December 30, 2011 Dinner – Old Venice, San Diego, Lunch –El Prado, San Diego

December 30, 2011 Dinner – Old Venice, San Diego, Lunch –El Prado, San Diego

We arrived in San Diego at around 11:00, picked up our rental car and by noon arrived at the art museums at Balboa Park.  One of the purposes of our trip was to visit museums that have exhibits affiliated with the Pacific Standard Time exhibits that is organized by the Getty Museum and focuses on California arts and crafts created between 1945 and 1980.  We went to the Mingei International Museum in the Panama-California Exposition center in Balboa Park and saw a terrific exhibit of crafts made by the Allied Artists, a group of crafts artists in San Diego started in 1946.  Jewelry, ceramics, fabric arts, and furniture were shown in abundance.

We then went across the street to one of our favorite restaurants, El Prado, located in the historic complex.  The food is not a good as it has been in the past but the setting is fabulous.  We were given a table at the edge of the patio overlooking the gardens that are being developed into an enlarged Japanese Garden.  Suzette had a flavorless Tortilla Soup and I ate a well constructed and lovely Chicken Cobb Salad with local beers.

We then went to the Modern Art Museum downtown and saw a large Larry Bell vapor glass construction piece, several James Turrell pieces, three Robert Irwin pieces and a very interesting Jennifer Steinkamp piece which was series of video monitors projecting images of flowers and trees onto the walls of an 8,000 sq. foot room with sound that made it sound like the wind was rustling the flowers and tree limbs.  The most interesting thing was the lights moved along each wall and also were baffled in such a way that as the images moved they did not shine on the doorways so there was the illusion that the walls were covered with the moving images but not the doors and windows.

At around 4:30 pm then went to our hotel, Island Palms, at Shelter Island and sat in the hot tub for a few minutes watching the boats in the marina and then rested.  At 6:30 pm we met Debbie, Jeff and Jeff’s son, Cameron, and drove the few blocks to the base of Point Lomas just north of the marina area to Old Venice for dinner.  We have eaten at Little Italy several times over the last 10 years enjoyed it.  Old Venice was originally discovered by Suzette and Harold when they had their boat slipped at the Marina about 20 years ago. 

Suzette and I decided to share a dinner entrée and order a side order of sautéed Brussels Sprouts, which turned out to contain both Brussels Sprouts and golden beets blanched and then sautéed in butter.  We ordered Regina as our entrèe because it was the only seafood and fish mixture that did not seem to be spicey.  The dinners are served with a salad or soup and we chose a ceasar salad.  The restaurant graciously divided our dish into two bowls without our having to ask.  The dish combined scallops, mussels in the shell, large shrimp, clams in the shell and a small fish filet in a sherry and fresh tomato and onion sauce served on a bed of black ink linguine.  I loved the light fresh flavor of the seafood mixed with the fresh tomato and sherry sauce ($26.00).  This is as close to a perfect dish at a restaurant and like we cook at home as any restaurant I have eaten at in a very long time.

We ordered a bottle of Maso Canali Pinot Grigio 2009 (Trentino?) because it seemed to be the best value, not too cheap and not too expensive.  It was the highest priced selection in the Italian White section of the rather extensive wine menu ($38.00).  It was delicious, with a crisp, mineral flavor and a long fruity finish.  No one wanted a glass so Suzette and I loved drinking the whole bottle.  It actually went better with the light tomato and sherry broth of the Regina than I would have expected because it had character and complexity that complemented the light fresh fish and tomato flavors.

We went back to the Island Palms and sat in the restaurant for a while and had a night cap.  Cameron and I ate a molten chocolate cake garnished with Chocolate sauce and I had a coffee.  Suzette and I split a Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc that was nutty and sweet, with no hint of botrytis.

I did not blog for the days of December 25 through 29^th because we were eating leftovers from Christmas Eve without creating any new dishes.