Grand Del Mar, California: 2011

Alan and I are spending his pre-Birthday week in Del Mar, California at the absolutely gorgeous Grand Del Mar Resort & Spa. Located just north of San Diego in the cliffs and just a few miles in from the dark blue Pacific Ocean. I have no idea how expensive this resort is to stay at out-of-pocket, but when on a business paid conference trip, it's just the perfect location.

Our room is on the third floor and our balcony looks over one of the courtyards as well as the third hole of the on-property golf course. The room itself is one of my favorites of any resort - very spacious with a monstrous king size bed, a wonderfully comfy L-shaped sofa with ottoman, two desks and a huge bathroom featuring a walk in dressing room & closet. It's also got one of the most important aspects to a truly wonderful hotel room - a beautiful, large, glass enclosed shower with the most fabulous water pressure. Powerful, streaming a nonstop flow of hot, hot water. So nice after a long plane ride or a brutal round of golf. As we sit here once again after hitting the links, with our balcony doors wide open watching the Yankees play the Reds we hear the not infrequent sound of navy F-15 fighter jets flying overhead....and for the second time in one day, a little sparrow flies into our room, hops around as Alan gently shoo-shoos it back out the balcony doors. I wanted to feed it but Alan said no, sternly. He doesn't want a repeat of the banded mongoose fiasco of 2002.

But this post is about food...and hopefully wine since I'm thinking Alan will add an addendum to talk about the five bottles packing snugly in our luggage that made the trip out here with us on Continental from Newark.

Our first on resort food experience was the California sandwich they made at the Cafe. Really, really great chicken breast sandwich. Big (enough for two of us to share), warm (heated in a panini press), wet with an olive oil mayo and perfectly accompanied with fresh tomato, bacon and avocado. The bread was a french style baguette, fresh and doughy. Served with crunchy pickles.

Second taste was breakfast from the same Cafe to take To Go out to Torrey Pines with us. We get two toasted bagels - mine plain with cream cheese and Alan's a cinnamon-raisin with butter. They added little fruit cups into our To Go boxes that was a welcome surprise. The bagels were what they should be.

The next dining experience is a last minute trip down to the in hotel restaurant, Amaya. It's a combination of indoor and outdoor seating overlooking the lovely Aria lawn. This is a wide expanse of perfectly manicured lawn surrounded by blooming flora and a large Italian style, open aired pavilion that I know from the Travel Channel is a favorite wedding location. What it means when we're there, a place for every child in the place to run about screaming...interestingly in this case, the kids don't both me or anyone else and are even a bit amusing to watch them chase, tag and tumble all over each other.

I ordered a Caesar salad to start that was nicely prepared with that heavy anchovy taste that I'm particularly fond of. Alan had the short rib cannelloni with beech mushroom ragout and I ordered the crab & lobster pappardelle with tarragon, mushrooms and Parmesan. Alan liked his cannelloni quite a bit. I very much liked the flavor of my dish but between the bottle and a half we already drank and my overall exhaustion after walking the course at Torrey Pines, I ran out of steam after eating only a quarter of my dish.

The next morning (today, actually as I post this), we decide to go for a sit down breakfast since we're not teeing off until 12:30pm in a shot gun start. Back to Amaya we go. Once again sitting outside and once again treated to children running nonstop on the grand Aria lawn. It's a most beautiful morning.

A nice menu, we opt for a mixed seasonal fruit plate to share plus I get the egg white frittata with spinach, tomato and goat cheese served with toast and Alan's breakfast burrito with Parmesan cheese, prosciutto and carameliz onion served with breakfast potatoes. Oh, joy!! My frittata is wonderful - the goat cheese adding that twang of flavor to jazz up the eggs and blend so nicely with the freshness of spinach and tomato. Alan's burrito was good but could have used more meat and less tomato and needed a little salt. The fresh fruit was perfect.

Next up for food - a boxed lunch provided on our golf carts for the tournament. A big box, it held a giant turkey, tomato & lettuce combination in sun dried tomato wrap with a seasoned ranch dressing, a bag of jalapeno chips, chocolate brownie and cold pasta salad.YUMMY. Matched up with unlimited drinks, it made for a perfect golf day lunch! So far, so good!! Hope to be able to post good things about our dinner tomorrow night at Addison.

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