Fish tacos (can you ever have enough?)

The answer, my friends, is a resounding no. I had a least one fish taco every day in SoCal except the afternoon I couldn't find the place someone told me about.

Day one - it's always the same: arrive, pick up the car, drive to Huntington Beach, stop at the Rubio's on Beach Blvd., change into bathing suit in their clean bathroom while they make the fish taco. Instantaneously relaxed the minute I hit the sand. I feel like I'm home and most definitely happy. Rubio's is a chain but don't let that stop you. It's a decent fried fish taco for a decent price. Good amount of chips and some beans. Ahhh.

Day two - leave very early for shopping in Santa Barbara and, again, it's the same routine here (who says you can't be in a rut and still be happy?). Lunch is always at The Natural Cafe. So, so tempted by the soup (roasted red pepper if you remember that from last year) but the counter girl tells me the fish taco is one of their most popular item. Sold. Grab a table outside and am presented with this lovely plate. My first reaction is, "Wow, that's a lot of carrots."

But this is a very tasty broiled fish taco. My only grip is that it's a little too wet for my taste but the clean and fresh flavor makes up for that in a big way. This might be one of the more expensive tacos but it was accompanied by this fab "peach-o-rama" smoothie.

Day 3 - Normita's Surf City Tacos - by far the best deal in town in the fried fish taco category. Look at the size of that piece of fish (mahi). This has the potential to be too wet but it is just on the right side of that equation.

Day 4 - the loser of the bunch. Was driving around on one of the earlier days and saw this place (Guty's) with a sign advertising shrimp tacos for $.99. Jotted down the intersection and drove by one day before the beach. There were two miniscule fish in each taco, lettuce and, I don't think I'm wrong, mashed potatoes? Can that be right? It came with some very watery sauce (not pictured). It was all just a little too weird. In their defense, he did put the sauce in a separate container and the shells...I don't know what they fried them in but I was very happy with those.

The winner and still champion (although Natural Cafe is close, close, close) is Wahoo's. Again a broiled fish, again mahi. So good I went twice; once a la carte which is pictured and, on my last night, the combo plate with beans and rice.

Bricco Redux (who doesn't love redemption)

After our first outing to Bricco, my friend was so disappointed she sent them an email and they sent her a $50 gift card. We went back a few weeks ago and were mightily impressed. Granted they were treating us like royalty, but all in all this is a place to which I'll return (but probably not on restaurant week).

After much finagling (and some shameless flirting with the guys next to us), we got their table, the same one as we had last time with both chairs having a view of Hanover Street. This time they did have the main ingredient for their version of a manhattan (still not on their online drink menu so let me see if I can remember (strawberries, vanilla bean and maybe something else marinated in bourbon (I never got the brand from the waitress or the bar manager who eventually came over. My friend asked if he knew a drink called Golden Dreams and he said he email a friend in Miami because he didn't). The manhattan was interesting but a little too light for me. You could taste the strawberry but not the vanilla. My friend got a vodka martini. Each drink was $12-13.

We split the zucchini flowers stuffed with truffle ricotta cheese and tempura vegetables ($19) which would have been enough for a meal. You can't really tell from the photo but the flowers were nicely fried and more golden; the vegetables were a thick slice of eggplant, onion, red peppers and green beans.

Friend got the swordfish (I got the clams off that dish).

And I got the salmon, broccolini and rabe puree (wasn't impressed with either of those), broccolini rabe and what the menu says is salsify cannelloni which I had (mistakenly) identified as potato last time (but it sure tasted like yukon gold potatoes to me). Whatever is was....mmmm good.

So at the end of the night we are pretty darn satisfied. We are settling up thinking the bar manager has forgotten the Golden Dream recipe but...wait for it...he brings the drink and the recipe to my friend.

Golden Dreams:

2 oz. Galliano

1 oz. Creme DeCocoa

1/2 oz. Triple Sec

3 oz. OJ

3 oz. cream

Not really my cup of tea as it's pretty sweet but I could see this at a Sunday brunch...and I certainly wouldn't refuse one if it were offered.

Total for the evening was about $116 plus tip so it ended up being about the same as we spent on the first visit but seemed to have a lot more and a lot better food.

Flowers are amazing (no retouching other than cropping!)

Franklin Cafe Southie (Chef Ramsey has left the building)

I've been wanting to go to this place for quite a while so when some friends were visiting from NYC, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. We got a bunch of tapas and one hamburger. Pizza never should have been brought to the table as it was burned. Hamburger was stacked way to high to get a normal sized mouth around. One dish was crazy salty, another had no flavor (sorry, it's been about a month since we went so I don't recollect specifics of what we had but none of it made me swoon.

The drink was a their version of a manhattan - pretty mild and not cold!

Because this place has such a good reputation (place was packed by 7 pm on a Monday night), I will give it another try but that's it.

25 and another close but not perfect replica of the Southern Manhattan

This 4 year old girl in the dishwasher had a bad reaction to flea medicine and has some bald spots around her neck and back but she's as sweet as can be. She'll be with me for about 4 weeks and hopefully will have all her fur back by then.

The manhattan is another attempt at the Southern Manhattan: Woodford Reserve (last of the bottle) and Southern Comfort substituted for the vermouth. One of the recipes I got for this drink included cherry juice but I didn't have any so I just added a bit of the lingonberry syrup from Ikea. I have to say it wasn't bad and the color was gorgeous.

New for me from Trader Joe's

Asiago, fontina and parmesan? Ready in 90 seconds? Need I say more?

Bricco (or how do you make pork (pork!) tasteless)

We went to Bricco for Restaurant Week this year and it started a bit shakey. The drink that really caught my fancy was the Manhattan in Boston (a bourbon that I've not had before infused with cherries, vermouth and a twist (I think; it's not on their online menu and it shouldn't have been on the menu that night). Our waiter looks over at the bar and shakes his head; they don't have any of the infused bourbon (and prepare in advance). So I ask for the Hendrick's martini (described on the menu as Hendrick's, a splash of dry vermouth and a fresh lemon twist). Does this look like a twist to you? Does it even look like a lemon? My friend got one in her vodka martini so maybe they gave her the last one but I doubt it. We were quite pleased with the drinks as we were with the appetizers.

She got Mozzarella di Bufala Caprese and I got the stuffed calamari "affogati" in a spicy tomato coulis (with grape tomato halves) and a garlic crostini (pictured here). Then things went seriously downhill pretty quickly.

My friend got the beef braciole filled with garlic pecorino cheese and herbs, red wie sauce and brocolli rabe. Sounds great and looks decent enough but was overcooked and dry. After several considerations and consultation with the waiter, I ordered the pork chop which was supposed to come with carrots and ... (seems this is not on their online menu any more either). It came with a very fetching tube of what I presumed after several bites had to be potato but it was very bland and non-potato-like consistency. The other side was a bitter slaw like substance. The the pork chop, oh my!, the pork chop was the biggest disappointment of the night. It wasn't that it was overcooked (as I sometimes do); it just lacked any flavor at all. How is this even possible? Even when I over cook and don't put any spices on it, my chops come out better than this sad excuse.

Desserts were bread pudding with caramel sauce and tiramisu. Meh.

Overall, my friend deemed Bricco as our only Restaurant Week failure. I have heard such good things about this place, I might give them another try but am not beating a path to their door.