February 2018 – mmm-yoso

Turo Turo Tuesday – Manila Fast Food and Desserts Revisited

February 27, 2018 mmm-yoso Filipino Restaurants, Sisig

Working long hours; but managed to escape for lunch, albeit on the early side and purely take-out from Manila Fast Food and Desserts. An early lunch here can actually be better since the steam table stuff might be fresher and less greasy.

On this day I got Beef Mechado and Sisig.

The woman behind the counter actually laughed at me when I told her to give me half the amount of rice. That's half rice in the photo above. There was a time when I thought MFF was pretty good; but they seem to have fallen off in recent years.

Case in point; the Beef Mechado was salty, lacked tanginess, and that beef was dry and tough. The sisig was dry, needed more of a vinegar punch, the lechon was hard, though it did have nice pungency from the onions, though there was way too much of it in the dish.

Sigh……mark another one off "my list" for a while.

Manila Fast Food and Desserts
8979 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

The Patio Marketplace at Axiom

February 26, 2018 mmm-yoso American/New American Restaurants, Chains, Sandwiches

**** The Patio at Axiom has closed

The ever expanding Patio Group recently opened another location of what Eater San Diego called their "corporate hospitality arm", the Patio Marketplace right up the street from our offices. It's located in the Axiom Office Building. It's pretty much in walking distance, so I decided to drop by for an early lunch.

It's a huge space; like 8,000 square feet; with outdoor and indoor eating areas and a bar.

Since they had just newly opened, there was basically no one around during my two visits. The place features a coffee bar and is only open until 6pm from Tuesdays to Wednesdays right now. I was told…..the staff here was very friendly and chatty on my visits, that breakfast is basically only grab and go stuff from the cold case.

The lunch menu featured three sandwiches, three salads, and two flatbreads, with basically nothing under fourteen bucks

I went with the Carne Asada BLAT Club ($15).

The sandwich was no joke. Quite hefty, a bit too much bread that was a bit too hard for my taste. The thick cut bacon; Nueske's I'm told was thick cut and nicely done; there was a nice single layer of decently done beef. It wasn't overdressed, though the tomatoes were under-ripe. I usually enjoy a certain proportion when it comes to sandwiches; perhaps excluding a smoked beef sandwich from a place like Schwartz's. This was too much bread for me. Though a rather decent "corporate" sandwich.

The fries didn't hold up on the short walk back to the office and were soggy and over salted.

A couple of days later, I decided to visit again. The menu, which is rather limited at this time, left me wondering what I should get…..salads were from $12-14, but if you wanted some chicken it was 5 bucks more, carne asada 6 bucks more. So, I went with the Speck Ham Flatbread ($14).

I enjoyed the crisp speck, nice saltiness, though it was kind of over-kill with the bread again. I'd have preferred this amount of protein on a smaller and more crisp flatbread, without whatever made this very salty and the middle really soggy, keeping the nice, milky, Havarti. The entire middle section was saturated and not pleasant to eat. I appreciated the pungent red onions and the bitter-peppery arugula which also added texture to this dish.

Overall, really nice folks. It's probably better to call if you're doing take-out, both of these took at least 20 minutes wait time. The food is not bad; it's just not something I crave or am searching out; especially with $15…for lunch, without drinks, on the line everytime. I mean I love charcuterie and all, but am not quite sure about having a charcuterie board for lunch ($19), then heading back to work…..but maybe that's just me.

The Patio Marketplace at Axiom
4535 Towne Centre Dr
San Diego, CA 92121
Hours
Monday 7am – 3pm
Tues – Thurs 7am – 6pm
Friday 7am – 3pm

Buga Korean BBQ for Lunch

February 25, 2018 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants

I'm still somewhat sad about having moved offices out to Towne Center from the Convoy area. There's really a dearth of decent, non-sandwich places. So, every so often, when the stars align, we can grab lunch. We often have to make it a place close to the 805, so we can get back to the office quickly after lunch.

Buga was one of those places we used to eat at quite often, you could say it was on our rotation for a while. Then came the ownership change and while things had improved during our last visit, things here haven't been the same. But we actually had time for lunch! And I thought doing a lunch visit to Buga might be a good idea. So Calvin and I headed on down the 805.

I seldom come here these days, so every time I visit I notice changes. This time, I noticed they are actually serving the whole menu during lunch now. For a while it was only combos. Too bad we both had meetings in the afternoon….the last thing I need is to be in a meeting with waves of "eau de kalbi" emanating from my clothes. So we stuck to the lunch specials. I ordered the Bulgogi Box Lunch ($11.99), Calvin did the Daeji Bulgogi (Spicy Pork) Box Lunch ($12.99).

But first, the panchan.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Except for the Kkakdugi (spicy daikon), everything else was really bland. The baechu kimchi was just plain sour, with no true fermented tones.

Calvin and I split the proteins. And I have to say, in terms of portion size, this is pretty hefty.

The bulgogi was terrible. Under marinated, cut too thick, quite tough. The pork; while on the chewy side had a nice bit of spice, mild sweetness, balanced salt, but perhaps a touch too much sesame oil, but was decent overall. The tempura was decent; the batter a bit too thick, but still crunchy and there was even a shrimp, though it was fairly puny under the batter. I enjoyed the veggies more. A decent green salad and passable Chapjae rounded things out.

I left with mixed feelings. While I probably will return to retry the BBQ and the portion sizes look quite generous, Buga is definitely not as good as it once was.

Buga Korean Restaurant
5580 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117

Returning to Mien Trung

February 24, 2018 mmm-yoso Bun Bo Hue, Vietnamese Restaurants

The recent weather has been downright wintery; by San Diego standards. I even had frost on my windshield one morning….for the briefest moment. I'd been wanting to see if the soon to open Mi Quang shop was affiliated with Mien Trung. And since it had been a while since my last visit, the timing seemed right. Things were pretty quiet on this Sunday morning.

I'm wondering if it's just me or has the broth at Mien Trung gotten spicier over the last couple of years. There also seems to be quite a bit more meat these days. Nice spice, slight funkiness, definite lemongrass, and did I mention the spice? Soup was scalding; perfect for getting the sprouts and veggies to the right temp without compromising the broth. Nice slippery noodles and too heavy on the MSG.

One good hint for eating at MT, is to wear dark clothes……because of the red tinge from the annatto in the broth. My good buddy, the late Ed from Yuma would never fail to wear a white shirt when we ate here. He'd end up leaving, sweating and satisfied, but with a pattern of small red dots on his shirt.

There was a time when Mien Trung was a weekly ritual, but a very warm spring and summer had kind of put the place on the back-burner. There was also a rather "rough patch" of time where things weren't up to our expectations, MT has mostly returned to form.

And I really appreciated the place on this chilly Sunday.

Mien Trung Restaurant
7530 Mesa College Dr
San Diego, CA 92111

Montreal – Au Pied de Cochon

February 22, 2018 mmm-yoso Canada, Canada Food and Restaurants, Montreal, Travel

I decided to schedule one dinner on our return to Montreal. It came down to dinner at Joe Beef or Celebrity Chef and Madman Martin Picard's love letter to Montreal cuisine; Au Pied de Cochon. Since we were staying rather close to the Mont Royal area in Milton Parc, I thought Au Pied de Cochon made more sense.

The walk was a bit over a mile; about 25 minutes.

Our reservations were for 7pm. The place really has no sign, you just kinda figure you're there. And of course it was packed!

While the hostess seemed a bit detached, our Servers were so very friendly in the congenial Canadian way. Even stopping to chat about "stuff", specifically "Duck in a Can", in spite of being completely slammed.

The seating is a bit tight, we were seated near the bar. And it was tight squeeze for the staff.

As you can tell by the photo above. The whole area was blocked when the tableside salad was being made. The wheel of cheese brought on a cart.

The menu was a paean to foie gras and pork, with no less than 7 foie gras dishes on the single sheet menu.

It seemed like the locals were ordering steak and beefs dishes or pasta, while visitors were going for the crazy stuff.

And since we were visitors, it just felt right to hold to that course.

The Missus was focused on the foie here; but we only had one stomach each, so we'd have to choose well. We started with the Foie Gras Poutine ($24 CAD – about $18/US)

We just loved the poutine in Quebec, the potatoes seemed to have a more pronounced flavor and were sweeter, earthier. That young lady in Viti's Liquor in Vancouver was right; when I asked her where the best poutine was in Vancouver she told me "well sir, I personally think that you need to go to Montreal!" The gravy was on the lighter side…..totally against character for this place, but not overly salty, the fries were lovely crisp outside, soft and fluffy inside. The foie gras….well, was foie gras. Not the best quality, but with a good sweet-offal-ly richness, that just made this that much better. There weren't very many cheese curd; which were fine, but nothing special. We'd actually have better poutine the next night, but this was quite indulgent.

When it came to our main; I had thoughts of doing Duck in a Can, but in the end, we decided on the restaurant's namesake, the Pied de Cochon (Pig's Trotters), but not any Pied de Cochon, but one with, well, Foie Gras of course ($54 CAD – $41/US).

If you think this looks like a hot mess, you'd be right. The foie gras was over-cooked, the gravy was nice, but there was just too much of it. The cheese potatoes was just mostly gooey-gummy cheese and too salty. The pork trotters were roasted; then deep fried; but the result was a exterior that was too hard and an interior that was on the dry side. For some reason we didn't find as much lovely gelatinous goodness as we usually enjoy.

Perhaps we had just found the dish that was just too over-the-top for us to enjoy? The prices weren't too bad; about $100/US with beer and wine. The service was amazingly efficient and friendly for a place so busy.

Au Pied de Cochon
536 Avenue Duluth E
Montréal, QC H2L 1A9, Canada

It was good thing we were walking….I needed it after this calorie bomb dinner!

On the way back; we stopped by the local Provigo Grocery. While looking over the beer, I quickly noticed that all Unibroue beers were on sale for $3.99 CAD….that's like three bucks US! There was quite a selection of stuff we don't have here in the states. So, I bought two bottles. On this evening I had the Raftman, a smoked ale.

I really enjoy smoked beer when they are available. This being a Belgian style ale; it had that sweet-booziness, with a caramel nose, and an almost bourbon like smokiness. Being only 5.5ABV, it was really easy to drink as well.

It was a nice way to end the evening. We went to sleep early; we'd have a busy day ahead of us.

Thanks for reading!

Uniboil

February 20, 2018 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

**** UniBoil has closed

It finally feels like winter around these parts. Which means that I'm back in hot pot mode. Starting with Uniboil. I actually first saw Uniboil during one of my trips to Rowland Heights last year in Hong Kong Plaza (in fact its in the 9th photo in that post). Uniboil opened in the old Beauty Hunan location back in August. Sheesh, that place only lasted half a year or so and its predecessor Szechuan Taste only lasted a couple of years. Intrepid Hot Pot lover Kirbie visited right after opening, before the actual signage for the shop went up. I'd thought about it, but man, August was just too hot for me to have hot pot.

So I waited until the weather cooled down, right around the end of December to make my first visit.

Uniboil is based in Monterey Park and has locations in Monterey Park, Rowland Heights, and Davis. The restaurant claims to use no MSG and source most of their proteins from Snake River Farms and the broth base is made from chicken.

Much like other hot pot shops of the same style; there are several "bases" and you choose the protein.

There are also a couple of featured item and various noodle selections…..which I decided to avoid once I saw another table's dish come out. For a place that touts it's quality of product; they served the noodles dish with instant ramen type noodles…..

The item that caught my attention was the Ma-la Pig Feet Soup (lunch price – $14.99).

I got this with the vermicelli noodles, which was a rather small portion. There were three good sized pig's feet in the soup; which were nice and gelatinous, not overly tough, and tasted pretty good. The rest of the items in the hop pot were routne; one lonely clam, two slices of kamabuko, two pieces of surimi, a whole lot of cabbage, a slice of corn, and the item I enjoyed the most (next to the pig's feet) frozen tofu. The broth, while on the salty side, had a nice numbing-spice to it. I just needed a touch of hot bean sauce to adjust the flavor a bit.

This was the best item I had on my visits by far.

Of course I returned a few weeks later. Calvin had recommended the Sate broth with Lamb ($12.99 – lunch). I also ordered the Spicy Lotus Root ($4.99), which wasn't very good.

Not enough spice, way too much sesame oil, uneven cutting technique. Definitely not worth five bucks.

I wasn't particularly enamored with the Sate Broth either. I even added on additional Frozen Tofu ($2.50.).

Can something be both salty and bland at the same time? Perhaps one-dimensional might be the appropriate description. I added at least a quarter cup of sate to this in addition to the hot bean sauce….which helped, but made things even more salty. The thinly sliced lamb was nice and gamey, but other than being hot this wasn't very satisfying at all.

On a rather chilly evening, I decided on a tie-breaker visit.

I was fascinated by the "Healthy Tomato Hot Soup", that I decided to try that with Kurobuta Pork ($13.99 – dinner) with Extra Frozen Tofu ($2.50).

The pork was sliced very thin and I wasn't able to separate the slices. It was also too lean and turned into a white, dry piece of pork.

Man, if I thought the sate was salty and nothing else, this was even more salty and had even less flavor….just a hint of tomato. Perhaps I'm just not lucky with things described as "healthy" on the menu? I added like half the container of sate and a ton of the hot bean sauce, just to be able to consume this. I took most of it home and the Missus had one spoon of it and told me to dump the broth….which is interesting since we hate to waste food. Hey, but at least this time there were two fishballs in the broth versus only one last time.

To be perfectly honest, I prefer the soup at Tasty Pot. And with all of these hot pot places open or opening, I think I've had enough Uniboil (I always accidentally call the place Uni-Brow for some reason) for now.

Uniboil
8199 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Open Daily 11am – 10pm

Returning to Fernandez Restaurant

February 19, 2018 mmm-yoso Mexican Restaurants

The Missus was working days during this past weekend. So, instead of us heading to our usual winter weekend breakfast destination, I was left to my own devices. Ever since my visit to Birrieria El Primo, I'd been wanting to return to Fernandez Restaurant. So, I headed on down to Nestor. I arrived just after opening time; these days it's 7 am. Turning into the last remaining spot in the parking lot, I had to laugh.

Check out that sign!

I thought it was interesting that on my last visit there was the awning and the host/hostess stand outside. Here's that photo.

Versus how things looked when I first visited all those years ago.

Even the dining area has changed over time.

On my last visit; the photo above; there were very "colorful" chairs which had replaced the old plastic folding seats – the photo to the right. On this day, there were more formal banquet style chairs.

Also new; you paid via credit card or at the register……all iPads! Man, they've really come a long way over the years.

Still, there are things that have been the same on all my visits. The owner comes and visits every table, shaking hands, doing fist bumps, hugging the women. The young ladies here are always so friendly always smiling. I've always enjoyed starting my day here.

And most importantly, the food has kept to a steady course.

A nice hot café olla; the rich, rustic, tongue coating consommé. You bring to taste by adding that squeeze of lime, that touch of cilantro, and some onions.

And my usual; the Tacos de Birria con Nervio. Nice tortillas, dipped and fried (tacos dorados), slightly crunchy, and totally up to the task of being the very tasty vehicle for the birria de res. Beefy and fairly rich, riding that line of heading to oily, nicely seasoned beef, topped with buttery tendon. Crunchy and pungent onions, cilantro, a squeeze of lime and slightly picante salsa.

It is indeed the "breakfast of champions" for me on the weekend.

Fernandez Restaurant and Catering
2265 Flower Ave
San Diego, CA 92154
Hours:
Wed – Sunday 7am – 2pm

Sunday Stuffs – Shu Dao Opens, Hui An Garden Closes, More on Mi Quang Mien Trung, and Shabumi Hot Pot Coming Soon

February 18, 2018 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

A bunch of "stuffs" for a quiet Sunday.

Shu Dao Opens:

I was a bit puzzled when the banner said a Sichuan Restaurant was opening in the former San Tong Palace location, right next to Spicy City.

So, when I noticed the place was open, I dropped by a few days later.

Turns out Shu Dao is a Sichuan Hot Pot place. So, yet another hot pot place….in the same strip mall as Tasty Pot too.

4690 Convoy St #105
San Diego, CA 92111

Hui An Garden Closes:

On the same evening as I noticed the lights on at Shu Dao. I noticed the lights were off at Hui An Garden.

So, I made sure to drop by a few days later. And yes indeed, that hand written sign says "closed" It seems the place really never gained any traction.

4768 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

More on Mi Quang Mien Trung:

I know folks were wondering if this shop, which is replacing DaNang Food to Go is associated with Mien Trung.

So, a few days later, I dropped by Mien Trung. Luckily, the really nice guy who has been working there as long as I can remember was working. So I asked him. He told me that a few regular customers had been asking the same thing. But no, this place is not associated with Mien Trung.

By the way; Mien Trung is basically the name of the Central Region of Vietnam.

It does look like the place will be ready to open soon.

4745 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

Shabumi Hot Pot Coming Soon:

Because we do need yet another hot pot/shabu shabu place in the Kearny Mesa area, right?

I noticed the place when I went to pick something up from CVS. Located in the same strip mall as 85 Degrees, Ototo, et al….

Looks like this one is an "all-you-can-eat" place.

I believe the first indication that this was going to be a Shabu Shabu place was when I noticed something called "Yummy Shabu" was coming to this mall. I guess now it's Shabumi?

So that makes how many of these places in the area….including Shu Dao?

5500 Balboa Ave
San Diego, CA 92111

Road Trip – Irrawaddy Taste of Burma (Stanton)

February 15, 2018 mmm-yoso Burmese Food and Restaurants, Orange County, Road Trip

During my late November stay in Irvine, I had really wanted to return to Cafe Hiro. But not knowing what time I'd be cut loose, I didn't want to make reservations and not keep them. So, I did return to Café Hiro, but the place was packed. Luckily, I had a "plan B". I'd noticed a restaurant when I drove back to my hotel on Katella.

It had been a while since I'd had Burmese food. So this ended up being my back-up. The place was surprisingly empty on a Saturday night.

The Servers were very friendly and gracious.

I ordered a Myanmar Lager while I perused the menu. Slightly malty. fairly light overall.

I had one item already in mind and searched for another. Because of the hours of work and my leaving straight from the client the next morning, leftover didn't make sense.

But there was no denying the fact that I needed to order the Tea Leaf Salad ($11). I love the fermented bitterness of "laphet", tea leaves that have been fermented.

In terms of being nice and refreshing, this salad was very good. In terms of having the pleasantly bitter-tart-fermented flavor of laphet, this fell a bit short for me. The dressing had a good amount of lime in it and was on the sweeter side for my taste. Loved the seeds and peanuts. Nice salad overall, but not quite what I want in my laphet thoke.

For my main; I chose the Sour Leaf (chimbaung – Hibiscus Leaf/Roselle) Shrimp ($13), in spite of the rather humorous description on the menu.

A very pleasant, if not especially memorable dish. I expected a bit more spicy heat, sour, pungency, and saltiness. This was quite mild. There was an abundance of shrimp that tasted a bit muddy side, but were nicely cooked. My favorite item in the dish was the okra, slightly crunchy with a pleasant gooey-slimy finish. Think of this as a fairly mild, though oily curry, and you'd be right.

This was a pleasant meal and I'd think about visiting again one of these days. Nice service and I thought things were well priced. Not very busy on a Saturday night though.

Irrawaddy Taste of Burma
7076 Katella Ave
Stanton, CA 90680

A Hu Tieu Nam Vang Kho Revisit to 777 Noodle House

February 13, 2018 mmm-yoso Vietnamese Restaurants

My very satisfying visit to Phuong Nga 2 had me wondering about all those places in City Heights that used to be on my rotation. Work had kept me busy since the middle of last year. Things were now a bit calmer, fewer weekend work days, so I thought it was time to start making the rounds. Starting with 777 Noodle House. Man, I've been going here since they opened in 2010. Time sure does fly.

The place was quite busy on this morning. One of the great things I like about 777 is that the prices bring in a nice diversity of folks from the neighborhood. On this day, I recognized no less than four different languages being spoken!

I went with my usual here; the Hu Tieu Nam Vang Kho, still under seven bucks.

I had mentioned on my previous visit to 777, that I thought the execution and flavor of the food had slipped. This visit was a nice surprise; it was a return to form. The noodles were nice and stretchy; just enough sauce, the shrimp, though not the best quality (whaddaya expect for the price?), was plump and tender. The sprouts were nicely blanched and they didn't forget the lime this time around.

The most surprising thing was the pork bone soup. The broth was very porky, super hot, not too salty. And all that meat; these were rib bones this time around. I could scrape them off the bone with my chopsticks. Very tender, nice pork flavor…..very nice.

I enjoyed this bowl. A while back I mentioned that I believed Ly Heng had overtaken 777. Now, I'm not so sure. I'll need to check. And I'll gladly do so.

It's nice to see 777 return to form. I'm hoping they can keep it up. And of course, there's that wonderful young lady, who is always so nice to us…..she always calls me "sir". The Missus told me she is just sincerely nice. And I do get a kick being called sir……at a neighborhood noodle house.

777 Noodle House
4686 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92105