Adventures of an amateur foodie

Wine Vault & Bistro: St. Paddy's Dinner

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:40:00 +0000

Ah, yet another meeting of one of my favorite restaurants with one of my favorite boozemakers. Of course, I can't go because I'll be at MCAT class. Yes, woe is me. Wine Vault & Bistro is pairing up with Stone Brewery (signature gargoyle above) for their St. Patrick's Dinner. Apparently, owner Greg Koch has given Wine Vault some awesome limited brews and beermaker Jeremy Moynier is hosting the dinner. March 17, 6:30pm, $39.50/person. Anyway, if anyone out there goes, please let me live...

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Moo Moment: The Valentine Post

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:35:00 +0000

I was receiving PR emails about when I "consider my editorial content for Valentine's Day". I chuckle to myself, since I'm mildly flattered that anyone assumes that I have my shit together enough to actually plan content for anything. Nah, it's not that organized. I go about my life and write about whatever pops up. D. and I usually don't celebrate Valentine's Day, largely because we don't like the overwhelming commercial aspect of it. We decided to forgo the pressure and expense years...

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Strawberries

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:22:00 +0000

A lot of the country is buried in snow and we're getting lots (and lots!) of rain here in San Diego. However, we just received one small harbinger of spring. We're loving our CSA boxes from Be Wise Ranch and this week's box had two clamshells (the plastic tubs) of strawberries. They're tiny and pack an amazing amount of flavor, so it's a shame to do anything but snack on them. No sauces, shakes, or baking... just enjoying a sweet little reminder that strawberry season will be here soon...

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Paso Wines at Urban Solace: Living Vicariously

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:53:00 +0000

This MCAT class is consuming my existence. 2 1/2 hours every night for five nights a week, not to mention the loads of homework (multiple choice homework still takes a long time) and practice tests. I received an email about Urban Solace having a Paso Robles wine pairing dinner, featuring five Paso winemakers. Of course, my favorite Adelaida Cellars is one of the winemakers. Oh, I thought, this would be a nice break from studying. Except that it's on a Wednesday night and yours truly will be...

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Carlock's Bakery: Revisit

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:21:00 +0000

Beautiful, isn't it? D. and I were up in the Central Coast for a short reunion with friends and we stopped by Carlock's to load up on thumbprints, macaroons, and a carrot cake for Kirkleton's birthday. Now it's back to the ol' MCAT grind. Read the original entry on Carlock's. Carlock's Bakery1024 Los Osos Valley RoadLos Osos, CA 93402

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Zumbar Coffee and Tea

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:45:00 +0000

Correction: My initial post called it Zumbar Cafe. It's Zumbar Coffee and Tea. My apologies. Productive morning... took the bus to UCSD and managed some quality MCAT studying while waiting for my coworker E. to pick me up. We went to Zumbar Coffee and Tea in Sorrento Valley for coffee. Many of San Diego's chowhounds argue that Zumbar has the best coffee in San Diego. In this case, I will happily ride along on the bandwagon. I also have a bag of their Peruvian organic beans going through my...

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It's that time of year again...

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:25:00 +0000

My boss bought about 16 boxes of Girl Scout cookies today. I'm not sure if he's the best boss ever or a man I should curse for all eternity. Fun note: Garrett has about as much willpower as I do... maybe less.

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Best Husband Ever.

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:10:00 +0000

Trying to be as disciplined as possible with my MCAT studying (why I'm taking it is a story for another day) and I find this on my desk. Trader Joe's yummy European-style assorted cookies and a pot of Rickshaw black tea. This is one more in a long string of big and small reasons why D. is the best husband ever.

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Austin: Home Stretch

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:29:00 +0000

We did a lot of good eating in Austin and this wraps up the rest of it. On the way to downtown from the Austin airport, we spotted Casa Colombia. We headed there for dinner and I ordered the Bandeja Paisa. Highlights of the dish were the rice, the plantains, and the fried yuca (which was a substitution for beans... delicious). The egg tasted bizarrely like dish detergent. The arepa, a cornmeal patty, was so hard that it was inedible, as was the chicharron (top of plate). The steak...

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Breakfast tacos

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:00:00 +0000

I've been craving breakfast tacos ever since our trip to Austin. D. and I made a trip out to Pancho Villa, a Mexican supermarket a few blocks from us. Check out Michael's Pancho Villa post. We picked up fresh chorizo, fresh corn tortillas, and a tub of roasted tomato and pepper salsa. D. put the tacos together and they were awesome. He decided to cook everything separately and pile them into the tortillas for a final heating, which turned out great. I'm not a big fan of breakfast burritos,...

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Lockhart, Texas: BBQ and Hats

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 15:52:00 +0000

I'm really excited about Caprica. After Battlestar ended, there was a void left in my life. What? You don't want to read about my neverending love for Battlestar? You'd rather read about lots of grilled meat? And hats? Alrighty... back to Texas we go. I'm a Southern California girl, so I have no idea what makes proper BBQ. Dry rub, wet rub, smoke rings, blah blah blah. It's quite foreign to me. The only type of BBQ I've experienced is Santa Maria style BBQ, but that's hard to...

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Austin: Annie's, Koriente

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Day two brought two interesting eateries, plus visits to the state capital and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library. Both are fantastic stops in Austin and easily reached on foot since we were staying downtown. Annie's Cafe and Bar was the only re-visit during the entire trip and that's because it seems to be one of the few places downtown that serves a sit-down breakfast. During our first visit, I had oatmeal, topped with bananas, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, walnuts, berries...

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Austin: Frank and Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:00:00 +0000

D. and I arrived in Austin a little after lunchtime, so we were quite hungry. After reading about Frank on Chowhound, I thought it would be a perfect place to eat right after we checked into our hotel. Their menu had many types of typical and artisan sausages. I settled on the Jackalope, an antelope and rabbit sausage, served on a fresh bun with huckleberry compote, sriracha aioli, and applewood smoked cheddar. The tart huckleberries were perfect with the gamey and rich...

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Yum.

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:52:00 +0000

D. and I recently went to Austin, Texas, and talk about a fabulous city. More posts on that coming soon, but this meal came right after we landed in rainy San Diego. We'd spent days eating out and didn't want to spend anymore money, but were tired after a long day spent in the airport and a delayed flight. What to do? A quick survey of our freezer yielded a package of Trader Joe's Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina and the fridge was full of veggies from our new CSA (Be Wise Ranch). Chopped...

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Las Vegas: Bouchon revisit, Studio B buffet

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Wow, 2009 was a really shitty blogging year for me. I'm sorry, y'all. We'll see how I do in 2010. Lots of really great things happened during the holiday rush... we went to the Sam Adams Utopias dinner, had a fun Thanksgiving with friends, traveled for almost every weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, traveled some more for the holidays, and came home to... wisdom teeth extraction. Yikes. Let's just say my first brush with anesthesia was uneventful. I was having an IV...

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Samuel Adams Utopias Dinner at Urban Solace

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:47:00 +0000

"Oh, are you media?" D. and I glanced at each other briefly and I can sum up what was going through our heads: Well, I guess I am, if by "media" you mean I'm going to enjoy this meal, take lots of pictures, and geek out about beer and food/beer pairings on my humble food blog. I'm just here with my wife, who insists on photographing every. single. damn. meal. we. eat. If that pays off for me in having amazing food and beer, then yes, she's media. D. smiled politely and I...

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Quick bun nem nuong

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:23:00 +0000

Ah, it's over. Again. I feel good about it. I don't know how I did, but all I know is that I'm not going to take the Chemistry GRE again. Last year, I took it and then made some beef bourguignon to celebrate. No celebratory meal (yet) this year, but I did make the occasional good study meal. Hey, anything to procrastinate. One of these meals was borne out of a random discovery by my mother. Mom: I found these meatballs at Costco. They taste a lot like nem nuong (aka...

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Purée of English Pea Soup with White Truffle Oil and Parmesan Crisps

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:30:00 +0000

D. and I decided to revive our supper club and, for the occasion, I thought I'd throw a Keller recipe into the menu. However, with the Chem GRE studying going on, I didn't have time for anything too time-consuming, which ruled out 99.9% of the recipes in Bouchon and The French Laundry Cookbook. And the Keller cookbook collection is going to get bigger... my copy of the recently released Ad Hoc at Home is due to arrive tomorrow. So excited! Anyway... right, a Keller recipe...

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RSS feeds

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:08:00 +0000

If you're a subscriber, your feed should have transferred automatically... I think. Please let me know if there are any feed issues!

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New Domain!

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:59:00 +0000

I decided to finally take the plunge and buy my own domain. It's going to take a little while to update everything, but please change your links and RSS feeds to www.adventuresofanamateurfoodie.com The original link: culinarynerd.blogspot.com will redirect to the new address, but if y'all can help me get my new domain out there, it'd be great! I know it's awfully late to change the address and the address is a mouthful, but recent events have shown me that having a domain name that doesn't...

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The Breakfast Post

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:20:00 +0000

I woke up this morning to D. making waffles with strawberries... I knew I married him for a reason. What can I say? I'm easily impressed. With that said, I thought I'd clean out the memory card a bit and post about some of our favorite breakfasts. The aforementioned waffles with strawberries: When we got married, we had a small post-wedding brunch for a handful of friends. Many of them have scattered all over the country, so reunions were infrequent. For that brunch, our best man picked up a...

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La Fachada Taco Truck

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:47:00 +0000

The restaurant is La Fachada, but they also have a taco truck in the parking lot. We visited the taco truck for dinner, after looking for the Churros El Tigre churro cart. Alas, the little cart was forced to cease operations due to permit issues. Since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to dine at La Fachada's taco truck. The tacos were so good that I barely took pictures of them, let alone any exterior shots. I apologize. The truck is a classic food truck, with a row of Mexican aguas,...

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Wine Vault & Bistro

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:20:00 +0000

I'd argue that Wine Vault & Bistro is one of San Diego's better-kept secrets. For me and D., it's our favorite fine-dining restaurant. San Diego doesn't lack for fine-dining, but I have to say that some of the restaurants I've tried in that genre tend to try too hard or not hard enough, with execution falling flat either way. Top that with high prices and shoddy service and I begin to feel like I could put my money to better use elsewhere. I like Wine Vault because they have a wide range of...

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Guilty pleasures

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:46:00 +0000

Another light post... just stretching the rusty blogging muscles. I have to say that I do have a soft spot for so-called bad food. I don't eat "bad food" often and I recognize that they're certainly not the best in their breeds, but I like them because they're tasty. They may not be scions of amazing technique or ingredients, but that's why they're guilty pleasures. May I present... the Disneyland churro. It may have been fried at some point, but to warm it, the staff member puts it through...

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Domesticity

noreply@blogger.com (moowiesqrd) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:40:00 +0000

One of our wedding gifts: gorgeous new sheet/duvet set. We love 'em, but apparently Bear felt the need to assert his thoughts. The sheets are a winner.

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