Foodies and winos, you know this is a wonderful state. In Palm Springs, of all places, I got turned on to a knockout Galician white. (Fanch, take note.) In Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, the wine bars were on par, if not better, than any place anywhere else. On the other side of the epicurean coin, there's something to be said about the comforting sameness of Mexican restaurants. The best table salsa was that place on Rosedale in Bakersfield, although the joint in Parker, Ariz., across the Colorado River had a nice mix in its salsa bar. (All beverages also clocked in at 96 ounces. No wonder ... O, you know.) Tacos came hard and soft. El Rancho de Tía Rosa in Mesa, Ariz., took the cake for its succulent meats and also appears to be the most consistently crowded, for good reason.
The biggest hit were the rib-eye "sliders" at Intermezzo, the wine bar I found wandering in the Paseo off State Street in Santa Barbara. Biggest flop was the Caesar at the Parker Palm Springs (purloined pic of porte cochere is above), which I tell everybody is Merv's old place, although the management did email me asking for feedback. Now they've got it.
4 comments:
Here's the recipe from Pops himself!
My modifications:
--I added five ribs of diced celery along with the other vegetables, used a whole bell pepper instead of just a quarter, and went with about four or five small cloves of garlic
--I sauteed the "Holy Trinity" (onion, bell pepper, celery), plus garlic, before adding to the pot
--I tossed in about seven whole dried chilis (small to medium sized)
--I used more bacon (3/4 lb) because the very busy grocery store was out of ham hocks
The review of El Rancho de Tia Rosa to which you've linked doesn't give a favorable impression.
kinda sorta. the guy liked the meats, as i did. but i liked the review because it was unusual.
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