I grew up in SD and never knew Tuna Harbor Dockside Market existed until I saw a video earlier this week of James Beard award-nominated Filipino chef, Tara Monsood, eating lobster there. It’s located right next to Seaport Village, a place I frequented as a kid, and just a mile away from my new apartment!

They’re only open Saturdays from 8am-1pm, and I thought it was a perfect place to take the bestie and her daughters who were visiting for the day. She loves lobster!

They grill fresh-caught lobster on the pier, and serve it with smoked butter, potatoes and shishito peppers 😋 I will def be back!

Alicia’s daughter shared this video of a new matcha spot in Little Italy, so we went there afterwards. When we got there, it was a small pop-up inside of a retail store. I’m not a fan of matcha (I’d rather have coffee), but both Lia and Pammie love matcha. I noticed that Pammie and I were the only Asians there – none of the workers or customers were Asian. Listen, if I’m gonna have boba or some other Asian-related food or drink, I’m gonna get it at an authentic Asian resto. Several people told us that they ordered over an hour ago and were still waiting for their drinks 😳 And when they finally got their drinks, they told us that they weren’t worth the wait. The cashier told us they’d be able to take our order in 10 minutes!

This place just uses influencers and buzzwords like ‘Kyoto’ and ‘ceremonial grade’ to hype it up, but it really fell short and won’t last long if they continue like this, especially with so many other (Asian) places to get matcha.

We left after that and just watched planes fly overhead for a while before heading to a legit matcha place on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. I remember when Jessie used to live in Little Italy, this guy would pick her up and park his car on the top floor of an airport parking garage and they would just lay in the bed of the truck and watch planes fly by. I always thought it was v romantic. I asked her about it recently, because I forgot who she’d do that with, and it was this guy we know not to speak of anymore. Oops, sore subject 😅

Anyway, we took them to Pammie’s favorite matcha spot off Convoy (SD’s Asian food capital) which was connected to Ramen Station, a DIY instant noodle eatery that Alicia’s daughters always wanted to try. They loved the matcha and the ramen!

Pammie treated us all out to Galpão Gaucho for dinner. It’s like Fogo de Chão, but better 🤤 One of the waiters came to our table and was like, ‘Any requests?’ The piano guy just did a rendition of Chapelle Roan’s Pink Pony Club, so I was thinking, ‘Does he know any Young the Giant?’ but he meant any requests for certain cuts of meat 😅 Everything was so good, but I especially like the picanha wrapped in gold foil, the grilled pineapple, and the grilled cheese drizzled in honey. We are coming back here for Pammie’s birthday on Tuesday, and probably my birthday next month 😆