Month: September 2009

A quick Lunch at Anthony’s Grotto in La Mesa

Seafood, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is the name of this blog.  It is written by a group of friends, but mostly Kirk, ed (from Yuma) and Cathy.  I am Cathy. I am writing.  Because I ate.

Hello again.  I got a gift card for Anthony's from some clients earlier this year and The Mister and I figured it would be air conditioned this past Saturday (when it was 104° in Santee). That seems to be our criteria these days.  We have no humidity (<20%) but the dry heat is like opening an oven door and it just knocks the energy out of us.  Oh. We love seafood. That was also a good reason to choose Anthony's .

027 When you are walking in, a small Grotto greets you.

If you are sit by the wall of window, you have a complete view of the lake out back.

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We ordered and got some fresh baked Italian (soft, not crusty) bread rolls with sides of sun dried tomato butter.007

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We decided to share an appetizer of  artichoke and shrimp dip ($6.95).  There were 12 small but juicy and flavorful shrimp baked in the shell shaped dish, along with artichoke heart pieces and a lemony mayonnaise, topped with crispy breadcrumbs and accompanied by some toasted bread.  A nice starter.

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I chose the chowder and salad combination ($8.95).  Of course, New England clam chowder.

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This was served in a fresh made sourdough bread bowl, which just helped me with my carb overload of the day. The sourdough was not very sour, but the bread was wonderfully fresh and the chowder, was, as always, creamy, rich and filled with fat clams and diced potato.019

The Garden Harvest Salad that came with mine was served on a fish shaped plate.025 (click on the photo so it enlarges and you'll see the tail of the fish plate)

It was filled with shredded lettuces, cucumber, parboiled squash and carrots, flavorful tomatoes and topped with a light vinaigrette.

The Mister wanted to try the "Northern Combo" A choice of grilled sole, salmon or cod- any two or two of the same ($11.95) He chose cod and salmon and cole slaw as his side. Both fish were grilled and lightly seasoned, remaining moist.  The cole slaw here is made with pineapple and is delightfully refreshing.

024 026 The total for this lunch was exactly $30 and there is still money left on the gift card…and our birthdays are coming up!

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Mo’s back at Homestyle Hawaiian Island Style Food

Local Kine Stuffs in San Diego, Loco Mocos, Plate Lunch

*** A short update can be found here.

I know a lot of folks were really sad when Mo's Island Grinds closed down. Over the last six months, I was wondering what happened to Mo. I know he was going thru some pretty rough times personally. Then about  two weeks ago I get a really strange comment on my A & D Hawaiian BBQ post, "hey kirk, check out this place that just opened up. It's called homestyle hawaiian. Your going to get a kick out of this place. " It from someone named "Mo". Could it be??? Unfortunately, no address or general location for a place called Homestyle Hawaiian. The email address was bogus……. Strange, a mystery, many questions…..

The story finally broke when I received a couple more comments from "Mo". Which led me to the strip mall on the corner of Mesa College Drive and Ashford. Those who've read long enough may recognize this as the former location of Phil-Am Kitchenette. 

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HomestyleH02The old signage is still up, but a banner had been placed on the awning. It read "Homestyle Hawaiian", so I guess I was here? A folding grease pencil board was up in front of the entrance, and in the classic "Mo's" style all the offerings for the day were listed.

The interior is a bit cluttered with Hawaiian kitsch-y knick-knacks, doo-dads, and thing-a-ma-jiggies……

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The floors could maybe use a bit of a scrubbing….but there he was, Mo, in the flesh. Open only for about ten days, hadn't really told anyone about opening. Over the last six months, Mo has been keeping himself busy with catering gigs, and just plain laying low.

Of course I wanted my favorite dish, the Korean Chicken, and maybe some Katsu, but Mo was having a new fryer installed, so I'd have to wait until the weekend for that. I settled for a Loco Moco:

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HomestyleH06Mo told me that portions were a bit smaller than the gin-normous sizes back at Mo's, and prices now start at five bucks for some items. The loco moco was one of the items that has remained the same, three scoops rice (double-deckered, plus one under the burger), 12 oz patty, etc, etc, etc….. It tasted just the way I remembered, you can read about it here.

I realize that Loco Mocos aren't for everyone, but this a pretty good version.

HomestyleH04 So there you go, Mo is back in action. Currently, he is the only employee, so he'll be taking your order, cooking your food, and working the register. I'm hoping things work out, and will be back for some Korean Chicken in the near future.

Homestyle Hawaiian Island Style Food
7524 Mesa College Drive
San Diego, CA 92111

Revisits: Pho Sao Bien and Pho Hiep and Grill Linda Vista

Vietnamese Restaurants

I'm not quite sure what's going on this year. It used to be that we'd have a couple of stray days a year where we wished we had A/C. But this year, it seems like we're having a couple of decades worth of stray days run up together. Not necessarily hot, but kinda sticky too. When I think about it, Hawaii's much worse, but I guess my years on the mainland has made me a wuss…….whatever, I'm just hanging on, stewing in my juices, waiting for the weather to break. Here's a couple of revisits for hump day:

Pho Sao Bien:

I've always enjoyed Pho Sao Bien, for a quick bite. But on my last couple of visits, the food seemed to have slipped a bit. So on a recent visit, I decided to remove that camera from my pocket and document. On my last visit, a couple months back, when the weather was still nice a cool, I ordered some Pho, which was way too salty, with over-cooked noodles. No Pho for us on this visit thanks to the humidity. (I believe that this is where Ed from Yuma comes in telling me how hot it is there….something like "110 degrees in the shade"……) 

We started with an old favorite, the Cha Gio($6.25). 

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The egg rolls at Pho Sao Bin has always been on the pricey side, but were usually very tasty, huge, and made with the right type of wrapper. I dunno what happened, but instead of crisp, these were hard, really hard, and not very pleasant to eat. The filling tasted a bit bland, and the Nuoc Mam Cham tasted watered down.

The Missus wanted something cool and light and ordered the Bun Tom Nuong (Rice Vermicelli with Grilled Shrimp – $6.95):

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The Bun was mushy, and like the Cha Gio the Nuoc Mam Cham tasted watered down and weak. There were no herbs, just a chopped lettuce. The shrimp were on the greasy side, gummy, and low on the flavor scale.

I ordered the Com Bi Cha Thit Nuong ($6.95):

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PhoSaoBienRev03This is the combination rice plate with the steamed egg (Cha), shredded pork (Bi), and charbroiled pork (Thit Nuong). And since Pho Sao Bien is of the Pho Hoa Huong family tree, the pork is colored bright red,sort of like tocino. Unfortunately, it was as tough, and hard as tocino. The flavor was very mild as well. The steamed egg was somewhat mushy and tasteless. The Bi was dry, but had a decent flavor, and was the best thing on the plate….other than the rice, which was satisfactorily fragrant.

Overall, a fairly disappointing meal. I hope it was just an off day, but the quality of the ingredients seem to have taken a turn…..

Pho Sao Bien Vietnamese Restaurant
1958 Garnet Ave
San Diego, CA 92109

Pho Hiep & Grill – Linda Vista:

For some reason, I keep calling this place Pho Hoa Hiep. Old habits die hard I guess. Even though Cathy has done an updated post, I still think when someone mentions Pho Hiep and Grill, they are referring to the Chula Vista location. My bad………   

Every so often, I enjoy eating at Pho Hiep just to check out the demographics. Because of the location, tucked away from Linda Vista Road, you would probably have to know it's there….. So over the years it's been interesting to see an almost all Vietnamese clientle, slowly evolve into a nice melting pot. Two years ago I noted a shift in demographics, and on this visit it looks to still be going strong. "Butt crack guys" (you know, plumbers, contruction workers, etc) sitting on one table, a group of  Hispanic dudes on another, a Caucasian Family here, a Filipino Family there. It's really nice to see….

Oh, and my combination Com Tam wasn't bad either!

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09022009 002The only weak point was the steamed egg (Cha) which was nice and moist, but very bland. Also, even though the menu said "Com Tam" this was jasmine rice. But like I always said, whenever you get Com Tam Dac Biet, with the variety of items, it's almost impossible to have everything done to perfection. Strangely, I enjoyed the charbroiled chicken the best, though the Missus poached all the shrimp, so I'm guessing it was pretty good as well. This dish is called the Com Tam Hiep, and is fairly pricey at $9.95, but it sure did fill me up.

Pho Hiep & Grill
6947 Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92111

The other evening, the Missus & I had the pleasure of having a wonderful, gut-busting meal with some of my favorite folks. There were lots of laughs and enough food to feed the entire neighborhood….several times over! As if to crown off the evening, here's the sunset from YY & MrQ's backyard:

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I'm sure the fires up North have something to do with this, but it sure was beautiful………

Pastalini- good food. Interesting concept.

Mediterranean Restaurants, Pizza, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! The Blog. About food.  Written by some friends, mostly Kirk, sometimes ed (from Yuma) and sometime Cathy.  Yet another sometime day. 

Hi.  I was driving along Miramar Road and saw a sign at the Taco Bell/KFC parking lot and drove to the back.042

So I stopped, walked in, ordered and paid. The Mister met me for dinner.026

Neat, clean, efficient. You choose a type of pasta ( 6 shapes, or whole wheat for $1 more or tortellini for $1.50 more), a sauce( alfredo, pesto, marinara, vodka, mushroom tomato, sundried tomato, tequila lime cream or Romescu), a meat (chicken, shrimp, fish or meatball) and 2 veggie toppings (mushrooms, zucchini, tri colored bell peppers, broccoli, corn, peas, garlic, jalapeño, tomato, onion,spinach, beets or carrot). Then all is mixed and heated through.  Standard price is $5.95.  There are also pizzas and salads (also $5.95, with the larger pizza being $10.95). The pizza and salads are pretty much combinations of the above ingredients, with the addition of blackened tofu and various cheeses…there are a variety of salad dressings.

The website shows this is the only location, but seems it is trying to franchise out. I like the concept.  Three televisions, each on a different channel, free wifi. www.pastalini.net 028

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I ordered a small side salad ($1.99), which comes with mixed spring greens, tomatoes and onions and a vinaigrette, but I asked for no onions and was told I could get any other topping, so I chose olives.  This was quite a large, filling salad.  Of course, I ate all the olives, since The Mister won't.  But I would have eaten all of the onions also, and I know he would have mentioned the onion juice residue on the lettuce…024

Oh. The salad came with these nifty, fresh baked, garlicy bread knots.

The Mister and I used to eat baked pastas all the time.  When I saw it was offered, I *had to* order it. ($6.49)

Al dente rigatoni with a fresh marinara, topped with ricotta and mozzarella and baked. *Really* good.

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We shared this.  All the pastas come in this size pan with a variety of sauces, meats, salmon or pomegranate meatballs or blackened tofu. Quite enough food. 

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Really.  We finished it.  

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But, you know, I also ordered a small (10 inch) goat cheese and olive pizza ($5.95)…

Fresh, thin crust.  Mozzarella.  Goat Cheese.  Olives.  Olive oil.  Wonderful.

We will go back to try the other items on the menu.

PASTALINI 7190 Miramar Road San Diego 92121

Across from the West gate Entrance to MCAS Miramar. Behind the Taco Bell/KFC

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