Following breakfast at Fukagawa, I set my sights on the Torrance Farmer's Market. I've posted on the Torrance Saturday Farmer's Market a couple of times already. But, I'll just say it again…."boy do we miss the Torrance Farmer's Market".
There's one stand that we've been hitting for years.
This stand has a huge variety of Asian Vegetables and fruit.
There's a very diverse variety of leaves and greens……
Anybody got a recipe for Ampalaya or Okra leaves? I'm pretty sure I'm going to pick-up the yam leaves next time as well.
On this day, the Jujubes looked wonderful……
The Missus thought these were the best She's had in a while
. I also bought three types of pluots, Chinese eggplant, Asian pears, baby bok choy, and these lovely Taiwanese white bittermelon. After all, I had to fill up that large ice chest I had in the back of the car, right?
Torrance Sat CFM
Wilson Park, 2200 Crenshaw
Sat, 8A-1P
My next stop, was a bit farther away….. but since I had some time to kill before lunch, I did a short detour at…..
I spent a good amount of time sniffing and shopping……..
I displayed amazing restraint, and spent less than $20……
I also asked the very friendly woman at the register if Penzey's would be opening a shop in San Diego anytime soon. I was told that there's been mention of Penzey's opening perhaps late next year….. I do hope so.
Penzey's Spices
21301 Hawthorne Blvd
Torrance, CA 90510
By this time, I'd pretty much digested breakfast, and was ready to move on to lunch. I'd pretty much whittled my choices down to Sanuki No Sato or I-naba. Since it was fairly warm, and I was already near Hawthorne, I chose I-naba.
Eating solo, I was shown to the Tempura Bar.
The environment is somewhat austere, though the people working here are very friendly. Five minutes after I was seated, the dining area of the restaurant was packed. There was only one other person at the tempura bar though.
I was once told that the tempura at I-naba was top notch, so I decided on the Zaru Soba (cold soba) with Ten Don (Tempura Rice) combo ($9.80).
This was a good amount of food.
First off, let me say that this was the best soba I've had in a while. Nothing in San Diego even comes close to this.
The noodles made this dish….. more stretchable and chewy than the norm, and with a more pronounced….. I can only say, almost nutty flavor, I could really get used to eating this quite often. When I mentioned how good the noodles were; the Server, a very nice young lady said it was their own hand made soba. The Tsuyu was good, not as salty as I'm used to, and quite refreshing….. needless to say, I was a very happy slurper on this day.
The tempura on the other hand, the reason I'd been recommended I-naba, did not quite live up to it's reputation. I found the batter a bit gummy for my tastes, and it was also on the oily side. The ten-tsuyu was delicious, as was the flavor of the shrimp. I'm not quite sure if the tempura chef was having an off day….
I'm definitely coming back for the soba.
I-naba
20920 Hawthorne Blvd
Torrance, CA 90510