San Diego Magazine / January 2011 / Guahan Grill, Venissimo Cheese and Tamarack Beach

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Guahan Grill, Venissimo Cheese and Tamarack Beach

A new restaurant, artisan food and a nice beach walk on a winter's day in North County San Diego

Guahan Grill

Cool new restaurant alert: Oceanside now has its first Guamanian restaurant, the Guahan Grill, which opened about three months ago in a Ralph’s-anchored strip mall. If you’ve never had cuisine from the island of Guam, you’re missing out. The specialty is barbecue (beef short ribs, pork spare ribs or boneless, skinless chicken), but I prefer to sample the appetizers because they are just so out-of-this-world good. One of my favorite is kelaguen, a ceviche-like dish consisting of raw sliced tuna, chunks of shrimp or barbecue chicken mixed with green onions, lemon juice and hot pepper. Order the kelaguen sampler for a taste of all three, served with freshly made tortilla chips. I’m also partial to the lumpia (ground beef sautéed with onions, cabbage, carrots, seasoning and soy sauce and then wrapped in dough and deep fried) and the empanada (chopped chicken stewed with onions, hot pepper, garlic and seasoning, then wrapped inside a corn masa shell and deep fried). It’s always gratifying to try a new type of cuisine, and the Guahan Grill does Guamanian food right.
4259 Oceanside Blvd., Suite 104, Oceanside
760-806-4826
guahangrill.com

Venissimo Cheese Shop

Let’s continue the gastronomic theme with our second spotlighted North County business this week, the Venissimo Cheese Shop in Del Mar. A satellite to the original Venissimo Cheese Shop, which Gina and Roger Freize opened in San Diego’s Mission Hills neighborhood in 2004, the North County location is situated in the Flower Hill Mall just off Interstate 5. The shop carries a wide selection of artisan, craft and other cheeses, with selections that change daily. The website offers a vast list of more than 1,000 different cheeses from all over the world that are available for shipping, but a visit to the store is a must. I guarantee you’ll leave home with a bag of cheeses you’re going to want to cut up and serve that night, along with staff suggestions for ideal wine pairings. The aromas, the presentations — it’s all too much to resist. Each month cheeses from a particular country are highlighted; this month the spotlight is on Italian formaggio (that’s Italian for “cheese”).
2710 Via de la Valle, Del Mar
858-847-9616
venissimo.com/store

On the agenda

North County beaches are uncrowded in the winter months, even though the weather — recent monsoons aside — is generally quite delightful. One of the longest unobstructed beach walks, at least at low tide, stretches from the Tamarack State Beach parking lot at the foot of Tamarack Avenue in Carlsbad all the way up to the Oceanside Pier, a distance of nearly 4 miles. I can’t emphasize enough, though, that you need to check the tidepool charts before you go, because at high tide much of the beach in Oceanside is impassable. But when the tide is low, there’s no finer stretch of beach for a brisk run, jog or power walk. The sand is clean, firm and fairly level, and you’ll pass by such local landmarks as the Carlsbad Army and Navy Academy, which just celebrated its 100th birthday, and the St. Malo community, a historic subdivision of oceanfront homes that dates back to 1929 (and is named after a walled fishing village in Brittany, France, from which the homes derive their unique architectural style).
Tamarack State Beach
Foot of Tamarack Avenue, Carlsbad