September 2012 – mmm-yoso

Ranas, revisited five years later

September 30, 2012 mmm-yoso Mexican Restaurants

**** Ranas has closed

Man, over five years…has it really been that long since we last visited Ranas? I'm not sure why we hadn't returned sooner….we've usually enjoyed our meals there, but the place just seems to slip our minds. Finally, last week I remembered Ranas and we headed out to Casa De Oro…..

Ranas really looks spiffed up, it looks like business has been good over the years, which made us happy. We've always had great service here.

As would be expected, prices have gone up over the years and there seem to be a few items I don't recall seeing on the menu before. There are also Mexican wines and even pulque on the specials board.

Our server, whom I recalled from before…half a decade younger and a few pounds lighter happily sat us outside, it was before this last heatwave hit and the evening air was just pleasant. While we mulled through the menu some chips and salsa were delivered…..

The chips were nice, firm and crisp, the salsa seemed mild but had a little zing that caught you later on.

We started with the Huitlacoche Quesadilla Plate ($10).

Called "black mushrooms" on the menu, which I guess is much better than the common American name…."corn smut". Huitlacoche is basically a fungus that affects corn….bad for the corn, good if you like earthy, woodsy, mushroom like flavors. Here it's sauteed with onions, and I believe there's some Epazote in this…I could make out the unique anise-mint flavor. The huitlacoche also seemed to have a hint of sweetness, something I really couldn't recall from eating it before.

The missus loved the nopales, which had a nice slight sour-green bean-citrus flavor and had been well seasoned.

The Missus also wanted the Flor de Calabaza Quesadilla Plate ($10):

Like the huitlacoche quesadillas this was served in blue corn tortillas….mild in flavor and griddled on the comal to have a bit of chewiness. That worked great on the latter in my opinion, but not so great here as this was pretty dry overall. I did appreciate the fact that it wasn't "over-cheesed" and the Missus enjoyed this, but it was on the dry and bland side for me.

The Pork Entomatado ($10) on the other hand, was definitely not bland, nor dry…..

This was my favorite of all the dishes I'd had at Ranas way back when….and I gotta say, it's still up there. Loved the tangy, tomato-chili sauce (they won't tell me what chilies they use for this), it has a nice smokiness and finished with a back of the throat heat. The pork is tender….but it could be cardboard for all I care. The nopales adds a nice texture and that "green" flavor that compliments the dish. The tortillas were typical store bought corn, but I really enjoyed those beans. The Missus doesn't care for frijoles refrito made from pinto beans, but after some encouragement had a taste and really liked this….there is some "special" flavoring ingredient in this…I'm pretty sure of that.

Overall, the service was very friendly. All the folks eating were having tortas, burritos, and stuff like that….but heck, they looked like they were all having a great time and if that pays the bills, so be it. So long they don't take the dishes we enjoy off the menu.

Ranas
9683 Campo Rd Ste A
Spring Valley, CA 91977

Carlsbad: Yoshino Japanese Deli

September 29, 2012 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi

**** Yoshino has closed as of the end of July 2024. I understand that the owner retired.

I went up and spent a couple hours hanging out with my buddy "JohnL" today. We had a great time "talking story" and catching up on things. I often kid John about his (lack of) taste, as his recommendations often leave me a bit puzzled, wondering if he was playing some odd joke on me. So far, John has been oh-for-two….two strikes on him, so he's ben a bit more hesitant making recommendations. But today, John decided to take me to his favorite little hole-in-the-wall sushi to go joint in Oceanside named Yoshino. No it's not that Yoshino's, but this one.

Located near the corner of State and Grand avenue in downtown Carlsbad this little shop is run by an older Japanese couple. There's not much in the shop, just a cold case an ice cream freezer and the couple making rolls and poke bowls.

Nothing fancy and no frills, the couple is very friendly. Apparently they make whatever they can based on what's available that day….then it's pau hana, no more……

John's favorite here is the Poke Bowl($6.75), which is what I got.

While this is nowhere close to being as good as the stuff back home in Hawaii, it's a nice decent light meal. It's more of a poke "salad" of sorts since there are only about 4-5 cubes of fish in the bowl along with seaweed salad, cucumbers, and a good amount of avocado. The tuna is decent quality, better than the typical "saku" Sushi Deli stuff and is lightly seasoned. All of this rests on a bed of sushi-meshi, seasoned sushi rice, which was mild, though the rice quality is not the best. A piece of nori separates the rice creates a barrier for the rice.

All in all, not bad….I'd have this for lunch on occasion if I lived close by. There were a variety of rolls available, though as you know, it's not my thing.

We also got the "tako salad" – $2.75.

The octopus had a nice texture, this was solidly flavored with komezu(rice vinegar), sesame oil, and some sneakily placed thin slices of chili pepper.

There a couple of tables inside and right outside the little shop and it's cash only. So JohnL, looks like you didn't strike out! One for three still ain't that great though! Just kidding my friend, this is a nice little neighborhood shop.

Yoshino Japanese Deli
2913 State St
Carlsbad, CA 92008

Roadtrip: Happiness Restaurant – Rowland Heights

September 27, 2012 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip

**** Happiness Restaurant has closed

Yes, another road trip so soon. We had an appointment in our old neighborhood….man, we've lived in San Diego for over a decade now, time sure does fly. Anyway, after our appointment, the Missus was hungry and I was still kind of hurting after our last visit to Chung King in Monterey Park. So we thought we'd get something close by…plus I wanted some Liang Ci Ba to take back with me.

And while I've stopped here for Liang Ci Ba, I really hadn't had anything else since this place was called Manie's Restaurant back in 2006. Strangely, though the menu looks the same and the lady who runs the place looks the same, the name has changed. So I was wondering what was going on….until I met "Manie"……and things got even more confusing…

You may recognize the turtle from a previous post….it has gotten a bit bigger. We were told the turtle is now 6 1/2 years old, so maybe the turtle was named after the restaurant and then???? Oh, so many possible scenarios go through my head….some NSFW, so I'll just stop.

Man, the two young ladies working here looked really beat and it was only 11 in the morning!

We decided to order a couple of items we saw on photos posted on the wall….well because the menu here is soooooo huge, with over 270+ items, not including lunch specials, scattered about like leaves on the ground…there are "Happiness Special Dishes" in one section, with "Happiness Special" in another…..not sure what meaning the addition/deletion of a single word would have, but the menu can induce total paralysis.

The Missus really liked one of the photos, but balked at the price, $16.95, for the House Special Fish…..but I told Her "sometimes you just gotta go for it", so we did. What arrived, well, looked like, but didn't look like the photo on the wall if you know what I mean. It arrived in one of those metal mixing bowls……

It looked like fish filets were cooking in a pot of bubbling oil, but not frying! Once things settled down, I had a taste and it seemed like it was all oil(it didn't separate overnight). The fish however, did not brown, and I'm guessing was either poached in another fluid and finished in the oil…or perhaps oil poached, which seemed like a more reasonable assumption since the fish had a wonderful buttery texture that almost melted in your mouth…."fei ur bu ni" (rich without greasy). The dish as a whole was not very spicy and the seaweed and other items in the oil didn't really add much….until we slowly, very slowly, heated up the leftovers the next day, but which time the chilies and seaweed had imparted a wonderful flavor to the remaining fish.

We'll ask the next time we have this…the Missus enjoyed this, so I'm sure we'll have it again.

The House Special Hot and Spicy Lamb Chops ($10.95) did look like lamb chops in the photo, but were just lamb ribs.

The batter was o the mushy side and the flavor not particularly appealing….decent beer food overall. The best part of the dish were the scalded scallions and garlic, which had also absorbed what the Sichuan Peppercorns in the dish had to offer.

The Missus asked me if I wanted the Kou Shui Ji – saliva chicken – written as Happiness Spicy Chicken ($7.95) on the menu. I thought why not…..

I felt kind of weird when it arrived….this usually a cold dish and it hit the table warm, almost hot. Catching a bit of the fragrance, I could make out sesame paste, which was a good start. In the bowl, this looked like soup….I fished out the chicken, much of which had been cubed, almost like it was being prepared for la zi ji, chicken with chilies. The flavor was actually not bad…there was a hint of vinegar, it was salty enough, sesame paste, but not sweet, nor spicy enough. If I had eaten this a year ago, I'd have rated it pretty low….but after having two renditions even worse then this in the last couple months, what can I say……still can't really recommend it, but it's passable.

And of course we got the Liang Ci Ba – Sticky Rice Cake ($6.95), which is under Happiness Appetizers, to go. Taking a peek at the table, I realized it's not quite what it used to be.

The rice cakes looked like they've been worked pretty pretty hard and they've gotten pretty stingy with the peanut-sesame paste topping, which was really dense. The Missus got to the topping before I did and left me all the carbs. In case you have any doubts about this…..here's what it looked like in 2006:

In case you're thinking it's because I ordered it to go….here's what it looked like around Xmas of 2010:

Well, I didn't have much time to dwell on that for very long as we headed off to our "second lunch"….stay tuned!

Happiness Restaurant
18438 Colima Road #106
Rowland Heights, CA 91748

Revisit to New Mandarin Canton

September 26, 2012 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants

You know having done this blog for a while….I get the strangest, sometimes humorous, occasionally borderline scary, and a few just plain odd emails. Recently, there seems to be something in the air, first I got an extremely racist, xenophobic, and plain insulting email about my posts on Tunisia, I'll go more into detail in the near future. Then there was the one where someone "ordered me" to add links to my blog otherwise they'd over-run my blog with spam….now that's a new one! And then there was the dude, based on the writing style (all CAPS and full of "textation" short cuts), who informed me, "U R the BGST ***** (sorry racist word deletion) FOOD SNB EVER…." etc, etc, etc….. Wow, who knew I had readers in the penitentiary? Oh, the irony of the email….if they only knew that the Missus and I had just gotten back from Mandarin Canton. The Missus needed Her "ABCDE" (American Born Chinese Dining Establishment) food fix and She enjoys Mandarin Canton……

Anyway, as always, we steer away from anything that looks either radioactive or came out of an old crankcase, is of the protein type beef, pork, or chicken breast. MC seems to do a good job with shrimp and I have a soft spot for old school fried rice……here it's the Shrimp Fried Rice:

Actually, the Missus eats all the shrimp, I eat a bit of it here and take the rest home to have the next day with a fried egg on it. There's a mild sweet-smokiness which is from a pretty well seasoned aged wok, every grain is covered evenly…it's just nice old school stuff.

The one dish the Missus comes for is the Salt and Pepper Shrimp without shell, which is probably the most expensive item on the menu at about thirteen bucks or so.

These are usually light, fried perfectly, and crisp. The garlic and scallions have been slightly caramelized developing their sugars and add nice flavor….and yes, let's not forget the MSG…..

The Missus decided to order the fish with black bean sauce, which was not bad. The fish was prepared adequately, tender, but didn't have the buttery texture of well prepped fish fillet in the Chinese style.

The big disappointment was the item i'm sure to always order here….the Salt and Pepper Chicken wings, which, over the course of my last couple of visits thought was a good contender for the best in San Diego. This time, they came out really quickly, were lukewarm, dry, and rubbery…..I think these were either crowded in the fryer, not allowing for adjustment to the temperature drop and then was lying around for a while or the oil was just not at the right temp….bummer.

Well, at least the damage wasn't too bad….MC has lunch specials, even on weekends and everything but the shrimp were lunch specials. Three of four ain't bad.

As usual, the folks here thought I was Chinese and the Missus was Filipino, which I get a kick out of. And as always, I think there a time and place for this kind of food….perhaps in the guilty pleasure category. So long you serve what you say you serve, it's prepared and priced well, I've no qualms about eating ABCDE cuisine. Coming from my background, I don't find attitudes of false superiority, self-importance, pretense, entitlement, or narcissism particularly attractive…. Let's just eat ono food!

New Mandarin Canton Chinese Restaurant
543 Telegraph Canyon Road
Chula Vista, CA 91910

Red Moon Noodle House

September 25, 2012 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Japanese Restaurants

**** Red Moon has closed

Back in June, my good FOY (friend of yoso) "Yummy Yummy" sent me a text regarding a new place that opened in the strip mall with the worst parking on Convoy…..yes "that" mall. I usually avoid the place unless it's an early lunch at Tofu House or a late one at Crab Hut. Anyway, YY mentioned something called Red Moon Noodle House, so I dropped by on a weekend morning just to see what was going on. Looking at the photos of the food got me interested, the "Japanese-Chinese Cuisine" designation really got my attention, though I gotta say, Champon and Japanese Mabo Tofu are not my favorite things in the world. Still, I was at least going to check the place out. Unfortunately, the hours were kind of strange, at least for me opening at 3:30 on weekdays was kind of a tough draw for me, so I had to wait until the weekend(s) arrived.

Arriving on a weekend afternoon, with O'Brien's and other businesses in the strip mall going full tilt, it was strange walking into a totally empty restaurant.

And indeed the menu had the afore mentioned champon and yakisoba…and even tan tan noodles. The young lady working was very, very friendly, and the middle aged gentleman came on over and chatted….he thought I was Chinese! I came to find out he is Chinese, but from Japan. Thus, the juxtaposition of cuisines.

Anyway, I had one thing on my mind and the gentleman recommended the other. what caught my eye was the House Special Chicken with Garlic Sauce ($6.75). It looked suspiciously like Shandong style chicken……a poor man's Dezhou Pa Ji/Dao Ko Shao Ji kind of thing.

And it did kind of remind me of a (very) poor man's Earthen-style Shandong Chicken. All the flavors seemed a bit muted and just falling short of pleasing, the mild sweet, faint vinegary tones, except for one thing….the raw garlic. The garlic just killed the dish and folks who read our blog often know how much I love garlic, but in this case the garlic stood alone…..and not in a good way, throwing the balance of the dish off.

The Salt and Pepper Pork Chop ($6.75) was recommended.

On the good side, I don't think this has much MSG, if any at all. On the bad side, it's doesn't have much of anything else. The flavor was really mild, the batter too gummy and not crisp enough.

As you can tell, these aren't humongous sized portions, but enough for me. During my meal, the gentleman's wife came out to see how I was doing….she's a joy, very motherly and sweet. So I decided to come back and give the place another try.

I love pan fried noodles, so I went with the Shrimp Pan Fried Noodles ($8.50):

The noodles had been fried well, crisp, but not crumbly and the shrimp was done well. The vegetables were a bit under-cooked for my taste, but was decent. The sauce was on the very weak side, a bit too watery, a soy sauce-pepper combination that tasted like something I'd make at home.

Since shrimp was the theme, I ordered the Salt and Pepper Shrimp ($10.95).

These were more lightly coated than the pork chop, but could have still had a bit more crispness to them. The flavor was on the very mild side and I think the onions and peppers could have had a bit more time in the wok, or a higher heat to develop the sugars a bit more. This seemed a bit on the small end with regards to portion size, but that's ok with me…..I actually ended up taking most of this home for the Missus to try….She agreed with me.

I have to say that I really, really, like the folks running this place, they are so nice and the food I would deem ok for lunch, though they are closed during the weekday lunch hour. I prefer more assertive, yet balanced flavors for my food and from that perspective this really didn't deliver. When the weather cools, I'll probably stop by to check out the Champon, I'm hoping for the best.

You can read Kirbie's post on Red Moon here.

Red Moon Noodle House
4646 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
Mon-Thu 330 pm – 10 pm
Friday 330 pm – 1030 pm
Saturday 12pm – 1030 pm
Sunday 12 pm – 930 pm

Post #2046 – Roadtrip: Chung King Restaurant – Monterey Park (Los Angeles)

September 24, 2012 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip

**** Chung King Restaurant has closed

Why post 2046…well, because it is our 2046th post, really….. I always want to do an anniversary thing, but I seem to always be away during May. I thought about doing post 2000, but then totally forgot. Perhaps waiting until 2500 might be a good idea, but who knows if I'll still be around? So, I went with post 2050, which just got me here….2046 whoooo-peeee!!??!!

And it's quite appropriate to do Chung King. This little Sichuan restaurant in Monterey Park, along with El Rocoto and Tung Lai Shun really fueled my interest in food way back in '98…..yep, almost fifteen years ago. I recall the first whiff of the floral, yet pungent whiff of Sichuan Peppercorn fueled air…the first "buzz" I got after eating a peppercorn dish then drinking water. To this day, I recommend folks do this after the first time they've had a dish with Sichuan Peppercorn. We used to visit sometimes several times a week, and at least once or twice a month even after moving to San Diego. Until we found, (not "discovered", who discovers a restaurant, the new world maybe, but a restaurant?) Ba Ren. Isn't it kind of appropriate that the Chef at Ba Ren, was one of the original chef's at Chung King and a certified master chef at that. Since Ba Ren closed down, something nagged at me….no it's not gas. I kept wondering how Chung King, now a little empire of several restaurants and god knows how many chefs later was doing. Which is what found us back at the what once was our favorite little restaurant in the world.

The interior looks a lot nicer since the last time we visited in 2003……

The place was totally desolate for our entire meal…at lunch time, on a Saturday. The young man who served us was a far cry from the borderline surly women who used to wait on us, being very friendly.

The menu had changed over the years, but what we wanted to start out with hadn't. Some liang cai 凉菜- cold dishes. With one of my all time favorites, Fu Qi Fei Pian – the Husband and Wife meat slices…I was really looking forward to this……

Which was a big let down….the flavor was truly lacking, no mild black vinegar flavor, no buzz form Sichuan Peppercorns, and worst of all, the tendon wasn't prepared nor cut correctly, being very thick, it was like eating plastic. The peanuts were on the dry and stale side, like they had been sitting around for a while. The long beans were decent. I'm used to a very briney flavor, though this edged toward the "very very" salty end of things.

Of course I had to order another of my favorite dishes, Kou Shui Ji 重庆口水鸡 – the mouthwatering (saliva) chicken.

This was the first place I'd ever had this…….and though this looked right, it was literally just a mere shadow of what I recalled, falling short on spice, Sichuan Peppercorn, black vinegar, sesame paste, and sweetness. Kind of sad actually…..

But not as sad as the Rice Crust with Three Delicacies ($9.99). You can just tell by looking at the dish what's wrong.

The sauce was very thin, I remember it being full of "chicken-ny" flavor, this was bland and insipid. The rice crust was strange to being soft and pliable it wasn't firm enough and we ended up with porridge.

Things turned around when the Pig's Intestines with Hot Pepper ($9.99) arrived.

The texture was excellent, crisp at first, giving away to a slightly chewy interior, the intestines were swiney and lovely to eat. This was the first dish to really make me think, "this is ChongQing style Sichuan", with bold and unapologetic flavors. Still short on Sichuan Peppercorns, it was still well seasoned.

The crowning jewel of the meal was something we'd never had before, Sliced Fish Filet with Cumin ($10.99). Man this was good.

I usually don't care for dishes where cumin is used with restraint, but in this case it worked in balance with the floral-pungent flavor of the Sichuan Peppercorns. The heat level was nice as it got the endorphins flowing and I started to get that euphoric feeling and there was a mild sweet flavor as well. The batter was egg based, but not too thick and eggy, making this a nice crisp dish. We even finished up the leeks and all the vegetables. Finally, in the end, this dish came through.

The Missus felt really bad as we drove home since I'd been looking forward to this for a while. I explained to Her that I just had to find out if it was still the same, it wasn't, but what is?

Back in 1979, one of my favorite artists, Paul McCartney and his band Wings came out with an album called Back to the Egg. Trying to get back to his roots with a more edgy rock and roll sound, what McCartney created, at least to me was an unfocused mess;

"When will you see me, my salamander?
Now don't try to tell me,
Oh no, don't answer, oh no….."

Really…… my salamander? No wonder Wings folded up its wings soon after….yes, I actually owned the album…. on vinyl Just goes to show, you can try to go back and get what you had, but sometimes the magic is gone.

It was nice to see that Chung King was still in business after all these years. The meal ended up well, but we feel that the restaurant really hasn't aged well.

Chung King Restaurant
206 South Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91754

Postscipt: I actually think Goodnight Tonight should have been on this album, it was quite catchy:

And not nearly as cheesy as Coming Up.

Guajillo Adobo Grilled Chicken

September 23, 2012 mmm-yoso Cookbooks, Cooking, Recipes

The Missus has noted that I really don't do many Mexican inspired dishes, so I figured why not do something for the grill on this lazy Sunday. A recent impulse buy at Northgate Market were some Guajillo Chilies, which are quite common in many recipes.

I decided to do something simple from Roberto Santibanez's cookbook, Truly Mexican. There's a recipe for a Guajillo based adobo that sounded like it would be great with chicken and there is indeed a recipe for grilled chicken using this sauce a few pages later in the book. As I usually would do, I initially followed the recipe, which means that several steps that I'd usually take were bypassed; I didn't use the chili soaking liquid for the sauce, nor did I toast the garlic like I'd usually do. When I got the sauce together I tasted it….and though the smokiness of the peppers came through, along with the mild tart-puckeriness, I ended up adjusting to our taste by adding a whole bulb of garlic and twice the amount of apple cider vinegar. The flavor was now more complex, but still lacked something……I ended up raiding the Missus's "healthy stash" and using some agave syrup to give it a bit more umph…. Guajillo's aren't especially hot, but don't get fooled there's a mild sneaky heat. The sauce came out a beautiful smokey red……looking like a good barbecue sauce……and with mild spice, smoke, and sweet, you could probably make one with a few adjustments.

The book says a two hour marinade is good enough, but I think more is warranted. Anyway, the chicken still came out nice and was topped with some of the extra sauce. The Missus is going to use the leftover sauce for shrimp, which I think will be quite good.

Adobo de Guajillo
12 Guajillo Chilies – each about 3 1/2/ – 5" long, wiped clean, stemmed, slit open with seeds and veins removed
water
1 cup water
4-8 cloves garlic
3 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp white sugar
2 Tb agave syrup
1 tsp ground cumin
black pepper to taste

– heat a heavy skillet or griddle (I used my cast iron pan) over medium heat
– toast the chilies for a few minutes, pressing down frequently, turning several times until fragrant and the chilies have slight changed color and even blackened in a few spots.
– tear chilies in half and over with water, soak for 30 minutes
– after 30 minutes, drain the chilies
– place chilies along with 1/2 cup water and the rest of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth
– add more water as sauce becomes too thick
– make sure to taste and adjust flavor

Pollo Adobado
2 pound chicken thighs
salt
1/2 cup Adobo de Guajillo

– mix all items together in a ziploc bag and marinate for at least 2 hours (I recommend more)

– Grill to your heart's content

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Tunisia: Chott El Jerid and Douz

September 22, 2012 mmm-yoso North African Food, Travel, Tunisia, Tunisian Food

We left Tozeur a hair after 8 in the morning, but the sun was already blazing down on us. We were headed through the Chott el Djerid, Douz, Matmata, then finally arriving in the Sahara at Ksar Ghilaine where we'd spend the night in what was called a "first class tent" in the Sahara.

The Chott el Djerid is a huge salt lake of over 7,000 kilometers and stretches into Algeria. I've heard folks saying that it's not much to see….but the Missus and I were mesmerized by the stark, seemingly endlessness of it all.

There's a causeway about 6 feet over the salt. Ben told us that before the causeway was built, you basically drove on the sand and sometimes took your chances through the water that fills the lake during the short wet season. Ben found a ramp down to the sand and drove out into the salt.

We stopped and got out to take photos….but it's really hard to capture the great, vast, wide, nothingness……

Details really stand out when you have a backdrop like this. Like the little camper parked on the salt 50 meters or so away from us. A French woman peeked out the back when we stopped, then opened the door and gave us a wave. This really isn't the place I'd like to spend a couple of days if you ask me…but the desolation must be attractive to some.

If this place looks a tad familiar, it's where Luke Skywalker contemplated the two suns in Star Wars. Yes, folks, we were on Tatooine. Actually, we visited the Tunisian city of Tataouine a bit further during the trip.

The salt can actually be peeled off in layers…and is quite salty. The little remaining water from the wet season was slowly evaporating in the lower areas leaving a red oxidized residue. All od this, combined with the fata morgana made this quite memorable.

From there we headed through Kebili and then Douz, the gateway to the Sahara. Ben stopped at the outskirtsof town at what looked like a cafe….but was a tourist stop for all things like driving ATVs to flying in an ultra lite, to riding camels. Guess which we picked?

Even though it's a very touristy thing to do, we really enjoyed riding the camels. Once you get used to the way the camel rises up and sits down and the gait, it a pretty easy and enjoyable ride. We also noticed that the camels have some very distinct personalities…they also make sounds that would probably not be real great in the general public. It was indeed much better to ride a camel than to eat one!

This was our first taste of the desert and we were just plain fascinated by the fine sand and the endless dunes.

As we drove off to lunch, Ben told us the desert around Ksar Ghilaine, the Grand Erg Oriental is totally different from here.

We stopped for lunch at a little mom and pop restaurant right outside of Douz.

These restaurants usually serve a complete meal, comprised of brik, soup, couscous, finished with mint tea….which is what we had. It was a pretty hefty meal!

As we were finishing up with our mint tea, a young man walked in with what looked like a giant rodent in his hand……after doing a double take, we realized it was something else….a fox perhaps? I suddenly realized it was a baby Fennec Fox. I tried to take a photo, but it was too darn fast, this is the best shot I got.

After lunch we headed East……. here we saw tons of camels hanging out along the road. Those camel crossing signs were there for a reason!

There are no wild camels in Tunisia. All the camels we saw belonged to someone and seemed totally unfazed by traffic….in fact, there would be a camel lying right in the middle of the road, refusing to budge. All the cars had to go around it! I was told that one had to drive carefully during the night since camels loved the warmth of the asphalt and would sometimes sleep in the middle of the road. So how did the camels get back to their owners? We were told that camels always return to the same watering hole when in need for water…..the owners would usually find them there.

There you go…more than you ever wanted to know about camels I'm sure! Thanks for reading!

Beijing: Temple of Heaven and Wushan Fish from JiangBian-Chengwai

September 20, 2012 mmm-yoso Beijing, China, Chinese Restaurants, Travel

We couldn't leave Beijing without visiting the Missus' favorite site, the Temple of Heaven (Tiāntán 天壇). We caught a bus to the southeastern side of Beijing and entered the beautiful compound of halls, temples, and gardens.

In spite of the crowds, there's still a sense of tranquility here. There aremany older women doing various forms of dance and other exercise. There are three main compounds on the temple grounds. The main one being the Hall for Prayer of Good Harvests, where the Emperor would come during the winter solstice to pray for a bountiful harvest.

The three tiered round structure is quite stunning.

One could literally spend a week exploring the gardens and structures, but we had a couple of hours.

So here are a few places that I thought were interesting. They may not be the most well known sites around the Temple of Heaven, but I enjoyed the stories and history. It's these little things that keeps me entertained.

So why not start with this…….yes, it's a wall.

The wall surrounding the Imperial Vault of Heaven is known as the "Echo Wall". It is said that one can hear the other when on opposite sides of the North wall. We tried it…..but I think the courtyard was too noisy and it didn't work out.

And then there's the door to the right. It's just a door, right? Yes, but there's an interesting story about this door. In the year 1779, Emperor Qianlong was 70 years old and not quite the robust healthy man he used to be. The walk to the Hall of Prayer was getting difficult. His ministers convinced Qianlong to build this door. He would be carried here on a chair, then walk the short distance to the hall. According to the story, Qianlong was worried that his descendants would become lazy and abuse this convenient door he declared that only his offspring that reach the age of 70 can use this door. So it's not called the 70 Year Old Door. Interesting tidbit, none of the emperor's after Qianlong lived to be 70, so he was the only one ever to use this door!

Then there's this.

In a design of three levels of marble stones stands what is know as the circular mound altar. There's a lot of symbolism, much of which refers to the number 9. The inner wall represents heaven. The most entertaining part of this was watching people queue up to have their photo taken standing on the Heaven's Heart Stone in the middle of the top level.

I heard it's supposed to be good luck……

Since this is the Missus' favorite place in Beijing, I'm sure we'll be visiting again. On this day, we were getting hungry and decided to find a restaurant MrD had told us about the night before. So we caught the bus. There's an interesting side note to what we saw with regards to the boom in China. It seemed that many of the traditional manners we being forgotten by the younger generations. The bus we caught was full of middle school kids, chatting on cell phones and smoking cigarettes!! Being cool I guess. When an elderly woman got on a couple of stops later, not one of them stood up to give her their seat. Not the way I was raised so of course I gave up my seat……but stuff like this bothers me. In this China, both parents have to work, so children seem to be raised by grandparents. Children are also treasured so they seem to be treated like they're the most important thing in the world. Nice, but not without consequences. I saw a grandmother try to scold her granddaughter for poor behavior on the bus. Instead of being sorry, the little girl made a fist, reared back, and slugged her grandmother! On the bus, in public…..

Anyway, we got off the bus in the general vicinity of where we thought the Wushan Fish Restaurant was. But of course we couldn't find it. So the Missus eventually called MrD on the phone…first question, "What restaurants are around you?" Like I said MrD, being the foodie that he is, uses restaurants as his main landmarks. He doesn't know the names of the streets! The instructions were something like, "from hot pot restaurant you need to go two blocks, there you'll see the lamb restaurant, keep walking until you see the baozi place, then make a right….."

We got to the restaurant just in time……there was a torrential downpour just as we got there. Funny thing, the place was right across a huge bus station. If we knew that, it would have been easy to ask for directions. But as MrD said, "I don't catch the bus, so I don't know about bus stations…." You gotta love it!

The interior of the restaurant was very modern and the patterns on the wall were made of post-it notes which had been filled out or signed.

Typical of restaurants of a higher tier in China, the menu was a large and book like, full of photos and descriptions.

After going through the menu, we made up our minds and the Missus placed our order as our tea arrived.

We started with what was called stir-fried purple cabbage, but was more of a purple cabbage slaw, like the Missus' relatives in Jinan made and what I make at home.

This wasn't particularly flavorful, more bitter than anything.

The radish sprout salad was much better, balancing the pungency with some acid.

Then of course, was the Wushan Fish. This Sichuan style of cooking fish is really popular in Beijing. The fish looks grilled, but it is really marinated, fried, then roasted. We chose the "No 1 Hot and Spicy" flavor and sole as our fish.

While it looked spicy, it really wasn't that hot. I wished everything was a bit more crisp instead of kind of water-logged, making it seem greasy, and perhaps a bit more of the multitude of flavors they call guaiwei (怪味 – strange flavor). The fish iteself was not bad and as you can tell it isn't bland, but nowhere as good as the "ugly fish at Mocuomen.

Still, it was a nice meal and we were full, even though we didn't order any carbs. It was time to head back for a nap.

Midweek Meanderings: Is Nam An Closed? What about Luong Hai Ky on Convoy? And other stuffs…..

September 19, 2012 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

So, is Nam An Closed or What?:

Was the question posed to me by "Peter" on my original post on Nam An. I was kinda surprised, I know that Nam An had gotten away from serving lunch, but didn't know they had closed for the always ominous "renovations". So I placed a call to a very reliable source who told me that even though the sign says under renovation, the placed has closed down. Sad, this place had potential, but the folks running it had really no restaurant experience and though we enjoyed some of the dishes the service was spotty at best.

We visited a couple of months back and the signs were already there. It seemed that prices had gone up a bit, not a terrible sign in this economy, but we had also noticed that the portion had gotten noticeably smaller.

For me, it wasn't the regular menu of noodle and rice dishes that I enjoyed at Nam An. Rather, it was the appetizer menu that really made things interesting. Sadly, it now seems that there's no good Vietnamese in the area bordered by Aero Drive, the 52, the 15 and the I-5.

Personally, I hope Nam An gives it another shot……but things just don't look promising.

Speaking of which, what's going on with Luong Hai Ky?:

I actually went to check out a different restaurant in that strip mall and noticed that LHK wasn't open. Which was odd since from what I recall the place is open seven days a week from 10 to 10.

The photo above was taken close to noon when I drove by to check things out. Still not open. Well, I wouldn't be surprised, LHK was never the same after the original owner passed away. LHK opened a second restaurant in Mira Mesa and this location became the ill-fated Phat Restaurant. Which eventually failed and the location turned back to Luong Hai Ky. So now what? Well, I dunno….

Meanwhile, since we're on a losing streak:

The place I went to check out is called Apple Korean House.

MrsZ mentioned this place to me, so I wanted to check it out. The hours 5pm yo 2am made it seem like one of the soju houses, but I wanted to see. Of course, with my recent luck….wouldn't you know…..

Well, at least this one is a "small remodeling"…so hopefully they're open already.

But with my recent luck……..