March 2011 – Page 2

Suzhou: Hot Pot

March 14, 2011 mmm-yoso China, Chinese Restaurants, Suzhou, Travel

After a filling lunch De Yue Lou we slowly headed back back to our room for our regularly scheduled afternoon nap. That's a photo of the North Temple (Beisi 北寺塔) Pagoda, reputed to be the oldest pagoda South of the Yangtze river.

Exhausted I immediately fell into a deep sleep back at the hotel. When I awoke it was already dusk, and the Missus was ready……. for some shopping! We walked along and browsed the various silk shops. While the Missus was looking at some silk, I noticed this in one of the glass cabinets…….

I thought "what a neat stuffed animal"! Until it moved!!!! And holy smoke it was a live cat just chillin' lying inside the glass case…..

Purchases in hand, it was time for dinner…… it had gotten a bit cooler over the last few hours, and a slow drizzle had started. We wanted something nice and warm in our bellies, so passing this hot pot shop made our dinner decision easy.

The place seemed to be doing some pretty good business…….

The Missus ticked off what She wanted…. we were in the mood for more vegetables, so that's the way we went.

We went with the "lamb bone soup"…….

There actually was a pretty good sized leg bone, with a decent amount of meat attached to it in the broth, along with cucumber, carrots, napa cabbage, and bean curd strips. The hot pot had a nice lamb flavor, making frozen bean curd a perfect ingredient. The only meat we had was fatty sliced lamb.

This shop also had a sauce bar, with all the usual suspects; fermented bean curd, etc….. and a couple of spicy options. I believe the sign says that you can have two choices, but we noticed folks just going ahead and helping themselves….. "so when in Rome" and all that.

I loved the mixed wild mushrooms…….

I did a good job of gnawing all that meat off the bone, and we finished two refills of the bone soup….

It was just the right thing for the moment. We left with warm full bellies, the rain had passed, and we took the long way back to the room.

We were up early the next morning, and caught a 5am cab to the bus station…. the very green bus station…..

Suzhou's bus station wasn't quite as nice and clean as Hangzhou's, and the restroom were pretty horrific, even by China standards. You could smell the latrine from the other side of the bus station. I don't know how the toilet paper vendor (yes, you either brought your own, bought some, or…. well, let's not go there) could stand it.

Soon enough, we were on the bus headed for our next stop…. Nanjing.

Halmouny (Grandma Tofu and BBQ) a revisit

March 13, 2011 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants

The Missus and I finally made it back to Halmouny a couple of weeks back…… it was cold and rainy, and the Missus was craving the Seolleongtang from here.

It does seem that something always changes on every visit. Now Halmouny is going for the late night Soju crowd.

And another sign near the door announces breakfast! Man, this place is trying to cover every meal. Throwing every idea at the wall to see what sticks. To me, this seems a bit discouraging……

Prices here have also risen a couple of bucks. I was considering the Galbi Jjim but decided against that since I wasn't sure what was going to come out of that kitchen. In the early days of the restaurant I thought the Galbi Jjim was decent, but something changed, and on one visit with Ed from Yuma it had become a whole different dish. I probably would have still ordered it, if only to see what had become of that dish, but it was now $18.99, four dollars more than at the same time last year.

Soon after placing our order, the panchan came out.

I know folks often wish for different and creative panchan; but most times I'm happy with the standards if they are done well. I still think the Baechu Kimchi, the standard Napa Cabbage kimchi is missing a level of savory flavor. Still, the gamja jorim (simmered potatoes) here are one of my favorites, and I'll admit tastes better than my version (for now).

In spite of the ever changing food here, the panchan, and the very nice service has always been a constant for us. The young lady serving us kept asking us if we wanted refills, and we went through for bowls of the potatoes.

When our bowls of rice came out, the Missus peeked and exclaimed, "oh no, I hate this stuff…."

I'm not sure when Halmouny started serving the "healthy" purple rice (rice with adzuki beans)…. It turned out that the Missus actually kinda enjoyed this version.

Her Seolleongtang ($9.99) was a different story. This dish looked like a totally different dish from what we had a year ago. It was impressive looking though……

I guess the additional two bucks tacked on in recent months meant you got huge rib bones sticking out of your soup? This dish tasted off, the meat had a flavor reminiscent of that stale refrigerator taste. That flavor permeated through the broth, making this rather unpleasant.

I went with something I hadn't had here before, the Ttukbaegi Bulgogi ($15.99):

Basically a clay pot – stew usually consisting of bulgogi, vegetables, and cellophane/glass noodles. I just love the dramatic bubbling cauldron action as it arrived…

I had imagined a flavor close to Yook-soo Bulgogi, but this was way too sweet. The beef was also not as tender as I recalled.

Overall, this wasn't the most stellar meal we've had at Halmouny. It also got me wondering if the gul and jokbal bossam is still as good. Walking out of the restaurant, I noticed they had a lunch special menu…….

Personally, I just wished that the food here was more consistent.

Halmouny – Grandma Tofu and BBQ
4425 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

COMC: Lefty’s Chicago Pizzeria – Mission Hills

March 11, 2011 mmm-yoso Hot Dogs, Sandwiches

This one is from last year….. yes, I'm COMC (Clearing Out the Memory Card). After returning from Chicago, I guess I mentioned Chicago Dogs one too many times…. the Missus suddenly wanted a Chicago Dog! We decided to check out Lefty's in Mission Hills……

Though I've been to the North Park location a couple of times, and even included Lefty's in my Chicago Dog marathon post (sadly the other two places have closed), I haven't been here since it was Phil's BBQ.

By San Diego standards the Chicago Dog and fries is a relative bargain at $4.25….. by Chicago standards…. well, let's put it this way; I could get a Chicago Dog and a generous portion of Duck Fat Fries from Hot Doug's for a buck more.

I like the Chicago Dog from Lefty's, the dog has a decent snap, there are most of the working parts I enjoy in a Chicago Dog, the sport peppers, and so forth. I do wish that they'd put a bit more celery salt in the dog…. but hey, there are folks that don't care for the stuff I guess. The bun seemed a bit on the soggy side, but the Missus had no complaints. She also enjoyed the hand-cut fries; while not sporting a good amount of skin, it had a nice potato flavor.

I ordered a Chicago Beef, which at $7 is about two bucks more than Chicago. I didn't expect anything close to what I had in Chicago, which was a good thing, since this was basically a French Dip with bottled Giardiniera.

This was much too dry, the beef tasted like regular roast beef dunked in processed "jus".

Oh well, you can't win them all. I'll stick with the Chicago Dogs….

Lefty's Chicago Pizzeria
4030 Goldfinch St
San Diego, CA 92103

Postscript: I've had a couple folks ask, and recommend Chicago style deep dish/stuffed pizzas (including you Liver!). And if you wonder why you've never seen a post…. well, the explanation's rather simple. But I'm sure you'd rather a have a story instead, right? More than couple of years ago, I was in Chicago on business. I had my eyes on some stuffed pizza, but one of the folks I was with insisted that we go here first.

Pizzeria Due…… we kill a deep dish, but man, all that cheese is killing my lactose intolerant self. We head off and stop at Giordano's. Because I'm with the folks I work with…. well, I gotta at least try…….man, this was tough. I'll spare you the gory details and just say, all that cheese almost killed me……. talk about "due"……

Can you guess the chicken karaage?

March 9, 2011 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants

*** The contest is closed as of 8pm 03/10/11 – congrats to Dennis and SomTommy who got all five correct. Thanks for playing! ***

I must eat too much chicken karaage….. I've got tons of photos. So…… since I haven't done one of these in a while, I thought we'd do one of those quizzes. I'll display a photo of the chicken karaage, along with a hint or two, which will make it pretty easy if you've been reading for a while. Five chicken karaage, first five emails (yes emails)that guess correctly will get a Peet's eCup, espresso based drink on us. So make sure you send your guesses by email, ok? I'll close the contest after the first five correct guesses.

So here we go……

#1 – Is one of my favorites, light, crunchy, perhaps a tad too bland, but I still order it quite often:

The answer is…… Izakaya Sakura

#2– I've recently not been happy with the chicken karaage here…… but on a recent visit, the Owner was in attendance, and it was quite good. I noticed that he twice fried these, something which many of his employees don't do.

It's Yakyudori of course!

#3– Is not on the menu as "Chicken Karaage", but for intents and purposes that's what it is. Decent flavor, but in my opinion the pieces are too large, thus making the batter to meat ratio lower than I'd enjoy. The batter is not crunchy enoguh for me as well.

This one is Masa's Spicy Chicken…. from Izakaya Masa.

#4– Is from a place I frequent. They keep tinkering with the karaage here. I've had some better then others….. I never know what I'm going to get…..

This one is from Sushi Yaro.

#5 – The portion size is the largest of all of these. And the flavor is pretty much MOR (middle of the road).

The problem here is that the batter isn't crisp enough for me, and the execution is not there. I've had these twice over the last two months, and each time there were a couple of pieces like this.

Soggy……under-fried. A lack of quality control……

This one is from Tajima…. so there you go!

So there you go! Remember, send your guesses by email!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Finding the Pho in Phoenix: Pho 43 Express

March 8, 2011 ed fromyuma Bun Bo Hue, Pho, Phoenix/Scottsdale/Chandler/Central AZ, Road Trip, Vietnamese Restaurants, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Kirk needs a break and Cathy is reeeallly busy, so today ed (from yuma) is posting about some place not in Yuma or San Diego.

Knowing that we were going to be in the Phoenix area around Presidents' Day, Tina and I thought about some places to eat. Both of us, as it turns out, were hungry for Vietnamese. A little research on Chowhound turned up a list of Vietnamese restaurants.

The one closest to where we were going to be was Pho 43 Express on 43rd Ave in the Maryville district of Glendale. We figured we'd give it a try.

The restaurant is a stand-alone building with plenty of parking in a neighborhood of multiple ethnicities — so far, so good:

The large number of family members (no school on Presidents' Day) let us know that this was a family restaurant, not a pho factory like some of the assembly line SD pho restaurants. The folks were friendly.

Looking over the menu, we realized that this was primarily a noodle House, with bun, pho, hu, and mi dishes predominating. That made ordering easy. A large combination pho and bun bo hue.

The garnishes arrived first and were all on one plate. There were plenty of bean sprouts and shredded cabbage, abundant mint and basil, lemon wedges, and a few jalapeno slices:

Although a few leaves of basil were blackened at the edges, we had plenty.

The first soup to arrive was the bun bo hue:

I thought it was a pretty decent bowl of soup. The nearly spaghetti size noodles were nicely cooked. They still had some pull and were not all clumped together. There was enough chili spice and a slight taste of the sea underneath the meat flavors in the stock. Kirk, of course, would have deemed it insufficiently funky and reached for the shrimp paste. But he wouldn't have found any on the table:
The beef in the soup was good (though not memorable), but the meaty highlight of the dish where the pieces of pork leg. Look at this:
And here's another:

Loved all the tender pork meat and the abundant tendon.

Still, I think we liked the pho even more:

Again the noodles were extremely well prepared. Separate and not overcooked. The stock rich, slightly sweet, with a nice anise flavor. The jalapeno slices and basil contributed nicely.

Unlike the bun bo hue, this soup had very little tendon and not much brisket. On the other hand, it was full of crunchy tripe and had remarkably flavorful rare steak:

I was impressed by the slices of rare steak. Normally that is my least favorite, and to my palate, the least flavorful pho meat. Here, it was really good and steaky. Amazing.

We also had good homemade lemonade:

To be honest, I was pretty impressed with this little restaurant. Maybe we just got lucky, but the pho was better than most that I've had in San Diego. And I would order the bun bo hue again as well.

I have not included prices because I'm sure that the carry out menu that I carried out is out of date. That large bowlof dac biet pho must cost more than five dollars, and the bun bo hue has got to be more than $4.90. However, I'm sure they are still incredible values.

Pho 43 Express, 2844 43rd Ave, Phoenix AZ 85009, (602) 269-3383. Open 8 am – 8 or 9 pm every day but Tuesday.

Sultan Kebab and Baklava

March 6, 2011 mmm-yoso Turkish Food

I often mention all the great recommendations I receive. Over the years, folks like "KenB" have always been spot on with their recs, and any moment I receive an email from them is a joyful one. Recently, Ken gave really strong scores to Sultan Kebab and Baklava. I'd passed the shop, when it was only a bakery several times (and Cathy has posted on the former restaurant at this location) on my drives in the area, but now they had a restaurant, and from what Ken told me, and excellent one. Also, this wasn't one of the many Iraqi-Chaldean restaurants in the area; but a Turkish one!

The owners of Sultan have taken over the space. I was interested in the large refractory oven……. which made me really look forward to the bread!

The folks here are very friendly…. the young man working the oven noticed my interest, and kindly showed me how it operated. He also tried to describe all of the delicious looking meze behind the counter! Same gentleman even made a recommendation when I mentioned how large and diverse the menu was.

I had a yogurt drink to start, while the Missus went with the Turkish Tea, which is free…..

The Missus, enchanted with the selection of vegetable dishes, went with the $10 combination, which came with a large piece of what we were told was "pide"….. crusty on the outside, featuring a nice soda flavor. It is quite substantial.

Here's the Missus combination plate…. which I happily tucked into as well.

Some items were real favorites with us; the spicy tomato-chili based dip which we were told was called something like "ismit", it had a nice kick. The mixture of feta and spices, the spicier version of the minced eggplant (the young ladies called both of them Babaganoush) without the yogurt, and the wonderful potato-eggplant-sweet pepper-tomato concoction called Saksuka, were also favorites.

The hummus had a bit too much tahini for our tastes and the while I enjoyed the Dolmalar, this one being the stuffed eggplant version, it was too heavy for the Missus.

Might I also mention the large, plate-sized, Lavas, warm, light, soft, with a mild chew. It slowly becomes more cracker-like as it cools.

I young man manning the oven recommended the Kuzu Sis ($13), basically skewered lamb, mildly seasoned.

The plate came with two salads, a typical pilaf, and a bulgur-thin pasta pilavi that had a nice nutty flavor. The lamb was nicely grilled, with a bit of chew, and pasted best when wrapped in some lavash with a dollop of the yogurt based dip.

The Missus also got some baklava to go…… I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but the Missus' favorite is the chocolate baklava.

I really couldn't wait to return; and I recently had another opportunity. PeterL, Ange, JohnL, and I decided that Sultan sounded like just the right thing. We started with a small meze combination.

Then had another! Along with two bread……

PeterL and Ange shared the Kuzu Sis, and they also sampled (with John eagerly joining in) two of the Domalar….one zucchini, one eggplant.

John went with Kiymali Pide ($5), a seasoned ground beef topped a crunchy flat bread that had been brushed with egg. It reminded me of the Soujouk from Alforon.

With the bread being much more substantial and crusty.

I ordered the Adana Kebab, which was a winner……

This was right up my alley; moist and tender ground beef, sprinkled with tart, tangy sumac, seasoned with a nice variety of spices, along with some good heat from ground chilies……. I think I'll ordered this wrapped as a sandwich…. enrobed in a whole lavas would make this a perfect meal.

There's a lot to explore on the menu here; including the usual Doner and Iskender Kebabs, but items like Kellepaca (literally "head and feet") and a number of various meze and salads. I enjoy the friendly service, the prices aren't bad, and that really friendly young man in the kitchen will keep us coming back. The Missus enjoys the baklava from here; I was told that Turkish Baklava differs from other versions in that honey is not brushed on top of the baklava.…instead a simple sugar syrup is applied. Being that I haven't yet been able to get a bite of it….. I'll just have to trust the Missus' opinion.

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

Open 10 – 11 Daily

Thanks for another great recommendation KenB!

Saturday Stuffs: Coming Soon – Yu Me Ya Sake House and Nam An Restaurant

March 5, 2011 mmm-yoso Blog

Just a couple of things I noticed this week.

Yu Me Ya Sake House:

Since my office is no longer located in Hillcrest; I'm not in that area much anymore. But I happened to be in the area earlier this week. Paul Jameson had mentioned signage for Yu Me Ya Sake House popped up in the old Ramesses (3882 4th Avenue) location in his Sd Urban blog. And driving by, I saw the sign……

Nam An Restaurant:

There's some interesting happenings in the Plaza Del Sol (4690 Convoy) strip mall…… a couple of months ago, I mentioned the sign for something called Dancing Crab. A few weeks ago, FOY (Friend of Yoso) Yummy Yummy mentioned that the location had changed hands again and was going to be something else…… and behold; it's now going to be Nam An Restaurant…. a Vietnamese Restaurant. I'm hoping it'll not be the typical Pho' or Mi joint, we've got enough of those.

I hope everyone had a great Saturday and got some welcome sunshine!

Mariscos El Toro Truck

March 3, 2011 mmm-yoso Food Trucks, Mexican Restaurants, Seafood, Taco Shops

*** Update. This truck is gone…..

A bit over two weeks ago I mentioned seeing a Mariscos truck in the parking lot of the 76 on the corner of Convoy and Balboa. During a recent lunch, I had the sudden urge to "fill up my tank", and just so happened to stop by the 76 (how convenient, eh?). And yes indeed that very same truck was parked a few feet from the water and air station at the 76.

After filling up, I pulled my car to the front of the convenience store side of the gas pumps. There isn't much room here, so it's a wonder this truck can do any business at all. Just by coincidence there was a gentleman waiting for his order. The fellow in the truck bellowed a welcome, and seemed pretty busy. I struck up a conversation with the guy standing outside, and he told me, "they serve the best fish tacos I ever had here….." Then he grabbed his burrito and left…. well wait a minute…. if this place made the best fish tacos, why'd he order a burrito?

Oh well, I'd already placed my order, so I'd let the chips fall where they may…..

The very friendly guy came out of the truck to hand me the staple freebie of Mariscos establishments….. the cup of oceany consomme.

The consomme looked much too light and watery, but wasn't too bad…. nice shrimpy flavor, and scorching hot as it should be.

The usual creamy salsa usually provided for Mariscos was missing, but there was a habanero based salsa that looked like water….but was pretty spicy, as was the typical salsa roja, which had a very strong Chili de Arbol heat…. very upfront.

Soon enough my food was ready. Had there been more room, this would've been one of those "eating on the hood of my car" posts, but there really isn't much eating space. So I took my tacos with me back to the office.

Here's the line-up from left to right; Tacos de Pescado (Fish Taco), Camarones a la Diabla (spicy shrimp), and the Gobernador (of course).

These really seemed to pale in comparison to what other Mariscos trucks deliver.

The Fish Taco ($1.50), was just totally covered in Pico de Gallo……

The piece of fish was pretty small, and it lacked a decent crunch. I was wondering about the lack of crema, until I bit into it…… they had smeared the crema on the tortilla and placed the piece of fish on top of it.

It just can't compare with this from one of my favorite stops:

Which is also cheaper……

The Gobernador ($3.25) was also a bit disappointing.

Unlike the versions I enjoy from Mariscos German and El Pescador, this lacked the wonderful cheese melted on the tortilla, which protected the tortilla from falling to pieces. This made for a rather soggy experience. There was pretty much more onions than anything else, the veggies and the shrimp were on the over-cooked side, camarones tough and vegetables lacking crispness. No, this was not bad by any means, but not in the class of a good Gobernador. It was also fairly small for the price.

The best item I tried on this day was the Camarones a la Diabla ($3.25):

Even though this seemed a bit small for the price as well, the shrimp in this was done well, not perfect, but good enough. It also had a sneaky slightly smoky heat. I took a bite, then added the Habanero Salsa and Cebollas (pickled onions and habanero), and ended up breaking into a pretty good sweat.

To me, El Toro isn't quite in the same class of the good Mariscos Trucks, they are still pretty much the only show in this part of town. I'll probably drop by again if they make it past the next couple of months to see if the food gets better. We need more offerings of this type, and the gentleman running the truck is very friendly…..

Mariscos el Toro

Currently located at the corner of Convoy street and Balboa in the parking lot of the 76 station.

I was told their hours are Monday thru Friday from about 930 to 330.

Chiang Mai: Warorot Market (Kad Luang)

March 2, 2011 mmm-yoso Chiang Mai, Markets & Grocers, Thailand

Because of my recent (and hopefully short-lived) busy schedule, I've been lamenting not having the time to do posts which take a bit more time. When I mentioned this to the Missus, She told me, "you know, you never even finished your posts on Thailand", which we visited along with Laos at the end of 2008. I didn't believe Her, but when I checked my posts, I found that She was right. I need to correct this…..so here's one.

Did you know that Chiang Mai has a Chinatown?

If I recall, the main drag is Chang Klan Road…….

Once you almost hit the River Ping, you'll come across a very busy building…..not much to look at from the outside.

But it's quite packed on the interior……..

Unlike the pretty touristy Sunday Market, this is where real food shopping takes place.

As you can tell….. I was fixated on the "aquatic" section. And it's really hard to resist stuff like this:

Though the fragrance dancing through the air in the market was from this:

The Kaep Moo (Deep fried pork rinds) really smelled like heaven to me….. so we ended up buying two bags, which we ate a bit later on…..

And while it was not as exotic as the Morning Fresh Market in Luang Prabang, there was more than enough to keep me interested…..

Smile for the camera…..

Around the corner, and in back of Warorot Market is Pung Tao Gong Temple, the oldest Chinese Temple in Chiang Mai, which was built in the mid-1870's.

During Chiang Mai's 700th anniversary in 1998, the Chinese Community Council decided to rebuilt the temple.

If you walk along the Ping, past the Flower Market….. you can't miss it! It practically screams at you……

Thanks for reading…. I'm waiting for this busy week to be over, so I can spend more than 20 minutes on a post, and take care of my back log!

Suzhou: Lunch at De Yue Lou

March 1, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Suzhou, Travel

The Missus and I attempted to hit at least one restaurant that featured well known local cuisine in each city. In Suzhou it was easy to find. Right off the inevitable Guan Qian Jie was a location of De Yue Lou, a Suzhou institution. De Yue Lou was originally founded during the Ming Dynasty under Emperor Jiajing.

If you're walking at night, you can't miss this location……

My goodness…… Vegas eat your heart out!

During the day the place looks a bit more subdued. The Missus and I decided to have lunch here since we figured it would be less crowded….plus we'd already done a good bit of walking and were famished.

This was one of those multi-level monstrous restaurants that we came across everywhere in China.

We were seated away from the crowds on the second floor overlooking the street.

Even more monstrous than the restaurant was the appallingly bad service…..bad even by Chinese standards. With nothing to motivate the young Servers who seemed to want to be somewhere else…..they would forget things, and not care if you complained about it….in fact they would complain about you having to ask for rice four times! There's no reward for doing a good job, no tips, demanding customers….so it seems that the attitude is to do the least, and disappear whenever possible. I could use words like apathetic, dismissive, but 'nuff said.

The menu is quite large…….. and even includes this blurb in English.

Wanting to develop a baseline, we started with a Suzhou standard, the "Smoked Fish" which we always seem to get in places that serve "Su Cai" (Jiangsu cuisine), Huiyang cuisine, and even a good number of Shanghainese restaurants in the DGV.

Strangely, the flavor of this was very close to what we get at Chin's on Miramar Road, perhaps a bit sweeter, and much more tender….but very close!

There was one dish I wanted to try in Suzhou:

It was the Song Shu Gui Yu (松鼠桂鱼), the Squirrel Shaped Mandarin Fish. Versions we've had of this had always been really sweet, and not very good. But this was Suzhou…….

They should use this as signage during the evening as it looked glowing neon red…… as it arrived, it gave us both a start, bringing on memories of the gloppy-teeth aching sweet, artificial tasting sweet sour stuff served all over the place in the states. But it was not…..there was a light, complex and fruity sweetness, the fish was lightly fried, airy and crisp, almost melting in your mouth.

This was delicious, and we finished every thing we could……

The vegetables were also perfectly prepared.

Bai He (Lily Bulb), mildly starchy and sweet, the bittermelon added a good bitter contrast, but was also nice and crisp. The red peppers were sweet, and the cloud ears added an earthy flavor, grounding the dish.

In spite of the atrocious service, the food was very good…… we're still talking about that fish. Not sure if i'd go back if we return to Suzhou, though.