December 2016 – Page 3

Marion Crépes- inside Mitsuwa Marketplace

December 5, 2016 Cathy Chains, Desserts, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for stopping to read mmm-yoso!!! We (Kirk, Ed(from Yuma) and Cathy) try to keep things interesting, with musings about meals enjoyed in San Diego and elsewhere in the USA and world. Today is a quick post about a worldwide chain that has one location in San Diego.

Earlier this year, I wrote about the places to eat at Mitsuwa Marketplace. In 2013, I wrote about a limited pop up, Marion Crépes, which was located in the center court. This chain, with worldwide locations, began in 1976 in Harajuku Japan.

The now permanent location of Marion Crépes has taken over the former bookstore and Matcha Love location, just to the right of the entrance.

Pricing, descriptions and beautiful Sampuru ('sample', waxy, fake food) are all available to help you decide on a snack or meal.

Order, pay and your crepe is made in an open kitchen style area. The sweet batter is unique and goes well with savory as well as the sweet crepes.

Yes, I said savory. This tuna and cheese crepe ($6.25) hit the spot.,

As did this quite filling turkey and cheese ($7.50) meal.

The Nutella-strawberry dessert crepe ($5) was a nice treat that The Mister and I shared.

All in all, another good selection for a quick lunch or snack in the Mitsuwa Food Court.

Marion Crepes 4240 Kearney Mesa Road (Hawthorne Center, inside the Mitsuwa Marketplace) San Diego 92111 (858) 292-5200 Website Open daily 9 am-8:30 pm

Pata and Poke (for real) at Zarlitos

December 4, 2016 mmm-yoso Filipino Restaurants, Poke

**** Sorry to say; Zarlitos no longer serves poke

So during my rather unsuccessful romp through all those new "poke" places; and those are truly hard quotation marks, I really didn't have anything I truly enjoyed, anything that would make me forget places "back home". During that time, I heard Zarlitos mentioned twice. Once by a fellow Ex-Pat Kama'aina. Zarlitos? Poke? Digging a little bit I read that Zarlitos won both the San Diego and Orange County "I Love Poke Contests" in 2015. I hadn't been back to Zarlitos in almost five years, so I thought why not….perhaps there's some changes in store there.

Arriving and walking into the place, it was evident that this was still Zarlitos. The sticky tables and even more sticky menus; no poke in sight. Until I saw the small greaseboard on the pillar, with four varieties of poke written in red. From there, it was easy to order…….

The "Mini" (again, it's all relative) Crispy Pata and Shoyu Poke…pata and poke, that's music to my ears. The pata was over-fried and dry and though the skin came off in a nice little strip, much of it was hard versus crisp, more like leather than the best chicharones. It was pretty bland as well. For this, I'll stick with Villa Manila.

The garlic rice was decent; moist and the garlic wasn't burnt and bitter.

And now……this…..

I actually sent some friends back home the photo. They thought I was back home and went to Fresh Catch. The fish was decent quality, not too much "suji", no off flavors, good texture. The flavor was perhaps a bit too sweet and I could have used a tad more saltiness; but this was by far the best poke I've had recently. It made my day.

Most of these "chi-poke" places I've been to are just a concept, somewhat high on style, low on good grindz. At Zarlitos, there's none of that. I wanted and got, decent poke. How's that for innovative?

Zarlitos Family Restaurant
505 East 8th St.
National City, CA 91950

Recently Consumed

December 1, 2016 mmm-yoso Cooking

I haven't done one of these posts in a while. To be totally honest, work has been crazy busy, so I've been making the same thing over and over for the Missus.

The weather has also been kind of wacky…….95 degree weather in the middle of November had us eating stuff like this.

Salads with pickled eggs; charcuterie and cheese plates…..tomatoes, radishes (though the Missus still can't figure out the deal with radishes and butter), and the like.

Sometimes with a nice glass or two of wine. Our visit to Burgundy really ramped up the Missus's love for wine and I really enjoyed the whites from that area. One in particular that makes an interesting story……..more on that in a later post.

Then overnight we got rain and now it seems like fall. Which made the Missus want some Suan Cai Yang Rou. The cooler weather means it's time to start making Suan Cai.

At the end of my smoke session; smoking tri-tip for the Missus's Thanksgiving potluck, I looked through the fridge and found some tofu and cauliflower, which I love smoked. I'd recently purchased some La Rou and decided to do a simple stir fry with vegetables.

That smoked tofu tasted really good in this one. I'll be doing that again the next time I use the smoker.

We recently tried some roasted duck from a newer place….that too will be a future post. It wasn't very good; but for some reason, the drippings had some nice flavor. So it was duck fried rice time.

Funny thing, the Missus wanted all of this for lunch this past weekend. After I returned home from working half a day to catch up on things.

So the Missus got Her wish and I got all of this done pretty quickly, most of it is prep.

Other than that it's been pretty routine. Except for maybe this thing.

One evening I really didn't want to go out and eat….strange, I know. I picked up a chicken breast on the way home….even stranger because, other than for chicken katsu, I'm not a big fan of chicken breast. I could have gone for the easy out….Katsudon, which the Missus would have surely enjoyed, but I decided to just cook whatever. I made a balsamic reduction and did a simple, brined, then pan seared chicken breast with a balsamic sauce.

The thing that was fun was the other "stuff". Having broccoli and cauliflower on hand; I ended up ricing the veggies. I then rendered lardons of bacon using the fat to cook the riced vegetables, with some shallot, garlic, and scallions. Sort like funky fried rice.

It was delicious….though what do you expect……there's bacon in this, right?

Hope you're having a great week!