Bella and I are making our way to the desert again to fire up some holiday cheer.  An odd choice to some but for golfers and chowhounds there is a lot to offer here.  We dropped by the Cabazon Outlets for some Auntie Em’s cheddar pretzel bites and cinnamon sugar pretzel bites (for the record, go for the cheddar ones) and to window shop.  Unfortunately, it began to rain, the wind started blowing strongly and we found ourselves in a borderline torrential downpour.

Blackberry Custard French Toast

At Wilma and Frieda’s Cafe (wilmafrieda.com) we had this french toast with creamy custard, delicious berries and a light dusting of powdered sugar.  Remarkable!

Blackberry Custard French Toast

Their snickerdoodle cookie isn’t a real snickerdoodle cookie and barely resembles a cookie.  The texture is comparable to the spectacular homemade biscuit they served me with a soft interior and a firm exterior.  This is closer to a plain sugar cookie, without the sugar mind you.  There is barely any moistness on the inside and no cinnamon to speak of.  It has a thick body and is crumbly and very, very plain (if I hadn’t made that abundantly clear yet).  Their “Koffi” brand coffee is bold and tasty.

Retro Diner Signage

Located on the wall in their dining room.  Davy loves “old skool” nostalgia…

The Dunes Course (Pete Dye)

Finding The Dunes Course (laquintaresort.com) in La Quinta via a GPS is about as easy as finding a grain of salt in a Connecticut blizzard.  After missing the entrance five times we finally arrived at our destination.

The best we can hope for in California is lush fairways and greens with intentionally burned out rough.  That is as good as it gets at most courses in this state.  We were paired with a couple of friendly and humorous Brits.

Brit Son About to Crush…

He is 17 years old, hefty, about 6’3″ and bombs the ball 300 plus yards consistently from the black tees.

Crazy Terrain on this Hole

You can make out the white flag on the far left.  Now how do you get there?  I’m thinking of going “short porch”.

Nice fairways for the desert or beyond…

The greens here aren’t quite as nasty as I recalled from two and a half years ago.  Black Gold definitely has tougher greens.  The Brits played Black Gold and other Orange County courses and agreed that the Black Gold greens were filthy.

Onion Volcano @ Hibachi Steak House

Our neighborhood in the OC is shy of teppan restaurants so we sniffed in at the Hibachi Steak House & Sushi Bar (760-674-0078).

Salmon Sashimi

So delicate it disintegrated in your mouth in a heartbeat.

Super Tender Calamari

I love it when calamari lacks the fishiness and is this tender as well.

Westin Pete Dye: Hole 1

We lucked out when the twosome we were to be paired with was late so they sent us out and we floored it to leave them in our dust.

Elfie Looks even Smaller than Usual

This course was lush last year but now it is just like the Gary Player Course across the street with intentionally burned out rough areas.

Pete Dye Loves Grassy Mounds

The greens here are slower and tougher than at The Dunes Course.

Hole 18: More Burned out Rough

We ate lunch at The Slice (theslicepizza.com) which offered a unique option of choosing your ingredients for each slice of pizza.  The con here is that the ingredients don’t feel cooked in and end up more like an afterthought tossed on at the last minute.  And it tastes that way.  Overall, the pie was fine, just not noteworthy enough.  Their crust is awesome which was no surprise since their free bread with butter was outstanding.  The crust is not crunchy and is moderately thin, well above paper thin.

Bella Loves the Stocking on Pillow

Preferred guest Bella receives a stocking on her pillow on Christmas Eve.

Bonta Restaurant & Bar: Antipasto

Salami platter with Gorgonzola/blue cheese balls, prosciutto, salami, green olives, artichoke, roasted red peppers and soft bread.

French Onion Soup

The chef, Hector Salvatierra and his wife visited our table to ensure we were enjoying our meal.  This innovative restaurant has influences from Argentina, Germany, Italy and Spain in their cuisine.  Many Germans and Italians immigrated to Argentina after World War II so this really isn’t surprising.

My Perfectly Cooked Skirt Steak

The dipping sauce shown is “red chimichurri” sauce.  More often Argentinean restaurants serve the green one.  This one has a bit more spice/heat to it via more red pepper.  It is vinegar heavy whereas we prefer olive oil heavy.  It was very good but could use more herbs and spices.

View from our Balcony

Chinese Hot Pot @ JB’s

Christmas day at JB’s condo.

Meat!

Shrimp

Taro

Wontons OR Dumplings?

A Bushel of Greens

Clams

Dipping Sauce

JB Dipping Cookie in Java

Kona Caramac Candies Rock!

Peet’s Coffee @ JB’s

Justin “Right Angle” Red Blend

A very nice balanced meritage with subtle oak.

Elfie thru the Easter Basket and…IN!