Tamales from Farmer's Market

Unfortunately I forgot to check the name of this place. It's the tamale stand at the Virginia Avenue Park in Santa Monica. They've been there each Saturday for the past month so hopefully next time I go I'll remember to make a note of the name. We got one of each tamale, 8 total, for $17. At ~$2 per tamale, these are surprisingly large. We've tried 5 so far, which have all been good, but the chicken with jalapeños and the corn were extra tasty. The former would make a great meal, with the latter as dessert. The corn tamale was basically a sweet cornbread wrapped in a tamale. The salsa they provide is also good, with a tomato and maybe red bell pepper initial flavor (very fresh), with plenty of heat coming on after. I'll probably go here again and it's definitely a great value for good quality.

I also picked up an amaretto mocha from the espresso stand. It was hard not to get the espresso con panna again, but this said it was a special and I've never had the combination before. Looked pretty easy to put together, so maybe I'll try making it myself at home. Very tasty. Now that I've had it I'm surprised I haven't seen it on menus before, but I guess I'm surprised that mint mocha frappachinos aren't explicitly on the menu at Starbucks too.

Also had a croissant with swiss cheese from the cafe laurent stand. Extremely good as always.

The Georgian Hotel

Georgian Hotel: This morning was spent at the Santa Monica Pier, where I went with the simple approach to picking a place to eat of going with whatever looks most popular. The Georgian Hotel has a small veranda of something like ten 2 and 4-person tables that was popular enough that it had people waiting to sit on it throughout the time we had breakfast there. We ate inside since there wasn't any wait for the inside tables. The staff were rather busy, a bit hectic, but seemed to have everything almost under control. And the food was delicious. Fresh squeezed OJ...mmmm. A good espresso (definitely intense and hot). For some reason I ordered the French Toast souffle without realizing that it would be bread pudding. I like bread pudding, and this was probably the best bread pudding I've ever had, but I was still just a bit surprised to have it for breakfast. Not a bad idea for breakfast though. Just replace the rum sauce with strawberries and sliced almonds and add a side of syrup and dessert becomes breakfast.
Anyway, this bread pudding had the best texture I've experienced: tender bread (no dryness anywhere) with very smooth eggy bits (not rubbery at all) and some flavor. Three slices of bacon were crispy and flavorful, though not especially thick like the best bacon. A wedge of watermelon and a slice of orange were both liquid gold in my mouth. In all, a wonderful meal, even if it did cost more than I'd been planning to spend on breakfast before I laid eyes on the place.

Normandie Bakery and Noah's Bagels

Normandie Bakery in/near Culver City: This was recommended to me, and otherwise I wouldn't have stumbled on it. The mini muffin was excellent; I think it used buttermilk. The croissant was rather good, but not as flavorful as Breadman's or Le Pain Quotidien's. The blueberry scone was actually a muffin...very disappointing. The jam-topped butter cookie was quite good, with a full berry flavor and a buttery flavor. The baguette has an extremely crispy crust, but the crumb has poor texture, and there's no flavor. Not what I'm looking for in a bread. This bakery is the cheapest I've found in the area, though, as all the above cost less than $7.

Noah's Bagels in Marina del Rey: Very close to Mother's Beach, we stopped for a frozen blended caramel coffee that was weak and too sweet. Basically, it tasted like sugar, not coffee or caramel. The blueberry bagel poppers were pretty good, though with an unnecessary sugar coating. I would definitely get a regular (not coated with sugar) bagel from them.

Cafe Bellagio and Rocker Wagner Bakery

Cafe Bellagio: While exploring the 3rd street promenade this morning I got a mocha and a chocolate croissant from Cafe Bellagio. I've had excellent espresso from there previously, and the mocha was pretty good. The coffee was relatively strong, with a subtle chocolate flavor. The croissant, on the other hand, was apparently made from a bread dough...something that reminded me of fruitcakes. It wasn't a winner and about a third of it went in the trashcan.

Rocken Wagner Bakery: Then I stopped by another bakery in the area purely on account of how the pretzels looked. Thankfully they lived up to their appearance. Nice color, good flavor, and chewy. They've got just a slight baking soda taste to them, not as much as my homemade pretzels but that's probably a good thing. I also picked up a plain croissant there that was pretty good, though not as flavorful as (for example) the Breadman croissant I had this past weekend. I hope to go back to this bakery and try their sandwiches made with pretzels for bread. Now that I know the pretzels are good they're pretty enticing.

Penzey's Spices: Not pre-made food, but a store full of wonderful spices. I bought some robust peppercorns, a chili powder blend, and some vanilla extract. I can't wait to try them out. I'm not sure how often I'll go back, but it's a great store to visit occasionally and sample the finer spices in life. (How often do I need more spices? And would I be willing to pay top dollar instead of buying supermarket spices?)

Wiseguys Pizza

Wiseguys Pizza in Orange: After hanging out at Irvine Park for a while, dinner was at a nearby pizza joint. We started with a horrible surprise: the "fresh house made lemonade" is Minute Maid crap. The manager argued that it *was* lemonade (he's the one that told us it was Minute Maid...we were guessing Crystal Light), but it was barely drinkable so I don't think he knew what he was talking about. Thankfully the meal trended sharply upwards (I haven't walked out of a restaurant in over three years and it would be depressing to do so again). The house salad was relatively standard, though with nice bacon nibs. The appetizer pretzel wasn't bad, though the pretzel itself wasn't special the sauce was a very flavorful marinara. The pizza itself (Milan), had a medium-thickness crust. Not greasy, but not really special. It was topped with sausage of a very good/soft texture though a bit bland, and carmelized onions that were so sweet I couldn't taste anything else. In a pizza like this I expect the sauce to steal the show, a meaty, spicy tomato sauce...having the sweet flavor or carmelized onions overpower everything was odd. Shaking red pepper flakes on top at least made the heat better, at least. Not a bad pizza, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get it. Finally, for dessert we had a cookie pizza, which was a large, very chocolate-y cookie topped with a good helping of (vanilla?) gelato of good consistency and not bad flavor (though very overpowered by the cookie), chocolate sauce drizzle, and whip cream on the sides (didn't seem like fake whip cream, but didn't seem quite authentic either). A wonderful note to end the meal on.

Santa Monica Farmer's Market (Arizona & 3rd)

Tried the other Saturday Farmer's Market this time, at the 3rd St promenade.

Breadman: Excellent pastries. The croissant appears to use only butter and was full of flavor with a pretty good texture. Of course it would've been better hot out of the oven, but they do not have a shop so no chance of that. Also got a poppyseed pastry, seemed to be made out of challah or brioche dough, very moist and a wonderful taste of poppyseeds. I also got a loaf of 9-grain, which isn't bad but isn't special either...some nutty flavor, no crust to speak of, like a hefty sandwich bread.

We also bought tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella from various vendors and put together caprese sandwiches/salads at home. All three ingredients were excellent, but the cheese really takes the cake. We got it from the goat cheese vendor and he said it is made from water buffalo milk. It's the first mozzarella I've had with depth of flavor. It has a very smooth start, slight tang in the middle, and just the hint of a sour aftertaste. I keep wanting to say it tastes like grass, but I've had many grass-tasting cheeses, and this is nothing like that. Really a most amazing cheese. Add a bit of 10-year aged balsamic vinegar from Zingermans, and the combination is too good to put on bread.

House of Thai Taste

House of Thai Taste in Westside LA: Delivery for dinner tonight. We've been craving Thai food lately so we dug through the 5 or so fliers that have been left at the house in the past two weeks. Based on online reviews we picked House of Thai Taste and was quite pleased with the result. Food was delivered in about 35 minutes. We got Heavenly Shrimp (shrimp in crispy egg noodle), Wild Ocean soup (lemon grass base with a variety of seafood), Pad Thai, Roasted Duck Curry (red curry), brown rice, and a Thai iced tea. The two best dishes were the curry with its tasty duck covered in a just-right red curry, and the soup with a fresh lemongrass flavor soaking some very tasty seafood bits (including lobster, mussel, and scallops) along with bursts of cilantro. The Thai iced tea was pretty good, relatively standard, but without the layering of coconut milk like usual. The Pad Thai had good flavor, but without any peanut and with so-so noodles. The shrimp was odd...the texture of the crispy noodles didn't work with the shrimp and the shrimp didn't have enough flavor, so the sweet and sour sauce was necessary, but then why get something with shrimp in it in the first place? In all, a very tasty meal.