March 2011 – mmm-yoso

mmm-yoso! Shows some skin!

March 31, 2011 mmm-yoso Guatemalan Food, Hanoi, Peru, yoso-silly

You really didn't think, what I think you thought, right? That paints a pretty scary picture in my mind's eye……

Right after my post on Tri-Village, I received an email from "Dave" who asked me about…. well, basically skin, and where I've had the best dishes. The wording was quite interesting, and really cracked me up. So I thought I'd do this post as a companion to the mmm-yoso raw! post. Just for some fun…… After all, there are few things better than fried animal skin. What's interesting is that some of our favorite skin dishes aren't from anywhere here in the US. Even this one, from a future post…..

Wouldn't make the list…..

And in spite of what most folks think; this stuff:

From our banquet in Beijing was plain awesome…. but still didn't make my top three.

So without further ado, in no real order:

Fried Chicken Skin from Pollo Pinulito in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala:

Man, you gotta hand to the country that is home to Pollo Campero; they sure know how to fry chicken. And this little shop in the village of Santiago, on the shores of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala made some very good fried chicken skin.

I could smell the seasonings from outside the place. When we entered, that chicken skin, just out of the fryer was calling to me.

I actually carried that bag of chicken skin by boat from Santiago to San Pedro, and then on the next boat to Lomas de Tzununa, then up 400 steps from the muelle to our room. Was it worth it?

You bet……..

Hats off to the deep fried chicken skin in Thailand, but this had it beat by a mile.

Whenever the Missus and I talk about fried foods; this chicken skin from a humble little restaurant in Santiago Atitlan gives us "chicken skin".

Deep fried snake skin from Le Mat Village outside of Hanoi:

Even beyond the whole chugging down the cobra's beating heart…..

And drinking the snake bile and blood shots bit…….

One of the highlights of our Nine courses of snake in Le Mat was the deep fried snake skin, which we dipped in a really complex Nuoc Mam:

I'm not quite sure about meeting the snakes though. I think I'll pass on that next time, though that snake ruou was fantastic!

Cuy skin from dinner in Cusco:

I've probably mentioned our Cuy dinner in Cusco maybe a thousand times. But it is without a doubt, one of the most memorable meals we've ever had. And that skin on the Cuy, simply seasoned with olive oil, huacatay, and salt, was better than any lechon I've ever had.

And while we felt a bit uncomfortable meeting our dinner's siblings. It really didn't stop use from nibbling on those delicious crunchy toes and feet of the Cuy.

I know, I know…. I've shown waaaay too much skin today! But I hope you enjoyed the post. I hope I answered your question Dave!

Thanks for reading!

Road Trip: Tri-Village Northern Chinese Cuisine – Irvine (Orange County)

March 29, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Orange County, Road Trip

**** Tri Village has closed

After returning from Beijing, the Missus was craving some Beijing Kao Ya (北京烤鸭), aka Peking Duck. Unfortunately, we decided on a visit to Duck House, which was a big disappointment. The Missus had pretty much given up on getting a decent to good Peking Duck…. until She saw this post by Super-OC Food Blogger, and writer for the OC Weekly, Elmomonster. At that point in time, She just couldn't wait to visit Tri-Village. In fact, I took a day off so we could get some duck, and the Missus called ahead and ordered the Beijing Kao Ya. When we arrived at the mall on Jeffrey Road, and saw the restaurant, along with a Kohl's….across the I-5 from the plaza with 99 Ranch Market and such…. the Missus didn't quite know what to think.

She didn't feel much more confident after looking through the menu, and talking to the staff, and finding out that in spite of the name, like Duck House, this is a Taiwanese run kitchen. Great for Taiwanese food, but maybe not for Northern Chinese…… or Beijing Kao Ya.

The restaurant itself is pretty tiny, but very clean. The staff here is very nice and friendly.

On this day, most of the customers were speaking Mandarin; it was to the point that the two couples we saw eating sweet and sour chicken and chow mein really stood out. We then went with one of our favorite moves; we walked slowly to the restroom to check out what the other tables were eating……. and still wasn't convinced; many of the dishes, especially the Dan Bing looked really greasy….

Still the really nice woman brought out a serving tray, set it beside our table. The young man brought out the duck for us to inspect. It seemed a bit light in color, but it did glisten and looked decent. At least they brought out the duck for us. Due to the tight spaces, I really didn't expect a tableside carving…. they might've ended up skewering a patron…. not a good move if you want return customers.

Within a few minutes our carved duck made it's way across the tight dining area and to our table.

Along with the Dan Bing….. which looked a bit dry…..

But turned out to be pretty good, not quite as thin as Beijing, but these displayed a decent chew to them, and wasn't dry in the least.

One of the women stopped what she was doing and came to start assembling our duck. But seeing how busy she was, we told her that we'd be just fine doing this ourselves.

I picked a piece of skin and had a taste, and was surprised. The piece I'd picked had that light crisp richness and almost melted into fatty goodness on my tongue. And the best pieces were exactly that. The skin wasn't quite as flavorful as what we had in Beijing, neither was the meat; but it was miles above what we had a Duck House. And much better than any version we had in San Diego by far.

The sauce served with the duck seemed to be bottled stuff; but we weren't complaining in the least.

The Missus, still traumatized by the awful bean sprouts and duck meat dish at Duck House, decided to spend the extra $6.99 and get lettuce cups……. a big mistake.

Apparently, there wasn't a whole lot of meat left, and the chef decided to add some filler…… deep fried won ton skins! Say what? This was really bland; the Missus dumped almost the whole container of sauce on this in order to eat it. Maybe this time we should have stayed with the bean sprout stir-fry?

We had also ordered the bone soup, another $6.99. It looked really nice when it arrived, looking like a nice soup.

With mushrooms, napa cabbage, and bean thread this was pretty good. The Missus was disappointed that they didn't use frozen tofu for the soup; a real Northern Chinese thing, but we still enjoyed it. Since it came out rather quickly, we knew that the full potential of the soup hadn't been reached. Still, it had a mild wildness to it…. but instead of spending the extra seven bucks, maybe you'll do what the Missus does.

Overall, we really enjoyed the duck, and will be back. The price for the duck, a standard two ways (no soup) is $34.99. We really enjoyed the service, which was friendly, and efficient.

Tri-Village Northern Chinese Cuisine
14121 Jeffrey Road
Irvine, CA 92620

Mariscos Monday: Fish Mart – San Ysidro

March 28, 2011 mmm-yoso Mexican Restaurants, Seafood

Recently, one of my co-workers, "K" mentioned a mariscos place in San Ysidro that her husband really enjoys….they especially like the fish tacos there, which are priced at just 99 cents. A couple of weeks later, I found myself in the area, so I made sure to stop by Fish Mart, located right off Dairy Mart Road.

The place looks very bright and clean, and the young man manning the front of house was quite nice. From the posters and such, it seems like this place specializes in Pescado Zarandeado – whole grilled fish, but since I was solo, I thought I'd go with just some tacos.

Right after placing my order, a basket of chips and a mild salsa was delivered to my table. Fairly thick, but crisp this was a nice way to kill time and relax until my tacos arrived.

The first to arrive was the Tacos de Pescado (fish taco – 99 cents). It looked quite impressive, look at all that crema, pico de gallo, guacamole….. but where's the fish?

It's really hard to complain about a fish taco that costs a buck……. this was quite substantial, but the fish was kinda puny. I will say that when I pulled some of it out to have a taste, it was fine, crisp, light, mild tasting. But under the cabbage avalanche…… Still two of these would probably go pretty far with regards to filling you up.

After that taco, I expected my other two tacos, the Marlyn ($2.25) and Gobernador ($3) where going to be pretty hefty….. well, I was wrong.

These were pretty small, just compare to some other examples of the same type of tacos. These looked positively wimpy.

The better of the two was the Tacos de Marlyn – the smoked fish.

While waiting for my tacos, I asked the young man where his family was from; and was told Sinaloa, so I expected this to be much better than it was. Very mild, very underwhelming…..

The Gobernador was more skimpy……

Not much to say, other than it was also a bit greasy…….. the photo speaks for itself.

I was certain that I was missing out on something here, so I glanced over at the other two tables with customers… and they were all eating fish tacos! Perhaps Fish Mart has some wonderful specialty…. I'll let you tell me if this place is worth another visit…..

Fish Mart
2036 Dairy Mart Road
San Ysidro, CA 92173

Revisits: Alforon, Spicy House, Sultan Kebab, and Pho Hiep and Grill

March 27, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Lebanese Restaurants, Pho, Turkish Food

Just a couple of revisits for a slow moving Sunday……

Alforon:

Man, during my last couple of visits, business sure was slammin'. It's good to see this little mom-and-pop joint. On this visit, I just had a Chicken Tawook ($5.75), which arrived looking just plain delish.

And some garlic paste and pickles to go of course!

Alforon
5965 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

My previous posts on Alforon can be found here and here.

Spicy House:

A friend and I dropped by Spicy House for lunch recently.

We had the Pork Intestines with Preserved Vegetable. This was pretty good.

Except the slices of preserved vegetable were really cut too large. Decent flavoring, the intestines had a nice musty-funky flavor without going over the top.

We also had the Crispy Fried Eel with Peppers.

Unfortunately, this dish was a mere shadow of what I had before. Too salty, soggy, and very greasy. It seems that Spicy House has hit a plateau.

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

My previous posts on Spicy House can be found here and here.

Sultan Kebab and Baklava:

I guess I've posted enough on Sultan already. But this is the Missus's latest favorite. We've been eating here quite often recently. So I'll just go with photos.

Sultan Kebab & Baklava
131 Jamacha Road
El Cajon, CA 92019

Pho Hiep and Grill – Linda Vista:

We never really had fog where I grew up, so it still has some fascination to me. On a recent foggy morning…..

I'm not sure when spring is going to start this year……. it's been pretty chilly. So, a bowl of Pho just seemed to be the perfect thing. I headed over to Pho Hiep and Grill for a bowl.

Maybe it was too early in the morning? The broth on this day was lighter than any I've had here before. The flavors just seemed diluted. The meat were fine, but I left somewhat unsatisfied……

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

Nanjing: The Snack Banquet

March 23, 2011 mmm-yoso China, Chinese Restaurants, Nanjing, Travel

We arrived in Nanjing after a relatively short two hour bus ride from Suzhou. I'd been told that "100 kilometers or two hours away from anywhere in China, in any province, the food will be different." It had been a two hour bus ride from Hangzhou to Suzhou, and the cuisine was quite different. Now, in Nanjing the capital of China during six dynasties, and along with Beijing, Xi'an (our next destination), and Luoyang, one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, I was curious to see if the cuisine would differ so much. It would be interesting to see since we were still within Jiangsu Province. We caught a cab from the bus station to our hotel, during which time the Missus struck up a conversation with the cab driver. Finding out he was born and raised in Nanjing, the first business at hand would be questions about what to eat. I had a couple things in mind, but still really didn't know too much about Nanjing style food. The cab driver went through a couple of things, made a recommendation of a place to eat, and more importantly, where not to eat and why.

We arrived at the hotel, settled in, rested my foot which was starting to look pretty bad for about a half hour, then set out on foot to the major shopping area around the Confucian Temple and Qinhuai river….. bustling and busy…..

The Missus hit the brakes right alongside one of the snack stands……

Pointed at one of the mounds…….

And told me, "we gotta get this!"

It was my first experience with Gua Wei Can Dou (Strange Flavor Broad Beans – 怪味蚕豆).

One bite, and I was hooked! We stopped by here two more times during the trip. This version was the best I had.

Near the Qinhua River, we found the place the cab driver had recommended.

Walked through the doors and entered the restaurant upstairs…..

And was seated at one of the long tables in the dining area….

So what was this place?

Well, I heard that Nanjing was famous for its snacks; and this was a restaurant specializing in "Snack Banquets". There were several multi-course banquets available ranging in price from relatively inexpensive (by US standards) to very expensive (also by US standards). We just went with the most simple banquet.

And then it started……. plates started arriving at a pretty incredible speed.

And they just kept coming…..

And coming…..

Much of it was rather unremarkable……

For instance, on this plate, the only item I enjoyed was the Nanjing Salted Duck, one of a handful of Nanjing specialities I knew of.

On the other hand, I found that I didn't care for another Nanjing specialty, Duck Blood soup.

Man, this was pretty hardcore; next to the "Everything Soup" from Huguosi Snack Bar in Beijing, this was probably the most difficult item I'd had to date. Strong offal flavor; very metallic, not my cup of tea.

Most of the other soups were pretty routine in flavor.

More dishes…..

It was fairly apparent that everything has to be prepared ahead of time…….

And some of it rather haphazardly, check out the stray rice on the wrapper of the zongzi…..

All the dumplings, bao, and like were served cold……

My favorite item, was this…….

Though I'm not a big fan of pork sung, I loved the texture of this….. that's when the Missus told me, "oh, it says they make this with duck lard"…. duh…..

The rest of the meal.

In the end, this was more about the experience then the food. We'd find the same thing again a bit later on during or trip.

We left the restaurant, with almost a half day ahead of us. But by that time; my foot was really killing, and as I hobbled back to the hotel, I knew it had to be addressed……

Stay tuned!

Waldos (formerly Woodies)

March 22, 2011 mmm-yoso Hot Dogs

*** Waldo's has closed

A couple of weeks back, I drove past the hot dog stand I've known as Woodies since we've been in the area, a good eight years or so, and was surprised to find it was now called "Waldos"… as in where's Waldo? Or who's Waldo? Or even why Waldo? Sign…. I guess there'll be no more "you want a woodie" jokes from me anymore…..

I stopped to check it out, and went to where the counter used to be, and found it had been closed off! Finally following the sign, I walked into the place….they'd moved the operation indoors, which made sense during the more chilly winters…..

I smelled an interesting story, so I quizzed the very friendly young man behind the counter… the smiles were a bit different from many of the folks I've found working (god help me, I almost wrote wanking) at Woodies over the years. I asked the young man what happened with Woodies? He told me that, the previous owner received a couple of letters from another shop called Woodies, I believe Connecticut, or something like that… and under the pressure of possible legal action, a name change occurred. The owner changed the name, then decided to sell the place. I was also told the food is still the same…. the dogs were still all beef, natural casing dogs. Since I was here, and it had been a while since I'd had a dog in San Diego, I decided to have a couple. For those used to Costco Dogs and the like, these are much different, smaller but with a good snap. This dog is based on the thin Coney Island dog ( and please don't mention Pink's or SoCal Nathan's, ok? Carney's was pretty good I recall), though it's not quite there with regards to flavor. On the bad, if you're hungry and go for two dogs, it'll cost you over six bucks….having recently returned from Chicago, I could probably get three dogs and some fries for this price.

I went with the Old Fashion Dog ($2.85):

The bun didn't seem steamed as it was cold, the dog had a decent snap, but lacked the beefiness of, say a good Vienna Beef dog. Decent overall….

I'd noticed that there were some other new items on the menu, especially something called the Atomic Dog ($3.15). This one was topped with a Chipotle Habanero Salsa.

The roll was again cold, the sauce was spicy, but not super spicy…mostly front of tongue heat that went away pretty quickly. It covered up whatever flavor the hot dog had. In my opinion, the the hot sauce really didn't add anything to the dog.

The Missus likes the chili from here, but for me it's more like a chili flavored gravy, then a decent chili dog chili. I'm guessing we'll be back here next time She has a craving, just to see if it still measures up (or down).

The dogs that Waldos serves up is pretty good, decent snap, but the flavor seems to be missing something. Still, it's a bit better than most alternatives in the area…. but all that comes at a price…..

Waldo's Chili Dogs
4250 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

Farm Market and Sandwiches

March 21, 2011 mmm-yoso Banh Mi, Markets & Grocers, Sandwiches

**** Farm Market & Sandwiches has closed

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that Bale on Linda Vista was gone (again) , and in its place was Farm Sandwiches and Market. With a name like that, I almost expected a little mercado making tortas on the side. A bit confused I decided to drop by a couple of days later……

And noticed that not much had changed, except the name. The shop still made Banh Mi and the market side, though looking a bit worn was still trucking along.

Even the sandwich sign looked the same, as were the prices……. for some reason, I couldn't recollect seeing Bo Dao Phong (a peanut butter sandwich) on the menu before! (no kim chi peanut butter banh mi, though).

Since I was here, I decided to order a couple of sandwiches. This might have been my most unfortunate decision of the week. The guy in front of me started snickering when I placed my order. When I asked him what was up, he shook his head and told me he had ordered a dozen sandwiches, and was still waiting for them 25 minutes later. There was one woman who also placed an order for two sandwiches right before me. She was smart enough to leave and returned for her sandwiches later. The poor guy waited another 25 minutes for his sandwiches! Then it was my turn to be the poor guy……

Pacing the floor, I noticed how worn down this place is looking.

Half open containers, partially cut fruit, the place looked quite disheveled. Meanwhile, I looked and noticed that there were three people working on making sandwiches. The woman returned for her sandwiches, and still had to wait ten minutes. It really looked like the folks making the sandwiches were walking under-water…… another ten minutes, and my sandwiches were ready. Forty-five minutes for two sandwiches……

Carrying the bag to the car, I noticed how heavy these sandwiches were.

I started with the Dac Biet (House special combination – $3.50) first.

The bread (from Le Chef….. standing around so long, you couldn't help but pick up on things) for both sandwiches was severely under-toasted. Thus the always pleasing flaky-crusty texture was missing. The sandwich was stuffed with generous amounts of a very bland Cha Lua (defatted pork sausage) and a tough and bland BBQ Pork. The pickles were really cut thick and didn't have much flavor either. I won't even go into the very old and thick cilantro stems…..

I thought I would fair better with the Nem Chua ($3) Banh Mi. Nem Chua, a naturally fermented pork based sausage, is one of my favorite things.

In spite of having all of the sort-comings my other sandwich had, this was a tad better. There was quite a large portion of Nem Chua in the Banh Mi. Still, it was a lot milder than the sour-tangy-salty notes I love in my sour sausage.

I must admit, the folks looked to be trying real hard, but really seemed like they were not up to the task. I don't think I'll be rushing back for Banh Mi from here.

Farm Market and Sandwiches
6959 Linda Vista Rd.
San Diego, CA

More from Sultan Kebab and Baklava

March 19, 2011 mmm-yoso Turkish Food

As you can tell…. by having another post so soon after the original, we must enjoy this restaurant. Actually, it's the Missus who drives our visits. She loves having a plate of various meze… they know Her now, so they just tell Her to pick what She wants….

The Missus has found that She enjoys the Dolmalar made with zucchini more than the version made with eggplant. There seems to be something new on most of our visits.

And of course there's the hot lavas……

Here's another recent plate the Missus put together……

I have been slowly trying to work my way through the Kebob menu…… it's hard, when you consider I really enjoy the Adana Kebob. This is the Beyti Kebab, a beef based kebob wrapped in lavas:

Think in terms of a ravioli kebob…. this actually tasted like it had ghee drizzled over it… it was maybe a tad on the rich side for me.

A couple of nights later I had the Alanzik Kebab ($14), which was very good.

Chunks of tender lamb, laying on a bed of babaganoush, with a nice rich sauce poured over everything. I really enjoyed the flavors….. though I barely finished half of it…..

Since I also ordered a Lahmacun.

Basically a lavas topped with spiced beef, reminiscent of the Soujook from Alforon. The slightly charred lavas, nice and crisp, along with the spices and beef were a nice combination. And the Alanzik tasted even better the next day……

If the toughest decision I have to make for any given day is between having dinner at Alforon or Sultan….. you know it hasn't been a bad day!

Sultan Kebab & Baklava
131 Jamacha Road
El Cajon, CA 92019

Jeow Mak Keua – Lao Eggplant Dip

March 17, 2011 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

I was surprised to receive a couple of emails regarding the Num Jim Jaew from Siam Nara, asking me for a recipe. The funny thing is; I've made this a couple times, and actually took photos when I made this after our return from Laos, where it's called Jeow Mak Keua. For some reason I just never got around to making it.

This was something I actually made at the Tamarind Cooking School, and came out looking like this:

You can tell this one was quite spicy, lots of chilies. And of course the "kitchen" where this was made wasn't quite the same as home.

This recipe is based on what I m ade there….. it's very easy. I've even made t his using roasted garlic which adds a heavenly sweetness to the Jeow…. if you decide to do that, make sure to use a neutral, or no oil at all on the garlic.

Jeow Mak Keua – Lao Eggplant Dip:

3 Small-Medium Japanese Eggplant
4-8 Thai Bird Chilies
4-5 Cloves of Garlic Skin on
1/2 Cup Chopped Cilantro Leaves
1-2 Stalks Green Onion – Green parts only sliced thin
1/2 Tsp Salt
Fish Sauce

– Prick eggplant and chilies with a knife or skewer.
– Grill eggplant, chili, and garlic, until the skin is blackened. I usually grill right over hot charcoal which adds a layer of smokiness to the dish, but you can do the same over a gas flame or under the broiler.
– Peel Garlic, and slice eggplant lengthwise keeping the stem portion on and intact… it should look sort of like a flower.
– Pound the garlic, chili, and salt together in a mortar to make a paste.
– Then pound each eggplant in the mortar, by holding the stem of the eggplant and pounding it until all the flesh is removed. You can then pull the skin off the eggplant out by the stem. Conversely, you can just peel the eggplant.
– Add the cilantro and green onions and pound into a thick paste.
– Taste and add fish sauce to taste.

There is another recipe in which you boil the eggplant and chilies first until soft, peel and squeeze the excess moisture out of the eggplant, pound in a mortar to a paste and stir-fry.

Siam Nara – a first look(s)

March 15, 2011 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

Soon after all the great comments on this post, the Missus and I headed up to Siam Nara, one of the three restaurants owned by Suree Suksudecha of Amarin Thai. Or perhaps as I heard a customer on his cellphone trying to give his friend instructions calling the place, "sayonara"……

The interior of the restaurant is nicely done, lot's of gold, but not terribl y over stated. The menu is fairly large, and had many items that tempted us. The staff is very nice in the gentle, understated way of many Thai I know. From the napkins to the china, to presentation, you can tell that Siam Nara is trying for a more upscale experience, without being stuffy. Of course, having a young staff means sometimes humorous little things happen….. it seems that I could never get my glass of water refilled without some of it, or at least an ice cube or two falling to the table. And yet, the effort was there…. and we appreciated that.

Of all the items we ate during our meals; we enjoyed the seemingly most simple item, the Pla Yum Mameung ($14):

I'm not a big fan of tilapia, but it's mostly due to my upbringing where you'd see tilapia in drainage canals, and such. I recall fellow blogger RONW calling tilapia the mahimahi of the Ala Wai Canal, or something like that. In fact, as recently as 2005, I still had problems with eating the stuff. Chef Alan Wong actually covers the stigma of tilapia in his new cookbook The Blue Tomato. Anyway, I'm glad we tried this dish. The tilapia was perfectly fried, light, clean tasting, crunchy. The papaya salad, while nothing really special, and not spicy in the least (they never asked) was the perfect tart, sour, salty foil for the dish.

In second place would be the Pla Pad Cha ($12), which looked like something we would have gotten right off the boat dock at Tha Chang, right down to the baby green peppercorn.

The overall flavor was surprisingly mild….. I was expecting something worthy of Yai Restaurant. The tilapia in this case tasted a bit on the muddy side.

The Crystal Noodles, a fancy way of saying Pad Woon Sen with Shrimp ($9.99) was pretty good.

This came served over a heating element…you gotta watch that, this started burning after a while. Lot's of black pepper on this, something that I've gotten used too with Thai food, the serve it that way in Thailand as well. The glass noodles were fine, gladly they were not over-cooked, but there was nothing that stood out. The Missus mentioned that even though it seemed that this restaurant was trying to be a bit more fancy than most, they didn't bother to devein the shrimp……

I just had to try a curry, since I've never been real happy with any version of Thai curry in San Diego. I went with the Gang Phed Ped Yang ($14 – a roasted duck red curry):

I liked the consistency of the curry, not too thick, and not too thin and runny. But as usual, barely any spice, way too artificially sweet, too much coconut milk, and you really couldn't make out the flavor of the duck in this dish.

Still, the food displayed promise, and the Pla Yum Mameung was very good; perhaps even better than Sab E Lee Santee's Signature Fish in some ways. So I kept this post on the back-burner, but for some reason we never went back. Finally, on a night the Missus went out with Her friends, I decided to return. What drew me back was a little conversation I had with one of the very nice young men working at Siam Nara. He told me the chefs were from Issan, and I had noticed a section of the menu listing "set" E-san dinners. I also quickly noticed Kai Yang on the menu, and in my mind's eye, I pictured something like this:

These photos were taken on the streets of Nong Khai, right across the Mekong from Laos. Kai Yang is one of the signature dishes of Issan/Laos. When done well, there's a whole myriad of flavors going on, salty from fish sauce and/or salt, perhaps some sweetness from sugar, wonderful touches of herbs and garlic……… it's some of the finest roasted chicken I've had.

So, of course I ordered the Kai Yang set ($16), which was presented quite nicely.

The chicken just didn't look right though. It looked like something that had been precooked then thrown on the grill to apply grill marks….. more on that later.

The dish came with some nice and hot sticky rice, perhaps a little too wet, but still, it was very hot…. the young man standing by the table started giggling when I began eating it with my hands. I guess he didn't expect that….he quickly brought me more napkins.

The Som Tum – papaya salad was the same as before, very mild. I'm thinking I'll have to take the initiative and actually order things spicy since they never ask; even for the E-san dishes. This also isn't close to an Issan style Som Tum, which is very similar to Lao style.

The sweet chili sauce, was just what you think.

My favorite item on the plate was the Num Jim Jaew, which I believe is usually called Nam Prik Num in Chiang Mai, and Jeow Mak Keua in Laos. It's an eggplant dip of sorts, and something I love. I make this at home once in a while after learning how to make it in Luang Prabang at the Tamarind Cooking School.

Nice texture, good savory flavor, decent heat, all that seemed to be missing was perhaps a bit more garlic. Still, this is the one item I finished and wished for more.

The chicken itself was disappointing. First, I dunno if you noticed, but the chicken in Thailand is a bit smaller; it's usually free-range, not that I realistically expected that here, but perhaps they'd go with all dark meat for more flavor? Here it was the large pieces, flaccid skin…..most of the Kai Yang or Kai Ping I've eaten doesn't have a crispy skin, but the skin has some texture other than rubbery.

That chicken breast was just sooooo dry, even slathered in sweet chili sauce. The main flavor that I could detect was that of the coconut milk, no lemongrass, garlic, kaffir lime leaf, basil, or even heat to speak of. I'm thinking I could do better at home, so maybe I'll try.

Even though the food leans to the "gringo" side for us, it's not sayonara to Siam Nara; like FOY (friend of yoso) "Liver" mentioned in previous comments; this place seems to do seafood really well. The prices aren't bad by San Diego standards and, I really enjoyed the service.

Siam Nara Thai Cuisine
8993 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

Some trivia:Did you know that Suree actually has her own cookbook? You can check it out here.