going back to Cali

So, I've been a bad little food blogger. I would feel kind of bad about that, but I think all of my three followers probably either didn't notice or are very forgiving people. Also, I was in California, and it's hard to feel bad about anything when you're basking in the afterglow of perfect LA spring weather (even though the locals probably didn't consider it perfect). See, last week I made the annual trip to Los Angeles for work, followed by a weekend of fun in San Diego. I failed to take pictures of every great thing I ate while away because I am, as previously stated, a bad little food blogger. But anyhoo, I did manage to snap pictures of most of the food-related highlights.

Spinach and mushroom frittata with tomato relish (aka hotel egg whites with rubber veggies)

Pictured above is Wednesday morning's breakfast. In the interest of full disclosure, this was only a highlight because I was starving, having gotten to the hotel two minutes after the restaurant closed the night before. The orange juice was the best thing on the tray.

Thankfully, lunch that afternoon proved to be a much greater success. My work/travel partner and I happened to be driving around USC when we stumbled upon what would become our lunch spot: The Lab gastropub:

After scanning the menu briefly, I settled on the falafel burger, and it was even more awesome than it looked:

The next day's highlight: awesome fish tacos from The Fish Dish, which I failed to get a picture of because I was too excited about having just picked up Christopher from the Bob Hope Airport before lunch. Boo for lack of pictures, but yay for Christopher-picking-uppins.

Fast forward to Friday, when we were so busy making a mad dash to finish up work-related stuff before putting my work/travel buddy on a plane back to Dallas that we failed to eat lunch until about 4:00. Needless to say, we were hungry. Very hungry. And in slow-moving traffic on the way to San Diego. Because we hadn't really yet had a chance to explore the various non-touristy food offerings of LA, and because I have a strict "no national chain" rule while traveling outside of my home state, I consulted Yelp in the hopes of finding something amazing and close to our immediate position on the 405. Enter: Zacatecas in Hawethorne. A seemingly barren, dirty place at the end of a sketchy strip mall. (Just goes to show that looks aren't everything.)

Being new at this food-blogging thing, and being starving, I failed to get a picture of the most amazing Mexican ceviche I've ever had before Christopher and I scarfed it down...but I did manage to get a picture of everything else we ordered.

For Christopher: al mojo de ajo (shrimp in garlic sauce) and chilequiles. For me: camarones ala plancha (grilled shrimp). Both meals came with a healthy serving of guacamole (yay!), refried beans, and the best Mexican rice from a restaurant I've ever had. Plus warm flour tortillas.

Oh Holy Yum:

If you ever find yourself craving Mexican food in California, this is your place. The staff is so awesome--attentive, familiar, and oh-so friendly. And did I mention the best ceviche in the world? Oh. Yes.

After making it to San Diego, we were still completely stuffed from our late Mexican lunch, but we decided that we had to take advantage of staying at a (somewhat strange) hotel in Little Italy while we had the chance. We settled on a close place open late: Bencotto. Again with the bad food-blogging though. Not pictured are our amazing appetizers: pecorino di fossa (sheep's milk cheese, honey, and dried figs) and fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with ricotta cheese. Halfway through the main courses, I did remember to snap pictures, though...so, apologies for the forks and...half-eaten-ness of it all:

Chris ordered the squid ink tagliatelle with shrimp and spicy cream sauce:

...but I hit the jackpot with the cioppino (cioppino Bencotto):

We ended up finishing off the cioppino together and leaving what was left of the squid ink pasta in the picture. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't as amazing as the cioppino.

The next day, we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, then ice cream at the zoo. Late that afternoon, we finally decided to be hungry for something great. Yelp saved the day yet again by recommending Aladdin Mediterranean Cafe.

We started with a half-order of dolma (vegetarian-stuffed grape leaves):

...and I decided on Jasmin's vegetarian pizza:

Chris had the eggplant wrap:

Both were delicious and lasted us until the next afternoon. We skipped breakfast in anticipation of an awesome seafood meal before we hopped the plane back to Dallas. Of course, I was too distracted by the scenery and deliciousness of it all to remember the pictures. Arg. But, The Fish Market, located next to the USS Midway Museum where we passed the morning, offered up some smoked swordfish, grilled swordfish, and more cioppino (because I just can't get enough of that stuff).

In short, it was a pretty successful trip to Southern California. Although a lot of it was work-related, it also turned out to be a lot of fun. I got to see some sights, as well as some old friends, and spend time with the person I love the most. And, food-wise, I'd call the trip a success. Also a success? Cheap wine purchased from a Fresh & Easy, smuggled back in my suitcase, which basically sums my sentiments up in one cute little label:

I love CA. I always considered myself to be more of an East Coast-kinda gal, but these last two work-related-but-still-fun trips to California have changed my mind completely.