Eating in California

[dancingnancy]

Started a thread a while back about our upcoming trip. Getting excited but wondering how others found eating there. Bit worried as we have nearly 4 weeks, mostly in hotels and can see me getting fed up eating out and coming back the size of a small whale. How did others find eating out and are the prices reasonable etc? Would loved to have booked some home stay accommodation for at least part of the trip to just chill out and cook in a relaxed home environment. Can see me panging for some beans and toast and heinz tomato soup when I get home.

Portions are v bog but good value -you can happily order only starters and share desserts to save money and avoid waste.
Make sure you tip at least 15%

that being v big - most of it quite tasty

you can get take away boxes which are the norm over there, and often offered if you have any left overs on your plate. Do you have a microwave in any of your hotels? Could you ask for one? As you could always have 2-3 days of 'scraps' as my MIL calls them stored in a cool bag/with ice and then eat them on 4th day. Whenever we go to visit MiL in USA we do this if we go out a lot, we called it 'scraps day' and we put all the leftovers on the table, from eating out and eating in, with a bit of salad and a bucket of wine

and you can eat out in some of the fast food places, not all of them are shite. There is one, can't remember what it's called, but it does burritos, and we spent a lot of time in there when we were in California, as I loved their breakfast burritos with christmas sauce! Affordable and bloody tasty, not sure how good for you though…just do a lot of walking!

I think it'll depend where you go. When I was in Long Beach, there were quite a few organic deli type places as I think a lot of folk are quite health conscious. Vons supermarket (not sure if they're throughout the state) was very good - you could get healthy, good quality takeaway stuff there, kind of like Whole Foods

It is many years since we went to California, but I remember the marvellous salad bars there. I don't recall over eating and being over faced with food either.

California is my favourite place in the world to eat :O. There is nothing you can't get there.

Foodie heaven :)

Where are you going?

We are starting in San Fransisco, Yosemite, Carmel, Santa Barbara, some other beach near LA, and ending in NY.

We split main courses a lot. Or I let DC order what they like & I mop up their left overs (I don't order hardly anything for myself).
I am the only person who loses weight on vacation, anyway, life is so stressful when travelling with kids.

It will be wonderful. Fresh fish, steak etc. I recommend an amazing Sunday brunch at Hs Lordships in the Bay Area.