Grill

Stephen Santacroce When I'm not writing or working at my real estate job, I like to squeeze in a round of golf every now and then. Despite the frustration the sport can incite, golf courses are usually situated in grand settings and provide for a relaxing afternoon with friends. I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a golfer (nor would anyone who's played with me), but I enjoy the game. Eighteen holes can work up an appetite, especially when most of your time is spent looking for lost balls.

Greer Wylder Restaurateur Jeremy Umland says his life changed 26 years ago when a friend mentioned she was moving to Japan. On the spot, he decided to do the same, beginning the greatest adventure of his life. The 6-foot-2, blond-haired, blue-eyed Umland left the Bronx and says he became the first American to play baseball at a Japanese university. What started as a one-year sojourn turned into a 15-year stay. After college, Umland's pitching ability got him drafted by the Seibu Lions of the Japanese Pacific League.

When Pelican Hill Golf Club closed a couple of years ago for renovations I was depressed, but I think it was the restaurant closing that saddened me more than the golf course. There was nothing better than finishing a round of golf and then heading up the stairs to enter the restaurant and eat dinner while the sun was setting over the Pacific Ocean. When I found out the Irvine Co. wasn’t opening the restaurant back up in its previous location, I was disappointed. The new location was going to be lower down the street where the practice facility is located.

Police are asking for the public's help to find a 22-year-old college student who was last seen in Newport Beach early Saturday morning. Family members said that Alan Sun-Long Lin was last seen around 1 a.m. Saturday at Rudy's Pub and Grill at 3110 Newport Blvd., according to his family. Lin, a mechanical engineering student at UC Riverside, lives with three roommates in Riverside during the week, and is in Irvine with his family on weekends. Lin's aunt, Cynthia Kao, said no calls have been made from his cell phone and there has been no activity on his bank cards.

Deepa Bharath Barbecue lovers may call it a dream machine. Lloyd Ikerd just calls it "a legacy." In three weeks, Ikerd, a member of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce's Commodores Club, designed a mammoth custom-built grill on a trailer on which firefighters cooked up more than 1,000 hot dogs for their Public Safety Day on Oct. 6. The grill was donated to the Fire Department by the Commodores Club....

W hat's the best way to celebrate June graduations, the kids getting out of school and Father's Day? With a good old-fashioned barbecue, of course! Whether you want to try something new or stick with tried-and-true favorites, you'll find a tempting array of outdoor cookbooks at the Newport Beach Library. Dig into these selections for mouthwatering recipes to make your summer sizzle: "500 Barbecue Dishes: The Only Barbecue Compendium You'll Ever Need" by Paul Kirk : Packed with more than 500 recipes, this volume also covers essential barbecue techniques.

Greer Wylder Clinging to the cliffs of Newport Coast is Pelican Hill, one of the world's best places to play golf. Golf magazine listed Pelican Hill Golf Club as one of the "Top 100 Courses You Can Play" in America and named the 17th hole on the Ocean North Course as one of the best holes in the world. Tom Fazio, named one of America's greatest golf course architects, designed the two 18-hole golf courses that feature holes in lush canyons and rolling greens edged out to the ocean.

With summer just around the corner, it?s time to fire up the grill and get ready for outdoor barbecues. The Newport Beach Public Library has many new cookbooks to help you cook outdoors with recipes ranging from flavorings to meats to pizza cooking on the grill. ??500 Barbecue Dishes: The Only Barbecue Compendium That You?ll Ever Need? by Paul Kirk . This barbecue compendium is crammed with 500 mouth-watering recipes, all of them clear and easy to follow. Filled with tips on how to select the right ingredients for your barbecue and how to make them taste absolutely perfect, this may be the only book about barbecue you will ever need.

Smoked billowed off the two grills as Sicilian sausage, hand-stuffed with three types of imported cheeses and coiled into neat foot-wide circles, cooked over the mesquite coal. The sausages went from the grill into a C'est Si Bon roll, topped with peppers and onions and covered in marina sauce before being sold at Sabatino's Lido Shipyard Sausage Company's booth. Sam and Donna Aromando, of Mission Viejo, each ate a sausage sandwich in the shade of the late afternoon sun Saturday at the 23rd annual Taste of Newport Beach.

We had Father's Day in our backyard. Four fathers present: Sherry's dad, her brother, a friend of the family and me. I don't like Father's Day. Or Mother's Day. Or the other Days that require compulsory cards and gifts and good times for all, no matter what. Good especially for the merchants who sell cards and gifts. If all this sounds cynical, consider that I'm sitting in my office looking out at a yard full of plastic chairs, an overflowing bag of trash, a couple of very wet tablecloths from the sprinklers kicking in and a memory of a gas grill that refused to work, requiring a magnificent tri-tip to be consigned to the oven in our kitchen while I fussed over the grill.

Jose Alonso had mixed emotions Tuesday night. The El Torito Grill head chef was happy to still have a job, but sad to see that a big part of his life was shutting down, as it was the Newport Beach location's last day of operation after 26 years at the location. Alonso started working at the El Torito at Fashion Island 23 years ago, when he cleaned the restaurant. Two weeks after he was hired, he said he was promoted to prepare for the cooks. After three years of prep, he moved to a spot on the line, where he worked for another three years until he became the second chef.

Smoked billowed off the two grills as Sicilian sausage, hand-stuffed with three types of imported cheeses and coiled into neat foot-wide circles, cooked over the mesquite coal. The sausages went from the grill into a C'est Si Bon roll, topped with peppers and onions and covered in marina sauce before being sold at Sabatino's Lido Shipyard Sausage Company's booth. Sam and Donna Aromando, of Mission Viejo, each ate a sausage sandwich in the shade of the late afternoon sun Saturday at the 23rd annual Taste of Newport Beach.

COSTA MESA - The Orange County Fair has ended, but fare for foodies has once again fired up the grills in the OC Fair & Event Center parking lot. After being on hiatus for the duration of the fair July 15 to Aug. 14, Food Truck Fare Thursdays resumed at lunchtime with crowd favorites. Piaggio Gourmet on Wheels, the Burnt Truck, Lobsta Truck, Chunk-N-Chip Cookies, Tropical Shave Ice, Fresh Fries and other food trucks rolled out an array of offerings from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event features eight to 12 different trucks each week.

A college student whose body was found floating in Newport Harbor's Rhine Channel appears to have drowned, according to autopsy information posted Monday by the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner. The body of Alan Sun-Long Lin, 22, of Irvine, was found about 7:15 a.m. Sunday just south of Lido Park Drive by local residents, Newport Beach Police Sgt. Steve Burdette said. Lin's body, which was spotted near the Bluewater Grill, looked like it had been in the water for some time. Investigators don't believe that foul play was involved because no marks or bruises were found on the corpse, Burdette said.

Police are asking for the public's help to find a 22-year-old college student who was last seen in Newport Beach early Saturday morning. Family members said that Alan Sun-Long Lin was last seen around 1 a.m. Saturday at Rudy's Pub and Grill at 3110 Newport Blvd., according to his family. Lin, a mechanical engineering student at UC Riverside, lives with three roommates in Riverside during the week, and is in Irvine with his family on weekends. Lin's aunt, Cynthia Kao, said no calls have been made from his cell phone and there has been no activity on his bank cards.

Irvine residents living near UC Irvine now have a new healthy-dining alternative. KOBA Tofu Grill, owned by UCI alumna Carol Choi, has replaced Blockbuster in the shopping center off Campus and California. Although the name showcases its abundance of vegetarian-friendly dishes, the Korean barbecue restaurant has a diverse menu. It includes items such as sauteed kimchi, seafood pancakes and the house special pork. Choi shows her dedication to her academic clientele, the city and her alma mater by donating 1% of proceeds from every sale to either the UCI Scholarship Fund or the Irvine Public School Foundation.

The Fuji Grill at Big Corona Beach closed earlier this month — the victim of the bad economy and the city's increase in parking fees at the beach. "The parking really hit me," said owner John Lee. "The parking system should transition to usage-based billing system by using parking meter or some type of paid-by-hour system. This issue's been requested (by the) city ever since we opened to the public. The road block was the parking fee. It's a shame. I learned a good lesson.

How excited am I? Go ahead, ask me. No really, ask me. Just say, "How excited are you?" Who me? I'm glad you asked. On a scale of one-to-10, I'm a little past 18 and climbing. Why? Because we are finally getting our own Capital Grille, that's why. This is huge. Do you remember The Clubhouse next to Bloomie's at South Coast Plaza? Forget that. It's a Capital Grille now. If you don't know about The Capital Grille, which is a condition you need to fix immediately, you will soon.

COSTA MESA —The Capital Grille, with more than 40 locations nationwide, will open another location Oct. 18 at South Coast Plaza. This will be the Orlando, Fla.-based restaurant chain's second California location, the first being in Beverly Hills. The restaurant is known for its aged steaks and extensive wine list. "We are thrilled to join the Orange County community," John Martin, president of The Capital Grille, said in a statement. The Capital Grille will host a special event before the restaurant opens to the public.

COSTA MESA — Z'Tejas Southwestern Grill might be better known for serving up Tex-Mex meals, but on Wednesday the South Coast Plaza restaurant kicked up its spice to a different level with "Chile Fest, the Ultimate Mixer. " Inspired by New Mexico's appreciation of the chili pepper, every year Z'Tejas combines its special Chile Fest menu with a benefit for local charities, donating a portion of the proceeds to the organizations. This year, four were chosen: Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Alzheimer's Assn.