Tahoe Brew Pub

For our one dinner in tahoe, we had a bit of trouble. The places close fairly early, and especially because it was a sunday night, so several of the places we were first going to try were about to close. So eventually, we went subterranean to the Stateline Brewery, with only 20 minutes to spare, and they gladly welcomed us. The place is quite big and takes up quite a bit of the basement of the the little shopping center. It was pretty deserted at the time.
They brew their own beers, and J partook of their wheat brew.
He got the fish tacos again. As you can see, these fish tacos were quite different from the last ones he had. Black beans, instead of refried beans, the rice was completely different as well, and the fish in this one was lightly battered and fried. It was also a giant honkin piece of fish. And he wouldn't stop going on and on about them. Mark his words. Best fish tacos he's ever had.
It was quite cold, so I went with the two soups again, which I tend to do on occasion. First up was french onion soup. Good.
Next up was clam chowder. Also good. This one had hunks of celery, but they were easily avoidable. This had big giant hunks clams too. They're into big hunks of seafood here. Service was great. Our server was super friendly and didn't think it was weird when I ordered two soups. She was also kind enough to take a picture for us. Good food and good beer, can't beat that!

Point Reyes Lunch

After picking up a car, we hopped over the Golden Gate Bridge to head over into Marin County to check out Point Reyes National Seashore. On the way, we stopped in Inverness for a quick bite. There's a tiny teeny strip with a couple of restaurants and a market. Priscilla's is an adorable little seaside spot. It was halloween so everyone was dressed up. The place is totally adorable, like a whitewashed beach cottage. There's some outdoor dining as well.
You get a little mix to snack on at every table. It's basically chex mix and japanese rice crackers. I picked out all the rice crackers!
J got the fish tacos. The beans were nice and creamy and the rice was nice. The fish was a nice portion and grilled, with all the right fixins. He really enjoyed these.
I got a bowl of the clam chowder and half a meatball sandwich. The clam chowder was great and so was the sandwich. These meatballs were surprisingly flavorful, so much that they didn't even need sauce. It came sandwiched in a dense sourdough roll, which was delicious as well. I was happy with both of my choices. Service was fast and friendly and the whole dining experience was nice and relaxed. The bathroom is outdoors though, and smells quite terrible. So avoid it if you can!

Fire Restaurant - Dublin

On my last evening, my colleague R and I got to talking about food. She recommended Fire as a place with excellent cocktails and steaks. Since I wasn't sure where to go, I decided to head over there. It's next to the Mansion House, which is some sort of event place, and the restaurant itself is kinda huge. It's in one giant room with extremely high ceilings. It's rather daunting, bordering on gawdy. It's another place that probably considers itself fine dining. It sure has fine dining prices, that's for damn sure. Did I get cocktails? No. Did I get steaks? No. So here's what I did get.
Some complimentary bread. It was only ok. They have their own brand of water. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.
I got the soup, which was sweet corn and fresh tomato. Only thing though, I don't recall any tomatoes being in this at all. It was more of a creamy corn soup. I quite liked it, but the name and description was a bit of a misnomer.
For my entree I got the pan fried fillet of monkfish, served with a basil and lemon hollandaise sauce with asparagus and scallion mashed potatoes. This dish was quite good, but man, so just not worth the high price tag. It was three fairly teeny bits of monkfish, a small heap of mashed potatoes, and three asparagus. This is all you get for nearly 30 euros? It's slightly offensive. I said it was good, but it was way overpriced. The soup was a bit expensive too, but it was a lot of soup, so that price point didn't offend me as much. I was pretty stuffed though, so I didn't have room for dessert. The food was good, but it wasn't great. It wasn't good enough to have the price tags that it did. The high prices seem to be because of the ambiance, but for me, the ambiance wasn't that rich either. It was a bit showy and cheesy. So maybe I would have done better if I had gotten steak and cocktails as per the recommendations, but I have a feeling I would have found them not worth their price either. For me, I say skip this one. You can get much better food elsewhere in Dublin. Service was only ok. Again, for these prices, I expected much more.

I Only Want Hot Soup - Nooch

It wasn't my plan to eat so much non swiss food while I was in switzerland. But damn it people, it was so cold there. While I was in Dublin, the weather was stupendous... in the high 50's, low 60's. As soon as I got to switzerland it was in the 30's. Yeah, the 30's. I could see my damn breath. So I only wanted hot soup. This is what I kept craving. So I ended up at Nooch. It's a small chain of asian noodle restaurants. So I ordered the fujiyama noodle soup - udon noodles, dashi broth, tofu, veggies, and such. This thing was kind of a mess. They took japanese noodles and broth, and then tried to bastardize it with things clearly not meant for japanese food. Cilantro? Thai basil? Seriously, have you ever seen those things in japanese cuisine? It was almost blasphemy. And they threw in a giant heap of pickled ginger into the soup too. Luckily, I was able to fish it out. The broth was ok, and the noodles were ok, but similar to the ramen, there weren't enough noodles. And unfortunately, I could still taste the ginger in the broth. The rest of the veggies were ok. But similar to the ramen, it was an underwhelming bowl of overpriced noodles. Hot, but otherwise just blah.

Nice Cheap Buy

Sometimes when I'm at the store, I buy something I don't want or need, just because it happens to be on sale. Such as this random soup I picked up at target because it was half price. I'm very into soup, so I thought why not. And man! Did I pick a winner! This soup was so surprisingly good. Now I will have to stalk the clearance aisle ends at target to stock up!