January 2010 – Page 3

BMH Italian- great sandwiches

January 5, 2010 Cathy Italian Restaurants, Sandwiches, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog, written by some friends who live (or used to live) in the San Diego area. We write about whatever we eat, wherever we eat it and let you enjoy also. Vicariously. Today, Cathy is helping you be vicarious, along with Kirk, ed (from Yuma) and Vicky.

So, it is a new year and there are resolutions made that need some time before saying they have stuck. I hope you are still sticking to yours. The Mister and I were in search of lunch the other day and stopped here, on El Cajon Boulevard.
BMH Italian. It used to be Mama Lina's, and those products are still sold here.
A small Italian bakery, market and deli inside along with a small seating area next door (14 chairs, 5 tables) and a menu consisting mostly of sandwiches, but also soups, salads, pastas and desserts.
I got the BMH – a cold sandwich- Capacolla, ham and provolone on a fresh white roll. Lettuce, tomato, onions, mustard, mayonnaise and house dressing. (Regular price is $7.75, but only $6 for seniors and with student ID).
The Mister ordered a "Ba Da Bing"-a hot sandwich- turkey, ham, pastrami and Provolone. ($7.95- not all items on the menu have a student discount). The toasted bread, even though the same as mine, tasted even better.
What caught my eye when we walked in was this Saeco coffee machine. You get a token for $1.25 when you order and then can choose your coffee, hear the beans being ground and wait to take it from the machine.
I got a cappuccino. The coffee had a good fresh flavor and the milk foam was rich. Something fun to do.

If you are in this area, stop in. Hours are limited and Tues-Fri from 5-6 (when it closes) some select cold sandwiches are $6 for everyone.

BMH Italian Sapore di casa 7670 El Cajon Boulevard La Mesa 91941 619-698-6333 Hours: Mon 10:30-5 Tues-Fri 10:30-6, Sat 10:30-4 website link

Tajima Sushi & Japanese Tapas Restaurant

January 4, 2010 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants

So a couple of days ago I received an email from someone I hadn't heard from in ages, say about a year and a half. I'm not sure many of you were reading when I did the "Dude, like where's all the Asian Food…." post. Apparently this fellow is here to keep me on the straight and narrow. This time around it was, "ok, the holidays are over, so can we get on with eating in San Diego? Enough with the other stuff and reruns!" he-he-he……. What would I do without folks like this to keep me focused? So here goes……

A few months back, while driving up Mercury to do some shopping at Marukai, I passed the "newer" location of Tajima, and realized, even though I did one of those "odds and ends" posts on the place in 2006, I'd still never been to the place. So it was time to remedy the situation…..

And though I still call the place "Tajima 2", it's actually called "Tajima Sushi & Japanese Tapas Restaurant" whew, what a mouthful. First off, the interior is fairly stylish, though the tables are a bit too close together, and things are a bit "wide-open" so you can mind everyone else's business. This is not much different from many Izakaya type places though. On each visit, Jazz was playing in the background, and you could clearly make out the trickling "waterfall" in the background…ambient noise as an attempt to distract you from all the conversation. It is also pretty dark, and all my attempts at taking a photo (I never use a flash) failed.

Enough of that, here's rundown on what we ate during our visits…..

The Tako Wasabi ($4.50) was fine. I'm pretty sure that like most sushi bars, it is bought from one of several distributors, but for some reason, it is a bit more sweet, with less of a sinus clearing wasabi bite, than other versions I've had.

I usually enjoy Tako Wasabi whenever I've gotten it, and this was no different.

The Geso Karaage (Deep fried squid legs – $3.95) didn't thrill me as much:

These were a bit over-fried, as the squid had become really tough, and the batter tasted a bit bitter.

I thought the Chicken Mizore (Chicken Karaage with Tsuyu and grated daikon – $4.50) would be a better choice than the Chicken Karaage at Tajima, which tends to be bland and gummy(see my previous Tajima post) :

The Tsuyu – tempura dipping sauce and the daikon oroshi did liven up the rather bland chicken.

The funny thing is, one of my favorite dishes at Tajima was the Nonkotsu Karaage ($3.95), which is on the menu as "Chicken Gristle", but is actually battered and deep fried chicken cartilage.

I'm guessing that the batter which I think is a bit too thick and heavy for Karaage does well with the cartilage. The cartilage adds crunch to a batter which kinda lacks it. The Missus wouldn't touch it, but I finished the whole thing.

The Missus on one visit decided to try out the Chirashi, which is bargain priced at $11. I tried to warn Her off…. you know what they say about cheap and the words sashimi and sushi, right?

The Missus said that the salmon was quite good, everything else less so. Personally, just from looking at it, I thought the cutting skills of whomever put this together needs some work. It seemed like some of the fish was just shredded. The Missus did say that it was pretty much worth the price.

The Missus always has to order Shishamo ($5.95) whenever She sees it on the menu:

The Missus told me that the skin of the fish was not grilled as crisp as She prefers, but this was pretty good as a whole. One odd thing, the Missus left half of one fish, the one on the far left. As we were leaving I asked Her why, and She told me it was cold, and hadn't been grilled properly. The other four (and a half) were okay.

I also ordered the Buta no Kakuni (braised pork belly – $6.95), and was amazed at the portion size.

Having made this several times, and even having done a post on one of the versions (I guess I should do another post someday), I know that the yield for a good version is fairly small. First off, the Missus loved the boiled egg, which had a wonderful soft yolk. The braising liquid tasted adequately good, but the pork was on the dry and tough (for Buta Kakuni) side. In fact, it reminded me more of Pork Shoulder than Belly. Still, this was a pretty large portion size…… is there such a thing as too much braised pork belly???

Which kinda gets to my point; Tajima is a good place to try a bunch of dishes without breaking the bank. Thinking in terms of economies of scale, it is much cheaper than Izakaya Sakura, and the prices reflect the difference. The funny thing is, that the atmosphere here is probably a bit better than Sakura as well! I think Tajima is good place of you're on a tighter budget, and perhaps looking for stuff like "Kimchi Pork" and "Crunchy Roll", followed by a good dose of Soju.

Tajima Sushi & Japanese Tapas Restaurant
4411 Mercury St.
San Diego, CA 92111

Monterey Peninsula: Shin La Korean Restaurant

January 3, 2010 ed fromyuma Korean Restaurants, Monterey/Carmel/Santa Cruz - Monterey Bay/Peninsula, Road Trip, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Welcome to mmm-yoso – a little foodblog hosted by Kirk, who sometimes lets his friends post here. Like today, for example, when ed (from Yuma) writes about some things he ate on his summer vacation.

Although I have not lived in the Monterey area since 1997, I am fortunate to still have friends on the peninsula. And fortunately for me, many of those friends are almost as food obsessed as I am. With their help, I am able to eat in restaurants far from the beaten paths, places with no tourists in sight (well, except for me, I guess).

Last summer, Jack, Sarah, Lance, Tina, and I descended upon one such place, Shin La Korean restaurant.:
This small restaurant is located in a little strip mall on Carmel Ave, a few blocks east of Del Monte Blvd in Marina, California. In fact, if one wanted to hide a restaurant in a location where almost nobody could possibly find it — this'd be the place. The neighborhood is mostly residential and Carmel Ave is such a secondary street that there is no stoplight for it on Del Monte Blvd.

Previously, this space and been occupied by Shinra Korean restaurant, which served me a couple excellent meals before it went downhill. I have no idea when the new owner took it over.

In some respects, this incarnation is not as good as its predecessor. In particular, the ban chan currently lacks tremendous variety and outstanding quality. At Shin La, the ban chan were pretty ordinary – though properly prepared:

On the other hand, our first dish, fried mandu ($10.99), was first rate:
Each of these giant ravioli was stuffed with lightly spiced ground beef and had been nicely grilled like a good potsticker. The spicy dipping sauce was a nice complement.

We also loved the gal bi ($17.99):
Although the short ribs were cross cut, they were tender and pleasantly marinated.

We also were impressed by the cold noodles ($9.99):
Although the basic ingredients were just typical, the noodles had a nice pull to them and the broth (does anyone know what is in the broth for Korean cold noodles??) was very good. We were also impressed by the accompanying stoneground mustard seed:
The highlight of the meal was probably the Black goat soup ($29.99), which was served in a metal bowl placed on a heating element to keep the soup warm:
All of us were impressed by the soup itself. As you can see by this picture, numerous slices of goat meat were combined with a lot of cabbage in a rich and spicy miso broth:
The five of us ate until we were stuffed like dumplings and agreed that the food overall was pretty darned good. The next time you're in the Monterey Peninsula area, stop at Shin La for a meal and say some friends recommended the place.

Shin La Korean Restaurant, 265 Carmel Ave, Marina CA (831) 384-8956

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2010 mmm-yoso Cooking, Markets & Grocers

Boy did the Holiday season roll around quickly this year…. and for many it seems the faster we get this year behind us, the better. It was a pretty tough year for lot's of folks. I've always found that the availability and amount of Osechi-ryōri on display at various Japanese Markets in San Diego is a good gauge on the kind of year we;ve had. Needless to say, this year it seemed a bit more subdued. Less of the prepared boxes….