Instead, we went to the corner of 13th St. and Donax in IB for one of our tried and true faves...
which is K-Pasta...
Refreshing citrus water on this swelterng day (high 80's in IB, yikes!)...
The tables on their patio have thick colored chalks if you wish to "decorate" or doodle on your table. Note to self - if you sit outside, be prepared to swat at flies. This really sucked and we ended up covering some of the plates with napkins.
Bert and I wanted to share the charcuterie plate featuring hand made sausages from local company Meat Men which is based in Kearny Mesa. I'd never heard of them and later on, looked them up online. I found their logo quite humorous but morbid. I mean, look, the pig is GRINDING himself into sausage links. Nice.
So here is the charcuterie plate, which is pretty generous, at $8.95. It comes with baguette slices (buttered and herbed) and a side of your choice of pesto (green) or another type of dipping sauce (I forgot what it was), a selection of three dry-cured salami, one type of cheese (although their photo on their utensil holders depicted two types), in this case, the dreaded Gorgonzola, and red pepper strips.
I wasn't too thrilled about the big pile of blue cheese on there and asked the server if it could be substituted with anything else. He came back to find out what could be done and told us a few minutes later the choices could either be cheddar (seriously?) and mozzarella. We decided on mozzarella. I hated to be THAT kind of customer, you know, the picky kind but this was the rare time when I asked for something else. The server was nice enough to replace the cheese but I still couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed with the substitute cheese since it seemed so...pedestrian. I was expecting maybe something more artisanal or higher end than mozzarella or cheddar like Manchego even goat cheese (which I wouldn't eat). I didn't want to seem like a big beeyatch about this but they should step up their cheese game. Mozzarella on a charcuterie board? You may as well put a square slice of plastic wrapped Kraft cheese on there. Okay, I'll shut up now. Enough of my cheese rant.
Our entrees:
TC's pasta meal - Super Greens pasta with garlic butter sauce, served with a side salad and garlic bread. Her pasta and its sauce were excellent. If you look closely, you can even see flecks of green(I'm thinking cilantro) in the noodles.
Bert and I shared our own pasta meal - Spinach noodles with mushroom butter sauce and topped with a mozzarella stuffed meatball ($3 extra).
I remember my first mozzarella stuffed meatball here. It actually had a bigass chunk of cheese melting within. Case in point:
(photo from my "K-Pasta" post, March 2013)
Here, not so much. What gives? A previous visit also yield the same results. There was barely any cheese inside. That being said, this was still a very delicious lunch. You could tell the pasta was handmade; I loved the thickness, the color, the flavor...everything.
The pasta portions are smaller now compared to two years ago.
Here's the plate again with the replaced cheese which TC enjoyed. I appreciate that they allowed me to sub out the cheese but would have preferred something not as 'boring'. If not, Bert would have eaten the blue cheese.
The three types of salami (see their menu here). One of the first two was known as the Tasty Treason. I know that the last one was the Saucy Chorizo. All of their hand made salamis had natural casing and each salami had a distinct flavor. We liked them all. I wish I could remember the names but the girl said it so fast and I didn't want to ask her to repeat it after asking her twice. All I heard was chorizo and Tasty Treason, so one of these is a mystery salami (by elimination, I know it's not a pepperoni or the polish sausage).
With that big meatball for our lunch, we only managed a couple pieces of each variety and took the rest home.
All of San Diego was experiencing high temps today, even Imperial Beach which was in the high 80's. After doing an errand at a local shopping center, we went back up Palm Ave (passing by the new fence by Pond 20). In stark contrast to our last trek up Palm, the skies were clear, there was no thunder or lightining strikes...
The "open" sign was a welcome sight to see. Yes...the elusive Star Dust Donuts.
Poster in the window featuring the surfer statue at the end of Palm Avenue (right by the north end of the beach).
Our donut quad - PB & Jelly, German Chocolate, cinnamon roll, and pecan carmel (his spelling) roll...
This was taken before placing them in the trusty cooler and plastic container. The donuts look kind of smashed because Mr. Arnold put them in small bags.
Bert wanted some coffee and since I got my new Entertainment Value coupon book, had one for West Coast Cafe. TC earlier wanted to go to Cowabunga at the IB pier for an ice cream cone but decided against it since the beach parking was probably going to be crazy and also because she changed her mind...
We did score some street parking across the way. If you look closely, you can see pipes shaped like surfboards complete with the year of manafacture (and on the other side, the name of the board). This was fitting since IB is a small town known for its laid back surfer lifestyle.
Bert ordered the Highway 75 (the name of Palm Avenue when it turns into the Strand), which was two shots of espresso with caramel syrup and soy milk. I didn't realize he got a hot drink! TC's drink was free (thank you coupon!) - the Aloha Mocha, which was a mocha spiked with coconut and banana flavors. It tasted very artificial (I'm so spoiled now after having had the gamut of drinks at Holsem Coffee)...
The drinks were also served in ugly styrofoam cups. They used to use clear plastic cups with domes. For whatever reason, they weren't used. Makes for a mundane photo. Sorry.
These drinks looked too...bubbly and thin. Bert liked his drink which I'm sure gave him the caffeine buzz he was craving. TC thought hers was just okay (the other half was frozen for later enjoyment).
We were hoping to see if this fellow would be here...
(photo from my "Return to West Coast Cafe" post, October 2013)
That's Nicholas the cat. We haven't seen him in almost two years. For my West Coast Cafe post last year, a reader noted in the comments that the cat had gotten sick and was taken in by one of the ladies at a nearby beauty salon. I hope that Nicholas is all right. We miss him!
Just for kicks, I googled "Nicholas the Cat, Imperial Beach" and saw that the ImperialBeachPatch (one of the local papers in IB) has an Instagram page with one photo of Nicholas. This entry was made two years ago....
He really made himself at home, didn't he?
Instead of Cowabunga ice cream, I thought we should stop by Oasis. They had non-cream based offerings which hit the spot....
TC wanted to get yogurt here at this fairly new (since March of this year) Yogurt Heaven. This is the first frozen yogurt store in San Diego/IB (not really IB but close enough). She got strawberry/vanilla & cookies & cream with mini mochi bites, sprinkles and poppers.
I noticed that Oasis changed out the designs on their front window. The paleta, sundae, and ice cream cone decals are much bigger and more photorealistic.
Here is an older photo for comparison.
(photo from my "Oasis once again" post, March 2013)
They had a new flavor, Cotija queso. I didn't try it but should have asked for a sample for 'research' purposes, heh. The owner wasn't there today but a younger man (young as in late 20's). As we left, TC saw the owner just getting out of his car. He is such a nice and patient man. I remember he gave me an extra mini scoop before.
The oval artwork was new...
Our paletas (only $1.65 for the non-cream based) - Bert's mango and my watermelon.
Bert is methodical even when eating paletas.
Mine was bitten while he likes to savor his.
Previous visit to K-Pasta:
February 2015
Previous visit to Star Dust Donuts:
July 2015
Previous visit to West Coast Cafe:
October 2014
Previous visit to Oasis Ice Cream:
November 2014
Yogurt Heaven II
1840 Coronado Ave
San Diego, CA 92154
(619) 575-4099
www.yoheaven.com + reviews from yelp
It was fun visiting our favorite spots in south San Diego/Imperial Beach. I'll have to try the new yogurt place one of these days. The lure of handmade paletas was much stronger than the sirencall of froyo.
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