Eclipse Chocolat

My friend and I checked out Will Gustwiler's relatively new shop Eclipse Chocolat last month. Based on favorable reviews in the paper as well as local food blogs (here are the links: Citybeat ,The Boulevard ,yelp a few local food bloggers such as Alice Q. Foodie and My Burning Kitchen, (because they have better pictures than me and more articulate ramblings than my blather). There are more Eclipse related posts from other foodbloggers, but, I wasn't sure about posting links to them if people didn't want to be identified by face and name. If you're ever in the area, Eclipse is on the corner of El Cajon Blvd and Alabama St.
We got there right as it opened and got street parking right in front. For lunch, I had the roast beef panini with jalapeno laced cheese. I believe there may have been mustard in there as well. I'm not much of a sandwich lover, but this panini was pretty tasty. I would order this again.
The paninis were served with a side of, no, not chips, Spanish Marcona almonds, which are very sweet and almost buttery tasting, and what the owner called "candied" mango. Actually, I'm quite sure it is the the Philippine Brand dried mango you can get from Costco. They're not really candied, but very very sweet and addicting! Just liking the fact that the owner came up with something way different to serve with sandwiches other than pickles and/or chips.
My lovely friend had a sweet/savory panini consisting of Nutella, chocolate, goat cheese and figs! Yes! What a crazy combination - she loved it. I wasn't too keen since I'm not a goat cheese fan or fig fan. But I would eat this without the goat cheese.
Here's the four dessert tasting plate descriptions for the month of May:
Here are all four items together. From top left, the frozen chocolate with berry merlot, the white chocolate lemon bar, the grilled white chocolate carrot cake and the dark chocolate bread pudding. Looks like a lot for two!
This was my favorite, the frozen chocolate mousse with berry merlot. I also liked the bread pudding - it was very moist and flavorful, while the white chocolate carrot cake was a bit dry. I'd never seen a grilled cake slice before either. The lemon bar was also tart; you could barely taste the chamomile. Between us two, we finished the mousse and bread pudding and picked at the other items.
Before we left, we bought several chocolate bars which the owner makes in house. There are so many varieties. He also sells cupcakes and hand made truffles with exquisite flavors. Besides that, he sells chocolate drink mixtures and sauces as well as non truffle candy such as the item you see below. This was Tarragon Candied Ruby Grapefruit covered in 60 % Dark Chocolate. The sugar is infused with tarragon so if you don't like the taste of tarragon, you could always brush the sugars off. This was quite different and I enjoyed the combination of flavors.

Here's one of the candy bars I bought. Try it. It's Dee. Lish. Shous. (2 snaps up in a circle)
I just realized the candy bar is upside down (the initials should read EC):
[Update - I'm writing this part on July 7 ]I wanted to eat at Eclipse again this month so my husband could also check this place out . Our anniversary was July 1 and we were planning to eat at Bite in Hillcrest but changed my mind to Eclipse (they serve their paninis all day until they run out). Unfortunately, I got sick but I'm okay now - that's the short story. We'll be making our way there eventually so we can try the other paninis, truffles, cupcakes and candy bars. Well, maybe not all in the same visit!!!

15 Favorite Food Photos

On MMM-Yoso's website, he recently posted his 10 Favorite Photos of Food., as did guestbloggers Ed from Yuma and Cathy from San Diego (but her's was 9). Well, I couldn't pick just 10, so I made mine 15. Here are my favorite food photos over the past few years. Let me add that the photos aren't gallery quality, but just my favorite by virtue of either having been memorable meals whether they were made by me, someone else or at a restaurant or food cart or whatever. Because I'm anal like that, I've included dates in parentheses, which mean nothing to the reader anyways.

Gambas al Ajillo made by yours truly. Spanish style garlic shrimp (11/1/07)
Nem Khao (Laotian fried rice) at Asia Cafe (9/15/07) An assortment of Macarons from Bouchon in the Time Warner Center, NYC (6/26/07)
Shack Burger from the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, NYC (6/27/07)
My Mom's Pinakbet (5/28/07)
Pastelillos from the House of Puerto Rico at Balboa Park's annual International Food Fair (5/27/07)
Fries at the Belgian Frie in Pacific Beach (4/22/07)
Margherita Pizza at Bacione in Hillcrest (4/6/07)
Spring Greens with Seared Citrus Scallops at the now defunct Just Fabulous (current home of Burger Lounge in Kensington)
King Crab Legs at a birthday party (3/17/07)
Rabbit Three Ways at Laurel (2/17/07). This was actually my husband's meal, but I also had a bit of it!
Papaya Salad at the Vietnamese Tet Festival (2/11/07)
Tostones at Habana in La Mesa (9/30/06)
Dinner at my Uncle & Auntie's place in Keaau, Hawaii (BBQ chicken, kalbi ribs, grilled salmon, salad, broccoli, and Hawaiian Sun Passion Lilikoi drink(6/27/06)
Spam Musubi at the Hilo Market (6/28/06)
I could probably include 10 more, but this is it! For now!

JRDN at Tower 23

Last week, a few co-workers and I went to celebrate our good friend's birthday. As the birthday guy, among us three women, he chose JRDN at Tower 23 (a swanky boutique hotel) in PB. Because I'm kind of lazy and also because this other post has better pix, check out this review here from San Diego's own Captain Jack . Check out the first photos of the outdoor seating area from that post. See the lower left hand corner? That's where we sat. Very nice. It was an ideal spot because we were shaded underneath three palm trees (you could see the trunk of one of them) and we could observe all kinds of people making their way along the boardwalk. Lots of good looking guys and women, people walking their dogs, rollerbladers, skaters, families riding tandem bicycles or regular bikes, lots of bikini clad women, and one guy who was stoned. I'm sure there were more.
As mentioned earlier, we sat outside on the patio with a great view. We could also see Crystal Pier in the close distance. Although the tables looked sparse, it started to fill up fast. There were a bunch of guys in the bar watching the Euro cup and cheering madly whenever someone scored a goal. Yeah, soccer. Who cares!
For starters, we ordered the Fried Calamari, which was a veritable mountain of squidy goodness enrobed, but not drowning, in spicy aioli and served atop a bed of useless but pretty greens. The calamari, if it were not for the sauce, were bland, but had that satisfying crunch. We did not polish off the plate, since we had appetizers at our friend's place earlier, and were saving room for lunch.Because we were still reeling from that heatwave last weekend, and experiencing a bit of heat that same day, three of my friends ended up ordering the same thing, the Lobster BLT which is served on toasted brioche with tarragon aioli.
They all liked their BLT's - exclaiming that the lobster tasted really fresh.
I ended up ordering the Shrimp Pasta which featured bucatini (long and thin hollow tubes) with spicy lobster broth and tomato sauce , topped with shrimp and grated parmesan. Maybe I ended up talking too much with my friends, because when I started to eat my entree, it tasted kind of lukewarm. I've never had bucatini before, so the mouthfeel was kind of different for me. It was a bit thick to maneuver on my fork. The spicy lobster and tomato sauce was a bit overpowering. I ate only a tiny bit and saved the rest for leftovers (which my daughter ate and enjoyed later that night).
The bucatini...
I also ordered the Seared Scallop appetizer. Notice that is Singular. Perhaps I read the menu a little too fast because I thought I was getting more than one. My bad. But, no matter! I liked this appetizer much better than my pasta. This was a huge scallop sitting on top of sweet pea puree (The Exorcist anyone?), garnished with thick, glistening slices of country ham with attached fat and chanterelles.
Here's another shot of that tender scallop...it was perfectly done and the sweetness of the peas went quite well with the salty ham and earthy mushrooms.
The dessert menu:
We got the sorbet trio: hazelnut, blackberry and blood orange (back to front). Serving them in these Chinese soup spoons may LOOK cute but they are a pain in the arse to eat nicely, especiallywith 4 people vying for a taste. It would have been easier to just put the whole spoon in MY mouth, but that would look piglike, wouldn't it? Trying to scoop out the sorbet was much easier if you held the cute spoon down with the other hand. The sorbets are all made in house. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be the hazelnut. The blackberry was quite tart (but good) and the blood orange's texture was too icy. Mmmm...now I have a craving for some good gelato...
This is the Blade hand air dryer in their bathrooms, which are, by the way, tres cool. You stick your hands in after washing them and your manos are blasted by warm air all around, drying them in mere seconds. I needs me one of these.
I liked our experience at JRDN. I'd like to go again but for dinner in the near future with my husband. They had ultra cool decor, a great view and pretty decent food (taste wise and presentation wise). Plus their bathrooms were way cool too. I even saw the men's one because I made a wrong turn. Urinals? WTF? I didn't see anyone using them though. Maybe next time! Not!

Costa Brava & Sage French Bakery

Okay, dipping my feet back into the world of foodblogging.

These photos were actually taken in late March, soon after my diagnosis. My three supernice and supercool educator girlfriends took me out to an early birthday lunch at Costa Brava in PB. We'd been there before and were hungering again for their tapas. Pictured below is their sangria:
Warm bread with garlic alioli...which is SO GOOD
with Manchego Cheese!
Below is the Tortilla Espanola, an egg omelet with onions, potatoes and peppers. A bit on the mild side but a great tapa nonetheless.
These were bacalao fritters, which are salt cod fish balls. Niiice sounding, but they taste really delicious! I wished the tapa came with more than 4. I could have eaten all of these.
Here are the Patatas Bravas, which are fried potato chunks with a spicy alioli sauce. One of my Spaniard co-workers told me the secret (well, at least HIS secret to his recipe) was Tabasco sauce. Sounds really Spanish to me. In any case. the coating wasn't really spicy even though we were warned by our waiter.
Since there were 4 of us, we had 2 orders of the paella (which I assumed they put all in this paellera). The paella had an abundance of shellfish (mussels and clams), and squid, as well as chicken. It also wasn't as salty as the last time we were here, so that was a good thing!
The things about shrimp in the shell is that you have to touch it and peel it. I hate getting my fingers dirty, so someone else ate the shrimp that day.
After our rather heavy lunch, we wanted dessert because the flan at Costa Brava didn't cut it for us. No, we needed chocolate or something else! That something else was found at Sage French Bakery on Convoy which is in that crazy-small parking lot in which you can find Nijiya Japanese Market and Sunrise Buffet. We were lucky to find a spot actually. The place was packed when we got in but we were able to find an empty table (the last one). I forgot the name of this cake, but I believe it was some sort of chocolate mousse with hazelnut. That is a slab of marbled white chocolate on top.
Also, when I took these photos, I didn't think about removing the plastic encircling these morsels of delight. So, they look kind of sterile all wrapped up. The one in the back is called 'Mistral Cake' (don't ask me why, that's all I remember). The one in front, sorry, don't recall.Here's a better shot of the "Mistral Cake", decorated with a flower petal and gold leaf. There were layers of white chocolate, raspberry and I want to say passion fruit, but again, this was so long ago, I don't remember. The cake in the middle had chocolate mousse and green tea as the flavorings. The one in the back, again, was chocolate mousse and hazelnut cake.

Figs for Bri Fundraiser

Hi everyone
Even though I've never met Bri, I stumbled upon her blog, Figs with Bri through Wandering Chopsticks foodblog (who's linked through San Diego's MMM-Yoso ). Even though I've never met Wandering Chopsticks either, Bri's story appealed to me. It's for a good cause and also one that I've been dealing with personally these past few months, breast cancer.

Yeah you heard that right. That is a BIGASS reason why I haven't been blogging as faithfully. Hearing something like THAT made me realize I had more important things to take care of instead of blogging. I'll be honest with you, it FKG sucks especially since I'm so young (just turned 39, but I look and feel young!), but cancer is indiscriminate towards age and doesn't care who it hits. The most important thing is that the cancer was caught early enough and it was treated. Having one less boob is a small price to pay for having my life. They say cancer changes your life and that it has. As cliched as it sounds, I am really looking at my priorities and life in a more reflective manner and being as positive as I can about this experience. That's my only choice because I can't afford to wallow in negative thoughts.

Since the "news", I've taken time off work since my diagnosis in late March (I'm in Stage 2-A). I had my mastectomy on my left breast in mid-April (yeah, happy late birthday to me!) and and have just completed my third round of chemotherapy a few days ago. I have one more treatment to go, then it's five years of Tamoxifen and hopefully no more of this bitch of a cancer.

Had my head shaved last month because it sucked seeing my hair all over the place. I had TC with me and the trooper that she is, took photos of her mommy getting her head sheared. No more cool rocker chick haircut. Now I look like GI Jane. But not as buff( I wish!)! Please, no Mrs. Clean or Sinead o'Connor jokes! I'd like to be as hot as Persis Khambatta (Lt. Ilia in the Star Trek - The Motion Picture, 1979) or Natalie Portman in "V is for Vendetta". Although I have 3 different wigs to play around with (one is black and looks like my old hair, the other two are dark brown - a bit of a conservative "Posh" bob and what I call my very tamed Robert Smith of the Cure shag), I rock the bald look at home. I hope my hair grows in to at least Billy Idol length by the time I plan to start work again, which I haven't yet determined the date.

Physically and mentally I'm doing pretty good, but I haven't really written about my experiences on my blog since I am normally a very private person. However, I wanted to somewhat break my silence about my condition to help Bri. This blog will still be about food and quirky things that amuse me, but I really need to expend my time and energy on healing, and spending quality time with my family especially my daughter. I won't be posting too much of my personal matters here unless I feel the need to. (update on 7/9 - I've broken out of my shell and posted a few newer posts about my experiences with cancer...guess I wanted to vent!)

But enough about me, and more about Bri. Hopefully foodbloggers out here or any random readers, especially in San Diego can help Bri reach her goal of raising money for her alternative treatments. She's almost at her goal - 97%! (update on 7/9 - Looks like the fundraiser was successful! She has surpassed her goal of 100%, which is EXCELLENT! However, the fundraiser will still go on to July 15, so it's not too late to donate for Bri!)

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This is an appeal on behalf of a group of food bloggers who are friends of Briana Brownlow @ Figs With Bri.

Bri was diagnosed with breast cancer two and half years ago. A mastectomy, chemotherapy and two years of relatively good health later, the cancer is back. It has metastasized to other parts of her body. At the age of 15, Bri lost her 41-year old mother to the disease. Now, she’s waging her own war against breast cancer. More about it here.

She is going through intensive chemo and other treatments and needs to focus single-mindedly on healing and finding what treatment works best for her. Her health insurance, unfortunately, does not cover holistic alternatives which she would like to try. Bri and her husband Marc have enough on their plates right now in addition to worrying about her medical bills.

The team organising the JUNE edition of CLICK at Jugalbandi has organised a fundraiser to help Bri and her family meet her out-of-pocket medical costs for ONE YEAR.

CLICK is a monthly theme-based photography contest hosted by Jugalbandi. This month’s theme is: YELLOW for Bri

Yellow is the colour of hope. Through the work of the LiveStrong Foundation, it has also come to signify the fight against cancer.

The entries can be viewed HERE. The deadline for entries is June 30, 2008. The fundraiser will extend until July 15, 2008.

The target amount is 12,000 U.S. dollars. We appeal to our fellow bloggers and readers to help us achieve this. Bri deserves a chance to explore all options, even if her insurance company thinks otherwise.

There’s a raffle with exciting prizes on offer. After viewing the list, you may make your donation HERE or at the Chip-In button on any participating site.

Your donation can be made securely through credit card or Pay Pal and goes directly to Bri’s account.

This month’s photo contest also has some prizes. Details HERE.

You can support this campaign by donating to the fundraiser, by participating in CLICK: the photo event, and by publicising this campaign.

Updates coming up

I haven't been able to blog in awhile. Lots of things on my plate.

Updates: Winner of Top Chef was Stephanie (yay!). And everyone thought the judges were going for Richard Blaise.

Purse unload post(for C) -- pictures are included in this post.

Eclipse Chocolat visit from last month -- need to upload and post

Fundraiser for Bri (she's a foodblogger and it's a good cause and I will post the info soon) and some other stuff to ramble about.

That's it for now.

Purse Unload.

Chrissie from Manitoulin, this is for you.

This is my Tokidoki Trasporto Stellina. Tokidoki for LeSportsac is the Brand. Trasporto was one of the Fall 2007 prints which feature all of the different characters using various modes of transportation. Stellina refers to the bag style. I like the Stellina because it's boxy and it has two outer pockets where I can put my cell phone and other assorted junk. I started collecting Tokidoki a little late. The collaboration with LeSportsac began in 2006, but I bought my first one in late 2007. In addition to my Trasporto, I also have Tutti and Vacanze (the last print produced) in Stellina, as well as the Famiglia in Campeggio, the Adios Star and L'amore in Ciao Ciao, and the Adios Star in Bella. I try to rotate the bags and mix it up, but I usually end up using my Stellinas. The interior lining of the Trasporto is arancia (orange).
Here is a pair of earrings (which I made) found in one of the outer pockets. The top two beads are Czech glass faceted rondelles. The top is a darker purple, the middle bead is light amethyst and the bottom is white glass. I copied this style from an Anthropologie design which they were selling for $38. Yeah-huh! Overpriced! Their design had 4 beads and the wire components were gold plated, but I made mine with 3 beads and silver plated findings. The crap in my bag:

1st and Top row - $5 off coupon for Fresh & Easy and my checkbook cover.

2nd row - my cell phone, my cheap ass Mossimo wallet from Target, the earrings we just saw, my Ugly Doll mini journal, sunblock and hand sanitizer gel.

3rd row - Vaseline lip therapy, my MAC Media lipstick, my other MAC lipstick which is Dark Side, my Sanrio Chococat mirror compact, one of those Flash devices, my Palladio black liquid eyeliner (I rock the cat eye look on the top lid), and my car keys.

4th and bottom row - my lipliner sharpener, and 2 lipliners in dark burgundy/plum shades

In additon, found in the other pockets were an Express coupon which I never used, a paper reminding me of errands, my skull pen, my flag pen, gum, my triple AAA and library card, and lastly, a $10 off coupon for South Sun Beads, where I currently feed my monthly bead obsession.

And lastly, my office and house keys which are attached to the carabiner stretch cord found in every Tokidoki bag.

Once I load the Eclipse Chocolat pictures, I will post them separately.