January 2018 – Page 2

Road Trip: Solvang and Los Olivos – Olive Oil, Markets, and Birkholm’s Bakery

January 20, 2018 mmm-yoso Bakery, Markets & Grocers, Road Trip, Santa Barbara County

I mentioned that back in October, the Missus and I took a roadtrip to Santa Barbara. Here are a couple of stops along the way.

I think we really developed our love for Olive Oil during our visit to Crete all those years ago. We both enjoyed our visit to the Peza Union Museum and Tasting Room. Since then, we've always had at least 3-4 bottles of Olive Oil; different grades, for different purposes. These days, it's what we've tasted in Spain, the peppery-grassy olive oils we find fascinating. And while there are places here in San Diego to grab a bottle or two. I thought it would be nice to stop and have a few tasting in Los Olivos along the way.

But first, I needed to grab something for the folks in the office. The last time I was in the area, we got a bucket of cookies from Birkholm's Bakery. Man, that stuff was gone in less than a day!

Since Solvang is pretty much on the way; we decided to make a stop, get those cookies, and stretch our legs a bit.

This time, we even had some coffee.

Really friendly folks……

I loved this sign on the back corner table.

And the folks at work got their bucket of cookies. Not sure why they like this stuff so much. But whatever makes them happy, right?

Birkholm's Bakery
460 Alisal Rd
Solvang, CA 93463

It was a bright, sunny day so we decided to take a walk around the town. It was before the holiday rush and things were still fairly calm and quiet; even on a Saturday.

Another return stop was El Rancho Market.

The Missus and I split a bottle of sparkling water and watched this really aggressive crow beg for demand handouts.

El Rancho Market
2886 Mission Dr
Solvang, CA 93463

Next stop; Global Gardens. This little stand was fairly small and discreet. We chatted with the young lady who was amazingly knowledgeable. We decided on doing the tasting; she wasn't very pushy and we actually only paid for a single tasting. She directed the products tasted to our preferences and could speak to everything we tried.

Some of the blends and styles here are excellent….so good that we spent over $70 on two bottles of olive oil.

Nice job young lady!

Global Gardens
2450 Alamo Pintado Rd
Los Olivos, CA 93441

Meanwhile, we weren't as impressed with the products at Rancho Olivos Olive Oil.

Very nice folks and the dogs were really fun and friendly though….

Rancho Olivos Olive Oil
2390 N Refugio Rd
Santa Ynez, CA 93460

We took a stop at Los Olivos Grocery.

The place was charming.

Though it seems the main draw here is the deli and little restaurant. In spite of what I had heard, there didn't seem to be a large assortment of local products.

Los Olivos Grocery
2621 W Hwy 154
Los Olivos, CA 93441

A short drive later; we arrived in downtown Los Olivos. It's a quaint little town, everything seems centered around 4-5 blocks. We were surprised that the place seemed quite busy.

We had stopped for lunch, but we decided to just do some browsing. This is wine country and there are over 30 tasting rooms in the area. Though, we decided to stop here.

You remember this from my Halloween post?

We took a look at the rather large variety of olive oils available and I chatted with the very nice guy behind the counter…..

We mentioned different flavors; we were looking for something neutral, but still with personality, and he nicely gave us some samples….I offered to pay for the tasting, but he said "no problem". We ended up buying three bottles. Two as gifts; one for us.

Olive Hill Farm
2901 Grand Ave
Los Olivos, CA 93441

Now we were done shopping…..it was time for some lunch!

Revisits – Pho Hut and Saigon 5

January 18, 2018 mmm-yoso Vietnamese Restaurants

I think everyone knows…..it's been quite a bad flu season this year. And I didn't escape the wrath of it. I must be getting up in years, because once I recovered; I still felt drained. Not wanting to go too far from home after getting home from work; but still wanting some noodle soup, I went for easy options nearby.

So here are two of the places fairly close to home.

Saigon 5:

**** Saigon 5 has closed

Located in the food court of the new 99 Ranch Market, I mentioned in my previous post on the place, that it opens early. I'd get home from work and crash by 7 or 8 pm. I'd be tired but hungry the next morning, a weekend, and Saigon 5 opens at around 930am.

I went with the dumpling egg noodle soup.

And while I still think the broth here is a little too light; it wasn't overly salty…no M-S-heebie-jeebies. It could use a bit more richness and pork flavor though.

That piece of pork hock was fairly tasty; the meat just chewy enough and was very nice.

The dumplings were on the tough side, with even less shrimp than before. Though the noodles had a nice pull to them and wasn't over-cooked.

Nothing amazing, but when feeling rundown and wanting to stay fairly close to home, well, this was okay for this morning.

Saigon 5
5950 Balboa Ave (Inside 99 Ranch Market)
San Diego, CA 92111

Pho Hut:

One evening, the Missus was at work and I was feeling quite run down. I wanted a bowl of egg noodle soup and decided to revisit Pho Hut and get the Mi Sui Cao; the dumpling egg noodle soup. Which, on one visit was decent, but then on my next visit was disappointing. It's also now $9.95.

This was more like my last visit. The broth so thin, like MSG water, though the dumplings….which I thought were missing at first and were just four in number were better than the last time when the wrappers had separated from the filling.

The portion of noodles were generous and cooked nicely.

But this just isn't very good overall.

The most entertaining moment of the evening was trying to convince the guy sitting across from me that "bun" didn't mean bun. That is; he wanted a banh mi, but thought it was "bun" on the menu. And for the life of him, could not figure out why a noodle dish would be called something in a "bun". Luckily, his wife/partner talked some sense into him and I managed to show him the photos in the menu. So you can imagine what the typical demographic of this restaurant is these days, right?

Pho Hut & Grill
5252 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92117

On the good side. I'm finally feeling just about back to (ab)normal……..

Midweek Meanderings – Da Nang Food to Go Becoming Mi Quang Mien Trung and Liang’s Kitchen is Now Another Location of Private Kitchens

January 17, 2018 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

Just a quick post on a busy week for me.

Da Nang Food to Go Becoming Mi Quang Mien Trung:

I was recently driving on El Cajon Boulevard when I noticed that Da Nang Food to Go and all the other businesses next to the 7-11 had closed down. I took a quick look at the sign and was surprised. Mi Quang Mien Trung? I'll have to ask then next time I visit Mien Trung. On a side note; I've never been a fan of the Mi Quang at Mien Trung, so we'll see.

4745 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

Liang's Kitchen is Now Another Location of Private Kitchen:

Here's another surprise as I really didn't notice the change in signage. But rather something looked different so I did a quick turn into the strip mall.

Then I looked up and saw that Liang's Kitchen had become another location of Private Kitchens (aka Sister Ma’s Kitchen).

Based on my last visit to Liang's I'm not surprised. But strangely, didn't even notice the change until this past weekend.

4681 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Finally, on New Years Day; the Missus got called into work. So I decided to take a drive around the neighborhood. It's strange what catches your eye…….I saw this guy sitting at the outdoor table at Seisel's. All the businesses were closed. For some reason I find it sad and kind of haunting.

Kanazawa – Kuroyuri

January 15, 2018 mmm-yoso Japan, Japanese Restaurants, Kanazawa and Ishikawa Prefecture, Travel

We had really enjoyed our first afternoon in Kanazawa; checking out Omi-cho Market and having a nice lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing before heading off to dinner. Which was really close by. I'd had a friend make reservations at Kuroyuri; a Oden restaurant. Kuroyuri is located in the Hyakubangai Shopping Center which is attached to Kanazawa Station. And was rather easy to find.

Man, this place was busy. There's a packed u-shaped bar area on one side of the restaurant and packed tables on the other. And we did have a table waiting for us when we arrived.

I had heard that one of the iconic dishes of Kanazawa is Oden and Kuroyuri has been around for more than a half-century specializing in Oden. The menu has oden; here you order by item and a whole bunch of really good looking izakaya type dishes along with another iconic dish of the Kaga Domain, Jibuni.

So, of course we ordered it all. Along with a nice bottle of sake.

The oden here is very light and clean; not too salty, but with an mild ocean-savory flavor. As a whole, we enjoyed this, but not as much as other items we ordered. Our favorite item by far was the egg wrapped in fish cake. What a symphony of textures!

Our favorite item by far, was the amazingly savory and sweet Kasuzuke (fermented in sake lees) Fugu…yep, blowfish.

We were surprised at how relatively tender (it is after all dried and marinated) the fish was; without being too salty. We actually had a second order.

The Nukazuke (fermented in rice bran) seemed a bit saltier without the complexity of the previous version.

The strong fragrance and oiliness of the Nukazuke Saba(Mackerel pickled in rice bran) was a bit much for the Missus.

It was on the fishy side and quite salty, but I thought it to be really good bar food.

The Jibuni; a classic Kanazawa duck stew arrived in a pretty lacquer bowl.

Man, this was quite rich and hearty. the salty-sweet flavors shone through, along with the gamey duck. Loved the mushrooms in this along with the seitan. Very nice overall.

We ended with a cleansing mushroom – egg drop soup.

And some yaki-onigiri to keep any future hunger at bay.

We really enjoyed our meal at Kuroyuri. The Missus loves izakaya style dishes. The service was excellent as they usually are in most restaurants in Japan.

We'd gladly return….especially for that fugu and more sake of course.

Kuroyuri
1-1 Kinoshinbomachi
Kanazawa, Japan

We walked through Kanazawa Station on the way back to the Nikko Hotel. The gate at the front of the station is called the 'Tsuzumi-mon' (Drum Gate) The two pillars are shaped like traditional hand drums.

The area behind the gate is covered by a large glass dome; known as the 'Motenashi' (Welcome) Dome. This was all built as part of the project that eventually brought the Shinkansen to Kanazawa. If you'd like to read a bit more about the history of Kanazawa Station, click on this link.

It was an easy walk back to our room. I found that the beer I had bought in Hida-Takayama was now nicely chilled.

I had bought this one….well, because it had Sarubobo on it. For some reason, we really took to Sarubobo during our visit to Takayama.

I spent the rest of the evening just watching Kanazawa from the window.

There was something about Kanazawa, and this trip as a whole that really touched us……

Thanks for reading!

Sunday Sandwiches – Revisits to SuperNatural and Crossroads Deli

January 14, 2018 mmm-yoso Sandwiches, Seafood

There are quite a few sandwich places fairly close to our offices. Here are revisits to a couple of them.

Supernatural Sandwiches:

**** SuperNatural Sandwiches has closed

I'm kind of bummed that they don't do the early hours and breakfasts anymore. I actually went once thinking they'd be open at 10 and it's back to normal hours for now.

I returned a couple of days later right at eleven and there was no line. They've usually got something going on; some new twist, but I didn't detect anything on this visit.

I got my usual, the Siren. Taking it to go.

It's still a favorite of mine. The plump shrimp, the buttery-slightly sweet brioche like lobster roll. A hint of garlicness….. There's a bit of spice as well. Kind of on the messy-rich side; but a nice guilty pleasure for me during a tough week.

SuperNatural Sandwiches
7094 Miramar Rd. #122
San Diego, CA 92121

Crossroads Deli:

On one of my first days at our new offices I took a wrong left turn…..then made things worse with a wrong right turn. Which sent me under La Jolla Village Drive. Where things looked a bit familiar. It sent me right up to the condo complex where Crossroads Deli is located.

I was supposed to meet a couple of guys for lunch….but just decided to stop here instead.

I hadn't planned on having a sandwich for lunch. I went ahead and ordered the "Italian Torpedo". Which was quite a hefty sandwich.

Ham, Mortadella, Salami, Provolone, shredded lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, mustard, and a rather vinegary type sauce.

No real complaints about the portion size here. Except there was just too much bread in that roll. I could have done without the ham as well. But that's just me. I'm glad this wasn't "over-dressed"…..but it was "over-carbed".

Crossroads Deli
9085 Judicial Dr, Ste 100 (Inside the La Jolla Crossroads Apartment Complex)
San Diego, CA 92122

Roadtrip – Revisits to Qing Dao Bread Food (Monterey Park), Kang Lac Bakery, Lien Hoa, and Song Long (Westminster)

January 13, 2018 mmm-yoso Chinese BBQ, Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Road Trip, Vietnamese Restaurants

Whew; I need to catch up on all my posts! Since I've posted on these places a multitude of times; I'll keep it shirt and sweet.

This one is from back in August of last year. Basically, I had an all day meeting in Irvine. The Missus had the following day and night off; so we decided to stay in the area. We started things off well by having dinner at Sushi Noguchi in Yorba Linda (sorry no post on that one….next time). The next day after my meetings we headed off to dinner and was kind of unimpressed with Sichuan Impression in Alhambra. In fact we basically ate maybe half of what we ordered. Our hotel had a fridge, so I'd end up taking stuff back and then home.

Being somewhat disappointed in driving all this way, we decided to make a short stop. The Missus was really missing good jiaozi, so we decided to make a stop at….

Qing Dao Bread Food:

Man, it's been a good long time since we've been here.

The place is starting to look even more run down and the folks working a bit older. Though it's fun to get a smile out of the Missus when She hears the "Qingdao Hua"; the accent of Her hometown.

Two orders for us. The lamb versin; which doesn't have as much "soup" as before; but is still very gamey. And the vegetarian, which on this occasion was really good. The wrappers were nice; with that pillowy-pull to them.

The Missus had really been missing jiaozi it seems as She put these down in no time.

There was one rather sad moment during our meal. It was when the traditional garlic condiment came out. I've called this the Missus's "little dish of memories". Her job when She was a child in Qingdao was to pound the garlic for jiaozi in a mortar and pestle. Something She used to hate, but now loves…..in fact She did it with such relish the last time we were in Qingdao. Looks like they now put the garlic in a blender….very sad; because you really get the most flavor out of the garlic when you pound it; you release all the oils…..this really didn't have the "umph" we were used to. Perhaps the folks here have gotten old and tired of pounding garlic.

Qing Dao Bread Food
301 North Garfield Ave.
Monterey Park, CA 91754

The next morning, we got up rather early. Instead of just hanging out at the hotel until check-out and heading off to Sea Harbour, we decided to check out early and just do the usual two-fer of Lien Hoa and Song Long. We hit a snag as when we arrived at Lien Hoa; the place wasn't open yet. I had an idea. You see, years ago, "Beach" took me to the place right over in the next parking lot for a snack…..

Kang Lac Bakery:

The Missus had never had the Bot Chien here and it was right next door to Lien Hoa. So why not?

Radish and Taro cakes coated in crisp egg.

Man, that sauce is still good!

Tea for the Missus, some Vietnamese Coffee for me. The cost was like ten bucks. A very nice start to our morning.

Kang Lac Bakery
9301 Bolsa Avenue
Westminster, CA 92683

By now…..

Lien Hoa:

Was open.

And I got our roast duck; which I've posted on a number of times.

Lien Hoa BBQ
9311 Bolsa Ave
Westminster, CA 92683

And then it was time for "our real breakfast"……

Song Long:

Ever since "Kha" recommended this place to us years ago; it's become a real favorite of ours.

And I have to say; it's still a big favorite. Hmm……maybe we have some time next weekend?

Song Long Restaurant
9361 Bolsa Ave Suite 108
Westminster, CA 92683

Thanks for stopping by!

Musashiya Revisited

January 11, 2018 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants

Before we moved offices; I did sort of a lunch farewell tour of various places; some of which I hadn't been to in a while. Musashiya surely falls into that category. While I'd had some fairly decent meals when this stand was Kayaba; my meals at Musashiya had really been lacking. But since we'd be changing locations in a few months I decided to see if the Tonkatsu there had improved.

And while the tonkatsu looked a bit better than what I'd had here previously…..

I'd say no. As you can tell by the color, this had been fried too long. The breading was super hard; not crisp, hard. The pork was dry and the breading had separated from the pork cutlet.

Other than that; the rice was hard, the potato salad way too salty.

The best items was the tamago; which, while on the too sweet side for me was decent.

I just couldn't bring myself to finish the tonkatsu…..

I hate wasting food; but I couldn't bring myself to finish this. The woman who buses the tables gave me the oddest look as I handed her my tray with two of the largest….and by the look of it; the driest slices of pork still on it.

Really sad. If you'd like to see a comparison of items between Kayaba and Musashiya you can check out this post. Though my last visit to Kayaba wasn;t that great either.

Bummer.

Musashiya
4240 Kearny Mesa Rd Ste 119 – In the Mitsuwa Marketplace
San Diego, CA 92111

Pho Be Thui at Pho Saigon Alley

January 9, 2018 mmm-yoso Pho, Vietnamese Restaurants

**** Pho Saigon Alley has closed

Back at the end of October; I was making one of my now quite rare trips to City Heights when I noticed a "Grand Re-Opening Banner on the former location of Asmara Restaurant. Grand Re-Opening? When was the original opening When did Asmara close? Hmmm……I guess I'm getting a bit out of touch in my old age.

Anyway, I made a mental note of the place and like I tend to do so often these days promptly forgot about the place. In December, when we got back from our latest trip, something triggered a recollection. And I decided to stop by Pho Saigon Alley.

I went and parked in the rear of the building and this banner caught my attention.

Pho be thui? That's a new one for me. Man, I haven't had Be Thui on over ten years!

The rear entrance and back of the restaurant; the outdoor area, looks somewhat worn and unkept, not the most welcoming entrance. The interior looks fairly bright, but the floors seem scuffed and there's a bit of haphazardness to the place. Bar type seating, a stage….seems like they were doing karaoke here for a while?

The place was also totally empty when I arrived. But I pushed ahead and ordered the Pho Be Thui; noted as "Smoked Veal" on the menu.

I ordered a small ($9.25). I totally expected to get a plate with be thui along with a plain-Jane bowl of pho. So I was surprised when a good sized bowl of pho arrived with brisket, tripe, tendon, and flank.

The be thui here was thinly sliced like tai; there was no rice powder dusted on the slices of meat like proper be thui; the sauce was super salty nothing like the traditional fermented bean sauce (tuong cu da) or the really clean, refreshing, ginger based sauces I've had with be thui. It was of course, quite lean, pretty darn chewy, and since the broth for this bowl of pho wasn't very hot; it never got beyond basically raw. The broth was very mild, defatted, with just a hint of beefiness and a touch of anise flavors. At least it wasn't too salty.

The noodles were nicely done and were actually hotter than the broth!

The tendon and tripe were very well prepared; just a hint of chew for the tendon and no "off flavors" for the crunchy tripe. The flank was a bit too fatty and tough, but the brisket had a nice beefy flavor. As you can see by the top photo; the basil was starting to discolor.

So, while this was not very good in terms of be thui (also, there wasn't any "smoke" flavor – I'm thinking they mean torched), it wasn't terrible by any means. There are bowls worse than this to be found. I needed to get something for the Missus at Northgate Market a few days later; so I decided to drop by again.

On this visit, there were three other tables occupied. By an older crowd. This time I noticed a grease board on a music stand occupying the "stage" area. It had a bunch of dishes listed. I was tempted to go for the bun bo hue. But after my recent not-so-good bowl of BBH, I decided to just go ahead and ordered the Bo Luc Lac.

This was fairly mediocre; not bad, just nothing special. Like versions of bo luc lac I've had recently; this was on the salty side and lacking in any sweet-sour or deeply savory tones. The meat was a bit overcooked, but still reasonably tender. The veggies were under cooked, though the rice was nice and fragrant. the portion size was fairly small; but reasonable for $8.25. Not much more to say.

The service is typical old-school pho shop……which I thought kinda nice since we now have all these modern, slick, sort of hipsterish Vietnamese places I've been to recently. The clientele on my visits were all older folks.

I may drop by Pho Saigon Alley again in the future…maybe take my chances with the Bun Bo Hue. Or maybe not……..

Pho Saigon Alley
4155 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105
Hours:
Open Daily 10am – 9pm

Georgia’s Greek Cuisine (Loma Portal)

January 8, 2018 Cathy Greek Food, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome back to mmm-yoso!!! and thanks for reading this food blog. You know how there are news stories about a lot people having the flu or pneumonia? Well, lets just say that one of the writers here has recovered from one of those diagnoses and the other is in the process of recovering. Cathy is writing a short post.

You may have noticed the signage on the side of the building while driving North on Rosecrans Street. It's the first storefront in that parking lot behind the painted sign. Georgia's has been here since 1977, it's family owned and run.
There's an outdoor 'patio' as well as indoor seating. The menu has lunch specials (see the bottom of this post). I can't believe we've never stopped here.
Neat, clean, efficient and very friendly, we saw many 'regulars' chatting with some of the people working as well as other diners.
One of the Lunch Entrees was a Combo ($12.95). Choose two from the following: Beef Kebab, Dolmades, Gyros, Moussaka. Pastitsio, Spanakopita. The plate comes with rice pilaf, Greek salad and warm pita bread. The Mister chose the Gyros and Moussaka, (which he hasn't had since 2011, but is always looking for on menus). This was wonderful. The Gyros was standard (see seventh photo on that link), had a nice crispiness and went well with the house made Tzatziki sauce. The Moussaka with the bottom potato layer, seasoned ground lamb, eggplant and puffy baked layer of creamy béchamel sauce was delicate and flavorful and oh so good.
Not being able to decide, I chose the Mezedakia- combination appetizer plate ($13.95) Cheese pies, Spinach pies, Hummus, Feta cheese, Kalmata Olives, tomatoes, Dolmades, pepperocini and cucumbers. A perfect combination of snacks that made a meal. The cheese and spinach pies were both wrapped in layers of delicate Filo dough; crispy, quite filled and a perfect blend of herbs which were complimentary in flavor. The dolmades (grape leaves stuffed with a blend of herbs and rice and covered in a rich Greek Olive Oil) were wonderful- not like the canned ones I buy for snack-meals at home; fresh and with much more flavor nuances. The piece of Feta was different than the fluffy chunks of Feta on the Greek salad…more solid and subtle/not as salty. The Feta had a different herb blend sprinkled on top and tasting small pieces with a bit of pita was satisfying. All of the sliced vegetables were fresh and herb covered

All in all, a great meal, great place to stop.

Georgia's Greek Cuisine 3550 Rosecrans Street Suite A San Diego, Ca 92110 (619) 523-1007 Website

2018 Tournament of Roses Rose Parade: Post Parade Showcase of floats, Snacks and a meal: Cream Pan (Tustin), Arsen House of Cookies (Pasadena), T Burgers (Monrovia)

January 7, 2018 Cathy Bakery, Burgers, Festivals & Events, Los Angeles County, Orange County, Sandwiches, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is primarily a food blog, but there are many events surrounding meals. Both Kirk and Cathy like to write about that aspect of the eventual meals. Today, Cathy is writing.

The 2018 Tournament of Roses, with the theme "Making A Difference", is over. There were numerous events and activities between Christmas and December 31-the Bands and Equestrian Units had presentations, you could visit float decorating places and a two day event, "Live on Green". The parade and football game were on January 1. Following the parade, the floats lined up on Sierra Madre (at the end of the 5.5 mile parade route) and were on display (the Post Parade Showcase of Floats) from 1 p.m. on January 1 and again from 9 a.m. on January 2.

There was a little advertised way to get into all of the Official Tournament events for one very small price- The Event Pass Pin was sold for the first time this year at the Tournament House, the Pasadena Museum of History, Vromans Bookstore and online for $10! (The fee just to view the floats at the Showcase was $15 per person this year).

There were road tests of the floats in July, August, September, October and November. The Mister and I helped to decorate floats in early December. There are more details and excellent reporting of all Tournament events at this link to The Rose Examiner.

I could not decide how to show you the floats: there were 44 in the Parade. Six were not judged, six were self constructed and the others were constructed by four professional float companies. 24 were recognized with awards. All of the floats were beautiful, detailed, magnificent and decorated by volunteers, especially the week following Christmas when the live flowers were delivered. Each float deserved to be recognized.

So, I had to pick and choose through my photos (so you wouldn't be bored). There were surreal floats.

There were little details on every float…

(These guys were on the 'off camera' side of their float, you never saw them if you were watching the parade on television.)
One of the record breaking floats held 100 people- two farmers from every state in the Union.
There were cute floats (but all of them were cute, weren't they?)

I could mention the mishaps which happened at the end of the parade route…

(it seems the float operators forgot (or weren't warned as to when) to collapse the float at the end of the route, resulting in some damage).

It was a great theme, a great parade and I have at least two photos of every float. If there is one in particular you would like to see, I can add it at the end of this post. THIS is a link to the entire parade from KTLA TV

Soo went to see the 2018 floats, too! Maggie also has a great point of view of the post parade.

But now, we return to the Food portion of the blog…

We got to Cream Pan around 7 a.m., ordering the same items (ham and cheese croissant and a cheese cracker) we had on our last visit along with a loaf of sesame bread. The cheese based items were a light breakfast. Cream Pan 602 El Camino Real Tustin, CA 92780 Website

We had parked off of Washington Street and walked to the Blue entrance to the Post Parade Showcase of floats. On the way back to the car, we passed Arsen's House of Cookies, where we have stopped several times previously. Mrs. Arsen recognizes us and we catch up, about once a year.

We purchased some sweets for cc and for ourselves.

As well as four of the (still warm, freshly made) cheese/herb pastries on the counter. Total cost? $9. The bonus was I received an Arsen's Bakery calendar (last photo, bottom right) which will be used a lot this year.

We headed East, didn't want to take the freeway and ended up on Foothill in Monrovia. This looked like an interesting place to stop for lunch. We hadn't noticed it before, but Yelp has posts going back to 2007…
The menu has breakfasts, Greek, Mexican and American (salads, burgers and sandwich) choices.
The half pound burger ($6.39) was char-grilled and had that flavor I crave. It was cooked to order (medium rare), served on a fresh toasted bun with 'everything' (lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion and mayonnaise). As with every establishment that serves Greek/gyros, the onion rings ($3.79) were handmade, whole onions, sweet, properly fried with a cornmeal based breading. (The ranch sauce was an extra 50¢ and wasn't even necessary.)
Since we were in this part of the State which serves pastrami at almost every fast food joint (I need to do a post of all the taco shops up here which have pastrami on the signage), The Mister ordered a Pastrami sandwich ($8.99). When asked what he wanted on it, he only asked for mustard and pickles…and that's what was received. The bread to meat ratio is so wonderfully in favor of the meat…which was smoky, peppery and lean. A wonderful sandwich.