Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Carmel is home to a ridiculous number of restaurants. And they run the gamut: a few are fantastic, many are good, several are mediocre, and - truth be told - there are some that are only for tourists. That's just the reality. Jake and I have a handful of favorite spots we frequent over and over. There are restaurants we have only eaten at once. And there are some places that have never even made the list. When the boys were smaller, I would ask myself: Is it worth the cost of the babysitter plus the restaurant bill? Now that they're older, I look at the quality and creativity of food. I look to be wowed. And I'm pretty tough to impress. So, with all the press around CULTURA - Comida y Bebida , Carmel's newest restaurant, I wondered if it would live up to the hype. After all, it does have some amazing culinary heavyweights behind it. Read one of  Edible Monterey Bay 's pieces about the team: here . When we dropped the boys off at a friend's birthday par...

When Brian and Pia invited us to go to the Aquarium's Sip and Sea event with them, I offered to use my gift certificate to Mundaka for dinner. So happy that we did! We ordered a parade of delicious food and washed it all down with a bottle of sangria. The favorite of the night:  hamburguesa -  a mini lamb burger with pickled cauliflower, served with truffle fries. Our waiter warned us we would be unwilling to share, but we didn't listen. Still, we did order two, so we only had to share with our significant others. Next time, I'm ordering my own! What else did we eat? Escabeche - duck breast escabeche with tarragon cream... Boquerones - Mediterranean white anchovies with garlic chips; fried garbanzos with white truffle salt; Datiles - bacon-wrapped dates with almonds and goat cheese; Aceitunas - marinated Spanish olives; Bravas  - potatoes with brava sauce; and Croquetas - smoked salmon, horseradish, and bechamel. After Mundaka, we headed to the ...

Jake and I were on our Let's-Explore-Some-New-to-Us-Restaurants Adventure - while the boys were at their aerodynamics workshop for the evening -  and strolled into Le St. Tropez . Scanning the appetizer portion of the menu - escargot, okay...mussels, okay - my eyes fell on something I had never eaten: frog legs. Can you believe that with all the different things I've eaten in my life, I have never had frog legs?!? Now I have. We dug in as soon as the server brought the dish. And Jake asked, incredulously, "How big was the frog? Look at these legs!" Funny, I've been with Jake for over 15 years, married for over 13, and I never knew that he used to catch frogs for fun...and cooking. So  he actually has a frame of reference for how large the ones we ate really were. So, the guy had never had an artichoke before he met me yet he ate rabbits and frog legs on a regular basis. Then I remembered this photo... He told me the story behind that photo and we laughed an...

Last Friday, Jake and I went to a Summer Solstice celebration hosted by a good friend and his landlord. We kicked up our heels, charged our glasses, and reveled in the views of a verdant gorge out in Carmel Valley on the longest day of the year. It had all the makings of a great party - delectable eats, free-flowing wine, live music, and lively conversations with friends. But the point of this post is to introduce you to a new kid on the (Carmel restaurant) block:   Yafa.  This is a food blog, after all. Many new restaurants require time to work out all the kinks. Like several months. Not so with newly-opened Yafa in Carmel. These guys have been open for less than a month and their food is impressive! Granted, I didn't actually eat at the restaurant, but the food at the party was fresh, light, and delicious. It's everything you want in a summer meal. And it was an absolutely perfect way to celebrate the Summer Solstice.  On the menu : Watermelon Salad -...

I am, admittedly, not Italian by birth or even genetics. But because I lived in Italy as an adult, learned to love food in Italy, and cook Italian on most nights that my family is not traveling by tabletop on our Cooking Around the World Adventure , I am a tough critic of Italian restaurants. Brutal. Nothing annoys me more than an Italian restaurant whose menu has typos or whose servers blatantly mispronounce Italian words. 'Bruschetta' is, probably, the most egregious error that grates on my ears. Say it with me, people. Brew-SKEH-tah. There's no 'sh' sound in that word. In any case, I'm difficult to impress when it comes to Italian cuisine. But when Jake and I found ourselves kid-free for long enough to duck out for a dinner date, our pick was unanimous and we eagerly made our way to La Balena in Carmel for the third time in a week. Yes, three times in one week...really three times in five days. That's saying something! Restaurants that have to...

‘Tis the Season to Savor the Seafood –  With LaBalena , Savor the Local ,  and Local Catch Monterey Bay Story and Photos by Camilla M. Mann I have crossed paths with Anna and Emanuele Bartolini, owners of La Balena , at a few different local good food events. They are a duo that you can’t help but adore. Their philosophies about life and food are impressive and reflected in the choices they are making at their restaurant. From the tables in the main dining room that are made from reclaimed trans-Pacific shipping crates to the bench seating that they rescued from a local Habitat for Humanity store, refinishing the wood and upholstering the cushions themselves, and the fact that their menu is simple, seasonal, and sourced from local suppliers as much as possible, Anna and Emanuele aim for excellence in all aspects of preparation and presentation of traditional, rustic food with the spirit of a classic Italian Enoteca . Originally the Bartolinis explored opening ...

I have to say that I wanted to like this place. I really, really  did. I could never be a vegetarian again because I love meat. Sorry, Veg-friends. It's true. I was a vegetarian for the better part of a decade. And though we eat a lot of fresh vegetables and have plenty of vegetarian meals, lamb lollipops, roasted pork tenderloin, and tasty burgers top our favorites list!  After a fantastic morning in Point Lobos, I told the boys we were going to try out a new burger place. "Great!" they cried in unison. They are always keen for a culinary adventure. New places, new foods. They love it. I usually make a concerted effort not to be negative and to give people and places a fair shot - at least once. But, seriously, within two minutes of walking into this restaurant, I wanted to leave. However, the boys had their hearts set on trying it, so I stuck it out. Needless to say, we won't be back. That's one of the great things about living where we do: countles...