Written by Les on May 16th, 2012
This is a tasty Apricot Margarita ($7) made with locally grown apricots from Hollister (very close to San Juan Bautista). I remember my grandfather drinking apricot juice every morning when I was young, so when I took the first sip of the Margarita I had a flood of memories of my grandparents come back. At the time, I never dreamed of Apricot juice in a Margarita. I’ve never seen this flavor margarita listed anywhere else, have you? It is a good local treat on a day trip from San Jose or Santa Cruz out into the country, to take part in the slower life.
On a sunny day, sit back and sip away on the patio at Jardines as you listen to live music and munch on nachos. If you’re not in the mood for a Margarita, check out Manny’s Mary (Spicy Bloody Mary w/ Tequila) or the Cafe Mexicano (Hot Coffee Combined With Coffee Liqueur, Tequila, and Topped With Whipped Cream).
You can make your trip to drink an Apricot Margarita a day trip to the outlets in Gilroy or to hike at Pinnacles Nat’l Park (see our suggested California Day Trip Itinerary here).
http://www.jardinesrestaurant.com/
115 Third Street
San Juan Bautista, California
11:30 am – 9:00 pm Sunday – thursday
11:30 am – 10:00 pm Friday & Saturday
Reservations Advised & Appreciated Phone (831) 623- 4466
Posted in Around California, Drinks, Eating Out, Out of Town | No Comments »
Tags: Apricot Margarita, Jardines San Juan, San Juan Bautista
Written by Les on May 14th, 2012
We are always looking for good breakfast spots. The Breakfast Place is a typical San Jose area restaurant in that it is located in a strip mall. It completely blends into its surroundings, making it somewhat of a hole in the wall. The inside looks like it used to be a Taqueria with wooden booths. Oddly, there are mugs, a variety of coffee mugs hanging on the wall. The menu is reminiscent of its fusion decor (fusion: too fancy of a word to use in the description of the atmosphere but none the less I believe I have properly used the word), a combination of Mexican breakfast dishes including Chilaquiles, Breakfast Burritos, and American classics such Chicken Fried Steak and Biscuits and Gravy (I would stick with the Mexican dishes and/or the french toast though). The two stars were the Huevos Rancheros and the Peanut Butter French Toast. The Huevos Rancheros was delicious and some of the best I’ve had. The Peanut Butter French Toast was unique and decadent. I’m not sure the Chicken Fried Steak lived up to these two dishes, however a friend said he did like the Irish Eggs Benedict.
*Photos taken with Camera + App.
3132 Williams Road San Jose, CA 95117
(408) 261-3714
- Hours: Mon-Sun 7 am – 2:30 pm
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Posted in Eating Out, South Bay - Silicon Valley | No Comments »
Tags: Breakfast, brunch, Huevos Rancheros, Peanut Butter French Toast, San Jose, The Breakfast Place
Written by Les on May 11th, 2012
Main Street Garden & Cafe in Soquel, sorry Santa Cruz folks I know Soquel is SO far from Santa Cruz that you just can’t call it Santa Cruz, is a hidden spot with very creative Northern Italian, California-influenced cuisine (local, seasonal, organic and much of it from their own garden out back). The idea that many folks in SC don’t mingle over into different areas than where they live (I picture it to all be Santa Cruz) was something that took me a while to figure out. It was finally explained to me when I had two brothers move to Santa Cruz who said, you can’t call that Santa Cruz, that’s Aptos, Soquel, Capitola, Live Oak, The Flats, West Side, East Side …
Enough about Santa Cruz, let’s talk about Main Street Garden & Cafe in SOQUEL. Sometimes my husband’s Aunt and Uncle take us out for good food that they have been wanting to try in the area. We are thankful for that because his Aunt knows and appreciates creative cuisine and that is what caught our eye when we looked up Main Street’s menu online. For their Starters and Salads menu the dishes featured were Wood-fired cauliflower, curry cream, caramelized onion, chile and Salami, garden kiwi mostarda, flat bread (add copa & loin, add burrata). Doesn’t that sounds good? The dishes that lured us in ended up not being what we ordered because they change their menu frequently with what is fresh in their garden (really awesome) but we did get a fantastic cold salad with shaved Asparagus, Strawberries, Chevre, and a Sherry Vinaigrette. It was excellent and I am actually attempting to make it tonight for an impromptu dinner party at a friend’s house. Then we had the two different wood fired pizzas and two different pastas. When I go out to a restaurant I like to have things that I can’t make at home or that would take me such a huge amount of time to make them, that I would never attempt it. Main Street did this with their homemade black squid pasta and their great wood fired pizza crust (we particularly like the potato pizza with pork belly).
The atmosphere was quiet on the Wednesday evening we dined but call for a reservation just in case, it is that kind of place. They did seem to be having a couple of dinner parties or corporate dinners in the back if you are interested in that. It is a bit more expensive. We haven’t tried the Saturday or Sunday outdoor lunch in the garden but that is what we intend try next.
If you aren’t sure what to do for Mother’s Day, when I just looked at their website they listed a Mother’s Day special dinner that looks really good. Some of these menu items really caught my eye:
- Heirloom lettuces, pistachio, chevre, strawberry-prosecco vinaigrette
- Salami, apricot mostarda, pickled radicchio, flat bread
- Garden borage pappardelle, pork ragu, tomato sauce, garden chard, grana
- Buttermilk waffle, poached garden egg, roasted asparagus, fennel cream, pecorino
Check out their menu, if you can use some of their starters for inspiration and design some good recipes, let me know!
3101 N. Main St. in downtown Soquel
http://mainstreetgardencafe.com/
Dinner: Wednesday – Sunday starts at 5:00 pm
Lunch: Saturday & Sunday starts at 12 noon
Reservations (831) 477-9265
Posted in Eating Out, Santa Cruz | 2 Comments »
Tags: $$$, California Seasonal Cuisine, Creative Salads, Main Street Garden & Cafe, Northern Italian, santa cruz, Soquel, Wood Fired Pizza
Written by Les on April 12th, 2012
Tony Di Maggios Pizza is hard to find and in the middle of ‘no where’ San Jose/Campbell (this location: San Tomas) but it’s so worth finding! The Stromboli is delicious and has a unique ingredient that makes your mouth happy. You take a bite of the piping hot gooey, melted cheese and pizza dough, which could pretty much be as plain as kid’s mac n’ cheese, but wait, it has a kick, it’s … mustard (and probably some flavor from the butter drizzled on top too)! If you are in need of some tasty comfort food, this is one you want to save your calories up for. It’s not vegetarian, healthy, or gluten free. It is a sinful treat!
Stromboli: Ham, Italian Sausage, Salami, Mustard, American and Mozzarella Cheeses wrapped in Pizza Dough and topped with Butter, Oregano, Black Pepper and our home made Tomato Sauce
Tony Di Maggios Pizza
3852 Monterey Rd
San Jose, CA 95111
(408) 629-7775
&
915 S. San Tomas Aquino Rd
Campbell, CA 95008
(408) 374-1800
*Photos taken with Camera + App.
Posted in Eating Out, South Bay - Silicon Valley | 2 Comments »
Tags: Comfort Food, Eating Out, Pizza, Restaurant, San Jose, Stromboli, Tony Stromboli
Written by Les on April 8th, 2012
*Photos taken with Camera + App (99 cents). If you don’t have it, it’s great because you can focus on one thing and get the exposure (lightness/darkness) from another spot. Then you can add a filter effect, borders, and text.
515 Kitchen & Cocktails offers a great happy hour 4pm until 7 PM – everyday.
I get the le pamplemousse cocktail for $5 (finlandia grapefruit vodka, aperol liqueur, lemon juice, orange juice, and grapefruit juice, pictured above). The hubs gets a beer on special. I will try to post more of their happy hour menu soon. Then we eat Truffle Fries (with minced rosemary, parmesan cheese and truffle oil)! If you get there when they aren’t too busy, it’s great. But depending on your scene it can get very busy in the later evenings.
Our favorite non-happy hour items are the 515 cocktail ($7.75 it’s a pomegranate margarita style drink cazadores tequila, la pinta tequila, lime, pama liqueur, patron citronge liqueur, sugar rim) and the burger ($11 bleu cheese, shallot confit, sauteed radicchio, and pomme frites).
Downtown Santa Cruz:
515 Cedar Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060.
Posted in Drinks, Eating Out, Santa Cruz | 1 Response »
Tags: 515 Cocktails, Drink Specials, Happy Hour, santa cruz
Written by Les on April 6th, 2012
Our favorite of all of these deviled egg recipes was the Greek deviled egg and the runner up was the Chipotle deviled egg.
To be honest the traditional recipe for deviled eggs is also great. My Gram always added sweet pickle relish and some of its juice, and a pinch of sugar to her deviled eggs (and egg salad).
Make sure you check out how to boil and peel the eggs for the best results here.
Happy Easter … as we head off to a Passover Party tonight!
To Recipes: ->
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Posted in Appetizers, Home Cookin' | 1 Response »
Tags: Deviled Eggs, Easter, Home Cookin', recipe
Written by Les on February 24th, 2012
It is a pretty good sign when you arrive on a Friday night at a restaurant and there is a bit of a wait. We waited for maybe twenty minutes as lots of other folks piled in to try and get their name on the list for a table and it just kept getting more and more crowded.
Zeni Ethiopian Restaurant is on Saratoga Avenue, the street with many great diverse restaurants in the San Jose area (along with of course our favorite, Halu Ramen). There are still so many others for us to try from Persian to Japanese and African.
On the Friday night we dined, we sat on stools with a big round bowl table in front of us as we listened to a live musician play the keyboard as some little kids bounced around to the music.
The bill was very inexpensive for the four of us with plenty of food and wine (I think it was $35 each couple).
For a table of 4, Order (non-vegetarian):
- Bottle of TEJ Organic Ethiopian Honey Wine
- Tell the waitress to pick for you with a combination of veggie and meat dishes, you won’t be sorry- we liked the lamb and chicken dishes as well as all of the veggie dishes too
All Entrees are served with Injera, the unleavened bread prepared today as it was a thousand years ago and Zeni’s house salad (Injera also eaten in Somalia and Yemen). Injera is like a giant savory, spongy pancake that is laid out in front in a huge dish for communal eating. The salad is placed in the middle with all of your meat and veggie dishes along the sides also on top of the Injeri (see photos above). Then you get an additional stack of Injera to use to scoop up the dishes and eat them with your hands.
Go with close friends or your honey, as this may be a bit of an awkward business lunch or dinner with people who don’t understand what double dipping is (just take one portion of Injera, enough for one scoop of food and eat that – can tear the Injera to get just the right size)! That is of course coming from my own cultural context and I actually don’t know the custom for this in Ethiopia. I will have to find that one out!
Zeni Ethiopian Restaurant
1320 Saratoga Ave
San Jose, CA 95129
(408) 615-8282
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Posted in Eating Out, South Bay - Silicon Valley | No Comments »
Tags: African Food, Eating Out, Ethiopian, San Jose, Saratoga A, South African Cuisine, Zeni
