Food

I had the greatest pleasure of eating and photo-shooting the newest Lazy Dog Cafe dishes for Spring 2018, which has 25 locations throughout the USA. These courses are available to order starting March 28, 2018.

More than sampling or most likely gorging on the featured foods, Co-Founder Gabriel Caliendo spent valuable time chatting and describing to us guests how these foods came into fruition and eventually be set for this season.

The items I’ve consumed (hugely or minutely) included:

The instantly addicting Onion Dip

The exciting Street Corn Wheels

The mellow Burrata + Heirloom Tomato Crisp flatbread

The invigorating Burrata + Roasted Beet Salad

The unexpectedly wholesome and delicious BBQ Veggie Burger, in which the patty is meshed with black beans and ancient grains

The deconstructed yet filling Veggie Burger Bowl (the chopped patty containing the same ingredients as the previous)

The delightful Grilled Lemon Chicken, hiding underneath this scrumptious cauliflower mash and tahini sauce on the side along with the sauteed green beans topped with unassuming almond-walnut crumble

The sinful Peach Raspberry Hand Pie, which was consumed the quickest out of all of the presented dishes

And the gluten-sensitive yet proudly tasty Lemon Cake, with almond flour as one of the main ingredients and surrounded by a velvety huckleberry moat

I could not forget mentioning some of the cocktails introduced to the menu, such as this virgin Watermelon Margarita. If I didn’t head straight to my day job right after, the virginity would have disappeared. The adult version has a punch of Azul Reposada Tequila.

But I took a small, curious sip of the Honey Thyme Old Fashioned, with this quality-oriented and smooth Buffalo Trace Bourbon which I became quite infatuated — since bourbon or its “father” whiskey normally does not fall under Fia’s favorite alcoholic drinks.

Yet when I sipped into something like a certain favorite cocktail of Fia’s, such as the Huckleberry Mule, the more temptation pinched me harder. Don’t worry, folks: I kicked it away.

Though temptation followed me back with this Pineapple Mojito, and yet again I kicked it further into the kitchen.

Frankly these foods and drinks satisfied my taste buds that I’m anticipating a revisit and happily introducing my good friends to these colorfully enticing items. Of course their fluffy fur children are welcome to join us.

*Huge thank you to C-Squared PR for this amazing #mediatasting at Lazy Dog Cafe

Lazy Dog Cafe

Various locations

Media tasting at the Brea location: 240 S State College Blvd, Brea, CA 92821

For a solid decade Orange County Restaurant Week unleashed on Sunday, March 4. Over 100 restaurants dared to showcase their pre-fixe course menu items as their way to commemorate this 7-day eating spectacle.

The day before Sunday brought in OC Restaurant Week’s Launch Party inside the Marriott Irvine Spectrum. My boyfriend and I appreciatively attended the VIP 1st hour, which we savored minute by minute for just that 1 hour right before leaving for a family member’s baby shower.

That seemingly short visitation resulted in feeling physiologically full and gluttonously satisfied from the myriad bites and samples from 20 (of about 25) different vendors, including these personal favorites of mine:

The Veggie Puff Pastry from Skyloft in Laguna Beach

The Esquite from Puesto in Irvine

The fantastic Artichoke Beignets, Seared Salmon Filet, and Salted Caramel Pudding from Del Frisco’s Grille (also) in Irvine

The Jalapeno Mac & Cheese from JT Schmidt’s in Tustin

The consistently delicious Buffalo Cauliflower from Tackle Box in Corona Del Mar

And the scrumptious Fresh Atlantic Salmon Filet from Sundried Tomato (that, like last year’s event, have seemed to consistently wowed my palate) in southern San Juan Capistrano

Other vendors not necessarily presenting their food items strictly for OCRW but contently participating for the event included Blackmarket Bakery, Melissa’s Produce (which by the way has supplied their fresh produce to several restaurants representing OCRW), and San Pellegrino.

These morsels certainly left such a lasting fullness in my tummy that I felt guilty of barely consuming the foods served at that family member’s baby shower. Most of those samples indeed brought out the flavors needed to wow guests when ordering from the OCRW menu in these participating eateries.

In spite of munching indulgently from various vendors within one hour I am eager to dine particularly at this Costa Mesa restaurant before catching the new Cirque Du Soleil show. Thank you, OC Restaurant Week, for the incredibly fun and super eventful VIP launch party to celebrate your 10 years! And special thank you to my boyfriend, Simon, for assisting me to photograph some of the items posted in this entry.