The Food We Ate

I tricked you guys, didn't I? You thought I wrote a whole vacation post without talking about food! That would be complete nonsense and very mean of me. After all, one of the best parts of vacation is the food, and I think it's an unwritten rule that you can throw all diets out the window when you travel. But enough blabber, here's what we ate:

After we biked down to Monterey on Saturday, we stumbled across Britannia Arms a couple blocks away from the Wharf. Britannia Arms is a pub and restaurant so it seemed only fitting for Nick to kick off our vacay with a frothy Guinness.      

Then he had a bowl of clam chowder. I'm kicking myself in the ass for not having a cup as well.  

Instead of clam chowder, I added a side of coleslaw to my fish and chips. Nick had the same, minus the coleslaw. 

The fish was scrumptious. It was fresh, and it melted in my mouth. I bathed mine in tarter sauce, but tarter sauce wasn't really necessary. I just love anything with mayonnaise, so that's my excuse.  

Later that evening, we went down to Cannery Row for dessert. It was never our intention to eat another hearty meal since we ate at Britannia Arms as 4:30PM. I'm not sure if the fish and chips counts as a late lunch or an early dinner, but I suppose it doesn't matter since we were apparently hungry enough (or gluttonous enough) to eat again. We found our way into Cannery Row Brewing Company and there was no turning back. 

Nick started with some sort of Sierra Nevada specialty draft. I had a glass of Pinot Grigio.    

The server talked Nick into trying a burger with brie and crispy onion ring strings. He also had garlic fries. I sampled the burger and had more than my fair share of the fries, so I can say with certainty that Nick's meal was delicious. Nick commented that he couldn't really taste the brie, though, but that the burger was juicy and "good."  

I was really cold (we were sitting next to an open door) and felt like soup would warm me up. Their soup choices didn't quite tickle my fancy at the time, so I opted for a heaping bowl of chili. I'm not quite sure that anyone would intentionally pair Pinot Grigio with chili, but I ordered the glass of wine well before I knew what I was going to eat. As it turns out, the chili wasn't anything to write home to mom about. I've definitely had better (Nick's chili, of course), but I still ate every last drop of it. It was covered in cheese and green onions, so you can't blame me for licking the bowl clean.  

This empty Schlitz can doesn't count as food or drink since our check came in it, but it reminded me of Iowa, so I had to snap a picture. I mean, Wisconsin is near Iowa, don't-cha-know? 

We knew we were going to have cinnamon rolls from Lilly Mae's for dessert, so when the waitress asked us if we wanted a dessert menu, Nick declined and said that we already had dessert picked out. The waitress quickly asked, "the liquid kind or each other?" Very witty that one, very witty.   

Cinnamon rolls are a top contender for the title of "Sara's Favorite Dessert."  These were good, too. The ratio of cinnamon to frosting was close to perfection. My mouth is watering just thinking about them... 

On Sunday we skipped breakfast. This is nuts considering I LOVE BREAKFAST. Being lazy felt more important at the time, so I ended up snagging - or rather Nick brought me - a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks. It doesn't really count for anything so no further explanation (egg, cheese, and bacon on a ciabatta roll) or photo is necessary. 

Later in the day, on our bike ride, we came across Papa Chevo's. It seemed like the perfect hole-in-the-wall for lunch. And it was. Nick had three tacos: carnitas, fish, and chicken.

I had a ground beef taco and a chicken taco.

I'll have you know that in addition to my tacos, I sampled Nick's fish taco. They were all muy bien. The chicken was better than the beef, but I think the fish taco was the winner of the day. Nick also liked the carnitas taco (which I didn't try, but should have). It looked quite tasty especially since it had a healthy helping of guacamole. Also, should you ever go to Papa Chevo's the customer service was fantastico, unheard of even. The guy at the counter was awesome and on top of everything, so big ups to Papa. 

After lunch, and midway through our bike ride, an ice cream cone started sounding really good. On our way back into town, we cruised by the Wharf in search of ice cream. We got lucky, and I ended up with rainbow sherbet on a sugar cone. Nick had vanilla bean gelato (not pictured).    

Nick and I had big plans for dinner. We went to Roy's at Pebble Beach based on a recommendation from Nick's friend.

We started at the lounge around 6:00PM. Our reservations were at 7:45PM, so we had plenty of time to kill. The lounge is outside overlooking the Pacific Ocean, so the scenery is gorgeous.  We had a couple of bowls of pretzels and smoked almonds while we watched the tail end of the resort's famous bagpipe production. We also sipped on scotch (Nick) and a Diet Coke (me). 

When it was our turn to get our grub on, we were seated at Roy's at a table with an ocean view. I should say that every table there pretty much has an ocean view. Nonetheless, we got to see the sunset, so I like to revel in the fact that we had a spectacular view. 

We devoured a bowl of edamame while we pondered the menu.

We ordered the lobster roll as an appetizer. The lobster roll was a special for the night. It was created as a play on lobster salad. I've never had lobster salad, but this thing was goo-ood. It had lobster, of course, and some other stuff inside the roll with prosciutto on top of it. Then, in the center, there was lettuce and croutons soaked in a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The lobster roll was incredibly light, and, my-oh-my, it was scrumptious. 

Nick's friend, who recommended Roy's to us, also recommended the seared ahi. Nick never would have tried this otherwise, so I'm glad it came so highly recommended. The ahi was a part of a combo platter. It was served over white rice with a delicious wasabi infused sauce drizzled to the side of it.  The ahi was paired with roasted macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi which was served over black rice. You guys, Nick's dinner was amazing. Like, really delicious. I'm at a loss for words that will do it justice, so you'll just have to trust me or maybe next time you're in Monterey, you'll try it for yourself.     

I took a gamble and ordered one of their specials. I forget everything that was on it, but it was grouper covered in a jalapeno relish. I've never had grouper, but I love fish so I had no problem giving it a spin. And the jalapeno relish drew me right in. Again, this was spectacular. If I were a food critic I would be able to describe it better. Alas, I am not, so I'll stick with my "it was really good" review.   

We didn't have dessert at Roy's since we were stuffed to the gills (pun intended).  We did have leftover cinnamon rolls when we got back to the hotel, though.  

As an added bonus, feast your eyes on this: 

No trip to the ocean is complete without salt water taffy. We enjoyed salt water taffy all weekend. My favorites are peppermint, watermelon, and banana, but I love trying them all.