Santa Barbara Greek Festival

My apologies for two food posts in a row, but I went to the Greek Festival at Oak Park yesterday and the food was too delicious not to blog about!

I love Greek food, so I try to go to the Greek Festival in Santa Barbara every year.  Sometimes they have some fun vendors, but mostly I go for lunch and dessert!  They also have singing and dancing, which I usually watch while eating!

My dad and I shared three things for lunch this year.  We ordered moussaka which is layers of eggplant and ground beef covered by a bechamel sauce.  We also ordered spanakopita which is spinach, cheeses, and herbs in filo dough.  The last thing we shared was tiropita which is cheeses inside filo dough (I think of it as spanakopita minus the spinach).  We also each ordered rice pilaf.  I normally get a roll as well but this year they looked like hamburger buns!

The moussaka was by far my favorite.  I tried it for the first time last year and it is so delicious!  I highly recommend it if you have never tried it!

Ohhhhhhh the desserts!  I could eat these all day every day!  The delicious cookies covered in powdered sugar are called kourambiedes.  They were almost out of these and everyone seemed to be buying many of them!  The little cookie squished in the middle is a melomakarona, or a honey cookie with walnuts on top.  The last dessert is yaourtopita, a lemon yogurt cake.  I loved all three desserts!  My mom wasn't a fan of the cake but loved the other two.  I wish there was a local place to pick these treats up during the year!  Hopefully I will get to enjoy all of the above foods when I go to Greece in a few months!

Have you ever tried Greek food?  What's your favorite?

Via Maestra 42

I made a huge blogging mistake today....I went to a new restaurant and forgot my camera!  Everyone I know in Santa Barbara highly recommends Via Maestra, so my mom and I decided to try it out today!  They are located next to the San Roque post office.

Our food today was absolutely delicious.  My mom ordered vegetable lasagna.  She loved that the veggies were broccoli, artichoke and spinach.  She also loved that the cheese was melted as opposed to when she makes it and you can see the chunks of ricotta.  I ordered spinach ravioli in a lemon cream sauce.  It was amazing.  The lemon taste was strong but not overly so.  It was loaded with spinach.  I loved it!

They carry tons of flavors of gelato, which I will have to try next time.  I can't wait to go back and try another entree as well! :)

Szechuan Restaurant

We are really into trying new restaurants lately.  We love Chinese food, so we looked for a Santa Barbara restaurant we hadn't tried yet.  We decided to try out Szechuan restaurant on the Mesa.

The sesame chicken was amazing!  The sauce was delicious and the chicken was a very high quality!

I loved the sweet and sour fish.  My mom said the sauce was too mild but I didn't notice that.

They give you fried wonton strips with sweet and sour while you wait for your dinner!

The egg foo young was really yummy.  The sauce was amazing!

The fried rice was delicious...but cost us $6!!!!!  Be careful about this one.  They asked if everyone wanted fried rice and when we said yes, they charged us $1 per person plus another $3 because we only ordered three entrees.  This was definitely the only bad part of the meal.

I would definitely recommend this restaurant to people because of the delicious food.  Just be careful about the rice LOL