Magnolia Pub and Brewery Restaurant Review

Magnolia Pub and Brewery has been on my "restaurants to try" list for a while now, and I just had an excuse to go there the other day finally. I've had some of their beers before at beer fests and restaurants, so it was great to finally try some from the source.

Portland, Oregon Anniversary Trip

For whatever reason, for B and my 3rd anniversary (back in 2012), I decided I wanted to go to Portland! Don't ask what made me decide this, but I was thinking maybe San Diego or Monterey, but they were both too expensive to stay at for any length of time. Then I thought of how popular Portland was becoming, checked hotel rates, and they were so cheap! We stayed at a place called the Phoenix Inn, in Lake Oswego, about 20 minutes south of downtown, and it was really nice and totally within our price range. We drove and the hotel was right next to a gas station, which was always nice if we needed gas on our way in for the night, or out for the day. It was a very long drive, about 10 hours, I wouldn't recommend it if you aren't trying to save money like we were. But I figured, I've made the 8 hour drive to San Diego and back many times, so another 2 hours is no big deal. The nice thing was we were able to stop in to the Voodoo Doughtnuts that was way south of the city, and there was no waiting, unlike the downtown location.

I also decided that maybe this would be the right time to get my first digital SLR camera, so I bought that along with an additional lens, battery, case, so on. Some of the photos are taken with it, and they sure do look great!

Grain and Gristle - Burger

Grain and Gristle - Our first dinner once we got into the city, we stopped at little bar called Grain and Gristle for some food. We weren't super hungry because we stopped for lunch in the middle of the drive, so we split the burger and added a fried egg. Very delicious, great little place to stop by.

Voodoo Doughtnuts - Voodoo Doll Doughnut

Voodoo Doughtnuts - Bacon Maple Bar

San Diego Restaurant Reviews

I lived in San Diego for 2 years for college, and since I moved back up north, I've missed it everyday. Last November, B had to go into town for a conference, so we made a trip of it. Our wonderful friend allowed us to stay with him, and we had a great week visiting. We went back to some of our favorite restaurants, and tried some new ones we missed when we still lived there. I wanted to recap some of my favorite places and add some photos for anyone else considering vacationing there. Go there! You won't regret it!

Cotixan's - Carne Asada Fries, or Cotixan Fries

Guinness Shepherd's Pie

It's almost St. Patrick's Day! I heard of this dish somewhere recently, and decided it would be a perfect dish for the holiday weekend. I had to make it a day early because people weren't going to be home to share it with on the actual day, so I made it tonight, and everyone can just binge on leftovers for the next couple of days. It was also a nice excuse to get some Guinness beer for celebrating as well! ; )

I looked online for a good recipe for this, and I'd say it turned out pretty good. I think next time though I'd adapt my original Shepherd's Pie recipe I normally use and add the Guinness to it. But this one works pretty well. I had to adapt it a little so I could dirty fewer dishes and some of the original ingredient amounts didn't quite work. Anyways, check out the recipe below.

Monterey Trip with Mom - Day 1

My mom had some time off, and we haven't done a vacation together in a while. We decided to go to our family favorite, Monterey, CA and spend a couple days hiking and eating! We stayed at the Sunset Inn in Pacific Grove. We'd never stayed here before, but it was very nice and a reasonable price. We like staying in Pacific Grove because it's cheaper than Monterey, and most hotels there are close enough to the beach to walk there, and there's a nice trail to walk along the ocean. We were doing this whole vacation on a budget of $500 for the 2 of us, for 3 days and 2 nights. That included gas, food, things to do, and hotel. We ended up making it just under budget.


We got into town, and started looking for a place for lunch. I had gotten some restaurant recommendations from a friend who lives there, so we had lunch at one of the recommendations; Vivolo's Chowder House.


I decided I had to order some type of seafood, since it is Monterey. I finally decided on the fish and chips, which was an excellent choice! The fish was perfectly fried, and the tartar sauce that came with it was delicious and tangy, and went great with the fish and even the fries. 

My mom ordered their famous clam chowder bowl, and she said it was good, but not the best she'd ever had.

After going to the hotel to check in, we went out to dinner at another recommendation I had, which was Peter B's Brewpub. We had a heck of a time trying to find this place, but if you go through the hotel lobby that's there, it's behind that tucked away behind some trees. You can't see it from the street. We were told about their famous Fried Artichoke Hearts, which we knew we had to order. We also got a Raspberry Wheat beer, which was very good. As we're ordering, we find out they ran out of the artichoke hearts, and they had only been open an hour or two. We couldn't believe they hadn't thought this through and gotten more artichoke hearts for the night, as they were in season. 

So we decided on all appetizers, since it was happy hour and appetizers were cheap. We got the fried calamari...

The nachos...

And the buffalo wings...

Honestly, this meal wasn't that memorable. I don't care too much for calamari, and that was mostly for my mom. The nachos weren't that great either. The wings were my favorite of all the things we ordered. Maybe, we should have stuck with entrees instead of appetizers, because these were mostly just ordinary and kind of boring. I was worried that my favorite meal would be the fish and chips by the end of the trip, but luckily we went to a delicious restaurant the next day...

Boonville Beerfest

B was going to be in Europe for his actual birthday, so we decided on a day to do his birthday celebrations with me, today. We were thinking of some kind of beer tasting, and were going to go visit one of his favorite breweries, Anderson Valley Brewing Co., but then I was looking through their events page, and found the Boonville Beerfest would be taking place on this day. We thought, even better! We'll go to the beerfest and visit the brewery all in one day! It was awesome!

So, we took a road trip, routed through Napa so we could visit some of our favorites from our Napa trip, including the Bouchon Bakery. We finally get to the beerfest, after a three and a half hour drive, mostly on a windy, back woods, road. It was really hot, but at least we had all-we-could-drink, cold beer ready for the taking.

One of our early favorites, was this special brew from the Stone Brewing Co. that isn't available for purchase, and they only had this one, small keg at the beerfest. We went to their booth right after they tapped it, and it was delicious. I don't like IPA's and I don't like the flavor of oak, but this was a truly amazing brew, that I wish I could have again. I love when beers and wines make me rethink my taste preferences. And this beer certainly accomplished that.

We were starting to get hungry, so we wandered around trying to decide on which of the many vendors we wanted to eat at. B decided on the sausage place that had various game sausages, like bison, boar and elk. He got the bison sausage, and it was very plain on the toppings, but very flavorful, and it didn't really need any other toppings.

I decided on the fried pickles, after getting a free taste. Now, I've had fried pickles, and I didn't think I really cared for them. All the ones I've had were sparsely breaded, and not very flavorful, and of course aren't made better by lower-than-average sauces. But the Fabulous Frickle Brothers were doing something different and delicious with their fried pickles. They were heavily breaded with panko, and they served them with a choice of two of their three yogurt-based sauces. They had a spicy Sriracha dip, a ranch dip, and a mole bbq dip to choose from. I picked the ranch and Sriracha, because those were obviously the best ones! The were so perfectly cooked that when you bit into one, the pickle didn't come out and the breading stayed in place. They were so good, I had one order for lunch, and I ordered another on our way out of the beerfest and ate them while walking to the car! I hope I have another chance to try their Frickles, at another event sometime. 

Here was another surprise favorite from the fest, the Black Diamond Brandy Barrel Aged Grand CRU. Now, I have tried to find this in stores ever since the event, but I can only find the bourbon barrel aged, which has a very strong bourbon flavor, which I can't quite stand. Looks like if I want this beer, I have to suck it up, and pay for shipping and order it online.

Here's what I got at the bakery earlier in the day, their chocolate donut. It happened to be the last one they had for the day, and boy was I lucky to get it! It was so perfect, with little chocolate coated, crunchy malt balls on top, and thick, creamy chocolate ganache filling. Ben ate half earlier in the day, and for some reason I waited until I got home, to eat my half. It sat in a cold cooler all day, the bag got soggy, and it stayed crispy, and fresh, like it it just came out of the oven. 

Overall, we had a great time at the Boonville Beerfest, and I think it will become a tradition. We do wine tasting for my birthday, and beer tasting for B's birthday! Everybody wins!

Berkeley Adventure: Pizza, Food Trucks, and Beer Gardens!

B and I had another food adventure, and this time we went to Berkeley. The food truck event wasn't going to start until later that night, so we stopped by the Cheese Board Collective and got half a pizza to tide us over for the afternoon. They have a different flavor pizza everyday, and it's never the same, so you probably won't see this one if you went. It was a very simple, tomato, mozzarella, garlic, and red onion pizza. It was so simple and perfect, and I would highly recommend trying anything they have there. I was worried half a pizza wouldn't be enough for us, but it was just the right amount. We didn't really feel like paying for the whole pizza, as that was $20. 

As we waited for the food truck event to start, we headed over to the East Bay Vivarium to check out their reptiles, snakes, lizards, frogs, and turtles. When it was finally time for Off The Grid, we headed over there, and started scoping out the trucks. I wanted to try something from the Taco Guys truck and I got their pork taco with mango, and pickled cabbage. It had good flavor, but by the time I got to eat it, the tortilla was a little soggy. That was my own fault though.

I also ordered a couple drinks from the Taco Guys, I don't quite remember the full flavor profiles, but one was hibiscus, and the other was peach? I think. I just remember the light pink one was a little better. And they switch out their tacos and their drinks on a regular basis, so if you went they probably wouldn't have them anyways.

The last truck we tried was the Arki Truck. B and I shared a Works sandwich, which had fried chicken, cole slaw, fried potatoes, and spicy aioli on a torpedo roll. It was definitely a lot of food, and better to share it with someone!

For dessert, we ordered 2 beignets to share from the Arki Truck. Honestly, I think these were the stars of the night, The glaze was perfectly sweet, and even when they sat there for a few minutes with glaze all over them, they were still crispy and airy inside. Highly recommend!

We decided to end the night over in Redwood City, at the Gourmet Haus Staudt beer garden. I have no idea what the first beer I ordered was, because the glasses didn't always coordinate with the beer. I just told the bartender I liked wheat beers and he gave me something kind of fruity, which was ok. Not my favorite, but drinkable. B ordered a delicious Paulaner Salvator, and I ordered that as my second beer. It's now one of my favorites, and I've found it at BevMo. 

Everything was delicious from the day, and I can't wait for my next food truck adventure!