Cathy – Page 110

Shizuoka Japanese Restaurant -It’s been in La Mesa for all those years for a reason

June 4, 2007 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome to mmm-yoso the blog. Today, it’s Cathy’s turn because Kirk just doesn’t want to blog.

Hello again, friends. As you know I live in East County and sort of know the area. If you are familiar, then…over there on Fletcher Parkway, where the Souplantation and Michael’s are – in that strip mall- is, and has been, Shizuoka. There are 12 or 13 tables inside, depending how you divide up those in the center, they have never expanded or extended their lunch hours or dinner hours, and the menu has stayed pretty much the same over all these years. (The dinners are 50¢ more than lunch and beef is $1 more than chicken). 17 or 18 years, in fact. Sure, prices have gone up in general, but for the most part, that is it. You still walk in and the nice ladies all say ‘hello’ (and they all say ‘goodbye’ when you leave). The tables are always set with paper napkins and chopsticks. The hot tea has always been free. Sure, its served in a plastic teapot, with plastic teacups , but it is always fresh and tasty.

Pretty much everything comes with miso soup, which always has seaweed and tofu in it and it is always hot. It isn’t the instant miso but made from the paste.

Rich broth. Soft, silky tofu. Re-hydrated seaweed, with flavor.

We got the Chicken Karage as an appetizer ($3.20). Quite a lot of dark meat chicken, lightly breaded with a slightly spicy batter and served with a Ponzu sauce.

Light, crispy, flavorful without the sauce and…well…only $3.20. It was a great start.

We each just wanted teriyaki Bentos this evening and I got the chicken with gyoza as my other choice. ($6.20)

All the Bento Boxes are served with a green salad with a nice ginger sesame dressing , a delightful cold noodle salad that is consistently al dente and has a wonderful mayonnaise based sauce and, the square of tofu in the middle.

The Mister got the beef teriyaki with his additional choice being sashimi- tuna, sliced thinly, in three pieces… but it had flavor.

Oh, the teriyaki sauce is a deeper flavor than I have had at other places and is not sickly sweet. My gyoza were filled with a well seasoned ground pork filling with water chestnuts and a small amount of scallion, adding just the right flavor as well as texture. The gyoza skins are not too thick nor thin and the gyoza are fried to a nice crispness.

This place does a brisk take out business and is always busy. There is a wait, it is a teensy waiting area and you will be seated in the order you walk in and stand there. It is best to get there when they first open (they are closed between lunch and dinner) so you can be assured of a seat. It is a wonderful, small, not fancy place with great fresh food.

Shizuoka Japanese Restaurant 9118 Fletcher Parkway La Mesa 91942 (619)461-1151 (in the mall with the Souplantation and Michael’s)

Tues-Fri 11:30-1:45, 4:30-8:45 Sat and Sun 4:30-8:45

Tokyo Sushi Loha on El Cajon Boulevard- which is not the same place as Tokyo in El Cajon

May 29, 2007 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome to the blog called mmm-yoso. Despite the fact that it is an Asian restaurant, Kirk is not blogging about it; Cathy is. It’s OK. She knows if food is good or bad.

Hi again. A few people told me about this sushi place near SDSU, and that I should try it. I didn’t think about the name of it. The Mister and I went there for lunch the other day…I saw the name was Tokyo Sushi Loha…sounded…well…heck, I had blogged about Tokyo in El Cajon, and remember one comment, from Mike, who said he went to Tokyo all the time and their sushi had the best prices in town…and well, if you read that post, you can see it was part of my string of bad meals (and actually, generally bad days) I was having back in February. It came full circle when I was eating in this lovely restaurant.

I really think Mike was talking about this place, which is on El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego and not in El Cajon. This place is good. The sushi bar is very large and always busy.

As you can see from the menu (click on any photo and it enlarges) they have lunch specials, a variety of items for dinner and sushi and rolls.

There are only 13 tables inside, 12 seats at the sushi bar. It was almost full at 1 p.m.. The menu covers are made of bamboo, and so are the paper wrapped chopsticks. When they bring you the menu, they also give you the sushi and roll menu and a pen, so you can order that way if you wish. We decided to not go with the specials and ordered some crazy things, oddly, no rice was involved in any of our dishes. {Actually there was a reason for my eating no carbs, and you’ll find that out in a future post}

We read the sushi and roll menu and decided on the very last one listed- "Monkey Brains"- ($6.95)

Hush.

Deep fried spicy tuna with mushroom. Well, the idea of a deep fried mushroom sounded like County Fair Food and we both enjoy that as one of our treats when we do go to the Fair, as well as we wanted to try some spicy tuna…so we chose it. There were those four half tennis ball sized pieces as the serving- and then the cross section- spicy tuna, a layer of real crab and then a flavorful portobella mushroom cap on the bottom, deep fried. The description did not say it had crab, but I did notice that ‘crab’ was spelled correctly all over the menu, so I was happy. The melding of the flavors was perfect. The tuna was a nice spicy hot, the crab and mushroom both flavorful, the crunchies, fish eggs and green onions left over helped with our other plates and the sauce on the plate had a nice blend of sweet and heat. The fried crust was nice, light,not oily. Sure, nothing traditional, but we have established that I am the Caucasian person from East County blogging here…It tasted good and was fresh.

We decided to try the sesame chicken appetizer ($5.95) as opposed to the sesame chicken lunch special, which would have been $1 more and had less chicken, but would have had rice, a piece of tempura’d onion, salad, and 4 pieces of California roll. This was all chicken in a not too sweet teriyaki sauce and sesame seeds, served with daikon (and a piece of broccoli) This was a good 3/4 pound, easily, of dark meat chicken and was cooked well- the meat was juicy and flavorful. I did end up dipping it in the hot sauce from the ‘Monkey Brains’, just to get rid of some of the sweetness after eating a good portion of it.

We decided to try the Seared Albacore Salad ($7.95). This was a good choice. The albacore was cut in chunks and not thinly sliced, as it would be for sashimi, but it was only lightly seared, still raw in the center of each cube and served on a bed of mixed greens with a nice spicy dressing, daikon, radish sprouts and, as you can see, surrounded by a border of thinly sliced tomato. It was just a beautiful, as well as flavorful, presentation. There was a lot of albacore on this salad, as well as the token piece of burdock, which seems to be included on every salad in every Japanese restaurant we go to.

There were many Caucasian people eating lunch here. All the workers were Japanese. I heard the owner is Korean. Everyone was helpful and friendly and willing to answer questions. It is a small place. MY ONLY COMPLAINT WAS THE MUSIC WAS TURNED UP FULL VOLUME THE WHOLE TIME WE WERE THERE. Five television sets, two set to basketball and three set to Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera ‘live’ concerts.

Tokyo Sushi Loha Japanese Bistro 6784 El Cajon Boulevard, Suite D San Diego 92115 (619)644-8600 fax (619) 697-1937

Lunch Mon-Sat 11:30-3:00 Dinner Mon-Sat 5:00-9:30 (10:00 on Fri-Sat) Dinner only Sunday 4:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m.

Pho Saigon Star-Pho to go, Pho to eat in, and other good stuff!

May 28, 2007 Cathy Pho, Vietnamese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. mmm-yoso is the name of the blog. Today, Cathy is blogging, Kirk is doing something else, most likely eating and photographing the food; it’s what we do.

Hi. Cathy is back… so, one day a few weeks ago when it was raining, The Mister called me and was going to be leaving work earlier than I had expected and I hadn’t even thought about dinner yet. "Bring something home" I told him…figuring, since it was a Tuesday, he’d get one (or three) of the $1.99 Tuesday only specials from KFC. {There is a poster, on one window only of your local KFC- look for it.} {It is an exceptionally good deal-2 pieces with one side and a biscuit}{which is why we usually get three meals} {sorry, digressing} Instead, he brought home pho!

Now, you must understand,we never had actually done pho as a take out item before. We have seen many people walking in and picking up at just about every place we were, noting how much toppings we could see were given in the bags (a lot of bean sprouts)…but still, we always just ate in.

In late March we saw a coupon online at Get 1 free dot com and we were going to meet there for dinner, but Pho Saigon Star wasn’t open yet. However, that night when The Mister went, it was open- and joy of joys-they had fried shrimp tofu as a side order on the menu.

Pretty much the only places that have fried shrimp tofu are Convoy Noodle House and Pho Pasteur Anh Hong (the place with tablecloths in the mall with K Sandwiches). I got it once with Bun and was hooked. It is just a shrimp paste inside of tofu skin that is fried. Crunchy/crispy and the shrimp paste tastes like shrimp mixed with some sugar and fish sauce… it is just something I crave.

Oh, and as a side (or "appetizer" as I like to call it) it’s only $3.

Oh, here is the menu, along with a photo of Tip Top’s paw as she waited for a precise moment to walk over it. For some reason, the website does not have prices. OH-THE NEATEST PART…look closely (click onto any photo and it will enlarge) or, go to the website- The menu is written in Vietnamese, English AND Spanish. I have never seen it this way, but it is neat. Therefore the fried shrimp tofu is, in Vietnamese: them chao tom hoac tau hu ky and in Spanish: adicional tofu de camarones.

So, anyhow, The Mister brought home Pho Tai (raw steak)(filete raro). (Small $ $5.50). Thinly sliced raw steak that cooks in the pho broth. The broth was rich, slightly oily, and not too overly anise-y/5 Spice-y. It was still very hot, to the point that when the meat was dropped in, a nice boiling effect came up from the soup. We live about 7 miles from this place, with quite a few lights between here and there. As you can see, the accompaniments of basil, jalapeños, one lime wedge and sprouts was plenty. The noodles were under the raw meat in the take out box. This was a *lot* of food. The large bowl is only 50¢ more and easily could feed two people.

We got an order of the fried spring rolls (cha ngo)(taquitos fritos de puerco) ($5.50) which also came with a fair amount of accompaniments-there could have been more mint- There was enough sauce though. Some chili is in the sauce, so there is a kick to it. The filling is quite a meaty ground pork as well as having daikon and carrot in it. The ‘to go’ packaging was perfect- they cut off a corner of the Styrofoam box, so that the thin egg roll skins stayed crispy.

Then, my meal- Bun. How I so crave Bun sometimes. Inside a restaurant, it is served in a large bowl with the lettuce/cabbage/basil/mint ‘salad’ on the bottom, noodles over it, then the toppings, shredded carrots, cucumbers, peanuts and whatever topping (I have had it with the fried shrimp tofu, at Ahn…#123D I think) this time, BBQ pork (thit nuong)(fideos de arroz con puerco de la barbacoa),

($5.99). It came in this Styrofoam take out box, and I had to dump it into a mixing bowl (as we had to do with the pho also) so as to get all the flavors mixed in…the noodles are under all of that BBQ’d pork which was *excellent* in flavor and cooking. The salad as nice and crisp and flavorful with the herbs in it.

So, the other day, we were hungry. It seems to happen a lot. I thought we should try Pho Saigon Star again and eat in. We were the *only* White people. This is always a good sign. This restaurant is located where Friars Road turns into Mission Gorge, near Kaiser Hospital, in the curved strip mall with the Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Petco, Coco’s, Rubio’s, Einsteins, Carl’s Jr. You know where. You’ve seen it.

Very nice, clean interior. Very friendly young men waiting on the tables. Very much family owned and run. everyone seemed to know everyone. … and there I was, White Girl with Camera. Oh well, they never asked me what the heck I was doing. It seemed that whenever they came around to fill up water, each person did ask us if we had any questions and were willing to give us information.

We decided to try the papaya salad with shrimp and pork ($5.99) It came with the sauce on the side. Unusual, but we saw the table next to us get it that way also. The sauce had a good amount of chilis in it, and we put the sauce over the portion we had placed onto our plates and it tasted great. I saw a lady at the table next to us adding sugar to the sauce. I thought it was fine. I tasted the papaya, shrimp and pork without any sauce and each ingredient had a good, fresh flavor on its own.

When The Mister was picking up that one day, he saw someone having curry and he had wanted to try it. He got rice with chicken curry (com cari ga)(arroz con curry de pollo) ($5.99). You could get it with noodles or French bread also, same price. The curry was sweet, with coconut milk and not very hot (spicy hot I mean). It had an excellent flavor, the chicken pieces were dark meat; flavorful. There were potatoes and hot onions and cilantro served with it. The sauce was not overly thick. it was good, tasty, but not like a Japanese curry sauce, which is thicker. You needed to put the rice into the curry to eat it.

I decided to try Sir Fry crispy noodles, with everything ($7.50) (mi xao gio thap cam) (never mind Spanish). You can get crispy egg noodles, soft egg noodles, pan fried noodles or rice… with beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, broccoli, celery, bok choy, carrots, mushrooms, onions, cilantro…and a nice brown sauce. Great flavors- and a *lot* of food.

But, we got dessert anyhow: the three colored one: pudding/sweet bean/green agar with coconut milk and ice ($3)

Nice and fresh. We were asked if we wanted it with our meal or as dessert. We asked to wait and the nice Young Man brought it out when he saw we were finishing up everything else. The pudding (yellow part) was wonderfully flavored, the beans were not mushy and had good flavor, the green agar strips were..chewy…and the coconut milk was *so* nice. It was a perfect ending.

Oh- the tea. It is $1.50 per pot. It is Jasmine. It is loose tea with a tea ball inside the pot. It is great.

..and, the weird thing. The ‘muzak’ was in Asian style- those echoing stringed instruments. But there were only 3 songs that kept repeating and one of them was *definitely* "Numb" by Linkin Park. Every subtle note of it. I kind of found that strange….just an observation.

Pho Saigon Star 10450 Friars Road , Suite E San Diego 92120 (619)640-2985 Open 7 days 9 a.m.- 9 pm. website

The Steam Table at 99Ranch- dinner!

May 24, 2007 Cathy Chains, Chinese Restaurants, Markets & Grocers, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is the name of the blog. Welcome. Cathy is talking about food while Kirk is on vacation. I think he’ll be back tomorrow, though.

Hi. Me again. Kirk is still away. I imagine since this is the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, most of you are away and not reading this post until you are back at work. Hope it was nice for you.

It appears, through the magic of blogging, that The Mister and I pretty much wander about town with a camera and eat out a lot at sit down waiter/waitress type places. Actually, The Mister and I cook at home a lot, and Kirk and His Missus cook at home also…look at the recipe index at the bottom of the left column of this page.

Then there are the lazy days. Pick it up and bring it home…or pick it up and eat it there. 99Ranch has that steam table area of the store. We were there tonight.

Two bags of steam tray food. It is three meals for the two of us, easily.

The whole fried or soy sauce chicken is on sale this week for $3.99. They will chop it up for you. This is the fried one. The skin wasn’t as crispy as I would like, but the chicken meat is moist and flavorful and…it is only $3.99. It comes with a sauce that has 5 spice in it.

We got a two item combo($4.25) 99ranch_002 with steamed rice

The spicy salted fish and the soy sauce pork with soy sauce hard boiled eggs. The spicy salt and pepper crust is wonderful, light and crispy, as is the (mostly boneless) flaky fresh fish. The pork had a nice layer of fat on it , was soft and tender and flavorful and was not overly soy-sauce salty. The egg was nicely hard boiled and fresh and not salty either. A good, deep, rich soy flavor. I just got an email from Bill and he said it may be brown sugar sauce with fish sauce, which, upon opening the fridge and tasting it cold (at 4:40 in the morning) tastes very slightly sweet and again not salty. So it couldbe brown sugar and fish sauce. Let’s just say it is good pork and hard boiled egg in a thin brown colored sauce. The meat is tasty as is the egg and we liked it.

The combos come with soup (they gave us two- it was almost closing time). Today it was egg drop, with for some reason, one piece of corn in each bowl, and the requisite spork to use for both the soup and meal, although chopsticks are available.

We also wanted to try the chicken roll ($3)

Ground chicken and rice with light spices wrapped in fried tofu skin. Very nice here. It comes with a spicy sweet and sour sauce.

We also got the 4 piece ‘summer roll’ from the bakery area ($3.99) . Rice paper wrapped around chilled rice noodles, shrimp, lettuce and mint with a peanutty dipping sauce- always refreshing.

That’s it. Not too exciting a post, eh? Well,you know, sometimes I just like to eat some fresh food without having to cook. Not everything in my life is overly interesting, although I do share with you when it is.

There are Monday-Friday specials for $2.29 at lunch. Oh and breakfast specials also. Always fresh. There is a large eating area adjacent to the steam tray line. Across from the steam trays they sell beverages and soups. All of the 99 Ranch markets have a steam tray food area. Try it. It’s good.

Again, have a good Memorial Day weekend.

99 Ranch Market 7380 Clairmont Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92111 website

Road Trip-A long drive to eat all I could- Sunset Station Las Vegas- and visit the Pinball Hall of Fame.

May 23, 2007 Cathy Buffets, Las Vegas, Road Trip, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso is the blog. The bloggers are Kirk and friends. Kirk is on vacation. Cathy took a short vacation also and here is her accounting of a day in her life.

Before I start this post, I would like to take this opportunity to thank whomever thought up/invented the money losing proposition called Satellite Radio.

So, my brother (hereafter referred to as "Mr. Bally", because he asked me to) was going to be in Las Vegas for some sort of business trip two weeks ago. He told me like three days ahead of time. This has happened before.

I asked what day he would be free from business so that we could have lunch together and Tuesday was the day. I left Santee at 9 a.m. , just after traffic had cleared.

I drove. Yes. Here is the usual view when almost out of Escondido and into Temecula, just past Lawrence Welk Land.

I drove, stopped at a Starbucks someplace for coffee and then just drove.

I was alone and so I didn’t want to stop and eat. Besides, we were going to have a late lunch. Mr. Bally was staying at a company paid hotel (read: Holiday Inn Express) and I met him there.

We drove to Sunset station. It is one of the Station Casinos that are popular with the locals in Las Vegas. I do prefer the luxurious Green Valley Ranch casino out of all of the ones Station has to offer when I travel to Las Vegas and stay overnight. Then again, I don’t have an expense account and usually do not bother to stay overnight. (It was a 4 1/2 hour drive one way).

So, anyhow, we ate. Here are photos:

The buffet was $12.95 each (it was dinner time by the time we got there) and there is an option of an additional $6 for your choice of a steak, pound of crab legs or pound of chilled shrimp. We opted for the shrimp:

You will notice there are no dessert plates. I was tired, we were full and I had a long drive ahead of me.

But, there was one place we *had* to go to- Pinball Hall of Fame– It is run by one of the brothers who ran the most popular Pinball Arcades (Pinball Pete’s) in Ann Arbor and East Lansing starting back in 1970. It was very nostalgic for Mr. Bally and I. There are about 200 pinball machines in the building in a sort of run down mall just off Pecos, out of his 1200 machine collection. Photos:

There is a great article in the May 21 2007 edition of Forbes Magazine, describing the operation and its costs and that the Hall of Fame is a 501(c)3 organization (a non-profit) that donates all of the money made from the machines to The Salvation Army.

It was just a fun place to go, re-live some great memories and I got to spend time with my brother and then drive home.

There it is. Another day in my life. If some of you are taking Friday off, I hope you have a nice Memorial Day Holiday and weekend. For the rest of us, I’ll still be posting about something.

Sunset Station Casino website

Pinball Hall of Fame Museum 3330 East Tropicana at Pecos website

Tea Houses- Boba- Snacks? Why has this been kept secret?

May 22, 2007 Cathy Caffeine Fix, Dim Sum, Sandwiches, Stuff, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

mmm-yoso is not on vacation. That is the name of the blog, silly. Cathy is a-blogging and Kirk is taking a much needed rest, and really is on vacation.

Oh, I am sooo the White Girl on this blog…I had no idea exactly how Caucasian I was. Sure, I had the whole "chee fee" incident, and I didn’t know sago were the same as boba and…well, I didn’t know much about boba…and, I had seen "tea houses" and "tapioca drinks" and figured ‘eh, Asian Starbucks wanna-be’s’. Really. I figured those ‘tea’ places served hot tea and those silly boba drinks. Lots of young Asian kids hang out there; I saw some drinks coming out in plastic cups and also figured well…you do know the signs say "Starbucks Coffee", right? So it must be the same- tea and those boba drinks and Starbucks makes coffee and all those frou frou drinks. No big deal.

ANYHOW…Years ago, from the place inside 99 Ranch, I got a tea and milk and ‘pearl’ drink and it was good tasting, although I thought chewing on the giant boba (tapioca pearls) was kind of like chewing on snot, albeit flavorless snot, but the boba part held not much fascination to me…I love tapioca pudding, but the actual boba in a beverage…eh. Well, I liked the tea part, then the milk and there was a lot a lot of liquid sugar…and I don’t like sweet.

Then there was an epiphany. I was having lunch with Mr. C, at Bolsa on Mira Mesa.

and we had our ‘standard’ Pho stuff:

and we started talking about boba drinks. In my mind I was thinking, ‘oh yeah, sweet stuff with snot chewies on the bottom’. However Mr. C has never steered me wrong, and he started telling me that the place in the same mall as Bolsa, Tapioca Heaven, had the *best* milk tea boba of anywhere. So, I was polite. I had the milk tea at Tapioca Heaven and it was *wonderful*. It tasted like …tea…with milk…and there was a choice of boba to put in it- regular brown, small brown, green and strawberry. You could ask for no sweetener. Who knew?

The most fascinating thing I noticed at first inside of Tapioca Heaven was that they had free wi-fi. Hello!

Then I noticed something else, much more important- they have snacks. Fried snacks. Inexpensive fried snacks. But Mr. C and I had just finished a nice lunch at Bolsa and I didn’t want to eat any more, even a snack.

and so, I wrote Kirk a note. "Why haven’t I heard of these places that sell boba drinks with snacks?" I asked. "They are wonderful- so much more fun than a Starbucks, which does fascinating high calorie coffee based beverages and sells some ‘meh’ tasting sweets and sandwiches, but by no means sell fried goodies".

The reply, from The Missus, was "Oh boba, that is so last century".

Ahem.

So anyhow, I was on a quest. Since Mr. C had told me that the boba milk tea at Tapioca Heaven was the best, I decided to make that my standard…to see if any tasted better anywhere else. Of course, I needed to try snacks also.

So The Mister and I went to Tapioca Express. See, it used to be next to Bolsaa-on Convoy. Bolsaa isn’t there any more, so you won’t be confused. It is going to become some Cajun-y place in the summer.

When you walk into Tapioca Express, the wall is lined with the menu of beverage choices. At the register, where you order and pay, were two typewritten pieces of paper with a menu. The Mister and I had to try a bit of everything.

Chicken nuggets, chicken wings, fried squid, all with a choice of no spice, medium or hot. (we tried all three,the no spice was great and the medium was good too, the hot was just a little too much in the sense that you couldn’t taste the chicken as well as with the medium spice). Steamed pork dumplings and also fried donut holes with both whipped cream and also a vanilla cream dipping sauce. Each of these snacks were less than $4 each. This is wonderful snacking- or a meal. I saw one guy with something that looked like loco moco and I will go back to try that.

Next we went to K Sandwiches, got a boba milk tea, hot milk coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice.

Also, since we were at K…I got a pate chaud; its only $1 and so flaky and fresh and filled with a wonderful pork pate mixture. A friend, who was born in France and is working out here, said it is very authentic and good.

We also got a BBQ pork Bahn Mi ( think it is Number 9 on the menu) for $3.69. Here is a cross section view of both.

Snacks, free wi fi and boba drinks. Fascination.

So, the other day The Mister and I went to the Tea Station on Clairmont Mesa. Its in the same mall as Lolita’s and Teri Cafe and that Pho place everyone says they go to.

They have sit down service inside, and a menu .

We sat down and were waited on! At the other places you would walk up and pay and wait for your drink, kind of like Starbucks.

We tried the tea flavored dumplings ($6.50)

The flavors were different between the green ones and white ones both the dumpling and the filling, but you can see in the second photo (click- all the photos enlarge) a cross section and that the dumplings were quite meaty and full, very fresh and I believe one was chicken and the other pork. They were delici-yoso!

We also had to try the fried spicy chicken ($4.50)

Lightly crispy, nice spice (you can tell them the level of spice you want). Fresh. Great. Gosh, it’s adult chicken nuggets!

Tea flavored spiced pork slices ($6.50), served with 3 side dishes, it says…either they figured we could not count because we were White, or rice is one of the sides. Whatever. Plenty of food.

Oh, and we got beverages…

Boba_011

So, anyhow, the secret is out. Tea, milk tea, boba, not Starbucks…all with free wi fi and snacks…fried snacks.

We have now gone to many of the tea places around town, not always with a camera…and we try the fried chicken at least. Nothing has been bad or disappointing.

Some of the beverages are unusual- sesame, lavender, rose, yogurt..just about everything Starbucks doesn’t have. { Snow ice, or snow bubbles are merely finely *fine* shaved ice with flavoring-kind of a Slushee®, for the White folks out there.}

Tapioca Heaven definitely had the most tea-tasting milk tea, but getting any of the beverages without sweetener helps.

Oh, and now I kind of enjoy chewing on those tapioca snot-like things….it’s part of the whole "boba experience"

Tapioca Heaven Cafe 9225 Mira Mesa Boulevard Suite 115 San Diego 92126

Tapioca Express 4646 Convoy, #106B San Diego 92111 (858) 363-9889 website

Tea Station 7315 Clairmont Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92111 (858)268-8198website

Grillions Homestyle Grilling-Healthy, Mediterranean or American Style- your choice!

May 21, 2007 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Mediterranean Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Grillions has closed.

mmm-yoso: the name of the blog. Kirk: the main guy who writes here. Cathy: one of the friends who helps out when Kirk is on vacation, or just doesn't want to write or writes when she has something to say. Today: Cathy writing because Kirk is on vacation…but she also has something to say.

Good day, and short week before the Memorial Day weekend. Hope all is going well for you. I'm fine and have a new place to tell you about. This place has only been open a week as of today, as a matter of fact. It's called "Grillions" and we like it! Saturday, when The Mister and I were having a late lunch at Wired, we walked out and saw a "Grand Opening" sign on what used to be Daily's, the heart-healthy restaurant at Renaissance Towne Centre Mall, just southeast of UTC .

Daily's had been around more than ten years, started by a UCSD Cardiologist, to give his patients and friends tasty, heart healthy meals and it was quite popular. I am not sure what happened, but it is gone, and Grillions is now here. The Mister went in, grabbed a menu and said it wasn't very crowded. Next door, Le Peep was overcrowded with large tables of people using the over-saturated Le Peep coupons for their Saturday brunches. We saw a few curious people looking into Grillions but not eating there.

So- the menu:

BBQ chicken and ribs, BBQ'd burgers, grilled veggies, chicken fish, kebabs…whoa! and side dishes that could be various single grilled veggies (tomatoes, home style potato wedges, baked potato, corn), grilled home style potatoes, home style beans, coleslaw, rice… well, heck, we could do grilled or BBQ'd chicken and/or ribs with slaw and baked beans OR have a burger, OR have a kebab served with rice, pita and grilled vegetables…the combinations are endless!..and yet seemingly quite healthy.

We went back on Sunday, the next day. It still was not busy and Le Peep and Wired were. But that was OK. We asked. They had opened last Monday. Word hasn't gotten out. I hope you are reading this. It is *good*. You walk in, pay and wait for your number to be called. They grill it up right there under that menu. We ordered simply: I got the beef kabob plate($8.95)

It is served with rice, grilled veggies topped with a tzatziki-yogurt based sauce, pita bread and served with a sauce on the side that is vinegar-garlic-cilantro and goes quite well with the beef- and on top of the rice later.

The beef was plentiful, juicy, excellent flavored, and grilled, of course. The vegetables were delightful with the grilled bits to them- broccoli, cauliflower, onions, red and green peppers. The rice was more basmati/not sticky, but fresh and good.

The Mister tried the stuffed grilled chicken breast ($8.49) that comes with two sides- he chose the Home Style beans and Garlic Grilled Tomato: Grillions_004

The garlic grilled tomato was wonderful tasting and I wish we had more. I am going to have to try to duplicate this one at home. The beans are *excellent*, very much home made- the skin on the beans was strong, not mushy, meaning this stuff was definitely not from a can, made with a nice spicy sauce. The chicken, oh the chicken! A good sized breast, stuffed with goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes and basil and grilled. So moist, tender, tasty! Quite unexpectedly good.

We were quit full, but again, knowing I was blogging and 'taking one' for all of you, well, there it was on the menu- a grilled banana split ($3.50). One of my most favorite desserts. I once got a banana split cake (not an ice cream cake, mind you, just banana cake with thick chocolate frosting, strawberries and pineapple in the frosting with whipped cream and nuts and a cherry on top) for my birthday and the *only* thing I get at Dairy Queen is the Banana Split Blizzard… um, sorry, digressing again…

This is made with frozen yogurt that does not taste like yogurt- it is creamy, vanilla without any 'tang' of yogurt. The banana is so *so* very nice when grilled…not with butter, so not quite a Banana Foster taste, but yet, that burnt carmelization…mmm-yoso good! The nice lady brought it to our table and asked if that was enough chocolate sauce! It was perfect (since I am not a choco-holic and all).

The Mediterranean foods are not quite Greek or Persian (no lamb or gyros or hummus on the menu) but are excellent, fresh and by being grilled, healthy. Next time, I will try the BBQ ribs and chicken, which we saw someone else getting, along with the cole slaw and beans, which I think would make a great combination.

Do try it. The photos on the menu correspond to the numbered menu items. The wraps look large, as do the salads. As of yesterday, the only people working were family members, although someone walked in and asked and I heard one of the owners tell the person they had retained some of the Daily's staff who were available to work .

Grillions 8915 Towne Centre Drive San Diego 92122 Phone(858) 457-1204 Fax (858)457-1179 Mon-Sat 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun 11 a.m.-6 p.m. website

Wired Bistro-another (good)French Cafe

May 20, 2007 Cathy European Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Wired has closed.

mmm-yoso is the blog and Cathy is writing today. Kirk is on vacation.

Hello, again and welcome back. The Mister and I decided to "slum" our way out of Santee and visit the UTC area of town yesterday and enjoy lunch where we have enjoyed lunch many times- at Wired Bistro- but this time, with camera in tow.

I was introduced to Wired by a friend, Miss C, last year when we couldn't decide where to meet for lunch. It is in the Renaissance Mall, just southeast of the UTC Mall. I had visited this mall, but had only gone to the Rubio's here. Wired is one of quite a few restaurants here. It has become a 'regular' spot for me when I dine alone.

It is basically French Bistro style, serving in house baked goods all day and omelettes and bagels for breakfast , crepes, quiches, baguette and panini sandwiches, all sorts of cafe beverages and a daily wine bar serving tapas along with on Friday nights, having a wine tasting of a large selection of French and Spanish wines.

Here is the menu:

I must say I wish I had a camera every time I have been here, because everything is just pretty when they bring it to your table.

This time, I decided to try just the soup and quiche combo ($7.50) primarily because the soup of the day was tomato basil bisque, and I have had it before and crave it every so often. made with fresh tomatoes, light cream and basil, topped with lightly toasted fococcia (herbed) croutons. it was, as always, delightful.

For the quiche, you can chose one of usually four offered per day. I chose the spinach mushroom.

Usually, during the week, I get a wedge of quiche. This time it was a small, individual quiche, which was nice. Made with a puff pastry crust and filled with a *very* nice custard and cheese filling, fresh spinach and flavorful mushrooms. The garnishes vary and this time, as you can see it was shredded carrots with some bean sprouts. Different, but colorful.

The Mister decided on a panini- the one made with roast beef, roasted eggplant and cheese ($7.95). Neither of us had ever had this one before. It is the first time we were disappointed in anything here.

The bread was excellent, as are all of the pastry/baked items. The roast beef, although plentiful and tomatoes, sliced nice and thick basically had no flavor. The cheese and eggplant relish were wonderful. It isn't anything that would make me not want to go back, it was just not as exciting as we had expected it to be. It was served with a small salad in the center, topped with a very nice house vinaigrette.

Knowing I would be blogging, well, we had to order a dessert. It was late afternoon and quite a few of the pastries were gone and, well, The Mister had a craving- so we got the Nutella crepe ($4.00).

Two freshly made crepes, stuffed with Nutella (a spread that is half hazelnut butter and half chocolate butter) and topped with real whipped cream. Of course this needed a cup of coffee ($1.50), French roast- wonderfully fresh- and we had a nice respite.

During the week, or on Fridays at 6, when the wine bar tastings start, the Tapas menu is perfect. The $9 cheese and fruit plate or the $9 antipasto plate is a meal for me. If you are at the UTC mall, just leave the Sears parking lot and go south through the one light and the Renaissance Mall is there on your left-you'll see the Rubio's.

Wired Bistro Wine Bar 8935 Town Centre Drive, Suite 110 San Diego 92122 (858)450-0880 Daily 6 a.m.-10 p.m. (closes Sundays at 8p.m.)

Cafe 67-Great, plentiful food at the end of the freeway!

May 19, 2007 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Breakfast/Brunch, Sandwiches, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso is the blog and you are looking at it. Today’s information is provided by Cathy. Kirk is on vacation.

Hello,again. Cathy here. I was talking with a friend, Mrs. L, who told me I had to try this place, located at the end of Highway 67. I was trying to think to myself ‘where does a Highway end?’…and it occurred to me that on Highway 67 in Lakeside, once you hit Mapleview Street with the Rodeo on the Northeast corner, there is a traffic signal. The Highway does indeed end, goes down to one lane for a while and then vacillates from one to two lanes up to and through Ramona and to Julian and it is all called 67. So, indeed, Highways do stop being Highways at some point.

I had seen the sign in front of the old Pernicano’s, on that Southwest corner of Mapleview at 67, one day in February and had made a mental note that I should try it out one day, when I was in the area again. I did pass it a few more times, but always was alone and not overly hungry, and it kind of looks a little too new and gimmicky and I didn’t want to go inside alone to eat. So I waited. Then Mrs. L told me about *how* good it was, and that we should go there one day, soon. She even gave me a paper menu she had taken from the restaurant (she did not know I did this blog, which made her recommendation make me take note). Well, first thing I noticed is that the entire menu is available "To Go". Shoot me now. Then I noticed they are only open from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.. Hmmm…limited cuisine. I like that.

So, this past Saturday, The Mister and I decided to head East, to the Santee Swap Meet, instead of west and Kobey’s Swap Meet. Of course, we were hungry and wanted breakfast. I decided to try the basic:

One poached egg, Monterey potatoes(shredded potatoes with Jack cheese and herbs), bacon and rye toast with coffee, of course. ($5.50)

The bread was a nice, thick marble rye- I imagine the one they use to make the lunch sandwiches. The bacon was thick and crispy, the way I like it. The egg was poached and still runny with a very fresh orange colored yolk …and, wow! those Monterey potatoes. I have had the pre-made reheated, Sysco’d Monterey cakes and I like them. These were made from freshly shredded potatoes, had evenly dispersed shredded Monterey Jack cheese and the herbs were a nice blend; perhaps Herbes De Provence, but I am not certain.

The Mister could not decide, and got "The Works" Omelet ($7.75) with the home fried potatoes (That is almost half a plate of red skinned potato quarters, topped with cheese) and a biscuit, served with either country gravy or honey.

The omelet was made with at least three eggs, filled with ham, bacon and sausage, bell peppers, tomatoes, onions and cheese (The Mister asked for no onions and it was no problem). The bacon and ham were nice and thick and cut into nice sized pieces and the breakfast sausage was crumbled and excellent. The home fried potatoes were superb. Prepared simply and were so fresh tasting and wonderful, especially with that cheese. That biscuit- oh my!. Definitely made from scratch, shortening based, baking powder. Wonderful, light, large and if I do say so, perfect!

This place seems to always be busy yet service is great, attentive and fast. I have seen buses stop here on weekdays; some sort of regular, local tour group it seems to be. There is a larger side room and I saw that the Local Rotary Club meets here also.

The only downside- I confess, I am a coffee snob. It was fresh coffee, but either Folgers or Farmer John brand and I just don’t like the flavor. It was served with real half and half though, in those cool coffee cups. That kind of made up for it all.

We saw several tables getting lunch menu items, sandwiches in particular which were *huge* and looked really good. If made with the same bread I had for toast, they were a good size and at minimum, great bread. From what I have heard, everything here is good, and I believe it. Thanks for telling me to try this, Mrs. L! If you happen to be in Lakeside,or just traveling through it, on 67, do stop in. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Cafe 67 12381 Mapleview at Highway 67 Lakeside, CA 92040 (619) 443-4100 Open daily 6 a.m.-3 p.m.

Starbucks Sandwiches- hmmm

May 17, 2007 Cathy What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso never goes on vacation. One of us is blogging at one point or another. This time, its Cathy. Kirk is somewhere, documenting for a future post,while saying he is on vacation.

Hi. Me again. Kirk isn’t around. If you live in San Diego County, you have no doubt seen in most, but not all, Starbucks locations a small yellow 3/4 circle on some of the pastry that have the words "try it warm!" and then maybe notice the small or large placard mentioning the breakfast sandwiches.

Most of the stores were retrofitted with ovens earlier this year, and the quest for serving warmed pastries and toasted sandwiches to patrons, rather than seeing them walk out and toward a bagel/bakery place, which all seem strategically placed close to every single Starbucks in the county.

So, the sandwiches. Limited and basically the same one with different toppings. I decided to try the Eggs Florentine…three times.

The bread for all of them is an English muffin, which is toasted, and topped with egg, cheese, some kind of creamy sauce and some fresh spinach leaves.

The ‘sauce’ definitely has garlic in it.

The first sandwich I got, I took home and it "aged" in the car as I drove about 18 minutes and it tasted *really* good. The bread was only a little soggy, the egg was OK, nothing bad or good about it; a cooked egg, the Havarti cheese was extremely nice for breakfast and the spinach leaves were tasty. The second sandwich I got I ate hot and the sauce was kind of weird. This is a photo of the third sandwich and it seemed to be a combination of the first two- not bad but not great. I liked the cheese and crispiness of the toasted bread as well as the fresh spinach. The egg had not much flavor. It’s the melted sauce. Kind of on the edge of sour/bitter. It is described as a ‘creamy herb spread’ and maybe it wasn’t melted or something. It isn’t bad, but if it is allowed to "age" it tasted better than eating it as soon as it is served.

All three sandwiches were purchased at different locations, but I think we all pretty much know how much Starbucks strives to be uniform throughout its system. There should not have been a variance. I think the ‘freshness factor’ was part of it.

I went to yet another Starbucks in late afternoon, saw it had the toaster oven thingy and asked if I could try the ham and egg sandwich. I had no craving for low fat turkey bacon, peppered bacon or sausage that late in the day. (Actually, I never crave low fat anything, or peppered anything at any time of the day). They will make you a sandwich whenever, I have seen a few signs just advertising about warmed sandwiches and not calling them ‘breakfast’ any more. There are no rules. let the California Egg Board push their product all day long! Eggs- not just for breakfast anymore!…(sorry, digression again). The nice young man brought out my sandwich on a "for here" plate, since I was eating in the store and also I had asked for a "for here" cup for my coffee. You can see in the photo above that I had a "for here" cup for the coffee, but a "to go" sandwich.

Here, the photo of the innards of the sandwich show the delightful experience I was about to have…aged cheddar cheese and a lot of wonderfully flavored black forest ham. Having it freshly made, still hot…and that little bit of aged cheddar that melted out and crisped onto the bottom of the plate made it oh so perfect!

As I understand it, there are a limited number of sandwiches available a day. So, this means they will always be fresh and not day old. The eggs are apparently pre-made and so are only reheated. They do have a pre-wrapped pack of fork/knife/napkin/salt and pepper available in case the flavor from the cheese and meats or sauce isn’t quite flavorful enough for you.

The other flavors are a classic sausage with aged cheddar,a peppered bacon, also with aged cheddar and a low fat turkey bacon with a cholesterol free egg and reduced fat white cheddar cheese on a multi grain English muffin (all the others are on regular, white toasted English muffins). The sandwiches are good and made when you order. Its a nice change and I like not having to smuggle in my Carl’s Jr. Breakfast Burger into the store, making an extra stop before my fresh Cup o’ Joe.

Starbucks, too many locations to list. Some have the breakfast sandwiches, which you can order all day long, some don’t. Hours vary. All are open by 6:00 a.m. in San Diego.