Food, Wine, Sand and Sun = Santa Barbara

A trip to southern California wouldn't be complete without a stop in Santa Barbara, home of many things beautiful including amazing Pinot Noir and incredible food.

With just a day in Santa Barbara, J and I wanted to make the most of our time once we arrived but we didn't know where to begin. We decided to start at the only place we knew in Santa Barbara, The Shoreline Beach Cafe, right on the water.

The Shoreline Beach Cafe is the only restaurant in all of Santa Barbara that you can actually dine with your feet in the sand and that's just what we did. We started off with one of our favorite warm weather drinks, a michelada. A michelada is like a bloody mary with beer instead of vodka and it is incredibly refreshing. It's salty, spicy, and very fresh. It's basically some tomato juice, some worcestershire sauce, some maggi or soy sauce, a dash of hot sauce, and squeeze of lime with a good light Mexican beer like Corona or Tecate. A peppered rim gives the drink a nice little kick.

And what's better with a fine Mexican cocktail than fish tacos? If you've been reading One Food Guy for a while then you know I love tacos, so when I saw these catch-of-the-day fish tacos my ordering decision was a no-brainer. Soft corn tortillas stuffed with freshly fried fish covered in fresh cabbage and cilantro with a side of pico, smokey, spicy black beans and a slightly spicy sauce. With the sun setting in front of us (we got a late start on the day,) an ice cold michelada in hand, delicious fish tacos in my stomach and a big ass pelican staring at us - what a perfect beginning to our day.

Our next stop in Santa Barbara took a little work. We were in Pinot country and wanted to taste some wines so I fired up Google Maps on my Crlackberry and before long we found ourselves at Carr Winery in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara. They produce some seriously good pinot noir as well as syrah, grenache, pinto gris and cabernet franc. Tastings are available for $10 from 11am to 5pm everyday and Friday nights from 5pm to 11pm in the barrel room they have live music to go along with wines by the glass and bottle service. This place is worth checking out, trust me! If you like pinot noir you will really enjoy the pinot that Carr produces. J and I brought a few bottles home with us and are looking forward to uncorking them soon.

We made a couple more stops around Santa Barbara before heading to dinner. One at the Santa Barbara Winery, nice enough folks and decent wines but this place had TOURIST written all over it. It reminded me of the Newport Vineyards tasting room in Newport, RI where busloads of people are dropped off for tours and tastings - no thanks!!

Our last stop before dinner was at The Brewhouse, home of some fantastic Belgian style ales and an outstanding Habanero Pilsner! Yes, it's HOT but also very clean and crisp and well balanced. All this drinking certainly loosened us up and prepared us for a great dinner. Not only did my friend Gina tell us about Elements but the nice people at Carr Winery also recommended it, so that's we were headed. Stay tuned for my review of Elements Restaurant and Bar.

More Tacos...at The Cheesecake Factory

I just can't get enough tacos. I've told you about the great tacos at La Verdad in Boston, I told you about Trader Joe's Mini Beef Tacos, I even told you about the fresh fish tacos I made at home last month, inspired in part by the great fish tacos at Acapulco's Restaurant. The other part of my fish taco inspiration came from the great Fresh Fish Tacos at The Cheesecake Factory. I bet you didn't know that The Cheesecake Factory makes amazing fish tacos?!

I think it's safe for me to say that the fish tacos at The Cheesecake Factory are my favorite dish on their menu. I know, that is a very bold statement considering their food is consistently good at all of their locations, and their enormous menu is full of great dishes.

The last few times I've gone to The Cheesecake Factory I've ordered the fresh fish tacos, and I roll out of the restaurant stuffed to the gills! The plate is loaded with three big tacos, tasty rice, black beans, guacamole, and a spicy citrus salsa. The tacos are made of two soft corn tortillas each, loaded with fresh grilled white fish (it might be cod, I didn't ask,) shredded cabbage, cilantro, and a spicy avocado cream. Oh man, I can't wait until the next time I go to The Cheesecake Factory so I can get me some fresh fish tacos!

A One Food Guy Favorite - Fish Tacos!

I think I've made it pretty clear that I love sushi, but I also love Mexican food, specifically tacos! I could tell you about the time J and I were in Mexico and had the most amazing tacos al pastor at this little place in Playa del Carmen called "Tacos" or I could tell you about this small restaurant in Waltham, MA called Taqueria Mexico that serves really great tacos. I could tell you about this place in Framingham, MA called Acapulcos that has outstanding tacos al pastor and even better fish tacos or I could tell you about The Paramount in Boston and The Cottage in Wellesley, both serving great fish tacos. But I'm not going to tell you about any of them; I'm going to tell you about the fish tacos that I made.

My fish tacos consisted of a nice fresh cod fillet sliced up into one inch strips, seasoned with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, cooked on a cast iron grill pan and served in fresh corn tortillas that I warmed in the oven. I made some pico de gallo with diced tomato, jalapeno, red onion, lime juice, salt, and pepper and some aji verde to serve on top of the fish with some shredded cabbage and cilantro. The aji verde was super hot but extremely fresh tasting and perfect with the fish.

I plated the tacos with yellow rice and chipotle black beans. To make the beans I sauteed some red onion and garlic in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and then added in a can of black beans with four chipotle peppers from a can with the adobo sauce. I cooked the mixture over medium low heat for about five minutes and added in some chopped cilantro at the end.

These were great tacos; J said she thought they were even better than the ones we get at Acapulcos! This was about as spicy a meal as any that has come out of my kitchen. The pico was spicy, the aji verde very spicy, and the black beans, spicy. So to that I say, if you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen!