The Unvegan » California

Old Western Eating in Temecula

The Unvegan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:00:08 +0000

Like all those Old West burger places you hear about.

Temecula is a strange part of California. Somewhere between LA, San Diego and Palm Springs, it’s essentially the middle of nowhere. Except it’s not. It’s wine country, it’s gated communities and it is the Old West. Nowhere is the latter felt more than Old Town Temecula, which is a blend of truly old buildings and new buildings made to look like cowboys once had shootouts inside. Front Street Bar & Grill sits in Old Town, but doesn’t try to look like a cowboy outpost. Instead, it has the looks of colonial mansion, with a great outdoor patio.

Despite the 70 degree weather, the heat lamps were on in force and while this has just about nothing to do with the meal, I felt it was worth noting.

The onion rings are trying to escape!

Annnnnyyyyway, we were seated immediately and as I took a look at the menu, I instantly knew what I wanted. It was actually pretty easy, as Front Street had a pretty good burger selection. One of these was the Old Town Burger, topped with cheddar, onion rings and homemade BBQ sauce. It came with fries also, and just to be safe I asked the waitress if there were any other vegetables hiding between the lines. She told me it also came with lettuce, tomato and onion and I asked her not to let them go to waste.

I no longer want onion rings.

When it came, I was happy to find a plate devoid of vegetables and loaded up with fries. As has been my recent policy, I haven’t been considering onion rings vegetables until they’ve been tasted. If they retain a strong onion texture, they are banished, but otherwise they are cool with me. These particular onion rings were scattered atop the burger in a way not entirely conducive to eating, but I squeezed them in, threw the bun on top and got to work. What I found was exactly as I expected. All ingredients were good and basic. The patty looked and tasted preformed and the cheese was average yellow cheddar. I liked the BBQ sauce and definitely appreciated the homemade aspect of it, but ultimately it wasn’t a far cry from KC Masterpiece. This is neither a bad or a good thing, but it is a thing. The onions in the onion rings were still way too crunchy, which was the only actual disappointing aspect of the burger. The sesame seed bun did its job, but little more. While I ordered the burger cooked medium rare, it leaned a bit more towards the medium end, which was alright because the burger was still juicy, but could’ve been improved a bit.

And, of course, the fries were great. It’s hard to mess up fries, and Front Street did not.

Upon finishing, I felt as though I had just eaten a classier version of Carl’s Jr. It was definitely an improvement on Carl’s and was satisfying, but I’m going to have to eat at a few more places in Old Town Temecula before I send my loyal readers down to Front Street.

Sonic Good is Just Pretty Good

The Unvegan — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:00:33 +0000

So this is what all those commercials were about...

About 10 or so years ago, the world began to see commercials for a fast food burger place called Sonic. These commercials were often both funny and hunger-inducing. Unfortunately, though, Sonics were only in select locations throughout the country. Yes it was annoying, but it was also genius, because it whet the appetite for Sonic with people who had never even seen the place. The idea was that when they would finally see one, whether in travel or with a new one being built, they would want nothing more than to devour their burgers. And it worked, at least on me. When I saw my first Sonic years ago while driving through Independence, Missouri, I just had to try it. I remember it being good, but this was pre-meat blog and in the middle of a cross-country road trip, so the memory is mostly blur filled with the knowledge that the meal kept my internal fuel running just as long as I needed it to.

But just this weekend, on the way to Las Vegas, I came across another Sonic and decided it needed a proper tasting. The town was Victorville, California, and the Sonic was just off the highway amidst some other tasty-looking fast food-esque restaurants. One thing unique about Sonic is their old-fashioned drive-in spots. Notice, I didn’t say drive-thru because while they have that, they also have the spots where you order from your car and a server brings out the food on roller skates. We opted for the drive-in, which I hadn’t experienced since I was a wee child at an A & W in Michigan.

Sonic Boom!

As for the food, the girlfriend told me their Cherry Lime Slush was unbeatable, so I started with one of those to split, then moved on to the big gun: The Super Sonic Bacon Double Cheeseburger. Although served with lettuce, tomato, onions and pickles, when I asked for it plain, it seemed fit for an unvegan. Then, to make the meal even more frightening, I ordered Chili Cheese Tots simply because I had never seen such substances offered on tots.

Sonic me some tots!

Soon enough, the food was roller skated out to greet us. I was a little disappointed with the lack of a window tray (like a regular fast food tray with things to stick it to the window like a table). I remember A & W had those, but perhaps they now only exist in memory. I opened up the burger to find it had been prepared perfectly, then I began to take it down. What I found was a pretty good bacon cheeseburger. And that’s kind of where it ends. In Sonic’s commercials, they would say, “It’s not just good, it’s Sonic good” but in my case it was just simply good. Ultimately it tasted like a fast food burger that was better than your typical fast food, but not good enough to reach the level of Five Guys Burgers and Fries or In-N-Out Burger. The tots were similarly good and while they earned Sonic points for creativity, they didn’t change the game.

Also, there was the Cherry Lime Slush. I do love me a slush and was happy to see that Sonic had them. The slush did deliver migraine-level brain freezes to each of us, but I still definitely appreciated the addition of these frozen beverages on the menu.

So for the gimmick of old-fashioned drive-in food, Sonic delivers some good food. Unfortunately it just isn’t quite good enough to merit multiple return visits based on the food alone.

Frying Up the Sea at Parkers’ Lighthouse

The Unvegan — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:00:51 +0000

Ok, I guess I'll eat fish.

Parkers’ Lighthouse in the Shoreline Village of Long Beach is not an actual lighthouse. Also surprising was the fact that during my time there I met not one person named Parker. It is, however, a seafood restaurant overlooking the beautiful Pacific Ocean. So, for the third time in just two days, I found myself staring at menu full of fish and finally I gave in.

I went with the easiest fish possible, Fish and Chips. I also leaned this way because it was marked as one of the fish harvested from a sustainable source. I figure if I’m going to get something I probably won’t love, I should at least ensure that this thing will be replaced.

After a considerable wait, I finally got my order in, and then after another considerable wait, my order arrived. The results were actually a bit worse than expected. I love fried food and I love grease, but when I dug into these, I found myself a little greased out. Like to the point that my face dripped with grease with each bite. But this would be perfectly fine with me if the grease brought some awesome flavor along with it. Sadly, these bits of fish were relatively flavorless. Actually, that was a like, the only flavor that really came through was the grease.

So that’s how it went at Parkers Lighthouse. After downing only about half the fish, I was good and done. Fish and Chips is a damn heavy dish, but when there’s little flavor incentive to keep eating, you wind up with full, unsatisfied stomach and a great view of the ocean.

Por Ti Funghi, Volare

The Unvegan — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:00:48 +0000

Hole in the wall?

While in San Diego with a couple of runners the night before the Rock and Roll Marathon, we needed some carbs. I wasn’t running, but I am never one to turn down a carbo-load. Knowing nothing of Italian food in San Diego and not really wanting to go to Olive Garden (no offense to the Garden, but we wanted to support something local), we turned to Urban Spoon. Yes, there’s an app for that. This directed us to Volare, a sort of whole in the wall in a sort of sketchy part of town. It looked perfect.

Starting strong.

We walked in and there was a wait. Some were regulars talking about how amazing the place was and others were also loading up on carbs before the race as well. After about 20 minutes, we were brought to a table. I opened the menu and was astonished. There was not one pasta dish above 10 bucks. I know that’s not crazy, but coming from LA it is amazing. We started off with a cheesy garlic bread and then I opted for their gnocchi with romano sauce. The waitress told me the sauce was a creamy marinara, and this sounded just great to me. I was wrong, but first came the cheesy garlic bread.

The bread wasn’t just some poor man’s pizza without sauce, instead it was composed of a baguette topped with garlic butter and cheese melted over it. It was a great carby way to start the meal. Unfortunately the meal didn’t finish as strong.

Mushrooms are nothing to joke about.

When my gnocchi came out, I was excited. At least until I saw what was in my sauce. Mushrooms. Everywhere. Nowhere in the menu were mushrooms mentioned and the waitress definitely said nothing of the vile fungi when describing the sauce. This was no good and I was forced to eat around these terrible things. I liked the gnocchi, which was soft and bulbous. I even liked the sauce, which worked really well with the gnocchi. Unfortunately it was hard to enjoy these things while eating around mushrooms.

It seemed I was the only one suffering, though, because my eating companions really loved their meals. Like truly loved them. Nonetheless, just tell me when I’m gonna be stuck with mushrooms. I want to like places like this, but mushrooms in my sauce make it tough.

The First Pizza Factory

The Unvegan — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:00:05 +0000

Best sukkah ever.

While there may be 120 Pizza Factories in five different states, the original Pizza Factory has humble roots in the town of Oakhurst, just outside of Yosemite National Park. And after a long day of staring at and walking through giant sequoias, very little sounds better than some greasy pizza. I hoped Pizza Factory would be able to deliver said pizza. Plus, with a tagline like “We Toss ‘em, They’re Awesome” it’s hard to go wrong.

We ordered a large to split with 3 people (one of whom swore to only eat one because she was eating a dastardly salad as well) and got pepperoni as our topping. Then we took a seat out side in their sukkah to wait for our pizza to be ready.

Look at those stacks of pep.

When ready, the beautiful pizza looked almost too good to eat. Almost. Dripping with grease and topped with loads of pepperoni, I pulled off a slice. And what I found was delicious. Purely delicious. The crust was the perfect thickness and had the best texture for a round pizza like this, and did I mention the loads of pepperoni? Loads! So much so that my dad was pulling them off because he couldn’t handle them. I had no trouble handling them, though. The only problem, and it pains me to say this, was that there actually was too much grease. I don’t mind a ton of grease on my pizza, but when there is so much that it fills the whole pan with oil and makes the bottom of the crust soggy, it’s a problem. Not because of the grease, but because nobody wants a soggy pizza.

So for the first couple slices the pizza was grand, but as the grease began to pool and soak in the pizza began to deteriorate. It didn’t ruin the experience, but certainly didn’t help.

Low on Sauce at Todd’s Cookhouse Bar-B-Que

The Unvegan — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:00:41 +0000

Looks like brisket.

In the small town of Oakhurst, just miles from Yosemite National Park, there is but one BBQ joint, and it goes by the name of Todd’s Cookhouse Bar-B-Que. Todd’s is one of your old-fashioned order at the counter type of BBQ places and the menu is quite staggering for being up in a small town of the Sierra Nevada. From sandwiches to wings to jambalaya, everything looked great and well-priced. But would it taste great?

I settled on the Chopped Beef Brisket Sandwich, which was fit for an unvegan because it was described as “Just meat n’ sauce.” It came with a side and some fries. For my side I went with chili, then headed over to the sauce counter to load up on some dippings. What I found seemed to be disappointing. Their traditional BBQ sauce looked like a glorified ketchup, while their hickory smoked BBQ sauce looked like real sauce, but there was barely enough to fill up one little sauce cup. We asked the kitchen if there was any out back and they sadly responded, “No.”

Todd's: Changing the meaning of chili.

The meal arrived shortly after, and armed with just short of two BBQ sauces, I dug in. The brisket sandwich was totally devoid of vegetables, as advertised, and I poured a little of both sauces on to give it a go. I found that the hickory sauce was better than the traditional, but not enough to hold its own in a BBQ sauce competition. A better sauce really would have made the sandwich great, but instead it was stuck being just decent. The chili was an interesting story as well, because aside from having a little kick and some meat here and there, it was basically baked beans. Good baked beans, mind you, but still not much more than that. Finally, the fries were quite delicious. In fact, the traditional BBQ sauce made for great fry-dipping because it was so much like ketchup. Look, with sauces like this you enjoy them any way you can.

Not dessert, just fries.

The highlight of the meal, however, was the dessert. At the end of it all, we got a Bread Pudding for the table. Because I only wanted one bite, I didn’t get a picture, and that proved to be a mistake. This delectable dessert just may have been the best bread pudding I’ve ever had. Hands down.

But was it enough to make up for the lack of delicious BBQ sauce and twisted baked beans? Not quite. I’m a sauce man, and when I get BBQ I’m expecting some tasty sauce. Unfortunately Todd’s didn’t get theirs quite right, but as long as they remain the only BBQ joint in Oakhurst Todd’s will be worth a visit for anyone craving brisket, ribs or pulled pork.

Triple Meating at Ducey’s

The Unvegan — Tue, 31 May 2011 16:00:45 +0000

Ahhhh get that crap outta my burger.

Up near Yosemite National Park is a place called Bass Lake. Bass Lake has itself a little village, and this village is dominated by a huge lodge called The Pines Resort. Inside this resort is a fancy restaurant called Ducey’s on the Lake. We wanted no part of this, so we found Ducey’s Bar and Grill, with a swanky patio and a much more reasonable and fun menu. We grabbed a table outside and sorted out what to eat. I had sworn a couple days off of burgers after tackling a couple bad ones in the last couple days, but there was a burger on this menu calling out the unvegan name and I couldn’t resist.

The burger was called the Bad Dam Burger and although the name evokes images of a leaky beaver home, it contains two cheeses, bacon and the kicker: Italian sausage. Yes, Italian sausage on a burger, making it a triple-meat burger. And wrapped around this burger was a honey bun. Of course, it came with the tomatoes, lettuce and onions that no unvegan should ever have on a burger, and I ordered mine without. Finally, it included fries.

That's more like it.

When my burger arrived, I was in for a nasty surprise (see above). That’s right, loaded with all the veggies I refuse to ingest. The waitress walked by and noticed I was picking out chunks of lettuce from my cheese and realized that the kitchen had made a mistake. She offered to take it back and get me a real burger and I did not refuse. After a few more minutes I was back in business with a true meal.

Look inside and see my Italian sausage.

I took my first bite and was met with a ton of different flavors. From cheese to beef to bacon to sausage to bun, my mouth was in for a ride. But it was not a perfect ride. The bacon, cheese, sausage and bun were truly delightful. In fact, the sausage was like the size of an entire patty and added some great flavor. The highlight of these flavors, though, was not the meat at all. It was actually the honey bun, which added just the right amount of sweetness to such a savory meal. Th biggest disappointment, however, was the beef patty. This guy was dry, overcooked and totally lacking in flavor. In fact, the burger probably would have been better as an Italian sausage sandwich with those cheeses, bacon and bun.

Yeah, the fries were nicely seasoned.

So I give kudos to Ducey’s for thinking outside the typical burger toppings by throwing in a sausage and enclosing it all in some sweet honey, but sadly a burger cannot truly be great without a good patty as a base. Ducey’s failed at that and will thus be relegated to the land of good ideas and unfortunate execution.

And oh yeah, the fries were pretty good, but not good enough to salvage that beef patty.

Strange Strips at George’s on the Cove

The Unvegan — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:00:47 +0000

Where's the fried stuff?

For my last meal in San Diego, we headed to La Jolla. I didn’t know much about La Jolla beforehand, but it ended up being a pretty cool little part of town. We did a little walk around The Cove and saw some pretty tasty-looking live seals. Sadly, these guys were not for eating, so instead we ate a place called George’s at the Cove.

George’s didn’t have a very unvegan-friendly menu (I should also make it clear that they had a burger on their menu that looked pretty good, but after the zoo and Hodad’s the day before, that was out of the question), but it did have an awesome view. Which is great, but you can’t eat a view. Because it doesn’t taste good. Filled with vegetarded dishes, I finally found something I could eat on their “sides” menu. It was called Cayenne Dusted Grilled Chicken Strips and this “side” came with arugula salad, fries and a parmesan garlic dipping sauce for the fries. I don’t know about anyone else, but this was the first time I had ever seen a side dish come with its own side dishes. This was strange to me, but I was okay with it because it meant I was really getting a full meal. The one thing I wasn’t okay with was the arugula salad. When I ordered I asked them not to worry about given me the salad and then I waited for my side meal to come.

Seeing double.

When it arrived, I was amazed to find they had given me two full baskets of fries. Instantly my trouble with unvegan options on the menu disappeared. It was replaced by a love of a place that gives out free fries in exchange for arugula, without even asking! But none of this would matter if the food wasn’t good.

I started with the chicken strips and found them to be pretty good. It was strange to be eating unbreaded and unfried chicken strips, so they were really just small breasts, but pretty tasty. They were like a better-cooked, more flavorful version of what I’ve grilled at home before. They weren’t terribly spicy from the cayenne, but still good.

The fries were cut in the regular thickness, but somehow had the sort of taste and texture that you get with thin-cut fries. I think it had had something to do with being fried for a little while longer, but it had a good effect. They were nicely salted and all my eating companions seemed very appreciative of my bonus fries.

Even though George’s at the Cove first seemed like a disappointment based on their limited options, they ended up turning things around and making an unvegan like me feel welcome. The food wasn’t anything amazing, but it did make me rethink ordinary chicken strips.

Bacon Patties and Burgers at Hodad’s

The Unvegan — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:00:07 +0000

A sign for good burgers.

One of the hardest parts of being an amateur food blogger is that when people are struggling to decide what to eat, they look to you. Never mind the fact that you don’t eat healthy, don’t like to spend too much money and are happier with a cheeseburger than foie gras. So even though I was with family in San Diego, the only place I knew to go to was Hodad’s in Ocean Beach, a divey surfer burger stand.

Check out that bumper sticker in the middle.

But Hodad’s isn’t just any divey surfer burger stand. It is THE divey surfer burger stand, which is actually why I know about it. Frequently listed as one of the best burgers in the country, I’ve read about and had a strong urger to go to Hodad’s for at least a year. In fact, if we hadn’t already had a trip to San Diego planned, I probably would have made a special trip just to get dinner there.

What makes Hodad’s so special isn’t some fancy ground beef or brioche bun, but actually what they do with their bacon. Rather than simply cooking up some bacon on the griddle, they form their bacon into a miniature little bacon patty and put it on top of the burger. This two amazing results. The first is that you get an even distribution of bacon on the burger, preventing unnecessary bacon-less bites. The second is that you don’t have to worry about biting into a piece of bacon and accidentally ripping out a whole piece of bacon when ripping out a bite. Genius!

Do you see any onion in those rings?

So to test out this bacon patty to the fullest, I ordered myself the double bacon cheeseburger. As with all the burgers, it came with lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, mayo, mustard and ketchup. So with all that involved, I got mine naked, except for ketchup. I made mine a basket so it came with fries and then on top of that we ordered a basket of onion rings for the table.

The onion rings came first and looked great. I ordinarily avoid onions, but some onion rings are so fried that any reminder that it ever was an onion is long gone. Fortunately, that’s what Hodad’s was like. These things were so covered in crazy thick batter and were so deeply fried that anything resembling an onion had been lost. And in place of that onion was delicious, crispy awesomeness.

I can taste it from here.

But I was not here for rings, I was at Hodad’s for burger and when it arrived, it looked like a dream come true. Oozing with cheesy goodness and burgery brown-ness, the burger was ready to get in me. And it was amazing. Each bite unleashed a perfect blend of cheese, bacon, meat and bun. The ketchup was really only there for moisture and although it was unnecessary, it also added a touch of sweetness that made the burger even better. I looked around the table to see everyone else eating their veggie-laden burgers and knew I had hit the jackpot. The bacon patties were superb and by far the best burger bacon I had ever had. As for flavor, this was on par with Shake Shack in New York, with the additional bonus of being walking distance from the beach and having bacon patties.

A grandiose malt.

On top of that, the fries were really tasty, thick-cut and had the perfect crisp texture on the outside and silky smoothness on the inside. Finally, there were the malts. I didn’t order one for myself because I figured I was already ordering enough cow products, but I did get the chance to try out someone else’s chocolate malt at the table. It was delicious and had I only ordered a single bacon cheeseburger, I may have needed one for myself.

As it were, my hands were full with the burger and I had made a great choice. It was definitely a burger worthy of being one of the best in the country and I now know that no trip to San Diego would be complete without it.

Cooking with Fire at Turf Supper Club

The Unvegan — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 17:00:52 +0000

Looks good enough to cook.

While down in San Diego for a weekend, a friend recommended a restaurant/bar called Turf Supper Club. By the name of it, it sounds like an expensive and pretentious restaurant, but he assured me it wasn’t. What makes the place special, unpretentious and surprisingly cheap is the fact that you cook your own food. But these aren’t some thinly sliced Asian meat and veggies, these are full steaks, burgers, kebabs and fish. Cooking food yourself doesn’t necessarily appeal to all people, but at Turf Supper Club it is more of an event than work.

Sizzling the night away.

For starters, the place presumably looks no different than it did in the ’50s. It has an old-school charm and an old-school mentality that was affirmed when my girlfriend attempted to order a skinny margarita and was shot down (politely) for lack of ingredients. And on top of that, there’s a big old grill in the middle of the place, with a hood dangling overhead to prevent the restaurant from filling with smoke. On the menu, the most expensive thing is the filet mignon, coming in at $15.75, a pretty amazing price even with the whole cook-it-yourself catch.

Have you ever seen something so pretty?

Although a lot of their food looked good, I was most intrigued by their special, a 10 oz flank steak that had been marinating overnight. Marinating in what? I don’t know, but I couldn’t imagine anything bad coming from this place. Plus, at 10 bucks, it was also a great deal. Shortly after ordering, our raw food came out on plates covered in tinfoil. Each dish also came with a piece of garlic bread that was also for cooking on the grill. The waitress gave us some cooking suggestions and told me the steak would be pretty quick since it was thin, so I headed off to the grill for some cooking. It wasn’t too hard to find a spot for my steak and I tossed it on. I then noticed that the steak wasn’t exactly even in thickness, but gave it a few minutes on each side and brought it back to the table.

No one to blame but myself if it's cooked wrong.

The sauce it had been marinating (and then cooked) in was of a yellowish brownish color that you might expect in a beef stroganoff, but the flavor was nothing like that. Instead, the flavor was sort of tangy, yet savory and a bit creamy. It added some good flavor to the steak without overpowering it and I was glad I ordered it rather than the regular steaks. There were plenty of sauces to cook the steak with near the grill, but this one was pretty special. As for the steak itself, I had to give my compliments to the cook (ie. myself). I started slicing away at the thin end and was met with delicious and juicy beef. It had the perfect pink in the middle and I was a happy man.

It's scientifically proven that perfect grill marks make food taste better.

But then I reached the thick end of the steak and realized the cook wasn’t as good as he seemed. The center was near-raw and required a couple more trips up to the grill to get it right. When I finally got it right, I was able to finish my meal as a happy man. I also cooked some pretty awesome garlic bread and gave it some beautiful grill marks.

If you’re into something unique and some old-school charm, then Turf Supper Club is a great place to check out in San Diego. The meat is hardly more expensive than you can get at a grocery store, plus you get a fun atmosphere to cook and eat it in. It’s definitely a place worth visiting again.