Joe's Cafe of Santa Barbara

Joe's Cafe is the kind of mom and pop place that offers diners the predictable in American fare. Comfort food, to many people, is still good food, and with the old time atmosphere, this place appeals to many people. We did not order enough to make this a fair evaluation, but I can say the menu is broad enough to satisfy many people and the service was very good.

This may have seemed odd to most diners, bread served with a cooked tomato salsa, but it so happens my grandmother used to make a cooked salsa that she used primarily on meat loaf, that we often ate with bread. Surprisingly, this in itself was a comfort food for me and helped to define the restaurant. My grandmother's addition of bell peppers would have enhanced Joe's salsa. The Cesar salad was predictable and not the best, but passable.

Speaking of meatloaf, it was moist but lacked much flavor. I was initially annoyed that it came layered over toast (removed by me prior to this photo) but learned when the bill arrived, that the waitress had given me the meatloaf sandwich instead of the meatloaf dinner. I owed her a debt of gratitude, because the amount of meatloaf was plentiful and I paid 30% less for the sandwich. the gravy reminded me of Bisto, a British powdered product that when mixed with water created a brown gravy of questionable taste. This was not home made gravy and the salsa would have worked better.


536 State Street
Santa Barbara CA 93101-1602
(805) 966-4638

Sand Bar in Santa Barbara

If you're into bar scenes you could do worse than Sand Bar in the heart of the Santa Barbara downtown on State Street. We tried it at an odd hour and missed most of the crowd, but that was just fine with us. The food is competent, the delivery fast and we enjoyed ourselves. That is enough to recommend it in many cases, but this was not the best Mexican food that Santa Barbara has to offer although much more reasonably priced than El Paseo and more to our liking. Sand Bar offers an Americanized version of Mexican food with all the usual suspects on its menu fit for gringo tastes.

First of all, the guacamole was made with rich, well ripened avocados that needed little more than some onions and a nice dollop of tomato salsa to taste very good. The flautas were well crisped and the chicken was moist, not stringy. thumbs up for the first courses.

The chicken Enchiladas Verde could have used a bit more tomatillo sauce on the plate for color contrast as well as taste. They receded into the background and were overpowered by the sides. Still for under $9 they were a bargain lunch. The pork and fish tacos were decidedly better and more interesting visually.

To really get a good sense of them I ordered one each of the soft tacos, the Carnitas, the Carne Asada and the fish taco made of Mahi. Each soft taco had its own condiments and its own identity. All were very good and priced between $3.75 and $4.75. They added up to a greater price than the combination plate, but were more substantial than one taco with a side of bland rice and beans.

http://www.sandbarsb.com/sandbar_menu.html

514 State Street

Santa Barbara CA 93101-1602

(805) 966-1388

El Paseo Restaurant

Lovely to look at, but no place for a Mexican dinner. Being enthralled by the Spanish architecture and charmingly serene city of Santa Barbara, we decided to continue the historic California mood by going to eat at a highly polished Mexican restaurant in the El Paseo shopping Center on State Street. The interior was reminiscent of a hacienda patio, a very large hacienda at that, with a three tiered fountain and exterior stairs leading to the balcony. If you were to dine there during the day, the glass ceiling opens to allow more than the illusion of a patio with full sun and warm breezes. That alone would be worth a return trip, but for no more than drinks and appetizers.

The meal started well enough with a classic chicken taquito appetizer covered in the requisite guacamole; it was nice but lacked the strong, rich flavor of ripe avocado. The chicken was not stringy, but neither was it plentiful. On the plus side, it was a generous serving of 4 taquitos rather than the standard 2 served by most restaurants. Good but not an elevated, above normal taste. With high end restaurant prices I expected much more.

Having a fondness for Mexican Mole sauces, I chose the Chicken Mole dinner that came with rice and beans. If there were ala carte options, my preference would have been to opt out of the starches, but since they came with the chicken I tried them. Once again, nothing out of the ordinary and that is precisely why I usually don't order them. The Mole sauce itself was lighter than some but good and the sprinkling of pumpkin and sesame seeds was a much appreciated textural element that added well to the taste. The chicken itself was not cooked on the bone, lacked any complexity of taste and was a bit overcooked.

The other entree at our table looked fantastic on paper, but did not live up to its promise. It was definitely an enchilada plate and the meat filling was indeed filet Mignon, but the two did not go together well. The delicacy of the filet was completely lost in the enchilada sauce. For $26 it should have been more than it was.

El Paseo Restaurant

813 Anacapa St

Santa Barbara

Phone: (805) 962-6050

Hours: Tue-Thu 4pm-10pm

Fri-Sat 11:30am-10:30pm

Sun 10:30am-9pm

Pastuccio's in Santa Barbara

Nice dining room, pleasant ambiance, but please do not expect a great meal in this restaurant. My intention for this blog was to never even bother with bad restaurants, but this meal was inedible and I feel obliged to put an orange cone and flashing warning lights in front of this pot hole, before another accident occurs. In Italian the word pasticcio means "mess". I believe the name of this restaurant was no accident, just a matter of misspelling.

My dining companion was happy with his Cesar salad, but as long as it has parmigiano, romaine lettuce, croutons and a Cesar dressing, it will pass muster. Not being particularly hungry, he ordered an appetizer and called it a night. The baked brie and garlic with pear and walnuts was decent enough to be satisfying.

The car wreck started when I ordered the pumpkin ravioli with butter and sage sauce. Having had squash tortellini many times in Italy, I had a reasonable expectation as to what would be arriving at the table. Pumpkin, when roasted could be similar to the deep orange squash I had experienced eating in this classic Italian dish. Since I use Butternut squash when replicating this recipe, it was going to be nice to compare the pumpkin taste and texture to the butternut. That didn't happen. Pastuccio's uses canned and spiced pumpkin pie filling. Gag me with a spoon, or one of these ravioli. They arrived barely warm, not hot, the sage was burnt, and the pumpkin pie spices were inappropriate as well as intolerable.

Perilli

Proximity to our hotel was the only reason we selected Perilli as a restaurant to try in Rome, at least the first time. We now make a point to dine there whenever we are in town. Situated in the Testaccio section of Rome, it seems off the beaten path, and perhaps because of that, it is still an authentic trattoria serving classic Roman "cucina povera" specialties. Testaccio, at one time, was the epicenter of the butchering trade in Rome and workers could expect meager earnings, but were also sent home with the parts of the cattle that were considered "the fifth quarter", the offal and unpopular cuts of meat such as the ox tail. Necessity was certainly the mother of invention in difficult economic circumstances, and the Italians of Rome turned straw into gold. When it came to using the fifth quarter meats, Roman ingenuity turned giveaway organs into classic Roman cuisine.

Some classic foods in Rome are not meat based. Perilli starts off your meal with the classic Roman 5 pointed rosetta roll that typically is hollow inside. I love this little roll and am happy to see it being emulated by Grace Baking here in Northern California, although theirs is not hollow. For starters we ordered a generous plate of prosciutto that paired well with the roll.

I've always wanted to try puntarella, the escarole type green served very commonly in Rome with olive oil, anchovy and a squeeze of lemon. It was very refreshing with its slightly bitter taste. Even so, my favorite vegetable at Perilli's is the Carciofi Romana, a tender artichoke drizzled in olive oil and lemon. I panicked when I didn't initially see it on the menu, but it was eventually found in the contorni, not antipasti, section of the menu.

The next choice required nerves of steel and a strong determination to order. It was a rigatoni in tomato sauce, but the offal was quite unique and begged to be tried. Everyone at our table turned up their noses, but 2 out of 3 of them gave it a try and said they liked it. What was it? Pajata, a newborn lamb intestine that still held sheep's milk. It was very narrow as you can see by the closeup photo to the right (sitting diagonally in the center) and tasted like ricotta cheese. Delicious, but once was enough and I will most likely go back to ordering Coda alla Vaccinara, another rigatoni pasta dish smothered in an ox tail and tomato sauce.

We cannot go to Rome without ordering Carbonara and Perilli has an especially rich tasting one made with rigatoni instead of spaghetti. The meat course for this trip was braised lamb in red wine vinegar. The contrast of the vinegar with the rich meat was very good.

Via Marmorata 39,

Testaccio Rome

Phone: 06/5742415

Al Mascaron

Nestled on a narrow street in the Castello region of Venice is a delightful restaurant of some fame and good reputation, Al Mascaron. It has been mentioned in many of the travel guides I have researched and referenced in a cookbook as well. I went there specifically for the risotto that unfortunately is no longer available and has even been stricken from the menu. When I inquired why that was, I was told it was because few tourists had the patience to wait for a risotto to be made properly, and because it took time, it also required 2 or more patrons to order it together. Mentioning that my patience was legendary did not get me a risotto, because the kitchen was no longer stocked with the rice. Looking at the menu again only led to further frustration, since my 2nd choice of seafood pasta also required an additional person to order it.

Noticing my disappointment, the waiter said that I could place an order and he would split it for me. I was delighted at this accommodation and promptly ordered the seafood pasta and a bottle of water. When the water came to the table it was a very large bottle. It seemed odd to bring such a large amount of water to a lone diner. If the establishment was trying to increase the final cost of the bill, I needed to know to budget accordingly. Upon inquiring about the price of the pasta, it was a relief to learn that my single serving was going to be half the price of the full serving. Being offered a free antipasti of sweet and sour onions and a stuffed potato with mozzarella and prosciutto eased my fears, and reminded me of the "presumption of innocence until proven guilty".

The spaghetti with clams, mussels, and shrimp was excellent with garlic, olive oil and the obligatory confetti of parsley. It felt as though I had discovered the prize in the Cracker Jack box, when the prawn showed up in the middle of the plate, buried under the mound of pasta. I had no plans to order dessert, but when the waiter told me about the chocolate chili cake, I indulged myself. That exotic, decadent mixture of chocolate and spice seemed appropriate for a culture responsible for bringing chocolate from the Americas and spices from the Far East to Europe. The cake was a complimentary combination of those two ingredients with a light hand on sugar.

Speaking of a complimentary combination of two...meet Gigi and Maggio (maybe it's Maccio). Since I was alone, Maggio decided to show me his masterful skill at the art of Italian flirtation. My feet are firmly planted on the ground and I understood this to be part of his personality and not intended for me in particular, but anyone in general. Still, it was nice to have an extended conversation with a Venetian. I asked if he was the owner and he said no in a very self effacing way, then introduced me to Gigi who had his back to me, while shelling beans at the next table. Essentially trapping me at my table, Gigi was in part responsible for my ordering of the dessert; I didn't want to disturb him. Admittedly, it was a great afternoon and ordering the dessert was probably an unconscious effort to lengthen my stay. 

Soon both men were engaged in the activities of shelling borlotti beans and talking to me. Gigi was the Abbot to Maggio's Costello; the straight man, but very simpatico and charming. When I asked for the check, there was a short conversation in Italian and I was told to pay twenty euros. This didn't add up since my pasta was 15, the water was at least 5, and the dessert would have been typically 7 or 8, and there certainly must have been a coperto (service charge). I questioned the amount, but they insisted that my price was 20. One can only hope the 10 euro tip actually paid fully for the meal. The entertainment factor alone was worth the price of the meal. After reading a few reviews of the restaurant over the Internet, I can see that everyone walking through the door is treated like family. I also discovered that the very pleasant Gigi is not only the co-owner of the restaurant but the chef, Giancarlo Seno. No wonder Maggio laughed, when after tasting the cake, I told him he should marry the chef. If you ever wondered what it is like to be part of an Italian family, live out your fantasy at this restaurant.

http://www.giancarloseno.com/

Calle Longa Santa Maria Formosa 5225

Castello Venice

phone +39 041 522 5995

Fax: +39 41 523 0744

Just north of Campo Santa Maria Formosa

Trattoria Enzo & Piero

With the world getting smaller every day and change happening at lightening speed, it is a true comfort to find a familiar place that brings you back to a simpler time. Enzo and Piero is that place for me. I discovered it on my first trip to Florence, half a lifetime ago. It looks the same and has many of their time tested recipes, including my favorites, from so many years ago. This is the right restaurant for a good value too, as the prices seem to be in a time warp. Chicken entrees start at 7 euro even though I haven't seen "Secondi" priced in single digits in many years. Salads start at 5 euro, pasta at 7-8 euro and contorni start at 3 euro. Enzo & Piero is run by the next generation of the same family who originally served me their unforgettable Lasagne Verdi di Pasta Fresca al Forno, a melt in your mouth comfort food if ever there was one.

The mouth feel of this dish is soft and velvety with a butter like texture, since the pasta was fresh when assembled. Like a classic Lasagne Verdi Bolognese it combines Bechamel and meat sauces, but unlike the Bolognese version this one uses thicker pasta and has fewer layers. It appears more rustic, but has the same sophisticated flavors as its equal in Bologna.

In Fall you would do well to order the Tagliarini Tartufati. This egg enriched pasta is served with shaved truffles and arugula, an interesting combination since the earthiness of the truffles was enhanced by the slight spicy bite of the arugula. Lardo Di Colonnata is not everyone's idea of a delicacy, but the first time I tried it, I was hooked. When it tops a bruschetta it can be at it's very best, but the criteria for excellence is twofold. Lardo must be sliced paper thin and layered upon a hot piece of toasted rustic bread. Without the heat, it does not melt sufficiently to blend onto the bread, releasing its flavor. If Enzo and Piero has a fault, it is one of generosity. They simply used too much lardo.

The menu offers a full range of Tuscan specialties from Antipasti to Zuppe and I was impressed to see that the prosciutto was Tuscan also. The photo above shows salami with fennel seeds, another Tuscan pork specialty called Finocchiona. It also had a buttery, moist texture, much less dry than most salami. One night when we were there, I ordered one of the pasta specials on offer, a porcini ravioli with a light ,fresh tomato sauce. I was not disappointed with it even though it was torture not to order my own lasagne verdi. Luckily I could count on my dining companion to offer me a taste of his. To top off the meal, fresh strawberries with mascarpone and chocolate were a refreshing yet rich delight.

http://www.trattoriaenzoepiero.it/
105r Via Faenza
Firenze 50123
055 21 4901
Closed on Sunday