ed fromyuma – Page 11

El Zarape: Chewing on Some of Don Chuy’s Chow in Yuma

April 30, 2011 ed fromyuma Mexican Restaurants, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Kirk and the missus are off to somewhere, Cathy has been blogging up a storm in their absence, but today ed (from yuma) wants to help them out by telling you and the rest of the world about an NEW/old Mexican restaurant in Yuma that's really good.

Sadly, El Zarape is no longer operated by Don Chuy. It is now run by the Duron family who have some excellent asada, but, still, I miss this previous El Zarape

When I moved to Yuma over 10 years ago, I thought the best Mexican restaurant in town was El Zarape, which featured the cooking of Pepe Jimenez. Within a few years, Pepe had gone off to open Los Manjares and El Zarape fell on hard times. Two or three different owners couldn't make the somewhat inconspicuous restaurant on Eighth Street a success. Food quality went downhill. The restaurant finally closed after the Great Recession hit.

Recently, however, it has looked like the restaurant was open again, and finally in March, I stopped by to see what was going on there now:

What I discovered was that one of Pepe's chefs had decided to open his own place here, his daughters (who had been the best servers at Los Manjares) waiting the tables.

I also immediately discovered that El Zarape (officially named, El Zarape de "Don Chuy") is serving some great Mexican food at good prices.

For breakfasts – served all day – El Zarape has such standards as huevos rancheros ($5.50):

This was perfectly prepared. The two eggs over-easy fit on top of the crispy corn tortilla perfectly. The Ranchero sauce had just a hint of sour tang that played off the natural sweetness of the eggs beneath it. The frijoles were good as were the breakfast potatoes.

Don Chuy aims to please, and will do breakfast plates "al gusto" – as you like them ($5.50-$7.25). So one morning, Tina decided to combine carnitas, nopales (cactus pads), and egg. It looked like this:

Similarly, the restaurant will make breakfast burritos containing pretty much whatever you want for $3.50. Since the carnitas, cactus, and egg combination was so tasty, we had it in a burrito as well:
Another treat here are the quesadillas. To be honest, most quesadillas I've eaten in my life have been unimpressive, often greasy or soggy. Not here – the perfectly prepared quesadillas are grilled to perfection, the edges of the flour tortilla crispy and crunchy:
And you can get the quesadillas with meat and cheese fillings. This one has carne asada:

Great Asada, wonderful melty cheese, perfect flour tortilla.

A range of tortas ($4.50) are also available. Among other choices, you can get grilled chicken:

Or al pastor:
When you open them up, along with the meat, you will see guacamole, chopped tomato, chopped lettuce, chopped jalapenos, cilantro, and on the bottom bun, a thin smear of frijoles:
During the week, El Zarape also has daily specials ($5.50 at lunch) such as decent chicken mole:

A textbook example of carne en su jugo:

The beef was tender, the bacon flavorful, the beans beany, and the broth rich and complex.

One day, I had outstanding costillas de puerco en salsa chipotle:

Even better than the version at Pepe's. Big chunks of pork on rib bones in smoky and spicy chipotle sauce.

The regular dinner plates also offer some outstanding dishes. Tina has fallen in love with the carnitas ($8.99 – like all dinners, it includes beans, rice, and tortillas) Here is an order packed to go:

There's more meat underneath the pico de gallo. Zarape's carnitas tends to be rich and tender, more on the roast pork rather than crispy side on the carnitas scale.

El Zarape is also one of the few places in town that regularly has birria de chivo ($9.50). None of my pictures of the dish is worth the electrons it would take to post here, so to give you an idea of the birria, here is what a couple of the chunks of goat meat looked like in a little of the broth:
The chile rellenos ($8.99) are also good, as you can tell from this picture:
The camarones a la diabla ($10.99) is an excellent rendition of this classic dish. As Dave pointed out, the muy picante sauce was nearly pure ground dried red chile, wonderfully spicy and deeply flavorful. Mouth filling hotness that did not overwhelm the taste of the shrimp, but rather emphasized it:
The machaca ($7.99) is the best in town:

I was going to say that the full beefy flavor was in your face – but actually, it was in my mouth. Really good. The beef ranged from tender chewy to slightly charred, its meaty textures complemented by the green pepper, onion, and tomato pieces that were not overcooked.

As you can tell by all the photos I've taken, I like this place. While it does not have a menu quite as extensive as Mi Rancho or Los Manjares, there are plenty of choices for everyone. With the exception of the watery house salsa, I have enjoyed everything I have been served, and the prices are as good or better than anywhere else. On top of the constant great value, some items have been truly outstanding – the best in Yuma.

I also like the family aspect of the place. The family cares about the restaurant, the food, and the customers. On Sundays, when Don Chuy's granddaughter helps out, they even have the youngest assistant waitress in town (and she's good):

El Zarape de "Don Chuy," 1905 W. 8th St., Yuma, AZ 85364, (928) 782-7279. Open daily 6:30 AM to 9:00 PM.

Finding the Pho in Phoenix: Pho 43 Express

March 8, 2011 ed fromyuma Bun Bo Hue, Pho, Phoenix/Scottsdale/Chandler/Central AZ, Road Trip, Vietnamese Restaurants, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Kirk needs a break and Cathy is reeeallly busy, so today ed (from yuma) is posting about some place not in Yuma or San Diego.

Knowing that we were going to be in the Phoenix area around Presidents' Day, Tina and I thought about some places to eat. Both of us, as it turns out, were hungry for Vietnamese. A little research on Chowhound turned up a list of Vietnamese restaurants.

The one closest to where we were going to be was Pho 43 Express on 43rd Ave in the Maryville district of Glendale. We figured we'd give it a try.

The restaurant is a stand-alone building with plenty of parking in a neighborhood of multiple ethnicities — so far, so good:

The large number of family members (no school on Presidents' Day) let us know that this was a family restaurant, not a pho factory like some of the assembly line SD pho restaurants. The folks were friendly.

Looking over the menu, we realized that this was primarily a noodle House, with bun, pho, hu, and mi dishes predominating. That made ordering easy. A large combination pho and bun bo hue.

The garnishes arrived first and were all on one plate. There were plenty of bean sprouts and shredded cabbage, abundant mint and basil, lemon wedges, and a few jalapeno slices:

Although a few leaves of basil were blackened at the edges, we had plenty.

The first soup to arrive was the bun bo hue:

I thought it was a pretty decent bowl of soup. The nearly spaghetti size noodles were nicely cooked. They still had some pull and were not all clumped together. There was enough chili spice and a slight taste of the sea underneath the meat flavors in the stock. Kirk, of course, would have deemed it insufficiently funky and reached for the shrimp paste. But he wouldn't have found any on the table:
The beef in the soup was good (though not memorable), but the meaty highlight of the dish where the pieces of pork leg. Look at this:
And here's another:

Loved all the tender pork meat and the abundant tendon.

Still, I think we liked the pho even more:

Again the noodles were extremely well prepared. Separate and not overcooked. The stock rich, slightly sweet, with a nice anise flavor. The jalapeno slices and basil contributed nicely.

Unlike the bun bo hue, this soup had very little tendon and not much brisket. On the other hand, it was full of crunchy tripe and had remarkably flavorful rare steak:

I was impressed by the slices of rare steak. Normally that is my least favorite, and to my palate, the least flavorful pho meat. Here, it was really good and steaky. Amazing.

We also had good homemade lemonade:

To be honest, I was pretty impressed with this little restaurant. Maybe we just got lucky, but the pho was better than most that I've had in San Diego. And I would order the bun bo hue again as well.

I have not included prices because I'm sure that the carry out menu that I carried out is out of date. That large bowlof dac biet pho must cost more than five dollars, and the bun bo hue has got to be more than $4.90. However, I'm sure they are still incredible values.

Pho 43 Express, 2844 43rd Ave, Phoenix AZ 85009, (602) 269-3383. Open 8 am – 8 or 9 pm every day but Tuesday.

Jersey’s: Home of the 3 lb Burger in Yuma Foothills

February 9, 2011 ed fromyuma Burgers, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Everybody eats burgers. Kirk eats burgers, Cathy eats burgers, vegetarians eat veggieburgers, and even ed (from Yuma) eats burgers. Today, he's posting about some that are yoso delicious.

Jersey's is gone but not forgotten.

Some things happen in threes. Right after my post on the Fortuna foodcourt in Foothills, Yuma, appeared here at mmm-yoso, three things converged. First, Cathy and Foodhoe wanted to know about the 3 pound burger at Jersey's; second, my gourmandizing friend Chip insisted we had to go there and try the burgers ASAP; and third, Kirk sent me an e-mail reminding me that Burger Week was approaching at the blog. That was a triple whammy, but I hardly needed three prompts to go to Jersey's:

In fact, the very next day, a bunch of us carnivores, Chip, Betsy, Light, Deb W, Tina, and I, gathered together to eat some serious meat.

After ordering sandwiches, we walked over to the refrigerator and selected some soft drinks:

While we were deciding between root beers and colas ($1.50), it was impossible to ignore that wonderful smell of beef being charred over coals on an open grill. Cue the saliva.

The tables contained a limited number of condiments and a whimsical paper towel dispenser:

The smaller burgers and Betsy's cheesesteak arrived first. I had ordered the most basic burger on the menu ($5.50) , which came with some iceberg lettuce and abundant mayo sauce:

The sesame seed bun held a handmade patty that had to weigh at least a half pound. One bite and I was in protein paradise. I cannot recall a more intense burger in my life. The whole thing screamed BEEF as loud as it could! The char from the grill and the sauce (mayo with hint of ketchup, I think), just made the flavor of the patty that much better and more intense.

By default, all the burgers come with french fries:

These were obviously homemade and full of potato flavor. While not greasy, they were also not especially crunchy. Not bad, certainly, but really just okay. Next time, I will follow Chip's lead and order mine extra crispy.

Tina opted for a blue cheese burger, which came with mayo sauce, red onions, hand cut tomato slice, pepper bacon, lettuce, and hand formed perfectly grilled burger patty:

In general, I am hesitant to order blue cheese burgers because many that I've had over the years have tasted more like blue cheese than like burger. Not the case here. The intensity of the beef flavor stood up to and was enhanced by the cheese. There was so much going on (in a good way) that the bacon seemed like an afterthought. Let me say that any time slices of bacon are not the most flavorful things on a sandwich, that sandwich has got to have full tilt taste. The only disadvantage of Tina's burger was that the bun disintegrated before the whole burger was consumed.

"Totally scrumptious," Tina termed it. It was so good that I think it's worth another picture:

Unlike my french fries, the onion rings Tina ordered were just about perfect. Clearly homemade, each crunchy ring had a sweet onion center.

Betsy's cheesesteak ($?) was also pretty darn good. She loved it. The beef was full of flavor, like good carne asada steak, the roll well grilled, and the cheese, onions, and peppers added tastes and textures:

And then it arrived, the 3 pound burger ($21 — free if you can eat it all in 20 minutes):
The genormous burger was loaded with lettuce, tomato, cheese, grilled red onions, pickle relish, and two 1 1/2 lb patties. For some strange reason, Chip had asked the mayo sauce be replaced with mustard. This close-up shows the wonderful grill marks that marked each patty with flavor:

We cut the giant burger into four wedges, letting us all see a cross-section of this flavorful concoction:

A quarter section of this giant burger was still a handful — actually two hands full:

It is rare for a restaurant, whether it be a posh fine dining establishment or a taco stand, to exceed my wildest expectations. After all, when it comes to food, I have some very wild expectations. Jersey's is everything it promises and more.

However, it should come with two important warnings.

After lunch, I had work to do. All afternoon I struggled to keep my eyes open and my mind on what I was reading. When I got together with Tina that evening, I was complaining about nodding off, and she looked at me and said, "you think you had problems. I lay down for a second – and woke up three hours later."

First warning: May Cause Drowsiness!

Second warning: Could Be Habit Forming!

Consider yourselves warned.

Jersey's, on the access road parallel to Fortuna between Walgreens and the Fry's Shopping Center, Yuma Foothills, (928) 920-6476.

The Fortuna Foodcourt in Foothills, Yuma: La Botana, Tacos Durango, and El Cositas

January 18, 2011 ed fromyuma Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Kirk travels the world and SoCal looking for interesting food and blogs about it here. Cathy knows San Diego better than the cops and blogs about eateries from SD to Michigan. But today, ed (from Yuma) is posting about a collection of trucks and carts in a strange and unexpected part of Yuma: The Foothills

As I wrote last May in a post about Kodiak seafood, The Foothills, a neighborhood about a dozen miles east of the main part of Yuma, is not usually where someone would go looking for good and interesting restaurants. Populated this time of the year mostly by retired winter visitors, it hardly seems like it would be the home to some of the best taco trucks/shacks in Yuma. But it is.

Over the last few years, a group of culinary entrepreneurs have established a clump of small eateries just off of an access road that runs parallel to Fortuna Blvd south of I-8. Back in 2005, Kirk dubbed a similar congregation of taco trucks on 8th St a foodcourt. This newer aggregation is more numerous and varied. Little places popping up like mushrooms after a rainstorm.

This picture from the parking lot of the neighboring Walgreens shows only a small number of the them:
There is a place serving date shakes and another serving Mexican hot dogs:
Another spot that never seems to have customers serves barbecue:
Jersey's is the home of the 3 pound hamburger — and all sorts of other burgers as well:

This post, however, is just a brief introduction to the three taco trucks located in the area.

La Botana is the fanciest with a semi-enclosed dining room as well as an outdoor deck:
Each table has a squeeze bottle of spicy homemade salsa, a bottle of lightly flavored guacamole sauce, and another rather unusual condiment:

I ordered four different tacos off the extensive menu and asked that they come with "everything." The pork adobada taco was pretty good. The tortilla was warm and fresh, the pork mildly seasoned, and the toppings (chopped onions, scallions, cabbage, and cilantro) appropriate:
The lengua may have been the best of them all — the meat tender, rich, and deeply flavored:
The chicken (covered with shredded lettuce and diced tomato) was also good to start with, and even better squirted with some hot sauce and guacamole sauce:

Notice the nice char on some of the pieces of chicken. Love that.

The only disappointing taco — and it was only a minor disappointment — was the fish taco:

Although the fish was perfectly fresh and the toppings decent, my preference in fish tacos is a crunchier crust.

A couple of days later, I went to the second Mexican stand, Tacos Durango:

I had good memories of a visit there last winter when I didn't have my camera with me. It is still a pretty humble little taco truck connected to a covered enclosure:
Here the condiments and salsas are located in a small weatherbeaten little box with a plastic cover:
While the price of the shrimp taco ($2) seemed a bit steep when I ordered, I had no complaints when the taco arrived:

This was a huge taco. The four shrimp, totally greaseless and completely covered in crunchy coating, tasted exactly like fresh shrimp. Outstanding. To my mind, the best in the county.

After I ate one of the shrimp, which reduced the contents of the taco to something that I could fold over, I squirted lemon on them and decorated the remaining shrimp with crema and choices from the salsa bar:
The fish tacos, made with fresh battered pieces of real whitefish were almost as good as the shrimp ones:

The al pastor, on the other hand, was a bit dried out and over cooked:

The spicy coating on it was excellant, however, and I suspect that the pastor here is usually better than this.

The lengua was tasty if not quite as muy rico as the version at La Botana:

A few days later I returned to the food court again, this time going to Tacos El Cositas:
I was pleased to see asada (skirt steak?) cooking on an outside grill:
Here the condiments are in a covered cooled section of a large aluminum stand:
I received four tacos — one fish, one shrimp, and one carne asada on the large plate, and something called a chipilones on the smaller plate on the left:
All of these tacos were huge in size. Both the fish and the shrimp tacos were crunchy, and the fish taco might have been even better than the one at Durango. I believe the owner/chef double fries them if one requests crunchy. Here is a close up of the shrimp taco as decorated:

The best taco, however, was the chipilones. At first the name puzzled me (I just ordered it without knowing for sure what I was going to get) but as soon as I saw the taco, I realized that it was El Cositas's version of the eponymous taco from the famous and gigantic taco emporium in San Luis, Sonora. In fact, the chef/owner told me that El Chipilon is owned by his brother.

with proper toppings the way I like, the taco looked like this:

Heaven on a tortilla de maiz. The asada meat was tender, moist, and deeply flavorful. The cheese and roasted green chile added a perfect Sonoran complement to the wonderful beef.

El Cositas has a more extensive menu at dinner and even serves Vampiras, the elusive vampire taco. Out in The Foothills. Whodda thunk that?

A couple notes. The only restroom available is in Walgreens. Each restaurant keeps its own hours, and most of them are seasonal. But if you go around lunch or dinner between October and April, you will find something (probably many things) tasty and inviting. I sure did and I will be back.

Dumpling Inn

January 4, 2011 ed fromyuma Chinese Restaurants, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Xiao Long Bao

Welcome to Mmm-yoso, a food blog. Kirk writes most of the posts. He wrote about Dumpling Inn way back in 2005. Cathy also blogs here alot. But today ed (from Yuma) is posting about Dumpling Inn. Way back in 2010.

In December, Tina and I were driving up Convoy Street heading for a couple bowls of ramen at Yakyudori when I asked her to look for someplace she'd like to lunch the next day. Almost instantly, she said, "Hey, Dumpling Inn, I'd love some dumplings."

So the next day we got lucky and found a parking place in the crowded lot, arriving at the tiny restaurant around 11:30:

By then, Tina had already heard my stories about Dumpling Inn. How the same space used to be occupied by a restaurant named MRSHO's. I never figured it out — Mr. Sho's or Mrs. Ho's? Or how I once came in and ordered fish dumplings. The waitress asked if I wanted spicy soup with it for a dollar extra, and I said yes. Only when the dumplings showed up, did I realize that the mild-flavored fish dumplings would be swimming in spicy soup. Another time I craved Xiao Long Bao (also called soup dumplings) that I had been reading about at Chowhound, but found nothing by either of those names anywhere on the menu.

Okay, maybe I had some past issues with this restaurant, but when Tina suggested going there, I realized that I hadn't been in Dumpling Inn in at least five years. Overdue for a visit.

After we received a complimentary pot of tea, the next thing that arrived on our table was an order of potstickers:

They certainly looked right. But I found them slightly disappointing. The mild filling was okay, certainly, but the flavor was not memorable in any way. The moderately thick wrappers seemed slightly understeamed and gummy on the top half and slightly overdone and cardboardy on the bottom. Not terrible, but far from the best potstickers I have eaten.

The available condiments were adequate:

Chile oil, white vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil. No black vinegar, however. I also wished that each set of dumplings had come with separate little mixing plates or small bowls. The way it was, our little plates ended up with a mix of flavors — as if we wanted all of the dumplings with the same background tastes.

On the other hand, we had no complaints whatsoever about the jellyfish salad:

The portion size was excellent. The sweet, tangy, and salty dressing was perfect for the salad. Both Tina and I loved the contrast in textures between the generally crunchy julienne of daikon, celery, and carrot and the unique chewy crunch of the long strips of jellyfish:

The fish and chive dumplings showed up next:

The fillings had a mild fishy flavor, generally pleasant. The wrappers seemed about right, not too thick or chewy. Well steamed. I would have preferred a better filling-to-dumpling ratio. These were certainly not overly stuffed dumplings.

Then came the XLBs. These days, customers can easily find them on the menu without knowing the secret code words. The large dumplings were steaming and had a few long shreds of ginger across them:

Tina and I warned each other not to pop a scalding hot, soup-filled dumpling into our mouths. But of course, I tried to eat one too soon and then spent a minute or so shoving the dumpling around in my mouth to keep from hurting any one part of it too much. Nicely, Tina didn't laugh at me. Too much.

Once the dumplings had cooled to the proper temperature, we dug in and enjoyed the rest of them. While the wrappers were fairly thick, we felt they contained plenty of filling. The soup/meatball balance also seemed about right. None of the dumplings looked ruptured, and every one I ate (even counting the one I harpooned with a chopstick) contained some soup. Perhaps the flavors in the dumplings are not traditional enough to satisfy an XLB connoisseur like Kirk, but they were certainly good enough for Tina and I.

Overall, except for burning my mouth, I enjoyed the lunch. I'd happily return. And next time, probably try more than just dumplings. And remember to let the XLBs cool down.

Dumpling Inn, 4619 Convoy (in strip mall with Korean Mkt), San Diego, (858) 268-9638

Jector’s Breakfast Burritos in Yuma

December 27, 2010 ed fromyuma Breakfast/Brunch, Mexican Restaurants, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Today Kirk and Cathy are busy and eating. Sometimes ed (from Yuma) needs a quick breakfast, and maybe the next time you're in Yuma you'll need one too.

I think breakfast burritos are one of the most important contributions of Southwestern cuisine to everyday American eating. A complete breakfast (minus fruit juice of course) rolled inside a warm flour tortilla.

A new restaurant in Yuma, Jector's Breakfast Burritos, specializes in this culinary classic:
Whether you get them to go or to eat at one of the eight or nine small tables on the premises, your burrito will come tightly wrapped with a napkin in paper:
The burritos are $3.50. This one is ham and egg, and I asked for the optional pico de gallo (chopped fresh tomatoes, jalapenos, and onions) to be added:

All the burritos come with a picante salsa that has a pronounced sour tang. Its flavor plays off nicely against the sweetness of the egg.

I've liked every burrito that I have purchased from this place. Their chorizo is spicy but not greasy:

Machaca and egg is a classic taste combination and very meaty:
The sausage, potato, and egg is one of Tina's favorites:
The asada and egg here is made with real skirt steak:
And the asada can also be ordered as a regular — that is no egg – burrito:

The beef flavor is excellent, but I like more guacamole with my asada burritos.

My overall favorite is probably what they call the supreme:

I love the perfectly cooked thick sliced bacon that lends a nice smokiness to the eggs, potatoes, beans, and melty cheese.

The people here are friendly, they take phone orders competently, and they have your burritos ready on time — though as they have gotten busier, orders sometimes take longer than they used to. The restaurant is open daily from 6 am at least through lunch.

Jector's Burritos, 1473 S. 4th Ave, Yuma AZ, (928) 329-0035.

5 Course Dinner at Wine Vault and Bistro

December 22, 2010 ed fromyuma Fine Dining, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

ed (from Yuma) and Tina were recently in San Diego. They came, they saw, they ate, and they took pictures. So today, ed wants to share a feast with you while Kirk and Cathy catch some rest.

For me, wine can be an interesting, flavorful, and satisfying addition to meals. Unlike many traditional foodstuffs, wine exists in a nearly infinite variety of taste profiles, based upon variations in grape variety, soil type and condition, climate and weather, vineyard practices, vintage, winemaker's skill, and luck.

Years ago in Columbus, Ohio (go Buckeyes), a favorite restaurant shared space with a wine store. By tasting, friends and I learned a lot about wine there and ate a lot of good food. So when I read about Wine Loft and Bistro, wine shop plus restaurant, I was interested. Honkman's report on an Oktoberfest dinner with his wonderful pictures told me that Tina and I had to try it the next time we were in America's Favorite City.

Inhabiting the floor above Saffron on India Street, the restaurant's interior is plain to the eye:

We had chosen to come on a Saturday night when they serve a five course meal ($30) with optional wine pairings ($20). For dinner, in other words, there was no choice. Everyone ate what the chef wanted to cook. Since I eat everything and hate making up my mind, I was fine with that idea. I certainly wouldn't want to eat what the chef didn't want to cook.

Since this was a special occasion, we began by sharing a split of Heidsieck Monopole Brut ($12 extra).

The first food to arrive at our table was freshly baked, freshly sliced French bread served in a wire basket:

Wonderful aroma. Great crackly crunchy crust. Easy spreading soft butter. Free refills. A great way to start the meal, though the bread was less spectacular when not fresh from the oven.

The salad showed up next:

Totally different from any other salad in my memory. Two thin slices of pink (or ruby?) grapefruit lay on a thin spread of mint pistou. The slices were covered with nutmeats, shavings of fennel, and whole leaves of arugula. Each bite contained an amazing play of flavor/texture contrasts. The nuts, in particular, added a crunchy sweet richness to the whole dish. At first bite, Tina thought they were macadamias, but the menu told us they were, in fact, marcona almonds. Never had those before, and they did resemble macadamias with a dense creamy nuttiness — ending with light almond flavors.

The Gerard Bertrand Chardonnay went well with the salad:

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this wine. While French, it is not from any famous region and has a clean, fresh, and balanced taste. I could detect neither oak nor malolactic fermentation.

Don't let this picture give you the wrong idea; the wine pairings are not full bottles, but rather 3 ounce servings poured into appropriate stemware. I liked how each of the wines selected matched the food it was served with. I also liked that each wine was new to me. Not only had I never tasted any of them, but I also had never seen any of them before either.

The next course was equally unique:

I was reminded of the old Paul Simon song, "Mother and Child Reunion" as I looked at the plate. A rectangular block of pressed roast chicken sat next to a slow poached egg. The chicken rectangle had a puréed chanterelle mushroom sauce underneath it; the egg was topped with hollandaise. The crusty looking thing on top of the chicken puzzled me until Tina bit into it and said, "oh my God, this is chicken skin!!" And really good chicken skin it was. Charred florets of broccoli and cauliflower were the side vegetable.

This was another course that boggled the taste buds:

While the egg added a creamy richness, the chicken provided the dominant flavor — intensely chicken — with a hint of lemony herbs in the background. If this were a Chinese dish it might've been called twice roasted chicken, as the chicken seems to have been roasted and then pressed and roasted again. We were impressed by the range of textures.

The accompanying wine was a Bokisch Vineyards tempranillo from the Lodi area. Both Tina and I loved its spiciness, yet it was not so heavy or powerful that it overwhelmed the pressed chicken.

Chris, our competent and helpful server, then presented us each with a small bowl containing a deep-fried croquette accompanied with very thinly sliced marinated beets, a few micro-beet greens, and small strips of nori. He proceeded to pour oxtail consommé into each of the bowls. The finished dish looked like nothing I had ever been served before:
The croquette had been perfectly fried, and its crunchy exterior surrounded a rich filling of oxtail and bone marrow. The preparation, with just a hint of wasabi, emphasized the light beefy flavor of the oxtail meat. As we ate, the oxtail consommé took on a redder color from the beets and micro greens:

We finished the course by drinking the remaining oxtail soup — savory, tangy, and full of umami. The whole dish was complemented nicely by the 2008 Cass Grenache from Paso Robles, a smooth fruity wine with hints of milk chocolate (well, to my palate at least).

The next course was perhaps even better. A piece of venison loin, perfectly cooked sous vide, rested against a risotto:

Since it was cooked at low temperature sealed in plastic, the meat was perfectly rare and very tender without being mushy. The loin tasted fully of venison, yet it was not exceptionally gamy. The jus, in the foreground of the picture, was heavily flavored with juniper and added a distinctive flavor note to my slices of deer loin.

As good as the venison was, I enjoyed the risotto even more. The perfectly cooked rice was flavored with ground chestnut and guanciale (smoked pork cheek). Small sweet chunks of butternut squash added a taste contrast while the yellow foot mushrooms contributed texture. I love risottos; I can even make a pretty good risotto; but this risotto was in a whole different league.

The 2008 Stolpman "Originals" syrah poured with the venison was the deepest and most intense wine of the night. It worked well with the meat.

I'm not really much of the desserts kind of guy, so I couldn't imagine a conclusion for the meal that would match what had come before. That just shows the limits of my imagination:

Homemade peanut butter ice cream topped with honeycomb sat on top of a thick dark chocolate mousse. A piece of dark chocolate lay on one side. This dessert tasted even better than it sounds. Ummm, peanut butter and chocolate. Reese's — eat your heart out.

The coffeeless Irish coffee (a 1 oz pour of Irish whiskey and cream?) paired nicely with the desert.

Wow and wow again!! For my tastes, this was an outstanding meal and a wonderful value. Every course was a palate pleaser. Even if you did not like wine, the five course meal by itself would be a delight.

The Wine Vault and Bistro is original in its business attitude as well. Meals are only served on some evenings. Some days, the meal is three courses, sometimes five courses, sometimes 10 courses. Winemaker dinners featuring the wines from a particular winery are also available. If you want to try this restaurant, you'll need to go to their website to see what is happening when. And you do want to try this restaurant. Seriously.

Wine Vault & Bistro, 3731-A India St, San Diego, CA 92103, (619) 295-3939.

Grand China in Yuma

December 14, 2010 ed fromyuma Chinese Restaurants, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Interested in Chinese food in Yuma? Since Kirk and Cathy need some time off around the holidays, today ed (from Yuma) is posting about a new Chinese eatery in an old location.

Yuma Palace is now in this location; there is no buffet, but the food seems better than Yuma standard.

When I moved to Yuma full-time, about 10 years ago, the town had a lot of Chinese restaurants: Chef Lee's, China Boy, Gene's, Tai-San, Bamboo Garden, Fortune Cookie, Mandarin Palace, and Yummy Yummy. Today, every one of these restaurants is out of business, except my favorite, Yummy Yummy, a tiny Mexicali style Cantonese place that looks seedy and generally cooks simple Cantonese food well.

What's more, a number of huge buffets featuring allegedly "Chinese" food have also come and gone: The Hong Kong Buffet, The China Buffet, and two locations of Mr. Lu's. Even the largest fanciest Chinese restaurant in town, Mandarin Palace, became a buffet:

In 2008, with Chinese buffets collapsing left and right, Mandarin Palace decided to go back to preparing dinners off a menu, and I began taking pictures to do a post on it:

I was halfway through writing the post when Mandarin Palace became a full-time buffet again, and I lost interest and lost heart.

After being closed this summer, Mandarin Palace has been reincarnated with new ownership as Grand China:

It still has a full-time buffet with many of the usual suspects ($7.25 for lunch):

a nice selections of salads (I love asparagus salad and seaweed salad):
and some actually edible sushi rolls:
Most of the buffet items are pretty standard, but I was surprised to find a spicy hot cold baby octopus salad one lunchtime. Pepper flakes and diced fresh chilies packed a punch. The octopus chew contrasted well with the celery crunch:

Finding a take-out menu, I saw that the restaurant also cooked dishes to order, and I noticed that they served something called "Peking Duck," priced at $26.95. That sounded like the perfect thing for Tina's birthday, so I called a day in advance (as the menu advised) and showed up for dinner not sure what we were going to get.

The first thing to arrive at our table — not counting stiff cocktails from the bar — was an order of mixed vegetables, called Buddha's Delight on the menu ($8.50):

While not earth shattering, of course, the vegetables were well-prepared. All were crispy tender and the light sauce stayed in the background where it belonged.

The duck showed up on a platter surrounded by shrimp chips:
It came with little pancakes, a slightly sweet and savory duck sauce, and shredded scallions and celery:

We chuckled as we rolled up duck and complements in our Chinese tortillas. One taste, however, and we knew that we were not having burritos de pato.

While not exactly Peking duck, this was certainly the best roast duck I had ever eaten in Yuma — even counting the ones that I had driven back from San Diego. The flesh was moist and tender, and the skin was tasty if not crunchy crisp. Good ducky flavors, not overly gamy. Tina was delighted and surprised and has mentioned several times how much she enjoyed the dinner.

But before I felt I could do a post, I wanted to see if Grand China could prepare take out well as well. I ordered two of my old favorites from Mandarin Palace, so I could have a better comparison of this place and its predecessor.

Here's the shrimp and lobster sauce:

Overall I liked the dish. The numerous bamboo shoots pleased me, and they along with the water chestnuts provided a nice texture contrast to the softer peas and carrots. Diced Peapod accented the garden pea taste. The shrimp were well-prepared, still somewhat moist and fresh tasting. Not badly overcooked like so many other Chinese restaurant shrimp in Yuma. I was also impressed that the restaurant used some seafood stock in the preparation, giving the whole dish the flavor of the sea.

I also ordered Twice Cooked Pork, another favorite of mine:

Again I was pleased. Extensive chili flakes provided good spicy heat. I was also happy to find the dish was made with roast pork — since it is common in Yuma to use barbecued pork in this dish. The pork came with chopped American cabbage, peapods, mushrooms, and diced red and green peppers. I liked the mix of veggies, but they were slightly overcooked, just a bit softer than I prefer.

All in all, Grand China makes a worthy successor to Mandarin Palace. I like the convenience of the buffet, and they can prepare good Mandarin style Chinese food for American tastes.

Now let's hope they stay in business for a while.

Grand China, 350 E. 32nd St, Yuma, AZ 85364. 928-344-2805. Open daily 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Road trip: Sofia’s in Gila Bend

November 9, 2010 ed fromyuma Mexican Restaurants, Phoenix/Scottsdale/Chandler/Central AZ, Road Trip, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Kirk and Cathy get a day off today because ed (from Yuma) has a report on some decent desert dining not far off I-8

Normally when my car gets on Interstate 8 in Yuma, it heads west to San Diego. That makes sense, for sure. However, some recent trips have taken me in the other direction, ultimately ending up in Surprise, Arizona. And of course I was looking to find some good food — if there was any – on my route.

I have gotten lucky. On my first adventure to the north and east of Yuma, Tina and I spotted an unassuming looking Mexican restaurant in Gila Bend with a lot of cars in the parking lot (and in July, there aren't a lot of cars anywhere in Gila Bend):
On our way back home, we'd decided to stop there. To be honest, Tina and I weren't expecting anything special, even though the purple and orange interior decorated with a mural of a famous natural wonder in Jalisco seem right to me:
The highlights of that visit were the main courses, Tina's carnitas and my green chile (beef chunks in spicy chile tomatillo sauce). Both were really good. We were also impressed by the flavorful tomato-based salsa (served in a mini carafe) and fresh crunchy corn chips, obviously fried on promises:

However, I had not brought my camera on that trip. So all of the pictures for this post come from a later visit.

The next time we stopped in Gila Bend, it was for a quick lunch, and again I had no camera. And again the food was good. Tina's California burrito was filled with decent carne Asada, potatoes, and the other fixings. My chicken enchiladas contained actual chicken rolled in good quality corn tortillas and topped with a dark red enchilada sauce.

Finally, at the beginning of November, I remembered to bring my camera, and Tina and I enjoyed another satisfying Mexican meal. Although no beer or wine is served, they do have homemade horchata and jamaica:
We started with one of the strangest things that Tina and I have ever ordered together in a Mexican restaurant, a couple of old-fashioned, gringo style, hamburger tacos with fried shells:

On a previous visit, we had seen an order of these go to the table behind us, and they had looked wonderful. I realized that over the last 20 years, I had eaten raw fish, cow stomach, pigs ears, fermented squid intestines, and all sorts of other things, but I could not remember a single hamburger taco experience. And I could not remember ever seeing better looking hamburger tacos.

So this time, we ordered them, and they were perfect, better than my memories. Totally crisp and greaseless, the crunchy shells stayed intact even when we poured salsa into them and then bit off the end. The hamburger was moist and perfectly seasoned. There was just enough lettuce and yellow cheese. Ummmm-crunchy beefy good:

As an entree, Tina had the carnitas again, for reasons that this picture should make clear:

Crunchy, chewy, and tender pork very lightly seasoned. Warm fresh white corn tortillas. Decent rice and creamy beans.

My chile relleno plate was pretty dang good as well. The three fresh chilies blanketed in tender egg batter and covered in fresh tomato sauce:
The preparation was excellent. Each chile was stuffed with a decent amount of melty white cheese and perfectly cooked. The big surprise were the chilies. Not only were there three of them, but these were full of chile flavor and exceptionally spicy, probably from this year's New Mexico harvest. This picture shows you a little of the goodness of the dish:
I can't imagine that there is better food to be had between Yuma and Surprise, Arizona.

Sofia's Mexican Food, 530 West Pima, Gila Bend, AZ 85337, 928-683-6382. Open Daily.

Chretin’s in Yuma

July 25, 2010 ed fromyuma Mexican Restaurants, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

The blog is mmm-yoso!!! Kirk and Cathy will blog for you again soon. Today ed (from Yuma) has a really long post about Yuma's original Mexican restaurant.

March 2011 update: shortly after this was published, Chretin's was purchased by new owners. While the lunch buffet is still da bomb, the menu is considerably different, and some of the old-school Yuma dishes are gone or prepared differently.

I need to go back and try Chretin's again. My last couple of visits weren't very good and the buffet seemed sparse and overpriced back in the summer of 2013. That was my last visit, but I will try to update when and if I get bck.

My favorite experiences blogging for Kirk are those moments when I can share an unlikely but incredible experience at some out-of-the-way taco stand or a tiny restaurant hidden in a blind alley. My task today is more unusual and more difficult, presenting a restaurant that almost every online poster seems to hate – Chretin's Mexican Restaurant in Yuma:

At Yelp, somebody from New Jersey called the food "Crappy Mexican. Like east coast crappy." At Yahoo, a poster who "came up on mexican food in denver co and sandiego cal" reports "fake mexican food that was just sick we did not eat or food nor ask them to re-make it or refund it." Many others agreed.

For me, on the other hand, Chretin's is like an old friend — maybe no longer your favorite person — but someone you are comfortable with, someone whose good qualities (and shortcomings) you know very well.

My first Mexican meal in Yuma was 25 years ago at Chretin's original location in a ramshackle building in the middle of an old residential district. All I remember is that I enjoyed it. Many times after that first visit, I would come to Chretin's with Mary Emma and her late husband Don, who loved the old school food, atmosphere, and waitstaff. Years later, I still eat at Chretin's occasionally, and I usually enjoy it.

These days, Chretin's occupies a fancy new building at a major intersection (Arizona and 16th St.), and perhaps customers expect the food to be the standard Mexican food that can be found at "nice" Mexican restaurants throughout most of the United States. The Mexican equivalent of ABCDE restaurants. Instead, Chretin's is a Yuma standard, serving some of the same dishes that introduced Anglos in southwest Arizona to "Mexican food" two or three generations ago. Is it authentic Mexican? Ehh, probably not. But it is authentic Yuman.

The new building is both a blessing and a curse. Centrally located, with a huge parking lot, the restaurant with its main room, side rooms, and bar has plenty of space for customers:

At the same time, 2007 was not a good year to relocate a business. And the restaurant was overwhelmed initially. Everyone in town wanted to try the new location, and numerous passers-by and freeway refugees stumbled onto the place and added to the chaos. While I have never had poor service (though I do adjust my standards to Yuma norms), I'm sure some online posters were not well treated.

But the real big whammy for the new location is the seemingly endless widening and repair of 16th St, so that Chretin's seems to be located in a war zone in some third world country:

So amid all that could go wrong, how do I have a good meal at Chretin's? Sometimes, I start with a Mexican beer (Pacifico and Bohemia are my favorites) or the first-rate margaritas turned out by the bar:

Some people like the sweeter flavored margaritas (such as the strawberry one in this picture), but my favorite is on the rocks without salt:

I also savor the thin corn chips and the decent salsa:

Though certainly not the spiciest in town, the salsa here has all the right flavor notes: tomato, chile pepper, onion, with a touch of black pepper and a slight sour tang. The guacamole is also the real thing. The puréed avocado is enhanced with touches of spice and citrus :

A truly great appetizer is the incredible Sonoran cheese crisp (called the toasted cheese tortilla here):

Even my friend Charles knows of none better, in fact, none even close. The flour tortilla is truly crisp and crunchy. The amount of cheese is absolutely perfect, enough to cover but not overwhelm the tortilla. And the balance between the mild creamy white cheese and the sharper yellow is perfect. Top with some salsa and it's heaven.

Another reason to like the restaurant are the lunch choices; you can take advantage of several excellent specials, order items à la carte, or choose the reasonably priced buffet on week days (currently $5.99).

The buffet usually has a salad section, condiments choices, a tostadas area (with ground beef and refried frijoles), mass-produced tamales and enchiladas, decent chicken fajita-style, and ample giant flour tortillas.

Just to illustrate, my friend Dave put together the following concoctions on a recent visit there:

I'm usually content to roll up a couple chicken fajitas burritos with or without extra condiments:

Other lunchtime favorites are bowls of green chile, chili con carne ($5.25), or albondigas, tender meatballs in a rich vegetable based stock ($4.99):

You can also get a lunch size taco salad – beef or chicken:

My only complaint about the taco salads is that there is not enough true salad. Both of the meat choices, beef or chicken, are flavorful, the guacamole and sour cream are abundant, the beans and cheese add their richness, but I have to give up eating when things get too gloppy:

One of my very favorite lunch specials is a single chile rellano, fried perfectly crisp, with rice and beans:

Most of the time, that chile rellano will be the best you've ever had, a fresh green chile amply stuffed with a flavorful blend of white and yellow melty cheeses, wrapped in a thin egg batter, and fried to brown crunchiness. Inside it looks like this:

Another luncheon favorite of mine is the Chile Verde burrito, enchilada style:

I have already written about Chretin's unique version of green chile stew (mutant green chilies in Yuma), but I can't resist showing you another close-up of the insides of a Chile Verde burrito:

This dish also illustrates the unique nature of some things at Chretin's. One specialty of this restaurant is serving burritos and chimichangas enchilada style — covered in sauce and cheese, making them clearly knife and fork food. Of course, I can't claim that this is an invention by this restaurant. Perhaps Chretin's version simply reflects the culinary traditions of the old time Sonoran families in Yuma. But in any case, this style of "wet" or "saddle" burrito is very common around here, but I honestly don't know why that is.

What I do know, however, is that Chretin's serves the only green sauce that tastes a lot like Thanksgiving turkey gravy with merely a hint of green chile flavor. Is this use of flour in the sauce a family secret that goes back to a 19th-century Abuela? Or does it reflect what an entrepreneurial Mexican-American family in the 1940s and 50s believed would sell to Anglo residents and servicemen? Not sure. I can understand how some people could hate this mild chile flavored gravy sauce, but for myself, I love its taste and uniquity.

Other folks are passionate about Chretin's chili con carne, tender bits of beef stewed in an old-school dried red chili sauce:

A bowl of this chili was always Don's favorite lunch, and for good reason. It always reminds me of the best aspects of the canned chili that I ate growing up. I mean that as a compliment — no chili in cans was ever this good, rich and flavorful.

The chicken machaca is a dish not common in Yuma. The chicken (boiled? Or maybe roasted) is stirfried with vegetables and it's full of poultry goodness:

The carne Asada here is also different — a thin, juicy, steak, topped with the roasted fresh green chile — a flavor combination common in Sonoran cuisine. The steak itself is tender, moist, and beefy, touched with a bit of Worcestershire marinade:

I like the carnitas plate even more. This guy could be the poster boy for carnitas. The pork ranges from crispy crunchy to moist and tender. All of it tasting of the pig. And the condiments it comes with — chopped cabbage and pico de gallo — are just perfect. The meat rolls up into two good-sized burritos with plenty of leftovers:

Also outstanding is the chile rellano dinner, pictured here, enchilada style, covered with green chili gravy:

This time made with a very spicy dark poblano:

Anyway, a person can have excellent meals at Chretin's. This is not standard Americanized Mexican food, not always what you expect, and some old time Yumans will tell you that it was better in the old location — but for me, Chretin's is a perfect embodiment of an old-style independent restaurant, a place that sticks to its traditions. I hope they are around to serve future generations this unique version of frontier Sonoran/Arizonan food.

In memory of Don Berkey. Thanks, Don. And we still miss ya!

Chretin's, 505 E. 16th St., Yuma AZ 85364, 928-782-2224