Heaven Sent Desserts

I'm kinda posting this "backwards", so that the flow from Ba Ren to Heaven Sent Desserts is chronological. Here's the yelp reviews here: Well, we were originally going to go to Mille Feuille, but let's face it...Hillcrest on a Saturday night? Nada parking! Nein! So, we headed east to the corner of University and 30th for Heaven Sent Desserts instead. Here are a few offerings from the dessert showcase. This looked interesting, but I didn't want to order it because I don't like orangey flavored desserts. Well, maybe if it had Grand Marnier in it.

This is what I ended up ordering. The souffle was kind of heavy. Not what I expected. The pink heart was fondant, I believe.

Mmmm...Bailey's...

No flash, hence the bad quality of this photo. There was an old Charlie Chaplin silent playing on the wall:

We sat by this wall - we were lucky to find a table. There was a long line and the other side was filled to capacity.

Your order number was a makeshift bookmark which was placed in a real book. This was the one they gave me, one by Beatrix Potter with the unfortunately titled "The Tale of Mrs. TITtlemouse":

Ooh, are those ghost orbs?

I found this written in my book, "I Love Twilight the Book! Go Twilight 2008!".

This was in ORC's book. Poor Judy C.
My dessert - the Fallen in Love Chocolate Souffle. Maybe I had a different idea of a souffle, but I thought it would taste light and airy. Instead, this was dense and heavy. There were three blackberries adoring one side and a pink fondant heart perched atop some buttercream frosting. There was also a chocolate and fruit center. I ended up eating only half since I was a bit full from Ba Ren.

Closeup of my dessert. Look closer. Do you see my "contribution" to the Tittlemouse book? Yes, that is a deformed hand doing the devil's horn sign. I refrained from drawing Eddie, Iron Maiden's corpse mascot. Heavy Metal bands have the best fonts for their logos. Just look at AC/DC, Judas Priest, Dokken (okay, they're not really metal), Def Leppard (all right, and neither are these guys, but you get the picture! Cool band logos!), and so on...

My lovely friend, who I shall call the ORC (other rocker chick) got the Strawberry Fraise:

Our drinks - I had the passionfruit iced tea and the other two drinks are coffee (not sure what kind) and tea. The tea bag (ha ha) was tied onto a stick which rested on top of the cup so it could steep. Nifty. Edit - One was called "Queen's Dream" which was Earl Grey tea steeped in milk, accenty by vanilla and crowned by lemon (this was copied from chalkboard, I didn't make this up). The coffee was a decaf.My other friend, who I shall name the Knitter, order the Red Velvet Vixen. Rawwwrrr. That is some red frosting there. Red Dye #5 action. This is the pointy side:

Here's the other side with coconut on the edges. I tasted both ORC and K's cakes and liked them both. The strawberry one tasted more fresh and light to me. The red frosting blob on top of the Vixen cake was a bit of overkill in my opinion.

There was another companion here who did not order dessert. She'd given up all carbs for Lent. Man, what did I give up? Nothing. Bad me. Ha ha. But good on her since she stuck to her plan. No dessert for her. Saw this on our table...A dessert ode to U2. How about one from Slayer? Megadeth? Anyone? Anyone?

Walking back to the car. We parked in the new parking structure - $5 - it beat having to search for a most likely nonexistent street parking space. So, on our way back to me place (to look at my etchings), we listened to ORC's ipod for another round of "Name that Tune". This was so much fun. Well, for me it was. Maybe my carmates got sick of my voice shouting out song titles and other trivial blather.

Some songs I got a lot just by hearing the first note(s)/chord(s), like "In the Dark" by Billy Squier, "Freezeframe" by the J. Geils Band (but that's easy because they shout "Freezeframe!"), and "Hey Nineteen" by Steely Dan. ORC if you're reading this, I made a mistake (gasp)- I said the album was "AJA" but it's actually "Gaucho". How could I have missed that? By the way, rock geek/snob that I am, mentioned the song titles, album of origination, and if know, the year of release as well as any other versions by other groups who did the song. Example, the brilliant cover of Love's "Alone Again, Or" by the Chris Perez Band (he was the widower of slain Tejano singer, Selena) was a remake of Love's original song, which was also remade later by punk greats, the Damned. See, all that shit floats in my head with nowhere to go, except in games like these. Even my own daughter knows that Rush is a power trio from Canada. She's familiar with their classic rock instrumental "YYZ" because of "Guitar Hero". Thank you Guitar Hero!!! She also knows that YYZ is the airport code for Toronto. While D's ipod selection leaned more towards ballads and pop, ORC's had mambo, Rock en Espanol, a good mix of 80's new wave and rock.

I don't have an ipod (yet--maybe I'll cross over to the Dark Side!) - I would go nutz trying to put all my music in there. We learned about each others' tastes in music. Tom Jones. Scrambled Eggs (that's a Philippine band). Barry Manilow. Gary V. Kelly Clarkson. Madonna. Regine Velasquez. ABC. The Romantics. Lone Justice. Missing Persons. Lea Salonga. The Eagles. Alicia Bridges. The Manhattan Transfer. and so on. Man, that makes my future ipod playlist sound boring - AC/DC, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Queen, Boston, Van Halen.

Next month, I turn the big FKG 4-0. I gotta do it up big with these girls. Any of you readers have suggestions where we should go for dinner?

Point Loma Seafoods

Can you believe it's winter? It was in the high 70's today! Nice! Our family went out with the other two "regulars" earlier today after our kids' dance class. My friend suggested a place in this neighborhood...
Point Loma Seafoods:

Here's a few reviews from yelp, and Kirk's frequent guest blogger, cathy on his MMM-Yoso blog.

It was packed, so we had the husbands stay in line while the wives jockeyed for a free table in the covered seating area.

I heard it's like this ALL the time.

There weren't any open spots to seat all of us at once. This was our original spot by the windows. We ended up moving towards the middle tables after this big group left.

I haven't seen this hot sauce before. Pucca bag courtesy of TC (holding our waters).

The view of the docks:

Bert ordered a Clam Sandwich because it reminded him of a Po'boy (kinda), but instead of oysters, it was clams. I didn't want to eat too much. It was a late lunch, around 1:45-2:00'ish. I was going to have dinner at Ba Ren with my trio of educator girlfriends (who have been clamoring for their own whimsical monikers, which I'm trying to conjure up, rather unsuccessfully) later that day and I didn't want to be too full.
Bert ordered the Combo plate for us to share. The sauces were cocktail and tartar (which was one of the best I've had). There are supposed to be two pieces of each: crab, shrimp, and fish. The sides were fries and coleslaw. We shared this with TC.

Someone, I forgot who, got the Shrimp plate.

Notice a pattern here? YES, FRIED ASS FOOD! My divalicious friend (the cute nurse) got the Scallops plate:

My other divalicious friend got the Fish tacos. Wait, I think that was her husband's. That looked so good - way better than Rubio's or Fin's or any other fish taco place out there. Everything tasted so fresh! ("It's Fresh! Exciting!"....Kool & the Gang for all you musically challenged folk):

Now this was her plate - the Fish & Chips:

The crowds had thinned out in the covered seating area by the time we left. Same with the front of the restaurant, where people were enjoying the sunshine and their food.

Okay, while walking back to our car (we got street parking because restaurant parking was mega packed!), I spotted this really ancient parking permit from State. Uh, 1992? What year is it now? Isn't it time for this relic be peeled off already? I used to have a row of these on my old Nissan Sentra back in college...Ah, memories.

On our way home, we passed by the old NTC, the gay bar, The Hole (yes, that is the name) and the church where I was baptized, Saint Charles Borromeo. We used to live in the Naval Housing eons ago. They've since then rebuilt the formerly utilitarian domiciles and made them look quite attractive, now sporting a more Spanish feel with more individuality through various looks and elevations and color schemes. No more gray boxes.

As Barnett turned into the Pacific Highway, I saw a couple in this curious looking contraption. This is called a Go Car and they offer GPS guided tours of San Diego:

Driving south on the Pacific Highway (I was in the passenger seat, not driving and taking a photo, mind ou) - view of Lindbergh Field and the downtown skyline:

It was a gorgeous day! After sampling a bit of what Point Loma Seafoods had to offer, I braced myself for dinner later that evening at Ba Ren.

BBC's The Big Read

I saw this on a San Diego Food Blog, A Work in Progress . She had a post of the BBC's The Big Read - Top 100 Books list. The BBC believes that the average person has read only 6 of the following 100.

So here goes my entry. The one's I've read are marked with an X. The ones in Orange are on my bookshelf, but that doesn't necessarily mean I've read the books (see "Lord of the Rings" for example).

You may be wondering about some of these book titles. I've never even heard of some of them. Apparently, the list was compiled by a BBC poll from 2003, asking for UK residents' favorite novel. Over 750,000 people voted. This is that list, so don't feel like a dumbass (like me, kidding) if you haven't heard of most of these books. It reflects British tastes.

I've read 43 and own 26 of them (some of which haven't been read). I'm going to find the American version and post it. Here goes (along with commentary)

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien - I have this and tried reading it, but got bored shitless
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (X)
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (X) - I didn't get it...
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling (X)
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (X) - the movie was great too!
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne (X)
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell (X)
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis (X)
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (X)
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë (X) - Kate Bush made a song about this...
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger (X) - This is one of my favorite books!
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Graham (X)
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (X)
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott (X)
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres - didn't they make this into a shitty flick (it starred Nic Cage)?
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy - I guess I'm not intellectual; I didn't read this but I've read all the Potter books! Ha ha.
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell (X)
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling (X) - In America, this was the "Sorceror's Stone")
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling (X)
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling (X)
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy (X) - Senior AP English class! Hardy was a pervo!
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving ?????
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck (X) - required reading for English 11 Honors
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll (X)
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez (I've been meaning to read this)
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett - One of my friends gave me this, but I couldn't bring myself to read it - the topic didn't interest me and it was as thick as an MF! Give me a graphic novel anyday...No offense to my GF, mind you.
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl (X) - Loved this book as a kid!
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (X)
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen (X)
39. Dune, Frank Herbert (X) - This shit was boring!
40. Emma, Jane Austen (X)
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery - My daughter has the abridged version, but I haven't read it yet.
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams (X)
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald (X)
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell (X)
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens (X)
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett (X) - This is one of my favorite childhood books!
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck (X)
53. The Stand, Stephen King (X)
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy - been meaning to read this too...
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell - Abridged version, courtesy of my daughter.
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer - been meaning to read this as well...
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky - another "classic" that I haven't read but have no interest in reading. Those Russian authors are tedious...
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden (X)
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (X) - 9th Grade English Honors required reading
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough (X) - Yes, remember Richard Chamberlain as the horny priest, Father de Bricassart in the miniseries?
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles (X) - This was quite interesting...
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman - Oooh, Neil Gaiman, author of the Sandman series. I've got to check this out then....
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding (X)
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind (X) - This was a very twisted book!!!
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl (X) - I have an 8-year old who loves Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (X) - Reading this book was a colossal waste of my time!
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce - Here's another author I've tried reading. I just can't get into his stuff
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake - I have the miniseries on DVD - Talk about bizarre! It had a pre-Tudors Jonathan Rhys-Myers in it
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac (X)
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo (X)
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez - I'll read this one day
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot - WTF???
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

2/25/09 - Edit - I looked online and couldn't find an American version of this. Well, I did find Top 100 Booklist but the genres were very specific, like Fantasy, Children's Books, Science Fiction, etc. I think these lists are all very subjective. They're not really all encompassing. There were no Asian authors (unless you count the Indian authors as Asian), a smattering of Latino writers (mostly in the magical realist fiction vein), and very few (if not any) authors of African descent. But yeah, the list is skewed to British tastes.

Tokidoki Tote

Woo hoo! A FREE gift! I got this from my friend (the History Professor) who got it at the 2008 Pool Trade Show last year in Vegas. When I met him for lunch at JNC a couple of weeks ago, he noticed my Tokidoki bag, especially the Adios Star character. He mentioned he had a 'bag' (although this is really a 'shopping tote')with all these characterons on it that he used to carry his books. I practically begged for this thing. I mean, he's in his 50's- he doesn't need this!!!
The photos below are courtesy of the Tokidoki Blog.

This is the Tokidoki Shopper Tote with the "80's" print. You cannot find this anywhere. According to my friend, they were giving these away at the Trade Show and the table had a bunch of them. He should have taken more than one! Anyways, it's mine now and I'm going to use it! It's pretty sturdy. It's made out of the same material used for those reusable shopping tote bags at the grocery stores. It's also pretty sizeable - I could fit a lot of junk in there. But I won't. I don't want to ruin it completely.
The inner pocket also has a pattern with the Tokidoki skull and crossbones logo and lightning bolts. So cute!

Ba Ren

[Update - Closed in early 2012]

After reading so many posts from Kirk 's foodblog, Mmm-Yoso as well as the reviews from Yelp, I had the opportunity to finally eat at Ba Ren. Earlier today, I met up for lunch at Kirk himself and Captain Jack of one of my other favorite food bloggers, of San Diego Restaurants fame or notoriety - take your pick. Ba Ren is located right off Clairemont Ave, on Diane Ave. I almost missed it - it's on the right hand side after you turn the corner. They have a parking lot in the back too.

They specialize in Szechuan cuisine, which is pretty hot and spicy! Wonder why the menu has a question mark after "Sichuan Cuisine with a Flair?" For more background on Ba Ren, their food and their chef, just go to Kirk's blog for a more thorough smackdown of Szechuan cuisine.

We met before the lunch crowd. It was pretty empty with just a few occupied tables and one booth.

Dig those green booths! Plus they had fancy draperies - tasseled swags here and valances in the picture above.

Kirk chose a few cold items - boiled bamboo shoots with beef. I chose the boiled peanuts with fried mini fish:

Here's a shot of the other side of that same plate with thin sliced beef and tendon:The thin sliced beef was really delicious. It would taste really good with rice. There was also thin sliced tender, which was tender. I was expecting it to be soft and slimy, but it wasn't. I chose the peanuts because I wanted something crunchy. For the photo below, that is Chongqing style chicken with peppers. It turned out that it wasn't something Kirk had ordered, but for some reason they served it to us. But, alas it was taken away. It looked good though - I was about to dig in too! Kirk ordered for all of us and we shared the dishes family style. I pretty much trusted him to order whatever and I would be willing to try it all.

#171 - Braised fish-flavored eggplant casserole ($8.99): According to Kirk, the term "fish-flavored" is a misnomer because it doesn't taste like fish. Rather, the term refers to the flavoring used for fish, which is vinegar based. He said this as a classic preparation of eggplant, which,was fall apart in your mouth good!

Below is #122 - Boiled fish fillet in hot sauce ($10.99):

Here's a closeup of that fish fillet. OMG, this was sooo good. I don't know what kind of fish it was but it was so soft and tender. Even though this dish looked hot, it really wasn't. There was chili galore - paste, peppers, seeds and oil coloring the oil, but it wasn't as dangerous as it looked.

#121 - Double Cooked Fish with Chili Sauce ($12.99). Those are green bell peppers and leeks. This was also quite delicious! Every dish had a different heat level and used different types of peppers.

#221 - Hot Pepper Prawns ($14.99). Now these were awesome. Those are chopped up chili peppers and Szechuan black peppercorns all over the fried prawn pieces. At Kirk's suggestion, I bit into a peppercorn to taste the heat and it wasn't so bad. It kind of numbs your tongue. Then, when I took a sip of water, my mouth and tongue had a tingly sensation, like the water was carbonated. Interesting effect! I was too chicken to eat any of the red peppers, but the Captain was eating them like it was nothing. Both of these guys were sweating too. I didn't break a sweat but then again, I didn't eat the peppers! Seriously, my stomach had been doing flip flops the night before and I didn't want to fk up my GI system even more. But at this point, I don't think it would have made a difference! These dishes had a bit of fire to them which churned things up a little. TMI? Like that ever stopped me.

Kirk, Captain Jack and myself and the remains of our lunch, which I took home. Bert ended up eating some of the leftovers for dinner. He loved it! TC ate our leftovers from Lisa's Filipino "Cuisine" (and I say "cuisine" with sarcasm).

This was dessert:

These are rice grains in some sort of gelatinous soup. It was slightly sweet. Kirk said it would soothe the stomach and make you feel better. Captain Jack said the consistency was like 'mucus'. I had a few spoons of it, but didn't care for it too much. At least I tried it. I had a great time at lunch with the guys. I'm glad they could be themselves and not feel that since they're with a chick, they have to watch their mouths. It's not like I'm Miss Priss and don't curse myself. F Bombs Galore!

We chatted about a lot of topics but mostly about food. It's great to be in their company because most of my friends just eat their food and aren't really interested in the ingredients, preparation, history, and cultural aspects of food. I don't feel like such a food geek when I'm in the company of other foodies.

Just a few updates:

So, we tried Lisa's yesterday which I posted previously. Masarap Restaurant is now CLOSED! Can you believe that? It was a new upscale Filipino restaurant in the Gaslamp, on C between 7th and 8th. It occupied the former Jade Theatre (which I didn't realize had closed). Masarap barely opened at the beginning of January. I was planning to have dinner with my 4 GF's there next weekend. I saw a post on Yelp that they had closed already. That really bites. Now I'll have to find another place for us gal, which isn't a problem, but we were all looking forward to some upscale Filipino food.