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05.30.06
High On The Hog, Fish And Cow
posted by Absinthe | 2:39 AM
The first time my wife and I visited Los Angeles, we laughed our asses off at the brochure provided by the rental car company. “Traffic in California often stops suddenly, and for no apparent reason,” it said. We found this notion hilarious, since we came from the upper Midwest, where traffic stops about as suddenly as you can expect it to when said traffic is moving at freeway speeds over an inch of glare ice, and for reasons that are almost always blatantly obvious. It didn’t take long for us to realize the truth of Hertz’s seemingly innocuous statement; we still haven’t figured out why certain bottlenecks develop, as we never seem to catch up to the cause no matter how far we drive.
The drive down to San Diego can vary from a speedy, sedate semi-scenic coastal tour to a skullfuckingly intolerable crawl through gridlock. On a scale from 1 to skullfuckingly intolerable, Saturday’s trip was about a 3, the drive taking less than an hour more than it should under reasonable conditions. I’m told it was pretty.
We go out of town for many reasons. Okay, two reasons. One, to get the fuck out of LA, and two, to eat. We like to eat. Good food makes us happy, bad food makes us cry. San Diego makes us happy.
Saturday night we hit Kemo Sabe, a restaurant in Hillcrest that does more with chiles than any other place I’ve eaten (sorry, Bobby Flay). Presentation is pretty gaudy, but at least the garnishes are edible (and often quite tasty). The raw starter features a couple of oysters, a little sushi and sashimi (which was great last time we were there, so-so this time) and a delicious, slightly fiery ahi poke in a fried wonton skin. Wife’s entree was their signature skirt steak, served with savory black beans, an orange-serrano relish and something else I can’t remember. Probably it should have come with a fainting couch, because it’s pretty near tongue-scorching and mouth-wateringly good. I had a filet on a bed of chipotle mashed ‘taters, stuffed with New Mexico chiles and topped with a bit of gorgonzola, surrounded by piles of Roma tomatoes that were so good they must have been marinated in…
…hang on, let me Google for a suitable term/replacement for “ejaculate of the gods”.
…
…nope, “ejaculate of the gods” it is. Goddamn, but they were good. I wish I had some now.
I won’t say anything about dessert because my meagre culinary-writing skills couldn’t possibly do it justice. Also, my memory is foggy. There was white chocolate, pots du creme, and the tail-end of a strong bourbon, and that’s all I’m saying on the subject.
Sunday we nearly accidentally went to Mexico – twice – and had a lovely brunch out on Coronado, then dinner at this place, which for a trendoid nightclub with a crappy reggae soundtrack does some very nice things to fish, and then serves said fish to you on great big plates. Also they know how to use lavender in a dish (which is to say, very sparingly), and eating during the changeover from restaurant to hotspot can make you feel like you’re enjoying the last meal the place will ever serve. If you choose to find certain things charming, or just want to let your inner discotheque-rat self out, it’s worth a stop if you’ve got the scratch. Though, being in the Gaslamp district, you could probably throw a rock and hit three better restaurants (after ricocheting off a Hummer, four drunk college students and half a dozen Padres fans).
Today we went to the Zoo. We did not see the pandas, but we did see a little tiger cage-match action (kitties get restless around feeding time!) and a lonely otter who chased the shit out of his own tail for like fifteen minutes. Must suck to have your tail be your only friend. Zoo was a good time, as usual, but the animals we’re happiest to see are the ones waiting for us at home, even if they did greet us with looks that said, “If we had thumbs we would have trashed this place SO BAD while you were out.” Cats: ever ungrateful, never boring.
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Topics: General Geekery, Random Thoughts | 1 Comment »
May 30, 2006 at 3:12 PM
If cats had thumbs, we’d be in big trouble.