Christopher Ranch

I fell in love this weekend.

Though not with a person. Or anything breathing, for that matter. My heart now belongs to this little place called San Diego.

There are hundreds of reasons why San Diego is the new object of my affection. It’s beautiful. It’s clean – especially its beaches. Its downtown is vibrant, tidy and easily accessible – you can walk everywhere. People are friendly. Traffic actually flows. And, they have rickshaws.

However, what truly stole my heart was the city’s fresh, delectable array of seafood.

As a result, we ate our way through our vacation. Literally.

We wandered from La Jolla, to Chula Vista to downtown, making key stops at El Pescador Fish Market, TJ Oyster Bar and Blue Point Coastal Cuisine. Food coma city, I was the mayor.

As I perused the menus – and indulged in the garlic shrimp tacos at TJ’s and lobster-crusted Alaskan halibut at Blue Coastal (I am an equal opportunity lender when it comes to fish) – I was reminded how prominent an ingredient fresh California garlic is in seafood dishes. The robust, smooth flavor of garlic compliments nearly all fish types, particularly mild species, and garlic’s flexibility allows for sautéing, steaming, poaching, searing, baking…you name it.

Therefore, my San Diego/seafood love affair inspired me to compile a list of several favorite seafood dishes (definitely not in its entirety) – all of which include fresh garlic. Preferably, California heirloom garlic.

Cioppino

Garlic Scallops

Grill-Roasted Clam Linguine

Paella Madeira

Southern Seafood Gumbo

Mediterranean Fish Tacos

I loved everything about San Diego, but since food is the key to my heart, I supposed seafood takes the cake. They say separation makes the heart grow fonder…just not sure how long I can wait for another round of garlic shrimp tacos.