So let me do a food report first on our seaside get-away trip to Monterey Bay and Carmel-by-the-Sea (central California, 5+ hours drive from our home)! We first went to the Old fisherman Wharf at Monterey Harbor. We went to this seafood restaurant Rappa’s which locate at the end of the dock, so there’s a nice ocean view. It’s also famous for its clam chowder.
All the food are very good. The Clam Chowder is one the best I’ve ever had!!! The raw oyster is fresh and tasty. The clam’s alright. The Sand Dub fillet is really good too (It’s the first time I eat this fish? but argh it’s just so typical for American to fry their fish…) All their dips and sauces are very unique tasting~
We also had gelato at Espresso To Go & Ice Cream Too. The little scope is like Japanese-size and cost $3-something. o_O The Pistachios gelato is the best! This is the first time I have gelato, it’s smooth, creamy and sticky (yet without feeling milky like ice-cream).
At night we stayed and dine at Carmel-by-the-Sea (a beautiful rural town by the beach that Clint Eastwood used to be its mayor). Gosh Carmel is THE ideal town I wish to live in, it’s basically just a upscale town full of nice little boutiques, art galleries and fine restaurants! (more detail report and pix later). There were too many choices (though most places are too expensive) that we picked one that has shortest queue line with reasonable price (we were hungry and tired!). We went to Village corner, a mediterranean restaurant full of couples (argh…). The interior is bohemian chic but it’s too dark to picture of. And they have Paella! It’s kind of watery (compare with the ones I tried in Japan) and I don’t like the green peas, and the clams and mussels are way too tiny, though it taste really good so it’s alright.
(my camera ran out of battery by here so I had to rely on my other sucky camera which of course failed me >_<;;;)
The next day we had lunch at Flaherty’s Oyster Bar, one of the few casual places there ^^;; I had the Oyster Stew (Left: plump Washington oysters, cream and a touch of sherry), Joan had the Ahi Tuna Steak, both are really good!!! We also had the Apple-Boysenberry Fruit Juice, it has sparkles so taste a bit like wine~
Tags: Oyster, Seafood, Travel Report
Oh my, look at all those food~~~~they all look so yummy~~~~~~
Who did you go with, just 2 of you?
Even though the pics are blurry, the most tempting ones are definitely the oyster stew and the tuna steak!! That restaurant has crab chowder in the menu too? Wonder how it tastes! But soup and stew will not be perfect without good freshly-baked bread, did it come with?
I love Paella too but although many places can offer “okay” quality, very very few places can actually impress.
Hey, I thought gelato was just the Italian name of ice-cream? Wrong?
You took pics of your hotel too right??
tomoko, we should go away for a weekend tour sometime too~~~~hotspring when it gets cooler maybe~~~
Oh it’s a family trip (so Dad paid for everything :P)
Yeah the Oyster stew is sooooo good! I like stuffs that has layers of taste in it (ex: sweet, sour, salty) that you can’t pinpoint exactly what the taste is. It doesn’t come with bread specifically, but the restaurant always give you a basket full of bread regardless what you order anyways.
I prefer the paella to be not watery at all, I like how the rice is a bit burn and stick on the pan. that’ll be yummy.
It’ll be easier to go to weekend tour in Japan since you guys can take trains! it’s qutie tiresome to stuck in a car for 5+ hours! Oh I wanna go to hotsrping too~~~ (none here!!)
My parents are very uncreative in eating western food, like it’s so funny that of the 3 meals we had, my dad got “Rock Shrimp Linguine” in all of them. ^^;;
oh yeah I wanna go somewhere~
but hot springs??
wow both of you guys don’t mind getting naked infront of strangers!? (^^;
Yeah food-wise I like it “complicated”, and also “unpredictable” as well. I have no interest in food that I already know exactly how it tastes before I start eating it. That’s why I love French, a dish usually comes out completely different from what you imagine from reading the menu, and not until you actually put it in your mouth that you find out how it tastes….gosh, I really sound geek, don’t I? ^^;;;
Paella should be like chinese fried rice, you know? Strong fire to get rid of all the extra water and burn it a little to give it 香り.
Oh I went to Hokkaido last winter and Izu this spring JUST for hotspring!! And of course the food in hotspring hotels too. ^^;;; You don’t actually have to show yourself naked openly – before I go into the water, I use the small towel to hide the crucial part(^^;;) and after you dip into the water, you can’t really see anyway unless you make an effort to focus…^^;;;
Of course it is easy and fast to take bullet trains but it is sooooooo expensive! Like going to Kansai(western part) it will probably cost 200 dollars for a return ticket.
Oh but the Hokkaido trip was really fantastic…it was snowing(!!) when we were in the hotspring~~~~~and we smuggled beer in during the 貸切 time, haha!!
Ha yes you describe perfectly what yummy food is!
I saw the pictures of your hokkaido trip, it seems really really nice! It’s the kind of trip I like, relax in hotspring…good food..away from the familiar city/corps chain stuffs.