Hoping For A Repeat of Our First Salvadoran Experience

El Paraiso

25252 El Toro Road Suite B-2

Lake Forest, CA 92630

Ever since we went to a wedding in Santa Maria, we have been on the lookout for Salvadorian food in Orange County. On a whim, we searched around our hotel in Santa Maria, and a Salvadorian restaurant was the closest, and one of the highest rated on Yelp. Katie and I became enamored with pupusas and the tamales of El Salvador after eating there, and we wondered about the Salvadoran scene back home in OC.

A quick search of Yelp yielded about 14 restaurants that claim to serve Salvadorian food, but most of these are a hybrid of other Central American cuisines as well. As luck would have it, one of the 14 Salvadoran restaurants is pretty close to our house, so we made a beeline for El Paraiso in Lake Forest.

El Paraiso is in the only shopping area at the corner of El Toro Road and Jeronimo. There's a pho place and a liquor store in this small shopping center, and not much else. We drove past El Paraiso the first time through the shopping center, but persistence paid off on our second sweep through, as we finally found it.

Not really a big restaurant, we were surprised to see this place nearly full on a recent Tuesday night at 5:30. There's about ten tables here, and they are pretty close together, as we were bumped around by diners either getting up from their table or snagging a seat. Decor is obviously not the main draw here, but they do have two nice TVs, which were both turned to different soccer games during our stay at El Paraiso.

The menu is pretty ambitious for such a small restaurant. They have appetizers, Salvadoran specialties, breakfast plates, a number of seafood options, soups, and a good amount of Mexican items. No soda fountain here, as they have canned and bottled sodas, along with juices, horchata, and beers. My favorite, iced tea, was not offered, so I settled on a horchata. The horchata here was good, but after a few sips, the sweetness was a little too much for me. After about five minutes, our food started to make its way out to our table. Let's see if this Salvadoran experience will equal or surpass our Santa Maria adventure.

As is Katie's custom, if Chips and Guacamole ($4.99) are offered in a restaurant, she has to try them. The tortilla chips were pretty average here, as was the salsa, which only had a hint of spice to it. The real star of this plate was the guacamole. It had a good chunk to it, the avocados were fresh, and the inclusion of jalapenos in this made this a better than average guacamole. Definitely worth trying.

I'm going to lump both mine and Katie's meals together, since they looked almost identical. We both had the Combination ($6.99), which included your choice of pupusa, a tamal, rice and beans. There are 10 different varieties of pupusas to choose from. Katie selected the squash and cheese one, just like she had in Santa Maria, while I went with one filled with pork and cheese. Pupusas are made out of a thick rice flour, and stuffed with your choice of ingredients. Kind of like a pocket bread. They do not over stuff these by any stretch of the imagination. Katie liked the one here a little less than the one she had up north, because it seemed to be a little greasier. It was still a good pupusa in her book though. I liked mine just as well as the others I have had. The insides were a little subtle, but still noticeable. Tender shredded pork and the traditional queso blanco went well with the outer layer of the pupusa. We both really like these Salvadoran tamals a lot more than the corn husk variety. They are wrapped in banana leaf, which seems to make them more moist. The insides had tender chicken and mine a good amount of shredded pork. The rice was lighter than I was expecting, and the beans were smoother than what we are used to, but still good. With the pupusas, you are also served the traditional Curtido, which is a fermented cabbage relish, which you are supposed to eat with the pupusa. It's okay, but I'd rather eat my pupusa without it.

I had forgotten how filling  pupusas were when I ordered, so when this Huarache ($4.99) came to the table, I realized I did not need to finish it, and took most of it to work with me the next day. This was my first time having a huarache, which has a thick fried masa base, which is then topped with your choice of meat, (I went with carnitas), beans, lettuce, pico de gallo, sour cream, cheese, and a little splash of hot sauce. Similar to a tostada, but with a thicker base, I grew to like this more with every bite. The masa base threw me for a bit, but the toppings won me over here. The sour cream could have been spread more evenly, but the pork was tasty, and I liked the smear of beans and the slight heat of the hot sauce. I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for more huarache's on menus when I'm out.

So, El Paraiso was pretty solid for Salvadorian food, but just a shade better was our experience in Santa Maria. We will definitely be back though, because it saves us from a three hour drive north on the 5 Freeway, and that's without traffic. I look forward to trying their plantains or yuca frita on my next visit here. The service was good. All of our questions were answered, and we felt that the value for the money was well worth it. Ordering just the combination plate here will fill you up, until your next meal time. Glad we have a Salvadorian place that's a lot closer than halfway up the state.

Out of five volcanoes, (because the coat of arms for El Salvador has five volcanoes on it, which symbolizes the five member states of the Federal Republic of Central America), five being best to zero being worst, El Paraiso gets 3 volcanoes.

For more information about El Paraiso, go to their website here: http://www.elparaisorestaurant.net/

A Tale of Two Dinners at Provenance - CLOSED

Provenance

2531 Eastbluff Dr.

Newport Beach, CA 92660

I get excited when the calendar turns from one year to the next. Not only did I make it through another holiday season, but the new year meant a slew of Restaurant weeks happening all over OC. The first part of the year for restaurants is slow. People dieting and trying to save money are the reasons for this. So, the restaurant industry has come up with weeks to lure people to ditch those New Year resolutions and get in their doors. This is excellent news for food lovers, such as myself.

Those of you who need to learn how restaurant weeks work primarily happen in one specific city for a week and are at numerous restaurants within the city. The restaurants offer set menus for a designated price. Most of the time, there are three courses, with two to three selections per course. I really enjoy doing the research on finding the restaurants that offer the most bang for your buck. Sometimes, though, I just picked this restaurant like this night because I have had it on my list of places forever. That's why we spent our Newport Beach Restaurant Week experience at Provenance.

Provenance comes from the great Cathy Pavlos of LUCCA in Irvine. She opened that restaurant in 2005 and has won tons of awards and accolades at that location. This is her second OC venture, which opened in the spring of 2014 and has gained some good praise from local foodies and some of my favorite food bloggers.

Provenance takes over the beloved Sage Restaurant, which was in this spot for many years. They are going for a Napa Valley feel to this restaurant, and based on our experience as we walked in, they nailed it. Sandwiched between a Ralph's supermarket and a CVS Pharmacy, you lose that strip mall kind of feel once you are inside the space. Helping in this is a 1,300-square-foot garden in the back of the restaurant, which yields its bountiful offerings to that day's menu.

We had reservations at 6pm and were seated promptly by a lovely hostess. My hurried count of tables was 12 each inside and outside, most of which were filled during our visit. Our waiter told us they were twice as busy as usual due to the Newport Restaurant Week promotion. The restaurant has a nice, clean look, with lots of exposed, lighter woods present and a sizeable glimmering wine case as a focal point of the restaurant. The chairs were uncomfortable, as they did not allow for slouching, which would make my elementary school teachers very happy, as I was told to sit up about a thousand times during my school days. We quickly made our selections off the $40 pre-fixed menu and waited anxiously for our food. This is how it all unfolded for us.

Starting things off for us were these House-Made Yogurt Biscuits. These had a great balance of not being too light while also not being too dense—a very delicate balance to achieve. A bigger burst of flavor than what I was expecting, these were made even better with the generous serving of honey butter that accompanied them. We made these disappear rather quickly.

Dining off of the restaurant week menu, Katie and I always choose differently so we can get a good cross-section of what a restaurant has to offer. She selected this Cauliflower and Quinoa Soup to start. Katie really enjoyed this soup. It had a heartiness to it, but it was not so heavy that it bogged her down. She also loved the drizzle of creme fraiche on top of it.

To be honest, Katie had made my first choice of the appetizer portion of the menu, so I went with my second choice, the Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad. This salad came with a whole lot of items involved in it. Included with the Brussels sprouts were crispy prosciutto, walnuts, dried apricots, arugula, scallions, shaved Parmesan, celery, and a champagne-dijon vinaigrette. This salad was a miss for me. Yes, a lot of this salad was fresh, probably from their garden, but it was boring for as many things as went into this salad. The arugula took over here, while there were only a few Brussels sprouts in my portion. The crispy prosciutto was hard to get through, and the light touch of the dressing was not enough to awaken my taste buds.

We've been to many restaurants during restaurant weeks, and they almost always put a short rib on the menu, and that was the case here at Provenance. This Angus Beef Boneless Short Rib was placed on top of cheesy grits, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, roasted shallots, a veal demi-glace, and citrus gremolata. I learned that gremolata is a herb condiment of lemon, parsley, and garlic. Thanks, Google. Katie loved the tenderness of this short rib, as it just fell apart as her fork went near the meat. The wonderful flavor of the beef went very well with the cheesy grits. She would have a hard time ordering anything else here.

It's likely not surprising that I ordered a menu item named the Turf and Turf, consisting of a Certified Angus Beef Ribeye and Mongolian BBQ Spiced New Zealand Lamb Chops. I enjoy my fair share of meat, and if I can get two kinds on the same plate, I could not pass that opportunity up. We'll start with the ribeye. It was average. I liked the look of this steak more than the actual taste of it. The meat tasted fine but needed more sauce or seasoning to make it more interesting. The grill marks were evident, but it was cooked medium well rather than my preferred medium rare. In fact, they did not even ask me how I wanted this prepared, which I thought was weird when I think about it now. The steak was plopped on top of some good hand-cut fries but cut a little too thin and almost resembled potato chips. The two lamb chops that came nicely seasoned with plenty of meat were much more to my liking. I could have eaten a lot more of these. It was not too gamey, like many lamb dishes can be, and these were tender and juicy. A big highlight of the night for me.

Dessert was up next, and Katie tried the Dark Chocolate Crème Brulee. I know what you're thinking—that doesn't look like creme brulee. That's what I thought, too. There was no caramelized top; it was more like a chocolate mousse. It was not overly sweet, and it was not something Katie was thrilled with. She would opt for one of their fruit-based desserts on her next visit.

I'll preface this part of my meal by stating that I'm not a big fan of deconstructed desserts, especially when there's no mention of them being deconstructed on the menu. Luckily, I had researched before coming here, so I knew what I was getting into when I ordered this. I love carrot cake, but this Old Fashioned Carrot Cake differs from my favorite version of this classic dessert. Because this was deconstructed, trying to get the perfect bite here was really hard. The cake needed to be more moist and needed more icing than was provided. Disappointing end to the meal.

Leaving Provenance, I felt like Katie and I had two different experiences based on what we ordered. Her short rib and soup were good, but my steak, salad, and dessert were disappointing. I can see what they are trying to do here. They try to be experimental, but you want to avoid misguiding people. The food is fresh, but some are misrepresented on their menu. The carrot cake, chocolate creme brulee, and Brussels sprout salad need to be described a little better or renamed altogether. It's definitely lighter food, and you can leave here after eating a three course meal like us and not go home with that heavy feeling in your gut. Yes, I ordered the wrong things, but thanks to Newport Beach Restaurant Week, I did not pay the full price for my meal. We'd definitely come back, as their brunch is pretty stellar. For now, we are looking forward to Orange County Restaurant Week, which begins the first week of March. A great time of the year to be a foodie.

Out of five easels (because the word provenance is the origin or history of an object, usually concerning a work of art, many of which are created using easels), five being best to zero being worst, and Provenance gets 3 easels.

For more information about Provenance, go to their website here: http://www.provenanceoc.com/

 

Checking Out Calivino Wine Pub - CLOSED

Calivino Wine Pub

2410 E. Katella Ave.

Anaheim, CA 92806

I hear about restaurants in many different ways. I get press releases from PR people telling me about a restaurant opening or with new menu items. Other times, I hear about a place that another food blogger or food writer has written about. I also read the OC Register food section religiously, and sometimes, I write down some of their tips. My favorite way to hear about a place is, of course, to get a tip from one of our faithful readers. These tend to be the best restaurants.

I heard about Calivino Wine Pub using all of these methods. About nine months ago, I got a press release announcing they would be opening soon. I then started seeing many fellow bloggers coming here and reporting their outstanding experiences at Calvino. An excellent review of the hamburger by OC Register columnist Brad Johnson nudged me toward eating here. He knows his stuff, and his other burger recommendations have been spot-on, so I was excited to try them. I also had an email from a reader requesting that I give this place a shot, so we set up a double date with our friends and met up here on a recent Friday night.

Calivino is located in the same shopping center as Hooters on Katella, right next to the now-departed Zito's Pizza. It's not really a high-traffic center, and I thought it was going to be a slow night here, but as the evening went on, Calivino filled up. There was music starting up at 7, and the late-arriving crowd struggled to find seating as the night went on.

The dining room is small, and there needs to be more separation between the dining space and the bar area. The decor is subtle, and their tables are made from reclaimed wood found throughout Southern California. The menu is small, too. There's, of course, a much bigger focus on the wine and craft beers here. Most food items on the menu are meant for sharing, but there are a few burgers, sandwiches, and some salads that Executive Chef Patrick Dale has put on the menu. Happy hour is almost every day from 3 to 7, except Saturday, when they hold their happy hour later in the night. A dollar off of draft beers, $2 off house wines, and selected menu items are all a part of their happy hour pricing. We arrived at the tail end of happy hour but made two quick orders to take advantage of these offers. Let's see what we thought of the food at Calivino Wine Pub.

First up were these Spinach Wontons ($6 during happy hour). These wontons were filled with creamy baby leaf spinach, Parmesan, and garlic. These were average. None of us were really wowed by these. They lacked the flavor pop I expected from the Parmesan or the garlic. They also need more of a sauce than what was smeared across the plate. Their menu states that they proudly do not have ranch dressing, but using some here could have improved this. Not too impressive.

Alex and I avoid olives, but Katie and Jaszlyn are olive fiends, so they wanted to try these Marinated Olives ($7). They are marinated in garlic, chili, and herbs. There were more than enough for the girls, and Katie felt remorse later that she did not get the remainder to go. They both claim they were delicious; I'll take their word for it.

Our entrees were out next, and first up was Jaszlyn's selection, the Chicken and Brie ($13). This sandwich starts with free-range braised chicken and adds cranberry sauce, brie, and a little honey on marbled rye. Jaszlyn was not a big fan of this sandwich. The chicken was tender, but she expected a little more to be going on here. She called this, "kind of boring", and did not finish it. She enjoyed the fries, though, which you can tell are freshly made and fried crispy. Some delicious fries at Calivino.

I barely got two pictures taken before Alex had finished his House Burger ($13). He engulfed this burger rather impressively. The house burger is made of chuck brisket and topped with onion jam, Havarti cheese, and fried onion strings, all on a brioche bun. It had been some time since Alex was this impressed with a burger. He'd come back for sure for this burger, but he would opt for the hand-cut fries instead of the salad next time.

Katie chose the Seared Ahi Burger ($16) tonight. The ahi came nicely peppered with Asian slaw, spicy aioli, and a Hoisin sauce. Katie thought the tuna was prepared well, but the Hoisin sauce overwhelmed everything. She was also in the minority at our table by saying the fries were okay. Katie would have liked the fries to have been a little crisper. She'd probably get something else next time she was here.

Since Alex had gotten the house burger, I decided to make the sacrifice and get the Pork Belly Burger ($14). On this one, they use the same great patty made of ground chuck brisket but add a good amount of pork belly and some Gouda and garlic. The pork belly was done very well here. It was moist and went well on top of the beef patty. It needed more sauce to tie it all together, but I still really enjoyed this burger.

Alex and Jaszlyn did not want dessert, but Katie and I wanted to try the Beignets ($8). These balls of dough came with a lemon anglaise for dipping. The beignets were good but could have been better. They had plenty of cinnamon and sugar on them, but we wished they had a different kind of sauce for dipping. Lemon did not go here. These took so long to come out that they gave us a Chocolate Lava Cake ($8) to compensate for the almost fifteen-minute lag between ordering and getting the beignets. The cake had a coffee reduction, white chocolate, and whipped cream. I'm not really a big fan of this dessert, either. The cake was not moist; there needed to be more chocolate present to call this a chocolate lava cake, and it came out a little overcooked. It was nice that they tried to make up for their mistake.

After reading this review, we had conflicting views on Calivino. Some items were solid (the burgers, the olives, and the fries), but the other items we had this evening were missing from our book. Wish they had more sauces involved here. The wontons, the burger, and the lava cake could have used a sauce to make them more enjoyable. The prices here were not too out of line for the type of place this is and the amount of food you get. Even with the snafu about our dessert, we experienced pretty good service, even better when you consider how busy they were near the end of our meal. Would we come back? Yeah, the burgers are good enough to come back, but I might have to smuggle in my ranch dressing bottle.

Out of five corks (I know, not original, but I couldn't think of anything else), five being best to zero being worst, Calivino Wine Pub gets 2.5 corks.

For more information about Calivino Wine Pub, go to their website here: http://www.calivinowinepub.com/home

Raising a Toast to Cafe Mimosa

Cafe Mimosa

243 Avenida Del Mar 

San Clemente, CA 92672

As the new year turned from 2014 to 2015, we had a lot of things on our plate. We are planning a wedding, I'm trying to get over the holiday season, and we are trying to find time to be a lot more active. Last year we found one of our favorite walks in all of OC, the San Clemente Beach Trail. Not only do you have gorgeous views of the ocean, but you also have the occasional passing of trains mere yards away from the walking path.

Since this is one of our favorite places to walk, we have tried to incorporate getting breakfast in this area after we are done with our morning jaunt. We have been to some pretty decent places, but when I checked out Yelp, Cafe Mimosa looked really promising, and it would allow us to eat in the middle of our three-mile walk. This would give Katie a little time to rest up for the walk back to the car, and it would also throw in a little elevation into our normally flat walk along the beach.

Cafe Mimosa is located about a half-mile up from the San Clemente pier, right across the street from the San Clemente Library. We were lucky enough to be here on a Sunday, and there's a farmer's market hosted at the library that we had the pleasure of checking out before we headed down the hill so Katie could take a nap for the rest of the day.

This restaurant has been here since 2008, and there's almost always a line on the weekends for breakfast, as was the case when we arrived at 10am on a recent Sunday. Cafe Mimosa is not a huge restaurant. About six tables inside, and another eight or so on the covered patio out front. They play up the French vibe here, without making a mockery of it. A simple French flag out front and french inspired foods on the menu. It kind of reminds me of what they probably envisioned Mimi's Cafe to be back in the day.

After our twenty minute wait to get a seat, we were seated at a small table in the dining room. Tables are pretty close to each other, but we struck up a great conversation with the people to our right, who happened to have been visiting from Chicago. The menu at Cafe Mimosa is not overly huge, but there's enough variety to satisfy most people. This is not a traditional breakfast place. No Grand Slam plates, like at Denny's are served here. This is breakfast with a French twist. After our mile and a half walk to get here, I was ready to eat. Let's see how everything turned out for us.

Katie and I started things off by splitting two of their breakfast bread, the first of which is this Banana Bread ($7). When we ordered this I thought it was going to be a couple of slices of banana bread, and that was all. I was wrong. Two slices of well-made bread are sandwiched between sliced bananas and a cream that resembled Bavarian, but it was less sweet, and then sprinkled with sliced almonds. The bread had a very subtle banana flavor but was still moist. A very well done starter, and definitely worth trying here when coming for brunch.

A lot of people have the wrong idea about croissants. When you bring up this pastry to most people, they probably think about the ones in the grocery store, ones that more resemble a crescent roll than a croissant. What we were served at Cafe Mimosa was definitely not like anything you can get in the supermarket. This was a real croissant. I ordered this Chocolate Croissant ($3) and enjoyed it very much. The glossy top is what caught my eye first. It was not overly stuffed with chocolate ganache, but enough to allow the croissant portion of this to share the lead roll in the pastry. Another winner.

With the excitement that the first part of our meal brought us, we were stoked when our entrees came out. Up first is Katie's selection, the Mexican Omelette ($15). Joining the light and fluffy eggs in this was an Oaxaca cheese, roasted red peppers, scallions, a green tomatillo salsa, sliced avocados, and two corn tortillas. Katie loved the spicy flavor of this, but she does have a low tolerance to spice because I did not think it was spicy enough. I did like the bite I had though but wished it had some meat in it. This kept Katie full all day. This gave her more than enough energy for the remainder of our walk.

I was really torn between this Pork Belly ($17) and the chorizo scramble, but my love of pork belly won out. Glad it did, because this was a really good breakfast. Scrambled eggs are mixed with ham, bacon, and chives then placed on top of their tender house potatoes. Then as if that was not enough, a big cube of crisped pork belly was placed on top of that. Even though it has been a few weeks since I've had this, I still think about it often. The pork belly was cooked perfectly, the eggs were light, and the potatoes added just the right amount of starch to break up the meatiness here. One of the better breakfasts we have had in some time.

Both Katie and I left Cafe Mimosa very full and satisfied. Because of the prices here, and the high-quality ingredients used, I'd classify this as a special occasion breakfast restaurant, although I totally could eat here every week if my waistline and wallet could handle it. After having their breakfast, I'd love to come back for dinner and try their duck or short rib, both of which sound like they would be winners. The service that we had from Brooke on this morning was nice and pleasant. Glad we could work this restaurant in on one of our walks. Now we'll have to walk an extra few miles to work off all of this great food.

Out of five elephant vacuum cleaners, (because former San Clemente resident, Jane Vander Pyl voiced Wilma Flintstone, who used this to clean her house in Bedrock), five being best to zero being worst, Cafe Mimosa gets 3.5 elephant vacuum cleaners.

For more information about Cafe Mimosa, go to their website here: https://www.thecafemimosa.com/