Tuesday, October 4, 2011

New Look

Hello! I've been playing around with the new template options Blogspot has created. Thoughts? I'd love to hear what you think...

And just for some eye-candy, here is a pic from this glorious weekend in Santa Barbara:

Sunday, October 2, 2011

New Breakfast Spot in Santa Barbara

On this beautiful Sunday morning, Jeff and I decided to experience one of Santa Barbara's new restaurants, Scarlett Begonia. They are located in Victoria Court and have many tables inside their space, as well as courtyard space, and a few tables up on a terrace, seen below. The menu has an Italian flare and interesting baked goods like roasted beet chocolate cake. The cappuccino seen above did not disappoint. They also offer complimentary still or sparkling water.
Below is a bread pudding amuse bouche brought to us for our enjoyment. I'm not much of a bread pudding person, but this was quite light and flavorful without being overly sweet...plus it's a nice touch!
 Look! You can see the Granada from the table!
The sticky bun below was delectable. Once again, not too sweet with perfect amounts of spices, nuts, and stickiness.
Look! A view of the Arlington from a different seat at our table.
And now, the main dish. Mascarpone polenta with two poached eggs, fried artichokes, cipollini onions, and prosciutto. Mmmmmm. The quality of the ingredients is impressive. Check out that prosciutto! Those little round onions were beautifully acidic, especially great contrast for the rich yolks and salty meat. Only one complaint, I think it needs 1/4 less the amount of polenta. This combo is wonderful.
With the bill, little chocolate toffee bits...another unique touch.
Overall, this was a great breakfast and though the service was real slow (probably because we were upstairs out of sight), we didn't mind since the ambiance was so lovely. I can't wait to check it out for lunch!