Columbus Iconic: Whither The Lettuce Wrap?

Iconic eats?  P.F. Chang's has made it three years in a row topping the
(614) ColumBest Reader Poll for "Best Asian Restaurant"

I acknowledge that the winners of many of media-sponsored reader polls are as much about name recognition and popularity as it is food quality when it comes to restaurants. That is certainly case with the fairly recently released 2019 edition of the (614) Columbus 2019 ColumBest poll.

But some results just sort of make you shake your head, and perhaps none does it more for me than the now three-year run of P.F. Chang's winning the "Best Asian Restaurant" category in the in the (614) ColumBest poll, claiming the top spot in 2017 when previous winner Haiku closed its doors in late 2016.

Conventional wisdom would make you think a national chain like P.F. Chang's (which has its origins in California in San Francisco and, later Beverly Hills) shouldn't be coming close to placing in these types of polls. Columbus's culinary scene has made wonderful strides over these past three years, with burgeoning coffee, craft beer and now distillery scenes (the latter sporting some great food components); the increasing emergence of upscale and creative eateries; and an increasing palette of international cuisines in general. This evolution has garnered its fair share of national notice - prominent media outlets like Food & Wine, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and Forbes have featured the city in the past six months alone.

Desayuno Departures: Until Next Time, San Diego

Yes, you have arrived in San Diego's Golden Hill district, one of three
locations from which Dark Horse Roasters operates

Alas, all vacations must end, and our sun-drenched romp through San Diego reached its invitable conclusion. Without a doubt, we were pleased with how it all came out, as we received our fill of yummy craft beer, lovely ocean shore vistas, and a healthy dose of natural Vitamin D.

However, we didn't want to depart without mentioning our most favorite meal of the day in breakfast and brunch. Typically, this is where we spend most of our going out money back home in Columbus, but it turned out to take a bit of a back seat on this particular jaunt. Not that there weren't worthy places available (one such place, Hash House a Go Go, even offers a touch of the Midwest as an option), but those will have to wait until a more lengthy and more easy-going return back to the area.

With that said, there were plenty of nice little finds on our trip, the first of them residing in the Victorian home-laced neighborhood of Golden Hill.

Ice Cream Chronicles (Year 4) - A Taste of Tuscany

As I've entered year four of these chronicles, I've begun to realize that the world of frozen confections is much more than just ice cream. I've ventured a touch beyond that when it came to Whit's and their frozen custard, but I figured why should I be limiting myself?  Time is short, and there's plenty of places I haven't gotten to yet.

So why not gelato, ice cream's silkier Italian cousin? And why not start in a place where you can find two ladies having a deep conversation in that very same language in the corner of the cafe?

Craft Beer San Diego (Pt. 3) - Boerewors and Bjergsø

When you start seeing zebras after a few beers in San Diego and you're
NOT at the zoo, it's time to go get yourself something to eat

Successful brewery hopping requires a few things to make it through to the end in good shape. In lieu of a hired/designated driver, pacing is vital, along with common sense things like proper hydration and keeping well fed throughout the journey. After visits to Longship Brewing and White Labs (contained in this previous blog post) we figured it was time to pack our bellies with some sustenance. But then the next obvious question popped up: where?

Here's where a nice chance glance came into play. I had noticed what seemed to be a restaurant called CapeTown, as in the western port city located in South Africa. My spouse had had a niece spend some time in that country during her educational studies, and Columbus itself has a food truck that features South African specialties in Fetty's Street Food - could this actually be a South African cuisine restaurant?

A quick check of the smart phone confirmed our suspicions, and we made the short drive over.

Craft Beer San Diego (Pt. 2): Beeramar - The Nerdy and The Newbie

The F-14 Tomcat, one of the many fighter planes to find action in the former
NAS Miramar's Top Gun program (original photo from Wikimedia Commons;
original photographer - Photographer's Mate Airman Jhi L. Scott)

1986 saw the release of the smash movie "Top Gun" (the nickname for the Navy Fighter Weapons School), where Tom Cruise's character Maverick overcomes long odds and tragedy to earn his place among the best pilots in the service. As the film roared to be the top gun at the box office (just edging out, yes, Paul Hogan and his "Crocodile Dundee"), I doubt anyone people who lived around NAS Miramar and the surrounding Miramar neighborhood, which had served as home for the program since its inception in 1969, would've or could've suspected that just ten years later, the program would be literally flying the coop.

Indeed, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in 1993 recommended the base be transferred to the Marine Corps to consolidate their area presence into one location, and that the Top Gun program be transferred to NAS Fallon in the high plateau of Nevada. Despite local objections, the last of the program's planes roared off Miramar runways on May 29, 1996, never to come back to San Diego.

Similarly, if one were to poll the locals during the final days before the program's departure in 1996, I suspect very few if any of them would have foreseen that their neighborhood would become the craft beer hub that many have dubbed "Beeramar" one decade later.

A Lovely Sessions Ale: Balboa Park and The Museum of Man

"Niki Gator" by Niki de Saint Phalle is one of the works of art
you will find scattered throughout San Diego's Balboa Park

For the first time visitor to San Diego, it's hard to go wrong by scheduling a visit to the urban playground that is Balboa Park. Built on land that was designated for recreation even before the Mexican government was forced to cede the area to the United States due to the Mexican-American War, Balboa Park offers numerous attractions to keep anyone entertained, including gardens, museums, and the internationally-renowned San Diego Zoo.

The trees and other plant life in Balboa Park have their own unique origin

As we drove in this day, my spouse and I noticed that the park was teeming with trees, a development that would not be anything out of the ordinary. However, appearances can be deceiving - as we walked toward the main thoroughfare in the park, the El Prado, we noticed rather uniquely barked tree that resembled an Banyan Tree with fruit of some sort growing overhead. As it turned out, the trees were Moreton Bay Fig Trees, a native of Eastern Australia.

Craft Beer San Diego (Pt.1): Where Even Chains Strive to Tread

 Bine & Vine, in San Diego's Normal Heights neighborhood,
operates as one of the best beer & wine bottle shops in the area

It's impossible to deny San Diego's status as a craft beer mecca: as I type, the region is on the verge of 140 total breweries, While the abundant sunshine that San Diego is known for was more than enough reason for our visit, this particular status provided the proverbial foamy head of affirmation on our "where shall we go?" destination stein.

However, it's easy to forget that, at least by California standards, this area was late to the party. Tom Acitelli's all-encompassing book on the emergence of the U.S. craft beer scene, "The Audacity of Hops", noted for several decades up until 1989, beer choices for the local consumer were either U.S. big beer adjunct lagers or their Mexican counterparts (Corona, Tecate, etc.) As detailed by Acitelli himself, "the craft beer movement...seemed a world away; the odd Anchor (Steam Brewing) tap or six-pack the only glimpse a San Diegan might catch of it."

Seal Pups and Fish Tacos: A Day in La Jolla

Perhaps the most idealized perception of what a beachfront community like La Jolla aims to project came through very early during our visit, when we passed a rather nattily-dressed senior couple, toting their bicycles next to them, along the main trail

"We kind of got a late start today, dear."
"Oh, really?" The man glanced casually over to his silver-haired companion.
"Yeah, it's already past ten in the morning."

Hmmm, if getting out the door for a causal bike ride after 10 AM when I'm older is wrong, I don't think I ever want to be right.

A Look Around Liberty Station (aka Stone, In Love With You)

My dad, a U.S. Navy veteran, once told me that he received some of his training down at the former San Diego Naval Training Center. Not having visited the city before, I wasn't quite sure where the facility would have been, but as luck would have it, we inadvertently found it by sheer coincidence when visiting Liberty Station for some craft beer and a look around.

A bench in the shape of a boat, perhaps a nod to the property's Naval
Training Center past, lies in front of Liberty Public Market

If you haven't guessed it by now, the land where the Liberty Station development resides is the home of the former Naval Training Center, which was targeted for closure by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in 1993. Some communities around the nation have struggled with base closures, most familiar to me being Vallejo and the closure of Mare Island Naval Shipyard (a little bit of that history is detailed in my previous post on Mare Island Brewing.)

Despite continuing controversy related to developer demands and other viable alternatives brought up by social, Tribal and airport expansion advocates, the former training center has for all intents and purposes been remodeled into an all-encompassing mix of residential, commercial and recreational uses. For our purposes, two of Liberty Station's residents enticed us to drop by for a visit on this vacation.

Gonna' Soak Up The Sun: Sauntering into San Diego

California's Central Valley seems to stretch on forever while on Interstate 5

One downside that I have discovered about moving to the Columbus area (one that my spouse warned me about) was the area's high ranking in the cloudy day charts: in fact, it rates as one of the Top Ten Most Cloudy Cities in the United States.  As my spouse further explained, by the month of February, any chance to escape for more sunny climes, even for a few days, is a welcome one.

Well, this year provided us the perfect opportunity: a planned big family gathering in San Francisco gave my spouse and I a prime opportunity to add on a few extra days for some extra sun-drenching. After a quick look, San Diego seemed to be a prime hunting ground for this quest, and a warm temperatures on departure day seemed to portend a good few days ahead.