The Return of Dunkin'

If you haven't heard the news yet, Dunkin' Donuts just made its debut back into the West Coast through its first store in Santa Monica (it's on Wilshire Blvd. so it's pretty hard to miss). I grew up eating Dunkin' Donuts in the Philippines so I'm glad that the well-loved doughnut shop in the East Coast is gracing us with its presence, right here in sunny California!

Word to the wise: Don't go during the weekend, the lines are insane.

Luckily my brother and boyfriend checked it out again on a weekday and the line was significantly shorter.

Guess how many doughnuts I can eat in 60 seconds?

These are freakin' awesome...but where are my Munchkins? Hmm...

Toodles! :)

Fruit Travels: A Day in San Francisco

I can't believe I actually forgot to blog about this one amazing day when my family and I took a spontaneous day trip to San Francisco. We were attending to other things somewhere in Northern California but we were fortunate to have a full day to do whatever and my Papi-san always wanted to go to the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi in North Beach, San Francisco.

So, off we go to San Francisco!

We got to the shrine a little too early that we had some time to kill. There was a coffee shop right across the street so we decided to chill there for a bit instead of risking death by intoxicating car farts. We went in there, got some croissants to fill the belly and got some extra quarters to pay the parking meter since I only had like 50 cents worth in my purse (this is why I live in the suburbs, so I don't have to worry about parking meters). Writing this post now, I'd like to take a moment to bang my head on the wall for NOT realizing that the simple little coffee shop that we went into called, Caffe Trieste, is in fact, a historical place for being the first to introduce the espresso in the West Coast back in the 1950's. Caffe Trieste is a favorite spot among famous poets, artists and writers---some of their famous patrons are Francis Ford Coppola, where it is said that he wrote most of the screenplay for The Godfather in this quaint coffeehouse, and Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman, where he gets his coffee fix frequently.

So yeah, I didn't take a picture of the place. What I did take though, was one picture and one picture only. I went to use their restroom and I thought, Hey that's pretty poetic to be on a restroom door.

numb to my heartbeat
feel time I can not

keep.

By the time we walked back to the car, the shrine had already opened. We had the shrine to ourselves for a good hour so I was able to take proper pics. I get shy when I take pictures inside a sacred place since I don't want to come off as being disrespectful to others while they are in prayer.

 Relics of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare of Assisi

La Porziuncola Nuova, a scaled replica of Saint Francis's Porziuncola in Assisi, Italy.

Being always the designated food strategist (absolutely made that title up), I had my mind set on a restaurant just around North Beach to grab some lunch. I was so worried, wondering where the restaurant could be and hoping that it wouldn't be a pain to find parking, especially that it was like 20 minutes 'til noon after we came out from the shrine.

Uhm, yeah. Call it luck but damn, I was outside Caffe Trieste and I somehow wanted to peak through the other corner of the street and ...Oh Em Gee, I found it! The restaurant was just a couple of shops down from the coffee shop.

The House

The House is a small restaurant but we were able to grab the last available table in the nick of time. Five minutes after we were seated, there were at least 5 other parties that were waiting to get a table. Phew!

A simple yet ingenious idea for their place mat.

The menu was simple, so we were able to order right away. I was totally blown away by the flavors, this is definitely a hidden gem in the neighborhood (well, not really since it's like, all over the internet now) and I highly recommend this place. The best time to visit would probably be on a weekday, right before noon or if you wouldn't mind waiting, you could maybe grab some late lunch.

Warm Wasabi House Noodles with Grilled Salmon--holy moley this was effin' goooddd.

Curry Noodles with Grilled Chicken

Grilled Sea Bass with Garlic Ginger Soy on the side.

Fried Chicken Sandwich

To burn off that sumptuous lunch, we decided to head out to the quaint (but very expensive) little town of Sausalito. Sausalito is located right next to the Golden Gate bridge so you could make this place into a nice little detour after you're done cussing at the fog for ruining your travel photos.

Call it pre-meditated but every time we get to visit this place, we always seem to park right next to this shop that serves fish & chips, ice cream and all sorts of comfort food.

So uhm, yea. After just having lunch, can we consider this as a light afternoon snack?

Fish & Chips

Pistachio ice cream

It's always fun to walk around a small town like Sausalito, 'coz you can always keep yourself entertained by finding niche shops.

 Aptly named Soxalito, the store sells all sorts of---you guessed it right---socks!

Sadly, I don't see so much of this brand's retail shops around but I still love you, my first fashion love, Benetton!

I went inside this novelty shop (of course, I forgot the name of it) that had some great souvenirs like these below.

They got some Lip Sh*t in my flavor...Asian Pear!

"Don't have UGLY children" 

"Coffee makes me poop"

Anyone interested in buying right-foot shoe lasts?

Oh my Lawdy, it's Rin Tin Tin! I want to collect ALL OF THEM!

Just the way I like it, some fog and overcast skies. It's perfect for a The Notebook type of love story or a The Conjuring sequel. You can get a great view of the San Francisco skyline (when it's not foggy or hazy, which is rare) while sitting on one of the benches.

Before we headed back to the car, I crossed the road (to where that guy above is standing at) to get a better view and look who popped up to bid me goodbye! A cute sea lion! You'll normally see them swim around the water, getting pestered by the seagulls.

Speaking of seagulls...there was this odd one in particular that was just staring at me, as if it was saying, "Go ahead, take a picture of me but make sure it's not my fat angle." It must have been used to a lot of tourists since it never flew away even if I was THIS close to it.

Do you know that I got mugged by a seagull in Sea World, San Diego a few years back? Yeah, it was kinda traumatizing but they can be conniving feathery bastards when they want to be. Not hating...like, at all.


Toodles!

Fruit VS. Food: Arroyo Chop House

After doing some heavy negotiating with a tough lawyer a.k.a. Dad (told him I made reservations and if I canceled last minute, they would charge a fat cancellation fee. Ha! Hey, my parents used to tell us white lies all the time), I was finally able to drag my parents with me to Pasadena and try out Arroyo Chop House. My Dad's been having an increased appetite for red meat so I wanted to take the folks out to a place that's known for it.

Arroyo Chop House

When you get there, the sign is on the side where it faces the road. If you don't spot the sign, you'll know you're at the right place when you see this vine-covered building. 

There is only valet parking available but guess what? It's complimentary, so just tip the valet dude after you dine. The cars are parked within the vicinity so there's not a long wait when they retrieve it for you.

We got there a little after 6 p.m. so the place wasn't packed yet. We sat at the waiting area for about 10 minutes then the hostess led us to our table. I thought we were going to be seated at the main area where the bar was at but they directed us to a connecting room where it was much more quiet.

Oh how I love the dimly lit ambiance, with dark wood shutters and all. I also love how they space out the tables well, unlike other hip places that charge you so much money but you'd probably end up sitting on someone by accident because your table is THAT close to each other. Those kinda places are definitely taking "rubbing elbows" to another level.

Fret not, they do place lights strategically towards every table so you're not eating your food blindly.

And now to the fun stuff! We started off with some Chop House Garlic Bread. My Dad is a sucker for garlic bread so he pretty much murdered the bread basket.

Barbecued Shrimp Salad. This was not a frou-frou kind of salad and surprisingly, I really loved it! They serve the shrimp warm and the dressing had the right amount of spiciness.

My Mom and I ordered the Rotisserie Chicken.

and Dad got the Pork Chop. He said it's one of the best he's ever tasted.

For the sides, we got the Mac & Cheese, Black Forest Ham. Merlin's beard, you must order this when you visit!

Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Lobster Mashed Potatoes. I would skip the lobster one and keep the garlic.

When ordering, keep in mind that the servings are generous. Mom and I ordered two chickens 'coz we thought it was gonna be like those little swanky places with little swanky servings---you know, the ones where you take five little bites and dinner is over, and the check is worth a hundred In-N-Out burgers (and a couple of animal-style fries) --- but this was not that kind of place. In fact, the chicken that we ordered was a HALF CHICKEN each. So I literally didn't touch my chicken and just took it to go, like the rest of the side dishes that we couldn't even put a dent on.

For dessert, we ordered the Grand Marnier Souffle. This takes around 45 minutes to make so if you're going to want to try any of the souffles, make sure to put that order in at the same time with the appetizers and such.

Uhm, yea I was too excited that I didn't get to take a picture before our waiter distributed the souffle among the three of us. But still, YUM. And yes, the souffle was huge.

Thank God for old parents, because they hate super sweet stuff, which means I get to finish off all of this goodness right here. OOPS! Did I just say that out loud?

Nah...if they read this blog, they wouldn't be too old to whoop my hiney for calling them "old". Attractive parents, right? They got that from me. Ha!

In all seriousness though, why is it that we only realize as we get older, how much quality time we need to spend with our parents ? Back in high school and in college, I always wanted to hang out with my friends and go some place where my parents won't "bug" me. Maybe it all lies on the level of experience and maturity as one gets older. I am slowly realizing all the sacrifices that my parents had to make for my own welfare, and how they were right all along for disagreeing with me and the premature decisions that I've made in the past...meh, who am I kidding--- STUPID decisions.

I only hope to have the luxury of time, so I could make more meaningful memories with my parents, and to be able to repay them in kind by taking care of them as they have always taken good care of me.

Remember that as we are busy getting married, having babies, falling in love, climbing the corporate ladder, Photoshopping selfie pictures... our parents are getting old too. Don't just say you love them, SHOW THEM just how much.

 Toodles!

Father's Day : San Juan Capistrano

Today, I am happy because I got to spend another Father's Day with my main man, my Papi. It was a nice day out so we decided to take my Papi somewhere he hasn't been to yet (almost an impossible feat to accomplish, if you ask me!). We wanted to beat the rush of the Sunday brunch so we moved our celebration to Saturday instead.

My brother's friend suggested that we go to San Juan Capistrano and coincidentally, I have always wanted to go see the historic Mission San Juan Capistrano, a Spanish mission that was led by Father Junipero Serra to spread Christianity to the native inhabitants of California. In fact, right when you get there, you will undoubtedly notice the colonial Spanish architecture that the little town exudes.

The town center is actually pretty small so you can park just about anywhere and walk around to browse through cute little local shops as well as restaurants that offer great al fresco dining. We were pretty lucky to get a parking space right across the Mission, which also happened to be a couple of steps away from the restaurant that we were going to dine at.

Cedar Creek Inn

Al fresco dining.

Being the Asians that we are and to avoid premature ageing, we opted to be seated inside despite having an inviting weather that would have been perfect for dining al fresco. I'm glad we chose to do so because the interior of the restaurant was cozy, yet it had large windows that allowed a good amount of natural light to shine through.

I love the rustic details.

On to the food! Apparently I was the only one who was hungry (my family ate before they picked me up while I, on the other hand, was deliberately starving myself so I could feast when we got to the resto), so my family and I ended up just sharing whatever I ordered. 

Sesame Calamari. This was actually very tasty. The sesame definitely gave this appetizer a boost on the taste category and the japapeño tartar sauce was awesome.

Beer Battered Green Beans. This tasted alright, but I think it would have been better if the dipping sauce they used was the same japaleño tartar sauce that came with the Sesame Calamari.

Cedar Planked Salmon. I was totally disappointed with this dish. I ordered this because I was expecting a salmon to do some major planking. Hardy-har-har. I know, I can be a cornball at times. But seriously, this dish was YUM-O! The salmon didn't have that fishy taste and the maple-soy glaze wasn't too salty.

Marcy's Divine Salad. This salad tasted kind of like a Mexican-inspired salad to me. It had cilantro, corn, tortilla strips, apples, bleu cheese, bbq chicken and some other stuff I forgot.

My dad said he wanted Fish and Chips because he missed eating the "chips". I said, do you mean you just want to eat fries without sounding like you're ordering something so unhealthy at this hour? He just kept offering his fish to my brother so he could devour all his "chips". As if calling it chips makes it a whole lot different than eating fries. My dad just tried to lawyer his way out of it --- it's Father's Day so you get a free pass, Papi-san.

Your honor, I present Exhibit A. The case of the missing fries. 

This mischievous looking fella right here is my Papi. Love you, Dad!

Right after we had our late lunch, we headed straight to the Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano to attend the anticipation mass.

There was a solo violinist playing beautifully as we were making our way to the front of the basilica to find some seats.

After mass, we wanted to go inside the Mission to explore the ruins but we needed to do some errands before heading home so I was happy to see at least part of it peeking over the wall as we were parked right across the entrance.

It's a funny coinky dink 'coz I wore a crochet dress and I felt kinda like La Isla Bonita while being surrounded by colonial Spanish architecture.

Dress by: I totally forgot who (random bargain brand)--- sorry too lazy to walk to the closet and check; Belt by:  H&M ; Espadrille wedges by: Steve Madden.

And no. This is not in San Juan Capistrano, it's inside South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa. I was so embarrassed as hell to take a picture but I had to do it because I forgot to have one taken after hearing mass at the basilica. So yeah, I sacrificed to look like a tourist in a local mall just for you guys.

Tropical the island breeze,
All of nature wild and free,
This is where I long to be,
La Isla Bonita

Look away as I attempt to do the cha-cha.

Toodles!