12 Birthdays a Year

By GREG MAFFETT
Published: February 28, 2010

Most people are limited to one birthday a year. Most people don't live in San Diego. Most people aren't 6'1". In short (and you know who I'm talking to) for most people, life just isn't all the advertisers seem to promise.

Then there is my life. It is all that. I just spent the last week in the paradise known as Norfolk, VA. The windchill was -70 on Friday morning. Was I unhappy? Well, yes, but not about the windchill. I was upset about the water main break that caused the closure of what is my favorite tapas place on earth. It is the Empire Little Bar and Bistro on Granby Street. They are flawless in the kitchen. On my first trip there they had the best duck dish ever. It was paired with some sweet chile's and well, it was all that. I came back this time only to find...

The duck was off the menu, but they had quail with chestnut stuffing. It was better than the duck. And they also had a raw bison dish with caper aoli that just took command of my mouth and never let go. I ate there every night I was in town and planned to reprise the two best dishes on Thursday night. Then the water main broke.

I stumbled around in the subzero windchill like a victim of a terrorist attack. I passed the place three times. My back-up place was also closed. I finally gave up and stumbled into another tapas place. At my usual place they have very good beer and very odd looking, but well informed service people. At this new place I was met with a cadre of perky blondes offering marginal beer. It was like I had been dropped from Jeopardy and was shunted onto Wheel of Fortune. It was a good wake up call though, to imagine what the world would be like if everyone wanted the Pat and Vana life.

I didn't. So it was really good to get back home to San Diego. Sunday was the 28th, but since there is no 30th in February, the local end of month promotion, 30th on 30th, is today. And this is how I get 12 birthdays a year. Technically, I only get the one that comes in spring. But this 30th on 30th is quite the good time. About 15 or 20 businesses create an item on their menu is roughly $2. $2 elsewhere gets you, well, mostly fast food. But rarely quality. Hence the birthday aspect.

First up was my usual haunt, Ritual. Here I found an Imperial IPA on cask for happy hour. That alone was brilliant. Then they had two Niman Ranch Tacos for $5. Everything was perfect. The tacos were intensely flavored and perfectly balanced. The net for that package was under $9. Practically a gift.

Next was the Linkery. This is my daughter's favorite place. I'm less crazy about it on a couple levels. But the quality of the food is not one of the levels where I question them. They had a $2 Ale and a $2 mini link with bacon and mustard. Granted the protein was gone in three bites and the beer was a half pour. But it was flavorful and true to the $2 premise. So I give them the value rating. And the lack of volume meant that I pretty much burned off whatever I ate by the time I made the walk to the Sea Rocket Bistro.

Sea Rocket had another Niman ranch meat, here it was a pork Sloppy Joe and a Lightning Pilsner for I think $8 dollars. Sea Rocket always wins on portion size and that was the case again. I could have got by on the Sloppy Joe and Beer on a normal night, but I'd put in 6 hours of workouts today, so I was running low on fuel. I saw an old friend at a nearby table. The table was splitting a bread pudding so I had one also. It was well done. Seems everyone has a different idea on just what bread pudding should be, but this one was a good call. I'd say it was better than the one I had at the Bistro In Norfolk the week before.

In the end, the overall winner was Ritual. I know, I'm biased as that is my usual place, but this was a new item with the Taco and it was the best of class. Linkery got the nod for intensity/price ratio. And Sea Rocket won on quantity/price. There are a dozen other businesses in the game. And while I don't think any of them will knock out my number one tapas place on earth, none of them are that far behind. And being only blocks from my house, well, its easy to have 12 birthdays a year for me.

And should you ever find yourself in the southwest corner of the US at the end of a month, stop by. You'll see what I'm talking about. And if you ask, I'll help you blow out the candles.

Banana Leaf is a Malaysian Delight on Broadway, Vancouver

By BAY OLIVER
Published: March 26, 2009

Banana Leaf serves up amazing Malaysian Cuisine at three locations in Vancouver. Stop in for a delicious lunch or a whopping great dinner.

1956: A New Start in Papua New Guinea

By GREGG CALLOW
Published: March 14, 2009

Try moving from freezing Hobart up to Port Moresby in the 1950s as a new mother. Well Carlina did and her stories show another side of Papua New Guinea that we don't see today.