Crispy Fried Chicken and Seafood

After several hours of ice skating at the local ice arena, I gave the girls a choice on where to eat lunch based on the coupons that I had. Chili corn dogs at Wienerschnitzel? Kabobs from Fattoush? Or Fried Chicken at Crispy Fried Chicken? The last of which sounded totally redundant!

Well, duh, guess which cuisine won out?

Ice ice baby...

After traversing across the Bridge of Death Spruce Street Suspension Bridge,

 we backtracked to Hillcrest for an icy treat...

Of course, this could only be...

"Just answer the five, three questions!"

After our genteel afternoon sipping tea at Shakespeare's, we wanted to visit a certain hidden bridge I'd only heard about but had never visited. Until today that is.

Luckily, we did not have to answer five three questions by the bridgekeeper to cross the Bridge of Death!

"What is your name?"
"What is your quest?"
"What is the capital of Assyria?"

"I DON'T KNOW THAT!!!"

Gotta love that British humour!

But back to the bridge...

The new Red Lobster - Chula Vista

This past weekend, we took Bert's mom out for lunch at the new Red Lobster in Chula Vista.

The previous location was in the downtown business district while the new location is at a prime spot on the corner of H Street and Broadway. This was once the home of Bob's Big Boy and then Carrow's. The whole building was demolished last year and was reborn as Red Lobster; their official opening was earlier this month (Labor Day)...

Anyhow, there was piped music from outside (which turned out to be the same as inside the restaurant).To my delight, it was 80's music!

They should have been playing this:

"Red Rock Lobster! Down! Down! Down!"

Haha! There was even more 80's musical fun once we stepped in...

"Make a cup of tea and put a record on..."

Earlier this week, I took out TC and friend (KD's daughter) for her belated birthday where we went for a girl's day out for tea at Shakespeare's Corner Shoppe...

I don't know about you, but when I hear the word tea, I think of these lyrics from The Cure's "Love Cats":

"We should have each other to tea, huh...
We should have each other with cream..."

OMG, you can tell that Robert Smith is totally lip syncing and in such a blase manner as well! Can you believe this performance is nearly 30 years old? Yikes! He must be in his early 50's now.

Anyhow, it had been more than a year since we were last here for tea...

Return to Cafe 21

Sometime last week, TC and I had a night out for dinner...

Bert wasn't able to join us due to a previous commitment but we headed out nonetheless to a place I'd been meaning to revisit...

Return to the FreakybutTrue Peculiarium

We tried going here a few days earlier but it was closed, dagnabbit.






























It's a goal of mine to find at least one place like this every time we visit a city. How can ANYBODY pass up this eye catching sign?!

Return to the Manitoulin Chocolate Works

Although we'd been here from our first visit two years ago...

we couldn't say no to these magic words, "Chocolate" and "candy"...

Return to Lillian's

OMG, can it be?

Yes, it is...the return of the Canada posts! We still haven't left the Island yet either, but this day would be our last before we embarked upon the epic road trip with C and her family...

After our visit to Mum's Bakery and drooling over their butter tarts, we made a quick stop to a local First Nations store...

Mariscos Sunday

Last weekend, we stopped by the good ole TJ Oyster bar for lunch...

Last weekend was one of the hottest on record and that day we wanted to have some cool and refreshing mariscos...

Wild Wasabe

After our time spent zipping through the trees and climbing ropes and walking over precarious log bridges at Tree to Tree Adventure Park, we headed back to the city for an early dinner.

This place was chosen merely because of it's proximity to St. Honore Boulangerie as well as quasi-museum curio-shop (post will be forthcoming).

After all that climbing and balancing and ziplining in the freezing cold and rain, we were a bit brain dead and didn't really want to search high and low for a place to eat...

Viva Pops yet again...

After our quick but informative stop at Bine and Vine next door...

it was finally time for our dessert...

From the vaults...

About a week and a half ago, my car battery died. When the battery was replaced, my radio station pre-sets were messed up. Like way messed up. I can't even listen to my favorite stations (105.3, 101.5, 1007. and 98.9). Although I have a bunch of self-burned cd compilations, I thought it would be good to take out my old cd's out of retirement...

Pay no attention to the dirty seat cushions...

Sadly, my CD collection had been languishing in our bedroom media cabinet. It was time to give these a whirl once again and see why I loved these albums in the first place...

Oregon Day 7 - Tree to Tree Adventure Park

If you haven't noticed, I am slowly eking out the Oregon posts...

Day 7 of our trip took us a little over an hour out of Portland to a town called Gaston, in Scoggins Valley Park...

Bine & Vine Bottle Shop

Our next destination was for dessert...

We had at least two choices in this neighborhood tonight, but we got waylaid a teeny tiny bit...

No utensils required

The night was still young...

It was our lucky night since we found parking right next to the restaurant. This was to be my friend's first foray into Ethiopian cuisine...

Off the menu...

This past Friday, which turned out to be the hottest damn day of the year (so far!) took me over to one of our favorite restaurants in San Diego...

According to Kirk of Mmm-Yoso, Asia Cafe was recently featured on "Eden Eats" (along with Sultan and a few other SD places). We don't get the Cooking Channel, so I'll have to dig up that episode online...

Anyhow, it's nice to see this type of national exposure for Asia Cafe, which I'd read about back in  2006 (Kirk's blog of course)...

Return to Halphen Red Burgers

Ain't it hot today???

105 outside and nearly 90 in the house!

Despite the heat, we went out for a late lunch at the recently opened Halphen Red Burgers...

I'd been wanting to go back and Bert and TC hadn't been so...

Fig Tree Cafe - Hillcrest

Another hot off the press post!

Earlier this morning, I met up with an old high school friend that I hadn't seen since our reunion last month. He was one of my GBF's in high school. Our brunch destination was in Hillcrest...

Originally to be at Hash House a Go Go (waaay too crowded) but I suggested either Urban Eats or Snooze.

Well, Snooze doesn't take reservations on weekends and the wait at 10 am was downright shiteous - more than an HOUR! This scenario of waiting line while other nearby eateries have no lines reminded me of this Portlandia episode called "Brunch Village". I don't care how popular this place is, we weren't going to stand in line that long in 90+ degree heat!

Oh hell to the effing no...

Snooze...you lose!

Chi Chocolate

After strolling around the well manicured grounds of Liberty Station, we headed back to try a few sweets at this shop recommended by Mary of This Tasty Life...

It was really neat for Bert to check out the old Naval Training Center where our fathers and uncles were once trained as stewards in the Navy.

The grounds weren't crowded either. I enjoyed the seeing the Spanish style architecture of the former NTC. In fact, the NTC is listed on the National Registier of Historic Places.

It's significance in helping build the military presence in San Diego lasted from 1923 up to 1997.

Let's get on with dessert now, eh?

Slater's 50/50 for Bert's bday

As mentioned in previous posts, it was Bert's birthday last weekend. I asked him where he wanted to go for lunch and he chose this place...Slater's 50/50 in Liberty Station.

Note to Garmin users - it will take you to the FRONT of the building where you cannot see Slater's. Go around the back where you can see the parking; it's right next to Ace Hardware...

Bert was excited because Thor and Tatonka raved about this place...

Dessert at Ritual Tavern

After our lovely pizza slices over at Sicilian Thing,

we made our short way across the street. Literally a stone's throw way was Ritual Tavern...

Halphen Red Burgers

The co-workers and I checked out this place sometime last week.

They just had their grand opening the weekend before...

Return to Sicilian Thing Pizza

It was a Friday night and I didn't want to eat our leftover spaghetti. Plus, it was just payday so we wanted to come here again...

Their display case was full this time...

Azucar!

Hello now, what's this???

It's probably really thin...

The TP for "cheap a-holes" and this groovy orange shell lamp were just a few items we spied in windows while on our way to Azucar, San Diego's only Cuban bakery.

Bert's parents used to have one of these, but it was the white capiz shell. This would look great next to a wooden tiki bar...

A few steps more right on the corner of Newport and Sunset Cliffs Blvd...

A Bday lunch for MFH @ Que Huong

Hot off the press...

A chick's day out with Mi Firme Heina (MFH) to celebrate her (belated) birthday...

Bombed twice...

No, I'm not referring to a pair of unfortunate incidents with pigeons or seagulls. Nor am I speaking of the subhuman abominations known as crappy sequel movies such as "Expendables 2" and "Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Squeakquel"...

For the third week in a row, I bought a cake from Hans and Harry...

Another bombe but this time it was for Bert...

Downtown Food Pod - Best Bulkogi Fusion

Our day was coming to an end...before heading back to our suite, we passed by the Jeld-Wen soccer field.

In a few nights, there would be a Timbers game, and OMFG, people here take soccer VERY seriously.

I want Portland to score so we can see Timber Joey slice off a huge log with his rip-roaring chainsaw!

But before that...we headed downtown to "czech" out one of the original food cart pods...

Return to the new TJ Oyster Bar

All righty, it was finally time for another visit...

This time with the co-workers...

Labor day lunch...

Marinated overnight and grilled over low heat for nearly half an hour (turned over at the halfway mark)...

These chicken thighs were the main star of our Labor Day lunch...

El Super

I've been wanting to go here FOREVER it seems.

 It wasn't too long ago this used to be a Mervyn's...

Pepper Park

For Labor Day we wanted to check out a park we'd never been to before...

It's right off the 24th St. exit from the 5. If you head east, you will pass this old time Depot...

Keep going...

Pappa likes....

It had been awhile since we were last here...

As we walked down Little Italy, I recognized a lot of the newer restaurants I'd read about on fellow bloggers' sites, like Isola Pizza Bar and Prep Kitchen. Of course, the older and more established places were still there like Cafe Zucchero, Mona Lisa, and Cafe Mimmo's...

After our brief foray into the cool art store down the street we headed up to find Pappalecco for our gelato fix...

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...

And yet another visit to San Diego Desserts...

This past weekend, we were in this area...

Good ole El Cajon Blvd, near College Ave...

Noodles 'n yogurt

Well, would you looka here now...no more Yokoz!

The former site of the once popular Chamorro joint which had since gone downhill (waaaay downhill) the past few years is now going to be a new sushi place called "iSushi"! Hmmmm, did they get that from "iCarly"?

This is the last bday food post for TC....we do love to stretch out our bday celebrations in the CC household!

Sultan with TORC and MFH

After watching "Cosmopolis" last weekend with TORC and MFH, we headed out to dinner at Sultan...

Neither of my movie mates had Turkish before, nor had they been to this locale...

What's shakin'....

Located at the former location of Pizzeria Uno at the Chula Vista mall, it has since been resurrected as Shakey's Pizza.

Aaah, memories of the old Shakey's on Broadway when my mom used to steal sneak out fried chicken drumsticks wrapped in napkins. Try doing that with pizza slices too!

But no, this post is not about the joys of surreptitiously spiriting away food...

Back to back bday lunches...

Every year, it's the same thing...my brother and I both vie for days that we can celebrate his kid and my kid's bdays...

The nephew and TC are one day apart but rather than combine the bdays (which I would prefer because I'm efficient like that), they end up having separate bday celebrations...

75 years of...

Has it really been three quarters of a century that this awesome meat product has been in existence?

There's a ton of new Spam flavors available because of this special occasion...

Calamansi heaven

Thanks to Robsessed's neighbor's tree...

we have calamansi for days doooood.....