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Monday, August 30, 2010

OC Restaurant Week


The Orange County Restaurant Association has finalized participation of more than 100 restaurants that will unite for the region’s fastest growing and most anticipated culinary event, Orange County Restaurant Week, featuring the flavors of fall from September 26 through October 2, 2010.

Following are the restaurants confirmed to date – more information can be found on the official Orange County Restaurant Week website, where diners may go to find a full list of participants, menus, location and reservation information. Mexican restaurants are in bold while non-Mexican restaurants known to have at least some Mexican dishes are italicized:

o 118 Degrees

o 230 Forest Avenue

o 320 Main Street

o 50 Forks

o 6ix Park Grill

o Anaheim White House

o Andrei's Conscious Cuisine

o AnQi

o Antonello's

o Belacon

o Bayside

o Bistango

o Bluewater Grill

o Brasserie Pascal

o Canyon

o Canaletto

o Catal

o Cedar Creek

o Cha Cha's Tacos and Tequila

o Commonwealth

o Crystal Jade

o Don the Beachcomber

o Duke's

o ECCO

o El Torito Grill

o Fire and Ice

o French 75

o Geisha House

o Harborside Restaurant

o Haven Gastropub

o Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort

o Il Fornaio

o JT Schmid's Restaurant and Brewery

o Kimera

o K'ya Bistro

o K'ya Street Fare

o Leatherby's

o LUCCA

o Lulu’s Crêperie Café

o Lumberyard

o Mahe

o Mario's by the Sea

o Marmalade

o Marrakesh

o McCormicks and Schmicks

o Medieval Times

o Melting Pot

o Memphis Cafe

o Mozambique

o Mr. Stox

o Nello Cucina

o Newport Landing

o No Ka Oi

o O'Neill's at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club

o Opah

o Original Mike's

o Palm Terrace at The Island Hotel

o Phan's 55

o Pinot Provence

o Pirates Dinner Adventure

o Pizzeria Ortica

o Port

o Prego Ristorante

o Primecut Cafe

o Quattro Cafe

o RA Sushi

o Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen

o Raya at The Ritz Carlton (pan-Latin cuisine)

o Royal Khyber

o Ruth's Chris Steak House

o Rustica

o Rusty Pelican

o Sage

o Salt Creek Grille

o Sandy's Grill

o Sapori

o Savannah Chophouse

o Seasons 52

o Signature Kitchen

o Simply Fondue

o SOL Cocina

o Sorrento Grille

o South Coast Winery

o Splashes

o Stonehill Tavern

o Summit House

o Sundried Tomato

o Tangata

o TAPS Fish House and Brewery

o The Catch

o The Crow Bar and Kitchen

o The Daily Grill

o The House of Big Fish and Ice Cold Beer

o The Next Door

o The Lido Deck

o The Matador

o The Ritz Restaurant and Garden

o The Rooftop Lounge

o The Winery Restaurant & Wine Bar

o Tommy Bahama's Island Grille

o Tradition by Pascal

o Watermarc

o Wildfish Seafood Grille

o Wolfgang Puck

o Zov's

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Blog Redesign

If you've visited this site before and you come here now and see that everything looks very different, yes, the site has a new template now but the content is all the same. I was pretty much forced to update the template this blog uses in order to take care of a number of problems the old, outdated template was experiencing. And, yes, there's still some fine-tuning to be done.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Lucky Habanero Salsa

A week or so ago Linda Saenz, The Salsa Lady, dropped some of her salsas off at my work to taste test. Made with fire-roasted chilies and fresh-cut veggies these salsas are fresh and flavorful. Lucky Habanero Salsa comes in 2 varieties, "Original Hot" which has a good amount of heat, and "Medium" to provide a salsa with a medium level of spiciness for those who need to tone down the heat a little. They also have a salsa verde called "San Blas" and an extra hot variety coming soon to store shelves called "Dragon Lips."

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In the interest of full-disclosure this product was provided free to me. I had about 5-7 chips myself and was able to sample and enjoy each salsa before my co-workers gobbled the remainder of it up. One of them practically guzzled the Dragon Lips salsa.

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Lucky Habanero Salsa can be found at the following local markets:

  • Whole Foods Markets
  • Promelis Markets, Newport Beach
  • Irvine Ranch Market
  • Vicente Foods
  • Mother's Markets
  • The Meat House
  • select BevMo locations
  • Hows Market, Malibu
  • Hi-Time Wine Cellars
  • Marbella Farmers Market in San Juan Capistrano
Official Site

Saturday, August 07, 2010

Taqueria Tapatia


Taqueria Tapatia
202 S Bristol St
Santa Ana, CA 92703
(714) 972-9115

Listing on Yahoo! Local

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Here's a little place I went to a few nights ago with a bunch of guys who were hungry for tacos late at night. One of them told me this place stays open until 2am; not quite 24 hours but it should help for a lot of post-10pm food cravings.

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Their specialty is tacos and they have eight different kinds. One of the guys in the group, Steve, got one of each. You can see the al pastor roasting on the spit when you go in. They also have the "real" Mexican meats like lengua and cabeza in addition to the "ordinary" stuff like carne asada, pollo and carnitas.

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All tacos are 93¢ each so with tax added they round up nicely to one dollar. They have some other items like ceviche but be aware that the ceviche is big (pictured above with my carnitas taco and birria taco), not just a little tostada with a little sprinkling of diced seafood on it. Hopefully I can make it back during the daytime and get some better pictures and try some other tacos.

View the whole photo album at flickr.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Del Taco 39¢ Tacos

A few weeks back my uncle told me he saw a Del Taco in Burbank selling tacos for 39 cents when all the others were selling them at 59 cents then about a week ago I saw one in Fountain Valley selling them for 39 cents, but starting today every Del Taco location is selling them for 39 cents.

Del Taco Blows Up the Definition of Value:
For a Limited Time, Regular Tacos Available for the Insane Price of 39 Cents

(Lake Forest, CA) Aug 4, 2010—Never one to back away from the extreme, Del Taco announced today that it is blowing up the definition of value of its popular 59-cent regular taco and – for a limited time – introducing a new, absolutely crazy price of 39-cents.

"Our competition may ask, is Del Taco 'out of control?' Our tacos were already a great value – but 39 cents is insane value," said John Cappasola, Vice President of Marketing at Del Taco. "Actually, we think this promotion is the right idea at just the right time. The economy is at a stand still, and at this price, Del Taco fans can go crazy for our great tasting tacos."

Cappasola wants to remind everyone that the only thing that's changing is the price. "Seasoned beef, freshly grated cheddar cheese and crisp lettuce on a crunchy or soft shell," he said. "It's the same delicious Del Taco taste but now for just 39 cents."

For more than 40 years, Del Taco has been offering menu items that appeal to a broad range of tastes with a strong emphasis on quality and value. The menu includes Mexican offerings of tacos, burritos, quesadillas and nachos as well as American favorites like hamburgers, fries and milk shakes. Each item is made to order with quality ingredients including lard-free beans made from scratch daily, real cheddar cheese grated on site, chicken grilled fresh every hour, hand-made salsa and fresh produce.

Consumers can become Del Taco fans on Facebook and receive coupons for free food. For more information, please visit http://www.facebook.com/deltaco or http://www.deltaco.com

Del Taco has more than 515 restaurants in 16 states.