Category Archives: Food & Drink

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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Larner Vineyard Tour, Part 4 of 4

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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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O’Brien’s Pub

O'Brien's PubO’Brien’s Pub is kind of a classic, old school, pub.  Seems like it is usually full of thirsty guys.  My wife always comments that there are over 90% men there.  There are places that have a fancier decor, no doubt but NOBODY pours better brew on a regular basis than these guys do.  Their tasting events are legendary.  You can sign up for their email list at their website.  I read every one!

A couple of my favorite events this past year have been the Russian River “Tion” tasting and the Alesmith Stout tasting.

For the Russian River “Tion” tasting, they feature all 17 of the RR brews whose name end with “tion”.  For example, Damnation, Supplication, etc.  Most of these are sours.  I’ve attended this even for about 3 years now and it took two times before I became addicted to this style.  Now I am seeking them out everywhere I go.

One other thing they had at one of these events was a cask version of their Porter.  That was totally awesome.  Imperial styled, this was the best Porter I have ever tasted.  Wish I could get it more often!

O'Brien's "tion" TastingThe other event that was awesome was the Alesmith Kopi Luwak Speedway Stout release tasting.  This is a coffee bean Stout made from some of the most expensive coffee beans on the planet.  Wild stuff, look up Kopi Luwak in Google, if you don’t know about it.  Anyhow, along with this, they had some older cask versions of the Speedway Stout there too.  As a special treat, I pulled out a bottle of some aged Speedway that had about 3 years on it.  I think it was the beer of the night, which is saying something!

Anyhow, O’Brien’s rocks for having the best beer.  Oh, and they have some decent food.  Gastropub style.  They make a darned good hamburger with stilton blue and bacon.  They do specials all the time and keep a board menu out front, as you walk in.  If you are hungry, don’t forget to check it out.

They are located in kind of a strange place.  Right in the middle of the Oriental section of Kearny Mesa on Convoy Street.

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Northgate Market: Favorite Grocery Store for Mexican Food

Northgate MarketFirst off, let me say that I shop at the store located off of 43rd Street in National City.  It’s hard to do this place justice without just going there.  This is an awesome store!  I found it when I was on a search for fresh Chilauca Chili’s.  They ALWAYS have them in stock.  I love to add these in strips to my homemade chili, especially when they are ripe.  They are hard to find ripened, even here, but I get them here and am happy to find any at all.

The butcher shop and deli areas are massive and they wrap around the whole shop.  This is a big store, as big as a Super Ralphs, if that helps you scale it.  They have so many good things here.  Their prepared meats, especially the carnitas, are incredible and relatively cheap compared to many places.  Fresh salsas, soups and tons of prepared dishes are available to eat there or take home.

They have a tortilla station and are more than happy to let you have a bag of freshly cooked ones if you ask.  They have some unusual versions as well.  Pretty cool.

If you like to cook Mexican styled cuisine, you owe yourself a visit.  It’s one of our favorite places to shop in all San Diego.

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Larner Vineyard Tour, Part 3 of 4

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