Twas a sunny Saturday afternoon and Michael and I were in for a taste…or better yet, a Bite of San Diego. On this day we’d get to take a bite out of La Jolla. They run food tours all around San Diego in eight or so different locations including North Park, Little Italy, and Hillcrest amongst others. We wanted to see what La Jolla had to offer since we don’t get to eat out in the area as much as we’d like to. Let’s see what goodies we encountered along the way!
Wow! A Hawaiian joint that Michael and I have never been to! We both love our Hawaiian food so we were excited to see that our food tour started at Ohana Cafe.
They served us pork fried rice, family style. Not too much to complain about here. For me fried rice can be served at the beginning, middle , or at the end of a meal so I was happy to dig right in. The dish came out hot, with the rice cooked just right and steam rising high enough to give your senses a preview of the taste to follow.
While we were waiting for everyone to arrive I decided to try their shaved ice. I got tigers blood and coconut syrup with condensed milk on top. The flavor of the syrup reminded me of the last shaved ice I had in Maui but I just wish they put more on top. Funny thing is with shaved ice I usually always wish they put less syrup, but this was the opposite. I’m glad I tried it though. One shouldn’t go without shaved ice for too long.
Here’s our group heading to our next destination after a short stop at St. James Episcopal Church. We had about 15 or so people on the Bite tour. Funny thing is most of us actually were close to or from San Diego.
Here’s the owner of The Brick and Bell Cafe showing us his newly imported espresso machine.
They are known for their scones and we sampled their raspberry variety. Very tasty! If I lived nearby I could imagine leisurely walking by to pick some up and merrily moving on to munch away until they quickly disappeared.
This little guy gave me one look and I was convinced that I’d love Cups. And how can you argue with that face?
I tried the Not So Red Velvet and Banana Cream mini cup cakes. Both were soft and moist while not being overly sweet. Hopefully I’ll get to try the PB Cup and Brulee J next time. They are $2 each for the minis and $4 for the regular size cup cakes.
Guess we haven’t had enough sweets today eh? We made our way closer to the ocean and came upon Krafty Krepes.
Here we got to sample two savory crepes and one sweet crepe. We had a chicken and avocado, a vegetarian, and a strawberry and cream crepe. All were great! I’d certainly come back and try some of the others. I’m a savory kind of guy and at this point I was relishing something with salt in my mouth so this was a welcomed break.
Our last stop was We Olive. This was a fun experience and I’m glad it was last. It’s basically an olive oil tasting room that also serves wine and food in the back.
Our first taste was just the olive oil alone. Then they poured a little flavored balsamic vinegar to taste the two together. I wasn’t a huge fan of just the olive oil but it was good to taste the different flavors separately to get a sense of what each one brings to the party. My favorite was the jalapeno olive oil and pineapple white balsamic vinegar. Smooth on the front with a little kick at the end.
I’m not much of a wine person but I have to say the one they chose to give us a sample of was very clean and smooth. Sorry to say, I can’t tell you what it is right now because I didn’t expect to like it that much.
So there you have it. Our Bite San Diego experience of La Jolla in a nutshell. Some observations about the tour: I don’t think this was meant to be a full on four or five course meal. This really is what the name implies, a bite or sample of different things that each place offers. I wish we had one more savory place to go to because the majority of the stops featured something sweet. Overall the tour was fun, our guide knew her stuff, we got to try new places, and the company was great! Thanks to Emily over at Bam for the invite!
Bite San Diego
http://www.bitesandiego.com/
