Cucina Urbana

It's been a loooong time since I've gone to a new interesting restaurant... which is one reason I haven't posted anything since January. The other reason is that I just got too busy. And another reason is that my garden looks like $h!t right now and I'm embarrassed to even call it a garden. I do, however, have some lovely squash growing despite my neglect, and after eating at Cucina Urbana last week, I'm inspired to make some of my own fried squash blossoms (pictured here). Stuffed with ricotta cheese, lightly fried and served with aioli-- I ate them all and didn't give any to my husband (he was leery anyway).




The other delicious thing I had there was a watermelon rose martini... sadly the waiter spilled half of it on my leg, but it was on the house and he brought champagne for our anniversary, so I forgave him quickly enough.




If it's your turn to plan a date night, this is what you should do: Park at Balboa Park's Organ Pavilion, take a stroll through the botanical gardens, then walk across the Laurel Street bridge to the corner of 6th and Laurel for dinner at Cucina Urbana. My husband and I each got a personal pizza: I got the mushroom with truffle oil (ooooh so good), and he got a spicy pineapple prosciutto pizza (also so good). The decor is rustic and artsy-- I wore jeans, but some people were more dressed up as well, so anything goes. The wait staff is very friendly and the food is superb (if you didn't pick up on that already)--they use fresh ingredients from local farms (like Suzie's) and create seasonal dishes.

We didn't make reservations and so we had to wait until there was an opening at the bar area (we didn't wait long), but if you want to sit at a table you definitely want to make reservations ahead of time--they book up nearly every night (even on weekdays).

Cucina Urbana
505 Laurel Street
619.539.2222

3 Green Farm Box Meals

Literally green. In color... not "earth-friendly green." Though I'm sure they're that too. So here they are... and oh, they're tasty. If they weren't, I wouldn't be posting them. Duh.

Summer Squash and Broccoli Soup


1 medium head of broccoli
1 medium summer squash, cubed
3/4 c green onion
6 fingerling potatoes
2 garlic cloves
cream or soy creamer (to taste)
1/2 c water or broth of choice
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a medium sized soup pot, saute the garlic, onion, squash and broccoli in a little extra virgin olive oil for about 8 minutes then add 1/2 cup water or broth and cover until everything is nice and mushy. Add salt and pepper and any other spices you might like. Add more water or broth if it begins to dry out. Will probably take about 15-20 minutes. Once everything can be smooshed down with a hand-held potato masher, it's ready to mill. Turn off the heat. Using a blender or hand-mill puree the hot veggies. Add the soy milk creamer or cream and puree more until it's the consistency you like.

Next up... Farm Box Surprise



1 small head of broccoli
1 baby bok choy
1 small eggplant
2 delicata zepplin squash
2 c collard greens (or more if you want...they cook waaaay down)
fresh basil (to taste)
fresh cilantro (to taste)
1-2 cloves chopped garlic
1-2 each of red ruffled pimentos, corno di toro and antohi sweet peppers, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Optional: 1 link of chopped spicy Tofurky or 1 c tempeh

Chop everything. Throw all in a big saute pan with some extra virgin olive oil and saute until everything is al dente. DO NOT OVERCOOK it will turn into a big, pile of ugly black veggies. I ate this over Trader Joe's Three Grains Blend: rice, barley and spelt with some black and kidney beans thrown in. It was delish!

And finally... Kale Berry Smoothie


3-5 fresh leaves of kale, roughly chopped
1-2 cups frozen fruit (I like mixed berries, but peaches are good too)
1 banana
1 tbs organic chia seeds (by Navitas Naturals at Henry's)
2 tsp maca powder (also by Navitas)
1-2 cups almond milk, sweetened or unsweetened
agave nectar to taste
ice

Throw it all in a blender and let 'er rip until it's nice and green and smooth... unless you like chunky.


This is the summer squash from the first recipe. I took the seeds out, salted and baked them at 300 degrees for about 15 minutes. They were really tasty and I felt good for not letting them go to wasty.

Frankly My Dear...

I discovered a hidden treasure in Hillcrest on Sunday: Terra. No... not the plantation from Gone with the Wind, though the food served at Terra is all locally grown on plantationy farms. The following statement is at the top of their menus:

"A lot of TLC (Tasty Loving Care) goes into your meal. We buy all sustainable seafood and all natural, hormone and antibiotic free meat and chicken. We buy from the following local San Diego family farms: Stehly Organics, Blue Heron Farms, Suzie's Farm, Sage Mountain, Cunningham Organics, Crows Pass and Tierra Miguel. If you should have any food allergies or concerns, or just want to ask about our food, please ask your server."

My girlfriends and I run by this restaurant on a regular basis and have been curious for a while about the food, but suspicious that it never seemed to be busy. In fact, San Diego Home/Garden Magazine calls it, "San Diego's Best Kept Secret." That's rather unfortunate, if you ask me, so let's not keep it a secret anymore, how about that? But, upon entering the establishment, we realized there are probably a couple reasons Terra isn't slammed with business the way they should be. Those reasons are: Decor and Location.

1. We decided the interior design, while comfortable and well lit, reminded us of a cross between an early 90's hotel restaurant and an upscale Denny's. The window treatments and chair upholstery does not match the organic nature of the place. If you want my humble decorating opinion (and if you don't too bad), the place needs pictures of local farms, fresh cut foliage from said farms on the tables, earth-toned upholstery and more natural, organic-looking window treatments.

2. Hillcrest is the perfect place for a restaurant of this nature; however, it's located in the back of the Ralph's/Trader Joe's parking lot... if you're going to go out for a nice-ish dinner, who wants to drive through a grocery store parking lot to get there? It doesn't feel organic. It feels strip-mally.

But if you can get over the decor and the location, then you're in for a treat. This is a restaurant worth going out of your way for.

Observe my selection...

The Summer Vegetable Plate:

with mushroom risotto

The veggies (according to the waiter) change daily based on what is harvested that day or week. My plate happened to have colorful carrots, radishes, oyster mushrooms, spinach and various summer squashes. It was rich, creamy, and slightly sweet.

The other two dishes we ordered were...

Grilled Atlantic Salmon: with barbeque cream sauce, applewood smoked bacon, mushroom gnocchi and collard greens.

This was the best of the three meals. Light, but full of rich flavors. The gnocchi was perfectly cooked and the collard greens were vibrant and refreshing (...rather than wilty and bitter like I usually experience).

Meyeer Farm all-natural Hanger Steak: with mushroom-leek risotto, smoked onion marmalade and summer veggies.

This is a pretty sweet dish-- so I wouldn't recommend it if you like savory or salty meat entree. It was still delicious though.

I was impressed with the creativity of the dishes and inspired to try them with my own Suzie's Farm veggies. The Bonuses: I felt like I did something good by supporting a local restaurant that in turn supports local farmers. Furthermore, I ate fresh, flavorful food that was really good, and I enjoyed a nice dinner with a couple friends.

Now if we could only convince Terra to redecorate....

Terra Bar and Restaurant

1270 Cleveland Ave (between Richmond and Vermont St)

San Diego, CA 92103

619.293.7088

Five Days of Food

I ran the AFC (America's Finest City) Half Marathon on Sunday--three days ago--and have been using that as an excuse to eat and drink whatever I want for the last 5 days... if you do the math, that's 2 days before the race and 2 days after the race (not including race day)...and I'm still going strong. I wonder how long I'll be able to use, "I'm treating myself to this because I earned it." Eventually it will turn into, "...I earned on Sunday four months ago." That's not really going to work (unless I run a 1/2 marathon every weekend--which I may consider).

In any case, I'v eaten some reeeeeeally good food the last five days starting with the Barona Indian Casino Buffet. I know what you're thinking. Buffet? Ew. I thought the same thing... buffets=diarrhea. You're just going to have to trust me that I won't steer you wrong here. We plan to go back soon and this time I won't be as distracted by the crepe, exotic cheese, and mongolian bbq stations as I was this time, so I'll have some pictures for you. Since I don't have any pictures, let's move on to Alexander's the next night (Saturday night, the day before AFC).

Observe our pre-pasta appetizer: Melty Brie with a whole clove of roasted garlic. (Also note I got so excited to squish the garlic out of the clove that I forgot to take a picture when it was still all pretty...oops.) A word of caution about this dish: should you eat it and have a significant other that you plan on being around for the next two days, you need to do the following every hour: brush teeth, use mouthwash, chew gum, and spray perfume/cologne on self consistently. You will stink for at least two days as you leak garlic from every pore. But it's so worth it.


Moving on to the next night (Monday) after the race. It was a friend's birthday, so he wanted to try a new restaurant that opened in Little Italy called Craft and Commerce. They're motto is, "Demandless." And while their menu is a single page with only 3 entrees, they don't seem to expect their patrons to demandless from the bar. (The drink menu is three pages.)

Quick background on the joint: There are two other trendy-hipstery-I'm-to-cool-for-my-own-self places downtown. One is called The Neighborhood and the other is El Dorado (I'll probably write about them at some point). Anyway, somehow these three places are connected through the owners and, as far as I can tell, Craft and Commerce is the hybrid-love-child of the first two. The food, for example, is like The Neighborhood, but instead of fancy PB & J or jalapeno mac & cheese, you get hot dogs that look like this:



And the drinks are like El Dorado with their "craftiness" and the New York-drink-mix-master-guru that was flown in to create avant garde cocktails for both these establishments. Observe the birthday boy finishing off what was Craft Drink #1: Mother's Ruin. (I picked it out for him...that's not in poor taste is it??)



Yes, that is a bowl of alcohol and yes I just about wet myself when I found out it is served in a tea cup. (I had an Alice in Wonderland party earlier this year and I served cocktails out of tea pots...so, I nearly bounced myself out of my chair and onto the floor when they brought out the bowl of booze and ladled it into tea cups for everyone.)

Mother's Ruin: gin, spiced black tea infused vermouth, lemon, grapefruit, champagne.

Craft Drink #2: The Eulogy. The name says everything.

The Eulogy: gin, bianco vermouth creme de viollete, absinthe.

I should also mention, that if you're a beer person, they serve craft beer from nearly all 30 of the local San Diego breweries. So the drinks are amazing and the food is too, but you might be wondering if I ordered and ate those hot dogs. Nope. Those weren't mine, I don't eat meat from restaurants (remember?). But I heard they were amazing, and supposedly Craft and Commerce buys from local farmers and butchers. I need to look a little more closely at this rumor...and I would have asked the owner last night... but, well, you saw those drinks...

I could go on and on about how we went to Extraordinary Desserts after and pigged out on french goodies, or how amazing the breakfast burrito I've been eating (in shifts) all day today has been, but I'll spare you. For now.

Until next time:

Alexander's is in North Park at 3391 30th Street. 619.281.2539
Craft and Commerce is in Little Italy at 675 W. Beech Street. 619.269.2202

Farm to Table

I became a vegetarian after watching the film Food Inc.--actually, I'm a pescatarian (I eat a lot of fish). If you have not seen this film yet, I beg you to rent it or put it in your Netflix queue. When I first suggested it to my dad in northern California, I think he was skeptical that it was some left-wing "leaf-licking" propaganda, so I had to ask my sister, who lives in the same town as my parents, to call him and tell him to watch it. So (with her approval), he and my mom watched it, and now they, too, have made some adjustments to the way they buy their produce and meat. 

It's not that you shouldn't eat meat, it's more about where and how you get the food you're eating. (I'm not going to go into the social, political, and environmental reasonings behind my choices--that's what the film will show you.) But, to put it plainly, I don't eat meat unless I know the animal. That sounded less sick and twisted in my head. Let me try again: My parents live on a ranch where they can hunt for their food--which they've always done. This means they are eating fresh, wild meat that was killed quickly and humanely without exploiting another human demographic. Also, I remember growing up we raised a steer once. We would grass feed it and then had it butchered. The meat lasted an entire year. (P.S. The steer we raised was named Dinner and my sister and I used to ride him. I cried a little when he was taken to the butcher, but it also instilled in me a sense of appreciation and respect for the food that I was eating and I was grateful to Dinner for the dinners he provided.) 

In any case, I don't live on a ranch anymore, I live on a postage stamp piece of property in San Diego. So, unless I'm willing to shoot, skin, cook and eat the skunk that is destroying my apple tree every night--and believe me, I'm tempted to shoot the smelly little asshole-- I won't be hunting or butchering my own meat any time soon. (Well now I feel bad for calling the skunk an asshole. I don't mean that.  I'm sure he's a really nice gal*.) Therefore, I've had to search out places around San Diego that are intentional about where they get their meat and produce. 

If you head east, northeast or southeast of San Diego, you might be surprised to find loads of farmland. More recently local restaurants and grocers are buying produce from these farmers (even though it's a little more expensive than buying bulk from China or Chile) because they see the importance of supporting local farmers and they know that fresh food just tastes better, looks better, and is healthier than food shipped from across the globe or poured out of a can.

Last night I ate at a little restaurant I'd never heard of before called Sea Rocket. It is what's called a "farm to table" establishment because...well because of what I just described in the

previous paragraph (I'm sure you're keeping up here).  It was a small place with twinkle lights and papermache sharks hanging from the ceiling and candid pictures of the local farmers, ranchers, fishermen and breweries that they purchase from. Everything was local: from the honey drizzled over the Gorgonzola cheese made by a local cheeseman to the beets in the beet tart or the seared scallop and kale goodness pictured here (courtesy of the Sea Rocket Bistro website). I almost licked the plates clean. I also had a Karl Strauss light beer, but sort of wish I'd gone with one from Ballast Point-- just to try a local brew I'd never had before...but I guess that gives me something to look forward to next time. They also serve red meat here, if you're looking for that, but I'm sort of out of the habit of eating it right now. (And if you don't eat red meat much...beware of what it does to you should you suddenly ingest large amounts in one sitting. I'll leave that to your imagination.)

I'm mad at myself for forgetting my camera last night because you should have seen the fuchsia color of the beet and goat cheese tart. It was blindingly pink. It was like a rainbow threw up on my plate (only it was throw up that you'd really want to eat because it tastes really really good). Aaaand, they serve tapas. My last tapas experience was when my husband and I went to Cafe Sevilla, downtown and for some reason it was an awkward night where lots of things went wrong and was just, well, miserable. I think we might have been sick...or the food made us sick...obviously I drank too much since I don't really remember much. But my point is, that ever since then--sort of like how Pavlov's dogs drooled at the sound of a bell-- I would get instantly annoyed and antsy for no reason when I heard the word tapas. So, last night, it was good to have a positive tapas experience. $2 for a lima bean spread on warm chewy bread or $3 for the aforementioned cheese-thing. Good. Gooooood. (We didn't venture into the world of fish pate--but if you do-- let me know how that one goes.) 

Sea Rocket Bistro is on 30th between Thorn and Upas. 

Also, on the 30th of every month, many restaurants on 30th have special offers: either discounts or a special off-the-menu option. Check out the 30th on 30th website for a list of restaurants that participate.

Another farm to table restaurant worth a visit is:

Tender Greens on Historic Decatur Rd in Liberty Station, Point Loma. Try their Tuna Nicoise Big Salad.

*See sidebar called "My Language Defined" for explanation.