Jaded's Kitchen: Weekend in Carmel

Since we spent last weekend in SF for Jaden's booksigning, Justyn wanted to celebrate our anniversary over again because SF didn't really count. So, on Saturday he took me to Carmel. Before we got there, we stopped in Capitola for brunch at Gayle's Bakery (same place I went with Angel a while back). Justyn ordered a frittata and apple/chicken sausage but I forgot to take a picture of our food until I was half way done with my burrito. Justyn had devoured his food before I could snap pics. No big deal though.. the food wasn't that interesting to look at but it was mighty tasty.

We also stopped by Monterey's Cannery Row for a while to go look at the fishies at the aquarium. On a side note, the fish pictured here is a Ling cod which is supposedly a delicacy since it's hard to find and catch. The whole time we were at the aquarium, I kept telling Justyn that the sea creatures looked delicious.

There were tons of people at the aquarium and I needed some personal space so we left and went to the Scheid Vineyards tasting room. Man, what a disappointment. All but one of their wines tasted gross. They were mostly too tart and undrinkable. Normally Justyn and I will buy a bottle to waive the tasting fee but we couldn't bring ourselves to buy their nasty wine. It seemed like the employees that worked there knew it was gross too. They were not at all suprised that we didn't make a purchase.

After that we went back to the aquarium.

It was finally time to head to Carmel to check into our hotel. We stayed at the Cypress Inn which I remember telling Justyn that I wanted to stay there the last time we were in Carmel. He remembered :) The Cypress Inn is known for encouraging people to bring their dogs with them for their stay. Just about everyone I saw had a dog. I wish I had one!

Anyway, we had dinner reservations at Le Bicyclette at 8PM but I was starving by the time we arrived in Carmel so Justyn and I walked around a bit before seeing if we could eat dinner earlier. Justyn told them about his 8PM reservation and they couldn't find it in their book so the seated us early anyway. Perfect!

We had a 3 course meal that included a seasonal salad with persimmons and toasted almonds (soooo goood), freshly baked bread, lentil soup (suprisingly good since I don't like lentils), porkchops with apples & red cabbage, osso bucco with pinenut, lemon zest gremolata and some roasted veggies. Do you see that marrow looking at you seductively asking to be eaten? I did.. I smeared that marrow on some bread and enjoyed my way to heaven.

We ate so much for dinner that we basically went back to our room and passed out. The next morning the guilt started to set in with what we had the night before so we went for a morning jog at the beach. After the jog we had breakfast back at Cypress Inn which wasn't very good. I had a bagel and Justyn had a croissant, a pastry & some Grape Nuts. Ew.. I didn't even bother taking pictures of it. After breakfast we showered and packed up our stuff to go back home.

On the way, we stopped in Aptos at a BBQ restaurant to fill our tummys the right way. I had a BBQ rib sammich on garlic bread with potato salad & Justyn had the rib dinner with toast, baked beans & cole slaw. Mmmm.. now this is what we needed.