The OB Pier

Wanting to take advantage of the three day weekend and the warm weather, we headed out to the beach community of Ocean Beach (OB). My past experiences with OB only included Newport Ave (Portugalia, the antiques stores and Azucar bakery). Despite my initial wariness of the stereotypes (stoners, hippies, bums, etc), we wanted togo and check out the beach and the famous OB Pier which we later found out is the longest concrete pier on the West Coast!

Info below from wikipedia's entry on "Ocean Beach, San Diego"

"The Ocean Beach Municipal Pier, built in 1966, is the longest concrete pier on the West Coast, measuring 1,971 feet (601 m).[16] The pier, which includes a restaurant and bait shop, is located at the south end of the beach and is available to the public for walking and fishing 24 hours a day. A concrete walkway spans most of the length of the one-mile (1.6 km) beach."

The beach wasn't that crowded. To the north is the posh community of La Jolla...

View underneath the pier.

Northward view of the beach as you ascend the steps of the pier.

The pier, like the beach, wasn't that crowded. I was surprised that there weren't a lot of people fishing. At the IB pier, there are tons of people fishing.

You don' need a fishing license to fish here...

Later that afternoon Bert and TC checked out the tidepools at the foot of Newport Ave. The tide was still low enough for people to explore the tidepools.

View of surfers from the midway point (before the Cafe).

View of the coast...

The Cafe at the pier sells snacks, drinks and there is also a small no frills dining section with really nice ocean views. The menu was American/Mexican fast food.

The pier forks off at the end...

Looking South from the northern fork.

Looking North from the Southern fork. There were a few folks fishing out here but they didn't seem to have much of a catch. I saw one guy with a big crab in a plastic bag though.

Vending machine by the Pier Cafe. Hey, remember these Homies figurines? They came out around 10+ years ago. I used to collect these. I have most of the ones from Series 1 and 2. Now it's series 11! One of my favorites is El Profe (an educator homie) and Sapo (a frog-eyed homie). One that is hard to find and kind of rare is "Willie G", the homie in a wheelchair. (More on Homies here at their official site)

View of the tidepools as I was heading back to the end of the pier. Bert and TC went ahead of me...

TC liked it so much here that we ended up going back again the next day (which is today as I write this post).

They saw anemones, hermit crabs and tiny little fish. TC also picked up a few seashells for her collection.

Did I mention that we parked super far from the pier? Parking really sucks a$$ in OB! Of course the tiny parking lot at the beach was already packed. Street parking was also hopeless. As we strayed further off, we realized that we would have to make the trek if we wanted to go here.We parked near some dog wash place on Voltaire and Cable and walked about 20 minutes in the blazing sun. At least we got some exercise!

Time to head back and take the scenic route up Newport Ave...

OB

It was a beautiful early afternoon during this outing to OB. Warm sun, no clouds and 75+ degrees in January? Can't complain about that!

On our way to the Ocean Beach pier...


There wasn't parking at the beach lot (surprise surprise) so we headed up Newport to try to do a circle and see where there was a spot. We passed by Hodads, a burger joint known for their huuuge burgers. Haven't tried them yet but many other San Diego foodbloggers have. Hodad's is supposed to open a Gaslamp location. Line was super long. I hear that the lines are always superlong every day.

Look at the top left corner (which is actually the bottom half of the full size quilt). That's a Hodad's shirt as seen in the quilt that Bella's mother gives her as a graduation gift in "The Twilight Saga - Eclipse" flick. It's a buch of t-shirts put together as a "memory quilt".

Also up the street on Newport is an International Hostel along with assorted antiques stores, head shops, and eateries.

On the other side of the street is the former Strand movie theatre which makes a brief appearance in the beginning of Cameron Crowe's barely disguised biopic, "Almost Famous".

A flag I saw at a t-shirt store.

As mentioned in my previous post, we parked pretty damn far from the beach but at least we got a spot. It was also "untimed" and "free", so yay and BFD!

On to the pier!

Purple Haze....

Man, I'm so fickle. After taking pix of these shoes, I ended up changing into my black sneaker slip ons (some cheapass brand from Payless).

Outfit:

• Chain loop earrings with metal beads from Loehman's. I thought they looked a bit rock 'n roll.
• Black Giant Robot t-shirt bought the Summer of 2008 at the now defunct Giant Robot store in NYC's SoHo while hanging out with L.
• 7 for All Mankind ("Roxanne" fit) skinny dark wash skinny jeans ($99). Got them at Nordstrom Rack the other day because I wanted a nice new pair of jeans to wear with my high boots. The length was perfect! No need to pay extra to get them hemmed!
• Womens purple Vans with checkerboard shoelaces (bought on sale about 2 years ago at the Vans outlet)

I thought my Vans looked lonely in the shoe closet so I took 'em out. The laces were a 2 for 1 special at the Vans store. One pair of laces for TC and one for me.

These are like narrow fitting skater shoes. I didn't have socks on. My feet felt hot. I hate that feeling.

I changed my mind at the last minute before we headed out to OB...

For the sake of comfort, I wore my black slip on sneakers instead.  Aaah, aeration.

Purple Vans, I'll just have to wear you some other time...

What the Pho!

The other night we went out to dinner at the local Vietnamese place, Pho Convoy Noodle House. Not the one on Convoy but the Chula Vista location located across the street Southwestern College. 

TC got the Bun with Beef Short Ribs. Always a good choice. Leftovers were breakfast this morning.

My MIL had the Com Tam with BBQ'd chicken. The amount of chicken seemed a bit excessive, like it was 4 portions on one plate. Again, enough for leftovers. Personally, I'm not a fan of com tam. I don't like my rice in tiny small pieces.

I got the bun with Char-Grilled Shrimp and fried egg roll, one of my favorite choices

Bert got the Pho with rare steak and flank. He really liked the broth; it wasn't too salty. It had a good beefy flavor which he enjoyed. The noodles separated at the bottom with a little bit of prodding from his chopsticks.

Bert and I shared the Blueberry Shake which was quite delicious, although the dairy in there kind of gave me a "bubbly" feeling later on.  Wut?

Notice anything?

O _ o

Well, if you couldn't tell, a big hand and congrats to uber foodblogger extraordianaire Kirk from Mmm-Yoso on his first published food review "Pho Forager" in the latest SD Reader! Looking forward to reading more of his reviews in the near future!

Cioppino my way...

The other night I made Cioppino (or at least my version of it) for the first time. My sister has made a version of this before and I loved it. I also saw a Cioppino recipe on CAB Cooks' blog so I wanted to try it out. I made a few changes with the amount of oil and vegetables. So here goes...

(MY BASTARDIZED) CIOPPINO

(Adapted from Saveur’s Tadich Grill version. See the original version here from CAB Cooks' post)
My substitutions and shortcuts in yellow. Sorry I didn't really go by the exact measurements for the seafood. I played it by ear with what I had on hand.

Ingredients:

•1 cup 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• 16 tbsp 3 tbsp. butter

•1 medium  onion, peeled and chopped

•2 medium carrots 4 small carrots, peeled, trimmed, and chopped

•1 rib 2 ribs celery, chopped

•1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped

•1 leek 2 leeks , white part only, trimmed, cleaned, and chopped

•1⁄2 small fennel bulb, trimmed and chopped  North Park Produce was out of fennel so I didn't include this

•2 28-oz. cans crushed Italian tomatoes (I used only 1 28 oz can, plus one 14 oz can of fire roasted tomatoes AND one 14 oz can of regular diced tomatoes. The fire roasted tomatoes added a nice touch because of the blackened roasted skins. Gave it a smoky flavor!)

•2 tbsp. tomato paste

•4 cups fish or seafood stock (can also use water) I used 4 bottles of clam juice which was equivalent to 4 cups

•4 bay leaves

•1 tsp. dried oregano

•1 tsp. dried thyme

•1 tsp. dried basil

•2 pinches cayenne pepper

•Salt and freshly ground black pepper

•2 cloves 6 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped, divided

•1 1⁄2 lbs. halibut filet, cut into large pieces (I just used the  halibut pack from Trader Joe's)

•16 sea scallops (I used 1/2 of the Trader Joe's package of jumbo Japanese sea scallops)

•16 large shrimp, peeled and deveined (I used 1/2 of the Trader Joe's package of cooked tail off shrimp)


•1⁄2 lb. raw bay shrimp, if available, or smallest shrimp available, peeled


•12 oz. crabmeat

•2 cups + 1/2 cup dry white wine

•16 manila clams, scrubbed (I used 2 packages of cleaned and cooked clams in their shells from Seafood City)

•1⁄2 bunch parsley, chopped

Directions:

Heat 1/2 cup of the oil and 8 3 tbsp. of the butter in a large (6-quart) Dutch oven or pot over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring often, for about 2 minutes. Add carrots, celery, peppers, leeks 1/2 the garlic and fennel and cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, 4 cups fish stock (or water), bay leaves, oregano, thyme, basil, and cayenne and season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 2 hours.

What the fkg fk! There's no way I was going to stand over a stove for 2 hours! Hell no. So, I made it a mere 30 minutes.

Heat remaining 1/2 cup oil, 8 tbsp. butter, and remaining garlic in a large, heavy skillet over high heat until fragrant, 1–2 minutes. Working in batches, cook halibut and shrimp for 1–2 minutes on each side. Transfer seafood with a slotted spoon to Dutch oven, cover and simmer for 10–15 minutes. If using raw crab meat, add now.
 Okay, I skipped this whole section!

Why?

Because I was lazy. But really, because the majority of my seafood (with the exception of the jumbo Japanese sea scallops and the fish) was already cooked. I didn't see or feel the need to add more oil to the recipe and to add more steps to an already tedious process. I threw in the fish first, then added the scallops about 5-8 minutes later. Then I added the shrimp and clams. In the same skillet used to cook the fish and shrimp, add 1/2 cup of wine. Add cleaned clams, cover and cook until all clams are open, about 5 minutes. Use slotted spoon to transfer clams to Dutch oven. Discard liquid and garlic from skillet. If using precooked crab meat, add to Dutch oven now. Simmer for another 5 minutes and discard any unopened clams.   Skip

Adjust seasonings. Ladle soup into large bowls, garnish with parsley, and serve with toasted sourdough bread, if you like.

Because our printer wasn't working, I couldn't print up the recipe. I didn't want to put the laptop on the kitchen counter because I was afraid to get it wet. So, I dashed back and forth to read the ingredients. I mistook 2 dashes of cayenne pepper for 2 tsp! My broth was a little too spicy so I tried to tone it down with a little more white wine...We also added some cooked jasmine rice (individually) to our bowls.

The verdict was, they liked it. They = Husband Bert, The Child and my MIL. So yay, it was a success.

Next time I will add squid, sausage and king crab legs.

Hey, can you see the sparkling apple cider? We're classy like that.

Check it out...hearty, eh!

Thanks CAB for the inspiration!

Spam Nutz

Well, we finally opened up this little food gift from the lovely Darlene of My Burning Kitchen. This was a little something she gave me when I met up with her at M-Theory last year for Paul's book signing and finally met her and her husband. This was the same night  the Educator GF's and I went out to dinner at Tapas Picasso for TORC's birthday and I was declared the "paella papparazzi" by the restaurant owner.

It's been hiding in our pantry for several months now so let's see if this shit is still edible!

Macadamia nut can styling by yours truly.  Let us pause to admire it.

Marge is MIA.

Can you see my awesome Filipino fork and spoon painted by my good friend Superman? It's always a conversation piece especially by non Filipinos who are puzzled to see a giant fork and spoon in the dining area.

For comparison, I put these two cans side by side. I originally thought the Spam nutz were Mauna Loa Brand. They are not. They are by Hamakua Plantations. The cans are the same in size and similar in the colors used on the label. Except one is plain and the other has pink SPAM flavored meat powder on it.

For a hilarious review of these Spam nutz, I implore you to check out this post by Marvo of The Impulsive Buy. If you've never seen his podcast, check out his episodes (available on itunes or through his blog or on youtube)...Dude's funny!

Here is an excerpt:

"To Hawaii residents, macadamia nuts are like flowers and most of the stuff at Spencer’s, they’re not something they would buy for themselves."

He also throws in a lot of Playboy references in the Spam nuts post. I loved the Spencer's shout out. I once bought someone an "executive ball scratcher" there. And that was just last week. (Okay, that was back in college)

As you can see, the SPAM nutz have some sort of powdery coating on them. The color is a light pink and has a faint SPAM-like smell. The nuts don't taste like you're eating a slice of Spam, but kind of like SPAM-lite nuts. You could definitely taste it if you eat 3 or 4 at a time and let the powder dissolve in your mouth. Now that's more like it. If you just eat it quickly and mindlessly, it's hard to tell the flavor.

Verdict?

Thumbs up! If I was truly hungry and desperate for salty snacks, I'd eat the whole damn can but that would be pretty selfish of me. There's about 2/3 of the can left after Bert and I sampled these. TC wasn't too keen on them.  They do taste better than the plain madadamia nuts though.

Thanks Darlene for the food gift! We love it!

Besides Marvo from Hawaii, who else had Spam Nutz?

Darlene from My Burning Kitchen: "SPAM - The Original Canned Meat Now in Nut Form"
The Tasty Island "Macadamia Nuts with Spam Classic Flavor (also includes cool photos of Spam nut musubi!)
Andrea Dean posted her experience eating these nuts in her quest to eat only locally grown foods
Junk Food Blog posted on it as well
Paved Earth "Hawaii Treasures - Spam flavored Macadamia nuts"

Music Listography #4 - List 20 Albums...

It's the first Music Listography post of 2011 and the 4th so far! (That is actually my hand holding my book!)

Here's the topic folks...(Paul Frank pj's - mine)

My rules were: no Soundtracks, no Compilations or Greatest Hits, no "doubles" (same band can't be listed twice), and no "live" albums (those could be separate categories on their own!).

In no particular order:

Van Halen - Van Halen
Rush - Moving Pictures
Duran Duran - Rio
The Police - Regatta de Blanc
AC/DC - Highway to Hell
Echo and the Bunnymen - Ocean Rain
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Guns 'n Roses - Appetite for Destruction
The Pretenders - Pretenders
The Cure - The Head on the Door
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
The Beatles - Revolver
Depeche Mode - Some Great Reward
Eric Johnson - Tones
Def Leppard - High 'n Dry
Boston - Boston
Queen - A Night at the Opera
Prince - 1999
Joe Satriani - Surfing with the Alien
U2 - The Unforgettable Fire

As you can see, I tend to favor a lot of rock (classic and hard rock) as well as early to mid 80's rock/new wave. My tastes haven't changed all that much either...

This post would have been longer had I posted the album covers plus my snarky and rambling commentary but I just wanted this to be quite "Wham Bam, Thank you Ma'am!"...

Got any fave albums you'd like to share if you were leaving earth on a spaceship? I'd really love to know!

*(David Bowie reference)

Boots!

Dude, I am such a shoe whore!

Can you believe these were only $29 on clearance at Marshall's? I happened to go in there 2 weeks ago with TC. We were looking for some new bedroom decor for her and I saw this and it was my size too...

Nine West - Barstool (The Vintage America Collection)

I love the chain detail!

The toe is more "blunt" than I'm used to - I'd prefer a point or at least a blunted point. The heel size is pretty short too so I can't wear my really nice longer legged jeans with this.

I'd seen the "cuffed" look all season but wasn't sure how it would look on me...

Thrown over a pair of some skinny jeans, they look a'ight! Rocka rolla baby!

Silver octopus earrings.
Purple coat by Tulle (bought day after Xmas in 2008 @ Nordstrom's Brass Plum)
Black thermal long sleeve. Target. Old.
Rectangular brushed metal buckle black leather belt. Men's. Banana Republic. (What can I say? I like Men's belts with my low rise jeans.)
Purple furry ball scarf (bought on clearance at some accessories store at the Otay Ranch mall in Winter 2008; it came out to be $3 or something with 75% off!)
Blue skinny jeans from Nordstrom Brass Plum (forgot the label), and the new Nine West Barstool bitch kicker boots.

Another pair of boots I bought recently at DSW were these...someone get me away from that store!

The Audrey Brooke - Paula Leather Bootie

The price tag was $69.94 but it was 40% off then I had a $10 off coupon so they came out to be $32 (w/o tax)! Score!

These are leather (not quite suede but very soft) and have a slight ruche on the front of the boot.  Very Pat Benatar.

There is a zipper in the back too.

I just wore these to work today and despite the 3 1/2 " heel, my feet felt fine! But then again, I have a desk job. Too bad you couldn't see that cute ruched detail because I can't/don't/won't wear skinny legged jeans to work.  They still looked cool tho'! No photos of the boots "in action"!

I know I should lay off on buying new shit. I justified it with getting rid of two older pairs which will soon be donated to a local thrift store which gives all it's proceeds to a battered women's shelter. With this cold weather, it's definitely boot wearing weather. No open toed shoes until Spring time!

Did you see the sky today around 5 pm?  I was reminded of this song by one of my favorite 80's bands, The Fixx, "Red Skies at Night"

I still love this song! Their guitarist was so underrated.

Geoyuck...

Last week, TC and I took the my sis and her kids to lunch at Luigi's in North Park. The kids wanted to see the "wierd meat" at Ranch 99. Pork uterus. Pork Bung. Beef Pizzle. You know, that kinda stuff.

Oh yeah, and Geoduck Clams! These used to be within reach but now they are in this tank that's off limits to customers and you have to ask a worker to get them for you. When they used to be on the floor, we used to have fun using the tongs to make the water squirt out of them!  

Just look at these things, especially the one on the left!   I KNOW, HUH!!!!!

Plus, if you're perverted like me, these clams are rife with comic material.

But alas, kids were present so through a very Herculean effort, I bit my tongue (I wanted to say "clammed up" but that's lame, eh) and kept silent.

Instead, the kids took turns tormenting poking the blue crabs. My sister had me open up the plastic bag while she picked up the writhing and angry crustaceans and pointed them in my direction. Them crabs sure were feisty!

Amontillado!

Last week we wanted to used my Discover San Diego coupon for Urban Solace. I neglected to read the fine print and saw that it wasn't valid for Sundays during brunch (and a few limited "lunch" items"). So, instead of Urban Solace, we tried going to Cafe 21 on Adams. It was closed. Sooooo, we continued to head East on Adams and ended up going to Tao. I've already posted on Tao at least three times so no food pix here.

Over the years, I've noticed painted utility boxes all over San Diego. They're everywhere! In Imperial Beach there's definitely the beach thing going on. In Hillcrest, there are funky designs all over the place. Normal Heights is no exception.

This greenbox is on Adams near the Blind Lady Ale House which is next to a pub (forgot the name). It's a nice tribute to a short story by one of my favorite authors, Edgar Allan Poe.

I first remember reading The Cask of Amontillado in junior high. Poe's grotesque stories horrified yet fascinated me. We listened to a cassette tape of some faceless voices with British accents (those are always the best!), complete with creepy sound effects.

"Amontillado!" screamed the victim in agony...

We also learned what "nitre" and "sherry"  and "motley" were thanks to this story.

(info below taken from wikipedia:)

"The Cask of Amontillado" (sometimes spelled "The Casque of Amontillado") is a short story, written by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in the November 1846 issue of Godey's Lady's Book.


The story is set in a nameless Italian city in an unspecified year (possibly in the 18th century) and is about narrator's deadly revenge on a friend whom he believes insulted him. Like several of Poe's stories, and in keeping with the 19th-century fascination with the subject, the narrative revolves around a person being buried alive—in this case, by immurement."

A lot of Poe's stories are about the fear of being buried alive. Nice subject matter. "The Tell Tale Heart" and "The Black Cat" have similar story lines. A lot of people back then had this phobia of being buried alive and many graves or tombs were designed to have devices in which the person INSIDE the tomb can utilize to indicate that they were ALIVE. Shudder. I don't think they had autopsies back then.

"Oh, he looks dead."

"All right, let's bury 'im".

Guess what? Grandpa Jasper's not quite dead yet!

 It's like Ryan Reynolds in Buried" or Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill" trying to get out of that stifling coffin or those old Hammer Horror films with Vincent Price where some dude's trying to claw his way out of the grave.

Chanel - Strong

Ooh, shades of the mid 90's...Remember "Vamp" by Chanel? It was the color of dried blood. Available both as a lipcolor and nailpolish. It was worn by Uma Thurman in 1994's "Pulp Fiction" and was the hottest color on the runway that year. I remember scoring a tube in '95. It was $15 back then.

Chanel discontinued "Vamp" and came out with "Very Vamp" a few years later. It had more of a black cherry look to it. Now, there is "Strong", a deep blackish red/brown shade. This nail polish was a gift from my SIL. She contemplated getting a bottle for herself but ultimately decided the color was not really her style. "Strong" along with "Steel" (a gunmetal, anthracite-type shade) were the new Winter Colors from Chanel. According to my SIL, "Strong" was sold out at many stores and was a limited edition. So, hey, I'm glad I was gifted this bottle. Those nail polishes are $20 a pop!

Below is my grubby left hand clutching the bottle...colors are not really true in the photo. Plus, I applied the polish a bit sloppily so I didn't really show all my fingers!

Now here's a clearer photo of the bottle and the color on a DIFFERENT hand with NICER and LESS DRY SKIN (and a nicer manicure). I love this color! It's got a metallic sheen to it and depending on the light, looks super dark brown or like deep dark blood. You can get away with one thick coat, but if you want it darker, you can do two thin coats. I can really tell the difference in quality with these higher end nail polishes than those cheapass $3 bottles where the color flecks off the next day.

(photo courtesy of the blog CafeMakeup.com's post on Chanel Strong and Steel)

I'm not a dainty feminine chick who wears pastels, floral prints, ruffles, and light colors. Oh hell to the fucking no. I mean, it's just not my style.

With my coloring, I can pull of this look without a problem. I dress in bold dark colors (usually black) and I have strong features. My work wardrobe is polished, clean (no buttons, collars, or unneccessary frills) and sometimes, edgy. I think this color will work quite nicely.