Brockton Villa in La Jolla

So my dad decides he wants to go back to this place in La Jolla where a good friend took him for some really great cioppino. Actually his words were more along the lines of "I want to have lunch at this place on the water, in that nice town, where there was this seafood soupy thing that was really good"...

Good daughter that I am, I figured out he meant Brockton Villa in La Jolla - and no, not bouillabaise, but cioppino.

You now have a sense of where I get my marginally obssessive eating tendencies from...


It turned out to be a lovely place in an old house, overlooking the cove, with a nice covered patio where we had a great lunch on a gorgeous day. Besides the aforementioned cioppino (which was probably excellent but I wouldn't know, since I wasn't offered a taste - must have been really good since we always taste in my family...), there were some nice Kobe sliders with three different kinds of cheese.

But their most famous dish is apparently something called Coast Toast. Which I forced my mother to order so I could try some. And which she couldn't finish, so I scarfed up almost half her dish, in addition to my somewhat bland ahi tuna salad. So much for being good...

Coast Toast is basically their special version of french toast - made with rather large baguette slices, sauteed in butter and then baked for a nice souffle-like finish. The outside was nice and crispy, although I found the middle a little gooey for my taste.

I thought it was a nice recipe since the baking allows you to produce the full set of french toast at once, as opposed to my usual french toast production that leads everyone else to be done eating by the time I finish up the last batch and am ready to eat myself.

Here's how you make Coast Toast a la Brockton Villa:

Coast Toast Recipe

1 loaf soft French bread (sliced)
1 qt. whipping cream
10 eggs
¾ cup orange juice
½ cup sugar
a pinch of salt
2 tbs. vanilla
2 tbs. orange flavoring

Combine liquid ingredients. Pour over bread slices. Cover and refrigerate at least one hour.

Remove bread and discard liquid. Spread butter on flat grill.

Cook bread until golden brown, then bake at 450° for 5 -7 minutes or until bread is puffed up like a soufflé. Dust with powdered sugar.

Serve immediately.

Serves 6

Spring Break in Carlsbad

We spent most of last week in Carlsbad (north San Diego county), at the Four Seasons Aviara Residence Club - we bought a week's timeshare about 7 years ago and have been going there almost every year. Unfortunately, it's been getting more and more difficult to get the weeks we want, which I understand is a fundamental time share problem (particularly for those of us with school-age children).

The upside is we get a beautiful large apartment, Frette linens, Bulgari toiletries (they switched from L'Occitane :( , great pool and fitness center, an extensive collection of DVDs and games, and Four Seasons service.

It takes close to an hour to get to San Diego proper, so we didn't bother going in this time - the furthest south we got was to La Jolla. But there's plenty to do in the north county, with the biggest attraction being Legoland. Alas, my kids are almost too old for that park, but we still had a fun time there. The coolest thing was that the Washington D.C. section of Miniland was set up like the Inauguration, with many recognizable figures!Aside from that, we had many meals with old friends, went to the pool (where the kids were immune to the cold temps but I was huddled under a pool towel) and played some tennis. All in all, a nice little spring break for the family.