Tourist in my Town: Balboa Bakery

I live in a major tourist destination city. And sometimes, mostly in the summer, I want to do all those touristy things people come from far away to do. One our favorites is riding our bikes to the beach. My parents spent a majority of the summer here with us and we tried to go on bike rides whenever we could. The other day we took a morning ride down PCH to Balboa Island, took the ferry across the bay to the Balboa Peninsula. My Dad and I had been dying to get back to the Balboa Bakery for their amazing breakfast croissants and tasty doughnuts. We first had them while we were waiting to board the Catalina Express, to head to Catalina Island for the day. The Balboa Bakery is just south of the ferry drop at 301 Main Street.


We met some friends there, who also rode their bikes over, and we ordered our breakfast goodies. I usually like breakfast sandwiches, with ham and cheese and egg, but at a lot of places the egg seems fake. Like at most bagel places, they throw this little plastic thing in the microwave and in 30 seconds you have a rubbery, yellow substance that might resemble eggs. But at the Balboa Bakery their eggs are real, and cooked to perfection. The croissants and warm, soft and buttery, and the swiss cheese is melted over the ham (or whatever meat you choose). These breakfast croissants are big, you could easily be full with just a half, but you could will probably want to eat the whole thing, they are so delicious. You can eat inside, but the view and scenery is so nice outside. There are a few tables and benches so you can take it all in.

So if you live in the neighborhood, or happen to be here on vacation, check this place out. So fun and charming, and good food. I love being a tourist in my own town!

Cafe 222- San Diego

For our anniversary breakfast we went to Cafe 222 in the historic Gaslamp District of San Diego. Such an cute area, we walked there and the restaurant had patio seating, it was a very fun atmosphere. Like most restaurants I seek out I found out about this one on Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Bobby Flay went there and ordered up their stuffed french toast with bananas and peanut butter. We thought that sounded like a swell idea, so we did the same. The dish came with three halves of stuffed french toast. They were more like french toast sandwiches, two pieces of bread with bananas and peanut butter in the middle and then griddled to perfection. They were very tasty, but quite filling. I couldn't eat my whole plate, but Brian polished his off no problem. Brian always laughs at me because when we go out to eat I'm constantly looking at the food and trying to figure out what's in it and how they made it, then I tell him, "I could totally make this at home." (I get that from my mom, she does the same thing.) And while I haven't actually perfected any dish I've said that about, I honestly could totally make those french toast at home. Not that theirs weren't good, but I don't think there were any secret ingredients, or anything too special about them. Get some wheat bread, soak it in some french toast batter of eggs and whatnot, spread some peanut butter on the inside, slice some bananas, and throw them on the griddle, throw a little powdered sugar on top, voila! I'm going to try it, and I'll let you all know how it turns out.

We also ordered their biscuits and gravy. Very tasty. The biscuits were cheese and chive and the gravy had chives in it as well. It was a totally different take on my moms classic, and Brian and I both enjoyed it. It was a very good thing we decided to walk around and check out the sites after breakfast because we were stuffed, like those french toast!

Mil Jugos- Venezuelan Food

Brian spent two years living in Venezuela and fell in love with two things: the band Los Amigos Invisibles and the food. Lucky for him, the band tours to the US a lot and he found the best Venezuelan food restaurant in our neighboring Santa Ana, Mil Jugos. He first took me there when we were first dating, and I'll admit I was a bit sketchy about it. I didn't know anything about Venezuelan food, and had no idea what they cooked down there. But I was pleasantly surprised! I loved it. The restaurant is small and doesn't have a lot of evening hours so we don't make it over there very often, but I for sure wanted to go back. (We just went on Saturday, hence the post.)

Brian orders the national dish called Pabellon, which is not on the menu, but you can ask for it. Pabellon comes with white rice, black beans, slow cooked shredded beef, fried plantains, and an arepa. Of course the beef and beans aren't like ours, they do stuff to them, I don't know what though! And Brian sprinkles sugar on his beans, apparently that's how they do it down there. An arepa is a flat bread made with cornmeal. You can eat it alongside your meal, or you can order an arepa stuffed with chicken, beef, or cheese. I order the arepas and absolutely love them. I think I choose the chicken over the beef though. On Saturday Brian ordered me both, but I could only eat one. They aren't very big, but super filling. Oh, and they have this amazing green sauce, guasacaca, that I douse every bite in. And just this last time we got an empanada. It was fried with chicken in it, but the bread was sweet and not overly heavy. Delicious!

The restaurant's name means 1,000 juices and they make the most amazing juice. I've only ever had the passion fruit juice, but Brian will vouch for the guava, mango, and pineapple too. The juices are mixed up with ice, so are a little thicker, but not as thick as a smoothie.

If you live in the area and looking for a little food adventure, definitely stop by. If you come visit me, I'll take you there. The lady, Nora, who owns it, and her family are so friendly. She always remembers Brian and his friends, and they love speaking to them in Spanish. (I just sit there and smile and nod.) This is really a great little place. They have other salads and sandwiches on the menu, but I'd stick close to the classic Venezuelan dishes for a true experience.

Les Madeleines, Salt Lake City

This past weekend Brian and I were in Utah for his mom's college graduation. Congrats Kathleen! We ended up with some down time on Saturday and Brian suggested we head 30 minutes north to Salt Lake City to check yet another restaurant off our list. This time is was a patisserie and cafe called Les Madeleines. This ended up on my list from another episode of The Best Thing I Ever Ate when the Neelys went on and on about this pastry the Kouing Aman. (Still not sure on the pronunciation.) Our friends, the Colson's, recently visited SLC and told us this place was not to miss. The Kouing Aman is by far the best pastry I have every had. It was caramelized and crunchy on the outside, buttery, gooey and flaky on the inside. I probably should have shared one with Brian, but I was a little sick so he didn't want my germs. So I had my own and had not problem polishing the whole thing off. Two would have definitely been out of the question though. So if you're in the area, stop by and enjoy one tasty pastry.


My three favorite boys

Las Vegas Restaurants

Not too many blog posts this past week, as I was on Spring Break! (Read with much excitement!) The week went by way to fast, but I did manage to squeeze in a trip to Vegas with the family (minus Brian). Definitely not a lot of cooking going on, but I thought I'd give you an overview of my tasty travel finds.

I did a bit of research to see which of our famous chefs has restaurants in Las Vegas. The first night there we hit up another Mario Batali restaurant, Enoteca San Marco, located in the Venetian Hotel. I blogged about another Mario Batali restaurant in LA, and this one had a very similar menu. This time we got a starter of cheeses and it was amazing. I honestly can't remember the different types of cheeses we had, but they were accompanied by apricots, cherries and honey with truffle oil. When you ate these with your cheese it was pretty much the best thing ever. I personally liked the apricot and the honey the best. I ordered a arugula and parmesan salad, Penne alla Norma (pictured at top) with tomato, eggplant, and ricotta, and finished it all off with some dark chocolate malt, salted caramel, and olive oil gelato. Throw in great conversation with most of my favorite people and it was a near perfect dinner.



The next night we decided to go to Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill in Caesar's Palace. I actually ate at his New York location a few years back and absolutely loved it. So I figured, why pass up an opportunity to share this restaurant with my mom and sister. We all ended up ordering the same thing: Grilled Mahi Mahi with roasted pineapple-cascabel chile sauce, caramelized pineapple-green onion salsa served with creamy green chile rice. I thought I died and gone to heaven. I haven't had fish in a while and this far exceeded my expectations of what mahi mahi could be. The sauce was sweet and had a bit of a kick, and my mom couldn't get enough of the creamy green chile rice. (I'm pretty sure she was trying to figure out how she could make it at home.) We also shared the gala apple salad. It was made with thinly sliced baby spinach, Maytag blue cheese, toasted pecans and tossed with a spicy orange vinaigrette. It definitely was spicy, which was interesting on a salad, but of course Bobby knows what he's doing and the flavors were perfect together.



Another New York favorite that has made its way to Las Vegas is the ever popular Serendipity 3. It has a new pink color scheme and sits outside Caesar's Palace, but the food is exactly the same. Well, I can't speak for the real food, I've only eaten real food there once (in NY) but they have my favorite chocolate cake/brownie and ice cream dessert ever. It's huge, messy and topped with the most amazing hot fudge. The Forbidden Broadway Sundae is a dessert to share with friends, but you'll wish you could eat it all by yourself. It's that good. I always hope that someone I'm with with orders the frozen hot chocolate, it is, after all, what they are famous for. I can't handle two desserts, but I always want a long sip of the frothy, frozen drink.



You can probably tell that my vacations generally revolve around food, but I have absolutely no problem with that. Feel free to share great restaurants you've eaten at. I currently have a list going of a dozen cities and places I want to eat when I visit there!

Pizzeria Mozza

The last food stop on our weekend trip to LA was Pizzeria Mozza Friday afternoon. This was Brian's suggestion. He had been wanting to go there for a while. In fact, I tried to get reseverations for his birthday in January, but called too far in advance and then too late, and they were booked. Pizzeria Mozza is headed up by Mario Batali and some other talented chefs. I had eaten at Mario's New York restaurant, and loved it. We got there about 4:00 pm and were hoping to get a table. We lucked out and they said we could have the table until it was needed at 5:15 pm. Perfect.

We both ordered pizzas, and I started out with an insalata mista. I enjoyed the mixed greens with a tangy oil and vinaigrette dressing. I got the basic Margherita with mozzarella, tomato & basil pizza. But it wasn't basic at all. It had plenty of sauce for my liking, and the thin crust pizza was a nice mix between crunchy and soft crust. Brian ordered the Prosciutto di Parma, with rucola, tomato & mozzarella. Of course I made him give me a slice. The prosciutto was so good! I don't have prosciutto too often, but this was a nice thin cut, not too much fat and worked well with his sauce, which was a bit sweeter than mine. We loved both of the pizzas. (And there are plenty other choices to go back for.) The pizza were a perfect size, cut into four pieces. We ate about half of each because we had to save room for dessert.



When my good friend Kimberly took me to Mario's restaurant in NY she was raving about a dessert that was made with olive oil ice cream. It sounded kind of interesting to me, not sure what to expect. But turns out it was amazing. So I was very excited to see on the list of gelato, here, the olive oil flavor. I really wanted Brian to try it. It's definitely different, but it's so, so good. You just have to try it. It is almost like a sweet cream flavor, with olive oil mixed in. It's sweet, but not too sweet. Amazing. With your order you got three flavors so we also got the mint chip and peanut butter. They were both good. The peanut butter was salty, which was a nice compliment to the sweet. Brian also ordered some almond biscotti. He said they were really good, but biscotti is too dry for my liking.



We had a great dining experience at Mozza, and we were super excited when our architect friend told us his firm was designing a Mozza to go on PCH in Newport Beach.

(Sorry the quality of the pictures isn't the best, an i phone was all I had.)

Joan's On Third

Continuing on with our LA food trip, we spend our first meal on Friday at the cutest little bakery/cafe I have been to in a long time, Joan's on Third. I heard about Joan's on Third from The Best Thing I Ever Ate. I can't remember which chef it was that was going on and on about a chocolate coconut cupcake from Joan's on Third, but I like chocolate, coconut and cupcakes, so I added Joan's on Third to my list of places to visit.

We went there about noon, thinking we'd grab some lunch and a cupcake to go. We walked in and it was the most amazing site I'd ever seen, I was in love. Off to the right was the bakery counter, cake plate after cake plate filled with everything from cupcakes, to cookies, to dark chocolate bouchons. Their cafe counter had cases of wonderful looking salads, meat, and pastas on display and you can also order their signature sandwiches, soups. Throughout the rest of the store was gourmet food market that is complete with a wide variety of cheese, olives and prepackaged pastries.




I decided to order a warm short rib sandwich that was featured on the cover of Bon Appetit magazine. It was amazing. So warm, perfectly toasted and the meat was very tender and seasoned to perfection. It was topped with just the right amount of cheese and arugula. But let's not forget the pickled caramelized onions, they made my mouth very, very happy! (I looked up the Bon Appetit article they gave the recipe for the sandwiches. That might be fun to try, but if you can go there, even better.) Brian ordered one of their newer menu items, the Croque Monsieur. It is also a hot sandwich, built with ham, gruyere, Dijon mustard and béchamel sauce. I made him give me a bite, and I would have been equally satisfied if I had ordered that sandwich. Another melt in your mouth sandwich, with some very flavorful cheese and sauce. Brian is already talking about going back!





Now that our stomachs were very satisfied, we decided to get dessert to go and eat as a snack when we weren't quite so full. I planned on just getting the chocolate coconut cupcake I came for, but the selection was too good, and I knew we wouldn't be back for a while. So, I also ordered a chocolate chip cookie and a dark chocolate bouchon, I love dark chocolate. Brian then proceeded to order a peanut butter and jelly bar, a snickers cupckate, a white chocolate raspberry cupcake, a chocolate cupcake with marshmallow filling, and a vanilla coconut cupcake. (I'm happy to report this is not all gone yet, two days later.) I made Brian give me bites of a few of his. I loved the chocolate marshmallow. It was so moist and the marshmallow was soft and gooey, not like a hard store bought marshmallow stuck in the middle. The bouchon was good, very rich dark chocolate flavor. I thought the cookie had good flavor but was a little dry, not my favorite chocolate chip cookie. The chocolate coconut cupcake was every bit as dreamy as I imagined. The cake was moist, which is my number one quality of a good cake, I hate dry cake. The coconut frosting with coconut flakes on top was super creamy. It wasn't the cream cheese type of frosting I was expecting. Just sweet and the perfect compliment to the chocolate cake.




All in all I'd say we had a very successful trip to Joan's on Third. I'm pretty sure Joan has my dream job, and I'll be back to visit her very, very soon.

Umami Burger

On Friday Brian had the day off work, so I decided to ditch out of my day job and we spent Thursday night and all day Friday playing in Los Angeles. When we were deciding what to do while we were there I couldn't come up with any specific activities, just a list of restaurants I've been dying to try. So as it turns out, food was the main focus of our quick LA get away.

On Thursday night we hit up our first restaurant, Umami Burger. I've been watching The Best Thing I Ever Ate on Food Network and I practically drool for the 30 minutes it's on. On the show, chefs just sit around and tell you about the best food they've eaten and where to get it. The topic was hometown favorites when Giada was singing Umami Burger's praises. The thing that got my attention, besides how amazing the burgers looked, was that they make their own ketchup. I love ketchup. Brian constantly makes fun of how much ketchup I consume during a meal that involves hamburgers, fries, or quite a few other menu items. If the bottle at the table isn't full when I sit down, I'll always have to ask for more. Umami Burger is a simple, but gourmet burger restaurant, with extremely friendly staff and simple but hip atmosphere. (What is Umami?) Their burgers were a nice size, much smaller than your average restaurant burger, but I liked that. I ordered their Umami Burger, (also what Giada had) and it comes with tomato, mushroom, a thin, crisp slice of Parmesan cheese, and homemade ketchup. It was so soft when I bit into it, it was sweet, salty, juicy, oh so good. Brian got the Manly Burger that is topped with beer-cheddar cheese, smoked salt onion strings, and bacon lardons. He loved it. We also ordered their hand cut fries. They were very thick, which was fun, but we both would have preferred the regular size fries (which they do offer). The fry to ketchup ratio was off since the fries were so thick. Their menu has a lot of other delicious sounding burgers and the price is definitely right. The burgers range from $9-$11. We even got some dessert. I had read that their ice cream sandwiches were very good, so we ordered one up. We got vanilla bean ice cream, which came between two macaroons, with half dipped in chocolate. To die for. I'm still thinking about that one. Bottom line, if you are ever in LA, stop by. They have three different locations plus a burger truck. Visit their website for more info. And if you need a little extra incentive, I read online that a Jonas Brother was spotted eating there.