California Pizza Kitchen in LAX: Los Angeles, California

Well, I'm on my way back to Washington. United decided the best place to connect was LAX for a flight to Portland. Unfortunately I have almost a 3 hour layover, even though my San Diego flight was delayed.

By the time we got off the plane it was 6:40 and I was ready to eat. Wandering around the terminal I found a California Pizza Kitchen (CPK). I've had good experiences at CPK in the past so I had high hopes. Their prices were ridiculously high; no surprise there. I paid $13.50 for a personal size pizza and a drink.

The quality was mildly disappointing. When I ordered "The Original BBQ Chicken" pizza I thought I was in for a treat. What I ended up with was something that was about as good as a pizza that had been microwaved. I know for a fact that they didn't microwave it because I saw them put it in the oven. I don't know if they didn't leave it in long enough or what but it didn't turn out well.

The crust was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. This odd combination made for a pizza that basically fell apart when I tried to fold it in half. The pizza was warm but not hot. Shouldn't pizza that just comes out of the oven be hot? Overall it was a very mediocre experience. I guess thats to be expected from airport food right? Oh well, I'll be living with the best cook in the world for the next couple of months so I guess I can stomach some mediocre pizza.

Studio Diner: San Diego, California

Shout out to my Aunt Rachel who suggested we go to the Studio Diner in San Diego. This diner has been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives which is a television show on the Food Network. We were pretty excited to have an opportunity to go to one of the places featured on that show because the food always looks SO good.

Parking was a bit of a hassle because there are only a handful of spaces right in front of the diner itself, we ended up parking on the side of the street. We were surprised at some of the quirky names on the menu. The "Boob" was something with a chicken breast, and "Jewish Penicillin" was what they called traditional chicken noodle soup. There was a wide variety of food ranging from seafood to more traditional diner food like burgers and breakfast.

Ultimately I decided to go for the Baja Burger with a side of Clam Chowder and Rachel went with the Club Sandwich. As you can see the burger came out with a generous helping of fries. Unfortunately neither the clubhouse or the clam chowder are pictured because the food blog pictures were a bit of an afterthought (we were both hungry). The burger was decent, nothing too special. The guacamole didn't have much flavor and the salsa wasn't of the spicy variety. Rachel's clubhouse sandwich was good, as was the clam chowder.

Overall, if you're looking for a decent place to eat at any hour this is a good place to go. However, if you're looking for a gourmet restaurant you should look elsewhere.

Studio Diner

4701 Ruffin Road
San Diego, CA 92123

The Big Squeeze: San Diego, California

Angle Shot of the Acai Bowl and Extra Granola

Top Shot

I have a number of friends who have attended Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, CA. When we were visiting recently they mentioned that they were going to The Big Squeeze. They couldn't believe I'd never heard of it before. They said I HAD to go when I got a chance.

Well, the other day I finally had the chance. The Big Squeeze is located in the Pacific Beach area. From what I understood this was a local version of Jamba Juice. I found that there is a big difference in quality between the franchise shops (Jamba, Juice-It-Up, etc) and this place. We all ordered Acai bowls. For those that don't know, Acai is an extremely nutritious berry. Acai bowls are frozen berries ground up to a juice consistency. Then chunks of fresh fruit (in this case strawberries, bananas, peaches, and mangoes) are mixed in along with granola. Many people (myself included) also add honey. This treat is a great breakfast and you can feel great about eating it because it is really healthy.

I'm a big fan of Acai bowls in general. This one was particularly tasty. They keep everything nice and cold, I actually got a brain freeze from eating too fast. The fruit was all fresh and tasted really good. As for the granola, well, it was granola. Nothing too exciting other than the fact that it had almonds (I'm allergic). Luckily they were few and far between, otherwise this short trip for breakfast could have turned into a trip to the ER.

Location:

1826 Garnet Ave
(between Kendall St & Lamont St)
San Diego, CA 92109

Bubba's Smokehouse Barbecue: La Jolla, California

Sides on the Rib Platter: Mac and Cheese (7/10), Baked Beans (7/10) and Cornbread (5/10

Ribs (8.5/10)

Bubba's Smokehouse Barbecue is probably my favorite place to eat barbecue in the San Diego area so far. We first went there from a recommendation from a friend who has lived in the area for a while. However, he told us to go to a place called Joey's Smokin Barbecue. Apparently it hasn't been called that for some time now.

Anyway, on to the food. The ribs here are fall-off-the-bone meat with a dry rub and two different sauces. You can go for sweet sauce, which is pretty good or a spicier sauce which is also good. They have a pretty wide variety of things on their menu for a barbecue place including Frickles (fried pickles). Last time we were here my mom got some chicken which she wasn't too impressed with. However, if you're going to a barbecue place to eat chicken you probably shouldn't be going there at all.

This time she had a brisket sandwich and enjoyed it quite a bit. Typically she's the healthy eater in the family and never finishes her plate but this time she ate the entire sandwich.

The prices are pretty typical of a barbecue restaurant but we had to pay $10 to park in the middle of the day which added to the cost a little bit. The restaurant is located in a great shopping area which is only a couple of blocks from the beach. For those of you that live outside of San Diego, La Jolla is a great place to visit.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Five Guys Burgers and Fries is a national burger chain. They have a pretty simple menu but we had heard that this place was really good. While waiting in line you realize that all of the decorations in the building are cutouts of newspapers and magazine articles where they've been called "best burger joint," "best burger value," and "other random burger related award."

At this point I was pretty excited. I love hamburgers so the prospect of having the BEST was making my mouth water. Unfortunately my excitement was met with disappointment.

When the burgers came out they looked good. Their "regular" burger is two quarter-pound patties. I got mine with bacon, cheese and a ridiculous amount of vegetables. The burger was fine but "fine" definitely didn't meet my expectations.

Their fries come in two variations; simply salted and Cajun. Both styles of fries are thick slices of skin-on potato. We opted for the simply salted. The portion size of fries was fairly generous but that didn't really make up for the fact that they didn't taste great. Apparently at Five Guys, "simply salted" means "doesn't taste salty at all." This is a great example of, "I don't care if its healthier if it doesn't taste good."

Overall I wasn't extremely impressed. This place probably falls somewhere in the middle of my fast food burger rankings. Maybe I didn't order the right thing, maybe they were having a bad day but either way this burger wasn't my favorite.

Fireside Cafe: Vancouver, Washington

Fireside Cafe is a restaurant in Vancouver, Washington that recently opened. They are occupying the space where Cafe Divine used to be located. Our family is friends with friends of the owners and we heard it was a pretty good place to eat. More importantly, we heard they served mountainous nachos on a pizza dish. I'm a sucker for nachos so we decided to go there for dinner.

Mom is the healthy eater in the family and she got a salad. I don't really know what kind it was, looks like there was vegetables, fruit, bacon and dressing.

Joshua, Dad and I decided to share a plate of wings and the legendary nachos. The boneless wings were okay, nothing special. However, we did get them with barbecue sauce. They may have been better with hot sauce.

This is the glorious plate of Fireside Nachos. It is a 14" pizza pan filled with nachos that were at least 6" tall in the middle. The chips were multi-colored which added a lot of flair to dish. The nachos had cheese, tomatoes, jalapenos, black beans, chicken and guacamole (on the side). The chips also had some sort of seasoning on them but since it wasn't listed on the menu we're going to assume its some sort of secret ingredient.

This picture probably doesn't do these nachos justice. There was a LOT of food on that plate. We were able to get through most of the plate but it was tough. These monstrous nachos could easily be a meal for 4-5 people and could be a snack for 10. They are a great value at the low price of $12.99.

Fireside also has more "traditional" cafe dishes such as sandwiches, soups, and burgers. They also have a wide selection of beverages from coffee and smoothies to wine and beer. It's a nice quiet atmosphere and they offer free wi-fi. Whether you're in the mood for coffee, want to try something new, or want to feed nachos to a small army you should definitely check out Fireside Cafe.

Mo's Chowder: Cannon Beach, Oregon

Everybody loves going to the coast. We love going to the coast so much that we went on a day when it was 55 degrees and misting. In July.

After the long drive on Highway 26 we were ready for lunch. Luckily there weren't too many people at Mo's and our food came out quickly. It was a glorious moment when that bowl of clam chowder landed on on the table in front of me. From what I remember it was REALLY good but you probably shouldn't take my word for it since I ate an entire bowl in less than a minute...

If you go to Mo's you've got to try the chowder. The grilled chicken cesar salad is not worth trying, but the chowder is great.

Voodoo Doughnuts: Portland, Oregon

Portland is known for being a very "eccentric" city. One of the best examples of the Portland culture is Voodoo Doughnuts. You can visit their website at http://voodoodoughnut.com/ I had heard about this place many times previously but never visited until this morning. We decided to sample a number of different doughnuts and weren't disappointed with any of them.

Voodoo Doll

The Voodoo Doll was a yeast raised doughnut with raspberry filling and a pretzel stake through the heart. This was my personal favorite of the group for its originality and flavor.

Bacon Maple Bar

The Bacon Maple Bar is a commonly known doughnut at voodoo. I was excited about this doughnut because of the sweet and salty combination. I also love bacon so I thought it would be pretty good. Unfortunately the maple bar was EXTREMELY sweet and overpowered the saltiness of the bacon. I was a little disappointed but my aunt and cousin both thoroughly enjoyed theirs.

Glazed Doughnut

The Glazed Doughnut is a staple of all doughnut shops. We figured this would be a great way to compare the Voodoo Doughnuts to other shops. The yeast raised dough and thin layer of sweet frosting make this one of the best glazed doughnuts that I've had.

No Name

The No Name doughnut was the same yeast-raised dough as most of the doughnuts but was covered in chocolate frosting, Rice Krispies and peanut butter. This was a really well done doughnut with just the right amount of peanut butter and chocolate with a nice crunch from the Rice Krispies.

Marshall Matters

Marshall Matters was a cake doughnut covered with vanilla frosting and M&Ms. I personally didn't get to sample this doughnut but my cousin assured me that it was really good.

Portland Cream

The Portland Cream was a yeast raised doughnut filled with Bavarian cream, covered in chocolate with a couple of vanilla frosted eyes. Personally I'm not a big fan of cream filled doughnuts but this one was as good as any that I've had.

Grape Ape

The Grape Ape was one of the less conventional doughnuts on the menu. It was a yeast raised doughnut covered in grape powder and sprinkles. I enjoyed the taste of this one but it was definitely a novelty, not something that I would want to eat regularly.

Triple Chocolate Penetration

Triple Chocolate Penetration was a chocolate cake doughnut, covered in chocolate frosting with Cocoa Puffs on top. This one was actually really good and wasn't over the top like I assumed it would be with so much chocolate.

Orangutang

The Orangutang doughnut was the typical yeast raised doughnut with Tang powder and sprinkles. I thought this one would be a novelty like the Grape Ape but it was surprisingly one of my favorites of the batch. The sweet doughnut contrasted the sour punch of the tang powder to make a really good doughnut.

Chocolate Cake Doughnut

The Chocolate Cake Doughnut was another doughnut that I wanted to compare to "normal" doughnut shops. It was a cake doughnut covered in chocolate. The cake doughnut was moist and the chocolate wasn't too sweet or melted.

Overall we were very impressed with the quality of the doughnuts. We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes which wasn't particularly fun. However, we did get to enjoy some of the weird characters in downtown Portland. Our custom dozen (two were repeated so there are only 10 shown) doughnuts cost $18.75 was a little expensive but as they say, "you get what you pay for."

Danish Baker: Dannebrog, Nebraska

There's a tiny town in central Nebraska called Dannebrog. It has a small Danish bakery and on Thursday nights they make pizza. It just happens to be some of the best pizza in the world. At our family gathering we had three pizzas. One was half sauerkraut/sausage, one was meat lovers and one was supreme. On my plate I have one piece of meat lovers, half a piece of the sauerkraut and some mixed fruit to "balance" the meal a little bit. The pizza was amazing, extremely thick, well cooked with good ingredients.

Gates Barbecue: Kansas City, Missouri

Gates Barbecue is my favorite restaurant in the whole wide world! The wonderfully cooked meat plus their signature sauce combine to create the best barbecue ever. Sadly this chain is small and only lives in Kansas City so I don't get to go there very often. However, this summer on our family vacation we were able to make the all important stop. What you see here is a Burnt End on Bun with a side of Fries and a sampling of Original and Spicy sauces.

Oklahoma Joes Barbecue: Kansas City, Missouri

Everybody in Kansas City knows that they have the best barbecue in the world. However, not a lot of people outside of KC know about the barbecue there. I grew very fond of Kansas City's barbecue in the 12 years I lived there and every time I go back there are always a couple of places I have to go. Gates Barbecue is our family's number one, all time favorite. However, on this trip we tried out Oklahoma Joes because we were told it's the best barbecue in the city. This little gas station turned restaurant is actually really good. If you can't tell by the picture I had pork ribs, barbecue beef (brisket), garlic toast and a side of fries.

In-N-Out Burger: Temecula, California

My summer began with an 18 hour drive from San Diego, California to Brush Prairie, Washington. It was a long haul and wasn't particularly exciting. However, a couple hours into our drive we stopped at an In-N-Out for lunch. This little beauty inspired me to create this blog of favorite foods. Yes, it tasted just as good as it looks.