No Garlic Ice Cream

What's that sign say? Garlic Ice Cream??

Sadly those are not my hands (eek! man hands attack!) ... and no they are not Kyle's hands. Those babies belong to a stranger. A stranger holding the mystical garlic ice cream. To make it better (or more strange?) the ice cream is served in half a cantaloupe. We went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival and I was so excited to try the garlic ice cream but that never happened. Here is why:

We got to the fairgrounds and did a loop around to check everything out.

OMG. LOVE DUNKIN DONUTS! Bring the stores to CALIFORNIA!!

We stopped and spun the prize wheel. No cool winnings.

We stopped to check out these giant chickens. They were really well trained.

We walked into this demo area and someone tossed us some free garlic!

They told us how to make their prize-winning scampi sauce.

He was afraid of the giant chickens from earlier.

We continued to walk ... SO MANY PEOPLE! And lots of food options...

For example, these enchanted escargot.

If you are a real badass you could just eat the garlic like an apple.

Then we found one of the 2 stages and listened to a lady rock out. SERIOUSLY she was a rocker. 

Okay. HUNGRY now! All the food was locally grown. 

MMM... this sounds delicious.

And it was! It was overflowing with green and red peppers, onions, garlic of course...

Ultimately this was the reason why I did not have the garlic ice cream...

Can you blame me? Nicole knows about my love for anything related to frozen yogurt. I'm not going to say I would always choose froyo over ice cream, but today froyo won! Kyle and I also had the garlic fries (in fact it was the first thing we ate!)

General thoughts about the Gilroy Garlic Festival:

- tons of people! 

- repetitive food stalls (all of them had garlic for some reason ...jk)

- art sampling (diverse but nothing that sticks out as WOOOAHHHH)

- pickled garlic: I liked it while Kyle thought it was detestable. If you ever decide to try it, make sure you are a fan of brine preservation.

- Dunkin Donuts spin wheel is rigged so no one can win

- giant chicken Halloween costume might not be a bad idea

- garlic fries are awesome, if only Jan Hagel would have let me try the one with crab (I don't care if it's fake crab!)

- there really isn't a whole lot to do - eat, walk, eat, sit, eat ... eat eat eat!

Lizzaran (Gilroy)

Me and my boyfriend.

For our two year annie, Kyle and I decided to meet for dinner at Lizzaran (7400 Monterey St, Gilroy), a Spanish/Tapas restaurant. (Yelp.) We sat outside on their huge patio, under a sizzling heat lamp. Our waiter was so awesome, he was friendly, cranked up the heat on the lamp immediately, and gave us an honest account of what to expect of each dish we had questions on.

First we had a few pintxos, which are tapas served on toothpicks. You get charged for the number of toothpicks leftover on your plate. We grabbed three of the cold tapas (you can find them in a glass enclosure at the bar): a stuffed red pepper, a salmony cheese one, and then.... f. I can't remember. I brought my camera, but left the battery at my house in Seaside. Sorry, no original pictures! All three of the pintxos were really good, they also have a selection of warm pintxos which can be ordered via your waiter and will be brought out to your table so you can pick and choose.

This picture was from Yelp, most of the cold pintxos look like these.

Next we ordered our main entrees. View their menu here. We tried the Salmon Papillote, a plate with salmon and fresh vegetables baked in foil, and the Paella Mixta, a giant shallow bowl full of saffron rice, chicken, seafood, assorted shellfish, and vegetables. The paella, which is a typical Valencian rice dish, originated in a lagoon in Valencia off the east coast of Spain. I found out that Lizzaran has about 90% of their locations in Europe, with only two in California. One is in Gilroy and the other is in Fullerton (310 N. Harbor Blvd, Fullerton). Kerry/Fran/Jacquelyn please go to the one in Fullerton!! It was sooooooo good! I recommend it highly. There are so many menu options, I definitely will go back the next time I need a place to eat in Gilroy. THIS. IS. A. GEM. = YOU. SHOULD. GO.


It's located in the old Gilroy Town Hall building and the inside is both modern and old-school, if that makes sense. Kind of reminds me of a place Chuck Bass would visit and/or create. Beautiful building, tasty food, great company! I also ordered a glass of their Sangria! It was delicious! Filled with fruit chunks that I ate as a dessert when my glass was empty.

Their hours:
Mon - Thurs, Sun 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Fri - Sat 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.