Month: June 2012

Mary, La Jolla, San Diego County

puesto mexican street food / la jolla – san diego, ca

Puesto Mexican Street Food is a new taco shop located in the heart of Downtown La Jolla. The concept is fun and simple – you get to chose what you want on your tacos, selecting from a variety of fresh, healthy choices as toppings for your tacos. In addition to tacos, you can get a guisado bowl or a salad as well as a variety of sides and drinks. I was recently invited to come in and check it out for myself – bringing Jake along to help me sample all that Puesto has to offer.

We were greeted by one of the owners – Eric – who showed us the ropes. You start by grabbing a laminated card that shows you all of the possible options – meat choices, toppings, salsas and more. He helped us decide on a few combinations and then we leaned the cards up against the glass divider so the chefs could start making our creations.

[My tacos on the grill]

One of my favorite toppings was the crispy grilled cheese that you can have added to your tacos. They just layer down a good amount of cheese right onto the grill and put your main ingredients onto the cheese. Above  I have the huitlacoche and zucchini flowers on one taco (I decided to try an all veggie one), pork on the other and shrimp on the non-cheesy taco.

[taco fixings]

Toppings and fixings galore!

[Making my salad]

Oodles of salad toppings (including nuts and cranberries and the like). I was surprised to see nuts and cranberries, actually. Especially at a taco shop.

[Mango salsa, Jamaica salsa, and Pistache salsa]

Puesto also offers up some interesting salsas for topping your tacos. I asked for all of the on the side so I could try them before deciding which tacos to put them on. The mango salsa is more like a salsa fresca, with mango, habanero, tomato and cilantro. The Jamaica salsa has hibiscus flowers and chiptole and the Pistache salsa (my favorite) has pistachio and jalapeno in the mix.

These are my creations – all topped with a beautiful slice of avocado. Oh yes!
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San Diego County, Mira Mesa, Mary

fuze restaurant and lounge / mira mesa – san diego, ca

Mira Mesa has gotten a new addition to the neighborhood: Fuze, a Korean restaurant located where “Mr. Wasabi” used to be. They haven’t changed the name on the signage yet, but you still spot the restaurant when you’re driving west on Mira Mesa Blvd. I was invited to come in and try out the restaurant not too long ago. I actually went in early to do a “sneak peek” on one of my lunch breaks before I came in. For this trip, my cohort was my dad.

We there about 5PM on a Wednesday evening. No other guests to speak of. Our hostess/waitress showed us to a table and we sat and started to peruse the menu. Sadly she wasn’t totally well versed on the menu so I felt it was a little lacking there since she gave us half-hearted suggestions. No matter, we ordered a few things and were off!

[pajun – korean style scallion pancake]

I’m not well versed in Korean food at all. This was described to us as sort of a “seafood pancake”.

It’s a large pancake-like appetizer with lots of scallions and little shrimps. The outer edge was a bit crisp (though not too crunchy) and the inside was very doughy. Our waitress said “it’s supposed to be like that” but it sort of tasted like the inside wasn’t cooked all of the way. I did not really like the consistency of the inside of the pajun and mostly just nibbled on the outer edges and a few pieces of the shrimp.

[fried calamari with wasabi ranch and house tarter sauce]

The fried calamari was a more familiar dish that we tried – I was mostly curious to see what kind of twist (if any) they would put on one of my favorite dishes. The calamari are cut into rings and then fried in a coating of batter, resulting in a light, crispy calamari. I love that they’re served on those noodle things (I can’t remember what they are called! argh) giving them a fun, visual appearance. The wasabi ranch wasn’t too god-awful hot and the tarter sauce was just okay. I kept nibbling on these babies sans sauce, cause that’s how I roll. They were tender with a very slight chew and a nice, crisp outer texture.

[bulgogi – sauteed sliced rib eye, onion, asparagus, bell pepper, mushroom and basil]

My dad ordered the bulgogi – or Korean barbequed beef – for his meal. I tried this previously for lunch and my dad and I both agree that this is a very good dish. My dad said that this reminded him of “something your mom would make” – a meat and mostly veggie dish in a nice sauce with some rice on the side. The bulgogi has a nice seasoned flavor and I love the veggies that come with it (especially the mushrooms – I lub you, mushrooms). The bulgogi is tender and the marinade/sauce is slightly sweet and delicious. They also serve bulgogi philly cheese steaks and bulgogi sliders, two items I surely want to come back and try in the future.

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San Diego County, Mary, La Jolla

la jolla brew house / la jolla – san diego, ca

I don’t usually document negative experiences but:

A) I’m tired
B) I decided I don’t care
C) I’m doing a service for you guys, right?
D) I’m too tired to think of a D.

Anyway. Bear (bare? no, definitely bear. I’m definitely tired if I’m leaving these inane comments in) with me for a few minutes.

I had a Groupon for the La Jolla Brew House and I dragged Jake along with me since the coupon was about to expire. It seemed like a really good deal – two burgers, plus desserts and two beers or sodas for $18.

There was a little bit of a wait so I put my name down on the list and we wandered over to a couch to sit for awhile. It was a nice evening and we were out on a patio. The garage doors were up and people were enjoying the evening. I got a kick out of seeing puppies on the patio. Dog friendly! I love it. We kind of bugged out for awhile waiting for our table. We were told the wait would be about 20-30 minutes. No problem.

[playing the waiting game on the patio]

I kept peeking over to the hostess stand and noticed there were less and less people over there, but still, we were never called. It was over 30 minutes later when I poked Jake and asked him to go check. A few minutes later he came back and sat down.

“She said we’re next. She skipped us.”
“What?”
“When I asked, she said my name was already called. Then I told her the name put down was Mary and she kind of freaked out a little.”
“She got caught lying, that’s why!”
“Yeah, that was obvious. She just skipped us.”
“Lame.”

Not an impressive start if you ask me.

[page two of stapled together menus]

We were given these stapled together menu’s to look over though since I had the Groupon, there wasn’t much choice. We could have a classic cheeseburger, a mushroom swiss burger or a BH burger. Both came with either fries or sweet potato fries and either 2 pints of beer or 2 16-ounce sodas (+ dessert).

[sunset trivia]

They were doing trivia that night, hosted by Sunset Trivia. The guy came over and quickly explained the rules to us. They were over halfway through the trivia, but we did it anyway. It was totally fun! They have three different categories each round and you put down the amount of points you want to bet for each round. You write your answer down plus the points you’re betting. The guy calling out the questions also keeps score for you.

I didn’t even have to suggest a something for our team name. I just looked at Jake and he wrote down the above. Jake knows me so well!

[mushroom swiss burger / regular fries]

I got the mushroom swiss burger. You can see that my cheese is just slightly melted on my burger. The burger was only warm to the touch. It tasted okay, nothing special really. Standard button mushrooms that were slightly sauteed, mild seasoning on the burger. It was cooked to medium rare per my specifications. The burger was just really lacking… something. Flavor. Oomph. Heat. Something! The fries were not very hot, not very crisp and not very good. The best I can say about my meal was that it was “meh”.
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Mary, Baking, Miscellaneous

baby shower!

I’ve been having some very busy days lately and last weekend was no exception! So short post today mostly recapping Alyssa’s baby shower!

Alyssa used to write for this blog, back when she had time to do so. I miss having her posts on here! Now that she’ll be a mom in a few short months, I think it’s safe to say she’s not coming back (though I’ve known that for a long, long time). We celebrated the future birth of her baby boy with a little baby shower, hosted by her old friend Christina. All I did was set up and do desserts, so most of this is Christina’s lovely handiwork.

The spread, from the view of my desserts! I finally bought myself a Dessert Tower. I’ve been wanting one forever but didn’t really feel that I needed it. But I’m over that now. I need it. I want it. It makes cupcakes look so pretty.

A bit of a close up – red velvet cupcakes on the first three levels and lemon ricotta cookies on the bottom. The overflow of cookies is on the cake stand to the left, with some vanilla meringues from Trader Joe’s. The little sugar animals are from Do it With Icing in Clairemont (I love that place).

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Del Mar, San Diego County, Mary

shimbashi izakaya / del mar – san diego, ca

Shimbashi Izakaya is a Japanese restaurant located in the heart of downtown Del Mar, CA. They serve a variety of “tapas” style menu items as well as sushi, noodles, and other Japanese dishes and seafood. I recently had the opportunity to try Shimbashi Izakaya for myself and was happily treated to a wonderful line up of delicious Japanese foods.

Shimbashi Izakaya is in such a pretty spot with a nice outdoor patio.

There’s an ocean view and if you’re lucky (ie: not dining in May or June), you’ll be treated to a sunny, ocean view. Our sunset was a little cloudy that evening and it was a bit chilly by the coast, but Laura and I were not deterred in the slightest! Also: heat lamps are a wonderful invention.

This is their menu – it looks like a picture book! I loved this idea, especially for cuisine that I’m not very familiar with. It’s so helpful to see photos of the items you want to order.

[Lychee Martini]

Our hostess pretty much convinced me to try this drink. I wasn’t going to have any alcohol, but with a little pushing and prodding you can get me to try a lot of things.

I admit, it didn’t really take much prodding. But, she did have them split our 1 Lychee martini into two glasses. This was very sweet – and I detected no alcohol, which is a crazy combination. The flavor of the lychee comes shining through on this martini. While I thought the drink was good, it would have been better if it was a little less sweet.

I loved the wooden skewers with the wooden flower bead – so cute!

[Baked Mussels]

After perusing through their large menu, Laura and I decided to get a few appetizers to start. One was this: the Baked Mussels. The mussels come back in their shells, grilled and topped with cheese and onions. Almost like a mini baked casserole in a shell.

I liked the flavors of the mussels but I wasn’t too crazy about the type of cheese paired with it. It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t think the flavor of the mussel went that great with the cheese.

[Pri-pri Ebiten]

I first saw this on Leanne’s post about Shimbashi and I already knew I would order it. Gigantic shrimp? In a honey glaze? FRIED?! Well damn, sign me up!
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Mary, Recipes

berry crumb pie aka i think i love pie

I have been on some kind of pie making kick lately. In the last few months I’ve made a blueberry pie, 2 strawberry pies, this berry crumb pie and last weekend I made an apple strawberry pie.

Compare this to last year, where I made approximately zero pies.

I think I might love pie after all.

I really want to make mini pies now. I must experiment!

This pie makes use of the bounty of the season with fresh strawberries and blueberries. It’s summer! You should bask in the glory of summer berries!

These are some of the ingredients you need. Flour and sugar were too shy for the line up. Also: that Speculoos filled chocolate bar doesn’t go into the pie. It’s just for eating while you make the pie.

It’s there for support.

I like making the crumb topping first. Flour, sugar, cinnamon, soft butter. If you’re feeling giddy, add in some oatmeal.

You can stir this if you want, but I chose to just squish it that day. Squissssssssh.

It ends up looking a little coarse and crumbly, like this. You can also just melt the butter and stir, but what’s the fun in that?
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La Mesa, San Diego County, Mary

the trails neighborhood eatery / la mesa – san diego, ca

I used to watch Food Network almost non-stop. I loved all of the cooking shows – Rachael Ray, Paula Deen, Giada De Laurentiis. I picked up so many great hints and tips just by watching their shows on a Saturday morning. While I don’t really watch those shows too much anymore, I still enjoy some of the other, newer shows. One of them is Restaurant Impossible with Robert Irvine, sort of knock off on Kitchen Nightmares. I’ve gotten Jake to watch it a few times and he’s actually into the show now. When I told him that they had done an episode at a restaurant here in town, he was totally game for going and checking it out.

The restaurant in question is The Trails Neighborhood Eatery in La Mesa. I had never heard of the place before I saw it on the show. It’s in a pretty nondescript part of town, within an old strip mall in San Carlos/La Mesa. Driving by the strip mall, it really doesn’t look like much. There’s a CVS and a Keils food store which looks like one of the oldest stores ever.

Once you step inside though, you immediately see the homey, updated version of the restaurant. It has a really cozy feel with lovely colors and the images of the family throughout the restaurant give it a very welcoming feel.

We just happened to go the first time on a Sunday morning. When we watched in, they had the Food Network channel on which just happened to be playing their episode! We mused if it was a recording that the restaurant played, but the owner, Stacey, pipped up. “No, it just happens to be on right now,” she explained, with an embarrassed grin.

We ended up waiting over an hour for a table, no doubt because of that recent airing of the episode. I was determined to try it though even though maybe I hadn’t picked the best day/time to go.

[Cinnamon Roll Pancakes – Swirls of cinnamon roll filling and topped with cream cheese frosting – $6.99 / with bacon & eggs – $8.99]

On our first visit, Jake and T. shared an order of the Cinnamon Roll Pancakes. It’s covered in a rich cream cheese frosting which doesn’t require anything else to go on it – it’s quite sweet enough with that frosting!

The impressive cinnamon swirl is done right into the pancakes, giving it the classic cinnamon roll look and all of that cinnamon taste right in the pancake. The few bites I snagged from Jake were quite delicious. The pancakes were light and fluffy with a nice bit of cinnamon goo in them. This would have to be something to share in my opinion since it is rich and sweet – but very good.

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Hillcrest, San Diego County, Mary

urban eats / hillcrest – san diego, ca

Urban Eats is a new little restaurant in Hillcrest that’s been open for about three months now under the helm of Chef Christopher B. Sayre. The spot started out earlier this year as Taco Banh before Sayre decided to switch gears and instead open up Urban Eats, a locally sourced restaurant serving up a mix of American dishes. My cohorts and I had noticed on the bottom of our bill it has said “Taco Banh” and curiosity got me to Google searching. It seems Taco Banh didn’t quite work out and Urban Eats was able to rise up out of that. Jake and I are certainly glad that it came to this as we dined here twice within one week – once as a guest and another time on our own with our friend, Laura.

The space is small, but cozy. The bar is the first thing to catch your eye with its colorful Asian lanterns. The simple seats are all set up with place settings and menus and your greeted in a most friendly manner to “sit anywhere you’d like!”

Kyle, our host, server, and waiter extraordinaire, was there to take care of us on both visits. His warm and friendly personalities just exudes charm. I loved him immediately, especially when he recognized us on our second visit and already knew we were going to order the macaroni and cheese again.

More on that later.

At Urban Eats you get cucumber water, which I love. Jake puts his cucumbers into my glass because he’s weird and doesn’t like cucumbers.

*eye roll*

[cheesy baguette slices with honey butter]

All customers get this complimentary appetizer to start. It’s a little more doled up than just “bread and butter” so I call it an appetizer. Baguette slices with cheese and a little cup of honey butter greet you shortly after you take a seat, luring you in. The butter has drizzles of honey on it, so the honey is still distinct as you slather it onto a slice and devour it. It’s a yummy way to start any meal.

[mini grilled cheese – swiss + cheddar + brie + tomato bisque – $6]

On our first visit, I decided I had to try the Mini Grilled Cheese. The grooves on this appetizer are serious. Super panini pressing was going on to create this sandwich. The size reminded me of those weird French Toast sticks. I could tell it was basically a sandwich cut into fours, but I didn’t really care. Oozing cheese on grilled bread makes me happy and these were pretty tasty dunked in the cup of tomato bisque that accompanied them. My only complaint would be that I thought it was cooked a little too long and I tasted more bread than cheese.

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Mary, Recipes, Products

homemade mashed potato pizza with cholula

Over the weekend I told Jake I was finally getting around to writing my post on URBN with their crazy mashed potato pizza. He casually suggested that I should try and remake that mashed potato pizza. He also hinted that he thought I could do a little better.

He is definitely a keeper.

One of the things I remember from our outing at URBN is that our waitress wisely suggested the addition of the Cholula sauce as a topping on the pizza. She was so right – it had given the pizza the extra “oomph” it needed and I ended up devouring a few slices. Not long after I was contacted by a rep asking if I’d like to sample their line of Cholula sauces. It all came together over the weekend when I received the samples and tried my hand at creating my own version of the mashed potato pizza.

[There’s more than one kind! From left to right: Original, Chili Garlic, Chiptole and Chili Lime]

A) Before being contacted, I had no idea there was more than one flavor and B) I had never had Cholula before we went to URBN.

I always thought Cholula would be “too hot” or “too spicy” for me, but actually it’s not that bad. It doesn’t have the kind of heat that lingers and then beats you up – it’s a gentler heat, more of a spice and kick of flavor than anything else.

Jake and I both tried each sauce with a spoonful of mashed potatoes to see what flavor we liked best. I balked a few times at the amount of sauce he poured on. He’d give me a look that said, “You’re kind of a wimp.” But he’d eat half of it so there was less sauce and then I was amiable to eating it again. Of the four, I like Original and Chili Garlic the best. The Chili Garlic has a good punch of garlic flavor mingling in with the original spice, making it one of my favorites. The Chipotle was a little too spicy and bold for me while the Chili Lime was just okay. Not being a huge fan of lime to begin with, I might have been a little biased against it.

[unbaked mashed potato pizza, ready for the oven]

Onto the pizza making! I bought my pizza dough from Trader Joe’s. I am determined to do my own dough soon, but it was not this day.

It’s best to let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes before handling (I do it while the oven is coming up to temperature). Spread a bunch of flour over a cutting board and just let it rest out of the package. It’ll be easier to work with once it gets rid of a bit of the chill.

I slowly flatten the dough once it’s been rested and then use my hands to gently spin it in the air. I don’t toss it around or anything, I just use my knuckles and keep moving it in a circle until it stretches out nicely. I find that doing it in the air is the easiest way, letting gravity do most of the work.

[mmm, pizza]
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San Diego County, Mary, North Park

mashed potato pizza & meatballs at urbn coal fired pizza / north park – san diego, ca

Awhile ago I saw that CC of Pink Candles at Ridgemont High went to URBN in North Park and had some Mashed Potato Pizza.

I remember being terribly intrigued by it – pizza… with mashed potatoes on it? Sounds totally crazy and weird, but I just had to try it.

Fast forward to a few months later and Jake and I finally made our way around to URBN.

URBN is a much larger space than I first thought. We sat in one of the booths on a Saturday afternoon. Both of the garage doors were open creating a nice cross breeze. It almost felt like we were sitting outdoors.

I kinda dug that our waitress brought us our own little carafe of water and little glasses. I like things like that.

After we placed our order, we also got this little condiment tray of extra spices. From left to right, salt, pepper, oregano, red pepper flakes and shredded Parmesan cheese.

[Housemade Meatballs – $9]

Jake and I shared this order of Housemade Meatballs. I usually like to get meatballs on my pizza, so I felt I had to make up for it another way by getting meatballs on the side. It comes served in a little cast iron pan with marinara sauce, a big dollop of sweet ricotta, Parmesan on top and a baguette on the side.

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Cooking with Jake, Miscellaneous, Mary, Recipes

peanut butter and chocolate potato chips

I’m sorry, what does this post title say?

Peanut Butter and Chocolate covered what?

Potato Chips.

Yep.

Totally Jake’s idea. I just executed it. (Jake helped, too).

He got the idea after a recent trip to Trader Joe’s. I had bought a bag of milk chocolate covered potato chips, which I really liked. Jake put together the idea of my love of peanut butter + chocolate with the potato chips and viola!

A delicious idea was born.

You don’t need a whole lot for this recipe. It’s mostly just melting and waiting. Also, I used about twice as much chocolate as shown (of each kind).

First things first: melt your peanut butter. Just scoop out a few spoonfuls and nuke it for a about a minute.

And then do this:

Dip it! I liked a few that weren’t dipped all of the way, but Jake liked to cover them up.

It’ll look really weird at first. Just trust me.
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