Thank you Christina. I completely understand if it is a cultural/emotional/spiritual thing not to want your photo taken by a tourist. As it is in many countries.
I only take photos of food and never take photos of people. Photos of fruit and anything in the markets seem innocuous to me and is what I am most looking forward to on this trip. Even at home I can take a few dozen photos every time I go to farmer’s market.
I had no idea the soul stealing could extend to fruit. I hope it is just this one market that has a no photo policy. I live in an extremely touristy town so I am used to Europeans taking photos everywhere here. I am sure asking first and being respectful will go a long way anywhere in the world. I just did not know if offering to tip them would offend some.

I love the fish market and it is very close to where the cruise ships dock. It is a very active spot and interesting to see what they have that you do not see at home. Let alone so much whole fish or items piled so high. Last time we were there a boat was unloading what had to be thousands and thousands of dollars worth of live sea urchins. The alley next to the fish market is lined with taquerias for the freshest seafood cocktail you will ever have.

In a Newsweek I was reading at the doctor's office last week A. Bourdain voted La Guerrerense one of the best places to eat in the whole world. I think it was the only place on the list in Mexico.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08...

I have driven by El Fenix but others in the car were not impressed with the looks of it and we passed. I will have to be more agressive about it next time. I just responded to another post about where we go for tacos. Los Traileros. But it is not walking distance from the ship.

We never officialy exchange money when we are there for the weekend. If you pay with a $20 they will usually give you change in pesos and then you use that. I am researching for a trip to Mexico City and read that credit cards have an international transaction fee. For most cards it is 3% on every transaction. So figure that into your shopping while considering the exchange rate and true cost of items if you charge it.

Have a great time!

This summer we drove out to a cheese dairy outside of Ensenada. It is called La Cava de Marcelo. They have a dairy tour followed by a tasting of their cheeses in the cave. The cave is a large dining room in the basement of one of the buildings surrounded by all of the cheese ageing behind glass walls. They have a grill outside where you can order lunch and eat it under the trees. We all enjoyed it. It was a perfect half day adventure. I think it took just over an hour to get there from Ensenada.

We have also had Sunday brunch at the Hotel Coral and Marina. It was a good mix of traditional, regional Mexican items and chef stations. It is a modern hotel with a boat marina just outside. Perfect for a walk to work off brunch.

My favorite tacos in Ensenada are a bit before downtown on the main road going south into town. It is a large busy taqueria called Los Traileros. There are semi trucks on their sign so it is truck stop tacos. They have two sides for service, one for fried fish and shrimp tacos the other for grilled meat. There are inside but open air tables for seating. I could happily eat there every day.

My in-laws have had a home at Baja Mar, between Rosarito and Ensenada, for seven years and have had no issues with crime. I drive into either town by myself and feel fine about it. We avoid Tijuana at night but I think we are going to have to go to Mision 19 on our next trip.

I am dismayed about the no photo rule. I was scolded in a dulceria in Rosarito the other day. So of course I left with out buying anything I would have bought. At the time I really wished that my Spanish was better so I could have a conversation with them about it. Does anyone know why they would be against it? Considering that I have read in several places how dependent Oaxaca is on tourism it seems odd. Would asking first and offering a tip go over well? Or just buying something be better?

Send me an email and we can swap details.
Anyone else who is going to DF or Ox at that time feel free to post here and we can plan a chow get together.
gotcake at cox dot net

Ciao Bob ~
I am thrilled to be going too! I will be there from Tuesday - Saturday after several days in DF and San Miguel. Any other Chowhounds going? Shall we plan a group dinner? I am still planning the restaurants etc for DF and have not started researching Oaxaca yet. Keep me posted as to your final list.

I just heard that the opening chef/co-owner Jason has left Square One in the last few months. The new chef is Crystal "Pink" Harris who has been cooking in SB for several years. She received some rave reviews when she was head of the kitchen at Epiphany a while back. Having worked with her I know she really knows what she is doing. I am sure she will build on the positives of what SQ1 has built so far and get the reviews consistantly positive as this one from this week.

We need a few more votes - with one for NBC and one for Empress Pavillon with previous posts for Yang Chow I am still undecided.

Due to scheduling issues it has to be downtown Chinatown, not SGV. I know,sad but that is how it has to be for this trip.
From reading older posts it sounds like Yang Chow is the favorite with Ocean and CBS also strong contenders.

Here is our list so far...

Tara's Organic Ice Cream
The Chocolatesmith
Kakawachocolates
Todos Santos Chocolates
Sage Bakehouse
Cloud Cliff Bakery
Santa Fe Baking Company
Tea House
Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Anyone have anything to add?

There are already so many amazing posts about the restaurants in Santa Fe we have more recommendations than meals we can fit in to our stay!

As a pastry chef and chef coming to Santa Fe to attend another chef's wedding we are also looking for non-restaurant foodie experiences.
Bakeries
Chocolate shops
Cookware & houseware shops
Markets with take out for a picnic
and any uniquely NM or SF food experiences that we should not miss.

Also how about one dinner suggestion close to the ABQ airport if we need it on the way in or out.
Thanks in advance!

Sactown magazine's Feb/March issue just had an article profiling the 10 best places to get cupcakes in Sacramento.
http://www.sactownmag.com/inside.php

So it sounds like there are three cupcake only bakeries and then several cafes and coffeehouses that also carry cupcakes.

cupcakecraving.com
icingonthecupcake.com
babycakessacramento.com

I actually picked up the magazione in a so cal Barnes & Nobel and haven't been to Sacramento since these bakeries opened so I have no personal reviews to add.

I do not think Blue Agave is open for lunch but it does sound like your style.
So for lunch I would suggest The Paradise Cafe or Opal. Both have good local wine lists, the Paradise has a patio.

Since your bride requests Mexican & margaritas for dinner I would say Carlito's.
They have a patio and high end Mexican food.

glbtrtr is right there really arn't andy rowdy restaurants here but The Palace Grill is great for celebrations and it is loud so you can get away with some festiveness.

The Palace and Blue Agave are only a block away from your hotel. The Paradise two blocks. Opal and Carlito's are up State Street seven blocks on the same block as the Arlington Theater.

We were in SD last weeked to attend the Fancy Food Show and I researched on Chowhound for recommendations of course.

The best breakfast by far and almost the best meal was at the Parkhouse Eatery.
Four of us were each thrilled with our meals. Creative menu, patio and inside seatting, friendly staff, beautiful presentation, generous portions. Inside decor was a bit old and dirty but very interesting.I wish now that we had gone there three days in a row.

My hubby went to Perry's with out me and was underwhelmed. He said the menu was limited and just not that exciting.

We were all disappointed by Cafe 222. The menu was fun and interesting but somehow nothing was as good as it sounded. Not bad, just not great. Service was so, so, girls that were talking and complaining about their lives right next to us.

So Parkhouse Eatery gets my vote!
Umm, the best Pumpkin pancakes I have ever had.

We did a cupcake crawl in NYC last year and Crumbs was my favorite. They did have other frostings besides cream cheese. Too bad the shop here is not getting great reviews on the board; I was looking forward to going.
Has Crumbs put a dent in Sprinkles lines?

Lilly's, anytime my kids can't decide where to eat I tease them that we are going to Lilly's to try the eyeball tacos.
There was a New York Times article about a taco road trip last year that featured the eyeball tacos.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/07/21/...

Check out Santa Barbara posts about El Bajio on Milpas Street, my favorite hard tacos.

There are no words for the joy I feel right now with this news!

For many years the orginal NYC D&D was my single favorite place in the whole world.
Too bad Newport is still three hours from my home but it is nice to know that a bit of culinary heaven will be even that close.

I am a pastry chef and am working on opening a bakery. So in the name of research I have been to a great deal of bakeries in the past few years. I usually go with other pastry chefs or chefs and we have lots of fun over analizing our baked goods.

Our favorite cupcakes in the LA area would be Leda's and Frosted in Long Beach, I also really do like about half of the Sprinkles flavors. Both Ledas and Frosted have great flavor and texture. Good frosting to cake ratio. Leda's uses real buttercream rather than frosting and I love that but realize it is almost too rich for some people.

We went to NYC and did the bakery crawl there and on that trip Crumbs was my favorite for good texture and flavor so I am excited there is one in LA now.

On our last LA bakery trip we went to Big Sugar Bake Shop in the Valley and Vanilla in SM. I loved Big Sugar Bake Shop. Love the style of the shop, the other gift items offered and the sweets that I tried were yummy. My dh ate the cupcake I had brought home so I did not get to try their cupcakes. He voted a thumbs up.

Vanilla's cupcakes were pretty good, not great. The decor is very cute. I would go back to try them again. We went very soon after they opened and I think they needed a bit of time to settle in. I was surprised to see how much crap they got here for their packaging. First the boxes were too fancy and the cupcakes falling over etc. It is so difficult to make everyone happy!

The Yummy place down a block also on Wilshire was dirty, the frosting area in the front looked like kids had gone crazy, and we just could not justify another cupcake that day. I had been to the other one in the valley before and was not impressed.

Now we are going to have to make a trip to Lark and Dots. Lark sounds great!
Thanks for all the great leads here on CH. My life is sweeter and richer because of CH!

Rolled fondant will dry after it is rolled and cut. It is flexible for a bit to work with.
It would work fine for shapes and letters that will be applied directly to the top or sides of a cake. You use royal icing as the glue to attach the cut outs to the fondant covered cake.

Gumpaste drys harder and is appropriate for bows, ribbons and flowers that are three dimensional. It drys and cracks pretty quickly so it takes a bit more talent to work with.

Sur la Table has fondant, as does Surfas and every Michaels has a line of Wilton fontant cutters, tools and books.

On the westside there is a cake supply store, Gloria's in the 405 & Sawtell area.
http://gloriascakecandysuplys.com/store/

My friend who is a chocolatier is coming to LA and we want to check out a few chocolate shops. Are there any I should add to the list? Independent rather than chains. TIA
Jin
Boule
L'Artisan du Chocolat
Valerie Confections

http://www.roysrestaurant.com/

Roy's of Hawaii!
Of course being in the islands is the best. The newish one in downtown LA has received rave reviews on CH, especially for service.

We went to both Vanilla Bakeshop and the new SM branch of Yummy Cupcakes this weekend.

Vanilla was beautiful, clean, and very busy. The owner was very nice, the cashier also thanked us for coming in and dealing with the wait. There was a cupcake meetup group there. I am not sure if it is always that busy.

We got one regular sized and a trio of little ones. Each was good, moist, flavorful. My hubby did't think they were all that special but he is pretty spoiled and picky when it comes to cupcakes. I liked the place and would certainly return. Their wedding cakes on their site look very modern and fun. Three minis for $5. is a bit steep but I understand that it does not make good business sense to let someone leave having satisfied their sugar fix for $1.50 instead of $3.25. or $5.

Yummy cupcakes is four times the size and it was a mess. They have a decorating area up front and it looked like little kids had gone crazy and just left the frostings and pastry bags all over the place. We did not want anything after seeing that and there was just a lack of passion about the whole place. The decor was lacking inspiration as well. There were only two other people there.

Thanks to a few different posts with leads on chowhound we went to Shave It in Thousand Oaks on the way to LA this weekend.

Decor: very fun

Service: passive beautiful teenage girls, horribly slow, flirting with customers, really inept,
I realize that is what you get with an ice cream shop but maybe just one manager/adult on a Friday night to keep things moving along?

Ice: AMAZING, texture like powder, flavors were really good
Our favorite was their Root Beer Float, a combo of shaved ice and ice cream

I will be dreaming about it until we can think of an excuse to drive down the 101 again.
Their web site seems like it it geared to expansion or franchising. It is difficult to find the address or details about the actual shop. It is just a few blocks from the 101 and easy to find.

http://www.shaveitice.com/home.cfm

That does sound like Tutti's. It is now a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.
The owners have a small bakery, cafe downtown Santa Barbara, Tuttini, and have moved the restaurant to old town Ventura.

I don't live in LA so I have not been here but now I am intrigued.
http://www.scoopsmovie.com/

I vote for Paradise Cafe.
But I have been hearing great things about both Hungry Cat and Quantum, will have to go try those soon.

For Italian-
Ca' Dario - Downtown
or Pane e Vino - in Montecito

Many swear by Olio e Limone but we have found the owners and staff to be so snobby it ruined the experience, especially as they fawn over the regulars.

Many also say that there is no great Japanese in SB. So there is not anything on par with Nobu but we are happy with Arigato, fresh, creative, fun crowd.

Search for posts and recommendations about Super Rica and go realizing it is just a taco stand. El Bahio down Milpas street is really good too.

Casual Califonia food with a good mix of locals and tourist for lunch or dinner would be
Opal. On the same block as the Arlington theater.
Another casual and good for lunch or dinner would be the Paradise Cafe.
If you like loud, festive, New Orleans style rich food, the Palace.

Congratulations and let us know where you went and how it was.

I don't think it is cheesy at all. I make wedding cakes and I think the candy buffets I have seen have all been really cool. I like it when they work with a color scheme and have interesting jars.

If you want to go really crazy most rental companies rent cotton candy machines for about $30. per day!

I am a pastry chef. Chefs work hard and play hard. Since we have so little time off we have to squeeze in a great deal of "research" in on our days off. So I love Chowhound to see what is going on around the country and help me decide where my next culinary pilgramages will be. I have really enjoyed my trips even more with all of the CH recomendations.
I have been into CH maybe just less than a year and I check in about four times a week. My other new favorite site is Flickr since I can check out photos of new bakeries and restaurants that I haven't been to yet.
Thanks everyone, great thread!

Cost Plus has a very good selection of interesting bars and many organic chocolates.
All at great prices too.