Surfside Burger Shack

I noticed this place about a month ago and have been itching to stop in and check them out.  Every local review I've read has been very positive, and they serve only grass fed local Humboldt County beef, a half pound of beef at that. 

I finally got my chance to stop in today, and I'm not sure what possessed me, but I didn't order their 1/2 lb burger.  Instead I ordered the salmon burger.  I don't normally care for salmon burgers, so I'm not sure why I went that route, but I'm very glad I did.  It was made with wild pacific salmon and had all the fixin's on it that a regular burger would have, plus I had them add avocado for a extra dollar.  It was DELICIOUS!  And their fries were fantastic.  I never eat more then three or four fries when I order a burger.  I devoured two thirds of them - way beyond my stomach's capacity!

The restaurant is small and filled with pictures of surfers and bikers, mostly local.  There is a pinball machine as well.  The menu isn't extensive.  It's simple like the restaurant.  Their focus in on good quality ingredients.  You can order several size burgers, from 1 to 4 patties.  They're basic burgers, but you can choose from several extra toppings to specialize your burger.  They also have hot dogs, grilled cheese sandwiches, salmon burgers, turkey burgers, and veggie burgers.  There are BLT's and I think maybe some sub sandwiches.  They have some salads - at least one on the special today (avocado salad) and several sides.  They do a chicken nugget basket and have a kids menu.  They serve local micro brews, Corona, Pacifica and Pabst Blue Ribbon tall boys.  They have several types of soda and bottled water.  Prices range from from $6 to $9 and you get enough food to justify the price.  The Surfside Burger Shack is family owned - Chad Smith is the owner, and you can find them at 445 5th street in Eureka CA.  They do have take out menus and you can call them at 707-268-1295. 

And if you're really hungry and up for a challenge, every weekend they have the Tsunami Eating Challenge.  It's a quad burger with all the regular toppings plus 4 extra toppings.  I think you have to eat the fries too - a combo item.  You have 1 hour to finish.  Their regular burgers are huge, so it would take a big hunger to get a quad down in my opinion.  If you finish in an hour, the meal is free, you get your picture on the wall and a free t-shirt.  So if you're real hungry - I dare you to try - double dog dare you! 

Loleta Bakery

I woke up this morning to my husband "gone fishin' " and not a single drop or speck of coffee in the house. Ugh! I was mortified! But then! My foggy mind woke up just enough to remember we have a new bakery in town and they serve good strong fresh hot coffee starting at 7 am every morning (except Monday and Tuesday). Today is Saturday and I looked at the clock. 7:36 am. Yeah! I was stoked! Coffee! My oldest woke up right about that time and I told her, "I think I'm going to run to the bakery and get some coffee."

Her response, "Awesome! Get me one of those chocolate filled croissants please."

Well, you can't just buy a $2.00 cup of coffee on a debit card and feel okay about that can you? So down I went. I got my large cup of coffee, a ham and cheese muffin for me (OMG was it good!) and two chocolate filled croissants for the girls.

Here's the front window of our new little bakery. The sign was just painted on yesterday:
Here's the bakery right next door to the Loleta Meat Market. (The Butcher, the Baker, where's our Candlestick Maker? - apparently we have one, but he sells his wares in Ferndale - I'll settle for our cheese maker instead - Loleta Cheese Factory, just up a block from the Butcher and Baker)

Here is what I came home with, minus the croissant my oldest snapped up before I could get a picture. (And yeah, I took a bite out of the muffin on the way home.) As my daughter sat savoring every last bite of her pastry, she commented, "I wish this croissant was an everlasting croissant so I could keep coming back and eating another bite, all day long, and it would still be warm." They had just come out of the oven when I got there. They were so nice and warm, I thought she was going to cuddle with it rather than eat it. If you live in Humboldt come try out our new bakery in Loleta, or if you're traveling through Humboldt on highway 101, stop by for a cup of coffee and some sweets. They also make panini sandwiches, and I've been told they plan to make soups from local ingredients for lunches. You can find them by taking the Loleta exit and heading west. You can't miss them in the little downtown area in the gold building at 348 Main St. 707-733-1789

http://www.loletabakery.com/index.htm

Lunch from Roy's

Roy's Club Italian Restaurant. I've had some great dinners at this place. It's old style. Like the place I use to go to as a child, called the Empire Room, where Carol the waitress always brought Dad his bourbon and water, Mom her Vodka and Tonic and me a Shirley Temple, unless I was feeling feisty and wanted a Roy Rogers before taking our dinner orders. It's dark and red complete with oil paintings of Italian ruins and live music and the first thing on your table is the antipasta plate. Just like the Empire Room. But just to the right side of this lovely old restaurant is Roy's deli, where you can buy old style meat cuts. Coppa, headcheese, prosciutto, freshly sliced. They have an awesome little grocery store full of Italian imported goodies, but best of all they make sandwiches to die for. So, when I had to work my first full day in a while and I actually had a lunch hour I decided I'd to Roy's and get myself a sandwich. It was a hard decision between all the yummy things on their menu board, but I finally set my sights on and Italian Dip. I love French Dip's, so I figured I couldn't go wrong with an Italian one. I was right. It was wonderful. It was sliced Focaccia bread loaded with fresh roast beef with provolone melted on top served with a side of auj ju. I was in absolute dip heaven!

Vacation Wrap Up

Okay, let's finish this vacation story up. Now comes one of the coolest segments. The Oakland segment.

We have a very dear friend (he was our best man,not just my husbands best man, but ours)who lives in Oakland. Since it's such a long drive from Monterey to our home with two kids we decided it would be nice to stop part way and visit Josh. One of the things we have in common with Josh is he loves to eat and cook. He appreciates good food and will try just about anything. He's almost as adventurous as Andrew Zimmerman, which makes going out to dinner with him fun.

I had mentioned to Josh that I'd never had dim sum and would really like to try some. So our first night in Oakland we ate at a little place called Old Place Tea House.

I can't even begin to tell you everything we ate, because we tried so many things. Some sweet some savory, all very good. And this is where we tried jelly fish salad, which was surprisingly good. The texture was like nothing I'd ever had before. Chewy and crunchy at the same time. It was mild and pleasant. The only thing I didn't try, and I'm sorry I didn't, was the chicken feet. I'd really like to say I've eaten them. The one caveat I'll put out about eating dim sum. Don't eat too much of it like we did, or you'll be spending your next day close to the bathroom. It is rich and a bit greasy, so it can cause digestive issues. The food wasn't bad, because our girls ate it too and they were fine, we just ate far too much.

The next day Josh took us to Oakland's Chinatown. This place is nothing like San Francisco's Chinatown. It's not touristy, this is just where people live and work.

We hit up all of the grocery stores and I bought all the dried ingredients I need to make Buddha's Delight, or Jai, a soup that is traditionally made by the Chinese on Chinese New Years Day. I found the recipe in my cookbook The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen by Grace Young. I'll post the recipe and how it turns out after I make it.

After quite a bit of shopping in the various markets. We decided to go eat at a place I had read about on the internet called Restaurant Peony.

Our biggest mistake here was we showed up right at the end of lunch service, and we didn't realize they close between lunch and dinner. They were very gracious and accommodating to the silly white tourists. We did get to try some of their dim sum which was excellent! Even better then what we had had the night before. But, we wanted more then dim sum, but we couldn't figure out how to order more, or even who to order from, since virtually no one spoke English and the menu's were all in Chinese. We finally found one very kind waitress who with broken English and hand gestures suggested we order the special like the Chinese family behind us was eating. We couldn't really see what it was, but said OK. This is what we were served:



Isn't that cool? I couldn't help but wonder if it was the same chicken I saw hanging in a window in one of the markets earlier. It may look creepy to you, but it was some of the best chicken I've ever eaten. Juicy and tender. The sauce was mild, salty and slightly sweet. And very difficult to eat with chopsticks. It was served with steamed rice and a side of Chinese Broccoli, which is nothing like our Western broccoli. All very simple and delicious. It all turned out very good, for showing up at the wrong time and not speaking the language. As I walked out after a very satisfying lunch I snapped one last picture.

Those tanks you see in the background are full of live fish, lobster and crab that you can order up for your dinner. I hope to come back to this place for dinner some day.

The next day we headed home. We decided to venture through San Francisco and get some breakfast. We stopped down by the wharf and ate at this little place.
Beach Street Grill



Everything was homemade, not out of cans or jars. The service was prompt and very friendly. The food was good enough to keep me going until we got home. And now home we are and back into the grind of things. It was a great trip and I can't wait to get back to Monterey and to go see Oakland's Chinatown again, what a blast! But for now, it's back to work, tending the garden, chickens and goats. Time to focus on the harvest.
Bon Appetite!

Sandwich debate revisited

Ok. I was never able to get my husband to redraw his ingenious description of how to fold a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but he did write, in his oh so geologist, scientific way, his description of folding a pb&j, and I attempted to follow his instructions and take pictures. So, here is the end result:
In the words of my Engineering Geologist man:


well you see, the fold along the axis of symmetry attempts to make a perfect peanut-butter seal (PPBS) that is almost impossible to attain without significant materials testing and engineering design that provide lateral set-back recommendations for the wetted jelly perimeter (WJP) based on a probabilistic analysis of a three layer viscosity model and the expected loads applied by the crushing vice-grip (CVG) of a three year old child. Over-designing the lateral seal on the PPBS


in an attempt to provide a margin of safety (MOS) against lateral jelly blowout (LJB) creates a long, dry crusted perimeter (DCP) that is largely unpalatable to children. Making a buffered peanut-butter seal (BPBS) by folding across the axis of symmetry provides a MOS against LJB by taking advantage of the outer PB seal using the existing puff-top crust (PTC) morphology of the bread slice. The seal is thick, but shorter and holds a large pouch of jelly that more than makes up for any DCP. The BPBS is so robust, it can be gripped by the PTC in a CVG and the potential for LJB is well within the MOS.

Now, I know what you're thinking.
"I'm seeing some blowout here."
You must keep in mind, that even though I was born and raised in California, and I'm a self proclaimed Mexicophile, I cannot for the life of me fold a proper burrito, so to expect me to follow these instructions and properly fold my husbands perfect PB&J that can be gripped by a PTC in a CVG is just insane. I hope to get him to demonstrate the fold himself, while I have camera in hand and provide you with pic's on a professionals' ability to properly fold a pb&j. In the mean time, I challenge you to try, and please share your results. I'm anxious to hear.
YUM!

The Great Sandwich Debate

Yesterday my co-worker pulled out her little half sandwich that she always brings to work and a fellow co-worker happened to look at it and notice that it wasn't folded "correctly". This perplexed me, and the co-worker with the sandwich, as neither of us knew that there was a "correct" way to fold a sandwich. Apparently my "Okie descindant friend" ODF (Don't worry, this is a compliment) felt that the sandwich should be folded side by side. My Italian descendant friend (IDF for short - also a compliment) folded hers from top to bottom or as my ODF said, round to square, and this seemed to disturb my ODF's sense of the logical world and now my IDF's world is stressed. I've never heard someone exclaim that they absolutely could not fold a sandwich a certain way. In fact, in my family, it was all about shoving it in your face and eating it. It's all going to come out the same in the end right? So who gave a rats ass how it was folded. What a new concept to worry about, how your sandwich is folded. What kind of therapy do you need to deal with this?
Who knows. What I want to know is how many of you out there actually have an issue with this. And if so, which way do you fold your sandwich? Do you not fold it? Maybe you cut it and if so how? Tell me your pb&j stories.
I can't wait to hear! Yes, I really am excited to hear back. I do have a life, but I'm into the small things. Tell me your sandwich stories.

La Petite Maison

Friday I had a rare opportunity to have a lunch date with my husband, sans children. I decided to go to La Petite Maison in Ferndale. I had purchased their fresh made bread from the Farmers Market in Fortuna several times last year, and once again this year. I always get the lemon rosemary French bread. Absolutely delicious! Of course fresh bread is always good, but the lemon and rosemary combination just took it over the top. Since I've tried the bread, I've been wanting to try the restaurant.

I ordered the grilled cheese. No ordinary grilled cheese. It was made with bread made fresh that day in their bakery, mozzarella and Cypress Grove Chevre goat cheese, tomato and basil leaves. Very basic and simple. The flavors were very subtle, but the melted mozzarella was comforting, and the chevre added a layer of texture and flavor. The basil took it over the top. The only thing I would have added to the sandwich would have been some prosciutto or crisp pancetta. The small house salad that came with the sandwich was incredible. The spring lettuce mix was so fresh it tasted like it had come straight out of the garden. There were small pieces of pear in the salad that added a nice mild sweetness that was a great contrast to their homemade blue cheese dressing. They don't use dressings out of bottles at La Petite.

John had the BBQ pork tenderloin and cilantro coleslaw sandwich. This sandwich is served on cheddar cheese bread made fresh that day. I didn't get a chance to try the cilantro coleslaw, but as much as I love cilantro, I'm sure I'd like it. I did get one small bite of the pork tenderloin. Very good. The BBQ sauce had a nice spiciness to it.

I was pleased enough with my lunch that I hope to go back and try dinner soon.
Here's a sample of their dinner menu:
La Petite Maison Bistro Dinner Menu

Bistro Dinners, Tuesday - Saturday, 5-9 pm.
Phone Orders Welcome! 707 786-4301

Soups

From the garden into the bowl, LPM’s soups are fresh and hardy. Accompanied with fresh bread, they can make a light meal all by themselves

Potato with cheddar cheese and Niman Ranch bacon… $7

Roasted pepper and tomato cream with cilantro oil and lime crème fraiche… $7

Soup by the cup… $5

Salads

All of our salads are served with LPM’s freshly baked breads. No bottles or mixes here, all of our dressings are made from scratch (bleu cheese, ranch, seasoned white balsamic vinaigrette)

House salad… $7
Organic Greens tossed with white balsamic vinaigrette and topped with pears and gorgonzola

Buffalo chicken salad… $14
Buffalo style chicken breast, romaine, bleu cheese crumbles, buffalo sauce and bleu cheese

BBQ chicken salad… $14
Organic chicken breast, fire roasted corn, tomato & cilantro with LPM’s BBQ sauce and ranch

USDA Choice New York steak and blue cheese salad… $16
New York strips, romaine, purple onions, blue cheese crumbles tossed in balsamic vinaigrette

Pastas

Chiopotle Chicken and Penne…$18
Grilled Petaluma Farms organic chicken breast, roasted corn, chipotle cream sauce, and asagio cheese

New York Strip with Balsamic and Penne… $20
USDA choice New York steak strips, penne pasta, wilted arugula tossed in a Dijon and balsamic sauce and asagio cheese

Gourmet Pizzas

12” Homemade Organic Flour Thin Crust Pizza Dough

Marguerite with tomato, basil, garlic, mozzarella and goat cheese… $15

Organic chicken, purple onion, cilantro, mozzarella and LPM’s homemade BBQ Sauce… $18

Roasted garlic with pepperoni, gorgonzola, basil, tomato and mozzarella… $14

Entrees

Niman Ranch pork tenderloin cooked to medium with mustard tarragon sauce And mashers… $24

USDA choice14 oz. New York steak with blue cheese and sweet potato sticks… $27

Crispy pan seared duck breasts with plum & port sauce atop soft Cypress Grove goat cheese polenta… $26

Creole style Petaluma Farms Organic half chicken with mashers… $20

Ferndale Farms sirloin burger topped with smoked cheddar, fried shallots, lettuce, tomato and aioli relish…$15

Ferndale Farms tri-tip sandwich tossed in fig and onion jam with sweet potato sticks…$17

USDA choice 10 oz. filet mignon with mashers and chardonnay cream sauce…$34

Ferndale Farms grass fed lamb chops cooked to medium rare served with mascarpone polenta…$24

You can find La Petite Maison and explore their wonderful lunch and dinner offerings at 619 Main St. Ferndale California.
Bon Appetite!