A trip down Wooster street

New Haven is know for its pizza.  Pepe’s is the original but Sally’s is close. Unfortunately, the children now run Pepe’s and have expanded too fast. The pizza was just okay.  

At the same time, California abandoned stupid Thai chicken pizza and is making some high quality Italian pizza. 

Connecticut Birds

Baltimore Oriole

Willow Flycatcher

Warbling Vireo

Blue Jay

Chimney Swift

White-breasted Nuthatch

Brant

American Oystercatcher

Chipping Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

Cedar Waxwing

Purple Martin

American Goldfinch

Gray Catbird

Red-winged Blackbird

Osprey

Black-capped Chickadee

American Robin

Where it all began: Toad‘s Place in New Haven

NRBQ was playing the Friday after Thanksgiving in 1978. Mike was there with his college roommate. Chris was there with her friends and Chris went to go stand next to that cute guy.

 

Getting ready for travel

Last minute shopping with limited selections.

Met her at a bar

We went to this restaurant for the name, but the gluten free waffles were good too.

Some day, we’ll try the restaurant across the street.

Noma LA

Noma in Copenhagen is often ranked is the number one restaurant in the world.  They opened a pop-up in LA for three months. Mike really wanted to go, but Chris was hesitant because she doesn’t like large three hour tasting menus late at night.  Fortunately, they offered the same menu at lunchtime. Mike talked her into it and was able to get a coveted reservation.

It was held in a beautiful location in Silverlake.  We were almost late because our Uber driver stayed in the slow lane, took a wrong exit, and let everyone go first at every stop sign. He’d never make it in New Delhi.

They tried to interpret California in their own style instead of do the standard European menu in the US. It was very seafood focused, Which could be OK, but do you really have to serve the tuna eye?  We both loved the first dish, a Dungeness crab. Mike tried most of the dishes, except those with insects.  He even finished Chris’s lobster broth, which she was a good sport and trying at least drinking it out of the lobster tail.  

Some of the dishes that stood out, were a black rice with raw macadamia nuts, and a pistachio sauce, A cherimoya frozen dessert. Chris really loved the baby artichoke so much that after the first bite, she told Mike he she was going to eat his. He agreed.

When the server noticed that we were not eating our dessert with the candied real worms, she asked if we wanted one without worms and we agreed that would be better and brought a different one.

    

All in all, it was a fun experience, but exhausting…

Back to Del Mar

We went back to the Del Mar area, mostly to see Nick Lowe at Belly Up. It was a good show, but the crowd was a bit old. I know we are too, but it seems like some got out of the memory care facility. We did catch up on a few places we used to frequent. We almost left Beeside Balcony because the didn’t have our favorite salmon skewers on a flatbread, but they really just changed the name to a gyro. The seasoning wasn’t as good, nor the baklava ice cream cake. Newtopia Cyder was a major disappointment. Our favorites tasted different or were no longer made and the new ones didn’t thrill us. We did go to to URBN Pizza, which has coal fired ovens like New Haven. They even have gluten free. Chris found a different cider that she liked also made in San Diego and we will have to visit them next time.
Jojos creamery still has really good ice cream. Oh, the beach was nice too.