It's a weiner, it's a burger; it's a burger in a weiner. Ah, just visit Dog House Diner

(Erin Jackson is a food writer and photographer who is obsessed with discovering the best cheap and tasty eats in San Diego, including all things sweet and sugary, for her dessert blog San Diego Sugar. On Twitter, she's @ErinJax.)

Dog House Diner

1001 N. El Camino Real, Encinitas CA 92024 (map); 760-635-3647;thedoghousediner.com
Cooking method: Griddled
Short Order: A burger inspired by Chicago-style hot dogs that's surprisingly tasty
Want Fries With That? Go for it. The lightly salted shoestrings are classic and simple
Price: Cheese weiner burger, $6.50; fries, $3.50

Most hamburger innovations involve tweaking toppings, high shock factor bun swaps (doughnuts come to mind), or making them mega- or micro-sized. Until last weekend, I'd never seen anything like what's happening at Dog House Diner, home of the Weiner Burger. The registered trademark item features a hot dog-shaped cylinder of beef served in a toasted hot dog bun, with tomato, a pickle spear, and house-made special sauce. Owner Sandy Cherman describes it as a "family creation." His son, Justin, (a Culinary Institute of America grad) dreamed up the idea when he was 12 years old, and perfected the recipe for the sauce on top with his wife over a decade later.

There's a version with cheese, another with cheese and bacon, and the "Mammoth Wiener Burger", which is served between grilled cheese sandwiches. Since it was my first time, I took things slow and started with the cheese wiener burger.

It made a funny first impression, but dismissing the wiener burger because of its quirkiness would be a mistake. The elongated Twinkie-shaped angus beef had a nice sear on all sides and deep, beefy flavors. It was fairly moist, despite being cooked to medium well. A slice of American cheese and Russian dressing-style special sauce upped the moisture and flavor significantly. I'm not a fan of most special sauces, but the sweet and spicy composition of this version was supremely addictive—five days later, I'm still thinking about it.

There were a few executional flubs, all of which could be easily corrected. The giant pickle spear does give the wiener burger most of its whimsy, but it was so large that most bites were too pickle heavy. Pickle slices or a sandwich stacker would be a better move. The sauce and cheese were also not uniformly applied, meaning some bites were sadly under sauced. Still, a Home Depot parking lot isn't the place to get too picky, and even though each bite was a bit different, they were all good.

 There are plenty of permutations of fries (garlic, cheese, and chili cheese), but the wiener burger was enough excitement for one morning, so I kept it simple with an order of plain french fries. It was a good call. The golden brown, lightly salted fries were a good compliment to a "burger" with a lot going on.

I'll admit I didn't have the highest expectations for the wiener burger, but what may look like a gimmick actually turned out to be a worthy reconstruction of an item I previously considered sacred. It's good as is, but with a few adjustments, it could easily be great. For now, it's definitely worth the drive to North County.

Business headline the likes of which you may never see again: LOCKERZ WENT PLIXI TODAY!

 LOCKERZ WENT PLIXI TODAY!

Or Seattle-based social commerce, Lockerz website buys Encinitas-based social media photo-sharing site Plixi. 

FUN FAX
Reported purchase price: $10 million to $15 million
Plixi Founders: Rodney Rumford, Sean Callahan
Users: 25 million
Developers: 300
Employees: 8

Lockerz went Plixi this week...

 We have some big news to share with our users. We have been acquired by Lockerz a members-only social commerce website with nearly 18 million members worldwide. We are very excited to be working with the talented and visionary Lockerz team to bring a broader range of products to our users as well as Lockerz users.

“We share Plixi’s social approach to media sharing,” said Kathy Savitt, founder and CEO of Lockerz. “The acquisition enables Lockerz to offer its millions of members the most social and easy-to-use photo sharing experience, as well as introduce millions of Plixi customers to Lockerz’ interactive, engaging and rewarding site features, including e-commerce, music, and videos.”

Lockerz was funded by renowned venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins and strategic investorLiberty Media. The Lockerz board, including Greg Maffei, John Doerr and Bing Gordon, were familiar with Plixi. Based on the synergies between the two companies, the acquisition made sense.

The Plixi media sharing platform has always been about real time sharing of your photos and we will be working on enhancing that social experience. Users of Plixi will see no material changes to our service for sharing your photos.

We want to humbly & sincerely thank all of our 25 Million users and over 300 developers for helping us grow and become a vital part of your real time social photo sharing experience!

-- Plixi Blog

Twitpic was the top photo sharing dog in 2009 on Twitter:

Twitpic did not compensate developers. Plixi did. The company paid developers when their API's were used to share photos.

"We wanted it to be win-win for the developers, so we did a handful of special agreements with them," Rumford said. Plixi has become so popular, however, that they no longer need to sign these deals, he said.

What does the future hold for Plixi now that it's part of Lockerz?

"I can't elaborate on what we're going to be doing and I don't see myself kicking back on the beach anytime soon," Rumford said. "But it's been really rewarding to see people in every country in the world using what we built."

San Diego Botanic Garden: March 19-20 - Herb Festival, Spring Plant Sale, and Tomatomania®

Back by popular demand is Tomatomania®, part of the world's largest tomato seedling sale, with lectures on culture and care and plenty of tomato seedlings.

Susan Belsinger is our honored guest at this year’s Herb Festival. Susan is a culinary herbalist, educator, food writer, and photographer whose articles and photographs have been widely published. She has co-authored several best-selling, award-winning cookbooks.

Susan will give a program each day at 1 pm. On Saturday, she will discuss Getting to Know the Mediterranean Herbs. She takes you on a hike across a hillside in Syros, Greece, which helps “herbies” and gardeners see how these native herbs grow in hot arid climates, tenaciously hanging on rocky cliffs. She will discuss how to keep the grey and green Mediterranean herbs happy in our own gardens. On Sunday Susan presents a cooking demonstration featuring these hardy, flavorful herbs along with seasonal ingredients of this sun-drenched cuisine. To find out more about Susan, visitwww.susanbelsinger.com, a great and informative web site.

There will also be on-going speakers on garden and herb-related topics, guided tours of the Herb Garden, Herb Festival Market-place, the A-Z or Herbs information booth, and the SDBG Spring Plant Sale with a multitude of vendors.

Susan will give a program each day at 1 pm. On Saturday, she will show her power point Up Close and Personal: Getting to Know the Mediterranean Herbs. She takes you on a hike across a hillside in Syros, Greece, which helps “herbies” and gardeners see how these native herbs grow in hot arid climates, tenaciously hanging on rocky cliffs. She will discuss how to keep the grey and green Mediterranean herbs happy in our own gardens. To experience more, return on Sunday for her cooking demonstration featuring these hardy, flavorful herbs along with seasonal ingredients of this sun-drenched cuisine. It will be a sensual experience of fragrance and flavor. To find out more about Susan, visit www.susanbelsinger.com, a great and informative web site. 

In addition to Susan’s presentation, there will be on-going speakers on garden and herb-related topics, guided tours of the Herb Garden, Herb Festival Market-place, the A-Z or Herbs information booth, and the SDBG Spring Plant Sale with a multitude of vendors. Back by popular demand is Tomatomania® with lectures on culture and care and plenty of tomato seedlings. For details on speakers, vendors, etc., visit www.SDBGarden.org as we get closer to the event.

For Kids: Now, That’s a Horse of a Different Color 
If horse racing is the sport of kings, is horseradish the herb of emperors? Kids can learn about the Herb of the Year for 2011, the noble horseradish. Make potpourri “saddle bags” with herbs from the garden. Construct a “horse,” naturally, and help make a community sculpture using recycled materials. Saturday and Sunday, 11 am – 2 pm.

10 am - 4 pm. Free with admission or membership. For a $2 off coupon, for more visit www.SDBGarden.org.

Encinitas fast food news: Five Guys Burgers ready to roll, Chick Fil A, too... 

Nothing like a Five Guys Burger & Fries sighting to stir the burger-loving juices.

 The rapidly expanding somewhat gourmet fast burger Mecca is up and about to be running at Encinitas now, at the old Daphne's Greek Cafe space, near Kaito Sushi at Encinitas Marketplace on El Camino Real and Encinitas Boulevard.

The actual opening date has not been announced. However, as you can see from the photo above, it could be soon enough.

In other Encinitas fast food news, word on the street is Chick Fil A is going in to an old bank building that once housed Baja Fresh at Encinitas Marketplace. Also, a Kohl's Department Store is said to be coming to the the former Albertsons . 

San Diego County-wise, Five Guys last year rolled out quietly at North Island Naval Air Station, which is accessible only to military personnel. The Virginia-based burger chain also has gone into Point Loma, Pacific Beach and most recently, the 32nd Street Naval Station.

"We're expanding like crazy this year," said Leeanna Lertpaichaiyon, general manager of Five Guys at 32nd Street last month. She worked previously at a couple of the other San Diego locations.

"Leases have been secured for Hillcrest, La Jolla, University Town Center and a few spots in North County, including San Marcos," Lertpaichaiyon added.

Five Guys is considered healthy and good for you. Generally. Just steer clear  of the large order of fries, which are cooked in peanut oil and weigh in at 1,474 calories and 71 grams of fat. An oozy bacon-cheeseburger inflicts less guilt in comparison, totaling 920 calories and 62 grams.

Mary and Jake from 'Foodies' visited the Five Guys Liberty Station giving it the thumbs-down, althugh she liked the fries. Check out the Encinitas store for your own opinion since Five Guys and In-and-Out Burgers are considered natural rivals.

Alyssa and Mary run the The Plain Jane. This food blog is a side project that they both write for, doing reviews of restaurants in and around Southern California. They review all kinds of restaurants, pulling out their trusty cameras and taking photos of their food while other patrons try not to look at them and wonder why they are taking pictures of their food. Mary writes the majority of the reviews found here for San Diego.

Read more: 

Five Guys is a national chain fast food restaurant – but without the drive-thru windows. I liken it to In-N-Out in that they have a limited menu and only sell a few things (no chicken sandwiches, nuggets, tacos or other crazy things here). Our friend, Chris, from Florida recommended this place to us after he found out that we actually had one in San Diego. I had been meaning to go, but previously thought the only restaurant was on NAS North Island. I did consider bugging my dad to take me on base to go, but I never did. Then a few weeks ago, I saw a review for Five Guys on Darlene’s blog and realized I didn’t have to go on base after all to check this place out. With the urging from Chris (re: lots of text messages), Jake and I took the kids out to Liberty Station to try out Five Guys.

When you first walk in, there’s a big pile of 50lbs. bags of potatoes, with a sign telling you where the potatoes are from that day. This place is pretty spacious, much bigger than any In-N-Out I’ve ever been too, with outdoor seating to boot. There’s also free peanuts for you to snack on while you wait for your order to come up. The kids feasted on the peanuts like there was no tomorrow. I ate a few, but mostly I wanted my “real” food to come out.

Jake and I got “regular” sized burgers for ourselves and “little burgers” for the kids. I really, really wish they had listed on their menu the difference between a “regular” burger and a “little” burger. A regular burger comes with 2 patties and a little one only has one patty. I would have preferred to have had the little burger, but … little sounds… well, mini sized! I suppose we should have asked, but I felt kind of duped.

The cool thing about Five Guys is the ability to choose your own toppings – which are all “free” – and you have 15 different toppings to choose from. I went with: Mayo, Ketchup, Mustard, Lettuce, and Onions (in addition to bacon and cheese).

I got the Bacon Cheeseburger ($6.39). The burger comes wrapped in foil on a sesame seed bun and slathered with all of the ingredients. I thought it was a bit too much having 2 patties. I didn’t really like the cheese on this burger (Jake reminded me that I don’t like American cheese, which is true for the most part) and I really didn’t like this bun. The bun was like any old thing I could buy at the grocery store and it wasn’t warmed up or anything. Very sad. Also, I know there was bacon on it because I saw it, but I don’t really remember tasting it. Maybe I had too many toppings? The burger itself was juicy and thick and cooked well, but overall I didn’t really care for the burger.

This above is 2 orders of the Regular Sized French Fries ($2.59). It took up about half of the paper bag. Mind you, when I ordered these, I thought I had ordered the large and realized later when I saw my receipt that I had only gotten 2 regulars. I can’t even imagine what a large sized order would look like, as this was plenty of fries to share between 2 adults and 3 kids.

I really liked the french fries – they reminded me somewhat of Boardwalk Fries that used to be in Horton Plaza. Crispy, skin on fries are what I like (though I needed to add salt to them so they could have some seasonings).

Oh, Five Guys. I’m sorry I didn’t really dig your burger. I liked your fries, though. You really should put somewhere that the regular burger is 2 patties. It would be the nice thing to do. But you know. Whatever...

$6.5 million state-funded DUI checkpoints net nine Olivenhain DUI arrests Superbowl Sunday

While you were out getting pre-Superbowled over around Olivenhain, San Diego Sheriff's deputies were stopping everybody driving through the 1800 block of Olvenhain Road early Sunday morning.

San Diego County authorities armed with taxpayer dollars checked 1,891 vehicles on Olivenhain Road through early morning, then checkmated 1,217 of them for inspections.

Of those checked, 77 were sent to a stage two checkpoint and 32 citations were issued. Those included 24 for driving without a license, five for driving with suspended or revoked licenses three provisional drivers out after dark and one person for possession of illegal drugs.

The checkpoint also netted nine arrests for suspicion of DUI with two repeat offenders, said Sheriff's Dept. Sgt. Jason Rothlein.

The program received $6.5 million in state funds in 2008-09, the last funding numbers released by the task force.

This is part of a program called Avoid 14 DUI Task Force, which, according to the task force website:

Funding, provided by grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, allows counties to add overtime hours, reassign officers, and conduct public awareness campaigns during the increased enforcement periods.

The overall goal of the awareness campaign is to let drivers know about the countywide increased enforcement periods and warn drivers that the only way to "AVOID" the county's law enforcement officers is to drive sober.

-- http://www.californiaavoid.org/

Another checkpoint was set up by Chula Vista police ending 2 a.m. Sunday. Police arrested one person on suspicion of DUI, one driver for marijuana possession, two drivers for driving with a suspended license and three drivers with no license, said Chula Vista officer Alicia Chudy.

Last year's super Bowl super weekend driving stats showed  one DUI-related death, 135 DUI arrests and four felony drunken driving cases.

Sunday Morning Blogging Down: Encinitas Undercover on Drywaller Bandit, new Walmart on N. El Camino Real...

(Editor's Note: W.C. Varones has been sub rosa Encinitas for a decade revealing a hidden trove of socio-political treasure. He was on a hot streak last week with interesting speculation about the recently captured Drywaller Bandit, so-called by the cops who have to have these cutesy little nom d'bandits for some Freudian reasons, but we digress. Varones, whose image is a closely guarded secret, also observed wryly on the prospects of an Encinitas Walmart reputed to be the most upscale in America.)

Encinitas Undercover

A blog covering civic issues, news, and the secret life of Encinitas

Drywaller bandit John L. Oskam's local roots

The drywaller bandit has been identified as John Leendert Oskam, a 1989 graduate of Pasadena's John Muir High School. He appears to be the son of Leendert and Carol Oskam of Pasadena. Records show Oskam as the owner of the residence at 510 Avenue 64 in Pasadena, which he appears to have inherited/bought from his mother's living trust. He tried to sell the house, unsuccessfully, last year.

The drywaller bandit's bank hits were all in Pasadena, Oceanside, and Encinitas. The Pasadena heists were within 2 miles of his home. In addition to his Pasadena roots, Oskam and his parents are listed with residences on Mandarin Drive and Los Arbolitos in Oceanside. The Oceanside bank hits were within 1.5 to 3 miles of the Mandarin house. So Oskam appears to hit banks close to home, possibly so he can escape on foot or bicycle. That way nobody could spot a license plate on a getaway car.

Which leaves Encinitas. John Oskam has no apparent residential history near the El Camino corridor where he hit so many banks. But there is a Jacobus Oskam listed on Calle Violetas, near the intersection of Encinitas Boulevard and El Camino Real. Jacobus Oskam is the right age to be Leendert's brother, or John's uncle. My bet is that John Oskam was running to Uncle Jacobus' house when he was arrested yesterday morning.

 

 "Upscale" Walmart coming to Encinitas?

Have you seen this woman? Coming soon to a store near you!

The Internets are abuzz with rumors of Walmart coming into the old Home Depot Expo location in the El Camino Pension Revenue Corridor.

 

---

 

Look what Walmart (they've since dropped the hyphen) tried to do in Carlsbad in 2007:

Wal-Mart has purchased a 17-acre site at College Boulevard and El Camino Real in Carlsbad and hopes to build its most upscale store in the nation there, according to a company spokesman.

"It will be an absolute paradigm shift," said Wal-Mart spokesman Aaron Rios in an interview Thursday evening.

Wal-Mart, which has long sought entry into Carlsbad, recognizes that if it succeeds in building a store in the affluent, carefully planned community, it could not be a typical "big box" store, Rios said.

"We believe the community of Carlsbad would say, 'That's not for us,' " he said.

Most stores, for instance, sell wine costing between $7 and $25, while the proposed store would have bottles selling for as much as $100, he said. It would also offer a pricier line of clothing, such as the newly introduced George ME by designer Mark Eisner.

Well, the Carlsbad store doesn't seem to have worked out, probably because of political resistance. So they seem to have rolled down El Camino to anything-goes Encinitas.

There aren't a lot of People of Walmart in the geographic area this one would serve. We're surrounded by Walmarts all along the 78, and to the south there's one in Kearny Mesa. So this one would really only serve Del Mar to south Carlsbad. It may be the wealthiest Walmart territory in the country. If they're coming, I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see them try out a new upscale concept. 

EHK and I rarely ever stick around North County to eat despite the fact that we live and work here. The choices just seem so unappealing for the most part. There are a few gems but we head south for the most part. So when M&OH were in town and MK recommended we all meet at Firefly, I have to admit I discounted it at first because of its location. I would be proven wrong by the end of this meal.

SOUP OF THE DAY broccoli and cheddar soup

After browsing through the menu, I decided to go with pre fixe which turned out to be a fantastic deal. $30 for appetizer, entrée and dessert from selected choices. Ordering them separately would have cost well over. I decided to go with the soup of the day for the appetizer which turned out to be a broccoli and cheddar soup. What a rich, velvety and flavorful soup it turned out to be. EHK shared this soup with me since he got the seafood jambalaya (not pictured) by itself. We ended up battling over the soup. Definitely a winner.

PAN ROASTED WHITE TUNA chive crawfish butter, fingerling potato hash, baby carrots

I choose the pan roasted white tuna for my entrée and I was just as pleased with it as I was with the soup. The fish was cooked perfectly to a medium doneness, the potatoes were well seasoned and tasted slightly crispy, carrots and beans were equally well seasoned and cooked. To top it off was the buttery sauce that I made sure every morsel got a nice coating of before devouring.  EHK didn't like his entrée very much so I let him eat some off my plate.

ALMOND BROWN BUTTER CAKE  caramel gelato, drunken fruit, almond streusel

Lastly, I went with the almond brown butter cake for dessert. I was the only one who got a dessert since I ordered the pre fixe and everybody else went with entrée only. I was nice and passed the plate around with extra spoons. Every meal should end with a little sweetness :). It was an incredibly decadent dessert and I'm glad I shared since I wouldn't have been able to finish it. I think I could have done without the drunken fruit and gone with the fresh fruit instead. The buttery rich sauce and warm moist cake were great but the components together made it a little overpowering.instead. The buttery rich sauce and warm moist cake were great but the components together made it a little overpowering.

What a delightful surprise this place turned out to be. I arrived here not thinking very much of it and left more than satisfied with a lovely meal.

• Firefly Grill & Wine Bar
• 251 N. El Camino Real
• Encinitas, CA 92024
• (760) 635-1066
• http://www.fireflygrillandwinebar.com/

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Fooding 411 is...

Just two foodies on the delicious adventure through life...
 

Liz is  a SF Bay Area girl at heart currently fooding in San Diego.

"I ventured down to SD to attend UCSD and I guess I kinda stuck around for the work thing. Oh and I suppose the weather and beaches aren't too bad either. I love discovering new restaurants, recipes, food products and gadgets. So yes I love to cook and eat... well maybe more the latter."

EHK (aka Mr.K) is a  first generation Chinese American that loves to eat.

"My fondest memories of childhood always surrounded family gatherings around the dinner table. Fooding must be genetic because my mother also has an endless appetite and is always seeking the ultimate meal. I love food of all cultures and always willing to try something if I think it will be tasty."

About Fooding 411

What's in your refrigerator?" my therapist asked. "Huh?" I responded. "Food is Love," she said. "You have to fill up your refrigerator if you want your life to change."

The above is an excerpt from a Life Lessons article of the Febuary 10' issue of Real Simple pgs. 53-57. Food really is love. Reminiscing... some of the most memorable moments involve good company and a good meal. With so many of these fond memories, it was realized an outlet was needed to archive these accounts. Fooding 411 was cooked up as a way to document and share fooding encounters. Good or bad... it'll always be an honest opinion or experience. Hopefully you'll find these adventures entertaining.

Feel free to shoot Fooding 411 an email at fooding411@gmail.com if you have any questions or comments.

'Fooding 411' - Kaito Sushi: Encinitas, Calif. - Sushi wars along N. El Camino Real

Kaito Sushi 

130-A N. El Camino Real

Encinitas, CA 92024

(760) 634-2746

http://sushikaito.com/default.aspx

 

                                                                               seasoned seafood salad

 I don't consider myself an avid follower of Chowhound. I've tried in the past to regularly follow threads and get involved but honestly I just don't like the thread format as I easily stray into the tangents. I thinks its suppose to make it easier to follow discussions that stray from the original question/topic but I just don't like it. I do give it props for aggregating quite a bit of recommendations and I do find the recommendations to be a bit more on the credible side than Yelp. 

Anyways... I'm feeling like perusing Chowhound a few weeks ago and I come across a lot of trash talking about my beloved Sushi Ota. I see a lot of mentions for Kaito Sushi and how its far superior. So EHK and I decide to drop in and see what's the big deal. We had originally thought of ordering an omakase but weren't feeling terribly hungry so we decided to order some things we really wanted to try and maybe an item the chef would really like us to try.

Promptly after sitting, we were each presented with a small plate of the house seasoned seafood salad. Alright, we are off to a good start with a gratis nicely seasoned refreshing salad.

                                                                                      Salmon Belly

The first thing I was jonesing for that evening was the salmon belly. I heart just about any type of belly. What's not to love about flavor and fat? The fish itself was quite fatty and flavorful as usual but the real downer was the rice. I feel that with nigiri, the rice should be packed in a fashion that I can easily pick up the piece and season with some soy sauce/wasabi if I choose and deliver to my mouth where it tenderly breaks. This wasn't exactly the case as the rice broke almost immediately when I picked it up. EHK had the same experience. I wouldn't consider us barbaric with chopsticks as its a eating utensil we both remember using in our earliest childhood memories and we are both regular sushi eaters. Something must be wrong with how the rice was packed.

                                                                                        kohada - gizzard sha

So the next order we let the chef decide. The guy kept going on and on about how he's got kohada and its the shit and how he's the only sushi joint in San Diego county to carry it. Once presented, I was almost certain I've tried this before at Sushi Ota. The look, flavor and texture was so familiar to me but the chef refused to believe our claims that we've tried this in this county before. There was no breaking this man of his ardent conviction that he was the sole vendor of this prized fish in the area. The fish itself wasn't bad but the rice again was a disappointment. What's with the poorly packed rice. Very disappointing to pick up the piece and have a giant clump of rice just fall off :(

EHK had developed a little crush with oayko-don lately. Requesting it whenever he got the chance I kid you not. When done properly, I can't help but feel all warm and happy when eating it. It reminds me of a mom's food... homey and filling.  It really is a simple dish with few ingredients but seemingly can go very wrong as it did here. Way too salty and the chicken was on the rubbery side. Should have known when we saw it on the menu and asked about it. The chef said, "uhh" then paused and said "yea... we make that". Way to build some confidence.

                                                                kohada - gizzard shad

Since I didn't want to get the same rice dish as EHK,  I got the pork katsu-don. The breading didn't even have a little crunch when it arrived. To me it honestly tasted like it was made ahead of time and then reheated in a fashion other than frying (a la microwave) when we ordered. EHK claimed that he even tasted a little funk in the piece of pork that he sampled. We should have probably known better than to order the oyako-don and pork katsu-don at a sushi joint. But why put things on a menu if you don't make them well? Is it for the sake of filling a half empty page?

I swear I'm not dogging on this place because we are Sushi Ota lovers. Those of you that somewhat follow this blog or are acquainted with EHK and I on a regular basis know of our eternal fondness for Sushi Ota. We've actually had pleasant sushi experiences outside of our regular spot such as at Kasen. We just expect a little more quality and service-wise for the amount of money we spent that evening. Maybe we really need to give it another try or go with the chowhounders that swear by this place? Perhaps we simply ordered the wrong stuff?

Kaito Sushi 

130-A N. El Camino Real

Encinitas, CA 92024

(760) 634-2746

http://sushikaito.com/default.aspx

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fooding 411 is...

Just two foodies on the delicious adventure through life...
 

Liz is  a SF Bay Area girl at heart currently fooding in San Diego.

"I ventured down to SD to attend UCSD and I guess I kinda stuck around for the work thing. Oh and I suppose the weather and beaches aren't too bad either. I love discovering new restaurants, recipes, food products and gadgets. So yes I love to cook and eat... well maybe more the latter."

EHK (aka Mr.K) is a  first generation Chinese American that loves to eat.

"My fondest memories of childhood always surrounded family gatherings around the dinner table. Fooding must be genetic because my mother also has an endless appetite and is always seeking the ultimate meal. I love food of all cultures and always willing to try something if I think it will be tasty."

About Fooding 411

What's in your refrigerator?" my therapist asked. "Huh?" I responded. "Food is Love," she said. "You have to fill up your refrigerator if you want your life to change."

The above is an excerpt from a Life Lessons article of the Febuary 10' issue of Real Simple pgs. 53-57. Food really is love. Reminiscing... some of the most memorable moments involve good company and a good meal. With so many of these fond memories, it was realized an outlet was needed to archive these accounts. Fooding 411 was cooked up as a way to document and share fooding encounters. Good or bad... it'll always be an honest opinion or experience. Hopefully you'll find these adventures entertaining.

Feel free to shoot Fooding 411 an email at fooding411@gmail.com if you have any questions or comments.

.