Visit to SLO and Santa Barbara - Unterwegs in SLO and Santa Barbara

It's our son's Sven final year at UCSB, and we decided without further ado to visit him and his girl, Karla. We spent the first night in San Luis Obispo. The motel is really not worth mentioning, but our dinner place certainly is. We went to Luna Red, who describe themselves as Global Tapas and Wine. Luna Red is run by the same guys as Novo. We weren't really hungry. so we just ordered a couple tapas. They have bigger plates as well. We started with a wild fish ceviche ( in our case rock cod or, as they used to call it, red snapper ), which was outstanding. Other choices, we had : pork buns with pulled pork ( good ), a flatbread with lamb sausage ( really good ), coconut crepes with pork ( really good ) and for dessert a olive oil cake with persimmon chutney ( yummy ! ).

Sitting outside in mid January. So nice ...

Coconut milk crepes

warm olive oil cake with persimmon chutney

Next morning, we went to Santa Barbara, met with Sven for breakfast at his place, where I brought those homebaked rolls

After a nice day, with a visit to the Santa Barbara Zoo,

Karla let us to Lilly's Tacos, which are seen as the best by many of the Santa Barbarians. Lilly's opened a satellite restaurant in Goleta a couple month ago, which is, where we went. They have only tacos, nothing else, with interesting fillings like beef lip, beef eye or the whole head.

I got four tacos, with beef lip ( beefy, little rubbery, but good ), beef cheek ( tastes like shredded beef, very good ), tripe ( my favorite ) and marinated pork ( good ). Traditional toppings are cilantro and onion only, says Karla ...

After a good spent night at Motel 6 Goleta ( we always stay there, renovated rooms and not as crazy expensive like the rest in SB ), we had a great breakfast at ' The Shop Cafe ' with good coffee and a hearty start into the day :

Biscuits and gravy with fried chicken and an egg.

Than some shopping in SB downtown on State ( even I like that :) ),and just being together with Sven and Karla, we had a lot of fun. Before we knew it, the day was over and we had dinner at their favorite Mexican place, Los Tarascos on Calle Real. Very friendly service, and the food is great. My wife had the Molcajete ' house specialty ' ( very good, lots of chilies, spices, shrimp, chorizo and shredded beef ),

I took the seafood parillada ( very good, as well, grilled veggie and seafood combo with rice and beans. Yum ! ).

Thanks, Karla and Sven, for a great weekend with you :)

Luna Red, 1023 Chorro Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401  805- 540 5243

Lilly's Tacos, 290 D Storke Rd., Goleta, CA 93117  805- 845 9810

The Shop Cafe, 730 N. Milpas, Santa Barbara, CA 93103 805 - 845 1696

Los Tarascos, 5915 B Calle Real, Goleta, CA 93117  805 - 683 1919

Dining out - Vesta

Tonight, we went out for dinner to say Good Bye to Anke, before she's heading back to Corvallis, Oregon for College. We choose Vesta, in Redwood City, which serves some salads, small plates and pizza. The place is small, with a couple tables outside and some more in the open dining room. It's somewhat loud, when crowded, with very attentive, quick and knowledgeable service. The menu is small, with 4 salads, 6 small plates and 10 or 12 pizza, white and red. Plus 3 or 4 specials. Reasonable priced, the most expensive dish is $ 20. We choose 2 specials as appetizers, seared brussel sprouts with speck in a balsamic reduction and braised pears with burrata, and two pies, one red, one white. The total was $ 110, for 4 people, including 2 dessert, 2 espresso, 2 beer, and 1 lemonade, with tax and tip.

The brussel sprouts were perfect, crunchy on the outside, soft inside. The balsamico reduction and the speck were a perfect match.

The pears with burrata were also very good, the pears still with a little texture and the burrata soft and rich.

We decided on two pies, on red, with a tomato sauce, the other white.

The red pie came with soppressata, very thinly sliced, smoked and fresh mozzarella, and spinach. Baked at high temperature in the wood fired oven, with a little char and a thin, but chewy crust, exactly the way, I like it.

The second pie was even better, with thin sliced tomatoes, lots of rosemary, white cheddar, mozzarella, bacon and a soft cooked egg. The egg yolk was still runny, perfect.

This was my first visit here, but we will be back.

Vesta, 2022 Broadway, Redwood City, CA 94063