Snapshots of San Diego

To conclude my posts on our summer trip to San Diego, here are a few random snapshots that I took while exploring this gorgeous city. We really enjoyed San Diego - the friendly people, beautiful blue skies, fantastic sandy beaches - and I will remember it as the American city that is most similar to our home city of Perth down under. Three days weren't enough, and I will jump at the chance to go back there again.

Spotted the USS Midway Museum (a maritime museum on a ship!) from Broadway Pier where we boarded the ferry to Coronado:

A Red Trolley (not the shopping cart type) zooming past us:

The historic Balboa Theatre in the Gaslamp Quarter:

There were many historical buildings in the Gaslamp Quarter, and this particular one houses the Reading Cinema:

A large sign at the end of 5th Avenue where we ended our walk through the Gaslamp Quarter (from our hotel near Little Italy), and we had tasty tapas for dinner shortly after:

Enjoying the wide open space and the brilliant blue skies of Balboa Park while walking to San Diego Zoo from our downtown hotel (it took us an hour!):

Casa del Prado Theater in Balboa Park on our way to lunch:

An archway of a historical building in Balboa Park, also on our way to lunch:

Delectable lunch @ The Prado at Balboa Park, San Diego

I have never been a huge fan of the food offerings inside tourist attractions such as amusement parks, theme parks and zoos. Sure, it is convenient to eat snacks and meals inside such places, but the food are often overpriced and not that great. If it is possible to exit and re-enter such places, I would always research prior to our visit for a good alternative outside. During our fun day at San Diego Zoo, we left the zoo for an hour or two around lunchtime and headed for The Prado at Balboa Park where we enjoyed a fabulous meal. San Diego Zoo is situated inside the huge Balboa Park, and it is lovely to stroll through on the way to lunch. There were many beautiful heritage buildings, and I wish we weren't constrained by the zoo's closing time so that we could have taken our time admiring the Spanish-style architecture.

The Prado is located inside one of the historical buildings, and the interior was richly and tastefully decorated:

Complimentary crackers and dip which were moreish:

The service we received at The Prado was welcoming (even though we were dressed for the zoo and not a fine restaurant), and our friendly waitress was very helpful in recommending what to order when we had trouble deciding. The lunch menu offered a nice variety, from sandwiches and burgers, to salads, risotto and paella. There was a cute Children's Menu that our boy could colour in, and all items were well-priced at US$7.95 which includes a drink and ice cream.

Spcy Maya Hot Chocolate (US$3.95), with Chuao chocolate, steamed milk and whipped cream. It was yummy and we liked it:

Our boy chose Crispy Chicken Fingers from the Children's Menu (US$7.95), served with warm marinara sauce and taro chips. You can tell that these chicken fingers were handcut, crumbed and fried in the kitchen, and so much better than the processed packaged stuff. Juicy and moist, our son loved it. Even us adults couldn't keep our hands off the chicken fingers and chips:

Hubby ordered the Grilled Fish Tacos (US$14.95), with marinated mahi mahi, red cabbage-jicama slaw, mango-jalapeno salsa, mango mustard and corn tortillas. Thoroughly enjoyable and delicious:

Mine was an item off the daily menu, a Grilled Salmon with Corn Salad, which was highly recommended by our waitress. And it was a good pick. The salmon was grilled to perfection, and I adored the corn salad:

The dessert item that came with the boy's chicken fingers: Vanilla Ice Cream with whipped cream and chocolate sauce:

For dessert, we shared a Triple Chocolate Threat (US$8.50) - chocolate cookie crust, dark chocolate baked custard, dark chocolate ganache, salted caramel ice cream and cocoa nib garnish. Utterly decadent and a chocolate lovers' delight:

I was curious about the Chocolate Martini (US$8.50), made with Smirnoff vanilla vodka, crème de cacao, Kahlua and chocolate. This was a potent drink, perhaps not for the middle of the day, but we liked the chocolate flavour:

We quite enjoyed our lunch at The Prado. The food we ate were presented well and tasted good, which I'm sure were much better than what we could have gotten for lunch inside the zoo!

[Prices quoted above exclude additional taxes and tips.]

The Prado at Balboa
1549 El Prado
San Diego, CA 92101
United States
Tel. +1 619 557 9441

Animal fun @ San Diego Zoo

San Diego Zoo is one of the most famous and largest zoos in the world, and home to over 3700 rare and endangered animals of more than 650 species. The zoo is very accessible from downtown San Diego, so we had little excuse not to spend a day at the zoo with our young son. At 40 hectares, San Diego Zoo is almost twice the size of Taronga Zoo, where one day was not enough to see everything. Thankfully, San Diego Zoo features a guided tour bus that covers 75% of the park, which was the first thing we did. The tour gave us a good but quick overview of the zoo, however it gave us a good idea of what piqued our interest, and we later revisited these sites of interest to get a closer look. I was very pleased to learn that the zoo is very active in conservation and preservation efforts, and many species are bred here for release into native habitats where appropriate. San Diego Zoo is also one of the few zoos in the world that houses the extremely cute but endangered giant pandas.

The boy saying hello to a zoo mascot:

Graceful and gentle giraffes, always lovely to see:

A California Condor that once faced extinction not long ago:

An Asian Elephant, distinguishable from its African cousin by its smaller ears:

I believe this is the Little Owl, unusually sharp-eyed at this hour of the day (this species is partly diurnal):

The Balboa Miniature Railroad is located just outside the zoo's entrance, and our boy had such fun going on it when we left the zoo for a quick lunch (re-entry is possible as long as you get a stamp at the exit gate):

An illuminated snake's skeleton:

The giant panda exhibit, which was undoubtedly the most popular point in all of the zoo. It was very crowded, and incredibly difficult to get a good shot of the cutie, but I finally managed to get a clear shot when a zoo attendant shooed away one lady who was hogging the front spot for ages (there were two lanes: the front lane allowed for a good but only a quick view of the pandas, and the second lane was for those who wanted to linger and take photos; we were in the second lane):

A striking looking deer/antelope, but don't ask me what kind:

A Grévy's zebra, taller with larger ears and narrower stripes than its cousins. It is the largest and most endangered of the three zebra species:

Last but not least, a sleeping lion with his tongue sticking out. The Lion Sleeps Tonight song plays in my head every time I see this picture:

Tasty tapas @ Café Sevilla, San Diego

Having a backlog of photos yet to post up of our trip to California is not all chore; as I work through the photos, I get to reminisce of the fun things we did and the delicious food we ate on the trip, weeks and months after we've returned home. After our cycling and beach expedition on Coronado, we took the ferry back to San Diego and had a short rest in our hotel room. Rejuvenated by a quick shower, we all got ready to go out again in search for dinner. Getting to the historical Gaslamp Quarter was a straightforward half-hour stroll from our hotel (near Little Italy), and we were able to take in all the sights much better than if we'd taken public transport or car. The Gaslamp is known as the center of downtown nightlife, and there are many restaurants and bars to be found in this area. Café Sevilla is one of them, serving Spanish tapas and good sangria.

Café Sevilla on the outside:

Inside Café Sevilla:

Café Sevilla has a groovy interior, and dimly lit with almost a nightclub feel. Like everywhere else on the west coast, the service we received was friendly and helpful. The menu consisted mostly of tapas, which is great for sharing and variety.

Sangria, which was pretty potent and packed a punch. There was a choice of red or white sangria, and obviously we chose the red:

Seafood Crepe (US$9) with shrimp, scallop and clam in light lobster saffron sauce. This was a great little seafood plate, and I adored the lobster sauce that complemented the seafood crepe well:

Upon recommendation by our waitress, we ordered the Green Mussels Escabeche (US$7), served ceviche-style with Serrano pepper salsa. Tart and tasty:

One of the new menu items was the Stuffed Piquillo Peppers ($4 each or $10 for three). We ordered all three types - short rib, duxelles of mushroom and seafood. The short rib (pictured in the foreground) was tender and boldly flavoured, sure to please the tastebuds of red meat lovers:

Stuffed Piquillo Peppers #2 - the duxelles of mushroom was my favourite of the three. Beautiful earthy flavours:

Stuffed Piquillo Peppers #3 - the seafood one was nice, but be sure to eat this first as the other two stronger-flavoured stuffed peppers will overwhelm the subtlety of seafood flavours:

Black Paella en su Tinta (US$24) - Bomba black rice with seafood and drizzled with Alioli. The black comes from squid ink, which can stain! Stain factor aside, this dish was delicious, but a little bit too salty:

The Andalusian Chicken Salad (US$14) was a hefty bowl of mixed greens and grilled chicken dressed in a balsamic vinegar-orange dressing. It was a well-composed salad, and I loved the sweet juicy mango dices and the creamy avocado:

If you are in San Diego and you like tapas, Café Sevilla is not to be missed!

[Prices quoted above exclude additional taxes and tips.]

Café Sevilla
353 5th Ave
San Diego, CA 92101
United States
Tel. +1 619 233 5979

Fantastic Mexican @ Miguel's Cocina, Coronado (California)

One of the things we were told we had to do while in SoCal was eat Mexican food! That is sound advice considering that Mexico is only just across the border from San Diego where we stayed for three nights during our vacation in August. During the half-day we spent cycling around Coronado Island, we enjoyed a delicious Mexican lunch at Miguel's Cocina. This restaurant is quite popular, and it was already almost full house when we arrived for lunch. We didn't have any reservations, and thankfully there was a table available for our little group. All the tables in the patio dining area were fully occupied, and to be honest I was glad to be indoors after having spent a few hours cycling in the warm sun. Service was warm and friendly, and we were completely at ease and in comfort during our meal.

Entering Miguel's Cocina:

The crowded patio dining area:

The menu was pretty extensive with plenty to choose from, and the serving sizes were huge! We ordered too much food, but we left nothing to waste.

The complimentary basket of corn chips and accompanying sour cream and salsa. Great for munching while waiting, and it was terribly hard to resist from filling up on the corn chips:

Taquitos (US$8) - somewhere underneath all that sour cream, guacamole and salsa fresca were four crispy rolled corn tortillas filled with shredded chicken. Yummy!

From the Kids' Menu, our boy had the Quesadilla which came with rice and refried beans. Cheesy and filling:

Hubby got the Combination Fajitas (chicken, skirt steak and shrimp, US$15), sautéed with mushrooms, onion, bell pepper and tomato, and served with rice and beans, guacamole, salsa fresca and warm tortillas (not shown). This was big enough for two:

I ordered the Shrimp Enchilada (US$15) - shrimp sautéed with salsa fresca, stuffed inside corn tortillas, and topped with jalapeño white sauce and avocado slices. Another cheesy and very filling option:

Crispy Cinnamon Churros (US$4) for dessert - so simple and so good yet so unhealthy:

The food was delicious, and we enjoyed our meal at Miguel's Cocina. Highly recommended for family-style eating.

[Prices quoted above exclude additional taxes and tips.]

Miguel's Cocina
1351 Orange Avenue
Coronado, CA 92118
United States
Tel. +1 619 437 4237