As in, yoso-silly, yoso-hungry, yoso-full, or best of all; mmm-delici-yoso!!!!! A San Diego based food and travel blog. An Ex-Pat Kama'aina and Friends explore food, restaurants, and travel from San Diego and points beyond.
My apologies for the lack of posts. The last couple of weeks has been some of the most challenging I've had in my career, which stretches back to 1989. Never thought I'd be working this hard in the twilight of my career. Anyway, hoping to catch up on some posts this week.
And share stuff I've eaten, like this with you all soon.
Take care, be safe!
Thanks for stopping by to read mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog trying to share a bit of 'normal' during these decidedly abnormal times. Cathy is writing today while Kirk enjoys His job.
I wrote about our favorite 'secret' place for great food with great dessert back when times were simpler, all the way back in August of 2019.
The small, conveniently located market has been in El Cajon for at least ten years. The Mister and I purchase warm tortillas and carne asada as well as other meats from the butcher shop counter, while ordering from the in store taqueria. 
Way back when 'eating in' was allowed (October?November?) The Mister and I woke up talking about craving the birria. The meal is now $8.99 and was brought to one of the properly spaced in-store tables. The birria is either beef or mutton (depending on the day) and is a deep flavored, long simmered (at least three hours) wonderful stew. There are ancho as well as guajillo peppers, garlic, oregano and a wonderful mix of herbs and spices.
We have been ordering birria "To Go" and the packaging is nice. 
The broth is kept separate from the meat and the serving size is the same or larger as the in-store plating.
We usually order one taco ($2.50), so that the other person has something to eat while the other is enjoying the stew. Our favorite here is the adobada (marinated pork).
Although the carnitas is quite nice.
Eating local; an easy resolution.
Ol' Rodeo's Meat Market 927 Broadway El Cajon 92021 (619) 401-7351
Right next door is The Yogurt Mill. (That is Ol' Rodeo to the right in this photo)
Family run now in its 43rd year. Just frozen yogurt and a variety of toppings. Five of the flavors change daily (including one non-dairy and one non-sugar), five remain the same (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, coconut and peanut butter). The "Baby" size ($3.60) is enough for sharing.
Flavors shown here are tart peach and pistachio; peanut butter and coffee (not photogenic, but tasty); strawberry and coconut.
Always a nice ending to a good meal.
Yogurt Mill 935 Broadway El Cajon 92021 Open daily 11-9
After doing that crazy three stop takeout thing for the Missus, I started thinking about other Chinese Restaurants in the Convoy area. And Yummy House came to mind. For some reason, I thought that I hadn't been there in over a year…..but doing a search, I found that I actually last visited in February. Well, I guess with the pandemic raging, February of 2020 just seems like a different time these days. Anyway, since I'd pretty much have never seen customers in the place, I was wondering if they were still open. On one of drives I passed by and did notice they were still open. A few days later, I gave the online ordering on their website a shot.
And I'm happy to say, everything went fine as my order was ready and waiting when I arrived…..I barely spent 3 minutes in the place!
I unpacked the three dishes I ordered when I got home and set to work.
The Stir Fried Pork Intestine ($13.98), was passable, nice texture, mild musty-funkiness, with a bit of heat.
It was a decent prep, but nothing special, and perhaps could have even used a bit more savory-saltiness….sheesh, when was the last time I said that about any takeout Chinese food?
My usual favorite the Beef Tendon Pot ($16.98) portion size was quite a bit smaller than I recalled.
And while the "sauce" was a bit thinner than on previous occaisions, the tendon was pleasantly textured; slightly firm, but yielding easily when bitten into. I like the tanginess of this tomoato based dish, but the Missus isn't fond of the amount of acidity. The beef was sligtly toothsome, but full of beefy goodness. Still my favorite dish here.
For the Missus I got the Lamb with Suan Cai ($16.98)….I had to laugh as this is called Sauerkraut with Lamb on the online menu.
While the suan cai here wasn't overly fermented in flavor; and we were out of our homemade which we like to add to these type of dishes, our first batch of the year was bottled two days ago, so the Missus thought this was pretty "weak" and then proceeded to polish it all off, so perhaps it wasn't that weak after all? I did manage a few bites and found the lamb to be on the dry and chewy side, but nice and gamey. It definitely could have used more sour-fermented tones; but this was not bad and far from bland. 
So, overall a not bad meal. I Yummy House is surviving thus far and I'll probably order from them again when I'm craving the Tendon with Tomato Hot Pot and perhaps find some other items I enjoy on the menu.
Yummy House
4633 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 499-8999
Current Hours:
Tues – Sunday 2pm – 1030pm
I had ST email me asking what happened to my usual New Year Osechi post, the one I've been doing since 2005. I have noticed that the availability for sale has gone down over the years and the model has increasingly become a "preorder" one. Of course, this year was even more different…….so I just went for a visit during a short break on the 30th and found, that even at 11am, there were pretty slim pickins'.
And frankly; I thought the lines on NYE were going to be crazy; which they were……I drove past on NYE and the line stretched all the way across the mall! So perhaps this 15 tradition has come to an end…..
As for us? Well, I used up the rest of our Duck Confit, along with my bag of Cassoulet Beans from Rancho Gordo, which has been selling out of everything since Covid, and some Garlic Sausage from D'Artagnan and made the Missus Her Cassoulet. She specifically wanted duck in the cassoulet along with a duck leg on top and also a fried egg…..
There have been quite a bit of beans/lentil soup and stews in the mix this year. Is it just me; or does it feel much colder this year? Or is it just that I'm working from home so much?
And still having a pound of garlic sausage left; I did a sort of white bean stew, using the sausage, pancetta, duck rillette, and chard.
The Missus requested Oden "Her way", which meant no kamaboko or chikuwa….only the expensive stuff. This time I put in some kokubo (turnips) which She enjoyed.
And then of course; there's my comfort food".
And….I even went ahead and made Karaage Curry……
Left over Soppressata from a recent order from Salumi Chicago made a decent frittata. Topped with Truffled Marcona Almonds….
And there it is….a round up of dishes that I remembered to take photos of the last couple of weeks.
Tell me, what have you been eating at home?