The foods of San Diego

I began writing this post a lot earlier, but that post turned into a piece about my vegetarianism. Here's the thing -- it was not a consideration when I landed in San Diego that it would be a city worth eating meats for. For japan, it'd be worth it, maybe even Brazil, but San Diego with its beans and vegetables and Mexican food wasn't a particularly vege-unfriendly place I thought. Why should it, Mexican food was traditionally a meat-and-potatoes kind and for the peasants and surely they didn't eat a lot of meat that I'd be missing out a lot on?

The answer was...unclear. We went to La Puerta which was supposed to be an amazing restaurant for Mexican food. It was just ok. Then to the Blind Burro (the blind donkey), it was the most overpriced mediocre vegetables tacos I've had the misfortune to eat. $3 tacos I considered expensive in the East Coast and they were pretty good, there we paid $8 per piece of taco and it was quite... not good! Then again a mexican restaurant after that for dinner, and then a mexican breakfast. The nicest part of all the meals was the Jalepeno poppers I had and a small sip of the IPA-style lager I took from JC's glass. That was it.

So here's the question: what's up with that? Were we outrageously unlucky, or was our neighborhood known for overpriced mediocre places which were somehow well-rated on the rating websites, or was it the vegetarianism? It can't have been the vegetarianism because JC didn't find any of it particularly good either and he tried all things meat and seafood. I've had much better for much less even in Boston, he said, and he should know for he was born and brought up in the great nation of MX. The ratings don't make sense, the place is supposed to be nice, nothing makes sense. I don't know what went wrong, and I'm not sure if I want a redo. It was crappy and it's unclear if there's a good defense that can be brought up for it.

At least there were tons of tequila options and surprisingly SD is a beer-rich city with dozens of micro and macro breweries. If I were a drinking man I'd have had a good time in the city that's a guarantee. It's unclear if the same could be said if I ate meats and seafood.

It was a disappointment. Not sure what people find so great about the city. Perhaps we were imprisoned inside the Gaslamp and it's actually the beaches, the old-town it's Spanish-style churches etcetera, the nice pueblos that make it great? Perhaps everyone who goes to the part of town we went to and rates the places is a deluded asshole and really messes it up for us all. Our expectations must have been set really high. Wish there was a better change to explore the place. I'd like to go to the beaches and the churches driving around taking in the full smells and sights of the place, not just walking around in hippest part of the town.

I've been there twice, and not impressed yet. I'd like do give the city one last chance.