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Hong Kong Kitchen & Dimsum Opens Part 1

Chinese BBQ, Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum

Back at the end of December, I noticed the signage for the restaurant taking the place of the long standing Golden City. It was going to be Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum. A few weeks back, I noticed the Grand Opening sign was up and I drove over to check the hours. The place opens at 10am!

So, I tried to talk the Missus into visiting; but She wanted me to check the place out first. Sigh…so of course, I headed on over.

The place was empty when I arrived and was seated. Soon after a couple of larger parties drifted in.

The interior looks basically the same; though they’ve tried to spiff it up a bit. Still, the tell-tale signs of Golden City were quite obvious to me….

The woman running the place was very nice and told me they had just been open for a couple of days. She gave me two menus. Since I was here during “lunch”, I also got the dim sum menu. Dim Sum is served between 10am and 3pm daily.

So, I decided to try a couple of dim sum dishes; which run from $7.50 to $11….such are prices these days as well as two regular menu items.

I started with some Har Gow and Siu Mai, both priced at $9.50.

Some tea arrived soon after.

Of the two sets of dim sum; the Har Gow was the weaker one.

The shrimp filling was decent; a bit on the chewy side; but the shrimpiness came thru quite nicely. These were quite large.

I didn’t care for the wrappers which were too thick, chewy, and rubbery.

I did enjoy the Siu Mai.

While the filling was still on the chewier side; both the flavor of the pork and the shrimp came thru nicely…a good savory-mildly sweet flavor and also quite fragrant.

The wrapper was fine; at least it wasn’t as bad as what I’d last had at the reopened China Max…..this actually had the taste and texture of dim sum!

Both the Har Gow and Siu Mai were quite large and I only had two of each and took the rest home. I reheated using the Microwave “steam” technique which works fairly well. The Missus ate both of the siu mai and had half of a har gow….’nuff said!

As for the menu dishes….well, I wanted to see how the Sauteed Intestines with Chinese Pickles ($22) here fared against my current favorite.

Well, not bad at all; though a bit on the sweeter side in terms of flavor. The pork intestine was definitely not as good as it was really chewy. Good amount of suan cai, adding a nice sour tone to things. Still, I probably won’t be getting this again.

And I just needed to get a half roast duck; which priced at $20, is even cheaper than Eastern Dynasty!

The subcutaneous fat had been nicely rendered and the skin decently caramelized and crisp. However, the meat was on the drier side and the flavor was lacking in anise-five spice tones and was pretty bland. The jus was good in a dry pot that the Missus made the next day.

But this was definitely not as good as Noble Chef or Eastern Dynasty to us.

Still, it was a promising visit. So, I tried to talk the Missus into visiting, but She told me to check things out one more time first. And then gave me some items She wanted me to order???? Say what????

Anyway, I arrived at a quarter after 10 and on this weekend morning the place was already packed!

I guess word had gotten out?

I decided not to order dim sum this time around and tried to order several items from the menu. Unfortunately, they were out of two of them.

So, instead of the West Lake Beed Soup, I got the Crab and Fish Maw Soup (small – $24). Man, even the small portion of this was quite sizeable.

There was some real crab in the soup, which was nice and thick. There was quite bit of fish maw (the air sac) which was fairly spongy in texture as well as egg white.

There’s a bit of oceany-savory “funk”. I thought it was fine; but the Missus really didn’t care for the slight fishiness in flavor.

They did have the Mei Cai Ko Rou ($26).

Some of the slices of pork belly were so melt-in-your-mouth tender. This version was a bit more salty than other versions, which the Missus enjoyed. She also strangely enjoyed the chunks of sauteed lettuce…..which was quite crunchy. A bit less preserved vegetable than other versions. Overall, not a bad dish. If you prefer your MCKR more on the savory side, with less sour-sweet tones, this one is for you. I do think we’ll have this again.

They didn’t have the Minced Pork with Salted Fish on this day either. So I got the Salted Fish, Chicken, and Eggplant Claypot ($21).

And while the Eggplant was a bit more mushy than we prefer, the chicken was pleasantly tender. I know you can’t really see it in the photo, but there was an abundance of small diced pieces off salted fish, which was a nice surprise as most versions of this dish in SD lacks the strong, savory-salty flavor in this dish. The Missus now really wants to try the Minced Pork with Salted Fish.

So, overall not too bad. Perhaps a level down from Eastern Dynasty and Noble Chef, though Hong Kong Kitchen does have dim sum during lunch service. It was also much better than what we’d had during our last visits to Golden City.

I was looking forward to returning and actually trying some of my favorites on my next visit….

So stay tuned for part 2!

Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123

Midweek Meanderings – The Macaron Shop Replacing GyroGrill, El Sazon de Nayarit Truck replacing Mariscos Tone Camaron at Harland (Bay Park), and Sumo Go Coming to the Former Bunny Chow Spot

Desserts, Food Trucks, Japanese Restaurants

Well, since we’re hitting the trifecta of Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, and Lunar New Year, I’m thinknig all of you are pretty busy right now so I thought I’d just do a quick post of places I’ve come across over the last couple of weeks.

The Macaron Shop Replacing GyroGrill:

I was a bit surprised to learn that GyroGrill closed recently. I knew a few folks that really liked the place. I recently revisited Tenkatori and saw that the Macaron Shop was replacing GyroGrill and they even had a stand already set-up on the walkway.

6780 Miramar Rd.
San Diego, CA 92121

El Sazon de Nayarit Truck replacing Mariscos Tone Camaron:

A couple of weeks back, I noticed that the Mariscos Tone Camaron trailer was gone from the side street behind Harland on Napier in Bay Park.

A couple of weeks later, I saw this Food Truck in the spot.

Not sure if the folks from the Mariscos Tone Camaron took over this truck, I waited a bit until I saw Logan, one of the great guys who works at Harland and he told me this is another truck. The Mariscos Tone folks have also upgraded to a truck, but it’s now at a different location.

4112 Napier St.
San Diego, CA 92110

Sumo Go Coming to the Former Bunny Chow Spot:

Bunny Chow which replaced LouZiana Food closed a while ago. I’ve finally seen some activity in the spot. Looks like something named Sumo Go is taking the spot?

Not 100% sure, but I’m thinking it might be part of the Japanese Grab-n-Go trend?

7128 Miramar Rd.
San Diego, CA 92121

Anyway, hope everyone is staying warm and dry with another storm hitting us the next couple of days!

Taste of Hunan Revisited

Chinese Restaurants

Recently, “FOY” Dereck sent me an email about his visit to Taste of Hunan. It used to be a favorite of the Missus, but I couldn’t believe it’s been over six months since we last visited! I think the Missus has been fixated on Cantonese fare from Eastern Dynasty! Though once I mentioned ToH to Her….well guess where we were off to? It was a weekend visit, right as they opened at 11 and the place was empty.

But within 20 minutes the restaurant was almost full, with several large parties.

We decided on one favorite, one standard Hunan dish, and two newer dishes that we hadn’t seen before.

Of course, if you’ve read my previous posts on Taste of Hunan, you know that my favorite dish is the Xiangxi Style Beef Entrails. And yes, this dish is still my favorite.

Served over a live flame heating element; they key is to let the dish sit for a few minutes to let the onions at the bottom of the dish cook and soak up the spicy-savory sauce. It becomes nice and sweet as well. I enjoy the combinations of flavors and textures; the soft beef tripe, the more toothsome and flavorful beef.

La Rou with Bamboo is a classic Hunan dish. And I must say, this was the best we’ve had in a while.

The house made smoked pork is somewhat chewy, but so porky-savory and smoky, with the perfect amount of saltiness. Add to that the earthy and still somewhat crunchy bamboo shoots this was quite good. We did think it could have used more chilies; but the garlic tones made up for that.

While we the previous dish could have possibly used more chilies; let me tell you that the dish named “Beef Loved by My Wife” had more than enough spice going on!

It also had a heck of a lot of cumin….think of it as being a version of cumin lamb, but made with beef and much more spicy! The beef was slightly chewy, but man, this was umami overload!

The Missus was interested in trying the Steamed Egg with Minced Pork, so we ordered it.

Man, this was so porky; the Missus loved the broth/sauce. The eggs, which were actually poached were overcooked and the yolks dry. We’d actually get it right with the leftovers at home. The pork was very tender and savory…..though both the Missus and I agreed that it could have used some textural contrast….maybe some water chestnut or something?

Overall, it was a good meal. I’m sure the Missus will be wanting to return soon to try other items as it seems that new ones are added every few months!

Thanks to Dereck for reminding us of Taste of Hunan!

Taste of Hunan
9880 Hibert St.
San Diego, CA 92131
Current Hours:
Mon, Tues 11am – 9pm
Thurs 1130am – 230pm, 5pm – 9pm
Friday 1130am – 230pm, 5pm – 930pm
Sat, Sun 11am – 930pm

Sourdough & Moore

Bakery, Croissants

When I heard that Sourdough & Moore was opening up a brick and mortar shop I put it on my list to try. I’d seen their stand at the Mission Valley Farmers Market at Civita Park and was interested in trying their sourdough….according to what I’d read, the starter is over a century old.

It took me a bit, but I finally made it down to Newport in OB and Sourdough & Moore.

I’m guessing that 8am on Sundays are pretty quiet right now in OB? Cause I easily found parking and strolled on over.

There’s nothing like the smell of a bakery in the morning, right?

The young lady working was so cheerful and helpful. I asked if they sliced their boule and she led me to the shelves with presliced loaves. There’s a variety of flavors like kalamata olive, rosemary….but I just wanted to try the sourdough straight up. There weren’t any small loaves of plain sourdough available, so I just went with a regular sized loaf. And since I was here; you know there was something else I needed to try, right?

Yep, there’s the croissant aux buerre ($6). I also got the Missus a nice dessert as well!

It’s a Meyer Lemon Cheesecake Croissant ($12).

Which looked so pretty…the light lemon meringue like filling was very nice, not overly sweet, creamy. But the pastry was very doughy and chewy.

As for the sourdough…..

I prefer a bit of a crustier loaf, as the crust was on the chewier side. The sourdough flavor is quite light….so if you’re into not overly tangy-earth sourdough, this might do it for you.

Th bread itself is quite light and fluffy, very soft……not good if you’re into eating toasted sourdough or avocado toast, but it compliments a sandwich nicely.

Personally, we still prefer a assertive tasting sourdough like what Secret Sister makes.

As for the croissant….well, it is really long…..

The laminate looked really baked, but it was on the chewy side, lacking in flakiness.

The interior was decently honeycombed, but also a bit too “wet” for my taste.

It also needed more butter. A telling moment was when I tried to give JJ some and he turned it down! The croissant king?!? What the heck? So, I’m still looking at Relic and Wayfarer being my top 2 here in SD. I need to do a side by side comparison one of these days…..

Anyway, if you like a milder flavored sourdough, ahem, “S&M” might (not literally) be your thing.

Sourdough & Moore
4853 Newport Ave.
San Diego, CA 92107
Current Hours:
Wed – Fri 7am – 3pm
Sat – Sun 8am – 3pm
Closed on Monday & Tuesday

Honolulu – Waiola Shave Ice

Desserts, Honolulu, Travel

After having our poke at Ali’i Fish Market we decided to head on back to Ala Moana. It was actually enjoyable walking since there were so many memories in the area…looking at the huge First Hawaiian Bank building….I recalled when Chunky’s Drive In was there. And of course there’s Stadium Park….I’m old enough to remember the old Honolulu Stadium…I even saw some Islander games there.

Ah yes…the good old “Termite Palace“!

Right around this time; the Missus was wanting some “dessert” and I knew just the place. Just about a block away is Waiola Shave Ice…..which has been around as long as I can remember.

Way before they opened a shop in Kapahulu, there was this original location. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth these days; but I thought the Missus would enjoy some refreshing shave ice on this day. I haven’t been here in nearly 30 years and my goodness has the menu expanded!

I remember first having shave ice at the Zoo…and basically strawberry was the only flavor. Oh my, look at all the flavors these days!

The Missus ended up getting a Rainbow with Ube Mochi.

The blue color for vanilla has always kinda freaked me out.

We had a seat in the back of Waiola with all the stuffed animals and “stuffs”…..

And the Missus really enjoyed the shave ice….She said it wasn’t overly sweet and so refreshing….and of course; it’s so Hawaii.

And of course She asked why I hadn’t brought Her here before! Well, we were never close by….but now, especially with walking and not having to find parking; well, the time was right!

Shave ice….so many good memories…..

Waiola Shave Ice
2135 Waiola St.
Honolulu, HI 96826

Honolulu – Ali’i Fish Market (Moiilili) and Island Brew Coffeehouse (Ala Moana)

Caffeine Fix, Honolulu, Oahu, Poke, Seafood, Travel

Well, since I did Ireh, I thought I’d go ahead and finish my Honolulu posts. I’ll do my Australia posts later on.

Anyway, upon waking at the Ala Moana Hotel, I did a search on coffee places nearby….I had already been to the Ala Moana location of Honolulu Coffee Company, which didn’t open until 9 and I wanted a cup ASAP. I did find that there’s a location of Island Brew Coffeehouse located on the third level of the shopping center. They open at 730, so after chilling out for a bit, I went and walked on over.

I don’t recall walking thru “Ala’s” at 730 in the morning. Man, the place is so chill.

And I got me morning cold brew.

Smooth and on the milder-weaker side, but it did the job…..

Island Brew Coffeehouse (Ala Moana Center)
1450 Ala Moana Blvd. Suite 3066
Honolulu, HI 96814

Coffee’s in hand, we walked over and did Ala Moana Park and went back to the room to relax. We decided to get an early lunch and the Missus wanted some poke. I had a sort of newish (at least to us) place in mind in the Moiilili area named Ali’i Fish Market. So we decided to walk on over. It was about a 25 minute walk or so….which we enjoyed. You see, I grew up in Kaimuki and spent my first 21 years in there. After rent got too high, I moved my Mom and I to Kalakaua, but den dey was goin buss down the apartment…it’s now a parking lot (?!?!?). Then it was over to Kalihi….I had two good friends in the area, but that apartment was a mess. So finally, I got an apartment, whose owners at the time was neighbors of a friend of mine in McCully where I lived until my mom passed on and I eventually moved to the mainland. As we walked up Kapiolani, I took one of the side streets and got to show the Missus where I used to live. They’ve done a really nice job painting the place as it looks better then when I lived there!

Though there’s still quite a few chickens running around. Yes, chickens in McCully….you don’t mess with them…even the cats in the ‘hood know betta den to do dat!

It was an interesting walk up King Street…bringing back memories of places now gone like Ebisu’s, Suehiro, McCully Chop Suey. Where the original location of Anyplace was.

And then we had arrived, to Ali’i Fish Market.

A very non-descript location off South King. Actually, right across the way at 2334 is where the original location of Choi’s used to be. It was a favorite of my mom’s!

And so you walk in.

The place does all kind of stuffs, from musubis to bowls, but we were here for one thing….

Poke of course. And within that, I’m looking for simple stuff, not covered in mayo or “spicy sauce”….fish is first. The young lady working is so nice……..and I got some simple stuffs.

Ahi Limu and Spicy Hawaiian…not drenched in sauce.

You can tell right? The limu ahi was much better than the “spicy” as there was a good amount of oceany, crunchy ogo. The fish was also of better quality.

Though it was still seemed kinda thrown together and not evenly seasoned.

The “Spicy” was not good, not even spicy.

Lots of pieces with “sugi”, chwey connective tissue. Not evenly seasoned, really overly chewy….like it was just thrown together and not mixed well.

Kind of a bummer since I think I’d get better at Foodland, or even Ruger Market, and definitely at our favorite Ono Seafood. Still it was good to try this place and perhaps I didn’t get the right thing?

Ali’i Fish Market
2320 South King St. Suite H
Honolulu, HI 96826

Cha Cha Tea Spot – Salt & Pepper Pork Chops, Reader Recs

Chinese Restaurants

In the comment section of my post on Potato Powder Love Noodle (I do need to revisit), “FOY” Franklin mentioned wanting to try the place out, but it was strangely closed, so he got the salt and pepper pork chops from Cha Cha Tea Spot next door and thought it was pretty good and wanted my opinion of the place. Ok…..so today, guess where I was headed?

Now, this stand opens fairly early, at 10 am I think. I had passed by so many times, but never really looked at the menu….which is crazy!

Not only boba…but dim sum..Sichuan style dishes, Nian Gao, Cumin Lamb? The little sign says Cantonese specialties….but they’ll also slice meat for hot pot and clean seafood for you????

Anyway, the Salt & Pepper Pork Chops are $19.99! Seemed kinda pricy, but I placed my order with thhe really nice woman working. I went and did some shopping, then swooped in to pick up my order.

Which came with a large order of fragrant, nicely cooked Jasmine rice.

As for the pork chops…which were chopped….a rather thick lacquer type batter was used. Yes, it was crunchy, but very rich and eggy, also greasy. I felt like I needed to be hosed down after a couple of pieces.

It was by no means bland, but I thought it didn’t have enough pepper, garlic, or even chilies……though I did get the MS-heebie-geebies…

You can see how thick the batter is above.

The Missus took a bite and said, where’s the flavor, it seems too thickly battered?

Thanks for the recommendation Franklin, but it was just too much for me. Also of note is the 50 cent takeout container charge. No biggie, but I didn’t see it indicated anywhere.

I know that “FOY” ChrisR had some really mediocre Salt & Pepper Pork Chops recently and had hoped that this might be a nice option for him, but I don’t think so. It’s better than Panda Express, but that really doesn’t say much, right?

If anyone has gotten some “keeper” dishes here, please let me know!

Cha Cha Tea Spot
5950 Balboa Ave (In the 99 Ranch Market Food Court)
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 10am – 9pm

Bei Yuan Tea & Boba – Lu Rou Fan, Reader Recs

Taiwanese Food and Restaurants

In my post on Zen Modern Asian Bistro, “FOY” RD inquired about Lu Rou Fan. And “FOY” Jess mentioned Bei Yuan! Now this is why I love our little “community”. I get so many recommendations and it keeps me inspired! I realized that I have a couple of other Reader Recs visits….I just did one today, so I better get hoppin’ on these.

And so I dropped by at the 1130 opening time. Not quite knowing the drill, I kinda just milled around until the young man working saw me and led me to one side of the restaurant to a table.

Looking at the menu, I noticed the Lu Rou Fan….$16.80 lunch special with a drink is fairly reasonable these days.

My Lu Rou Fan appeared like magic within a few minutes!

It was quite a bit of food and of course I wasn’t expecting anything close to what we had at Jin Feng Braised Pork Rice (金峰魯肉飯) in Taipei or even on Xindian Road.

This was quite interesting. Just tasting the pork by itself….well, it was just one bite…it was super salty, tough, lacking in the velvety fatty-beauty and anise-spice tones of what I consider LRF. It wasn’t bad mind you, just a bit much.

I did think the seasoned egg was pretty good, the yolk wasn’t overly dry and overcooked like what seems to be the norm these days.

I quickly poured it over the perfectly cooked rice and mixed with the veggies…though the edamame was ice cold.

I did enjoy the free drink which in this case was the Passion Green Tea, light sugar which was so refreshing and reinvigorating balancing out the saltiness of the dish.

The dish did much better mixed together, but was still on the high sodium end of the scale.

Still, I think it was much better than what I’d had at Bopomofo and Soup du Jour.

I think “Jess” had it right when she wrote “It’s more fast food-y but Bei Yuan has Lou rou fan. Is it the best? No but it’ll hit the spot.”

While I don’t think I’ll have this again; I’m glad to have tried it. Such is the blessing of having all you “FOYs” out there! Now RD, what did you think of the LRF here?

Bei Yuan Tea & Boba
7315 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 1130am – Midnight

You can also check out Cathy’s post on Bei Yuan here.

Goya Tsukemomo (Pickled Bitter Melon – with some daikon too)

Cookbooks, Cooking, Recipes

As you get older, do you find yourself eating more and more like your parents/grandparents? It came to me as I made us lunch the other day…..and no…sigh, the Missus cannot just eat Niku Doufu…She needs all those side dishes.

And while the takana (mustard greens) and kyuri (cucumber) asazuke are from the market. The one other item was not.

My grandparents loved bitter melon, at the age I was exposed to it….well, I hated it. When we lived in Kaimuki, our neighbors, the wife was Okinawan loved goya, and would give us goya and my mom, and later me; would make goya champuru…basically bitter melon and eggs. Being raised on a low income, it was a treat to have some Spam in it. They also gave us pickled bitter melon as well. Eventually, as I got older, I enjoyed it more, but still never really developed a taste for it until I was in my 30’s. Still, it wasn’t something I craved. And then we had our last trip “home”. My friends recommended a restaurant located on the second floor of McCully Shopping Center named Bozu. Yes, I know…waaaay behind on those posts!

Anyway, one of the dishes we ordered was the Pickled Bitter Melon.

And the Missus was smitten! We ended up have three orders of this!

Anyway, recently I’d been doing a bunch of pickling…mainly of stuff from the garden and I decided to try my hand at making Goya Tsukemono. I looked online and thru several of my cookbooks and after several tries found one that interested me in Machiki Tateno’s Japanese Pickled Vegetables. In the end, I used the recipe as an outline ingredient wise totally changing proportion and quantity. Not wanting to waste excess pickling liquid I fill the excess space with slices of daikon, which does well in this pickling solution as well as a few cloves of garlic.

Anyway, it’s a current favorite of the Missus. And now it seems to be getting a bit of play since it’s considered an important ingredient of “Blue Zone” diets. I dunno about that….we just think this tastes mighty good!

A couple of notes – I use the daikon and garlic to fill space after adding the bitter melon. I’ve cut down on the amount of dark brown sugar since the Missus enjoys more salty/bitter to sweet.

Goya Tsukemono (With daikon and garlic too)
1 – 7-8 oz Bitter Melon
Boiling Water
Slices of daikon (optional)
5-6 Cloves peeled garlic (optional)

2 dried chilies
1/2 Cup Rice Wine Vinegar
1/2 Cup Light Soy Sauce – I used Aloha Shoyu
1/3 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
2 Slices of Ginger

  • Heat a pot of water to a boil
  • Slice bitter melon in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and scrape off as much white fibers and matter as possible. Slice into 1/3 inch slices cross wise.
  • Use boiling water to sterilize pickle jar and also pour over bitter melon and drain.
  • Add pickling ingredients to a small pot and bring to a boil.
  • Add bitter melon slices to pickle jar. Fill excess with slices of daikon and garlic.
  • Add boiling pickling liquid to jar, let cool until warm. Then cover and refrigerate.
  • Wait 2-3 days before serving

If you try this recipe; let me know how it turns out!