Traveling and Dining in San Diego

Sorry to have been away for a week but I was attending the American Dietetic Association's Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo (FNCE) in sunny San Diego, California!  What a beautiful city - so clean, sunny and full of things to see and places to eat.  Since I was attending a conference, I didn't get to see as much of the city as Fireman but heard about the museums, marinas, Little Italy and Coronado.  We were able to go to the San Diego Zoo before the conference started and loved every minute of it. It's very clean and the staff is friendly and willing to answer questions.  We started by taking a double decker bus around the park so we could determine in which areas we wanted to spend more time.  After the bus ride, we set off on foot and just wandered through the areas that interested us most.  Below are a few pics from the Zoo!  I had been to this Zoo many years ago with my Aunt, Great Uncle and his wife.  My Uncle was such a fun and funny guy.  I'll never forget how he heard a seal calling and said, "Listen, that seal is calling my name - Fred, Fred" and it really did sound like that.  My Aunt (AC) and I still laugh about that today.  As a matter of fact, she emailed me the day we were there and asked if I remembered.  I thought about Uncle Fred all day!!

 

 

Of course while we were in San Diego we had some amazing food!  The first day we had fish tacos at a place called Tin Fish.  It is right in the shadows of the stadium where the San Diego Padres play baseball.  I know for some of you a fish taco sounds pretty strange but they are amazing when you find somewhere that does them well.  I prefer to have the fish (shrimp or calamari) grilled instead of breaded and fried but you can get either.  Fish tacos generally have some type of avocado cream, garlic sour cream or guacamole along with shredded cabbage instead of lettuce.  These tacos also had a little cheddar cheese and some salsa.  They were good but not nearly as good as the fish tacos we had later in the week at a place called Freddy's Mexican Food in the Gaslamp district - AMAZING!  and we happened to be there on Taco Tuesday so the tacos were only $2-$3 each!  We were there with some awesome dietitian friends so I forgot to take photos - again!!  But here's a pic of the Tin Fish tacos that I had the first day!

One mahi mahi taco and one calamari taco!! YUM!

That evening we went to a nice little restaurant in the Gaslamp district in downtown San Diego.  Sammy's Wood-fired pizza has salads, sandwiches, tapas and pizza.  Somehow we neglected to get a photo of the pizza and salad that we ordered - oops!  The next morning we went to the Zoo before attending the opening session of the conference.  Dinner was at La Bocca where I had the Osso Bucco and Fireman had the gnocchi - both equally delicious.  The Osso Bucco is only offered once per week and was highly recommended by both the Hostess and the Waiter.  Boy am I glad to have listened to them.  The meat was absolutely falling off the bone - no knife necessary and the risotto was perfectly cooked.We traded half way through so we could double the experience!  Here is a photo of the Osso Bucco with risotto.

Tomorrow, I will tell you about the other things we did and show you some photos of more amazing food!  Stay tuned for part 2 of FNCE and San Diego...........!