ed fromyuma – Page 7

Brownie’s Café in Yuma

August 3, 2014 ed fromyuma American/New American Restaurants, Breakfast/Brunch, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Today, Kirk and Cathy get a vacation from this blog; instead, Ed (from Yuma) has a long post about a place that's been around even longer.

Brownie's is an institution. Founded in 1946, it's almost the oldest restaurant in town – it’s even older than me. Its original and distinctive standalone building is like a landmark on 4th Avenue:

And this is the view from the parking lot side:

The interior includes a counter area, one large table area, a smaller back room, and booths along the north and south walls and has miscellaneous decorations: some American flags, a stuffed deer head, drawings of John Wayne, Jimmy Dean, and Elvis (among others), artificial plants, and lots of historical pictures of Yuma, including this photo of Yuma High School when it was located in the abandoned territorial prison:

Students and sports teams at Yuma High are still fondly called Criminals. So, yes, folks here can say, "The best times of my life were the four years I was a Criminal."

On a summer weekday around 11:45 AM, there is plenty of open seating:

Most of the time, particularly around breakfast hours, Brownie's is packed:

The wait staff is extremely friendly, but also efficient and professional. Some servers specialize in seating customers, cleaning tables, and bringing beverages to the table; others take orders and bring out plates of food. The front of the menu fits the place perfectly:

So why haven't I blogged about Brownie's? Partly, I had already eaten at Brownie's a bunch of times before I ever met Kirk or even owned a camera; plus I assumed that damn near everybody in the Yuma area already knew about Brownie's, so what was the point?

But also a number of things that I had tried at Brownie's back in the day were underwhelming. The beef vegetable soup, chicken salad sandwich, and even a roast chicken dinner (when Brownie's was open in the evenings) were pretty much meh. The burgers were okay, but nothing to write home about – or even blog about. The side salads have always been ordinary at best, and their dressings don't taste homemade:

Recently, one of the salads even had a couple rotting leaves in it:

So why am I blogging about this restaurant now? Partly because Tina sometimes likes to go out for a weekend breakfast, and breakfasts are what Brownie's does best.

While the coffee here is pretty standard American diner coffee, it is always fresh and the cups are frequently topped off. You even get half and half though it comes in those little plastic packages:

Both Tina and I generally like their egg breakfast combos. For example, the inexpensive minced ham and eggs breakfast ($5.95):

There is abundant ham, the eggs are not overcooked, and hashbrowns were prepared extra crispy as requested. The little cup of salsa adds a nice local touch.

Similarly, the Brownie's special with ham ($7.95) is a good basic breakfast:

Another favorite with many people is the chicken fried steak and eggs:

On this day, however, the overworked kitchen didn't fry a good crust on the beef, so I have no photograph of the really good versions of the chicken fried steak. But most of the time, it is tasty. (Rich of Offbeat Eats likes it too).

A little more unusual is the Ham and Eggs O'Brian ($7.95) with a ham slice, three eggs, and peppers and onions on top of hashbrowns:

For me, this combination actually works pretty well even though it gets pretty gloppy looking:

There are a number of omelet choices, but Tina and my favorite is the country omelet ($7.95):

The omelet itself contains sausage, cheese, and Ortega chilies all topped with Brownie's pretty decent country gravy – mmm, country gravy:

My only complaint about most of the egg breakfasts at Brownie's is that they come with toast:

It's not that the toast is bad – though it is very generic– it's that the jams and jellies are those little packets from Smucker’s:

I remember the old commercial "with a name like Smucker’s, it's got to be good," and maybe it once was good, but most of the little jellies these days are made from fruit juice, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, fruit pectin, citric acid, and sodium citrate. Certainly doesn't sound like my grandmother's recipe. Grumble grumble.

So sometimes we will choose the "Country Boy" combination with sausage, eggs, and biscuits and gravy instead of hashbrowns and toast ($7.95). This picture shows the half-size portion with bacon and only one biscuit and gravy ($5.95):

Another way to evade toast is a waffle ($4.95 à la carte), served with syrup and soft butter. Pretty standard, but a nice non greasy, crusty surface and lots of little wells to hold the butter and syrup:

similarly tasty are the thick pancakes – here part of a hot cake, sausage, and egg special ($4.95):

One other treat on the menu are Walt Kammann sausages (available in an egg combo or $2.95 or one, $4.95 for two):

Walt Kammann brought this German style sausage recipe with him when he moved from Wisconsin to Yuma in 1934 to manage a pecan grove. A community minded individual, he served on the governing boards for the local hospital and college. Originally he and his family made these sausages for their personal consumption, but soon they were serving them at civic events, such as the annual Rotary Sausage Fry. While no longer made by the Kammann family, this is the traditional recipe – coarsely ground meat with no filler, well spiced with abundant black pepper:

In addition to the generally good breakfasts at Brownie’s, some of the lunch choices are also pretty tasty. Their version of the chili burger ($7.95) is a decent presentation of one of my favorite truck stop meals:

Covered with chopped onion and cheese, the Western-style chili with beans makes a great topping for the preformed hamburger patty. Nothing revolutionary here, just an old favorite fixed in a traditional way.

One nice touch is the sprinkling of seasoned salt on the otherwise undistinguished crinkle cut french fries:

Of course, sandwiches like the fried ham or the BLT that use breakfast ingredients are also good choices. In addition, the restaurant roasts its own beef and turkey. Therefore the French dip sandwich au jus ($6.95) comes with real jus:

While the French roll is nothing special, the warmed roast beef tastes real and beefy:

Just like the roast beef, the turkey is real roast turkey and is available as a dinner plate with veggie, potatos, stuffing and gravy:

or as an open faced sandwich with whipped potatoes and old-fashioned turkey gravy ($7.95):

Open faced, gravy covered sandwiches like these always bring back good memories of my 10 years in Columbus, Ohio.

The same roast turkey stars in Tina's favorite lunch at Brownie’s, the Big Bird sandwich ($7.50):

The generous portion of roast turkey on grilled sourdough is enhanced by bacon, tomato, and American cheese:

It tastes even better than it sounds.

I have grown fond of Brownie's over the years. Even though it is sometimes a bit hectic and the food is not always top notch, the restaurant has a real down home friendly environment that fits Yuma very well. The menu and food also remind me of the restaurant my parents owned and my mother managed back when I was in junior high and high school in Medford, Oregon. I must have washed thousands of dishes and chopped dozens of onions back then. Sometimes I even took orders and brought out food. Looking back 50 years, those seem like pretty good times, and I always did think washing dishes beat mowing lawns. Brownie’s is the kind of place that does bring back memories of 50 years ago – at least for those of us who have memories of 50 years ago.

Brownie’s Café, 1145 S 4th Ave, Yuma, AZ 85364, (928) 783-7911, open daily in summer from 6 – 2:30, longer hours in the winter.

Antojitos in El Centro Again

July 24, 2014 ed fromyuma El Centro, Imperial Valley, Mexican Restaurants, Road Trip, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

This is Ed (from Yuma) writing again today. A big thanks to Kirk (and Cathy) for letting me post stuff here and a big thanks to you for reading it.

I have already blogged about this small Mexican restaurant recently. It feels strange to do two posts about the same place, particularly when it is not even in Yuma, even though Tina and I have had two more interesting meals heresince my last post. So I promise this is my final post about Antojitos Como en Casa. Even if Anthony Bourdain asked me to meet him here for lunch, I would not blog about it; you would just have to see it on Parts Unknown.

The plain exterior has not changed:

The bright and colorful interior is the same as well, but here is a picture of a wall in the side room:

And this is the area that is a tribute to Jorge Negrete (or is that Pedro Infante?):

The service at Antojitos has always been excellent, the waitstaff attentive, friendly, and helpful. On every visit, chips and salsa arrive in an instant:

Here is a close-up of the brightly spicy green salsa, largely mashed roasted green chiles:

And a close-up of the rounder and deeper dried red chili salsa:

Again, the aguasfrescas ($3 large, $1.75 small) have been outstanding; in particular, on our visit in June, the watermelon fruitwater, which we had never had before, was crisp and flvaorful without being a sugar overload:

On that June visit, Tina and I both had soup. She chose the chicken soup whose name I can never remember:

Remarkably, this excellent and rich soup was different from the chicken soup I had a few months previously. Mine had had abundant chickpeas – Tina’s was more like a caldo de pollo, full of vegetables as well as tortilla strips, cheese, and red onion slices.

The broth in my menudo ($8.50) was fully flavored, savory and rich. In it, soft, succulent, yielding little pillows of tripe contrasted perfectly with abundant nixtamal:

On our next visit, we ordered two different aguasfrescas (Antojitos always has 3 choices, but the choices have never been the same on any two visits). Tina had the cucumber/pineapple:

I had lemon/strawberry:

As good as hers was, I loved my lemon accented, intensely strawberry water even more. This place has the best aguasfrescas I have ever tasted – by far.

Since this visit was on a Saturday, Tina and I were looking forward to sharing an order of the lamb mixiote, available only Friday through Sunday. It soon arrived at the table:

We decided on the option with beans and rice ($18.50), so we got a small bowl of soupy but tasty frijoles and plenty of Mexican Rice:

The lamb also came with homemade yellow corn tortillas, smaller than regular corn tortillas with the bright golden color and a very corny taste:

When we peeled the tinfoil back, we saw a whole lamb shoulder with a bone protruding at one end, the meat covered with parchment paper and surrounded by a rich and flavorful consommé:

With the paper removed, we could see the moist braised shoulder, laden with herbs and spices, looking tender and inviting:

The meat made wonderful simple tacos:

Maybe the most flavorful braised lamb I have ever savored, and I have eaten (and cooked) a lot of lamb shacks over the years. One of the reasons for the savory complexity of the dish was the layer of maguey leaves we found underneath the mixiote:

The owner/manager of the restaurant said that their particular version of the dish is native to Hidalgo, a state in central Mexico just east and north of Mexico City. This restaurant’s roots in central Mexico help explain the cuisine here and why this place seems unique in the American Southwest border region.

Since Tina and I happened onto Antojitos, we have been finding excuses to go to El Centro – there are some different stores in their mall; there's a Costco; it's a convenient stop on the way to LA. I never realized how many reasons there were to visit El Centro. However, since I will not be blogging about this place again (at least not in the immediate future), you now have a reason to visit El Centro yourselves – to find out more about Antojitos Como en Casa.

Antijitos Como en Casa, 425 Desert Gardens Dr, El Centro, CA 92243, (760) 482-5621, open 8 am – 8 pm every day, except Mondays. website

Thomas Hill Organics, Paso Robles, June 2014

July 18, 2014 ed fromyuma Fine Dining, Paso Robles/Cambria/San Luis Obispo County, Pizza, Road Trip, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Today Kirk and Cathy can concentrate on their real work (or just kick back and relax) because Ed (from Yuma) has a post about a restaurant up in Paso Robles.

Tina and I had wonderful memories of a lunch at Thomas Hill Organics back in 2009, so we wanted to be sure to go there with Steve and Helen. Again we entered through the larger and fancier alley entrance to the restaurant:

This side of the restaurant has the larger indoor dining room, the Park Street side has a long skinny room with the bar and small tables, but whenever possible, we like to eat in the central covered courtyard in the middle of the restaurant:

Remembering a wonderful watermelon gazpacho from our previous visit, Tina and I decided to share the avocado-corgette cold soup with coconut milk and chili oil ($8):

What can I say? The cool smooth green avocado blended with the summer fresh squash seemed like the essence of a late spring harvest – rich, vegetal, tangy and complex. The chili oil added a touch of spicy hotness to balance the cool green creamy depth of the soup.

For Helen, the soup was her main dish, though she did share some of Steve's skirt steak sandwich:

All of the sandwiches came with extremely fresh field greens tossed with a light basil vinaigrette and a few grains of quinoa:

Along with the soup, Tina opted for the local grass fed beef hamburger ($17):

Her burger was topped with Cambozola cheese, caramelized onions, and abundant applewood smoked bacon, all accented by nut romesco and roasted garlic aoli. It was really wonderful:

I had the pork belly banh mi:

I love banh mis, but this seemed a little over the top for my tastes. While the pickled carrots, avocado, and chopped cilantro were good, the two thick slices of pork belly seemed excessive and were a bit chewy. Call me old school, but I also missed the light crunchiness of a good Vietnamese baguette:

Tina and I had always wondered about dinner at Thomas Hill, so we decided to have our last dinner in Paso at Thomas Hill Organics. The menu seemed wide-ranging, we liked that many produce and protein sources were identified on the menu, and it is hard to beat the ambience of that courtyard.

Our dinner began with ahi tataki style ($16), a plate that looked like a beautiful little tuna topped volcano erupting ginger/scallion relish :

This was very nicely done. The excellent fresh ahi was lightly seared, and the ponzu sauce was perfectly flavored and did not overpower the other ingredients. Speaking of other ingredients, when Tina and I removed and divided the tuna, the rest of the appetizer was visible:

There was a large clump of wakame (seaweed salad), slices of avocado, wedges of pickled apricot, rounds of beautiful purple radish and cucumber, sunflower sprouts, and that ginger and scallion relish. For Tina and I, these flavors worked well together.

The next course was an unusual ceviche ($15) with local yellowtail and Oregon baby shrimp accompanied by chunks of Rocking Chair Farms nectarines and white peaches with purple radishes, cilantro, shaved shallots served on tostadas made from plantain and drizzled with coriander/honey coconut milk:

In most ways, this was an ambitious and very tasty ceviche presentation. It was not too tangy/sour to accompany our wine (more on that soon), and we loved the combination of stone fruit and seafood – though I would have liked even more of the seasonal fruits:

For us, the only things that didn’t work in the dish were the discs of plantain. They were more chewy than crunchy, and while they stood up to the ceviche toppings, the flavor/texture profile just didn't appeal and we actually left most of one round on the otherwise cleaned plate.

Because we were starting with two seafood courses, we began with glasses of Lone Madrone 2011 Points West White ($13), a very tasty Rhône style blend of 4 grapes, the rich and creamy roussane being the most prominent. We had tasted that very same wine the previous afternoon at the winery and had enjoyed it very much. It did not disappoint with dinner, and of course, the stemware was excellent and the pours very fair.

Our next course was called Jewel of the Spring Salad ($15):

In that picture, you can see what they called a Fabergé farm egg, attractive and hard-boiled. The greens in the salad were wild arugula and pea leaves and tendrils. The orange carrot ribbons, dark pink macerated red onions, asiago cheese shavings, and abundant sweet pea pods added body, color, and variety to this lightly dressed and unusual salad, dense with the taste of spring:

From the moment we had been seated in the courtyard in the middle of the building that evening, we noticed a chef attending to the woodfired pizza oven:

So our last course just had to be one of their woodfired pizzas. Called the Verde Green pizza on the menu, it was topped with mozzarella cheese, black truffle salami, pistachio nuts, roasted zucchini, basil leaves and a light sprinkling of Romano cheese ($17):

It was excellent, the crust light and crunchy and the toppings tasty but not overpowering. We shared a glass of Enfold 2010 Jazzy Zinfandel ($13), which went well with the pizza.

We had a good time at Thomas Hill Organics, the service, ambience, and food were all first rate. Much of the food was local and organic. The wine list was well focused on local wineries. If we had any complaint, it was that we ordered too much food, so had to take about half of the pizza back to our room with us. Oh, hold on here, why am I complaining about a midnight snack?

Thomas Hill Organics, 1313 Park St., Paso Robles CA 93446, (805) 226-8555

Shanghai Dumpling House and Xiang Wei Lou: Two Dinners in the Hilton Plaza, San Gabriel

July 12, 2014 ed fromyuma Chinese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Road Trip, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Xiao Long Bao

Again Ed (from Yuma) is blogging about his road trip in June 2014. Who knows what Kirk and Cathy will be blogging about next.

On our trip to Paso Robles in June, 2014, Tina and I could see old friends, go wine tasting, and eat in some of the fine restaurants in Paso – but we also could stop in the San Gabriel Valley on the way up to Paso and on the way back.

On our return trip, Tina found a good deal on a room in the Hilton Hotel on W. Valley Blvd. in San Gabriel:

The hotel could not have been more convenient, smack dab in the center of the San Gabriel Valley and across street from San Gabriel Square, better known as the "Great Mall of China." The room was well furnished, the basement parking garage easily accessible, and the staff friendly and helpful. When checking in, we told the clerk, Adolfo, that we were staying there to be close to all the Chinese restaurants. "Yes," he said, "very authentic. The first time I went into one, I ordered orange chicken, and they all laughed at me."

That Thursday afternoon, we were tired from driving and needed to stretch our legs and what better way than walk around and look at restaurants and menus. It didn't take long for us to be overwhelmed by the choices and overheated by the bright sunshine. On our way back to the hotel, however, we decided to explore the little restaurants in Hilton Plaza, the small two-story stripmall just to the west of the hotel itself. Some things looked interesting, so we decided to dine close to the room that evening.

Shanghai Dumpling House:

We were early and only one other table was occupied in the small, clean restaurant:

Tina ordered honey lemon iced tea ($2.75), which she liked very much:

Having just driven in from Paso Robles where we had been feasting on wine country cuisine, we wanted basic simple foods. Cucumber in Sauce ($4.35) sounded cool and refreshing:

Amazingly simple, but simply amazing. Irregular chunks of freshly cut cucumber lightly sprinkled with salt and mixed with garlic bits and a touch of sesame oil. Not much sauce, really, but fresh and delicious, clean and refreshing – a perfect antidote for our four hour car ride.

The Beef Rolls Pie ($5.95) was next. A large and flaky green onion pancake wrapped around numerous beef slices, fresh cilantro, and a spicy/tangy hoisin sauce:

I suppose the pancake could have been a little browner and crunchier, but the flavors were excellent, and Tina and I were both impressed by the tender and flavorful beef:

Also served at the same time were the xiao long bao, Juicy Pork Dumplings ($6.95). We have had enough experience with boiling hot XLB exploding in our mouths that we ate half of the Beef Rolls Pie before we attempted even a single dumpling. But when we did, we were completely blown away.

If you look at this picture, you will see no spilled soup in the steamer; each dumpling is intact:.

One at a time, we would take our chopsticks, grab the little morsels by their topknots, carefully lift them off the paper, add a drop of black vinegar, lay them on the tongue, close the mouth, and chew. The juicy soup flooded the palate and the mildly seasoned pork ball was tender and tasty. Worthy of the mmm-yoso dance.

We were amazed by the dumpling wrappers. They were thin and elastic without being tough or chewy. When we raised the dumplings out of the steamer their bottoms sagged downward but never tore and never leaked. Just perfect Shanghai dumplings.

The last item to arrive at the table was the Stir-fried Vegetables ($5.95), in this case perfectly cooked baby bok choy:

For most of you, I'm sure this dish looks plain and pretty boring. However, the freshness of the tendercrisp young vegetables and the wok skills of the chef made this very inviting. In fact, we ate every piece of baby bok choy as well as everything else we were served at Shanghai Dumpling House – with no leftovers. That almost never happens anywhere.

Shanghai Dumpling House, 227 W Valley Blvd, San Gabriel, CA 91776, (626) 282-1348

Xiang Wei Lou

Thursday night's dinner had been so easy and delicious that we decided to try another place in the same stripmall – Xiang Wei Lou, a small Hunan restaurant that Kirk wrote about several years ago:

The place was small, but well lit and inviting – though now I wonder about all those specials posted along the wall (what did we miss?):

Both Tina and I had been intrigued with Kirk's description of the pork intestine at this restaurant, so we discussed chitlins choices with the very helpful young server. "You know that's the, the, the intestines of a pig," she said, rubbing her lower abdomen, as if perhaps we were such clueless Anglos that we didn't understand what intestines were. We found that sweet and amusing. Kirk had not liked the pickled vegetables he had chosen with the intestines, so with the assistance of our server, we settled on spicy pork intestines ($9.99), which she assured us came with some vegetables:

It was good to see that the restaurant has not lost its touch with intestines. These were truly excellent. As Kirk said, they were split lengthwise and well cleaned, and Tina and I especially appreciated their richness and tender chewy texture. The promised vegetables included extensive celery, scallions, garlic slices, and both red and green sliced chilies. The veggies added flavor, spice, and crunch. Being over cautious, we had ordered the dish medium spicy, which was okay because there was a lot of noticeable heat, but the dish could have been even hotter.

Again being cautious, we had ordered the house fried rice ($5.99) not spicy:

This was excellent fried rice, the Hunan smoked pork giving it a unique touch.

That same smoked pork provided the flavor for the smoked pork with string bean ($8.95):

The beans were perfectly cooked in a very hot wok and tasted fresh and green beany. The pork – though it looks like bacon – has a different smoky flavor profile. This dish was probably our least favorite, though still pretty good, like someone's least favorite child.

The last item to arrive on the table was the house special, Steamed Spicy Whole Fish ($9.99):
The fish was extraordinarily tender and melted in the mouth. While it had that fresh water fish flavor, it was not muddy or fishy. The profusion of chopped dried chili pods and crushed garlics provided flavor certainly, but this dish was not excessively spicy, and the flavor of the fish came through very well. We liked it:

Xiang Wei Lou, 227 W Valley Blvd # 118A, San Gabriel, CA 91776, (626) 289-2276

Overall, we had two excellent interesting dinners, and appreciated the convenience of eating next to our hotel. I also just want to thank Kirk for making me a more adventuresome eater and helping guide Tina and I to some of the good places in San Diego and elsewhere. Thanks Kirk!

French Omakase: Bistro Laurent in Paso Robles

July 6, 2014 ed fromyuma Fine Dining, French Restaurants, Paso Robles/Cambria/San Luis Obispo County, Road Trip, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Again today it is Ed (from Yuma) blogging, not Kirk or Cathy. More about his vacation in Paso Robles.

Every evening in Paso we had to decide on dinner. Steve and Helen and Tina and I had rooms in an old-fashioned 1950s style motel only a couple of blocks from the beautiful little park downtown. Where once I had had difficulties finding a good meal in Paso, now there were numerous restaurants serving all kinds of wine friendly cuisine, at a range of different price points, all within easy walking distance of the motel. So every evening we would stroll around, read menus, and discuss the possibilities at great length. We started the process fairly early so no serious danger of anybody actually starving.

On Tuesday evening, we wanted to get a look at the menu at Bistro Laurent, which had been closed Monday. The restaurant sits kitty corner from the northwest point of the park and is located in an old brick building:

On the right side of this picture is the outdoor/indoor patio area, right next to the actual entrance (picture taken later):

We looked at the menus. There were various dishes à la carte, appetizers, salads, entrées, etc. There were also prix fixe dinner options: four courses or five courses; with wines or not. The hostess then explained that we could just allow the chef to decide our dinner selections based on what he wanted to prepare. That sounded way too easy – French bistro Omakase. We sat in the enclosed patio area, and all decided on the chef's four choices with wine.

An amuse bouche, sort of a mini bruschetta, showed up first:

It was okay, certainly, but to my mouth, not especially amusing.

The server then poured us each a small glass of French Chablis:

We all thought it was a fine dry Chardonnay, and we all loved the breads that showed up next. Each of us grabbed half of a slice of the rustic dark olive bread to start:

There was also the equivalent of a small baguette of crusty French bread in the bread basket as well:

The next item to hit our table was the first course, warm lobster salad:

Wow! In the center of the plate stood a mound of chopped mesclun lettuce topped with and surrounded by large chunks of moist warm fresh poached lobster. Numerous chunks – excellent quality. And the whole salad was brought together by the mild creamy white sauce. Three orange slices and green and red flecks for color.

The next thing to arrive at our table was clean stemware for our glasses of La Vieille Ferme, a pleasant blended French red wine from the Rhône Valley:

To our initial surprise, the dish to accompany this red wine was grilled sturgeon, lying on a bed of al dente French lentils in a savory cream sauce:

But combination of wine and ingredients worked. The fish was not overcooked, it's mild fleshy flavor accented by the earthy lentils and both balanced by the light red wine:

After we finished the course, our wine glasses were changed again and a full flavored 2009 Paso Robles syrah from Clavo vineyards was poured to complement the meat course:

Two large pieces of venison, roasted medium rare, sat on top of a thick disk of fried mashed potatoes. Not only did I enjoy the accompanying blueberry sauce; I also savored the sprig of fresh marjoram, taking little bites of the herb occasionally as I chewed the deeply flavored deer meat:

The chef's choice of desserts was accompanied by small glasses of Sauternes, a sweet golden wine made from late harvested white wine grapes affected by pourriture noble, which gives the wine a honeyed richness:

The desert itself was a fresh fig tart topped with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and surrounded by vanilla and caramel sauces:

The pastry was light and flaky. Figs, vanilla, caramel mingled light sweet flavors. Umm-yoso.

Even though each dinner (with wine) was $69, all four of us thought we received good value. No one left hungry – in fact, we were all stuffed. The wines had been well-chosen and enhanced the foods . The pours were generous for a prix fixe dinner. The service throughout the meal was outstanding without being annoying or intrusive – very friendly, helpful, and professional. The meal was a culinary highlight of our visit to Paso Robles.

Doing this post reminded me that I had first eaten at the restaurant back in the summer of 2002. It is interesting that a few things have changed for the better over the years, but the chef has stayed true to his basic vision. And his vision looks pretty good to me!

Bistro Laurent, 1202 Pine Street, Paso Robles CA, (805) 226-8191, 11:30 – 2:00 and 5:30 – 10:00 Tues – Sat. Website

Paso Robles Wine Tasting Adventure

June 28, 2014 ed fromyuma Paso Robles/Cambria/San Luis Obispo County, Road Trip, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Kirk and Cathy get a break today because Ed (from Yuma) wants to take the reader on a wine tasting experience in Paso Robles.

About 30 years ago when I moved to California, I discovered tasting at wineries, one of the true pleasures available to Californians who enjoy wine. Don't worry, this blog post will not be full of pictures of wine bottles and glasses of wine. Most wine in a glass looks like most any other wine in the same glass. And no one goes wine tasting just to look at the bottles. I will also try hard to avoid wine babble as much as I can.

Instead, I just want to share a recent wine tasting adventure up in Paso Robles.

J Dusi

Tina and I had left the San Gabriel Valley munching on banh mi around 11 AM and arrived in Paso around 3 PM. We met up with Steve and Helen (old friends from Monterey) and decided to head out to do a little tasting. I wanted to start at J Dusi:

The tasting room for this winery, located on Highway 46 south of Paso Robles and a little west of Highway 101, has only been open about a year, but I wanted to visit because I had had a wonderful bottle of Zinfandel from Janell Dusi’s winery with a dinner at Artisan Restaurant on my last visit to Paso. I was surprised that she herself was in the tasting room on that Monday:

Her great-grandfather originally planted Dusi vinyards in the 1920s, making them truly old vine, and Ridge winery, which has focused on making wine from classic, high quality, old vine vineyards, has made limited edition zinfandels from the fruit for dozens of years now.

The zinfandels (a 2011 and 2012) are 2/5 of the wines on the tasting menu ($10):

Janell pointed out the differences between the two zinfandels. 2011, a cool year, produced a wine that is spicy, smooth, and complex. 2012, having warmer weather, gave a wine with a bolder more intense berry fruit flavors. OK, yeh, we could taste that.

To accompany the wines, we were served a small wooden tray with fruits, nuts, and rice crackers:

That was a nice touch. As was the cork art on the wall:

Jada

We left that winery at around 4:30 PM, so we simply drove to Vineyard Drive and looked for tasting room that was still open. We found Jada, a winery I had never heard of previously:

The tasting room was very modern, clean, and attractive:

Looking the other way, large glass panels separate the tasting area from a special wine storage and display room and reflect some of the rural natural setting the winery:

Here the tasting options were more complicated; visitors can taste five wines from a regular or special list ($10 or $15) and can choose to taste the wines with chocolate or cheese:

Tina and I chose cheese. Each cheese matched a particular wine and showed off that wine’s flavor profile best:

We had a good time chatting with the pleasant young woman running the tasting room, and we learned that most of the grapes come from the estate vineyards which are all managed biodynamically. Almost every bottle of wine exhibited a unique blend of classic varietals. We enjoyed our visit.

Calcareous

The next morning, Steve, Helen, Tina, and I decided to start at Calcareous vineyards, just a few miles west of the town Paso Robles itself. This was another new winery that had been receiving a lot of favorable mention. Clearly the tasting room is a modern construction:

The vista from the patio outside the tasting room is pretty and spectacular, miles and miles of rolling hills at the beautiful southern end of the Salinas Valley:

Inside the pleasantly decorated tasting room itself, there was extensive use of wood, stone, and marble:

Again, for $10 a visitor could taste five different wines, all grown on vineyards owned or managed by the winery:

Kurt who was pouring in the tasting room that morning, called our attention to the white wine that began the tasting, explaining how one could taste each of the three types of grapes used in the blend – the viognier with its flowery aromas hitting the palate first, the grenache blanc providing clean smooth dry mineral flavors, and the roussane finishing with richer more buttery mouthfeel. He was right, I could taste all those things, so we made it a point to buy a bottle of this wine at the end of the tasting.

The winery also stressed that most of their grapes were grown in calcareous vineyards, the limestone stressing the grapes and producing more flavorful grape clusters. There was even a chunk of limestone rock in the tasting room:

We all felt this was a good beginning to our day of wine sampling, but it was time to go back and into Paso Robles and have lunch.

When I first tasted in the Paso Robles area in 1985, there were less than 10 wineries with tasting rooms if memory serves. I couldn't find any place for an interesting dinner. There was little to distinguish Paso Robles from other rural California towns. Now there are over 200 wineries and a vibrant restaurant scene. Our tasting theme for this year's visit was to seek out places where none of us had tasted before that we had heard good things about – or just happened to run across.

Caparone

However, after lunch on Tuesday, we headed north on Highway 101 to San Marcos Road, turned left, and drove along small two-lane road for a few miles until we came to Caparone winery, two very nondescript buildings at the end of a gravel driveway. The exterior of the tasting room looked like this:

This is true old school Paso Robles. Dave Caparone started making wines in his home in the early 1970s, and began Caparone vineyards in the late 70s when he purchased the property on San Marcos Rd., planted it to Zinfandel and Italian grape varietals, and built his modest winery and storage buildings on the property.

I do not believe I have ever done a wine tasting in the Paso Robles area without stopping in at Caparone winery.

The winery, now operated by Dave's son Marc, is a family operation that focuses on producing traditional unfined and unfiltered red wines that can age for years. Look at the list for the tasting in June 2014:

A couple things stand out. First, most of the other wines we tasted on our Paso Robles adventure retailed at over $30 – that seems standard for boutique wines in the area these days. All Caparone bottles were $16 with case and half case discounts. Caparone was also the only place we went that did not have the tasting fee. Gotta love the prices.

Second, look at the vintages. At every other winery we visited, the oldest wines that were served were from 2010, and most of the bottles came from 2012 or 2011. At Caparone, the newest wine was from 2010; in other words, Caparone is now selling wines that are aged so that they they don't have to be stored to achieve their peak flavors. I know of no other winery that does that – certainly none that sells aged wine at a basic price.

Caparone was also the first winery to bottle some traditional Italian grape varietals and cultivars. For example, the Sangiovese comes from cuttings obtained from one of the outstanding vineyards in Brunello di Montalcino and, with a little bit of aging, exhibits characteristic reddish brown tones:

Lone Madrone

After tucking a few cases of Caparone wines into the car, we drove south to Lone Madrone winery, a very new winery that showcases wines made by Neil Collins, the talented winemaker at Tablas Creek – the large Franco-American winery connected with Château Beaucastel in Châteauneuf-du-Pape:

Five wines were available for a $10 tasting fee – 2 whites and three reds:

As you can see, quantities of these wines are very limited and the prices for them are pretty expensive, but the tastes were very pleasant. The four of us discussed how the blended white wine here, dominated by the roussane grape, had a distinctively different flavor profile from the one that had started our day at Calcareous.

We also enjoyed the wine label art – here a picture of James Dean who was killed in an automobile accident on Highway 46 in 1955:

Epoch

After Steve and Helen headed back to Monterey on Wednesday, Tina and I had time to try a couple of other wineries. This time we headed south and west, taking Highway 46 westward toward the ocean, then turning right on York Mountain Road. Up there we found Epoch winery, another new boutique winery operating out of the new building:

The interior is also bright and striking:

The long-range goal at Epoch is to restore and renovate the York Mountain winery building, which stands on the property:

As well as being scenic, York Mountain was the first winery in the Paso Robles area dating back to the 1880s.

We were able to taste 4 highly rated and expensive wines for $10:

Some of the grapes come from a vineyard begun by Polish statesman, pianist, and president, Ignacy Jan Paderewski.

We were also intrigued by the subtle salmon shade of the rosé wine:

Kenneth Volk

The last winery we went to during our stay in the Paso Robles area was KennethVolk Vineyards on Highway 46 a few miles east of Epoch. After parking, a visitor walks down a little trail through the entrance:

alongside a rustic building with the restrooms:

to the old barn like structure that is the tasting room:

Kenneth Volk founded Wild Horse Vineyards back in the day, and his new eponymous winery features wines made from numerous different grape varieties:

That's just the first half of the list – here are the rest:

Each of us could choose tastes of six of the wines for $10, so we were able to sample some unusual varieties (blaufrankisch or cabernet Pfeffer) , and some from unusual vineyard locations, such as San Benito County or Lime Kiln Valley. It was a nice change from the other tasting rooms we had been in and a pleasant conclusion to our tasting adventure.

All in all, Steve, Helen, Tina and I had fun exploring the Paso Robles wine region. We tried to be moderate and responsible in our consumption, particularly Tina who did most of the driving. Of course tasting the wines was fun, but just driving around the hills outside of Paso Robles, enjoying very pleasant weather, and talking with friends was a good time. Except for our visit to Caparone, we purchased very few bottles at the tasting rooms – those are usually the highest prices (outside of restaurants) that a person would have to pay for the wine. Many people spend several days in the Paso area sampling the wines and then make their purchases at the supermarket in town where many of the local wines are available at a discount price.

I realize this was a terribly long post, so if you've gotten this far, thank you for reading and I hope I have been able to convey some of the pleasures of wine tasting in Paso Robles.

Winery map

Mariscos Playa Hermosa in Phoenix

June 24, 2014 ed fromyuma Mexican Restaurants, Phoenix/Scottsdale/Chandler/Central AZ, Road Trip, Seafood, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Kirk and Cathy are busy today, but Ed (from Yuma) has had some free time lately, so here's his post from a recent road trip.

A friend of Tina's from grad school was retiring at the end of May, 2014, so we were in Phoenix for the weekend. On a previous trip, Tina had already located a Mexican seafood restaurant that she was sure I would enjoy – Playa Hermosa:

We arrived fairly early before the restaurant had begun to fill up, and I was immediately impressed by the brightly colorful decor:

The chairs were almost too beautiful to sit in:

Even the tabletops were decorative works of art:

The chips and salsa showed, however, that there was more to Playa Hermosa than met the eye:

The fresh chips were accompanied by a fiery red salsa full of chile seeds and an avocado/cilantro green salsa that was mild and smooth.

We also ordered margaritas ($5.99) that were very attractive, flavorful, and effective:

The menu featured a wide range of seafood choices and preparations. Tina chose the camarones culichi (shrimp in green sauce – $13.99), and I decided on the fish and shrimp combination with the poblano sauce ($15.99).

Both meals began with a ceviche de pulpo tostada:

Very tasty. The octopus was perfectly tender and the citrus flavor of the juice was not overpowering.

Tina's shrimp came in a little boat of a complex and tangy salsa verde – it was creamy and elegant, highlighted by green chili and citrus notes. We understood why one of Tina's friends had recommended this dish:

It came accompanied by tortillas, excellent vegetable rice, chopped lettuce and tomato, fresh red onion rings, and slightly refried pinto beans that Tina especially appreciated:

I also loved my dinner:

Next to the same side dishes, my lightly crusted, perfectly grilled fish was topped with numerous shrimp and a truly outstanding ranchero sauce dominated by grilled fresh poblano peppers:

The tender flaky fish was perfectly prepared, and the only real shortcoming of my entrée was that the shrimp were a little overcooked and chewy – as were Tina's.

While we were eating a small mariachi band came in and began playing people's favorites. At first they stood between our table and most of the rest of the restaurant. At that point they sounded better than they looked:

They soon moved throughout the restaurant and we enjoyed their performance.

In fact, we enjoyed our entire meal. Our server was really superb, explaining dishes from the menu, always noticing when we needed something, and being professional and friendly throughout. While the decor and entertainment might make this place seem like a tourist restaurant, virtually everyone in the restaurant – except of course for Tina and me – seemed like a local. We would happily return.

Mariscos Playa Hermosa, 1605 E. Garfield, Phoenix AZ 85006, (602) 462-1563

Antojitos Como en Casa: El Centro CA

June 10, 2014 ed fromyuma El Centro, Imperial Valley, Mexican Restaurants, Road Trip, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Welcome to mmm-yoso. Most often Kirk blogs here about meals and food from San Diego and from multitudinous places around the country and the world. Cathy, based in eastern fringes of the San Diego area, also wanders widely and eats all kinds of things in all sorts of places and blogs about them here. Today, however, you can read Ed (from Yuma) posting about a place in exotic El Centro.

Last December Tina and I were beginning a road trip up to LA to eat interesting food and visit interesting museums. We figured to get going in the morning and then stop for lunch in El Centro, where Tina had found an interesting Mexican restaurant for us to try. Located on a small side street off of Fourth, the place was a little difficult to find, but iPads and electronic maps make just about anything findable these days:

Although the outside was pretty standard, the interior was bright, clean, and interesting:

I was immediately intrigued by the large jars of aguasfrescas on the counter:

We were quickly served chips with two different salsas: one based on roasted fresh green chilies and one with a good dried red chile flavor:

And the aguasfrescas were outstanding. I had a lemonade, but Tina's cucumber beverage was truly amazing ($1.75 or $3.00):

It tasted more like cucumber than a real cucumber does.

I ordered the daily soup special, which was a chicken tortilla soup that – if memory serves – also contained chickpeas. It was very tasty and looked good too ($6.50, I think):

Again Tina's choice was even better, the green pozole that is only prepared on Thursdays ($10.50):

The side dishes with the green pozole included a roasted chili, pork rinds, and a potato taco along with the standard chopped onions, shredded cabbage, sliced radishes, oregano, and chili flakes:

Since that meal, we have talked about driving over to El Centro just for the Mexican food at this restaurant – which seems kind of peculiar, considering that we live surrounded by Mexican food establishments.

However, El Centro also has the closest Costco to Yuma, so as soon as I had some free time, armed with two reasons for the drive, we headed off on a short road trip.

Again we were impressed by the service and the decor of the restaurant:

Tina had the cucumber aguasfrescas again – just as good as before – and I had a wonderful cantaloupe water:

The aguasfrescas are not overloaded with sugar here; the emphasis is squarely on the featured fruit (or vegetable).

As an appetizer, we ordered a potato tlacoyo, a thick grilled corn patty stuffed with mashed potato, drizzled with crema, covered with a tangy green cilantro/tomatillo sauce and dusted with cotija cheese($2.50):

Slightly reminiscent of a pupusa.

This time, Tina had the regular pozole, which was very good but not unusual ($10.50):

Topped with condiments, it looked like this:

I had an order of the chicken enfrijoladas, sort of like enchiladas except that the sauce covering the corn tortilla wrapped chicken is a bean sauce, not a dried chili flavored sauce ($8.99):

I was intrigued by this entrée because I still have fond memories of the enchiladas verdolagas that the late Danny Mendoza used to prepare with a similar frijole sauce at Viejo Loco in Yuma.

These were good, and I was impressed by the tasty rice and especially by the large chunks of chicken:

Anyway, Tina and I expect to be back for more meals – and more trips to Costco. On the weekends, Antojitos features lamb mixiote, specially marinated lamb wrapped in maguey leaf, and we really want to try that.

So if you are on I-8 in the Imperial Valley area and you need a great place for an interesting, unusual, and well prepared Mexican meal, check out Antojitos. We’re glad we did.

Antijitos Como en Casa, 425 Desert Gardens Dr, El Centro, CA 92243, (760) 482-5621, open 8 am – 8 pm every day, except Mondays. website

Ed, Chicken Soup, and La Flor Mexican Restaurant, Yuma

May 24, 2014 ed fromyuma Mexican Restaurants, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Ed (from Yuma) finally has another post here at mmm-yoso. Cathy and Kirk get a day off today.

When you live in a big city like San Diego there are always new restaurants opening, old restaurants transforming, and more variety of food choices than any one person can experience. When you live in Yuma, Arizona, however, it is easy to sample dishes from each of the long time non-chain restaurants in the area in a year or two. So I go to my favorites and try new places that might interest me. Sometimes I even write about them for mmm-yoso. But it is rare for me to "discover" a Yuma eatery that has been around for a long time. This post is about one of those rarities.

One day last summer, I knew that I would be stuck from 9 AM to 4 PM getting chemotherapy at my oncologist. My old buddy Dave volunteered to bring in lunch. I told him that sounded great, but I certainly wasn't expecting him to arrive with two large Styrofoam containers filled to the brim with Mexican-style chicken soup, a couple huge flour tortillas wrapped in tinfoil, some Mexican rice, and two aguasfrescas. And I certainly wasn't expecting the soup to be the best chicken soup I had ever had in Yuma – well actually, probably the best chicken soup I've ever had.

"Chicken soup?" I asked.

"Yeah," Dave said, "it's a good thing when you're sick."

I didn't have my camera with me that afternoon, but this is what a bowl of that incredible chicken soup looks like:

It usually contains three pieces of bone-in dark meat chicken, celery, carrot chunks, potato, and sometimes even squash in a hearty chicken broth that is full of chicken flavor and so rich that any left overs turn gelatinous in the refrigerator.

Here's a picture of the giant, old-style, Sonoran flour tortilla that I always get when I order the soup. It is bigger than it looks:

Dave had picked up the soup from La Flor, a longtime Yuma Mexican restaurant that occupies a stand-alone building with a lot of parking (pun intended) on the corner of Avenue A and Third Street. Dave says it's been there for over 20 years, and he would know:

The restaurant’s homey and clean interior features standard Yuma Mexican restaurant décor:

That picture does not show the 5 or 6 booths along a couple of the walls, so the place is bigger than it looks.

It wasn't that I had never eaten at La Flor before, but I thought it was just a decent Mexican restaurant with very fair prices that did a lot of things fairly well, but nothing was so extraordinary as to invite a post at mmm-yoso. But La Flor did have some unusual qualities. All the dishes were preceded by a small cup of cream of vegetable soup:

The decent thick and crunchy chips were sometimes accompanied by a tomatoey fresh salsa, and sometimes by dried chili salsa, both of which were good:

The restaurant makes a good quesadilla.:

And I have no complaints with the chicken enchilada or the chile relleno:

On the other hand, I still have terrible memories of a soggy chicken torta made with boiled chicken, and I would urge anyone to avoid the fish tacos, the fried fillets swimming in a sweet thick yellowish mayonnaise based sauce.:

Before I had had the chicken soup, my favorite item on the menu was the truly outstanding chile verde, shown here in a burrito.:

The mild green chili sauce, the fall apart tender pieces of pork, and the hint of tomatillo combine to make arguably the best green chili in Yuma (and I love green chilies).

Now, however, Tina and I usually come to La Flor for the comforting and filling bowls of soup. Most days the restaurant offers eight or nine different soup choices. Of course, the chicken is still maybe our favorite, but the albondigas with numerous peppery meatballs and various vegetables in a very savory stock is often quite good – if occasionally a little salty.:

The menudo here is tasty and well-prepared:

Here topped with condiments:

but Tina and I think the pozole may be the best in town – and that is saying something.:

As well as fish soup and shrimp soup (neither of which I have tried yet), La Flor does a very good siete mares.:

Years ago I fell in love with siete mares on vacation in Ensenada, and truth be told, I have never had a version on this side of the border as good as the impeccable mixed seafood soup that still lives in my memories of Ensenada, but this was deeply flavored with a robust fishy broth (look at that broth) and most of the seafood was good. The portion was also so huge that I couldn't finish the whole bowl.

So I owe a tip of the hat and a shout out to Dave – it has led to numerous flavorful and fulfilling meals over the last year. I have also been extremely lucky with my lung cancer (fingers crossed). In addition to six days of chemotherapy, I had around 35 tomotherapy radiation treatments. My radiation oncologist – a man of faith – said that the disappearance of the tumor was "miraculous." I personally attribute it to Dr Shea and Dr Giangreco and their wonderful staffs at Southwest Oncology.

But maybe it was just the chicken soup.

La Flor, 1085 W 3rd St, Yuma, AZ 85364, (928) 782-5621, open from breakfast through dinner, but closed on Tuesdays.

Rose Garden Tea Room at the Huntington: Road Trip

January 15, 2014 ed fromyuma Los Angeles County, Road Trip, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Today, you can read about Tina and Ed (from Yuma) touristing and eating in the LA area. Tomorrow, it’ll probably be Kirk or Cathy writing. Things change at mmm-yoso.

The Huntington in San Marino (not far from San Gabriel) contains a wonderful Library, rooms full of Art collections, and botanical Gardens:

The estate of approximately 120 acres contains huge lawns decorated with statuary:

Asian Gardens:

Bridges:

Flowers blooming even in late December:

The major art collection in the Huntington mansion includes the largest selection of English portraits outside of London, including Gainsborough’s “Blue Boy” and Lawrence's “Pinkie:

When we were there in December, 2013, the gallery in this building below contained an extensive exhibit, called "Face to Face," that focused on how Flemish painting influenced and contributed to the great art of 15th-century Florence and presented over 30 works by Memling, van der Weyden, van Eyck, and other greats:

Of course, Tina and I were also interested in the traditional tea buffet in the Rose Garden Tea Room ($29.50). Classical chamber music played in the background perfectly accenting the understated elegance of the room itself:

Each table had basic tea condiments – lumps of brown or white sugar and a small pitcher of milk:

When seated, we were given a large basket of buttery and flaky scones, each about the diameter of an old silver dollar, all rich and flavorful:

As you can see, some had raisins and some orange peel. There was also a small tray of complements for the scones – blueberry preserves, orange marmalade (made from Seville oranges grown on the estate), fresh butter, and sweet Devonshire cream:

A large range of teas including many flower or herbal teas without caffeine were available. Since we were having tea as a Saturday brunch, we chose good, old-fashioned English breakfast, which was flavorful but not astringent or bitter:

I have to admit to being slightly disappointed in the utilitarian teapot, which was refilled when needed. For some reason, I had expected something more ornate in sterling silver.

After gorging ourselves on scones – certainly the best either of us had ever had – we filled plates with treats from the buffet in the middle of the room. Here is Tina's first plate:

My first plate:

My 2nd plate:

From a different angle emphasizing the fruit:

This was all generally good. Tina's favorite sandwich was the cucumber. I liked the chicken and tarragon, the ginger and carrot and especially the smoked salmon with dilled cream cheese. The caviar was abundant, crunchy, and not too salty or fishy. The hummus, which looked pretty ordinary, was actually extraordinarily complex and flavorful. We both thought the lightly smoked Gouda was the best of the cheeses that we tried. Some of the fruit – I remember the giant strawberry in particular – was truly excellent. Of course the salads were fresh and tasty. It took great restraint to only have 2 plates of food along with the wonderful scones. Had we scheduled The Rose Garden Tea Room in the middle of our visit to the Huntington (instead of 10:45 am), we might well have sat there for a couple of hours sipping and savoring the various treats.

If I’d spent more time, I could have even sampled the numerous brownies, cookies, and cupcakes that I forgot to photograph. But I did take some snaps of the roses outside:

In any case, we had a wonderful time at the Huntington, and we both want to thank Kirk who reminded us about the traditional English tea room on the estate.

The Rose Garden Tea Room, at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Rd San Marino, CA 91108; Tea Room hours Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 12 noon to 4:30 p.m. (last seating at 3:30 p.m.); Sat. – Sun.: 10:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (last seating at 3:30 p.m.); Closed Tuesdays; (626) 683-8131. Link to The Huntington http://www.huntington.org/