Cold-Pressed Juice

Mmmmm, fresh squeezed juice. Sure tastes wonderful on a sunny Santa Barbara day. Sure, you could buy your own juicer and the 3-4 lbs of local organic fruits and veggies needed for just one bottle, but why when you can pop over to the Juice Ranch and get yourself a fresh, cool bottle? It costs $10, which at first seems pricey, but just think about it from the cost of the produce to the machine to the time. With a $2 deposit for the bottles, your next juices only cost $8! And in my opinion, it's worth it. Instead of 2 Starbucks coffee drinks in a week, have a juice instead. Fennel in the Machine is my favorite...

Juice Ranch
33 Parker Way, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Phone:(805) 845-4657

The Shop, Soooo Santa Barbara

The Shop Cafe is bound to become a favorite spot for hanging out and enjoying great home cooking, especially by us Santa Barbara folk! The relaxed, welcoming feel is so inviting and once your eyes hit the menu options, your taste buds will make sure you keep coming back to try everything! Started by four locals, this is a great example of wonderful, creative people coming together to make a business happen.

You can see right into the kitchen to watch the magic happen. There is indoor space to dine in or a spacious patio with the American Riviera as your backdrop.

Special of the day - Quinoa salad with kale, tangerine, squash, and other goodies! Check out all those pistachios on top!

The General Sanders fried chicken sandwich (my favorite right now). The brioche bun is homemade, as is everything on that beautiful thing - the coleslaw, the pickled onions, the pesto-y sauce. The chicken was perfectly moist and not too oily.

The breakfast items are also so enticing! I enjoyed the Rolex, like a breakfast wrap with egg, bacon, avocado and a tomato relish spread inside, which is made on a type of Ugandian flatbread (called a Rolex) the co-owner's discovered while in Africa for their nonprofit The Boso Foundation. Amazing fusion going on here! I love this about The Shop - each menu item has its own story to go along with it, whether it's actual ingredients or culinary notes or just a story to how it got its name.

During the Santa Barbara Bowl season, they will open their doors into the evening to blast tunes of the featured band and so us concert goers have an amazing place to grab a bite to eat and a beer before a show. Personally, I can't wait!!

730 North Milpas

Mon - Sat: 7:00 am - 4:00 pm
Sun: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm


Check them out and LIKE them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheShopCafe?fref=ts

Roast Chicken

Before

After

YUM. 

Homemade Potstickers

Pork with grated carrot, chopped cabbage, minced garlic and ginger, thinly sliced scallions, a dash of soy sauce, an egg, and a bit of salt and pepper.

Simply used the wonton wrappers now sold at most grocery stores.

Used a dumpling presser which I used for the first time in cooking for this. Otherwise I had never used it for its intended purpose as it was my Playdoh toy growing up!

Place them in a little hot oil in a pan. When golden, throw on some water and the lid, cook for a bit, and uncover till super crisp!

Cooking Up Crème Brûlée

For Christmas I received a mini blow torch for kitchen use, so last week I decided to make crème brûlée. I tend to shy away from baking and desserts as it is so mathematical and I tend to just change up recipes to my liking. This is something you cannot do with baking! I did combine recipes though, as I didn't find one I really liked.

3 cups of heavy cream with one vanilla bean split in two, seeds scraped out and added in too. Brought it to a boil and took it off the heat to steep.

Whisk the 6 egg yolks with a half cup of sugar till it forms 'ribbons'. It gets super thick and white, as seen below.

You then temper the sugar/yolk mixture with some of the warm cream and continue combining the two, which you then strain to get out any coagulated egg.

Then you fill your dishes - which can be any shape really...this effects cooking time so you might want to look into what recipes that use your size container say.

In a water bath, the pans go into a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes.

Let them cool on the counter and then into the fridge for a little while to let it all set even more.

The sad part is that I completely forgot to take a picture of the sugar torching bit and the finished product!! Guess I'll just have to do this all again!!

Anchor Woodfire Kitchen

One of Santa Barbara's newest restaurants, Anchor Woodfire Kitchen is an exciting addition! The atmosphere is quite lively and vibrant. There's a constant movement and buzz, especially as things are quite busy with curious locals and tourists. Located in the new Hotel Indigo, near the train station, you'll see some visitors, but locals are filling the majority of tables. I sat at the bar with my friend and we ordered a couple cocktails. I enjoyed Jason's Negroni (served on the rocks, though they normally do it up) - St.George Botanivore gin, Carpano antica, Campari orange.

Clean, crisp decorations fill the space. The wood fire oven is in plain sight and all the guys and gals in the kitchen do their wonderful dance, churning out dish after dish.

This lovely side of wood oven roasted Maitake mushrooms in olive oil, sea salt, and thyme was beautiful in its simplicity. Super mushroom flavor.

The seared scallop over sea urchin risotto looked beautiful nestled in its own deep bowl. The dish was overly salty (and I adore salt) and the risotto too al dente (and I like my risotto al dente), but the base flavors were there. The scallops were cooked to perfection and full of their characteristic sweet, rich flavor.

My favorite dish was the Duck Egg Raviolo with mascarpone, truffles, duck brodo. The pasta is house made and when you cut into the raviolo, the duck egg yolk comes running out mixing with the brodo and parmesan cheese. What a bite this creates!

We also enjoyed a margherita pizza with prosciutto on top. They make their own charcuterie so we just had to add it on the pizza. The prosciutto had a less salty and more mild flavor compared to the Parma kind, and a bit more smokiness. I can't wait to try all the other meat creations they had on their menu. The pizza was good, but I would go there for the pasta and other meat dishes instead.

Make sure to get a reservation or take a chance for a spot at the bar. It's quite the hot spot to go right now so a little planning helps ensure a wonderful night. I am looking forward to biting into the other main meat dishes and exploring the cocktail menu a bit further...not to mention breakfast and lunch!!

119 State Street (Hotel Indigo)
805-845-0989
Mon - Sun: 7:00 am - 12:00 am

New Pizzeria in Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara favorite Ca Dario's has at last opened its pizzeria a few doors down and it's delicious. It opened mid December and I had heard multiple opinions about it (not all good...). I ventured in to find out what it was like for myself. I found a small space with few tables and a bar backed with loads of bottles of wine. The small kitchen with the intensely hot pizza oven is squished in the corner. A simple, straightforward menu was presented to us and I found it hard to choose what to order. On top of it, the prices were quite reasonable!

 Each dish was made from extremely fresh ingredients. The tomato sauce is super tomato-y and all ingredients, for that matter, taste strongly as they should. The simplicity is quite welcome and ever so the Italian way - fantastic ingredients paired perfectly. The Prosciutto Cotto pizza seen above with mushrooms, mozzarella, and fresh oregano was delicious. The dough is full of flavor and very thin.

The mozzarella, roasted eggplant, and tomato sauce appetizer is wonderful in its simplicity. Once again simply high quality ingredients treated with the respect they deserve.

And the pizza I will now be craving - the Napoletana - made with white anchovies. AMAZING. It is extremely simple, yes, but done perfectly to my palate's desires. Fresh, flavorful dough and tomato sauce. Bright capers and marinated white anchovies all in one bite equal a very satisfying pizza indeed.

Go for it! Try it out! It's a different pizza experience than the other delicious Italian pizza spot in SB so give it a chance and enjoy! Buon appetito!


Address: 37 East Victoria Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Phone:(805) 884-9419
Hours: Thursday hours 11:30 am–2:30 pm, 5:00 pm–10:00 pm