February 2012
1 post
LudoTruck Chicken Balls
Chef Ludo Lefebvre is known mostly for his pop-up restaurants, LudoBites. But he also runs a food truck called LudoTruck, which was just featured on Anthony Bourdain’s new show The Layover (the L.A. Episode). I’d actually eaten at this truck before the episode, but hearing Bourdain nom nom nom on the chicken from this truck reminded me how damn delicious it was.
There’s the...
November 2011
1 post
Fine Tijuana Dining
What’s the first thing you think of when you think of Tijuana. Whatever it is, it’s probably not gourmet food and fine dining. Unless of course you consider a bag of churros from a street cart that also, frighteningly, sells oysters, to be fine dining.
But lo and behold, fine dining in Tijuana exists:
Mision 19 (and no I didn’t spell that wrong, see proof in napkin-form...
October 2011
1 post
Korean BBQ Street Festival
I love street festivals because I get to eat a ton of different things and it’s perfectly socially acceptable. I also love korean bbq, because it’s delicious. Who doesn’t like meat marinated in different sauces and grilled to perfection? No one I dare say, no one. I went to the third annual Korean BBQ cookoff in Korea Town a while back and just about died of flavor overload.
One...
September 2011
1 post
Vancouver Night Market: Gourmand League Assemble!!
As an official member of the Gourmand League I was called in to Vancouver to go check out the Asian Night Market. What’s the Gourmand League you ask?
Only the most prestigious eating organization known to man:
Ok, not really, but it is a pretty sweet name for a food tent.
The night market in Vancouver is pure awesomeness. Stalls upon stalls of food. Some questionable. Some delicious....
August 2011
3 posts
Relate Pop-Up Restaurant Finale
For those who haven’t heard of it, a pop-up restaurant is a new concept where a chef will bring a high end menu to a random spot for a short period of time. Often they are set up in a cheap spot so that the chef can break out the mouth watering, expensive ingredients, while charging a slightly-less-mind-numbing price.
Earlier this year I went to a pop up restaurant in Encinitas called...
BBQ + Mac and Cheese = Ridiculously Excessive...
There are few things more craveable than bbq. Fall-apart-tender smoked or grilled meat, sweet and tangy bbq sauce everywhere (mostly on your face and white shirt), and a smile on your face. That’s pretty much every bbq experience.
But what’s one thing that says comfort food for pretty much everyone? Mac and Cheese. Or as my Canadian Comrades would say, Kraft Dinner, or simply, KD....
Deep Fried Pickles and Watermelon . . . and Beef...
I’ve been wanting to try this restaurant in San Diego called Urban Solace (@urbansolace) for a while now. I had my birthday recently so it seemed as good an excuse as any. They describe their food as “New American Comfort Food” and I couldn’t describe it any better than that so I won’t even try.
The great thing about their menu is they have a lot of really...
July 2011
3 posts
Are You Ready to Get Hungry?
Steak…BOOM. Salivating yet? If you said no, close my website immediately. You are not welcome here. For the rest of us, let’s get this party started.
Imagine, if you will, a beautifully cooked steak. Picture it’s perfectly crusted exterior, and it’s juicy and succulent center. The essence of deliciousness. Now imagine a crumbling of bleu cheese on top of that steak. Gently...
The Nomburger
Pomegranates are super popular right now, and I’m as bad an offender as anyone. I like pretty much anything with pomegranate. I wish that I had a never-ending jar of pomegranate seeds. I would sit on my couch and watch food network while gorging myself for hours on them. Sadly, no such thing exists…yet.
I have to ration my pomegranate seeds carefully while I’m waiting for the...
I Ate It All: Buffet Tips from a Pro
One thing I love almost as much as I love food is Vegas. The gambling, the pools, the plethora of delicious options, and of course, the ability to walk around everywhere with a drink. One thing everyone thinks about when they think of Vegas is buffets. I’ve had my fair share of delicious buffets in Vegas, but the seafood buffet at the Rio is really something special.
A special buffet calls...
June 2011
4 posts
Steak and Egg: The Sandwich of Champions
Sandwiches are normally a pretty boring lunch. But, imagine sandwiches like a french onion soup sandwich, scallop and lobster sandwich, and a crab cake and avocado sandwich…and oh yes, the steak and egg sandwich (I’m saving the best for last). At Searsucker in downtown San Diego these are the kind of sandwiches you get. I had been wanting to go to this place for a long time, enticed by...
Rum Soaked Watermelon with Goat Cheese and Mint
I was going to a bbq the other day and I needed to bring a non-meat item. That was tricky for me. I mean I can bbq any number of delicious animals, in any number of delicious ways. But a side dish … much trickier. Can’t just be lazy and make a salad. Salad is for losers. Ah, making fun of vegetables, works every time. I wanted to do something light and summerish. I saw this idea to use...
Magnum Double Chocolate Ice Cream Bars
The other day I heard a commercial for these Magnum ice cream bars and it said: “Now in America!” And I thought to myself, what a load of crap, I bet they are just saying that because it makes it sound exotic, it was probably never in another country to begin with. But apparently it is true, they are actually from Europe, and have been around since 1989. And anything from Europe that...
Pop Up Restaurant Part Three: Rabbit Cassoulet
A few months back I went to a pop up restaurant in Encinitas called Relate. There were five courses of varying food porn status and decadent beer pairings to go with each. The whole thing also started with an amuse-bouche that was unbelievably delicious, so much so that everyone ate theirs before I remembered to take a picture. Luckily I managed to get pictures of the rest.
If you haven’t...
May 2011
6 posts
Napoleons Are What God Eats When He is Hungry
Napoleons are surely the noms of the gods. But, surprisingly, most people I talk to don’t even know what Napoleons even are. Which is a damn shame. Hold on to your seats because I’m about to show you what may change your life forever. And by that I mean you will become clinically obese because you won’t be able to stop eating these things. I’ve officially warned you, so...
Tandoori Chicken and Curried Roasted Cauliflower
I recently went to an international foods market to stock up on crazy stuff from around the world. This was quite the market too. It claimed to have Mexican, Russian, and yes, even Canadian food. Seriously, I took a photo to prove it:
And no, I have no clue what the Canadian food they were referring to was. I didn’t see any obvious Canadian food section in the store, and I’m not...
Maximum Noms at San Diego Magazine's Best...
San Diego Magazine hosted a Best Restaurants party to promote their Best Restaurants issue. The party was hosted at Fixtures in San Diego, an upscale kitchen/home fixtures store. From the moment I walked into this party there was amazing food and insane kitchen setups and appliances that I would love to buy but will probably never be able to. The list of crazy things there includes a $20,000 seat...
Cupcakes + Beer (and sometimes tequila) = PubCakes
There’s a place in San Diego called PubCakes that has been selling cupcakes made with different kinds of beer for a while now. They just recently opened up a storefront so I decided to go check them out and see if the beer really added anything to these cupcakes.
I went with a friend of mine who has been here before and knew which ones to go for. One of their most popular is their Irish...
Butter Poached Lobster!
Part two of my Relate pop-up restaurant experience: Butter poached lobster, warm egg and caviar salad, leeks, fennel jam, and onion froth.
If you’re not sure what a pop-up restaurant is, or you didn’t check out my first post on it, you can see it here: Relate Pop-up Restaurant Part 1
After the foodgasms that were the first two courses, I could barely contain myself when I found out I...
Carne Asada: Steak Heaven
In celebration of Cinco de Mayo I decided to make a giant pile of Mexican food. One of my favorite things to make of all time is carne asada. It’s steak, it’s flavorful, and it’s grilled to perfection. What’s not to like?
On my trip to flavor country in my homage to the real country of Mexico, I decided to go all out. Rather than just making a giant pile of carne asada,...
April 2011
5 posts
Burger and Milkshake Lunch Explosion
Hodads, a local burger place, just opened up a new location in downtown San Diego. Their other location is tasty, but usually way too busy for me to want to go and wait in line. So today I drove over to check out the new one and luckily I managed to get a spot at the bar without waiting. And, in a crazy coincidence, I was seated right in front of a license plate from Alberta, where I am from back...
Roasted Baby Beet Salad with Golden Beet...
A few months back I went to a pop-up restaurant in Encinitas called Relate. For those not familiar with the pop-up restaurant, the basic idea is that a chef wants to try out a new concept, or make some really high end food available, and only for a limited time. So they open up shop in another space, generally one that is only occupied during the day; I am told this keeps overhead down and allows...
Chipotle Artichoke Tuna Salad Sandwich
Sandwiches have the advantage of being extremely easy to make. Which is a key consideration when you are starving and demand nothing but the finest noms without extending any real effort. Try this one next time you are hungry and lazy (i.e. now).
I started off with some canned chunk tuna (that’s right, the good stuff). Then I chopped up some celery, artichoke hearts, and chipotle peppers in...
2 tags
BBQ Espresso Rubbed Prime Rib
Meat is amazing! Especially in gigantic form. People always say less is more. But I say, they are clearly lying. I think this picture speaks for itself:
You see? Less is not more. MORE is more. I was at the grocery store and I saw this rib roast on sale for half off. And no, it wasn’t expired or anything, it was just on sale. So I said to myself, well I like meat, AND it’s on sale....
Bacon'd Brussels!
Brussels sprouts are amazing. Roasted brussels sprouts are easy to make, healthy, and delicious. What’s not to like? Just trim off the stems, chop them in half, and throw them on a baking sheet on top of tinfoil. Then add some chopped shallots and roll the whole mix in olive oil. Drizzle a little bit of lemon over top. Then add salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Then roast in the oven until...
March 2011
4 posts
Greek Chicken
Dinner party time. Must make piles and piles of tasty food. Step one. Potatoes. Everyone likes potatoes.
Especially potatoes with garlic, caramelized onions, and goat cheese. I mean this is pretty much going directly to your arteries, but who cares? That’s what they have prescription drugs for these days anyway. I’m pretty sure I also put an obscene amount of butter and cream in...
Mandarin Habanero Guacamole
I ran out of pomegranates so I thought I would try something different with my guacamole this time. Rick Bayless suggests using supremes of different kinds of fruit, so I went with that. I took supremes of mandarin orange, avocado, diced red onion, chopped tomatoes, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, garlic, lime, cilantro, and mixed it all together. But I wanted something to balance out the...
Double Booze Stew
Why mess around? If food with wine is good and food with beer is good, food with wine AND beer must be amazing! Let’s find out…
To start with I got myself some red wine and some beer and chopped up some beef chuck. It’s better to buy it yourself and butcher it than buy the “stewing beef” packages from the store - they usually lack connective tissue and fat and/or...
Margarita Time!
I love margaritas. They are amazing. I would have them all the time if they weren’t so terrible for you. Well that and the fact that that would make me an alcoholic… When I do make margaritas though, I want to go all out. I don’t want to use the crappiest, cheapest, neon green margarita mix that you can buy anywhere. I want to make something worth drinking. I made these ones with...
February 2011
3 posts
Beer Tasting: Pliny the Elder vs. Pliny the...
Every year the Northern California brewery Russian River releases a special brew-Pliny the Younger. They only release it once a year and in very small quantities, so apparently, beer geeks go nuts for it. Rather than butcher the description of it, here’s what the brewery has to say about it: “Pliny the Younger is hopped three times more than our standard IPA, and is dry hopped four...
Grilled Rosemary Lemon Dijon Chicken
Looking for something easy to make, delicious, and healthy? How about a grilled chicken that turns out super juicy and extremely flavorful every time?
One of my favorite things to make is this grilled chicken dish that I adapted from a recipe from Anne Burrell: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/grilled-chicken-with-dijon-and-meyer-lemon-recipe/index.html.
When I make it I usually...
Herb and Garlic Crusted Salmon
Hungry. Very hungry. Yet lazy. Extremely lazy. This is a common problem I have. Standing in front of the fridge staring at some tasty salmon, but not much else, I was trying to figure out what the hell I was going to make. Or whether I was going to give up and go out for food instead. Luckily I was able to come up with something pretty darn tasty with the limited stock I had on hand. And when I...
January 2011
5 posts
STTTTEEEEEEAAAKKKKKK!!!!
I love steak. LOVE. Today I had a conversation about steak at 9 in the morning. I’ve been thinking about steak since then. It’s now 7:30 at night. Sadly, still no steak. So instead of eating it, I will look at pictures of steak I made and tell you about how delicious it was. This will probably just make my steak-lust worse, but oh well.
To the steak!
Gross looking you say? False....
MMmmmmm MMmmm MMmonster Burger
And on the eighth day the lord said, let there be burger!
And the people ate it and it was pretty good and massively filling.
I went nuts on this one. Why hold back? Let’s start with the bottom of the burger and work our way up. First off a cheese bun, because let’s face it-they are awesome. Then a thin layer of peanut butter on top of the bottom bun (I stole this idea from no...
If Angels Had Ribs This is What They Would Taste...
BBQ is one of my favorite kinds of foods. Ribs. Brisket. Burnt Ends. Pulled Pork. Nom. Nom. Nom. I could eat BBQ every day and never get tired of it. Luckily there is one place in particular that San Diego has that never ceases to amaze me with how consistently delicious it is - Phil’s BBQ.
Phils BBQ is just plain amazing. Their sauce might as well be a drink. It’s that good. I have...
Artichoke Sriracha Pasta With Chicken Sausage
I was in the mood for a lazy Monday night meal today. I find pasta always does the trick for that. I started with some Adell’s Chicken Sausage and some bottled artichoke tomato sauce. Don’t judge me for using premade sauce. I said I was in the mood for a lazy meal. However, I always feel the need to add other, non-premade ingredients so I’m not a total bum.
(The sauce looks...
Canada Loves Bacon!
I was back in Canada over the holidays visiting family and I loaded up on bacon. It seems that Canadians really love it. And to clear this up once and for all, Canadian Bacon is the same as Back Bacon, which is a type of ham, and not the normal strips of bacon. So stop asking already.
My holiday indulging led me to three bacon filled meals that reminded me why I love it.
Bacony Goodness #1:
...
December 2010
5 posts
1 tag
Holy Guacamole!
It’s almost hard to describe how amazing avocados are. They make virtually everything better and they are somewhat healthy too. Pretty good combo. But as amazing as avocados are, they are even better when smashed up with other ingredients into that sublime green nectar called guacamole.
I’m serious about guacamole. Very serious. I ask everybody for their version of it (and judge them...
5 tags
Asian Food Fest
I wanted to make something quick and tasty for a weeknight meal so I picked a few of my favorite quick fix items. I went with skirt steak because it’s quick to cook and will take on a marinade quickly. Then added a couple packages of udon noodles because they are delicious and cook practically instantly. And then some baby bok choy so I could pretend I was eating something healthy.
I...
This Looks Delicious!
…and it was!
the end.
Nom Rating: NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM (7 NOMS - Spicy Delight)
4 tags
T is for Tasty Tacos
I love tacos and I love Korean BBQ, so I was expecting this to be the most delicious thing in the world. With that expectation in mind, read on.
The Truck:
So the truck I tried was the Kal-bi-Q truck. It cruises around San Diego stopping in business parks for lunch and outside bars at night. You can follow their twitter (@Kalbiq) to find out where they are each day. I know the truck pictured...
BBQ Beer Can Chicken
Step One: Preparing the Feast of Nommage
Beer + Chicken = Amazingness. This one is one of my favorites because it’s practically impossible to screw it up. To start, put some basic bbq rub all over the chicken and inside the cavity. A basic recipe for a bbq rub can be found here: http://www.kitchendaily.com/recipe/basic-barbecue-rub-74181/ This is the rub I used. It’s easy to make and...
November 2010
13 posts
SD Beer Tour Stop #1: Ballast Point
Stop one on the San Diego Beer tour: Ballast Point. It’s close to my house and I’ve tried it before at Phil’s BBQ, so I thought it would be a good start. One of the cool things about this place is that in addition to being a beer brewery, they are the only micro distillery in San Diego. They make gin and rum, and a bloody mary mix that is supposed to be mixed with their gin in...
Meat and Potatoes California Style
MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTT…and potatoes…and other stuff. Here in Southern California we love our BBQ’d tri tip. But meat and potatoes doesn’t sound all that exciting on its own so I’m going to add my own sound effects. I may or may not have also made the sound effects while cooking. First, I started by grilling up tri-tip marinated in lime juice, garlic,...
“PIZZA IS DELICIOUS!”
– Everyone in the universe
San Diego Brewery Tour Fest
So apparently San Diego is one of the craft beer capitals of the country, and according to some it is THE place for craft beer. Some notables here include Stone Brewing (which is expanding to Europe soon) and Alesmith. There are 30ish breweries in San Diego that are open to the public. I’m making it my mission to see each and every one of them. Hopefully one a week, but we’ll see how...
Wither No More
Me: crapieat.com is getting started
Dmitry: show it to me, please
Me: it's not done yet, you'll have to wait a bit
Dmitry: sigh, i shall quietly wither until then
i will be the most devoted fan of your blog
occasionally I will submit a picture of my own crap that I eat
for consideration
and you will be like
"no, this is inferior"
"you may not put it on the blog"
and I will be so happy that you even took the time to reject it
The ULTIMATE Bloody Mary
I don’t mess around with bloody marys - this thing is a MEAL, a FEAST even. King Crab, Shrimp, a Pickle, Bleu Cheese Stuffed Olives, and a Cheesestring (yes a Cheesestring). All that deliciousness and of course vodka.
Nom Rating: NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM (8 Noms - Flavor Explosion)
“It’s Like An Angel Dying in My Mouth With Each Bite”
– My brother
Grilled Pork Loin with Horseradish Cream Sauce
If you’re like me, you love the horseradish or horseradish cream sauce that comes with prime rib almost as much as the meat itself. I was inspired by the horseradish cream sauce at a local place known for their prime rib and decided to try and make my own. I did a basic bbq rub on the pork loin and grilled it. Then I made a horseradish cream sauce made with sour cream, lemon, extra hot...