Monday Meanderings – Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodles Opens, Pho Duyen Mai Under New Ownership (?), and What the Heck Happened to Nijiya’s Chicken Karaage

A couple of things for a warm Monday.

Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodles Opens:

I was driving on Engineer Road when I came across new signage over the shop that used to house Harmony Pot Sticker which closed during Covid and became some kind take out place named Burger Box that served chicken sandwiches, but kept the Harmony sign. 

I drove on into the parking lot to take this photo.

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Seems like they just opened a couple of weeks ago. It's been a while since we've had a Yunnan Restaurant in the area, so will be interesting to check out.

Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle
7905 Engineer Rd.
San Diego, CA 92111

Pho Duyen Mai Under New Ownership?:

My good friend Candice mentioned that the folks from Cross Street Chicken have taken over Pho Duyen Mai! Talk about catching me by surprise! Even though I'd already had lunch, I decided to drive on by…..and things look the same to me.

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I'll drop by for some pho soon.

Pho Duyen Mai
5375 Kearny Villa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92123

What the Heck Happened to Nijiya's Chicken Karaage?:

I shop at Nijiya a couple of times a week and will grab a bento or some chicken karaage to have for dinner with some curry/onigiri/etc. The karaage, while not particularly crisp, had decent flavor, and was fine when heated in the toaster oven/air fryer.

So, I was intrigued when I saw this sign.

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So, I decided to grab some to try. I thought the color was really pale.

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It lacked flavor was not juicy in the least bit and super chewy/hard. I tried it again on another visit and the darn thing wouldn't brown at all, the coating was quite gummy. 

Sigh, another bites the dust. I'll have to stick with the shio koji fried chicken I guess. I spoke to an acquaintance who works at Nijiya part time and she agreed with me saying the karaage was so tough she could barely swallow it.

Sad.

Nijiya Market
3860 Convoy St Ste 109
San Diego, CA 92111