Wherever there are working stiffs, there are empanadas. Oh, they may not be called that. In Italy, they’re called “calzones.” In England’s western reaches, Cornish wives sent their husbands into the tin mines with meat-filled pasties. In the Arab world and India, they’re samosas. But the essence of them is the same: proteins wrapped in dough and cooked (either by baking or frying). Indeed, “empanada” is derived from the Spanish verb “empanar,” meaning “to wrap in bread.”
Read more at: http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-13832-argentinean-empanadas-in-downtown-san-diego.html
It definitely wasn’t Hell freezing over—more like Heaven. As the calendar turned, San Diegans had to contend with the unfamiliar: winter coats, warm boots and, in some far-flung reaches, snow. It brought me back to my East Coast college days and the comforts of a warming stew.
Read more at: http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-13805-big-flavors-and-big-comfort-at-convoy-tofu-house.html
Charlemagne the Truck struggled on the rutted incline, tires spinning on loose dirt, four-wheel drive be damned. Could the best restaurant in the Valle de Guadalupe—one of the 50 best in Latin America—possibly be up this road? I was expecting a “Welcome to the middle of nowhere” sign. Or make that “Bienvenida al medio de la nada.”
Read more at: http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-13784-getting-to-the-heart-of-the-valle-at-corazon-de-tierra.html
It’s tempting to think about the new Baja food scene in dualistic terms: tacos, mariscos and birria sold from roadside stands on one hand, and BajaMed—the celebrated high-end cuisine fusing Mexican traditions with various immigrant flavors, using Baja’s native foodstuffs and employing European training and techniques—on the other. Tempting, yes, but also this: wrong.
Read more at: http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-13747-finca-altozano-isnt-just-in-the-valle-de-guadalupe.html
As Vladimir Putin could testify, Eastern European international borders aren’t indelible. My family might have said the same. My grandmother swore we were Polish. My great aunt said we were Russian. And it’s not as if the international border ran down the middle of a street between their houses. It’s the same when it comes to food.
Read more at: http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-13765-the-village-house-kalinas-hearty-cuisine-transcends-borders.html
A guy still can’t get a soupspoon at Underbelly. Not at the original Little Italy location and not at the new one in North Park (3000 Upas St.). I briefly pondered the consequences of smuggling in a spoon. Would it be ripped from my hand? Would a team of lanky, bearded, bespectacled hipsters haul me away?
That question unanswered, I returned to my Belly of the Beast ramen, a more enjoyable contemplation. Read more at: http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-13727-consortium-holdings-puts-it-all-together-at-underbelly-north-park.html
As we in San Diego mount our second major effort in two years to establish a permanent public market, Tijuana already has a world-class example: the Mercado Miguel Hidalgo de Tijuana (Blvd. Sanchez Taboada and Ave. Independencia Tijuana Zona Rio)….Perhaps the best of Mercado Hidalgo’s restaurants is El Rincon del Oso, home of a dish that was recently named Chowzter’s “Tastiest Soup in Latin America 2014” (nominated by San Diegan Scott Koenig).
Read more at: http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-13705-get-your-goat-at-el-rincon-del-oso-in-tijuana.html
There are only so many ways a review can go. There’s the long, slow, sloppy, wet kiss; the brutal takedown piece; the analytical, death-by-many-cuts; and the ever-popular “I’m an amazing writer, aren’t I?” There are more, but not many—this review is one of those others: the reconsideration after they let the air out of the balloon.
Once upon a time, Dumpling Inn was a cult Chinese spot hiding in a troubled strip mall (4619 Convoy St.) around the corner from Jasmine Restaurant, one of San Diego’s great dim sum palaces.
Read more at: http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-13682-its-owners-focus-back-dumpling-inn-excels-again.html
While Dobson’s (956 Broadway Circle, Downtown) was once at the top of a very short list of best restaurants in town, by the mid-’90s it was better known as the power-lunch spot. Hit particularly hard by the 2008 economic downturn, Dobson sold his ownership stake earlier this year but maintained his old role.
In walked Chef Martin San Roman…
Read more at http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-13660-paul-dobson-and-martin-san-roman-bring-dobsons-to-new-heights.html
