mmm-yoso – Page 301

Athens: The Acropolis Museum and a return to Strofi

March 8, 2012 mmm-yoso Athens, Greece, Greek Food, Travel

After a nice lunch at Strofi we took the short walk to the Acropolis Museum. This was, of course before all of the economic and civil turmoil in Greece, before the word austere was more commonly used to describe someones taste in decorating. We did though, see some signs which I'll describe in a future post.

The museum has a very modern design, though you're quickly reminded of the historic underpinnings of Greece by just simply looking down before you enter the museum as it built right over an archaeological site. You can look upon the site through the glass floors before entering the museum.

The museum consists of four floors and beyond the ubiquitous restaurant and multi-media areas, is divided into basic time periods, with the Parthenon display taking up almost all of the third floor. sorry to say no photos are allowed. But since we didn't find out until we snapped a couple….there was no clear signs….here's a couple.

We did stop as soon as we saw a sign.

Worth a visit if you're in Athens, admission is 5 Euros.

After checking out the museum we took a leisurely stroll back ot the hotel, passing the various apartments and shops along the way. We even passed "Asian Market" a small convenience stored sized shop full of Filipinos buying snacks and other food items.

We freshened up, took a short nap, and being a bit tired decided to go back ot Strofi for dinner. After all, we enjoyed lunch so much and tomorrow was going to be a full day. Arriving at the restaurant we were led back up to the top floor patio with the wonderful view of the Acropolis.

And of course, the Missus ordered a liter of the house red wine vefore we even sat down. As with most of Europe, folks eat pretty late. The Missus and I however, usually eat fairly early, which was good since the restaurant started filling up. I'll get into this a bit more later on…..

We started with some bread with herbs, which was on the very dry side.

The Missus and I quickly noticed something about the staff here. There seemed to be no sense of urgency, even as the restaurant was filling up. There seemed to be a pretty blasé attitude. After seeing this, we decided to forgo appetizers and just order our entrees. Getting our order in was a good move. The couple sitting right next ot us came in about 10 minutes after us hadn't even gotten their appetizers and worked through a whole liter of white wine by the time we had finished our meal and left. They weren't the only ones, we saw several tables complaining about the slow service. It just seemed that the kitchen and the front of house was not up to the task. And the patio dining area wasn't totally full.

The Missus ordered the Kid Goat in Parchment Paper (15.5 Euros – about $24 US at the time of our visit).

The goat was very tender, though under seasoned for our tastes. The sauce was also quite bland and the gruyere cheese melted over the potatoes really didn't add much to the whole dish.

I went with the Baked Lamb Shank with Rosemary and Potatoes (14 Euros – about $22.50 US at the time). I was really looking forward to having some lamb in Greece, but this was a disappointment.

Pictures don't lie. This was tough, dry, and lacked the flavor of lamb. It was severely under-seasoned. I'm usually not a huge fan of rosemary, but in this case I sorely wanted more…well of anything. I actually poured olive oil and used the salt shaker, something I almost never do. The potatoes were done well, but also lacked flavor.

This had us scratching our heads. Lunch was pretty good, well flavored, what happened to dinner. Plus, we seemed to be in the midst of some pretty unhappy customers as most hadn't even gotten their apps yet. We decided to cut our losses and head back to the room.

After all, we'd have to be up early in the morning to grab some breakfast then get to here……

before the masses descend upon the place.

Midweek Meanderings: Anny’s Fine Burgers coming to Clairemont and Jonathan Gold’s 99 Essential Restaurants Rap Style

March 7, 2012 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

Just a quick one for this Wednesday:

Anny's Fine Burgers coming to Clairemont:

Man, it was just a couple of months ago that I noticed Dusit Thai had replaced Mrs. Rice in the strip mall on the corner of Clairemont Mesa and Kearney Villa Road. I guess we didn't need yet another Thia Restaurant in the area……what I guess we do need is another burger joint!

The sign says Anny's Fine Burgers is opening in this spot. I recalled hearing this name before, and yes Cathy has posted on the Santee location of Anny's.

I had thought we'd hit the burger saturation point, but maybe not.

5375 Kearney Villa Rd
San Diego, CA 92123

Jonathan Gold's 99 Essential LA Restaurants, rap style:

Jonathan Gold's decision to leave LA Weekly after almost 30 off and on years was pretty big news to me. The only food critic to ever win a Pulitzer Prize, he was source of some great restaurant recommendations when we lived in LA. Haven't really been keeping up in recent years, but for me it's the end of an era. There was, at least for me, a silver lining. Someone actually did the rap version of Jonathan Gold 99 Restaurants to Jay-Z's "99 Problems." Even more amazing, this person actually ate at each of these places first.

Talk about dedication. JG has indeed earned a Pulitzer, but this dude deserves something. So check it out. My favorite lines are "Oinkster Heart Disease" and "Gorbal's of Steel". Gotta love it!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Madison: What’s in a Name Redux – Ichiban and Fugu

March 6, 2012 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Madison, Wisconsin

I'm not sure if anyone remembers my last encounter with the rather oddly named Fugu Restaurant, which served Sichuan style cuisine in Madison. Of course, there must be explanation, perhaps the place just kept the former restaurant's name to keep the customer base, licensing issues, or perhaps something similar. But what are odds of having two restaurants with Japanese names serving Sichuan cuisine in Madison? Enter Ichiban…..yep good ol' "number 1" in Japanese. Strange thing indeed.

Ichiban:

I had the pleasure of having my Sichuan meals with two wonderful people, YZ who is from Shanghai and YHL originally from Beijing. Having eaten at Fugu the day before, they wanted to check out Ichiban. The restaurant's tables have a slight San Gabriel stickiness to them and would not be out of place in the SGV. The clientele was a bit older than what I saw at Fugu, but almost all conversations were taking place in Mandarin.

We started with Steamed White Meat Chicken with Chili Oil.

The chicken was moist and tender, but the sauce lacked depth. It was indeed fairly spicy as the chili oil and chili flakes added heat. I'm not quite sure if this was supposed to be Ma La Ji Pian, if so, it was missing the mild sweetness or perhaps this was Guai Wei Ji Si, but then it was missing the nice sesame paste and black vinegar flavor. There was also just about no Sichuan Peppercorns at all in this.

Next up was the Zi Ran Yang Rou – Cumin Lamb:

The meat was fairly tender and the dish had some mild heat. It was better than the version I previously had at Fugu, but was still lacking in cumin. Overall, the best dish of the evening.

Next up was the Spicy and Crispy Pork Intestine:

The intestines could have been fried a bit better and the flavors were really lacking.

YHL needed a break from all the spicy food and ordered the Chicken with Corn Soup:

Coming in the middle of the meal meant the soup tasted pretty bland……

We finished up with the Shui Zhu Niu Rou, called Poached Sliced Beef in Hot Sauce on the menu. More familiar to us as Water Boiled Beef.

I really missed the Sichuan Peppercorns in this one. The Chili Paste was either quite inferior or (my guess) they really didn't use enough of it as the color looked a bit off. The beef was adequately prepared. But this wasn't very spicy.

Overall, the food was ok, not a bad try, some "La" (hot), but no "Ma" (numbing). Every dish seemed to be lacking in complexity and layering of flavors. Prices were about 15-20% higher than San Diego.

Ichiban
610 S Park St
Madison, WI 53715

Fugu:

The next day we corrected and headed to Fugu. Funny story, before her last trip to Madison, I mentioned Fugu to YZ. she ended up eating here 3 times! Since there were the three of us we were able to sample a couple of dishes.

We started with the Liang Fen, which I think is on the menu as Sichuan Mung Bean Noodle. Liang Fen is basically a starch jelly which I like, but for many people it's more of an acquired texture than taste of which it doesn't have much.

Hooray, Sichuan Peppercorns! The sauce was a bit too watery, but this wasn't too bad.

Next up was my favorite dish from my previous visit, the "Hot Crispy Pork Intestine".

This didn't disappoint, the intestines were fried to a crisp. Like before, there was only the slightest offal flavor. As mentioned before, I could probably pass this as slightly gamey, weird looking, fried chicken skin. My preference would be for a bit more "ma la" (numbing heat), but I think this is still my favorite dish here. Both YZ and YHL agreed this was much better than the version at Ichiban.

Yu Xiang Qie Zi – Fish Fragrant Eggplant. I believe it's on the menu as Eggplant in Garlic Sauce. A classic dish. You've probably eaten this under the guise of Garlic Eggplant or perhaps Szechuan Eggplant…….

YZ really liked this, probably because it hit some Shanghainese flavor points as I found it a bit too sweet for me. Eggplant was cooked nicely though as it melted in your mouth. Nice vinegar touches, not a bad dish overall.

We also ordered the Pao Jiao Yu - Fish with Pickled Chilies.

My initial reaction was, "where's the Pao Jiao?" Not much pickled pepper action going on and not spicy at all. The fish had a nice, neutral flavor, but was on the mealy side. The sauce was a decent balance of spicy – sour – sweet….but where's the pickled chilies????

We ended the meal with Hui Guo Rou – Twice Cooked Pork.

This wasn't as greasy as previous versions I've had. And though I would have been happier with a bit more savory flavors, the vegetables tasted quite nice.

It was great fun sharing two meals with YZ and YHL….they found my interest in Chinese food somewhat amusing and were great company. YHL did tell me that Fugu was better than the best Sichuan Restaurant in Houston, so I guess that's saying something. If I get back to Madison, I hope to see more of these types of places. Though I hope they go with a proper Chinese name……though the thought of a restaurant named Benihana serving Hunan style food does make me chuckle.

Fugu
411 West Gilman St
Madison, WI 53703

Bolillo Tortas

March 5, 2012 mmm-yoso Mexican Restaurants, Sandwiches

*** Bollilo has closed

A couple of weeks ago, I made one of my rare trips down to the Gaslamp and decided to stop by Bolillo Tortas, which has been getting some good play on some of the local blogs. I'd heard that they made a Torta Ahogada with birote (aka bolillo) from Guadalajara, which got my interest.

The place is pretty easy to find, right across the street from the Horton Grand Theatre on 4th Avenue.

I liked the sleek and modern look of the restaurant. The gentleman behind the counter was very polite and prompt. The prices looked like it had the Gaslamp mark-up and then some…… nine bucks for a Torta Ahogada seemed a bit more than steep. Even though it was pretty early in the morning, about a half past eight, I thought why not just go ahead and get the ahogada….hot sauce be damned. When I ordered, the guy behind the counter asked me to wait for a second to make sure they had the proper bolillo for the sandwich. He then verified what I had heard, the bread did come form Guadalajara. Eventually, the birotes were tracked down, and after paying over twelve bucks for a sandwich and a drink I had a seat outside.

Soon enough my sandwich arrived. It based on the looks and texture, instead of drowning the sandwich, the chile de arbol based sauce had been poured over the sandwich. Still it looked pretty good.

Until you noticed that it took up a bit more than 50% of the plate it was on. Compare the sandwich size to the bacon wrapped jalapeno beside it…….

So either this was a snack sized sandwich or that was the jalapeno that ate the Gaslamp wrapped in a belt sized slice of bacon. I'll let you guess which one it was. Still, if this was great, there would be no complaints.

First off, the bread was kind of gummy, with a texture of the heat and eat genre. The crust was more hard than crusty. It was by no means as good as the bread that El Gallito uses. The sauce was pretty mild for my taste, but I can understand.

The pork on the other hand was moist, tender, with a mild smoke flavor. It was also nicely seasoned.

The bacon wrapped jalapeno was barely marked from the grill and both the texture and taste was raw. The bacon was barely browned and thus had a rubbery texture, which gave you the feeling you were eating raw bacon. The corn was tender and seasoned well with Tajin.

Overall, a mixed bag, but I decided to return for a follow-up a week later. This time I went with the Torta Cubana ($9.75), usually a pretty hefty sandwich, which this was.

This was probably too much stuff for me as everything got pretty much lost in a big sloppy mess. The cheese actually pretty much overwhelmed everything. If you've ever go through my posts on tortas you'll find that I'm pretty much of a single protein kind of guy. I still didn't care for the bread which seemed too doughy. Don't get the steamed vegetables which was very bland, even with the salsas provided. This time, the jalapeno and the bacon were charred and crisp, so perhaps I visited too early the last time. I don't think you'll go hungry with this sandwich.

I really need to try the milanesa, chorizo, and other sandwiches. But I'm not sure how soon that will be. The service was very nice, but the prices are on the high side. When I mentioned this place to Karina, whose family is from Guadalajara, she sounded intrested. Until I told her the prices….."a torta ahogada should not be more than about seven bucks, max, US tourist prices even….."

Bolillo Tortas
417 4th Ave
San Diego, CA 92101

Hours:
Mon-Thurs 8 am – 12 am
Fri-Sat 8 am – 3 am
Sun 8 am – 12 am

Madison – Pho Nam

March 4, 2012 mmm-yoso Madison, Wisconsin, Pho, Travel

Last week I found myself back in Madison. I'd been lucky, none of my previous trips had taken place during winter. Unfortunately, this time I couldn't avoid a February trip. I'd usually drive from Chicago, but there was no way I'd be doing that this time around. Folks, finding out I'm from San Diego seemed to take pleasure in reminding me that I was "lucky" since they were having such a balmy winter, heck it was almost like summer…….weather only hitting the single digits during those rare nights. It was a lovely, summer like 29 degrees as I walked out of the hotel. In truth, in spite of the rain, snow flurries, light rain, and once hail, I never once had to use my gloves, so I guess I should count myself as lucky……..

Being past eight, I ended up going to a restaurant about a mile from the hotel. I'd noticed it on my previous trips.

I thought a bowl of Pho might just be the right thing for a late(for me) dinner. The restaurant looks pretty generic, you could drop it most anywhere here in SoCal and it would seem to fit perfectly.

When I arrived, I kinda went, whoa……apparently Pho ain't cheap in Mad Town. The basic Pho Tai goes for $7.95. not quite sure about which beef choice would be best, I went with the Pho Dac Diet which went for $8.95.

While waiting for my bowl, I rationalized Pho in Madison. Well, beef is fairly abundant, so the Pho should be beefy. I'm thinking noodles, star anise, and some herbs would probably be harder to find and probably be a bit more expensive. My stream of thought was broken by the plate of herbs and bean sprouts arriving at my table.

There was quite a bit of basil, albeit wilted and rapidly turning brown. I was truly surprised to find Ngo Gai, old and dry, very soapy in flavor, but totally unexpected.

My almost nine dollar bowl of Pho arrived soon after:

The broth was low oil, pretty cloudy, and was just mildly beefy. It also lacked any anise flavor and I ended up using almost all the basil. There was a fairly strong onion flavor and the broth, which didn't seem very salty did make me thirsty.

As for the meat, well, most of it was mediocre. As expected, there wasn't much tripe, and the tendon (described as "soft tendon" in the menu) wasn't particularly soft.

The noodles were prepared adequately, but the portion size was on the small side.

Well, now that I've done my Pho due diligence in Madison, I think I'll just move on to something else, unless anyone has a recommendation. Being under eight bucks might be nice as well.

Pho Nam Noodle House
610 Junction Road
Madison, WI 53717

Breakfast of Champions: Lana’i Edition Part 1 – Canoes Lana’i Restaurant and other stuffs

February 23, 2012 mmm-yoso Breakfast/Brunch, Lanai, Loco Mocos, Travel

I have a special place in my heart for Lana'i, though I really haven't visited much since "small kid time" and having not visited for probably about 17 years. My dad was from the island and I still have family there, though I kept this visit on the "down low". Over the years, I've taken the Missus to just about all of the main 8 islands, I'd been to all of them, well except for Kahoolawe, though I've set foot on Niihau. I've taken friends to Lana'i a couple of times, once we rented four wheel drive vehicles and drove to various sites and beaches on the island through the Garden of the Gods all the way to the beautiful and secluded Polihua Beach. In a couple of days we managed to hit all the places, Shipwreck Beach, pass the ruins of abandoned Keomoku Village, even making it to King Kamehameha's Summer Retreat, the remnants of the fishing village of Kaunolu. Still the Missus hasn't been to Moloka'i or Lana'i so I thought a nice relaxing getaway of two days or so might be just the right thing. In the old days, only cessnas made the flights to Lana'i, now larger planes do, but I thought the Missus might just enjoy flying in one of these.

Of course it all kind of starts getting fun when they ask you to jump on the scale to see how much you weigh….in case they have to balance the plane. And then of course, they take you out to the tarmac to board. This is when the Missus said, "that plane looks so tiny….."

Other than the pilot and co-pilot (on the way back there was only a pilot) there were only two other people on the flight.

One of the benefits of having a light load and being early was that the really nice folks took us on a extra pass and we went over and past Shipwreck Beach.

Yes, there really is a "shipwreck" stuck on the merciless reefs of Shipwreck Beach. However, even though the reefs here have been the end of many a sailing vessel, this one is not technically a shipwreck. It is a World War II vintage "Liberty Ship", a concrete ship that was wrecked on the reef along with several others as a means of disposal. While the others broke up and eventually became one with the reef, this one decided that resting on the reef would be its fate for now.

It proves to be a rather haunting landmark, or perhaps I should say "seamark"?

As for Lana'i Airport? Well, here it is…….

You don't really need a car on Lana'i if you want to just hang out and visit th two resorts or the beach. There's a shuttle that runs between the Lodge at Koele about a half mile out of Lana'i City, the Hotel Lana'i, and The resort at Manele Bay. You pay a one time fee of $35 per person, usually tacked on to your hotel bill and you get unlimited use of the shuttle during your entire stay.

I heard that the two Four Seasons Resorts were wonderful places to stay, but I wanted something a bit more, well, unique, in more of a Lana'i sort of way. I booked two nights at the Hotel Lana'i. We used to call this the "lodge" and I think many old-timers still do. It was built in 1924, originally to house Hawaii Pine management and visitors to the island.

But instead of staying in a regular room at the hotel, I went ahead and booked the cottage, located to the left of the hotel building.

Being a couple of yards away from the main hotel, up the walk and separated by hedges from the parking lot, it provided some wonderful privacy.

There was even a deck…….

There's a nice living area and a separate bedroom…..and as another big plus; this was the only room in the entire complex that had a television! The woman at the front desk jokes about the possibility of having me rent out TV time to the other guests. If you've never been to Lana'i, you'll quickly notice that Lana'i City, at the elevation of 1600 feet is a bit cooler than many other locations.

The main businesses in Lana'i City run along two streets, Seventh and Eighth, with Dole Park between them.

One thing you'll notice right away are all the pine trees on Lana'i. That in itself is a quite a story. Perhaps I'll tell it one day.

It's hard for me describe life's pace in Lana'i, so I tend to use examples; like the speed limit is 20 miles an hour, there are no traffic lights, only 17 miles of paved road, 10 of which is from Lana'i City to the Four Seasons Manele Bay!

Even though I hadn't been here in almost two decades, things looked eerily the same. Timeless in a way…… I could easily say these photos of Eighth and Seventh avenues came from a different generation.

We had arrived fairly early and I thought a nice breakfast was in order. I knew just the place I wanted to check out.

This place is now known as Canoes Lana'i Restaurant, but growing up it was the location of S&T Properties. It was probably the most well known and popular diner on the island.

**** Sadly, Canoes Lana'i Restaurant has closed

The Misuse and I decided to split a Delux Loco Moco, not cheap at almost $13, but this was Lana'i. It arrived looking quite good.

Deluxe because it came with fried rice, very local style with calrose rice and full of goodies. The Missus really enjoy the fried rice. But there was another reason for me coming here……the hamburger patty.

You see, the Tanigawa family had a secret recipe for their burgers and it was sold to the current proprietors of Canoes. I was told many years ago that this was the first burger I ever ate, so of course I had to try it. The burger is very soft and moist, very, very soft, like a good part of it is filler and mayo. In a way it makes sense, after all, Lana'i was fairly isolated back then and beef was probably quite expensive. You needed to figure out a way to stretch things while still keeping it sworth a couple of bucks. The patty literally melts in your mouth. The Missus ended up loving this as well, so after a couple of bites, I let Her have the rest. I'd had a couple of bites of my history, it was only right that the Missus get some too……..

Recently Consumed…….

February 22, 2012 mmm-yoso Chinese BBQ, Japanese Restaurants, Turkish Food, Vietnamese Restaurants

After a long day, it's always nice to enjoy a good meal….here are some photos of items recently consumed…..

Though not all of it was great…..

I never left hungry.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Los Pueblos

February 21, 2012 mmm-yoso Mexican Restaurants

*** Los Pueblos has closed.

I noticed that this shop had replaced the taco shop on the premises a couple of weeks ago. I stopped mainly because of the "Regional Cuisines of Mexico" sign. The place was closed but I looked over the menu, which was interesting. It's been kind of busy so I promptly forgot about the place, until I read something on one of my all too rare visits to Chowhound. The folks running the show were the former owners of Chilango's, a place we used to enjoy every once in a while when we first moved to San Diego. This made it a required stop…….I went in with the purpose of getting some take-out.

Though the menu seems vast, it is built around several protein offerings and a couple of vegetarian offerings. The tall, somewhat distinguished gentleman named Jeremy was very chatty and indeed confirmed that he was part owner of Chilangos, though it might not be the Chilangos you remember. They sold the restaurant in 1996……way before we moved to San Diego.

Having not been here before, I'm not sure how much they've done to the place, but it was clean, had a flat screen playing a slide-show of Mexican sites and there's a salsa bar in the back.

I went with the Chicken Pibil Plate ($10):

This was a good amount of food, the corn tortillas were decent and still quite hot when I got home. The rice was on the dry side but quite fragrant and decently flavored. The Missus had the guacamole and thought it was quite good. I had doubts about the black beans because the place doesn't use manteca (lard), but though a bit on the bland side, I enjoyed the texture. The chicken was a bit of a surprise since about all the pibil I've had (all pork) have been roasted. In fact I recall having read that "Pib" is the name of the traditional name of the Mayan oven. This was obviously grlled.

Being that this was white meat chicken, I expected it to be on the dry side, which it was not. Pretty tender too. The flavor was lacking in the sour-citrus tones that I enjoy and I expected a bit more flavor. But it was not bad.

The Missus really enjoyed the Tortilla Soup (bowl – $5.50):

Which meant we returned a couple of nights later when the Missus was in the mood for some soup. This time around the missus went with the Black Bean Soup (bowl $5.50). Loved the flavor of the crema, much more ocmplex and creamy than the usual sour cream you get. The soup itself was much too salty this time around.

I got the special, 3 potato rolled tacos with rice, beans (black), and a agua fresca. The agua fresca, a tamarindo was watered down and bleh. The rice, guac, and everything else was fine……

The rolled tacos were a bit over-fried and too crumbly, the rolled tacos looked to have unraveled a bit and there didn't seem to be much potato in one of them. Not that great in my opinion. Though that would be made up by the third item we ordered……

Mole sampler with Huarache Chips ($6):

The Missus, now a sworn masa lover enjoyed the thick huarache chips, sort of like a crisp flatbread. The Mole Verde was ok, not very memorable. But the Mole Poblano was quite nice. Most recipes for Mole Poblano start at about 25 ingredients, Jeremy told me theirs has 30. Whose counting, right? The mole was nice and complex, though the flavor of cinnamon might be on the strong side, I'm thinking that it was me. Mildly sweet, very creamy, with a light spicy finish. Man, this had wishing they made Mole Poblano de Guajolote, a famous turkey dish from Puebla, one of the items on my "bucket list". Still, the Missus wasn't far off when She told me, this would be great on something…..

And that something happened a day later. I got the Pork Adobado Plate ($10) with Mole Poblano ($2) on it.

I gotta say, I'm not sure how the pork tastes without the mole, but it was moist and tender, and quite delicious, if not a bit too heavy for lunch. It made me want to roll up into a ball in the corner and take a nap. I'm sure to have this again.

Overall, we found the some winners among the dishes at Los Pueblos. There's some unevenness, but hopefully that would be ironed out. The dishes are pretty gringo-friendly, as in somewhat mild and toned down, but the quality seems good. As you notice by one of our meals, you can do vegetarian options quite easily. It is a great option in the area which is pretty full of standard taco shops. The prices are a bit above the usual taco shop, but the fare is also better.

I hope they do well, we need more of these type of eateries in the area.

Los Pueblos Regional Cuisines of Mexico
7081 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

Hours:

11 am – 230pm, 5pm – 9pm Daily.

Sunday Stuffs: Zion Market moving and Yuma’s (not so) new taco truck ambassador

February 19, 2012 mmm-yoso Blog

I was going to combine this with yesterday's post, but decided to do it separately. My apologies, another restaurant post is upcoming.

So what's with the photo of Sear's Essential's on the corner of Convoy and Clairemont Mesa? If you recall, this was also K-Mart….. Well, multiple sources have told me that Zion Market is moving here. Which is great news if you've ever gone during peak hours…the parking, aggressive customers….there was always the "bloodbath" potential. This is a good move for the market as I'd heard rumors of a large Korean supermarket like H Mart coming down to San Diego for a couple of years. The space is huge, so I won't be surprised if there'll be a mandu shop and a couple other food vendors in the store. I also won't have to drive as far when making my weekend morning shopping rounds……

7655 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

As for the (not so) New Ambassador of Taco Trucks in Yuma, you know who that would be, right? Anyway, check out this article from the Arizona Republic.

Anyway, I thought I'd leave you with what must be the ultimate "all-Asia" restaurant. I had an appointment in La Mesa and saw the sign and couldn't help stopping and taking some photos.

Amazing, Sushi, Dim Sum, and Thai Food!

But like the infomercial says…..that's not all.

Let's not forget "American" food…….

I guess this sign sums it up……

And no, I didn't stop and eat. I might though, if anyone can recommend anything that's NOT Sushi here……well, make that might……

Ba Ren is closing at the end of the month

February 18, 2012 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

**** Ba Ren has closed

I first heard about this yesterday and dropped by the place for lunch to today.

It looked like business as usual, no signs, nothing…….until one of the Chef's sons Roy came over to chat while I waited for my take-out. Yes, Ba Ren is indeed closing at the end of February. The Chef and his family is going to take a break and decided what they want to do next.

I gotta say, I'm still kind of shocked….so I'll do a longer post later on. As I sent out texts to my friends and on Twitter, the usual first reaction was…."where am I gonna get my xxxxx, after Ba Ren closes?"

I'd say, make the most of the next eleven days or so…….

I know I'm going to………