More of the Mission District...

After Bi-Rite we headed over to the Mission Dolores...I forgot what streets we were one because Thane was leading the way (Valencia and Dolores I think). Some streets were pretty "colorful" in terms of sights, sounds, and people.

This was a shop we passed by, Bell Jar (I immediately thought of the Sylvia Plath novel of the same name), but this shop had a lot of expensive frou frou shit in there.

Loved the pattern of the dress on the left, but I would never wear it. I'm not into A-line style. Although it's supercute on the mannequin, I know it won't be the same on me because of my body type. This would make me look short and stumpy. I'm not into the Donna Reed or Mrs. Cleaver 50's housewife dresses. You know, the kind where you need to wear your pearls and high heels while vacuuming or dusting. "Oh honey, I'm hooome!", ha ha. Yeah right. So not me.

Some cool iron scroll work...it was the fence for this house (photo below this one).

Bert looks like he is surveying his domain (above).

After what seemed like hours (but was in reality only minutes) of walking, we were there - at the Mission Dolores, the oldest building in San Francisco. Since TC learned about missions (last year in 4th grade), as well as the subjugation of the Native American Indians by the disease ridden Spaniards, we wanted to check this place out. Plus, part of Hitchcock's "Vertigo" was filmed here! But hey nowww, what's that over there?

It was a Van with crudely painted designs on them. I spied an incomplete American flag, a dog, Bill Clinton, a peace symbol and a tribute to Tupac Shakur! But wait there's more...

Check it out! It's a Jesus fish And the late Eazy-E (formerly of NWA) as well as what seemed like a huge friendly bear! When we walked to the other side of the van, Thane started to chuckle. I asked him what was funny and he said that the bear that I thought was kind of cute, was known as "Pedo-Bear" and that underneath his "cute" exterior lurked a more unsavory and sinister creature with Chester the Molerster like intentions. I had no idea that this image was a popular internet meme. Kinda creepy now.

Up next - the Mission itself.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Jumping Rob!

(image from the "Fuck Yeah Jumping Rob" website!)

*Jumping Rob is the latest internet meme much like Prancing Cera, Strutting Leo and Sad Keanu.

More posts on Jumping Rob:
Robsessed and Daily Fill article

I think the Jumping Rob pics are so fkg hilarious and random! The original photo of Rob jumping was taken in Brazil earlier this month while shooting a scene for "Breaking Dawn" (the last movie, to be split in two, for the "Twilight Saga".

Pizzeria Luigi - Golden Hill

Ooh, I must be on a roll because I'm practically blogging in real time! Ha ha!  This is what happens when you have a lot of free time during vacation. Thank goodness for that one week off for Thanksgiving. After doing a shit load of errands and spending more on paint that I realized (we are planning to repaint TC's room) at Lowe's, TC and I had a pizza craving. Since we already tried Luigi's in North Park (see original post here), we wanted to try the original location in Golden Hill.

I parked about a block away, right in front of the UPAC (Union of Pan Asian Communities) office. The last time I was in this area was at UPAC back in '93. Anyways, it's the same setup as North Park. I didn't take closeups of the pizzas in the case but man, I totally want to try each and every kind. The dudes working there were really cool and chill. The guy who helped me called me "Miss" as in, "Can I help you Miss?". I get a lot of "Ma'ams" but very few if any "Misses" so I'll take what I can get. Fkg A. I feel young again, haha.

TC grabbed a table by the side which was also near the front window. I wanted to be near the sun. The vibe here was pretty relaxed. I like how it's right in the neighborhood too, just a little down the street from the Turf Supper Club and the Golden Hill Cafe.

It only took about a minute for the guy to warm up our slices. We got just 2 slices each ($2.50 a slice) and no soda. We brought our own waters.

"Miss, your pizza's ready!" And with that welcome remark, I was up to grab our slices. These were TC's - the Hawaiian with pineapple and Ham and one with basil, tomatoes, and cheese.

Here's mine - the Olive Oil pesto with green olives and sliced sausage (this was so damn good!) and a repeat of the one I got several weeks ago, the Spinach with ricotta. You could taste the garlic infused in the cheese. The pizza crust was nice and thin the way I like it.

TC in her "grunge" outfit. Ha ha. It's 1994 all over again!

Since Bert wasn't with us (damn that thing called work!), I took home some slices to go. Here I am at home. Love the logo on the box - it's so badazz! [Fashion alert - the shirt I'm wearing is the K-Flag style by local company PNOY Apparel. The designs are based on the ones seen on the various Philippine Revolutionary flags, so don't think the KKK thing is the Klan, all right? It's for the Katipunan, the secret society aimed at overthrowing the Spaniards! I just realized you can also see my awesome giant Filipino fork and spoon set painted by Superman!]

Here's what I took home for our dinner. Yeah, pizza again, eh! From 12 o'clock going clockwise: pepperoni with artichokes and cheese, 2 slices of BBQ chicken (the dude gave me two because one got stuck and he didn't feel like separating them so yeah, cool! Free slice due to laziness!), spinach with sun dried tomatoes, the spinach with ricotta (again!), and lastlly at 9 o'clock, the 3 Meat combo (pepperoni, sausage and meatball). Yay! Free slice! The guy told me to heat it on BROIL for 1 minute.

"I must eat you!!!" (say that like Drago in "Rocky IV")

Here's another porntastic view of them slices there!!!

Who else ate at this location? (By the way, I don't know these bloggers; I just found their links through a google search)

Angelle from Chicks Who Chomp wasn't too into their pizza because it wasn't NYC enough for her.
Tuna Toast from Tuna Toast actually travelled 3 hours with her brother on a mini 2 day SD vacay to check out this place because it was on "Diner's, Drive-ins, and Dives" (Which I didn't even know! Guy Fieri irritates me).
Here's the bit from the show:

And lastly, here's a cool recent article from
"Pizzeria Luigi, a gem in Golden Hill" from examiner.com (November 10, 2010)

Based on Mary's recent post, we were going to pick up some cupcakes at Influx Cafe down the street on Broadway, but I passed it up by mistake and ended up getting slightly lost. So, instead of going back, TC and I headed home and bought dessert at Fresh 'n Easy instead - fruit pushups for her and coffee gelato for me and Bert.

Thanksgiving's tomorrow...so glad I'm just baking dessert! Happy Turkey Day folks!

Cafe 21

Hey, this is like a miracle or something because I'm posting this on the day OF instead of days (or weeks later)...This also marks using my newish camera for the first time for a food post. The other shots were experimental, playing with settings, etc.

Since TC and I both have one week off for Thanksgiving, we wanted to try someplace new. I had coupons of course and our choices were Jimmy's by the Park (in downtown Chula Vista), McGonagle's (in Paradise Hills) and Cafe 21 on the outer edge of University Heights. I didn't want to stay local so we took the drive up to Cafe 21 on the corner of Adams Ave and Oregon St.

It's on this little corner...

It was kind of crowded inside so we chose to eat outside on their patio. It wasn't too cold and the sun came out from time to time. Behind us (not pictured) was a swinging bench set. TC wanted to eat on that but that would have been problematic with the food, heh.

We sat on the far end of the patio by the wall.

Our waiter was super nice - a young guy with tatts on his arms and neck (that one read "Madrid"; I should have asked him about that). TC was giggling because he called us "ladies", as in "How are you ladies doing today?". I thought he was charming and very polite. After he left, she chanted, "I'm a lady!" (like how the Julius the ring-tailed lemur in "The Penguins of Madagascar" says it).

Their breakfast items looked really good - omelettes and crepes....

I had my eye on one of their sandwiches...

The coupon I had was buy 1 entree and get 1 free (up to $10 worth). Luckily it did not include having to buy two beverages either (Yay, I usually prefer water)! [Tokidoki Alert!  That tiny thing is my Tokidoki Rosetto cosmetic case in the Messagio Print, Spring 2010; I have the Carino cross body messenger bag and love it because it has every color in it and matches EVERYTHING! I use this cosmetic bag to hold my keys, lipstick, lipstick liner and emergency liquid eyeliner because I'm vain like that]

Since we were getting one free item, I saw that they had a Potato Pancake ($4.50). It was NOT what I pictured because I was thinking more like a "latke" kind of potato pancake, not an actual pancake with potatoes in it. There was a nice potato-ey crust though but texture wise, it was not was I was expecting. I was probably better off NOT ordering this.

This was our strategy, order one savory item and one dessert and split it. So TC ordered the Strawberries and Creme crepe...I was expecting one big one, not four small ones, so this was pretty cool!

I got the Monte Cristo sandwich with raspberry jam (already inside). I liked how it wasn't battered and fried. It was grilled quite nicely and came with  a choice of sides (soup or fresh fruit or salad with strawberries) so I got the salad, which was really delicious. Turns out it's one of their signature salads. It had a housemade raspberry vinaigrette and sliced strawberries which  were so sweet and ripe. In the photo below, I'd already split the sandwich between us. I love the mix of savory and sweet. TC also loved the salad, taking at least half of it!

Who else ate at Cafe 21?

Dennis from A Radiused Corner" went here back in July and loved their poached pesto eggs...
and Darren from San Diego Food went here last month and had omelettes and pancakes.

Here are some reviews on Cafe 21 (formerly called Cafe 2121):
SD Reader (After reading this review, I found out the owners are from Azerbaijan, cool! Had I known that ahead of time, I would have tried an Azeri dish but I didn't see any on the lunch menu, so I assume it's on the dinner menu!  Oh well, next time!)
a nice write up from the San Diego Newsroom and Yelp.

Here is their Official website.

On another note, am I just a cranky bitch or what? Immediately after Halloween, I noticed at all the stores (grocery, mall, and so on), I keep hearing piped in Christmas music! Fkg hell, let Thanksgiving happen FIRST people!

And that's why I finish all of my Xmas shopping in October so I can avoid the infernal Kenny G/Miley Cyrus/Mariah Carey hell that passes as Christmas music. Why can't they play subversive Christmas music like this instead? (Yes, I actually like this song! Sofa King Hilarious!I make sure to include it on my Xmas CD compilations - NOT Family Friendly!)

So catchy! Play THAT at your next holiday soiree...or this:

Because nothing screams Christmas Joy and Christmas Cheer like this rollicking toe tapping ditty from the Ramones!!!

McRib is in Chula Vista!

Hell to the yeah! McRib is now down south at the MCD's in the Canyon Plaza strip mall on Telegraph Canyon Road in CV. Bert told me he saw the sign the night before when he took his mom to Pho Hiep.

I did a bunch of errands that morning/afternoon so I gave in to the urge and headed to McD's with TC. Here's our bad lunch.

I had the McRib; a la carte it's $2.69.  Look at that fake pre-formed pork rib patty. And yes, I loved it. Spongy meat and all.

Let's open it up eh....Looks like they were a bit sparse with the onions there. I'd taken the two pickles off and gave it to TC. The BBQ sauce is also spread unevently. Shit, I feel like I got gypped with the lack of onions in there! It's kind of messy eating this too. I had to use a napkin everytime I put this down.

TC got the Cheddar Onion chicken sandwich ($1.49) which she enjoyed. See those wierd lines at the lower half of the photo? This is from the fkd up camera. I need to learn to use my new one because this one is pissing me off.

This one was just for looks. I bought the Jalapeno and Cheddar chicken sandwich for Bert. Well, I took a couple of bites after taking this photo. The jalapeno slices looked canned and the chicken patty was kind of dry too. He ended up eating it later that night and liked it although the jalapenos were a bit too hot for him.

The other night I made roasted Brussel Sprouts. I bought a couple of bags of them, washed them, sliced off the bottoms and mixed them with extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and black pepper. Roasted it for about 30-35 minutes at 350. They came out all right and tasted much better after they cooled down. This was a test run for one of the side dishes I'm making for Thanksgiving at my parents.

Love this song! RIP Doug Fieger and Bruce Gary (lead singer and drummer)...

This song is pure pop perfection!

Bali Thai

Last week, I was at an exciting Financial Aid Workshop in Mission Valley. Also at the workshop was Mi Firme Heina (MFH) and one of my co-workers; we decided to have lunch nearby at Bali Thai. It's right before you hit TGIF's.

Even though I really like their Beef Rendang here, it would take too long so I ended up getting a lunch special.

The other two also got the lunch specials...

which included a soup (had bits of tofu, cabbage and carrots; it was a thin chicken based broth), salad with peanut dressing, and two fried appetizers (1 eggroll and 1 dumpling - which came with the sweet and sour sauce).

I got the spicy noodles (a '3' out of 10 so I would be able to enjoy it) - I got it vegetarian. I really like the thick rice noodles in this dish. My co-worker got the same thing but with chicken (not pictured) and it was a '6' (but she can handle it).

MFH got the Pad Thai with chicken - she thought it would come with thick noodles as well, but pad thai is usually made with the thinner rice noodles.

My previous outings at Bali Thai:

Last November, after watching "New Moon" with a bunch of GF's (one of which was MFH!)
and also when Bert and TC took me out on Mother's Day last year.

It was so strange for me being out and about on a work day. Normally, we're all holed up in our offices and snarfing our lunches. This was nice to be out for a change.

Song last heard on my iPod: This really sultry cover version of "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" by Muse:

I also found a closer place for the McRib...(upcoming post)!

Hometown Buffet, Otay Mesa

Last week on Veterean's Day, TC and I caught a matinee of "Megamind" at the AMC at Otay Mesa (the movie was 'meh') and later had lunch here:

That's right people, Hometown Buffet!  Actually, Bert and I wanted to go here the previous month because I had this coupon card I wanted to use. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed because they were remodeling it so we ended up eating at Tomodachi nearby. What they were doing at HTB was putting in new stations and revamping the look, which I must say, is a major improvement.

The older version of HTB was old, dark, wooden and chrome. Now it is much lighter, brighter and more modern looking. To my extreme annoyance and consternation, there was an Asian lady with two brat kids in front of us. She had absolutely no control over them. I think they were in need of not just a tongue lashing, but also a swift kick to their....okay, I'll shut up now.

Ooh, it's so much nicer in here now!  If you look closely, you can see the different buffet stations: Bakery (featuring all kinds of pies, cakes, and cookies, Asian (using stereotypical font as well as food like crappy fried rice, ultra-shitty eggrolls and orange chicken, broccoli beef), American Classics (hotdogs, mini sliders, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, fried chicken, etc), Fresh Market (salads), a Soup bar (didn't try any), as well as an Italian bar (spaghetti, focaccia, pizza), Mexican food (it was kind of sad - crappy tacos), and fresh fruit and different types of salads (green, pasta, seafood). Lots of variety for sure!

The booths were all taken, so we picked a table in the front which made me a bit self conscious when I took the photos. The brat kids were nearby and they kept standing up on the seats and looking over at the other diners. Their mom didn't even ask them to sit down.

TC started off with Caesar Salad, onion rings and a mini slider (can't really see it well here but it was kinda dried out).

Oh wait, here it is closeup. The triangular thing on the right was a fish fillet.

I got the spring greens with corn, peas and mushrooms, I also got a thin sliver of this type of Italian stuffed pizza, plus a small scoop of mashed pototoes and a piece of a sweet potato (not so good). Our meals came with drinks so TC got us some Icees - I liked that she mixed the flavors too, blue raspberry with cherry. Remember getting a "Suicide" slurpee at 7-11? That's when you mixed ALL the flavors together and the color was horrendous gross looking but it fkg tasted good! At least that's how I remember them...By the way, the drinks station is pretty extensive. They have your regular sodas, the Icees (new!), tea (hot or cold), milk (plain and chocolate), AND Mexican drinks too (horchata, jamaica and tamarindo)!

TC's 2nd plate - Another fish fillet, fries (eh) and meat loaf, which she really really liked (so did I!).

Here's my 2nd plate which I kind of picked at. My eyes were bigger than my stomach I guess. From 11 o'clock: a piece of lemon fish, 2 slices of Polish sausage, some fried chicken bits, mashed potatoes with gravy, pasta salad with seafood, green salad with corn (plain, no dressing) and since I couldn't resist, a few of the breaded onion rings.

TC got a soft serve for her dessert. She told me that she likes to make the swirly poo design.

I got 3 small things - a rice krispies treat (the only one I finished), a small slice of cookies and cream pie (too sweet) and cherry pie which I only wanted for the crust. Thecherry pie was warm which I did not like so I wasn't crazy about that. Of course there were tons more desserts out there, but I was already full and my "off switch" was in effect.

Using the discount card I bought as a fundraiser (it was only $5) , I got one free kids meal with the purchase of 1 adult meal. Total was $10 something. Not bad for 2 people. Plus we had those Icees!!!

The discount card has more deals on them like buy 1 lunch/get 1 free, buy 1 dinner/get 1 free, 1 free drink w/purchase of meal, and so on (you must purchase beverages with most of the deals). We hardly go here, but since it was a "holiday" and it was next to the AMC theatre, I wanted to use it and I knew that TC liked this place. Anyways, the new food stations and the decor are a big improvement on their old look. The food that I liked most was the Italian and the American. The worst, Asian and Mexican.

Who else had HomeTown Buffet?

Mary from Foodies: A Southern California Food Blog went this past September. She had their pecan pie (which unfortunately was not a choice the day TC and I went).

Here's an article about the changes at HTB:
HomeTown Buffet in San Diego Improves its Menu

I have about 10 more coupons on that card to use up before it expires in March 2011!