April 11, 2017 An Inexplicable day of food and friendship. Lunch and Dinner at Kabbalah Restaurant

April 11, 2017  An Inexplicable day of food and friendship.  Lunch and Dinner at Kabbalah Restaurant

We slept in until 9:30.  Then we got dressed and ate breakfast at La Lanterna again.  Suzette was not feeling well and ordered yogurt, fruit and granola, but only ate ½ of it.  I ate pancakes, fruit and orange juice again.  We then took a taxi to Santander Bank to report the failure of their money machine to deliver pesos to Suzette and the curious apparent success I had with the same machine.  The bank employee could not help and did not even have internet at had bank to view the transaction.  Dismayed and unsatisfied we left the bank.  As we stood, waiting for a taxi, a lady came up to us and offered us a ride.  She had lived in Dallas and a Fort Worth for twelve years.  We asked her for a ride to the beach and she graciously took us to the parking lot for Carrizallado beach.  We thanked her and offered her money but she refused payment.  We were touched by such a display of caring friendship without any motive, especially after the uncaring treatment at the bank.

We walked down the 165 steps to the small cove where the beach was located.  It was already crowded with people by 11:30 when we arrived.  When confronted with a request to pay 300 pesos for two beach loungers, we decided to sit in two Adirondack chairs located between the beach front row of loungers and tables and the main restaurant seating area and order a beer.  We each ordered Victoria beers, because we had not tasted one yet.  They were very hoppy and tasted like an IPA.  We watched the folks learning to surf in the small bay, which had pretty fair roll and lacked the killer beach swell and undertow at Zicatela.  After we finished our beer we decided that it was getting too crowded, so we decided to return to our part of Zicatela beach.

We walked back up the 165 steps and to the road where we soon found a taxi that took us back to Zicatela Beach.  Suzette was getting hungry and we decided to find some fish tacos.  We wandered down the beach until we were intrigued by handsome layout and appointment at A beach front restaurant named Kabbalah, so we decided to try their fish tacos for 85 pesos.  We ordered Negra Modelas and the fish taco.  The fish tacos were beautifully prepared and presented.  There were three of them one each on a green tortilla, a red tortilla and a white tortilla like colors of the Mexican flag.  The lightly battered and fried fish was garnished with lightly pickled red cabbage and carrots and drizzled with a lovely green avocado crema that was not picante.  We asked for and were given a small shot glass of regular crema.  We were in heaven. These were among the best fish tacos I have ever eaten.

We started looking at the menu and talking to our waiter.  We noticed a tuna salad and asked if the restaurant had tuna.  The waiter went to the kitchen window and asked if there was fresh tuna and reported that the restaurant had fresh tuna and also reported that there was also fresh marlin.  At that moment we told the waiter, ‘”We will return for dinner.”

After the late lunch we returned to Hotelito Suizo Oasis and swam in its pool and rested on its lounge chairs until 3:30 when Suzette got ready for her massage and I took an afternoon nap.

We woke up and got going again around 6:30.

We started by reserving an excursion to the lagoon near town to swim in the phosphorescence after dark tomorrow evening.

Then we walked to the end of the beach to see if a restaurant Cynthia and Ricardo discovered 8 years ago was still there but it was not.

So we walked back to the Kabbalah restaurant for dinner and here it becomes unexplainable.  Suzette ordered the tuna salad and I ordered marlin a la plancha.  Suzette showed the waitress the tuna salad on both the English and a Spanish menu and the waitress appeared to write it down.  We asked about the marlin and asked our waitress to get someone who spoke English.  Soon a young man came to the table and he and the waitress explained that the fish of the day was not marlin, but was Dorado.  So I ordered the dorado a la plancha.

Soon our waitress brought us two plates of dorado a la plancha.  When Suzette explained that she had ordered the tuna salad, the waitress took back the second dorado a la plancha.  Soon she returned with a plate with some lettuce on which was the same piece of grilled dorado and none of the pickled radish slices that the menu described .  At this point Suzette finally got mad and after a few minutes when we had verified to our satisfaction  that this was the same or yet  another piece of grilled dorado a la plancha and not the tuna that she had ordered Suzette told the waitress, No pagamos por esto.

This I guess this is what could be called a Mexican stand off.  Apparently the waitress did not know what to do, so she finally fetched the food and beverage director after bringing a basket of the best tasting warm dinner rolls I have had on our trip.

Augustin, the food and beverage director introduced himself and could not have been nicer.  We explained how we had checked at lunch on the fresh fish and how we told the waitress exactly what we wanted.  Augustin explained that he was from San Diego and had attended SDSC and had an advanced degree in counseling.  We asked him why the waitress served us the wrong fish and apparently the kitchen had lied about the availability of fresh tuna.  Augustin said that he wanted to make up for the mistake and was there anything he could offer us.  Suzette asked, “Do you have fresh tuna?”

Augustin said, “Yes, the tuna is fresh.”  I asked, “Is the tuna Carpaccio nice?  Augustin, answered, “It is a good dish.”  Suzette we will take a Tuna Carpaccio and another glass of white wine.”  I asked, Do you have butter?

Augustin answered, “yes.”

I asked him to please bring more warm rolls and butter with the Carpaccio.

This is where it gets unexplainable.  Soon Augustin and the waitress returned with a beautiful plate of thinly sliced fresh tuna dotted with toasted chopped almonds and large capers and dressed with a wonderful honey mustard dressing and a basket of four warm dinner rolls and a bowl filled with a  whipped garlic and parsley compound butter.  Clearly the best and most creative dish I have eaten in Escondido, an 11 on the scale of 10.

After a few bites my question to Augustin, “How is this possible?”

He really did not have an answer, other to say that he hoped by comping us the Carpaccio we were satisfied with the restaurant.

I told him we loved the Carpaccio but could not understand how a restaurant that could create and execute such a wonderful dish as the Carpaccio and the fish tacos at lunch could do what it had done with the dinner we tried to order.

The question I keep asking myself and can not satisfactorily answer is “Why when you can produce some of the best, most creative food in Escondido would you serve twice an unwanted dish when you had the ingredients and creativity in the kitchen to serve the superbly creative food that is ordered?

I feel sorry for Augustin.  He has the kitchen staff and a  beautiful restaurant capable of serving creative wonderful food all the time but it is not happening.

Kabbalah remains in my mind a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sort of restaurant experience.  What food will show up?

If Augustin or the owners can straighten out the food service, Kabbalah should rank among the best restaurants in Escondido, rather than just another one of the beach front rip off joints that throw whatever they want at their customers without care or explanation.

Bon Appetit