November 2015 – Page 3

Osaka: Yakitori Stops and Some Torisashi

November 5, 2015 mmm-yoso Japan, Japanese Restaurants, Osaka

We'd had a really nice day visiting Nara and having lunch at Kuromon Market. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing after all that walking.

For dinner we headed back to the bright lights of Dotonburi.

This time around we were more accustomed to the area and spent a good amount of time checking out the back streets and arcades.

And while most were a lot more quiet than the main streets…there was still some major crazy storefronts….what the heck is this?

We had no destination planned for dinner and just wandered around until we came to this Yakitori shop.

Fairly non-descript and the yakitori wasn't anything to write home about, but the beer was cold.

The mimiga (pig ear) was decent. The menu was huge with everything from Chicken Tail to Camembert Cheese (?!?)

We ordered a selection and wasn't overly impressed.

Nothing really stood out, but the food was cheap.

Folks started arriving soon after we entered….folks in a good mood, ready for a beer and a nice time.

We headed back to the craziness of Shinsaibashi until the Missus got tired of all the window shopping.

Deciding to walk back to the apartment, we ran into this little shop near the beginning of Dotonburi.

A little older woman saw us peeking in the window and waved us in then sat us at one of the well worn tables.

The bar area seemed to be doing some nice business when we arrived.

Again, the place had a huge menu of grilled and fried items.

We made a few choices; quail eggs wrapped in bacon and chicken skin.

And while things seemed much better prepared than our previous stop, it was nothing special.

The kawa was pretty good, but very salty.

There was one item on the menu I wanted, I saw one of the guys on the bar eating it…. was the torisashi; chicken sashimi. At first the woman ignored my order. So I later went up to the bar and ordered it. I saw a look of apprehension on the face of the Missus when it arrived. The stigma of raw chicken had followed the Missus to Japan it seems. Personally, having had torisashi before, I had no such qualms.

It was pretty darn good, much more tender than you'd think, almost melting away in your mouth. The flavor is quite mild and it went well with the shoyu-wasabi and slightly sweet raw onion. The Missus was shocked at how tender the texture of the raw chicken was.

Now, I'm the last person in the world who is going to twist your arm and make you eat raw chicken (please don't start scarfing that package of Foster Farms raw) or raw horse. But if you enjoy it, why not? And like our good friend Kat says….."if you're going to eat it raw, eat it in Japan."

There is one last funny anecdote. We went back to the apartment and I had a beer. After turning in for the evening, I awoke and noticed the Missus sitting in the dark. I asked Her what was going on. Her answer, "I'm sitting here waiting to get sick….." Sheeesh. Old beliefs die hard. And no, She didn't get sick…..

Thanks for reading!

Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza (Power Lunch)

November 4, 2015 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Pizza, Salads

Thanks for clicking onto mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog. Kirk and Ed(from Yuma)- both are busy, busy. Cathy is staying indoors today and able to blog, so enjoy reading.

Sammy's Woodfired Pizza opened it's first location in La Jolla in 1989, now has eight locations in San Diego County with a total of 17 locations in California and Nevada. The concept and menu began as simple (the owner, Sami Ladeki, didn't even hire a chef at first, because the menu was so basic) and has expanded into small bites and other items in addition to pizza. It's not an 'Italian' menu (Sami is from Lebanon) as much as it's fresh and local (items are sourced from within 125 miles). The website uses the trademarked term "Healthy Global Cuisine".The former Naval Training Center, now Liberty Station, is listed on the National Register of Historic places and the former military barracks and other government buildings have been adapted as stores, schools and restaurants. One of Sammy's locations is here.

This past summer, an additional menu, the Power Lunch (available from 11 to 2 daily), was introduced. Choose any two items for $10. We've tried the whole menu except for the kale salad and the spicy Italian sausage pizza…
Mentioned at the bottom the regular menu is that water and bread are served if requested. Two multi-grain crisps (really nice seeded crackers) and a few pieces of fresh made soft crusted white bread and butter is brought out.
The fresh tomato basil soup has been different every time we've had it. Flavorful fresh tomatoes, sometimes with the shaved Romano cheese at the bottom of the bowl, sometimes on the top and basil are the main ingredients. Recently the tomatoes were supplemented with red peppers, which were very tasty and made for a different soup flavor than I was expecting.The butternut squash soup (on the right) is always tasty…made with fresh squash, ginger and apple, it is brisk and fresh…and sometimes a bit stinging from the amount of ginger while sweet because of the apple.

The corn chowder (on the left, above) is the 'calmest' of all the flavors. A bit sweet because of the corn and carrots and complimented by potatoes, celery and red pepper, it's just good and creamy.The salads (on this and the regular menu) are always so very fresh and quite large, even at lunch. The Greek (above) has all the standard ingredients (tomato, cucumber, onion and olive) as well as Feta and is tossed with a simple red wine vinaigrette.The arugula with calmyria fig salad is simple; the other ingredients are feta and toasted almonds, along with some of the broken crisps that are served with the bread plate, above. It's tossed with a pomegranate based dressing. This I crave.The pizzas are larger than a 'personal' pizza, cut into quarters. The margherita (above) has the most wonderful fresh ingredients in addition to a perfect (to me) crust. There's a roasted garlic sauce under the mozzarella cheese that puts this pizza into one of my 'sudden craving' categories.The pepperoni pizza has a house made tomato sauce that is lightly spiced. There are some bell pepper slices as well as pepperoni with the mozzarella cheese and those flavors along with the chew and crunch of the wood fired crust are a perfect combination.

I hope your week is going well!

Sammy's Woodfired Pizza, multiple locations. Website

Harbor Town Pub – Brunch (Point Loma)

November 3, 2015 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Breakfast/Brunch, Pubs and Pub Grub, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for stopping to look at mmm-yoso!!! a food blog of San Diego and other places. Cathy is writing today; Kirk and Ed(from Yuma) are just too busy.

One of those mornings when it was hot and humid before 9 a.m. and The Mister and I thought going closer to the water would be a good idea. The drive West was nice and it seemed cooler on Point Loma. The rather ubiquitous frontage of Harbor Town Pub (located on Rosecrans, about two blocks from the Harbor and from the entrance to Shelter Island) makes it easily overlooked, but being open daily at 8 a.m., it's an easy breakfast stop, especially for locals. The menu remains the same on weekends, so basically Brunch is available daily.After downloading my photos, I realized that somehow the camera phone was set on a sepia toned filter. I apologize for the 'artsy' look.Harbor Town is located in the Portuguese neighborhood of San Diego and so linguisa is on the menu. I chose a Linguisa Scramble ($10.95) for my meal. Eggs, tomato, green onion, cilantro, Cotija cheese and a chipotle cream were all mixed with a good amount of the smoked, garlicy Portuguese sausage. A topping of crispy tortilla strips was the perfect texture that this hearty (and large portioned) dish needed.The Mister has been trying variations of chicken and waffles ever since encountering 'the original version' a couple of years ago. The version here ($11.95) fit the bill; large portions of boneless, skinless white meat chicken is dipped in waffle batter and then fried. Served with a biscuit, eggs and home fries, this hearty meal was really good.

There are several other scrambles, a banana bread french toast as well as a high end country fried steak also available for breakfast…great quality and a non-touristy vibe.

Harbor Town Pub 1125 Rosecrans Street San Diego 92107 (619) 2241321 Open daily 8 a.m.-1 a.m. Website

Lunch Revisits: Pho Paradise and Yakyudori Ramen and Yakitori

November 2, 2015 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Japanese Restaurants, Pho, Ramen, Vietnamese Restaurants

After having the hottest October on record, we've kind of settled into milder weather. Which means pho and ramen can be shoe horned back into lunch.

Pho Paradise:

** Note: Pho Paradise has closed

When Pho Paradise first opened, I thought it had some potential, even thinking that we'd finally get some decent Pho on Convoy. Even though my follow-up visit wasn't quite as good, I still believed they might have been the best pho in the area. So now, over six months later, I was wondering how things would be.

I started with the chicken wings, which looked very pale.

This wasn't too bad, the wings were fairly light and crisp, though sogginess set in rather quickly. A bit too much MSG for my taste, with that strange very salty edging on sweet taste and tongue sensation.

The pho was a disappointing.

This reminded me of the stuff Pho T Cali puts out. Barely any flavors other than being very salty with a very mild hint in the background. It was much too low in fat, the noodles, of which there was a healthy amount of, were over cooked, the proteins had no flavor and the tendon was too hard.

Well, at least the basil and bean sprouts were fresh, right?

In case you have doubts. Here's a bowl from Pho Paradise back in February.

Sad, huh?

Pho Paradise
3904 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Yakyudori Ramen and Yakitori:

I needed a break from the office one Friday and ran over to Yakyudori for an early lunch before the place got too crowded and the Servers too surly. It had been a while since I'd had lunch here and I went with the Friday combo. Chashu Gohan with a Shoyu Ramen.

The pork and rice came in a medium sized miso soup bowl….lots of rice in this though the chashu was good in comparison to what I'd had recently at Okan during lunch. It was tender, had some flavor, and was lukewarm rather than cold. The corn and bean sprouts added texture….but this was mostly a whole lot of rice.

I hadn't had lunch here in a while so I was surprised at the size of the "mini-ramen"….it was more mini that I recalled.

Not that I needed more carbs, but there were maybe three bites of noodles and I really wanted more soup. Overall, this was a decent bowl, just edging on too salty, but quite satisfying and the noodles were prepped well. I should have just gotten the ramen instead of the lunch special.

Since I did it with Pho Paradise, it's only right I do this here too. Here's what the mini ramen used to look like.

No wonder they give you so much rice now. They need to fill you up somehow.

At least they were a bit nicer here than on my previous visits.

Yakyudori Ramen and Yakitori
4898 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

To the Oregon Coast and Back – Wayfarer and Urban Masala

November 1, 2015 ed fromyuma Indian Restaurants, Portland, Oregon, Seafood, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Kirk and Cathy have real jobs, and today they're either working on them or relaxing. So this mmm-yoso!!! blogpost, about a day trip to the Oregon coast, is by Ed (from Oregon originally).

During the middle of October, Tina and I spent more than a week in Northwestern Oregon (including PDX). Tina, who owns a real camera, brought it along, so most of the good pics in my Oregon posts will come from her, especially the outdoor shots – all I can photograph is food, it seems.

As well as getting together with relatives and friends in the area, some days we were on our own. When we woke up in Hillsboro Oregon on Monday morning, even the Hampton Inn parking lot was beautiful in the fog:

Soon we left the fog behind as we headed west on Highway 26, enjoying the colors of the season:

Though the fog was still visible in the distance when we stopped at a viewpoint in the coastal range:

In less than an hour and a half, we arrived at Cannon Beach, just south of the intersection of 26 with Highway 101, famous for its large beach and iconic Haystack Rock:

Our friend, part-time Oregon resident, gourmet cook and witty blogger, Joanie, texted Tina and said we had to eat at the Wayfarer:

The dining space was attractive and the windows looked out at the beach and Haystack Rock – look real carefully out the window:

Wanting to drink local, Tina and I had a glass of Archery Summit Pinot Gris and one of Domaine Drouhin Chardonnay:

Both were good, but the Chardonnay amazed me since most Oregon Chardonnays that I drank way back when seemed thin and acidic. This one was a classic refined focused Chardonnay.

The lunch itself started with some tasty warm bread and attractive chilled butter:

We were on the coast, so a cup of clam chowder was necessary:

Quite impressive. Full of tender pieces of clam and bits of potato, covered with a luscious, rich, creamy, savory broth. A classic version of the soup.

Joanie had advised Tina to have the Dungeness crab sandwich with garlic fries, so that's what she ordered. The garlic fries came with ketchup and a tangy aioli, and they were crispy and reasonably garlicky:

On first inspection, the sandwich looked like mostly baguette and melted cheese:

But it was packed full of flavorful moist Dungeness crab:

I chose a different local favorite, razor clams:

This variety of bivalve got its common name because it looked like the old school straight razor case into which the sharp blade was folded when not in use – kind of like an elongated sunglasses case. Nowadays the razor clams on beaches in Oregon and Washington cannot be commercially harvested so the pan fried clams on my plate, flavorful, a little crunchy, and tender chewy, probably came from Alaska. Still, a real treat for me.

I also loved the sides. The jalapeño jelly was sweet and tasty with the clams, but I preferred the old school dill flavored tartar sauce. The herbed rice contained a lot of wild rice as well as perfectly al dente green and yellow split peas. Nice flavor/texture combo. The fresh green beans, toothsomely prepared, were lightly flecked with garlic.

A very pleasing lunch. Thanks for the tip, Joanie!

After we paid our tab,:

we strolled down to the beach past one of the ubiquitous tsunami warning signs. Every time I see one, I think, "I'm betting on the wave.":

The road south from Cannon beach is often quite striking and occasionally sublime. For a while, it clings to the side of Neahkahnie Mountain hundreds of feet above the Pacific:

Then it comes back down close to sea level and sloughs and estuaries appear:

Here's Tillamook Bay, the picture taken from close to Garibaldi:

The road back to Portland area from Tillamook is easy driving and about as quick as the trip out on Highway 26. Nonetheless, after a day driving around, Tina and I decided to have a simple meal in Hillsboro.

We were staying in Hillsboro for a few days because of its proximity to friends and relatives, the Oregon wine country, and the coast, but most people who live in the area are connected to the tech industry, particularly Intel. So we figured there had to be a decent Indian restaurant nearby. A brief search on Tina's iPad led us to Urban Masala, which had just opened a couple of months earlier: