Coconut - with coconut water

What's a cool refreshing drink? Coconut water....fresh from the coconut...not from the can/juice box. I must say it was a tad weird to me at first because it's nothing like the coconut water from the can/box. It has its own slight flavor.

Coconut Water

These came individually wrapped at the Asian store. Pssst...if you buy these at the Asian stores, they're a tad cheaper than a health food store. (I started to unwrap it before I took the above picture.)

Coconut Water

The previous coconuts I've had had all the white stuff all over it...so it was much bigger than the picture above. This one seems to be all shaved except for the top.

Coconut Water

So all you do is cut off the pointy top and poke a hole in the "softer" area. I must say, I usually poke it a few times until I find the soft spot. I'm not good at telling where it is. I like to use the bigger end of a metal chopstick since it's similar to the size of the straw. Then I wriggle it around to make the hole bigger.  Insert a straw afterwards and enjoy. I think refrigerated ones tastes a bit better. =)

CrepeMaker - Santa Ana, CA : Tomato, Cheese & Basil Crepe

A simple and delicious...snack? Meal? Not big enough to be a whole meal, but bigger than a snack. If you eat four meals a day, this would be a good small meal. =)

Tomato, Cheese & Basil Crepe

This crepe mostly has tomatoes and cheese with a little bit of basil. You can see the crepes  being made since the stand is behind counters with glass partitions at the Main Place Mall. For a quickie bite...it was pretty good! And you can almost never go wrong with a tomato, basil, & mozzarella combination.

CrepeMaker
http://www.crepemaker.com/
Main Place
(located at food court entrance 2nd level)
2800 N. Main Street, Suite 9100
Santa Ana, CA 92705
714-541-2600

Pizzeria Ortica - Costa Mesa, CA

On the lookout for good Neapolitan pizza, we headed to Pizzeria Ortica before a show at Segerstrom. There's a lot of good places to eat around South Coast Plaza and this is no exception.

High Ceilings

The interior has super high ceilings...me likes. You know, better air circulation and all.

Tricolore

Starting off with the Tricolore salad. There's radicchio, arugula, a little bit of endive, apple slices, Gorgonzola cheese, and candied walnuts. Very good combo! Yum!

Margherita Pizza

My go to pizza is plain cheese. I don't like stuff on my pizza. For me, a true test of good pizza is their plain cheese. Tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. The dough was chewy and crunchy. It was very flavorful. Actually I think these pizzas were made to have toppings because it was really salty for me. So I think if you had toppings, it would probably disperse the salt better.

Margherita Slice

Leftover slice pizza...still good. (Also better lighting.)

Prosciutto di Parma e rucola

So this is not vegetarian, but what the Meat-eater had. Apparently the Prosciutto di Parma e rucola was very good. Also with what I believe about toppings, such as the arugula, the flavor is then just right, which is probably what his pizza did.

In any case, good crust! Maybe try a pizza that's not plain cheese. Too bad since that's my favorite.

Pizzeria Ortica

http://www.pizzeriaortica.com/

650 Anton Boulevard, Unit J

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

714-445-4900

Huntington Beach Beer Company - Huntington Beach, CA : Veggie Burger

If you ever go to Huntington Beach, there's a lot of shops along Main Street. When we had visitors from England and Australia, we took them to Huntington Beach, walked along Main Street and decided to eat here...the Huntington Beach Beer Company. Sounds local enough, right?

Veggie Burger

It's pretty much like any American food place...similar to a BJs. Beer, fries, burgers...you get the idea. (Okay, they have lots of other items too...like BJs.) I just had a regular veggie burger and the patty looks like a Gardenburger to me. So nothing special for us veggie eaters here. They do have wheat buns though...I just forgot to ask for it. So this place...like many American type food places, are more for the meat eaters. I don't think the visitors thought it was awesome food...just American food. That's what they're here for, right?! =)

Huntington Beach Beer Company
http://www.hbbeerco.com/
201 Main Street, Ste E
Huntington Beach,  CA 92648
(714) 960-3535

Britta's Cafe - Irvine, CA : Dessert

Forgot to add the dessert in the last post. I like to keep them separate anyway for labeling purposes.

Sweet Dessert

So I don't remember what this is called since the menu is ever changing. I believe this was like an apple pie bake with crumbles and ice-cream on top. It was not bad, very sweet and yummy. Also very rich of course. So we indulge once in a while, it's okay. Just don't have it all the time. =)

Britta's Cafe
http://www.brittascafe.com
4237 Campus Drive
Irvine, CA 92612
949-509-1211

Britta's Cafe - Irvine, CA

Britta's Cafe is located in University Town Center. Their food is always changing as they adapt to what's available during the year. So you get the freshest possible ingredients.

Interior of Britta's Cafe

It's a quaint little cafe that was very quiet. Maybe because it's kind of pricey so there are no screaming children inside. Me likes! =)

Complimentary Bread

Cheese, Fruit, & Nut plate

This was our favorite plate. The pairing of the nuts, fruits, and cheeses were sooo goood. We had to ask what type of cheeses they were and apparently the ones we liked were some type of goat cheese. The one that we didn't like happened to be from cow's milk. Interesting! Goat cheese good! Thumbs up!

I forgot what this was called, but it wasn't that special to me. I don't love bread, so this didn't wow me. There were not many vegetarian choices, just one. I remember it was a type of ratatouille that I didn't want to have. They had this bread that wasn't listed on the menu so I gave it a try. Eh...it's okay.

If you get the right dishes, it's awesome. I don't think I chose well, and maybe it's not that vegetarian friendly. But I DID love the cheese, fruit, and nuts. I would go back just to have that again. I do enjoy a good cheese. No wine for me though. =)

Britta's Cafe
http://www.brittascafe.com
4237 Campus Drive
Irvine, CA 92612
949-509-1211

Homemade Goat Cheese Veggie Lavash Bread "Pizza"

This is no ordinary pizza with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. It's kind of like a pizza and it's kind of like really dressed up bread. This pizza bread is someone else's creation after eating at a restaurant and I loved what they made! So I of course had to figure out how to make it (I asked them) so that I could make it at home too.

Veggie Lavash Bread Pizza

For the bread, you can purchase any kind of flat bread you like. This was made with wheat lavash bread from Trader Joe's. It's really soft like a flour tortilla, so you first bake it (or toast it) a little to dry it out and harden it. Then you can pile on the toppings. Well, not exactly pile since the bread is thin and too much stuff will make it soggy and fall apart. (Yep, I've piled on too much before.)

Toppings are thin layers of:

Sauteed sliced onions

Sauteed sliced mushrooms

Shredded carrots

Shredded zucchini

Chopped basil

Chopped tomatoes

Goat cheese crumble

Balsamic vinegar

Olive oil

Salt to flavor

Veggie Lavash Bread Pizza

You will want to pre-cook your onions and mushrooms and let them cool. You can refrigerate these and use for another pizza at a later time (but not too long). Layer very sparsely the onions and mushrooms as the bottom-most layer. Then the shredded carrots and zucchini. You can also substitute zucchini with something else green like cucumbers. This third layers is where I kind of forgot what goes first. But I don't think it's a big deal as the flavors are similar. The tomatoes and basil go next, but I put the basil underneath the tomatoes so that it doesn't burn and dry out. Not sure if goat cheese goes next or the balsamic vinegar and olive oil drizzle...but I put goat cheese first and then drizzle last so as not to give it too much time to become moist. (Yep, I've drizzled too much before such that certain portions are sour while other areas are not so flavorful.) Then I put a little salt on top for flavor because I don't put too much salt in my mushrooms and onions. If you want, you can flavor those more heavily and lighter on top.. I don't have exact measurements because well, I didn't measure anything. It's just sort of how much/little flavor you like. Then you bake in your preheated oven for a few minutes and take it out. Hopefully the bottom is crisp and the cheese just lightly melted. I set the oven to about 400 degrees. Bake for just a few minutes and then take it right out. I like the crispy bread and the slightly raw slightly warm veggies. The goat cheese and balsamic vinegar go well together. I didn't really like goat cheese until this and now I've grown accustomed to the taste. It's quite good. =)