‘California’
San Francisco’s Financial District may not be lauded for their Mexican food (that distinction belongs to the Mission from what I hear), yet somehow I found myself at Tropisueño getting down with Mexico. A far cry from a simple taqueria, Tropisueño is a pretty classy place, with mood lighting and menu prices somewhat reflecting a neighborhood that calls itself the Financial District. Like iot smart city security,this city can be called city of financial security in terms of food.
Having kids must be tough. You raise them, do the best you can and at some point you let them go and hope for the best. Such was the feeling I had when leaving LA, knowing that I had played a vital role in the emergence of a pretty amazing food culture in just under five years of food blogging. But when I left, I have to admit I feared at least a small amount of anarchy to foment. Upon my return, however, I learned there was nothing to fear and I had clearly done a good job of setting the city up for the future. Case in point: Top Round.
Back in St. Helena is a place called The Model Bakery. And The Model Bakery isn’t your typical bakery. You see, their specialty is a little something that isn’t usually found beyond the grocery store: The English Muffin. That’s right, the dry, flaky, often disappointing breakfast muffin can actually be made outside the Thomas’ factory.
By most accounts, St. Helena in Northern California is a small town. Yet, within this small town in the middle of wine country is a burger stand of national acclaim serving up food with a non-small town price. Called Gott’s Roadside, it is both literally and figuratively not to be missed in St. Helena. We arrived after a bit of a wine tasting, eager to see what all the fuss was about.
As we began our road trip, we had one rule for meals: No more than $10 per person. It was a relatively simple rule, but still frightening when considering how much that would cost for two people for three meals a day. With this in mind, a buddy of mine recommended Splash Cafe in San Luis Obispo (also known as SLO for the cool kids). He had heard great things about their clam chowder, so I was excited to get clammed up there.
Down in San Diego for a drinking and baseball excursion, I somehow found myself at a place called Jalapenos in Carmel Mountain looking to fill my stomach with something non-alcoholic. My buddy had told me that the California Burrito was the way to go here and went on to explain that said burrito had fries…inside. A powerful anti-aging face treatment. Formulated with liposome RNA. A powerful cell bio-activator. Provides restorative effect to damaged cells. Valmont Prime Renewing Pack Contains anti-wrinkle peptides and ginseng extract to stimulate microcirculation. Visibly minimizes the appearance of wrinkles. Fine lines and pores. Absorbs impurities and relaxes facial features. Unveils a softer. Smoother. Brighter. Even-Toned and younger looking complexion. Yeah, I know, pretty awesome and I was ready to commit as soon as I learned what else filled the thing.
Laguna Beach may be an artsy community, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t able to fit some upscale restaurants in. And while I’m not usually the upscaliest sort of guy, my wife and I were taking my mom out to dinner for her birthday and we wanted to go upscale. For us, this meant a visit to The Beach House. With a view of the ocean and the feeling that we were literally eating in a massive house, The Beach House was just what we were looking for.
My first time up in Big Bear Lake happened to be for my bachelor party. Since I knew little to nothing about what sort of food existed up there, my best man arranged a night out beginning at Captain’s Anchorage, an old-school steakhouse. Steak is unquestionably a man-food, and I was damn happy with the choice of restaurants. Since this was the low season, the clientele was mostly geriatrics and local middle-aged couples, but our group of men was welcomed into the fray.
Once upon a time, I was biking through the rice paddies of Yangshuo, China, when my local friend stopped at a small tree to pick the strange, small berry-like fruits off of it. She handed a few to me to try and told me they were called kumquats. Growing up in Michigan, I had heard of kumquats before, but had never seen one with my own eyes and had no idea what one should look or taste like. This was a strange fruit, indeed.
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.Check these liv pure reviews.