Station Tavern

Finally! Sun!!! After one week of constant dreariness, the sun finally peeked out the day before Christmas. Luckily Bert was off that day so we headed out to the neighborhood of South Park, near Golden Hill.

I'd been wanting to try this place ever since reading several SD Foodblogger posts (links at the end of this posts), Station Tavern which is on the corner of Fern and Ivy. We like the neighborhood here since it's pretty chill. Lots of pretty Craftsman style homes and a few Spanish style here and there but mostly Craftsman:

The inside bar area was kind of full so we sat out in the back patio. Despite the sun being out, it was still kind of chilly especially in the shade. Bert had to go back to the car to get our jackets. Yeah, SoCal pussies! As mentioned in the other blogger's posts, this is also a dog friendly restaurant. Lots of dogs here today lounging next to their owner's feet perhaps hoping for a burger scrap or two.

This place used to be called "Snippy's Tavern" (see the old sign way in the back?):

Their drinks menu:

This was not on the menu since it was a seasonal item, but it sounded so interesting that Bert had to try it. This beer, an Imperial Stout, is from a local brewery, Airdale (based in the Miramar area).  It is also known as the "Dark and Stormy" with an 9% alcohol content!

Here's the description from the company's website:

"Airdale Dark & Stormy, is an American Imperial Stout. This beer starts with a pleasant aroma of coffee and cocoa. A gourmet flavor of bittersweet chocolate surrounds the tastebuds and melds with the full-bodied beer to make this sensation last and last. Not too dry, not too sweet, Dark & Stormy blends the two into a wonderful semi-sweet taste. The high alcohol imparts a comfortable warming feel, but is perfectly balanced with the flavors and aromas. A nice coffee bitterness lingers on the finish, enticing you to take another sip."


After hearing that description, doesn't it make you want to try some?  I thought it tasted a bit like Rogue's Ale, with a hint of a deep chocolate flavor. This was really smooth tasting and for me, that's saying a lot because I am not a beer drinker!

[Fashion alert - Bert is wearing the official SDSU "Spirit Shirt" - "Red and Black is Back!" in honor of SDSU's victory over the Navy from yesterday's Poinsettia Bowl! It was SDSU's first bowl win in 41 years! Shit, that's as old as we are!Go Aztecs!]

Here's TC showing off her teefs. She's pretty happy because in about 2 or 3 months, she's going to get her braces removed!!!  It's hard to discern the colors from this photo, but her rubber bands on her brackets are red and green!

Here's all of our burgers and sides in one awesome shot. Now let's look at the closeups, shall we?

Burger 1 was Berts - The Turkey Burger. The burger comes with lettuce, red onion, pickles and tomatoes. He ordered caramelized onions as an extra topping. I did not have a bit of his turkey burger so I can't attest to how good it was but apparently Bert enjoyed it because he finished all but one bite! I'll have to try this next time. And yes, there WILL be a next time!

The buns were egg bread. We liked how they were toasted, nice and crisp on the edges...

Cross section of the turkey burger...CHOMP!

I just got the Station Burger (1/3 lb beef) topped with a slice of Pepperjack cheese and with a side of Parmesan Garlic fries. Now these fries were quite tasty. They had a nice crisp to them and little bits of fried garlic and parmesan crust. Bert and I really liked that and fished around for the crumbs! Ha ha.

The only thing about the bread it that it's too "bready". I mangled the top bun by just eating the edges separately. Not that it made much of a difference...

The meat was cooked medium which was fine for me. As long as it's not bloody.

TC also got the Station Burger with with Cheddar Cheese.

She really enjoyed this although she was not able to finish it (Bert and I happily helped her finish the last 4 bites).

Her patty seemed a little too pink to me...

Here's those garlic parmesan fries that we liked...

Now I only got a half order of the garlic parmesan but a full order of the sweet potato (ordered with a side of Smoky Paprika sauce which was great by the way). This proved to be way too much for us to even finish. The sad thing is, we forgot to take home the take out box that held the sweet potato fries. : (

There's a little fenced off area with a wooden cable car. Earlier, several small children were playing there. TC, who is 10, thought the play area would be bigger and decided not to play there. She didn't want to be the only "big kid" (her words, not mine) there.

Our waiter was really cool, giving us as much time as we needed to look over the menu and making the great suggestion for Bert to try the Airdale "Dark and Stormy". The chill vibe and atmosphere here was also a plus. Parking was easy to find a block away.

Who else ate at Station Tavern?

Dennis from A Radiused Corner went here back in June 2010
Mary of Foodies: A Southern California food blog went last month on November 2010
and most recently, Moowiesqrd of Adventures of an Amateur Foodie went here December 2010

Up next, dessert up the street...

Kous Kous

A few weekend ago we finally used the first Groupon I ever bought. It was going to expire in a few weeks so we had to use it. We've had Moroccan before (at Marrakesh years ago) and I've made a few Morroccan style dishes so we were looking forward to this dinner outing.

It was a Saturday night in Hillcrest. I was so not looking forward to finding parking which is ALWAYS shiteous.  But, luckily for us, a space opened up right in front of Tapas Picasso (ate there this sumer for TORC's birthday) which is diagonally across the street from Kous Kous. The restaurant is on the lower floor (the basement) of a building which houses Martinis. In the daytime, it would be easy to miss.

Fellow SD Foodblogger Kirbie of Kirbie's Cravings ate here twice: Post 1 (August 2010) and Post 2 (December 2010)

Their menu:

Loved their decor. They made this basement space look quite exotic. These are just some lamps but the foyer was quite spectacular (no photo of that unfortunately).

We got the feast for 2 even though there were three of us. Here is the marinated olives and carrots along with Bert's beer. Moroccan beers would have been nice but this is just Red Trolley Ale. Loved the flavor of the marinated olives and carrots.
 
The sampler feast included the appetizer above along with a vegetarian plate which consisted of three different dips with sliced pitas. At the lower right was roasted eggplant flavored with olive oil, preserved lemon and cumin(zaalouk); at 7 o'clock was the roasted tomato with marinated bell pepper (shak-shouka),  and lastly, at 1 o'clock were the lovely  caramelized carrots  roasted with garlic and ginger (khizzou). Of the three dips, TC loved the carrots the best while I enjoyed the eggplant mostly to myself. Bert liked both the carrot and the roasted tomato.

Next came the B'stila, a flaky phyllo pastry rolled around curried chicken and almonds, topped with powdered sugar. I wish they'd given us a bigger portion. I could have eaten two of these on my own!

Along with the other main courses, we were served the restaurant's namesake, cous cous with vegetables. The vegetables and their sauce made this kind of too wet for my tastes. After seeing Kirbie's first post, I thought we'd be getting a bigger plate of this, so when I saw the small bowl I was thinking to myself that it wasn't going to be enough. It turned out to be just right, but I was expecting more.

In addition to cous cous, we were served Moroccan bread (liked the crust) and harissa (red chili sauce). There was another sauce in the breadbasket but I forgot what it was made of.

One of the main dishes was the slow cooked beef tagine with peas, carrots, and lemon preserves. Loved the carrots and olives in here. The beef was really tender and I enjoyed this more than the vegetarian tagine. The flavors were due to the "ras el hanout" spices. Here's the recipe I used 2 Christmas dinners ago (here's the post too).

In fact, here it is...the Veggie Berber Tagine; the sauce was slighly different (tomato paprika and ginger) than the beef. The vegetables were mainly carrots, beans, and garbanzos.

Lastly, the dessert, which were sliced oranges and strawberries in a honey and orange blossom water sauce. The fruits were nice and ripe and tasted absolutely refreshing after such a flavorful meal.

Can't have one of my posts without a bathroom shot either. Cool lamps!

Looks like the Hillcrest sign needs some new lights!

We took the surface streets to get to the freeway.  Here's Glenn's Market somewhere along University

The service was great at Kous Kous. The waitress was so helpful with all of her explanations whenever I asked her about specifics (ingredients for example). There was a large dinner party next to us - they got to sit in these cool pillowed ottomans. The seating is really nice here. Our table was near a billowy curtained divided and had a small couch for seating on one side of the table. I really liked both the food and the atmosphere. It was also great that I had the Groupon as well because we saed some $$$ on our dinner, so yay.

Our Xmas Shindig

A few days ago we had a small Christmas get together with a few of our friends and our neighbors across the street. Present were Thane and his girlfriend, Tatonka, the neighbors and their girls (these were the two I took to tea earlier this fall) as well as Lotus, Thor and their daughter. Since it wasn't a lot of people, I didn't make too much food. Here is the Salad (spring greens) with balsamic dressing and feta cheese (not pictured). You can also see the fixings for tacos to the left...

I made pulled pork tacos in a crock pot. Just throw in a pork butt, one chopped onion, several peeled and chopped carrots, a couple of cans of fire roasted green chilies, one small can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, a generous amount of chili powder and squeeze in some lemon juice. Put that shit in and let it sit for 5-7 hours and it's good to go....Oh yeah...

Stuff for tacos - corn tortillas, lime wedges, slced radish, cilantro leaves, shredded cabbage and sour cream, which helps with the heat.

I made Portuguese Style Chicken in a pot (then transferred it to the crock pot). I'll post the recipe later but the ultimate compliment came from my neighbor's husband who is Portuguese who liked it. His wife said it looked and smelled like something his mom would make. When he tasted it, he agreed but didn't quite say it was better than his mom's of course.

I had some Italian bread to go with the Portuguese chicken! Couldn't find the crusty rolls I wanted so I got this loaf instead.

The desserts table - Candy Cane Jo Jo's, Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies, Dark Chocolate Stars, Russian Tea Cakes, Dried fruit (on the silver pedestal), Blueberry cream cheese turnovers, lemon creamcheese bars (Tatonka's favorite) and hidding behind the napkins were the cookies made by Lotus - Potato Chip/Chocolate Chip cookies. The cookies were nice and thin too.  They  not only had crunchy bits of potato chips, but also dried cherries so they were salty and sweet and chewy!

Here's the other side...The scalloped dish (from Portugal) had a storebought danish..

Tatonka also brought in this strudel from Hans and Harry...

Here it is...fruit nestled into a custard topped puff pastry, which was slightly different from their previous strudels. I notice that the pastry was not as flaky and it was pre-cut too (can you see where the cuts are?). Either way, it was still a hit and it was quite spectacular to see.

Here's me and Thane that night. He was wearing a shirt he was raving about last year. It's a spoof of the "Edward" Twilight Shirt (Edward Cullen).

But instead of RPattz as "Edward", it's Edward James Olmos! Okay, I'm sucking in my gut there! Ha ha.

Here's the post I did on that shirt last year. It lists the link that sells the shirt. Thane bought his at the Comic Con. He's a big Battlestar Galactica Fan. Me? Stand and Deliver!!!! EJO was the man!!!

I can't believe 2010 is almost over!

Today I didn't even go to any after Christmas sales. This was a first in over 10 years. I just didn't feel the need to brave the crowds and pick through stuff that's been picked through. Plus I have loads of Christmas labels, stationary, cards and wrap from previous years so I'm still good. Seriously. Do I really need more stuff? The answer is no. Instead, we stayed home, watched tv, cleaned the house a little bit and had all of our meals together (leftovers from the past few days) which was nice. The meals part that is.

How was your Christmas and Day After?

French Christmas Dinner

A few weekends ago, Bert's side of the family had their annual Christmas get together. It was hosted by his brother and his wife who live up in Aliso Viejo in Orange County. Their house is always beautifully decorated and my SIL is the ultimate hostess.

Their living room and dining room overlook a park. They don't even have window coverings here. In the daytime, it's really pretty too.

MY SIL had a drinks stations - Pellegrino, Sparkling Apple Cider and Chardonnay nestled among her Lladro figurines.

Here's the dinner set up...The kids' table was in the kitchen.

First course was lobster bisque. She told me she bought it from Costco but tweaked it a little by adding more cream and adding dill as a garnish.

There was also nice crusty multigrain bread to go with the soup...

The dinner theme was French food. One of the sides was roasted potatoes.

The other two sides were steamed cararots and haricots verts (green beans)...

The main course was Beef Bourguignon...this was absolutely delicious!

Here's a complete plate...

In the corner of her kitchen were the desserts - sorry I have no closeups but I made four of them. Those desserts include Russian Tea Cakes, Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies, Mini Nutella Cakes and Blueberry strudel turnovers. Yes, I did a marathon baking posts a few days ago of all of these. There was also a platter of chocolate truffles as well as two store bought offerings I brought - Candy Cane Jo Jo's and Dark Chocolate Star cookies (both from Trader Joe's). Bert's sister came later and brought in a cranberry orange loaf.

The food was really good. I made sure not to eat too much so I could sample the desserts later.

Click here to see the holiday food pix from 2008 (this is an epic food post so the pix from my SIL's are in the middle somewhere).

One week of vacation down. Two more to go!