Return to PubCakes...

Here's that second visit to PubCakes last month with my good friend (there's her arm right there...). If you look closely at the bottom left, you can see the t-shirt they sell which proclaim, "I drink beer. I eat cupcakes. What?" Love it!

The cupcakes in this stand were a day old, and therefore were being sold for $1.00. Well, all right then! Day old doesn't bother me! It also probably helped that it was near the end of the afternoon as well.   I see the Irish Carbomb, the Punkin' Vegan, the Top Ten Cake, the Cup o' Hefen, and the Beer for Breakfast...

Everything in this box was $1.00 except for the Stoned Portzilla (my favorite). I brought these four minis home while...

she brought home the full sized "Six Pack" for her and her family. Well, except for the Irish Carbomb because we ate and enjoyed that while sitting outside...

Here's another look at these cupcakes. I really love how each one is so different, from the flavors to the frosting and the different toppings.

Looking forward to more visits here this summer! Misti mentioned that she would be making Beer Popsicles! That should be interesting. My husband's interest is already piqued with the mere idea of beer as popsicles!

Pubcakes and Treehouse Coffee

After our foray into Taste of Polynesia and with the heavenly smell of the food permeating the car, we headed over to La Mesa...

Pubcakes is housed in a cute tiny storefront which shares space with Treehouse Coffee. Yay for us, it was open this time!

The cupcakes were beckoning us...

I loved these cupcake displays, which Misti said were made using candlestick holders as the pedestal with domed displays on top. What a great idea!

I wonder what the name ended up being (read card below):

The display case held the bottles of beer featured in their cupcakes:

So many good choices here...


Bacon makes everything taste better!

Also housed here is Treehouse Coffee owned by Misti's friend, Mandi and her husband.

What a perfect pairing, cupcakes and coffee...




Bert ordered the house coffee which we enjoyed outside. He liked the dark roasted flavor and it wasn't bitter.

Row on the left: Full size Cup o' Hefen, mini Stoned Portzilla and Top Ten. Second row - Beer for Breakfast, the "Name Less" one and the Irish Carbomb:

The Cup o' Hefen...

Here I am about to devour the bacon topped Beer for Breakfast cupcake...

And then there were four...I really liked the Top Ten Cake with the cherry frosting dusted with chile powder. What a great combination!

We had almost everything here - the lone exception was the Punkin' Vegan because I don't like pumpkin flavored anything. My favorite was the Stoned Portzilla because it had so many good flavors and textures (coconut, coffee, and chocolate), while Bert loved the Cup o' Hefen.

For better photos and a more detailed writeup of Pubcakes, check out Meandering Eats' post on their grand opening...

Who else had PubCakes?
Mary from Foodies: A SoCal Foodblog experienced Pubcakes last year during the Gourmet Experience at the Del Mar Fairgrounds (Summer 2010)

A few articles about PubCakes:
"PubCakes: New Craft Beer Cupcake Craze" (Discover SD)
A post from Urban Dish
"PubCakes: Beer Cupcakes FTW" (Mutineer Magazine)
"Local Bounty" (San Diego Magazine)

Official sites here:
PubCakes
Treehouse Coffee

A few weeks later, I ended up coming here again with a friend after our brunch at Eclipse (post will be forthcoming). Bert and I enjoyed our minis and plan to return again. The owner was so cool and I hope that she stays in business. It's great to have all of these different dessert options in San Diego.

C's dad's garden and Billy the Goat

C, her daughter, and her mom were planning to do errands in Sudbury which was two hours away and off the island. However, before they left, we went over to her parents house which is down the road from their place. 

Her dad is really cool. He's very tall for an Asian; he is of Chinese descent but was born and raised in Trinidad/Tobago. He also has this cool Caribbean accent. Her mother, a Filipina from the Philippines, is a hoot! She is a petite lady with a great sense of humor. They were both so welcoming and treated us like family.

While at their house, her dad showed TC his fossil collection in the front yard:



Her parents' garden was pretty big too. People have huge yards here in the country. He had all kinds of flowers and plants.

Not sure what this was but it was pretty...

This was a Bachelor Button flower:

Here's an Iris:

Vegetable garden...

I think this is a Hollyhock (someone who has more horticultural knowledge than me, please correct me if I'm wrong):

Another  type of Iris (love the coloring on this one):

Purple vine flower:

I liked how the leaves were both red and green:

Here's something you don't really see in San Diego, a septic tank!

This goat was actually a gift from C's dad to C's daughter but it' housed here instead of at C's. It's name is Billy but her dad jokingly called it "Caldereta" (a type of Philippine stew made with goat).

Bert wanted me to get near it and take a photo...

Well, I did and that damn animal started to nudge me really hard. I realized it was HEAD BUTTING my thigh! See those horns? Those MF's hurt! I told Bert, "Hurry up and take the photo!" and ended up walking away from it, photo or not.

As we left, C's mom gave us some sodas for the ferry ride back. I still can't get over pink cream soda.

We had such a great time on the island. It was the most "nature" we'd ever experienced. TC loved it the most. She wants to go back and hopefully we will visit again in the near future.

Taste of Polynesia

Right off the 94 and College where it turns into Federal is this strip mall (see sign below):

This was our next stop. From Soul Food to Samoan Food at Taste of Polynesia.

It's a combination mini-grocery store and sit down eatery. It's not fancy or anything so don't expect china plates, real silverware and linen napkins. This is down home Islander food folks.

The young lady working there was really cool and showed us everything in the steam trays. She didn't even mind me taking photos (I asked politely if I could) and said, "Do whatever you need to do!"! Love it!  These were Pork Sausage links and Corned Beef.

These were Turkey Tails and Lamb Ribs.

The one exposed tray had what they call "Sapasui" ("chopsuey"); it was kind of like pancit but with chapchae like noodles. It had slivered carrots and cabbage along with chicken flavored with soy sauce. I liked it but it was a bit too salty for me. TC enjoyed it later for dinner.

These were steamed taro, a staple in Samoan food. Other items in the trays included shoyu chicken, pork chops, fish, and curry chicken.

Fresh bananas and taros were along the back wall.

The girl working there was really patient as she explained Samoan cuisine to us.

I liked the bilingual sign:

There were a couple of cold cases with drinks...

One side of the store had traditional Samoan clothing and a wooden display case with floral hair picks (jasmine flower) and jewelry.


There were shelves full of cream crackers, chips, soy sauce and other items. The other side had shelves filled with canned sardines and corned beef.

This was one of the desserts - Panikeke (fried dough):

This flower shaped one was called Masi Saina - it looked really pretty. These had green onion and garlic filling. It wasn't sweet but kind of heavy tasting. They tasted better warmed up rather than cold.

These chips were "Burger Flavoured" and were from Fiji. I bought a bag and they did not taste like burgers at all. They were really salty and shaped like wagon wheels.

Turns out that we were still full from the chicken and waffle at Annie Belle's. We had the Tongas plate to go (3 items plus a taro). Bert chose the Lamb Rib, the sapasui noodles, and the Turkey Tail which came with this huge taro half. The taro serves as the starch and it didn't really have much of a flavor. Bert liked it more than I did while TC didn't like it at all. (I took this food shot while at PubCakes)

While it was really fatty, we liked the turkey tail. I wished we got more than one of those. TC ended up finishing it off. I had more of the noodles because I don't really like lamb. We want to try the other items on their menu like the chicken and the fish. So next time, we will actually sit down and eat here...

Our next stop, dessert at PubCakes...