Extraordinary desserts

2929 5th Avenue

San Diego, CA 92103

Occasion: Sweet tooth fix right before we head to the airport! 8.29.10

 

Shangri La

Vanilla cake moistened with kirsh layered with white chocolate mousse, guava mousse, fresh strawberries and whipped cream

I tried it at the bakery and also bought one back home! It definitely tastes a lot better when you have it fresh or withing 24 hours of buying it.  Once it's been sitting in the refrigerator for awhile, the cake gets very mushy.  The flavors are definitely extraordinary! Love the exotic flavor of the guava in it.  This is definitely my type of cake because it's not too rich, it's light but at the same time exploding with yummilicious flavors.

Napoleon

Messy, but delicious.  I got to try a little bit of it.  It was hard to cut a piece off of the slice.  I don't like it when it's inconvenient to eat.  The custard was amazing and the pastry puff was nice and fluffy.  It was one of the best tasting napoleons I've had.

Berry Crumb Cake

It was nice and warm and way too sweet.  Amy thought that it would be less sweet than the cake desserts, but it was the opposite. I just thought it was mediocre. Not that great.

 

Roasted Coconut Cream Torte

A bit on the bland side. Nothing too special about it, but definitely very well presented.  The cake is very light in flavor and nothing to extravagant.  I'm glad it wasn't too rich, but still had a slight coconut flavor. Not bad in flavor.

I bought a few other slices home for my sister to try and was able to get a taste of it. Though not pictured, the moraccan definitely stood out to me. Loved it!!

George's Ocean Terrace

1250 Prospect Street

La Jolla, CA 92037

Occasion: Sunday brunch before we leave SD to return to SFO. 08.29.10 for a party of six

Chips and Salsa

We were starving, so we asked for a light appetizer to start the meal off.  It was good, btu nothing spectacular about it. It was just a good little filler before our food came.

Five spiced chicken salad with napa cabbage, bean sprouts, snowpeas, carrots, basil, peanuts, sesame, honey soy vinaigrette and crisp wontons.

Carmen ordered this.  I was not about the salad on this trip. I wanted to eat real food. I got to try a little bit of it.  It tasted like asian chicken salad in a sweet vinaigrette sauce.  It was decent, but I'm not a big fan of cabbage so my judgement could be skewed.  It just wasn't what I wanted that morning.  I guess it's good for those looking for a light lunch.

Marinated and Grilled Fresh Fish Tacos with mango salsa, jalapeno-lime creme fraiche, guacamole and shredded cabbage

This was highly recommended by our waiter. He said it was their most popular and most ordered dish. Ella and Donna ordered it. I got to share it with Ella, since we are both greedy and wanted to split and share what we each ordered. The waiter was right, it was so pretty darn good fish tacos.  The mango salsa was amazing and very refreshing. I would have never thought to have mango salsa on my taco.

Halibut Special

Not on the menu. Heard it was seasonal. SOOOO DELICIOUS. It was served on a bed of corn topped with some kind of seasoned chopped tomatoes. There was a wasabi based sauce and the other orangish sauce was some kind of tomato base I think. Both were good, but I thought the tomatoe based sauce was just a little bit too salty for my liking. This was my favorite thing there. I would definitely recommend it if it's on their special again. I enjoyed every bite of it!

Ceviche with shrimp and avocado

This was another appetizer filler that came...actually during our meal. We were just so stuffed by everything. It was hard to enjoy this.

Piatti Ristorante and Bar

2182 Avenida De La Playa

La Jolla, CA 92037

Occasion: San Diego Weekend! Ella's Bday Dinner 8.28.10.

Cozze

Steamed Carlsbad Aqua Farm Mussels, Thyme, Grilled Fennel, Garlic and light tomato broth

You can't go wrong with starting your meal with mussels. I always love dipping the bread in the broth so that it soaks and sogs it up. Delicious.

Caprese Salad

My favorite type of salad. Tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. I was a bit disappointed there were not more dressing, but it was decent. Love love love mozzarella.

Carpaccio

thinly sliced beef with arugula, extra virgin olive oil, capers and shaved grana padana

I love trying this wherever I can and fortunately the bday girl wanted to try it too. The slices were thin enough,but they don't give that much.  Tastes just about right...italian style beef carpaccio. Still love the vietnamese beef carpaccio way better.

Paccheri Rigati Al Forno

Baked Large Pasta Tubes Filled with mozzarella, goat cheese, parmigiano, reggiano, grilled radicchio, leeks, rapini and marinara sauce

I got to try this and I thought it was pretty good. No meat, but a lot of cheese...I LIKE! I enjoyed the little bit that I did get to try and would definitely order it again.

Piccata

Veal sauteed with lemon, capers and white wine served with sauteed spinach and mushroom risotto cakes

I got to try a bit of this and I really liked it. Veal was very strong and flavorful and not as gamey as I had thought it would be.  It was decent.

Rotolo

Rolled Pasta filled with wild mushrooms, ricotta, spinach and porcini mushroom cream sauce

It looks like a sandwich wrap, but it tastes far from it.  The mushroom cream sauce definitely added flavor to it and probably the main ingredient in making this dish taste good, well for me at least.  I thought it was decent because it has ingredients that I enjoy eating.  I've never had this type of pasta before so I thought it was pretty interesting and the bursts of flavors I got out of this amazed me. Though not the best dish I had that night, I still thought it was pretty interesting.

Penne Al Brassato D'Agnello

Penne Pasta Braised lamb, red wine, tomato sauce, grana padana and fresh mint

This is what I ordered. I wanted to order something out of my usual habit of fish. Boy did I regret that.  Since it was an Italian restaurant, I figured that I should order some kind of pasta dish.  Love penne pasta so that definitely pulled my attention towards this dish.  I'm okay with eating lamb, so I figured why not give it a try. Turns out that I thought the lamb was a bit too gamey for my liking. It's edible and bearable, but I would have enjoyed something better.

Petto Di Pollo

Lemon marinated chicken breaste grilled "al Mattone" with Cannellini beans, toasted garlic and sauteed mustard greens

Nothing about it impressed me. I thought it was mediocre.  Though I did enjoy a couple bites of the mashed potatoes.  It was really nothing too special to me. Not even that memorable.

Hash House A Go Go

3628 5th Ave

San Diego, CA 92103

Occasion: First stop after we pick up the rental car. San Diego weekend for Ella's Bday. Four girls shared 3 dishes. Portion size was pretty generous. **Pics courtesy of Amy Yee**

Watermelon Kiwi Juice

I saw people drinking it and it looked good so I ordered it. Well actually 3/4 of us ordered it. It was good but it definitely tasted artificial. The colors were really pretty though and in my opinion I thought it tasted pretty good.

French Toast

Griddled french toast dipped in banana cinnamon cream with pecan maple syrup

We couldnt' decide between the french toast and the pancakes. so we asked our waitress. She recommended the french toast so we went for that. Good, because I'm a french toast person!!The bread was fluffy and it went well with the what seemed like grilled bananas. Loved it!

Fresh Mushroom, artichoke hearts, sundried tomato and fresh spinach hash

I wish there were more ingredients and less potatoes. I felt like the main dish consisted of potato fingerlings. It seemed to have lacked in mushrooms, artichoke hearts and sundried tomato.  Loved the combination of the ingredients, but I didn't think it was all that spectacular.

Sundried tomato, basil and goat cheese farm scramble

It was very similar to the hash we had hordered and was nothing too spectacular. The goat cheese was too strong for a couple of us. I wish we had ordered soemthing less simliar to the hash.

Grand Cafe

501 Geary Street

San Francisco, CA 94102

Occasion: Friday Happy Hour 5.14.10

$1 Oysters (Miyagi's)
Delicious. Fresh. Just what we wanted...besides the crazy long wait for it. We ordered 4 dozen and the chef had a lot of other orders...which is why we had to wait about half an hour for them.

Duck Ravioli
It had a familiar taste to it like chinese dim sum. Nothing special. It only came in two pieces. I didn't think it was worth it because it's not filling.

Salmon Tartar

Taste was on par, but unfortunately I was disappointed in the portion size. Flavorful and perfect on the toasted baguette.

Shrimp Stew

There were only about 5 prawns in there cooked in tomato. Again, portion size was small, but it was tasty. It was nice and warm and stayed warm in he skillet. It was good and I enjoyed it. Nice little snack!

Flammenkuche D'Alsace

wood oven baked crispy flatbread, stone fruit, honey lavendar with candied walnuts and goat cheese cream
The combination of flavors are very interesting. The crispy flat bread was simple, yet tasty especially with a slab of goat cheese cream slathered over it. There was a thin slice of fruit on top and it was just amazing. Candied walnuts sprinkled on top were amazing. It was a nice little happy hour snack.

Beef Brochettes

Beef, seasonal vegetables, marchan du vin sauce
Beef was tender and full of flavor. Again, portion size wasn't that great. Glad to say I tried it.