Pouches!? We don't need no stinkin' pouches!!

The Kid is addicted to fruit pouches. Any brand, any flavor, any size, she just can't get enough. At least 80 times a day ( ok, maybe more) the Kid begs and pleads for "fru powch?" So while out at the produce place I decided to make my own fruit and veggie mush to see if she would enjoy it.

Awesome sweet corn

Veggies about to be roasted. Purple carrots, golden beets, spinach, broccoli, gala apples, Asian pears, sweet corn, and topped off with some water mixed with a spoonful of sugar and fruit and veggie juice.

After about 2 hours of basically braising the fruits and veggies, I threw them in the food processor with raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries.

Blubes

Strawbs

This is the processed mix. It looks a little nasty, but it's still a step away from being done.

Putting it through a fine mesh strainer. I wish we had a little pig farm to give the left over mash product to.

A lot smoother now and much thinner. At this point I added in some baby rice cereal and some pre-made apple sauce for extra sweetness because it was still very beet like in taste.

Finished product! Slightly chunky, sweet , lots of apple flavor. It looks and tastes similar to the fruit pouches the Kid so dearly loves, but less than half the cost of buying a weeks worth!

All produce courtesy of

Specialty Produce

1929 Hancock St.
San Diego, CA 92110

Little Italian Night: Starting the Weekend off Right

We were grabbing some produce from our fab place, Specialty Produce, and the Wife found these incredible heirloom tomatoes

They looked so fresh and fantastic, we had to grab two. These giant tomatoes were probably almost a half pound or more each! As we were checking out we noticed the bunches of basil on the counter and snagged one of those as well. As we drove towards the Wife's work to drop her off, we spit balled some ideas on what to do with those awesome tomatoes and ultimately decided that a light caprese style picnic would be the best choice. So on my way home I stopped at Mona Lisa Deli and grabbed some Italian Dry Salami, fresh Ovalini mozzarella, and also as I waited in line I snatched up a bottle of delightful looking marinated cherry tomatoes.

Scintillating spread awaiting the knife and eager stomachs.

After a run in with freshly sharpened blade.

The Wife approves

Mona Lisa Italian Foods

2061 India St,
San Diego, CA 92101

Specialty Produce

1929 Hancock St,
San Diego, CA 92110

Ramen Yamadaya: Is it hot in here or is it just this blanket of bonito flakes?

Took a trip on up to Clairemont area today to try out Ramen Yamadaya. Who knows what possessed me to even want hot soup on a scorching day, but the Wife wasn't feeling so great so I figured this might help.

We entered the little Japanese joint and were immediately sat at a table. There is a small dining room and a nice open kitchen and a pretty big patio area. It was hot inside, but they have a large warehouse fan circulating the hot air so it's tolerable.

We started of by ordering the Takoyaki ( octopus fritters) they were very tasty, but there was way too much Kewpie mayo on them and they were hidden under a blanket of bonito flakes. There was at least one piece of octopus in each fritter, which is more than some places , and I even lucked out and got two pieces in one fritter!

Hidden Takoyaki balls

This is the Croquette bowl we got for the Kid and again it was covered in Kewpie mayo and blanketed under a snow drift of bonito flakes. The croquettes were delicately fried and actually had seasoned potatoes inside them. I snagged more than s few bites of this.

The Wife chose the regular Tonkatsu Ramen with added corn. There is a whole list of add ones you can choose from to make your own unique bowl of ramen. She like it , but said it was very greasy. I tried a spoonful and agreed that it was. The broth was very viscous and oily compared to most other ramen and the bamboo shoots had a tinny kind of chlorine taste like old salt.

My choice was the Tsukemen. Which is basically a bowl of ramen separated into two bowls. One bowl is the cold noddles, pork, boiled egg, and bamboo shoots and the other bowl is the broth or dipping sauce.

I have to say that this broth/dipping sauce was very delicious. It was a little salty, but with the little bit that gets on the noodles it works out well. There was little bits of what looked like beef jerky floating in the broth and were very tender. There was also a little spice to it.

Chowing down

This is literally a plateful of bonito flakes. This is what was left over from the top of the Takoyaki and Croquette bowl. It's probably a half inch of fluffy fish shavings.

The Wife's tummy wasn't feeling so hot when we left, so we grabbed a loaf of this French baguette from Cali Baguette Express on convoy. This is the holy grail of Vietnamese sandwich bread. It is handed to you warm and has a beautiful crust and the inside is probably what angel wings feel like. It's airy, chewy, fluffy and so many other words that wouldn't do it justice. This bread is like a fleeting dream running from the daylight as you wake up though, so it needs to be devoured at once, which shouldn't be a problem

Ramen Yamadaya

4706 Clairemont Mesa Blvd,
San Diego, CA 92117

Cali Baguette Express

4425 Convoy St, Ste 200A,
San Diego, CA 92111

La Fachada: Little Tacos of Deliciousness

fachada[fah-chah'-dah]
noun
1. Facade, face, front, or fore part of a building, Broad or plump face,
Front-age,or Facade, outward show

Of all the definitions of Fachada, I would have to say that plump face is the best description of La Fachada Restaurant and Lunch Truck. Everything looks and sounds so good, you just wanna shove it into your mouth until you look like a chipmunk preparing for Doomsday.

Menu on the inside of restaurant. They have a lot more choices than the outside counter, but you can still order the lunch counter menu inside as well.

Deliciously refreshing strawberry juice. Think Orange Julius, but strawberry.

The kid loved it

G-Ma's choice: chicken rolled tacos with guacamole. Said they were really good, but needed a little spice. This coming from a lady that can't handle Taco Bell mild sauce.

This is a Mulita which is a cross between a quesadilla and a taco. We got this one with cabeza( head meat ) and it was awesome. The tender fatty head meat topped with ooey, gooey cheese all sandwiched between handmade corn tortillas. ¡ Muy Bueno!

Left to right: tongue and tripe tacos. Both of these were so good. The tongue was tender and juicy and was full of the deep beefy flavor. It was like intense pot roast. The tripe was crispy and had that super mineral taste that animal insides have and with a little lime and salsa verde it was perfect.

Left to right: birria, buche( stomach), and carnitas tacos. All three of these were my favorites. The birria was soaking in its own sauce and made the taco so juicy. The buche was probably the best I ever had. It was crunchy like chicharones and tender like tripe , but without the inside poop chute flavor. The carnitas were tender yet crispy and were not greasy at all. All the tacos we had today were glorious little packets of joy from the Mexican flavor gods.

The Wife asked me to order some beans cause apparently they are free. The lady came back with two little cups of beans that were simple yet so flavorful. I topped mine with onions and a squeeze of lime and gobbled them up.

Church is in session !

Little salsa bar

The Kid's quesadilla. She was too busy wanting to play to eat it

La Fachada

20 25th St
San Diego, CA 92102

The Wedding Of Miss Stephanie of the house of Montgomery & Sir Michael O'Hearn, Earl of The kingdom of Bowl

The fam and I had the glorious honor of being part of our chosen family's wedded bliss this weekend, and there was food there so I figured why not post a little blog. It's pretty much just pictures with descriptions cause we were so full of love and joy and having such a good time, I forgot to even taste the food. I mean ate it for sure and it was tasty , I was just so hungry I shoveled it in really fast hahaha

Beautiful Caprese Salad with Balsamic drizzle

Vegetarian option was a spicy kind of this style curry dish with lots of crunchy veggies and rice noodles

This is the chicken dish. It was leg of chicken, lightly breaded, and then pan fried. There were some tasty fingerling potatoes and some hari covert ( the little carrots and green beans ) all swimming in a kind of beur blanc sauce ( white butter)

The wedding cake was super delicious carrot cake with a light whip cream/ cream cheese frosting

Carnitas Snack Shack: Makin' Bacon in the Love Shack!

After a disappointing trip to the SDSU Aquaplex, I needed the soothing balm of bacon fat to rub on my wounds. So of course we made the trip out to Carnitas Snack Shack.

Thankful for the short lines, we were eager to order some porky deliciousness. The Wife ordered the Shack BLT and I ordered the Shack Burger.

This is a awesome BLT, but should have an extra couple of letters cause of the Canadian bacon, so maybe BCBLT or just BLT 'Eh? Anyways this sanguich is super muy bueno. Soft fluffy brioche griddled with butter until toasty then topped with bacon,crispy ham, lettuce, tomato, shack aioli. it's crunchy and soft and the lettuce and tomato really level out the piggy goodness.

Yep thats the Kid chomping down some pig

This beautiful hunk of food is the Shack Burger. A nicely cooked medium rare piece of beef on a toasty brioche bun and topped with butter lettuce, tomato, bacon jam, white cheddar, and shack aioli. I mean really? Bacon Jam? Come on. I know it's been done and I know it's all trendy to be a pro pig and what not, but they do it up right here and this burger is proof that you must love the pig to create so much love with it.

Shack Seasoned Fries with yes, bacon infused ketchup. Bomb

Always a line at the Shack.

Carnitas Snack Shack

2632 University Avenue
San Diego, Ca

Bunz: Soft, toasted, or just crusty, it's always good to give 'em a squeeze

The Wife and Kid were dragging me around the mall today running errands, when all of a sudden there rose a powerful hunger. I Yelped what was around me and up popped this bastion of hope.......

This little gem is basically the hotel restaurant for the Days Inn of Mission Valley. Inside looks just like any other hotel style diner.

It's pretty plain inside and has that cheesy hotel art thing going on. There is a tiny register area that leads to the kitchen and a patio and that's it. We were promptly seated (it was almost completely empty ) and our server gave us menus. He returned for our drink order and gave a time to peruse the menu. The choices for burgers all sounded delicious and you also can build your own.

This is the Three Li'l Pigs and if you couldn't tell it's friggin delicious. This is a beast of burger and is put together very well. Its a nice size burger cooked to order and topped with smoked bacon, ham, pulled pork, beer thyme mustard, aged cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions. It's juicy, porky, unctuous, salty, tangy, crunchy, and so many other words that I can't put on here for fear I wouldn't do it justice. Let's just say I know now why that wolf was trying to get those little pigs, it was to make this sandwich.

The Wife opted to build her own and went with the Chefs Vegan option on ciabatta. The Chefs Vegan is made from black beans, quinoa, roasted poblano peppers, cilantro, caramelized onions, garlic and oats. It is really good. All those wonderful ingredients meld together into a savory "burger" that really hits home. She added their Bunz Sauce (think Big Mac, but better) and that really brought the flavors together.

We split an order of the Half and Half. The fries are so thin and crispy they just crackle then melt in your mouth. These are some damn good fries. Now I am not a big fan of onion rings but they looked so good on Yelp. The crust is very crunchy and a cross between tempura and thick beer batter. It was too greasy for the Wife, but I thoroughly enjoyed them. There was really good onion to crust ratio.

We got the Kid a hot dog and she gobbled it down. They split and griddle them here which I think is the best.

Bunz

475 Hotel Cir S,
San Diego, CA 92108