California Trip: Foodie Edition

Those in the Fisher know understand we like our food. For Kulani especially it is more a passion than a pasttime. So I thought the best way to journal about our trip to southern California would be to blog about the food. For the record, we were in California for the main purpose of Kulani participating in the Oceanside Half-Ironman.

Southern California is chock-a-block full of restaurants. We almost felt we were at a disadvantage because we hadn't studied too many food blogs of the southern California area. We found ourselves a tad unprepared. We knew a few restaurants were excellent on the Oceanside Harbor as we ate there when Kulani did the California Half-Ironman three years ago (details about those to follow).

But what all foodies know is that when you're in an area with many food choices, your best bet is to just ask the locals where they like to eat. The lady at Rite-Aid steered us to Anita's for great Mexican food. You can't be near the Mexican border and pass by the opportunity to have good Mexican food, so we took her advise and enjoyed ourselves a fine meal at Anita's. I had the Pancho lunch plate, which was a tortilla stacked with chicken, beans, cheese, and enchilada sauce. Kulani had something that involved chili relleno, my favorite Mexican dish. Both were excellent, but I didn't get to try Kulani's dish, as I had to take Nohea to the car for behaving so poorly.

Anita's on the Coastal Highway.

Pancho's plate.

Lilia enjoying the spoils.

Another interesting food choice whenever in a given geographical location is to stop and see what's on the fast food menus. For example, at McDonald's in Chicago, you can get a Vienna-style Chicago dog. In Hawaii, they offer mango fruitpies. In Oceanside, we stopped at the local Wiennerschnitzel for some ice cream. They had a "seadog" on the menu, so of course we had to try it. It was pretty good. I'm not sure if every Wienerschnitzel offers seadogs, but I know our local one didn't (maybe it does now?).

Other than maybe a snack, however, we avoid any chains. Our rule of thumb when on vacation is to only eat local food. We follow the teachings of Anthony Bourdain: Be a traveler, not a tourist.

The night before the race, Kulani thought he'd take the tried-and-true route of pasta--the proverbial "carbo load" the night before the race. We ate at Dominic's on the Oceanside Harbor pier. Kulani and his brother ate there three years ago, so he knew it was good.

Kulani had spaghetti and meatballs, while me and the girls shared a large sausage and mushroom pizza. I thought it was great, but at 2 a.m., Kulani's meal wasn't sitting right in his stomach. We'll have to cross Dominic's off our list next time we go. But the owner and his brother are super nice, and their accents sound as if they just got off the boat from Italy.

After the race, we ate at the Rockin' Baja, a restaurant also on the Harbor pier and right next to Dominic's. We also ate there three years ago, and it didn't dissapoint.

Seeing how he just spent 6 1/2 hours exercising, Kulani splurged on the Baja Bucket. It was AMAZINGLY good food! My new camera has a food setting, and I think it did a good job of capturing how awesome this food looked and tasted. The bucket included five slipper-lobster tails, six pieces of ginormous shrimp, 8 ounces of chicken, and 8 ounces of steak. I'm still dreaming about it.

I had the lobster tacos. As good as I remembered them.

Our final day in California would be our most adventurous food day. After a ho-hum breakfast at the Longborders Cafe in Oceanside, we took the leisurely route back to L.A. We drove up the Coastal Highway. It was interesting to watch as the income level in a given area went from super rich (Laguna Beach and Newport) to not so rich (Long Beach and Torrance). We kept driving all the way into Inglewood to go to Roscoes' Chicken and Waffles.

We heard about Roscoe's from an episode of No Reservations that found Anthony exploring the not-so-glamorous places of L.A. As we drove into Inglewood, the thought did come to Kulani and me that maybe we should turn around. Most of the businesses were boarded up and out of business; all the houses had bars on the windows and doors--it was looking scary, like something out of Boyz 'N the Hood. But we pressed on.

It reminded me of the time my parents took all of us to Hollywood to see the stars on the streets. This was 1993, and I've heard it's gotten even worse since then. My mom decided we should eat at Popeye's Chicken, which was approximately right across the street from Mann's Chinese Theatre. Here was this big, huge Mormon family sitting down for a dinner at Popeye's, when a seriously drunk man started screaming about how he was never "gonna eat in this sh**y chicken house again!" He was finally escorted out by some group that I think was called "Neighborhood Angels." My mom, of course, had to stop the gentleman and ask them all about their organization. We were all just thinking, "Please don't let us die today!" Another funny story as we left Hollywood was that my dad was approached by a pan handler with a sob story. My dad said, "I've got 10 kids." The man left him alone.

At any rate, Kulani had a little bit of "street cred" as he can almost pass for Mexican or maybe a a half-black guy. Me and the girls, however, stuck out like an African-American at BYU--only reversed. We were the only white folks in the place. But it was a really nice restaurant, and it was Sunday afternoon, so a lot of the people were families out to dinner after a nice day at church. And the chicken was AMAZING! Best fried chicken we've probably ever had. And we also tried all the southern-style sides, like collared greens, mac-n-cheese, and sweet potatoes. The waffles were also good. You can't go to a place called Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles and not have both chicken AND waffles.

I only took the one picture or Roscoe's because I was too afraid of offending anyone with my food blog. Lame, I know. It brought up a discussion about cultural differences, and Kulani repeated a quote from Dave Chappelle about how we need to understand the differences between cultures, not the similarities.

But here's a cultural tip if ever eating at our house: bring a healthy appetite. Love, the Fishers.