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Zab Linda Revisited

Thai Restaurants

The recent record heat had the Missus craving Thai food, something that doesn’t usually happen until the late spring. She was looking for a specific style, Issan to be exact, and of course we could have headed up to The Original Sab E Lee, which we do need to revisit, but did not want to drive very far. Of course some Lao food would have been great, but our last experience at Spicy Lao Kitchen, after what appears to be some changes was not very good. And then thinking about TOSeL…the “original – original” which opened where Yorimichi now is. Before expanding to locations eastward and northward; with the Linda Vista locale moving across the street to the mall which used to be Toan Ky Restaurant…sigh…guess I’ve been doing this too long? Anyway, we had visited Zab Linda which replaced TOSeL when they first opened, but had only done takeout visits, due to you remember, right? It had always been my intention to return, but things just keeps moving along…… In that roundabout way, Zab Linda came back into focus, and I thought we should revisit to catch up on things. And catch up we did! While not on the level of meals we’d had during the prime of TOSeL, we enjoyed several of the dishes and ended up doing three visits.

Funny thing, I had never gone beyond that high front counter and seen the dining room. The two lovely folks working were quite nice as well.

Since we did three visits and have reordered several dishes during our visits; I’m just going to go from our favorites downward in this post. So here goes….. One more note; we got everything Medium Spicy.

Nam Khao Tod ($15). This was by far our favorite item on the menu. We had it three times. The first time, there wasn’t even crispy bits of rice and a lack of the light flavor of coconut, but the after that, it’s been quite good.

This version has a large amount of sour sausage, which makes for a nice textural contrast to the crisp, crusted rice. Good amount of cilantro, decent sour tones, only thing missing thin threads of pork skin. But we did enjoy it.

Duck Larb ($21.95). We enjoyed the refreshing sour tones, with decent spice on a hot day.

The slices were on the chewier side, but there was a nice portion of it, and it was quite savory-“ducky” in flavor as well. Very good enrobed in cabbage! And even better the next day as the favors got more intense.

Of course we enjoy Naked Shrimp (Goong Nam Pla), though we are cautious about ordering raw “stuffs” and waited until our last visit to order it. We were advised to get the “sauce” on the side and we soon figured out why.

While the Shrimp wasn’t quite as good as the version we had during our first couple of visits to Spicy Lao, it was much better than what we had there on our last visit. The shrimp was on the firmer side; with no off flavors. The slices of pungent garlic was a nice touch as was the slices of bitter melon, which was quite interesting in terms of that numbing bitterness, in combination with the sauce.

Ah yes, the sauce….man, this was spicy, even at medium heat this had me wiping sweat from my brow in no time! The young lady gave us good advice. When I mentioned this to her, she said that she always gets the sauce on the side with this dish. This was definitely Essan in spice level

The Sai Oua ($15), the house made Essan style sausage was very different from what we’d had here before.

That dipping sauce was awesome by the way….savory-sour-spicy-herbaceous. There was a decent amount of herbs in the sausage, which was quite tender, maybe overly so, as it was almost mushy. It came with a huge portion of sticky rice as well. Sovereign still makes our favorite version in San Diego.

The Missus enjoys the Spicy Basil Pork with Century Egg ($21).

The fried basil is a nice touch as it adds the fragrant, sweet-anise flavor to the dish along with some crispness. It’s savory-umami, with an ammonia like finish pidan that makes the dish.

As I will note a bit further down.

The Pad Ped Moo Krob ($21) was a mixed bag.

The Missus enjoyed the egg, some of the slices of fried pork belly was crisp initially, ending with a nice gooey interior, which we loved, other slices were really chewy.

The red curry was a bit too sweet for our taste, but perhaps it was because we were having the potent Goong Nam Pla with this? Also, this dish didn’t keep well as leftovers.

The Nahm Tok ($18.95) was also a mixed bag.

A decent amount of roasted rice powder, not as spicy as we thought it would be, and could have used more sour tones. The beef was on the chewier side as well.

The Missus was wondering how the Spicy Basil Pork ($16.95) would be with out the other stuffs.

The pork was really chewy…and where was the basil? On the bland side and not enough savory or spicy tones. Pass…..

Of course we had to try the Som Tum Lao ($15.95). I have never had a Lao style Papaya Salad with so saturated in sauce.

The crunch was gone and there was so much fermented fish/crab in this that it was super funky….so much so, that the Missus could only eat one spoonful! I did ok, but this was not as good as other version we’ve had locally….even those with fermented crab are superior to this as a whole.

Overall, we enjoyed our visits and am glad that we decided to return to Zab Linda after all these years. The food seems to have changed (see the difference in the Sai Oua from our previous post) for the better. Even though we need to get back up to the Original Sab E Lee, it’s good to have another option that’s not a far drive for us.

Zab Linda
6952 Linda Vista Rd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Mon – Thurs 11am – 330pm, 430pm – 9pm
Fri – Sun 11am – 9pm

Himalayan Cuisine (La Mesa)

Indian Restaurants, Nepalese/Himalayan Food

On one of our Road Trips with JJ last year, we headed up to Big Bear. During our visit, one of our favorite dining experiences was at a restaurant/bar named Club Bombay. The back patio was super dog friendly and the gentleman who served us was wonderful! At the end of the meal, he asked us where we hailed from and we told him “San Diego”. He smiled and said he worked and lived in La Mesa for a while. And said he was a Server at Himalayan Cuisine in La Mesa! Small world, right? Anyway, we enjoyed the food and the service and decided to check out Himalayan Cuisine when we had some time recently. Sadly, JJ couldn’t join us, but I’m sure he’ll forgive us, right??? Well, maybe not!

The restaurant is located in a mall off of ECB and Guava Avenue. In fact, Cathy did a post on this place back in 2008….though it was then Himalayan Cuisine; Indian & Italian (???) Cuisine. I’m not sure what changed other than it’s now serving Nepalese and Indian food.

Even though it was a weekend, the place was really quiet on a Sunday at 11 when we arrived.

I’m guessing it’s usually pretty mellow during this time of the day because it took a while for one of the folks working to notice us. But he eventually did and we were seated in the bar area. The restaurant is pretty large!

We had made the decision ahead of time to get the exact same dishes we’d had in Big Bear and see how the places compared.

Of course we got some Naan ($3).

This was a bit harder and chewier than we prefer. We enjoy our naan to be more crisp, mildly chewy, with a light pillowiness. Nice yeasty-mildly nutty tones though.

We had really enjoyed the Bindi Masala in Big Bear, so couldn’t wait to try the version here ($16). As you can tell, Bindi Masala features okra. We got this medium heat, but man…it was spicy indeed!

The version in BB had tomatoes in it; which added a nice sweet-acidity to the dish, it was missing here. This one was in your face spicy, the okra wasn’t as “neba neba” as we liked. This also seemed to have a lot of tumeric, or some similar spice which made it kind of bitter.

The rice was fine.

If a bit on the drier side.

The other dish we loved in BB was the Rogan Josh, which we also ordered here ($21).

This was pleasantly spicy, though the lamb, while being quite gamey, was on the chewier side. There was a nice almost anise like flavor; the sauce was quite thick with a nice tomato flavor. This was the better of the two dishes to us.

Though to be honest, we thought Club Bombay in Big Bear was actually more to our taste. Still, it was fun trying this place out. And when the gentleman serving us asked how we knew about this place we mentioned our experience in Big Bear. He laughed and said the fellow (sorry, his name has slipped my brain) had worked here for a bit over a year before moving to Big Bear.

Himalayan Cuisine
7918 El Cajon Blvd.
La Mesa, CA 91942
Current Hours:
Sun – Thurs 11am – 9pm
Fri – Sat 11am – 10pm

Galapagos – Cerro Dragon – Santa Cruz Island

Airport/Airline/Cruise/Rail Food, Beer, Ecuador, Galapagos, Travel

After refueling, both for the humans and the yacht, we headed out to our next stop, still on Santa Cruz Island, Cerro Dragon (Dragon Hill).

After relaxing until we reached our destination, we did some snorkeling off the pangas.

Before heading back on board to refresh. After a short break, we headed on board the pangas and did dry landing at Cerro Dragon.

This is Dragon Hill the namesake of the area.

We did a nice hike/walk which got to enjoy the diversity of the Island. Both Marine Iguanas…..

And Land Iguanas….

We were taught to tell the difference. Marine Iguanas have blunt noses and long rudder like tails. Land Iguanas have that yellow-brown color, pointed noses, and some major claws.

If you see an Iguana “blowing snot”; it’s a marine iguana which has a special gland that allows it to “sneeze” out excess salt they get from ocean grazing.

Land Iguanas have sharp teeth and a really tough mouth which allows them to eat prickly pear cactus whole without injury!

It quite picturesque.

We ran into this band of Land Iguanas on the trail. You can’t interfere with wildlife, so we just slowly strolled down the trail.

We were told that in the mid-70’s the Land Iguana population was almost wiped out by packs of feral dogs. This initiated a program by the Charles Darwin Foundation and Galapagos National Park to reintroduce land iguanas and ensure their survival which was a success.

As we continued to walk, this Galapagos Mockingbird decided to stroll down the trail with us!

It displayed no fear, no hesitation as it “joined” the walk! Amazing!

We came across two lagoons, which sometimes houses Flamingos, but none were present on this day.

Even though there were no Flamingos; there were interesting things to see…..

Always under the watchful eyes of “you know who”!

We were back on board by 6pm. After a break while we set off to our next destination, I headed to the deck to have a “cold one”. I enjoyed this American Ale Brewed in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island.

Low IBU, very clean and refreshing. A great beer to have while watching the Sunset.

Soon after, we had our destination briefing for the next day and then it was dinner time. Like I mentionecd in my previous posts, every night was different….we started really gaining an appreciation for the efforts of the kitchen.

On this evening, we enjoyed the Seared Duck Breast, though not so much the Citrus and Grape Sauce and also the tender and super sweet-oceany Grilled Prawns with Garlic Aioli.

I think this was when the Missus and I really started getting into the rhythm of things onboard.

Just in time for our next stop; Fernandina Island!

Thanks for stopping by!

La Rou from Taste of Hunan and Recently Consumed

Chinese Restaurants, Cooking, Online Food Suppliers

I had to smile when “FOY” Dereck just commented on my revisit to Taste of Hunan which I did almost a month ago. We have already revisited yet again! But, since I’d recently done a post, I didn’t take any photos of that visit. There was one item on the menu that we noticed for the first time. ToH actually sells La Rou, the Hunan cured and smoked pork by weight! The Missus asked the always friendly Server about that and She was told that it is shipped to ToH from Hunan Province! They don’t always have it for sale, but she went to check and said they had one piece. So, here’s where it gets interesting…..you have to purchase the entire piece, they will not portion it for you. The price is $25.95 per pound. Not cheap, but you really don’t use a lot of La Rou per dish. We really like the La Rou ToH uses, so we decided to get it. The piece came in at 2 pounds! The woman was so nice, instructing us to freeze what we don’t use.

In case you’re wondering what 2 pounds of La Rou looks like.

And that my friends is a full sized cleaver!

What I did is divide up the LA Rou into four, almost equal sized portions, let’s just say a half pound or so.

I kept one portion for current use and the other three went into the freezer. There’s a hard “rind” at the bottom of the piece. When first using the piece, I’ll remove the rind, which also had a good fat layer. This comes in handy later….. We found that one piece can make about 4 dishes…so let’s say about a quarter pound of la rou….and that’s a generous amount!

So, of course first up was what we’ve been making a lot of recently, Clay Pot Rice. Instead of using duck fat or drippings to coat the nabe, we use the pork rind and melt the fat off the piece to lube the baby up!

In addition to the La Rou, we used Lup Cheong and slices of the Garlic Sausage from Wang La Ya in this.

The Missus loves La Rou with Celtuce (i.e. Chinese Lettuce – Wōsǔn/Wōjù).

So, I cut some fairly thin slices along with the Celtuce.

Adding some dried chilies, garlic, etc….. A very simple dish. No photo of the final product, because as soon as it hit the table, the Missus set out to devour it!

I’ve made a couple of other dishes since then, the Missus loves La Rou with Chinese Celery. Here’s a photo of the La Rou stir fried with Chinese Cauliflower (which I mentioned in the post).

I used Fresno Chilies, dried chili de arbol, and fermented chilies for this. I did a low heat stir fry of the cauliflower first, removing it from the wok, then going for it with the other ingredients and adding the cauliflower back in later.

Anyway….it’s been fun, since the frozen La Rou you get at 99 Ranch Market is horrible!

Some other stuffs……

I needed to use up the last of my beans from Rancho Gordo and only had those huge Royal Corona Beans left. So, I made up a pot of it.

I took half of the beans and made a dish with Merguez, Harissa, and chard from the yard! The Missus took most of it with Cous Cous for lunch and we also had some on toast, which was quite good!

When the weather recently warmed up, I went and made marinated beans with the remainder.

The beans mainly with lemon juice/zest, EVOO, sun dried tomatoes, red onion, garlic, and Italian Parsley. Nice and refreshing!

And just for the fun of it, I recently made this as well.

You know what it is, right? Took me back to small kid time!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Road Trip – Vulcania, Revisits to Emberz BBQ and Shelter Distilling, the MacLeod Lake Trail, Crystal Lake Trail, and Other Stuffs in Mammoth Lakes.

American/New American Restaurants, BBQ, Cocktails, Dog Friendly, Italian Restaurants, Road Trip, Sierra Nevada, California, Travel

After spending a few nights in June Lake, we headed back to Mammoth Lakes. Being a bit early for check in, we headed off to the Twin Lakes area and took a nice walk and got some views of the falls.

When it was time for an early dinner, we headed back to the Emberz BBQ trailer.

We had enjoyed both the Heirloom Tomato salad and the Elk Sausage the last time. So we made sure to order those items.

That tomato salad was so refreshing; still a favorite.

Loved the smokey-savory elk sausage as well.

Didn’t care for the bland beans; though the potato salad was better this time around; not overly dressed as before.

While we were eating; the really nice gentleman came out and handed us some cornbread; gratis.

As I mentioned in my previous post…..so far, Emberz has been our favorite food stop in Mammoth Lakes.

Emberz BBQ
120 Commerce Dr.
Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546

The next morning we woke and did the fun and easy MacLeod Lake Trail.

We had lunch at Old New York Deli & Bakery which I’ve posted on twice already.

Then the Missus just “needed” to do another hike during the early afternoon, so we did the Crystal Lake Trail.

Which along with the beautiful lakes had some lovely views as well.

Which even JJ appreciated.

When dinner time came along, we headed across the street to the Village. We noticed that there seemed to be an event going on.

Turns out that Mammoth has a yearly Reggae Festival in July and we just happened to be here on this weekend.

Several booths and lots of people enjoying the music!

On our previous trip to Mammoth we had wanted to dine at Vulcania, an Italian style restaurants, but was told that patio dining was not yet available. So, we decided to head on over. This time the patio was set-up and we had a nice table outside here we could enjoy the music.

We ended up getting two apps and one main for dinner,

Seeing Beef Carpaccio ($24) on the menu…well, of course I had to get that, right?

I’d say that this was more of a salad. The vinaigrette was so strong that it overwhelmed the beef. And even more strange was where those french fry looking things at top…they were hash browns! Still, I got my arugula fix, right?

We also got the Mortadella Toast ($23). The bread was nicely toasted, but was just your run of the mill ciabatta…like you’d get at the market.

Standard issue Mortadella, but I liked the Pistachio Mustard, which while nicely pungent, had a nice nutty-savory tone to it and went nicely with the Mortadella and (yet more) Arugula.

For our shared main we went with the Ravioli Bolognese ($30). I was looking forward to seeing how the lamb ragu was going to taste.

This was very over-sauced, so definitely an American style dish, definitely not the “Ragu” like we got in Emilia-Romagna! The ravioli was on the chewy side and the flavor of lamb was quite mild. I know that mint is supposed to go well with lamb, but in this case that was a distraction.

We enjoyed the service and the vibe, but am not sure we’ll return.

Vulcania
6201 Minaret Rd. #240
Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546

And of course, we ended the evening right across the way at Shelter Distilling, another place I’ve posted on before.

We enjoy sitting on the back patio area to enjoy an after dinner cocktail. And JJ likes the shade here as well!

Shelter Distilling
100 Canyon Blvd. #217
Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546

The next morning we had leftovers for breakfast and then checked out of the Westin. We headed back to the Twin Lakes area and went to take a look at the Tamarack Lodge.

Apparently, the Cabins on the grounds are dog friendly, but not the lodge itself. Still…..

And of course we walked along the lakes again and saw this posted on the bridge.

And JJ even had a morning “dip”!

And then we headed back home.

The Missus (and JJ) can’t wait to return to Mammoth!

Sizzling Saigon (Santee)

Pho, Vietnamese Restaurants

It’s funny how I sometimes find new places to visit. For example, I was updating “The Big List” and other posts. I sometimes do random checks to see if places are still open and started wondering about Sab E Lee Santee….man it had been how many years since we last visited? It had apparently gone thru a change in ownership and name to Faidang Restaurant, so I added it to my “list”. A few months back, I decided it was time for me to finally check the place out….and oh my, Faidang had permanently closed due to various “creatures”! It was now a Vietnamese restaurant named Sizzling Saigon. Hmmm…… I waited a couple of weeks before actually heading out East on the 52 and back to a locale that was once fairly familiar to me, but where I hadn’t been in maybe 5 years?

And there it was…Sizzling Saigon. Taking a look at the sign gave me a slight pause. Under the name of the place was written “Asian Fusion”? Double hmmm….. Still, I had driven all the way here.

The young man working was very nice as I was seated and handed a menu….which gave me another hard stop.

My goodness, in what universe is pho now almost $21????

And in this alternate universe, Bo Luc Lac is cheaper than the pho???? And the even the Bun Bo Hue is $21???

Well, this mad my decision quite easy; after all the place is named “Sizzling”, right? I decided to go with the Bo Luc Lac ($17.89). My order took awhile, but it looked quite good when it arrived.

I guess I didn’t read the fine print. This comes with fried rice; which, while nothing special in terms of flavor, the rice was fairly evenly coated, the texture fine, and a rather nice surprise.

While the beef was definitely not filet mignon, it was decently tender, nicely marinated if a bit too salty and in need of more complex umami tones; like perhaps a bit more fish sauce and pungency.

My pet peeve with this one is that the bell peppers were basically raw and too hard and crunchy. Not the largest portion, but with the fried rice, not bad at all.

I think the version at Ngon Ngon is better; but this was not bad at all.

This meal, combined with the really friendly service, had me wondering what that $21 bowl of pho was going to be like. So, of course I made time to return. The same really nice young man was working. I went and ordered the Pho Dac Biet ($20.89). And soon the “tools” and accoutrements arrived…..

I say tools because this was included with the napkins, spoon, and chopstick.

The young man told me that the chili oil is a “must have” for the pho? Hmmm again. As I anticipated, no Ngo Gai; it’s “Asian Fusion” after all.

And then my pho arrived.

At first glance quite impressive that bowl was a molten, bubbling cauldron of broth crowned by a beef rib. Seeing this arriving at my table I was really worried that the young man would spill some on himself or get burned by that stone bowl.

The plate of rare steak, beef flank, noodles was impressive. Though upon further review; it seemed to have all been premade and put in the fridge, because as hot as that bowl of broth was, the plate itself was ice cold.

That portion size of noodles was no joke either. The banh pho was of the “wider” type and because of being pre-portioned was a huge mass stuck together. And the bowl of broth was filled to the top, so you couldn’t put all the noodles into the soup at once. The scissors did come in handy here. At least the texture of the noodles were good.

The actual broth was tongue meltingly hot, but really lacking deviod of beef and any pungent tones. Thus the chili oil I guess. While not overly “San Diego sweet” in flavor, it was very bland. I used all the basil, onions, scallions, and even wishes there was more cilantro. It took me twice the amount of time to taste a spoonful of broth without burning my tongue.

The texture of the beef rib was on the chewier side, but came off the bone cleanly. It was really mild in flavor as well. There was a half a meatball swimming in miasma.

The beef flank was, as expected being served cold, super chewy once heated in the broth, but also lacking in beefiness.

The one blessing of having the broth served so hot was that a single dunk would get the rare beef done. Sort of like a pho shabu-shabu I guess?

Overall, I think of this bowl, much like what is served at Phonomenal to be more of a “marketing” angle, perhaps anticipating an influx of influencers? But, if you like a showy bubbling cauldron of broth, with a large portion of noodles and meat, without caring much about flavor, this might be for you.

At least the Bo Luc Lac wasn’t bad. Though like I said, I prefer the version at Ngon Ngon.

Sizzling Saigon
9159 Mission Gorge Rd.
Santee, CA 92071
Current Hours:
Daily 10am – 9pm

Hong Kong Kitchen & Dimsum Opens Part 2

Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum

So, in part 1 of my posts on the newly opened Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum, I went over two visits, that were basically solo because the Missus just didn’t think the place was worth a visit. So, after some not so bad food, I thought the Missus would be all for a visit. Well, She was not! Calvin however, whom I hadn’t had lunch with in a while was up for it! So we met right at the 10am opening time. Seems that Calvin, who lives in Scripps Ranch and has roots in the SGV has been down on the d-sum North of the 8 in town for a while. So, I thought we’d have some fun….he’d pick 4 dim sum items and I’d go with two mains and we’d have some fun.

So, in terms of the dim sum, in ranking from first to worst.

Scallop Dumplings ($9.50). These were by far the best items I’ve had at HK Kitchen thus far.

The wrappers were adequately thick, with a nice mild stretch to them. The scallops were tender and sweet; this was quite good.

Second was the Siu Mai, which I covered in my previous post. This was even better as you can clearly see….

The filling much more tender, decent savory-porky tones, the wrapper tender as well.

Took a bit into the Cheong Fun ($8.50) that Calvin ordered and went “what the heck”? Calvin had ordered the Char Siu version. I guess I expected the shrimp version.

So this was a bit too sweet for my taste. The rice roll was fine; perhaps a bit too brittle. The sauce was overly salty for my taste.

The Turnip Cake with XO Sauce ($14) was a fail. Both of us lamented the lack of the savory-umami tones and mild spice provided by XO sauce.

In fact, there seemed to be a total lack of the savory punch needed for this. The turnip cakes interior was mushy and this was a bit on the greasy side. Which reminds me that the Missus wants me to make my own XO sauce and it’s been a while since I’ve made turnip cake at home.

As for the two mains.

The Black Pepper Beef ($28) was fine, though not as good as what I get from Eastern Dynasty.

It was fairly tender; though the sauce was on the sweeter side. The sugar snap peas were nice and crisp.

Of only I knew about the XO Sauce when I ordered the Shrimp with XO Sauce ($25).

While the shrimp was adequately cooked, fairly tender, with a slight sweet-savoriness; there was a lack of XO in this dish. Thus not fulfilling the umami potential of the dish.

Still, this was a decent meal. Calvin mentioned that he’d definitely return for the dim sum here….looking out into the parking lot, we noticed that it had filled by 1115! So, if you’re thinking of going for dim sum; I’d suggest getting there early. You can read about Soo’s recent visit here.

Hong Kong Kitchen & Dim Sum
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123
Current Hours:
Daily 10am – 9pm

A San Diego Bakery Price Check

Bakery, Sandwiches

My recent visit to Barrio Donas had me a bit shell shocked when it came to prices and had me wondering how much a Huevo a la Mexicana Bolillo was at San Diego Bakery. Surprisingly, it had been over a year since I last visited and over a year-and-a-half since I last posted on the place. So, last Sunday, I decided to head on over to see…..

Just as I drove into the parking lot, another car left, so I managed to get a parking space. The shop was doing steady business when I walked in; like Lucy’s Bakery, all those hard working guys needed breakfast, right?

Looking up at the menu; which, since my last visit has transitioned from the chalkboard to a video display, I saw that the A la Mexicana was now $7.50 (I believe it’s just $6.50 at Lucy’s). It was $6.50 on my last visit here a bit over a year ago and $4.99 back in December of 2023.

Still, it’s less than Barrio Donas which is now $10.50 and with prices these days, this seems almost like a bargain!

The sandwich itself was a bit of a mess; though toasted, crisp, light, and yeasty, the bread was crumbling apart as I opened it.

This was oozy, eggy, cheesy messiness. And those serranos had a “bite” of their own too.

This was actually quite filling for breakfast….at least for me. I do wish there was more beans as there barely seemed to be any. And perhaps less chilies; though it did shake me awake!

With prices these days, it’s good to know you can get a breakfast bollilo or preparados for less than $8. I mean, how much is a banh mi these days?

San Diego Bakery & Café
6959 Linda Vista Rd.
San Diego, CA 92111

Tijuanero By Tijuanazo (Little Italy)

Dog Friendly, Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops

Every Saturday, as I’m walking to the Little Italy Farmers Market, I’d past the little shop in progress at the corner of India and West Hawthorne. The one that used to be Swagyu. It seems that Tijuanero, which was to be the second taco shop opened in San Diego by the folks running Tijuanazo in Hillcrest was taking forever to open. It’s such a tiny space, that I was wondering if it would even open this year? Then the Hillcrest shop closed…and suddenly there seemed to be some activity on this corner, which by that time I saw was going to be named Tijuanero. In fact, JJ and I walked past on a Saturday several weeks ago and I saw a gentleman working on getting tables set-up, so I stopped and said hello. I asked a few questions and he nicely responded. The shop was going to be open at 11am, I was kinda bummed because I knew that Tijuanazo opened at 8am and I was hoping to stop by on the way back to the car from the Farmers Market. But whatever, I was looking forward to some decent Adobada. I’m glad I mentioned that to the gentleman as he told me that Adobada was only served on weekends!

Well, I decided to see if we could find parking in the area on a Sunday morning and we were in luck as I found a spot on Ivy Street where I usually park on Saturday mornings. It was just past 11 when we walked over. Unfortunately, they weren’t open yet and I was told to come back at 1145. Sigh…..

So JJ got to stroll thru Little Italy and down to Santa Fe Depot and back. And the place was indeed open when we returned.

We walked over and were asked if we were doing takeout or dining in. After saying we’d be eating there we had a seat at one of the tables.

I’m used to tacos in the four dollar range these days, plus, this was Little Italy, so prices didn’t surprise me. I placed my order…and then was told that they weren’t serving adobada on this day…..but it was a weekend, right? Ohh-kay. I decided on a taco de asada and chorizo ($4.15 each), and a birria vampiros ($3.95). I asked if they had water; tap or bottled, cause you know, I’d share it with JJ and they had neither…..

Some lime and cucumber was provided.

And after a short wait, my tacos were delivered.

You could tell the tortillas were made inhouse, though they did not hold up real well. Nice maizeyness though. Loved the generous amount of guacamole as well.

I enjoyed the chorizo more than the asada. The chorizo was slightly spicy, nice smokiness, nicely seasoned.

The carne asada was really tough and chewy. It was also too sour.

It really needed more seasoning, that wasn’t puckery-sour!

The Vampiros was interesting.

Loved the crisp vampiro; think of it as a nice crispy mini-quesadilla of sorts. The birria was quite chewy and like the asada lacked seasoning….not a good thing for birria! The one thing that got my attention was the salsa roja….my goodness…Muy (with a capital “M”) caliente! In fact, it completely nullified whatever flavor the birria had! I did need more napkins to wipe my brow than to wipe my hands!

I’m thinking that the chorizo would probably stand up nicely to that salsa.

As for if I return? Well, with telling me to come on a weekend for the adobada and not having any on a weekend! Then telling me you open at 11, but when I arrive, you didn’t open until 1145….and then not having agua? Yes, this place has recently opened and I expect there to be hiccups, but man this was like chronic singultus! And they also operated in Hillcrest for over a year as well so you would think they’d have their systems down. Perhaps if they did open at an earlier hour or actually served adobada when they claimed to…… Kind of sad since the Tijuanazo brand has a bunch of taquerias in TJ. As things stand; I’m in no rush to return.

Tijuanero By Tijuanazo
2102 India St.
San Diego, CA 92101
Current Hours (Supposedly):
Sun – Thurs 11am – 10pm
Fri – Sat 11am – 11pm

Also, please note that the parking around the shop is actually a pay lot, Tijuanero does not validate parking.

Sizzling House Has Closed, Juewei becoming L.A. Hot Duck, and Isaki Japanese Restaurant Taking the Former 85°C Spot

Bakery, Chinese Restaurants, Desserts, Japanese Restaurants, yoso-silly

Here’s some stuffs I noticed in the Clairemont Mesa/Kearny Mesa area recently.

Sizzling House Has Closed:

Noticed this during our most recent visit to Eastern Dynasty.

Whoa, Sizzling House didn’t even last a year. So, much for the sizzling plate/pepper lunch fad, huh? Looks like this is going to be an outlet of Las Vegas based Urban Matcha…so one feeds another?

4698 Convoy St. Suite 107
San Diego, CA 92111

Juewei Becoming L.A. Hot Duck:

Also during that visit we noticed a new banner covering the Juewei sign.

Funny thing, I just mentioned how dissatisfied we’d been with our most recent visits to Juewei in my post on Spicy Duck Wang La Ya. Juewei seemed to be constantly changing concepts, last I saw they were trying to do Hot Pot, before that they had initiated doing skewers. They had an inconsistent inventory of items we enjoyed and we just decided to stop and not waste our time there.

So, I’m not sure if it’s still the same owners with a new concept….I do know there’s a LA Hot Duck in Rowland Heights. What’s up with all these places from the SGV opening here? They do not appear to be open yet; so we’ll see!

4690 Convoy St. #103
San Diego, CA 92111

And finally….

Isaki Japanese Restaurant and Nothing Bundt Cakes Taking the Former 85°C  Spot:

I noticed some signage on the doors of what used to be 85°C off Balboa so I walked on over. Looks like they’ve split the spot into two businesses.

One of the signs said Isaki Japanese Restaurant.

And the other looks to be another franchise of Nothing Bundt Cakes.

I don’t have much to say about this one…..

5575 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92111

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!