Jinxi Eats

Angels & Hearts Harajuku Crêperie

Jinxi — Fri, 24 May 2013 06:39:37 +0000

I was craving an icy treat the other day (okay, specifically snowflake ice), so S and I stopped by Angels & Hearts Harajuku Crêperie after dinner (unsurprisingly, at Tea Garden). I’ve read about this place from several other bloggers, including Kirbie and CC, and I was looking forward to trying the snowflake ice. The crêpes looked pretty tempting, but maybe next time – I wanted my cold treat.

The snowflake ice here is called Snow Angel. I suppose it fits with the cutesy theme… hehe. There are quite a few different flavors and a good selection of toppings.

Green Tea Snow Angel with mango jelly & whipped cream [$3.75/reg]

S is not too into icy treats, unlike me, so I just got a regular-sized Green Tea Snow Angel. Normally it comes with popping boba, but they ran out and offered me mango or strawberry jelly instead. It is also served with their “custom whipped cream.” We are not sure what that meant, haha. But I did notice on their menu that the Snow Angels are vegan (& milk-products free… redundant)… so maybe this was soy whipped cream? We did notice that the whipped cream texture was slightly weird.

As for the snowflake ice itself, I thought it was just okay. Maybe it was just the green tea flavor, but it felt a bit… powdery and artificial. The fine layers of ice were nice, although S thought that it was a bit too flaky. Haha. He was also a bit weirded out by the texture… we hypothesized that it was due to using maybe a soy instead of milk base.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed with the snowflake ice here. I looked back at Kirbie and CC’s posts, and it seems like they recently changed the item to be vegan. I wish I had tried this before they had changed it… oh well, maybe I will come back and try the crêpes sometime.

I took a picture of the crêpe menu, too:

Angels & Hearts Harajuku Crêperie
4646 Convoy St, San Diego, CA 92111
http://www.angelsandheartsusa.com/

Hours: Mon-Sun 12pm-11pm

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Post tags: Angels & Hearts, dessert, San Diego, snow shaved ice

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Leilani’s Cafe

Jinxi — Mon, 20 May 2013 01:11:59 +0000

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.

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:

We shared an order of the Leilani Style Spam Musubi:

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]

S chose the Ono Kalua, or what we call Hawaiian pulled pork (this is how you can tell that we’re Southerners through and through). He said it was a bit unexpected but pretty good – the flavors are pretty mild, so it probably isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I thought it was decent.

Hilo Style Loco Moco: hamburger patty over spicy fried rice with gravy, topped with 2 eggs over medium & more gravy [$9.50]

I chose the Hilo Loco Moco, per recommendations that I had read. First off, I really liked that gravy – it wasn’t too salty or heavy like American-style gravy tends to be, and it definitely accompanied the hamburger patty quite well. I forgot to lift up the eggs for a picture of the patty, but it did taste a bit dry without the gravy. Also, that gravy mixed with the slightly runny egg yolk made a delightful sauce. The spicy fried rice wasn’t all that spicy, but it was quite flavorful and had little pieces of chopped sausage. Yum!

(By the way, I read Kirk’s blog post over at mmm-yoso!!! on this place, and he says the hamburger patty ends to be less juicy than other places because they don’t use fillers. Pretty cool, and that gravy sauce solves any problems of leanness.)

Sweet Leilani Omelet: two-egg omelet with sauteed mushrooms, baby spinach, and tomatoes, topped with Leilani aioli sauce, served with rice [$7.00]

One of our meat-loving friends is going vegetarian for six months, and he’s been finding it difficult to eat with us since we always order meat dishes. He chose the vegetarian omelet options, which he said was all right, but definitely something one could make just as well at home.

Overall, I liked the food here. It tasted much more “home-y” than L&L Hawaiian BBQ (maybe because it’s not a chain restaurant?). I would definitely come back again, but I’d also love to hear some suggestions for other Hawaiian places in San Diego! ^_^

Note: This place is cash-only.

Leilani’s Cafe
5109 Cass St, San Diego, CA 92109

Hours: Tue-Sun 7am-3pm

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Post tags: Hawaiian, Leilanis Cafe, San Diego

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Cream Cheese Brownies

Jinxi — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:00:44 +0000

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.

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.

If you like brownies and/or cheesecake, definitely give this recipe a try. I love how the tangy cream cheese balances out the sweetness of the chocolate. S was sort of sad that all the brownies sold out so fast at the sale – he was hoping for some leftovers, haha. Well, he can request these brownies anytime because I really like them, too. Thanks to “A” for the recipe, and for the fun times baking together! (If you’re reading this, please visit us again soon~! ^_^ )

Cream Cheese Brownies

2013-05-14 01:17:53

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Brownie base

8 oz. Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

6 Tbsp. Butter

4 Eggs

1+1/2 cup Sugar

1 cup All-purpose Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 tsp Almond Extract

Cream cheese filling

4 Tbsp. Butter

6 oz. Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 cup Sugar

2 Eggs

2 Tbsp All-purpose Flour

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Brownie base

1. In a saucepan, melt chocolate chips and butter over low heat, stirring frequently. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, beat eggs and gradually add sugar until thickened.

3. In another medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to egg mixture. Stir in melted chocolate and extracts.

4. Pour half the batter into a greased 9x13-inch baking pan. Set aside.

Filling

5. Beat butter and cream cheese in a mixing bowl until light. Gradually add sugar and beat until fluffy.

6. Blend in egg, flour, and vanilla and mix well.

7. Spread filling over prepared batter in pan, then pour remaining batter on top. Using a knife, cut through the filling to make a "swirl" effect.

8. Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes, or until brownies test done. (Inserted toothpick will be slightly wet. If you wait until the toothpick is clean, the brownie is overbaked!)

9. Cool on a wire rack before cutting.

Adapted from From a friend's recipe

Jinxi Eats http://www.jinxieats.com/

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Post tags: brownies, chocolate, cookies & bars, cream cheese

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Piatti La Jolla

Jinxi — Sat, 11 May 2013 07:29:46 +0000

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…

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]

This wasn’t what we had expected “rolled pasta” to be like, but I found the presentation quite pretty actually. I believe the friend who ordered it found it all right but not super impressive.

Risotto (daily special): with mushrooms and… I can’t remember. Haha!

Clearly I took bad notes during this dinner because I can’t remember anything that went in this dish except for mushrooms. Three kinds, maybe? The friend who ordered this was really happy that they grated fresh parmesan and asked for an ample portion.

Onto a dish that I actually tried, S’s spaghetti with meatballs:

Spaghetti Pasta with braised veal & pork meatballs, mushrooms, marinara, and goat cheese [$16.50]

Sorry for the blurry pic – the lighting inside the restaurant was quite dim. We liked the flavor of the meatballs, but S found this dish way too heavy for him about halfway through. The marinara sauce had too much butter, I suppose? He has a low tolerance for heavy Italian food…

Lasagna: pasta layered with rich meat ragu, mozzarella, parmesan, and tomato sauce [$16.50]

I’m normally skeptical of lasagna in restaurants because there’s usually something I dislike about it (too rich, too salty, pasta too gummy, etc etc), and I was a bit hesitant to try the lasagna here because there wasn’t ricotta cheese, one of my favorite parts aboutthe dish. But this turned out quite good! The flavors were nice but not overwhelming, and I really liked the ragu. I was surprised that I didn’t miss the ricotta cheese at all… the mozzarella and parmesan made up for it. It wasn’t a light dish, though – I guess I’m more okay with heavy and rich foods than S.

We had decided to have cake at home (Piatti charges a cake fee, can’t remember how much – $1.5 per person?) so no desserts were ordered. Last time, though, I tried the chocolate silk cake and it was really good. I wish I could have documented my previous meal – there was a much wider variety of food, including appetizers, pizza, and entrées rather than all pastas. Out of all the things I’ve tried here so far, my favorite is the Veal Piccata – it was perfectly cooked and quite different from the pasta dishes. If we do return, I would order that for sure!

Piatti
2182 Avenida De La Playa, La Jolla, CA 92037
http://www.piatti.com/lajolla/#

Hours: Mon-Thu 11:30am-10pm; Fri 11:30am-11pm; Sat 10am-11pm; Sun 10am-10pm

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Bao’s Awesome Burgers & Sandwiches (BABS)

Jinxi — Wed, 08 May 2013 23:53:08 +0000

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.

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.

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

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

Non-descriptive photos of our burgers… can you guess who chose which one? Haha. The burgers were huge, as you can probably tell – and also made it very difficult to eat. In the end, I picked out the onions since I’m not a big fan of raw onions anyway.

But the best part about the burger is that… there is melted cheese INSIDE the patty!!

Melted cheese, oozing out of the patty

Not the best photo but hopefully you get the idea. Be careful because that melted cheese is hot – so eat carefully lest you burn your mouth.

S really liked the Original Burger; he really enjoyed the juicy patty and the Cajun sauce. I also liked the flavor of the sauce and thought that it made the simple, “original” burger very unique.

The White Hot Burger, my choice, was awesome. In addition to chopped habanero peppers and pepper jack cheese, the hot sauce was pretty spicy. It was a Chinese-style chili sauce with chopped roasted chili peppers, chili oil, and a hint of peppercorn. I really loved it – it reminded me of something that my family would actually make at home. S unfortunately could not handle the heat – it gave him heartburn after two bites… Oops.

We’ve ordered fries and sides at BABS before and weren’t impressed – the amount of food for the price is pretty small, and they weren’t spectacular. So, after finishing the burgers, we headed a couple of restaurants down the plaza to Tapioca Express and ordered some fries (mildly spicy, please).

Fries from Tapioca Express

Dusted with some delicious chili powder seasoning, these are much better than BABS’ fries. Overall, though, we like BABS a lot – despite the heartburn-inducing chili sauce. It’s definitely not a light meal that we could have everyday, but it really does satisfy when a burger craving hits.

Bao’s Awesome Burgers & Sandwiches
4646 Convoy St. STE 103, San Diego, CA 92111
http://iheartbabs.com/kitchen/index.php (Non-descriptive website… unless someone else figured out where the links are??)

Hours: Mon-Fri 10:30am-10pm; Sat 11am-10pm; Sun 11am-8pm

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2013 SD Food Bloggers’ Bake Sale!

Jinxi — Thu, 02 May 2013 00:33:04 +0000

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!

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Lemon Angel Food Cupcakes

Jinxi — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 07:12:51 +0000

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.

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.

You could omit the lemon zest, but since I had so many beautiful lemons from my CSA box, I thought I’d incorporate some lemon. It was a good idea since I didn’t end up making the frosting, and without the lemon zest, I think the cupcakes would have turned out a bit too plain. The recipe is quite easy as long as you are patient with whipping the egg whites. Thankfully I have a stand mixer now, which saves some time and armpower, but I promise that it’s doable with a hand mixer – or even by hand! I’ve whipped up plenty of egg whites without a mixer in my college days and when I visit my parents. I tell myself that it’s a good exercise to work off all the cupcakes that I’m about to eat ^^”

Enjoy!

Lemon Angel Food Cupcakes

2013-04-30 00:14:49

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Ingredients

2 oz. (1/2 cup) cake flour

3 oz. (3/4 cup) powdered sugar

3/4 cup egg whites (about 5 large eggs)

1/8 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a muffin pan with baking cups. Set aside.

2. Sift together flour and powdered sugar into a medium bowl. Repeat twice.

3. Beat egg whites and salt with a mixer on high speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks form. Add granulated sugar, a tablespoon at a time, and beat until stiff peaks form.

4. Sprinkle flour mixture over the egg whites in small additions, folding in each addition with a spatula. Stir in vanilla extract and grated lemon zest.

5. Divide batter into the prepared muffin tins. Bake for 15-18 minutes until lightly brown. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Notes

I chose not to add frosting since I enjoy the texture of angel food cake by itself. Of course, feel free to add any frosting or topping that you like!

Adapted from Skinny Taste

Jinxi Eats http://www.jinxieats.com/

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Tea Garden Grand Re-opening

Jinxi — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:07:12 +0000

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.

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

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:

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 傻瓜套餐：滷肉麵 ($7.99)

A-Special: wonton & vegetable soup

I only managed to get through about a third of the noodles before I was full. Haha. The braised pork belly was not bad, although I did find the noodles to be a bit greasy. I also asked for the dish to be spicy, so there was Chinese chili sauce added. For me, it really improved the braised pork, and next time I’ll try to see if I can get the rice version spicy, too. As for the wonton soup, it was pretty unspectacular, although there was a good amount of veggies.

Salt & Pepper Fish Filet over Rice 椒鹽魚片飯 ($6.95)

S chose one of his regular favorites, the Salt & Pepper Fish Filet over Rice. I like this dish – the fish filets are usually quite tender, and the salt & pepper seasoning is pretty good. Like most other rice dishes, it’s served with stir-fried cabbage.

Pork Chop over Rice 排骨飯 ($6.95)

Friend ordered the Pork Chop over Rice, which I’ve tried before. The fried pork chop is a pretty big portion and quite tasty – I like the seasoning in the breading. The rice has a small scoop of braised pork belly over it, an extra bonus.

Crispy Chicken over Rice 鹽酥雞飯 ($6.95)

Another friend’s order, the Crispy Chicken. I rarely order this here because while the chicken is pretty good, it can be overly salty. Unfortunately for my friend, today was one of the salty days, and she had to pick pieces which seemed to have less seasoning.

Overall, Tea Garden hasn’t changed much except for the Tea Lattes, and the even-worse-than-before parking situation. I’m quite glad that they have a bigger space now, and I’m sure S will frequently request that we grab dinner there whenever we’re in need of a quick meal.

Tea Garden
4633 Convoy St. Suite 107, San Diego, CA 92111

Hours: Sun-Thu 11am-12am; Fri-Sat 11am-1am

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Tender Greens

Jinxi — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 23:02:47 +0000

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.

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.

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

My plate:

“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)

We learned from our first visit that while this is sounds like a salad restaurant, their meat is really well-cooked and flavorful. The pork loin was quite delicious – I loved that it was so flavorful without being overly salty, and that the meat was so tender. At first I was a bit worried because my piece looked a bit more cooked than some of the others, but it quite juicy and tender. I also enjoyed the creamy polenta, although I don’t think they should have called it “asparagus polenta” because I was expecting the asparagus to be mixed in! Haha. Lastly I wish I had asked to switch out my salad… arugula just isn’t one of my favorite vegetables. But the pork and polenta made up for it.

Blurry pic of S’s food:

Backyard Steak plate with mashed potatoes & Tender Greens simple salad ($11)

So, I know it looks like we took a bite out of the mashed potatoes before taking the photo, but I promise, it came like that! Anyway, the steak was really delicious, as were the sides. I liked the Butter Lettuce simple salad that he chose last time more than the Tender Greens simple salad, though.

Blondie Bar ($4.50)

Finally, we could not resist picking up a little dessert. S claims that he’s never had a blondie bar before, so we ordered one to share. It was actually much better than I expected – not overly sweet and lots of white chocolate chips.

Overall, I really like this place. It’s not somewhere that we would eat everyday – I still prefer to have rice on my plate – but it’s good to have a nice dinner spot close to our home (and what a great excuse to go to the mall and get some shopping done after dinner)!

Tender Greens (UTC Location)
4545 La Jolla Village Dr, San Diego, CA 92122
http://www.tendergreensfood.com/

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Project Pie

Jinxi — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 01:12:50 +0000

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.

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!

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

First a note about the crust: it’s really really thin. This is how they manage to cook the pizza in two minutes. People have compared it to flatbread, and I can definitely see why. I’m not a pizza snob and actually love thin crusts, so this was great, but I can see how some people from pizza-centric cities might be thrown off by the crust. Just a side note :)

I was the only person to get a custom pizza – it took a lot of restraint not to ask for every other ingredient, but I’m quite happy with how it turned out. I chose to get a white pizza (no tomato sauce) and just picked ingredients that I thought might go well together. I loved the Italian sausage and red peppers!

#6: Grilled chicken, sliced red onion, cilantro, mozzarella, Gorgonzola, BBQ sauce

S picked the BBQ chicken pizza. For some reason he really likes chicken pizzas… I think it’s because he tends to find cured meats such as sausage and pepperoni too salty for his liking. Unfortunately, the Gorgonzola cheese was a bit out of proportion and overwhelmed the taste of everything else.

#3: Tomato, artichoke, red onion, pesto, feta, mozzarella, added meatballs (white pizza)

Since they divide the pizzas into quarters, we decided to take a slice from each person’s pizza! This was Kirbie’s selection – I really liked the pesto and artichokes. Might have been my favorite of the day.

#2: Pepperoni, Italian sausage, crumbled meatballs, mozzarella, signature red sauce, garlic

Finally, DH got the all-meat pizza. I usually shy away from meat-lovers’ pizzas because I don’t like pepperoni that much, but I actually really enjoyed the pepperoni here. It wasn’t overly salty or greasy and worked pretty well with the sweetness of the Italian sausage and red sauce.

Overall, I liked this place a lot. The pizzas are delicious and only $7.50 each! Another bonus is that they have a small parking lot in front, so we didn’t have to worry about finding parking in Hillcrest, and it’s located right across the street from Bread & Cie, so I got my sweet fix after lunch.

By the way, the walls are filled with quotes, which I thought was really neat!

(Quick plug: If you love quotes as much as I do, check out my friend’s start-up, Quotesome - the world’s biggest quote collection.)

Kirbie also gave me some of her delicious homemade fruit snacks and fruit leather. I wish I had taken a nice photo, but I gobbled up everything too quickly… oops! You can see her recipes for them here and here.

Project Pie
3888 Fourth Ave, San Diego, CA 92103
http://www.projectpie.com/

Hours: Sun-Wed 11am-10pm; Thu-Sat 11am-12am

© Jinxi for Jinxi Eats, 2013. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: fast-casual, Pizza, Project Pie, San Diego

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