Half Moon Bay

On the first Sunday of every month, I get together with some friends from high school for the purpose of catching up over food. Actually, we pretty much just get together to eat food and enjoy each others' company and speak inappropriately. It's a great way to relax and get back in touch with food. (Sometimes when you work with something too closely, you forget to enjoy it. Hanging out with my friends over a good meal helps me to remember why I got into the food industry to begin with.)

We met up at Sam's Chowder House off of Cabrillo Highway. I didn't expect it to be so expensive, but the food was pretty good. We shared the New England Clam Chowder, Blue Crab Salad on Brioche, Fish & Chips and the #1 Lobster Roll of the Nation. (that lobster roll was $19.95...no joke!!)

My favorite was the Blue Crab Salad. The brioche was fresh, light and buttery and the crab salad was tasty without being too rich and full of mayo. I found the lobster roll to be better than expected, but just overall really rich and buttery. The lobster filling seemed to be tossed in melted butter with just a little bit of chopped celery and onions. The lobster was really tender and perfectly cooked (probably butter poached sous vide style) - it was just too rich. I'm glad we shared, I don't think I could have eaten the whole thing. (You'd also have to eat fairly quickly as cold or cooling butter tossed lobster isn't exactly tasty.) sorry...didn't get any photos of the food at Sam's.

After a leisurely lunch, we took a quick walk on the beach and then headed to the Ritz Carlton for coffee and dessert. Valet/Hotel parking costs $20 after a complimentary 15 minutes, $10 if you buy something and get your parking validated. If we were smart, we would have mentioned that we were just there for public beach access. They would have given us the numerical passcode for the parking structure and we could have walked up to the hotel. Lesson learned.

The coffee was pretty tasty and the snacks were good. Next time though, skip the hotel and go straight to the beach and the backside of the hotel. The views are gorgeous.

Here are some pics for your enjoyment =)

here's the gang - (from left to right)
Natasha with Gerrit (who belongs to Angelica and Randolph), me, Angelica, Ian and Randolph
on the beach outside of Sam's Chowder House

We ordered the bread pudding (with ice cream) and the 'cookie jar' to enjoy with our coffees.

Relaxing and enjoying the view of the cliffs.

I wish we had a shot of the cliffs...but if you go to the Ritz Carlton site, you can get an idea of the scenery.