Newport Beach | www.solcocina.com
This hotspot boasting coastal Baja-inpired cuisine, featuring authentic flavors reminiscent of surf trips and street carts served up in surrounds with a decidedly upscale flair, is helmed by James Beard nom’d Executive Chef & Partner Deborah Schneider.
Chef Deb is not only an award-winning cookbook author and successful restaurateur, but a mom. But is this trendy eatery good for families?
“It sounds cliché, but there is something for everyone to enjoy; and we like kids!,” says Schneider, who believes in expanding culinary horizons for little ones. “I raised two! My rule was, ‘Just try it — if you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it. You can have cheerios instead.’”
With tasty and unique treats like “Peel & Eat Shrimp ‘Cucarachas’” (pan-roasted in the shell with garlic, cheese, fried lemons and chiles), “Beet & Watermelon Salad with Salted Pepita Brittle” and “Canarditas Duck Tacos” (with blackberry serrano salsa and avocado) joining playful classics like the “Sweet Potato and Black Bean Taco” and “Grilled Sweet Corn” (with cotixa cheese and ground ancho chile and lime)…we didn’t see too many cereal bowls.
“Kids are people, too, and will have their own likes and dislikes,” says Schneider. “I just put everything (and I mean everything) down in front of them from a very early age and I didn’t helicopter. Never make a fuss about what they do or don’t eat. They’ll survive your parenting, and may surprise you.”
We found the expansive menu of several dozen specialty and street tacos to be an ideal opportunity to do just that. Order away, let kids pick and choose and celebrate your own version of a “palate expander” night with a Banana-Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding. (Also pick or choose who is driving home — the Cucumber Jalapeño Margarita, Horchata Martini and After Dinner Perfecta are To Die For.)
Dream Dinners
When things get hectic, you can still show the love with a home-cooked meal…it just takes a little prep. Fortunately, thanks to a local meal assembly company, that prep doesn’t have to include braving a busy grocery store, schlepping the goods home or the dreaded cleanup.
Dream Dinners has helped America’s parents put more than 90-million homemade meals on the table. You simply order from a menu of a dozen or more options, set up an appointment at the Tustin, Lake Forest or Fountain Valley shop where a stocked workstation awaits, combine your ingredients to personalize to your family’s taste and pack away a month’s worth of save-the-day meals in an hour or so. Stick the prepacked meals in the freezer and at the start of each week, shift several to the fridge.
We tried the Tustin shop’s menu and loved — Central Park Garlic Chicken, Greek Chicken with Lemon Feta and Toasted Orzo, Parmesan Boneless Pork Chops with Onion Potato Wedges and Southwest Pork Carnita Wraps with Chipotle Maple Corn.
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