August 2016 – mmm-yoso

Prime Grill – A Korean BBQ feast with Kirk, Ed (from Yuma) and Cathy

August 31, 2016 Cathy Korean Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is a blog about food written by three friends who have known each other more than ten years, yet they've only shared about five meals together. Today's post is about one of those rare occasions, written from Cathy's perspective. Here is a link to Ed's perspective of that meal.

A week or so ago, Ed (from Yuma) decided to drive (from Yuma) to enjoy many San Diego foods he had been hankering for. He let Kirk and I know when and where he was going, had some questions about what to order and also had some 'blank slots' for meals. The stars aligned and all three of us were available on the same day at the same time. We decided to try some place new and it was fun!

Prime Grill has been open only about six weeks now, taking over the spot of the (Blue) Korea House which all three of us had been to but none of us ever posted about. The refurbished interior is neat and clean. The menu is pretty much a traditional Korean BBQ and as a first visit, we decided to try 'Combo C', the meal for three people.
Salad was brought out first (and we ate it as 'dessert', at the end of the meal) along with a variety of dipping sauces then

a variety of Banchan were brought out.
There were more than these; we were catching up and talking, not taking clear photos, you get the idea. The grill was being warmed and the tray of meats (with some veggies) was brought out. Our nice (and funny) waitress placed the vegetables and the thin sliced brisket on the grill first. This cooked rather quickly and the fat helped to begin the seasoning of the grill. Rib eye and boneless short rib were put out next and finally the marinated short rib and bulgogi. There also was a steamed egg and also a soybean paste stew brought out sometime in the middle of meat cooking.

Oh. You might want to know how it tasted; I don't have a thesaurus with me right now. Tender meat, deep, excellent flavors; quality. A special meal with special friends.

Prime Grill 4620 Convoy San Diego 92111 (858) 277-0800 Open 7 days 11-10

Spice & Soul

August 30, 2016 mmm-yoso American Restaurants, Beer, Salads

**** Spice & Soul has closed

Back in December I noticed that Oasis Restaurant and Lounge had been replaced with Spice & Soul Kitchen + Tap. Oasis, with a bit of a strange combination of food items, plus drinks, plus hookah, just didn't seem to fit in well with the Bay Park/Bay Ho neighborhood, and never gained traction. I decided to drop in on one evening.

I basically dropped by for some grub and a couple of beers and sat on the bar. I like the set-up; small bar, casual dining area, and porch. Decent beer list and the guy who owns the place, I believe his name is Steven, was quite friendly, as was the staff.

I saw Salt and Pepper Wings ($9.50) on the menu and ordered that. It came with two sauces; I chose the Smoked Harissa Aioli and the Blue Cheese. I found the wings to be a bit odd…..it was quite apparent that they were grilled first, then lightly dusted, before the deep fry.

Not my favorite version of wings; these were on the dry side, more flakey than crisp, though the Harissa Aioli was pretty good. Just kind of strange overall.

What I did enjoy were the Crunchy Chickpeas ($4). Basically seasoned fried and roasted garbanzos which were nicely seasoned.

Crunchy, nicely seasoned, great flavors, awesome bar food.

A couple of weeks later, I couldn't decide on dinner, so I stuck close to home and dropped by S&S again. This time I ordered the House Smoked Brisket ($14) which was served as a sandwich on brioche with 2 side salads.

Not my favorite rendition of smoked brisket as this wasn't very smoky, was dry, the texture was also on the mealy side. Frankly, I don't think this was "smoked" in the traditional manner.

The coleslaw was better than the quinoa and rice which was very bland.

The brioche roll had been grilled nicely and the portion size was very generous.

Still, not a great meal in my book. A few weeks later, I decided on a "tie-breaker" and dropped by again.

This time I was pretty hungry so I ordered the Pork Chop ($15), which was very large.

It arrived, oil bubbling, nicely charred…like overhead broiling with something like a salamander had been used. It was nicely seasoned with the coffee and ancho rub that really didn't do well on the brisket. Here, it really tasted great. In fact, this didn't need the compound butter, as it was surprisingly moist for a fairly lean chop. The shoestring fries were nicely fried and crisp, I think they make their own ketchup here as it tasted quite good. The roasted veggies were on the bland side though.

After this meal; I decided to return and retry what I'd had on my first visit; the wings and chickpeas.

Though the wings were better; they didn't look to be grilled then dusted and fried anymore, they are still not crisp enough for me.

Those Chick Peas were still great though…..

And that should pretty much be it, right? Well, I just kind of let these photos languish, and wouldn't you know it, I went back to S&S yet again. This was during a fairly hot spell; so I got the S&S Wedge Salad, which I really enjoyed; simple seems to be the rule here, and even got a side of the brisket.

The wedge of iceberg was fresh and it wasn't over dressed. The dressing was fine, and who doesn't love some bacon to add some savory saltiness to the dish? The brisket was better this time around; more moist, you could make out the flavor of the ancho-coffee rub……you can just tell by the color that it was much improved. It's still not a favorite of mine, but it was better.

It was about time for a post…..but for some reason, I never got around to it. So in the meantime…guess what? Yep, another visit. I wanted those Crunchy Chickpeas, but it was no longer on the menu. Steve did tell me that it is served on the Crispy Kale Salad ($7), which is what I ordered.

The kale was indeed roasted…it almost looked deep fried, which brought out a mild sweetness, no issues with the romaine, nor the dressing which was a nice, light, vinaigrette. It was nicely dressed and of course I enjoyed the crunchy chickpeas and even the pickled onions. I'm usually not a fan of fruit in my salad, but in this case I did rather enjoy things.

The beer list here is pretty good….nothing too exotic, but solid with a nice rotation. I've had Almanac's Saison Dolores, Duckfoot Honey Ale, and those solid regulars from breweries we all know; Alesmith, Ballast Point, Modern Times, and even Bitter Brothers. Honestly, S&S won't make me forget Tiger Tiger, hmmm, we haven't been there in a while; or even Blind Lady. Still, it's great to see places like this opening in our neighborhood. I remember when Bay Park Fish and Baci were the only reasonable choices. Now we've got some choices….and with Red Card opening (a post is forthcoming), things in Bay Park have come a long way since we moved here.

Spice & Soul
4033 Avati Dr
San Diego, CA 92117

Pho Hoa – All Hail the Old School Pho Shop

August 29, 2016 mmm-yoso Pho, Vietnamese Restaurants

While completing my weekend "honey doo" lists a while back; I decided to return to Pho Hoa. Man, it's been like three years since I last visited this City Heights institution. And while I think this place has slipped over the years; the parking lot was almost filled when I arrived at 0845 on a weekend morning. So it's obviously one of the top choices in the area on a weekend morning.

Pho Hoa is totally old school; from the paying at the register, to the banquet chairs and sticky tables, to the menu being tossed at you and the Server hovering over you like it's expected that you've been here before and already know what to order….the menu is merely a vehicle that symbolizes all that Pho Hoa has. And what Pho had on this day was the same item I had last time #4…..which is now $7.40. All my experiences with the "tai" here have not been pleasant; there's a tendency for the meat to have a metallic taste to it. So I stick with the flank, brisket, tendon, and tripe.

This time around, the broth was much more acceptable, slightly beefy, not too heavy on the MSG, perhaps defatted a bit too much for my taste. The tendon was also decent as was the tripe. For some reason the flank and brisket fell short on this visit, the flank too tough and dry and the brisket lacking flavor.

There's one thing that has never fallen short here…it's the basil, cilantro (Ngo Gai), and sprouts…..always a generous portion, always sparkling fresh. I didn't need the lime today to balance out the broth, a good thing.

The noodles were also perfect.

These days, I sometimes fall into the trap of waxing nostalgically about the borderline indifferent, perfunctory, and hovering service…….I've noticed that things have changed at some of these places like Pho Hoa Huong. Even here, the guy smiled when he delivered my bowl of pho. The guy running the cash register even told me "thank you", when giving me my change. Changing times, I guess. I'm not sure when I'll be back to Pho Hoa, but at least this time around I got a decent bowl.

Pho Hoa Restaurant
4717 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

Easy Pickled Celery

August 28, 2016 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

Here's something you might not know about the Missus…She hates celery. Now, I can get away with using the leaves in a stir-fry; but for some reason She just doesn't care for the flavor of celery. She does however, really enjoy pickled items. So last weekend, the Missus wanted some white beans and ham hock….now I use the "Cajun Holy Trinity" as the mirepoix for that dish. So what to do with the leftover celery? The Missus had just asked me why I hadn't made my easy pickled onions in a while (because I've been busy at work and basically lazy on the weekends). So, I just used that base recipe, added some sugar, more salt, and some mustard seed. Also had half a Vidalia onion and of course some chilies from the garden. I did peel and do a quick blanch of the celery.

Well, turns out the Missus loves these….and I like them as a nice addition to a salad.

Slight spicy, with a touch of sweetness and salt, this is pretty darn good.

Easy Pickled Celery:

1 cup distilled white vinegar
1 cup water
2 tb sugar
2 tb Kosher salt
1 tsp black peppercorns
1/2 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

peeled celery stalks cut to size
2-3 chili peppers (optional – I used some Chili de Arbol from the yard)
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 small Vidalia Onion – quartered – but not cut all the way through (optional)

– Wash and sterilize a ball jar
– Combine vinegar, water, sugar, salt, red pepper, and peppercorns in a pot, bring to a boil and then remove from heat.
– Add peeled celery to pot to lightly blanch
– Place celery (and whatever else) in jar, add celery seeds, top off with pickling liquid
– Seal, cover, and refrigerate . Leave for 2 days before eating.

Le Eyzies de Tayac – Fonte de Gaume and back to Pizzeria La Milanaise

August 27, 2016 mmm-yoso Dordogne, France, France, Pizza, Travel

There was one reason why we came to Les Eyzies. It was to visit Font de Gaume, the only site in France with "polychrome" (colored) prehistoric cave paintings still open to the public. The catch was, there's no advance tickets sales, you need to show up and wait in line and purchase tickets for one of the "tours". The ticket office opens at 0930, we got there at 7am and there were already people in line for one of the 52 tickets available on this day! Carbon Dioxide is starting to damage the 15,000 year old paintings of 230 animals, so access is limited. We could have gone to Lascaux and visited the Lascaux II, which is a replica of the original, now closed to the public because of carbon dioxide damage….but seeing the real thing was on the Missus' bucket list, so here we were. One of the reasons we stayed where we did was that it was a short 2 kilometer walk up the street.

Folks were sitting around chatting, checking their smartphones, staring off into space, or like me, checking out this very social little guy, who seemed totally unafraid of humans.

Like clockwork, the place opened at 0930. We were about number 14-15 in line. The only English tour of the day was at 10am and we easily got tickets to it! Since it would be starting fairly soon we just hung around for 15 minutes and off we went up the trail.

Of course photos aren't allowed, but let me just say, this well worth 5 times the 7.5 Euro ticket price….that's right, it seems they really care for this place and aren't gouging you. Much like the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, this place left us amazed and truly touched. The artwork is quite amazing, one of the particular paintings, which looked somewhat abstract and 3-d had our guide tell us, "see, even then, they had a Picasso!" And then there was the famous "Reindeer Kissing" painting. This is truly a worthwhile place to visit. I'm not sure how much longer it will be open to the public, but it is truly a treasure.

We left on a high, we decided to walk back into town and grab some lunch. But first, the walk……Les Eyzies is in essence a one street village, near the north end of that walk is the Hotel Cro-Magnon.

This hotel was built in 1868, basically on the site where the first Cro-Magnon skeleton was unearthed. The owner of the hotel was Monsieur Magnon and it was on his land the remains were found. Thus the name, Cro-Magnon….which in simple terms means, "Mr Magnon's Hole"…..you gotta love that! Just think, all those guys you called Cro-Magnon…..you were calling them "Mr Magnon's hole……" Which might have been appropriate!

Turning back, it was time to decide on lunch. We were kind of tired…sleeping on what felt like plastic sheeting didn't translate into a good night's sleep and the Missus really enjoyed the salad She had the night before, so Pizzeria La Milanaise just seemed like the easy choice.

So the Missus got Her salad. Meanwhile, I decided to go just go for it and got the Pizza de Campagnade (14,3 €/about $16US), mainly because it was topped with…yes, this is the Dordogne…Foie Gras. My curiosity had gotten the better of me it seems…or maybe not as this was pretty good.

It was a nice thin crust, the edges charred, but not bitter. It was merely topped with foie gras after the pizza baking process, which answered my questions of how foie gras would survive on a pizza. Under that cheese was a nice amount of "magret fume" smoked duck breast which was quite good; the "sauce" was persillade, basically a parsley-herb-garlic-oil-vinegar mixture that really resembled pesto in this case. It was quite rich….as in after the salad, we had one-third of the pizza and the foie gras and took the rest to go. So here's the thing, sixteen bucks here in the Dordogne gets you smoked duck pizza topped with foie gras……..

Pizzeria La Milanaise
41 Avenue de la Préhistoire
Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, France

We walked back to our unit, stopping again at the win shop at the end of the street….this time we noticed a photo of the owner; the guy running the register, who looked a bit less dapper than this photo……his "Bond….James Bond" picture.

Getting back to the apartment, it was a bit too early for a nap, so we got into the car and decided to take a drive around the countryside. We came across a village named Campagne.

The Chateau and park was closed, but it was a charming little stop. Wikipedia says the population of this town is 345.

Which of course makes one wonder what life here is like……

Later that evening, while we finished the remnants of the pizza along with a nice bottle of wine, I noticed some movement on the hillside. There were some deer grazing. In some sense it looked so peaceful……in harmony with the surroundings. Perhaps this was what the beautiful Dordogne does to you…..

Les Eyzies de Tayac – Pizzeria La Milanaise

August 26, 2016 mmm-yoso Dordogne, France, France, French Restaurants

While I had gone to the Dordogne for the duck and foie gras, the amazing views were a bonus. The Missus, well She wanted to come here to view some prehistoric cave art. If you're coming here for all the Cro-Magnon stuff, you'll probably end up in Les Eyzies de Tayac a small single street village with amazing looking cliffs looming over it.

This town is where the first Cro-Magnon was found in 1868. There's an interesting story about how these early humans came to be called "Cro-Magnon". I'll go over that at a later time.

We took a walk through the town….it is basically one street, before deciding what to do. We got in the car and drove to the Pôle International de la Préhistoire, which is basically a welcome/introduction center, which has exhibits, interactive activities, and other resources for the area. There are maps and we noticed that the staff here really engage the visitors.

The building is quite sleek and modern; you cross a bridge over the Beune River and enter the building.

We really enjoyed the exhibits.

By the time we finished up here, it was time to check in. Or so we thought. We arrived at the place we were staying and found the offices closed! There was no one around. After searching around a bit, a staff member arrived at the office to pick something up. Apparently the offices are closed on Sunday. And no one had informed us. Luckily, the nice young lady went to a lock box and got us our key. We were supposed to have been sent an email with instructions…..we never received one. When I spoke to the front desk person about this the next day, the response I got was a shrug and "well, perhaps we forgot". Perhaps we forgot? I got the feeling that this might be a normal occurrence.

Anyway, it was time for an early dinner. On our early walk through town we noticed one place that seemed unusually busy.

Strangely, it was a "pizza" shop. Perhaps it was the location, but still, we were intrigued. So we decided to have dinner here.

Being rather early, the place was empty except for one other table, but by the time we left the place had filled up. There were some interesting, not-quite-my-neighborhood-pizza-joint items on the menu.

We started with the Charcuterie Plate (9,8€), which was quite generic, and really not worth the price.

The Missus did really well ordering the Salade Perigourdine (14,9€). The salad was huge and topped with Magret seche (duck breast), Gesiers (duck gizzards which we enjoyed on a previous salad), and yes, Foie Gras.

This was a decent salad; not haute cuisine, but very refreshing, delicious, and well worth the price (about 16.75 US). The foie gras was decent and this is almost large enough for two.

I went with the Duck Confit, which had obviously been reheated.

This was way too much food for us; so we save the duck and had it the next day. It was fine, but nothing special. We did enjoy the potatoes.

Service was fine, the prices were right, and the Missus loved Her salad.

Pizzeria La Milanaise
41 Avenue de la Préhistoire
Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, France

We had a nice walk back to the apartments and dropped by a wine shop along the way.

So our residence was kind of strange, there were so many rules for cleaning, and all of that. And yet, there were no paper towels, no soap, no dishwashing liquid, and half a roll of toilet paper. The worse thing was the bed which had a plastic liner and was hard as rock. I guess this place is fine for long term stays, you'd have to go shopping and get everything yourself whether you stay was for a couple of days or couple of weeks.

But on the bright side…..the bottle of wine was not half bad……

Lima – El Veridico de Fidel

August 25, 2016 mmm-yoso Lima, Peru, Peruvian Restaurants, Seafood, Travel

As much as I enjoyed Easter Island, I was thrilled to be back in Lima, as I really enjoy the food in this city. For the Missus it was all about Cebiche. For me, it was noticing the interesting way that the cuisine has changed here since we first visited back in 2007. Back then, it was places, which are still around like, Astrid y Gaston, Pescado Capitales, and El Fayke Piurano. On this trip, we'd already seen the evolution of "Nikkei" cuisine at Maido, but were on the fence about our meal at La Mar. The Missus wanted Her Cebiche….a good and pure cebiche, which for Her is the ultimate taste of Peru.

We landed at Jorge Chaevez airport ontime at a shade after 11am. Like before, our driver from Taxidatum was waiting for us as we cleared immigration. It was too early to check in at our hotel, we were staying at the rather new Courtyard Miraflores. So we dropped off our bags and headed out to find some lunch. I knew the Missus really wanted cebiche, so we headed off to one of the places on my list. A place named El Veridico de Fidel.

Located rather close to Maido, Calle Colon is fairly quiet, as was this place when we arrived.

No English menu, just one very sweet young lady who spoke English, I guess she gets any tourist who visits. It was our kind of place. An unfussy menu, which started off with some canchita…..which was decent, but not as good as what we had earlier at La Mar.

On the menu, it said….in Spanish of course, that the "Nuesto Plato Bandera" was Leche de Tigre…..leche de tigre? Now, I love the liquid used as the base for classic Peruvian cebiche….but a dish based around that? I had to try it. I saw "erizo" on one of the versions of this and had to get it, the "Leche de Tigre Super Especial" (28S/$8.50). In case you don't know what "erizo" is, the picture is worth a thousand words.

Yes, it's uni…and a nice fresh and sweet scallop with roe, and nicely marinated lenguado, whitefish, in an interesting broth. Not quite as sour as chugging straight leche de tigre; but creamy, tempered, flavored with cilantro…this was so refreshing, I just loved it. The Missus poached the camote (simmered sweet potato) which She enjoyed. Man, this was good.

The Missus got the Ceviche Clasico (38S/$11.30 US).

The Missus loved the lenguado; She said it was perfectly prepared and flavored for Her taste. We told the nice young lady that we do enjoy "picante" so she brought us some aji limo, which were spicy, but quite sweet and floral. I gotta get my hands on some plants. The Missus of course enjoyed the camote (sweet potato) and the corn. She was less enamored with the concha negras, which were a bit too bitter for us. Still, She loved that ceviche.

I also wanted to try the Causa, so we ordered the Causa Langostinos.

Which we really didn't enjoy too much. The potato portion was a bit too dry for our taste and there was too much mayo.

On the funny end, I hadn't tried Chicha Morada in years! This "Kool-Aidish" style drink was quite sweet, but we still enjoyed this as it made us feel like we were really in Peru.

The place filled up fast. What we noticed was the customers in this faux patio were all limeños having lunch.

Simply put, this is the kind of place we enjoy. It's really no fuss, no muss, straight forward food. Quite good…the Missus loved the place. So we made reservations. We'd have our last meal in Lima here at El Veridico de Fidel.

El Veridico de Fidel
Calle Colon 246
Lima 18, Peru

So….we managed to finally get into our room at the Courtyard rather late. And they did a nice thing and we got upgraded to a corner suite.

And in spite of not everything making sense in the room; for instance, the "espresso pod" machine was on a shelf that didn't pull out, so you had to actually unplug the machine, then put in on some table, then plug into run……..it was quite a comfortable room.

And when it came down to location, this was great; a nice convenience store across the street, a nice view at night. Or even during the day……

Thanks for reading!

Midweek Meanderings – Recently Opened, Banh Cuon Ha Long, Pho Duyen Mai, and Trinitea. Also, what we’re eating to beat the heat.

August 24, 2016 mmm-yoso Cooking, Vietnamese Restaurants

Here's a threesome of recently opened places:

Banh Cuon Ha Long:

Man, Cathy posted on Van Hoa last year. I hadn't been in the Vien Dong strip mall in a while, so I was surprised to see Van Hoa is now Banh Cuon Ha Long:

My good friend "YummyYummy" told me it's owned by the same folks as Song Huong….and honestly, I'm not a big fan of their Banh Cuon….so it might take me a while to check them out.

4016 54th Street
San Diego, CA

Pho Duyen Mai:

I surprised to see Pho Nhu Y was gone when I drove by the other day. I kind of stopped going when they ceased to serve Bun Mam there. In it's place was this shop.

Again "YummyYummy" came through….apparently this place has ties to Pho Ban Mai, so I'll be checking them out soon.

5375 Kearny Villa Rd
San Diego, CA 92123

Trinitea on Balboa:

Driving into the parking lot of Tropical Star, I noticed something a bit strange. They'd tried to open a kind of coffee shop a while back….I guess that didn't do too well. It's now the latest location of Trinitea.

It just seems weird to have the gigantic "Tropical" sign looming above the shop….which basically doesn't have a sign. I'm sure they'll fix that soon.

6167 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111

What we've been eating to beat the heat:

We finally got some decent ripe Roma tomatoes recently, so we've been enjoying Salmorejo. Man, I'd forgotten how good this is.

What have you been making at home?

Ma Noodles House

August 23, 2016 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants

A couple of weeks back, I ran into an acquaintance, it was nice catching up a bit, and of course the conversation eventually turned to food. He told me about his new favorite Chinese spot named Ma Noodles House. Now for some reason I had a slight malfunction, maybe flashing back to Mama's Lu, so I asked him what regional style of Chinese food this place made? And got the weirdest look…..mainly because he wouldn't know a "Baozi from Bao Bao".

This place did indeed make regional Chinese food, from that province 6600 or so miles east of Shanghai, "Ab-cee-dee". Yep, I should have known, Ma's is an ABCDE ("American Born Chinese Dining Establishment"). And he was more of a quantity over quality kind of guy. But he did mention enjoying the Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings here, which is a weakness of mine. So I decided to drop by and check them out.

Ma Noodles House is quite the hole-in-the-wall, quite tiny, and except for the kind of odd out of place swap meet "art" on the wall, could have easily been named something like "New Eastern Pearl Royal Golden Phoenix Panda Garden Restaurant".

The fryer and wok stoves on one side, a lowboy on the other with all the ingredients. For some reason, this place brought back memories of the "old" Noble Chef.

There's a prep area in the back, but this was a one man operation on my visit. The prices are very cheap; figures why "da guy" likes the place so much.

I went with the Pan Fried Crispy Noodle ($7.95) and an side of the Salted (Salt and Pepper) Chicken Wings ($3.50). I felt almost guilty paying so little. The gentleman working here was very nice, though they served me my food with a fork and spoon and had to go scrambling when I asked for chopsticks.

Since this was National City, I had visions of a nice Upside Down Pan Fried Noodle. But while the dish was humongous, it really didn't deliver.

The shrimp weren't bad, they dump them in the fryer briefly so it isn't over-cooked. The chicken, as is the norm with these type of places is quite dry. The "crispy noodles" were more crumbly, powdery, with a rather strong floury flavor. And let's not leave out the bland, gloppy, brown sauce.

For those who prefer large chicken wings; rejoice. I'm more about smaller wings with a great skin to meat ratio. These were pretty large wings; but the batter wasn't very good.

Thick, hard, and crumbly, it just isn't my thing. The flavor was too mild for this sort of chicken wing as well……on the bland side.

Man, I barely made a dent in those noodles. All of this for under $12. Still, I'm more of a quality over quantity kind of guy. So, in spite of the nice service and the cheap prices, this was going to be a one and done. Until one of the guys bought me lunch…..guess from where? You got it…… I got this; the Yang Chow Fried Rice ($7.95). Good god; this was basically three meals for me!

Again, the shrimp were nice, the chicken dry, and portion size huge. Unevenly cooked; the color wasn't uniform, there was no wok-hey, thank god for soy sauce.

And before folks start sending me angry emails again, we do enjoy certain ABCDE/Chinoy dishes, but it has to be done well. Though the prices are good here, there are places that just do it better. I hope they do well though…….this place would keep all those starving students out there well fed.

Ma Noodles House
3108 E Plaza Blvd
National City, CA 91950

Ceviche House

August 22, 2016 mmm-yoso Mexican Restaurants, Seafood

**** Ceviche House has closed

The combination of super hot and muggy weather and missing all the great cebiche we recently had in Lima, where we cebiche 6 times and tiradito 3 times in four days, finally gave me a chance to visit Ceviche House. Located on a quieter part of 30th street, close to Fall Brewing and the new location of Chris' Ono Grinds (I still have to check them out), the place just kind of slipped my mind.

I finally made it a point to visit Ceviche House. It was mid-afternoon and I'd had breakfast earlier, so I thought a light lunch would be great.

The shop is tiny, with a few tables outside….roasting in the hot sun on this day.

The young lady working was very nice, she did a great job with customers who had questions, and was wonderful to deal with.

I went with the Gobernador Tostada ($8), which looked nothing at all like the Gobernador tacos I enjoy, which are rustic, yet so delicious.

This was a rather small appetizer sized tostada, though the shrimp a la plancha was nicely done, very tasty, moist , and plump, though there wasn't much of it. Enjoyed the Chipotle Cream sauce which was smoky, with a light kick. The young lady also brought me some extra sauce, a very nice touch. The avocado and the micro greens added nice texture, though I wished for some pungency and perhaps some sweetness. The fire roasted cheese cubes really didn't do it for me. I kind of missed that nice layer of queso at the bottom of the tortilla shielding it from all the juices. Still, this was quite tasty.

So, I returned the next day….still the weekend, still scorching. This time I got the Ceviche, the "Acalpulco" ($6.50).

The fish, a whitefish that was nice, perhaps a bit more tender than the usual Lenguado (sole) that is the staple of the Peruvian Ceviche I enjoy so much was marinated well. It had spent the perfect amount of time in the marinade preventing it from becoming too "cooked" and mushy. Enjoyed all the ingredients, which added nice textures. My one problem was with flavor….this was really mild, with hardly any flavor. However, I was given a small container of "aguachile" sauce (mmm aguachile, another one of my favorites), which turned out to be too much too sour for this ceviche and even with the chips to temper the flavors, kind of sent things in the wrong direction for me.

Still, the service was great as always, so I decided on one more visit. I'd see one of my favorite dishes, tiradito, a product of the Nikkei Perujin, on the menu. Every version of tiradito I've had has been different, but this, the Yellowtail Tiradito ($12) might take the cake for the oddest…..not in an over-the-top way as the Tiradito at Alfresco in Miraflores was, nor even this version which we recently had in Lima at Punto Azul; the one on the right was made with a parmesan cream and was actually pretty good.

I'm used to the type with a slightly creamy aji Amarillo based sauce; like this version from Cevicheria Bam Bam in back of Surquillo Market in Lima.

No, this might be the oddest "Tiradito" I've ever encountered….because it basically looked like plain old sashimi with microgreens over bean sprouts and avocado.

The yellowtail was dry and too chewy for my taste. The sauce was a very sour-salty-spicy soy based concoction that edged on bitter and seemed oddly out of place on everything but the blanched bean sprouts……where it made it taste like a very sour namul. It really didn't do the avocado any favors. The cut was a bit too thick even for the traditional "usuzukuri" cutting technique used on yellowtail. And frankly, I prefer the more traditional thinner cut strips fish, which is sometimes then flattened a bit with the knife to tenderize, but that's just me.

I did love the Sparkling Grapefruit drink which kind of revived things for me.

Overall, very nice service, though the flavors seemed to be a bit out of synch with the food. Well, I'm not sure it's worth going out of your way for. They told me that a Peruvian style ceviche with leche de tigre was in the works….but after having that tiradito, I'm not quite sure.

Ceviche House
4594 30th St
San Diego, CA 92116