And here are my fishy tacos

and of course i asked for extra mango salsa. Amazing as always and luckily, it wasn’t that crowded.

So our trip down the coast had two major stopping points: taco temple and flatbread. Those were the two goals of the day. With one goal out of the way, it was time to meander down the coast toward dinner. Our first stop after taco temple was the Avila Valley Barn. I really wanted to check that out to see about picking apples or other fall fruit. it was a fun place, but wow, way too busy w/ little kids running all over the place. We got treats for later (like jam, duh).

Since it was the summer of bubbles at Laetitia, we had to do a quick tasting. it was relatively empty since it was a sunday afternoon, so we got to taste in peace.

On to the main event! seems like i’ve been going to get flatbread pretty often recently, which I have no problem with. Met up w/ C and D for an early dinner.  Started with melons and prosciutto. and of course tomato and burrata salad. my two fave summer appetizers!

for the pizze, we had the special zucchini one and then the pepperoni and peppers one

The red onions on this pizza were so sweet and delicate. also the pesto really added a lot of punch. Well, we had a fun time at dinner and during the entire weekend. pretty exhausting since we were either driving or eating too much, but totally worth it

Anyway, we finally made it to Hearst Castle and the weather was perfect. not too hot at all, like it usually is. Here’s the obligatory pic of the neptune pool

This is my fave pic I took. It’s a detail of a tile on a door of the guest house. Very charmingok, K, I have to admit, with just the marzipan roll, I was getting a headache for sure. so instead of doing another tour, we went to the Sebastian General Store and Cafe. A historic monument just on the other side of the 1, the cafe had the most delicious samishes! It took absolutely forever to get our food, but it was worth it.

My ginormous club samish. Seroiusly, two burritos worth of samish.

melty melty pastrami samish. So the original plan was to eat samishes, go see the elephant seals and then go Cambria to get pie, but we were way too full for pie.

For din, we just had a small meal at Robin’s. Really tasty food, but I was too full to enjoy it.

here is one of my s’mores. I will totes be doing this often. how fun.

So, on to wine tasting. We stopped at Alma Rosa, LaFond, and then the Lompoc Wine Ghetto. Man, the wine ghetto was great. all in one little industrial space w/ no driving involved. And none of the tools in the hawaiian shirts. Why does wine tasting and hawaiian shirts always mix?

Before hitting up Full of Life Flatbread, went to Bedford for a quick tasting. So, for starters, we had  Santa Barbara spot prawns with beets and agretti and lemon relish. Since nobody wanted the heads, i got to suck them! ha, ew.

We also got the burrata and haricot vert, okra with peppers, and the heirloom tomato and watermelon salad. Here’s a pic of the okra. I even liked it!

For the flatbreads, we got the zucchini with goat cheese and basil:

The rapini with tomatoes, eggs and spicy sausage:

And finally the regular sausage one:

My fave was the egg one. I love it when fried eggs are on top of pizze! just like at mozza. Oh and the watermelon salad was almost as good as BLD’s. For dessert, we had the santa rosa plum ice cream, the apricot upside down cake and their s’more. The plum ice cream was my fave since it was tart.

Anyway, the rest of the weekend was great with C, G, T, W and the kids coming. Why don’t they live closer?! And why isn’t flatbread closer!?

We started with some salty almonds and then a santa rosa plum syrup w/ cava drink. holy crap, that was amazing. i could have had that all night. i need to learn how to make some plum syrup.

for starters we had some shaved zucchini ribbons with arugula, prosciutto and a crostini w/ ricotta cheese. that was light and lemony.

next we had a tuna tartar with some provencal flavors– red onions, capers, anchovies. it was ok. sorta predictable.

for mains we had lamb two ways with some beans and spinach. that tasted like last time, but it was still perfectly cooked and delicious.

dessert was a nectarine and blackberry mille fleur type thing. with zabaglione. uhhhh amazing. that was the best of the night, truly amazing. at the end of the meal, we were given a tour of the kitchen, but since we had the early seating, it wasn’t as extensive as last time. no visiting the meat fridge for instance.

next we went over to the new berkeley bowl west. uhh whole foods corporate much? but it was nice to have the underground parking unlike the original. god, so many varieties of berries.

since we were so close, i happened to mention the charles choco store was nearby. here’s the pic of the boys: i got 12 of the carmelized almond clusters and also a box of the peanutbutter butterflies. i heart charles choco!!! man too bad i can’t get the truffles here.

ok that’s enough for now.. will post later about chez panisse

When we first arrived we were a bit hungry so we got dessert at their bistro. I had the creme brulee of course, dad had the lemon tart and mom had the strawberry shortcake. so they have a farm on the other side of the freeway and they grow a lot of produce there. they call all that they grow, “ranch blah blah” sorta corny, but cute.

dinner that night was at their fancy place, Miro’ (after the artist) and they had some real paintings.

Started out with a lobster bisque amouse boucheEach little cup had a tender, chunk of lobster in it! and my mom got 2 pieces. uh yum. starting out well.

Then next came the calimari salad with watercress, frise’, roasted chickpeas and peppers. roasted chickpeas are delicious! The calimari was very tender. almost as tender as the mozza octopus.

Next was the most amazing of the meal: the corn chowder. uh, they should call it lobster chowderSee all that lobster!!! the rest of the soup had chorizo, yukon golds and lots of yellow corn. man… i’m starting to drool.

Next was the mediocre part of the meal… meat. not worth even posting the picture. meh.

but for dessert, my mom and dad both had the grand marnier souffle’ and i had the cheese platter. that souffle’ tasted exactly how it is supposed to.

Otherwise, the rest of the vacay was filled with just lounging. i went to their nice gym once for a class. that was fun and i got a massage. i need a massage scholarship fund. anyone want to donate to it?

ok, one complaint about the weekend. we went to hungry cat for din on Sunday. why don’t they ever change their menu!? besides the drink specials, cheese and oysters, they have the damn same thing every time. MEH. tasty drinks and amazing bacon. but MEH. so over it, but there is nowhere else to go around here. depressing

also, the pozole at la super rica is great. i love the spicy salsa they give you. my nose had other ideas.

oh crap. well the most memorable meal is probably from osteri amozza. my fave was the burrata and also the donuts. man, that place is delicious. need to go to the pizzeria again soon.

hm, what else to report.. evacuated from the fire again.. so over it. ok, promise to be better about posting. ha, i’m posting about posting.