Balch & Darley: January 2014

The food in America is just something else.

I would highly recommend breakfast at Cody's in La Jolla. It's my idea of the perfect place. Looking over Ocean Blvd and the sea this quirky restaurant has a superb breakfast & lunch menu with a quaint theme throughout.

The menu:

This was hands down the best breakfast i've ever had.

Crab cake benedict - Jumbo lump crab cakes, sliced avocado, poached eggs on a toasted english muffin topped with hollandaise dressing. With gridded potatoes and grits. (Not a fan of grits!)

+++++

Whisk'n'ladle

I was really impressed with Whisknladle. It's another quirky restaurant in La Jolla with a dark interior (which made it difficult to take pictures). Everything on the menu is organic and local sourced if possible and the menu changes daily.

The menu (Click to open a bigger image)

The brussel sprout salad was perfection. I'm not a huge fan of sprouts but I eat one or two with a roast dinner. The salad was made from warm brussel sprout leaves with sugar snap peas, meyer lemon, pecans, butternut squash & goats cheese. All the ingredients mixed together so well to form a party in my mouth.

For my main I had the pumpkin tortlli with regianno cheese, hazelnuts and sage brown sugar. The dish was delightful and the brown sugar adds a sweet tinge to the pumpkin taste.

+++++

The Spot

The spot is located on Prospect Street and was the liveliest restaurant due to the game being on.

If you ever visit this restaurant you HAVE to have the cheesey garlic parmasan fries. OH MY. I think we stank of garlic for a week following on from eating these but it's worth every bite.

Gaaaahhhh I want these again!!!

+++++

KARL

We visited Universal Studios and visited one of the restaurants in Citywalk called KARL.

Once again, the food was beaut.

THIS DISH:

Black Garlic Fondu

A warm melting wedge of Cambozola cheese, black

garlic cloves, roasted peppers, caramelized onions, Red

Trolley Ale cream sauce, and grilled bread - dribbleeeee!

BUFFALO SOLD-JAH mac and cheese, buffalo chicken, scallions & gorgonzola

+++++

Cheesecake Factory

The cheesecake factory is famous for their immense portion sizes and of course their cheesecakes. Unfortunately i've never made it to dessert as the portions are so insane.

Spicy chicken chipotle pasta & fried zucchini nom nom nom nom

Until writing this blog post I didn't think I ate that much out there...NO WONDER I NOW WADDLE.

January detox has failed massively. I'm going to start again in February.

I jumped at the opportunity to spend a week over New Years with my parents in San Diego. It's sunny all year round, it's beautiful and the main reason - My fat alter-ego LOVES American food. And I can confirm I successfully gained 68 pounds.

La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya) is in the north of San Diego and is paradise. I had this massive urge to buy a dog and jog up the beach with it to fit in with the locals.

Our apartment looked out over the pacific where wild sea lions chill out on the rocks. It's enchanting watching them play but boiii do they smell of fish. pongeyyy.

We started every morning with a walk along the promenade dreaming it was an everyday thing. If only it was....I would be tanned/skinny and very happy with life!

Spotted this little guy on one of our walks! Heyy there.

This is my dream home:

274 Coast Blvd

Yes....the garage has glass walls that looks over the ocean.

The house opposite is my second choice.

After daydreams of life there we had breakfast on the roof and headed to Westfields UFC where I spent too much money in Victoria Secret's. Standard.

I have a weird obsession with food and VONS is my dream supermarket. It's an absolute pleasure shopping there. I scared a friendly new yorker away by telling him I wanted to live there. He didn't get my humour and just thought I was strange. Here are some of the things that excited me on our shop.