Sushi at Apengo

I decided to add fish to my vegetarian diet for a limited time, and I'm so glad. There's nothing better than a good sushi roll that combines some of my favorite things: mango, avocado, and salmon.(Dinner at Apengo in Long Beach).

Dessert at Gerard's

Philippe and I had bananas foster and vanilla crepes with orange sauce (both with excellent vanilla bean ice cream) at a small French restaurant in Riverside called Gerard's Eve Bistro. The flavors of both desserts were rich and delectable, with hints of honey and orange, the perfect ending to a great weekend. Enjoy the rest of Sunday!

Home-made chilaquiles.

Although I grew up eating delicious Mexican food, Italian, by far, has become my favorite. However, when I crave good Mexican, I either want to eat green enchiladas or chilaquiles. In a fruitless attempt to have well-made chilaquiles in restaurants, I decided to make my own. I used tomatillo, jalapenos, chiles serranos, garlic, onion, Roma tomatoes, a little cilantro, and some species for extra flavoring for the green salsa. I cut some tortillas and slighlty fried them instead of using already made chips. I was also able to get 'queso Manchego' and used that to top the chilaquiles. Needless to say, I, along with my boyfriend and sister, was very happy when I tasted them and they actually turned out to be quite good. What's not so good about making great chilaquiles at home? The cleaning to be done after.

Sundried Tomato Cafe

If you are in the San Juan Capistrano area, Sundried Tomato Cafe is a great place to eat. Philippe and I had Polenta with tomatillo sauce, avocado, corn, tomato cilantro and sour cream as an appetizer and it was delicious. If you are into corn bread, polenta is an alternative that would bring a similar taste yet a different texture. The tomatillo sauce was tasty and nicely complemented by the corn and avocado. I had the three cheese and farfalle pasta (gorgonzola, parmesan and asiago, blackened chicken, roasted garlic, roasted red bell pepper with sundried tomato puree). I substituted the chicken with mushrooms since I'm a vegetarian and I was not dissappointed. The flavors were rich, especially the gorgonzola, but complemented each other beautifully. Philppe had the natural half chicken marinated with preserved lemons, garlic and rosemary, green beans and potato puree and could not stop talking about how delicious it was. The chicken looked very tender and the mashed potatoes were creamy and smooth.