Sushi Kaito

The first time I stepped into Sushi Kaito, it was nearly empty. Given their reputation, that was a bit of a surprise. We were delighted to be able to sit at the bar. We had heard that omakase was the way to go. When we asked for that, Kazuo-san said, "I can't do that for you. I don't know you. I don't know what you like."*

No menu, no sake list, you order based on what you see and what you like.

We started off with the live scallop, which he showed to us, still healthy in its shell. Shaved thin, it had a sweet flavour. And the outside of the scallop peeled off and fried. Perfect. With that, Kazuo-san asked, "What do you *not* like?" Me: "Nothing." My wife: "Eel".  "Then I will serve you eel tempura." This guy has cajones. His second dish is something we've just claimed we don't like. The tempura was sweet and clean. Perfect texture, perfect flavour. While we were eating it, he explained, "Most places use frozen eel. I have fresh eel. That's why I serve it with the spine, to show you I bought it fresh." The spine had been deep-fried. It was crunchy and delicious. Delicious. To say that I'm surprised that eel spine was delicious... Well, I'll say it, you need to eat some eel spine. As soon as you possibly can.

What followed was the most amazing sushi meal of my life. Kampache. Crunchy, spicy roll (which might just be the best thing I've ever had in my mouth). The strong-flavoured mackerel (saba in Japanese). Dish after dish surprised and delighted.

The sushi at Kaito isn't just great by San Diego standards, this is great sushi by any standard. I've been spoiled for other places.

*these aren't exact quotes, but paraphrasing written as quotes for dramatic effect.


Sushi Kaito
130-A North El Camino Real
Encinitas, CA 92024
(760) 634-2746
Mon-Sat: 5 pm - close


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Zumbar Coffee

I've been keeping a secret from the internets.  I've been a bit nervous to share my secret, as I don't want them to get too crowded.  In a non-descript strip mall, hidden practically under I-5 in San Diego, is probably the finest coffee place in San Diego.



You might hardly even notice it - it's labeled "Coffee Shop".  This is Zumbar.

Do you remember "Cheers"?  This place is like Cheers.  Only good.  And clean.  And with coffee instead of beer.  And with little pastries and rugelach.  You walk in, and the baristas yell "NORM!".

Okay.  Basically, it's nothing like Cheers.  But the clientele there is almost exclusively made up of regulars drawn from the local biotech community.

The real draw is the house-roasted beans that are expertly extracted to make outrageously tasty lattes.



And if froofy coffee drinks are your thing, like Mrs. Dude, they make a wicked caffe mocha.



Check them out.  But be warned: once you try Zumbar, you'll never go anywhere else for coffee.



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East Coast/West Coast

San Diego has the best cooking scene of anywhere I've lived. Produce. Meat. Wine. Fish. You name it, we can get it here. As a home cook, this is of course fantastic.

But San Diego's restaurant scene makes me cry. Case in point: We just returned from a visit to family in the Washington D.C. area. As part of our visit, we met some friends in the highly acclaimed restaurant Proof. In the same price range as Blue Point in downtown San Diego, these restaurants might as well be in different galaxies. The food at Blue Point is good, but certainly not memorable. The food at Proof made me cry tears of pure ecstasy.

I'm not that food blogger who takes pictures of my dinner in the restaurant. Sorry. So if you're looking for photos, head over to Proof. We started with the charcuterie plate, waiting for us when we arrived (our friends arrived 15 minutes earlier). The star was quite obviously the Pate Campagne with Sour Cherries & Pistachios. Sweet and rich. Spread on the toasted bread they brought us, it was delicious. This pate was pure perfection.

We took a collaborative approach to dinner, ensuring that no one would order the same thing. It's important to have friends who will do this with you - it expands the range of things you can taste without increasing the cost. For firsts, we ordered Grilled Spanish Octopus, Ahi Tuna Tartare, Sautéed Potato Gnocchi with Red Scallions & Asparagus, Sheep’s Milk Ricotta with Smoked Prosciutto & Warm Flatbread. All four were quite tasty, but the gnocchi and tuna tartare were divine. The tartare tasted of sesame and raw tuna, and was perfectly balanced with sheets of toasted seaweed in between.

For seconds Sautéed Day Boat Scallops, Miso Glazed Sablefish, Honey & Spice Glazed Pekin Duck Breast and Crispy Duck & Pork Confit. The miso glazed white sablefish was perfectly cook. Tender and soft, rich and sweet, it was perfection. The duck breast was also done outrageously well. The pork confit was slightly overcooked, a sin that was quickly forgiven due to the perfectly done duck confit.

For dessert, two of us ordered the Rhubarb and Strawberry Shortbread, one ordered the Chocolate Bread Pudding and one ordered the Raspberry Panna Cotta. You may remember my thoughts on contaminating rhubarb with other fruit, but this was crazy good. Only a tiny amount of strawberry to flavour the rhubarb, not the other way around, and the sugar was perfectly balanced - resulting in a slightly sweet rhubarb flavour. Delicious. The panna cotta and bread puddings were also really, really great.

This is what fine dining should be. When you pay as much as you do at a place like Blue Point or Proof - the food should be dynamite. It should be perfectly executed, and it should be exciting. Sadly, this kind of dining seems to be lacking in San Diego. We've had good food, and very-good-for-the-money-food, but we've had no restaurant meals that make us sigh wistfully, and recount to friends that fabulous meal we had one time... We'll have to rely on our biannual forays east to satisfy our fine dining cravings. Or perhaps a field trip to Los Angeles...

Wine in San Diego

There's a new business model in town.  The Splash wine bar, which is a relatively new place, has an interesting setup.  When you walk in, you'll notice chairs around the outside of the room, and several large machines with wine bottles in them.  You approach the bar at the back end of the room, and buy a card for wine (a flat dollar amount).  Then, you can buy a splash (about one ounce) of wine in your glass by putting the card into a machine and placing your glass under the spout of the wine you want to try.  The prices range from around a buck a splash on up.  Any of the wines are available by the bottle, and many are available by the glass.

This is a pretty fun business model.  You can try a dozen different wines in a short amount of time.  And many of these are wines you might feel more nervous to buy an entire bottle of (given that you can buy an ounce of $100 a bottle wine, it becomes easier to sample wines that you're less likely to purchase).  There are some really fabulous wines served here.  Indeed, we walked out with a bottle of 10 year old Porto Kopke that was fantastic.

The downside of this little place is that having to get up after an ounce of wine to get more kind of kills conversation.  You end up wandering around the room exploring the wine, passing your friends exploring the wine, but there are too many interruptions to be a good place to talk.  The other downside is that if you're like me, and you like wine, you can blow a lot of money really fast.  Fortunately when we went, we had dinner reservations, so we only spent an hour there.  That was perfect.

Will we go back?  Hell, yes.  It's a fun way to try wine, and a great way to get a few bottles for your home.  

The hunt for mythical San Diego cuisine.

Baltimore.  Calgary.  Edmonton.  Houston.  San Diego.  I've lived in a few cities over the last 15 years, all of them with their own local flavor.  But imagine my surprise that San Diego, in southern California, has the worst restaurant scene of any of these cities.  I had expected that it would be the best, given that California is famous for quality produce, quality wine and quality restaurants.  But apparently that's further north...

While some San Diego foodies despair that there is no restaurant scene in San Diego, that's not true.  You just need to be more careful.  We no longer go anywhere without a prior recommendation.  (We've had meals in restaurants that we chose without assistance that were bad enough that we walked out of the restaurant and went home for dinner.  There are restaurants here that don't even serve food, but serve some unidentifiable glorp instead).  

But this is a happy tale.  In celebration of the upcoming long weekend, my wife and I skipped out of work early, and left the little one in daycare.  Off for lunch in University Heights at Mama's Bakery & Lebanese Deli.

I ordered the Makanek wrap.  A Lebanese beef sausage with pickled peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, spicy-citrus sauce wrapped in a home-grilled flatbread.  Delicious!  Spicy and sweet, the flavour was fresh and bright.  The sausage, pulled out of the wrap was a tiny bit spongy, but that texture disappeared in the mix of crisp and fresh ingredients mixed in the rest of the wrap.  Fantastic!  

My wife ordered the falafel, served with home-made pita bread and hummus.

The falafel was crisp, the hummus was bright, the flavours in this lunch were fantastic.  Everything was fresh and carefully prepared, and eating in their semi-outdoor seating area that takes advantage of perpetually perfect weather seemed quintessential San Diego.

But could there be more?  Just around the corner from Mama's Bakery & Lebanese Deli is another gem of San Diego.  Eclipse Chocolat.  Eclipse is one of the few (only?) truly world-class food establishments that we've encountered here.  We first discovered them a few months ago at the Little Italy Farmer's Market.  Their chocolates are rich and deep-flavoured (and they ought to be, at $6 a pop).  They're not overly sweet, unlike many American chocolates.  For chocolate lovers, Godiva is to Hershey's as Eclipse is to Godiva.  You really taste the chocolate, and not the sugar.  And the different flavours are really fun and creative.  Their Sea-salt nibs are truly delicious, speckled with tiny little salt crystals that pop on your tongue.  So after lunch, we snuck over to Eclipse and picked up a sea-salt nib bar.  Yum.  A simple lunch, a simple dessert on a beautiful afternoon in San Diego.