California: Venice Whaler

Staying in Santa Monica and being so close to Venice, you know we had to make a visit to the famous muscle beach! After hanging out at the beach for a couple of hours and taking a walk on the boardwalk, we were starving for some lunch.  So right at the foot of Venice pier and on the boardwalk is the Venice Whaler, an “upscale dive bar”, the upscale being the food – and the food is good!  You will see that the culinary side to my California trip centred around 3 things: seafood, asian food and tacos 🙂  And when you see chicharrones tacos on a menu, you just have to order them….who can resist deep fried pork belly, I certainly can’t!  And good thing we ordered them, they were the highlight of my California taco experience.  Salty crispy cubes of pork belly that are counter balanced with fresh thinly sliced cabbage slaw, cucumber, tomato, radish and topped with an avocado crema.  It was the perfect freshness and completely satisfying.