Tag: cheap food

It just isn’t summer without the Orange County Fair

Ed & I missed the fair last year, so we made sure to make it this year! We were seriously fiending for some of that grilled corn on the cob, and we always like seeing the wacky homegrown produce and all of the animals. What we weren’t expecting was to be spectators at the Pig Races! It was surprisingly fun … and those little pigs are adorable! Ed snapped the camera at just the right time:

Amazing, right?!? Those guys were fast! And we are proud to report that our section’s pig, Yukon, brought home the bacon and earned first place in the race! He’s pictured below – the brown little guy with the red bib:

Here we are, happy to be spectators!

After all that excitement, we had to get our corn on the cob fix!

All in all, it felt like a very summery day, and we even took a ride on the skyway …

No fried twinkies, but we did get our rings cleaned. It was a pretty good trip to the fair!

Spontaneous Day Trip to Temecula

Today, we felt like making Sunday a Fun Day – so we hopped in the car and drove out to Temecula. Seems kinda random, but we wanted a long drive and a tasty lunch. We were also pretty motivated to drive through the Wine Country and see what they had out there. It’s a mere 2 hours away via the scenic route, so we went for it.


Once we rolled into Temecula, we embarked upon Old Town. It’s kinda cheesy with its old West vibe, but it was fun. We definitely thought if Huell Hauser hasn’t been already, it’s a destination he’ll be visiting soon! We saw a Mexican Restaurant called “The Bank” – and sure enough, the restaurant exists in the town’s old bank building, originally built in 1914. Since today was Sunday, they were serving menudo.

Menudo makes Ed a very happy boy.


The highlight of the day was hitting up Temecula Olive Oil Company, where they do Olive Oil tastings! We had no idea that tasting Olive Oil could be so interesting and fun! We learned a lot about the olive oils they make themselves, as well as some very unique vinegars. One of the most interesting combos we tried was their California Pomegranate Vinegar mixed with their Citus Reserve olive oil. We came home with a bottle of their Mission Late Harvest Olive Oil, which stands out due to its smooth, buttery taste. Can’t wait to saute some fresh summer veggies with this one! We also picked up their “Just Dress it!” which is gonna be awesome for some fish marinade!!!


 Finally, we arrived in wine country. Since we were driving, it was kind of a tease. We couldn’t do a lot of tasting … but just going along the vineyard-lined roads was really relaxing and beautiful. But we’d be lying if we said we weren’t seriously jonsing for all of the wine! Needless to say, we can’t wait to go back with some sort of driver. There were probably about 20 wineries in the area. Some were really pretty, especially Leonesse, which we stopped at to look around, but didn’t taste. :(


Once we came up on Maurice Car’rie, we figured we HAD to stop … I supposed I was a little influenced by the name. :) We did taste the wines here … and we were not disappointed! Nothing like a little spontaneous wine tasting!

Ed’s Faves: the 2008 Riesling and the 2007 Muscat Canelli.

Carrie’s faves: Pineapple Champagne (okay, I admit – it sounds more like a Wine cooler than a wine, but it was goood!!!) and the 2008 Chenin Blanc. Both of us chose pretty light wines, but it was 99 degrees out there today!

All in all, we had a very fun day! Now, who wants to go on one of those wine tours with us?!?

Korean BBQ + Tacos = Kogi!

Tonight we finally made it to Kogi, which is a taco truck that travels around various neighborhoods in Los Angeles. The thing that makes Kogi special is that it is run by 2 young Korean chefs + 1 Hispanic chef, and the tacos are the most yummy fusion of Korean BBQ style meat, ginger and kimchi (!) and your standard taco fare!

The other thing that makes Kogi different from any other taco truck is that you have to do a little homework to track them down! Basically, they Twitter their location, and that’s how you find out where they are and/or where they’re going to be! This is a crappy picture, but here we are on the hunt:

We found them tonight in Venice Beach, on Abbott-Kinney at The Brig. What can we say, chasing them down this way adds that extra bit of satisfaction once you bite into your taco!

Ed had found out about Kogi first, and we have been dying to check ’em out. We were in L.A. tonight for the First Fridays event at the Natural History Museum – The Bird and The Bee played there tonight, and they are one of my most favorite bands as of late! They were awesome. Anyhow, the crew we were with were all game to chase Kogi down! We bought a ton of tacos, and sampled a little of each. We had the Korean Short Rib Taco, the Spicy Pork Taco and the Spicy BBQ Chicken Taco!

Who’s in for another chase?