mmm-yoso – Page 123

Travelling With My Tastebuds, Remembering Asahikawa – Shoyu Toroniku To Go from Santouka

January 24, 2021 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Ramen

Well, it's definitely ramen weather right now…..at least San Diego's version of it. Since She'd had a rather substantial and late lunch, the Missus asked if we could just go ahead and split a bowl of the toroniku ramen from Santouka, which sounded fine to me as I wasn't super hungry. So, we headed off to the Mitsuwa Food Court and wouldn't you know it, Santouka was out of shio broth, just like when I last did takeout in April. Oh well, the Missus went shopping for snacks while I waited for our large shoyu toroniku.

I gotta say; the broth wasn't as salty as the last time I had this.

And that pork cheek….while not as fatty as on previous visits, was so nicely flavored……welcome to shoyu-porkiness!

But, unfortunately, like my last takeout visit, the noodles just didn't hold up and were mushy, lacking in that nice al dente pull and chew. So I guess it really doesn't travel well. The Missus agreed; I think She know believes that Menya Ultra is better; at least for takeout.

As we were both enjoying ourselves at the dinner table, we had one of those "moments". And we both blurted out; "remember going to Asahikawa and finding the original Santouka?"

Yes, we were in Hokkaido at the end of November in 2015, and went to Asahikawa, the city where the coldest temperature in the history of Japan (-42F) was recorded…..I was in search of Otokoyama Brewery; the Missus, the flagship location of Santouka, which turned out to be a humble little shop (photo to the right). We both shared our memories and had a couple of laughs; there were actual snow flurries while we were on the train; we then caught a bus to Otokoyama Brewery, me having to ask the driver if the but went to the brewery….the wonderful bus driver made sure to let us know when our stop came up and when got out and headed in the wrong direction stopped and pointed the way for us! We miss Japan so much. Even though we had to cancel our planned trip last fall; these memories make sure that we'll return when we're able.

Here's hoping it's soon.

Funny how a bowl of ramen can transport you to a place 5,000 miles away and what seems a lifetime ago. Well, it's all we have for now; so it'll have to do….for now…..

Santouka Ramen
4240 Kearny Mesa Rd(In the Mitsuwa Marketplace)
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Takeout Hours
Daily 11am – 630pm

We hope everyone had a warm, dry, and safe weekend!

News About Sam and Sushi Yaro

January 22, 2021 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi

**** Sushi Yaro has closed

Well, as if things couldn't get bad enough. On Tuesday my good friends sent me a bunch of text messages telling me that Sam, owner of Sushi Yaro had a stroke. Which was really hard to believe since he's fairly young. I don't do Facebook, so I quickly went to the Sushi Yaro's Facebook and found that it was true.

Good lord, 2021 isn't turning out to be so great so far…..

I've known Sam for almost 20 years now, from his time working at Katzra, to when he opened Sammy Sushi, to Sushi Yaro. While not fancy……it's always been what I've envisioned as the neighborhood sushi bar, unpretentious, all are welcome, and regardless if you wanted rolls or sashimi, there was something for you.

I've always harped on the importance of the relationship between the Itamae and the customer and no where else was it so true then at Sushi Yaro. I could always waltz in and just order "some sashimi" and get a nice plate of well cut, fresh fish…..the best that was available. And, I've actually met some "FOYs" at Yaro!

I usually don't do this, but times are different right now. I have been alerted to a GoFundMe to help Sam. Especially with rent to keep him afloat. So, if you've been to Sushi Yaro and enjoyed yourself…….well……

Here's hoping Sam recovers….though having a stroke can't be great for the motor skill you need making sushi….but I'm hoping for the best.

Get well Sam!

Times “BC” (Before Covid) – Remember Brunches? Tribute Pizza, Nate’s Garden Grill, and Dan Diegos

January 21, 2021 mmm-yoso American/New American Restaurants, Breakfast/Brunch, Pizza, Sandwiches, yoso-silly

The Missus and I aren't real breakfast/brunch kinda folks……especially the pancake/omelette/etc…… A simple croissant will often do. I know, the "most important meal of the day" and all that stuff. Still, breakfast will often make the Missus feel tired, lazy, and sluggish….so there's not much of that going on in our household. However, when we do want to have brunch (and then probably head back home for a nap) we enjoy something that's not quite conventional as you will soon see.

At the end of 2019 and during the beginning of 2020 I was starting to work on a collection of these brunches….and then Covid-19 hit. And who knows when we'll be happily munching and brunching away next? I was just going to delete these photos…..but since these places are still open for takeout; I thought why not just go ahead and do a "COMC" (Clearing Out the Memory Card) kind of post.

So here goes:

Tribute Pizza:

A favorite of the Missus had started serving brunch and we thought we'd try it out. And we really enjoyed it….this was our favorite of the four.

The Missus loved that kale with pesto, that I started making a similar item that's a staple for the Missus's lunches. (Photo on the right)

We really enjoyed this brunch. We haven't been to Tribute since the pandemic started, but will hopefully rectify things soon.

I'm hoping when the pandemic is resolved they start up brunch again.

Tribute Pizza
3077 N Park Way
San Diego, CA 92104
(619) 450-4505
Takeout Hours:
Mon – Wed 4pm – 8pm
Thurs     4pm – 9pm
Friday    1pm – 9pm
Saturday 12pm – 9pm
Sunday    12pm – 8pm

Nate's Garden Grill:

I've enjoyed my breakfasts at Nate's.

I think I mostly enjoy the vibe and setting…..

The brunches have always been quite rustic and hearty.

And I believe they are doing brunch for takeout on Saturdays and Sundays from 9am – 3pm

Nate's Garden Grill
3120 Euclid Ave
San Diego, CA 92105
(619) 546-7700
Takeout Hours:
Wed – Fri 1130am – 8pm
Saturday 9am – 3pm, 4pm – 8pm
Sunday 9am – 3pm
Currently Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays

Dan Diegos:

And here's one from my 'hood. I hadn't been in a while.

Man, this was soooo much food…..

And that huge bowl of gravy went straight to my arteries.

So, of course the fruit bowl made me feel much better……right?

Really nice folks here. More about diner/pub grub and portions….but every once in a while….

No longer serving brunch, but open for takeout.

Dan Diegos Pub
2415 Morena Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92110
Current Takeout Hours:
Mon – Thurs 330pm – 930pm
Fri – Sun 1pm – 930pm

So there you go….one from the memory card. Who knows when we'll be brunching again. And even though it's never been a priority for us…..I do miss it.

The Lunch Special To Go from Bonchon (Convoy)

January 19, 2021 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Korean Restaurants

A few weeks back, I was craving some chicken wings; so I thought why not grab some K(orean) F(ried) C(hicken). It was lunch time and I decided to see if and how Bonchon was doing and was happy to see that they still did the lunch special for wings (8 Pieces + side, $10.95) and haven't raised the price, even during the pandemic.

I was quite impressed with the whole online process. I placed my order, got a text message letting me know when it would be ready. Right when I got to the parking lot, I got another text asking me to respond when I arrive. I responded and when I walking into the restaurant, the young man asked me my name and my order was right there. Really efficient.

I initially was just going to order the Soy Garlic Wings; but decided to give the Spicy one more try and got half and half.

I didn't order the Soy Garlic easy on the sauce; but it wasn't too over-sauced and sticky, nicely lacquered, moist, and retained a good crisp crunch without being too hard. Not overly sweet….though I could always go for more garlic, these are definitely my favorite at Bonchon.

I'm kinda giving up on the spicy….unlike on previous visits, the Spicy wings were actually spicy! However, I could not detect the savory, almost beany flavor that was present on past visits. These too retained a good measure of crispy-crunchiness and were moist. They seem to take really good care of the wings here.

I do miss the wing tips though; as it seems those aren't included on the wings anymore. I get great pleasure munching on those. It seems the drumettes are getting a bit larger….I prefer them a bit smaller to enhance the skin to meat ratio, but these were fine.

I got my usual accompaniment to these wings; the pickled radish, which was decent this time around, nice and crisp, though still a bit too sweet for me. It still does a decent job of restoring my palate after all the fry-o-lated goodness.

I was really tempted to do what FOY Junichi recommends when having these wings……go for a cold one; but I was still on the clock. Maybe next time!

The lunch specials are available from 1145am – 245 pm Tuesdays to Friday.

Bonchon
4690 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 836-1287
Current Hours:
Mon – Thurs 1145am – 930pm
Fri – Sat 1145am – 10pm
Sunday 515pm – 930pm

Can you order some takeout from that “Chubby Thai” place? A takeout revisit to Chaba Thai.

January 18, 2021 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

There's that magic of being married or together for ages…….you understand the verbal "codex", you develop your own vocabulary. And the Missus does have "Her moments", like Sam Woo the "Killer Whale" and why a Marshall Tucker Band's song is about fried chicken. It doesn't happen every often these days; but every so often…. The recent warmer weather had the Missus wanting some Thai food; one dish in particular; but it seems that Thai Papaya will not reopen….so say goodbye to the Som Tom Khai Kem and what the Missus was craving, the Kai Yiew Ma Pad Kra Pow (Spicy Thousand Year Old Eggs) at Thai Papaya. So the Missus asked if I could order takeout from that "Chubby Thai place". And I knew exactly what She was referring to.

I went ahead and placed my order online, then headed off to pick it up….no muss, no fuss…..making it home in no time at all.

I got the Khao Kluk Kapi (Shrimp Paste Fried Rice) with Honey Pork, which was just as good as on my previous visits.

From the pungent shrimp paste fried rice, to the sweet-salty (and even more tender this time) pork, to the fried egg…which unfortunately, I am not allowed to consume with the Missus present…..She quickly snatches it from the takeout container, this is my favorite dish from Chaba.

Sadly the Spicy Basil Chicken with Century Egg wasn't very good this time around.

The ground chicken as hard and dry….with some really hard pieces (which I liken to biting into a "toenail"). It was also quite salty and lacked balance. There was but two slices of century egg, which hadn't been battered and fried properly……needless to say; the Missus wasn't a happy camper.

FOY "Si O" has recommended the Khao Mok Kai and perhaps I'll try that out sometime in the future…..though I think I'm on my own when ordering from Chaba Thai for now.

Chaba Thai Kitchen
8010 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Current Hours:
Daily 11am – 9pm

From Winter to Summer in a Week! Revisits to Menya Ultra and The Market At HFS

January 17, 2021 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Markets & Grocers, Poke, Ramen

Well, so far the first couple of weeks of the New Year has been quite hectic….not only work, but sadly, Frankie had a seizure on New Year's Day. He's doing fine now, eating, drinking, pooping….going on walks. He's been blind for a while and has dementia, but hanging in there. We've set-up sort of a "senior living" area for him, with an indoor/outdoor rug, several beds, indoor dog gates, and one of those indoor wifi cams with pet motioned detector, and such. He's doing as well as possible considering the circumstances.

And like I said, we take a couple of walks during each day and I'm surprised that there are places within two blocks of home that I had never discovered before.

And then of course; there's been the weather! From the mid-40's around New Year to record breaking highs in the 80's this past week.

Our eating definitely reflects that.

We started with our usual takeout from Menya, during the first week of January with temps dipping into the high 40's and low 50's; adding in a "ahem" snack for me, some Negipon; which the Missus also enjoyed.

I've gone thru "my drill" with the stay at home kit before; so I won't beat that dead horse. I will say that I used the leftover noodles to make a nice Japanese curry noodles for one of my lunches.

Menya Ultra Ramen
8199 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111
858-571-2010
Current Hours:
Mon – Thurs 1030am – 2pm, 4pm – 8pm
Fri – Sun 1030am – 8pm

And then this past week happened….man, I don't recall having the mercury hit the mid-80's where we live in January. So the Missus was wanted Her "fix" from HFS.

I had to work a couple of hours during the weekend anyway and then headed off at around 935, getting to HFS right before 10…..and there were already 3 parties ahead of me in line!

Regardless, things went quite quickly. I hadn't been here since winter hit…..now HFS has two registers and things go a bit faster.

The Missus got Her fix….though one of these days I'll go through "the drill"….as the Missus has Her poke "done" a certain way.

In my opinion, still the closest I can get to "home". Though "FOY" ChrisR, who is from Hilo told me things can be slim pickins' around closing time at HFS……which makes sense; we wouldn't go to our poke places near closing as all you going get is da leftova's….

Anyway, we're hoping you're hanging in there. My true hope is that we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

The Market At HFS
6491 Weathers Place
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 282-0591
Current Hours:
Daily 10am – 4pm

Take care and be safe!

Sorry for the lack of posts

January 10, 2021 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

My apologies for the lack of posts. The last couple of weeks has been some of the most challenging I've had in my career, which stretches back to 1989. Never thought I'd be working this hard in the twilight of my career. Anyway, hoping to catch up on some posts this week.

And share stuff I've eaten, like this with you all soon.

Take care, be safe!

Takeout from Yummy House

January 4, 2021 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

After doing that crazy three stop takeout thing for the Missus, I started thinking about other Chinese Restaurants in the Convoy area. And Yummy House came to mind. For some reason, I thought that I hadn't been there in over a year…..but doing a search, I found that I actually last visited in February. Well, I guess with the pandemic raging, February of 2020 just seems like a different time these days. Anyway, since I'd pretty much have never seen customers in the place, I was wondering if they were still open. On one of drives I passed by and did notice they were still open. A few days later, I gave the online ordering on their website a shot.

And I'm happy to say, everything went fine as my order was ready and waiting when I arrived…..I barely spent 3 minutes in the place!

I unpacked the three dishes I ordered when I got home and set to work.

The Stir Fried Pork Intestine ($13.98), was passable, nice texture, mild musty-funkiness, with a bit of heat.

It was a decent prep, but nothing special, and perhaps could have even used a bit more savory-saltiness….sheesh, when was the last time I said that about any takeout Chinese food?

My usual favorite the Beef Tendon Pot ($16.98) portion size was quite a bit smaller than I recalled.

And while the "sauce" was a bit thinner than on previous occaisions, the tendon was pleasantly textured; slightly firm, but yielding easily when bitten into. I like the tanginess of this tomoato based dish, but the Missus isn't fond of the amount of acidity. The beef was sligtly toothsome, but full of beefy goodness. Still my favorite dish here.

For the Missus I got the Lamb with Suan Cai ($16.98)….I had to laugh as this is called Sauerkraut with Lamb on the online menu.

While the suan cai here wasn't overly fermented in flavor; and we were out of our homemade which we like to add to these type of dishes, our first batch of the year was bottled two days ago, so the Missus thought this was pretty "weak" and then proceeded to polish it all off, so perhaps it wasn't that weak after all? I did manage a few bites and found the lamb to be on the dry and chewy side, but nice and gamey. It definitely could have used more sour-fermented tones; but this was not bad and far from bland.

So, overall a not bad meal. I Yummy House is surviving thus far and I'll probably order from them again when I'm craving the Tendon with Tomato Hot Pot and perhaps find some other items I enjoy on the menu.

Yummy House
4633 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 499-8999
Current Hours:
Tues – Sunday 2pm – 1030pm

Recently Consumed

January 3, 2021 mmm-yoso Cooking

I had ST email me asking what happened to my usual New Year Osechi post, the one I've been doing since 2005. I have noticed that the availability for sale has gone down over the years and the model has increasingly become a "preorder" one. Of course, this year was even more different…….so I just went for a visit during a short break on the 30th and found, that even at 11am, there were pretty slim pickins'.

And frankly; I thought the lines on NYE were going to be crazy; which they were……I drove past on NYE and the line stretched all the way across the mall! So perhaps this 15 tradition has come to an end…..

As for us? Well, I used up the rest of our Duck Confit, along with my bag of Cassoulet Beans from Rancho Gordo, which has been selling out of everything since Covid, and some Garlic Sausage from D'Artagnan and made the Missus Her Cassoulet. She specifically wanted duck in the cassoulet along with a duck leg on top and also a fried egg…..

There have been quite a bit of beans/lentil soup and stews in the mix this year. Is it just me; or does it feel much colder this year? Or is it just that I'm working from home so much?

And still having a pound of garlic sausage left; I did a sort of white bean stew, using the sausage, pancetta, duck rillette, and chard.

The Missus requested Oden "Her way", which meant no kamaboko or chikuwa….only the expensive stuff. This time I put in some kokubo (turnips) which She enjoyed.

And then of course; there's my comfort food".

And….I even went ahead and made Karaage Curry……

Left over Soppressata from a recent order from Salumi Chicago made a decent frittata. Topped with Truffled Marcona Almonds….

And there it is….a round up of dishes that I remembered to take photos of the last couple of weeks.

Tell me, what have you been eating at home?

Our Last Meal of 2020 – Sushi Tadokoro

December 31, 2020 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi

It's an understatement to say that 2020 has been a difficult year; a year like none I've experienced in my lifetime and hope no one ever has to experience again. And yes, this year has been different; though I always try to be optimistic as we turn the page on each year….this one though, I can't wait to flip over.

Still, even though things are different, the Missus and I decided that we needed to at least celebrate the fact that we made it through…..so far…there's still a couple of hours left.

And so, we ordered our NYE takeout from Tadokoro a few days ahead, which turned out to be a good move since when I arrived to pick our food up; folks ordering takeout were out of luck.

Things were buzzing; but there were no shortcuts to be found on what we had for dinner.

It was a delicious meal, one which I hope is repeated many times in the future. Heck….maybe even next week? After all, we need to start 2021 on the right foot, correct?

Sushi Tadokoro
2244 San Diego Ave
San Diego, CA 92110
(619) 297-0298

Anyway, thank you all so much for taking time out to read our humble little blog during these tough times. We wish everyone a safe, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

Take Care!