March 2013 – Page 3

Revisits to Grandma Tofu and BBQ (aka Halmouny/Hal Mu Ni)

March 7, 2013 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants

I know…..same title as the last time I posted on the place. Honestly, nothing else came to mind. A couple weeks ago I had yet another birthday. Instead of doing a party, I just wanted to enjoy an evening with the Missus. Not sure where to go, we decided on Halmouny….Grandma's.

Instead of the usual combination bossam with pork belly and pig's feet, we went with the Modeum Bossam, which also includes soondae, blood sausage. I've written about the bossam a couple of times already, so I'll just let you enjoy the photos.

I will say that the Missus is still not fond of the blood sausage. I think it's a texture thing as it's pretty mild in flavor, but kind of sticky in texture.

We also ordered the Kimchi Soondubu, which wasn't anything special as it lacked a nice deep flavor and could have used more spice.

We ended up having a ton of leftovers…..in fact, I ended up making sandwiches with the leftover pork belly and pig's feet, which were delicious.

Soon after this visit, we noticed that the place was closed and some renovating was going on. The "term" under renovation always worries us as it often means a place is closing down or management is changing. Lucky for us, this was not the case here.

Upon our return, we noticed that the booths had been replaced, tables had been changed out, they now had built in burners which were still not in service as of our visit. The place was still full of dark woods, but the television was not as annoying, and the whole place had a nicer, lighter appearance.

When you've been to a place many times, it easy to fall into the same ol', same ol'….ordering the "usual". After all, the menu here has some pitfalls. On this night, instead of ordering the Seolleongtang for the Missus, and the Dolsot Bi Bim Bap, we decided on ordering one of our favorite dishes, but one we had doubts that "Grandma" could pull off. The Heokyumso Jeongol, Black Goat Stew. Soon enough, a butane stove arrived (since the built-ins aren't ready yet), topped with a pretty hefty sized pot. Our panchan arrived, the usual suspects, and two good sized bowls of dolsot bop…….we could hear the rice sizzling.

In all honesty, I was surprised at how good this was….maybe not the best I've ever had, but this was a notch above decent. There was a good amount, of fairly tender chopped goat, along with tendon on the bottom of the bowl. The goat was assertively gamey, which we appreciated. The flavor of the broth was good, not too salty, but could have used a bit more savory and acid tones. Still, this was hearty, and quite satisfying…..

Along with the wonderful rice crust….loosened by adding just a touch of water to the dolsot…..wonderful flavors and textures here.

Even though the menu says this is a portion for two ($29.99), this was way more food than we could eat. We ended up taking home almost half of it.

Just goes to show, we need to stretch out once in a while, beyond the horizon of our favorites.

I guess it'll be Budae Jeongol next time….after all, who doesn't love a stew of Spam, sausage, and, ramen noodles, right? Heck, it'll be just like college again!

Grandma's Tofu & BBQ (Halmouny)
4425 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

Big Island: Kawamoto Okazuya, Kuhio Grille, and Volcanoes National Park

March 5, 2013 mmm-yoso Hawai'i - The Big Island, Japanese Restaurants, Loco Mocos, Plate Lunch, Travel

It seemed like the coqui frogs had a curfew of around 3am as I drifted in and out of sleep until then. Still, I got up at around 530 and we packed up and checked out of the Dolphin Bay Hotel. We had enjoyed our previous day in Hilo and we weren't quite done yet.

There's still a sleepiness to Hilo Town and many places are closed on Sundays. Still, I couldn't help but stop by Kawamoto Store, which holds typical Okazuya hours, opening at 6am and closing around noon….and they were open on Sunday to boot! Places like Kawamoto's holds a special place in my heart…..I basically grew up eating the most common and traditional Okazuya fare.

You basically say how many "bento" you like and then choose your items. All the classics were present and accounted for, shoyu chicken, maki sushi, "cone sushi" (what we call inari sushi back home), stuff like that. We put together a small bento to snack on later…….

There's something about places like this that are timeless……

Kawamoto Store
784 Kilauea Ave
Hilo, HI 96720
Hours:
Tues-Sat 600am – 1230pm
Sun 600am – 1200pm

We then headed off to our breakfast destination; Kuhio Grille.

Located to the side of Prince Kuhio Plaza, this place has been around since the 90's and is probably most well known for the 1pound laulau, which I don't remember being that great, but that was a while ago. Since it was about 615 in the morning, no laulau for us, we were here for breakfast.

Not much going on this early in the morning, just us and a couple of tables of older folks……who else gets up so early on a Sunday, right?

Still recalling how much She enjoyed "my" Japanese Breakfast at Teshima's, the Missus ordered KG Combo #3 ($10.99), with brown rice, ugh…..

This was just passable, the egg was nice and runny, but the fish was rather dry, and the miso soup was on the weak side.

Not wanting to fall back into a food coma; I went with the Loco Bowl ($6.99):

This was not bad, the egg was done right, though I could have done with a bit more crisp edges. The rice was decent, perhaps slightly on the dry side. The gravy was average, mainly salty. About that burger….well, it had that nice, old school char, seems like this griddle has some seasoning to it. The flavor was decent, the texture was very old school…….something I appreciated. The Missus had a taste and agreed.

Kuhio Grille
111 E Puainako St
Hilo, HI 96720
Hours:
Sat-Thurs 600am – 10pm
Fri 600am – 11pm

After breakfast we headed over to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. We've been here many times and we love coming here. We actually had a late honeymoon at Volcano House all those years ago. There's basically one place we head to, which I'll get into later. A portion of Crater Rim Drive was closed because of fumes, so the Missus was a bit disappointed.

But the steam vents were going strong.

Halema'uma'u Crater, which is located in the larger Kilauea Crater wasn't nearly this active the last time we visited. No wonder there were all the sulfur dioxide gas warnings!

We saw several offerings to Pele as we walked around the crater..

It was quite a sight…..

There are many things to see here, the Thurston Lava Tube, great hiking trails (when they are open). The Iliahi (Sandalwood) Trail is one we've enjoyed several times. Or you can just drive down Chain of Craters Road and marvel at all the old lava flows. Each one is different.

With all due respect ot the wonders of Volcanoes National Park, the Missus and I have one tradition whenever we visit. And even the passing rain showers didn't stop us. We always drive to the end of Chain of Craters Road, park, it used to be that you'd park just a couple of yards from the flow, but now you walk about a half mile or so. I always take a photo of the Missus at the point where the lava is covering the road.

When we look back at the older photos, we've noticed that the flow has moved and even though things might seem the same when the picture is taken; looking at the photos all lined up reveals that nature never stays still. For us, this is a nice timeline of sorts….the Missus on the lava flow, moving, maybe at an imperceptible speed, but nevertheless, still slowly moving.

Mission accomplished, we headed back up the road and the back way to Kona. After a short "bento break" of course.

In the past, it always seemed that the Missus enjoyed Kona more. But like that lava slowly creeping forward, it seems that Hilo had won Her over after all these years. We'll spend more time in Hilo next time.

B.H. Chung

March 4, 2013 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Korean Restaurants

*** Update: BH Chung has closed and is now a location of Yu's Garden

I usually get into work at around 6 in the morning…..this means that I'm actually able to spend more time with the Missus and Da Boyz during the evenings and I get a ton of work done before other folks get into work. One drawback of going to work so early is that I can get pretty hungry by the time 1030 rolls around. So I'm always looking for places that open by 1030 or 11. A couple of years back, Cathy posted on BH Chung, I also know of a few people who enjoy the Katsu Curry here as well. An added bonus is that even though BH Chung is housed in the Convoy strip mall with the parking lot from hell, they, along with Tofu House open pretty early.

Frankly, I'm not a big fan of most of those Korean-Japanese "Hwe" type places, though it's really hard to screw up katsu too badly.

The older Korean woman who works here is very nice; always offering me seconds of panchan. The service is very mom-and-pop, though I've only eaten here before 11am.

On my first visit I ordered the Chicken Katsu Curry….not cheap at $9.99. Though you do get some standard panchan with your meal. And as I mentioned before, the nice woman working here has always asked me if I wanted more.

The curry itself was not exactly photogenic, brown gloppiness poured over some form of fried protein.

The chicken itself was on the dry side, though I noticed that the cooking and prep was done correctly since the breading wasn't peeling off the chicken. I prefer my katsu on the crisp and lighter side, this one was very hard and in my opinion a bit over-fried. The curry wasn't anything to write home about, though I've had worse….it was kind of lumpy though.

Still it was quite a bit of food. I later mentioned this meal to an acquaintance…who told me to try the Tonkatsu Curry instead. So a couple of weeks later….famished at 10am, I marched on over to BH Chung and had the pork version.

You gotta hand it to these folks, they seem to be pretty consistent. This was pretty much a replay of my previous meal, except the curry was a little bit less gloppy and had a more pronounced flavor.

With a sprig of parsley and slice of orange as garnish, there's something unabashedly "diner-like" in the presentation. So I thought, "well that's that….." and moved on. But a couple of days later, I had gone into work at around 530, by 1000 I was starving. I jumped in the car and headed to Convoy. I intended on grabbing a bite from Tofu House, but for some reason, I just ended up walking into BH Chung. On my previous visit, I noticed a young lady having the Dolsot Bi Bim Bap. It looked decent, so I decided to get that….. I guess you get five panchan with the Bi Bim Bap.

It looked pretty good overall, but after further investigation, this really didn't pass muster. Bi Bim Bap is a humble dish, so I don't expect a huge amount of meat, though the amount here was good. It was however, very bland bulgogi. So I quickly banished any thought of having that. For some reason, no matter how long I waited, the rice in this stone bowl just never really crusted up. The cho-gochujang tasted kind of weak and watered down as well. This just didn't do it for me.

Well, after three meals here, I think I'll give the place a rest. I'll resist temptation and just head over to Tofu House like I intended. Unless someone has a great recommendation????

BH Chung
4646 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Roadtrip: Beijing Pie House – Monterey Park (Los Angeles)

March 3, 2013 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip

Back in October, I had a chance to grab a bite with one of my favorite couples, Kirbie and her DH. As always, conversation always drifts toward food. One of the places that Kirbie recommended was Beijing Pie House in Monterey Park (read her post here). So on our next trip to the SGV, we made sure to check the place out.

We had stopped by China Islamic right before our visit here, so we knew it wasn't going to be a gigantic meal.

We arrived pretty early and the dining area was empty except for a guy who I'll designate as the loudest slurper and chewer I've heard. We could hear him smacking his lips all the way on the other side of the room.

We could actually see flecks of food flying from his mouth as he spoke while chewing. His dining companion left the table for a good long time…..probably to remove all the detritus from her hair.

The young man who served could not have been nicer. The Missus found him adorable…..mainly because he spoke Mandarin with a very formal "American" accent.

The Missus has an affection for the various porridges she grew up eating…….which includes the cornmeal based version here.

As for the various Xian Bing….

They were nice enough to serve us a combination vegetarian XB.

Two radish and two "combination".

First off, these "pies" had a nice crust, crisp, but not oily. The filling were also moist….

The radish version was probably my favorite……the bitterness of the radish had been tempered when cooked……

Creating a nice chew with a balance of the pungent and sweetness.

The combination featured mushroom and bean curd with a good amount of seasoning. Though on the salty side, this was still good.

Since we love lamb and mutton, we also ordered the lamb pie……

These didn't quite do it for us. In terms of texture and preparation, we both thought, the Xian Bing were prepared well.

With regards to flavor, we thought this on the weak side…it could have been pork or any other protein, the distinctive flavor of lamb was missing.

I understand that there are those who don't enjoy the "flavor of the pasture", but I still think lamb should taste that way. When it is too tame….well, you might as well get anything else.

Still, the Xian Bing were well prepared, the service was nice. I wouldn't hesitate in returning.

Beijing Pie House
846 E Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91755

Las Vegas: Lunch at Three Villages and checking out some of the markets

March 2, 2013 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Las Vegas, Markets & Grocers, Road Trip, Xiao Long Bao

After having some poke from Hawaaian Style Poke in the parking lot of 99 Ranch Market, I realized it was still too early to check out my "lunch stop". So what better to do then check out 99 Ranch Market? In fact, after walk around 99 Ranch Market, I drove up the street and had a look-see at 168 Market, which wasn't around the last time we visited Vegas.

The set-up of this 99 Ranch Market reminded me of the Irvine location.

Items are a bit more expensive here as well. Love the Engrish signs as well…..

Further up the street is 168 Market, which I thought was the cleanest of the three I visited.

I left 168 and jumped into my car and headed over to the plaza that housed Shun Fat Market. On the second floor is a Shaghainese Restaurant called Three Villages that had been mentioned to me a couple of times.

The set-up was a bit odd; at least for me. The "front" or street facing entrance is locked and really is just a large sign. You have to go around the corner and fine the entrance and the place almost looks vacated.

But of course it wasn't……..the place was empty when I arrived though. I had to call out to check if they were actually in business.

Ordering was pretty simple. I'd come here for the Xiao Long Bao. I did make it a "combo" for a buck more and got some soup….a very plain soup with bean thread and tofu.

Actually this kind of plain, but hearty soup is the kind of thing the Missus likes….me, not so much. I will say that it was a pretty large amount of soup.

The XLB arrived soon after. First thing I noticed was how doughy and thick looking the wrappers were.

Still, I'm not the biggest fan of the over-worked, very thin wrappers and these ended up having a decent light stretch to them…..I still thought they were a bit on the thick side.

The filling was disappointing. Since they only have straight up pork XLB, I didn't expect a great range of flavors from the soup, but this was pretty weak, lacking in a good pork flavor and having no sweetness what so ever. The filling also had some hard bits as well.

Still better than anything in San Diego though. That's really not saying much…..

Three Villages Restaurant
5115 W Spring Mountain Road
Las Vegas, NV 89103

After lunch I headed downstairs and had a little stroll through Shun Fat Market.

Since I was headed back to our room, I picked up a couple of Suan Nai for breakfast.

Just walking through these three markets you could notice things. The cleanest and busiest was 168. Both 168 and 99 Ranch Market actually listed the origin of their seafood, SF did not. The least cleanest was SF. I also saw a woman pick up a fish with her hands at SFM, then after putting it back she washed her hands….in the tank holding the clams! As I walked to my car in the strip mall, I smelled an acrid odor that everyone knows…..I saw the pool of liquid near the stairs. Unlike the seafood in SFM, I knew the country of origin of this liquid….. "urine-nation". Yikes.