Food Maker, Chef, and Traveling Diner
The first part of this adventure is here. Enjoy 🙂 We then waited until hunger struck again, which ended up being around 9:00 p.m. and headed over to downtown Santa Barbara to La Super Rica. This is a very famous restaurant in SB. They are …
Life is a funny thing–just think about it. When we think the same hum drum happenings couldn’t get any worse, they do; and when we decide life is peachy as a whipped trifle on a sweet summer day, it sometimes is. I love that I’m …
Stephanie and I found our way out to Ventura County this time around. I used to work and live in Moorpark, CA so I’m very familiar with the surrounding areas, because honestly, there isn’t much going on in Moorpark. I loved it there, but being back in the valley is where I belong. Living somewhere else and then coming back really makes you realize how great you had it. I still miss V.C. every now and again, and my friends who live there, so I visit frequently.
It’s actually been a little while since I got out to Ventura, namely Main Street, which is its main drag of interesting happenings.  I always used to get my knives sharpened at American Flags and Cutlery, but sadly, their storefront is now out of business. They still offer sharpening services, so I’ve heard, but I can’t find any information on it. I was very glad to get my knives sharpened one last time. I don’t trust my babies to just anyone. I guess I’ll have to be on the hunt for a new knife sharpener soon. Stephanie saw firsthand, my Dexter-style kitchen utensils. If you haven’t read about them, please see your way to this post.
After we dropped off my knives, we decided to get some lunch. We stopped in at Natures Grill. This small café style eatery offers a natural selection of vegetarian, vegan and meat eating options alike. I chose to have the old town salad, which had a lovely tahini dressing and was filled with hearty brown rice, guacamole, carrots, tomatoes and feta cheese over romaine lettuce. I also had a wedge of squaw multigrain bread and a raspberry ginger beer. The combination of flavors is really wonderful. I love this salad. Stephanie had a very ample burrito filled with fresh veggies and a side salad. We had a completely affordable and healthy lunch by the beach.
Main Street has a surplus of fine eateries, pubs, bars and even night clubs after dark, but it’s also home to thrift stores as well as stylish boutiques. We walked down to window shop and peak in at the thrift stores as well as have a little photo shoot on the sand by the waterfront, just a couple blocks away. We followed that with a beer at Anacapa. I opted for the house brewed stout and Stephanie had the house amber ale. We chatted over our local beer, having an epiphany about what was next on our list of adventures.
Suffering from a bit of a food coma, sun coma and an afternoon cocktail, we decided a coffee appealed to us. We stopped at this gorgeous little café called Savory. They had wonderful baked goods and a very nice espresso drink selection. The cafe has a very gardenesque feel to it. The décor is adorable and purposeful. The dining room has an almost outdoor feel with a very large open window for people watching. They are a full-service restaurant and bakery as well. I had a peanut butter cookie and double espresso black. Stephanie had a soy latte with amaretto.
After coffee we picked up my knives, just as sharp as can be, and headed back to the car. Another beautiful day full of adventure and interesting eats and treats.
Cheers
Unrivaledkitch
As a young girl, and even now in my twenties, I looked forward to our family vacations in the summer all year long. Three pretty rough, very close in age, small kids: my sister, brother, and I, crammed in the back of a car together …
As I return from Washington I have so many beautiful memories to share, beautiful memories of nature, food, friendship, and travel. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. Taking this trip to the Bellevue and Seattle area of Washington was so beautiful. …
As I walked through the many miles of culture and community that Chicago has to offer I was struck in awe but the simple beauty of a big city by the lake. It was all such an amazing group of places situated in the heart of commerce and business but with an airy feeling of art and style. I love it.
On Wednesday before Girl and the Goat I situated myself at the Shedd Aquarium, looking like a child at jelly fish, beluga whales, and all sorts of other marine life. It made me feel young again, though I’m not too old let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. After the animal life I decided to make my way over to the Skydeck of Willis Tower and see the city from above, it was like nothing I’ve ever witnessed before to be so high up and everything looks so small almost like being in a plane traveling over the city. You could see the rain washing through the suburbs and the lights just start to peek out through the clouds. A truly amazing day I’ll never forget.
Thursday, I woke up and headed to the train station but on my way I decided I would like a tea so I stopped into the Bourgeois Pig. This adorable little cafe serves a multitude of different items from coffees and teas as well as in house baked goods and some really awesome sounding sandwiches and salads to choose from. I just stopped in for a Chai Latte but I couldn’t help myself I got a beautifully just made still gooey in the center snicker doodle to go with it. It was the perfect sugary way to start my day. There’s something about a well done foamy hot Chai that I just love. This place was just perfect for a mid afternoon chat with friends or to get some work done with two levels of seating and free wifi.
I walked over to the train station and I decided to head back over to Museum Park to see the Adler Planetarium . Getting in all I could was necessary but at least this time I knew where I was going. I thought the planetarium was really interesting. I love seeing those IMAX versions of the sky with millions of little lights flickering above. One of my favorite past times is to stare into a starry sky. I miss Moorpark for just those occasions but I’ll be going to mammoth in August and I’ll have all the stars I could ever want. I wondered about for a while there taking in all the sky and its discoveries.
After that I found myself on Magnificent Mile walking with a plethora of shops and craziness. I’m not much of a shopper, I spend my money on food or drinks and the like so I did a little window shopping and walked around looking at all the people going up and down the street. I decided a nice glass of wine would be in order I stopped into The Purple Pig was sat right next to where the food was coming out. These guys are pulling off a miracle with burners that are electric and a small 3 foot grill but the food looked amazing. I decided i would have to have an appetizer while I was there and decided on the mortadella smear over crusty baguette topped with aged balsamic, and arugula. I love mortadella is the Italian version of Bologna so I could see how people might be turned off by it but i adore it. From the days of working in an Italian deli I love that stuff. So anyways this was a smear which kind of reminded me off almost ham butter. It was so delicate and fluffy that it was almost a moose. I really enjoyed the richness cut with the balsamic and arugula it went really well with my red Italian wine from Perugia. A perfect afternoon snack. The restaurant itself was jammed packed with people just grabbing a bite after working or tourists checking out the Chicago River outside. The bone marrow looked particularly interesting as well as many of their small plates and cheese
boards.
 
After all that I then headed back towards Lincoln Park waiting for my 9pm reservation at Sprout as well as my friend Michelle. I stopped for a beer at Ravens which is a small pub on Clark Street with a mystic quality and 4 dollar pints and is open till 4am. I wrote a little pen and paper action for myself. Michelle ended up running late from her dinner with her fellow butterfly conference attendees so I headed down Fullerton to Sprout myself.
Stay Tuned
To see the rest of Chicago click
day one, day two, Girl and the goat, Frontera
Unrivaledkitch
As our evening progressed and I departed from my CARNEVINO experience I walked the rest of the way back to my hotel where I was to meet the ladies for our evening out amongst adults. I got back to an empty hotel room and was …
½ Pig head including eye, Beef Tongue, Lamb Neck, Bone Marrow, meaty amazing indulgence, I believe so. I’ve wanted to go to The Gorbals for a very long time. This restaurant and its Chef Ilan Hall have always intrigued my mind and interested my senses …
My baby niece Maleeya was born 4/8/11 at 810pm at Kaiser Woodland hills. She is 19.5 inches, 7.2 lb
My sister gave birth naturally and was in labor for over 19 hours, honestly child birth is one of the most traumatic experiences I’ve ever witness and I wasn’t even watching the whole time because I couldn’t it was terrible. Every baby maker out there I put my hat off to you cause there’s no way I could do that.
Maleeya is a precious gift, she’s so beautiful and the Fujitaki family and Mickelson family are so proud and happy to have a healthy baby addition to the family.
Maleeya came home today and we had family and friends over to welcome her. Of course I couldn’t resist making a little welcome home feast for my beautiful niece even though she couldn’t eat it.
I threw together some things that my sister and family would like from what was left in the fridge.
Menu
Chicken Katsu, Spam Musubi, Sweet Sesame Miso dressing Salad with carrots and tomatoes, Fried tofu, tofu with black goma and bonito flakes, macaroni salad, Inari, Mixed vegetable curry and rice
I’m getting in a couple of entries because I’m sure I’m not going to have computer access much when I’m in North Carolina which is fine by me but i cooked a lot today and i would like to share a bit more of it …
