Is there anywhere is Escondido or in close proximity (maybe San Marcos, but not say, Carlsbad) where I can get decent Japanese food/sushi?  I don't like to go just anywhere for that kind of stuff, so any recommendations would be appreciated.

Weird question, but are there any good sushi train restaurants in San Diego? I'm looking for a place with conveyor-belt type service...they're popular in Portland but I've yet to see one in San Diego. I think they're also called "kaiten" sushi places.

X-posted to san_diego

OK, with Med Grill Cafe's new owners (last year) I don't know of any good Lebanese places.

Any suggestions?

Notes:
Mama's is ok, but not really a belly dancing kind of place is it?
Rannoush has good atmosphere (if you don't mind Hookah) but the food is so-so....
Aladdin's (not really lebanese, but the best I could come up with) isn't bad, but still no belly dancing....

(I hope this isn't off topic, forgive me if it is)

Where do most of you do your weekly grocery shopping? We hit up Costco and Trader Joe's. Albertsons seems a little pricey, and I haven't checked out Vons too much.

I just moved here from San Jose, and I would love some good burrito place recommendations. I went to Santana's on a whim, and it was not good. I live very near downtown, in Sherman Heights. Thanks so much for the help.

If any of you fellow burrito lovers ever make it up to the bay area, I suggest eating at La Victoria or The Burrito Factory for a mind blowing burrito experience!!

Does anyone know where I could buy freshly boiled crawfish for my upcoming Mardi Gras party?

So far, I've found the following options, which I'm not particularly fond of:

• Buy from Mardi Gras Cafe - I know that theirs are frozen and reboiled, but I think they lose a lot of their juiciness and flavor; to me it's just not the same.
• Buy LIVE crawfish and boil them myself.  Uh... yea, no thanks.  :o)

I've heard that the Gator By The Bay festival has crawfish... does anyone know if they boil theirs live or if they buy fresh boiled from someone?

(x-posted to san_diego)

When I eat at a restaurant, I tend to drink a lot.  Whether I'm having water, iced tea, or soda, I tend to consume a lot of it.  Heck, even when I'm drinking wine or beer, I'll want a glass of water on the side, and I'll usually finish both of those before most people get half way down the glass.  So, I appreciate it when the waitperson is attentive enough to notice when my drink is running low and fill me up.  Unfortunately a lot of wait staff just don't know how to fill up a glass.

Because I consume my drink so quickly, often times the ice doesn't have much time to melt, so I usually have a fair amount of ice left in my glass.  A proper refill for my glass would consist of mostly liquid and maybe little bit of ice.  Unfortunately, more often than not what I get from the person refiling my beverage is someone who doesn't think, and attempts to fill the glass as quickly as they can.  This leads to the person filing the glass with more ice than liquid.  Occasionally they will notice the mistake they just made, and go retrieve a fresh glass with the proper proportion of ice and drink.  Usually though they will not notice, and I'll get stuck with a little bit of drink and a lot of ice.  :-(

Now here is the question, how do I communicate the problem to the wait staff?  I could just tell the person as they fill up my drink.  Unfortunately that sounds like I'm telling the person how to do their job.  I could ask for a separate pitcher for myself.  That doesn't often work because most restaurants use the pitchers and don't have enough to just place one with any guest that asks.  I could ask for a drink with no ice.  That would likely send the wrong message, I don't like cold drinks.

Thoughts?  Ideas?  Suggestions?

I've been craving Burmese food and momos (Tibetan/Nepalese dumplings). Does anyone know of Burmese, Tibetan and/or Nepalese restaurants in San Diego?

Thanks!

This info got passed onto me via my blog, so I'm passing it along to all of the other foodies in San Diego. :)

KPBS is collecting recipes from all over San Diego for the KPBS Celebrates Home Cooking cookbook. For more information and to submit your recipe, go to www.kpbs.org/cook.

We’ll publish your recipe in our cookbook and pick some of the best recipes for broadcast on the KPBS Celebrates Home Cooking television show. Entrees, appetizers, salads, desserts… we’re looking for everything. So pick your favorite recipe and go to www.kpbs.org/cook. But hurry, the deadline is at the end of November!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me.

Best regards,

Andy
On-Air Fundraising Production Coordinator
KPBS
atrimlett@kpbs.org

 We're having a party next Summer (August) and have been looking round San Diego off & on for a good 2 months for a cake, similar style & talents to Charm City Cakes (Ace of Cakes). We would greatly appreciate it if anyone can point us in that direction?


Even if we have to drive to LA or Orange County.

Cheers,

M&C

I'm looking for a place to get really good quiche lorraine near the UCSD campus or in downtown San Diego. Does anyone know of any good, fairly cheap French restaurants in the area?

Thanks in advance!

A new restaurant just opened up in the North Park area - Urban Solace. They specialize in "urban comfort food".

For appetizers, my party of 5 ordered:
- Warm Cheese Biscuits with Orange-Honey Butter (1 order = 5 biscuits)
- Sonoma Goat Cheese/Butternut Squash Dip, Cornmeal Crackers and Baguettes
- Sweet Potato French Fries, Oregon Blue Cheese Dressing
The biscuits were delicious little calorie nuggets. The orange-honey added a sweetness that complimented the biscuit well. The dip was definitely my favorite appetizer. It was well seasoned and the goat cheese added a nice tartness to the sweetness of the squash. As for the fries, I love sweet potato fries so I was happy with these though they were a little bit over-cooked.

For my entree, I tried their special for the night - sturgeon on layers of wilted spinach and potato. I chose to substitute the potato for veggies. I had never had sturgeon before. It turned out to be a pretty dense white fish like salmon or tuna yet was very mild in flavor. They didn't overcook the veggies (typical medley of squash, carrots, etc) or spinach which I was happy about as it is a pet peeve of mine and they were well-seasoned and not overly buttered.

Others ordered:
- Butter Braised Local Sea bass, Warm White Beans, Smoked Tomato Jam
- Cider and Molasses Glazed and Roasted half Chicken, Wilted Spinach, Caramelized Parsnips
- Monte Diego: Baked Egg Bread, Smoked Ham, Fontina Cheese, Pear Preserves

The sea bass was a little overcooked as it was rubbery but the tomato jam was heavenly. The chicken ended up being half of a pretty fat chicken and probably more than one person could eat unless you are very hungry. It was moist and flavorful and the molasses wasn't overpoweringly sweet. The Monte Diego reminded me of a Monte Cristo. They slice their egg bread thickly but there wasn't so much that that was all you tasted. The preserves seemed to have been mixed with some sort of berry that made for a very tasty sauce.

For dessert, I shared the black cherry soda roasted apple. It was an apple roasted in black cherry soda and served with a slice of french toast and vanilla ice cream. Quite tasty indeed, so much I wanted to lick the bowl. I also had a bite of the key lime tart which was very...er...tart.

The online menu lists the prices and they are reasonable for what you get. The portions aren't overpoweringly huge so you do end up having room for dessert despite having noshed on appetizers on top of your main meal.

P.S. I recommend the Starboard port as well. Goes quite nicely with the black cherry soda apple dessert.

I had an idea... I'm sure we all know that in-n-out will sometimes do 100 x 100 burgers. Anyone up for gathering together a group, pooling our cash, and trying to go for a bigger one? I think it might be a fun San Diego thing. I mean, we'd have to find willing eaters & a location willing to MAKE a REALLY big one for us... But who knows? Mabye we could get together to even do a 200x200 if we're really feeling masochistic. Or is this too insane an idea?

I've been wanting some raw oysters recently. Any suggestions for a place with a good raw bar?

hi all.

I'm taking a friend to dinner for his 26th birthday. Just us. He enjoys beer and said that's pretty much his only request. So, considering I'm not completely filled to the brim with cash right now, I was wondering what is a good sit down rester taunt that has good deals on their food and beer? Probably a happy hour since it will be around those hours we would be going to go eat. I am trying to stay south of mira mesa, and west of la mesa.

x-posted to sandiego

thanks :)