mmm-yoso – Page 215

Sunday Sandwiches: Baguette Bros

December 13, 2015 mmm-yoso Banh Mi, Chicken Wings, Sandwiches

**** Baguette Bros has closed

Baguette Bros soft opened to a bit of hype a couple of weeks ago. Since it was fairly close to work, I managed to visit a couple of times.

Located in the same strip mall as China Max, Xi'an Kitchen, et al, the menu features twists on Banh Mi, chickens wings, versions VN coffee and drinks, and some Craft Beer (too IPA heavy – not my favorite match for Banh Mi). For some reason this seems to be a Food Truck menu in a brick and mortar shop……after all the NRA (no, not that NRA – the National Restaurant Association) says that the latest trend is from Food Truck to Brick and Mortar.

I like the nice, wide open set-up, very much the norm in places that want to attract the demographic that would want "Fusion Vietnamese Sandwiches"

I decided to go straight for the coronary artery and went with the Belly Flop ($8). The sandwich took a while, which didn't bother me. First this is the soft opening period and systems are still being put in place. Second, it means that my sandwich is being prepped fresh.

As the name indicates, this is a pork belly based Banh Mi. First off, the bread is standard issue. Probably from Le Chef. Because of how "stuffed" the sandwich is, it didn't hold up too on the short 10 minute trip back to the office, the bread had gotten gummy and for some reason, even though it was toasted, wasn't crusty enough.

The amount of pork belly was quite generous and along with the "sweet chili sauce", which seemed like a hoisin based sauce seemed the biggest deviation on what you'd consider something other than a super-stuffed banh mi. The classic cucumber, pickled veggies, and cilantro were nicely done. I loved the jalapenos which helped to cut the sweetness of the sauce.

One complaint would be the belly skin, which, if not fried properly is like eating plastic…..a rather unpleasant surprise.

Things come bundled with Shrimp Chips.

I thought my sandwich was pretty good so a couple of days later I returned with Calvin. I just can't put away food like I used to so having Calvin along would mean we could try a variety of items. Plus, MrC, who is originally from the SGV, his wife from Little Saigon, has had his share of Banh Mi.

My favorite sandwich of the three I had was the "Broguette" ($6). Loved the pate in this, wish they had put jalapenos on it and gone a bit easier on the Maggi, or whatever sauce they used as it was on the salty side. The head cheese was really mild but added texture, as did the Cha Lua, and the bread did well minus the travel time to my desk. As a whole, this was pretty much all about the pate.

We also ordered the "Grasshogger" ($6) – basically a Lemongrass Pork Banh Mi.

Calvin and I had the same reaction upon taking a bite of this; "whoa….too much salt…too much lemongrass". It needed something to balance out the flavors. The pork was actually fairly moist.

There was one other item I wanted to try. The Fish Sauce Chicken Wings.

Calvin liked the rather large sized wings, whereas I'm more about skin to meat ratio. We both agreed that the wings were fried perfectly, but that there was too much fish sauce in this…again, making it a bit too salty. The garlic was good, not too bitter, but this had me missing Que Huong.

I was rather pleased with what BB offered (i.e. the menu), though the execution and flavors were not quite there. I am looking forward to visiting again after the Grand Opening period. Nice folks, service a bit slow, but that's to be expected as they get their systems down.

So perhaps it's worth a visit from you…..though I think they'll be pretty busy now that Eater has declared them one of the 5 new restaurants to visit.

Baguette Bros
4698 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Please check out Kirbie's post as well!

What’s My Craving? Grandma’s Tofu & BBQ

December 11, 2015 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants

It's rainy, windy, and a bit chilly (by San Diego standards) and we're loving it. Why? Well, that means filling up on some Heokyumso Jeongol (Black Goat Stew) from Grandma's Tofu & BBQ .

While now about $3 more expensive than it used to be and not quite as full of flavor as before…..we use up all the baechu kimchi….plus refills to pump up the broth, we always leave feeling warm and satisfied.

Tonight's version had quite a bit more meat (quite gamey) than I recalled and was not very spicy. Tomorrow, the leftovers will be fortified with tofu, onions, greens, and napa cabbage, makings for a nice second dinner. Something I'm sure Halmuni (Grandma) would want.

Thanks Grandma!

Grandma's Tofu & BBQ
4425 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111

What are you having to keep warm?

Petaluma: The Saturday Farmer’s Market and Dinner at Risibisi

December 10, 2015 mmm-yoso Farmer's Markets/Night Market, Fine Dining, Italian Restaurants, Marin, Napa, and Sonoma Counties, Travel

So what do you do after a fun day doing the Cheese Trail? Well, you go to dinner!

We did make one more stop in the late afternoon; Petaluma Creamery.

The focus of this shop is more geared toward ice cream and the café.

After our afternoon nap, we strolled back to downtown Petaluma, passing all those lovely Victorian houses.

Where D street meets 4th street is Walnut Park. We were visiting in October and from May thru November, Walnut Park hosts a Farmer's Market.

We had made the mile-and-a-half walk in record time….thanks to the ahem, the Missus's encouragement. So we took a nice break.

Would you believe that the Missus bought 2 pounds of apples? Which we brought back with us to San Diego?

We also saw what might be the cutest and most chubby, little pony…..

Petaluma Saturday Afternoon Farmer's Market
Saturday from 2:00 pm-5:30 pm
May though November
Walnut Park
Petaluma Blvd and D Street
Petaluma, CA

We were still early for dinner, so we walked around Petaluma for a while.

Our dinner destination? A restaurant named Risibisi. I liked the menu, Italian with regional NoCal touches, which uses local ingredients.

We were seated in a cozy corner. The place filled up really quickly!

The service was polished and very professional, no complaints from us.

I sent Candice a text after ordering my Aperitif, joking that I must have been channeling her when I ordered a Negroni. The Missus had a Pinot Noir.

We started with the Tomato and Burrata.

The tomatoes were very good; nice acid, the flavor textbook perfect. The Burrata was creamy, slightly milky, walking arm in arm with the tomato and the flavor of the Olive Oil. The Missus actually preferred this version to what we had at Central Market the night before. She believed that the flavors were more on target and true to the ingredients. I was on the fence. The tomatoes in this dish had much more flavor, but I enjoyed the umph the anchovy and the peppery olive oil added to the dish at CM. Still, there's no denying, this was quite good.

The Watermelon Salad ($12) was a wonderful combination of flavors and textures.

The Hazelnut Vinaigrette was mild, but added just blended in nicely into the symphony of flavors. Watermelon and arugula playing well together! If anything, I'd have enjoyed a bit more pecorino to add a bit more savory-milky-salty tones to the salad. But this was very enjoyable.

Sweet Corn Risotto ($18).

I'm still looking for "that" risotto…..the usual restaurant style par cooked version, that excels. This one really didn't have the texture I enjoy. The corn added a nice sweetness, the pancetta and pecorino adding the salty tones to balance things out.

The Gnocchi Wild Boar ($18) was delicious. While the risotto fell short in texture, this was so good. The gnocchi was just firm enough, waiting to be eaten to start melting into the ether.

The wild boar was tasty, adding a nice richness to the ragu, which seemed simple, but full of flavor. An excellent dish!

The Missus had Her new favorite dessert; an Affogato. She asked if they would replace the vanilla ice cream with hazelnut ice cream which they gladly did. I had a Tawny Port, which proved to be a nice digestif. Man, we got get back to Porto one of these days.

We had a very nice meal at Risibisi. In fact, the Missus said that while the best dish of the trip was the Pork Confit from Central Market, She thought that our meal at Risibisi was better overall. It's a nice dilemma to have and one I'd gladly like to repeat again….have a dinner at Central Market, then at Risibisi….

Risibisi Restaurant
154 Petaluma Blvd N
Petaluma, CA 94952

We really enjoyed our time in Petaluma and I'm sure we'll return someday…especially when the Missus is itching for some cheese! I do have one more post from this trip coming up….I'll try to get it done soon.

Midweek Meanderings: Village Kitchen opens, Qi Wei becomes Sizzling Pot King, Pho Convoy Noodles House closes, and The Big List has been updated

December 9, 2015 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

Haven't done one of these in a while, so here goes…..

Village Kitchen Opens:

This one snuck up on me. I don't even recall seeing much activity here.

According to the sign it looks like Hunan style food.

In the same strip mall as Little Sheep and Yamadaya.

Village Kitchen
4720 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92117

Qi Wei Kitchen becomes Sizzling Pot King:

Just about a year? Qi Wei we hardly knew ye, but I guess they'd seen enough?

8058 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

Pho Convoy Noodle House Closes:

This one I first noticed a while back, during my last visit to Dede's, but didn't have the chance to post.

They had a good run, but things seemed to be going downhill over the last couple of years, it was just a long demise. Sad to see them go, but I'm kind of glad they decided to pull the plug.

Pho Convoy Noodle House
4647 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

And lastly, I found some time to update the Big List – San Diego Restaurants page. Added a couple more photos that hadn't been used in the blog and updated thru November, 2015.

Happy Wednesday!

Izakaya Sakura’s “Sign of the Times”

December 8, 2015 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants

Hard to believe that one man lift and one new sign could make such a difference. Right before our trip, FOY (Friend of Yoso) "Xiāngjiāo" sent me a text and a photo showing a sign going up…….on Izakaya Sakura!

During the week that followed, I received at least 8 emails…many expressing sadness and even dismay about Sakura's new sign. I guess having no visible identity was part of Sakura's identity in their mind. ChrisR even used the phrase "end of an era", which I think describes the opinion of most of those emails. I do think TS's "Tearing Down the Berlin Wall" analogy was perhaps a bit much though!

Anyway, in case you haven't seen it yet, his is what the final product looks like.

I'm not fond of the sign, but it's a sign. While we've posted about Sakura over 25 times in the over 10 1/2 years we've been in existence, I guess I'd never quite put together how much the lack of signage gave the place some kind of cult status in San Diego. Fact is; I recall Sakura having a sign, circa 2002 or 03. San Diego was quite different in terms of Japanese (or even Chinese/Thai/Korean, etc) Restaurants in those days. I recall being in the place (Ed, not sure if I was having dinner with you) when a customer insisted on Kazu serving him some set of rolls. He was quite pushy, somewhat verbally abusive, Kazu actually brought out the phone book offering to help the guy find a place that would serve him what he wanted. I believe interactions like that led to the removal of Sakura's signage, though I've never asked. Personally, even though I've been there many, many, times over the years, I don't know Kazu well enough to ask….so maybe one of you will.

The food scene and tastes in San Diego have changed a lot since I first started doing business here in 1998-1999. And as much as I might seem too serious in my thoughts about what's being served, I think what's available is much more diverse than back then and am thankful for it. Social media and how we get our information has changed things as well.

The food is the bottom line, right? So here's a post signage chicken karaage. Looks much like what I've had over the years. No difference, no signage tariff.

As long as the food stays consistent; I'll keep eating here. Sign or no sign…….

Izakaya Sakura
3904 Convoy St Ste 121
San Diego, CA 92111

In case you really miss it……just one more time, ok?

For old times sake.

Hope you're having a great week!

Narita: Naritasan Shinshoji Temple and Seabura (pork backfat) Ramen at Miyamoto

December 7, 2015 mmm-yoso Japan, Japanese Restaurants, Ramen, Tokyo, Kamakura, and the Kantō Region, Travel

It was nice to see Narita by daylight as arriving anywhere at night makes things a bit mysterious. The vibe of the city seemed quite relaxed, it's quite hard to believe that over 35 million people pass through an airport just a few miles away. Looking out from the window we had our first glimpse of the colors of the season. Something we don't get here in San Diego. Since our shuttle back to the airport wasn't until 940 and it was only 6am, we decided to do a bit of exploring and find something to eat.

Things seemed quite calm as we walked through the JR Narita Station, which is nearly right next to the privately operated Keisei Narita Station next door. We could make out some of the streets that we thought were so confusing the previous night. There were quite a few small temples tucked along the side streets.

We decided to visit what is probably the most popular site in this part of Narita; Naritasan Shinshoji Temple which is easily found by following the signs. The street heading to the temple, Omotesando, is lined with shops and restaurants, which were all closed at this time of the morning.

The street were very quiet except for schoolkids headed off to class. One particularly feisty little girl marched off quickly in front of us. Everytime we'd speed up, so would she, when we started catching up, she broke into a full on sprint….she refused to let us pass her! It seems we had become part of the morning entertainment.

The temple grounds were quite a bit larger than we anticipated. There's was a good amount to see. Sorry to say, my photos of the Main Hall were among those that were corrupted and unrecoverable form one of the SD cards. Still, there were quite a few distinct structures like the Three Story Pagoda.

For me, the most interesting structure was the Shakado Hall, which looked both grand and imposing at the same time. This was temple's main hall until the 1960's when the larger main hall was built.

Workers were taking down plants and flowers from an autumn flower show which had concluded the previous day.

There's also a large park. The cloudiness in the photo below is not an artifact, but the mist coming off the spruce as the environment warmed up.

We climbed up the stairs next to the Shakado Hall and were greeted by folks as they walked down past us.

The Missus read a sign that basically said, "shortcut to JR East Station", so we followed the trail. And wouldn't you know, we somehow quickly ended up quite close to the station.

We started looking for something for breakfast. And according to the Missus, "a pastry and coffee is not going to cut it!"

We circled around a bit, then ended back at Keisei Narita Station, and noticed a 24 Hour Ramen place. This seemed to fit the bill of the Missus wanting "as much ramen and yakitori" as we could possibly find on this trip.

There was one person manning the shop and one customer in attendance. The typical ramen ticket machine in the corner. The Missus couldn't make out some words and the proprietor (his photo was on the posters adorning the walls) was nice enough to point to different photos on the walls so we could correlate them to choices on the machine.

The Missus read some of the signs and said this place serves "backfat" ramen…….that would be "seabura" ramen. So what the heck, I went whole hog (no pun intended) and ordered the large bowl.

The Missus went with the Tenkasu-don – those crispy bits of tempura batter on top of rice, drizzled with a tentsuyu type of sauce, along with a raw egg. She added another boiled egg for good measure.

When my bowl arrived, I could see what looked like rice porridge on top of the ramen. It quickly became clear that these were silky little minced pieces of fat. Some of which melted away, some not. It added quite a bit of richness to the broth, which, in spite off all this fat, never became greasy. It added a different dimension to what was pretty much a ubiquitous bowl of ramen. The tonkotsu broth (minus the rendered pork fat) was fairly light and on the salty side. The noodles were done adequately…the Missus said the boiled eggs were decently flavored, though a bit on the over-cooked side for Her taste. There was a huge amount of beansprouts, I enjoyed the textural contrast it added to the ramen. The broth wasn't quite hot enough for us, which would have ended up in an even richer bowl of ramen in my mind.

While not an excellent bowl, this was still good enough for us. Would be in the top 2 in San Diego……is San Diego ready for backfat ramen?

Miyamoto (宮本)
814-5 Hanazakicho (Next to Keisei Narita Station)
Narita, Chiba

Plus it sure beat out McDonalds at Narita Airport.

Which had the longest line! Sheesh. Well, at least the portion sizes looked a bit smaller……

Belly full of ramen……we were ready for Seoul!

Thanks for reading!

Revisits: Pho Cow Cali and Pho Hiep and Grill (Linda Vista)

December 6, 2015 mmm-yoso Pho, Vietnamese Restaurants

It seems like our trip was sort of bookended by pho.

Pho Cow Cali:

My director always kids me about my habit of getting a haircut the week before any trip. "I see you're ready for your vacation now……" As I noted in my previous post on the place, the guy who cuts my hair is close by in Mira Mesa, so why not stop in for breakfast before my pre-trip ritual?

I was surprised how busy the place was at 8am on Sunday.

I went with the usual.

Pretty much the same bowl as previous visits. Well flavored proteins. A couple of things did get my attention; while the broth was a bit more rich than before, with some mild beef flavor, it was also several steps below hot. Also, they're really starting to get stingy with the herbs and sprouts here.

Service was as before. All business.

Overall, still better than almost everything else in San Diego.

Pho Cow Cali
9170 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

Pho Hiep and Grill (Linda Vista):

It had been ages since I'd had pho at Pho Hiep, though I visited two years ago to check out the Bun Mang Vit and Bun Bo Hue. A bit under the weather, I hadn't been able to eat in over two days, so I thought grabbing a bowl of pho when I started getting hungry might set me straight. Nothing too far away. Since my last visit to Pho Paradise was a bust, I'm back to the "there's no decent pho to be had in Kearny Mesa" stance.

It had been ages since my last pho visit here, so I decided on trying the rare beef…….which was cut too thick, was overdone by the time it hit the table, and was tough. I ordered the #2, which I thought should have had tendon and tripe, but both were MIA. The flank was really bad, tasteless rubber, though the brisket was tender and had a decent beefiness. There was quite a bit of nicely prepped noodles; considering this was a small bowl. The broth was interesting, too sweet and too much msg for my taste. The broth was a bit more cloudy than I prefer as well. There was quite a generous portion of herbs and sprouts, something I hadn't seen in a while.

Barely passable pho. It also shut me back down for another day or so……..

Pho Hiep & Grill
6947 Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92111

Narita: Sumibi no Uttori

December 5, 2015 mmm-yoso Japan, Japanese Restaurants, Tokyo, Kamakura, and the Kantō Region, Travel

Even though we had an amazing time during our trip to Japan last year, our time in Kyoto was limited because of Typhoon Vongfong. That was among more than a handful of reasons we decided to head back; the Missus had always wanted to see the fall foliage and She had gained a real affection for Yakitori (and ramen – remember the Santouka effect?). Also, She needed a use for the $$$$ Burberry overcoat She had bought….. So we decided to head back to Japan. Our trip was scheduled for 17 days and we had a 14 day Japan Rail Pass, so we needed to figure out what to do with those extra days. Seoul seemed like a good idea and that ended up being the plan. We arrived at Narita Airport quite late in the afternoon……man, the sunsets here at like 445pm! I decided that we should just the evening in Narita, before heading to Seoul the next morning. We stayed at the Narita U City Hotel, which is a bit dated, but very close to the JR Station, has a friendly staff, and even a free shuttle to the airport.

After settling in, the first course of business was getting something to eat. Of course the place I'd been looking forward to eating at was closed, even though Tabelog said they were open on that day. So we passed through the JR Station and started exploring, up and down the somewhat confusing side streets of Narita. Until we came across this busy little shop.

And the Missus did want to eat a lot of yakitori on this trip, right? The place was a hoot; the young man who managed the front of house would loudly greet guests as they entered and shout to find seats for customers. In this photo he is shouting upstairs to find a table for some customers. The staff were friendly and quite boisterous. There was an English menu, but we decided to ignore it and take a walk around the counter to see what we wanted.

That combined with the Missus's ability to understand some Kanji helped us make some good decisions.

Of course we started with a couple of beers.

It seems like the place also did a bustling hot pot business, but we were here for grilled meats. In looking at what was being ordered we quickly noticed that pork was really popular here, so we ordered mainly pork influenced items, even though none of them were on the English menu.

The Butahorumon (pork intestine) was very tasty. Smoky, with a crisp exterior, it had that nice savory slightly musty intestine flavor I love.

The Missus favorite was the delicious Yamaimo (mountain yam) wrapped with Pork.

Crunchy, slightly sweet, the thinly sliced bacon added a nice touch of smokiness. Just the right amount of salt made this quite tasty.

The Renkon (lotus root) was also wrapped with bacon.

It wasn't quite as pleasing as the yamaimo though.

Veering away from swine, we just had to try the Tsukune (chicken meatball), which was just ok, too many hard bits, not too flavorful.

The Pork Skin was seasoned well and had a nice deep smokiness, but was a bit too rubbery, with hard bits for our taste.

I ended with a nice Yaki Onigiri, grilled quite well.

This ended up being a nice little meal to get us started. I recall the prices as being quite reasonable as well.

The Missus had wanted to eat a lot of yakitori, right?

Sumibinouttori
533-13, Hanazakicho
Narita-shi, Chiba, 286-0033

Where in the world are we? Part 4

December 2, 2015 mmm-yoso Japan, Kyoto

Well, this is the home stretch. We're (hopefully) home by the time this gets posted. It's a place where Mother Nature intervened the last time we were here, so we wanted to take care of some unfinished business.

Which we managed to do. Along with enjoying the colors of the season.

We managed to revisit a couple of our favorites.

And got to meet up with one of my favorite food bloggers and catch up on things.

And try a few we had on our list as well.

We even made a side trip to a place with ties to San Diego!

So please enjoy Cathy's and Ed from Yuma's posts while I regroup.

Thanks for reading!

Where in the world are we? Part 3

November 30, 2015 mmm-yoso Japan, Tokyo, Kamakura, and the Kantō Region, Travel

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We're on our way to the final stop on this trip. The last few days have been great, even when the weather didn't cooperate.