Grilled cheese

Four cheeses with bacon about to be dipped into mayonnaise


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triple cinnamon toast crunch!

Easter brunch

Baked eggs in a ham and cheese cup.


Fruit pizza

chopped salad

chopped salad at Corner Bakery, Redlands

For some odd reason I was hungry for a salad for lunch the other day so Mallory and I went to Corner Bakery.

A little background is in order. Some of it doesn’t portray me in the best light, but so be it. First of all, for me, the more the fixin’s, the better the salad. And I don’t like shredded lettuce on hamburgers or burritos. Also I tend to panic when ordering at places like Corner Bakery or Chipotle where one needs to make choices on the fly with the worker staring at you and a hungry line waiting.

So back to Corner Bakery. There was a short line. My wife gave me plenty of time to crane my neck up at the menu, even letting a couple people go ahead of us. Near the top of the salad portion of the menu board, highlighted by a box and for $7.99 - equal to the price of their other salad offerings - was a “chopped salad”. Listed as ingredients were avocado, bacon, blue cheese.

Now a little more context. I am a fan of the cobb salad (fixin’s galore). I had one of those at King’s Fish house recently and enjoyed it. King’s is a sit-down restaurant where I have time to study the menu and discuss things with the server in a relaxed fashion. She and I decided that the cobb would best meet my needs in the salad department, and it did.

Now back to the Corner. Having scanned the wall menu, I focused on the fact that the salad name starts with “c”, it is highlighted by a box, and has a price equivalent to other apparently delicious salads. Also featured in the description are avocado, bacon, blue cheese - my kind of salad. So when we approach the cashier, that’s what I order. Mallory ordered her standard salad; I can’t remember the name. We get our drinks from the machine and wait for our salads to arrive. I’ll make the point here that Corner Bakery has excellent service. No problems there.

Forty-seven seconds later a nice lady brings our salads, asks us if there is anything else we need, and departs. I stare at my plate. Shredded iceberg lettuce. (We can debate shredded versus chopped; it’s the same to me.) Hiding amongst the shreddings are a total of maybe one slice of avocado, half a piece of bacon, and some blue cheese crumbles. I didn’t take a picture, but let me emphasize that this is a mostly lettuce salad with a reasonable number of little tomatoes but not much else visible.

Meanwhile, Mallory has a beautiful salad with delicious (I presume) varieties of lettuce and large chunks of other good stuff. She offered some of it to me, but by now I was in martyr mode and picked though my leavings to find the few good morsels. Once again, her salad cost the same as mine. She left satisfied; I left hungry. Of course we had a most civilized discussion of this in the mean time. And no, I didn’t complain to server. The salad, as Mallory pointed out, was technically as described. She was right as she usually is, but I felt used. My salad ingredients cost maybe 1/4 of her salad yet the price was the same.

So what are the lessons here?

• Have a long-suffering wife.
• “Chopped” means shredded.
• Don’t pick the highlighted item on a fast-food menu.
• Don’t order the chopped salad at Corner Bakery. Order another salad and chop it up with your teeth.
• Don’t eat salad.

Ahi at Bungalow, Newport

Excellent. With jalapeño mashed potatoes, also great. Service top notch. Mallory had filet mignon which was also fantastic. Recommended. 

Kids gave me bacon club for Christmas

Lauren got me a similar one last year, and it was great. This one looks promising. I haven't cooked the the first month's bacon yet, but it looks delicious. This club also includes a lot off extras including a binder in which to keep everything organized.












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Stroganoff at Citrone, Redlands

This was a special. I took a chance. Sometimes "special" means "leftover". Thankfully the excellent waiter was right. This was fantastic. The sauce: delicious. The meat: tender filet mignon. Recommended, but not on the regular menu.


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Sea Bass

braised pork belly

The Cat and the Custard Cup

This restaurant has been in LaHabra for a long time. Always been a favorite. It did not disappoint.

I started with braised pork belly. Sinful and rich. The sweet red cabbage gave it the perfect contrast. Apparently the pork was a rare and expensive Berkshire pig.

We had the Paradaxx Z varietal. Delicious.

I ordered Chilean Sea Bass for my entree. Asian flavor accents. A very rich pasta with wasabi underneath.

My wife had a steak. Fantastic.

I finished with creme brûlée and my wife had a chocolate terrine. A google search revealed that a terrine is a loaf of pork and fat. This was a dessert variation (no picture) where a loaf of delicious chocolate was made and slices were served. 

Everything was perfectly prepared and the service was polite and thorough.

Cinnamon Pringles

Love Pringles. Dutifully tried these.
Vile.
What were they thinking! I understand there is also a pecan pie variety. I'm not going to search those out. Stick with salt and vinegar and buffalo. Trust me.

Breakfast in LA

Greek restaurant for breakfast! Good ambiance. Prompt service. Cappuccino artful and good. Salmon eggs Benedict equally good. A real find, thanks to Lauren.








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Microwave salmon

Murray and Nancy Thale's recipe. Very good.







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