Monterey Trip Part I: Hula's

We started off the day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Here are some pics:

Then we headed over to Hula's for lunch.

Hula's

622 Lighthouse Ave

Monterey, CA 93940 (831) 655-4852
www.hulastiki.com

I had been to Hawaii and was hoping to catch some of the island flavors here. We had:

Island Style Poke: Fresh Island Catch Marinated In Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil, Seaweed And Onions.The lunch portion was huge about 14 oz of fish cut up in one-inch cubes. I ordered this raw and it had pretty good flavor.

Abalone-Style Calamari Sandwhich: This was another huge portion of seafood that was OK. There was not enough flavor to cover the large pieces of calamari.


The Hula Burger: With Maui Onions, Hula Sauce, Lettuce And TomatoYour standard burger not too memorable.

Fresh Catch Of The Day: Mahi-Mahi with a sauce.

I would give Hula's a 10/20 = Average. I would or would not eat here again. It would depend on my company.

La Fiesta Taqueria

La Fiesta Taqueria
1105 Alhambra Boulevard
Sacramento, CA 95816
(916) 454-5616


I had the chorizo tacos and the BBQ pork tacos. The chorizo tacos were good, but the BBQ pork ones were a little tough and dry. My friend had the beef burrito and she said it was one of the best burritos that she has ever eaten. Their avocado sauce was fresh because it was a nice bright green, which you do not see everyday.They have some of the classics like linguica and cabeza tacos. I really need to go back and check those out.

Avocado sauce

Beef burrito

Chorizo and BBQ pork tacos

Chicago Ethnic Grocery Tour IV

Thai Grocery store was next. In the back, they have a place where you can buy freshly fried fish. Other things of note that I saw were Thai eggplant and Luk Chup (fruit-shape desserts made of mung-bean flour with natural coloring). As we were walking out of the store, we saw a stack of the infamous durian. There were quite a few so I wondered who buys this on a regular basis.

Thai Eggplant

Luk Chup

Middle East Bakery was the next stop. Here we got to see all sorts of interesting grains and lentils. This was the first time I saw red lentils and red rice. We sampled Za'atar which I had only seen on Iron Chef America. They were many interesting desserts like a jar or nuts filled to the brim with honey and raisin and walnut sausage. Yes, I said sausage. They string raisins and walnuts together and dip it in honey to form multiple layers. Lastly the sample of fresh savory pastries stuff with chicken, broccoli, cheese, olives or a combination of the three was great. I hear that he sells these to Whole Foods. So you can actually buy from the source.

Raisin Sausage

Red Lentils
Red Rice