Who knew that our food adventures would be just as eventful as our fabulous finds during Record Store Day? It’s not so hard to imagine when the adventures happen with a friend who is a food blogger! As mentioned in last Monday’s post, here is part two of my Record Store Day adventure with CC of the blog Pink Candles at Ridgemont High (who provided photos for the mini-collage of moi above). We started off the day very early by standing in line at Donut Bar in Downtown San Diego. I can safely say that this is the first time that I have ever stood in line early just to get into a food establishment. We left my house at 7:15 am and there were still people in front of us! The picture below was taken after we had already been inside and then sat down across the street to enjoy one of our donuts (you can see a picture of our day in line on their Tumblr page here).
I’m glad that the menu was posted because we got the chance to think about what we wanted prior to going in (they also post their menu daily on their official Facebook page). Even then, walking past all of the donut goodness had me changing my mind several times before I made my final decision: German chocolate cake donuts for my husband and mum; a blood orange, a blueberry with meyer lemon glaze, a creme brulee and maple bacon bar all for myself. CC selected the same ones, sans the maple bacon bar. Needless to say, I ate the maple bacon bar straight away, but my runaway favorites were the blood orange and creme brulee. The blood orange donut had a wonderful citrus glaze and the donut was so soft and fluffy. The combination melted in my mouth. The creme brulee one was a filled donut, and had the same crunchy candied sugar topping as a true creme brulee dessert, so it was like eating a handheld version. Overall, quite a delicious start to our day! We saved the rest of our donuts for later and at that point headed to the San Diego Record Show and then Groovy Records. After our first two record stops, we headed to Pacific Beach (the M-Theory line was a bit too long). I took the picture a row of bikes after we parked the car (below). I just adore that mint and pink one.
Before we ventured into Thrift Trader and Cow Records, we had lunch at Papa Luna’s Empanadas, an establishment specializing in empanadas. Being Filipina, both CC and I are very familiar with empanadas, but I’ve never had them like this. CC had two empanadas: a shrimp filled one (I don’t think it was on the menu pictured above) and one filled with butternut squash. I had the special of the month, the Moussaka (lamb, eggplant, garlic and parmesan). CC explained that you can have them either baked or fried, and she suggested fried, and I couldn’t have imagined having them any other way. Because I usually have ones filled with beef and potato, the empanadas at Papa Luna’s were so flavorful and unexpected. I will have to go back and bring my family and try the dessert empanadas. That dulce de leche and apple one has my name written all over it!
CC suggested that we have dessert at Sugar & Scribe, an Irish bakery next door to Cow Records, which was our last food stop of the day. Everything that I had at Sugar & Scribe was fabulous and oh-so-delicious. CC bought a few desserts to take home and also had a quiche in the store. Here were my goodies: the orange creamsicle and Grandpa Soapy’s lemon curd mini-cupcakes, a spicy ginger chew, a couple of mini sugar cookies and a bag of shortbread cookies. The mini-cupcakes were light and so very fresh. I love desserts with citrus in them (such as the blood orange donut at Donut Bar), and both the orange creamsicle and lemon curd cupcakes satisfied that craving. The mini sugar cookies were as pretty as they were yummy and the ginger chew reminded me of Christmas. I’m savoring the shortbread cookies, and I still have two more to have with tea. Not only did I love the baked goods, but I adored the quaint decor, personal pictures on the wall, the stories behind each recipe printed and displayed, and the lovely conversation we had with the owner and her family members. I had such a great time on Record Store Day because it was an all around spectacular sensory experience for the mind, stomach, ears and soul. I want to thank CC for a great outing, and here’s to more to come!
