prime rib dinner in Fullerton

Actually, the most important thing here is that I had dinner with Ed and Denice. 

I'm getting to see a lot of Ed this year, which is nice.  In New England in the spring, in Chicago in June, and tonight in Fullerton.  It's becoming a somewhat annual tradition whereby he and Denice come to Orange County for Disney related activities, and we (only me tonight) meet them for dinner in Fullerton.  Summit House has become our place,

and we always always go for the prime rib. 

I mean, come on:  Yorkshire pudding!!  I have to say, though, that I especially loved the creamed corn and creamed spinach tonight.

It was a good meal, though.  So nice to catch up.  I loved hearing about their Hawaii trip with their sons earlier this year, and it was great to talk about trips to come and looking down the road toward retirement and more.  Well worth the drive down, and whoa, quite the drive.  I really saw a lot of suburban SoCal!

One more day here with Olive, and then Conrad and Van come home on Wednesday.  I can't wait.  I miss them.

Bed time!  Night! 

Topolobampo with Matt and Michael

Here we go, the first great meal of a handful of great meals during the recent visit to Chicago.  Dinner with Matt and Michael, a Thursday night meal at one of my all-time favourite restaurants in Chicago:  Topolobampo.

I have dined at Topolobampo and its sister, Frontera Grill, multiple times over the years.  When last I was there, it was November of 2021 (I think), and a celebration of both Chris and Rachel's 50th birthdays that month.  We had a very fine evening.  Last Thursday was no less fine.  Quite the contrary.  It was an extraordinary way to start off the conference trip.  An awesome meal at Rick Bayless' fine dining room, two terrific guys for company?  Yes, please!

I met Matt and Michael outside of the restaurant

on a fine, not yet too hot or humid Chicago evening.  The original plan for Thursday was to have Peter and his Matt join us for dinner that night - we would have had 3/4 of our guybrarian text thread there - but perhaps elsewhere.  When Peter let us know that he and Matt wouldn't be arriving in time for dinner, we pivoted a little and landed on Topolobampo.  Matt and Michael were very game, and so we made the reservation.  I was delighted to join them for their first time there.  What fun company for a good, leisurely meal.

We had cocktails to start, and - shockingly, I did not order their classic margarita as I so often have before.  I've been more spirit-forward in my cocktails lately, and opted for the Poleo Negroni, made with mezcal.  A good way to start. 

The wine shown was from my first course pairing, a Spanish sparkler, and I enjoyed more wine through the night.  Matt and Michael had a cocktail each as well, and then the two of them each opted for the agave pairing, enjoying that immensely.

Food!  Here we go...

A few amuses for us:  oysters with tuna ceviche and caviar

and a little trio that included a small cup of tortilla soup. 

I'm always in awe of how they can get such marvelous layered flavours in their sauces and broths.

Tostada de Atun. 

A tuna tostada that went very nicely with the Spanish wine.

Palmito en mole verde. 

Roasted and charred heart of palm in a green sauce for which we would have loved spoons.  I thought the entire meal was wonderful, but this course was my favourite.  Paired with a French Chardonnay.

A small intermezzo that I didn't quite catch but was essentially a meaty bite.  Yum!

Pulpo Zarandeado.  Grilled octopus. 

A successful course, and very pretty.  This is where I lost track of which wines I had - it IS over a week later - and the menu listing doesn't actually help.  Ah well.  At some point here or after this I had my favourite wine of the night, a Beaujolais. I liked the wine so much, I had another glass after dinner.

Carne en su Jugo. 

Wagyu beef.  Good, but I though this one might have been a tad more generous in size.  Still, I liked it, and we had plenty of tortillas to mop it up with.  

Pitaya, Coco Tierno, Maiz. 

Lime-tamal pudding cake with a cactus fruit sorbet and young coconut.  If this had been the only dessert, I would have been thrilled.  I honestly can't recall the wine for this one, not because it was a bad pairing, I promise - all of the wines were successful pairings.

Sabores de Maguey Rostisado. 

Plantain blondie torte with sweet potato ice cream.  Oh, I liked this one a lot.  I think there may have been a port or other dessert wine with this, but I cannot recall that one either.

There were little treats that followed, and I had wine while Matt had coffee.  We weren't the last to arrive, but we were the second-to-last to leave.  A very fine night all around, and thank you to Matt and Michael for sharing it with me!  The Chicago dining was underway, and wow, were there some more excellent dishes and drinks to come!

Kingfisher/Artifact

Let's focus on two great meals from this past week's short jaunt down to San Diego.  Wednesday night at Kingfisher, Thursday night at ARTIFACT at Mingei, very different cuisines, very enjoyable experiences.  I love when meals out are so terrific that I can happily write blog entries to spotlight them.  That's the case here, so let's dive in!

I've been to Kingfisher

a few times now.  We knew of it through a Maestro connection.  Van (same spelling, different pronunciation from our Van) was a much-beloved bartender at Maestro for years, but he eventually left and is now part of the team at Kingfisher. 

We duly asked for seating at the bar so that we could chat with him when possible.  And you know that he took very good care of us.  The cocktails were the star of the show, but I'll say that the food was terrific as it has been before.  The Restaurant Week menu was a great price, so we opted for that and left with full bellies.  A run down of what we ate and drank, then...

• The Saigon Moped, a refreshing, light, not-too-sweet cocktail to start with.
  
  
  
• Kampachi crudo and beef tartare to start with.  I enjoyed both, especially the tartare which came with fresh herbs and lettuce and rice crisps to make rolls or tostada-like bites.
  
  
  
• The Water Buffalo.  The weirdest drink I've had in, oh forever.  Very umami, and I find that I am responding to more savoury flavours in cocktails these days.  It was made in part with clarified Phở reduction.  I don't even know how they would have come up with that.  I liked it, for the record, but I couldn't stop trying to figure it out, and so more than liking it, I was excited and intrigued by it.
  
  
  
• Congee with wild mushrooms and delicata squash.  I love porridges, and congee is no exception.  And yes, I willingly ate mushrooms because I could trust this restaurant that they were good mushrooms.
  
  
  
• Black cod.  Such a tasty sauce, and mustard greens!  Honestly, if they had sent it out without the cod and with the buttered rice it came with, I would have been perfectly content.
  
  
  
• The Sesame Soiree.  My dessert cocktail.  I've had this one (and the Saigon Moped) previously, and I was happy to have it again.
  
  
  
• Vanilla flan with a Vietnamese coffee syrup and black truffle ice cream.  I liked them, and the black truffle ice cream lived up to its name.  Very funky and weird, and we devoured it.  I'm glad Conrad liked it as well.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Then Van sent out a serving of bread pudding with roasted banana ice cream.  And that, too, was a delight, but boy, were we stuffed.  We couldn't refuse it, and it was tasty, but belly-clutching time after that.
  
  
  

We said our goodbyes shortly after that, happy to have been back to Kingfisher, and headed to our hotel.

Thursday night we headed up to Balboa Park to Mingei, one of the museums, and to its restaurant, ARTIFACT.  ARTIFACT is usually only open for lunches and afternoons, but it does Friday dinners, and it has hosted a special monthly dinner for four years now.  We learned that last bit when one of the chefs/co-owners dropped by the table to say hello and chat a moment.  I had been fishing around online for where we should have our other San Diego dinner, and I stumbled upon the availability of the special dinner.  And the theme?  Nordic!  In view of this being a Christmas present trip for my husband who is descended from Swedes through all of his grandparents, this was a no-brainer.  He was tickled when he learned about it, and we were looking forward to a lovely meal.

Friends, they did not disappoint.  The space was very spare,

but the dining area was totally occupied.  People kept coming in right up until 8:30, so clearly the dinners have a good reputation.  We chatted with both chefs, and the other staff were all very nice and appropriately attentive.  And we liked the food.  Oh, sure, we can absolutely quibble over how Nordic some things were, but we looked at it as an interesting interpretation using local products and from a kitchen that doesn't normally cook this way.  Fully authentic?  No.  True in spirit?  Yes.  Enjoyable?  For sure!  Course by course, then...

• Conrad opted for a martini from the simple bar, and it was quite fine.  I tried the Fjord and Field, and it was surprisingly tart.  Not overly so, but it used cranberry and meant it.  A good drink to begin.  We opted for wines by the glass after that although Conrad didn't care for the second glass, the merlot, all that much.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Danish smørrebrød, both rye and crispbread.  Toppings were cultured butter, boiled egg with cured cod roe, caramelized sunchoke and browned cream, and shrimp salad.  The butter was butter, the egg was a tasty egg salad, the shrimp were briny rather than sweet, and the sunchoke was eye-opening.  I asked Conrad what he thought of his first taste, and he had the same reaction:  it was like peanut butter.  And we mean that in a very good way.  Oh, everything was good, honestly - I actually really loved having a smear of butter then some of the egg.  But that sunchoke was such a terrific surprise.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Seaweed cured california halibut crudo with boiled potato, pickled mustard seed, celery root buttermilk sauce, and sorrel.  From a good start to an even better second.  Get a little of everything on your fork, and it was superb.  It was also a nicely generous portion.
  
  
  
• Smoked bison with leek top and kohlrabi puree, red currant demi, and red cabbage.  Again, get some of each on your fork, and it all made a lot of sense.  I also appreciated that it wasn't an overly generous portion as it was a little heavier and richer.  
  
  
  
• Cardamom vafflor (Scandinavian waffle) with rosehip sauce and an almond and honey mousse.  Waffles, like pancakes, are a tricky thing to serve because of they sit, they become less fluffy and delightful.  I sort of felt that happened with the waffle here.  The star of the plate was the rosehip sauce, though, and there was plenty to mop up.  I didn't love the dessert, but it was fine.
  
  
  

We kind of wish we went to San Diego more often so that we could take advantage of these dinners.  We really loved it.  A quick Uber back to the hotel after that, some reading, and Conrad was snoring away by 10:30.  Our two San Diego dinners were an utter success. 

back at Zarak

Conrad had to miss Chris and Allister's wedding this past summer, so we decided we would celebrate it again with a meal together when we were in town last week.  The timing was fortuitous:  Chris had a birthday just days ahead, and Van had had his birthday just days before.  Add in Marie, and we had the makings of a good dinner out.

Zarak has become my new ViJ's when I come to Vancouver - a place that I like to go to because the food and drink are good, they're interesting, they excite me.  I mean, the menu

hasn't changed substantively in the few times I've been there now, not really, and yet, I can't wait to go back.  Any excuse.  So go back we did.  Hooray!

Cocktails were up first.  This past summer it was Marie having the smoked negroni, but that night it was Chris. 

Quite a show!  I went with the clarified mango martini,

something I was a little dubious on until the waiter persuaded me, but which proved to be not as sweet as feared.  I liked it a lot, in fact, and if it wasn't for Conrad wanting a bottle of wine, I would have stuck with it.

And then on to food.  I didn't photograph it all.  We also didn't do what we did last time with the "feed me" option on the menu, good as that was.  We kept it under control and enjoyed several dishes.  Mantu - beef-filled dumplings - were up first,

then came our US Thanksgiving nod:  buttermilk fried chicken. 

I wish we had had more of that one.  Among the other things were the Uzbeki palaw

and the beef cheek. 

It was all excellent.

Dessert was essentially one of everything with an extra trifle-like dessert thrown in along with candles. 

We each tasted the others but mostly stuck to our own, so it was the deconstructed baklava for me. 

A terrific choice.

But the night was good because we had a great group of six of us enjoying food and conversation together. 

And that is why I want to go back again - to enjoy a group of us enjoying such tasty food and each other's company.  In 2026 I will for sure!