Tortillas, Steaks, and a Smackdown

Hot- pink walls covered in luchadores paraphernalia and illuminated by spinning disco balls?

They say time flies by when you're having fun. I'd say there's a lot of truth to it. I had a chance to reunite with a Taiwanese friend of mine whom I met when I was still going to school in Bay Area, California four years ago. She drove down from Irvine to meet me in San Diego. We went for a stroll in in downtown La Jolla and spent hours and hours reminiscing the past. I felt like hours just didn't cut it anymore. I needed days. Or months. It was a lot of remembering what my first few months arriving in the U.S were like. A lot excitement and a lot of adjustment. A lot of laughters and a lot of tears. Who knew, five years later, here I am, ready to leave and see what the other parts of the world have to offer.



Anyways, my friend and I decided to grab a few bites at Lucha Libre Gourmet Taco Shop. Lucha means to fight or wrestle. Libre means free. La Lucha Libre commonly refers to the type of professional wrestling in which fighters are normally masked characters named by a pseudonyme. The term is used in Mexico and other Spanish- speaking countries. The movie Nacho Libre (with Jack Black in it) might ring a bell a little, yes?



Notice that it says "Reserved for Champions." I found out later that apparently you can make a 24-hour-in-advance reservation to self-proclaim your "champion" status.



I had Surf and Turf taco filled with marinated steak, shrimp, & avocado slices, smothered in a special sauce and Queso taco, which was grilled crispy cheese filled with steak and topped with more cheese and avocado slices. Other things on their menu include Tap Me Out, Undefeated Seafood Tacos/Burritos, Smackdown Quesadillas, and TJ Hotdogs (beef hotdog, wrapped in bacon!)



Like most taco shops, Lucha Libre has a small bar at the corner where you can spice up your tacos by making your own sauce. Their cilantro- lime sauce was phenomenal while their steak, on the other hand, was pretty dry. The fresh avocado slices seem to slightly make up for it, though.



I can't believe it's almost October already. I'm now back in Atlanta and trying to post all the San Diego entries as fast as I can before they get outdated. That is if I don't get distracted in between salivating over those winter squash soups that will start popping up all over the blogosphere and ahemm..figuring out what I'm going to do for Halloween.

Buttery Lobster Tails (with Edible Shells)

I might have made it clear in the past that I'm no way a fan of MTV show Jersey Shore. I did write a blog post about the show though. This doesn't mean I have something against Italians (or what they call themselves - guidos and guidettes). I actually love a lot of things about Italians. Well, to be exact, their food. And the size of it.

We stopped by in Little Italy in San Diego because E had been craving for sfogliatelle (some people call it lobster tail) for a while. Sfogliatelle is a seashell- shaped Italian pastry filled with cream. There's a bakery in town called Cafe Zucchero that's really famous for their cannolis and happen to have sfogliatelle as well. We had to call in advance and asked them to save the sfogliatelle for us. They would've run out of those buttery babies had we not done that. Trust me, the person right in front of us actually asked for them and the wait staff swiftly shook her head.

Here's a video from the TV show Cake Boss showing how they make sfogliatelle:



It was such a bummer. The sfogliatelle turn out to be not impressive at all. It was slightly unacceptable to be honest. The pastry shell was not at all soft nor flaky. The cream isn't the freshest and it's a tad bit on the sour side. It tasted like it had been sitting in the counter forever.



The cannolis on the other hand, were such superstars. The ricotta filling was more on the refreshing side, especially with the endearing presence of the succade (candied citrus). And the chocolate morsels added some kind of depth to the flavor of the cream. Dusted generously with powdered sugar, the shell was quite crunchy judging on the fact that these cannolis might have also been sitting in the counter (I'm guessing - for a shorter period of time than the sfogliatelle did?) for quite some time. The crisp texture could've been brought up a notch but it was far from being soggy.



We couldn't help but noticed the long line that's coming out of Filippi's Pizza Grotto. After changing a few words with some people with some foreign accents, we decided to join the crowd. We were in line for over in hour and decided to take our food to go. Not that the old-fashioned, red-checkered tablecloths didn't entice us enough, but I guess the weather's just too beautiful to pass up. It's a good thing that the pizza (or pie, however you want to call it) was actually worth waiting for.

The bread was insanely good. It must have been a really elastic, stretched, and nurtured with love kind of dough. Please note that I might be a little biased since I'm a sucker for thick, hand-tossed crust. The crust had just the right amount of crunch on the outside and once you dive in, it's pure soft, pillowy goodness. And the cheese, it was the freshest, silkiest, best- tasting mozzarella I've ever had sitting on top of my pizza. The toppings and the sauce weren't bad at all but really, the bread and the cheese outshone everything for me.



The goodness buried under the tomato sauce was a meat lasagna. Look at the size of that meatball. Oh my. I can't really say anything about the lasagna since I didn't take a single bite of it. And oh- the pizzeria is also a delicatessen, it has a good selection of Italian gastronomy from dried salami, specialty pasta, to Sicilian olives.

Ocean Beach's Farmers Market in San Diego

Standing in the U.S Airways check-in line at Charlotte Douglas International Airport on my way back from San Diego to Atlanta, I was constantly scrolling my way down the streaming tweets on UberTwitter. There, I finally saw it. A tweet from Atlanta's local meteorologist saying that it was hailing and pouring like crazy. He used a different kind of terminology of course, a more civilized one. At that very moment, I wasn't feeling so glad that Georgia's on my mind. Humid, sticky weather? The non-existence of sandy beaches within 20 miles? Ah, not exactly my favorite place on earth.

So let me indulge myself again by reminiscing all the good times I've had for the past few weeks. Last week I went to Ocean Beach Farmer's Market in San Diego, thanks to E for taking me. A farmer's market isn't all about organic, locally grown produce. It's also about the community and supporting local businesses. And of course, for me, when is an occasion not an occasion to pig out?





These Kyoto grapes were the best grapes I've ever had in my life. If Concord grapes and konyaku jelly got married and had babies, it would be these grapes. They're so plump, soft, juicy, and melts in your mouth type of delicacies. They're not necessarily sweet, but still would be a treat to your taste buds.



This was my first time trying out homemade blinis. I had one osweet with jam filling and the other one was savory with cheese and potato fillings, prepared on the spot by a middle-aged Russian lady. She found it funny that I made several serious attempts on taking pictures of the food. Well lady, obviously we haven't met.



I don't want summer to end too soon. Stay here a little longer, please?