Teich.Net :: All In

Felix’s has a salsa bar. Not the dancing kind. The kind the has 20+ different salsas to choose from. This makes me very happy. It’s fun, really, having lots of interesting things to taste. The only bummer is that you only get six glasses to fill, so you’re forced to choose (though you can always go back). On our visit, the options included black bean and papaya, roasted habanero, mango, tomatillo, “pink salsa” (chipotle sour cream), and so many others!
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As a non-meat-eater, I never really saw the point of tacos. Now I’ve seen the light: it’s delicious ingredients plus interesting fixings that make tacos so good!

At Gardenias, each shady table is laden with nine topping options, including various salsas, guacamole, limes, and chilies. The fish and shrimp tacos, both fried in a remarkably light, fresh way, were both fantastic. BBQ pork, BBQ beef, and chicken were all excellent as well. We even tried cactus, which came in a heaping pile of what tasted a little like green beans. Apparently cactus is good for you, but I would rather have had another fish taco. Quesadillas were heavy on the cheese and not as exciting as the one I had at Habanero but still delicious.
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The most Cuban things about Havana are the name, The Buena Vista Social Club playing after the jazz stopped, and the Mojitos on the menu. The closest the actual menu got to “Cuban influenced” was a special called Voodoo Chicken, which seemed more Cajun-American than anything but tasted good nonetheless. The rest of the menu consisted of things like Steak and Onion quesadillas (also tasty), stuffed pork chops with spinach and gnocchi, and two pasta dishes. As long as you steer clear of foods that seem out of place here (pasta) the entrees were all surprisingly good. Just don’t go expecting traditional dishes like black beans and fried plantains. Read the rest of this entry »

I have no idea why this place at the end of a dirt road that’s really no more than a small kitchen and a large collection of heavy metal tables and chairs set in the sand a few feet from the Pacific and shielded by umbrellas is called The Office. I certainly wouldn’t mind this being where I went to work everyday. Although most trips to Los Cabos are all about relaxing, it’s still worth visiting The Office at least once.
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As I said, my head is still in Japan, even though my body is now in Mexico. One of the things I keep coming back to is the sight of young men standing on the corners in many of the more popular night-life areas of Tokyo (Ginza, Shibuya) dressed in full tuxedos. Just standing there on the corners, looking dapper, but also bored.
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For our first night in Los Cabos, before the arrival of the rest of the clan, we headed to the site of one of the nicest hotels and reputably best restaurants in the small town of San Jose del Cabo for a wonderfully pleasant evening. This phot from The New York Times doesn’t do the romance and charm of the place justice.
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I have read that it’s sunny in Los Cabos all but fifteen days a year. Seeing the brown hills, cacti, and abundance of restaurants that have no option but to close down completely in bad weather, the forecast of a week with highs in the eighties is far from surprising, but reassuring nonetheless. We’re here with Oren’s family for Thanksgiving. It’s a surprisingly easy getaway to another world via a two and a half hour flight from San Francisco. We’re staying at the Sheraton on the beach on the corridor between the frenetic tourist haven of Cabo San Lucas and the calmer, more Mexican San Jose del Cabo. It’s not only a phenomenally good deal (read, free, thanks to Oren’s travel-savvy mother and a particularly nice deal Starwood offers at some hotels: 5 nights and 50,000 airline miles for 70,000 Starwood points), but it’s also a place where I would be reasonably happy paying for a room, at least so far. More to come on the place later in the week. It seems that Cabo may be almost as good a place for food-lovers as it is for sun-worshipers. We are here armed not only with a handful of mostly glowing articles from the likes of The New York Times and Wine Spectator, but also a skinny and enthusiastic guidebook to good eating in Los Cabos. With a week of relaxation, beautiful blue water, perfect weather, good meals, and cold beer ahead, there’s little more we can think to ask.

I spent part of last week in the LA area for work and had the opportunity on Thursday night to go to dinner at Urasawa with Chuck of Chuck Eats (and Drives).

Urasawa was opened seven months ago by Chef Hiroyuki “Hiro” Urasawa, former student of the famed Chef Masa Takayama, who’s ultra-exclusive Ginza Sushi-ko previously occupied the space upstairs from some of the ritziest boutiques in Beverly Hills. The bar seats ten and there are a few small tables, but on the eve of our dinner, we had Hiro’s full attention for the first few hours of our dinner.
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I have been mourning the inevitable replacement of mission figs in the fruit section with fresh cranberries. I had been desperately craving one last delicious dessert of soft gooey cheese with fresh figs oozing their almost too-ripe syrup, but the figs had already gone. I had long glanced at the attractive jars of Adriatic Fig Spread at Whole Foods with the fleeting thought: I like figs, I should try that. With the fresh figs finished for the year and the craving unsated, I finally brought a jar home.
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Being the jaded cynic that I am, I didn’t expect to take much away from a recent business trip to Japan. With only 5 days, 3.5 of which were booked solid with meetings, I suspected I’d mostly be seeing conference rooms. My plane returned Saturday @ 5, leaving me with a few morning hours to explore, plus what I could steal between meetings. Though not what I was expecting (Blade Runner, but flashier), and even with the extremely limited time, I was blown away. The scale, the people, the food, and the sightseeing all impressed me.
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