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Food adventures in San Diego and beyond

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Thank You, San Diego

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First of all, I’m sorry for how overdue this post is – every time I’ve sat down to write this, I couldn’t bring myself to finish, because I feel like there are too many things that I wanted to say, and I was afraid that I wouldn’t say my farewells properly.  And the longer I waited, well, the better it had to be, right?  Then, one recent day, I heard on one of my favorite podcasts, Reply All, about this thing called “Email Debt Forgiveness Day” – a day for us to dig out an old email – or, ahem, blog post – and respond, ignoring the amount of time that has lapsed.  I thought it was quite brilliant and decided to do this, a week ahead of the official Email Debt Forgiveness Day… 

ANYWAY, podcast recommendations aside, I do have a late announcement.  Just over two months ago, I moved all the way across the country, to Northern Virginia/Washington DC area.  It was a pretty tough decision – on the one hand, there was a dream job opportunity, but on the other hand, I had grown pretty attached to San Diego.  I’ve mentioned a couple of times on the blog that I’ve moved around a lot, and San Diego is actually the city in which I’ve lived the longest.  It was comfortable, and I had really begun to consider it my “home.”  In the end, I still chose the dream job, and through a lot of tears I packed up and said goodbye to my friends and the city that I love.  

Now, even though I’m more used to living here in NoVA, even though I’ve found great places to eat and made new friends, even though I’m loving every aspect of my work, I still reminisce about San Diego a lot.  The meals that I’ve had, and more importantly the people that I’ve shared them with.  Thank you to the friends who shared birthday meals with me, who indulged in my late-night taco cravings, who were always willing to try new things with me.  Looking back, I am also really glad that I was able to document so many wonderful meals and share memories of those meals with my readers here.  Thank you all for being with me through my San Diego journey – I truly appreciate all the comments, emails, and feedback that I’ve received, and you all push me to learn new things, and to challenge myself to become a better writer and photographer. 

Last but not least, I’m filled with gratitude when I think about the friendships that I’ve made through blogging in San Diego – thank you for your support and advice, insider tips on the latest restaurant openings and what to order, thank you for being so passionate about food and sharing that passion with me.  I’m so glad that I had the chance to meet many of my fellow bloggers in person, and I wish that I had taken more initiative and met up with all of you more often, but I do hope and believe that we’ll stay in touch – after all, I’ll always be able to follow what you guys are eating, right?  Thank you all, again, for your friendship.  It’s been the most valuable part of this blog.

So with that, thank you, San Diego.  I’m excited for new beginnings, but I won’t ever forget those five wonderful years I got spend in paradise.

Some of my favorite photos of San Diego, one from each of the five years that I spent there:

Village North

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Village North opened on Convoy late last year, replacing Vibe Asian Fusion. Since we are always looking for a place to eat late night (a.k.a. “post-badminton noms”), I was really excited to see that Village North opens until 12:30AM on weekdays, and 2AM on Friday and Saturdays. We visited for a late dinner with a couple of friends during their soft opening period back in December.

Village North 

I had read Kirk’s reviews of this place and was particularly excited for the “dongbei” food – Northeast Chinese cuisine, which I’m actually not super familiar with. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we were told that they stop serving most of their menu after 10PM – only the dumplings, skewers, and cold appetizers were available. Sad face… especially for my friend who was craving hot food/beef noodle soup.

Beef Skewers 牛肉串 [3/$5]
Village North 

Our friends ordered these spicy cumin beef skewers, which they enjoyed.

Pork & Cabbage Dumplings 豬肉白菜水餃 [$9.99]Village North 

With the limited options, we decided to try out the dumplings – three flavors are offered: pork, shrimp, & chive, pork & cabbage, and beef & green onion. I played it safe and chose the pork & cabbage – these were pretty decent, though not particularly memorable. Our friends tried the version with pork, shrimp, & chives and had the same feeling….

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[Chicago] Alinea

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The highlight of my trip to Chicago was Alinea, one of the first restaurants on my “dream” list – I first heard about this restaurant on a podcast that interviewed Grant Achatz, and how he lost his sense of taste when he was diagnosed with stage 4 tongue cancer – and how his ability to taste slowly came back after his cancer went into remission. I was really moved and amazed by the story, which prompted me to learn more about his cooking. I was instantly drawn to Alinea’s creativity and put it on my wish list for “someday.” Well, “someday” came true on a late Saturday evening last fall… and it was definitely an experience to remember.

There are three dining experiences at Alinea: the “Kitchen Table”, which is for parties of 6 only; the “Gallery”, which is their full tasting menu; and the “Salon”, which is a smaller tasting menu. We chose the “Gallery” – the website description is a “multi-sensory 16 to 18 course menu that combines fine dining with experimental moments.” When we first arrived, there was a large table for about 12 guests – I was surprised that it was a communal dining table, but we were quickly assured by our waiter that this was only part of the experience. We were also asked if we wanted a wine or juice pairing – J chose to have the juice pairing, which we ended up sharing. 

Be forewarned that this is going to be a really, really long post – we had a lot of food!

Course 1: Communal
Alinea 

This display of five shot glasses sitting in a block of ice was already at our table when we arrived, but we weren’t supposed to start eating until everyone was ready. From left to right, these were:

Pâté with black truffle; poached king crab; fresh herbs & onions; Osetra caviar; and egg yolk panna cotta. 

Alinea 

We were served several slices of toasted sourdough and told that we could mix and match these elements in any fashion that appealed to us. Right off the bat, it was clear that the dining experience here would be fun – there was no “right way” to eat a dish, and we were all encouraged to be creative and share our experiences with each other. That was the point of the communal table. 

I enjoyed all of the elements of this course, but my favorite had to be the pâté, sprinkled with a bit of the fresh herbs to cut the richness. I was very cautious with the king crab since I have a mild allergy, but turns out I didn’t have a reaction at all – hooray!

Verjus Blanc & Lychee
Alinea 

(I’m not a fan of lychee, so I didn’t have much of the first juice pairing.)

Course 2: Shaker | Roll
Alinea Alinea Alinea 

The green contraption that you see in the photo above is an old-school style cocktail shaking device – there are apparently only a handful of these ever made, and Alinea is the proud owner of one. For the second course, we all stepped into the kitchen from the dining room and watched as the chefs prepared us each a gin, chartreuse, and green tomato cocktail. It was served alongside a refreshing roll of cucumber, feta cheese, and caper leaf.

After we had all eaten our “rolls”, we were ushered back into the dining area where – lo and behold! – the communal table had been transformed into individual dining tables for each party with a beautiful bowl of citrus at the center of each table.

Alinea

Course 3: Crunch | Paper
Alinea 

“Crunch”: Shio kombu; nori; scallop mousse

Alinea

“Paper”: Scallop “noodles”, butter, corn broth

Alinea

Sweet Corn
Alinea 

We began to notice that the courses were arriving in “pairs”, which proved to be interesting both in flavor and texture. The “Crunch” element was a seaweed roll filled with a scallop mousse, which was a ridiculously savory bite. The “Paper” was made from dehydrated scallops pressed into a super thin and delicate sheet. The servers poured a buttery corn broth onto the paper, rehydrating (and thus destroying all the work that went into the dehydration) and giving them a noodle-like texture. Another crazy burst of umami here. The corn juice pairing was on point, with the sweetness balancing out the umami from both dishes perfectly. This was certainly a drink that didn’t “make sense” until we had it with the food, which speaks volumes (in my opinion) on the quality of the pairing.

As the next course was being served, our server poured something (liquid nitrogen? dry ice?) into our centerpiece that suddenly filled the room with the lovely aroma of citrus fruits. We would be experiencing our next course while our senses are filled with this fresh scent.

Alinea

Course 4: Contrast | Sangre | Swirl
Alinea 

“Contrast”: Confit cherry tomato; dehydrated watermelon; parmesan “ice”

Alinea 

“Sangre”: Pluot; green peanut foam; Iberico ham

Alinea 

“Swirl”: Apple; yuzu; lemon verbena

This course comprised of three elements, all of which were meant to be plays on the senses with a strong fruit component. My favorite of the three was the “Sangre” – I really loved the flavor of the peanut foam.

Golden Honeydew & White Sesame
Alinea 

With such a strong fruit component in each dish, it made perfect sense that the juice pairing would feature a hearty combination of honeydew and sesame. I felt that the juice paired the best with “Sangre,” which is probably why that was my favorite.

Course 5: Spectrum
Alinea 

Sanma (Pacific saury); aji amarillo; avocado; katsuobushi…

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Chicago Trip Food Recap, Part 2

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We were fortunate to be in Chicago when it was not yet cold – I wasn’t sure what kind of weather to expect in early October and cringed when I saw rainy days in the forecast, but it actually stayed relatively dry most of the time, allowing us to explore the city and – oh, who am I kidding, walk from one restaurant or cafe to another.

After lunch at Little Goat, we headed to the River North to explore the shops and sights, and also for a delicious purpose: churros. On my first visit to Chicago, the churros at Xoco were definitely one of my most memorable bites and I knew we had to return. Even though I really wanted tortas, we were still relatively full so this would be a churros-only visit. 

Churro with Chocolate Shot [$1.60 + $1.25 for the chocolate]Xoco 

Chocolate-Peanut Glazed Churro [$2.25]
Xoco 

Yes, you can tell that this was a chocoholic trip… hehe. The churros here are light and airy, with a perfect crunchy exterior, and the plain version is dusted with cinnamon sugar. Of the two, I preferred the plain churro with the chocolate dipping sauce, which was rich and smooth. The chocolate-peanut glaze was much less exciting by comparison, even though it was also really delicious.

Xoco
449 N. Clark St, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.rickbayless.com/restaurants/xoco/

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Another place that I really enjoyed on my first Chicago trip was Eataly, the famous Italian marketplace/food hall, and I knew that I wanted to revisit with J. It was difficult to choose from the several restaurants in the food hall, but we finally settled on the seafood-centric Il Pesce.

Cannelloni con Melanzane e Pomodori [$20]Eataly 

Housemade spinach & ricotta-rolled pasta, roasted tomato-eggplant sauce. We decided to order one pasta and one seafood, and J chose this dish. The ingredients were simple, but every component was wonderful – pasta cooked to a perfect texture, creamy spinach and ricotta filling, and a savory and flavorful tomato-eggplant sauce to top it all off.

Branzino [$28]
Eataly 

Whole oven-roasted sea bass, sunchokes, lettuce, cannellini beans, lemon. I love whole roasted fish, and the branzino stood out to me. I was so, so happy with this choice – the sea bass was fork-tender with plenty of flavor, and I loved the refreshing accompaniments that complemented the fish. I probably spent half an hour picking the fish clean – J was joking that the kitchen staff would think that we were hiding a cat in my purse, after seeing how clean the bones were on the plate. I couldn’t help myself, though – it was that good. I’ve had whole-roasted fish at a couple of other places since then, but this branzino was still my favorite.

After lunch, we ventured downstairs to browse the marketplace and… yeah, the desserts. We chose several individually-wrapped chocolates sold by the weight (as souvenirs to take home, of course), and then my eyes wandered over to the pastry case. Resistance was futile….

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Chicago Trip Food Recap, Part 1

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Happy New Year everyone! As you might have noticed, I took a small hiatus from blogging to start off 2017… Part of the reason is that I was getting a bit burnt out at the end of the last year, which was actually quite eventful.

The biggest news in my life is that I finally finished my PhD! It was a long, six-and-a-half years journey, and I’m more than ready to start the next stage of my life. Which brings me to these past few months of job-searching, which, while not super time-consuming, is definitely an energy drain. I’ve also been traveling more than before (if you follow my Instagram, I shared quite a few photos from my winter trip to Seattle, Whistler, and Vancouver with three fantastic people), hungry for new sights and experiences. All in all, I suppose that I’m trying to find a new rhythm and routine, so I decided to take a break from the blog for a bit. Thank you for being understanding <3

I’ll be back to writing San Diego restaurant posts soon, but in the meantime, I wanted to share some photos from a trip that I took to Chicago last year. It was an early graduation celebration trip (okay, technically late since I was planning to graduate in August but dragged it out ’til December instead), with the highlight of the trip being Alinea, which has been at the top of my restaurant wish list for years. The Alinea meal will be documented in a separate post – but we also ate very well for the other 2 days that we were in the Windy City. Here are some highlights.

I couldn’t snag reservations to the famous Girl & the Goat by Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard, but we were able to eat at Little Goat Diner, her casual eatery. The menu featured classic diner fare, but with a twist on the flavor and/or ingredients that made each dish unique.

This Little Piggy Went to China [$14]
Little Goat

Sesame cheddar biscuit, sunny eggs, Szechuan pork sausage, chili garlic chive sauce, gooseberries. I had a really hard time deciding what to order – everything sounded so delicious! Finally, though, I settled on Little Goat’s take on a classic breakfast sandwich, which was absolutely delicious. The biscuit was buttery and flaky, and the sausage patty was seasoned with Szechuan peppercorns and chili peppers, which added a spicy and slightly numbing sensation and paired perfectly well with the chili garlic sauce.

Goat Almighty Burger [$20]
Little Goat 

Goat burger, braised beef, BBQ pork, pickled jalapenos, salsa verde, onion rings, cheddar. J chose this “Goat Almighty”, which definitely shocked us when it arrived! We didn’t even know how to begin eating this monstrous burger. In the end, we enjoyed the goat patty but felt that there was simply too much going on. Still, though, I was quite impressed with the flavors here and would definitely want to try Girl & the Goat next time I’m in town.

Little Goat Diner
820 W. Randolph St, Chicago, IL 60607
http://www.littlegoatchicago.com/

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Of course, we had to have deep dish pizza in Chicago. I visited Giordano’s during my previous visit to Chicago and wanted to try the other deep-dish big name, Lou Malnati’s. The wait on the Friday night was pretty crazy, but it was worth it. I had a personal pizza with spinach and Italian sausage and really loved it. While Giordano’s features a stuffed crust, Lou Malnati’s is more traditional, and I must say that I preferred the latter version. The tomato sauce had a nice balance between sweet, acidic, and salty. I still crave deep-dish every time I think about this.

The “Lou” [$9.95/personal pizza]
Lou Malnati's 

Spinach mix, mushrooms, and sliced roma tomatoes covered with a blend of mozzarella, romano, and cheddar cheeses on garlic Buttercrust. The ingredients were simple but made quite a delicious pizza. They ship their pizzas frozen all over the country, and I am seriously considering ordering one (or… several)….

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St. Tropez Bistro

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St. Tropez Bistro is a cute little café tucked up in Encinitas, serving French-Californian casual cuisine. I was recently invited to visit and sample some of their menu, and I drove up on a weekday for lunch.

St. Tropez St. Tropez 

I was quite enamored by the lovely rustic décor here, and the menu featured items to match the atmosphere. Breakfast, crepes, quiches, salads, paninis… it was so tough to decide what I wanted to eat!

St. Tropez 

When I saw the quiches in the display, though, I knew that I definitely wanted one. The owner also talked me into trying one of their paninis.

Goat Cheese Quiche [$7.95]St. Tropez St. Tropez 

…

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Cake de Partie

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Cake de Partie opened on Convoy St. recently, taking over Tea Garden‘s old spot. I’ve seen the signs for this dessert shop for quite some time now and was attracted to the pretty pictures of their cakes after they opened! After dinner at Facing East, my friends and I trekked down a couple of plazas for dessert.

Cake de Partie 

The menu features coffee, soda, soju, plated desserts, and, interestingly, salads, appetizers, and pastas. I was surprised that a dessert shop would offer meals, and even more surprised to see praise for the chicken wings in other reviews. Well, we had to try them out for ourselves.

Chicken Wings [$6.49]
Cake de Partie 

These were offered in “Original” and “Wing Zap” – I wasn’t sure what the difference is, but I believe my friends got the original. They weren’t too meaty, but perfectly crispy and lightly flavored. There’s a sweet chili dipping sauce, but I enjoyed the wings just by themselves.

Mocha Crepe Cake [$6.19]Cake de Partie 

I love crepe cake and was excited to see four different flavors here: original, green tea, Thai tea, and mocha. We opted to try the mocha, which was really yummy. The cream between each crepe was so light and flavorful! I would definitely get this again.

Cake de Partie …

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Facing East Noodle & Bar

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Facing East Noodle & Bar is an Asian fusion restaurant that recently opened up on Convoy. While I’m not normally a big fan of Asian fusion, the initial reviews from Kirbie’s Cravings and This Tasty Life got me curious enough to grab a few friends and check it out!

Facing East

The restaurant was pretty quiet when we visited on a weeknight. The menu consists of appetizers, xiaolongbao and dumplings of several varieties, noodle and rice dishes, and lots of different drinks and desserts. I was most intrigued by the various flavors of xiaolongbao.

Black Truffle Xiaolongbao [$12.5]Facing East

The wrappers for these black truffle XLB were dyed with squid ink, giving them a shockingly black hue. The truffle flavor was strong but not overwhelming, and there was plenty of soup in each dumpling. The wrappers aren’t as thin as the ones from Din Tai Fung – the gold standard of XLB – but definitely held up to the fillings.

Foie Gras Xiaolongbao [$13]
Facing East

The foie gras XLB featured a mushroom sauce wrapper and a pork filling flavored with foie gras. The foie taste was subtle but added a layer of richness to the dumpling. I also liked the earthiness of the mushroom-flavored wrapper, which complemented the filling quite nicely.

Galangal Shredded Chicken Rice [$11]
Facing East

Our friends recommended this shredded chicken rice, which reminded me of Hainan chicken but shredded and with a heavier flavor profile. (Note that there is a Hainan chicken dish on the menu.) The chicken was quite tender, and I enjoyed it with the soy sauce rice….

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Misc Pics Post, December 2016

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How is it December already?! I’m really not sure where the time has gone – but one exciting thing that’s been happening in my life is that I am finally, finally almost done (for reals) with grad school! As you can imagine, things are a bit hectic, and I haven’t been as rigorous in writing blog posts lately as I should have. Plus, I haven’t really been too adventurous these days with my dinner outings – it’s pretty much been Korean food or ramen. I promise that I’ll have some new posts coming soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this latest rendition of “Misc Pics Post”…

The King’s Craft Coffee

The King's Craft The King's Craft

A few months ago, The King’s Craft Coffee shop opened up in Poway – the owner is actually former San Diego Chargers player Cory Withrow, who opened up this coffee shop as a way to engage his local community. I was invited on their Grand Opening day (back in September) to check it out and sampled a cold brew while I was there.

The King's Craft

The cold brew was very smooth and quite enjoyable. It had been a while since I had cold brew, and I had forgotten that they could be pretty caffeinated! I was a bit jittery all afternoon – next time I’ll have to remember to grab a bite to eat along with my drink. The shop serves an assortment of pastries and paninis, which looked delicious.

The King's Craft

With the cooler weather we’ve been having lately, I’m always craving something hot to drink. I’ll have to make a revisit to TKC soon….

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The Marine Room

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Last Monday, I celebrated my birthday at The Marine Room, located right next to the beach in La Jolla and known for its spectacular ocean views.

The Marine Room

I’m pretty obsessed with sunsets, but since it gets dark so early nowadays, we actually completely missed the sunset already by the time we arrived. I still enjoyed watching the waves, though! The ocean always takes my breath away.

The Marine Room

There were a few specials on the menu, to commemorate The Marine Room’s 75th anniversary – steak & lobster, prawns, and scallops. I believe there is also a 3-course Lobster Dinner menu available on Sundays and Mondays, but there were already things on the regular menu that caught my eye, hehe.

Trilogy of Lobster, Ahi Tuna, Kona Kanpachi [$22]
The Marine Room

We started out with this relatively light appetizer, featuring: a medallion of perfectly-poached lobster topped with savory salmon roe; ahi tuna tartare paired with a delightful sesame brittle and pickled papaya, and sliced kampachi topped with caviar pearls and dashi gelee. I really enjoyed every component of this appetizer – the flavors were exciting yet also refreshing, a perfect start to our meal.

Maine Diver Scallops [$44]
The Marine Room

These Maine diver scallops are a “Diamond Anniversary” menu item – this year marks the 75th anniversary of The Marine Room, so there were three special entrees: the diver scallops, a New York strip and lobster tail surf & turf dish, and a Baja prawn dish. J chose the scallops, which were cooked to tender perfection, and topped with an almond dukkah that provided a lovely contrast in texture and flavor. The scallops were served with a lovely vegetable medley as well as a pilaf of quinoa.

The Marine Room …

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