San Diego Part 1: Little Italy

We thought it would be fun to use the blog to share our San Diego honeymoon. While we certainly enjoy small town life in South Dakota, this has been a great opportunity to break out of that bubble and experience everything a major, cosmopolitan city has to offer. As this is still No Free Lunch, this series of posts will focus on food, but I'll also mention other things we did.

We had an early flight out of Omaha, so we spent our first night there. Dinner was at Hiro 88 in downtown Omaha. While the focus is mainly on sushi, they also have some Chinese items. We split some sushi, sashimi, and walnut shrimp. Sushi is one thing we really miss living in Vermillion, and we definitely take opportunities to get it. While we enjoyed this meal, more sushi is to come later.

Sashimi, sushi, and walnut shrimp

Our first few nights in San Diego were in the Little Italy neighborhood. The large Italian population in San Diego was associated with the fishing industry, but the neighborhood is now a bustling area full of shopping and dining. There are eateries across the spectrum, including coffee, gelato, pizza, pastries, and higher-end dining. It's a fun area with lots to do without feeling overly inundated with tourists.

Piazza della Famiglia at night

We stopped at Caffe Italia for lunch and coffee on our first day. I enjoyed a prosciutto and fig panino, while Ariel had a tacchino (turkey, pepper, and pesto) panino. 

Tacchino (left) and prosciutto and fig (right) panini

Afterwards, we spent the afternoon at the San Diego Maritime Museum. We explored their collection of ships, including a Soviet submarine that almost defrosted the Cold War and HMS Surprise, the ship used in the filming of Master and Commander.

HMS Surprise with submarine B-59 in the background

We returned to Little Italy for dinner at Buon Appetito for one of the finest meals of the trip. The menu was so full of Italian classics that it was hard to choose. To start, we split a calamari and zucchini appetizer. 

Fried calamari and zucchini

For the main course, I couldn't pass up the ossobuco with saffron risotto. Like most braised meats, it doesn't photograph particularly well, but it tasted great. Notice the small fork for digging the marrow out of the bone.

Ossobuco with saffron risotto

Ariel had the squid ink pasta, which neither of us have had the opportunity to get since my post on St. Louis seven years ago. The pasta came with a variety of seafood.

Squid ink pasta

The next morning, we walked around the Little Italy Mercato, a huge farmer's market that takes up five full blocks of Date Street. There were tons of local products to sample, from fruit to dips, to cheese, and more.

Ariel at the Japanese Friendship Garden

Afterward, we headed to Balboa Park and explored the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park and listened to some Beethoven at the organ pavilion.

Matcha plus Beethoven is a good time!

We made a quick stop at the tea pavilion for iced thai tea and matcha drinks before moving on to the Air and Space Museum. Some of the highlights there were the incredible collection of World War I aircraft (mostly airworthy replicas, but a few originals) and the command module from Apollo 9. 

Apollo 9 command module

Our last dinner in Little Italy was thai food at AAHARN. Thai is another cuisine we used to have frequently in Indiana, but have few opportunities to get now. We shared mango and duck curry and pad thai with river prawns. 

Mango and duck curry

The river prawns were enormous, almost like mini lobsters, and a totally new experience for us. They have a firmer texture closer to lobster, but with a mild shrimp flavor. The chili sauce they gave us on the side kicked it up in a good way.

Pad thai with river prawns

After dinner, we stopped at Pappalecco, an Italian cafe down the street from our hotel, for gelato. That covers our first two days in San Diego. There's already been some great food and experiences, but we're just getting started!