Take out + alcohol consumption during the time of Covid-19, March - July 2020

Yes, another compilation post...

featuring take out food and snacks as well as alcomahol...

I'm not a big drinker but man, since March, Bert and I have shared quite a few beers together. Usually 80/20 or sometimes 70/30 (I represent the lower percentage by the way).

I'm just going to mix it up...beginning in March when my sis and I went to Donut Panic to get some donuts to go with our coffee from nearby S3. Linda's father, the owner was there. He told me he was worried about the virus. I told him that he was risking his life and he agreed. He is older than 65 and would be more susceptible.  A week later, the donut shop closed temporarily during the stay at home mandate and also because eateries were closed.  They recently reopened for takeout.

Neapolitan with marshmallow, crunchy apple fritter (too crunchy), strawberry coconut and Neapolitan raised.

We hadn't had donuts in quite awhile. These were brought home.

TC and my sis (who is also her godmother) were tired of meals at home, so they ordered Pizza Hut. Veg, sausage and supreme. The crusts were all different too - one thine, one thick and the other was stuffed.

Enjoyed with this...one of our faves (me and Bert).

For another occasion, we made good use of the fresh mint in our garden and made Moscow mules. The lime vodka was a birthday gift from my sis last year. So, lime vodka with more lime, plus mint and ginger brew from Trader Joe's. Copper mugs were from a gift set for Bert, from me. Christmas or birthday gift. One of those.


Cheers!

Yes, you can see the mess on our counter. Those arms are me, Bert and my sis.

Blueberry soju...not bad. There are other flavors like watermelon, lychee and strawberry.

Thai Fresh was also ordered or my bday (already posted earlier) - this was our big first take out meal. Spring rolls, noodles (pad thai, drunken), eggplant, crab fried rice, papaya salad plus a variety of beverages...

such as this black/raspberry hard selzter. I didn't realize that Belching Beaver was getting into non-beer drinks now...All these companies trying to copy that White Claw flavored hard selzter business

Of course, it's the reappearance of this gin, Pomp & Whimsy. It is much more floral than other gins and admittedly targeted towards women (the company owner is a woman as well). Our cousin from SF recommended this and my sis ended up getting a few bottles, one for me as a gift and one for her!

The stemmed glass was from a thrift store in Solana Beach. There were actually two and cost $1 each. Sadly, I broke one of them and I know it'll be hard to find another one exactly like it. I think food looks and even tastes better on nice plates. Same goes for drinks - put it in a nice vessel and you feel so much more posh and fancy.
Bert is a big fan of nut browns, hence this beer here.

Would have tasted even better as a beer float - yes...with coffee or chocolate ice cream.

Vinho verde - one of two bottles that were a Thanksgiving party gift. Or was it Christmas, I don't remember. TORC has a friend from Boston who visits every few years or so. She is Portuguese (from the Azores) and was delighted to be able to speak Portuguese with MN's husband and their daughters (they are trilingual - English, Spanish and Portuguese). The accent from the Azores though is different from the "continental" Portuguese spoken  on the mainland. I couldn't tell, but they could. Anyhow, green wine yo.


Nice, light, and crisp.

During Mother's Day weekend, Bert and I stopped by Mary's Donuts in Santee. We had a face mask order to pick up from a lady who lived on the western edge of Santee.

There was a long line with folks distanced accordingly and wearings masks. Only a few people in at a time were allowed.  As we were waiting, I admired the seasonal window paintings. Not by Dano but by someone else. These paintings were for Mother's Day.


Donut trio included a chocolate iced crueller, a maple bar and a blueberry donut.


They are placed on my Tokidoki diaper pad changer. Obviously I have not used them to place baby's butts, but the diaper pads are an added accessory for Tokidoki Jujube collab bags, which I have quite a few of them.  The pads are useful for me whenever I want to sit at a park bench or table or whatever. In this case, I used them for donut placement.


Also for Mother's Day, my sis was kind enough to order Thai food from Supannee. We had it mixed with Korean food from Zion, but this post just focuses on the Thai food

Crab pad thai with deep fried rock crab on top and lump crab within the noodles. Crab galore!

Nam Khao tod - fried rice with Thai sausage and fresh herbs and vegetables.

Thai sausage, slightly different from the one served with the rice.  Their sausages used to be little plump things but now they are served slices. There is slivered fresh ginger, one red Thai chile, and peanuts as well as fresh lettuce straight from Supannee's organic urban garden.


Honey lemongrass iced tea from Pop Pie enjoyed on a morning when Bert and I took a walk on Adams near 30th all the way to Park Blvd.

Local craft beers - Mangolorian by Creative Creature and Viva la Beaver (Mexican chocolate PB stout) by Belching Beaver.

Bert liked the Mangalorian more than I did. It was a hazy double IPA which was too hoppy for my tastes. The other one was more like it.  Bert drank it at the end of May for a good friend's birthday party on Zoom.   The Mangolorian artwork is by a local artist, Ramiro Ortiz who ru ns the South Bay Liquor Store Instagram which is he updates quite often.  He has his own personal IG where he photographs poured craft beers on a bookshelf with selected titles from his comic/graphic novels collection. The pop culture turnaround is quite interesting with craft beer titles.  We got hooked on the Mandalorian series on Disney plus last winter and watched it twice. Let's put it this way, we are definitely looking forward to season 2.

This is the Pink Champagne we got for Mary and Jake's virtual wedding:


We watched it on our tv (hooked up from our laptop)...there was a slight delay because Mary was late to her own wedding due to protestors being on the freeway.

This batch of beers from Sacramento was a gift from a friend met on Instagram. He did the artwork and works for a craft brewery up there.

Claimstake - Of the three, Bert liked this the best. It was the easiest to drink, the Kolsch. The other two were on the sugary and sour side. One of them had li hing mui flavor and was an Imperial sour. I am not really that much of a craft beer geek as much as my friend who sent this to me, but we are learning about the different styles through him and another friend.  I am not a fan of the sours.

Takeout from MJ's - TC was tired of homemade food so she offered to get takeout this one night.

I know you can't really tell what's under all that shredded cabbage, but one of them had tacos underneath and the other had lumpia.  The burrito is their infamous 805 South Burrito which is carne asada with seasoned fries, lumpia, longanisa and a fried egg.  Yikes.

These were assorted pastries from the French Oven. Yes, they all look the same but they're not.


Chocolate almond croissant, Bostock,  and an almond croissant. This is one of our favorite bakeries. We'd go there everyday if we could, that is if there were not dietary repurcussions. Maybe it's a good thing that it's so far away.

IB Thai on the way home from a short outing to IB.  This is on the corner of 13th and Imperial Beach Blvd.  Anything west of 13th is considered IB; anything south is considered San Diego (the 92154 zip code).

I have been here a few times prior but those posts haven't gone out yet (will do....eventually); they are new as of last year.

We enjoyed our takeout with this craft beer by Left Hand Brewing  - this pina cola wheat on Nitro.

Shared were the Pad see ew with shrimp, veg pad thai for TC and pork larb. The pad see ew  noodles had a nice caramelization going on too. The chef know he/she is doing.

A friend of mine wanted some of my homemade ube and Oreos no churn ice cream. As a trade, he gave me a few beers from local brewery, Harland and one from Santa Cruz.  I originally asked if their Ube Milkshake was s still available but it was limited edition last winter and there's definitely no more.

He said that this flavor was all the rage with his fellow craft beer geek friends. We have never tried beer with lactose in it...this "milkshake" style. I'm sure many purists would gag at this but OMFG, this was really  tasty! It was so "fluffy" and had lovely flavors going on.

This was from Humble Seas. Many of their cans have interesting artwork.

We didn't drink this until a few weeks after it was given. This was very light and easy to drink.  Whoever makes up these flavors must have a sweet tooth!

Peach coffee cake from Tartine in Coronado - we took it home after our brunch that morning. It was one of the first times we dined indoors after rules were relaxed. Went well with our coffee.  [Update - as of mid/late July, restaurants can only serve food outdoors]

Hopworks, from Portland, came out with this coconut milkshake IPA which we enjoyed with rice paper wraps. The proteins were garlic shrimp and fried Spam.  This was a pretty nice and easy beer as well, very tropical.

La Concha - I hadn't been here in a while but they now only allow two customers inside at a time. Once you are in, you can no longer take a pair of tongs and select your own pastries or bread. They have tables serving as "barricade" and one of the employees will get your selections.  You pay at the front counter which they have put up a plexiglass barrier with a hole cut out to give your money (if paying by cash).

I got my favorites,  the chilindrina as well as a couple of empanadas. Their wrapper sleeves are now labeled (for certain flavors). The sleeves used to be plain and they would write down the flavors if you bought more than one. They are so flaky and delicious and always warm.  The empanadas are going for about $3.  Take that hipster bakeries. One of these was good enough for breakfast!


Speaking of breakfast, this was a muffin from I bought Subterranean Coffee in North Park during one of my morning outings. I took it to go and had it later at home. Although I could have eaten inside, I had other plans that morning, which were to document recent street murals/art on University Ave.

Boudin in Clairemont - Since the quarantine, I couldn't use my "free bread" rewards from April to May since I didn't go out too much and they were also closed temporarily.  Around the end of May, I went there to get my sourdough bread (plus another loaf, bought, for my dad).

The sign made my laugh.


Look at the bread shaped like 2020.

One free loaf - pardon the mess in my car.

It's back to those beers from Harland. I am too lazy to put it under the unopened can photos, so here it is...Looks like POG or some sort of juice. This was one of the most interesting beers we've tried. Not sold in stores either. My friend told me it was a limited release. It helps that he knews one of the brewers too, ha ha. I'm sure he gets a good hookup.

Here is another one by Creative Creature - blond ale with coconut and pineapple. This ale was more on the 'normal' side in terms of style with flavors that were so sunny and light.

Bread and Cie pastries bought after a long walk. I didn't realize they would give me a big box. It was a hassle to carry especially since I didn't have a tote bag with me and because I like to take photos wherever I go, it sucked having to keep putting it down. Inside were a plain croissant, an almond croissant and a blackberry banana muffin.  This was during an outing with my sister.

Another sunset in IB enjoyed sometime last month with Bert...

Along with fish and chips from the Tin Fish. For whatever reason, they didn't give us tartar sauce this time around, just coleslaw and hot sauce.

Zumbar coffee was used in this Imperial Stout by New English Brewing Co...I really like the coffee from Zumbar so I thought this would taste good and yes, I was right.

I changed it up a bit by making mine a cocktail of sorts - I added tonic water (yes, the cheap kind from Walmart) and added ice. Gasp all you want but this coffee beer was good ice cold!


Golden Road has several flavors in their Melon Cart series - these are a couple of them, Watermelon and Pineapple. Nice, light, and crisp.  There is also a mango (and a spicy version too).


Recently, Bert and I were in OB to enjoy the day...we started off with getting a few savory pastries from Azucar...

Yes to both above...

Love their classic town logo.

Enjoyed a ham and cheese quiche (far left) and the pastelito de carne and Cubano pie at a bench on the OB pier watching the surfers.


Here was a chocolate concha I bought that same morning at La Concha before we headed up to OB.

Our friend Kilatzin did a beer trade with us. We had given him a Cali Squeeze POG from SLOW Brewing. In exchange, he gave us not one, but of these Stone Notorious P.O.G. so we could "compare".


Bert liked it since it was on the hoppier side. Me, not as much, but I did like that the POG flavor is really pronounced

Recently, Bert and I tried Tanilla Porter by Knee Deep Brewing. I tend to like the darker porters and this one was heavy on the vanilla. It was like a coffee beer basically. Needs ice cream to be a really good beer float!


To commemorate the end of the school year (early June), my friends and I had a Zoom happy hour. This was my triple line up (which I later regretted) - a shot of bluebbery shoju, a shot of lime vodka and a shot of that gin.  The shots were spaced apart and not downed in succession, just to let you know. I also don't "down" them...I actually sip and savor. 

From cheapass soju to fancy ass gin.

This was picked up from Sprouts - Bert really liked this. I had a few sips...The toasted porter was nice...had a tiny bit of smokiness and was very rich tasting.


"Sinister"  - that's what they wrote in the description, ha ha.

I'll end this post with some takeout from Panda Express- another suggestion by TC. This was at the beginning of the pandemic, sometime in late March...It took a long ass time for her to get this even though she ordered it in advance, there was a long line of cars waiting.  Still, it was nice of her to go and get this. I also think she wanted to get out of the house, which was fine.

Orange chicken for her, beef and noodles for Bert and shrimp and veg for me. Nothing earth shattering here. Your basic takeout...

I think this is the most alcohol we've ever had in quite a while. While not an every day occurrence, we did enjoy on Fridays and weekends and when we were both on vacation, maybe every few days or so.  No judgement here. It was fun experimenting with flavors and being recipients of certain food/drink gifts.

We didn't do too much takeout since I prefer to make our own meals, but every now and then it was nice to have something different. 

Work starts in a few days and I'm not looking forward to it. Depending on how busy things get, posts may not be coming out that often. We'll see.

Hope you are all doing all right during these times.