The Kebab Shop Kicks Gyro's Ass

I just had a terrific lunch today, so good I wanted to share it with you right now in this quickie review.  The Kebab Shop caught my eye a few months ago in the Gaslamp District, right across the street from Cafe Chloe.  You know what that means - if you're with your wife, the romance of a French Bistro wins every time over a giant hunk of lamb spinning on a horizontal skewer.  Don't even try, there is no way in Hell you will convince your wife to go there. 

So how happy was I when a new Kebab Shop opened in my shopping center in Encinitas.  Today I am flying solo, my wife back to work to keep us in the Top 1%.  So there I was.

The "Döner Kebab" was what I had my eye on.  Now I will admit this, I had never had a Döner Kebab before, though I have eaten plenty of gyro sandwiches, which is kind of the same thing - only different.

I got mine with lamb, but you can get chicken or falafel, though I see no point in that.  You can also get it in sandwich format, or on a plate, or even in a box like it was Chinese food, but again, why?  The sliced meat was piled high on a flatbread that looked suspiciously like a flour tortilla and on went the sauce, the onions, the lettuce, the tomato, and it was all rolled up like, well, a burrito.

For less than $7 you get this giant rolled up meal.  But enough staring, let's take a bite and see how it is.

Oh yeah, this is really good.  The meat had a good spice on it and the tang of the sauce was just right.  I think you could easily split this for 2 but I ate it.  All of it.  Diet starts tomorrow now.  How does it compare to a Gyro?  It's better.  Way better because there's more meat than bread, plus it's burrito friendly to eat, unlike a gyro where you wear half of the sauce down your arm.  Frankly, after eating one of these there is simply no reason to ever go back to a gyro again.

If your experience with shaved meats spinning on giant horizontal skewers stops with places like Daphne's (which I call Crapne's), if you love gyros but hate the mess, if you agree that anything is better if wrapped like a burrito, then get in the car and head over to the Kebab Shop.  I love my wife, I love Cafe Chloe, but man do I ever love The Kebab Shop.

LOCAL WALLY MEANS THE BEST OF SAN DIEGO:  www.localwally.com

Best Bites at the San Diego Food and Wine Festival 2011

There's no doubt about it - The San Diego Food and Wine Festival is the best culinary event of the year.

The week long event featuring cooking demos and wine classes throughout the week culminates with the Grand Tasting finale, featuring San Diego's hottest restaurants and over 175 booths serving up wine, beer and spirits.  Held each year before Thanksgiving on the Embarcadero Marina Park North, the large grassy peninsula behind Seaport Village, there's cooking competitions, live music, and booth after booth of good stuff to taste.

For three short hours you run around like a chicken with your head cut off pounding down as many gourmet bites and drinking as much as you can.... well I guess a chicken would need a head to do that but you get the idea. I went last year and missed a lot of good stuff, so this year I came in with a strategy.  My plan was to race around the entire event and only grab stuff that looked outstanding the first time around, then go around again to taste the wines, then back one more time to try everything else.  But this plan got shot to hell the second someone handed me a crab claw.

A stone crab claw slightly larger than a baby's arm with a spicy remoulade sauce stopped me dead in my tracks.  And then I got distracted and my strategy started to unravel.  All around me was great food and wine.  How was I supposed to pick the best when everything looked so darn good?

See what I mean?  This isn't some crummy "Taste of Downtown" event where everyone is serving up pasta with marinara sauce, these are gourmet bites like this veal cheeks and tongue.  What?  You've never tasted veal tongue?  Well baby, you haven't lived until you've put a veal tongue on your tongue.  So tender, so tasty, you forget that it's a slice of tongue and instead just push your way back into line to get another piece.

That's what's so cool about this event.  The foods are not your run of the mill freebies.  They're the sort of thing you see on a good menu and wonder if you should go for it.  Well, let's go for it!

This might look like a standard piece of short rib but this one is wrapped with a fig and served with  slices of nuts.  Needless to say it was delicious, a nice mix of savory and sweetness.

Behind the scenes you can watch the chef's preparing the food like this is a Top Chef competition, only here you don't get the mean bald guy ripping on the food.  But how could he?  With food this good, even the meanest TV chef judge would be raving.

And Local Wally wasn't the only celebrity there.  Look, that's Sam the Cooking Guy!  I could tell he was trying to get over to me to take my picture, but I quickly took off the other way because I didn't want to cause a big scene - you know, Sam and Wally in the same spot and everyone trying to get our autographs and stuff.  Besides, I smelled pork.  On a BBQ!

Oh my gosh, the pork was succulent and rich and fatty and crispy and oh so damn good.  I'm guessing it was slow cooked pork belly.  I could be wrong, but there was nothing wrong with this pork. 

Of course, there were plenty of wines to taste along with vodkas and beers and just about everything else.  Now I know that San Diego has a vibrant beer scene and a lot of the breweries were there, but how can you turn down a Stella where you get to keep the glass?  I felt like Homer Simpson guzzling down the beer so I could get back in line to get another free glass.  What?  Pour the beer onto the grass instead of drinking it?  Are you kidding me?

As for the wines, wineries from Napa to Paso to Temecula were represented with some very nice selections.  Just like the food wasn't like the crummy free samples at Costco, the wines were equally top notch and you definitely got your moneys worth with the tastings. The big surprise to me were the wines from Baja, which turned out to be way better than I ever imagined.  Of course, I was drunk by this point so who really knows?  As for the Pomegranate wine, well, you decide for yourself on that one. 

But let's get back to the food, like this wonderful piece of hamachi with a bit of spicy vodka, which had to go down as one of the best sushi bites ever.  After this quick bite, I decided to troll the event and find more seafood bites.  Luckily, I didn't have to go far.

Harney Sushi, one of San Diego's hottest and most revered sushi restaurants, was serving up a spoonful of delight.

And Busters from Seaport Village, a place that most foodie's have ignored, knocked it out of the park with their Ahi Poke on top of seaweed salad.  This was so good with the soy and sesame oil flavors mixing with the ultra fresh fish.  I  WANT  ANOTHER  NOW.  Busters, you rock dude!

Now I love scallops but rarely cook them at home because they can get so expensive.  So you know I was happy to find so many booths with scallops on their tasting menu.  Look at it - a thing of beauty, a nice sear, the attention to detail, the.... Hey, where did it go??  Sorry, I ate it.  Don't worry, there's more.  Unlike La Valencia's Sky Room where they served me one scallop as an entree, you can eat as many of these as you like.  And I like them!  A lot!

Blue Point Coastal Cuisine always seems to have something interesting going on.  What is this chef making? Is that a jar of foam?

Look, a bit of shrimp and pork belly topped with foam and a little syringe with sauce that you shoot into your mouth.  It's not exactly first date food, if you know what I mean.  But it was darn tasty and loads of fun.

Three hours goes fast when you're having this much fun.  As the bottles of port were put away, the last scallop dropped, the final fillet sliced, I realized I had missed an entire row of booths!  And I missed the cooking competition!  But I did get to sit on the grass with friends and laugh as we sipped what was described as a "life changing" basil leaf Acai gimlet, which turned out to be true. This event was a good reminder that life really is good.

You don't have to be a big foodie or a wine connoisseur to love this event.  But if you've read this far, you need to get to the San Diego Wine and Food Festival next year.  Make it your new holiday tradition and I'll see you there.

LOCAL WALLY'S GUIDE TO SAN DIEGO:  www.localwally.com
NAPA:  www.napatouristguide.com
SONOMA:  www.sonomatouristguide.com
LOCAL SAN DIEGO MUSIC:  www.sdhomegrown.com
COMING SOON:  SAN DIEGO BEER AND WINE GUIDE www.DrinkUpSanDiego.com

The Search for the Perfect French Fry is Over!

Darn good fries at Blind Lady Ale House on Adams Ave. - but are these the best?

I love fries.  Seriously love them.  When I go to a restaurant if the entree says "with fries" I have to get it.  It could be donkey butt "with fries" and I would want it.

I've searched the world for the best fries.  Here's a short list of San Diego's notable spuds.

Third Corner, Encinitas:  A-
Comments:  Nice, thin and crispy with some Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top, which is good but sort of bugs me.

Cafe Chloe, Gaslamp:  B+
Comments:  Really great thin fries, but they get deducted a half point because you have to pay a buck extra for the dipping sauces now.

Islands, Various San Diego locations:  C-
Comments:  I don't understand why fries that look so good have no flavor.  They look like hand cut beauties, but taste like cardboard.

In N Out:  B
Comments:  Like Mom used to make, which is both good and bad.  I do love the flavor, but they can get a bit limp at times because they don't double fry them.
 

So I love fries, but I also love beer and San Diego has a ton of local breweries, like Lost Abbey in San Marcos.  I found myself surrounded by a bunch of little glasses of beer but something caught my eye.  What is that???  French Fries???

Yes, right outside the brewery on Saturdays is a food stand called Belgium Delights.  They make things like waffles and brioche, but it was the fries that were getting all the attention.  These are not French fries but rather Belgian fries, double cooked for a creamy interior and a super crispy exterior.  Served with Aioli, a garlicky mayonnaise based dipping sauce.  OK, catsup if you want it, but why would you with fries this good?  One crunchy bite and I was sold.  These are great fries, on par with the best I've ever had.  They're cooked to order, rendering each order hot and fresh, and there ain't nothing better than a French Fry right out of the oil.

Best fries in San Diego?  Absolutely!  The crispy crunch, the creamy texture inside, $4 gets you a small cone that's big enough to share, but $6 gets you a large that let's you share without those mean thoughts in your head about how the person next to you is eating all your fries.  My only sadness was that I'd have to wait another week to get them.

But wait!  The next day I found myself at the Leucadia Farmers Market, open every Sunday from 10 to 2.  Whoa, look whose here!  It's a dream come true!  Need.  More.  Fries.

OK, yes, I ate half of them before I remembered to take a photo but that's how good these are.  Look at them, all crispy, golden brown and delicious!

And here they are, the people behind the Best Fries in San Diego.  You see them, you should bow down like Queen Elizabeth is looking you straight in the eye and say "One large order please, with aioli sauce".  And don't hesitate - go to Lost Abbey on Saturday, go to the Leucadia Farmers Market on Sunday, go get these fries!  You won't regret it.

Thank you Belgium Delights. There's a special place in heaven for you, right next to the deep fryer.  I'll be first in line. Every day.

More Wally at www.localwally.com
Visit Napa and Sonoma the Wally way!  www.napatouristguide.com and www.sonomatouristguide.com
Listen to Local San Diego music at www.SDHomegrown.com
Coming Soon!  The San Diego beer and winery guide at www.DrinkUpSanDiego.com

A Night at the Temecula's CRUSH

If someone tells you that Temecula is just like Napa, the polite thing to do is to smile and nod and turn your head before you roll your eyes.  Because Temecula is not like Napa, not even a tiny bit.  Whereas Napa is old and established and considered by some to be the wine making capital of the world, Temecula is young and new and still finding its way.

Is this a scene from Gunsmoke?  No, just a typical sight in Temecula. 

And there I was, sitting in the front row in front of Temecula's top wine makers hoping they don't know who I am.  I'm guilty of mocking some of their efforts, but come on, sparking wine that tastes like a Chinese almond cookie?  And I've been there on the weekends where drunk bachelorette parties burst into the tasting rooms shouting "whooo hoooo" and drinking their wines like a Jager shot.  No, Temecula is definitely not just like Napa.

But don't tell these guys.

I must admit, after listening to them talk passionately about Temecula wines for an hour, I finally get it.  Wine making is an art, a way of life, but you still need to pay the bills.  So if sweeter whites are the ticket, the gateway wine to more serious reds, then give the people what they want - hopefully without compromising the art.  That's what Temecula is all about, producing a large variety of wines for every level of wine drinker.  Over the years the wines have gone from meh to a level of surprising sophistication. Seriously, if you haven't been for a while it's time to go back and taste! 

Once a year Temecula holds an event called CRUSH at the Monte De Oro Winery. With over 30 wineries pouring their best and local restaurants serving up gourmet foods, this has to be one of the best food and wine festivals in Southern California. It's a great way to sample all the wines in one place and the sold out event wasn't so packed that you felt like you were at the Del Mar Fair. 

I asked for a glass of sparkling wine and they all jumped to attention!  Gee, thanks!

The main event is held outside on the gigantic patio with sweeping views of the vineyards.  Local restaurants like Rustico served up their specialties, like this killer Mac N Cheesy thing that was rich and creamy and crispy on top and, well, incredible. And unlike a lot of food fests where the serving size resembles a CostCo sample, tastings were generous.  And best yet, the lines moved fast so you rarely found yourself without a plate of food or a full glass of wine. 

Let's see some of the food highlights.

What is that?  The Creekside Grill at Wilson Creek Winery was cooking up these monster pork ribs.  I sort of assumed they would be cutting these up into tiny bites, but look at the final plate.

Da-yammm!  This was an entree sized sample and was melt in your mouth deliciousness.  I knew I had to pace myself but I couldn't resist.  Gone.  What's next?

Meritage at Callaway did a terrific Asian dumpling, a cross between a won ton and a potsticker with a modern touch.  Nice.

Let's stick with the Asian theme and go with a bit of ahi poke on top of a crispy won ton skin with some tangy slaw from the Lazy Dog Cafe, one of my favorite bites of the evening.  I ate four of these, the ahi gloriously fresh and inviting.

Ummm, what is this?  A scallop with bacon?  Gimme, gimme.  I gobbled these up like the Donner Party finding an old friend.  In fact, I loved these so much I forgot to take notes on who made these.  Please forgive me, I was hungry and these were sweet and succulent and oh so tasty.  Whoever you are, thank you. These scallops were every bit as good, if not better, than what I've had in many upscale and ultra expensive restaurants.  One more?

The restaurant at Ponte Winery was responsible for the beef carpaccio and a dessert of cheesecake with cherries with a consistency of creamy yogurt, both big winners.  I ate two desserts, and I usually don't like desserts so you know this was good.

Here's a weird one.  Temecula Catering was wowing the crowd with this simple yet elegant dessert, a bit of molecular gastronomy with a compressed watermelon and a shot of oil and balsamic vinegar on top.  You shoot it in like this -

And then you pop it in your mouth and say "Ummmmmm, wow, ummmmm."  Later that evening they did something even crazier.  Let's see.

It's creme brulee on a stick!  The lines were long for this one and it was fun to see all the adults looking like happy little kids as they were handed their sucker.  And yes, it really tasted like creme brulee.  And you keep the stick!

All in all, CRUSH was a terrific event and quite a bargain at $65.  Wine lovers like myself found more than a few new wineries to check out and no one left hungry if the stacks of empty plates were any indication.  In the end, who cares if Temecula isn't just like Napa?  Maybe being San Diego is good enough.  It was for me.

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WALLY LOVES SAN DIEGO:  www.LocalWally.com
WALLY LOVES WINE:  www.NapaTouristGuide.com and www.SonomaTouristGuide.com
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Coming Soon!  San Diego Brew and Winery Guide

The Other White Meat: My Slow Cooked Pork Belly Adventure

"Dude, that sounds gross!"

That was the reaction of my co-worker when I told him I bought a chunk of pork belly.  "Bill" (not his real name - or is it?) eats a lot of interesting stuff but doesn't cook, so I could understand his apprehension.  After all, pork belly sounds a lot like cow's head or sheep throat or any other number of unappetizing descriptions.  I had never cooked it before but have eaten it in restaurants and been noticing more and more high end restaurants treating it like it's the new foie gras, meaning a trendy expensive ingredient, so when I saw it for $2.99 a pound, I had to get it.

So this is it.  And look, it looks a lot like bacon!  That's because bacon is made from pork belly.  See, sounding better already.  So let's cook this thing and see what it's all about.

STEP 1:  Score the "rind" (aka pig skin) deep enough to cut through but not so deep as to hit the meat.  You'll need a sharp knife as cutting through the skin is sort of like cutting through a football.  I have a pretty sharp knife but wished I had sharpened it before I started, so there's your first tip.

STEP 2:  Coat in olive oil and liberally sprinkle Kosher salt and pepper. 

Put the slab of pork belly on top of a bunch of onions and add some water to the bottom of the pan to keep things moist as well as keep the dripping fats from burning.  Now some recipes suggest you can make gravy out of the "drippings", but the drippings are 99.9% fat.  I figure this dish has enough artery clogging fat in it so decided to skip the gravy and let the ingredient shine, as they say on all those cooking shows.  So another tip - if you decide not to make gravy, line the pan with foil to make clean up easier. 

STEP 3:  Now pop it in the oven at 320 degrees for a total of 2.5 to 3 hours.  Set your timer for every half hour or so to check to make sure the water hasn't all boiled out.  How much water?  A quarter to a half inch is fine.  If you have a nice bottle of pinot noir, open it and have a couple of glasses.  That's what I did.

Here's what it looks like out of the oven.  You know it's done when the skin goes "thunk, thunk" when you tap it with a fork.  It should be solid and crunchy.  Don't toss those onions - pretty damn tasty, just don't let your guests see them sitting in all that fat. In fact, don't let your guests see any of this!  It might freak them out. 

We decided to go Southern California healthy with the rest of the dinner and oven roast some vegetables - carrots, turnips, fennel, potatoes.  We were going to make mashed potatoes but that pinot sort of gets away from you and before you know it the pork was nearly done so cutting up the tots and tossing them into the oven with the rest of his veggie friends was just too easy to pass up.

Now pork belly is pretty rich, which is a nice way to say that it's fatty.  You don't need a lot of it to feel satisfied, and quite frankly, too much of it and your stomach might be asking what they hell were you thinking.  So let's plate this up restaurant style.

OMG, a bite of golden deliciousness!  The pork is melt in your mouth succulent, the skin a contrasting pop of crunch, is this the best thing I've eaten in a month?  And look, a touch of finishing salt, how elegant!  Thomas Keller suggests small bites like this and serves it as an appetizer, which is probably wise.  But I thought I'd plate it up my way.

Crazy good!  The meat doesn't taste fatty at all.  When I first started cooking this I was thinking it would be 50% fat, but the meat sort of plumps up and the fat, well, let's just say it cooked off  to make everyone feel better.  Let's see the other plate.

I mean, seriously, doesn't this look outrageously good and restaurant quality?  $28?  $32?  How about five bucks for the entire pork belly?  And cooking it was only slightly more difficult than boiling a hot dog.  So there you have it, a not so adventurous pork belly adventure.  You want to impress your foodie friends, cook this dish.  The hardest part it getting the nerve to buy the pork belly.

So let's recap -

HOW TO COOK A SLOW ROASTED PORK BELLY

Ingredients:  2 pounds pork belly, 1 onion, kosher salt and pepper.

1.  Score skin of pork belly to cut through it, but not all the way into the meat.  Make scores about 1/4 to 1/2  inch apart.  Pat dry.

2.  Rub olive oil all over meat and then massage Kosher salt and pepper into it, getting into the cuts of the skin.

3.  Place on top of cut onions and add water to the bottom of the tray.

4.  Put in oven for 2.5 to 3 hours, checking every half hour to make sure the water hasn't all evaporated.  It's done when the skin is all crunchy (tap it with a fork to check). 

5.  Slice it - easiest to slice by turning it upsidedown and cutting through the meat first, then crunching through the skin.

Enjoy!

Local Wally's San Diego Guide:  www.localwally.com
Coming soon!  Local Wally's Guide to San Diego Breweries and Wineries!

Searching For Good BBQ in San Diego

THE PLACE:  PHIL'S BBQ

THE VIBE:  PACKED HOUSE, LINES OF PEOPLE

THE COST:  REASONABLE, <$20 FOR COMPLETE RIB DINNERS

People can get religiously fanatic when they talk about BBQ.  There's the sweet, smokey tenderness found in Kansas City.  There's the spiced rub dry style of the Carolinas with its simple tangy vinegar sauce.  There's the sauce-less beefy ribs of Texas - don't ask for sauce or they will kill you.  Whether it's pork spareribs, giant beef ribs, or a tender brisket, BBQ has one thing in common - it's cooked low and slow over the sweet smokiness of hickory or fruit tree wood.

Of course, this is San Diego and this is Phil's BBQ, the"as seen on FoodTV" BBQ joint that's often called the best in San Diego.  But could it stand up to the ribs I've been lucky enough to sample across the country, or will it fail like a fish taco in Memphis?  Let's get in line and see.

Here's the drill.  You line up outside and wait like this is Disneyland on a holiday weekend.  The hostess doesn't show you to the table, she points at a cash register where you order and pay and then hunt for an open spot.  Those in the know know that you can grab a place at the bar to the left and skip the line, and those coming during rush hour know that you can call in an order and skip to the front to get your food to go.  BBQ at the beach?  BBQ in the car?  Why not, especially if you're on vacation and it's a rental!

Now I told you I've been lucky enough to sample some great ribs across this country.  Kansas City style is what most people think of when they think ribs - meat smothered with sauce.  Now purists argue with that, but purists will be taken aback by something else here at Phil's, and that's that they don't use smokers.

Say What?

That's right, unlike just about every other BBQ joint in the US, Phil's grills their ribs over mesquite wood instead of tossing them into a smoker for hours.  That could be a problem as ribs are inherently tough and need the low and slow cooking time to get tender.  But Phil's solves that problem by using Baby Backs for their pork, a more tender cut and easier to get right on the grill.

You can get a half rack for around $13 or a full rack for $5 more, and really, there's no good reason to ever get a half rack.  The sides were solid, fries hot and crispy, beans slightly sweet. The onion rings, however, had a bit too much dough on them for me but the guys ate them like it was their last meal before going on a diet.  The ribs were tender, cooked just right, and if the mesquite left a slightly harsh undertone the sauce had enough zing to carry them through. 

You can also get a combo of 4 ribs and chicken, but I see no point in this.  Not enough ribs, and let's face it, chicken is filler when there are ribs around.  It might be good filler, but you don't go to a rib place to get chicken.  But the guy who got it loved it and loved the potato salad and pretty much ate everything except for the paper on the bottom (and that's debatable) so what do I know?

One of the best things to get at Jacks Stack in Kansas City are the Crown Ribs, big, juicy fatty beef ribs cut off a prime rib. To get beef ribs right, you need lots of time in the smoker, and then some more time wrapped in foil to get them soft and tender.  But as I said, Phil's doesn't use smokers, they grill.  But they pulled it off with the baby backs, can they do it with the giant beef ribs?

Alas, no.  These ribs were tough.  Too big to pick up, too saucy to touch, too tough to cut with a knife, these were epic failures in the land of BBQ.  But people around me were gnawing on them like the Donner Party and seemed to be enjoying them, but to a rib guy these were disasters. In the end I was the only guy taking home ribs.  The rest of the guys were loving it and pretty much cleaned their plates.

Well, pretty much.  Ribs, gone. Veggies? Hmmm, did you even try them?  Don't make this same mistake.  Trying to eat healthy while going out for ribs is like trying to avoid sand while at the beach.  You just have to dive in and forget the doctor's orders.  Ahhh, and to think those veggies could have been an order of fries.

So what's the verdict?  Can San Diego BBQ?  Tough question.  I've heard Phil's called "San Diego Style BBQ" and maybe that's a good way to put it.  It won't stand up to traditional BBQ, it would be out of business in Kansas City, but in a town more famous for fish tacos it's as good as anything your neighbor might do on his backyard grill.  That's not a put down, it's hard to get it right without a smoker and Phil's does a good enough job to please all but the purists.

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