My heart is crackin' like a Krakatoa...

After our visit to the San Diego Public Market, I wanted to check out some local coffee shops in Barrio Logan, but they were closed.

While on our way, we admired the newly refurbished Chicano Park murals under the Coronado Bay Bridge ("Hasta la Bahia!" means "To the bay!!"). The mural restoration project has brought new life to
these fantastic artworks, which is the largest collection of outdoor murals in the United States! The murals in fact, won the grand Orchid Prize in San Diego's annual Orchids and Onions Awards this year. We plan to revisit the area again and really take a quality look and stroll around the columns to admire the artwork. Below, "La tierra mia", which means "My land" or "My homeland". Underneath the overhang it says, "We are not a minority"...

Plan B was now set into motion...

We then headed up Imperial Ave and passed by another mural, this time on the side of apartment building...

After checking online for this post, this turns out to be a GLASS MOSAIC mural, one of the largest of its kind in the world. This can be found on the nine story Villa Harvey Mandel building, which is part of the St. Vincent de Paul Villages.  As we drove on into the neighborhood of Sherman Heights, we saw this on the corner of Market and 24th...

Yes, that is indeed a Jack in the Box in the the style of a historic Craftsman home, many examples of which can be found in this neighborhood. I've never seen a Jack in the Crack this classy (at least on the outside)!

And finally, our destination, which is smack dab across the street from Luigi's (the original Golden Hill location)...

It's a bit hidden from the sidewalk, but it's a really cute house converted to a cafe, complete with a covered outdoor deck.

We thought the "El Chichon" sandwich sounded good - black forest ham with melted Oaxaca cheese, red onion, avocado and tomato...

Bert also ordered a caramel coffee for him and an iced coffee for me.

I MUST HAVE THIS TIKI WALL HANGING NOW!!! The decor was very "South Pacific" with assorted wooden carvings and tiki masks...

I was surprised to see the coffees in such large glasses...

Our sandwich came with a small side of potato salad which was perfect on such a warm day.

I'm not really a sandwich person, but this was not bad at all! Tasty, in fact! We all pretty much shared the sandwich, even though TC originally didn't want any. I think it was that nice and gooey Oaxaca cheese and the creamy avocado that went well with the saltiness of the ham that did it for me. Krakatoa also serves breakfast sandwiches, salads, an assortment of baked goods, and of course coffee, tea, and even smoothies.

I hope the next time we go here, we can sit in their hidden outdoor patio, which hopefully will be devoid of smokers.

Since my iced mocha was MONDO sized, I took the rest home in a to-go cup. I really liked how their ice cubes were large pebble sized rather than big cubes or even crushed. This seemed to last a long time and I would totally get this again.

Leave it to me to bring in a pop culture reference to this coffee shop, but when I first saw the name, I thought of the song, "Lava" by the B-52s.

Here's the slightly "rockier" version by Karmadoza, a Montreal based band who did a whole cover album of B-52s songs:

"My body's burning like a lava from a mauna loa
My heart is crackin' like a Krakatoa
Ooh Krakatoa, East of Java
Molten bodies, fiery lava..."

So when I hear the word "Krakatoa", I always hear Kate Pierson's moany voice in my mind.

For the record, the explosion of Krakatoa in 1883 was one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in history. The explosion as also heard 3000 miles away, caused major tsunamis, and affected the earth's weather for several years in the form of temperature drops, brilliant sunsets and dark skies due to the ashes and debris in the atmosphere.

Krakatoa
1128 25th St.
San Diego, CA 92102
(619) 230-0272

www.krakatoacafe.com

*"Lava" is from first song from Side 2 of The B-52's self titled debut which was released in 1979.

It was fun venturing to different neighborhoods once again. TC is pretty open minded and Bert is quite easy going. This weekend is almost done but I'm already wondering what we'll be doing tomorrow!