Category Archives: Foodie Fever

Foodie Fever: A Proper Shandy

The Kickass Shandy – a version by Crown & Anchor in Las Vegas

My drink of choice at a British pub is a Shandy.  I was introduced to this drink at the Princess Pub & Grille in Little Italy here in San Diego, and I have loved them ever since.  My husband doesn’t like it because he said it’s basically a beer spritzer.  But if you’re like me and can usually only handle a drink or two the entire evening, then you may enjoy a proper Shandy.  It’s basically half beer, and half citrus drink, but you can play with the portions as you wish to suit your taste.  The first time I had it was with Sprite, but I love the version with orange juice at Crown & Anchor (sans Red Bull).  Most say it’s a great summertime drink, but I think it’s great anytime.  Cheers and have a great weekend!

My husband making my Shandy with Sprite and Stella Artois

Foodie Fever: Color Me Pink & Chocolate

As I mentioned previously, my best friend Janice took me out on a night on the town a couple of Sundays ago which consisted of dinner, dessert and a fun concert.  Our first stop was dinner at Pink Noodle, located on University Avenue.  Pink Noodle is a cute Hello Kitty inspired cottage style restaurant, featuring Thai cuisine.  As the name suggests, the restaurant and menu items features splashes of pink.

I decided to keep with the color theme and had the Pink Princess cocktail and the Pink Lady noodles.  Janice had the French Kiss cocktail and the Pad Ze-Ew.  The Pad Ze-Ew is a stir-fried noodle dish with chicken, brocoli and carrots.  It reminded me of the Filipino rice noodle dish, Pancit.  The Pink Lady that I had is described as follows:

Imagine, this dish reserved to Thai royalty.  The forever splendid flavor of “Pink Lady”, soft, thin noodle with chicken, tofu, onion lightly pan-fried then lathered with coconut milk.  Accompanied with fresh bean sprouts, scallions for the true taste of Thailand.

All I have to say is that they had me at “pink noodles”!  The portions were perfectly sized and incredibly tasty.  I loved that although my dish was inspired by ladylike royalty, it still had a bit of kick to it.  The coconut milk sauce gave it a curry-like taste that I enjoy so much.

For dessert we had a few options to choose from, but Janice decided introduce me to a place she visited recently.  The Melting Pot is a fun and fabulous fondue restaurant located in the famous Gaslamp District, on 5th & E.  I already love the exterior and interior because it reminded me of a couple of restaurants I went to last year in New York: cozy yet refined.

Each table had a heated surface used to keep the fondue dip of your choice nice and warm for all of the wonderful “dippers”.  We had “The Original” dessert fondue, which is described as a their “signature milk chocolate with a swirl of crunchy peanut butter.”  The dessert dippers consisted of fresh strawberries & bananas, Rice Krispies Treats, marshmallows, pound cake, cheesecake and brownies.

The dish was completely and utterly decadent and delicious.  We shared a “small” version of The Original, which I thought was quite a bit of food for only one person.  Janice said that we should dine with a party of three or more for the large (Regi, I think that means you are coming with us!).  Other than the fact that this was one of the most fantastic desserts I had ever had, we got it for half price because they have happy hour every night from 5pm-7pm.  If the dessert was this good, I can only imagine what all of their other fine fondue dishes must taste like!

And if you remember from my previous post (seen here), this fine evening of sensory experiences ended with dessert for my ears in the form of the sold out Erasure concert at The House of Blues.  I think we will have to repeat this combination of food and fun for the next concert!  Hope you had a good weekend!

Foodie Fever: Restaurant Week In San Diego at Hexagone

Last Tuesday before our family trip to Palm Springs, I had a girls night out during Restaurant Week in San Diego.  It was our regular threesome:  my cousin Regi, best friend Janice and myself, meeting up right after work.   Our choice was suggested Janice’s co-worker, which was a French bistro called Hexagone, located on Laurel Street (Bankers Hill).  We decided that we wanted to sample a cuisine that we hadn’t tried together, and have now decided that we would continue that tradition for our future Restaurant Week jaunts.

We each have such varied tastes that we get the chance to sample everything offered on a “prix fixe (fixed price)” menu.  But we started off the evening with drinks at the bar, while chatting up a gentleman at the bar who was a regular at Hexagone.  He raved about how wonderful the food was while having the liver and onions.  I’m not a fan of the dish, but he said that he wasn’t either, until he had it at Hexagone.  If someone’s mind can be turned on a dish typically turned away, we knew we had made a good choice.  And my mind was made up when my Kamakaze-disguised-as-a-Cosmo drink was as good as it was pretty, all done up in a Martini glass.

I loved the coziness of the restaurant.  We were seated near a window, which had a great view of the street.  I feel like San Diego is so quaint sometimes, that I love places that make me feel like I’ve been transported into possibly New York or other larger metropolitan city.  I started the evening with the subtle but flavorful Bisque de Homard (lobster soup).  Next, I had the Filet Mingnon, which was so tender, and melted in my mouth.  I ended the meal with the Crepes Suzette in a Grand-Marnier sauce.  I last had crepes in Paris, so I just had to have crepes again if we were to have dinner in a French restaurant.  If you enjoy citrus like I do, you will love this dessert.

Other than the exquisite food, the best part of the evening was that each of us wore some kind of animal print.  Although you can’t see Regi’s shoes, she was wearing a pony hair, leopard print wedged shoe.  Although the dinner was definitely planned, our coordinating animal prints were not!  Either way, that just seals the deal with how close we have become as friends that we can instantly agree on the cuisine and the attire for the evening.  And we all agree:  we highly recommend Hexagone.  Bon appetit and have a great weekend!

Weekend In Pictures: That Place is STACKED!

A couple of weekends ago while shopping, my son and I stumbled upon a new place at the Fashion Valley mall.  The place is called Stacked, and makes the most of our current technology and incorporates it into food service.  Upon entering, the space is quite modern and attractive, with boldly painted walls and 80’s and alternative music piping through the speakers (already a plus with me).  We were greeted by very friendly people, who took our name and put it into a computer as part of a queue.  When it was our turn to be seated, we were taken to our table and noticed every table had a tablet computer.  Our server also handed us a traditional fold-out menu, but really, would you use that over an iPad?  We didn’t either.

I noted immediately how simple the menu was: burgers, pizza, sausages, salads, sides, desserts and drinks.  Because we just wanted a light nosh before heading home, I ordered food from the kids menu for both myself and Dominic.  I kept looking at the burgers, which looked fantastic but seemed a bit much at the time.  So the mini-burgers from the kids menu worked out just fine because they were basically sliders.  Dominic said he wanted chicken nuggets, his go-to dish.  I think he always says that because it’s really the only thing he knows how to ask for.

If you’ve never been to Stacked, the servers guide you through ordering.  They suggest ordering your drinks first because you can “send” your order to the kitchen and have them arrive at your table.  This allows you to have it while browsing through the menu to place your food order.  The menu consists of pre-determined menu items or meals that can be customized or “built”, hence the name Stacked.  They are then sent to the kitchen in the order you want your food to arrive.

The price ranges from $3.50 to $12, which rivals the price of any fast food joint, but with the quality of a good sit-down restaurant.  Our kids portions were full meals and included the french fries and baby carrots at only $3.50 and $4.00 each.  I was pleasantly surprised at how great the food was for the fantastic price.  I also loved how you could build any of your meals, including the incredibly delicious cookie ice-cream sandwiches.  I had the Simply Sweet Strawberry cookie sandwich, which coupled two of my favorite desserts: Snickerdoodle cookies and real strawberry ice-cream.  This dessert was a mere $2.50 and worth every penny.

If you’re looking for good food for the whole family that won’t break the bank, check out Stacked.  Your stomach and pocketbook will thank you.  Hope you had a great weekend!

Weekend in Pictures: Why I Love The Venetian

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Las Vegas for Labor Day weekend.  We go to Vegas several times a year because my husband’s family is there.  It not only allows us to see the family so they can spend time with our son Dominic, but it also allows us time to have a date night on the Strip or date weekend in Mesquite.

One of my favorite hotels on the Strip is The Venetian, maybe because we stayed there on our honeymoon.  Right after our ceremony and reception, we stayed at The Venetian on our wedding night, right before we went to New York and Europe.  So many times on The Strip you see couples going around the casinos dressed in their suit and gowns, so we did the same.  Lots of congratulations and well wishes showered us as we walked through the hotel.  The best part was that we were given the Presidential suite for the price of our regular suite.  My husband still thanks me to this day for that small but effective idea!

Like all of the larger hotels on the Strip, the decor is larger than life and almost overwhelming, depending on which hotel you visit.  Places like Circus Circus, The Excalibur and even New York, New York have almost an amusement park feel to them.  That’s why I enjoy hotels like Mandalay Bay, The Bellagio, The Cosmopolitan, The Wynn, and The Venetian.  They feel a little more luxurious and opulent.  I enjoy faux Italian interior of The Venetian, resplendent with beautiful fountains, gardens, waterways, gondolas, and bridges.  Even their bars and restaurants are works of art themselves.

What I really love about The Venetian are the shops and eateries.  Right off the bat, they have the only cafe on the West Coast (as far as I know) dedicated to my favorite coffee: Espressamente Illy.  I posted a picture of a small portion of the pillar of cups previously, but below is a shot of just how high up the cups went into the ceiling.  Also pictured is my favorite item from their menu, the Affogado.  It is a scoop of gelato with a shot of espresso, topped with whipped cream.  A few people both inside and outside the cafe stopped me to find out what I was having.  It is even better than it looks.

We tried a new place to eat at The Venetian called Valentino.  My husband heard about it through a guy he played golf with, who also happens to be a waiter there.  I have learned lately to ask the servers what their favorite dishes are, and he told us about a dish only made when this certain couple calls to request it ahead of time.  I can’t remember the name of it exactly, but it’s basically a cheese stuffed ravioli with a black truffle cream sauce.  Other than in Italy, it was one of the best pasta dishes I’ve ever had.  They have a great gnocchi dish, too.

Of course last but not least, the shopping.  The shops range from affordable to high-end, depending on your taste.  I got a couple of shots of some beautiful store fronts.  Even if I can’t quite rush in and immediately buy something at a moment’s notice (I actually could, but the hubby would protest), it’s always fun to window shop.  So if you’re ever in Las Vegas, one of your must-see hotels on the Strip has got to be The Venetian.  Hope you all had a great weekend!

Foodie Fever: Keep on Truckin’!

This past weekend, we met up with my sister at the Gourmet Food Truck Festival held at the Del Mar Racetrack (the traditional site of the San Diego County Fair).  I’ve been seeing these types of events on television as well as all over the city.  I missed out on a smaller version a couple of months ago, so I when we reset our plans to see the “Cars 2 Experience” to next week, we knew exactly where we wanted to go.

Gone are the days of “the roach coach”.  There were 45 trucks at this event filled with edible mobile goodness at every turn.  Although my family only hit up two trucks, my sister, her friends and family share with each other by buying food from several different trucks, slicing up smaller portions so that everyone can have a sample, which reminded me of tapas.  We got to sample food from at least five other trucks this way (although I can’t recall which ones).

Part of the fun of this type of food festival are the trucks themselves.  Each truck had something savory to sell, and something fanciful for the eyes.  It was fun to walk around just to see all of the keenly decorated trucks with clever names.  Because of all of the incredibly long lines, we only went to two trucks:  Brats Berlin and Buttermilk Truck.

At the Brats Berlin truck, I tried the traditional bratwurst with sauerkraut and grilled onions while Deon tried the chicken jalapeno and onion sausage with spicy and sweet peppers.  Both were incredibly good, bursting with flavor and spice.

With a name like Buttermilk Truck, I knew I had to stop in to at least check out the menu.  For only $5, I was able to get the red velvet chocolate chip pancake bites and the housemade cake donuts.  We added just a touch of syrup to the pancakes because we weren’t sure how sweet it would already be, but it only made it taste even better.  Both dishes were moist and just sweet enough so they weren’t overbearing.  The butter was lightly whipped and almost tasted like ice cream.  There was enough to share with another person, so my sister and I devoured the whole thing.  That clearly was my favorite food truck of the day.  Apparently Andrew Zimmern has eaten there as a part of his “Appetite for Life” feature on MSN, a show all about America’s street cuisine.

I’m so very glad that we rearranged our weekend to make room for this festival because it is definitely something that we will be attending again.  This time, we will make sure to get out there early to avoid all of the long lines and hit up more trucks.  Hope you all had a great weekend!

Dominic and Mei-Lin had a blast at the Gourmet Food Truck Festival!

Foodie Fever: A Simply Smashing Burger Joint

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were looking for a place to eat in Del Mar.  Because we both work a shift that ends in the early afternoon, the restaurant we originally were going to eat at was closed for lunch and not yet open for dinner.  Enter Smashburger, one of the best a burger joints I’ve eaten at in a while.

Please excuse the pictures, as they were taken by my old phone.  I hope you can tell through the blurriness that this fantastic BBQ, Bacon and Cheddar Smashburger is as good as it looks.   I love a good BBQ burger, and this had amazing applewood bacon with cheddar, piled high with haystack onions.

My next favorite part of my meal was the Smashfries.  They are your basic shoe-string fries, but tossed with rosemary, olive oil and garlic.  Oh. My. Potato. Goodness.  I haven’t met a french fry that I didn’t like, but I think these fries just may rule them all.

Believe it or not, I won yet another Twitter contest by following @SmashBurgerSD.  I answered a trivia question about San Diego and won a gift certificate!  My husband came home from playing golf and I relayed the news about winning and he was elated because it was finally something he could enjoy.  As you can tell by my empty wrapper above with nary a crumb left that I highly recommend Smashburger.  There are locations all over the US, and eight are in California.  Cheers and thank you Smashburger!

Weekend in Pictures: Deep Fried Paradise (aka The San Diego County Fair)

Happy 4th of July!  We are currently in Las Vegas, about to celebrate.  But since I won’t have actual pictures of the celebration until later, I thought I’d post what we did the last weekend.  Every year we try to make it out to The San Diego County Fair, which will forever be affectionately known to our family as The Del Mar Fair.  I’ve been going since I was a little girl with my sister, mom and dad.  Now that my sister and I have our own family, we’re continuing the tradition with our own families.

Each year, the food gets more and more outlandish.  I’m not sure what they’re going to deep fry next, but I’m pretty sure we’ll be eating it.  I think most of the pictures will speak for themselves.  Hope you have a great 4th!

Foodie Fever: @illyissimo, You’re THE BEST!

I’m a recent Tweeter, just really starting to get into all the Twitter action this past May.  A couple of weeks ago, I entered a Twitter only contest given by my all time favorite coffee company, Illy (@illyUSA, @illycaffe & @illyissimo).  The contest asked Tweeters to name their favorite place in Italy and give the reason why.  My original Tweet:

 @illyissimo I’ve only been to Rome, but it was easily one of my favorite places in the world. So historic, beautiful & fashionable! #Italy

I then received a DM (direct message) from @illyissimo asking me for an address to ship a sample of either their new Mochaccino or their new Caffe No Sugar as a thank you for entering the contest, even though they chose another winner.  I said “Surprise me!”  Pictured below is what showed up on my doorstep on Monday, in two packages.  One was a boxed sample of a Mochaccino, surrounded by wonderful smelling coffee beans in a pretty gold box, along with two pieces of Domori chocolate.  The other was a huge box filled with two cans of each of their available flavors: Caffe, Caffe No Sugar, Cappuccino, Latte Macchiato, and Mochaccino (my mom ate one of the chocolates & my sister snagged one of the Caffe No Sugars before I could take the picture).  Talk about a surprise!  I now have enough coffee to get me through our trip to Las Vegas this 4th of July weekend.  Thanks again Illy!

Friend Friday: Summertime is for Strawberries!

For today’s Friend Friday, we are sharing our favorite seasonal dish.  My favorite is one that is best made whenever strawberries are in season, which is really anytime of the year.  One of my signature dishes is making cheesecake.  But I feel like for the summer, it’s a bit too hot to use the oven.  I searched the world-wide web and found this fresh and light alternative, and I have been making this dish for around 4 years now (original recipe found here).  I’ll do a step-by-step demo of this sometime soon.  Have a great weekend!

Strawberry Cheesecake Trifle

  • Prep Time: 20 min.
  • Cook Time: None
  • Serves: 14

Ingredients

  • 2 pints fresh strawberries, sliced
  • 1 cup sugar, divided
  • 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
  • 3 tablespoons orange juice
  • 3 cups whipping cream, whipped (or 1 tub of Cool Whip)
  • 1 (10.75 ounce) loaf frozen pound cake, thawed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
  • 3 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, grated
  • Chocolate curls (optional)
  • Additional strawberries (optional)

Cooking Directions

  1. In a bowl, toss strawberries with 1/2 cup sugar; set aside.
  2. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, orange juice and remaining sugar until smooth. Fold in the whipped cream; set aside.
  3. Drain strawberries, reserving juice; set the berries aside. Gently toss cake cubes with reserved juice. Place half of the cake in a 4-qt. trifle dish or serving bowl. Top with a third of the cream cheese mixture, half of the strawberries and half of the grated chocolate. Repeat layers. Top with remaining cream cheese mixture. Garnish with chocolate curls and strawberries if desired. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Note:  Instead of using a 4 qt trifle dish or serving bowl, you can also use a 2 inch deep serving dish/pan and put the layer of pound cake cubes on the bottom, spread the cream cheese mixture on top of the cake, and add the strawberries to the top.

(Image courtesy of Taste of Home)

Fashion Beauty Friend Friday is a Google group for bloggers to converse on a given topic each week. Katy from ModlyChic sends the questions, bloggers post their responses and then add their post to the list of people sharing their thoughts on the subject matter. To get started, check out this great tutorial on Grit & Glamour here.