Cathy – Page 80

Karl Strauss Brewery Gardens (Sorrento Valley)-lunch

December 30, 2011 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Thanks for stopping by our blog, mmm-yoso!!! Kirk and ed (from Yuma) are taking time off from posting and Cathy is writing today.

This month of December has been particularly busy for me (and The Mister) with some sort of appointment, meeting or party on the schedule every day. I have taken a lot of photos of all the meals we have enjoyed and will eventually share all of them with you.

We were 'up North', in Sorrento Valley, the other day and instead of going to our usual Opera Patisserie for lunch, we went North at the intersection of Mira Mesa Boulevard and Scranton Road and followed the signs to the parking lot of Karl Strauss Brewery Gardens.

This is one of the entrances from the parking lot. We followed a winding path and soon saw the restaurant and were quickly seated. This is a rather plain view of the beautiful wood interior, but the glass wall next to us revealed

the peaceful pond, with many waterfalls and Asian inspired theme.

The one page descriptive menu was brought out and our waiter described the fresh beer available that day.

The Mister ordered a Russian Imperial Stout ($5.95) and it was served in this beautiful glass. Since I was driving, I ordered water, but did have a sip of the stout and it was really good; it had a chocolate-malt flavor.

The Mister chose beer battered fish and chips ($14.95) as his meal. The menu had shown several choices of french fries as appetizer choices(garlic, chili lime as well as 'sweet and stinky') and he was not asked as to a flavor preference and (fortunately) these were plain fries, cooked to a nice crisp and unseasoned. The beer batter on the seasoned Alaska cod was light and fluffy and fried just right- not greasy. This was accompanied by a lemon caper remoulade (not tartar sauce) which was very complimentary. A fresh made broccoli slaw(which was really good except for the addition of some really hot red onions) completed the plate.

I decided to try the 'special appetizer plate' as my main. The charcuterie ($12.95) was quite large and filling. Three meats- in the center a smoked, cured ham- delicately thin sliced yet enough smoking to allow you to taste smoke and salty ham. The fancy cut at 11 o'clock is an aged Sopressota salami-not very strong in flavor at all; it needed the fresh made beer whole grain mustard sauce you see next to the slice of Cambozola cheese to bring out some flavor. I also used some of the fresh pine-nutty arugula pesto you see under the bread and it complimented the meat. The pepper-infused Mailander salami had a lot of flavor on its own and I ate it with some of the crostini- and the apple-fig chutney, which was perfect on its own or with a bite of meat. The combinations of sweet, spicy, smokey and savory made this plate an excellent lunch.

When we finished, we walked the path around the building and grounds before going back to the parking lot. There were some water features in this oasis in the middle of all the office buildings in this part of town. We want to go back to try more of the menu. There are lunch specials (called "Daily Brews" on the menu) Monday-Friday, which cost a bit less and are most likely just as good as the food we got.

Karl Strauss Sorrento Mesa 9675 Scranton Road San Diego 92126 (858) 587-2739 Website

Rose Parade 2012 float decorating and Plate 38-Pasadena

December 12, 2011 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, Festivals & Events, Los Angeles County, Road Trip, What Cathy Eats!, yoso-silly

Welcome back to mmm–yoso!!! the food blog. It's the time if year filled with many holidays and Kirk, ed (from Yuma) and Cathy have been busy with activities other than eating. Cathy is posting about one of her busy days.

Hi. This past Saturday began with a 4 a.m. wake up and quick cooked breakfast.

Ham and cheese inside the flat omelet, sauteed spinach and mushrooms and crispy fried Bacon SPAM along with the only coffee I had that day.

It was still dark and the moon was beginning to eclipse when The Mister and I hit the road.

Soon, the sun was coming up, the moon had disappeared and we were passing giant Manger scenes along Interstate 5, the "General Hospital" building and got to Pasadena, finding a parking spot on the street, behind a Tournament of Roses vehicle.

We were at the Rose Palace, 30 minutes before our volunteer time was to start with our group, the Petal Pushers, which coordinates over 5,000 volunteers each year. There were many groups meeting this day to help decorate floats which were designed in February, when the theme of this 2012 Rose Parade was chosen- "Just Imagine". It was 42º outside and chillier inside. We were told to wear warm clothing that we were not afraid to get dirty. I wore three tshirts and an XL sweatshirt. As did most everyone else. This was a "Dry Decorating Day"- the fresh flowers won't go on the floats until 3 days before the parade on January 2, 2012. In other Rose Parade float posts, I've shown you how every visible part of the floats must be covered in living or previously alive materials. These dry decorating days are just as, if not more, important for the complete float to be built.

The assignments for Petal Pushers were given. We work on a few different floats in this barn, with various duties. Some people cut the purple petals off of these beautiful Statice flowers. All day. At the end of the day, all the five gallon buckets were empty-after being refilled one time- and the amount of flower petals gathered was less than one five gallon container.

One friendly couple were given the assignment of breaking down redwood bark- over the 8 hours they were given about 12 six foot long pieces of just bark,

which they shredded down into manageable thin pieces to be glued onto the HGTV float. They filled at least five of the large boxes and too many to count of the smaller one for volunteers to use to cover the trunks and branches on all the pine trees on this float, which has a replica of the HGTV Dream Home that somebody will win next year. In the background of the above photo, the young ladies are gluing bulghur wheat or some grain material onto the window frames. The spaces between the wood planks of the exterior have been filled with glued on poppy seeds.

You can see some of the glued on bark at the base of this pine tree. The tree is lying in the position it will collapse to during the parade- when the float passes under street and signal lights.

That box in front has a few poppy seeds left over. The HGTV home was built inside this barn and lifted onto the float 'body'. It is unusual to have such a structure on a float, since it is so heavy, but they wanted to build an accurate replica for this, their second float in the Rose Parade. HGTV will be doing a special before the Rose Parade showing how a float is built. It should be interesting.

You'll see this elk on the HGTV float, because he is on the 'camera side' of the float. Right now he is only partially covered in dry material. The undersides of the pine trees are covered in glued on dried parsley.

These powerful blenders are used to pulverize many of the flower petals so the powder can be glued onto some of the pieces of floats…

Like the giant flowers which will surround the Lions Club International float, "A World at Peace".

The 100th Anniversary of Loyola Marymount University will be celebrated with this tall(see the steeple in the back ?) float which is using the more blue-colored flower petals of the Statice flowers. It will have real palm leaves attached to the wires on those palm trees.

The back of the Shriners Hospital float looks like it has chickens exploding in the exhaust

which is coming from the bear-driven airplane. It's titled "Soaring for Kids".

The City of Los Angeles float has a few ancient creatures, with their textured skin made more visible with all sorts of beans. It honors the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County with the title "Dinosaurs in LA's Backyard"

There were a lot of volunteers working on the City of Glendale float, "Just Imagine the Music, Fun and Freedom"

The Lutheran Hour Float, in its 63rd appearance in the Rose Parade, is as detailed in the back as it is from the front. (Do you see two volunteers in this photo?)

The Farmers Insurance Group float looks like a giant game of "Mousetrap" and is called "The Unimaginable"

This is the back of the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs float "Shining Knights Still Exist".

At almost 5 p.m., we left. You can see the Sierra Madre Mountains and sunset in the distance…and the volunteers from the schools waiting for their buses to pick them up. There were more than 300 volunteers this eight hour day.

If you'd like to see artist's renderings of all the Phoenix Decorating floats, click on this link. There are a total of 55 floats in the 2012 Rose Parade and Phoenix is one of three companies which made them.

Anyhow, it was a LONG day and The Mister and I started driving through Pasadena looking for a place to have dinner (we brought lunch with ourselves; I did not take photos). We ended up on Colorado Boulevard

We were stopped at the signal light on Colorado at Sierra Madre and the side of this building on the Northeast corner had a sign about 'proudly serving Peets coffee'. We figured it was a Breakfast-Lunch-Dinner place and pulled into the parking lot.

Looking in the front door, it seemed Plate 38 does take out also. There were fresh, house made pastries in that display case.

We found a seat on the other side of the Christmas tree and admired the beautiful, solid wood table. We noticed the menu noted the food was made with local ingredients, no preservatives, organic fresh baked goods and also microbrews and Napa wines were offered.

The below photo turned out particularly blurry; I must have somehow channeled my exhaustion through to my iPhone and both photos of this same dish were just not good.

It is the Fritto Misto appetizer plate, which I chose to be my main dish. Quite large (it was at least 8×8 inches square) and filled with perfectly fried lightly breaded calamari rings, butterflied large shrimp and artichoke hearts and zucchini (both yellow and green), topped with a handful of mache lettuce and with a side of fresh made, wonderful lemon caper aioli, this was a perfect meal for me. The bonus was that since it was an appetizer, and between 4:30 and 6:00 p.m., the price was $2 off. Regularly $11, the $9 price tag was very much worth it.

The Mister ordered garlic marinated skirt steak plate ($18). The meat was tender and flavorful, not overpowering. The 'gravy' was a brandy peppercorn sauce. The fresh asparagus was not overcooked and had a nice crunch to it, I think it was braised in olive oil…the thin cut garlic fries were not overpowering and crispy, but not over-fried.

All in all we would like to come back to Plate 38 and try their other menu items. You can see the menu on the link below. For an all locally sourced, preservative free and organic baked goods, Plate 38 offers an excellent Return of Investment for your money. If you happen to be in this part of town. We will return. Maybe on a day when we aren't working and are all sawdust covered…

Tournament of Roses website

Phoenix Decorating Company website

Petal Pushers volunteer decorating information website (I just got an email- they still need volunteers for this Saturday (December 17) and from Dec 26-Jan 1)

Plate 38 2361 East Colorado Boulevard (at Sierra Madre) Pasadena 91107 (626) 793-7100 Sun-Th 7 am-10 pm, Fri-Sat 8 am-1am Monday 8 am-3:30 pm website

Shizuoka-La Mesa (revisit)

December 4, 2011 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Hello again. You just found mmm-yoso!!! and probably are looking for some sort of blog post about food. Kirk and ed are still too busy to write, so Cathy is posting.

I wrote a post about Shizuoka in June 2007 and took it for granted, not posting again. Yet The Mister and I do eat here. It's located at the La Mesa-El Cajon border, next to the Michael's in the same mall as Souplantation and Weevil Burger on Fletcher Parkway.

Shizuoka has been here more than 20 years. The interior has not changed much. There are 16 chairs to go with six tables tables and 6 four-person booths. There is a wait to get in almost every evening.

The menu is not extensive. The prices have not increased much since 2007. Good food prepared well. I suppose it's a neighborhood place and not a destination. It could be.

The miso soup is pretty standard, made from miso paste. It has a deep flavor and the tofu cubes are a firm consistency and always tasty.

The teriyaki chicken broiled mackerel plate is still $6.20. The Mister always orders one of the mackerel plates. The mackerel is particularly good tasting large piece of fish, broiled and placed on top of shredded cabbage so the bottom stays crispy and doesn't get soft when the juice flows from the cooked meaty mackerel. The teriyaki sauce on the grilled chicken is not too sweet and made here (not from a bottle). The chicken is placed on top of bean sprouts, again so the meat does not wallow in sauce. A lettuce salad, cold noodle salad and three freshly steamed edamame beans round out the plate.

My usual meal here is centered on the chicken karage ($4). Lots of dark thigh meat lightly coated and fried and always perfect.

This time I rounded my meal out with a (shared with The Mister) seaweed salad ($2.75) and Sunomono salad ($3.50). Both are tasty, fresh made and hit the taste points I want for lunch. The seaweed is apparently 'foreign' to diners here, and free samples are offered. The sunomono has a sweet vinegar-fresh ginger dressing and is made with that fake krab stuff. The plentiful amount of shredded radish, cucumber and (different than in the other salad) seaweed makes this salad a perfect compliment to the karage.

This is a small, not fancy, great neighborhood place, serving really good 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 Closed Monday CASH ONLY

Emma’s Mexican Food-Santee (revisit)

December 3, 2011 Cathy Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome (back) to mmm-yoso!!! the food blog. On this chilly weekend day, Cathy is blogging. Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are frenetically researching places to blog.

Hello again. I noticed I had not blogged about any Mexican food in the last week, yet I know I eat Mexican food either in a restaurant or from a taco shop at least once a week. Emma's is a regular spot for The Mister and myself. In fact, Emma's was my very first restaurant post on mmm-yoso!!!. Since that post was about breakfast, and it is six years later, I'll post about lunch.

Located in a nondescript mall of cinderblock buildings on Buena Vista, just off of Cuyamaca (you can see the back of the building when driving on Cuyamaca), Emma's has been located here for more than 10 years.

It is located in the same block as the Santee Sheriff Station and Buena Vista has a Fire Department just a few blocks East. Emma's is always busy with eat in and to go orders. I have also seen the mailman eating here- a little 'hint' about where to eat I learned from FOY (friend of yoso) Trent in 2006.

The eat in area is quite large. If you order 'for here' the food will be brought to your table. That's the fresh salsa bar to the right, next to the refrigerator. Only three types of salsa here (mild and chunky, hot smooth red and hot green). That's all you need.

The menu has barely changed since 2006. Most prices have seen an increase of <$2.

The Mister ordered the a la carte flautas ($4.60). This is made with only shredded beef (not the stewed shredded beef with onion and green pepper) placed into one of those super large flour tortillas, cut in half then deep fried. Properly fried. Many other places seem to fry the exterior of the tortilla only and the inside is unfried and so a raw tortilla. The flautas here are almost completely crispy and combined with just shredded beef as a filler…really good. Eve though a la carte, sour cream, guacamole, shredded lettuce and a slice of tomato fill out the plate.

Emma's only has three Mariscos plates, all versions of shrimp. This is the camaron mojo de ajo- shrimp in garlic sauce ($8.60). Five plump butterflied shrimp sauteed in a buttery garlic sauce on top of rice (which gets all butter garlicy and is a joy to eat) and also served with tortillas, refried beans, sour cream and a salad (which has real, not that sauce) guacamole under that tomato slice. Fresh and really good.

Emma's Mexican Food 8781 Cuyamaca Street, Suite L (at Buena Vista Avenue) Santee 92071 (619)596-8189 hours: 7-8:30 Mon-Sat. Closed Sunday

Wa Dining Okan- Lunch (again)

December 1, 2011 Cathy Japanese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog. Kirk, ed(from Yuma) and Cathy write about meals, cooking and sometimes vacation adventures. All of us are unusually busy. Let's just say that one of us is on vacation and gathering photos and meals to write about, one of us is busy working and planning a vacation so blog posts can be written and the other one of us has a lot of upcoming activities revolving around the holidays as well as a vacation so that interesting blog posts will be written. Today, Cathy is blogging.

Hi. I did write a post about lunch at Okan in July 2010 and have been back a few times, but didn't take photos. Kirk has put up many, many, many posts about dinner. At one point, Kirk, ed(from Yuma) and I enjoyed a dinner here together. Anyhow, a friend was in town, had seen the post about lunch and wanted to try Wa Dining. We walked in at just before 2 p.m., when they take the last lunch order- Okan closes from 2:30 and reopens at 5:30 for dinner.

Located in the corner of the mall at Convoy and , in the corner next to Nijiya Market-one of few markets which sells an extensive amount of fresh and packaged organic foods as well as ready to eat food, Okan is easy to overlook.

The small interior means making reservations for dinner is pretty necessary, at lunchtime not so much. There are 31 seats in the whole restaurant.

When you sit down at lunch, a cup of cold (no ice, not hot, just room temperature) tea is brought to your table.

The lunch menu consists of ordering a "set" ($6.50). This is what our recent one looked like-(from 5:00, going clockwise) a vegetable filled miso soup, pickled cucumber and radish, rice with seaweed and a tray of small 'tapas'-nishime, a potato salad and chilled stewed vegetable.

This is a wonderful, filling item and you can just have this as a vegetarian complete meal. However each day there is a selection of add-on protein items.

My friend ordered this grilled beef dish, which seems to be topped with kim chee ($4). She said it was very good. (I'm sorry, I wasn't overly reading the menu, we were chatting).

I tried the house made tofu topped with a miso/soybean sauce($3.50). Not a sweet sauce, quite hearty and the tofu was really nice, fresh and tasty.

The lunch choices (and really, most of the dinner choices) change daily here. Because it is always current and fresh, I really enjoy whatever choices are offered.

Wa Dining OKAN 3860 Convoy Street, Suite 110, San Diego 92111 (858)279-0941

Lunch M-Sat 11:30-2:30(last order 2:00 p.m.)

Dinner starts 5:30 p.m. and ends 11:00 p.m. M-T-W, 12:00 a.m. Th-F-Sat and 10:00 p.m. Sun (last orders 30 minutes before closing all days). Website

La Mesa Bistro and Bakery- a revisit

November 30, 2011 Cathy American/New American Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Hello. You are reading mmm-yoso!!!, a food-centric blog. Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are not blogging today, and Cathy is.

Are you still trying to find a 'normal' way of doing things? With the return to Daylight Savings, and darkness upon us at 5 p.m. combined with the short work week and long weekend and having to catch up with everything…and neighbors putting out Christmas decorations along with the receipt of three Christmas cards in the mail, I feel very discombobulated. Having a nice lunch in a quiet neighborhood helps to sort of return to 'normal', or at least feel that way for a moment. I posted about breakfast at La Mesa Bistro and Bakery last October, and promised to follow up with a lunch post. Quick like a bunny, here's that post.

Still nestled in the far corner of an "L" shaped mall on La Mesa Boulevard at Glen Street, one signal light South from Jackson Drive (the next block over from the BMW repair shop, if you have had to go there), La Mesa Bistro and Bakery has established itself as a regular Breakfast and Lunch spot in this quiet part of town.

It's a place where you order, pay and find a seat. You get a number and food is brought to your table, in this room, an adjoining room or the outside patio. We usually grab a menu and sit down then go back up and order since there are also a few Chalkboard Specials which tend to tempt us and we tend to change our mind as to what we were planning to order. But we usually come with it is not crowded here. On weekends, there is a line waiting to just walk inside to pay. As you can see, there are ten hot pots of regular and two hot pots of decaf coffee to choose from. There are also smoothies and espresso beverages offered. Water is also self serve here. Quite a few people order a coffee or tea and bakery item to go some mornings. But, again, we were here for lunch.

Since the restaurant is open from 6-3, breakfast is served all day on weekdays, so the table condiments are reflective of all the possible choices.

I ordered a Reuben sandwich($6.99), because I was craving both sauerkraut and the rye bread baked here. As you can see, two cheeses and a lot of thin but not too thin sliced corned beef on the grilled, seeded rye bread. I did choose cottage cheese instead of fries, knowing The Mister was getting fries with his lunch choice.

Yes, a Chili Size ($7.99). Basically an open face half pound burger, topped with chili. Both The Mister and I grew up eating Chili Size with knife and fork, not lettuce or tomato. Anyhow, The Mister tried to assemble this like a regular burger, picked it up for one bite, then cut it up to eat. The burger was done to a light medium, not quite medium rare, very juicy. The bun was lightly toasted and very fresh(baked here). The coarse meat grind makes a very good burger. The chili, made the way we like it, is without beans and had a nice spicy 'kick'. (The fries here are season-salted and very good).

La Mesa Bistro and Bakery is a good place for breakfast and lunch; its just down the road from Grossmont Mall, Grossmont Hospital and the La Mesa Trader Joe's.

La Mesa Bistro and Bakery 8697 La Mesa Boulevard La Mesa 91941 (619)589-0806 Open seven days 6:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. website

Chicken + Greek Cuisine (Sid’s Place)-(Escondido)

November 29, 2011 Cathy Greek Food, What Cathy Eats!

You have just stumbled upon mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog. Today Cathy is blogging. Kirk and ed (from Yuma) are just too busy researching about places and meals.

Hi again. The other day, The Mister and I found ourselves in Escondido on Mission Avenue between Escondido Boulevard and Centre City Parkway.

This was the view from Mission while we were stopped at the signal light. Actually, that little green sign attached to the flag pole (on the right in the photo) caught my eye. We had to pull into the parking lot in this oddly shaped strip mall to see what this was about.

After we parked, I walked back to snap this photo of the full flaming rotisserie.

We walked in and were asked if we wanted to order "to go" or eat in. I noticed a lot of people ordering and picking up 'to go' orders. We found a seat and menus were brought to the table. There are only 11 tables inside and a handful on the patio outside. It is neat and clean and bright. Everyone working there came by the table at some point, including Sid, the owner. It felt like a family run place. (I noticed on the website that Chicken Plus has been in Escondido since 1990. That's a good thing these days.)

We ordered, noting that the menu did state items were freshly cooked to order. The food was not brought out immediately, but the wait was not 20 minutes either.

I had asked for hummus($2.50) and pita (99¢) as an appetizer. The hummus was fresh made (i.e., not chilled and I really think freshly ground in the kitchen based on the sounds I heard as our waitress called our order in through the door seen in that photo) with garlic and tahini. The warm pita bread was really nice- a bit thicker and more 'hearty' flat bread with a good 'tooth' and chew. It was warm and had flecks in it, making me think it was made with wheat. I really liked this bread.

The Mister ordered the half chicken meal ($7.49) which came with either breadsticks or tortillas and two sides. He chose the breadsticks (light and airy and hot; nice) and cole slaw (made with a light sauce which was not overpowering and the way I like it) and the potatoes au gratin. Look at those potatoes. They are fresh peeled potatoes, cooked to a nice tenderness and topped with what looks like a gravy poured over them. It is a very old fashioned (I mean *very* old school) recipe for au gratin…using chunks of potatoes (not thinly sliced ones) and topped with cheese sauce, unbaked. This was *really* good. Unexpected.

Oh- the rotisserie'd chicken is fresh, juicy and flavorful. Really good. Really, really good. The chicken is not Costco/Chernobyl sized; it is a normal size bird.

I decided to try the chicken gyros ($4.99), mainly because the salad choices were topped with gyros meat (and if you've read other posts, you know that I have decided that nobody makes their own gyros and all of it that we can get in restaurants is sourced from the same Distributor) and the name of the place has 'chicken' in it. The menu did state this sandwich was made with 'spicy' dark meat chicken topped with what you see above, and I figured that would kind of be like a salad. It was…

I did try to take a bite of the sandwich all rolled up and a lot of the fillings fell out, so I did eat this as a salad, using the house made tzatziki sauce as the dressing. The 'spicy' powdered mix topping the shredded dark chicken meat had quite a kick of heat and did taste good, but the bites of The Mister's chicken were also very good, without the added seasoning.

This was a great place we stumbled upon. We will be back for a dinner (Moussaka is on the menu!)

Chicken Plus Greek Cuisine (Sid's Place) 309 W. Mission Avenue Escondido, CA 92025 (760)480-1348

Mon-Sat 11-9 ;Sun Noon-8 Website

Phuong Trang-COMC

November 27, 2011 Cathy Vietnamese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome back to mmm-yoso!!! It's still part of a long weekend and, like you, all of us here are busy with family and friends and food. Cathy has a short post today. Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are researching their next contributions to this blog.

Hi again. I was COMC (Cleaning Out my Memory Card) early this morning and realized how much I photograph every thing we eat, even if I have no intention of posting…then I thought I could share these meals with you. The pictures came out quite well, and we really like the food here.

Phuong Trang is sometimes referred to (by Kirk) as "middle of the road" or "Vietnamese Denny's" Vietnamese cuisine (by others). As I said, The Mister and I like it here. We are Caucasian and think the food is good. I think it's a good place to take friends who have never had Vietnamese food, offering a good selection of fresh, tasty and mostly common (read: not scary parts of animal) choices. Plus, it's centrally located on Convoy just South of Clairmont Mesa. Between the Kick Boxing place and Big Joy Family Bakery in the mall just North of the KFC.

The Spring rolls here are very good-the wrap/skin seems to be made with a different paper than from other places; it's always bubbly. The filling is more ground meat than noodles and finely chopped carrot and cabbage in the meat filling also. This is one of few places where you get the wrapping for the rolls including mint and cilantro in addition to lettuce leaves.

Broken rice with ground shrimp wrapped in tofu skin and fried. (I forget the Vietnamese name, but always order this whenever I see it on a menu). ($6.75)

A cross section of the ground shrimp. You can see the tofu skin is very, very thin. I crave the version here.

Vegetable Summer rolls ($3.95). The tofu is slightly grilled and warm/room temperature. Lettuce, noodle and a piece of cooked egg rounds out these rolls. This is a nice choice if you don't want the fried (Spring) rolls, or want to eat vegetarian.

Jellyfish, shrimp and pork salad ($7.95). Served with the fried shrimp chips. Refreshing on a hot day.
Grilled pork, broken rice($6.25) Add egg($1) and it's a 'breakfast'. This is always soooo good.

Chinese sausage Summer rolls ($3.95)

A cross section. You can see the piece of cooked egg, lettuce and all vegetable filling. These could be a light meal with tea (50¢).

Another jellyfish/shrimp/pork salad with shrimp chips.

Something 'new' to me- grilled chicken Bun ($6.50). This became particularly addicting this past summer. I realized after I had ordered it the first time that I usually don't order-or see on the menu at Vietnamese places- grilled chicken, much less as a bun topping. (Bun (pronounced 'boon') is some sort of protein on top of chilled rice noodles on top of a salad, in this case, shredded lettuce, fresh mint and shredded cucumber) served with a fish sauce based dressing.

I hope everyone is enjoying this extra long weekend!

Phuong Trang 4170 Convoy Street San Diego 92111 (858)565-6750

The day after Thanksgiving. Breakfast at Sam Woo BBQ.

November 26, 2011 Cathy Breakfast/Brunch, Chinese Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

This is mmm-yoso!!!, a blog about food. This short week and long weekend may be overrun with food and visiting with family, friends, Black Friday shopping (and perhaps preparation for a football Saturday) for you. It has been for the mmm-yoso gang. If you are checking the blog, here's a short post -with a glimpse of food- written by Cathy. [Kirk and ed(from Yuma) are recovering from Black Friday.]

Hi. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving Day. The Mister and I shared a meal with our neighbors. Here are some photos of some of the food.

The top photo only shows the fried turkey and the ham. The second photo shows the 24 pound turkey…There also were brussels sprouts, candied yams, mashed cauliflower, ten pounds of mashed potatoes, about as much macaroni and cheese, dinner rolls, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauces, a salad and a whole table of appetizers in addition to that partially filled table of desserts. There were few leftovers.

Needless to say, we did go home and experienced that 'food coma' which happens after spending a day cooking and consuming copious amounts of carbohydrates as well as the tryptophan from turkey. When we woke on Friday, neither of us wanted to cook and our list of "Black Friday" shopping deals was short -waiting in line to get into any store was not going to be necessary, so we went to Sam Woo BBQ for breakfast.

We always order the coffee (30¢). It is strong and served with sweetened condensed milk. (Hot tea is also 30¢ at breakfast; it is free with the other meals of the day)

It was a chilly morning and we decided to share a bowl of fish porridge ($3.25). (I did not even run across the hall to 99Ranch to buy a cruller donut bread to put into the soup- it would be a walk, it would be chilly and …I was saving on carbs). The porridge was excellent.

We also shared the #1 from the 33 item breakfast menu ($3.25). Stir fried rice noodles with vegetables (sprouts and onions) egg and lunchmeat (fake SPAM). This was also satisfying and was more than enough food to get us going.

I know you have all been busy and enjoying this unusual week of the year, preparing for the rest of the upcoming holidays while doing everything else. Thanks for stopping to visit mmm-yoso!!! in your spare time.

Sam Woo BBQ 7330 Clairmont Mesa Boulevard 92111 (inside the 99Ranch building)

Hail

Thanksgiving Eve

November 23, 2011 Cathy Cooking, What Cathy Eats!

Welcome to mmm-yoso!!! the food blog written pretty much regularly and mostly by Kirk, ed(from Yuma) and Cathy. Everyone is busy today, but Cathy has a bit of free time at the moment, so she's writing today.

Hi. It's a hectic short week for a lot of us and tomorrow will most likely be a day of thanks, reflection, meals with family and friends, after a morning of cooking. The Mister and I have been planning for the day and its meals by practicing various cooking methods and recipes we might share. Today and tomorrow will be busy with cooking and preparation. We do need two days though.

Today for breakfast we made Oven Pancake with crispy bacon. (You can click the links to see the oven pancake recipe and how the bacon is cooked.). The greens are pea pods (from our garden), fennel stems and mushrooms sauteed in butter. Those are gala apple slices…

We bought a few stalks of brussels sprouts (@$2.99 each) from Trader Joe's.

We plan on cooking some of the sprouts according to the recipe in the middle of this post, and using one whole stalk and some other uncooked vegetables as a centerpiece for the table (instead of flowers).

Because I deliberately finished up all the bread in the house, lunch today is a square hamburger with sliced pickles, onions and tomatoes. That's a fennel, broccoli and bok choy stir fry on the side. (That's blue cheese residue from The Mister's burger on top of my burger…).

Here are some of the fruits and vegetables I plan on using for sides. Hm..where are the potatoes, onions, eggplant, asparagus and broccoli??? Gotta go cook. See you tomorrow. Have a Happy Thanksgiving Day!