October 2005 – Page 2

Teri Cafe – You Coulda’ Been a Contenda’…

October 19, 2005 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants

*** Update – This location of Teri Cafe is closed, it is now Katsu Cafe

….For my rotation, if not for food shortcomings. Located in a strip mall on Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Teri Cafe serves up Ramen, Yakisoba, and other standard Japanese fare like Teriyaki(of course!!!).

The decor of Teri Cafe goes for a "surfer – Hawaiian" flavor; with surfboards mounted on the walls, surf videos playing on the two plasma televisions with "Jahwaiian" (Reggae flavored music from Hawaii) music playing in the background, there's a definite tropical influence in the decor. The menu is quite extensive with over 50 items, from Teriyaki and Udon, to Soba.

But what drew me here were the locally made noodles, sold from the Teri Cafes Owners other business, a company called Nihon Seimen. Sounds pretty close to saimin, huh? So I decided to order the Chicken Teriyaki and Yakisoba ($5.70):

The dish consisted of a good portion of noodles, stir fried vegetables, and a small piece of chopped grilled chicken with "teriyaki sauce" on it. The noodles were as advertised, thin, slightly chewy, with a nice pull to it. The problem starts with everything else. The noodles were way over-dressed, making the noodles, cabbage, carrots, et al, very, very, sweet and salty. So salty that I finished my bottle of water with my meal, drank another in the car, and had two glasses when I arrived home. Some of the sauce's personality should have been saved for the chicken, though nicely grilled was basically tasteless, and the teriyaki sauce was the smokey/mild type, that lacked any sweetness or saltiness, in a word; bland.

But those noodles were great! So I thought I'd give Teri Cafe another shot; and this time I ordered the Banzai Ramen ($5.45):

This was a bowl of noodles with "Tonkotsu" style broth – basically deeply and fiercely boiled pork bones, but in this case I'm pretty sure it was made from a "base". Topped with stir fried vegetables and chicken, some Kamabuko (fish cake), and bean sprouts. The noodles again delivered, and if anything was even better suited for Ramen than the Yakisoba. Everything else again was a bit of a let-down. The broth was just plain salty, and not the rich, almost creamy Tonkotsu broth. The stir fry was bland and also some of it was burned; you can see the black specks in the soup. So again I was left with basically mixed feeling regarding this dish.

There's alot to like about Teri Cafe, the facility is clean, well-lit, and I kind of enjoy the atmosphere. The prices are good, and the service is excellent; even though you just place your order, pay, and the food is delivered to your table; there are little things that makes Teri Cafe a bit different. If you purchase fountain drinks, the "Girls" refill them for you for free; they also check on every table at least once during the meal. And of course I think the noodles are very good, even though it's not Saimin noodles, so good that I'm thinking of just purchasing the noodles. Unfortunately, the rest of the food does not live up to the quality of the noodles.

Teri Cafe
7305B Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

Mon-Sat 1030am-9pm
Closed Sunday

Chicken, Like Alice used to make? The Great Chicken Alice Recipe

October 18, 2005 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Cooking, Recipes

*** I've revised my recipe a bit. You can find that post here.

Looking back, life was pretty simple and easy for me during the Mid-Late Eighties through the Mid Nineties. Four times a week, I'd get off work and work-out with my Buddies, first at World Gym on the Ala Wai, later at The Gym in Kakaako. And at least once (and as many as four) times a week we'd grab dinner at Chicken Alice on Kapiolani Blvd, right outside of Ala Moana Center. Many a good "pau hana" started at "Alice", over her crunchy, slightly spicy wings, and ended up in my Buddies drive way, with jokes and conversations, after more than a few cold ones.

Then rather suddenly, Alice closed her Restaurants, and seemed to have disappeared. And a piece of me evaporated along with those wings….

Flash forward a decade later, and I've been periodically checking the Internet to see if anybody has a reasonable facsimile of Alice's chicken recipe. Well there it was, in black and white; written up in the Honolulu Star Bulletin. And along with the story of Chicken Alice, was the recipe for those awesome wings! I was so thrilled, but then something brought me crashing to Earth:

You see, according to the article "The key ingredient is Parks brand kim chee sauce — made locally and used primarily as the base for kim chee." This is something that you pretty much won't find on the Mainland; I was crushed; so close, yet still thousands of miles away! Enter Reid, of 'Ono Kine Grindz. I had made a passing comment to him about the sauce, and before you knew it, he had sent me two bottles of Parks brand Kim Chee sauce in a styrofoam cooler, and kept it cold using freezer gel packs! Talk about resourceful!

So what's in the Kim Chee sauce? According to the bottle, it's Chili Pepper, Garlic, Fish Sauce, Salt, Sugar, MSG, Paprika, and Ginger. What a combo! I got down to cooking right away, using the recipe from the article; right here.

So how did it turn out? Well I found it to be a bit on the mild side, and not salty enough, though the crispy stickiness was still there; and the color looked right. Also, the flavoring was just a bit "off".

So, armed with that experience, I made my adjustments, and came up with this recipe:

5 pounds chicken wings
Vegetable oil for deep frying

Batter:
1/2 cup Parks brand kim chee sauce
3 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons salt
2-1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups water

Combine kim chee sauce, garlic, salt and flour. Add water gradually, enough to make a thick batter, about the consistency of pancake batter.

Add chicken pieces to batter, mix well and marinate in refrigerator overnight.

Heat oil to 350 degrees.Deep-fry chicken pieces until chicken rises to surface and coating is deep brown.It's important to keep the oil at this temperature in order to assure the perfect crisp coating.

So you're wondering what it looks like, right?

I was amazed at how the color turned out; just a tad "lighter" than I remember, but close enough. The crunchy, slight stickiness was there. And the taste was nice and a mild-medium spicy. The changes I made; more garlic; more salt; a bit more water; and especially marinating overnight, instead of the 2-3 hours in the recipe did the trick. The chicken was still tasty and a bit crunchy 4 hours later, just like it used to be. Though it seemed the batter was thicker than I remembered, even though I added a bit more H2O.

My tastes had changed over the last decade; I'm now used to really spicy Sichuan Food, among other things, and though Alice's Chicken doesn't thrill me like it used to, it's still darn good. But the memories are what this was really all about. Sitting down, munching on wonderful memories, my mind was a thousand miles away to a place and time when things were alot simpler, and time seemed to pass at a less frenetic pace, even if just for a few moments, made the decade long quest worth while.

Mahalo Reid, I'm forever in your debt!

Ch-Ch-Chain: Rockin’ Baja Lobster

October 17, 2005 mmm-yoso Chains

*** Rockin’ Baja Lobster no longer offers the Buffet.

I’m sure you know of places like "Baja Lobster", a "Coastal Mexican Cantina & Grill" that’s really a theme chain restaurant in disguise. You’ve seen those commercials, drunken Gringos, dancing in a conga line to Kool and the Gang, or faux Mariachi Music. A good time to be had by all; the life of the party! This is probably the last place in the world you’d expect to find me; in a usually crowded, sometimes tourist filled destination, in the land of eternal Happy Hour! But there is something that I do enjoy about Baja Lobster, during the off-season, it’s pretty quiet, and there’s a $7.99 lunch buffet that has a Caesar Salad that I really enjoy.

Well, surprises of surprises, when we arrived the buffet is now $8.99. Well, we were here so might as well grab a bite anyway. Oh, and by the way, when is a Buffet not "pronto". As we entered we could smell the remains of last night’s "festivities", you see the scent of Lysol was still very strong. Obviously some person or persons probably had a bit too much "fun" last night! The dining area is a courtyard that’s been covered, sort of leaving everything in a state of terminal dusk, hey it’s always Happy Hour here right? There’s a waterfall with plastic and real crab shells and other sea creatures creating some nice "white noise".

Since I decided to not do the buffet, I looked over the menu and ordered the California Chicken Melt($7.50), and the Waitress informed me that I could go ahead and help myself to the salad bar. So I was in luck, I’d get my salad anyway!

The most interesting item at the salad bar, was a orange – brown – grey mass, looking for all the world like Hummus on steroids. It’s actually Honey- Chili Butter; which you can spread on some of the warm tortillas that are provided. The Caesar Salad was good, with the salty, creamy dressing, you could also distinctly taste the anchovy. We did detect a change in the dressing though; there used to a good amount of creamy cheese in the dressing, that component seemed to be missing. After a short wait my Chicken Sandwich arrived:

More appropriately, this should be called an Avocado Sandwich with a chicken garnish. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much avocado on a sandwich. It’s probably for the best, the chicken breast fillet was dry and tasteless, but the avocado and bacon were tasty. I enjoyed the fries, they were flavored with chili powder and tasted great with the Aioli, which I think was for the sandwich, but I used them for the fries. Overall, not a bad lunch.

You can still get a Caesar Salad if you want to($5.95):

Or even the buffet, and not have to worry about the Conga Line, or crowds – if you go for lunch……

‘Rockin’ Baja Lobster
3890 Twiggs St
San Diego, CA 92110

Villa Manila Restaurant & Jollibee

October 16, 2005 mmm-yoso Desserts, Filipino Restaurants

I received a phone call from the Missus the other day, informing me it was "Pata time". Which for us means a trip down to National City and Villa Manila:

Villa Manila occupies a space in a strip mall on 8th Street; many people will recognize this as the former site of Max Restaurant. The location is also right across the street from Zarlitos Restaurant. Villa Manila is a good sized Family style restaurant, featuring such favorites as Nilagang Baka (Beef Shank and Vegetable Soup) and Sinigang(Tamarind Based soup).

But the main reason we come to Villa Manila is this:

By Neptune’s Trident! That is a whole Crispy Pata($19.00). In case you are not quite sure what Crispy Pata is; it’s a Deep Fried Pork Leg (Pata). From what I understand, the Pata is first boiled, then dried, and finally fried. The result is a rich, decadent dish. You get the crispy skin, the rich subcutaneous fat, the soft gelatinous connective tissue, and the flavorful meat. Forget about this being the "other white meat", this is the real thing. You really can’t mistake for anything else; it’s 100% pig. You can order a Half Crispy Pata for $10.00, but the way we look at it is; if you’re going to have Pata, you might as well "go all they way"!

Like the saying goes; "pork fat rules"!

The dipping sauce is a simple sweet, soy- vinegar mix, which helps to cut the richness. I only have a few bites, mainly because the script goes like this:

The first bite, crunchy and gooey, is amazingly good!
The second bite is so decadent and rich, delici-yoso!!!
The third bite; is that some sweat on my brow? Guess my body is starting to work kind of hard…
By the fourth bite, man this is rich; think I’m getting a bit dizzy here!
By the fifth bite, I’ve called and made an appointment with my Cardiologist!
Luckily, the Missus has no such problems! And of course the Boyz get the bones!

We also ordered Lumpia Ubod ($7.00):

These two burrito sized "lumpia", feature Ubod (Hearts of palm), of course, as well as pork and shrimp. You can get them "Fresh"(unfried), or "Fried". We got the fried version which was fine, except the lumpia was not heated all the way through.

I ordered the Regular Half Fried Chicken combo($7.50), which comes with fries or rice; guess which one I got?

Unfortunately, I ordered this with Garlic Rice, but got the Fried Rice instead. The Chicken is pretty good, just simple seasoned fried chicken which I like to dip in vinegar. The white meat is on the dry side but the dark meat is very flavorful. There is something called "Jumbo" chicken that costs a bit more; but they’ve always been out of them when I’m here! Guess Jumbo Chicken is hard to come by!

Villa Manila may be a bit more expensive than the usual Filipino Restaurant, but the food is done well, and the service is always good.

Villa Manila Restaurant
500 East 8th Street
National City, CA 91950

Of course after this calorie dense and rich meal The Missus "needed something sweet to clear my palate". No problemo; just a quick trip to Jollibee:

For a Halo Halo Supreme ($3.99):

A picture speaks a thousand words, huh?

Jollibee
1401 East Plaza Blvd
National City, CA 91950

Odds And Ends

October 14, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Korean Restaurants, yoso-silly

Hope everyone has a great weekend; just thought I’d throw in some Odds n’ Ends. That is, places that I’ve already posted on and some of the different dishes, as well as maybe a few "silly" links.

Dropped by Buga; yet again. This time I had Yookhwe, that wonderful beef tartare like dish:

This refreshing little dish – sorry about the photo, I starting mixing and almost eating before I remembered to snap a picture. But it’s thin slices of beef with sesame seed oil, served along with thin slices of Asian Pear, with an egg yolk on top. Nicely nutty, sweet, and a bit "metallic" or cucumberish in taste. Because the meat is partially frozen before slicing, you can get a "ice cream headache" when you eat this.

Dropped by Noble Chef for a quick dinner. I still get looks of complete amazement when I recommend this place. You just have to know what to order. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT order the Chinese Fast Food style dishes. Instead go for something like the Shrimp Chow Fun (Hong Kong style) with XO Sauce($6.55):

If you think there’s some "wok hey" going on, you’d be right. Nice and spicy, with good sized shrimp, this is my favorite. We also got the Shrimp with Tomato Sauce Rice($6.55):

Nice size shrimp, with a tangy, slightly spicy tomato sauce, this is delici-yoso!!! Stick with the Fried Rice, Turnip Cake with Scrambled Egg, and Shrimp with Scrambled Egg, and you’ll do fine.

As for links, here’s a few fun ones:

Howie Email’d me his Foodieview ‘s Most Disturbing Recipe Searches. It’s fun and reminds me of Pam’s great "Asparagus" ummmm, "residual" post!

I don’t know if you read the News story on the 4,000 year old noodles found in China. I get another laugh at the expense of my Italian Food loving friends. I can still call Italian Food "Nouveau Chinese"….. Angie covers it well on her Blog.

Annie has revamped and changed the URL for Green Beans in San Diego, so check it out.

I enjoyed this really short article from The Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego about the History of Japanese Restaurants in San Diego.

And finally this sign, which always makes me chuckle it’s on the corner of Palomar and 3rd Ave in Chula Vista:

Emerald – Part 1, The Dim Sum of Everlasting Regret?

October 13, 2005 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Dim Sum

*** An updated post on Emerald can be found here.

Have you ever gone to one of your dependable, favorite restaurants, and have a very mediocre, maybe even lousy meal? There are few feelings of regret and disappointment that match the trauma of finding that "your" restaurant is possibly going downhill.

About a month ago I posted on a Dim Sum meal at China Max. In that post I mentioned a lousy meal at our favorite San Diego Dim Sum restaurant; Emerald. Emerald had just been re-opened for about a month, since being closed for several weeks following a vent fire. We figured a month would be enough time to straighten out any service and food issues, and made our way to Emerald on a Friday. We knew something was a bit "strange" when we entered at 1130 and found the place empty except for two tables!

After seated, we had to ask for tea! Talk about a bad start; things looked so very disorganized, I really couldn’t understand. Finally after about 10 minutes a cart was finally pushed in our direction from where they were parked by the kitchen.

BTW, our tea still hadn’t arrived…… But how was the Dim Sum? Well the Shrimp Ball stuffed Bean Curd was pretty lame, bland, and the frozen peas and carrots really didn’t do much for the dish. The Curry Chicken Siu Mai was well, too salty and dry. And the Shrimp Dumplings were bland, and the shrimp tough. Not a good start, but luckily the Pei-Dan Jook (Congee) cart made it’s way to our table:

Ok, but obviously over-thickened with corn starch. Only 2 pieces of preserved egg as well.

Next up, one of my personal favorites, tripe:

This was an average, mediocre, dish. The tripe had a nice crunchy texture, but the dish was lacking the former rich "brothy" taste, and if I remember, each little dish had a chili pepper in it that added a nice bit of "zingy" heat to the dish. At this point, I started doubting my own taste memory. Had it been so long since I’ve eaten here that my tastes had changed?

At that point we got finally got our Deep Fried Taro Ball:

We actually had to ask and wait for these. They came out piping hot, but were terrible! There was so much taro, that was slightly undercooked, and so very "gummy" and bitter! There was also very little pork in this.

We also got some Shrimp Cheong Fun, and favorite of mine:

I enjoyed the sauce, but the noodle was not cooked well and there was a slightly powdery texture to the noodle. Yuck…..

We also got the Sticky Rice in Lotus leaf:

Unfortunately, by this time we were both pretty disappointed and asked for a take-out container, and took this home. Ironically, this was probably the best dish of the day!

What a terrible visit to our favorite Dim Sum Restaurant in San Diego. At the time we called it quits, the tab came out to $29. I was so disgusted that I forgot to take a picture of the storefront; so this past weekend I drove by for my photo:

During this time I gave this meal some thought, and rationalized; perhaps Emerald had lost some of it’s Chef’s during this period? But the front of house staff were recognizable. The best "excuse" I got, was the "well you need to go on the weekend…", which I answered with, so if I did a lousy job for two-thirds of the time I work, and a good job for one-third, I should be considered a success? That’s weak and a load of you-know-what. I’m paying the same price as someone who eats on Saturday or Sunday.

In the end it came to this; we’re not every week type of customers, I don’t want to eat Dim Sum that often. It’s about 6-7 times a year. We’ve had many excellent meals at Emerald, and have been coming here since ’99, when I was doing consulting work in San Diego, and before we moved here. I don’t think we’ll give up on Emerald just yet, thus the Part 1, we’ll give it another shot in a few weeks and see what happens. Stay tuned………

Emerald Seafood Restaurant
3709 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Niu Rou Mian

October 12, 2005 mmm-yoso Cooking

Here's a nice bowl of Niu Rou Mein(Chinese Beef Noodle Soup) I had on Saturday:

Guess which restaurant I got it from? It's from restaurant Mi Casa. Actually, Dylan from Eat, drink & be merry, and I decided to do a joint cooking post. In which we'll both make a dish and post. Today, it's Niu Rou Mein. Initially, I had intended to make my usual version, which used a prepared "base" to which I added flavorings to create my soup. But Howie from A Foodie's-Eye View provided his Grandmother's recipe, and even more graciously, gave me permission to reprint here! Thanks Howie!!!!

Niu Rou Mein (Chinese Beef Noodle Soup)

Ingredients
—————-

3 lbs. beef shank, cut into 1 1/2" cubes

(Wrap the following 5 in cheesecloth and tie it up)
4 star anise
1 T peppercorn (they used regular, not szechuan at the
time, but you could try it, and maybe
reduce the amount)
10 cloves garlic smashed
6 slices of ginger
5 dried red chili peppers chopped

3 T chili paste with garlic
2 T rice wine

1 1/2 T salt
2 T soy sauce
1 T sugar

Instructions
—————–

1. Get a large, heavy skillet very, very hot, add 1 T oil and enough
beef to not crowd the pan. Repeat until all beef is browned.
The pan should be pretty dry, if not, it probably means the
pan isn't hot enough or isn't retaining heat enough.

2. Remove beef from pan, add 1 T oil to pan, and add chili
paste. Add the beef to pan and coat with chili paste & oil.
Add rice wine, and deglaze pan.

3. Pour contents of pan into a soup pot. Deglaze pan with water
if there's more good stuff left in there. Add the cheesecloth,
cover with water (about 6-7 cups). Add salt, soy sauce, and sugar
to taste. Bring to boil, and simmer for 3 hours.

You probably know the rest of the drill, make some noodles and
serve with broth and meat, and cilantro and green onion garnish.

This is a great recipe; but having made Niu Rou Mein from a base over the last few years; and knowing I'd want to eat it right away, not letting it "cure" over-night I made some adjustments. So here's what "shook out".

I used a combination of Beef Shank w/bone 2lbs & regular Stew Meat 2 lbs.
(Wrap the following 3 in cheesecloth and tie it up)
4 star anise
1 T peppercorn
2 Slices of ginger smashed

15Cloves of Garlic Chopped
4 Green Onions – Whites Only
8 Dried Chilies – seeds and all, torn
8 T Chili Paste
1/4 cup Shao Tsing
1/3 Cup Light Soy Sauce
2 T Dark Soy Sauce
2 T Sugar
4 Cups Beef Broth
6 Cups Water
2 T Ice Water
4 T Corn Starch
3 T Vegetable/Canola Oil

White and Black Pepper to taste
Spinach
Cilantro
Green Onions

1 – Chop beef shank into approx 1×1 cubes. Mix beef with corn starch and ice water – an old Chinese restaurant trick to help tenderize. And let sit for 15 minutes.
2 – While waiting, place pot on high heat.
3 – Add 1T Oil to Pot and start to brown meat over high heat – brown shank first as it;s more tender and doesn't need as much time to tenderize. Add 1T Chili paste for every 2 pounds of meat while browning. Brown in batches and remove meat once done

4 – Add 2 T oil to pot and add torn dried peppers and brown. Once oil and peppers are browned, add the rest of the chili paste and garlic and fry, add shank bones. Deglaze with Shao Tsing, scrapping "fond" off of the bottom of the pot.
5 – Add Beef Broth and seasonings in cheesecloth. Add beef. Bring to a boil and add 6 cups water. Bring to an active boil and lower heat to mild simmer.
6 – Simmer for 2 hours, and taste. Add additional seasoning as necessary and 2T Dark Soy for color.
7 – Slow simmer for another 2 hours, until beef is tender. You can tell by "fork-checking" stew meat.

8 – Garnish with Spinach, Green Onion, and Cilantro.

So what to do while waiting? Maybe try your hand at "modern art?"

So what's the verdict? Well after 6 hours, I liked the spice, and liked the taste, nice, rich, and beefy. But the Missus had Her own opinion. First, the Bad:

1 – Too much anise, she thought it over-powered everything.

2 – Too sweet, didn't like the sugar

3 – She needed salt, too mild

4 – She hated the noodles. I bought some great looking "Hand-made" Shanghai style noodles from 99 Ranch. But in spite of the way they looked they were brittle and didn't have the right pull and resistance.

What she liked:

1 – The beef was not only fork tender, it was "plastic-fork" tender.

2 – The broth was rich and "hearty"

3 -Spice level was perfect.

4 – Perfect ginger flavor.

As a whole better than most restaurants, but not "perfect".

The next day, we had the Niu Rou Mein, as well as the leftover dumplings.

By the next day, all the "edges" had been taken care of. And we had a smooth, beefy, spicy, rich, broth. Though the noodles still sucked……but still delici-yoso!!! The Missus finished up the rest of the meat and soup. The key is the addition of Beef Broth. Unless you have alot of bones and other "savory" parts, making a true stock will be difficult.

Some notes; I don't worry about the chopped garlic and green onion stalks because after 6 hours they start to disintegrate. The cornstarch/ice water mix creates very tender meat – if you want to keep the "soup" longer than 2 days, remove the meat and store separately. Because I used beef broth, I didn't add any salt.

Make sure you check out Dylan's version Here.

Seafood City

October 11, 2005 mmm-yoso Markets & Grocers

If 99 Ranch Market is the center all things Chinese in Clairemont Mesa; then Seafood City is the center for all things Filipino in National City. I think I’ve been to alot of Markets recently!

After breakfast at Zarlitos this past Friday, the Missus had requested that I drop by Seafood City, and pick up some "Native Delight"????

Prima Toast is her latest obsession, I guess Haw Flakes are out! But she didn’t want just the brand she’s been buying, she wanted a "variety". And we all know, we don’t mess around with the cravings of the Missus! But all I could find was 1 other brand, so I picked that up!

I thought about picking up some Sky Flakes:

But I already had some, and they last forever if you don’t open them.

Doesn’t the "Family Pack" Longanisa look good!

Or maybe the boneless Daing (Milkfish):

Fried up, dipped into garlic and vinegar; this is one of the Missus’s favorites. Don’t forget the rice!

Actually, Seafood City has probably the busiest seafood department in San Diego. What you can do is select your fish from the counter, or the almost endless isle of fish, BTW doesn’t this guy look like he’s doing "something" in the fish isle?

Bring it to the counter, take a number, and they’ll announce the number over the loudspeaker when your fish is ready. And this place is cranking! When I entered I heard number 82, when I left about 30 minutes later, they were already on number 136! On a Friday morning no less. But the really entertaining thing is just hanging out listening to the fish guy on the microphone.

I guess it must be a pretty boring job, calling out numbers and lining up the endless red/pink bags on the counter. So the "announcer" has to keep it lively. So you’ll hear stuff like, "pretty girl, num-ber 92, pretty girl come see meeeeee", "Lo-laaa, Lo-laaa, number 105, you have dinner", "handsome, Mister handsome, number 123", or my favorite of the day; "number 85, number 85, come get it, your fish is going to swim awaaay soon"! Always cracks me up!

Seafood City does a pretty good job merchandising; you see on the way to the cashier, you always pass the Ice Cream:

Talk about needing self control! I got out with 3 packages Pamana Prima Toast, and 1 package Barrio Fiesta Prima Toast, about 7 bucks total….

If there’s one thing I’d wish for Seafood City, it would be that the Cashiers would have the levity of the guy I deem the "Seafood Announcer". I’ve never ever seen one smile. Most of the time, they stare off stonily into the distance. In fact, if there was a "stare down" between the 99 Ranch Market cashiers, and the Seafood City cashiers; Seafood City would win going away…..

Seafood City
1420 E Plaza Blvd
National City, CA 91950

Chicago On A Bun

October 10, 2005 mmm-yoso Hot Dogs

*** This location of Chicago on a Bun is no longer

This past Saturday, I was up in the UTC area around lunch, so I decided to grab a "Dog" at Chicago on a Bun in the Renaissance Towne Center.

Now, I'm not a real "Hot Dog" kind of guy, but I do enjoy a good Chicago Dog. In case you really don't know what a "Chicago Dog" is; it's a Beef Hot Dog in a Poppy Seed Bun, with Mustard, Onion, Relish, Tomato, Sport or Hot Peppers (no jalapeno's need apply), Dill Pickle, and most importantly Celery Salt. No kraut please!

Chicago on a Bun is a Mom and Pop business specializing in Chicago Style Hot Dogs, Sandwiches, and Ribs. It's a little shop crammed full of memorabilia, with a large menu:

So what did I order? A Regular Dog ($3.65), and a drink ($1.35). I placed my order with a sweet and funny older Lady, and had a seat. In few minutes my Dog was ready and I had a seat outside.

Dig that relish will ya'! The dog was a good beef dog, a little on the smaller size, but it could be that I'm affected by the Costco-sizing of the world. I wish the relish was a bit sweeter, and that I had a bit more onions. The peppers were a little spicy, though more pickled than hot. I enjoyed the steamed bun, nice and a bit eggy!

One thing about eating this dog; it's almost impossible to eat it in a neat manner.

You see, in order to maximize the experience, you should get a bit of everything in each bite. Which is nearly impossible, since physics dictates that masses of different sizes and textures will escape through the path of least resistance. In other words, stuff is falling everywhere!

All in all, a nice Chicago Dog, though a bit pricey at almost 4 bucks.

Chicago on a Bun
8935 Towne Center Drive
San Diego, CA 92122
Open Daily – Mon-Sat 11-8, Sun 11-5

Renaissance Towne Center is an interesting place, done to look Old World/East Coast like. Parking is really limited, though there are a quite a few eating places in the mall, it seems like the mall was designed to mainly feed the neighborhood. I really like the Clock Tower:

If you only knew, that at the base of the Tower is a Pizza Hut!

Oh, and by the way; if you're the obnoxious, chubby Chinese Girl stage whispering to your 98 pound weakling of a Boyfriend, "He's so gross", while looking at me eating my Hot Dog. Please take to heart what I said to you; "You want to see gross, try the mirror first!" Try a few servings of class, instead of whatever it is you're stuffing your face with next time, OK?

Relaxing at Ranch 99, or This Little Piggy Went to Market

October 9, 2005 mmm-yoso Markets & Grocers

*** Some additional posts on 99 Ranch Market can be found here and here. And one silly post on "Chinese Spaghetti Sauce" can be found here.

I know what you're thinking. How can a trip to Ranch 99 Market, that crazy, hectic, center for all things Chinese, supermarket, be relaxing?

I mean, if you're like us at all, you view your trip to 99 Ranch Market with some trepidation. Too crowded, lousy parking lot, small isles, cashiers that are burnt out, and basically dealing with a mass of humanity that's doing the same thing you do; get in, get what you need, and get the heck out of dodge, ASAP!

But when I'm able to, I get to 99 Ranch Market when the parking lot looks like this:

What I do on weekends is do my shopping at about 845 in the morning(there's another reason, keep reading the post). It's not opening time which is 8am, after all, you never want to be first in line and appear too anxious, right!

When the market is at this somewhat "empty" state, the walk to the produce department can seem to be oh, so far away……

What you hit first are the fruits, especially the "special" fruits, as in what's in season, what's popular, or what's on sale. Any any given day it could be Lychee, Jujube, Persimmons, Sugar Plums, or in this case, Longan:

99 Ranch Market also stocks some really great and interesting vegetables, like this one:

This is "Stem Lettuce" also known as Celtuce, Asparagus Lettuce, Celery Lettuce, Woo Ju, or Woo Chu. I'd seen this for many years, but never knew what to do with it. Until one night we were watching an old Chinese Movie called the Girl from Hunan. In that film, the characters are munching on this through the whole movie. Well my Father In Law is from Hunan, so on his next trip out, I asked him how to cook this. In short, peeled and sliced Stem Lettuce is great in stir fried dishes with smoked meats, makes sense, since smoked meats are one of the food items Hunan is known for. So stir fried with some garlic, soy sauce, green&red bell peppers, onions, and a smoked pork, chicken, or my favorite, duck, really brings out the celery-like taste. And if not over cooked the texture will be like a softer water chestnut. Stem Lettuce is also used in soups, though I've never tried using it in any of my soups.

The meat department is large and comprehensive. This is also where I usually get the "pork butt/shoulder" for my Kalua Pork:

But what many people come to 99 Ranch Market for is the full service Seafood/fish department, and at 9am in the morning, you have it all to yourself, especially if you want them to do any of this to your fish:

I like the signage at 99 Ranch Market. For some reason they make me laugh. Check out the one over the boxes of very live crab, I guess somebody has actually grabbed those by hand?

About this time, I'm finding that I'm really relaxed, and am kind of enjoying myself; at 99 Ranch Market no less! And just then I pass the bakery, and all the smells of the fresh bread:

Maybe some taro cake, or red bean cake in my future? No, not today. There used to be a shaved ice snack bar within the market, but it's been turned into a "deli" case with prepared cold dishes:

There's a pretty large selection on display, in fact it could almost be dizzying! The "smoked fish" (Su Shih Hsun Yuu ), looked especially enticing; but I'd already gotten what I needed, and made my way to the cashier, who although yawning and looking very sleepy, rang me up, and I was on my way…well almost. You see on my way out I saw this:

And I swear, the duck was actually calling my name…..in a very Stephen King-ish way:

You see Sam Woo opens at 9am, how convenient…..so I got a half duck($6.75). As I waited for my duck to be chopped, I heard something else calling my name:

Luckily, I ignored the call. Paid for my duck and was on my way.

So who needs meditation, visualization, and all those other relaxation techniques? Just give me 99 Ranch Market early on a weekend morning……..