Year: 2012

Orange County, Irvine, Mary

101 noodles express / irvine – orange county, ca

I had a quick trip up to Orange County recently and my dad let me pick a place for us to have lunch at. I love when people let me pick the place (and the food) and I wanted to try something that we couldn’t get a whole lot of down here in San Diego – namely, delicious dumplings! I scouted around on Yelp and on a few other food blogger’s sites and ended up reading Kirbie’s post about 101 Noodles Express and decided that’s where I wanted to go for lunch.

This place is pretty conveniently located right off of I-5. The restaurant is small and tucked into the corner of a pretty packed shopping center with a few other Asian restaurants and shops. There’s a clipboard outside that serves as the waiting list and you just write your name in and wait to be called. We didn’t have to wait too long before being seated.

[beef roll – $7.45]

I made sure to order the beef roll that Kirbie had so raved about in her post. You get two pretty hefty looking rolls that sort of look like a burrito but cut into manageable, quartered pieces. It’s got slices of beef with tons of onion, cilantro and other goodies tucked into it and all wrapped together to form a pretty pinwheel-like package. This tasted very fresh and bright from all of the seasonings packed into it and the beef had a nice flavor to it as well. I dug it!

[cilantro-jalapeno side condiment]

This little jar of stuff is on all of the tables. It’s a condiment made with cilantro and jalapeno. I put a little daub onto my beef roll and it did kind of kick up the flavor a bit. I consider it to be for “oomphing” purposes. Did I really just say “oomphing purposes?

Yeah, I guess I did.

I didn’t think the beef roll really needed the condiment and while I didn’t dislike it, I did kind of prefer it without. To each their own!

[dan dan (minced pork) with hand torn noodles $6.99 / regular noodles – $5.99]

My dad and I were sitting at a long table shared by another group and my dad noticed this dish and he asked them what it was. We decided it was tasty looking enough that we ought to order it, too. You can get either regular noodles or hand torn noodles for a dollar more. I’ve never seen “hard torn noodles” on a menu before so I had to try it!

[hand torn noodles closeup]

These noodles had a very distinctive chew that I really, really enjoyed. The minced pork was delicious. My dad thought it needed a dollop of soy sauce but I liked it as-is. It was so simple but so delicious. The pork covered the noodles and coated them really well – I think I could eat this all of the time.

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San Diego County, Mary, Clairemont

phuong trang / clairemont – san diego, ca

I like referring to “Phuong Trang” as “that ‘sea food’ place next to Big Joy” since I’ve always wanted to go simply because it says “SEA FOOD” spelled as two words out front. These kind of things amuse me. Please bear with me.

I stopped in one day by myself just to try the chicken wings for a little snack. I was waiting for Jake to come home and did a mini preview to see if it might entice me enough to bring me back – and it did! Not long after that Jake and T came with me for lunch one day to check it all out.

[bbq pork meatball rolls with lettuce, thai basil, bean sprouts and vermicelli noodles – $4.50]

This was one thing that Jake wanted to get. I ordered the rest! It’s a spring roll filled with bbq pork.

Here’s a cut view of the spring roll – it has the fresh wrapper and a long grilled piece of pork, with noodles and fresh Thai basil.

The spring rolls were served with this little cup of peanut sauce with chopped up peanuts.

The spring roll was very good – very crisp and refreshing and the meat was nicely seasoned and prepared. I’m quite sure what makes this a “meatball” – but I suspect it was some kind of meat that they prepared there in the shop. In any case, it was pretty delicious, especially dipped in a bit of the thick peanut sauce.

[stir-fried noodles with cha-siu pork, baby bok choy, broccoli, carrots, celery and onions in a garlic sauce – $7.75]

I picked one of the noodle dishes to try with my new favorite wide rice noodles. With this dish you can also get soft egg noodles, udon noodles or crispy egg noodles but the wide rice noodles were what I was craving.

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Products, Mary

dinner on the grill / grilled zucchini, kielbasa and the little potato company

I recently got another product to review: baby potatoes from The Little Potato Company! I love potatoes and these little baby ones were so cute that I was pretty excited to get a batch of them to try out.

I was given a bag of the “Terrific Trio” and the “Baby Boomer” potatoes for sampling. Featured here in my recipes are the Baby Boomer potatoes.

How cute are these little baby potatoes?! I could just eat them right up… oh wait. I am! (Bad joke, I know.)

The baby potatoes don’t need to be peeled and don’t really even need to be chopped up. They’re the perfect size for cooking “as is” – whether you decide to roast, boil, smash, grill or bake.

I was feeling kind of lazy that day… so after a quick rinse, I threw this babies into a pot of salted water and set them to boil for some lightly smashed potatoes.

Along with the potatoes I cut up some zucchini from my dad’s garden – we were overflowing in the zucchini this summer and I decided to grill these up. A quick drizzle of olive oil and a dusting of salt and pepper and these veggies were ready for the grill.

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San Diego County, Mary, Del Mar

del mar rendezvous / san diego restaurant week preview 2012 + giveaway

San Diego Restaurant Week is nearly upon us again – and one restaurant is putting together a sweet deal for San Diegans to get out and get a great meal this September. Del Mar Rendezvous is celebrating restaurant week over three weeks instead of the usual one week and it starts this Saturday, September 8th and runs until September 30th. They have a special $30 prie fix menu and a slew of wine, beer and sake specials to go along with your special meal.

In addition to the special menu, they’re also teaming up with Uber for a $30 Uber ride. Uber is a personal driver service that you use with your iPhone or Android phone to request driver service in a luxury vehicle. I tried out the service when I visited Del Mar Rendezvous last week – check out the end of this post for my recap (and a special giveaway)!

[peek at the SDRW menu – see full options here]

I was excited to be invited back to Del Mar Rendezvous for more delicious treats and offerings. Since I’ve visited in the past, I’ll try and just touch and recap on the newer items I tried this time around. For this visit I invited my dad to tag along with me to try all of the delicious offerings.

[steamed dumpling sampler – 2 ha gau (shrimp), 2 su jiao (veggie) and 2 xiao long bao (pork)]

I adore dumplings in all forms and sizes and couldn’t pass up trying out their Dumpling Sampler which is featured as one of the first courses on their SDRW menu. You get 2 of the shrimp, 2 veggie and 2 of the pork soup dumplings for tasting. Having recently had really excellent dumplings in Irvine, these kind of fell short of my exceptions. I thought they were just okay – maybe if I hadn’t so recently had such tasty ones these might have seemed better in my eyes, but they lacked in the flavor department just a little bit. I’d definitely try the Honey Glazed Spare Ribs if you’re coming for the first time here rather than the dumplings, were are just okay. They not as soft, supple and tender as other dumplings I’ve had but they’re also not the worst. They’re just okay.

[three-cup chicken – chicken thigh meat, sauteed with fresh basil, garlic, ginger and red chilies served in a sizzling clay pot]

The Three-Cup Chicken is a traditional Taiwanese dish that is a restaurant week exclusive dish. This is a dish that the chef usually prepares at home for his family and also served only to the staff at Del Mar Rendezvous. This special dish is cooked over high heat to release the bone marrow and then simmered over low to allow the dish to concentrate all of the flavor into the chicken and sauce, producing a rich and flavorful dish.

This dish reminded me very much of my mom’s chicken adobo. The long period cooking time allows the flavors to develop and deepen and creates a very flavorful dish. The meat is fall off the bone tender with pieces of whole garlic cloves and other intense flavors. I enjoyed eating this with bits of brown rice to help soak up the flavor. A very hearty and tasty dish!

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Rolando, Cheap Eats, San Diego County, Mary, College

milo’s pizza & subs / college area – san diego, ca

I went to Milo’s Pizza on a whim. I was at Jake’s waiting for him to come home from work and wanted to have some pizza ready for him. I went and got a couple of pizzas and some garlic bread. It was the garlic bread that hooked me – nice, thick sourdough with lots of crunch!

Jake and I finally came back recently so Jake could try out a pipping hot pie and have started to come here a bit more regularly.

[milo’s pizza mottos]

“Yes, our slice pies are cooked in a brick oven.” (Score)

“No. We do not use sausage that looks like dog food!” (Double score)

[16″ inch x-large pizza with ricotta and meatball – $11.99 + $1.50 per topping]

We ordered whole pies at first before discovering the slice specials. This one above has meatball and ricotta. The whole pie has a thin, sort of soft crust with a good amount of sauce. I liked how their sauce tasted – not too tangy and not overly sweet. Everything tasted fresh!

[sourdough garlic bread – 4 slices for $2.49 (i had already eaten a slice…)]

I love how thickly cut the slices of garlic bread are – nice, hearty slices of sourdough. Not too heavy with the garlic (not enough in my opinion) so it will sit well with most folks. Little sprinkle of herbs in there, too, but it’s just a hint.

Next up… the slice specials – cheap and delicious!

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Mary, Cooking with Jake, Products

“calzone” pita bread and mini naan pizzas with bonsavor flatbreads

Flatbreads, naan, pita breads, tortillas and more arrived at my doorstep in a big old box not too long ago. One look at it made me think, “Oh god, will I be able to use all of this before it goes bad? What am I going to make?!” I took a bunch of it over to Jake’s so his family could partake in the goodness from BonSavor. And then… something strange happened. The stars, the moon, the planets and the sun all aligned and Jake volunteered to cook and to make something with the flatbreads!

Oh my stars.

[BonSavor Pita Bread]

Jake has cooked instead of me maybe a handful times in our whole five year relationship. Once he made sloppy joe with ground pork and well… let’s just say that I still rib him about it from time to time.

Funny thing is that he was the first one of us to cook for the other. He made me a chicken dinner and I remember being impressed that he wanted to cook for me in the first place. I had never had a boy cook for me before!

The other funny thing? The first thing I ever made for him was some awful pasta salad and I absolutely hated it. Was embarrassed by it. Was convinced he only ate it to make me feel better. I had never made the recipe before and the flavors came out all weird.

To this day he still insists that it was good. Bless him.

[BonSavor Naan]

Imagine my surprise then when Jake not only wanted to cook but he didn’t want my help at all.

He was getting all serious on me. It was so cute!

He got the idea to use the pita bread as like an open faced “calzone”. He wanted to do something else with the naan, but at the last minute decided to use them to make mini pizzas since he couldn’t think of anything else. No problem with me!

[mini meatball pizzas on naan flatbread]

Jake made his own from scratch sauce and made little meatballs. He did a few variations – one with just cheese and meatballs (ricotta and mozzarella), one with both cheeses, sauce and meatballs, and one without ricotta.

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Mission Beach, San Diego County, Mary

sneak joint / mission beach – san diego, ca

The Sneak Joint in Mission Beach is definitely a dive bar. No doubts about it. I don’t mind dive bars, really. I think they’re fun, kitschy and sometimes are very, very surprising. Other times… well, other times you realize the meaning of a “dive bar”.

I bought a groupon for this place but I could not for the life of me remember why or what seemed appealing about it. It was on the verge of expiring so Jake and I went down to Mission Beach one weeknight to check it out.

[sneak joint – menu]

Why, yes, there is sort of s mud flap looking girl on the menu. That’s… charming? The menu is pretty basic – just a few burgers and sandwiches. We went on a Thursday night and the special was “All You Can Eat Spaghetti” for $5. Hmm. They also have a $0.25 wing night if you’re into that (I think… on Wednesdays?). All of the waitresses here are dressed in bikini tops and short shorts. I’m sure a certain mindset is really into this idea.

[well drinks]

My groupon was for dinner and drinks for 2 – any two items and two well drinks (or beers). Jake got a rum and coke and I got a whiskey coke. Nothing to write home about.

[spicy chili guacamole burger – with applewood smoked bacon, provolone, guacamole (on the side), jalapenos, & fresno chilies – $12.95]

Jake ordered this Spicy Chili Guacamole Burger – but with the guacamole on the side, which he promptly handed over to me for my burger. He upgraded to tater tots, which costs an extra $1. You can also get sweet potato fries for an extra buck or stick with regular fries or a salad.

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San Diego County, Mary, La Jolla, Multiple Locations, College

the secret cookie service / san diego, ca

A brief knock on the door. I peek outside and see a well dressed guy in sunglasses, black slacks, white shirt and a tie holding a briefcase. I quickly usher him inside. Agent Snickerdoodle has arrived with my special delivery and I’ve been waiting all night for it to arrive. What’s in the briefcase that could be so important?

Why, cookies, of course!

[hand delivered brown paper bag contains the goods]

The Secret Cookie Service has been in operation since September 2011, delivering late night cookie treats to the students at UCSD. The service has recently expanded to deliver to nearby neighborhoods and has recently set up shop so the students at SDSU don’t miss out on any of the cookie service goodness.

While they are mainly an at-night service, placing an order 24 hours in advance can net you a daytime delivery if you don’t live the vampire — or student — lifestyle.

Agent Snickerdoodle, after passing a screening from my dog, Maya, handed me this seemingly plain brown paper bag that contained what I’d been jonesing for all night. I couldn’t wait to dig in and try out this stash!

[mysterious white envelopes holds the cookies together during transport]

These random looking white bags are not really random at all.

For they contain delicious treats.

COOKIES!

[reese’s pieces cookies]

These aren’t peanut butter cookies per se, but they are loaded with Reese’s Pieces, one of my very favorite candies. There’s a sweet peanut butter flavor from the candy but the cookie itself is just a base for holding the pieces. There’s a good candy to cookie ratio here – I got a Reese’s Pieces in nearly every bite. The cookies are very soft and chewy. My second favorite of the bunch.

[mint chocolate chip cookies]

The mint chocolate chips were still kind of melty and sticking to the white envelope. The nice thing about that is that it let me know the cookies were baked fresh very, very recently and I love when chips are partially melted still. That’s the best part of warm cookies! These were quite soft and had a good minty-chocolate flavor.

Agent Snickerdoodle informed me that this is one of their best selling cookies and I could definitely see why.

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Mary, Recipes

strawberry delight for a hot summer’s day

The first time I ever had a dessert like this I was in the Midwest and it was made with blueberries instead. It was referred to as “Blueberry Delight” and I remember being a bit blown away by such a simple dessert. This is a layered dessert, something very well known in the South but I had never had it out here in California before… It’s got a cookie-like crust, a sweet cream cheese layer, your fruit, and then whipped cream or whipped topping and nuts to top it all off. It’s simple, easy to make, and deliciously creamy.

I had picked up a fresh basket of locally grown strawberries and I thought, “Well, I bet I can turn Blueberry Delight into Strawberry Delight!”. Any mixture of berries will do for this dessert, really, and I think fresher is better for this one. The dessert starts to look kind of droopy after a day or two, so it’s best to try and gobble this one up quick and all leftovers need to go into the fridge.

[beautiful, ripe strawberries]

I picked up these beautiful strawberries at The Fruit Stand off Morena Blvd. They had some fine looking fruits and I could not resist getting this basket.

To prep, I just washed the strawberries and sliced them. I added about two tablespoons of sugar to macerate the strawberries.

[pecan shortbread-like crust]

After finishing the berries, I prepped the crust. It’s a very simple mixture of flour, sugar, pecans and softened butter. The mixture comes together quickly and spreads out easily in the pan. I pushed it with my fingers to spread the crust out evenly. This is the only thing you’ve got the bake! 15 minutes and you’re done. This is also something you should do ahead since a cooled crust is necessary.

This crust seriously tastes like those pecan sandies cookies they sell in the store.

[trying to quickly defrost my whipped topping]

I forgotten to tell Jake to leave the whipped topping out for me on the counter, so when I realized that my topping was still frozen I grimaced a little and then figured I’d try this.

The crust had just come out of the oven so I put the two tubs on top of the crust.

Hey, it sort of worked! It did at least speed up the process a little bit so I was able to work with it to make my sweet cream cheese layer.

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Lemon Grove, San Diego County, Mary

lemon grove deli / lemon grove – san diego, ca

The Lemon Grove Deli is a little restaurant that’s nestled in the heart of Lemon Grove. It’s in amongst the many little shops and businesses in Downtown Lemon Grove, near the trolley station. The Lemon Grove Deli serves up some mean breakfast and then also does sandwiches in the afternoons. You can stop by on Sunday and get breakfast until 2PM – which is what Jake and I did on a recent weekend.

This is one of my “adventures in groupons!” posts – I had a coupon for 2 breakfast and 2 drinks for one price. It was just the two of us for breakfast that morning and we sat outside on the patio to enjoy the beautiful summer day. There was a slight wait in getting someone to see to us, but we were in no kind of rush. When our waitress did come by we asked for some coffee while we continued to look over the menu.

coffee - lemon grove deli

[coffee & creamers – $1.95]

The coffee was pretty good for a standard cup. Not too strong but strong enough to have a nice, distinct flavor. I also enjoyed that they had a little bowl of different flavored creamers. They had vanilla, hazelnut and plain and I chose to dump a couple of hazelnuts in mine.

Hazelnut + coffee = a match made in heaven to me.

lemon grove deli menu

[breakfast menu at the lemon grove deli]

Here’s a peek at their breakfast menu. There’s a really good amount of options and you get a TON of food for the price.

[our breakfast, from above]

See that plate of biscuits and gravy? And the pancakes? Both side dishes for each meal.

So. Much. Food!

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San Diego County, Mary, Downtown

cafe 21 / downtown – san diego, ca

Cafe 21 is a cute little restaurant with two locations in San Diego – one in University Heights off Adams Ave and one Downtown in the Gaslamp Quarter. My cohort, Liz, came along with me to try out the stellar offerings at the Downtown Cafe 21.

After I finally arrived, Liz and I went inside and were seated quite promptly to begin our meal.

[purse stand]

One of the first things our host did was to bring us this little stand. It looked like a mini (very short) coat rack. He explained to us that it was for our purses and I might have let out a small giggle of delight.

How awesome is this?! It’s at the perfect height so you’re able to reach your purse comfortably and it’s always within sight.

Sigh. Love!

[sangria flight in a little tasting basket]

First thing Liz and I both ordered?

Sangria flights. Awww yeah.

You get a little sampling of all of their sangrias – six in all. The flavors: fruit punch, pineapple strawberry, strawberry balsamic, apple cherry, traditional and rosemary lemon. Liz and I both really liked the pineapple strawberry and I liked the rosemary lemon just because it was a little something different. Liz ended up getting my dark red sangrias since I don’t really dig the red wines, but I loved the lighter colored ones. Fun flavors and a great way to try all of their sangrias! It’s a lot of sangria, too, and you could easily share this flight with another person.

[baklava crumble salad – apple, blue cheese, baklava crumbles, honey balsamic dressing]

This salad had me at “baklava”.

It’s a fun mix of leafy greens with apple, blue cheese, baklava crumbles and a sweet dressing drizzled all over the top. The fruit adds a nice natural sweetness and the blue cheese plays a part in giving another texture and flavor to the salad. The blue cheese is creamy but not too overpowering – a very nice compliment. The baklava was not quite what I was expecting – I was thinking of chopped up bits of the sweet, crunchy honey dessert, but the baklava here was much softer in texture – it was a nutty, sweet taste, sort of like having a candied nut sprinkled in with your salad. I really liked it anyway and got my “crunch” from the crisp apples instead.

[mushroom flatbread with organic mixed greens / cremini mushrooms, organic heirloom tomatoes, rosemary, romano and mozzarella cheese]

I love it when people let me do the ordering when we’re sharing dishes. For our other appetizer, I picked this mushroom flatbread for sharing. Though… you can’t really see the mushrooms, can you? It was more like a “heirloom tomato and mushroom flatbread”, a little more emphasis on the tomatoes. Not that I minded – they did make the dish very pretty! It also came with mixed greens so we had some nice leafy treats to start out with.

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