Leilani’s Cafe

May 192013
 

S and I don’t really like to drive out to PB to eat because there’s usually traffic, and parking isn’t easy to find. But a few weeks ago, since I was already there for the SD Food Bloggers’ Bake Sale, we decided to grab lunch afterwards with a couple of friends who came to the sale as well. One of our friends suggested Leilani’s Cafe, since he had recently returned from his first trip to Hawaii and was missing the food there. Well, the only Hawaiian place I’ve ever tried is L&L Hawaiian Barbecue – specifically, the Regents road location – and it wasn’t that impressive, so I was looking forward to trying something new.

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Order at the walk-up counter. There’s a handful of menus in addition to the chalkboard. Tiny tiny interior, with three or four tiny tiny tables. Haha. There are two big patios though – I just wished it wasn’t so windy that day.

Copy of the menu:

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We shared an order of the Leilani Style Spam Musubi:

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Spam Musubi Leilani Style [$5.75]

I have to admit that I don’t exactly have a good standard for what’s great and what’s just okay when it comes to Hawaiian food since I haven’t had it very much (so any comments are appreciated ^^”). Anyway, this was a little different from what I expected because I’ve never seen scrambled egg in a spam musubi, and also instead of the sweet teriyaki BBQ sauce, there is a spicy mayo dip. Haha. I thought the dip was a bit weird and didn’t mesh too well with the spam flavor, but except for the slightly-stale seaweed, I thought it was pretty good. 

Ono Kalua: Leilani's Kalua pork over rice, topped with 2 eggs over medium [$8.50]

Ono Kalua: Leilani’s Kalua pork over rice, topped with 2 eggs over medium [$8.50]

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Cream Cheese Brownies

May 152013
 

During my college days, I had a friend, A, who always had some sort of baked good with him, at all times. (And for you guys out there who need some motivation to get into baking, he was usually accompanied by at least one girl. Hehe.) Brownies, key lime pie, lemon bars… you name it, he baked it. S, who doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, always raved about the desserts that A made – even ice cream, which S never likes that much. I admired this friend a lot, and we always had a lot to talk about – he introduced me to some pretty cool kitchen gadgets and had lots of helpful baking tips.

Well, a while ago he paid us a visit in San Diego, and he thought we should bake something together. We were a bit short on time, so we didn’t want to do anything too fancy – and that’s when he brought up “cream cheese brownies.” S, who was sort of passively listening to the conversation at the time, got really excited because he loves cream cheese desserts. So A dug up his recipe, and we proceeded to make these super yummy cream cheese brownies.

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I’ve made this recipe several times since then, and I made a batch for the SD Food Bloggers’ Bake Sale earlier this month. I cut them into bite-sized pieces for the sale, but of course feel free to cut yourself as big a piece as you like. Promise you won’t regret it.

Unfortunately, I was in quite a rush when I made these since it was the night before the sale, and I had to package and label everything, so I didn’t get a chance to take pre-packaging photos. So here are a couple of pics that my friend snapped at the bake sale.

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Piatti La Jolla

May 112013
 

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated S’s birthday! He asked me to choose the restaurant, so I thought we could try out Piatti, a little Italian restaurant in La Jolla. I had been there once and thought the food was pretty good, and we gathered up some good friends for a little celebration.

The restaurant does take reservations, thankfully, but I had to provide a credit card and was told that I would be charged $100 for no-show. It was a bit intimidating, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they really would charge the money. Well, good thing I didn’t need to find out…

Parking in LJ is always a pain but luckily we got a spot right in front of the restaurant! I was so excited that we found parking that I forgot to take a photo of the restaurant. Whoops.

Well, I’ll start with the bread, then…

Complimentary bread

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I’ve heard ravings about the bread and balsamic sauce long before my first visit, and truly, all of the claims of deliciousness are justified. The bread is served warm in a cute metal basket, and there were several generous plates of the dipping sauce. The sauce is made up of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and a mix of garlic, basil, and other herbs. It was so good! I’m pretty sure I finished an entire basket of bread on my own, thanks to that sauce.

We had a pretty big group of people, but I didn’t get to taste everyone’s food or take photos. I’ll just share a couple of dishes that my friends ordered…

Rolled Pasta with wild mushrooms, ricotta, spinach, and porcini mushroom sauce [$15.50]

Rolled Pasta with wild mushrooms, ricotta, spinach, and porcini mushroom sauce [$15.50]

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Bao’s Awesome Burgers & Sandwiches (BABS)

May 082013
 

S and I love burgers, and luckily for us, San Diego is filled with awesome burger joints. Our favorite is Hodad’s, but sometimes we just want to avoid the long lines and sort-of far drive. We recently tried out Bao’s Awesome Burgers & Sandwiches, aka BABS, on Convoy St.

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It’s located in the A Cafe/ RakiRaki/ Tapioca Express/ Crab Hut plaza, which unfortunately has terrible parking. Luckily we found a spot easily during our last visit, but sometimes it’s just impossible.

The menu here is all-American (burgers, sandwiches, fries, etc.), but I believe the owners are Asian-American, so the flavor is quite fusion-y. I debated for a while between getting a burger or sandwich, and in the end, both S and I chose burgers.

Original burger ($4.99)

White Hot Burger: pepper jack cheese, topped with chopped habaneros & spicy hot sauce ($6.99)

White Hot burger ($6.99)

Original Burger: cheddar cheese, topped with Cajun sauce ($4.99)

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2013 SD Food Bloggers’ Bake Sale!

May 012013
 

The annual San Diego Food Bloggers’ Bake Sale is THIS SATURDAY, May 4, from 10-2pm at Great News in Pacific Beach!

All proceeds from the sale will go to No Kid Hungry, a great charity that is fighting child hunger in the U.S.

There are several bloggers doing advanced sales and raffles. Check them out here. Also, if you’d like to donate, you can do so directly here.

This is my first time participating in the sale (I did just move here a year go!), and I am super excited. I’ll be there for the morning shift with my Cookie Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies as well as a new recipe, M&M cookies. Stop by for some treats and say hello!

 

Lemon Angel Food Cupcakes

Apr 302013
 

A friend of mine recently had a baby, and we were invited to celebrate her “Full Moon” or one-month birthday, per Chinese tradition. I decided to bring some cupcakes and thought that angel food cake would be perfect to celebrate their little angel.

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Originally I had planned to make a frosting as well, but I tasted a cupcake and thought that additional frosting would make it too sweet (most of my Chinese and Taiwanese friends don’t like desserts too sweet). Next time, I may try cutting down the sugar in the recipe itself so that I can add a whipped cream or cream cheese frosting.

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Tea Garden Grand Re-opening

Apr 282013
 

In March, Tea Garden closed temporarily to move to a new location. S was quite distraught since it was his favorite place and most-frequently-visited place before I moved to San Diego. (Actually, even after moving to SD, it’s probably been our most-frequently-visited place.) Even though the food isn’t amazing, we like the homestyle and simple dishes, and it’s affordable for students – I don’t think anything on the menu is over $10. In addition, they have a wide selection of milk teas, to which S is quite addicted.

I’ve been eagerly scouting food news since their closing, and I was excited to hear that on April 19, they were re-opening in a new location just a couple of blocks from their previous one. Unfortunately, that plaza happens to have pretty horrible parking, but that’s already a running theme on Convoy St.

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The interior looks much nicer and is much bigger. It’s lost much of the Taiwanese “diner” feel to it, actually.

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S and I were hoping for some additions or changes to the menu, but everything remained largely the same. We were told that there is a new drink available, though – the Tea Latte (奶蓋茶 in Chinese). S ordered one to try out:

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Black Tea Latte 紅奶蓋茶 ($3.25)

Basically it’s tea with a layer of foamed cream on top. You can either mix the foam in, or drink it from the rim without the straw, so that you get a mouthful of the tea through the foam. Haha. It’s hard to explain, but it tasted good so you should try one for yourself.

I wanted to try something different and spotted the “A-Special” in the noodle section of the menu. It’s a bowl of noodles with minced pork and a bowl of wonton soup. I decided to try it out and was surprised at the amount of food I got! The bowl of noodles was quite huge, and I got a decent-sized bowl of soup.

A-Special: noodles with minced pork ($7.99)

A-Special: noodles with minced pork 傻瓜套餐：滷肉麵 ($7.99)

A-Special: wonton & vegetable soup

A-Special: wonton & vegetable soup

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Tender Greens

Apr 232013
 

S and I went on a spontaneous date last Thursday – normally we play badminton after work until 9:30 or so, and then have a late dinner somewhere. As we were going home from work, I mentioned that I had to go to the UTC Westfield mall to pick up my CSA box from the farmer’s market, and he suggested that we have dinner and watch a movie at the new ArcLight theater. Sounds like fun!

We decided to eat at Tender Greens, a fresh food, “salad” restaurant that opened a while back as part of the UTC mall’s renovations. I had wanted to try it out for a while, but it’s hard to convince S to eat at such a “green” place. Somehow I was able to convince him one day, and he enjoyed it – so much that he actually suggested we go back this time around.

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Also, because this was a “spontaneous” night out, you only get cell phone photos… sorry!

There’s a set menu as well as a specials board. Each meal is usually around $11, and the sides and extras are $5 or $6.

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You order at the first counter, then watch your plate being assembled through the line and pay at the end.

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My plate: 

"Today's special":

“Today’s Special”: Orange and fennel-marinated pork loin with mustard herb crust, creamy asparagus polenta, Point Loma farm’s arugula, walnuts, lemon vinaigrette ($11)

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Project Pie

Apr 182013
 

Project Pie is a fast-casual, customize-your-own pizza restaurant. The first location was in Las Vegas, and they recently opened up another shop in Hillcrest. I was really intrigued because many people have called it the Chipotle or Subway of pizza, where you can choose all the toppings you want for pizza. After reading the posts at Pink Candles at Ridgemont High and Serious Eats, I knew I wanted to try it out ASAP. So, when Kirbie of Kirbie’s Cravings and I decided to get together for lunch, we ended up choosing this place. 

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The menu includes several pre-built pizzas and salads, and includes a long list of toppings for building your own pizza. I’m not sure what “Strips” referred to – I know they have a Nutella & Banana dessert pizza, but the others are probably bread stick-like things? 

You start out with a blank slate of rolled-out dough, ready for pizza-building!

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That oven was indeed Really, Really Hot since the pizzas would be ready in two minutes. Two minutes to bake a pizza! I was really impressed.

Custom pizza: Italian sausage, caramelized onions, black olives, and roasted red peppers

Custom pizza: Mozzarella, Italian sausage, caramelized onions, mushrooms, roasted red peppers (white pizza)

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Solace & the Moonlight Lounge brunch

Apr 142013
 

One of my favorite brunch places in San Diego is Urban Solace – I really love the flavors and ingredients there. It’s slightly heavier than many other popular brunch spots (e.g. The Cottage), but S and I tend to like that more. So, when I saw the Kirbie’s Cravings post on its sister restaurant in Encinitas, Solace & the Moonlight Lounge, I was really excited to try it out – and got the chance when one of my friends decided to have her birthday brunch there. Great thing about this place – they take reservations.

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Encinitas is such an interesting city to me, so different from San Diego (or the many other cities I’ve lived in). There’s free parking lots everywhere, boutique shops, cute little restaurants… I rarely see a big fast-food restaurant around here. It’s sort of nice, I suppose… also feels very rich. Haha.

Anyway, I arrived at the restaurant first and had some fun snapping photos. The restaurant has two floors, I think, but most of the seating is on the second floor as far as I can tell. There’s a pretty well-stocked bar area.

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Friends arrived and after taking a quick glance at the menu, we realized that the brunch items are almost the same as the offerings at Urban Solace. I don’t have a problem with this, since I love the food – just a bit surprised that it was so similar. S immediately opted for the Slow-braised Berkshire Pork Belly Bennie. Unfortunately I seem to have lost the photo of that dish.

I had a really hard time deciding between the Kitchen Sink Biscuits & Gravy and the Beef Cheek Hash. Finally went with the hash:

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Paso Prime Grass-Fed Beef Cheek Hash, Poached Eggs, Smoked Ancho-Chili Hollandaise ($13.50)

I thought this was decent, but S didn’t like it too much. He says there were way too many flavors going on in this dish, and both of us agreed that the Hollandaise sauce, while delicious, was too much for thie dish. I thought the runny egg yolk from the poached eggs was quite enough “eggy” flavor. Continue reading »

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