City Eats: San Diego, Snooze

September 10, 2015September 26, 2016Leave a comment

Jason and I found Snooze while trip planning for San Diego. Snooze is a funky breakfast joint with roots in Denver, Colorado (which means we will be there all the time in a couple of months!!) We loved our experience, the atmosphere, service and food so much that we visited twice in during our five day vacation.

Their menu is full of delicious options that are easily interchangeable and customizable. I went with the pancake flight both times! With choices such as Pineapple Upside Down Pancakes (complete with caramelized pineapple chunks and vanilla créme anglaise), Sweet Potato Pancakes (with homemade caramel, candied pecans and ginger butter), Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes (topped with strawberry-basil coulis, strawberries, a mascarpone whipped cream, and a lemon-shortbread crumble), and Blueberry Danish Pancakes (topped with blueberry coulis, sweet cream and an almond streusel with a lemon cream cheese filling), how could I refuse?!

We also tried the Caprese Benedict, which was so delicious and fresh! This take on the benedict featured heirloom tomatoes tossed with pesto and served over fresh mozzarella on toasted ciabatta with poached eggs, a cream cheese hollandaise and a balsamic reduction.

O.M.G. French Toast, brioche stuffed with mascarpone, topped with vanilla créme, salted caramel, strawberries and toasted coconut.

Caprese Benedict

Pancake Flight with Blueberry Danish, Pineapple Upside Down Cake, and Sweet Potato pancakes.

City Eats: LA, Cacao Mexicatessen

March 10, 2015January 11, 20161 Comment

Prior to moving to LA, I had never heard of chilaquiles. Jason and I caught an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives after moving here, where we were introduced to this traditional Mexican dish. Lightly fried, quartered corn tortillas are used for the base of the dish. The tortillas are then topped with a green or red salsa or mole, and sometimes chicken. The dish is then covered with crema, shredded queso fresco, onion and avocado. It is often served with beans, eggs or guacamole. Here in LA, it is often served as a breakfast dish. Needless to say, it was something we decided we needed to try.

Cacao Mexicatessen’s chilaquiles, and restaurant in general, continue to make best of LA food lists. We recently ventured over to LA’s Eagle Rock neighborhood to check it out. I started my meal with the dulce cafe con leche (coffee with piloncillo, cinnamon and milk,) which was perfectly sweet enough for my palate and I loved the addition of the cinnamon! I sprung for the tres leches pancakes, house-made buttermilk pancakes infused with sweetened tres leches milk sauce and topped with strawberries, whipped cream and sliced almonds. The pancakes were served atop the tres leches milk sauce and sprinkled with cinnamon. I have been on this pancake kick lately and these are some of the best I’ve ever eaten in any restaurant!

Jason ordered the chilaquiles topped with mole sauce. Mole is a traditional Mexican sauce that is made with chocolate(!!). The tortillas and sauce were then topped with two over-easy eggs. The dish was served with black beans topped with queso fresco and potatoes. We don’t have any other chilaquiles experiences to compare this to, but we really enjoyed Cacao Mexicatessen’s version, for sure!

We’re still deciding what to order next time. Maybe we’ll try the carnitas de pato (duck tacos!)

Dulce Cafe con Leche

Tres Leches Pancakes

Chilaquiles!

City Eats: Dallas, State Fair of Texas

February 25, 2015June 26, 20152 Comments

Where else would a Native Texan end up on her first weekend back to the Lone Star state in over three years? The State Fair, of course! Back in September, I was chowing down at the State Fair within 48 hours of landing in the US.

I had a very lofty goal of trying as many of this year’s finalists for the Big Tex Choice Awards for food. I guess three of eight isn’t too bad. Fletcher’s corny dog wasn’t on Tex’s list, but it was on mine! It was a great day spent with even better company.

Fried Sweet Texas 3 desserts in one. This amazing, but not-too-sweet treat consisted of pie dough filled with pecan pie, peach cobbler and buttermilk pie that was then deep fried. What else to serve alongside a ‘slice of pie’ than Texas’ own Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream? Yum.

Funnel Cake Ale An English style summer ale, both toasty and sweet, with subtle notes of vanilla. Served with or without a powdered sugar rim. I opted for the latter & it was delicious!

Fletcher’s Corny Dog This is the place to get a corny dog at the State Fair of Texas. Serving up hand-dipped dogs since 1942, this year’s special was a jalapeño cheddar corny dog, which I happily devoured.

Fried Sriracha Balls What do you get when you combine shredded chicken, corn, green chiles, tomatoes and Sriracha hot sauce? You get a ball of goodness that is then rolled in tortilla strips and fried to a golden brown. If that wasn’t spicy enough, you could order it with more Sriracha for dipping. Spicy and amazing!

City Eats: Austin

February 12, 2015June 26, 2015Leave a comment

One of my favorite things about visiting a new city is the food scene. I love finding the local spots and fare that a place is known for. Austin was no different. Miranda knew all the hot spots in town, so we got to chow down!

On Thursday night, after dinner and drinks at Gloria’s at the Domain, we finished our evening at Copper with martinis and cake balls. I tried this delicious oatmeal cookie martini and Italian creme cake ball; check out that fun oatmeal cookie atop the martini!

Round 1 at Torchy’s Tacos on Friday morning. Seriously, how have I never had breakfast tacos like this?! I’m a big, big fan!

Cupcakes at Sugar Mama’s. Among those we tried were the Champion Carrot Cake, made with Texas pecans, raisins, pineapple, organic carrots and topped with a vanilla cream cheese frosting. We also really enjoyed Harlow’s Honey Baklava, a buttermilk honey cake made with local honey from Round Rock, a baklava filling and topped with cinnamon buttercream and a phyllo nest.

We ended our day on SoCo with donuts from Gourdough’s Donuts. These crazy amazing and inventive donuts are served straight out of an Airstream trailer. Randa and I chose the Baby Ratter, a donut covered with fudge icing and fudge oreos with a gummy rattlesnake. Funny story: Randa and I thought gummy rattlesnake equalled a small gummy worm, so we requested two gummy rattlesnakes. We only understood the strange look received upon requesting two AFTER we realized the actual size of the rattlesnake. We could have shared one. BUT…we did finish both, out of sheer principle.

I really love the mixture of the different styles and colors of these letters!

Italian cream cake from Upper Crust Bakery for Saturday morning breakfast. I am a serious sucker for Italian cream cake! Nothing beats Grandma’s, but this one was pretty tasty.

One thing I missed like crazy while living in Germany was BBQ. One of the places to go in Austin is Salt Lick BBQ. Miranda suggested that we spend the good bit of our Saturday afternoon/evening there, so we did! The grounds of this place are gorgeous and the food is insane! I actually dream of getting back there as soon as possible!

Peach and blackberry cobbler topped with a hearty helping of Bluebell homemade vanilla. Oh, Austin, I love you!

Mini donuts from Little Lucy’s food truck on Rainey Street. I may have single-handedly finished these bad boys off…

Sunday brunch at La Madeleine. Who doesn’t have lemon tarts, pastries, and cappuccinos for breakfast?

When can I go back?!