionally. For me, that's the saddest and most difficult part.

And now, I leave it all behind. Woo hoo!  Taking a weekend break to Tahoe and Vegas, doing some reading on the front porch for a week, then back to work.

Hope y'all are having a super summer!

I like to head to the San Diego County Fair once a year, just for the sake of riding the ferris wheel with my honey, checking out stuff like the blue ribbon flowers and 4H exhibits, and snarfing on bad-for-me food. Chicken Charlie, a fast food hawker at the fair, typically debuts a new fried food concoction each year, and out of curiosity I usually try one.

This year the big news was deep-fried s'mores. They were actually pretty good. Last year I had a deep-fried twinkie, and I think the s'more one-ups the twinkie. It's the melted marshmallows that really make it good, and the bit o' melty chocolate takes it a step beyond the twinkie. Plus, obviously a deep-fried twinkie just doesn't provide enough calories, so you really gotta go whole hog.

Here are some of the other fried-food highlights:

• Fried avocados. Pretty self-explanatory. Take the fattiest fruit and cover it in batter. I was halfway tempted to try it.
• Deep-fried white castle burgers. Ugh.
  
• Deep-fried chicken sandwich. But wait -- the bun is actually two Krispie Kreme donuts!  This was popular last year, but I didn't see anyone ordering it this year.
• Fried Coke. A major disappointment. It's just little bits of fried dough, they just use Coke as the liquid. It does not taste like Coke.

But, the all-time winner of original and horrifying fried creations for 2009 is (drumroll).....