Category Archives: Dining Out

2011 Summer L.A. Trip Day 4 of 4

Posted on September 3, 2011 | 2 Comments

The highlights of Day 4 were mostly all about a couple of stops we made on our way home, but they also included snapshots from the road.

Like of the fog that hung around for quite a while.

And the Firestone Walker Brewing Company Taproom restaurant in Buellton that we thought would be open for an early lunch but wasn’t.

And Laetitia Winery in Arroyo Grande that brought back memories of when wifey and I visited there about six years ago.

And before we knew it, we got to our first highlight stop.

The Cracked Crab restaurant in Pismo Beach.

The food was great, and the restaurant vibe was energizing.

After our great lunch, I was happy that our schedule allowed us to stop by the Firestone Walker Brewing Company brewery and tasting room in Paso Robles.

The outside.

The inside.

I chose to taste 8 out of 12 of their beers.

The first four.

1. Honey Blonde (Honey Blonde Ale).

2. Oaktoberfest (Märzen/Oktoberfest).

3. Hefeweizen (Bavarian Hefeweizen).

4. Hemp Ale (American Brown Ale).

And beers 5 through 8.

5. Nectar IPA (India Pale Ale), which we went ahead and tried on Nitro.

6. Walker’s Reserve (Porter).

7. Double Jack (Imperial IPA).

8. Anniversary Ale (Blended Barley Wine).

Cheers!

I realized that I had to get one more: the Unfiltered Double Barrel Ale, aka DBA (English Pale Ale).

I checked out the brewery for a bit.

All the beers we tried were nice.

Firestone Walker’s DBA has been the go-to beer for wifey and I for the past five months or so. Before that, we drank Gordon Biersch beers the most. We’re definitely on the path now to trying out different breweries and beer styles. Good times ahead on the beer front for sure.

Stopping by the Firestone Walker brewery and tasting room capped our L.A. trip perfectly. And overall, our L.A. trip was simply awesome.

Always Grateful,

~Andy

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2011 Summer L.A. Trip Day 1 of 4

Posted on August 22, 2011 | 6 Comments

Wifey, the toddler, and I embarked on a 4-day Los Angeles trip a week ago. The highlights for me from Day 1 are captured below:

On the drive down, the toddler wrote wifey a special note. We were blown away.

We had left at 6 a.m. on Sunday, and that really paid off because before we knew it, we had already arrived in the heart of Koreatown.

The Biergarten restaurant caught our eye, and we decided to check it out. They weren’t technically open yet, but we were welcomed in.

DSCN1155 (520x390)

The beer selections got me excited.

For wifey, an Allagash White (a Belgian Style Wheat, AKA Belgian Witbier style – 5% ABV) from Maine’s Allagash Brewing Company.

And for me, a Stone Ruination IPA (7.7% ABV) from Stone Brewing Co., Escondido, CA. Yeah, I went big; it was my first Stone Brewing beer, and it was glorious.

And some food to go along with our beers.

Kimchi tofu – stir-fry kimchee, German sausage, onions, and tofu.

Sliders with cheese instead of peanut butter.

Wurstplatte of bratwurst and bockwurst.

With mustard and kimchi sauerkraut.

We all enjoyed the Biergarten. So glad to have stumbled upon it.

We missed meeting up with Lynn of The Actor’s Diet blog due to scheduling challenges, but she gave wifey a great tip about a children’s festival taking place at Paramount Studios.

I don’t get how the toddler managed to stay paint free.

My heart raced a bit seeing the Glee sign. I’m pretty sure that I’m the number one Gleek for my demographic – Old. Asian. Guy.

That said, I think I like The Glee Project more than Glee – just love Damian and Lindsay. I’m pretty sure that I’m also the number one Gleep. Interesting results from the season finale, yes?

The toddler got so much exercise at Paramount Studios. He ran all around the open space.

Which worked out well because he was in mellow spirits when we met up with our L.A. friends, Sophia and Mimi, at Yellow House Café.

These ladies absolutely glowed, and meeting up with them was great. We planned to see each other again in a couple days. At this point, we still needed to drive a bit to check in to our hotel.

Some enjoyable wines to unwind.

Copper Ridge Merlot.

Copper Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon.

Cheers!

Margaritas. Tasty. A bit too sweet.

Cheers again!

Koi pond on the ground floor.

Watching Disneyland fireworks.

And a video clip of the first few minutes of the fireworks. I just checked Disneyland’s website for their up-close video clip of the fireworks – amazing! But we were also very happy with what we got to see:

Before the first day of our L.A. trip came to an end, wifey and I agreed that the day could not have gone better.

Always Grateful,

~Andy

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Posted in Dining Out, Drinks, Friends, Out-and-About

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SJ Eats – A Moveable Feast at the Fourth Annual SubZERO Festival

Posted on June 3, 2011 | 1 Comment

What is San Jose’s SubZERO Festival? I’ll let their website help explain:

Focused on emerging and present subcultures thriving in our region, SubZERO is a diy, artistically bent, hi/lo-techno mashup where street meets geek. Come downtown on June 3rd to San Jose’s SoFA District from 6pm ’til midnight for an inspired evening of arts & culture. In addition to the South FIRST FRIDAYS monthly art walk you’ll find outdoor stages of entertainment plus artists, performers & musicians celebrating the indie creative spirit!

We enjoyed the SubZERO Festival much more than we thought we would. The main reason is that we ended up staying a lot longer than originally planned.

There were basically three parts to this festival.

The first part was all about art. Alas, we didn’t spend nearly enough time appreciating this first part.

As wifey and I were focused on getting to the food truck gathering and beer festival, it was the toddler who noticed, and insisted that we take a much closer look at, these animals that were hanging around. And then a random dude walked by and informed us that most of these animals were, in fact, extinct. Very cool and poignant artwork courtesy of the San Jose Yarnbombers.

Oddly Even performing.

Great art on the outside of a building wall.

The toddler spotted this in the sky directly over us – a dragon spitting out smoke and flames.

Troy Joseph Curtis performing with other talented musicians.

Jhameel. Learned about him about a week ago thanks to the SubZERO website. Really like his music. You can go download his album right now for free. But please make a donation. Again, I don’t know him personally, but I like that he went to Cal (Go Bears!). Didn’t think we’d be staying late enough to watch him perform, so catching a couple of his songs with the toddler was awesome.

Now, the second part featuring food trucks, SJ Eats – A Moveable Feast, was a big reason why we attended SubZERO.

Bill’s Beer Steamed Hot Dogs.

The Wow – silogs.

Treatbot – karaoke ice cream.

Tikka Bytes – Indian.

MoBowl – rice bowls.

An the Go – garlic noodles.

An the Go’s An Family’s Garlic Noodles.

Cabana Dave’s – world cuisine.

Cabana Dave’s baby back ribs.

Cabana Dave’s sweet potato fries.

The toddler and me.

Time for ice cream.

Treatbot’s Ryan, the organizer of SJ Eats, with the toddler. I embarrassed myself even more than last time while talking with him.

Strawberry for the toddler. And mango for the toddler’s friend. I had a taste of the strawberry, and it was amazing.

Hard to believe that there wasn’t a food truck element at last year’s SubZERO. But then again, gourmet food trucks have only recently, it seems, come into their own in San Jose. THANK YOU, RYAN, for your vision and leadership with that!

The next post has my take on the third part of SubZERO – the Better Brew Tasting Beer Festival.

Always Grateful,

~Andy

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Posted in Dining Out, Friends, Out-and-About

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Attending the Second SJ Eats (A Moveable Feast) Event – For Real

Posted on May 7, 2011 | 11 Comments

I’ve been checking out the SJ Eats Facebook page practically every day since last month’s inaugural SJ Eats event. I got a big kick out of seeing this rendered image a couple weeks ago of what the location was going to look like for the second SJ Eats.

Rendering of San Pedro Square Market with SJ Eats

Wifey and the toddler were out of town during the inaugural SJ Eats event last month, so I was especially excited to be able to go with them to SJ Eats 2.0, which took place today.

SJ Eats sign.

After we realized several days ago that the dinner session would work out better for us, we arrived early to better our chances of avoiding lots of people and long lines. Arriving early also made it easier to take pictures.

Hard to believe that last month’s inaugural event took place in the space represented by the food trucks in the below pic. There are four food trucks in this pic, but there were ten in the same space last month.

First view.

But, that was then. And this is now. Let’s move forward and take a quick look at the food trucks, shall we?

Curry Up Now – Indian.

Curry Up Now.

MoGo BBQ – Korean Mexican.

MoGo BBQ.

An the Go – Noodles.

An the Go.

Toasty Melts – Grilled cheese.

Toasty Melts.

Now, let’s check out the other food trucks.

Next view.

Wifey leads the way.

The tour continues.

Kara’s Cupcakes – Desserts.

Kara's Cupcakes.

Little Green Cyclo – Vietnamese.

Little Green Cyclo.

Quick Dog – Hot dogs.

Quick Dog.

No Way Jose – Mexican.

No Way Jose.

The Louisiana Territory – Cajun.

Treatbot – Karaoke ice cream.

Treatbot.

WOW – Filipino.

WOW.

Southern Sandwich – BBQ.

Southern Sandwich.

Tikka Bytes – Indian.

Tikka Bytes.

House of Siam – Thai.

House of Siam.

And BBQ Kalbi – Korean fusion.

BBQ Kalbi.

There you have it – the food trucks in attendance for the dinner session.

View from the other side.

A nice row of tables was set up in front of the future San Pedro Square Market building.

Other view.

The Peralta Adobe Plaza “debut” provided more space to sit down, eat, talk, and even listen to live music.

Peralta Adobe Plaza.

Now, the decision of what to get first was an intriguing one. The toddler wanted ice cream, and wifey and I were okay with it.

Getting in line.

That decision enabled me to spot and then chat with Treatbot’s Ryan, the individual who presumably started SJ Eats. It was totally inspiring to see a leader so humble with such positive vibes. Sorry, Ryan, for geeking out all over you. :)

The dude!

Yes! They’re open.

They're open.

One of the firsts in line.

One of the firsts.

Strawberry ice cream.

Strawberry.

Somehow I missed getting a taste of this ice cream. By all accounts, it was excellent.

Next up – we had our eye on trying out a banh mi from Little Green Cyclo.

Next up.

Lemongrass grilled pork banh mi.

Banh mi.

I also got some sweet potato fries with mango mint sauce.

Sweet potato fries.

Nom nom nom…

Hello.

Good times.

Good times.

Then, the toddler specifically requested a carrot cupcake. Wifey and I had given him a heads up that there were going to be cupcakes here.

Up next.

We’re all very familiar with Kara’s Cupcakes.

Cupcake score.

Kara’s karrot cupcake.

Yum.

It was time for us to head home.

Getting ready to head home.

Leaving.

While standing in line to grab some food to go, we spotted some familiar faces.

Friends.

Catching up.

It was great catching up with good folks we hadn’t seen in a while.

Which reminds me of the conversations that I had earlier with complete strangers who were eating delicious-looking food and looked like they were having a great time. I appreciated the sense of community I was feeling. I also greatly appreciated the recommendations on which food truck items to try next time.

Goodbye.

Yeah, we had a great time, and we look forward to next month’s SJ Eats event.

Always Grateful,

~Andy

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Mini San Luis Obispo Getaway Part 5 of 5

Posted on May 2, 2011 | 2 Comments

There were several things waiting for us back at the hotel:

Good, ol’ Firestone DBA.

DBA.

Snacks.

Snacks.

And white wine.

White wine.

Cheers!

Cheers.

And another Firestone DBA. :)

One more for old time's sake.

And before we knew it, the last day was upon us.

Here’s the toddler in the elevator checking out the breakfast area.

Heading to breakfast.

Presumably, showing off an excellent piece of homestyle potato there.

Homestyles potatoes.

Need. More. Homestyle. Potatoes.

Love this pic.

Before heading back home, we decided to check out Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.

Heading to the mission.

The mission.

Sign 1.

Sign 2.

Fountain.

Fountain 2.

We then wanted to walk around some more in happy, downtown San Luis Obispo.

The toddler and I found a good spot to sit while wifey shopped.

Waiting just a bit.

The day before was a wet one, but this day was picture perfect.

A downtown stroll.

Awesome weather.

Heading back.

A cool creek.

While back on the road, we decided to stop by downtown Paso Robles to grab lunch.

Back in downtown Paso Robles.

Knowing where we're going.

At Odyssey World Cafe. Again.

Kid’s corkscrew pasta noodles. Again.

Pasta.

Grilled ahi tuna salad.

Seared ahi tuna salad.

Pasta and tomato soup.

Pasta and soup.

Another view of charming, quaint downtown Paso Robles.

Time to get going.

We grabbed ice cream before hitting the road back home for good.

But not before ice cream.

Throughout our mini-getaway, wifey and I were aware of how much we were enjoying ourselves and our time together. It couldn’t have gone any better. Thank you very much, wifey, for setting everything up.

Always Grateful,

~Andy

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Posted in Dining Out, Lunch-Dinner, Out-and-About

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