Bette's to Go

After the fun fest known as the Berkeley Fish House, it was snack time yet again....Using the same guidbook, "500 Things To Eat Before It's Too Late", we made our way to the 4th Avenue Shopping District. It's by the freeway and is filled with restaurants, boutiques and other upscale stores like Restoration Hardware, Mac, Crate and Barrel, and others of that ilk. In between the familiar storefronts is Bette's-to-Go and Bette's Ocean View Diner.

It was pretty crowded in here but the line moved pretty quickly. The guy working the deli line saw Bert's Charget hat and said he used to live in San Diego (Encinitas). Bert's San Diego sports teams attire seems to always draw conversation no matter where we go.

Lots of baked goodies but we were here for something else.

We got a slice of the special below...

Now THIS is what we wanted. The Chocolate Espresso Twinkie! Oh yeah...

Our drinks:

The pizza slice with sumer squash, red onion, olives, and tomato. This really hit the spot.

But back to those Twinkies. Well, they are not really like Twinkies  in taste but in shape only. They are dark chocolate Twinkie shaped cakes filled with espresso cream. The chocolate coating had a Hostess-cupcake like white swirl on top. They were quite decadent. A few bites was all I could take because it was supersweet.

Look at that cross section. Chocolate coating, chocolate cake and espresso cream filling.

Because it was warm, the outside of the Twinkie melted easily when we held it in our greedy hot hands. We had only one and saved the other one for later. Does it look like Bert forgot to wipe?

Since I have such a major sweet tooth, I also got a chocolate croissant. There's something about the buttery and flaky layers of a croissant that I can't resist; even more so when chocolate is involved.

I took a peek into Bette's Ocean View Diner next door. They had an old fashioned jukebox playing oldies. What? No "Superfreak" by Rick James?

Time to walk off some of these calories...

(Slowly but surely I will finish my Day 3 SF posts!)

We already had a full morning and we were having fun driving around,food hopping, and seeing interesting sights.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

After my excitement about the new Seafood City, I kind of forgot about the pan de leche I bought on a whim. Bert ate about 2 or 3 pieces while I had one. There was a good 3/4 of the loaf left and I didn't want it to go completely bad so I tweaked this recipe I got from the King's Hawaiian recipe website .

My variations are in yellow below.


Chocolate Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups half and half
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (9 oz.) (I used a mixture of Ghirardhelli dark chocolate chips and Toll House milk chocolate chips since that's what I had leftover from holiday baking)
4 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
6 cups lightly packed 1/2 inch cubes King's Hawaiian Sweet Bread (about half of 16 oz. loaf) (I used the pan de leche which isn't really as sweet as King's Hawaiian but it worked. Also, I didn't "cube" it. Fk that. I hand tore it into the glass baking dish. That's how I roll.)



Directions:
1. Heat half and half in saucepan over medium heat until small bubbles form around edge
2. Remove from eat, stir in chocolate, mix until melted. Cool slightly.
3. Whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt
4. Fold 1 cup cooled chocolate into egg mixture.
5. Pour chocolate mixture over bread cubes and mix until bread is well coated.
6. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes
7. Preheat oven to 325 F.
8. Lightly spray or grease an 8 z 8 x 12 inch pan. Bake 40-45 minutes.

I baked it for about 42 minutes. The top was nicely browned. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the "finished" product but it looked nice and chocolatey. I gave about 1/3 to my neighbor across the street and the rest is for us! D, if you're reading this, I'll make this for you since I know you're a bread pudding fanatic!

[Update - I made it again using King's Hawaiian this time. Still tasted the same!]

I'd like to add some coconut or maybe even Nutella...

Man, that's a huge loaf. I've only had King's Hawaiian as little buns not as a huge round loaf (heh heh, she said LOAF). I used only half as specificed by the recipe

I like the top crust of the bread the most. I think I'll save the other half for Bert so he can have something to eat with his coffee.

[Update on 2/27/:  Ooh, as I post this, the Oscars are on and Trent Reznor just won Best Original Score for "The Social Network". They showed him hugging his wife (a Filipina American), Mariqueen Maandig.  Hey, he just thanked her on air! She used to be in a band and is now in a musical collab with her husband. She also posed in Playboy too. I wonder if she's from San Diego because I know someone with that same last name which isn't very common (they aren't sisters). ]

Nowhere Boy movie review

I finally saw this movie after having chosen to watch "Waiting for Superman" instead back in November with TORC (ordered a used copy from amazon). What can I say? It's now one of my favorite rock and roll movies. In a nutshell, it's about the formative years of a pre-Beatles John Lennon.

I found it interesting to note that the director (seen below), Sam Taylor-Wood divorced her husband shortly after casting for this movie in fall 2008. Why? She fell in love with her then 18 year old lead actor, Aaron Johnson. They ended up having a baby together and are supposedly engaged to be married. Scandalous!!!! She likes her manmeat to be young. She's 44, I believe and has two kids from her previous marriage and survived two bouts of cancer (colon and breast). Hope they last. But mostly likely they won't. She's gonna be so old when their kid gets to college.

Whatever his personal life, he was terrific as a young John Lennon. He had the Scouse accent down perfectly. He had that wicked sense of humor and the movie does a great job portraying his character's strengths and flaws.

Aaron Johnson was one of the young actors in the Nickelodeon movie, "Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging". I only know that because I have a 10 year old who watched part of that movie. Johnson was also the lead actor in last year's "Kick Ass" which I found entertaining and annoying at the same time. I liked Chloe Moretz the best; she played Nick Cage's foul mouthed vigilante daughter, "Hit-Girl". She's the same chick that played the vampires in the American remake of the Swedish "Let the Right One In" (in the U.S., "Let Me In").

Aunt Mimi, John Lennon's stern aunt is played by Kristin Scott Thomas. She totally portrayed that post- WWII British stiff upper lip demeanor quite well. "Glasses, John!"A far cry from her earliest screen role....

as Prince's paramour, the heiress Mary Sharon in 1986's cinematic masterpiece "Under the Cherry Moon" (nominated for a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress). Forget about "The English Patient"! "Under the Cherry Moon" had it all - Prince, his mirror-toting sidekick Jerome, cheesy accents, black and white film masquerading as sophisticated but comes off as cheesy and pretentious, horrible acting, and lacy French lingerie.

Yeah, there she is...from this...to Oscar/BAFTA nominee. Whatever happened to Jerome?  He was also Morris Day's sidekick in The Time and appeared in "Purple Rain. Look how young she was. Can't wait to see her in "Bel Ami" where she plays one of the duped Parisian society women who gets sexed up by the RPattz.

Another actor in "Nowhere Boy" was this little kid, Thomas Brodie Sangster. Okay, he's not a kid anymore. This is the actor who played Liam Neeson's son in "Love Actually" (the kid who ran after his girlcrush in the airport) and was in that kid's movie, "Nanny McPhee" (what a waste of time that was; Emma Thompson was the main character, some magical nanny with a huge face wart). Now he's 20 and he played the young Paul McCartney who auditions for the Quarrymen after hearing them perform at the Woolton Church Fete, recreated quite faithfully for this movie. After the audition, the two become friends and Paul gains the respect of John Lennon because of his superior musicianship. This is the beginning of one of music's greatest songwriting duos.

Although Sangster didn't really look like Paul, he embodied Paul's character, charming, talented, and eager for attention. He learned how to play guitar left handed for this role. There is a scene in the movie where the Quarrymen are performing and at the end of the song, John Lennon says "Thank you" to the audience while Paul also thanks the audience. You can see a tiny bit of that entitlement, that cockiness with that simple "Thank you". He wasn't even the frontman but he had the balls to do that to Lennon. You could also see Lennon's subtle but startled reaction to this.

The role of Julia, Lennon's free spirited mother is played by British actress Ann Marie Duff who is married to....

James McAvoy!!! Humminah!  Seen in "Atonement" as Robbie (oooh), "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (he played the creepy and kinda pedophilic goat Mr. Tumnus), Penelope" (sucky movie), "Wanted" (badass action), McAvoy will be the new Professor X in the upcoming X-Men: First Class! WTF!!!!

 Duff's character was really heartbreaking. She was mostly out of the picture in Lennon's life. Deemed irresponsible by her sister Mimi, Lennon was raised by his aunt and in his mid teens, recently reconnected with his mother. She taught him to play guitar and encouraged him to pursue his musical inclinations unlike his aunt who thought it was just rubbish.

If you know your Lennon/early Beatles history, then you know that his mother's life was tragically cut short in a horrible accident. This traumatic incident underscores many of Lennon's future songs.

A still from the movie featuring the former skiffle band founded by Lennon, the Quarrymen. He is flanked by the actors portraying McCartney and George Harrison (on your right). I liked the scene where George Harrison's character auditions for the band. Beatles geeks will recognize the opening notes of "Raunchy", an old guitar insrumental by Big Bill Broonzy (detailed also in the compilation "Anthology"). Very cool. Likewise, with Paul McCartney's audition, he played Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock".

Another repro of a famous early shot of the young Quarrymen. It's totally spot on! Love the string ties! During the end credits of the movie, when you see these original photos, you see and appreciate how well done the movie was in capturing the era.

John Winston Lennon as young boy:

If you're a Lennon fan or Beatles fan, you have to watch this. The performances were excellent by all of the actors.
Here's a little snippet from the movie where the Quarrymen cut and record their first song, "In Spite of all the Danger":

The period clothing and the look of the whole film is very authentic. Loved the wardrobe (there's a cool shot of Lennon and McCartney's pointy toed Winklepickers and brothelcreeper shoes)and the soundtrack as well. This movie now ranks among my favorite music movies. Check it out!

These Converse were made for walkin'....

Converse Chuck Taylors are my favorite kind of sneakers (Vans run a close second), but I like Converse more. Astroboi, N and I used wear our black hi-top Chucks all the time in the late 80's. I think it was part of the uniform back then if you wore a lot of black and listened to Depeche Mode, The Cure, and New Order (or in my case, rocked out to Joe Satriani, Van Halen, and The Smithereens).

From left: Navy blue low tops, Brown laceless, Pink (the tongue folds over which reveals the purple side!), Black One-Stars from Target (child size 6 = women's 8!) and Purple One-Stars (also from Target) with pink stars on the left side. Cut off is a blackpair of wanna be Converse with Billy Idolesque pyramid studs.

Other view....I love the studded ones but they are not really Converse. It's a brand called "Riot" and I found this pair on sale at Macy's last Fall.

Out of all of these, I like my ,blue ones because they look great with jeans but they are my oldest and rattiest pair. I just can't bring myself to throw them away. Second, I like the brown ones because I don't have to do up any laces. Yeah, lazy person's shoes.

Do you have any fave pairs of shoes that you can't seem don't want to get rid of even though they're falling apart, and the soles are so thin, you could step on a piece of bubblegum and know the flavor, and they probably smell like something died in them? Inquiring minds want to know...

Off the Record on University

Off the Record is a used records/CD store on University near the North Park sign. Turns out that the Hillcrest location closed years ago. This is the only Off the Record now.

Painted green box right next to Off the Record.

I wasn't looking to get anything; it was more of a look-see...

The guy in the corner was sorting cd's; he was the sole employee there. Whatever music he was playing was pretty cool. I should have asked him what it was. I remember asking an employee at the old Off the Record on El Cajon what was on and it turned out to be the Rutles, a British parody band of the Beatles (check out their mockumentary, "All You Need is Cash"! It's classic! Plus it has Eric Idle playing the Paul McCartney character). This was pre-internet (probably 1992 or 1993) and I had to special order the damn cd for $13.99 and pick it up at the Hillcrest location. I'll never forget that day because it was raining and I got a fkg parking ticket while parked in front of David's Place (a coffee shop that used to be next to the Brass Rail gay bar).

I didn't take too many shots in here but I had to take one of this wall of old soul/R'n'B records.

So it was just a look see kinda visit. This place is smaller than the Hillcrest Off the Record. They also had lots of LP's there. No cassettes, ha ha. The cd's ranged in prince from $4.99 (used) to $16.99 (new). still I like M-Theory in Mission Hills since they had that 2 for 1 deal going last Fall.

View of the store as we were leaving (we parked two blocks away and headed up 29th):

A free Record Collectors newspaper I picked up while at Off the Record featuring Stones guitarist Keef Richards. It's a wonder he's still alive after all these years. Now he's just known to the youngsters as Captain Jack Sparrow's father in the 3rd installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.\

[Update 2/24: I finally had a chance to leaf through this magazine and it's pretty cool. I didn't realize there were tons of record stores in LA! The Bay Area also has some good ones like Amoeba and Rasputin. Sadly, the only ones mentioned in San Diego were Record Heaven and Lou's with nary a mention for Off the Record or M-Theory. The article on Keith Richards was pretty good too. I could tell the mag was definitely for audiophiles and record lovers. In the late 80's, I bought a pin from Rhino Records with a design on it for "Save the LP". Vinyl seems to be making a comeback too and not just for Dj's.]

All the record stores I used to go to are gone: Licorice Pizza (I'm showing my age here), Blue Meannie (in El Cajon), Tower Records in the College Area (and later in La Jolla)...Sigh.

Song currently playing as I post this:
"Drive My Car" by the Beatles from the album "Rubber Soul".
Actually the whole album has been playing. I had to endure the Bieber earlier (TC's choice), then I got to put on "Hard Day's Night" which segued into "Rubber Soul". Seems like the Biebster is unable to sing without the help of Autotune. Unfortunate. A lot of these singers use Autotune and they all sound the same, robotic and boring. Whatever happened to real singing and actual musicanship? Sigh.

Okay, song playing as I sign off from this post:
"Norwegian Wood" - The first Beatles song that featured the sitar (played by George Harrison/taught by Ravi Shankar/father of Norah Jones), it was also a lilting ballad about Lennon's extramarital infidelities.

Return to Urban Solace again!

Taking advantage of both of us being off, we headed out to lunch after dropping off TC at my mom's and after our brief visit to the new Seafood City.

Here I am near the Linkery mural (seen in last month's Urban Solace post). Even though it was sunny, it was still kind of chilly but not that cold that I would need a heavy jacket.

Yay! My hair is getting longer in the back!
Gray v-neck cheapy sweater from Forever 21. Bought 5 years ago for my pseudo-Hogwarts/Slytherin costume.
Purple t-shirt from Nordstrom Rack ($7/old)
Brushed metal buckle/black leather belt - from the Men's section at Banana Republic. I like how butch it looks. It's my favorite belt. Women's belts are thin and weak looking. This one kicks @$$.
Jeans - Lexi-style Seven for All Mankind/petite (Used a $60 gift card from Anthropologie two years ago for this and I still had to pay extra). I'm definitely NOT petite, but the inseam was perfect since normal Seven's inseams are 33 and these were 31. No need to hem them and pay extra.
Socks (not shown): Purple paisly from Target. An homage to Donny Osmond and Prince if you will.
Shoes (not shown): Black Converse One-Stars (I bought the child's size 6 at Target so it was $10 cheaper than if I bought the equivalent adult size)

I had another one of my Urban Solace coupons from Discover San Diego so that's where we went today. We were originally going to go to Toast Enotoca wine bar downtown in the East Village but since today is considered a "holiday", the coupon was not valid. So fk that right....

Since it was nice out, we sat in the side patio. That's a space heater you see in the bottom right corner. Love the iron scroll work on the balcony here.

Mural  in the outdoor patio...

Even though today was Monda, they were surving "Blunch":

I got the Juicy Apple (see above for description) non-alcoholic cocktail. It tasted more of orange than of apple but I liked it. Bert got his new favorite, the local made Airedale Imperial Stout "Dark and Stormy".

For starters, we got the warm cheese and chive biscuits with orange honey butter.

They were perfectly flaky and the butter melted so easily. These are our favorite biscuits.

Bert got what I had last time while I got a burger.

Bert's entree - The Roasted pork sandwich (see menu above) which he thoroughly enjoyed. So much so that he finished it. The sandwich that is, not the fries. Is it just me, but I could have sworn they used to serve sweet potato fries as sides but now they are regular. Hmmm, I'll have to check my archives.

I got the Niman Ranch Chuck burger done medium. That's a pretty tall burger!

Inside was Bibb lettuce, house sauce, aged white cheddar, tomato jam, then the add-ins were at the bottom. You can see the avocado peeking out.

I ended up not eating the bread and concentrated on the patty. Turns out that the patty was so thick that the inside was too raw. I didn't even think of sending it back because by that time, I'd already eaten around it. The one thing I liked the most about this burger were the strips of bacon. These were nice and meaty thick strips with hardly any fat. The bacon was also glazed with sugar and sprinkled with cracked black pepper. OMFG, it was like MEAT CANDY. The tomato jam was interesting but I ate most of the filling and the outer edges of the burger. If they could just make a bacon and avocado burger, I would gladly eat that.

Another rare lunch date "alone" with Bert.

Believe it or not, we skipped out on dessert today. Even though Heaven Sent is just a few steps down, we refrained. Instead, I wanted to check out a record store across the street, Off the Record. I have fond memories of the El Cajon/College Drive location during my college days. They closed and relocated to Hillcrest but I think that one closed as well.