After two exhausting days shuffling around Disneyland like post-apocalyptical zombies, the Nombomb clan made a pledge to relax and unwind today. For breakfast, I rifled through our hosts’ well-stocked fridge and assembled a quick breakfast. I mashed up a couple of baked yams with leftover masala-spiced barbecue salmon and spooned the mixture into lettuce cups.
Everyone needs to stay with pals who make sure there’s plenty of emergency protein available in the fridge for their guests. B & S are the Best. Hosts. Evar. We all want to move in. Permanently.
After lounging around all morning, we finally headed out of the house. We’re staying in the heart of the OC, so my pie-in-the-sky goal was to spot one of the Real Housewives of Orange County in her natural state: Shopping. We headed down to the South Coast Plaza mall. It was either there or the plastic surgeon’s office, but we figured that would be less fun for the Double-Os.
It was already lunchtime, so we ate at the shopping mall. Yes, you read that right – I chose to eat at the mall. South Coast Plaza is super-fancy-schmancy and they have many high-quality restaurants that match the high-end stores, including Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale’s South Coast Plaza. The housewives of the OC are much too chichi for Hotdog on a Stick and Orange Julius, yo.
Since we were dressed like grungy NorCal folks, we chose to dine al fresco at the more casual Seasons 52 restaurant.
Fitbomb and I split a scallop and shrimp ceviche…
…grilled rainbow trout with steamed asparagus and carrots…
…and a large entree salad with lemongrass salmon, organic greens, pineapple, mango, jicama, and toasted sesame dressing.
The kids ordered grilled chicken and broccoli which they gobbled up without much protest.
Afterwards, we went hunting for housewives but came up empty-handed. I think I may have been the only one looking, though – the boys were preoccupied with riding the carousel inside the mall.
At dinnertime, we stopped by Felix Continental Café in Orange.
Felix has been serving authentic Cuban and Spanish food in its spot on the Orange Circle for over thirty years. I really like Cuban food because there’s plenty of meaty choices – you just need to side-step the beans and the rice.
We seated ourselves outside and immediately ordered three gigantic entrées for the four of us.
Each dish came with soup or salad, rice, black beans, fried plaintains, and dessert – all of which costs less than $15. (We asked the server to hold the beans.)
We all split the roasted chicken Cubano…
…roasted pork…
…and the braised oxtail.
I wolfed down the fried plantains and left most of the rice.
My favorite dish of the night was the tender braised oxtails and Big-O’s was the roast pork, but everything was rib-sticking, well-priced, and satisfying. If you find yourself in the OC, definitely check out Felix for some unpretentious, flavor-packed grub.
Before I bid y’all adieu, I just wanted to thank you again for supporting the Nom Nom Paleo iPad app. Apple just migrated the app to its brand-spankin’ new Food & Drink category in the App Store, where Nom Nom Paleo debuted at #2 yesterday!
Woo hoo!
(By the way, congrats to Dustin K., the winner of my latest reader appreciation giveaway!)
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