September 2010 – Page 2

A milestone for mmm-yoso……

September 15, 2010 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

I was reminded of something when we returned from China at the end of May…… the day we returned to San Diego, mmm-yoso made five years. I'd usually do one of my Spam Musubi posts to celebrate, but this year it just didn't feel right. So I decided to wait, with another milestone in sight. So here it is, post 1,500……..

I'd like to refrain from a Ted Baxter "It all started at a 5000-watt radio station…." moment, but would like to thank you for visiting and reading!

It's been our pleasure to share our meals with you over the last couple of years; from the fancy….

To stuff we eat….. well on this past weekend for example…..

Or sometimes, things considered perhaps a bit unconventional by Western standards….

We've had the pleasure of sharing our travels with you….. whether domestically….

Or somewhere beyond our borders…..

Cathy, Ed from Yuma, Vicky, the Missus and I sincerely thank you for reading!

I hope we're able to provide at least a few more interesting food posts….

With some travel thrown in for good measure!

Pizzeria Bruno Napoletano

September 13, 2010 mmm-yoso Pizza

*** Pizzeria Bruno has closed

The Missus and I aren't real big pizza people…… the huge amount of cheese, and way too much bread that characterizes typical "American Pizza" is just too much for us. Even the New York style pizza we've had has been touch and go, and most times since it's just the Missus and I, a whole large pie is just out of the question, as are wrinkled reheated slices. So when FOY, Kayoko, keeper of Umamimart told me that I just had to try Bruno when we had lunch last month…. well, of course I just had to check them out.

When you first enter Bruno, the first thing you notice is "Bruno" the wood fired brick oven that occupies the back of the kitchen area.

Ovens like Bruno are capable of major heat, upwards of 900 degrees, which does magical things with well made dough……

And I was thrilled to order my first pizza, the Bufalina ($16), which consisted of Mozzarella di Bufala (Buffalo Mozzarella), Fresh Tomatoes, Basil, and drizzled with a very flavorful olive oil, which I enjoy because it isn't too over-the-top in fruitiness, and thus doesn't interfere with the rest of the flavors.

When the pizza hit the table, I was just entranced by the fragrances. There were the characteristics of a classic Neopolitan Pizza, raised edges, the dough of the body of the pizza no thicker than 1/8 inch. The texture of the charred edges was wonderful, with a nice pull. I was a bit disappointed at the lack of coloring on the body of the pizza, and this was borne out as I tried to separate a slice and move it to my plate….. the entire middle of the pie stayed on the pan, saturated. When I tried to lift it, everything just kinda sloughed off the pie. Still I loved the wonderful, pure flavors that came through. You could taste everything. I ended taking two slices home since I thought this would be right up the Missus's alley. When She opened the box, She said, "you gotta be kidding"….. until She caught a whiff of the olive oil and basil. She scarfed the entire thing up cold…… except for the center which had turned to mush….

And soon enough, we made our way back to Bruno. We ordered two pies, the Brunoverde ($14) – Fresh Mozzarella, Parmigiana Reggiano, Ricotta, and Arugula.

We both loved the combination of milky flavors lent by the cheese, which was cut by the wonderfully peppery arugula. This time the crust was just about there, wonderful char on the edges, the pie was soft, and foldable. I was once told that when you had true Neopolitan Pizza, you should be able to fold a slice in half, then half again without the crust breaking. This sure filled the bill.

To be honest, we thought the simple Marinara ($9) – tomato sauce, basil, garlic, and olive oil, displayed the best of Bruno. Things were placed in perfect proportion for us.

All the items were displayed at its best, the tomato sauce made this taste like "sunshine on a crust". Without a doubt, the crust on this was wonderful, soft and moist, the best of all the pies we've had a Bruno.

This is the Missus's favorite here…. She'll order it requesting an extra drizzle of the olive oil on it.

Some of the other Pizzas we've had at Bruno:

The Blanco ($15) – Mozzarella, gorgonzola, Garlic, Roasted Onion, Pancetta, and Arugula:

There was an amazing char on this pizza, great crust. I think this was a case of too much of a good thing. There was just too much going on, and the combination of pancetta and gorgonzola made this a bit on the salty side.

I did enjoy the Diavolo ($15), though. A pizza topped with Tomato Sauce, Mozzarella, Pepperroni, Garlic, and Goat Peppers.

I just love looking at my photo of this pizza. Even though they call this Diavolo (the Devil), this wasn't very spicy. The peppers listed are goat peppers, which I've always thought were in the Habanero Family, but perhaps I'm wrong since these were slightly spicy, with a mild sweet-fruitiness to them. The Missus picked them off the pizza to eat!

As you can tell, we've been coming here a lot recently. And though we believe that items such as the Bread Plate ($8):

Really don't show Bruno at it's best; the Missus enjoys the salads, and She craves that Pizza Marinara…..

And we've found that we enjoy sitting outside on Bruno's patio, sipping on Limonata, Aranciata, or a Stella Artois. Celebrating the end of another week.

Some notes: The service has always been friendly, though a bit spaced out on one visit. Parking out front will be by meter so either have some quarters handy, visit on Sunday, or park further up the street near Henry's.

Pizzeria Bruno
4207 Park Blvd
San Diego, CA 92105

Please read Kayokos post on Pizzeria Bruno here.

For more information about Neapolitan Pizza, you can check the site of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana.

Road Trip: Luscious Dumplings and Michelle’s Pancake House – San Gabriel (Los Angeles)

September 12, 2010 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip

The Missus and I hadn't been back to the SGV quite as much as we desired since returning from China. A couple of weeks back, we finally had a chance, and we decided to check out a few places we hadn't been to. We started however, with a place we hadn't been to in quite a while:

Luscious Dumplings:

**** Luscious Dumplings has moved to Monrovia

Since we'd be checking out a place in the same strip mall, we decided on having some Jiaozi at Luscious Dumplings. Actually, I thought I'd posted on this place before but couldn't find a previous post. Luckily, I snapped a photo before we left…… check out the line! When we arrived, the place was empty, but it sure fills up quickly.

Luscious Dumplings is a small, bare bones operation, whose menu is presented on a half sheet of paper. You check off the items you want, and you're on your way. Within seconds a styrofoam cup of tea, and a small plate of marinated/pickled vegetable arrives.

On this day, after the Missus scarfed this up, totally against character, another little plate arrived at our table! Wow, great service, right? Well, not quite…. it seems that another table had requested more of the free appetizer, and it had been erroneously brought to us. Maybe it was our lucky day.

We had ordered two different dumplings, the first to arrive were the Chive, Pork, Egg, and Shrimp Dumplings(10 – $6.50):

These were excellent; the wrappers were almost pillowy, with just the right amount of pull. The filling was well put together as well. You could still taste the shrimp, and the pungency of the chive didn't over-power the rest of the ingredients.

Our order of Pork and Celery Dumplings arrived soon after:

The one outstanding characteristic of these dumplings were the lightness of the filling, so smooth and light, almost mousse-like. The Missus's Fifth Aunt, will often stir her Jiaozi filling for over an hour with chopsticks to attain the right consistency. The texture of these were pretty close. The flavor seemed a bit off to us. Celery is a wonderful foil for rich or gamey fillings, but here the flavor of ginger overwhelmed everything else. We couldn't even make out the celery in the dumpling.

Still, the dumplings here are well worth a visit. One thing I noticed, it seems that the prices here go up like clockwork, but these are worth $6.50.

Luscious Dumplings Inc
704 W. Las Tunas Dr.
San Gabriel, CA 91776

You can check out Wandering Chopstick's post on Luscious Dumplings here.

Right around the corner from Luscious Dumplings is a shop that FOY (Friend of Yoso) Andy thought might be an interesting shop to visit:

Michelle's Pancake House:

*** Michelle's Pancake House has closed

No, it's not the Chinese equivalent of IHOP or The Original Pancake House. The "Michelle" portion of the name is a direct phonetic interpretation of what seems to be the Owner's name. And this place specializes in "Dan Bing", Xiar Bing, and other dough preparations.

The dining area in the shop is about a third larger than Luscious Dumplings, which is not very large. We also noticed that the customers here seemed to be a bit older.

Much like China, there are a couple of communal tables, that folks share.

A little bowl of boiled peanuts, very mushy, and perhaps past their due date, arrived while we looked over the checklist and the menu.

We decided to start with the Egg, Shrimp, and Leek (chive) Dumplings (12 – $5.95):

Thte wrappers had that home made texture to them, and were perhaps a bit on the gummy side. The filling wasn't binded, so there was tendency for it to fall apart. We really couldn't taste the shrimp in these as well.

We also ordered two different Xiar Bing (stuffed breads). The first was the Radish, Thin Bean, and Shrimp ($6.95):

The dough was a pleasant surprise for us. The tops and bottoms were thin and crisp. It was a lot less oily than we had expected as well. The Xiar Bing were pretty filling, and I could only finish one.

The filling was interesting…. if you like daikon, you'll love these. I'm thinking that the thin beans in these must be really, really, thin….. like invisible thin. At least you could make out the faint flavor of dried shrimp even if you couldn't see it.

The second set were the Zucchini and Pork (8 – $5.95):

These were a bit smaller than the radish version, but felt pretty rich. The Missus didn't care for the strong "pork" flavor, but I thought it was fairly good.

The filling was moist, but the pork kinda tough and chewy. I'm pretty sure by the smell and flavor that pork butt/shoulder was used for these.

I had my doubts as to how these would hold up after taking them home; but they heated up fairly well in the toaster oven.

The Missus learned that the owners are from Longkou (龍口) in Shandong Province, an area well known for the production of cellophane noodles. We were interested enough that I think we'll visit this place again.

Michelle's Pancake House
706 W. Las Tunas Dr.
San Gabriel, CA 91776

Thanks for the recommendation Andy!

One thing the Missus and I really appreciate about restaurant like these in the SGV; the menus are small, and are focused on the items they do best. And we're not done yet…. there was one more stop on this road trip so stay tuned……

Saturday Stuffs

September 11, 2010 mmm-yoso Markets & Grocers

Just a couple of things for this Saturday…….

I recently heard that Seafood City in Chula Vista is moving to this location on East Orange right off the 805:

I believe it used to be and Albertson's ……

So what is going to happen with the Seafood City on 3rd Avenue???

Believe it or not, I heard it was going to become a 99 Ranch Market! Anyone else heard the same thing?

A Taste of Korea Harvest and Wine Festival:

Traditional Korean dishes and wine? It's something I'd never even thought about. But I am intrigued….. and if this sounds interesting to you, on September 25th, the Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles will present A Taste of Korea Harvest and Wine Festival, hosted by San Diego's very own Cathlyn Choi. The event will be held at the San Diego Wine & Culinary Center on Harbor Drive. There will be a food and wine tasting starting at 2pm, and even more interesting, will be a "Korean Food Chef Challenge" at 4pm, which sounds like six chefs competing in an Iron Chef like contest, where Chefs are trying to create traditional Korean dishes in front of a panel of judges. Admission at $20 – $30 sounds very reasonable. You can find more information here.

Weeknight Grilling: Grilled Chicken and Potatoes with Spicy Cilantro-Garlic Sauce

September 9, 2010 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

Honestly…. I guess I'm just not able to grill up pretty looking food on weeknights. Probably because my objective is to get the food to the table in less than an hour, clean up, and then have some time to do a post….. But I gotta say, it ain't easy being green.

And in fact, if you consider that I par boiled the potatoes the night before with the intent to throw them on the grill, perhaps this doesn't even qualify for one of my weeknight grilling posts.

The recipe itself, is based on what Rick Bayless calls his "chimichurri" in his latest book, Fiesta at Rick's. If you ever wanted a recipe for a gallon of Michelada, this is the book for you. In fact, I've kinda planted the seed in the minds of my friends….. just the fact that they are considering digging a pit in their Mom's backyard to do the recipe for a 30 pound lamb based on the recipe in the book…. well, you get the point. In his book, his "chimichurri" is used for a ceviche. I've posted on a more traditional Chimichurri before, but when Bayless mentioned that this was great on chicken; well, I had to just give it a try.

The actual sauce recipe didn't use any acid, which Rick Bayless added in later as part of his ceviche. And for the skin on, boneless chicken legs and the potatoes, I didn't use any acid. The recipe itself is a bit different from what's in the book, I usually use recipes as more of a guideline, and make adjustments for my taste preferences anyway. In this case, I cut down the flat leaf parsley, since I didn't care for an overwhelming chlorophyll taste. I also bumped up the garlic (of course) and the serrano chilies (of course again), and added a bunch of scallions to the whole mess for some additional punch. The sauce came out pretty thick, like a pesto, and smelled wonderful. And to tell you the truth, it isn't particularly spicy either……

So form the time I got my chimney starter going……

Spicy Cilantro-Garlic Sauce

16 cloves of garlic
5 serrano chilies
2 medium bunches cilantro, hard stems removed
1/2 of a small bunch flat leaf parsley, hard stem removed
1 bunch green onions
2/3 cup olive oil
2-3 Tb Sea Salt

– Roughly chop cilantro, parsley, serrano chilies, and green onions. (For less heat, remove the seeds and "veins" from the serranos before using)
– Place in a blender with garlic
– Slowly add olive oil while pulsing the blender.
– Scrape excess unblended ingredients off the sides of the blender, and then blend until fairly smooth.

This will make about two cups, more then enough for several uses.

For the chicken pieces, I put about 1 1/2 tablespoons of sauce on one side and lightly rubbed over the chicken. I then turned the chicken over and did the same. I put the chicken in the fridge for about 15 minutes to marinate, and prepped my potatoes. I had sliced two russet potatoes into 3/4 inch slices the night before and parboiled. I rinsed well, to remove excess starch, made sure they were nice and dry, and put them in the fridge. I took them out right before I got my charcoal started. I seasoned with sea salt and fresh ground pepper, rubbed with extra virgin olive oil, and split into two groups. Right before grilling, I tossed one group with red wine vinegar. The other group was grilled on one side, and after turning, I brushed on some of the sauce on the grilled side of the potato. After turning I repeated with the other side, making sure to grill the potatoes, without burning them. Of course I was grilling up the chicken as well.

It turned out to be pretty good.

Regular readers may recall that the Missus doesn't eat chicken anymore, so I also grilled up some eggplant, zucchini, and red peppers.

Toasted some ciabatta bread rubbed with garlic oil on the grill. I mixed about 1/2 cup of the sauce with a few squeezes of lime to add some acid, which the Missus used as a spread for sandwiches, which She loved. In fact, She had a couple of days worth of sandwiches.

A couple of days later, I repeated the sauce with lime, added a touch more salt, and a few turns of black pepper, and made a salad dressing.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, green leaf lettuce, a few sprigs of cilantro, and pepinos, made for a nice salad.

I'm always happy to find these recipes that can be used for multiple purposes……. it makes life so easy.

Eating on the hood of your car – La Tiendita Clairemont

September 8, 2010 mmm-yoso Taco Shops

Right across from Clairemont Town Square, lies La Tiendita, a Mexican Market that has been around for quite a while.

Over the last couple of years, on weekends, La Tiendita has been doing tacos. I went when they first started selling tacos, and was not very impressed.

But, a few months ago, I noticed the existence of a trompo (verticle spit) with what looked like Al Pastor on it. I made a mental note to try out the tacos again, but didn't have a chance to until we returned from our trip to China.

Even though the sign says they had Buche, I was told by the very friendly gentleman running the stand that they didn't have any on this day. This guy is really nice, and seems to really want to please his customers, so he opened some pans and actually started giving me samples!

After tasting the Birria de Res (stewed beef), I immediately crossed that one off my list. But having sampled the gentleman's hospitality, I went in and paid the cashier for four tacos. At $1.75 a piece it might seem expensive, but these are pretty good sized tacos. Actually, two tacos would have been enough, but I wanted to sample a couple of items.

The woman behind the counter was hand pressing tortillas. Along with smelling the carne asada on the grill, this really gives you the impression that everything is made super fresh to order. This was not necessarily true, the tortillas are stacked in a bowl under a towel, which is perfectly fine. The adobada has been trimmed earlier and is in a covered pan. Even though there was meat loaded on the trompo, it was not even on when I arrived. The carne asada was removed from the grill and tossed into a pan and mixed with whatever was there earlier. Still the salsas were good, and those tacos were pretty hefty.

First up, the Carnitas (braised pork):

This was a bit on the bland and dry side, and lacked the richness that I look for in carnitas.

The best of the bunch was the Cabeza (beef head), which actually benefitted from being in that covered pan for a while.

Rich, moist, and wearing its rendered collagen like a badge of honor, the cabeza gad a wonderful beefiness. It was perhaps too moist, because the tortilla just fell apart, and I ended up scooping everything up with my fingers. Good thing it didn't all fall off onto my hood (yes, I was actually eating on the hood of my car).

The adobada was okay.

It didn't quite have the texture I enjoy having gotten a bit dry, and lacking the great crispy bits like stuff cut off the trompo topped with charred bits. The meat had good heat, but lacked the fruity, complex sweetness and a decent savory component that I look for in Al Pastor/Adobada.

The carne asada was pretty mediocre.

It was pretty dry, with some tough sinewy bits. The flavor was very mild, though I'm sure it would be much better coming straight off the grill.

The positives for me here was the cabeza (and I'm looking forward to lengua), the good salsas, and the really friendly staff. I arrived at noon, which should be peak time, so perhaps lack of constant business forces them to make the carne asada and adobada ahead, but I'm sure it would be much better fresh off the grill/trompo. There's no dining area, so you'll be eating coctail party style, or on the hood of your car…… or a reasonable facsimile.

The market is pretty good place to shop, though sometimes the produce and bakery products can be a little past its time…..

La Tiendita Mexican Market – Tacos on weekends only.
3851 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

Big Boy. It’s back and unchanged.

September 7, 2010 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Burgers, What Cathy Eats!

Big Boy is closed.

mmm- yoso!!! is just a diary of food consumed and logged. Today, Cathy is logging in. ed(from Yuma) kind of can't and Kirk kind of doesn't feel like it.

I think most of us grew up at some point in time eating at a Big Boy restaurant. Bob's is the one in California, Shoney's is in the Southeastern part of the USA and in the Detroit area, it's Elias Brothers. The decor and menu at each location is essentially the same.

There is a statue of the Big Boy out in front. bob's all but disappeared from San Diego in the late 80's and one location, on the exterior of Parkway Plaza Mall in El Cajon has re-appeared.

The strangely addictive seasoned salt on every table, along with the pretty much always necessary ketchup is in place.

The Super Big Boy Combo. Two 1/4 lb juicy beef patties, two slices of cheese, shredded lettuce and that ketchup-relish mix on the two-plus sesame seeded bun. Which is toasted. And perfect. All the flavors I grew up with. The fries are well cooked, but nothing I crave. It comes with a small salad which I didn't even photograph. ($7.99)

Pappy Parker's fried chicken. It was three pieces, with sides of vegetable and this baked potato. ($9.99). Ate first, picture later. Lightly flour-breaded and fried until just crispy. Not too greasy. Both plates satisfied all the cravings I had building up inside me.

If you are in El Cajon, it's here. Unchanged.

Bob's Big Boy 937 Parkway Plaza (near WalMart) El Cajon 92020 website

Bread on Market- a quick, delicious breakfast

September 5, 2010 Cathy Bakery, Breakfast/Brunch, What Cathy Eats!

Sadly, this wonderful bakery has closed.

mmm-yoso!!! is the blog. The people who write the blog are friends who like to eat and talk about their adventures. Today, Kirk and ed(from Yuma) ae having their own adventures and Cathy is writing about one of hers.

Hi. I used to be in downtown San Diego a lot, but either at 6 a.m. or after 6 p.m. and this place was always closed when I would drive or walk past.
Bread on Market opens at 7:30 a.m., it is closed by 4 p.m. Sun-Thurs and 5 p.m. Fri and Sat, unless the Padres are playing an evening game and then they stay open until 7 p.m. They bake really good breads and pastries, make wonderful sandwiches, soups and salads. Then there is breakfast, my most favorite meal of the day.

The menu is on the side wall, and there is a chalkboard out front with specials listed.

You walk up, order and pay, get your own coffee or beverage and have a seat. It is small inside, only about ten tables and sometimes the line goes out the door.

Here is a kind of cross section of an almond croissant ($2.75). Filled with a delicate in house made marzipan, which is light and fluffy and not overly sweet , light layers of dough, baked to a crispy exterior and topped with coarsely chopped almonds, which give it a wonderful texture. It was fresh, but not out of the oven warm.
This blueberry scone ($2.75), however, was hot from the oven at about 8 a.m. one Sunday a few weekends ago.

Flaky, creamy dough and filled with fresh blueberries. It was wonderful. One of the best scones I have ever had.

The Country Breakfast ($4.25) Two scrambled eggs, sliced Francese (a square roll of white bread with a chewy but soft crust), butter, cream cheese and strawberry jam with fresh fruit. Just enough and so fresh.
One Sunday, we decided to try the Cheese plate for breakfast ($7) Fresh baguette and a choice of two cheeses (this was Brie and Gorgonzola; we could also have chosen Goat, Cheddar or Jack) served with Kalamata olives, dried cranberries, apples and sliced strawberries. This was very nice and just enough for us.

We usually buy a loaf of rye bread when we are here; I don't have a photo, but it is filled with caraway seeds and very, very good. The sandwiches are excellent and cost between $7.50 and $7.95. An excellent place I wish I had stopped by sooner. Now it is a destination.

Bread on Market 730 Market Street San Diego 92101 (619) 795-2730 Website

Eating with Friends: Eating the SGV, Crab Hut 2, and here’s to new friends

September 4, 2010 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Memorable Meals, Road Trip, Seafood, Xiao Long Bao, yoso-silly

One of the wonderful things that has happened in the five plus years I've been doing this blog, is that I've made some wonderful friends. I'm not quite sure how it's happened, but I feel blessed to know such wonderful folks (Note to JohnL…. like I said, "don't let it go to your head", he-he-he). I've often done short posts on meals I've had with friends, so I hope you don't mind another.

Doing the SGV thing:

A bunch of us got together a couple of weeks back, and did a San Gabriel Valley food crawl. Two of them, TammyC and JohnL had done stuff like this with me before. I knew MrC would go with the flow…. but PeterL, well, he was the rookie, and we'd have to keep an eye on him. We sort of just headed out, and I asked questions about what the folks wanted to eat…….. and after ruminating a bit, I decided that our first stop would be Dean Sin World. And of course, Shengjian Bao.

It turns out that none of this group, other than me had ever had Niu Rou Chuan (Beef Roll):

Not the most stellar version, but man did PeterL enjoy this, perhaps a bit too much. John and Tammy know a couple of my "rules" when it comes to an eating crawl. You live in the moment, that is, you don't start counting how many tacos you've had, this will just screw you up mentally. You resist the temptation to have that second or third, or fourth serving of the same item. It will still be here next time…. there's more up the road. Unfortunately, Peter just wanted those two extra pieces of Niu Rou Chuan, and as we walked the few yards to Giang Nan, I could tell the NRC was starting to settle in Peter's belly……

Of course at Giang Nan, we had two orders of each type of Xiao Long Bao.

As well as some of the cold dishes…..

After this I offered up QingDao Bread Food, which is right across a street. The Missus & I will often do Dean Sin World followed by Giang Nan and QingDao Bread Food when we;re in the area. I even offered up Mama's Lu and other places, but these folks were Bao'd and Dumpling'd out. And Peter really needed a break, so we drove to Focus Plaza to stretch our legs, grab some drinks, and do some shopping.

Then it was time for lunch….. enough with the snacks, it was time for a real meal. I offered up Tianjin Bistro or Hunan Chilli King. Since we had MrC, and his asbestos mouth, everyone went with Hunan Chilli King. I even called the Missus on my cell phone and had Her give the Server our order. We had stuff that I've posted on before, except for these two dishes.

A Hunan (not so) Stinky Tofu, and a Hot and Sour Soup.

All told we did pretty good with the five dishes we ordered.

By this time, most everyone had hit the wall, so we went on over to Papa Walk for some shaved ice, then ended the road trip buying some items at Domies Bakery.

Overall, it was good time…. but JohnL sent me a text message later that evening telling me he was hungry again…… such is the life of a growing boy!

A week later we all met at the new Crab Hut in the Gaslamp. As always we had a blast. I ended up taking onle three photos, so you won't be seeing the four dozen oysters, the crawfish, the clams, etc, etc, etc…….

But at least I took a photo of the Sausage Plate.

And one of the two orders of Calamari and Fries…..

After the Seafood Creole……

We were just having too darn much fun that I stowed the camera…..

I left feeling like this…..

Ummm…without the flowers behind my ears of course.

Crab Hut Downtown
1007 5th Ave
San Diego, CA 92101

And here's to making new friends:

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Kayoko of Umamimart. And let me just say I had a blast. We had a bite at The Original Sab E Lee. I had a great time, and hope Kayoko was ok with my "food dorkiness", she sure did put me at ease, and was fun to talk to. Over the years, I've found that fellow food bloggers are some of the nicest people. So please check out Kayoko's post on our lunch, it just seemed to end too soon. Thanks again for the wonderful conversation and a great time Kayoko!

Revisits to Spicy House

September 2, 2010 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

After a decent first meal at Spicy House, we thought the place showed some promise. So we decided to try out a few more dishes. The new banner attempts to clarify what's going on here…..

Since I love Cumin Lamb it was only natural that we order it on our next visit to Spicy House.

The Cumin Lamb ($10.99) here is reminiscent in fragrance, flavor, and texture to what was served at Dede's, which was our favorite dish there. I do think it was perhaps a little on the dry side, and lacking the amount of cumin powder I enjoy(which some palates may deem a bit excessive), but it was serviceable. The amount of cilantro in the dish was perfect in relationship to the lamb. I also think the lamb lacked that wild barnyard flavor that I really enjoy. In fact, when I took the leftovers to work, I let one of my coworkers sample it, and she thought it was beef.

The Preserved Meat with Dry Bamboo ($9.99), was not quite as good.

We had been wondering what kind of "La Rou" ("wax meat") was going to be used in the dish. Would it be the wonderful Hunan style Smoked Pork like the version at Hunan Seafood? Or the more tame Sichuan style La Rou, often used in Twice Cooked Pork. The answer was the latter; and it wasn't a very good rendition of La Rou either. It was really pretty bland…… the whole dish was like something I could throw together at home.

The Missus was excited about the Hunan style Stinky Tofu ($7.99), until it arrived at our table.

As soon as the dish arrived the Missus asked me, "what makes this Hunan?" I had no answer, and neither did the very mellow tasting, barely fermented tasting fried tofu. The insipid sauce gave us no clue either. The Missus always claims that if I can tolerate the stinky tofu, it can't be any good. So far places that the Missus either likes (Shau Mei), or thinks is passable (Dynasty Plaza) have proven Her right. And on our visit to Hangzhou we had a Stinky Tofu Hot Pot that was one of the smelliest things I've ever seen placed on a table top, which the Missus thought was ambrosia, and I thought tasted what it smelled like; sewage, has confirmed that theory. Let's just say this was very disappointing.

We left wondering……. were we just lucky on our first visit? Or perhaps very unlucky on this one? We decided another visit was in order……

Having had a decent lamb dish on our previous visit, and seeing that what we had was sorely in need of spice the last time around, we ordered the Hunan Sauteed Lamb ($10.99):

Think of it as being about the same as the Cumin Lamb, with the cumin replaced by some chilies. Actually, this dish wasn't very spicy. It was pretty good overall.

We also ordered the Fries Shrimp with Hot Pepper ($11.99).

Mentally, I was envisioning something like the Hot Pepper Prawns at Ba Ren. Instead we got a gloppy, overly sweet dish that was something like "General Tso's Shrimp". In terms of flavor, this dish was way out of balance….. The portion size for this dish was pretty small.

The last dish we ordered was the Twice Cooked Fish ($10.99):

This is basically the fish filet version of the Eel dish we had on our previous visit. It does contain some Sichuan Peppercorn, and is probably the spiciest of all the dishes we've had at Spicy House. The batter is crisp, and the flavor pretty good, though I thought there needed to be perhaps a bit of either sweetness, or perhaps an acidic element to balance out the dish. Both the Missus and I felt there was something missing. Like the Eel, the portion size is pretty large. I mentioned the disproportion in, well portions to the Missus. Some dishes, like the shrimp, are pretty small, while other dishes are humongous….. this could cause problems when ordering from a group. You'll have too much of one thing, and not enough of another. I'd prefer having dishes that are about equal in portion, and prices could be adjusted to reflect those changes. Add a buck for shrimp, and give folks more shrimp in your shrimp dishes. Subtract a buck on your fish, and adjust the portion likewise. Again, the word "balance" or lack thereof comes to mind.

During these two visits, it seems that Spicy House is still reluctant to turn on the A/C, and it can get pretty hot. The service is fairly good, as are the prices.

Spicy House
3860 Convoy Street #105
San Diego, CA 92111