San Diego II

It was only 6pm but we were cold and famished. We were out when the sun was still warm, and before we knew it, the cold had set in. We were by the beach and passed by this joint, thinking that it was just another pub at the street corner called The Joint but it said, "Sushi and Tapas" underneath. We contemplated a little but we were hungry and the place was packed so we went in. The menu was very extensive, they have all sorts of cuisine, a large menu doesn't always guarantee decent food but we thought, what the heck we could just snack a little and if it's too bad, we'd just leave. So we ordered only 2 things. After all, we still have a dinner appointment at 8pm.

Oh my god, when I saw this plate of fish tacos, I was very impressed. I'm rarely impressed by fish tacos but my oh my these little dainty tacos are so pleasantly yummy. They used Salmon in this dish. The combination of lime, salsa, radicchio is just so amazingly yummy. The flavors and the textures are just right,  it's so satisfying!

Then we ordered this sushi roll, the main attraction was the green apple used in the roll. Similar to the tacos, this roll awakens the palette. When I was savoring this sushi, I could clearly taste the freshness of the fish, rice, avocado and the rest of the condiments. It's been a while since I have had good sushi and most of the time, the rice overpowers the rest of the ingredients but this one is just pleasantly nice and delicious. 

Eventhough we had snacked on sushi, our friends still wanted sushi for dinner. After making the reservation, we still had to wait about half an hour. Shino had a really good review on Yelp, the place is small and unassuming that one might doubt the quality of the food (mainly because the place looked so new and so un-Japanese restaurant like). When we went in, it's mostly Japanese so we thought this place must be good. 

Oh boy, it was really REALLY good. I don't even know how to describe it. When I put the sushi in my mouth, the rice breaks apart and the sashimi just melted! Frankly, I haven't had such good sushi before! It really felt like there was fireworks in my mouth because everything was bursting with flavors. Every one that ordered the special sushi plate was crying with joy because they're so good and fresh. The uni was also highly rated but unfortunately it was sold out by the time we ordered it. So I can't review that.

Another pleasant surprise was the plum wine ice-cream. I've only had green tea ice-cream in Japanese restaurants but not this flavor. Yummmsss.....The other roll which was also highly rated - the Bomb, but it wasn't that great, it was soft shell crab wrapped with Kobe beef. I know, it's Kobe beef, it should be good but the thing is the flavor wasn't as 'authentic' as a sushi should be. The Bomb was too complicated with deep fried crab, meat and some very strong flavored sauce. So the sushi is really highly recommended.

And my last dinner in San Diego, Italian pasta. When we walked in the owner of the restaurant was so friendly and he gave us complimentary Prosecco. The perfect drink to start off the new year! We ordered a lot of food, most of us had ordered a 3 course meal - salad, main and dessert. But I just want to highlight this simple pasta dish-  Bavette al Granchio del Ristorante “Tre Pini”. It's hot and spicy linguine pasta with crab meat in a smooth rosé sauce. It's so simple (so I think), just pasta and cream sauce, but it's so yummy. The wonders of simple and fresh ingredients.

I had so much fun this trip. The food was amazing, the company incredible, it was priceless to spend precious time with loved ones.

San Diego I

Happy as a bird, I flew to San Diego to spend sometime with loved ones before heading back to work.

 

The weather was so beautiful, we walked to the pier and took some photos at the Embarcadero. At the Embarcadero they parked a variety of old and new ships, boats, and yachts. That's a submarine by the way. 

With the day pass we took the bus to places that time permits. We didn't have a lot of time but we chose to visit the Balboa park. This place is huge and very beautiful. The park is 1,200 acre and there are plenty of museums, galleries, events, exhibitions to look at but time limited us to just briefly walk around the park and took the free tram train to go around the park.

With the limited time, I really wanted to go to Sea World, and I had only 5 hours! 

First show of the day - dolphins and pilot whale.

The animals were beautiful, their performances were amazing but it wasn't as exciting as I remembered when I visited eon years ago. I wonder if it had anything to do with the accident that they had years before that resulted in the death of a trainer? No more stunts that involve trainers swimming with the animal.

Shamu is a must see, but no trainer -whale partners in the same tank in the show!

There were many things and animals to see in Sea World, but I only wanted to see a few of them and one of them is the manta ray, which you can feed it if you dare. Of course I didn't, but I love watching them gliding in the water.

My main reason to revisit Sea World is to see the arctic animals. Isn't the beluga whale magnificent?

My favorite!  The pola bear, which was busy taking a nap on a Xmas tree! Isn't he adorable or isn't she? I'm not sure :)

No trip is complete without a post on good food, but that'll have to be in the next post. :)

2013

To live, to laugh and to love. My inspirations for this year and hopefully many years to come.

Happy Holidays!

This year, we had by far the best Christmas celebration ever. Apart from spending 3 days with our dear friends, we were also invited to their friend's dessert party. What? A dessert party? Yup, countless types of cakes, pies, pastries and appetizers that took more than 10 days to prepare.

Where should I start? Let's start with appetizers - olives, cheese and crackers.

A variety of olives.

Cheese, cheese and more cheese.





The hostess also made her own mushroom pates and pickled her own okras.



Many different types of cookies, almond cookies, ginger cookies, biscottis,  and many more. They have much nicer names but I can't remember all of them. *grin*

What are golf balls? It's an Italian dish. They are cheese wrapped with rice and deep fried.  They're so yummy. Once you pop you can't stop!



Once you finished with the appetizers, let's move on to the desserts! I think we had about 10 cakes and pies, I lost count. Here are just a few of them.



I really like this apple pie, the fruit and the crust are just so yummy!



I didn't expect to like this white chocolate brownies so much! This is one of my favorite!







Precisely hand cut opera cake.



There were way too many desserts and if I were to showcase all of them, I myself probably won't survive this update ... By now, I'm already hungry and hoping that I could take bites after bites into those uber-liscious desserts. *stomach growling.....*

Thanks Fran for the wonderful and amazing out of this world dessert party!



And the extras for the following day!

Thanksgiving

This year I was at New York for Thanksgiving. Here's a summary of my 5-day trip. 

Above are the yummy appetizers that our hostess prepared, crackers with lobster dip and cheese. The dinner also included roasted chicken, vegetables and home made apple pie! Yummmss.....

Our first dinner at NYC. Most of the restaurants in Korea town were packed, at 8pm, most of the restaurants had a half an hour wait list. So we chose the one that had the least people waiting and we still waited for 20 minutes. The food at Miss Korea was really good, we had the pork BBQ marinated in special house sauce, kimchi pancake, spicy dumpling tofu soup, squid and soju! By the time we were done with dinner around 10pm there was still a line waiting outside.

A quick snap shot of Empire State Building on our way back to the hotel.

Took the Staten Island Ferry to see Lady Liberty.

The view from the ferry.

Liberty Island was closed after Sandy's wrath. So the closest way to see her was taking the Staten Island Ferry.

We also visited the 911 Memorial, this was the only way I could include Freedom Tower and the memorial ground in the same photo.

I love Times Square. I love the lights, the billboards and everything dazzling about this place.

Good meals can be affordable in NYC. Prefix  at the Red Cat starts at $25 for lunch. We had garlic fries, steamed clam, burrata (gold and red beets salad), skate, oyster po'boys, omellete, burger, and banana boat! The food was simply splendid. The simple looking banana boat is so yummy, home made vanilla ice cream served with mysterious ingredients that made it taste so unique. Actually the ingredients were really simple, banana, nuts and fruits but there's something else that made it tasted different, salt? 

We were craving for good quality dim sum, we chose Nom Wah because it was the first dim sum place in NY Chinatown. It was cold and we were hungry, the first bite of shrimp dumpling was simply awesome. Not only the shrimp was fresh, the skin of the dumpling was perfect, thin and steamed just right. You can tell that all the dishes were fresh because after years of eating reheated frozen dim sum even at high ranking restaurants, these dim sum tasted just FRESH. I love it that they served using porcelain dishes. The place was so busy that the servers did not even have time to chit chat.

This time, we visited places that I have not been to at NYC. This is the High Line Park. A public park built on a historical frieght line elevated above the streets on Manhattan's West Side. The place was packed with people and it was quite an interesting walk to see the artistic neighborhood filled with art installations and upscale apartments.

I really love the Grand Central Station. The building itself is so beautiful. It looked really different in the movies and in real life. The building is just so magnificent.

I love New York. It's so beautiful, I had such a wonderful trip,  can't wait to go back again. :)

Yodaism

Dear Yoda, you never cease to inspire us. You, I thank you.

Morning Goodness

What's the most important meal of the day? Breakfast of course! One must not skim in order to have a good start of the day. Yelp took us to Harbor Cafe , this quaint little place that not only is dog friendly but serves alcoholic beverages early in the morning. Perfect for dog owners who loves food and alcohol! Plus, they have a doggy menu too!

I ordered something adventurous - Mexican Tofu Scram with vege patty. What? Tofu cooked in Mexican spices? It's really good, I finished the whole plate all by myself. If you're looking for a more cheesy and satisfying dish, do try the Captain's Frittata.  I can't believe I was able to finish the big plate of food and a large glass of pomegranate lime juice! Phew, what a breakfast. :)