Down San Diego way there are a few Broken Yolks. As you could probably guess, these are breakfast spots and we headed to the Carlsbad location to see what it could serve up. The menu unquestionably had a lot of dishes calling my name. After all, breakfast is notoriously unvegan-friendly.

Finally, I went with the Border Benedict. This is basically what happens when eggs benedict meets Mexican food. Thus, the poached eggs rested atop corn cakes, which were themselves perched on carne asada. Moreover, they were topped in a poblano sauce and a thin slice of jalapeno. For my side, I went with the hash browns.

Simply put, the Border Benedict got the job done. That is to say, they hit the spot on made for a delicious conversion of Mexican food and classic American breakfast food that huevos rancheros just can’t always offer. Nonetheless, the eggs could have been a bit more runny and the carne asada could have been a bit more tender. The salsa was surprisingly spicy, but I like spicy and the hash browns were always there for buffer. Plus, the corn cakes helped to add balance with a nice punch of sweetness.

With such a menu, I’m not sure that I would order the Border Benedict again. Nothing against the dish, as it was definitely nice to eat, however, there is just more good stuff out there that I would like to get up close and personal with.

On the way into Taste of the Himalayas in La Jolla, a patron on the way out told us that we had to get the tandoori chicken tikka. There was a strong scent of smoke in the place, which had clearly turned off its smoke detectors a long time ago, and we figured this departing patron must have known what she was talking about.

Thus, we began with the tandoori chicken tikka. It arrived like a plate of fajitas – steaming up the place to accompany the smoke. The chicken was good, although not exactly something I would declare every stranger walking through the door should order.

We also ordered a little something called Momo, which are a part of why this restaurant is called Taste of the Himalayas and not Taste of India. That’s because momo are Tibetan specialty (that have spread throughout South Asia). They are steamed dumplings that are generally filled with whatever is available. In this case, since we don’t live in the Himalayas and have choices, we opted for the chicken variety. They came with a “Himalayan” sauce that was pretty good and while I enjoyed the dumplings, our resident South Asian expert at the table let us know that they weren’t anything special.

As for my main course, I went with the Chicken Korma, because that is generally my favorite Indian dish. Taste of the Himalayas served it up pretty solidly.

Ultimately, Taste of the Himalayas churned out a solid meal. None of the dishes stood out to me in particular, but they were far from being bad. If you’re in La Jolla looking for Himalayan food, Taste of the Himalayas will do. But I wouldn’t exactly make it a destination.

I’ve always said that restaurants with an amazing view often have a hard time pumping out amazing food. The idea being that the real estate is generally too expensive to get quality food. Nonetheless, I’ve been proven wrong a number of times and hoped Pacific Coast Grill in Cardiff by the Sea would by another in the latter category.

While the menu was dominated by seafood and had a few terrestrial animals as well, there was a pasta dish that was pretty much begging for me to order it. It was a Lobster-Bacon Carbonara and while the bacon part may be redundant (pretty much all carbonara has a bacon-like element), I was very excited for almost all of the rest of it. There was an “heirloom tomato compote” but I couldn’t decide if it would be a sauce or chunky tomato situation so I let it slide.

Unfortunately it turned out to be a chunky tomato situation, but I was able to avoid it pretty easily as I made my way through a dish that nearly lived up to my lofty expectations of it. The lobster tail was no slouch, being big, juicy and flavorful while avoiding being rubbery. The sauce was nice and rich, being a glorious combination of egg, cream and bacon. Could there have been more bacon? Yes, but that’s ummm always the answer.

It’s not always good when a place tries to fancy up a classic comfort dish. That was not the case with Pacific Coast Grill’s take on carbonara. Now, if they could replace that tomato compote with bacon, it would be a game changer. Oh and did I mention the awesome view?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. Thishas 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!

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.

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.

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.

Wandering around the San Diego Zoo for a day is certainly a good way to make an unvegan hungry. So many animals, yet none of them on my plate. After a while, the Red River Hogs started to look like walking bacon (and I actually don’t have to feel bad for saying that because they aren’t endangered in the least). Finally, as we reached the pandas and saw the long line to see them, we realized it was time for lunch. And we were in luck, because next to the pandas we found Canyon Cafe.

Although they didn’t serve panda (or any other rare animals from the zoo), they did serve the type of food people in the land of the panda would eat: Asian. They even had an Asian-style burger called the Teriyaki Burger. This burger was made with bacon, pineapple, a teriyaki sauce, lettuce and tomato. It also included fried for 10 bucks. Unlike a lot of theme parks and places like that, Canyon Cafe cooked their food to order and had no trouble making mine without the lettuce and tomato.

When it was done, I grabbed the tray and took it back to our table. The meat of the burger itself was just decent and about what you would expect from the zoo. The bacon was surprisingly crispy and the pineapple was also surprisingly tasty. The teriyaki sauce was a nice addition to the burger and although it couldn’t save the meat from itself, it was a decent attempt at making a fun burger at the zoo. In fact, if pandas ever wanted to expand their appetite beyond bamboo, I think they would have enjoyed this burger. So while it wasn’t a burger made of panda, I like to think it was a burger fit for one.

Canyon Cafe is a nice way to get some interesting food at the San Diego Zoo. They make a good attempt at a unique burger and although the zoo residents probably would have appreciated the burger meat more than me, it was decent. Outside of the zoo I would have been upset, but inside I was just happy to find some animal that I could eat.

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, you get so exited that once you are done you leave wanting to take a cooking class from Bep Truong.

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.

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.

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.

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. At the end I vacuum sealed the meals with my new foodsaver sealer that I got from http://vacuumsealerresearch.com/

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.

On a short trip down to San Diego to visit a friend, I only ended up having time for one meal, so I wanted to make it good. I was told the Gas Lamp area was a great part of town to find some grub, so we took a stroll through that part of downtown to see what we could find.

After checking out a couple menus prominently displayed outside of restaurants, we chose Urban Bar & Grill, mostly because they had a pretty great happy hour going on. Aside from some pretty swanky drink specials, all appetizers were half-priced. We took our seats at the lovely outdoor patio and opened our menus. Even though the main courses looked good, I knew I had to stick to the awesomely priced appetizers.

The two meatiest options were the chicken satay and buffalo wings. I ordered a set of each to mix up my palette and chilled out, enjoying the nice weather and atmosphere. When my food came, I was pretty impressed by the arrangement of the satay. Three skewers of chicken were impaling a hunk of pineapple and surrounded thin strips reminiscent of styrofoam. The presentation of the buffalo wings was pretty basic comparatively although there were a couple veggies in there that severely dipped my appreciation of the presentation.

Despite the presentation, I was a little disappointed to find the satay tasted pretty generic. It was good, but didn’t impress. The buffalo wings were pretty much the same story. I enjoyed the sauce, but was a little disappointed that the wings weren’t wings at all, but actually drumsticks. A lot of people prefer drummies, but I prefer when a menu doesn’t lie. These complaints aside, my meal was fulfilling, and even more so with the happy hour discount. Had the appetizers been full-priced, I may not have been such a happy camper, but I guess happy hour lived up to its name.