This location of Kababayan Market closed and has moved to become Kababayan Bakery and food to go: 8423 Paradise Valley Road Spring Valley 91977 (619)267-1493
mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog and Kirk is still way too busy at work to blog about anything; he'd rather sleep. Ed (from Yuma) is busy (in Yuma) and would probably also rather sleep than blog. So, here's Cathy today, blogging.
Earlier I began writing about the first stop on a Food Crawl I shared with fellow bloggers, caninecologne and Dennis earlier this month. (If you look at the bottom of the post belonging to caninecologne, you'll see all the places we stopped that day). I try to return to places to get a better post-or to try other items which piqued my curiosity, and this week, The Mister and I ventured South to Kababayan Oriental Market. I don't know why it's named 'Oriental', since all the items for sale here are Filipino in origin and style and 'Oriental' would mean there are items from other East Asian countries, but that's the name on the sign.
Located in the mall at the NorthWest corner of Coronado Avenue and Saturn Boulevard, in the part of San Diego known as Nestor, Kababayan is in the middle of one of the two strip malls of storefronts in this area with a very large parking lot.
I'm always curious about the various vending machine offers I see at stores lately; a far cry from 'penny candy', bubble gum balls and Chiclets that were my choices growing up.
The signage in the front window lets you know some of the goodies available for sale. Bulaklak means 'ruffle fat'…
Bibingka-you can read the link, or
just look at the display on the table, which holds all the ingredients. This traditional Filipino rice cake, coconut flavored dessert that is cooked in a banana leaf over coals is very time consuming to make and finding it here, fresh and available was a delight. The texture is sponge-like and this particular version was particularly tasty.
At the back of the store are the trays containing Pulutan- fried finger foods…our reason for this food crawl. From the left-pata (fried pork skin leg), bulaklak, dilis(fried anchovies) and chicharon manok (chicken skin). We ordered about a pound of mixed of the three items to the right, since all of know about fried pork skin.
Here's a close up of the bulaklak-ruffle fat…or fried intestines, as is an accurate description.
Here's a bit of each that we shared when we sat down- the chicken skin is wonderful, and I liked both the fried anchovies and the bulaklak (when I stopped thinking about what it was and instead concentrated on the flavor and texture). We were given several containers of the garlic-vinegar dipping sauce, which is very complimentary (opposed to salting everything).
When I went back with The Mister this week, we grabbed 1/2 lb of the fried chicken skins($4) and from the cash register area, garlic peanuts ($2.50).
We were very good and waited until we got home to eat our snacks. The chicken skins are a new craving of mine…
as are the garlic roasted and salted skin on Spanish peanuts.
Another great place, where I might not have stopped if not for this food crawl. This link to caninecologne's blog has more detailed descriptions of Filipino foods and what is available in this store.
Kababayan Oriental Market 1840 Coronado Avenue San Diego, CA 92154 (619) 575-0800