California Trip - Fri Dinner and Sat Breakfast

My husband could be considered a "foodie".  He cooks every day, reads about cooking, watches shows about cooking, blogs about cooking, and generally has food on the brain pretty constantly.  I, on the other hand, just really enjoy eating, without giving much of a second thought to preparation, plating, texture etc.  I just want my food to taste good.  Dave does credit me with having a very sensitive and distinguished pallet, so I'm his official "taster" when he's cooking.  But that's where my "expertise" ends.

All that to say, when we travel we like to EAT, and Dave especially likes to eat well.  No voluntary McD's for him!  And when we aren't traveling with our kids, which we weren't last weekend, we make sure to live it up when it comes to our meals.

Our first meal in downtown San Diego was at Royal India.  It was given 4.5 stars by yelp - the highest of any Indian cuisine in town.

Did I mention Dave is a homebrewer too?  Yes.  He's amazing.  :)  He enjoyed  the house pale ale while browsing the menu.

We started with the stuffed lettuce leaves.  Chicken, tomatoes, and peppers were simmered in Indian spices and then served on a bed of romaine.  While tasty, the cumin overpowered the more delicate seasonings, and they reminded me of the tacos we make at home.

For our entree, Dave ordered the butter chicken curry (on the right), and I ordered the pineapple coconut chicken curry (on the left).  While the butter chicken curry was lacking, the coconut curry blew us out of the water.  It was fabulous.  There were large chunks of pineapple that brought incredible sweetness to the dish, but was balanced by a delicate but very present coconut flavor.  The chicken was tender and moist, and added a savory element to a very sweet dish.

Overall, we would have given Royal India 3 stars - not the 4.5 that yelp did.  The service was good, not great, and the food was tasty, but only the coconut curry was excellent.  Additionally, the prices were pretty high.  We had a coupon, and still felt like we paid more that what it was worth.  To their credit, we are pretty spoiled by Clay Pit at home (if you are in the Mill Creek, WA area you MUST try it!), and we've yet to eat at an Indian place that is better.  Regardless, we waddled back to our hotel room pretty well stuffed.

The next morning, our B&B served a beautiful and delicious breakfast.  I really can't say enough about the service, hospitality, and amazing food at the Britt Scripps Inn.  You can't go wrong staying here!

Breakfast began with a pineapple, coconut scone (YUM), with fresh fruit (double YUM) and sweet whipped cream (triple YUM).

We then had a selection of 4 entrees to choose from.  Dave and I both got 2 eggs cooked any way, with apple sausage, and roasted red potatoes.  I'm a traditionalist and ordered scrambled eggs.  Dave with with over easy.  It was so good!

After all that food, we figured we could use some exercise, so we drove to the beach and walked the pier, and then did some antiquing, but I'll post more about that tomorrow!