March 2020 – Page 2

Noodling Around City Heights – Lotus Garden

March 3, 2020 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants, Pho, Vietnamese Restaurants

While making my way to Northgate Market to get some pig's feet, I noticed that there was a "Pho" sign on the awning of Lotus Garden. Looks like the Lotus Garden was expanding the menu from the seafood and the typical Chinese dishes served there.

Since Lotus Garden opens at 9am, I decided to visit when finishing up my shopping in the area.

As it was fairly early in the morning; it was easy finding parking in back of the building, where it shares the lot with Minh Huong Supermarket. looking at the sign above the doorway; I guess it's now Lotus Garden Seafood and Pho.

I walked in and the friendly young man directed me to a seat. It's a pretty nice dining area and I believe they have even more space in the back dining room as well.

Man, the menu here has over 120 items on it…..and there's a second menu with pho on it as well. I was going to order the pho, but noticed all the egg noodle and hu tieu items. And seeing that this place is a (sorta) Chinese restaurant; I decided to get the BBQ Duck Egg Noodle Soup ($8.99). I really didn't expect much, but was quite pleasantly surprised at what I got.

The blanched bean sprouts was a good first move. The broth of the egg noodle soup, while being on the salty side also had some savory notes to it; with a heck of a lot of oniony-slightly pungent and a light, almost seafood like flavor. The fried shallots was also a good move aa was all that scallion.

The noodles were decently prepared, with a nice pull to them.

The most surprising thing for me was the duck.

While being perhaps a tad on the dry side; the skin of the duck had been crisped up nicely, no rubbery skin here, and there was a nice salty-sweet flavor to the skin. I also enjoyed the quite gamey flavor of the duck…perhaps not everyone's cup of tea; but I enjoyed it. This was actually not bad at all and really didn't need any sauce, or jus on it at all.

I really liked the young man working; I believe his name is "Tu", he was quite friendly and we chatted about Little Saigon….I believe he's from the OC, and he even told me he knew of a place in his 'hood that made pretty decent duck…."Lien Hoa?" I asked and he seemed surprised. And then I mentioned always getting a side of the "jus" with my duck from there….he cracked up.

I decided to return the following week to try the pho….and of course, when I first try a place's pho…it's the dac biet ($9).

The basil and sprouts arrived; even though a few of the basil leaves were starting to discolor; there was enough of it so that it didn't really matter. And of course the Ngo Gai was present, crisp, fresh, like a pungent cilantro with a hint of sweetness.

The broth however, was underwhelming. It was cloudy, severely defatted, lacking in beef flavor and….as is typical in San Diego these days, too sweet and overly salty.

The rare steak was tough and dry, the flank too chewy and flavorless, though the brisket was fine, tender with a mild beefiness, the tendon was soft and buttery, and the tripe was crisp and crunchy, without any off flavors.

The typical clump of noodles was decent as well; edging on over-cooked, but okay. Still, I don't think I'll have the pho here on future visits.

I had taken a closer look at the menu on this visit and wanted to try something I saw on the menu so I returned the following week.

This time I had the House Combination Egg Noodle Soup ($7.99), which was pretty much fishball city.

The bean sprouts weren't as well blanched on this visit. The soup was also more salty; with that annoying "sweetness" to it. I needed all of the lime to help temper it.

The noodles were prepped perfectly; nice al dente pull to them.

There were some pieces of meh shrimp in the broth, fairly muddy in flavor….the item I enjoyed the best were the pleasantly toothsome and mildly funky pork stomach.

But the item I had really come to try was the Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings ($8.99)….well, there's a "Doritos" version as well, but I stuck with the, ahem…"classic".

The wings were fried fairly well; being quite moist and tender. The batter was bit too soft and got soggy quickly. The garlic was burnt and bitter, not great eats in my book. It wasn't overly salty and could have actually used more seasoning….though no more of the bitter garlic. Not sure I'd have this again, but it wasn't terrible.

In the end, Lotus Garden was not bad….I mean, I'd eat here every so often if it was in my neighborhood as it's better than the options that I have near by. I enjoyed the young man who served me on my first visit and there are still items on the huge menu to try…..heck, I haven't even gotten to the Beef Sate Egg Noodle yet.

Lotus Garden Restaurant
4007 Euclid Ave.
San Diego, CA 92105
Hours:
Open Daily 9am – 10pm

Bud’s Louisiana Cafe Revisited

March 2, 2020 mmm-yoso Cajun, Southern, and Soul Food

What I've found over the years is that I'm a pretty loyal customer….or maybe I'm just lazy? I used to follow my barber around from place to place for years, which I mentioned at the end of this post, form Mission Valley to Serra Mesa to El Cajon to College to his uncles house (during a bad spell he was pretty much homeless) to Rolando, to Oceanside, then back to Rolando…after which he fell off the radar…not sure what's up with him. Same with my Dry Cleaning Lady, whom I've mentioned in several posts over the years. After almost 15 years, she's decided to slow things down a bit and decided to sell of the dry cleaner and is now working a couple of days a week in Tierrasanta. So, of course, that's where my dry cleaning goes now.

After getting back from Mexico City, I had a batch of dry cleaning to drop off. And then I needed a place for lunch. Fat Tuesday had just passed, which had me wondering how Bud's was doing, since it had been over two years since I last visited.

The place was fairly quiet; I kinda just wanted a sandwich, so I went with the New Orleans BBQ Shrimp Po' Boy, and subbed out some Red Beans and Rice for the fries. The staff was warm and welcoming; especially the young lady who waited on me.

The bread was light and crusty and this wasn't drenched in tartar sauce like I've had it several times before. These days they put a purple cabbage coleslaw mix in the sandwich….way too much of it; all that cabbage just overwhelms the well sautéed, moist and plump, though quite under represented shrimp. This was quite mild in flavor, so I'll definitely have to try something else next time.

The Red Beans and Rice had a great tongue coating texture, but was way too mild in flavor, I guess I've been my version at home these days and wanted to gauge how it was. It lacked smokiness and needed a lot of help…..I mainly poured in a good amount of Crystal Hot Sauce.

Perhaps I should have ordered my old fave, the Crawfish Etouffe, but my last experience with that wasn't particularly stellar. Oh well…….it's kinda sad because the Missus and I used to really enjoy Bud's way back in the early 'oughts, when they were on Kettner. Perhaps I'll have better luck next time.

Bud's Louisiana Café
4320 Viewridge Ave.
San Diego, CA 92123
Hours:
Mon – Tues 7am – 230pm
Wed – Fri 7am – 9pm
Saturday 12pm – 9pm
Closed on Sundays

Salzburg – Walking the Old Town and a Caffiene Break at Cafe Tomaselli

March 1, 2020 mmm-yoso Austria, Caffeine Fix, Desserts, Travel

**** Not much food in this one. You might want to drop by for something more substantial to eat tomorrow

Our train was set to leave Vienna at 0930am, so we got up bright and early, checked out and headed off to the Vienna Train Station.

As I've mentioned several time before; I really enjoy train travel. It's much more relaxed and comfortable. A mere 2 1/2 hours later we were arriving at Salzburg Hbf. From here it was a nice walk to the "hotel" we were staying at. I use quotes, because we were staying at Gästehaus im Priesterseminar Salzburg. We really didn't want to stay in the old town, but wanted a place within walking distance to everything and I thought the New Town area would work out fine. In case you do recognize the name; this guesthouse is located in Salzburg Seminary….yep, that's right. No television, but you do get a Bible and a cross over your bed.

The beds were comfortable and we weren't going to be spending too much time in our room anyway.

Though I kept on looking up in the air and over my shoulder….the Missus asked me why and I told Her, "I'm waiting for lightening to strike us down….."

It was a beautiful day as we headed down along the Salzach River. Since we had basically one day in Salzburg, we went with the walk in Rick Steve's Guidebook for this first walk.

And crossed over to the Old Town on the Mozartsteg.

From here we walked over to Mozartplatz.

So, have you noticed the name??? Yes, Mozart was born in Salzburg and spent his younger years there, before moving permanently to Vienna when he was 25. Thus you'll "see" Mozart everywhere, along with being the setting of a famous movie.

Without these two subjects….well, I don't think all these tourists would be here…..

There was quite a bit of work occurring on the Residenzplatz, where the Salzburg Residenz, the Archbishops of Salzburg resided (thus "Residenz"), so we skipped on over to the Cathedral.

This wonderful Baroque church was built in just 14 years, replacing the original church which was damaged by fire in 1598.

We found the stark white interior to be quite striking as all the murals seemed to "pop' and come to life. It just seemed so aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Hard to believe that in 1944, a bomb damaged the dome which wasn't repaired until 1959.

Both Mozart and Joseph Mohr, whom you might know from a little song he wrote titled Silent Night were baptized in this Cathedral.

Though, like I mentioned, it was the murals, especially those on the domes that really caught our attention.

Right around the corner is the Kapitelplatz, a spacious square dominated by this…..

A work by Stephan Balkenhol named Sphaera, a male figure standing on a golden ball…..looking off toward a female figure in a crevice up above.

As grand as this figure was; the one that made the biggest impact on us, was this ominous, scary sculpture named Die Pietà; which I was told meant "Coat of Peace"……it just looked really spooky to us.

On the far end of the square is the "Neptune Fountain" which is quite impressive, considering that it was actually built to be a horse bath….man, horses bathing here must've been something to see….

Right down the street is St Peter's Cemetery.

If you're a Sound of Music fan; this is where the Von Trapp family hid as they made their escape from the Nazis.

It was a beautiful sunny day when we visited.

There are three churches surrounding the cemetery.

We took a peek in Saint Mary's Chapel.

Which was a tiny, but quaint little Gothic chapel right in the cemetery.

We felt a strange kind of eeriness, walking thru the cemetery, even though it was a bright and sunny day.

At the rear of the cemetery, you'll notice structures carved into the mountainside.

These are the "catacombs"….I know, we usually think of catacombs being underground, but in this case they reside in Mönchsberg mountain.

We paid the small fee to climb up some steep steps and were rewarded with some pretty amazing views.

And as an amazing bonus; there was this young lady playing the piano in one of the caves.

She was amazing! When she finished, both the Missus and I gave her an ovation….which surprised her. She didn't even know we were there and sheepishly told us "I'm sorry, I'm practicing for a performance tonight…."

It definitely added to the atmosphere!

From here we walked thru Universitatsplatz (Univesity Square) and ended up facing Mönchsberg Cliff and what might be the most fancy horse trough I've ever seen before.

From here it was a quick turn at St. Blasius Church and you end up on busy Getreidegasse, a busy shopping street.

It was quite interesting walking down the street; you'd see folks dropping by places like Zara and Tommy Hilfiger….then you'd pass a place like Mozart's birthplace.

It was quite busy wo we decided to pass on this one.

We enjoyed wandering thru the passages….and at #3 Getreidegasse, there was a whale rib hanging from the roof. you can read more about that here.

By the time we passed Louis Vuitton and Hermes we needed a break. The Missus had enjoyed the Cafes in Vienna. so, when I told Her that Cafe Tomaselli is the oldest cafe in Salzburg, if not Austria was block away; well, we just had to drop by for some coffee and a snack for the Missus.