Issue With New Site

I’m going through a fairly drastic change here.  For those of you who have links to various pages and images on my site, I have removed most of them.   Over time, I may bring some of them back but I am changing the fundamental way that I am using the non-forum areas of the site.  I will stockpile some pages of information as time goes by but most of the content will be based on my personal blog information that will include information on food, drink, and travel.

If there is an article or image that you would like to see come back, contact me and let me know.

I will have a contact form built by the end of the day.

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Events Page Finally Working

When I first added this plug-in, there were problems and it wasn’t working correctly.  Didn’t really do anything, just ignored it for a couple of weeks and the developer finally fixed the problems.

I added a contact sheet for the event notification, if you want a link to your event.

Really I am just including, major annual events in this.  There are ways to automate it, rather than use a contact form but I am not sure I want to do it that way.  I will look at it more in the future.  This is it for now.

The links are located in the top navigation bar under events.

You can view the calendar.  First link at the top of the calendar says agenda.  This will give you list of events entered by date.

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Bird Rock Coffee Roasters wins best small coffee roaster in America

Good news for these folks.  Long been one of my favorites but nice to see them garner attention from those who know more than I do.

I read about his through the San Diego Union at:

San Diego Union Article on Bird Rock Coffee Roasters

The folks giving out the award are Roast Magazine at:

Roast Magazine

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Bird Rock Coffee Roasters

Bird Rock Coffee Roasters

Bird Rock Coffee Roasters 2Bird Rock Coffee Roasters 3

Bird Rock Coffee Roasters 4Bird Rock Coffee Roasters SumatraBird Rock Coffee Roasters

This place is my current favorite spot for a great cup of cappuccino.  Zumbar’s is very close, they both make strong espresso that is super rich but not bitter.

While I love them both, the setting in Bird Rock is the bomb.  Grab a cup of coffee, relax awhile, and then go for a walk down to the beach, which is ONLY a couple blocks away.  Some nice grass covered park space nearby and some awesome waves to watch the surfers exploit.

They carry pastries from Bread and Cie, which have the best cinnamon rolls on the planet.

They also roast some really rare beans here.  They rarely over roast anything, most of it has a medium roast to it.  Lots of Batak’s and Peaberry beans.  Never bought a bag of coffee beans that I didn’t think was some of the best coffee I have purchased.  Today I purchased a special roast of Sumatra, designated as coming from Lake Tawar.  Here is their tasting note on it:

TASTING NOTE:
From Northern Sumatra, this coffee is similar to the Blue Batak we have carried for a few seasons. Unlike most coffee from Sumatra, this lot is meticulously processed at origin and this extra effort shows. A coffee for the adventurous: Intense, earthy yet clean, full-bodied and dense, yet slightly sweet. Syrup-like in texture, a hint of cherries maybe grapefruit in the cup, rich, distinctive and memorable.

Here’s what Ken Davids had to say about it: Pungently sweet and deep in both aroma and cup. Very complex: black cherry, grapefruit, fresh-turned earth, cedar, a hint of night flowers. Rich, grapefruit-toned acidity, lightly syrupy mouthfeel, sweetly tart finish saturated with fruit.  This received 94 points from Coffee Review.

5627 La Jolla Blvd, La Jolla CA 92037
858.551.1707
HRS: Mon-Fri 6am-6pm | Sat-Sun 6:30am-6pm

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Surati Farsan Mart

Surati FarsanHow delicious is this place?!

100% vegetarian cuisine, not that I really know their ingredient list or anything, being an avowed carnivore myself. That is just what everyone claims about the place. Doesn’t matter to me one bit, all that matters is that everything I put in my mouth tasted great.

We had a small meal that was, none the less, very filling. It consisted of 3 orders and drinks.

Chole Samosa, consisting of 2 vegetable filled puff styled pasties in a mix of spiced chick peas. There was a little sweet and little heat in this. One black roasted Thai like chili and what I suspect was a tamarind sauce that lay waiting in the bottom of the bowl.

Surati Farsan Chole Samosa and Dahi Sev PuriMasala Dosa, consisting of a large bread like crepe that was rolled and stuffed with lightly curried potatoes. This was served with a vegetable based spiced soup and some mint and coconut chutney.

Dahi Sev Puri, was purchased at the suggestion of the wait staff. This is a small deep fried whole wheat puff pasty shell stuffed with chick peas, potatoes and a green piquant sauce that I suspected was cilantro based. They were topped off with yogurt. Incredible!!

To drink, Maureen had a Mango Lassi and I had a Falooda. The Falooda consisted of rose infused milk with vanilla ice cream and some passion fruit.

Surati Farsan Masala Dosa and Dahi Sev Puri

Highly recommended!!

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Added our Photos from our Colorado – New Mexico loop

This was a trip we took a year or two ago. We flew into Denver and drove through the Rockies, down to Breckenridge, continued to Santa Fe and then went back to Denver by way of Colorado Springs. The pictures are in the Travel link above.

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Lesson Learned

I am uploading a big photo gallery through the software for WP. It slows the heck out of the site. I won’t do that again in the future. Small photo galleries are OK but the large ones will have to be uploaded at night. Sorry about the slowdown.

If finally finished. Ouch!

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Larner Vineyard Tour, Part 4 of 4

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Added Hawaiian Photo Album

You can check it out by clicking on the Travel link above.

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Assenti’s Pasta

Assenti’s Pasta is one of our favorite spots.  It is a straight forward pasta shop. There is typically a selection of 10-20 different types of pasta that are laid out on trays for you to look over.  This is the freshest pasta we have found in the San Diego area.  They are consistently good and there are some fairly unusual pastas like the squid ink black pasta, along with others.  They also have a little deli counter with a small selection of salami and cheese along with a few shelves with various Euro/Italian style of condiments such as EVOO, capers, arborio rice, etc., etc.  They carry a great Tuscano Salami that I like to pick up when I am there.

There is not a lot to say, just that if you want the best pasta in San Diego, this is your spot.  Oh, one last thing to point out; CASH ONLY!  They do have an ATM but it charges you a small fee.  I’ve learned but messed up a couple times in the early days.

They are located in the north end of Little Italy, across the street from Mona Lisa, 1731 India Street, San Diego, CA 92101

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Mona Lisa Italian Foods

Mona Lisa Italian FoodsMona Lisa’s is located right across the street from Assenti’s Pasta.  What a great duo!  They have a number of things that we love to buy.  First off, they have some great home made sausage.  They are wrapped continuously so you can buy a sausage that is a couple of feet long.  For a nice presentation, we like to coil them into long coils and pan sear them until done.  The plain mild Italian sausage is the bomb, we love it.  They also have some awesome Provolone balls, rich and authentic stuff, like you won’t find almost anywhere else in town.  Pick up a can of the tuna belly if you like canned tuna.  It will ruin all other canned tuna for you.  Amazingly great.  Salted capers and salted anchovies are always on hand.  I had an espresso soda that was actually delicious.  There sandwiches are quite good and they have a solid selection of Italian wines that are not your typical brands.  Looks like someone there knows a thing or two about Italian wine.

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