California Here I Am! (Part 2)

HODAD'S!

As I left you, I was waiting for Rich to arrive into San Diego.  He was enroute from Scranton, PA to a photography meeting in the La Jolla area outside of San Diego and invited me to spend a few days with him during that time.  I had arrived the day before and got to visit 5 DDD places in the Los Angeles and San Diego area.

After picking him up we headed to a nearby beach town called Ocean Beach.  Ocean Beach can best be described as San Diego's smaller version of what Venice Beach is to Los Angeles.  It seems to be a fun place to walk around and observe people and shop and and eat at eclectic places.  We were headed to a famous hamburger joint which was featured in the first season of DDD and one of Guy Fieri's favorite places, "Hodads".  A Hodad is defined by the restaurant as someone who hangs out at the beach with surfers but doesn't surf.  I had been warned by some friends that ever since DDD has been there that it is almost impossible to get into the place.  We found parking on the street in front of the restaurant and although busy there were some empty seats.  At first we were going to sit in this cut out front of an old 1960's era VW Bus, but it was pretty tight seating and there were two seats at the front bar so we sat there and our Hodad's experience began.  Rich ordered the Bacon Cheese Double Burger and I got the Bacon Cheeseburger and we shared the Fries  and Rings.  The unique thing that they do for Bacon at Hodads is they boil and then grill fry the bacon into a flat burger-like creation that doesn't sound very good but is incredibly good and makes an almost extra layer of the burger.  On the show Guy cooked with the owner, Mike and it didn't look all that great.  Mike was not in when we were there but we were helped by the manager and he told us all about the filming and that Mike actually doesn't cook all that much anymore.  The food was great and as we talked with the manager he not only made us feel at home but also gave both Rich and I Hodad's T-shirts, very nice of him to do that and it is a very nice shirt, I wear it proudly! 

For dinner we headed into the hills of San Diego and tried a place called "Blue Water Seafood" where the mantra is "All We Cook is Fish".  It is a fish market that has morphed into a restaurant.  They have a huge selection of freshly caught fish, you choose the type of fish and how want it cooked and finally the seasoning that you want on the cooked fish.  The staff is there to help you with the best cooking and seasonings for each type of fish.  Usually the fish is caught the same day and maybe even a few hours prior to your order.  his is a place to visit if you like fresh fish when you are in the San Diego area. 

The following morning Rich was off to his meeting and I went on a road trip to a small town about an hour east of San Diego on the edge of the desert called Ramona.  The "Ramona Cafe" was my destination and all along the way, the roads and scenery reminded me of the classic movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" so of course the movies theme was spinning through my head the entire trip!  Rich had given me an order to bring him back a famous over sized sweet roll that the cafe is known for.  I arrived at the cafe and the town sort of reminded me of a West Coast version of Mayberry!  The cafe was pretty quiet that day and I ordered a basic breakfast along with two sweet rolls, one for me and one to take to Rich.  The breakfast was ok, nothing real special, but the Sweet roll was very good and it was a good road trip to see part of California I had never seen before.  I headed back to San Diego and wanted to try a couple of places before Rich finished up for the day.  I headed to a small place called "Pizzeria Luigis".  This small place specializes in slices of pizza with all types of toppings and the business is ding great, while I was there customers were in and out.  I tried two slices, one featured barbecue and the other had ricotta, both were good and the crust was excellent.  From there I headed back into the city and tried a place that is next door to the place that Rich and I had been to for dinner the previous night.  "El Indio" is a San Diego institution for over 50 years and still is run by the same family.  Next door to Blue Water Seafood, El Indio makes it's own chips and tortillas and also makes all the Mexican food that have become so popular.  I got a small burrito and taco and both were excellent and also got Rich a bag of tortilla chips.  The day I was there was St. Patrick's day so every order included a shamrock shaped tortilla.  I was able to meet with the owner and founder of the restaurant and got him to sign my book.  The restaurant has seating both inside and outside and with the great San Diego weather outside seating was at a premium. 

I travel on these trips on a stand-by, space available basis.  At the hotel I kept a close check on the flights heading home.  They looked really bad and my original plans to fly home on Sunday looked pretty bleak.  I had to make the tough decision to leave on Saturday night and actually end my San Diego visit a day early, leaving on Friday morning instead of during the day Saturday.  This would give me a chance to get on a flight on Saturday and also visit some friends in the LA area and of course, get to a few more DDD places!

My last meal with Rich was at a very cool burger joint called "Tioli's Crazee Burger".  Opened a few years ago by tow friends from Germany, they just added the words Crazee Burger in front of the old name of the place which had been an Italian restaurant.  Tiolis specializes in burgers of all types of meats, I got the lamb Burger with a Gyro sauce, it was great!  The place was very busy, another of the types of places you need to try when in San Diego.

From there I headed back north to the LA area and the last leg of this trip.