gutfud – the food, es ist gut

Cielito Restaurant and Taqueria

Props to an acquaintance, Jonathan, who had given me some details about Cielito that got me excited to eat here. He spoke of high quality, well-sourced fresh ingredients. That, I can get behind. My friend Eric was in town for the holidays, we were in the mood to splurge, so we came here a week [...]

La Tour @ The Pub

It was a mellow night, and I met with a friend for a catch-up chat. He’d not yet been to La Tour, so I insisted. He tried a flight of wine under Graham’s recommendations, and I had my usual splashes of whatever was good. Some European stuff. But what I *really* wanted was a charcuterie [...]

Goodland Kitchen and Market – Old Town Goleta

On Wednesdays the special of the day is banh mi. They use curry-marinated chicken, shredded daikon (radish), sweet peppers, carrots, cabbage with a Vietnamese-style dressing on a granary baguette. It included side portions of sweet tangerines and apple slices. The apple has a light turmeric dressing, which makes them derishous. The meal is $9. This [...]

Supper Club – Chef Pink

The third service of the supper club, with Pink as guest chef.

Ca’Dario

October is epicure.sb month, and while I didn’t have time to sample much of all the town had to offer, I did make the effort to return to Ca’Dario. It had been a while year since my last visit, for the same prix fixe lunch the restaurant had put together for 2010′s epicure.sb. I dined [...]

D’Angelos Bakery

It’s been ages since I’ve been here for a meal. I’ll guess about six years. Back then, people loved the poached eggs and I recall having a suspiciously perfectly shaped poached egg on toast for breakfast with my friend Michael. Times have not changed, the poached eggs here are still a highlight, and they are [...]

Rudy’s Restaurant – Goleta

This was a very opportunistic visit, and I was caught without my good camera, or even my average camera. All camera phone, so sorry about the crummy pictures. Still! Rudy’s has moved into a bigger space in that fine stripmall known as the Calle Real Shopping Center. Just next door to a shop I was [...]

New China Restaurant – Goleta

Today’s lunch was with Tom, who is vegetarian. I’d been talking up the dolsot bibimbap and he was okay to give it a try. The normal dish comes with thin sliced meat, and I requested this to be omitted. The woman at the counter offered to take it one step further and suggested tofu instead [...]

Meat n’ Potatoes

I was sitting at a popular blue-collar bar a couple weeks ago, and the friendly woman next to me started chatting about food. She mentioned that the restaurant spot next to the Creekside (RIP JR’s BBQ I still miss you!!) was soon going to reopen, and the place would be called Meat n’ Potatoes, with [...]

midnight snack

Oh, I am a lucky one! Tonight’s midnight snack was a pile of grilled cheese sandwiches and a bowl of tomato soup. Nothing glamorous, all the ingredients came from TJ’s. It was thrown together with a thrifty nonchalance and resulted in a deeply satisfying meal. The cheese was a combination of manchego and aged white [...]