Day of San Diego Eats

We made several fun food stops this past Saturday, beginning with Belgian Frie in Pacific Beach. It's a fun little place where we picked up fries and waffles for breakfast... isn't that great?

The menu's composed largely of fries and waffles. I admit to being a fan of the chalkboard menus. When they're done well, they look great.

The fries are served a variety of ways or plain with a variety of sauces. D. and D.B. had the fries rancheros, topped with poached eggs, salsa, cheese, and sour cream.

D.D. and I ordered the lemon poppy seed waffle. Since Belgian waffle batter is yeast-leavened, it can be cakey and not at all crisp. However, this waffle was gorgeous and fluffy with a nice crust. It was topped with a great blueberry compote, lemon zest, whipped cream, and poppy seeds. The batter could have used more lemon flavor, but it was very good.

Of course, we ordered a lovely cone of fries with three dipping sauces, garlic mayo, curry ketchup, and honey mustard. The dipping sauces were fantastic and the fries were double-fried, making them nice and crispy.

Afterwards, we made a pit-stop at the cook's playground of Great News. One of these days, I'm going to post about Great News, but this post is already extensive enough without it. D.D., a Point Loma native, mentioned that he had heard about Cupcakes Squared and wanted to try it. Of course, I would never oppose a mission to satisfy one's sweet tooth.

Upon entering, we were offered samples of the Lilikoi, a vanilla cupcake with passionfruit frosting. The frosting was excellent and tangy with passionfruit. However, the cupcake didn't impress, because it was greasy. It squished with a little bit of oil when I bit into it. Oy. It was somewhat of an awkward moment, because we were surprised by the sample being... well, not that great.

We were also taken aback by the prices. The square cupcakes, while cute, weren't very large. They were about a 2-inch cube, but were selling for $2.75 to $3.50 apiece. While I understand that quality ingredients were used, it's still a bit much, considering our impressions of the sample.

D. ordered the Chocolate^2 and the S'mores (left and top, respectively), while I ordered the Lemon and "Red" Velvet (bottom and right, respectively). The "Red" Velvet intrigued me, because Cupcakes Squared doesn't use food coloring. I could definitely live without dyeing my innards red, but I can't live with bland. While red velvet is typically mild, this was a plain buttermilk cake with very little flavor. Texture was ok, but on the dry side. Once again, the frosting was fabulous. D.D. felt it should have been denser, since it was cream cheese, but it was delicious.

The unifying theme of this visit was that Cupcakes Squared makes killer frostings. While I love frosting, I don't think that anything can stand on frosting alone. Nope, not even cupcakes and their almost 1:1 ratio of cake to frosting. We all felt that the establishment had potential, but needs to work out kinks in their craftsmanship and consistency. I bring up consistency because my lemon cupcake was the winner. The cupcake had the warm eggy flavor of a pound cake, the lightness of a chiffon cake, and plenty of lemon. Although the frosting was supposed to be lemon, I was happy that it turned out to be a light and wonderful vanilla buttercream. I'm not sure if that was intentional, but whatever... I don't argue with good things.

D.B. and D. were pretty much done with the sweets, but D.D. and I were chatting about The Elegant Truffle, which had received raves on Chowhound.

Hey, we were already in the neighborhood.

The friendly staff hands out samples galore. I stepped out to take a phone call and apparently missed, as D.B. calls it, "a truffle buffet". Egads! When I returned, I was able to sample a dark chocolate brownie, which tasted fabulous, but was really dry. I couldn't resist the dark chocolate cheesecake and D. bought a dark chocolate-dipped banana.

Wow.

Yeah, it was that good. For those who like creamy cheesecakes, this isn't for you. This was a slice of dense, rich, fudgy heaven. The chocolate was explosive... bitter, dark, and sweet all at once. I'm sure it's sitting in my aorta right now, but I have no regrets.

We returned home to do some gardening and hang out with Bear. For dinner, we met up with M., C., and M. at Pizza Port in Solana Beach.

It was packed. Obscenely so. People were practically shanking each other for tables. If it weren't for eagle-eyed C., we would have ended up eating on the sidewalk. Once we sat down, we had the opportunity to enjoy their delicious creations. D. and I love the Carlsbad, a pesto/feta pizza with artichoke hearts and chicken.

There was also the Monterey, with more artichoke heart goodness buried under a classic tomato/mozzarella topping. Yum.

I love a weekend of eating well.

San Diego Blogger Mixer: Eclipse Chocolat

Many thanks to Will of Eclipse Chocolat for organizing a lovely gathering of San Diego food bloggers. Eclipse Chocolat is located near the corner of Alabama St. and El Cajon Blvd. and I have yet to drop by. I've been meaning to for a while, esp. since Bear's twice-daily walks usually end up near Alabama. This was a perfect opportunity to sample some of their products and meet fellow food bloggers.

Kim and I walked a few blocks to Eclipse, after which I was soaked in sweat because it was a really warm day. Geez, talk about a first impression. Hehe. Anyway, it was great to meet so many bloggers in person. I wish I had more time to chat with everyone.

Will generously offered samples of various chocolates, including an intriguing blackberry sage rendition. Kim and I both had the seasonal dessert tasting platter, which had four items:

• Frozen chocolate-mixed berry merlot mousse
• Grilled white chocolate carrot gateau (check out Will's "first draft" of this awesome cake)
  
• Dark chocolate croissant bread pudding with creme anglaise sauce
• White chocolate-chamomile lemon bar

The lemon bar was good, with a slab of white chocolate on top. I couldn't really taste the chamomile, which was actually a good thing, since I don't particularly like it. The bar was actually more like a cake, which was good, but a little dry.

The bread pudding was Kim's favorite and it was very good. I liked the creme anglaise sauce best. It's rich and chocolaty, perfectly complimented by the dense vanilla cream sauce.

I was looking forward to the carrot cake the most and it didn't disappoint. Warm and nutty, it was very light and did not need any garnishes. On the other hand, I wasn't a huge fan of the chocolate/berry/merlot mousse. The glaze (chocolate, berries, merlot) was good, but really strong, and the chocolate mousse was a tad bland.

Other recaps of the mixer:

Roger from The Fifth Deadly Sin

Kim from Foolin' Around in the Kitchen

Liz from Fooding 411

Darlene from My Burning Kitchen

Alice from Alice Q. Foodie

Nicole from Pinch My Salt

Thanks again, Will!

Cookbook Series: Birthday Cakes!

D. and R.'s birthdays fell within a week of each other, so I had the opportunity to work on my cake skills. D.'s cake actually went first with his Bouchon dinner and I had hoped to recreate his favorite: yellow cake with chocolate frosting. He told me to make it from a cake mix with canned frosting and I was pretty horrified at the idea. Turns out it might have been better. I used the recipe in Kathryn Kleinman's Birthday Cakes (see sidebar) titled "Gold Cake with Grandma's Fudge Frosting".

To be fair to the recipe, the cake sat on the counter for a long time. I baked it the night before and left it out to cool. While I prepped the next day, it sat on a cooling rack until I had time to frost it. I've done this before with other cakes and had no problem.

It tasted great with a warm eggy flavor. However, it was dry as sand by the time we sliced it. I frosted it with the accompanying fudge recipe, which was really good. It was so dry, in fact, that I suspected that it was overbaked, even though I baked it for the recommended amount of time. I'd try it again, but decrease the amount of cake flour (maybe 2 cups instead of 2 1/4) and frost as soon as it cools.

R.'s birthday cake came out with better results. It's the lemon olive oil chiffon cake from Lori Longbotham's Luscious Lemon Desserts.

It's baked in an angel food cake pan, but chiffon cakes have some egg yolk versus angel food cakes, which are egg-whites only. It was incredibly good, with the olive oil serving up a subtle richness. It was topped with a lemon glaze, which was brain-searingly tart and good.

The chiffon cake was awesome. It was very light, but rich in flavor. The texture was perfect, fluffy and spongy. It was slightly dry, but the glaze helped with that. My parents like to make butter chiffon cakes, so it reminded me of childhood.