California Dreaming... It's All About The Food

When we travel, it always seems to be about the food. And the drinks, of course.

Friday night we had dinner at Ocean Avenue Seafood where a friend of SD's is a bartender, so we went early to have drinks at the bar with David. He made us all a drink that he invented called Purple Rain and was quite delicious. However, being the creatures of habit that we are, we went back to martinis once we were seated at our table. Honestly, David has such an infectious personality and he's a splendid bartender.

We had a lovely view of the ocean at sunset and the dinner was quite delicious.



Mr. Snoots had the Wild Oregon Sand Dabs and they weren't what any of us expected. They were very fishy tasting. Go figure. It was fish.




Our daughter chose the Sesame Crusted Wild Hawaiian Big Eye Tuna with pineapple rice, steamed vegetables and an Aisian Vinaigrette, which was excellent.




I decided I needed some beef, so I ordered the 8 oz. filet mignon served with sauteed wild mushrooms and garlic mashed potatoes. It was cooked to perfection... the second time. The waiter didn't hear me right the first time and thought I said Medium Well instead of Medium Rare. I felt like *the mumbler* on that Seinfeld episode.




Really, we just loved the place, in spite of the way the food turned out. The manager came over to us to personally apologize, but it wasn't necessary. We all still had more than enough to eat and otherwise the service was again impeccable.




The next day, we went to breakfast at Jinky's again because I had to have the Eggs Benedict again. I wasn't disappointed.




Mr. Snoots wanted to stay in the room and watch college football on Saturday, so SD and I went to one of her favorite places, called Hamburger Mary's, for lunch. It reminded me of a lot of the places in Austin. I had a great appetizer for lunch of Spinach/Artichoke Dip with chips and I love that stuff (too much).




Afterward, we went to Loehman's to shop and I bought SD and I some lovely new things. Then, she took me to a place on the Third Street Promenade where I was able to buy $5 leggings, which thrilled me to death. Let me just say that we saved Mr. Snoots a ton of money. I sincerely hope that he can see it that way.

For the next stop, we had to scramble back to grab her things at the apartment so that we could get back to the hotel and she could change there. She took me on a quick sightseeing tour, which was so fast I was barely able to take a shot.SD's idea of sightseeing is basically at 30 to 40 MPH. Since it was Saturday night, we had reservations at Wolfgang Puck's Chinois on Main Street.




It turned out to be one of the best meals we had the entire trip. The service was also the best we received the entire trip. The strange thing was that we had read a great number of bad reviews, but we found it to be total perfection.




We started out with Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab served with  Fried Spinach and a Wasabi Sauce that was truly scrumptious.




Next, we shared the Moo Shu Shell With Pork Belly and Julienne Vegetables with a Hoisin Oolong Tea Sauce. I wasn't wild about the texture, but the flavor made up for that and was incredibly delicious.




Next, we shared the Chinois Chicken Salad, which was so good that I can't even begin to describe it.




We shared the Sczechuan Beef with Spicy Shallot Cilantro Sauce, which was quite delicious, as well as pleasing to the eye.


Last of all, we shared the Shanghai Lobster, which was amazing.



Once we were finished, SD had to run off to a party so we walked back to the room and watched a really funny movie called The Hangover on Pay-Per-View. If you like to laugh at the ridiculous situations people can often get themselves into, then you should definitely watch it.

To Be Continued....