Porto's Bakery

Porto's Bakery again. (Another bakery of opportunity after stopping by the Brand used bookstore.) This time got an assortment of pastries. Croissant and almond croissant were ok. Pineapple turnover/strudel is forgettable. The hot pastries were great...ham croquette, chicken, & bean/plantain...all excellent. Cheese pastry again most wonderful. Tried a coconut sweet ball with a hard sugar glaze...not bad, but very sweet. Unfortunately the person putting together forgot the bread, so I didn't get a chance to try it.

Germany, Luxembourg, and Unurban

Trip to Trier, Germany. Various foods eaten over two-three days. Croissants were amazing...probably because they use European style butter? Pretzels were no different, so a bit disappointing. Whole grain breads, rye breads, etc, were amazing. There were a large number of bakeries and they were always busy. Cookies were ok. Meals were primarily meat with a side veggie...sauerkraut or broccoli. Ate at one nice restaurant...venison (a bit overdone) and fried mashed potato fingers...also tried chicken in almond sauce (now I know I need to use amaretto next time I make it). Dessert was so-so, but with an amazing vanilla ice cream...I'm not even sure how they got it to taste that good. Breakfasts at the hotel were also good, with meats, cereals, breads, yogurts, quark, and eggs. I got a new appreciation for mineralwasser of all types.

Spent a wonderful afternoon in Luxembourg. Stopped at a patisserie for an exquisite onion quiche with caraway. Croissant was ok but a bit dry. baguette fine, better than grocery store, but not top tier. Saw many wonderful looking chocolates and pies and tarts at many different stores downtown...a whirlwind of yummy looking food. Had the lightest waffle (covered in powdered sugar and a really thick whipped cream) from a stall.

Back in Santa Monica, Unurban Cafe has free wifi, still has excellent latte (so frothy and smooth), which comes in a glass beer stein, and not too bad croissant (dry and not all butter, but large).

Urth Caffe

Urth Caffe is popular and was packed around 1:30pm today. The croissant was excellent, crispy with lots of butter flavor. The single espresso Italia was like sucking on a coffee bean...not the most pleasant flavor, but with a great mellow aftertaste and a perfect espresso buzz. I'll go again, but next time try a latte or mocha.

Party Time (Jaipur and Hornsby's)

Went to a party catered by Jaipur's. It was an excellent Indian food experience. I particularly loved the dessert (sweet dough balls in syrup) due to the whole cardamom pods, but all the dishes were great.

Also picked up some Hornsby's hard cider...not a Santa Monica exclusive by any means, but I hadn't realized that hard cider was mass marketed in any way other than apple-flavored beer. Hornsby's is more cidery and has tempted me to brew my own hard cider if I can find the time.

Finally, the Korean taco food truck on Venice beach was excellent...wonderful flavors.

Unurban Cafe, Buon Giorno Caffe, Bay Cities Italian Deli, Caprice Pastries

Un-urban Cafe is on Urban St, so a cool name, which seems to fit this kitschy place. I had a good latte with a head of coffee flavored foam, but passed on the not-so-nice-looking baked goods. The odd items on sale (e.g., voodoo dolls), and the feeling that the place was dead and only comes alive at night was different than most cafes.

Caprice Pastries is just down the street, and you can walk in to buy things, but there's no windows or chairs or anything. Just a kitchen and a freezer. Got a blueberry tart that was forgettable and a chocolate mousse that was very tasty. I wasn't very excited by their selection. Nothing stood out at me. The cakes looked good, but I didn't want that much dessert.

Buon Giorno Caffe seems more like a restaurant, but they make good coffee. Latte again, no foam on this one, with a strong flavor but a mellow aftertaste. Great. The poppyseed muffin (yellow cake batter?) wasn't bad, with nice flavor.

Bay Cities again. Meatball and Godmother. These were great fresh, but it relies so much on the bread that once the bread gets cold and soft/soggy they're really not very special. Also picked up some Cock & Bull ginger soda that was ok and various other things that I haven't tried including Buffalo mozarella & some Burrata.

Whole Foods

The Whole Foods (in Santa Monica) all-butter croissant has a good butter flavor, and wasn't stale. The multi-grain mini-croissant was pretty good too.

Mitsuwa, Mariscos Chente, Angel Maid, Tudor House

Mitsuwa Marketplace: A Japanese market plus foodcourt. We ate a bento box at Misasa. It was chicken teriyaki and tempura with miso soup, rice, potato salad, cold tea, and a couple of pickled veggies. Pretty good food, though the chicken wasn't the highest quality. Oh, and the tea was bad. (How does that happen? Or is it my fault somehow?)

Mariscos Chente: Great fish and shrimp. Very flavorful. Get the whole fish. Served with cucumber, and green (lime) salsa. The peppered shrimp sauce wasn't as good as the wine-based "barrascus" (?) sauce...but it let the flavor of the shrimp come through much better.

Angel Maid Bakery: Bead pudding, chocolate mousse (wonderful), puff pastry with custard & strawberries & kiwi. Highly recommended. We got ours just before closing, and then ate dinner next door at Mariscos Chente.

Tudor House: Cream of carrot soup (hint of ginger) with carrot chunks (good texture). Cornish pastie tasted like Christmas. Welsh Rarebit as good as homemade. The sausage roll was surprising because the sausage was smooth, almost like a cream, so it went well with the crispy pastry dough. The house tea, Red Rose, was a pleasant discovery and I took home a box of loose leaf from the attached shop. The entrees came with simple salads that were excellent. We also got scones with rasberry jam and clotted cream. Mmmm, clotted cream. One scone was light and fluffy and the other was denser with raisins. Both were tasty. For today they had a special of free Mimosas with the entrees, and the Mimosas were quite welcome. For dessert we had an almost perfect strawberries & whipped cream, and a rather lackluster sticky toffee pudding (not quite as bad as "storebought", but dry, flavorless, and a poor mix of textures...couldn't it at least by sticky or have toffee?). All together a wonderful experience that I hope to repeat again in the future. Perhaps next time as an afternoon tea (we so wanted tea sandwiches).

Angelato Cafe: Bleh bleh. Tastes artificial. Walk the extra block to Pinkberry at the East end of the promenade.