Food

Like usual, most of my planning for this trip focused on where we were going to eat. I had a list of must-visit restaurants and scheduled them for the days that our activities brought us closest to them. One goal was to try sample San Diego's unofficial dish - the fish taco. I also chose some places based on Internet reviews and from TV shows like Man vs Food and Diners Drive-Ins and Dives.

One of the first such places was Blue Water Seafood which was supposed to be one of the best places for fresh seafood. The restaurant had a deli look to it with two counters, one where you picked out seafood to have it wrapped in brown paper to take home, and another where you ordered something for the kitchen to cook on the spot.



This is a picture of Mason's chipotle shark taco. We choose mahi mahi for Ella and Tyson and at $4 per taco, they were so huge, we had to remove half of the fish fillets just to close them up. These three tacos would have been enough for our family if we were eating responsibly and I kept asking myself, "if you can get this for $4, why would anyone who lives here ever visit McDonald's?" These tacos were perfect and turned out to be our favorite (we also tried Wahoo's Fish Taco and Roberto's).



I said if we were eating responsibly. Heather and I also ordered this sandwich made from local halibut cooked in lemon garlic.



One evening we ate at Phil's BBQ - a spot we picked for the El Torro sandwich you see pictured above. The restaurant is spacious and dimly-lit and after placing your order they give you a pager to call you back when your food is ready. We found a nice spot on the patio and by the time I had filled our water glasses, we were being paged. These sandwiches are so full of meat, they don't seem to make any pretense about expecting you to be able to close them. Instead we shared one sandwich among the kids by giving them each a piece of the bun and a pile of meat to eat with their hands.

The meat was covered in a slightly-spicy bbq sauce and only three of these $6.50 sandwiches would have fed our family. $6.50? At that price, why would anyone ever visit Subway? (Actually I can answer that one myself: Maybe some people like vegetables on their sandwiches).



Along with two El Torros, I also got half an order of baby back ribs that were such a hit, they seemed to disappear from the plate, and for the rest of the week the kids kept asking to return to Phil's. Sadly, the day that we went back there was a lineup out the front door and down the entire side of the building, so we ended up going somewhere else. By now, I am really regretting that decision.



Here is a shot of Roberto's which wasn't on our official list but was conveniently located a few hundred feet from the sand on one of our beach days.



Roberto's take out window has a different approach to the fish taco. The battered fish served on two corn tortillas and an optional hot sauce seemed more like fast food than the 'we-were-swimming-earlier-today' tacos at Blue Water. But at $2.50 per taco it felt like I was making money as I ate them. And two tacos with a bottle of lime-flavored Mexican soda had me stuffed.



It's not fancy or exclusive but we couldn't make a trip to the US without locating our nearest Costco and treating ourselves to a hand-dipped chocolate almond bar. They start with a bar of vanilla ice cream the size of two Klondike bars, then dip it in chocolate sauce and roll it in crushed (not slivered) almonds. When you start eating it, it is still hot and liquidy but gradually hardens into a shell. We have found that as long as we only order one or two of these for our whole family to share, we don't feel sick (and guilty) afterwards.

There's no ice cream treat like this in Canada at any price, but the $1.50 cost of this one is incredible. What makes it more strange is the fact that while the $1.50 pop and hot dog at US Costcos is identical to our $2 combo, it is impossible to imagine this almond bar selling here with only the same $0.50 increase. If Hagen Das is any sort of baseline, this bar would be more like $15 here, which leads me to conclude that we Canadians are getting ripped off by our ice cream treats.



One day we went to the Corvette Diner which was a great place for the kids. They had a 1950's theme that extended to the decor, music, and waitresses' made up names. I didn't take any pictures because we were seated in a section lit only by black lights and the fluorescent green table tops that left temporary silhouettes of any thing that blocked the black light from hitting the surface.

The burger was good and fortunately the "garbage plate" was much better than the name suggested - coming with mini sliders and assorted bar-food appetizers. We also got a chocolate shake and a strawberry shake to share.



Hodad's is a surfer joint located a block or so from the beach and was on the list because of their hamburgers and cool atmosphere.





We sat at a long surf board-shaped table in the center of the room and ordered two bacon cheeseburger combos, avoiding the bacon double cheeseburgers that Hodad's is famous for. I don't know how I would have eaten a double burger because I could not even fit this one in my mouth. I had to take it apart and eat it in sections.

After sharing a chocolate malt that came served in the blending cup topped with an extra scoop of unblended ice cream, we decided that for our family the perfect amount of food would have been: one single burger with fries, one single burger without fries, and the malt to share.



I didn't take any photos when we ate at Luche Libre which is too bad because it is a crazy place - if you skip to 1:40 in the above video you can see what we ordered (at 6:30 it shows Phil's BBQ as well). It was kind of dark when we went and after standing in line for 20 minutes, as soon as we got a table we dug into our plates of Surfin California burritos, rice and beans, and various salsas from the serve yourself bar. The burritos were amazing and even after sharing with the kids, it felt like we ate way too much. We actually had the Champion's Booth reserved for our final evening, but we ended up being a no-show because our plans had changed.

On one evening we also had Mexican at El Indio Restaurant which was a cafeteria style eatery with an intimidating menu which spanned the entire front wall. The person who took our order suggested some stuff for me and we enjoyed a feast of tacos, enchiladas, rice, beans, carne asade, a tamale, and tortillas served on styrofoam plates. We divided up the food amongst the kids' and they also shared a plate of chopped up toquitos covered in cheese sauce.



We had pizza twice during our trip, once for a sit down meal at Filippi's Pizza Grotto in Little Italy, and once ordered by the slice from a little shop off the beach. Both places were excellent but I'm not the best person to judge because I have never met a pizza I didn't like.



This was a frozen yogurt bowl that you filled yourself with whatever flavour of frozen yogurt and toppings you wanted, and then payed for based on the weight of the bowl. I thought it was an excellent treat for us to share with six spoons on a bench beside the Mission Beach boardwalk. But then Heather pointed out that the bowl cost just as much as two of Hodad's malts... and that took some of the enjoyment out of it for me.

Well, that summarizes the food portion of our vacation, excuse me while I go check the fridge for something to eat.


- C