Food Adventures in San Diego

I've been in San Diego for several days for business but did my best to make the rounds of recommended eating places. My hotel is on Harbor Island, a not so convenient spot, so until my husband joined me 2 days ago I was stuck at the hotel, attended required functions with awful food. Why is hotel food so bad?? We had a big, fancy dinner Monday night but the salmon was so-so and this was the dinner for the Surgeon General of the United States! The worst was a lunch meeting where we were served ice cold pork tenderloin with ice cold noodles and lettuce on an ice cold plate. No flavor at that temperature. Dessert was watery creme brulee covered with chunks of pink grapefruit. Not a good combination at all. Breakfast at the hotel was fine for me since it was mostly provided at the conference, however I checked on breakfast for my husband for Thursday morning, knowing I would be busy at the conference. The only breakfast choice besides Starbucks was the buffet, $25.00 per person. Yikes! I figured he would drive around until he found a McDonald's, which is exactly what he did.
Tuesday night the Social Work group went out to The Boathouse and I was warned the food was no good. The waiter told us the flash-blackened ahi tuna was the best thing on the menu so I ordered that and it really was pretty tasty, had a nice wasabi-soy drizzle and some steamed vegetables and rice.
Things got better when Steve arrived with the rental car. Lunch at Cafe Coyote in Old Town was our first stop. Patio dining is the popular thing in sunny San Diego. We sat outside and enjoyed carnitas and pibil in banana leaves, but the best thing was their fresh tortillas. Women are making the dough, hand rolling the tortillas and grilling them right before they're brought to the table. For some reason these tortillas are chewy and flavorful, more so that the typical flour tortillas. Walking around Old Town was quite enjoyable.

Later in the evening we ventured out to the Blue Water Seafood, a restaurant featured on the Food Network, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives show. BW is known for having very fresh seafood, caught locally and delivered daily. I had the ceviche, perfect shrimp, crab, onions, cilantro, lime and lemon juice served with crunchy homemade tortilla chips from the El Indio restaurant next door. My fish tacos, one grilled ahi and the other grilled white sea bass were good, but not fantastic. Seems like they put so much cabbage and sauce the fish was hidden under it all. My husband's blackened white sea bass (local) was wonderful. We decided to come back the next night when my brother and his wife arrived and bring them. The next night we had ceviche again--so good-- and I tried the blackened white sea bass with salad and rice. Very fresh fish, succulent and well seasoned. My brother enjoyed his clam chowder and halibut dinner. Steve had a blackened sea bass sandwich which he devoured. I'm a BW fan now! I also plan to make ceviche as soon as I get back to Ft. Worth as well as my own version of fish tacos with the freshest fish I can get.

Ceviche

Blackened white sea bass plate

Fish tacos

BW was also half the price of the fancy tourist seafood restaurants down by Seaport Village and the hotel. I paid as much for my own dinner at The Boathouse as it cost for both of us at BW.
This morning we set out to explore Mission Beach, a really popular beach a few miles from our isolated Harbor Island hotel. I googled "best San Diego breakfast spot" and kept getting the name, Mission Cafe, so off we went to try it. Not a big place, just a nondescript cafe on Mission Drive, a few people waiting outside on the sidewalk. While we were waiting I started reading the menu and was amused to see the words, Mission Cafe, Conscientious Cuisine. What the heck does that mean? Then I spotted wait staff wearing t-shirts announcing on the back, "urban assault food for a revolutionary people" I'm still not sure what they mean but we each bought a t-shirt. People in Texas will scratch their heads and wonder.

The menu was titled, "Chino Latino Food" That was another new one for me but the items were things like huevos with verde sauce, papas, chorizo, etc, however there were many dishes with soy chorizo and tofu as well. It all sounded interesting and healthy. Google Mission Cafe, San Diego and look at their menu for more details. I had the huevos with verde sauce and was not sorry. A fresh tortilla was topped with well-seasoned black beans, fried eggs, chopped tomatoes, cilantro, avocado, onions, and the green tomatillo sauce. It was spicy and delicious. I looked over and saw another diner having the "Zen breakfast" and wished I could come back again and try it. The Zen Breakfast is a dish of egg whites, brown rice, grilled vegetables and braised tofu. I know that sounds weird but I think I would like it.
Mission Beach was so beautiful. A wide sidewalk on the ocean stretched out for miles and we saw a surfing class, people of all ages rollerblading past us, runners, bikers, walkers, and rental houses all facing the ocean. I could picture myself staying there sometime in the future.
We drove on to Ocean Beach and walked around a while, but it was not so nice, kind of seedy.
We met up with my brother and his wife, Shannon at their huge (32 ft.) luxury RV to plan the rest of the day. That RV has everything in it, just like a house--even a big TV set. Pretty cool.
We wanted them to see La Jolla, a beautiful park, wildlife, cliffs, flowers. Reminds me a lot of Carmel by the sea and the Monterey Peninsula, the area I grew up in. They enjoyed the seals, pelicans, ocean and so did we. Dinner was at Tioli's Crazy Burger, another DDD spot recommended for the unusual burgers. I had a Francais Burger (with Brie cheese), Steve had the blackened Cajun burger, Charles a Swiss burger, and Shannon had a crab cake burger.
Very good overall but not nearly as good as Fred's Texas Cafe in good old Ft. Worth!
Some things are just better in Texas.
I mentioned my planned shopping trip to the Mitsuwa Marketplace tomorrow and Charles immediately agreed to go. After all, he is half Japanese too! He really misses most Japanese food now since he is on the renal diet due to kidney problems. He can't have soy sauce, soy products and phosphorus or potassium. I am going to try to use my culinary skills to come up with some recipes for him. We already figured out he can eat white rice, eggs (not too many yolks) and noodles. I suggested tamgo yaki, okonomiyaki, yakisoba, all modified to eliminate
the soy sauce. He wants me to create a renal friendly Japanese cookbook. Now that will be a challenge! If you know of any Japanese foods without too much sodium please let me know.
Back at the hotel my sweet husband suggested we have breakfast at another location of the Mission Cafe a couple miles from the hotel so I could try the Zen breakfast. Did I jump at the suggestion? Of course. Good thing we've walked miles and miles on this trip.....Zen Breakfast