March 2012 – Page 3

Bolillo Tortas

March 5, 2012 mmm-yoso Mexican Restaurants, Sandwiches

*** Bollilo has closed

A couple of weeks ago, I made one of my rare trips down to the Gaslamp and decided to stop by Bolillo Tortas, which has been getting some good play on some of the local blogs. I'd heard that they made a Torta Ahogada with birote (aka bolillo) from Guadalajara, which got my interest.

The place is pretty easy to find, right across the street from the Horton Grand Theatre on 4th Avenue.

I liked the sleek and modern look of the restaurant. The gentleman behind the counter was very polite and prompt. The prices looked like it had the Gaslamp mark-up and then some…… nine bucks for a Torta Ahogada seemed a bit more than steep. Even though it was pretty early in the morning, about a half past eight, I thought why not just go ahead and get the ahogada….hot sauce be damned. When I ordered, the guy behind the counter asked me to wait for a second to make sure they had the proper bolillo for the sandwich. He then verified what I had heard, the bread did come form Guadalajara. Eventually, the birotes were tracked down, and after paying over twelve bucks for a sandwich and a drink I had a seat outside.

Soon enough my sandwich arrived. It based on the looks and texture, instead of drowning the sandwich, the chile de arbol based sauce had been poured over the sandwich. Still it looked pretty good.

Until you noticed that it took up a bit more than 50% of the plate it was on. Compare the sandwich size to the bacon wrapped jalapeno beside it…….

So either this was a snack sized sandwich or that was the jalapeno that ate the Gaslamp wrapped in a belt sized slice of bacon. I'll let you guess which one it was. Still, if this was great, there would be no complaints.

First off, the bread was kind of gummy, with a texture of the heat and eat genre. The crust was more hard than crusty. It was by no means as good as the bread that El Gallito uses. The sauce was pretty mild for my taste, but I can understand.

The pork on the other hand was moist, tender, with a mild smoke flavor. It was also nicely seasoned.

The bacon wrapped jalapeno was barely marked from the grill and both the texture and taste was raw. The bacon was barely browned and thus had a rubbery texture, which gave you the feeling you were eating raw bacon. The corn was tender and seasoned well with Tajin.

Overall, a mixed bag, but I decided to return for a follow-up a week later. This time I went with the Torta Cubana ($9.75), usually a pretty hefty sandwich, which this was.

This was probably too much stuff for me as everything got pretty much lost in a big sloppy mess. The cheese actually pretty much overwhelmed everything. If you've ever go through my posts on tortas you'll find that I'm pretty much of a single protein kind of guy. I still didn't care for the bread which seemed too doughy. Don't get the steamed vegetables which was very bland, even with the salsas provided. This time, the jalapeno and the bacon were charred and crisp, so perhaps I visited too early the last time. I don't think you'll go hungry with this sandwich.

I really need to try the milanesa, chorizo, and other sandwiches. But I'm not sure how soon that will be. The service was very nice, but the prices are on the high side. When I mentioned this place to Karina, whose family is from Guadalajara, she sounded intrested. Until I told her the prices….."a torta ahogada should not be more than about seven bucks, max, US tourist prices even….."

Bolillo Tortas
417 4th Ave
San Diego, CA 92101

Hours:
Mon-Thurs 8 am – 12 am
Fri-Sat 8 am – 3 am
Sun 8 am – 12 am

Madison – Pho Nam

March 4, 2012 mmm-yoso Madison, Wisconsin, Pho, Travel

Last week I found myself back in Madison. I'd been lucky, none of my previous trips had taken place during winter. Unfortunately, this time I couldn't avoid a February trip. I'd usually drive from Chicago, but there was no way I'd be doing that this time around. Folks, finding out I'm from San Diego seemed to take pleasure in reminding me that I was "lucky" since they were having such a balmy winter, heck it was almost like summer…….weather only hitting the single digits during those rare nights. It was a lovely, summer like 29 degrees as I walked out of the hotel. In truth, in spite of the rain, snow flurries, light rain, and once hail, I never once had to use my gloves, so I guess I should count myself as lucky……..

Being past eight, I ended up going to a restaurant about a mile from the hotel. I'd noticed it on my previous trips.

I thought a bowl of Pho might just be the right thing for a late(for me) dinner. The restaurant looks pretty generic, you could drop it most anywhere here in SoCal and it would seem to fit perfectly.

When I arrived, I kinda went, whoa……apparently Pho ain't cheap in Mad Town. The basic Pho Tai goes for $7.95. not quite sure about which beef choice would be best, I went with the Pho Dac Diet which went for $8.95.

While waiting for my bowl, I rationalized Pho in Madison. Well, beef is fairly abundant, so the Pho should be beefy. I'm thinking noodles, star anise, and some herbs would probably be harder to find and probably be a bit more expensive. My stream of thought was broken by the plate of herbs and bean sprouts arriving at my table.

There was quite a bit of basil, albeit wilted and rapidly turning brown. I was truly surprised to find Ngo Gai, old and dry, very soapy in flavor, but totally unexpected.

My almost nine dollar bowl of Pho arrived soon after:

The broth was low oil, pretty cloudy, and was just mildly beefy. It also lacked any anise flavor and I ended up using almost all the basil. There was a fairly strong onion flavor and the broth, which didn't seem very salty did make me thirsty.

As for the meat, well, most of it was mediocre. As expected, there wasn't much tripe, and the tendon (described as "soft tendon" in the menu) wasn't particularly soft.

The noodles were prepared adequately, but the portion size was on the small side.

Well, now that I've done my Pho due diligence in Madison, I think I'll just move on to something else, unless anyone has a recommendation. Being under eight bucks might be nice as well.

Pho Nam Noodle House
610 Junction Road
Madison, WI 53717

Los Pueblos Regional Cuisines of Mexico

March 3, 2012 Cathy Mexican Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Los Pueblos has closed. This fact makes me sad.

Welcome back to mmm-yoso. Cathy is writing today. Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are staring at the sky.

A funny thing happened a few days ago. Kirk started his post about Los Pueblos and so did I. We both had been going here, liking the food and wanted to share our meals with you. So, here now is my take on this really nice restaurant. (Los Pueblos is not a taco shop, but does serve tacos and burritos; it is a Mexican Food Restaurant that cooks fresh, local and sustainable with attention to the nuances of regional flavors, in a rustic manner . The food is prepared in a healthy way and tastes great.)

No lighted signage is up, yet.

There are photo slide shows of various regions of Mexico playing on the television and a nice musical accompaniment in the background.

The tortilla soup (large, $5.50) is made with a seasoned tomato broth and topped with Panela cheese. It's topped with avocado and Ancho chile. Tortilla strips are in the soup. Great -really great- flavor to this soup. It is filling and a very good vegetarian version.

The Yucatan Salad ($9). Pollo Asado Pibil (grilled chicken marinated in achiote, bitter orange and other spices). The salad has oranges, pineapple, red pepper, cilantro, onions and avocado. No dumbed down flavors here. Achiote is annatto, which has a peppery and nutmeg-y flavor to me and the bitter orange and other spices really compliment the chicken, which is very moist/not dry. This salad is quite large.

The chile relleno plate($6.99) was a chalkboard special the day we were here. It was served with the green rice (made with tomatillo, cilantro, California chile and other herbs and vegetables sauteed with the rice). Very nice flavor. The Black beans are made in a clay pot (a la olla) and vegetarian. Really good beans, lumpy and very flavorful. The relleno was filled with a very fresh Panela cheese. I want this again.

When we were almost finished and reading the menu, we noticed Cafe a la olla- coffee in a clay pot ($2.50) It's coffee made with cinnamon, clove, orange peel and piloncillo (unrefined/brown sugar; you may have seen small cone shaped brown sugar in the Produce section of your local grocery store; that's piloncillo). This was a perfect dessert. You can see it's a nicely gritty coffee, based on the sediment left on the sides of this cup…it is very good.

On another visit, we noticed $5 lunch specials. All come with fresh made chips. Again, deep corn flavor.

I ordered the two taco plate with chile poblano rajas (Poblano chile strips sauteed with onion, garlic and corn and finished with cream and cheese) as my lunch special. It came with the rice as well as the chips (for $1 more, you can order one of the house made aqua frescas; ask for a sample to decide- all the aguas are made from scratch, without corn syrup or preservatives.)

Here is what the rajas looks like. It is a good vegetarian sauce (and you can order it as a side for $3)

Here is the other taco. It didn't have tomato in it but was just as tasty. This is an example of the unevenness of food presentation Kirk mentioned in his post, but I am not complaining; I really like this kind of homemade assymetry.

The Mister ordered the carne asada plate ($11) with a side of mole Poblano ($3) and the mole coated the carne. This carne asada is marinated in Chipolte and is not at all like carne asada you can get from any taco shop around here. It is deep and smokey flavored, spicy – plays no games. The Mister wanted to try the mole which is made with over 30 ingredients and it was *good*…I could taste the chocolate, plantains, nuts and chile as well as the medley of spices. I could eat it by the spoonful without any meat…

The Cafe de la olla is now our 'regular' dessert here. We poured some into a smaller cup and added the coffee mate, which changed the flavor to make it creamier…almost a fancy ice cream flavor.

There are Hurraches (chewy soft corn masa shaped like a sandal with various toppings), Quesadillas "sincronizada"(two thick flour tortillas painted with red chile adobo and then cheese and fillings) as well as torta sandwiches on the menu. The primary meat selections are the carne asada marinated in Chipotle, the chicken pibil marinated in the bitter orange and Achiote and pork Adobado -a sun dried red chile BBQ sauce, which Kirk really liked and I have yet to taste-and soon.

Los Pueblos is a really good choice for quality, fresh, healthy cuisine. I hope it suceeds.

Los Pueblos 7081 Clairmont Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92111 (858) 834-7878

Lucky Seafood- a meal and a take home snack

March 2, 2012 Cathy Markets & Grocers, Seafood, Vietnamese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is the name of the blog you are reading. A few friends write about food they eat, take photos and share meals with you. Kirk is too busy to write today and so is ed(from Yuma. That leaves Cathy, who is sharing a meal and a snack.

Hi. This is a short post. Kirk has written only one post devoted to Lucky Pho, yet Lucky is mentioned in about 24 of our mmm-yoso posts. The restaurant adjoining the grocery store is a favorite/regular spot for The Mister and I of all the pho places around this large county. This the place I recommend to anyone who asks me "where do you like to eat?"

On this cloudy, chilly morning, both of us wanted soup and we disagreed about the basic broth. So instead of messing up the kitchen, we each chose our own preference at Lucky.

The Mister chose Pho Tai ($6.50)…

and I chose the shrimp and krab ($6.50). It's made with different noodles and a very rich fish broth, which was what I was wanting. You'll notice there is mint on the plate of add ins- that's for the seafood soup, otherwise all the usual add ins of sprouts, jalapeno, basil and lime.

Of course we always get the Spring rolls here ($5.50). These are more meat than vegetable filled and always perfectly fried. Another great meal.

Since we were at a market, I started to think about the weekly shopping. There were too many people inside to take photos of the produce section, but the prices here are good and the vegetables and fruit are always fresh.

I headed over to the seafood area where most items are in open display.

Fish heads (great for soup making) are still only $1.99/lb.

The pretty parrot fish caught my eye. I've never had one and wondered how it would taste.

Then I saw the overhead sign…

I waited in line and handed the nice young man my chosen fish, which was weighed and priced and in a few minutes, my number was called.

Then I went to checkout and paid for all of my purchases…

This is my lovely fried parrot fish. It is very meaty was good while hot, but also turned out to taste very good when cold.

No photo of the resulting carcass; you've seen enough this week. I hope all of you have a good weekend! Stay warm and dry!

Lucky Seafood and Pho 9326 Mira Mesa Blvd San Diego Ca 92126

Pho Xpress: tasty, fast, food.

March 1, 2012 Cathy Pho, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome back to the blog named mmm-yoso!!! Kirk does not have time to blog today and neither does ed (from Yuma). Cathy has found some time.

Hi. Today is starting out to be another rainy and chilly day. I'm already wanting a big bowl of something hot for breakfast and think I know what I want for lunch. Located just East of the Stadium, in the Vons/Rite Aid Center, next to Longhorn Cafe at the intersection of Mission Gorge and Friars and Zion (see Kaiser Hospital in the background?) is Pho Xpress, which Kirk posted about in December 2010.

The storefront of the building is narrow, but there is seating for about 40 inside. Right at the door is a steam table filled with a variety of Chinese selections if you are in a hurry or just want something 'to go'.

The tables are set with the standard condiment and utensil selections.

On this day, The Mister and I decided to share two items. Above, the papaya salad ($6.50) is listed as an appetizer, but is quite large and the dried beef makes the combination of shredded green papaya and basil a nice balanced meal. The fish sauce/garlic/lime/chili sauce is not very sweet (not much sugar added) and I really, really like (and crave) this version.

I really enjoy each of the pho broths offered here; the beef and chicken are very rich flavored and great eaten without all the fillings; I sometimes consume all the broth first. The vegetarian pho ($6.25) that I chose this day also has a really flavorful broth-I could taste carrot and celery and onion, combined with all the fillings you see-onion, zucchini, carrot, broccoli, bok choy and fried tofu, as well as the slightly soft noodles, this soup is just as flavorful and filling as any of the meat based soups.

Hot tea does have a 75¢ per person charge, and I don't mind, since they will refill the pot if necessary. Service is very fast (probably because they know their clientele is on lunch break from the hospital, or because it is a Pho place) and they have a constant pick up/take out crowd. This is very good choice to stop if you are in this part of town.

Pho Xpress 6533 Mission Gorge Road San Diego 92120 (619)284-3268