Calfiornia 2009: Notes from the Road, Part 2

It dawned on me today that it has been a full five years since I moved back to Baltimore from the Inland Empire. This made my travels today a bit more melancholy than I had expected. But as we say on the East Coast, I had an overall good day yesterday.

• My tour of my favorite fast food joints kicked off in San Bernardino, outside of the local Cal State campus, with Del Taco, which is much much better than Taco Hell Bell (I'm not alone in that opinion). I got a very simple, not as cheap as I remembered Del Carbón taco for $1.49. It is just about the least fast-foodie thing I have ever gotten at a fast food restaurant (yes, including the crap that McDonald's passes off as "healthy").

Mmmm. Taco.

• After my aforementioned experience with Fresh and Easy, I had a filling lunch and then headed towards Riverside. After visiting some professors at UCR I headed over to one of my earliest haunts, the lush Canyon Crest Town Center. I was surprised to see many of the same businesses there that had been there when I left in '04. Most were then when I moved out in '97, including old faves like Papi's Tacos al Carbón and Miyako, which gave me some of of my first tastes of Japanese food. Ooh, and Miyako is back to its 2004 prices, apparently.

See?

• Jammin' Bread, located in Canyon Crest Town Center, holds a special significance for me. At one point, I went after a Ph.D. at UCR (yes, more grad school). It was here, after much hemming, hawing and soul searching, that I decided I needed to stop with my MA. Beyond that, Jammin' Bread makes a mean loaf of bread, and they make their own bread, cookies, brownies, cakes, croissants, even English muffins. I ordered the softest, spongiest walnut brownie (I usually hate walnuts in brownies but I hardly tasted it in this one) for $2.50. I also got a cup of iced tea. They asked if I wanted it regular or in several other varieties. I said "regular," and then asked if it was sweetened. She said no - it was regular. D'oh!

Picturesque, innit?

• I remember when they zhuzh'd up the Ralph's (California's version of Giant). Basically, they Whole Foods-ified it and sold slightly fancier things. One less fancy thing was a bag of Beer Chips. These chips are a little sweet and actually taste a little like beer. I am intrigued.
  

Beer and Chips...

• I got a chance to go back to UCR and watch their Javanese gamelan orchestra practice for their big concert on the 5th of June (of course, after I leave). Before that, I drove around to see what haunts were still around. I saw Indian and Mexican markets, Arabic, Italian and Vietnamese restaurants, and several Starbucks that were there when I last left. Another familiar place was the sort-of UCR-affiliated Getaway Café, where many grads, undergrads and even the occasional prof or two go for some wings or beer. I got a (somewhat overpriced) $4.25 pint of Inland Empire Brewing Company's somewhat hoppy, somewhat peppery India Pale Ale. It was pretty tasty, but not for $4.25.
• After passing by the "East Coast Bagel" restaurant, I realized something that I had forgotten after leaving SoCal: to many in California, everything on the Atlantic Coast is just "The East." There is no elusive "New England" or exotic "South," no "Upstate," "Mid-Atlantic" or "Low Country." Nope. It's all just one big lump of East Coast-iness. Funny. Too funny.
  
• Did I mention the delicious dinner I had at Thai Place with my hosts? Best tom kha kai I've had in ages.
  

Update on SoCal visit

I've eaten at a few good places over the last few days, and, like my London visit a few months ago, I am now totally backlogged. Just a wee recap:

Del Taco - This is my favorite fast food restaurant, more for their soft tacos del carbón than anything else. Their breakfast is doable, though the egg and cheese breakfast burrito is a little boring. Light years ahead of Taco Bell, the closest one to Baltimore is 11 hours away - in Chicago.

Delhi Palace - And next comes my all-time favorite Indian restaurant in the Inland Empire, a place where I have eaten many lunch buffets and taken many dates to see if they really passed muster (now that I'm in Charm City, who the hell has time to date anymore?).

The other night at Delhi Palace Jim and I went for some dinner. To follow up our basket of papadums, we each got the prix fixe dinner (most items are, however, a la carte). Jim got the non-vegetarian dinner, and I got the hearty tandoori dinner (each at $14.95). My dinner included some more-succulent-than-usual tandoori chicken, drier-than-usual sheesh kabob, juicy chicken tikka and a vegetable curry that tasted really good.

Oh, and I also found out what happened to my other favorite Indian place that is now Phở Vinam. Our maitre-d' used to work there before the owners sold it to a Vietnamese gentleman and moved back to India on a year lease. He told me "They're not coming back."

DAY IN PALM SPRINGS

I spent yesterday in Palm Springs, which is easily 20 degrees warmer than anywhere in the Inland Empire. While we've been having warm-ish but somewhat clammy weather, Palm Springs has had beautiful weather all weekend. This past weekend was their famous White Party, a sort of Spring Break "circuit party" (a party that travels from one area to the next) where gay men - lots and lots of gay men - dress in white and dance and, well, do other things. One shopkeeper (there are lots of gay shopkeepers in very gay-friendly Palm Springs), who like most is not into this whole White Party thing, told me that this year there were no arrests and very few drug-related incidents (this is encouraging). I myself am not one for trying to drive through ridiculous crowds at 1 mile an hour, for several miles, so I went out of my way to stay away from the White Party.

So the Palm Springs I went to yesterday was much more settled down than it had been. But it was still hot and I, who dressed for clammier weather, scrounged around to buy a pair of shorts and a pair of sandals, each at an embarrassing $40. I should learn to be better prepared, d'oh!

Phillipe's Café and Bistro - This little French bistro has a beautiful view of the main Palm Springs drag of California Rte. 111 (Pam Canyon Drive). But then again, so do most of the restaurants in this part of town. Their fare is mostly crèpes, with some manicotti and a few other items. I ordered the Parisian crèpe, a square, buckwheat crèpe with ham, egg and Gruyère cheese, for $12 (the dinner menu is more expensive). To that I added a Bitburger beer (from Belgium) for $3.50 and the widest crème brulée I have ever seen, for $6. The food and the service were both quite good, and they have one of the most charming bathrooms I have ever seen in a restaurant.

Las Casuelas - For dinner I went with Mexican. And I would've stuck to the main drag, but Las Casuelas - which has five restaurants, including two on Palm Canyon Drive - was way crowded at its Terraza location in the heart of the strip. at least twenty people waiting to be seated, on a Tuesday!? Oy. So I walked quite a few blocks in the other direction (I like the exercise, okay?) and found the original Las Casuelas, which had seats left to fill.

The waitress told me that the locals like the original Las Casuelas, which is further removed from the hustle and bustle of the tourists. It has a more family feel to it. I liked it too. They gave me two delicious chicken enchiladas for about $10, with beans and Mexican rice. I also got a very large - I think too busy - tortilla soup for about $5. Don't get me wrong, it was a good soup, but there was just so much in the soup, more than I usually expect in a tortilla soup. And now that I think about it, I ordered a cup and they brought me a whole bowl! So I paid more than I wanted to, but they didn't overcharge me for anything.

Easter Sunday Eatin' Part 1: Castaway of San Bernardino

Lots of eating yesterday - including two large meals and, well, nothing else. I know, I know, they recommend three square meals a day (or do they anymore?), but if you're full it's not the best idea to eat just because it's lunchtime!

Jim and our friend Gil and I all met up at this beautiful place called the Castaway, on a hilltop in the city of San Bernardino (ironically this city is also the home of McDonald's; if there, check out the McDonald's Museum). This is a lovely, sumptuous brunch and special-occasion facility high on a hilltop overlooking San Berdoo, which is not in itself a pretty city, but hell, it looks gorgeous from that super high hilltop!

The three of us went for brunch, normally $20 but due to the Easter rush, they added an extra $10 for what seemed to me to be a little less food - and not terribly different than their usual offerings, despite what the girl on the phone said. After valet parking our cars (you're not allowed to park yourself here), admiring the coy in the pond and trying unsuccessfully to avoid the crazy Easter Bunny man giving out plastic eggs, we headed inside to see a looooong line. Apparently, this was the line for food. But I'm still glad I made reservations.

So we were seated, and waited about 10 minutes for the line to get shorter. Odd, we were all doing things on our cell phones and personal organizers (me deleting the many pictures taking up space in the "Sent Items" folder). Then we headed for the food, and what an array of food it was! Just a partial list (I'll star those things I actually did get):

• bacon - delicious, greasy bacon *
  
• eggs benedict and scrambled eggs
  
• chili verde *
• smoked salmon and baked salmon with capers * x 2
• grilled veggies (including red pepper, green pepper and some very tough eggplant) *
• menudo and clam chowder
• enchiladas *
• chile relleno
• cheese blintzes *
• croissants and bagels
  
• roast beef cut right in front of your eyes!

And of course, there was dessert, with delicious chocolate flourless cake, three kinds of cheesecake, three more kinds of cake with whipped frosting on it. Oh God, I'm glad I have been going to the gym, because now I know where to go when I get back to Baltimore! After finding an acceptable brunch, of course (I hear John Shields' Gertrude's at the BMA is good, or at the Elkridge Furnace Inn in, of course, Elkridge).