I usually blog about the weekend during the week when I'm not busy, but last week my mother came for a stay when I was planning on sitting down and doing so, and the days previous, I was busy doing other things.
So that leaves now with the first chance of really being able to get my head into things.
Last week/weekend was an amazing one! Me and my husband grew closer, not just through getting out and exploring, but by also sharing some really intimate time together, without TV, or planning, or rants, but just being together. (Personally I think the rain and cooler weather helped)
but that's my second thing, it rained like 3 days in a row, and it was wonderful!
But let's talk about saturday. Like the last few weekends before, we hadn't really planned on where we wanted to go until early afternoon. It was another late night, sleep-in kinda weekends, and when we got up we questioned whether to get up and go out at all, but we decided Brunch really sounded nice. Michael had also seen some posts of a coffee place in the area, on a coffee sub-reddit he reads, called Portola Coffee Lab, so we thought we could do that after.
After looking up where we could get a good brunch online, we found this place on 17th Street in Newport called Plums Cafe, a little place in the corner of a strip mall/shopping center type thing. I knew we had to go there when I saw something on their menu called a deep dish pancake :p not really knowing what it was, I was kind of expecting just a very, very thick pancake.
so we went, and made it just before they started wrapping up to get ready for the dinner crowd.
I, of course, ordered the deep dish pancake (which the menu said people loved) and Michael had the smoked salmon hash. Which we were expecting it to be like smoked salmon, with hash browns and a bunch of other things, maybe like a scrambler.
What we got was not expected
While everything looked great, there were, in fact, no hash browns in the salmon hash, and it had a pungent tasting sauce on it that kind of overwhelmed the whole dish. Even though my pancake looks wild, and the edges were good, the thing was Soaked in grease. It was pooling through the whole middle part.
So its safe to say Michael's dish was mediocre and mine was a bit disappointing.
After we did indeed head to where this coffee shop Michael heard of, was supposed to be, and as it so happens, it was in the complex we had been to before, with fancy home decor shops, and such. We didn't even know they had food at this place until we went around the corner, parked and then walked into the courtyard.
Here, let me show you :)
The Blue, is where we had been before, the red X is where the coffee shop is located, and as you can tell its in that green circle, that represents the area we didn't even know existed. We parked at the very top and came through that entrance area to the top right, entering that little courtyard.
the whole place was rather charming, little shops around, and a fountain in the middle.
Before we actually went to the coffee shop we went to the building up and left to that building. It was a home decor place that had, it seemed, a specific interest in succulents. They were everywhere, and they were cheap, neat place too.
We took some pictures around the area, then grabbed some succulents for the house (we just couldn't resist). While we were grabbing them, its started raining, again, for the third day in a row.
lol and while I love the rain, I was wearing heels and looked kinda nice, if I may say so myself.
So we bought the succulents and then booked it over the the building with the X on it.
Interesting building, took us awhile to figure out where the coffee shop was, because as it turns out, in that building, is a smattering of little shops everywhere.
Really, really neat place, called The OC Mix.
As Michael grabbed us coffee at Portola, I grabbed us some Macarons from the nearby tea shop, and a couch in the adjacent sitting area.
It was very nice sitting there, sipping coffee, people watching for awhile, in the middle of an area surrounded by adorable little shops. Right in front of us there was a cheese shop, kitty-corner to a wine tasting bar. How clever, and wonderful.
I couldn't help myself, I wanted to try some cheese, so after talking to the lady who worked there, and sampling some cheeses, I ended up buying 2 different cheeses for us to delight in later, and may I say, we definitely enjoyed them.
By the time we were done, it was late enough that other then the restaurants, the shops were closing up. It was still raining outside, but not a downpour anymore. The sidewalks and courtyard were stricken with puddles, and I just couldn't take it anymore, my feet were hurting me, and the puddles looks so inviting. I took off my shoes waded, jumped and skipped in every puddle in the vicinity. Ha, it was soothing, and fun. I hadn't jumped in puddles in what seemed like forever.
and when you live in a state that doesn't rain often, you don't often get the opportunity. It seemed the last few times in rained (in like December) it was at night, so by the time I knew it happened, all that was left, was a coolness in the air.
So this was a pleasant treat for me.
Of course by this time we are pretty hungry, having only brunch, macarons and coffee.
So as we head home, we decide to try out Taco Asylum, a unique take on tacos. figured since I'm not a huge fan of tacos that this would be interesting, and worth a shot.
We went with the Short Rib with pickled red onion, salsa verde, Cotija cheese and cilantro; The Roasted Duck with leek jam, cayenne creme, fraiche, napa cabbage, camembert and fennel; and The Steak & Potato, with root vegetable potato salad, blue cheese, and fried leeks.
I'm glad I tried it, but honestly it wasn't my thing. The short rib was the only one I somewhat liked. Almost everything on the menu had something spicy in it, which I can't do, and they just seemed a bit empty and lack luster for the price.
but I'm glad we experienced it.
Afterwards I was able to grab some amazing rose gelato and a chai, and since it was still raining we were able to sit outside under an awning and enjoy it :)
What a great day it was! and to think, we might not have gotten out to experience any of that! ...crazy
Other than the food being a disappointment, a fantastic day.
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