Tag: events

Miscellaneous, San Diego County, Mary, Downtown

taste of downtown ticket giveaway

The 13th Annual Taste of Downtown is almost upon us once again! I’m going to be headed down to check it out for the first time this year – and you can, too! Check out this post for more details on how you can score a pair of tickets to the Taste of Downtown for yourself!

Date: Thursday, October 11, 2012 in Downtown San Diego
Time: 5:00PM – 9:00PM
Price: $30 in advance / $35 day of

Last year, this event took place on the night of the infamous San Diego Blackout and had to be rescheduled. I didn’t go that time, but I do remember it was probably about as hot as it is now (can someone please turn the heater off already) and I spend the evening reading by candlelight. Hopefully there will be no more crazy blackouts – instead just lots of food and lots of walking!

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San Diego County, Mary, Del Mar

trifecta feast at flavor del mar

Opening Day at Del Mar is apparently a big deal.

I’ll be honest – I’ve never really paid attention. I’ve seen the commercials though – the ones singing about Del Mar. And I’ve heard about the “hats” that women wear for opening day. But beyond that, I don’t know a thing about horse racing. All I know about it is from what I’ve seen in the movies Seabiscuit and Secretariat.

But this post isn’t about the races – it’s about one of the after parties that happened in Del Mar celebrating Opening Day at the racetrack.

At Flavor Del Mar they had a special menu prepared for the day – a Trifecta Feast – with a three course meal to help you bask in your post-win celebration at the races.

[Trifecta Feast Menu]

Here’s a little peek at the menu and the offerings!

[Flavor Del Mar dining room – do you spot some hats?]

Laura and I started feeling a little under dressed as more people trickled into the dining room that evening for their Trifecta meal. It was great for people watching – seeing people all dressed up in suits and dresses with4 the ladies wearing their finest hats and high heels.

[Bread, butter, and fancy salts]

We started our fancy feast with some bread. This was a bit fancy though as we had a little tray of various salts laid down before us. The tiny little spoon for the salt just killed me, too. So freaking cute!

No one explained what the salts were to us – but I suspected the far right one was some kind of pink salt. One was also a bit gray-ish in color but the other two I wasn’t sure of. They were all coarse grained salts and I got a little over-eager and put too much salt on one slice of bread. Oops.

The bread was a whole wheat type of bread. I found myself wishing the bread had been warm but I loved the tray of salts.

[Crispy, spicy shrimp with crazy frisee & arugula on the bottom]

For my starter dish, I chose the crispy, spicy shrimp. The shrimp was in light, crispy batter and definitely packed a punch of heat. It wasn’t the lingering kind of heat though – just a passing through heat. The spiciness managed to enhance the whole dish without taking away from the shrimp – a welcome surprise for someone who has shunned heat and spiciness for a long time! I ignored most of the frisee and arugula on the bottom. I had a taste of the frisee, but it just really isn’t my thing. And, it seemed more like a garnish than anything else – the shrimp is the real star of this dish.

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Hillcrest, San Diego County, Mary

recap of taste of hillcrest

I got some last minute tickets to go to Taste of Hillcrest courtesy of McFarlane Promotions a couple of weeks ago. It was my first time going to a “Taste of…” anything and I’m happy that Hillcrest was one of our first “Tastes”! With over 50 restaurants available to visit it seemed pretty daunting at first. But Jake and I decided to just go with it and visit as many as we could before we were A) full and B) our parking meter ran out.

The Taste of Hillcrest is a great way to sample from a variety of restaurants and to see what kinds of food they serve. I hadn’t been to any of the restaurants that we tried that day and there are already a few that I want to go back and try out the rest of their menu.

Since it’s a lot to take in, I’ll try to keep it short and sweet.

This is a pasta with crab in a tomato cream sauce from Busalacchi’s A Modo Mio. Usually made with angel hair, they tossed it with penne for the Taste of Hillcrest for easier serving. It was, in a nutshell, delicious.

Jake and I then headed a few blocks away to the Tractor Room, where they were cooking outside.

Skewers of polenta and pheasant & cognac, rabbit sausages with chives and a squeeze of mustard. I stuffed the whole bite into my mouth and was rewarded with a really mouth-watering bite. The mustard really gave it to the kick it needed to make this superb – I definitely want to come back here and try their other menu items!

Next up, we headed over to Raku Japanese Fusion Cuisine. They had bowls of veggies out and we thought that’s all that had so grabbed that. It was Spicy Garlic Edamame (good flavor, but really hard to chew?) and sesame asparagus (tasty). Then we were given some freshly made Teriyaki Chicken Wings and we were in love. Super crispy with a light drizzle of sauce – this was our favorite item of the whole day. We tried to go back the next day to get these again, but was way too early. We’re still planning on going back!

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San Diego County, Mary, Downtown

roy’s restaurant / downtown – san diego, ca

I sometimes wonder how I get invited to certain things.

I was recently invited to come to Roy’s Restaurant for a media event with wedding professionals. I don’t do wedding stuff (anymore, I used to write for San Diego Wedding Insider) and I’m not a planner or anything. But, I’m not one to turn out the prospect of trying new things. I dragged Jake with me and warned him beforehand about it, but there was no worrying needed. There was a nice bit of food laid out, a dessert table, and hot appetizers were floated around the room. They also had some pretty tables set up with potential wedding decor as a sample of what they could do. And I have to say that hosting a wedding or reception here would be great just for the view alone. Check it out below!

This was the first thing I saw. A table filled with CHEESE.

I smiled gleefully at Jake. I’m pretty sure he rolled his eyes at me. I’m such a sucker for cheese.

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