Dessert at Zion Market's Boba Bar & Paris Baguette

Of course D's birthday lunch outing was not complete with dessert...

Although I'd been here many times before (and didn't realize that TORC had been there recently), I thought it would be fun for all of us to check out Paris Baguette...

and perhaps get a drink at one of the food court vendors...

Return to Ali Baba Family Restaurant - D's Birthday Lunch

It's been a super hot and sweaty August, hasn't it?  The Educator GF's and I celebrated D's birthday three weeks later. As usual, they let me do the planning because I'm a control freak they trust my judgement.

I was debating whether or not we should even drive to the East County where it would be ten degrees hotter than our hometown of Chula Vista.  It was Labor Day weekend and I sorely wanted to avoid the beach areas, tourist hot spots, and places where we'd been before...

Another criteria was that the place had to have air conditioning (that took Asia Cafe off the list). When D gave me carte blanche to pick, I narrowed our choices down to this place...

iWok

Formerly a Chinese restaurant with the word "Panda" in the title (Not Panda Express), which I can't even remember the real name...

it changed to the creatively (cough, cough) monikered iWok this spring. Seriously, iWok?

Recently, I had lunch there with La Ley out of curiosity...

Birthday dinner @ Gunco Ramen

Dinner was TC's choice. It was either Vietnamese or Japanese.

She chose Japanese. One of the few decent Japanese places in Chula Vista is on the west side...

on the corner of Third and Palomar...right across from a certain donut shop, heh heh...

Look for this sign on the southwest corner...

where you will find two differently named Japanese restaurants that are actually joined...

Return to Love Cupcake Cafe

[Update- Closed as of March 2016]

As I headed east on Birch, I could see a big thundercloud looming ahead in the distance...

This was the same day that several thunderhead clouds merged to become one giant supercloud that ended up soaking East County...

The Big One Three for TC

The day has arrived...

TC has passed from Tweendom to being an official Teenager...

Pre-13 Bday party for the tween cousins...

Finally, for the first time ever, my brother and I held a joint bday party for our kids. His son is one day older than TC. I've always wanted to do it because it seemed redundant to have two family dinners either one day after the other or one weekend apart.

Even though it was just my side of the family plus Bert's mom and my BIL, there was still tons of food to go around.

Vietnamese Pork Chops

This next recipe I'm making for the pre-Teens' birthday party is one that I've made quite a few times in the past but never blogged it...

I first saw the recipe seven years ago from a Hawaiian based blog that was on Kirk's sidebar (you can even see the comment I made back in '06). It's pretty easy to make and is usually a crowd pleaser...

Apple Slaw

The other recipe that I saw at the doctor's office involved Bert's favorite fruit, the Granny Smith apple...

The long list of ingredients was a bit daunting and the prep work a bit tedious, but I had most of the ingredients and thought I'd give it a go...

Corn Pudding

When I was at the doctor's office last week, I was passing the time looking at a magazine when a couple of recipes caught my attention. This was one of them...

I took a photo of the page, then handwrote it later at home so I could tape it to my cabinet near the stove. Yeah, very high tech, I know...

This would be one of the "new" recipes I'm trying for today's family gathering...

Go West!

Watching the Little League World Series!

Local kids from the Eastlake Little League are representing the United States versus Japan...

Cold Stone Creamery, Terra Nova location

Earlier this aftenoon, I was doing errands to prepare for TC and her 1-day older cousin's pre-birthday party. I say "pre" because the party will be this Sunday but their real birthdays are on Monday and Tuesday, with the boy being one day older...

I was asked to take care of the cake...

Walking around in Montreal...

On the (crappy) freeways in Montreal...Slush Puppies are the Canadian equivalent to Icees or Slurpee and are the most popular ice slush "in the world" according to their company website.

TC thought their mascot was amusing...

I will never complain about the roads in San Diego again! The freeways in Montreal are atrocious! Worse traffic than LA (during rush hour), millions of pot holes, etc...

Luckily, our drive to get to downtown Montreal didn't take long and before we knew it, we were there scoping for parking...

Canada 2012 - Day 8 - Breakfast buffet @ Aloft, Montreal

Having spent our first and only night at the Aloft Hotel, we were ready for a big day to explore Montreal again...

but this time in the daylight. We had an idea of what we wanted to eat that day which included some iconic Montreal fare, but first...

Return to Homestyle Hawaiian

After having gone here a few weeks ago, we thought it would be a fine time to return...

to Homestyle Hawaiian. With me were my friends and lunch partners, La Ley, Mr. TJ as well as MFH (the newly retired)....

We snagged a corner table and when I looke dup, I saw these specials and a taped on review, which upon closer inspection...

Canadian Maple Syrup Pie

This weekend I was in a pie baking mood...

It was finally time to open up the hallowed can of maple syrup that I got as a gift last year...

Uno mas vez...Return to El Charco

[Closed as of late last year! Bummer!]

TC and I liked El Charco so much that we went AGAIN the next day...

This time, with Bert!  One more person means more choices too!

Return to Neveria Tocumbo, Chula Vista

Located just up the street from El Charco is a Mexican ice cream place that used to be Baskin Robbins back in the day.

Unfortunately, it's in a nearly deserted and depressing looking strip mall. The restaurant behind it used to be "Jimmy's" and even that is shut down.  Only a few businesses remain including the animal hospital, which made for some fun "dog watching" as we enjoyed our icy treats...

El Charco

[Update - Closed as of late 2013!]

Yesterday TC and I were running errands and were pondering where to go for lunch...

Fred's on the Southeast corner of Palomar and 3rd used to be a Sonic. Although we were curious since we hadn't been to Fred's yet, I remembered a place literally across the street that La Ley recommended...

Sidewalk talk @ Caffe Calabria

There's this store that's on the Northeast corner of 30th and University...they have a lot of wierd random stuff  in their windows...

Anyone want a mini Nativity set, an African head bust or a toy gorilla? They also have those ubiquitous California bear shirts  (another variation is Cali Love).

"The Good the Bad and the Sexy" - New Works by Billy Martinez @ the San Diego Art Dept

Remember this?

The mural looks pretty good in the late day...The faux shadows really make this pop as well!

Our next destination was just up Ray Street...

Return to Yog-Art

Now it was still quite "early" in the evening, perhaps around 6:45 or 7 pm'ish...TC wanted frozen yogurt and remembered that place we went to earlier this year...

For homebodies like us, it was kind of nice being out on a Friday night. I think we should make it a regular thing!

I had designs on another place for my dessert, but this stop was strictly for TC and Bert...

Sicilian Thing 3x

Earlier today, we paid a visit to one of our favorite pizza places...

It was a "I don't want to cook tonight" Friday, so off we went to Hipsterville North Park...

Chula Vista Lemon Festival 2013

This past Sunday we did a quick visit to the Chula Vista Lemon Festival.

(sign that was on the window of Sweet Sisters Bakery)

We hadn't gone in a few years and were curious about the food offerings...

Pastel de Nata

After six week of being on vacation...my neighbors have finally returned from their trip to Portugal, Spain and France.

MN brought back a box of these...

They're baaaaack....

After much hoopla and all that crap about bankruptcy...

It's the return of these...

I wonder if that's a good thing or not?  For junk food lovers, it would be the former. For the granola/slow food/farm fresh/holier than thou healthy food freaks, we're all going to hell in a handbasket if we even gaze upon these cellophane wrapped monsters...

But hey, I'll take my chances...

Ethnic Markets: Seafood City 2x, Muang Lao, Kyoto & Zion

A few weeks ago, Bert and I had an errand to run here...

at the Seafood City in National City. Ever since SC opened up in Chula Vista two years ago, I haven't had the need to go here...It's always crowded in the parking lot and in the store. We needed to get some jasmine rice for a potluck/surprise party nearby...

8 pm @ Mary's Donuts...

After a quick jaunt to the local Target to kill time and use a clean bathroom (sorry Sab e Lee, but it's a bit grody in there)...we headed back to Mission Gorge Road...

It was nearly time...

A motley assortment of pix...

Somewere in Costa Mesa...

This donut place also sold "the best sandwiches in the world"....really?

I like taking photos when I'm not driving. In this case, Cathy was driving...

Cafe Terrasse Chez Catherine

Located in a prime spot along the riverfront was this little cafe serving ice cream, gelato and crepes...

Pardon the craptastic night photos...

It was time for a little dessert before calling it a night...

SEL in Santee revisit

Last Friday, we headed up the 125 to revisit one of our favorite restaurants...

It had been awhile since our family had been here (more recently for me alone though).  I had a really stressful week at work so Bert wanted to "de-stress" me by taking us out to dinner. He asked me to pick a place the night before and when I told him my choice, it turned out we were on the same wavelength...

Old Montreal at Night

Just like the night before in old Quebec city, we enjoyed the sights and sounds of the old Montreal quarter at night...

when it was much cooler and less crowded. Above, a blurry (sorry) shot of a shop offering poutine, which can be found everywhere in Montreal.

Since we just had that awesome potluck meal at C's aunt's house, we were just there to take in the sights and perhaps pick up a little dessert later that evening...

Homestyle Hawaiian - Chula Vista

Tucked into a tiny building next to a dental office and a car tune up place is the newest location of Homestyle Hawaiian.

I was so happy to see a new lunch time offering so close to home. Homestyle Hawaiian opened in April, but it was only recently that I had a chance to visit with my friends, La Ley and Mr. TJ...

Abe Froman's, I mean Salt & Cleaver + Chocolat Cremerie

A few days ago, I was able to try a fairly new restaurant in the heart of Hillcrest with Kirbie...

The restaurant was actually supposed to be called Abe Froman's, but they changed it, obviously. I read somewhere that they changed their mind on the name because they didn't think people would get the reference...