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Ahi Tuna - Islands Hotel Restaurant

Islands Hotel – Palm Terrace Restaurant

690 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, CA 92660

866.554.4619

The “Large Plate” at the Islands Hotel of Ahi Tuna is simply delectable and delicious. It is seared so you get multiple textures going on at the same time. Cutting each of the four pieces into quarters is the best way to maximize the flavor and enjoyment. Because even though this dish is called a Large Plate, it can go very fast if you just cut the pieces into halves. If you notice from the picture that the sides of the tuna pieces are slightly white around the edges. This was because of the searing. The texture here was so remarkable because the outsides of the pieces had a little bit of pepper and nori. Nori is a type of seaweed. And so that white area was a little bit chewy and then when I bit down into the pinkish-purple part of the tuna then it got extremely tender. So this is a very rewarding piece of food for someone who likes texture foods.

And there are mushrooms in the dish. The mushrooms come in many different shapes and sizes, but most of the are small. I even was lucky enough to find some lightly battered and fried pieces of something that tasted like mushrooms, but I wasn’t completely sure. The contrasting saltiness of these small fried pieces meshed very well with the Ahi.

The coconut curry sauce was flavorful and rich and only a small amount of the sauce was needed to add even more flavor to the Ahi Tuna. The dish would have been fine without the coconut curry sauce, but its addition helped push the dish from extremely good, to beyond excellent.

There were also small pieces of red pepper floating around the dish and they were just a slight accent to the flavor. I would scoop up a few pieces of pepper and some curry and a mushroom or two in a forkful along with the tuna. This would definitely be a taste-bud rewarding experience. And even though there were only four pieces of tuna, it lasted for a very long time during conversation and eating.

The meal felt healthy and light, and yet filling enough to not require an appetizer or desert.

-Tyler

Souffle - Pomodoro Newport Coast

Pasta Pomodoro

Newport Coast
21133 Newport Coast Drive
Newport Coast, CA 92657

(949) 759-1303

Hours:
11:30 AM – 10PM weekdays
12 NOON to 10PM weekends

Last weekend I was really hungry. I got so hungry that I didn’t even want to wait to drive somewhere for lunch. So we decided to go somewhere completely new to me. The place was Pasta Pomodoro. The food was beyond excellent and the prices were very reasonable for the quality of the food and the portions. As you can see from the picture above we shared a Chocolate Souffle for desert and coffee. The souffle was cakey and warm on the outside and fudgy and soft in the center. It came with some small bit of ice cream or gelato or something. It just was a small thing that contrasted with the chocolate. The coffee was the perfect addition to the souffle.

Penne Portobello

The dish that I ate was Penne Portobello. It was a penne pasta with creamy garlic sauce. This dish is $10.50 and it is 1043 calories. And this was a good thing because I was extremely hungry at the time. But the real gem of this dish was the perfectly cooked sausage pieces. I usually don’t even like sausage in my pasta at all. But this Penne Portobello tasted so god with it. I think the sausage was cooked in a pan because it had this delicious texture that was slightly blackened and crispy and chewy on the outside. While on the inside the sausage was tender. And as if that wasn’t enough to love the dish, there was these juicy pieces of portobello mushrooms floating around. And they had this exquisite dark color. Each bite was a great blend of tenderness and squishy mushroom goodness. The flavor of the portobello mushrooms was slightly meaty with a tiny bit of saltiness. There was even grilled chicken in the pasta. The pieces were small but well prepared. They did a good job not overpowering the other ingredients. The chicken just added a little more substance to this hearty dish.

Overall the customer service was well above par at Pasta Pomodoro. The waitress gave us fresh bread and pesto oil dip that was some of the best bread I’ve ever had at an Italian restaurant. She was friendly and did a great job refilling our drinks and water. And our food came to us nice and hot and with the utmost excellent presentation.

-Tyler

Scrambled Eggs - Zinc - Corona del Mar

Zinc – Cafe and Market

3222 E. Coast Hwy
Corona Del Mar
CA 92625
949.719.9462

What’s yellow, white, loves to tango with both beans and mango, and knows a good yolk when it hears one? Give up? My breakfast at Zinc this morning! The food at this Cafe is so good that I needed to check the overidon archives in order to find out if I already wrote a review about the place. The food this morning was delicious. We had egg based dishes that both tasted great and looked appetizing. The dish you see before you in the picture is a tasty scrambled egg breakfast with a bagel. This was good tasting but I recommend eating the eggs before they get too cold. Because they aren’t very appetizing cold. The bagel was off-the-hook good. It was toasted to perfection.The cantaloupe they serve with the meal was very fresh and flavorful and its color adds to the charm of the dish.

I ordered a latte and Huevos Rancheros. The latte tasted good but the foam was on the bubbly side. This wouldn’t have been a problem but I added a little bit of nutmeg to my latte. And since the foam was bubbly instead of silky, a huge crater was formed in the foam layer. This was a result of the nutmeg. But the overall taste of the espresso and the temperature of the milk was great. The Huevos Rancheros was a dish I had ordered before. But this time the person behind the counter asked me if I wanted, “One egg, or two?” I really liked that question because I felt like I deserved an extra egg this morning. The food came rather quickly and it both tasted and looked spectacular.

Zinc - Huevos Rancheros

The people at Zinc must take serious pride in the presentation of their food. Because as you can see from the picture to the right, the color and texture of the mangoes combined with the beautifully poached eggs were something worth applause and wholehearted consumption. The delectable thing about the Huevos Rancheros is that each bite tastes different from the next, depending on the location of your forkfull. For example: The outer ring is primarily made up of mango and salsa and it tastes slightly fruity, tangy, zesty, and spicy. But if you carve deeper into the treasure, you will find a thin yet scrumptious soft tortilla that is sopping with flavor. And if you you dare to venture into the center of the fiesta of yum, then you will taste the delicate yet perfectly prepared poached eggs. Each of the two eggs had such a superb texture and consistency that I could cut them with a fork, yet not damage the structural integrity of the egg. Also the eggs had a majestic semi-liquid center that rewarded my taste buds for wanting to revisit Zinc.

The beans in the Huevos Rancheros are small black beans that taste healthy and munchable. The salsa and the beans truly make each bite a cherished moment. Their salsa is generally pretty mild, although it has enough bite and kick to make you want to scoop up some more food. But I didn’t find myself needing to refill my water cup all to often.

We also ordered a small orange juice and that was fresh and potent enough to share. Some places seem to have diluted orange juice but Zinc does a great job of giving the best. There is really no need to guzzle the orange juice because it is more like an accent to the overall taste sensations of the meal.

Seating at Zinc, especially the interior tables in the morning, is limited. So be prepared to do a little hovering to get a place to snack down.

The prices at Zinc vary from item to item. But the Huevos Rancheros was $8.95 + tax + $0.75 for an extra egg. But it was well worth it. Here’s a link to Zinc’s Breakfast Menu for more information.

The size of the portions at Zinc are on the smaller side. But this place is more about presentation and freshness than quantity and size.

-Tyler

Stadium Chair Armrest (retractable)

Armrests are funny things. If you are in a theater and are sitting next to a person you don’t know, who gets to use the armrest? People rarely discuss who gets to use the armrest. Oftentimes the person who is a more dominant personality will simply assume control of the armrest. This has actually happened to me before, usually by my brother. But there are other times when the retractable armrest is not used by either person. This can be on a date or some other movie outing, where two people want to get comfortable. Lifting the armrest is no subtle act. This is especially true when the couple involved are on a first date. The armrest is a barrier for intimacy so lifting it is like saying, “I want to have a more intimate experience for this film.” But if both people involved seem to be really enjoying each others’ company, then lifting the armrest shouldn’t be a major problem. Once the armrest is out of the picture, there are many directions that the couple can go. They can sit in their chairs but not have that barrier. They can hug or one can put an arm around the other. There can be some snuggling. Or all of the above can occur. Overall the Stadium Theater Armrests are an excellent invention that deserves recognition.

The interesting thing about retractable armrests is that they have the potential to multiply the fun and enjoyment factor of a movie date by several hundred percent.

-Tyler