Several weeks ago Groupon offered a great special in San Diego. It was a discounted price on a three hour food tour of Downtown San Diego by A Taste of San Diego. This tour company is owned and operated by Annette Legaspi, who guided us from restaurant to restaurant throughout our 3 hour food orgy.(www.atasteofsd.com) She is young, energetic, and full of information about San Diego, having lived here all her life. She's a wealth of information and we spent a lot of time picking her brain about other areas of San Diego worth exploring.
Food tours have become popular in recent months, a trend which I hope will continue. Myself and 5 friends bought the Groupon deal, then picked a date when we could all take the tour and had our own private tour of the eateries in East Village, a small section of downtown San Diego.
Over the three hour period we walked a little and ate a lot. We stopped at 6 different restaurants where we ate volumes of food. When Annette calls it A Taste of San Diego, I must disagree. We were served massive amounts of food. These were not just tastes. Even the heartiest of appetites would go home stuffed.
We began our tour at Bread on Market (breadonmarket.com) an artisan bakery and winner of the "Silver Fork Award" from San Diego Home and Gardens. We walked into the bakery, sat down and were served a huge basket of home made breads and sweet rolls. My favorite was the cinnamon roll, but the almond croissant wasn't far behind. Spreads for the bread included a soft butter infused with honey and orange, my personal favorite. This is a great place to stop and pick up sandwiches before a Padre game. They'll pack you a great picnic for $9.99 per person.
Next we stopped at a unique restaurant just a few doors away called J.Wok. (www.jwoksd.com). It's just the type of eating I love, lots of little plates. We had Fried tofu, Vietnamese spring rolls (cold) wrapped in rice paper and a fish egg roll with kimchi. They also serve seaweed salad, pork buns, lettuce wraps and tilapia with green apple. Nothing on the menu is more than $3.75, so you can order an assortment of items and split.
Our next stop was Valentine's, a delicious Mexican restaurant. We were served carne asada street tacos. The meat was well seasoned and tender, wrapped in two small corn tortillas, topped with guacamole, onions and cilantro. It was a real treat.
Next, we visited The Kebab Shop (www.thekebabshop.com). We were served falaffel in a garlic yogurt dipping sauce and several salads, including taboule and tomato and cucumber salad. Fresh and declicious is all I can say, so check them on line as they have several other locations.
Are you full yet? I was, but that didn't stop me from eating everything put in front of me at Venissimo (www.venissimo.com) cheese shop. We were all given a sample of 5 different cheeses, plus red and white wine to enhance the flavors. In addition, we were served a little red pepper stuffed with goat cheese, with just enough spice. I loved it and will go to the Del Mar shop and purchase some. Venissimo offers classes and tastings too. While we were there a local chef stopped by to purchase some cheese for the cheese platters he serves in his restaurant.
Last but not least we visited jsix (www.jsixsandiego.com) for dessert. Frankly we were all so full at this point that we couldn't fully enjoy the delicious dessert we were served. It was a semi frozen chocolate mousse, with layers of carmel and nuts and chocolate underneath. Beautiful and delicious, but unfortunately we were so full we couldn't appreciate it.
We rolled home around six, and here it is almost 24 hours later and I'm still not hungry! What a feast. Next time you're looking for something unique to do in San Diego, check out A Taste of San Diego. Annette has several other tours up and running. She's a wonderful guide, full of knowledge about the food scene in San Diego. We sure had a great afternoon.
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