mmm-yoso – Page 113

Have a Safe and Merry Christmas

December 24, 2020 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

Yes, I know….I try to do one of these every year. But this year is a bit different.

Because of….well, you know why…

The Missus and I have been driving looking at Christmas lights a couple of times a week this year. Because, well we need it. We always talk about taking Sammy and Frankie to look at the lights every year…..and we do miss Sammy so much.

I'm not sure if it's my imagination; but there seems to be much more decorating this year…..perhaps because folks have time on their hands at home or maybe they need to have their spirits lifted. Regardless, we have really appreciated our drives.

Our favorite area is Jamar Drive and Lana Drive in Clairemont……it seems like every house on those streets has something going on. It also seemed like we stopped whenever we saw one of the folks who lived in the home and thanked them from our car.

It's quite amazing and wonderful; you can see a KUSI news video from Youtube here.

I know it's rather late; but if you do have the chance…….

And we here at mmm-yoso want to wish you a safe and happy Christmas Holiday. We hope everyone is doing ok under the circumstances and look forward to a time when we're past this.

Take Care!

“I Want It and I Want It All” – Takeout From Kangxi is Coming, Village Kitchen, and Noble Chef

December 22, 2020 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

So, a few weekends back (it was actually right after Thanksgiving), I made a mistake…..of asking the Missus what She wanted and offering a few options……Her answer? "Well, I want it and want it all"! Ohhh-kay…like they say, "no good deed goes unpunished" and in all honesty, it was a bit of a challenge……of coordinating takeout from three places. In terms of coordination it turned out pretty well. And here's what ensued.

1 – The "wildcard" if you will was Kangxi is Coming, as I hadn't been there since the pandemic started.

2 – I knew that phone orders for Noble Chef worked well.

3 – I knew that Village Kitchen often did not have items available, plus when I tried a phone order and didn't speak Mandarin they hung up on me.

And so, here's what ensued.

1 – I placed an online order with Kangxi is coming.

2 – I called Noble Chef and was told they were really busy and my order wouldn't be ready for an hour; which worked out perfectly.

3 – I then headed to Village Kitchen and placed an order in person….and while they were out of certain items; I got a couple of things the Missus wanted to eat and told them I'd be back for pick-up.

And so I then headed to Kangxi is coming; where the Suan Cai with Pork was ready when I arrived.

It was quick and painless……no worries there.

I then headed to Noble Chef where my order was ready and picked that up. Ditto Village Kitchen. Take that food app…..

And yes, this is a food blog; so how did things end up?

Well, the Suan Cai with Pork from Kangxi is coming…..

Was lacking the really great fermented flavor of good fermented cabbage….it really ain't that hard making a decent suan cai; but this lacked the deep savory tones and everything seemed a bit overcooked.

Noble Chef was fast and easy….though they had packages piled up along several tables and folks waiting in their cars in the parking lot. The roast duck did well after I went and did the "usual" with it.

And for some reason, the Missus likes the Wintermelon Soup from NC.

Because the Missus wanted the Wintermelon Soup; I decided that anything with stinky tofu might not do well. I ended up ordering the Eggplant and Green Chili with Preserved Egg and Pork with Cucumber Skin.

And while my first choice would have been La Rou (Hunan smoked pork) with cucumber skin; this version was quite good.

What I consider to be the signature dish here; the Eggplant and Green Chili with Preserved Egg was terrible.

The eggplant was undercooked and not mashed, there was almost no roasted chilies in this, there was a pervasive greasiness. It was really bad……..kinda sad……don't think the Missus is going to want this again soon.

Still; I think I did a pretty good job doing the "I Want It and I Want It All"…….huh? What do you think?

Kangxi Is Coming – **** Kangxi is Coming has closed
4428 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

The Noble Chef
6159 Balboa Avenue
San Diego, CA 92111

Village Kitchen
4720 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

Minh Ky and Pho King Nine Months Later

December 21, 2020 mmm-yoso Vietnamese Restaurants

Man, it's Christmas week already. Little did I know that my meals at Minh Ky and Pho King on March 14th and 15th of this year would be the last time I would eat in a restaurant in San Diego. As I think everyone in San Diego knows, the hammer came down on March 16th, and we've been pounded with it ever since. Last weekend marked nine months since I last ate at those two places and after working during the mornings, I decided to call and do take-out. Of the exact same meals I'd had at the two places. I hadn't been in this part of City Heights since March, so that was going to be interesting as well. I just struck me as I'm typing this out…..I guess it was just fate that my last meal in a restaurant was at a place named "Pho King".

Anyway, here goes.

Beef Sate Egg Noodle from Minh Ky:

I was surprised to see the parking lot at Minh Ky almost full at 10am. Only the crazy parking spaces with no exit….you know, the ones you have to back all the way out of were available.

At MK, you still enter the restaurant and like before, employees are using the middle table as work space. To fill sauces, etc. There's now blue painters tape on the floor for routing customers and social distancing and the cash register has a plexiglass window.

Things went very quickly as I had my cash ready, didn't need, nor want change, grabbed my bag, returned to the car, proceeded to do the hand sanitizer thing, and headed home.

I got my usual, which felt pretty hefty.

Good lord, this was an entire portion of soup and it seemed the portion of egg noodles and beef was at least a third larger than what I'd previously had. Compare what I got from Tim Ky to this.

I actually had to use the bowl that had held the noodles and beef from the Tim Ky order for the broth and then bust out one of my extra large bowls for the noodles!

This was quite good. The meat fairly tender, the noodles had been nicely coated with the savory sauce, tangy stir fried, but not too broken down tomatoes for some added acidity, onions for a nice slightly pungent-sweet zip, and a touch of mild spice.

There was one interesting thing that was kind of a two-edged sword The noodles were very well coated with the sate, which meant there was minimum clumping, I didn't have to do any work to separate. However, it seems all the time spent in the sauce had made the egg noodles much softer than I prefer.

I found the broth to be less salty than on previous visits, with what seemed to be more of an almost light seafood flavor. I used it sparingly on the noodles….and saved the rest for some frozen won tons I had in the freezer.
Of course I needed a nap after eating this.

Minh Ky Restaurant
4644 El Cajon Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92115
(619) 283-4180
Current Hours
Thurs – Tues 9am – 8pm

Closed on Wednesdays

Hu Tieu Mi Kho from Pho King:

The next morning, I was wrapping things up when I decided that perhaps I should do the second place of the two-fer….the last restaurant I dined at before the March lockdown. I called in my order and headed to Pho King. I called at 10 am and got to the restaurant at 1020, there was no parking available, so I found some street parking several blocks away. I ordered my usual here as well, the Hu Tieu Mi Kho.

The entrance to the restaurant has been blocked off and is used as a pick-up window now. My order was waiting when I arrived and there was no delay. Of course, there's something about folks in this parking lot. This time as I was walking by, some dude flicked his cigarette out and it hit me on the arm. Luckily, I didn't get burned or anything…..I turned around and the guy laughed, then ran into the water store……jerk.

I got home and unpacked things….first thing I noticed that unlike the last time I had this dish, there was actually more than two-three strands of Hu Tieu available. Nice.

That's what it looked like plated up. The noodles were in a major clump, so I used the broth and the slightly sweet-porky-salty sauce and worked it with my spoon and chopstick. Too bad the sauce isn't studded with tasty ground pork like it used to be. The broth was on the overly sweet-salty side; I'm thinking it's the MSG at work.

These days the charsiu like pork was nicely flavored but quite dry, the shrimp was surprisingly plump. A decent amount of ground pork as added to the dish….but one of the items that really makes this for me is the Chinese Celery, the briny vegetal flavor really wakes things up as does the earthy-sweet bean sprouts.

Of course, all those textures and the slightly crunchy egg noodles and the stretchy hu tieu really makes the dish when doused with some of that sauce.

As a whole, my drill hasn't changed over the years:

"I do work a bit to get this thing started. First, with my chopstick and spoon, I separate and mix. I then add in the celery and bean sprouts and mix even more. The large protein items get a dunk in either the clear or soy sauce broth. I'll then start dripping the broth onto noodles while I eat. By the end of the production I actually have a small noodle-soup dish with ground pork floating around."

And having a bit of normalcy and consistency, even though the venue is not the same helps.

Pho King Restaurant
4658 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115
(619) 285-1111
Current Hours:
Fri – Wed 10am – 8pm
Closed on Thursdays

I truly understand the pandemic fatigue; but can't help but feel a bit upset that a public health crisis became politicized. I've already written about this a bit, so I'm not going to keep grinding away at it. I find it a bit frustrating and frankly sad when folks I know talk about the pandemic and deaths in terms of "oh, they all have preexisting conditions"….etc….. I always ask them, so you believe that "one death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic?" And regardless of if they agree, and frankly quite a few do, or not, I remind them of who this quote is attributed to – Joseph Stalin.

Be safe, be thoughtful, be kind…….

Stuttgart – Weingut Franz Keller, Breakfast, and You Know Where We’re Headed Next, Right?

December 19, 2020 mmm-yoso Breakfast/Brunch, Germany, Travel, Wine Bars/Wineries

After dinner at Alte Kanzlei we headed back to the hotel. We took the "scenic" route, passing thru Schlossplatz once again. It was nice to see folks out and about…..everyone socializing (before Covid-19 of course), no one glued to their smartphone.

The "Golden Hour" was fast approaching and the square took on a different look in the light of fading afternoon

We decided to sit at one of the benches for a few minutes to just watch folks coming, going, and some were having a drink too!

We walked on over to the Neues Schloss and it looked quite stunning at this time of the day.

After which we headed back down Königstrasse……

And took a quick look at the Hauptbahnhof; the train station which was basically right across the street from our hotel.

As we were about to head into the hotel, the Missus and I spotted the external entry to the hotel restaurant…….there was a wine bar named Weingut Franz Keller next to the restaurant.

During our trip the previous winter, the Missus developed a fondness for the wines of Alsace and She was curious if She's enjoy German Rieslings and Muskats as well.

The prices were nice for half-pours, the wines aren't a sweet as American Rieslings, it was a nice digestif stop for us, as we had two glasses each.

The young man who Served us was so sweet, very kind, friendly…..a really nice guy and made the whole experience fun.

Weingut Franz Keller
Schillerstrasse 23
Stuttgart, Germany

Our train the next morning wasn't until almost 11am….so, we could sleep in…….which we kind of did. We usually wake quite early when travelling….well, check that, I wake early all gthe time these days. Our room had a nice view of the park next to the hotel.

Since we wouldn't be getting into our next stop until after 2pm; we decided to take advantage of the hotel buffet breakfast.

Which, like most buffet breakfasts in Europe was actually not too bad.

And after heading back to our room…where I actually took a perfect 20 minute nap, we were soon enough heading to our next stop; to the Missus's favorite city. You know where right?

Thanks for stopping by!

Stuttgart – The Stiftskirche and Dinner at Alte Kanzlei

December 18, 2020 mmm-yoso German Restaurants and Food, Germany, Travel

After a nice snack at Metzgerei Schneider, we explored and shopped for a bit more, until the Missus decided it was time to head back to the hotel and perhaps find a spot for dinner along the way.

While walking back we came across a grand looking church and since it was still open, we decided to have a look inside. A quick search on my phone indicated that this is the Stiftskirche, which dates back to the 11th century.

There are quite a few burials in the church as Stuttgart became the home to the House of Württemberg in the 14th century.

One side of the nave is lined with statues of the Counts of Württemberg.

And until 1677 all Württemberg rulers were buried in the church.

That's the tomb of Count Ulrich I and his second wife Agnes of Schlesien-Liegnitz, both of whom died in 1265.

There was another tomb with a name that I faintly recognized, but couldn't place until I got home and did some research. It's the tomb of Johannes Brenz a famous Reformer and Lutheran leader.

All told, we spent nearly an hour in the church. And there was a striking fountain in the square outside the church named Sparkassenbrunnen.

I did a quick translate on my phone expecting the name to mean something exotic or historic; instead Sparkassenbrunnen is translated to smoething along the lines of the ""Savings Bank Fountain". Apparently, there was a bank in front of this fountain in 1912 and in 1919 a fountain was built in this spot. The fountain was destroyed in World War II and this was created as a replacement in 1955.

As we crossed through Schillerplatz, I noticed a restaurant that I had on my short list for Stuttgart. Located in the former Chancellery Building, Alte Kanzlei serves up traditional Swabian Cuisine. While things seem pretty bright; this was the end of May and the sun didn't set until after 9pm. It was already nearly 6 and we thought we'd get something to eat here before heading back to the hotel. The place was actually quite busy.

Our Server was quite efficient and professional. Since we had eaten our sandwiches a bit later than usual; the Missus wanted to try the Asparagus Soup (since She loved all the asparagus we had during this trip).

The bread was quite nice.

The Missus enjoyed Her soup, which had a nice mild vegetal-sweet flavor with a clean finish. As for the almonds….well, we couldn't really taste them in the soup. There was a mild butteriness to the soup as well.

There was one dish that I had read about and wanted to try; Maultaschen, often called "German Ravioli"; it's basically meat mixed with spinach and onions in pasta. There were two variations on the menu. Our nice Server recommended the version coated with eggs and roasted.

Man, this was a lot of very hearty food for 12,9 €! Along with some simple boiled potatoes and a salad, this was enough for both the Missus and I. I'm glad we only ordered one main and the soup.

We found the Maultaschen to be quite mild in flavor, almost bland. The textures were interesting, but the pasta was mushy and filling was on the tough and chewy side.. The Missus loves anything with eggs….well, almost anything as She didn't care much for this. Not bad, but I really expected a bit more. Oh well, can't win 'em all, right?

The service was good and the prices very reasonable. And needless to say, I didn't leave hungry.

Alte Kanzlei
Schillerplatz 5
70173 Stuttgart, Germany

Takeout From Smack’N Guamanian Grill (Again)

December 16, 2020 mmm-yoso Guamanian/Chamorro

**** Smack’N Guamanian Grill has closed

I had a busy day in the office….it seemed non-stop from when I got in at 520….before I knew it……it was noon! I usually have lunch way before then. Since I was spending the whole day in the office and was famished, I decided to place an order from Smack’N Guamanian Grill. Man, had it already been 7 months since I ordered takeout from Smack’N? I guss time flies when you’re in pandemic mode…..

Anyway, I ordered, jumped in the car, drove over…..

I parked, waltzed in, my order was waiting, was handed my package, jumped back in the car, and drove back to the office.

Like the last time; I ordered the Chebot Plate, but replaced the cabbage salad with more kelaguen. And like before, my plate was fully masked.

Though I have to say; that BBQ Chicken wasn’t doing a good job of social distancing from the red rice or the kelaguen…..

Man, this was a ton of food. I barely finished one scoop of the nice and moist red rice, love how they place the chicken on the rice allowing the juices to add to the flavor, and maybe two pieces of chicken; well marinated, a bit on the chewy side, but still way better than most Hawaiian BBQ places. The chicken was perhaps a bit on the salty side; but it still had some nice sweet tones to it.

I had a bite or two of the kelaguen and saved the rest for the Missus, who said it was better than what She previously tried from Smack’N, though She still used what little finedene I still had in the fridge to “top it off”.

In my opinion the kelaguen still lacks coconut and spice, but has really good citrus tones, and wasn’t overly salty. It was also quite moist and more tender than what I’d had here before.

It seems like the food is improving here. For a kid from Hawaii, this really had the salty-sweet-soy sauce “comfort” flavors I’m familiar with. So no complaints….and heck I got two meals out of this. It’s not fancy or hip, but just solid good grindz……and I’ll take it over what I recently had (I was talked into) from L&L any day of the week.

Smack’N Guamanian Grill
9506 Miramar Rd.
San Diego, CA 92126
(858) 762-2544
Current Hours:
Mon – Thurs Noon – 7pm
Fri – Sat Noon – 8pm
Closed on Sundays

Shoyu Ramen To Go from HiroNori Craft Ramen

December 14, 2020 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Ramen

I usually really enjoy this time of the year……it's chilly (by San Diego standards) and I love my noodle soups. This year of course…..well, sucks. An acquaintance of mine has a relative who is an Optometrist, who told him this was "going to be his year"…..after all, it was going to be 20-20, right? Well that one went down in flames I'll bet? Anyway, back to planet Earth here. I had to drop something off at work for the Missus and was wondering how things were going at HiroNori Craft Ramen. I'd really enjoyed my visits and checked their website to find that online ordering was supported. So, I went ahead and ordered the Shoyu Ramen.

After doing my duty, I headed over to Hillcrest…..I hadn't been in this area since last year! I found parking a couple of blocks away from the restaurant down Sixth Avenue and walked on over to HiroNori.

My order wasn't quite ready, so I waited outside. This was a week before the latest lockdown, so folks were eating at the outdoor tables and such.

For some reason, all the folks walking up and down the street and people eating and such made me kind of uncomfortable. I found a quiet area with good spacing from other humans.

A few minutes later; the really nice young lady walked my order to me and I was off. I had a rather uncomfortable moment……I'm not sure why folks don't social distance at traffic lights. They just all crowded around me….I ended moving to the point that I was halfway back to HiroNori. Needless to say; I couldn't get the heck out of Dodge fast enough.

I got home, cleaned up, and set about unpacking my ramen.

Unlike Menya Ultra, the noodle and toppings are combined together and was rather hard to separate. So I could pour boiling water over it to unclump. I just went ahead and got things into a bowl and then set the broth to a nice simmer.

I then poured the broth around the edges of the bowl and slowly worked to unclump the noodles. This worked fine. Also because it took a couple of minutes, it also warmed up the ajitama, which was nice.

The egg was excellent, cooked perfectly. The charred chashu was wonderfully flavored and tender. The menma added a wonderful crunch and the mild bitterness of the spinach gave the whole bowl a bit more complexity.

The shoyu broth had the same slightly velvety tongue feel that I enjoy; but it was much more salty than I recalled, which basically cancelled out any other flavors.

Those noodles had held up very well and had that wonderful, pleasant toothsomeness that I had enjoyed on previous visits.

Overall a very nice bowl; perhaps a bit on the salty side, but I did enjoy it overall. I really enjoyed the noodles as well. Still my second favorite ramen in San Diego.

HiroNori Craft Ramen
3803 5th Ave.
San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 241-2856
Current Hours:
Open Daily 1130am – 8pm

Have a great and safe week everyone!

Munich to Stuttgart – Leberkäse From Metzgerei Schnieder (You know, it tastes like…..)

December 12, 2020 mmm-yoso German Restaurants and Food, Germany, Sandwiches, Travel

I'm sure I've mentioned this before. I love traveling by train; whether it's Japan (amazing) or Europe; or even the US I could easily spend an entire day on a train. The Missus though, does not have the same belief, though She does humor me. So, when I was in the planning stage for our visit to Munich, of course our final destination for the trip was Paris, I found that the "fast train" times from Munich to Paris timed in at a bit over 5 1/2 hours. The Missus does not want to spend more than 4 hours on a train, so I had to come up with a plan. Doing a bit of research; I found that train times for Munich to Stuttgart was about 2 1/2 hours and Stuttgart to Paris clocked in at a tad over 3 hours. After doing a bit of research; it seemed like Stuttgart might be a nice place to spend an evening. And so it came to be.

We were staying a short stroll from Munich Central Train Station and also staying right across the street from the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof.

Our ride was uneventful and our room was ready when we arrived. We freshened up and, you know the Missus we headed out. The pedestrian only Königstrasse was literally outside our door. The shopping area consisted of mostly chain stores; you know H&M, Zara, and something called TK Maxx? We stopped in a food store and the Missus was immediately engulfed in Haribo products, which She enjoys.

The Missus was less than amused when I mentioned forgetting to tell Her that Haribo was founded in Germany. Anyway, it was a bit of over stimulation which caused purchasing paralysis and the Missus eventually lost focus and just bought a couple of items. So at least for the moment "Meine brieftasche wurde gerettet".

At the end of the street is a large and lovely square, Schlossplatz, the palace square.

It was a lovely day and this being the end of May (2019), folks were taking advantage of the lovely weather.

On one side of the square resides the Neues Schloss ("New Palace").

Along with other historic buildings like the Kunstgebäude ("Art Building").

Other historic buildings, a lot of green spaces and some interesting memorials.

That's the Memorial to Victims of Nazis above and the Mercury Pillar below.

By this time; the Missus and I wanted something small to eat. It was mid-afternoon and we just needed something to hold us until dinner. A block away from the Schlossplatz is the Markthalle (Market Hall), so I suggested we take a look there.

And while it was fun oogling the produce…..we spent an inordinate amount of time looking at white asparagus…..

Right at the other end of the Market Hall is another pedestrian street; Hirschstrasse. And as we strolled down the street, I saw this shop.

While the Missus had a seat; I decided to take a look. And though I wasn't able to read the menu…..

I saw a few things I was interested in and I think the friendly woman working got a kick out of me trying to figure things out. In the end, I got the Missus a Spam ummm, Leberkässemmel (remember the "sir…please no not say Spam….please……"). This was quite good; even better than what we had in Munich.

That roll was yeasty and crusty; the formed meat was fairly tender, and yes, it tasted like a cross between bologna and "you know what"…..

I enjoyed hat I had ordered even more; Paprika Leberkäse, which along with the good roll, was crisp around the edges.

Loved the pickles and red peppers that was studded in the meat. There was a slight smokiness to this as well. Really cheap (like 2 Euroes each) and (more than) enough to hold us until dinner.

Metzgerei Schneider
Hirschstrasse 8
Stuttgart, Germany

Hunger sated, we headed off back in the direction we had come from. The afternoon would soon be heading into evening and we still wanted to do a bit more shopping and exploring.

Thanks for stopping by!

It’s Fry-Day – Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings From Royal Mandarin

December 11, 2020 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants

Folks who've read this blog for a while know of my affection for Royal Mandarin's Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings. I don't have them very often, but it's a true guilty pleasure for me. And just the thought of not having access to it of plays that "mental" game with you…..yes, it's all in your head….but I recall having the same feeling when fire shut down Royal Mandarin at the end of 2009 (has it really been that long?) and having to wait six months until they finally reopened…..honestly, I've had longer periods of time between visits, but just the fact that you can't get something drives you crazy. Now I know that I could have gotten out of "my bubble" at anytime and driven down there….but for 8 months, even though we did takeout we limited our area. But finally, after both FOYs ("Friends of Yoso") Sandy and Junichi mentioned in comments how good those wings were and after returning from our roadtrip, where the Missus and I dined outdoors, I finally decided to get my fix.

RM opens at 9am….so at 9am, after finishing things up at the office, I called in for an order of S&P wings to go (for some reason I have the phone number memorized) and headed right down to the restaurant. Getting there right at 920, thinking that no one in their right mind would be doing ABCDE takeout at that time right? Wrong….

There were four parties ahead of me, each standing at the red tape "marker". Six people were waiting outside, well distanced, all had masks on. RM is currently only doing takeout. They had 4 people manning the elongated "counter" area and it actually took less than ten minutes for me to get my order!

Soon enough my entire car smelled of fried goodness….something that I would usually not enjoy, but in this case, it had been so long……

After plating, I sat on the back steps, Frankie wandering around somewhat aimlessly and had them wings.

It was just as good as I remembered. There are differences I did note. The batter these days isn't as thick, there's a bit more lightness to them, but the crispy crunch might be even better now. There seems to be less of the "secret ingredient", so no more "MS – heebie – geebies", but it doesn't seem to hurt the flavor. A bit more spice these days, but still pretty mild, good salt, and yes, there's still MSG, but I think it's used more judiciously these days. Of course, it could just be a case of "time makes the heart grow fonder".

And so, even though I still haven't had a sit down meal at a restaurant in San Diego since the middle of March; I did expand my range (I'm retiring that map). And so, thanks Sandy and Junichi, for reminding me how food can really bring comfort during these trying times!

Royal Mandarin Restaurant
1132 E. Plaza Blvd
National City, CA 91950
(619) 477-4151
Open Daily 9am – 10pm

Phuong Nga Bakery and Cafe Opens in Clairemont Mesa

December 9, 2020 mmm-yoso Banh Mi, Sandwiches, Vietnamese Restaurants

**** Phuong Nga Bakery and Cafe is now Banh Mi Express

During my last takeout visit from La Miche, I slowly pulled out of the parking lot taking a look across the street. Banh Mi Bakery and Café had been closed since……I dunno; March? And I was wondering what was going on with the spot. To my surprise there was a new sign up…..I did a double and triple take and then returned the following week to check the place out.

The name looked quite familiar, could it be???

So, on the way home to check on Frankie I stopped by and the place was open. The bakery cases left over from Banh Mi Bakery and Café now sit empty….though the now ubiquitous social distancing floor sign is there.

Of course, before I even ordered was, "is this place affiliated with Phuong Nga in City Heights?" To which the young man working said, "yes, same owners as the place next to Vien Dong Market."

I quickly looked over the menu….and sorry to say no Bun Rieu or Banh Cuon. Here it's all about the Banh Mi and Goi Cuon, with some rice dishes thrown in.

The young man told me that the bread for the banh mi is made on the site; much like it was for Banh Mi Bakery and Café. So, I just went ahead and ordered the "Special" (aka Dac Biet – $5.59). The bag with my sandwich felt pretty hefty.

And while in these photos the banh mi looks pretty much like most others; it was stuffed.

The bread was a lot crustier and a bit more dense than typical banh mi; but not in a bad way. These folks love their jalapenos as the two long, fairly thick slices span the length of the bread. Tons of pickled daikon and carrot as well. I didn't care much for the super thick stems of the cilantro.

Of course you're wondering about the filling, right? Well lookie here…..there's a double layer of everything.

It was, perhaps, a bit too much meat. But I did enjoy the thick layer of funky-earthy pate and would have just enjoyed the banh mi with that. This is quite a bargain for five bucks and change. And it really wasn't a gringo/fusion banh mi.

So, of course I decided to return and get the Banh Mi with Cha Lua and Pate.

The banh mi this time around was a bite lighter, though still crusty, but less chewy, making for a better sandwich.

Man, check out those huge slices of jalapeno. There's no "banh mi jalapeno roulette" going on here….it's literally in your face.

I was actually a bit disappointed in this sandwich as this time around; there was barely a smear of pate. Cha Lua, the pork roll was mild in flavor and a good smear of pate really helps to lift things.

The cilantro was better this time; no tough stems. There's still a generous amount of pickled veggies……but with not enough pate and the mild cha lua, things were really thrown out of balance. Like I always say, a good banh mi is about proportion….ratios are so important. It wasn't a bad banh mi by any means; but it's not something I'd return for.

I decided on one last visit to try other items on the menu. Since the other locations of Phuong Nga are known for their Banh Cuon; I thought I'd order the Tau Hu Ky; the bean curd skin wrapped shrimp paste on rice. I also ordered a couple of Goi Cuon Tom Thit; the basic shrimp and pork spring rolls. Again the bag felt pretty heavy. And upon bringing out the Com Tau Hu Ky…..

My first thought was, "man, that's a lot of rice". Which was a bit of an understatement as I could barely finish half of it.

Part of it probably had to do with the five small slices of bean curd wrapped shrimp paste; which was on the bland side. The nuoc mam cham was a bit too sweet as well. On the positive side; the bean curd skin had held up fairly well and was still crisp.

And then of course; that egg….which was actually my favorite item.

As is the m.o. with the banh mi; there were two thick and long slices of jalapeno and a ton of pickled veggies. So, I guess you can eat the rest of the rice with that?

As for the spring rolls. Well, these were some of the heftiest I've ever dealt with. It should have come with a warning sign, "contents under pressure".

Being huge and thick however is not the best thing when it comes to spring rolls.

As with banh mi, goi cuon depends on ratios and proportion as well. If this spring roll did actually explode; you would have been hit with "lettuce shrapnel" as it was basically one giant salad with some bun, perhaps a single leaf of mint. The pork and the very bland, overcooked shrimp was just window dressing in this case. The wrapper seemed more sticky than usual…perhaps it was trying to fend off all that lettuce?

In the end; I did enjoy that first banh mi; even if it was on the hefty side; the bread on my second visit was really good….there are places in San Diego who make their own banh mi and one of them especially makes a mealy-crumbly bread. That egg was so good….I wish they made a banh mi op la; a fried egg banh mi…maybe I'll ask next time. On my last visit, an older Vietnamese gentleman ordered three banh mi…….all grilled beef; so maybe I need to try that next. The prices are good, the portion sizes as well. So there's reason for me to return…..especially if they load on the pate like they did with that first sandwich.

Now….if they'd start serving Bun Rieu………one can always dream, can't they?

Phuong Nga Bakery and Cafe
9353 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. Suite H1
San Diego, CA 92123