Up The Road And Around The Bend
WITHOUT QUITE suggesting that you tack a map of San Diego County on the wall, toss a dart and drive to the location pinpointed, it’s pretty safe to assert that you can follow unfamiliar roads to a distant town and find fare that justifies the trip.
If you live in Coronado, Vista may seem no closer than Shangri La — and vice versa. Even so, a Coronadan whose senses sizzle at the mention of authentic Szechuan cuisine may grow fond of gliding over the bridge, cruising I-5 to the 78, hanging a Louie at Civic Center Drive and a Ralph at East Vista Way, and snuggling into a space at the Albertson’s Shopping Center. On the far right: Spicy Kings, home of sultry shredded pork with Szechuan sauce, double-hot “shrimp with explosive chili pepper,” and absolutely incendiary Chungking hot pot. The pleasantly contemporary décor is quite comfortable, and the staff’s smiles bridge occasional gaps in language. The many Chinese-American clients indicate that when it comes to Szechuan, Spicy King’s got the goods.
At least at present, you learn after ordering that the meal includes three complimentary cold appetizers from a buffet packed with highly seasoned cucumber chunks, chewy beef slices with “black paper” peppers (fabulous), seaweed, pig’s ears and so forth. The freebies are portioned so generously that you may regret having ordered the crisply delicate onion pancake or the hot-sour wontons, which burn like Hades, give or take a few degrees Fahrenheit. The menu lists much that is familiar and more that is not, daring dauntless adventurers to take a tasty detour on life’s highway…
NOT ALL COMRADES create magic when
theycook, but the “godmother” responsi-ble for the Southern Mexico specialties at Chula Vista’s charming La Comadre sure knows her way around a comal. This is not made obvious by the standing lunch menu, which relentlessly lists familiar (if well-made) offerings like enchiladas and burritos. But inquire about the day’s guisados (specials) to hear a rapturous recitation of tamales steamed in banana leaves, tongue in tangy red sauce, pork in pasilla chili sauce, seafood soup, chiles rellenos made with godmotherly love, and perhaps mole alemendrado, a lush almond sauce that enrobes meats. Sundays feature a buffet of such dishes. Informal and attractive, the dining room explodes with folk paintings that splash tropical gardens across the walls…
IT’S NOT A MIRAGE, it’s La Mirage Cafe, purveyor of “Exotic” Mediterranean Cuisine on an interesting F Street block behind the downtown post office. Cute little place, nice organic kabobs, shawarmas and salads…
CARPACCIO ALLA ROSSINI, MALFATTI alle noci, handmade potato gnocchi dressed with fresh goat cheese and buttery shreds of wine-braised short ribs: three good reasons to hitch a ride on I-8 to La Mesa. Francesco Basile’s Antica Trattoria has been around awhile, but the look is new, and the revamped menu delights with dishes like Signor Rossini’s thinly sliced beef filet with capers, truffle oil, Parmesan shavings and arugula, and malfatti (roughly shaped spinach ravioli) in a ravishing walnut cream. Treasured by locals who don’t want to drive way out West for fine fare, Antica offers plenty unavailable elsewhere in the county, like a fat, oven-roasted pork chop with herbs, a rich red wine reduction and caramelized apples; true cioppino in the lightest of tomato broths; a salad of spinach, mushrooms and Gorgonzola sprinkled with toasted pistachios; other pleasures…
“FOIEHIBITION,” laments a poster at the entry to Victor Jimenez’ classy Cowboy Star in East Village. The chef resents the state’s new ban on buttery fowl livers but isn’t bootlegging any, and consoles himself by treating other top-quality meats very, very well…
TODAY ESCONDIDO, tomorrow the world. Leslie and David Cohn and business partner/chef Deborah Scott fearlessly accept formidable challenges that less self-assured restaurateurs tremble to contemplate. Their new Vintana (a polyglot compound of “wine” and “windows”) atop Escondido’s imposing Lexus Centre encompasses some 19,000 suavely decorated square feet. 2012 evidently is the Year of the Big Restaurant (Wang’s North Park, Marina Kitchen at the Marriott Marquis downtown), but Vintana trumps them all. The hearty meat-seafood menu is Scott’s best effort yet…
HOT DIGGITY DOG, the new Delux Coronado transforms plain old Frankfurters into memorable meals served in a long, narrow room that approximates a stylish tunnel…
A BOOKSTORE-CAFE by the new downtown library? A no-brainer for sure. Set to open soon, Jing Si Books & Cafe is part of an international network affiliated with the Buddhist Tzu Chi organization. Located at 302 11th Avenue, the place is barely a teacup’s toss from the library’s front door; the décor will include aphorisms by Dharma Master Cheng Yen.
DISH: By David Nelson Photography by Martin Mann
