We haven't been cooking much. It's really very hot here. Okay, it's not nearly as hot as some other places I've lived in for all my life before these two years. But I get really used to nice weather really fast. Anyhoo, we have one crappy air conditioning unit, so we are trying not to cook too much. Oh, and we have ants too that gather enmass any time we leave food out for an hour or so. So we did sear some flank meat last Thursday, and we had some rice and veggies too. But that was the last of that. I think we've heated up a few cans of soup or chef boyardee once or twice, but we've been eating chips and salsa, chips and ranch dip, popiscles, yogurt, and sandwiches from work.
Saturday morning we went to Saigon. The FP got pho, I got Bun with bean curd wrapped shrimp (no. 69). We were going to go to the beach early that day, but you know. We ended up driving around for an hour looking for a parking space. That was fun. No, I was being sarcastic. It sucked.
Saturday night we went to this newish place on 30th street called ritual tavern. It's supposed to be in the style of a goth English pub. It's a bit confusing, but we like the place and we hope they don't go under. I know they just opened, but they aren't too busy yet, even though it's such a nice space. They have a small menu, and they try to make a lot of the items homemade or whatever you want to call it. They use good ingredients too, but it's just a little weird. For starters it's all heavy pub type food, so it's hard to find something appetizing when it's 80 outside at 7pm. But then they want to be vegetarian and vegan friendly, so they have burgers and veggie burgers. Then they have shepard's pie and vegan shepard's pie. Then they have gumbo with organic long grain wild rice. We haven't tried it yet. They also have onion rings with remeloude sauce. Not bad. Tastes like remeloude, not 1000 island dressing. The onion slices were so big, but perfectly cooked. We also had a niman ranch beef burger with "cajun fries". We asked for the burger med rare - medium. It was medium well - well. Too bad, it did have a good flavor, but it was a little dry. The fries. Ugh. They remind me of where I work. (read in Martha Stewart voice) - And that's a bad thing. We have this Cajun Salmon salad. It's very poopular. I don't know whose idea it was, one of the Frenchies. It's salmon rubbed with this cajun seasoning from the Restaurant Depot, cut with paprika. The same Cajun seasoning used on the fries at the Ritual Tavern. It's a bit salty, and... it just isn't Tony's. Can I just tell you, that if you want really good Cajun seasoning - Tony Chachere's. I'm not sure how you spell it. Anyway, it's the best. If you can't find it (they have it at Pancho's here in SD), Zatarain's is more widespread, and it's okay. Just don't use the Restaurant Depot shit. Anyway, the Ritual Tavern also makes their own ketchup. And they refill those glass Heinz bottles with it. It was okay. Just not much flavor. They also make their own pickles. The ones we had were 2-3 weeks. They were interesting. Lots of allspice flavor. Hope this place survives long enough to perfect the pickles. I love pickles.
Sunday morning, we went to Super Cocina. I was too hot to really eat. I picked the two worse things in the steam table because they were the only things not stewed. I got empanadas and carnitas. The empanadas were just average. Which means better than a lot of other places,but not too good for super cocina. The pork was okay - so same thing goes. Rice was overcooked - never had it like that. Beans were good though. I think they must have had too much cerveza and tequila the night before. The FP had a rojo chicken stew and the usual rojo pork stew. Both were delicious.
That's about it.
Saturday morning we went to Saigon. The FP got pho, I got Bun with bean curd wrapped shrimp (no. 69). We were going to go to the beach early that day, but you know. We ended up driving around for an hour looking for a parking space. That was fun. No, I was being sarcastic. It sucked.
Saturday night we went to this newish place on 30th street called ritual tavern. It's supposed to be in the style of a goth English pub. It's a bit confusing, but we like the place and we hope they don't go under. I know they just opened, but they aren't too busy yet, even though it's such a nice space. They have a small menu, and they try to make a lot of the items homemade or whatever you want to call it. They use good ingredients too, but it's just a little weird. For starters it's all heavy pub type food, so it's hard to find something appetizing when it's 80 outside at 7pm. But then they want to be vegetarian and vegan friendly, so they have burgers and veggie burgers. Then they have shepard's pie and vegan shepard's pie. Then they have gumbo with organic long grain wild rice. We haven't tried it yet. They also have onion rings with remeloude sauce. Not bad. Tastes like remeloude, not 1000 island dressing. The onion slices were so big, but perfectly cooked. We also had a niman ranch beef burger with "cajun fries". We asked for the burger med rare - medium. It was medium well - well. Too bad, it did have a good flavor, but it was a little dry. The fries. Ugh. They remind me of where I work. (read in Martha Stewart voice) - And that's a bad thing. We have this Cajun Salmon salad. It's very poopular. I don't know whose idea it was, one of the Frenchies. It's salmon rubbed with this cajun seasoning from the Restaurant Depot, cut with paprika. The same Cajun seasoning used on the fries at the Ritual Tavern. It's a bit salty, and... it just isn't Tony's. Can I just tell you, that if you want really good Cajun seasoning - Tony Chachere's. I'm not sure how you spell it. Anyway, it's the best. If you can't find it (they have it at Pancho's here in SD), Zatarain's is more widespread, and it's okay. Just don't use the Restaurant Depot shit. Anyway, the Ritual Tavern also makes their own ketchup. And they refill those glass Heinz bottles with it. It was okay. Just not much flavor. They also make their own pickles. The ones we had were 2-3 weeks. They were interesting. Lots of allspice flavor. Hope this place survives long enough to perfect the pickles. I love pickles.
Sunday morning, we went to Super Cocina. I was too hot to really eat. I picked the two worse things in the steam table because they were the only things not stewed. I got empanadas and carnitas. The empanadas were just average. Which means better than a lot of other places,but not too good for super cocina. The pork was okay - so same thing goes. Rice was overcooked - never had it like that. Beans were good though. I think they must have had too much cerveza and tequila the night before. The FP had a rojo chicken stew and the usual rojo pork stew. Both were delicious.
That's about it.
Comments