Refill

Late last month we made the trek to Hillcrest...

to try out a new coffee/crepes place...

just a few steps away from the now defunct lesbian bar, The Flame on Park Blvd...

La Crepe de Bretagne

After dropping off TC for her volunteer work, we headed to the nearby mall, a place I normally don't like frequenting because I hate crowded places and I don't like seeing students on my off time (just sayin'....)....

The reason we went was because of this...

a brand new crepes place on the west side of Plaza Bonita...

Belen Artisan Bakers

Last Friday, which was the July 4th weekend, we decided to take advantage of Bert's day off by exploring a part of San Diego we hardly ever go to...

which is up north in Escondido...

Of course, I did a little research to make our trip worthwhile. Our original intention was to view an exhibit on comic art, but we didn't want to go to Escondido just for that so...

Angels & Hearts Harajuku Creperie

Well, our original plan to go to H-Mart was changed so we could go to the parking lot from HELL...

Yes, this one...

Return to Fabrison's

The Labor Day weekend weather was quite fab-u-lous!  Sunny, of course...This is San Dee-ago (which means "whale's vagina") after all...

It was time to revisit this cute creperie down in Little Italy...

Crepes from Costco

Found this at Costco...

A two-pack of crepes (8 in each pack). Only $7.99.

It can be used with sweet or savory fillings. We chose sweet.

TC fixing her crepe...

You can heat it up in the microwave for 40 seconds or heat up some butter in a pan and warm it up for 2-3 minutes. The microwave it was!  I thought the crepe was a bit too "soft" when warmed up that way. I haven't tried it the other way. The texture was kind of spongy and thick. It also tasted a bit too eggy. It wasn't that bad but I like my crepes to be a little thinner. I guess this would be all right if you were trying to make a dessert in a pinch or just wanted a quick snack or mini meal.

La Crepe Fraiche

Welcome to Manila Mesa!

This is the corner of Scranton and Mira Mesa Blvd...otherwise known as traffic hell during rush hour! CAB, TC and I were headed over to the Sorrento Food Court for dessert...

Cafe Madeleine

Just a few steps away from the Shepard Fairey monk mural is a fairly new French place, Cafe Madeleine. It's right on the corner where 30th meets Juniper.

There are tables outside and a few inside along with bench seating by the windows. We snagged an open table and it was good that we did because soon after we sat down around 11:45'ish, the place was packed! It's really cute inside. Not much of a kitchen but you can watch the staff make your crepes and sandwiches if you wanted to.

The case held desserts. We'll have to come back for those next time. To the far right, next to the fake Eiffel Tower is the crepes station. This is the third time we've had crepes in about a month (Fabrison's and La Creperie) and these crepes were the best we've had by far.

Bert ordered our drinks: For me, the iced coffee and for him, Illy coffee with unlimited refills. He really really liked this and remembered that Fresh and Easy carries tins of Illy coffee (we checked later and it was $11.99). He said the coffee was so good that he hardly had to add anything to it.

Along with savory crepes, Cafe Madeleine also serves dessert crepes, paninis and salads.  This was Bert's crepe, the Smoked Salmon which had creme fraiche,c apers, red onion and confit pepper ($9).

He really enjoyed this crepe and found the portion just right. The crepe batter also had a nice pull/chew to it. It wasn't soft or mushy. I tried a bit of his and really liked the saltiness of the salmon with the creme fraiche. Thank goodness I didn't bite into a caper since I don't really like those things! And may I add that this photo came out pretty damn good!

I had the Beef crepe which had horseradish, caramelized onions and tomato ($9). Very simple ingredients that were put together quite well. I liked how our crepes came with a bit of salad on the side. The only thing I didn't like was that the salads already had balsamic dressing on it. Next time, I will have to ask for my salad to be plain. Despite this, I still ate my salad.

I would totally get this again!

The onions were awesome and went perfectly with the thinly sliced roast beef.

TC didn't want a crepe today. Instead, she chose the Prosciutto panini which had mayonnaise, Emmenthal Cheese and tomato. She really really loved this. Bert and I also had a bite and thought it was quite tasty. She really liked the cheese which was a departure from her regular American or Cheddar slices in her normal lunch sandwiches.

Look at that...it's just beckoning you to devour it.

Of course we had to try the cafe's namesake, the shell shaped Madeleines. I've had better and thought they weren't as light and fluffy as I thought they'd be.

Our server was really cool and she suggested that we also try dessert crepe if we had room. Her choice was Nutella but instead we chose the Chocolate and Banana ($6). Unlike the dark chocolate crepe we had at Fabrison's, this crepe's chocolate was low on bitter flavor. It was still all right but maybe next time we'll try the Nutella. The dessert presentation was simple. Not overly done like the crepe we had at Chopin (a Polish restaurant) in Toronto where the crepe was fkg covered in whipped cream rendering it unrecognizable as a crepe. I hate that. It's like the Cheesecake Factory where they totally drown their desserts with whipped cream (from the one time I had dessert there, ugh). Kind of like how a cat buries it's shit with sand because it wants to cover it up.

Who else ate at Cafe Madeleine?

Apparently no other SD Foodbloggers came up on a google search. However, here is the Ed Bedford review from the SD Reader that originally piqued my interest as well as the (mostly favorable) yelp reviews.

I really liked this place. It was so cute and charming! Parking is easy to find. The prices are reasonable. The workers are nice. The menu is simple. It's walking distance to other great places in South Park like Rebecca's Bakery, The Daily Scoop on Juniper, Station Tavern, and the Make Good store.  It's also right next to a fkg awesome mural of a Burmese monk. Can't go wrong with that.

Fabrison's French Creperie & Cafe

Late last year, there was a "Restaurant" issue of the SD Reader. In it were tons of coupons for local places which I dutifully clipped for future use. One caught my eye and after having had crepes at La Creperie on 30th, I wanted to make a comparison. That coupon I'd been saving was for Fabrison's in Little Italy.

Very cute inside...

I know I always harp on parking but man, we were so lucky  to get a parking spot on Ash right around the corner from India Street. The crepes place was only a few steps away. It pays to get there early because when we left, there were no more spots! Parking really sucks downtown.

Here's that coupon...

Bert's mocha which was very good and chocolatey.

I got the Baja...

Harissa sauce isn't really "Mexican" but it did add a big kick to this crepe which was excellent!

The marinated flank was slicedso  thinly, it practically melted in my mouth. I ended up eating most of the filling and not the crepe itself. I liked the crepe batter here a tiny bit better than the one I had at La Creperie the other day, as well as the one's I've had at Melt at the Otay Ranch mall.

Bert got the "Hungry Bear" breakfast crepe. This haddiced sausage, ham, eggs, cheddar cheese, and it was set off by a very flavorful and spicy aioli which featured fresh garlic.  Both my crepe and his came with spring salad mix with cheese slivers and tomatoes. Unfortunately for this salad dressing hater, it came with balsamic on top so TC was the happy recipient of my green salad.

Although I really liked my crepe, I liked Bert's almost as much!

TC got the Fruit Crepe - the fruit of the day happened to be green apples.

Oooh, very pretty...

The sourness of the green apples was not even present. These were cooked down and quite sweet and almost pear like in texture.

Lastly, we ordered a dessert crepe for all of us to share, the  Dark Chocolate (with chocolate imported from France)...If I could have licked the plate clean, I would have. But I have some sense of decorum when other people are present, heh heh, so I just scraped what I could get with my fork! Hello! The dark chocolate was really quite velvety and smooth and not bitter at all. This was excellent! I'd go again just for this1

The dude who helped us was super nice too. We didn't see the owners there, Fabrice and his wife Alison (hence the name "Fabrison's"). Everyone there was pretty cool and the vibe was very relaxed. In addition to crepes, they also sell sandwiches and salads as well as various pastries. There is also a small section of the cafe featuring photographic prints by a local artist (greeting cards and matted photos).

Who else ate at Fabrison's?

Darwin and Ange of Eat, Darwin Eat! went here back in August 2010

And that's all I could find for SD foodbloggers. Otherwise, here are the reviews from
Yelp
SD Reader ,"Not a Tourist Place"
and City Beat "French Favorites"

We hadn't been here in awhile. I think the last time was back in '06 for the Little Italy Fest. We ended up walking up India Street to check out the local flavor....

Melt with TORC

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of going out with TORC...we met for lunch at the Otay Ranch shopping center (it's not technically a mall, but wtf, I call it a mall sometimes). I remember going here 3 years ago with her...

It's still owned by a nice Korean family. The son was working the gelato counter on the left while his father whipped up the crepes (straight ahead). They even had a beef bulgogi crepe! I have to try that next time!

This was TORC's Norweigan crepe which had smoked salmon and some sort of dill sauce on top. The lettuce was your standard bagged kind with dressing on the side.

The innards of the Norweigan crepe. Nice and flappy.

This one was my crepe...oh my God I don't even remember what the official name of it was...

It had mushrooms, swiss chhese, guacamole and something else in there. I think it was the California crepe. Yeah, that was it. The only thing I didn't like were the red onion slices - they were pretty strong and weren't really soft; in fact they tasted raw and added at the last minute.

With all that gelato in the store just beckoning to us maddeningly, we had to get some. This was my chocolate hazel nut gelato...Nice and creamy. Just like a nasty Prince song (such as "Cream", "Soft and Wet", take your pick!)

TORC got two flavors - the Mango and Swiss Chocolate, which was an interesting combination, I must say. The guy scooping the gelato was so nice to us. He gave us extra big scoops and told us we shold come by again. I actually did, a few days later, but with Bert and TC. He remember me too!

Wow, I think I just may be hooked on gelato once again! I still like Gelato Vero Caffe's as well as Pappalecco!

Previous visits to Melt (that I actually blogged)-
June 2007 with TORC
July 2007 with TORC again

Portland - Day 1 with photos

Okay, because I'm super lazy, I'm kind of recycling my original Portland posts, but this time with photos and slightly different commentary by yours truly. Why reinvent the wheel right? Well, I'll try to spice this up...

Hey now! We're in Portland, Oregon!!!

We spent the night before we left at Bert's bro's place in Aliso Viejo. Our flight wasn't a direct one from San Diego, but flew out from LAX. Hence the night at bro in law's. Man, the shuttle picked us up at the ungodly hour of 3:30 a.m.! We only got a few hours sleep that night. Our car rental was at an offsite place from the airport. The car we ended up getting was a dark reddish PT Cruiser, which was cool because I'd never been in one before. We also got to use my mini (and outmoded) iPod with the FM transmitter. For the most part, it worked, but it would get staticky (is that even a word?) from time to time. We arrived in Portland at 9:30 and got our rental at 11'ish. Luckily, we were able to drop off our luggage at the hotel even though we couldn't officially check in yet (since there were no available rooms until after 3 pm).

Here's a freeway shot:
Man, the scenery is so different here! It's so green and lush, unlike airid Southern Ca with deserts and palm trees and dead shrubs...
Look closely...can you see the "Made in Oregon" sign? It looks nicer at night when it's lit up but my (future) night shots of it came out rather crappily.

Okay, after the luggage drop off. We headed out to Beaverton. Heh, heh, she said BEAVER.

WTF is there in Beaverton you ask? Well, besides being the headquarters of NIKE (Uh, like I care or wear their products), it is also one of the locations of Uwajimaya, a huge Seattle based Asian supermarket. When we were in Seattle several years ago, we made sure to eat and shop for snacks at Uwajimaya in the International District. Ironically, we were steeling ourselves for cold ass weather and rain and all. However, it was actually quite pleasant. Not too cold or nipular, but comfortable to go out without a heavy jacket or anything. The sun was also out and there was no sign of rain anywhere!

Lunch was at the Japanese deli/take-out sections of the market. Then we went snack/grocery shopping. Yes, snacks galore! We got shrimp chips, wasabi peas, sweet rice crackers, some top ramen (for breakfast), mini mandarin oranges, bananas, and some other stuff I can't remember because it's now nearly two weeks later. Here are the sodas I chose for our lunch. Nice and sugary these are. I also got two Spam musubis, although only one is pictured below. The musubis were only $1.50!!! Not bad!

There was a hot food section for the takeout place in the supermarket. Since Bert was on his 'no meat' (and no chocolate or rice either) kick, he got the yakisoba noodles with vegetables.

For TC, I got her some fried shrimp with some fried bean sprout and vegetable fritter thing. It reminded me of ukoy (the Filipino version of fried shrimp/vegetable patty). It came with rice, a slice of pickled vegetable, which she took one bite of and promptly spat. It was that good. The green thing is some plastic decorative fake grass thingy.

I got the soba noodles salad. It came with sliced fish cake, soy sauce, seaweed, egg omelette strips, sliced cucumber and one of the ukoy like vegetable patties. I wanted to eat noodles for some reason and also wanted to share it with Bert since I wasn't sure if his noodles and vegetables would be enough for him.

Pig that I am, I also ordered the Portugues sausage with eggs and rice. TC and I shared this and we took the leftovers back to the hotel, intending to eat the rest for breakfast the next day. Oh yeah, I also bought this pre-cooked and packaged white rice at the supermarket so we would eat that for breakfast with Vienna Sausage (don't hate!) and scrambled eggs. This was pretty good - the sausage was kind of small and didn't taste smoky enough though. It kind of looked like Chinese sausage from afar, but it did taste like Portuguese sausage.

There were also these Geoduck clams in the seafood area. Very phallic looking. I remember going to Ranch 99 last summer with TC and my sister's boys. We were poking these geoducks with the tongs and making water squirt out of it! Spouting water from a penile appendage is always good for a larf...

Our hotel was just a few blocks away from the world's famous Powell's Books and a few of the famous food carts in Portland. This book store is huuuuuge! It's as big as one whole city block. You need a map to get around in there. Each room is color coded. They also mix new books with used books. You could get lost in here. We spent about an hour just browsing around and didn't even hit the upper levels. We figured we could always come back since it was close by.

Some wierd sculpture across the street from Powell's. Those thin brushlike strands actually moved!

The Harry Potter section. Our daughter is totally into the Potter books. Right now, she's rereading "The Mysterious Benedict Society", which is not a Harry Potter book. She's also into Meg Cabot's "Ally Finkle" series, anything to do with horses as well as dragons.

Our hotel was also a few blocks away from the food carts on SW 10th and Alder. Most of them were already closed by 6 pm. Across from Jake's restaurant, we noticed a few of the carts were still open. This one sold hot dogs and crepes, so we decided to sample a couple of the crepe offereings. . Most of them were already closed for the day like one that sold Bosnian food, but we eyed a few of them for good eats later that week. This was the crepe cart. I can't even read what it says - the sign was so weathered and messed up.

The crepe was pretty big. I got one with turkey and cheese.

Okay, this is either my crepe or Bert's. Both had tomatoes, spinach and basil in them. The only different is that mine had meat and Bert's was just cheese and veggies.

The crepe itself was nice and springy. When you bit into it, it tore apart nicely. It wasn't overly soggy until the very end. I think when we ate this, it was closer to 7 pm. We sat out on a table on the sidewalk and watched very well dressed people walk by. Perhaps they were on their way to a show or something.

Here's my turkey and cheese crepe...aack, blurry.

A few blocks down from the food carts was this colorful mural:

The other side of the mural:

Me and the mural...I'm all Princed out in my purple...

That was day 1. Coming up, day 2!