Korean Love and Shaved Ice Dreams

Sounds very naughty, but its not. It's been waaaay too long; I'm 3 restaurants and a million words behind, so lets get this bad boy goin'....

So about 2 weeks ago my friends Ryan and Krislen met up with me and Pete at Friend's House Korean on Convoy. 

Originally, we were going to check out Korea House, but Yelp gave Friend's House Korean MUUUCH better reviews. So Friend's House it was. :)

While waiting for Krislen & Ryan, I noticed to men eating the same dish off to my right. It seemed like it took them a while to eat it, but they definitely enjoyed it..... something in a big black stone bowl?? I was curious....

It was described on the menu as rice mash with beef, egg and vegetables (called Dol-sot Bibim Bap).... sounded safe (I wanted to share with Pete...picky boy). Needless to say, it was hot, delicious, and yes, safe for any picky eater.

Ryan ordered Seafood Fried Rice (Kimchi Bok Um Bap), while Krislen ordered The Spicy rice cake (Mandu Gook) . 

They had some damn tasty appetizers to start us off......

And soon the food arrived.

EVERYTHING was delicious. You can probably tell seeing as to how I almost forgot to take pictures. Everything is half eaten hahah

I ended up trading Ryan for his Seafood rice.....I'll kill for seafood and there was a little shrimp staring me in the face...I had to eat it. 

I give Friend's House a 4 out of 5. Sorry for the vague review; this was almost 3 weeks ago. But trust me, IT WAS GOOD.

Friend's House Korean

4647 Convoy St
#101A
San Diego, CA 92111

Krislen said she was craving Korean shaved ice (I can't remember the term for it...) and she asked our waitress where we could get some. She said we could just go next door to Cafe Venti... how convenient. :)

Cafe Venti is a beautifully decorated cafe..... they offer yogurt, teas, drinks, and apparently, REAL Korean shaved Ice. I SWEAR to you, if you have never had it before, you're missing out on something truly great. I'm just going to post the pictures.

First of all, its the freshest, most refreshing thing I have had in God knows how long, ESPECIALLY since i went gelato crazy. Its shaved ice saturated in diluted condensed milk, and covered in fresh seasonal fruit. The REGULAR size was a bowl about the size of a personal pizza... plenty for 2.

Cafe Venti gets a 5 out of 5, hands down. Gorgeous decor, beautiful presentation, delicious shaved ice. Mmmmmmm.

Go. Now. If you're not headed there already. ;)

Cafe Venti

4681 Convoy St 

Ste A
San Diego, CA 92111

For Tomorrow, 

Sade

I KNOW It's Not Valentine's Day

But this is still funny as hell.

Thanks to Natalie Dee

For Tomorrow,

Sade

Urban Solace...Checkin' Out the Buzz

After sitting in the house eating cup-noodles and doritos, I lost it and went to Urban Solace. :)

My friend Scott and I met up to give it a whirl. He has eaten there previously and raves about their celery mash; I just keep reading blogs and reviews on the place and figured it was due time to try it myself.

I'm a T-Shirt and jeans type of girl, which this atmosphere ISN'T, by the way. It's a bit higher scale; good thing I actually had a blouse on....Uppity as it may seem, it's the perfect atmosphere for chatting, and the decor is beautiful.

We decided to order something hearty, and Scott was after the Braised Beef and Celery Mash he had before. However, their menu had changed and Scott mentioned that he only recognized a few of the entrees. 

Note this: if you like an entree, let them know. If not, it could easily disappear. I asked the waiter how often they changed the menu. He wasn't sure. He said seasonal entrees come and go, but couldn't give us a straight answer for why Scott's favorite dish was gone.

Anyways, we decided to stick with red meat and we both ordered the Grilled Hanger Steak (I got a little cheese biscuit on the side <3).

After a small wait, our meal was brought to us. BEAUTIFUL Presentation! I couldn't wait to get into it! 

As beautiful as it looked, with it's spinach and caramelized onion topping, and it's tasty mashed potato pairing, this dish needed A LOT of salt. 

It was beautiful, but bland without it. They included this cute little salt and pepper dish pair, so that you could pinch up the spices and sprinkle it on your food, but I had to add salt 3 times. :(

The homemade steaksauce had a brown sugar sweetness to it as well; I was expecting something tangy along the lines of.....you know....STEAK SAUCE. 

Scott made a good comment: there were a good variety of tastes in the dish, great presentation, great ingredients, but it tasted boring. What you see is what you get.

I guess I am a little biased; rarely do I EVER eat American Cuisine. Actually, I NEVER eat out at an American restaurant. I always crave thai, japanese, mexican, etc. That being said, I think I will have to come back and try another dish. I walked by in the afternoon and saaw a lunch special of theirs that caught my eye: Battered fish and sweet potato fries. Mmmmmm...next time.

On a positive note, the meat was everything red meat should be: cooked to perfection, juicy and FILLING. I don't know why I ordered dessert after eating the dish. I was full to the brim. Ugh. I would have enjoyed the dessert more on an empty stomach.

Scott made the wise choice and topped dinner off with a cup of tea. THIS was a high point: they serve Harney & Sons teas, wich is one of my absolute FAVORITE brands of tea. They have a tea called Bangkok, which is a green tea with coconut and lemongrass. It tastes even better than it sounds. <3

Scott opted for a cup of green; I tried the Peanut Butter & Chocolate Creme Brulee. Oh lord, how I love Peanut Butter & Chocolate....MILK chocolate. The chocolate in the dessert was of the dark variety, and the bitterness of the creme brulee topping wasn't helping me at all. I'm not much of a fan...It was alright.

Overall, I give it 3 out of 5. I'm sure that could easily change with the choice of a different dish. It was worth a try, and I will try again soon. :)

Urban Solace

3823 30th Street

San Diego, CA 92104

For Tomorrow,

Sade

Clever Little Bit...

Vampire Weekend's "A-Punk"

Love. <3

For Tomorrow,

Sade

The Quest For Mex.....

So I am sitting here, full, but COMPLETELY dissatisfied. Where to begin....

So, I had some errands to run around SD today, with the anterior motive of finding somewhere absolutely delicious to eat. Last night before bed, I was browsing Alice Q. Foodie's blog when I came across this picture sent from HEAVEN

I would have dreamed about this shrimp if I could. But I had plans to actually eat it today. GOD, the thought of shrimp like that...

Anyways, so I hit the town, sure I'd pass a Mexican Seafood restaurant at SOME point. It's strange how Mexican food runs rampant when you aren't looking for it, but when you ARE it seems like they all skipped town....figures...

After 3 hrs of errands, I hit up India Street for El Indio. I had yet to try this place but was hopeful that they'd have some tasty shrimp inside.... NOPE. NO SEAFOOD. FOR CHRISTS SAKE ALL I WANT IS SOME SHRIMP THAT I SAW ON THE FOODIE WEBSITE WHYYYYYYYY. And if I had read the reviews on it beforehand, disappointment could have been easily avoided. COME ON it says "World's Best Chips & Salsa" on the front for Christ's sake!!! You can't have shrimp??!?!?

On a whim I crossed the street and went to Saffron. At this point, I'm a little delirious with hunger. I figure a good, rich curry will serve as a solid substitute for flavorful, mexican shrimp (yeah, that comparison doesn't make any sense now...but it did at the time). I think i just wanted to be bombarded by spices and flavor.....I guess.

So anyways, THEY DONT HAVE ANY SHRIMP DISHES other than some Pad Thai and soup. NO SHRIMP CURRY. lame. But, they DID have a Panang Salmon dish....sounds amazingly delicious, no?

It wasn't. 

Now, I make Panang at home and know that the secret to amazing Panang is time. You've got to wok that spice paste shit and let it simmer in coconut milk for almost 10 minutes to get DECENT Panang. And I'll WAIT for good food. So you can imagine my concern when I got my dish in 3 minutes flat.....

Ugh, it was flavorless in comparison to the Panang I've had. The sauce hadn't been mingled nearly long enough. It was grainy and kinda tasteless, so I'm kinda mad and i feel kinda crazy and I really want my 10 bucks back....

And it kinda would've been smart to actually see where Alice got that tasty shrimp.... looking now it was at Mariscos German in Logan Heights, where i wasn't even ANYWHERE remotely close to, so I guess today's eating expedition was destined to fail. Damn you Saffron!!

On a happier note, Saffron's Drunken Noodles are to die for. :)

For Tomorrow,

Sade