April 2018 – Page 2

Florence – Uffizi Gallery, Bargello Museum, and Lunch at Trattoria Sergio Gozzi

April 19, 2018 mmm-yoso Florence and Tuscany, Italy, Italian Restaurants, Italy, Travel

How'd you like to walk out your front door, look down the street and see this first thing in the morning?

Well, that's the view as we exited the front door of our apartment in the morning.

Today's mission? Getting to Uffizi Gallery right when they opened at 0815. After a couple of shots of espresso….our apartment was well equipped, we still had some time on our hands, we admired the Duomo and the Baptistery for a bit.

The Missus especially enjoyed the bronze doors of the Baptistery.

So we decided that we'd have to visit the Duomo Museum to see the originals (these are reproductions) at the Duomo museum the next day. More on that in a future post.

We headed in the direction of Uffizi down Via Orsanmichele, taking some time to admire the statues imbedded in the exterior of Orsanmichele Church.

We made our way to Piazza della Signoria, usually bustling, was quite sedate at a few minutes before 8 in the morning.

This is pretty much the heart of Florence. With Palazzo Vecchio towering over the square, Michelangelo's David stood in front of the doors of this palace until 1873. A replica now stands in its place.

There's an interesting plaque in the square. Girolamo Savonarola was a Dominican Friar whose prophecies and preaching helped to overthrow the Medici family rule (until 1530) and became the defacto leader of the ruling party of Florence. In 1497 Pope Alexander VI excommunicated Savonarola. On Palm Sunday in 1498, Savonarola and his followers were arrested and tortured. On May 23rd, 1498 Savonarola and two other Friars were executed by hanging on the spot where the plaque is located. Man, what a story!

To the right of the Palazzo is the Loggia dei Lanzi which is filled with statues like Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus with the Head of Medusa, which looks kind of scary and creepy.

And right past that is Uffizi Gallery.

We got into line, under the stares of statues of great figures of the Renaissance.

So, one of the main goals of having the Firenze Card was to be able to get in the reserved line. And being early….there were still folks here before us as we arrived at 8am, we got in with the first group of folks.

There are of course, those works that we all know……Botticelli's iconic Birth of Venus

Or Spring (Primavera).

With so much symbolism.

Or Michelangelo's only known completed painting, Holy Family (Doni Tondo)

Look at the subjects…..they actually look like renderings of statues…….

There are also great views of the Arno River and Ponte Vecchio from various windows.

I loved the Seven Virtues.

Of which, a young Boticelli painted "Fortitude", at the left.

There quite a bit to keep you occupied for hours, like Perseus Freeing Andromeda by Piero di Cosimo, completed somewhere between 1510 and 1513. You see Perseus twice in this work, first flying from with winged sandals. He spies Andromeda, who is to be sacrificed to a sea monster. He swoops down and after dispatching the monster and rescuing the maiden, he wins her hand.

And St Jerome in the Desert by Giovanni Bellini. Bellini panted several versions of this theme, one resides in the National Gallery in Washington DC.

There's an interesting story about this version of Laocoon and His Sons.

You could easily spend the whole day here; though we think about 2 to 2 1/2 hours is more than reasonable.

We left the gallery and headed out across the Arno River on the Ponte Vecchio.

Once upon a time, many segmental arch bridge were covered and lined with shops like Ponte Vecchio; which means "Old Bridge". The bridge was the only way to cross the river in Florence until 1218.

Once upon a time, butcher shops lined the bridge. These days it jewelry and leather goods.

The Missus ended up buying a nice pair of leather gloves.

We walked across the bridge and ended up having a couple of double espressos across from Pitti Palace. Where the Missus planned for our next stop; the Bagello.

Did you know that the Bargello has something in common with my hometown? It turns out that parts of Honolulu Hale, specifically the courtyard, staircase, and ceiling were modelled after the Bargello?

The Bargello is known for its collection of sculpture and statues.

Like Giambologna's "Flying Mercury".

And then there was the one piece that caught my attention. I ended up sending "CC" a text with a photo of the sculpture below and a message that went something along the lines of "and you thought SNF made the Point Move famous. Heck no….it's been around since forever!"

To which CC responded with a comment about the, ahem, attire……no Angel Flights here!

As you can tell, I was getting a bit punchy, perhaps my own version of Florence (Stendahl) Syndrome, it was time for a break.

It was time for lunch.

There's was a place I wanted to try, a place only open for lunch, from noon to 3pm, Monday thru Saturday….three hours! A place that's been in business since 1915. It was just after twelve when we arrived at the rather discreet location across the street from San Lorenzo Church.

I don't think the place takes reservations and the dining area was almost full when we arrived. Luckily we found a table.

The menu is a single page, but it was pretty easy picking out what we were having.

The Missus wanted to try Ribollita (6€ – $7.25US)

Thick, but not too thick, very hearty; this version had beans (delici-yoso) which added a wonderful earthy touch, to the almost potage texture of the soup. The greens added a mild bitter-sweetness. This was wonderful.

Based on our previous meal, I wanted to try the Trippa alla Fiorentina (9,5 € – $11.65).

The surprisingly tender tripe was elevated with a slightly tangy tomato sauce; the flavor of celery seemed present. This was so good…..I've never had tripe so tender and delicious.

Folks in Florence love their meat….so I had to try the Bollito Misto (boiled beef and beef tongue – 10,5€)

This one was kind of odd…though you couldn't accuse the place of false advertising…it was indeed boiled meat……..no seasoning……

Overall lunch was a winner….with a couple of glasses of wine, who could ask for more?

We really enjoyed the service in Florence. Folks were relaxed, but very nice. Trattoria Sergio Gozzi was no different.

Trattoria Sergio Gozzi
Piazza San Lorenzo 8r
Florence, Italy

The Missus couldn't believe a place could survive for over a century open just 3 hours a day. But after eating here we knew why!

It was time for a nap…….

Thanks for stopping by!

Circling Back to Di Chan Thai Restaurant

April 18, 2018 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

Right before our office moved from the Kearny Mesa area, I noticed that Di Chan Thai had new signage. A bit of a more modern freshened up look. It had been 12 years since my last visit. I hadn't been too impressed with the "Ameri-Thai" style food. But heck, a new look, a new leaf, right?

Man, look how bright it is here now!

The woman working was really friendly and quickly brought me a menu.

It was the typical "pick your style – pick your protein" menu of most Thai places.

Not really sure what to get; I went with the Garlic and Pepper Shrimp ($8.95) spice level 10…….I figured that it would be basically a five.

First up; the worst soup that I've had since my visit to Appethai.

Talk about bland…..

Soon enough my plate arrived.

Let's just forget about the wonton and other stuff. Focusing on the main. The broccoli was soggy and over-cooked, the shrimp was as well…..quite rubbery. The sauce was watery, too sweet, and lacked almost any spice at all. There was garlic, not so much pepper…….not so much my taste either. It seems like the veggies and shrimp were cooked over too low heat as there was a lack of wok hay.

I'm sure folks who just want "some grub" for less than nine bucks might like this.

In the back of my mind, I thought if lunch was even half way decent, maybe I'd come back for dinner. I think I'll pass for now.

Di Chan Thai Restaurant
5535 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

Florence – Michelangelo’s David and Dinner at Enzo e Piero

April 17, 2018 mmm-yoso Florence and Tuscany, Italy, Italian Restaurants, Italy, Travel

In contrast to relaxed and laid back Bologna, Florence was a beehive of activity. From the tine we arrived at the train station there were crowds of people. And yet, there was the experience of walking from the train station and turning the corner to see the Duomo.

I have heard that there is no greater representation of the Renaissance than the Duomo. Walking down busy streets and turning the corner to suddenly have it right in front of you certainly has quite an affect.

One cannot deny the influence of the Medici Family on the Renaissance and on Florence itself.

And yes, the crowds were large, but that just made people and pooch watching that much more interesting.

We had a nice apartment on Via del Servi (more on that later), which was large, comfortable, and quiet at night. Our host Matteo was amazing as well. Our next mission was to get a Firenze Card

For me, once settled, I believed we needed to get a Firenze Card. There were places we wanted to see, and the 71 Euro price would allow us to beat some of the lines and I was sure the Missus would have us headed to more than enough locales to make up for the price of the pass. The closest location open was in Piazza della Signora.

So we headed on over.

After trying to figure things out and with the help of various folks at different admission windows I found the line. About thirty minutes later I had our passes in hand.

We headed right to Accademia which was fairly close and I knew we'd be able to cover in a short amount of time because everyone comes to see…..

The masterpiece that is Michelangelo's David in full glory. I must say, there are those great works of art that do not impress very much in person. David did.

This Renaissance symbol of the victory of divine good over evil stands seventeen feet tall. The detail, especially of the hands is amazing.

David hold the classic pose known as Contrapposto ("counterpoise").

And yes, it was a bit busy; but not super crowded as entrance volume is well controlled. Great for us as we had a short 15 minute wait in the "reserved" line with the Firenze Card. Not so great if you were in the line stretching down the block at the hour of 430 pm.

The rest of the Gallery was pretty empty.

We explored a bit; taking time to check out four unfinished works by Michelangelo dubbed "The Prisoners" each seems to be trying to be….to quote the "unofficial" Accademia website – "to free the spirit from matter".

These four works were initially intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II.

We spent about an hour in total wandering around.

The close location of our apartment allowed us some downtime before heading off to dinner.

I had made only three restaurant reservations before leaving on our trip, including one for the first night in Florence. I was curious about the traditional food of Florence and after reading a bunch of food blogs and such, especially this wonderful post on Curious Appetite (check them out), I thought we'd check out Enzo e Piero.

We had reservations for 7pm, which is probably "tourist time" for eating in Florence, but the folks working were so friendly and gracious. and we were indeed the first customers for this evening.

Though by the time our first bottle of Vino Rosso made it to the table; the place was half full.

We both started with soup courses.

The Missus with a very thick Ribollita. A traditional Tuscan "soup", in this case very thick like a potage.

I'd read that most versions had beans, but this did not. The "soup" was really super thick, bread is used to thicken the soup, and this seemed to have a tad too much of it for our taste. the flavors of the greens and other vegetables were muted.

I got the Tortellini en Brodo. Yes, it's mainly known as a classic dish from Emilia-Romagna; but it was chilly outside and I thought this would be nice.

While the broth was a bit light in the flavor department; man that hand made pasta was amazing. I'd really never had anything like this before. The texture, light yet substantial, just the perfect amount of springiness.

If the Tortellini wasn't enough of a pleasant surprise the Lampredotto in Zimino was just plain great.

For the unitiated, lampredotto, made from the abomasum, aka, the "fourth stomach" of the cow and named after lampreys due to the resemblance of the "tripe" to the color and shape of the eel like creature. I didn't expect much and man, was I surpised at the amazing flavor and texture. The texture is almost buttery, there's a mild "offal" flavor that's deeply beefy-savory, the light tomato sauce did a great job of not masking any flavors; just adding a touch of tanginess. You can tell; this was love at first bite. From this point on, it was going to be "all tripe, all the time" for us.

The artisanal beans; Fagioli Zolfini del Vardarno, heirloom Tuscan beans from Valdarno had a deep beany flavor, if a bit under cooked for our tastes.

Last up for the Missus was the Taglierini al Tartufo Fresco. The Missus asked me what "tartufo" was and I told Her "truffles"…..so you know She was going to order this.

The pasta was so springy. Another thing I learned on this trip, I'd been putting too little salt in my pasta water. We found the pasta, didn't need too much olive oil, garlic, onions…… These "fresh" (fresco) black truffles were very fragrant, but quite mild in flavor.

Amazingly, all the dishes, and most everything we had on this trip just wasn't very salty. It was a fantastic experience for us.

Enzo e Piero has been around since 1931, we wanted to start our trip eating more traditional fare, and this was a good start.

Trattoria Enzo e Piero
Via Faenza 105 rosso
Florence, Italy

Did you notice the "rosso" after the number? Well, Florence addresses have two different sets of numbers. The "rosso", red is for businesses, you'll often see a number ending in 'r'; this means red. Residences are in black or blue. While it can be a bit confusing; it's got nothing on the Japanese address system, which I've mentioned in a couple of posts before.

For dessert, well, we were in Florence, so the Missus grabbed some Gelato from one of what seems like thousands of Gelato shops in Florence.

Life was good!

Sunday Sandwiches – Revisits to The Sandwich A’Fare, Philadelphia Sandwich Company, and Gaglione Bros (Point Loma)

April 15, 2018 mmm-yoso Cheesesteaks, Sandwiches

A trio of sandwich revisits for a warm, almost summery Sunday.

The Sandwich A'Fare:

**** The Sandwich A'Fare has closed

I had a meeting finish at 1230pm and needed something, anything, before my next battery of meetings. By this time, most places in the area are just too busy. Then I thought about The Sandwich A'Fare, which is kind of hidden away in the rear of the strip mall we call the "Kearny Mesa restaurant refugee mall" because it houses Abbey BBQ and the Philadelphia Sandwich Company. I got in, one person ahead of me, got out in ten minutes with my "Godfather".

This was actually better than what I had on my previous visits. The bread seemed fresher and more yeasty and it wasn't over-dressed with too much mayo. Perhaps it was because the owner, Bud actually made my sandwich this time.

No muss, no fuss, and out the door for $6.25. I have a special place in my heart for these Mom-and-Pop sandwich shops. You can see why.

The Sandwich A'Fare
6904 Miramar Rd. Suite 107
San Diego, CA 92121

The Philadelphia Sandwich Company:

Speaking of the "Kearny Mesa restaurant refugee mall" and specifically the Philadelphia Sandwich Company. The last time I visited, was nearly 8 years ago (time does fly, huh?), during one of my Cheesesteak round-up posts.

Another crazy day of meetings stretching thru noon. It was almost 10am and I recalled that the PSC opened at 10. So why not give them a try again after all these years?

Parking in the upper lot here during lunch can be a horror show, but I had no problem just a few minutes after 10.

The young lady working here was awesome and efficient. Really very nice.

I got the 6 inch "Joe's Special" ($7.75).

For scale purposes I placed my iPhone behind the sandwich.

There's something about how they griddle the meat here; it's a rather unappetizing grey, surprisingly dry, and very bland. The cheese wasn't spread out evenly. The roll was fine; an Amoroso. Not enough mushrooms, not enough flavor, not enough lovely gooeyness for my taste.

The Philadelphia Sandwich Company
6904 Miramar Rd. Suite 207
San Diego, CA 92121
Hours:
Mon – Sat 10am – 4pm

I grappled with what I had eaten and thought about with regards to the PSC. I hadn't had a Cheesesteak in quite a while. Gaglione Brothers, especially the Point Loma location, had been a nice guilty pleasure over the years. But it had been a while. So, just for perspective, I decided to drop by.

Gaglione Bros (Point Loma):

**** This location of Gaglione Bros has closed

Well, it looks like the sign has changed.

I ordered the Mushroom Cheesesteak with Onions.

I gotta say; I was kind of bummed. While the bread was nicely toasted, yeasty, with a nice texture, the cheese and meat weren't incorporated together well. This lacked the nice gooey and gloppy mixture of meat and cheese. No singed lips and tongues from the napalm juiciness as the meat was on the dry side. The light milky flavor of the cheese was lacking….I'm wondering if they've changed this over the years or is it just how it was griddled today?

While better than the PSC, this was no trophy cheesesteak.

Gaglione Brothers
3944 West Point Loma Blvd
San Diego, CA 92110

Which lead me to wonder…….I know that Monkey Paw has changed ownership. It has me wondering how their cheesesteak is?

From San Diego to Bologna

April 14, 2018 mmm-yoso Airport/Airline/Cruise/Rail Food, Breakfast/Brunch, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Italy, Travel

It was quite interesting. When I mentioned to folks that we were headed off to Florence; everyone seemed thrilled, there was all that art, the architecture, and the history. When I mentioned visiting Emilia-Romagna, I'd often get quizzical looks….why not Milan, Verona, or "fill in the blank"….. And yet, getting to the source, the home of Parmegiano-Reggiano, Balsamic Vinegar, Mortadella, Prosciutto, the (at that time) mysterious Culatello, and of course what folks here call "Bolognaise" sauce, the "Ragu" drew me in. On my shelf resides a cookbook that spawned an entire series on NPR. Published back in 1992, The Splendid Table (which spawned the radio show), won a James Beard award, and is about the food of Emilia-Romagna. I'd always wondered about the food and foodways of the region and I finally had my chance. Plus, I just had to visit a city whose nickname is "la grassa" (the fat one) and since Bologna's other nickname is "la dotta" (the learned), I might learn a thing or two.

First things first of course. We had to get there. Our flight from San Diego to London Heathrow was ten hours long. We then had a five-and-a-half hour layover, before flying to Bologna. We'd be arriving at 1130 pm. Things were a bit hectic, so we didn't have time for dinner before leaving. We figured we'd get something on our flight.

Still, our flight wasn't until 845pm and we needed something, however small, to eat. Since we were flying in Business Class, we had use of the Airspace Lounge. Be it ever so humble, flying on British means that you have a choice of complimentary wraps, appetizers, and desserts in the lounge. Along with drinks.

Which aren't half bad. Though the Missus doesn't care for the glassware used for wine and champagne in the lounge; who are we to complain? It's a nice getaway from the chaos before boarding.

I'll go over BA's Business and First Class seating in a future post.

Strangely, both that Missus and I have found that food on international flights from the US is not quite as good as on return flights for both BA and JAL. I'm not sure why. On this outbound flight, I really didn't enjoy my dinner very much.

The crab rillettes presentation looked odd and it was really bland. The beef filet was really tough. I enjoyed the fruit plate the most. Nice and refreshing.

Because of the lie-flat seats; we were both able to get a couple of hours of sleep, which I believe is quite important.

We both actually enjoyed the Traditional English Breakfast. Which wasn't too bad.

To be perfectly honest; I've mentioned this before, Heathrow is not my favorite airport. The lack of signage, having to go through rather chaotic security check a second time, the "cattle call" flight notification in Terminal 5….you cool your heels, while trying to find some seating until your gate comes up, sometimes waiting until 45 minutes before your flight. In many cases you have to then catch the tram to your find you gate and so forth.

So even though the Galleries Business Class Lounge can be pretty busy. It's still an oasis during a five-and-a-half hour layover.

For some reason, we always find seats tucked away in the corner. The Missus can watch Her movies on the iPad. I can check work emails and catch up on things.

We can hydrate, the food is nothing to write home about, but on occasion, we'll try something like clotted cream, which a coworker of the Missus said we just "needed to try".

I'm still not certain what the symbolism of the Horse with the Lampshade Hat is to BA though…..

Eventually, we made our flight, and arrived in Bologna at 1130pm. I gotta say, getting through immigration at Guglielmo Marconi Airport was amazingly quick and efficient. It helps that we travel with only 8-10 kilos of luggage each, regardless of whether we're staying two weeks or two months, you usually don't need more. Plus, this is Europe, you can usually get whatever you might need.

Because of our late arrival and having to catch the train to Florence the next day, I booked a hotel two blocks from the train station. It was the most expensive room we'd have during our entire stay; but the check out time (noon) was convenient for our 155pm train and they served what was a pretty good breakfast.

We still have over three hours to kill before checking out. So we headed out.

From the Porta Galliera, which was one of the original gates of the medieval city of Bologna.

Past the Park of Montagnola.

And down Via Indipendenza which is considered the main street of the city. Bologna is famous of the "Portici" the porticoes which cover over 22 miles of the city.

To what is considered the heart of Bologna, Piazza Maggiore.

This large area is connected to the Piazza del Nettuno, which houses one of the most well known of landmarks, the Fountain of Neptune. Erected in 1564, there's quite a story behind this fountain, you can read more about it in this wonderful post. A really neat fact about the fountain; Maserati's logo is based on the trident of the fountain.

That large church is the Basilica of San Petronio. Construction on it was started in 1390. It is the 6th largest church in Europe. There's a distinctive look to the façade of the church. That's because it's unfinished. According to the design it was to be larger than Saint Peter's in Rome (link to our post), but Pope Pius IV put a stop to that, diverting the funds to create a new university. Hmmmm……more intrigue.

We'd end up hanging around Piazza Maggiore when we returned to Bologna. Though we ended up not spending quite as much time here as we wished.

We headed down one of the side streets….quite surprised at how quiet things were.

We wandered down the porticoes when the Missus noticed this church; San Giovanni in Monte.

From here, things went off the rails a bit, as the Missus seemed fascinated with just wandering around.

We then got a bit lost. When trying to locate our position on the map; it seemed we were off of it! Time to turn on data and find out where we were.

Turns out we were on a street named Via Libia and pretty close to the Bologna San Vitale rail station….pretty far off course.

We righted ourselves and walked back; through the university district, pass the Le Due Torri, the two landmark leaning towers of Bologna.

Time was tight, but we did make the noon check-out and walked the short way to the train station. The high speed rail from Bologna to Florence is supposed to only take 34 minutes. However, like we'd find while riding the rails in Italy, unlike the Shinkansen in Japan, trains here are terminally late. And this was no exception; 25 minutes late.

We actually found this kind of humorous. And we were on vacation…….

Next stop; Florence!

Thanks for reading!

Clearing Out the Memory Card – Restaurant Greetje (Amsterdam)

April 13, 2018 mmm-yoso Amsterdam, Dutch Food and Restaurants, Netherlands, Travel

Just a quick post for tonight.

Amsterdam sure was beautiful at night……at least the Damrak area was.

For our last dinner; I was looking for something closer to traditional Dutch. In all my searches Restaurant Greetje came up, so I made reservations.

Mostly older (my age) folks having dinner. Service was great, the food not so much.

The best item was the smoked duck breast; which was still on the rather tough side for us, but had a very nice smoke flavor.

The Missus fish dish was pretty good, fish was nice and crisp if on the dry side. The barley risotto was outstanding…..both in texture, with just the right amount of toothsomeness.

The signature "Roasted Wild Boar" was dry and tough and we both felt under-seasoned.

The parsnip puree was dry and the jus had a bitterness to it we didn't enjoy.

Desserts were nice…..we took the cookies to go and the Missus had them with tea.

Not quite what we wanted for our last meal in Amsterdam, but you can't win 'em all. At least the folks here were really nice.

Restaurant Greetje
Peperstraat 23
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Lunch at Noble Chef

April 12, 2018 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

When we are able to escape and grab a real lunch (i.e. no sandwiches, etc) these days, we often look for places were we can get back to the office in decent time. I'd been wanting to try the lunches at Noble Chef since my mediocre roast duck visit. So we decided to make our way down to Balboa.

We arrived pretty much at opening time. So the place was empty and it pretty much stayed that way for the entire meal.

Which I guess doesn't bode well.

We looked over the lunch special menu, deciding what to order. In the end, Big Daniel left it up to us. I ordered three dishes, Calvin two.

It interesting how different folks order….more on that later.

Things started out with a pretty terrible egg drop soup. Super salty, weird flavor to the broth, not quite chicken…. and of course the frozen peas and carrots.

If folks want to eat lunch with me; they are going to have at least try some of the dishes I order. Like the salted fish and chicken fried rice.

This didn't have enough salted fish in this, so the funky-salty-savory tones were minimized. The rice was decently done, the chicken tasteless, no wok hay.

Calvin ordered two items I really don't at these type of places; mainly because you can do better at home.

The first being the Rice Porridge with Pork and Preserved Egg.

Not a whole lot of pidan, the pork was really tough, and this needed more (some) white pepper, salt, ginger, and anything else to just bring up the flavors…….the porridge was really bland.

Calvin also usually orders some kind of vegetable. Selecting the "House Stir Fried Vegetable" is not usually a good pick at places like this though.

On this day; it was a plate full of underseasoned broccoli….the typical "Calabrese" kind, not gailan or anything similar, with maybe a single sliced canned mushroom and some slivers of carrot thrown in. Not a stellar dish.

I ordered the Fish with Black Bean Sauce.

The fish wasn't terrible, no off or muddy flavors. The cooking technique was terrible however, as the fish was dry and lacking the nice velveting of a well prepared specimen. The onions were over cooked, the flavor of the black bean sauce was too mild, and there were gloppy lumps to be found in the dish. At least the rice was decent. As for the portion size……well, we were glad we ordered quite a few dishes.

I also ordered the Salt and Pepper Pork Chop.

Finally, a decent dish! The pork was nicely fried, still moist, the batter crunchy…nice hints of garlic, decent salt, probably a nice dose of MSG as well……but at this point of the lunch…..it was a good thing. I'd have this again.

This "version" of the Noble Chef, while totally different in terms of regional cooking, makes me long for the previous versions. It makes me wonder how dinner is and if the place is long for this world? Not a single other customer than us during the whole meal. That can't be good.

The Noble Chef
6159 Balboa Avenue
San Diego, CA 92111

We’re back!

April 10, 2018 mmm-yoso Blog

Yes, we're back. A bit jet lagged, but getting right back to work will cure that.

Our last three stops were quite busy.

From one of the reasons we ended up in this region in the first place.

We loved this city.

To the city that was once the Western Capital of the Roman Empire. With eight UNESCO world heritage sites and the most stunning mosaics we've encountered in our travels.

Even under water!

There were times when we were struck speechless……

And we had one of our favorite meals of our trip here.

And our final stop. A vibrant city….with the oldest University in Europe. There's a mixture of young and old here.

We went on a fantastic all day small group food tour. On which we learned so much.

This was an amazing vacation.

So give me a bit of time to regroup.

And I still lost about a dozen pounds….so don't be calling me "Lardo".

Thanks for reading!

Chopstix Too, one more time

April 9, 2018 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Here you are, reading mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog with a recounting of meals enjoyed. Today, Cathy is posting because Kirk is still on vacation.

Kirk posted about the original Chopstix, on Convoy Street in 2005, He blogged about Chopstix Too when it first opened, in 2006. In the interim, He and I have each posted about one or the other over the years. The restaurants serve fairly standard Japanese fare at good prices without pretense.

This location, in the same parking lot as Mitsuwa Marketplace is yet "another" place to get ramen with one stop parking.
The chalkboard by the soda machine shows daily specials.
The cucumber salad ($4) is a choice on most visits, because I like cucumber. The bowl is deceptive; there is a lot of the vinegared and salted vegetable.
The agedashi tofu ($3) is lightly breaded with potato starch, crispy fried and served with a light soy/mirin/dashi sauce. This simple treat is a nice addendum to any meal.
If you read any of my prior Chopstix posts (go to that search box at the top left), you know that The Mister ends up ordering mabo ramen ($7.95) following his 'pretending' of reading the menu. He enjoys the slightly sweet spiciness the sauce, filled with ground pork and tofu. The barely cooked egg is always shared.
The chicken katsu and tempura plate ($8.45) also comes with a bowl of miso soup and is properly fried: crunchy and not greasy. The refreshing salad arrives 'naked' and there is a container of salad dressing on the condiment tray on the table.

A plate of eight shrimp shu mai ($5, on the chalkboard) was tasty, but not very shrimpy. Still, it was shared and rounded out the meal.

Chopstix Too 4380 Kearny Mesa Road San Diego 92111 (858) 565-1288 open Sun-Thurs 11 a.m. until 9 p.m., until 9:30 p.m. on Fri-Sat website

Sizzling Pot King

April 8, 2018 Cathy Chinese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog and Kirk (and His Missus) are on vacation. Cathy is stepping in with another short post.

Spring has sprung in San Diego and the mild, chilly mornings with the resultant pollen count in the air have The Mister and I figuring we either have severe allergies or another bout of the flu about to occur. In any case, the craving for a hearty and slightly spicy meal was predominant the other day.

Kirk has posted about Sizzling Pot King twice mentioning the 'comfort food' aspect of the menu here, which made me curious.

We ordered the medium size dry pot with lamb ($20.99) and were impressed with the amount of food, while enjoying the aromatics released with the sizzle as the pot was placed over a sterno warmed stand. In addition to a good portion of lamb, the sizzling pot contained potato, cauliflower, celery and mung beans. We did ask for a spice level of 'mild' and it was just right; we were able to taste the mild gaminess of the lamb and the potato and cauliflower had absorbed just enough spice to even out each bite. Of course, I do love celery with just about everything and interspersed bites of meat with the crispy mung beans and celery slices.

Of course, I hadn't remembered Kirk's initial post, mentioning that the wonton in spicy sauce ($5.99) weren't that good…but his post was from 2016… The sauce had a pleasant, mild/medium spicy 'kick' and was just enough for the two of us to be able to enjoy without needing to ask for water or some other cooling beverage. I did dip some of the lamb in the leftover sauce and liked the way the flavors melded.

The filling was a good ratio to the noodle wrapper and did have a distinctive (in a good way) pork flavor.

Understanding the comfort food aspect of Kirk (and His Missus') taste buds is expanding my comfort.

Sizzling Pot King 8058 Clairemont Mesa Blvd San Diego, CA 92111 Website Open 11:00 a.m.-10:30 p.m. daily

There were enough leftovers for a great meal the next day- the sauce had been absorbed into the vegetables and the ingredients stir fried into a nice, crispy melange, which went well over rice.