pashacat1's Profile
Santa Cruz coffee roasters or coffee bars
I've only gotten single cup hot coffee at the Lulu's at the Octagon and the new brewer their (a clover vacumn brewer) makes singularly great coffee. It looks like their selection of beans is superb. This place is clearly looking to be the best choice for true coffee greatness in town.
Tamales in Santa Cruz
A tamale lady comes our office every Tue and Th on the far westside. We finally caught up with her and begged her to come every week and now she does. Even provided food for an event with rice, beans and salsa and it was simply great. They are great and cheap at $1 each or 6 for $5. She comes at about 11am to the building at 2155 Delaware. If you want me to give her your number, so you can invite her over, I'd be happy to. We have her number somewhere and I'll post it if we can find it.
Seafood Rest in Santa Cruz
I've found santa cruz seafood to be kind of dismal (except of course buying crab or salmon off the boats and cooking it at home. A true local treat.). We say the best seafood in santa cruz is in Monterey at Monterey Fish House (2114 Del Monte Ave). If you want great seafood this is a far sight better than the boring stuff available in SC. Huge list of specials and local treats. Monterey Bay Prawns with roe in them sometimes. And, baby octopus at other times. The Octo is fantastic and cioppino is nice. I had a whole fried rock fish and it blew my mind. It's small so make reservations and get ready to spend a little more than you would in SC.
One plug for SC seafood is fish and chips from the take out stand at Stagnarros on the wharf. Paying more inside is not worth it but the fish and chips are breaded not fried and make a nice outing. We used to get a basket or two and sit in the car and listen to the radio for a pleasant time.
Pho at Santa Cruz Diner
I think the soups have gotten better. I pretty much don't get anything else there unless they have the thai samosa (that's right) appetizer special. The sauce that comes with it is great. At one point we were corrected by Ke (sp?), the gentleman that works there that the red chili sauce in the unlabeled squeeze bottle is the one to use instead of the red cock thai sauce.
Updated Santa Cruz restaurant reviews/opinions, please!
Some great food in SC area:
Asada tacos at farmers market from the tamale stand. Greasy and great. I get them at the felton farmers market on Tuesdays in summer.
La Cabana Taqueria: the fish tacos are fantastic. Good at both the westside mission and soquel drive locations. Not fried and often good and spicy.
redwood pizzeria in Felton: this is a great and sincere pizza. really flavorful sauce and crust from nice people.
Thai Noodle house: duck soup is hearty and great.
Pho at Santa Cruz Diner
Never tried the pho at SC diner but the diner food like ruebens etc. are good. Decent burgers, fries etc.
Pho at Santa Cruz Diner
I work near Thai noodle house and we go there constantly for the duck noodle soup. By far the best one with the wonton coming in a distant second. Thai Noodle is the best noodle soup available in santa cruz (I hadn't heard of Sawasdee though). Get the large for more vegetables. The rice vermiccilli is best with the yellow egg noodles also good.
Organic/ High-End/ Speciality Microwave Popcorn in Toronto
I don't know about anything in Canada but Sunrise Seeds sells excellent red, blue, yellow and white varieties of popcorn. The red and blue are ancient varieties and quite tasty. The paper bag in the micro method should work for them. Buy from localharvest.org or sunriseseeds.com.
