Fruit of the Soul

I was invited to Fruit of the Soul this past weekend… it’s a event at the Specialty Produce Warehouse in Old Town San Diego with music, art and a lot of amazing food. Thirty of some of the best restaurants in San Diego are there with samples of their food so I was in heaven walking around trying new stuff.

I didn’t get great photos of all of the things I sampled and I simply couldn’t fit everything into my belly that was offered, so I will share with you some of the highlights.

Catamaran’s Atoll Restaurant offered Mt Cook Alpine Salmon 3 ways: the first photo is smoked salmon pan seared with fingerling potatoes. I am weird about salmon. I like cooked salmon if it’s done right. I don’t usually like salmon sushi. I don’t usually eat cooked salmon if it’s smoked. But I love raw smoked salmon. This dish was really awesome though… not too smoky and the potatoes were fantastic.

On the left Alder smoked salmon with a dill creme fraiche, red onion and caper and salmon sashimi on the right.

Jake’s Del Mar did a layered seafood cocktail with lobster, shrimp and avocado, micro greens and an incredibly yummy orange chili sauce on the bottom. I wish my tongue was longer.

The Chef Celebration Foundation did braised Brant beef cheek ravioli with onion carbonara and pea shoots. I could be wrong but it might have had a hint of truffle in there…?

Tractor Room’s elk sausage and polenta cake. Not a huge fan of polenta in the first place and it was a little overdone, but the elk was great as usual. They do meat right!

Due to unforseen circumstances the event was unable to secure a liquor license so the beer garden was not set up and the Tractor Room’s awesome cocktails were forced to be virgins. I was drinking the “Punch in the Eye”: basil, Cointreau, organic grapefruit juice and fresh pressed lime juice. The grapefruit was not overpowering at all and I can imagine they are incredible with the gin that is supposed to be served in it!

This was a pretty easy decision to make. I give the nice lady $25 and she gives me a gift certificate for $50 for a restaurant in town. I got Bali Hai! I love their Sunday brunch and they have an amazing view of downtown San Diego and the harbor! Any one of those places would be a win win situation.

Popsicles made out of god knows what. The one I had was dis.gus.ting. I think it was apple rosemary. My friend had a blood orange one with tarragon and it was decent. Usually anything blood orange is too tart for me.

Water’s Fine Catering served Tahitian squash tortellini, sunchoke sauce, ruby beet and it’s greens, Laura Chenel’s goat cheese and fig-anise croutons. Wow. For being a veggie dish, it was really tasty! Too bad I shot it with that damn leaf in the way and you can’t see any of it.

Butternut squash soup with creme fraiche and truffle oil from Indulge Contemporary Catering.

A boring salad (also from Indulge) but was saved by shiitake mushrooms. Shiitake mushrooms are always a good thing in my mouth.

Cowboy Star did a roasted strip loin with a horseradish-potato puree. Generally I avoid that place because you pay the same amount for a steak there as you would at Mortons or Flemings or even Ruth’s Chris and it just isn’t that great. This was pretty good though and the puree was excellent. It might have restored my faith again.

Oceanaire had Fanny Bay oysters…I could have just stood there all night eating them but I didn’t want to be “that girl.” My friend tried one for the first time and she liked them…yay! Another one converted.

Ahi tuna from I don’t remember where! What a bummer… What a lovely presentation and they were really delicious. It was served with seaweed salad and was the perfect amount of oily. I am looking at the program and I still can’t figure it out.

Jsix had local yellowtail tartar with orange essence, pine nuts and olive & orange tapenade. Yes, I licked the plate. The orange tapenade was amazing.

Searsucker was serving smoked trout with avocado in a lettuce cup. I think I ate so much trout as a kid with my brother and Dad as fisherman that I am just ruined. My friend liked hers. Me? Nope.

Scallop poke with macadamia nuts, wakame, shoyu, and sambal chili served in it’s shell from Tom Ham’s Lighthouse. I am weird about raw scallops, they almost have to be disguised in a lot of flavor and sometimes when cooked scallops are too big they gross me out. I can usually only have one or two. This dish was so good my friend went back for another one. But that’s also because she is dumb and doesn’t eat meat so her options were limited tonight.

Cupcake Squared had a tower of cupcakes, but with no red velvet (booooo that’s my absolute favorite!) I went for their Hawaiian style “Lilikoi“: a vanilla cupcake made with passion fruit and a buttercream frosting. I recently developed a taste for passion fruit (now that I am able to identify it. HA!) and I thoroughly enjoyed this heavenly little morsel. I was too full at this point so I didn’t sample any of their other ones.

Pacifica Del Mar served figs stuffed with marscapone cheese. They appear pretty sexy, right? Not so much. They just kind of fell apart in your hand and the flavor was pretty bland. They looked succulent and supple but needed something else for sure.

And I absolutely hate hate hate to admit this but the best tasting dish of the evening was the beet salad from Kitchen 1540 inside the L’Auberge hotel in Del Mar. I know. Welcome to my blog where I talk shit about vegans. hahaha! It was very good and if I wasn’t so full I would have had seconds.

It’s neat how they back moving trucks in to the loading docks and showcase the art work in the back of it. Some of the stuff was very good and I was amazed at some of the art there by some very talented teenagers.