mmm-yoso – Page 308

Bargain City: Lee’s Deli

October 30, 2011 mmm-yoso Vietnamese Restaurants

*** Lee's Deli has closed

I was doing some shopping at Minh Huong Market recently, when I noticed that a new shop had opened up in that always packed to the gills strip mall across the street.

Curious, I crossed the street and walked into the tiny little take out place.

And I do mean little. There are three tiny tables in the place, that look like they could barely hold a cup of espresso.

The woman running the place was very friendly and chatty, telling me what were the best sellers on the menu in between the stream of take-out customers, almost all older men. When she handed me the menu I almost fell down…….

Three-fifty? For bun? For Beef Sate noodle soup? She told me that I could have regular or broken rice (which is ironically usually more expensive)for the same price. I just had to find out what a $3.50 Char-broiled pork with Com Tam would look like….. ready?

Here it is.

It was actually not bad. In terms of portion size, this looked like what I grew up eating…..some protein, lots of starch. The pork wasn't too bad either, good flavor, it was actually better than what I had recently had at the San Diego location of Com Tam Thuan Kieu. The rice was decent, not too dry, the nuoc mam cham wasn't watered down……a nice deal for $3.50. It's not going to win any James Beard awards, and I'll for the inevitable ridiculous comparison of "it's not as good as xxxx" which will be three times the price and supposedly specializes in Com Tam. You know what I mean, right? Talk about lack of perspective…..

Anyway, I think this was worth $3.50, what do you think?

Lee's Deli
4748 University Ave #B
San Diego, CA 92105

Open Daily 8am – 10pm

Sort of Çılbır and the Missus’s latest egg-normous obsession

October 27, 2011 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

Ever since I made the mushroom ragout with poached eggs, the Missus, already an egg lover has been requesting poached eggs at every opportunity. I've been trying to oblige though I sometimes wrack my brains trying to come up with stuff on the fly. Here's one of those on the fly recipes. Çılbır is a Turkish dish that features poached eggs on a bed of yogurt. I know it doesn't sound very appetizing to many and frankly I don't think my pictures do the dish any favors….I often have less than 10 seconds after plating the dish to get my photos taken.

A bit too much white on white, not quite the poster child for the National Egg Society or whatever it's called. This is a sorta recipe because I took what I believed was a base recipe and adjusted it to what I had on hand.

First off, you can't have that little oozy delicious poached egg lying in a bed of cold, hard yogurt, can you? We've been trying different brands of yogurt, and though nothing comes close to what we had in Greece and Turkey, I think Voskos plain is decent. Make sure you get something full fat with no starches or gelatin or other hardening agent in it I warmed the yogurt to almost room temperature using sort of a double boiler method. One eight ounce container of yogurt is enough for two (or more eggs). I added three mashed cloves of garlic confit (don't ask, that's another story), though perhaps I should have used raw garlic for a more pungent dish. Sage or some other dried herb is often used, but I don't usually have that on hand so I thought dried dill would be nice. I added about a half teaspoon of that to the yogurt sauce and simply made my bed of yogurt.

I also made an smoked paprika oil, it's usually kirmizi biber a ground chili in Turkey or Aleppo peppers. Also, butter is usually used, but the Missus has some personal problem with using butter in savory dishes…in pastries and baked goods its fine…..but no butter in anything I make. So I used a combination of extra virgin olive oil and some of the oil from the garlic confit.

Topped the whole mess with more dill and a touch of truffle oil and made even a bigger mess…..

Pretty delicious if you like runny eggs and yogurt.

Here's a gallery of the Missus's latest egg-nourmous obsessions…..first up are poached eggs on rosemary-olive oil bread from Con Pane. It's topped with porcini mushrooms, aged parmesan, and a bit of truflle oil.

This one is poached eggs on crispy polenta with a tomato ragout…..

I really should have made my own polenta, but this was a weeknight, so I went with the tube stuff. I used extra virgin olive oil and oil from my garlic confit, salt, pepper, you name it……it still was mediocre. The Missus loved the ragout though. Roma tomatoes helped by some double concentrated tomato paste, basil, sugar, garlic confit, and onions. Had barely five seconds to take this photo……it was history.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great week! Any big cravings recently?

Sunday Sandwiches: Mercury Grill

October 23, 2011 mmm-yoso Burgers, Hot Dogs, Sandwiches

*** Mercury Grill has closed

Here's another in my series on little sandwich shops. Mercury Grill is located in the same strip mall on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard that houses Aria Cafe and Pho Fusion among others. After passing the place several times, the bright red, white, and blue sign finally got me to check the place out.

The interior is full of checkered table cloths and the menu features everything from salads to chili to pizza.

One thing I noticed right away were the prices which seemed pretty reasonable.

One my first visit I went with the Horsy Roast Beef ($4.55) and added in a drink and some fries for $1.75 more.

This was a pretty decent sandwich, not over dressed. The basic horseradish mayo added a nice bit of "bite" to the whole deal. The roast beef was decent quality and the bread was fine. The fries were you standard issue SYSCO/US Foods stuff….

And this was a perfectly adequate lunch. I felt I got my money's worth and left satisfied.

The next week, I happened to be close by during lunch and deciding to move "up the food chain" as it were, I went for the Mercury Burger ($4.25 + $1.75 for fries and a drink).

Again, this wasn't anything fancy, a simple grilled patty topped with a very mild cheddar, tomato, shredded lettuce, and thousand island dressing. I've had much worse over the last couple of months……

The burger wasn't particularly large and this suffered a bit from TMB (Too much bread) syndrome, with the roll being a bit on the dry and crumbly side. On this visit, I noticed two of the guys who work at one of the car dealerships nearby had the Bacon Dog. So on my next visit that's what I decided to get.

The Bacon Dog (sans ketchup) costs $3.49 which seemed very reasonable. With fries and a drink it was about $5.50.

The first thing I noticed was that the cheese wasn't, or would never be melted. I enjoy the texture of melted cheese. This also told me that the temperature of this was going to be lukewarm at best. Second, I wondered where the bacon was…….this was when I noticed that the dog had been split to cook quicker on the griddle. As for the bacon? Well, as I took a closer look, I found pieces of crumpled bacon and not much of it. In fact, there was so little that it really didn't add anything to the hot dog. Also, a good part of the griddled onions were burnt which added an unpleasant bitterness to the hot dog. I removed as much of it as I could.

Well, I guess as Meafloaf says "two out of three ain't bad." Mercury Grill serves up reasonably priced basic sandwiches for the working crowd. The food is simple and unpretentious….though I'm not sure I'm going to order what they call a "pizza" here after I saw one. The breakfasts seemed priced right at $2.75 – $3.90. The hours are rather limited being open from 7am to 3pm Monday to Friday.

Mercury Grill
8046 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours: 7am-3pm Monday – Friday

Cappadocia – Goreme: Selime Cathedral and dinner at Nazar Borek

October 22, 2011 mmm-yoso Cappadocia, Travel, Turkey, Turkish Food

The final stop on the "Green Tour" was Selime Cathedral and Monastary which is dug into the hillside outside the town of Selime.

The location up a slippery (there's no stairs) hillside protected and probably helped preserve the ascetic lifestyle of the monks.

Most of what I've read says that the monastery was carved out of the hillside…more like a mountainside by monks in the 13th century. Though I've also been told that Christian Monks escaping from Roman rule first settled here in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

With all the diverse rock formations, I'm thinking Cappadocia must be a Geologists dream. The "Fairy Chimneys" give the terrain an otherworldly look. In fact, this was one of the area's scouted as the home of the Sand People in Star Wars. One look around you and you can easily see why.

As I mentioned, there are no stairs, you basically scramble up slippery paths up the side of the mountain…this is Turkey, there's no OSHA, handicapped access, or any of that. Many of the paths seemed to have been made by running water leaving tiny round mable like stones which sometimes make the going interesting. I also wondered how folks made it up here at night!

This kept several of the people on the tour grounded. I'm not a big fan of heights, but I wasn't going to miss this….even the ambulance I saw in the parking lot (I'm told it's always there "just in case") and the lack of railings or the prospect of the sheer drop wasn't keeping me form this one. To my surprise, I saw an elderly gentleman who used a walker at the top! Of course, going up is much easier than going down….

I was vastly rewarded for making my way up. The chambers, many of them blackened by smoke and soot had a strange and haunting quality to them.

The cathedral itself has a strangely haunting appearance.

You can easily make out the columns and some of the ornate artwork. You lose perspective and don't quite remember that you're in a cave until you turn around….

Looking closely you see the remnants of the frescoes and artwork……

All of the frescos and paintings that still remain have either the eyes whited out or the faces removed. The Ottomans, in accordance with the laws of Islam of the day practiced aniconism, which prohibits the depiction of the human form. So when the Ottomans took over……

All of the passages between the rooms had me regressing to childhood as I was having a great time exploring……

Of course, eventually we did have to make it down back to terra firma where I learned the answer to an age old question:

Why did the cow cross the road?

Well, to avoid the paparazzi, of course. Kinda corny I know, but this kinda tells you how far out in the country we were…..

Overall, the Green Tour was a very nice way to spend a day……you went from the depths of an underground city, to a walk along a gorge, to climbing up to a centuries old monastery carved into a mountain. And the ever changing topography was fascinating as well…..

We arrived back at our hotel pretty worn out and not in the mood for anything long and drawn out for dinner. In fact, just wanted something small and light. Mustapha suggested Nazar Borek Cafe and gave us instructions on how to walk there. Goreme is pretty small so it's kinda hard to get lost around the square, up in the hills perhaps, but not around the square. In fact, we saw at least eight of the people who were on the tour with us while we had dinner. The restaurant was packed when we arrived and the owner, a classmate of Mustapha's was very apologetic. But things had cleared up over the day, so dining al fresco suited us fine. The Missus decided to start with a glass of the loca wine, which she enjoyed.

As the name states, this place specializes in the stuffed pastries called Borek, of which there seemed to innumerable variations in Turkey.

The Missus actually went with a Gozleme……

She went with the Patatesli Gozleme which is filled with potato, onion, and mint which cost 5 Turkish Lira, less than $2.50 US at the time of our visit.

Remember the really lousy Gozleme was had in Istanbul? This was hundreds of times better and really quite filling.

I got the real winner of the meal when I decided on getting on of the Cigara Boregi.

I got the most expensive version, the lamb at 10 TRY (a bit less than five bucks US). As the name implies, this is a cigar shaped filled pastry and when it arrived it looked just like, say, lumpia…..

It doesn;t look like much, but the light, filo like pastry was very crisp and the lamb was well spiced, but still nice and gamey. It was quite rich and three of these filled me up.

We really enjoyed our evening here. We struck up a conversation with a young man who "works" (a very broad definition – his brother was actually working real hard. He just sat down and chatted) here during te evenings. During the day he is one of the ice cream vendors at Goreme Outdoor Museum. We asked him to do his call for ice cream and he shouted out; "Iiiii….SCREAM….Iiiii….Scream!" When we explained why we found that so humorous, he cracked up. We also found out a bit about life in the area and about him. He was a former soldier in the Turkish military who had seen quite a bit of action around the Syrian border and in other areas. He seemed to be glad to be home and we were happy to have him as company during our dinner.

We also watched the self appointed sidewalk "security guard" as he made his rounds……

He checked out everything in his area…if he didn't like you he'd start yapping. Quite a character!

We drowsily made our way back to the Arch Palace Hotel. The Missus was going to a take a loooong hot shower in the best shower she had on the trip, so I made my way to the terrace and had an Efes Beer even though my previous experience with it was terrible. And heck if it wasn't half decent. I dunno, maybe because this was the bottle version, or maybe because this was Cappadocia, land of fairy chimneys, underground cities, and monasteries carved into the hillsides.

Or maybe it was the view….cause that wasn't so bad either!

Thanks for reading!

Cappadocia: Derinkuyu Underground City and the Ihlara Valley

October 20, 2011 mmm-yoso Cappadocia, Travel, Turkey, Turkish Food

When we arrived back at the hotel after our morning balloon ride, we were both surprised at how early it still was. While grabbing breakfast……the spread was typical of most all the places we stayed at in Turkey.

Except that this one had ezme, the spicy dip…..which I'm pretty sure probably surprised more than a few visitors.

All in all, breakfasts at the hotels in Turkey can be a pretty filling experience……

The subject of "what now" came up. We were here in Cappadocia and there was no way we'd be wasting the rest of the day. We'd planned on doing some hiking but things were still pretty wet due to the yesterdays deluge and it seemed like there would be a bit more rain on the way today. Of course, just like before, this was a job for Mustapha, the owner of the Arch Palace Hotel. We're not big on tours, but Mustapha suggested one of several tours that would take us to areas that aren't too easy to reach on foot. We'd still be doing some hiking, but we'd also be driven around and not have to worry about much. So we ended up at one of the tourist offices waiting to start the "Green Tour"……

The first stop was a scenic look-out spot over Goreme and Pigeon Valley.

Remember Pigeon Valley, it'll play a key role in a future post!

Anyway one of the reasons we don't do too well on tours is that other folks just drive us crazy. We've developed caricatures of generic characters typical of tours we'd take, for instance, in many cases there would be the demanding woman who would want things done her way. Her husband would typically be very quiet, probably henpecked into submission. Should she not get her way, she would initiate "plan B", that would be when the whining starts. On this tour there were the "testosterone boys", always bragging about this or that, trying to top each other. Showing off by running up and down hills, making as much noise as they could…..showing how "edgy" they were. So of course, while we were checking out the view, they decided to torment the "photo opportunity camel".

Being stuck in a van with three grown men acting like sixth graders thinking they were really cool was a bit trying at times. As were the two Japanese young ladies who kept flirting with the tour guide…..

Still, the stops were well worth the irritation. The second stop was at Derinkuyu Underground City. Comprised of eleven floors (some say more since much hasn't been excavated) going down 279 feet this is one of, if not the largest of the forty or so underground cities in the area. It is said that the city held at least 20,000 and by other estimates up to 50,000 people. The air shafts themselves go down over 180 feet.

The story goes, that in 1963 someone was trying to extend their cave house when they went through a cave wall and discovered the passageway to the underground city. There have been relics found here that date back to the Byzantine era.

Many of the passages get smaller as you go down. That's the Missus on the right. She's five foot and weighs barely 100 pounds! The reason for these tapering passageways are simple….many of the folks moved down here for protection and safety. A large army couldn't rush down the passageway, they had to go single file and could be trapped and picked off. There are also large stone boulders that could be moved across the passage and locked into place.

The air shafts also provided water and there are a multitude of rooms which served as cellars, storage facilities, chapels, schools, and such.It's quite impressive if you're not claustrophobic….once you enter various rooms you can get quite confused so you'll need to be on the look-out for the arrows showing you the way up or down.

This was quite interesting……

The next stop was the Ihlara Valley, which is actually a 16 kilometer long gorge. We just did a short hike after walking down the 360 steps to trails which meander alongside the Melediz River which helped to form this gorge over the course of time.

At the bottom of the steps is Ağaçaltı Kilise (Church Under the Tree). The most stunning feature of this tiny cave church is the ceiling which features a fresco of The Ascension.

Notice that all the eyes have been "whited out".

It was a nice short hike in spite of the intermittent raindrops…..

It seems that every valley has its own distinct features which separates it from the others…..

The carrot at the end of the walk was lunch. Now having been on a few of these tours, I was prepared for some fairly terrible food. But the restaurant we stopped at in the valley called Belisirma was not bad. The food was actually Turkish, not some pseudo-westernized, dumbed down facsimile, and I got kinda worried when the Missus ordered the fish…..

The fish seemed very fresh and the Missus enjoyed it.

And I thought my lamb stew was decent, though I'm not a big fan of bulgur.

At least the flavors weren't dumbed down.

The soup on the other hand was insipid, but one out of three ain't bad. And of course this was Turkey so there just had to be a whopping amount of bread with every meal!

I was careful not to eat very much, we still had one more stop. And it turned out to be my favorite!

Stay tuned……

Koon Thai Kitchen

October 17, 2011 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

Man, am I behind or what…… I recall posting about the "coming soon" sign way back in May. Since that time Kirbie's even done a post on Koon Thai. I might not have even given the place a thought if not for PedMa's comments about the place. Eventually I visited, but just kinda waited on doing a post…… I'm not sure why, perhaps it was just laziness. The restaurant itself is located in the former spot of Curry House in the same mall as Sage Cake, Nijiya, Spicy House, and Okan.

I think they did a good job on the color scheme, though it is perhaps a bit too dark. I really like the mural of what else? The Koon Tree, also known as the Golden Shower Tree, the National Flower of Thailand.

I find the tables also to be a bit too small for family style eating….though I guess this encourages me to eat less.

When it's all said and done, there have three dishes at Koon that we enjoy. Unfortunately, my #1 favorite is found on the specials menu, and I've been told that it's not a permanent fixture; the Khao Kha Moo (spelled Khao Karr Moo on the menu – $7.99):

A staple of street vendors and food courts in Thailand, this Chinese influenced dish or stewed pork leg in soy sauce brings me back to Thailand….jumping off a water taxi and being carried away by the intoxicating smell of pork……

I've had this four times at Koon, and on three of them the dish has been spot on…moist, melt in your mouth tender, sweet porkiness, savory soy sauce……just delici-yoso. On my most recent visit, it was a bit dry and the flavor wasn't quite as deep. In case you need a second opinion, I took my friends Peter and Angela (and JohnL) to Koon. Since they tried this dish they've been back four times! I think Pete's worried that they may not have it on the menu any longer so he's getting his shots in while he can.

On one of my visits I asked the very nice Server, by the name of Mam where the cooks came from. Of course she replied "Thailand". After I asked whereabouts in Thailand, Issan, Lanna, Bangkok…she told me Issan, so I immediately ordered the Nam Kao Tod ($9.95), a bonafide favorite of mine. The first time I ordered this dish I requested "Thai Spicy" (that would be a 10) and the really nice young man by the name of Kef (not sure about spelling) seemed a bit worried for me…he came back twice to ask me if I was sure I wanted it that spicy. Eventually, he relented and the dish arrived…..it was about a six or seven on the Thai scale. Kef thoughtfully came back to see if I'd gone into cardiac arrest a couple of times during my meal.

Now just about everytime I see this Lao/Thai dish on the menu (and even at places like Asia Cafe where I don't) I end up ordering it. I've had it at LOS, Sang Dao, and Vientiane Restaurant in Garden Grove. Heck, I've even had in Vientiane as in the capital of Laos. This version was a bit different from what I'm used to. It's very wet, like a Larb, the prevailing flavors are the sour if lime and galangal. It is quite different, but not bad…I still love the crunch of the deep fried rice, though the strong flavors don't allow for much else to come through.

The Missus's favorite dish here is the Pla Sahm Rod ($12).

While not as good as the version at Sab E Lee in Santee, the fish is usually fried to crunchy perfection. The sauce is a bit too heavy in the tamarind department, making it a bit too far on the puckery-sour scale for our tastes. But for $12, this is a good value.

As for the rest of what I've tried:

The duck noodle soup ($6.95), was a bit weak in the anise-cassia flavor department, but had some decent heat.

The noodles were done wonderfully, but the duck was bland and mealy, and the portion size was quite small.

The duck in this dish should have warned me off the Spicy Duck Salad ($9.95), which wasn't very spicy (ordered at an eight), nor did it have much duck flavor.

The Stewed Pork Feet ($6.99) another item from the specials menu had a nice slight sweet soy sauce flavor, but the pigs feet weren't cook to the nice, tender, gelatinous texture I enjoy.

The Moo Ping (grilled pork) wasn't anything to write home about either, though the dipping sauce was nice, if a tad too sweet.

I'd have preferred the pork have more flavor and the sauce less so. The sticky rice that accompanied the dish (which is strange since this is an appetizer, how would four people, or even two share the sticky rice) was overcooked.

The Kra Pao Moo Krob (on the menu as Ka Pao Moo Krob – $9) had all of those familiar Thai flavors; the basil, sweetness, a savory fish sauce…..

The heat was nice, but on the mild side. The pork is more chewy, like a crunchy jerky, not an unpleasant texture for me. This was a decent dish, though my eating buddies, especially John didn't think too much of it.

The worse dish I had at Koon, was one that I usually use to determine the stir-fry skills of a cook. It is the deceivingly simple Pad See Ew.

This was, by far, the worst dish I had at Koon Thai. Not only was it terribly bland, but the noodles were unevenly cooked. It actually looked much more grey than the photo indicates.

Overall, other than experiencing some really bad and rude service during one visit (sorry if we interrupted your social hour young lady), service has been friendly and accommodating. This seems to be one of those places that does a couple of dishes pretty well, which is not a bad thing at all.

Koon Thai Kitchen
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111

Chicago: Kurumaya Japanese Restaurant (Elk Grove Village)

October 16, 2011 mmm-yoso Chicago, Japanese Restaurants

Not being familiar with the area on my last trip to Chicago, I was surprised at finding a Mitsuwa Marketplace almost across the street from my hotel. On that trip, I managed to ask a couple of people for a Japanese restaurant recommendation. Kurumaya, in nearby Elk Grove was the unanimous choice. Thus I made Kurumaya my choice for dinner during my overnight stay in Arlington Heights.

The restaurant is located in a rather unassuming location fairly close to O'Hare.

The interior is also pretty humble looking….in fact the checkerboard tablecloth made the place look like a family Italian restaurant!

There was a sushi bar area upfront and the dining area was pretty large. All the customers when I arrived seemed to be Japanese nationals. And the arrival of the oshibori signaled a good start.

The Servers were all very nice; almost motherly, and the menu was quite extensive. With what seemed to be a little bit of everything from sushi and sashimi to robata type dishes.

What I found really charming were the little black book on top of each table……

Each book was filled with illustrations of the dishes on the menu, combined with ingredients and some little slogan like "good taste!"

An item on the menu grabbed my attention, the Hirame Carpaccio…..it seems that these type of Pan-Asian-European dishes are appearing on menu everywhere. In fact, I make a pseudo version myself at home. I'd recently had the salmon belly carpaccio at Okan, which I thought was really a miss, so I thought I'd check this out. It turned out that I should've passed on this as well.

At almost fourteen bucks, this was a disappointing dish. First off, the presentation left much to be desired as it looked like something you'd find washed up on the shore after a storm. Secondly, there were four slices of hirame cut so thin you could almost see through it. From the wakame to the very salty ikura to the couple of pieces of iceberg lettuce and the ponzu dressing this was very underwhelming…..

I'd also ordered the maguro yamakake, which I later ofund out cost me nine bucks and looked like this….

The maguro had the mushy texture of "saku" (cut and refrozen) fish.

Thinking that I needed a change of plans, I went with the no-fail option, Chicken Karaage….which turned out to be another disappointment.

The portion size was generous, but I was not fond of the batter which was gummy and too thick. I prefer light and crisp. The flavor was very mild and this was all white meat which made the chicken pretty dry.

Usually, at this point I'd be stuffed silly, but for some reason I still had a bit of room. The first three dishes had been pretty disappointing and it was over ninety degrees and humid outside so you could cross off the udon. One of the neighboring tables ordered the gyutan and some other grilled dishes which looked quite pale and I could not make out the scent of binchotan, so no-go there either.

Of course, if my Japanese was worth a damn or if I could read kanji, I might be able to decifer the greaseboard that was presented to nihon customers. Another couple, either sansei or yonsei came in during my meal and didn't get the specials menu either. Though I'm guessing that the women here were so nice that they'd go over the menu with me if I'd ask, but I didn't want to bother them.

There was one thing I could look at….the handy-dandy little black book:

And so I ordered the Butakakuni, which turned out to be the best item of the evening.

Not the most photogenic butakakuni and it certainly didn't melt in my mouth, but the flavor composition was quite good; savory soy sauce with a touch of sweetness. So at least my meal ended on a high note.

As a whole, I really can't recommend Kurumaya and strangely enough, Tajima kept coming to mind while I was having my meal here. I thought the women working here to be nice enough and the menu is vast…..that black book is charming, but I don't think I'll be returning, unless someone can give me a compelling reason to.

Kurumaya Japanese Kitchen
1201 E Higgins Rd
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

Playing Chicken at Noble Chef

October 14, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

My good buddy "JohnL" has been taking some good natured ribbing from me ever since he recommended the Pho at the now defunct Seafood Island. But being the great guy that he is, he still hasn't stopped giving me recommendations. His latest recommendation was from a familiar place; Noble Chef, which I must have posted on a good half dozen times. And still, I hadn't noticed Hainan Chicken Rice on the menu, which John said was really hood. Goes to show, you never know……

I'd been here numerous times and I don't even recall seeing that on the menu. In fact, the first time I went looking for it, I missed it completely and ordered the Chicken in Ginger-Scallion Sauce ($7.75), which was a pretty good sized dish.

This texture of the chicken wasn't to my liking. The Missus calls this "dead" texture, rubbery and over cooked. In fact, this was par cooked ahead of time and then instead of a gently heating, just cooked to death. The sauce was a simple sweet soy that they have in squeeze bottles on the table, somewhat like ketsap manis. Overall, not a great dish, heck not a good dish….

On my out I took a closer look at the menu and….slap to the head, there it was Com Ga Hai Nam, just a couple of lines down the menu! More than a bit angry at myself, I returned at the first possible chance, a couple of days later and ordered the Hai Nam Chicken Rice ($6.55):

I gotta say, this was a good maount of food for the price. But alas, the chicken was pretty much the same as the previous dish I had. It was just too rubbery and dry for my taste. The rice was terribly dry, I believe it to was sitting in the fridge for a bit too long. Not enough chicken flavor to keep my interest either.

Even the ginger-scallion sauce was off, being way too salty. This isn't a very difficult sauce to make, but in this case it seemed like the person making this didn't even taste it.

Overall, these two meals were a bit of a bummer. And my thought that you'd pretty much have to go to a place that specializes in Hainan Chicken Rice in order to get the turnover and quality control right still holds true. A couple of days later I saw JohnL and gave him a bit of a hard time. "Ahem, Johnny….man, i can't believe you actually recommended that to me!"

"Oh-uh….. I guess that's strike two!"

The Noble Chef
6159 Balboa Avenue
San Diego, CA 92111
(858)278-8688

What we’ve been eating……. Oyster Sauce Based Stir-Fry, Asian Stir Fried Rapini, Dill-Caper Celeriac Salad, and one you already know.

October 13, 2011 mmm-yoso Cooking, Loco Mocos, Recipes

Whew, it's been a pretty busy week for me. Mucho thanks to Cathy for making sure both the blog and myself survive to eat yet another day! Since I'm pretty bushed….I thought I'd just go over a coupe of things I've made over the last couple of weeks, starting with one, very familiar dish:

Thanks to my shaky photo taking skills, the Missus actually thought this was an ice cream sundae when She first viewed the photos.

I actually made this the night before the Amazing Graze. I figured I'd need something extra to take me through the day. Actually, I was at Seisel's picking up some calves liver for Da Boyz, when I decided to pick up some ground beef. The bad thing was, Da Boyz's liver was nine bucks…my ground beef two-fifty……yes folks, our household has truly "gone to the dogs"…..

A couple of weeks back I came across some decent looking baby bamboo shoot at 99 Ranch Market, which I ended up purchasing. After arriving home I realized that I had no plan……..

So I ended up lightly blanching the bamboo shoots and doing a pseudo-braise stir-fry with shiitake mushrooms them……

The sauce was an interesting combo, one that I used to make when I still lived in Hawaii…man we're talking fourteen years already!

The Sauce:

4 Tb oyster sauce
2 Tb soy sauce
2 Tb mirin
1 Tb sesame oil

It is a little bit (con) fusion-ny, but works rather well.

Last week the Missus was working pretty hard, so I decided to make something She'd been requesting for a while, a celeriac (celery root) salad.

Since I was also smoking some salmon, I thought I'd tie this into the main course. I added some carrots for sweetness and mixed the following dressing:

1 Tb Dijon Mustard
Juice from 1/2 Lemon
zest of 1 lemon
3 Tb capers drained and chopped (I don't rinse, the Missus loves the briney flavor)
3-4 Tb Mayonnaise
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (this does add flavor, so if you're not a fan canola oil will do)
minced fresh dill to taste
salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar (optional)
a dash of truffle oil

I used a base of baby arugula and topped with bacon. The Missus really enjoyed this. The next day She ate the rest of the salmon with the salad in a sandwich!

Another day, the Missus had to head off to work so I made Her a small bento of sorts:

Yes, that's some roast duck over some sliced cucumbers to help cut the richness…..

But what the Missus really loved was the Asian stir-fried Rapini, also known as broccoli rabe.

The sauce is just a combination of good soy sauce, sugar, and cornstarch. First three dried chilis are scalded in peanut oil, the rapini is added along with a dash of Xiaosing. Three cloves of finely grated (you can't see, but you can taste) garlic is added later. The sauce is added at the end….. Man, this can out really good. And as you can tell, the Missus is getting into different vegetables…….or at least convincing me to cook them!

So what have you made this very hot week!

Sisig Sunday: Porky’s Lechon

October 9, 2011 mmm-yoso Filipino Restaurants

I was quite surprised to hear that Asian Noodles had closed, though on my last couple of visits there last year the food seemed to be a bit tired. Still, I had thought of this as an institution of sorts in National City. In fact, my first post on the place was way back in October of 2005! Even though I was sad to see Asian Noodles go, the name of the new place got me a bit excited……

I mean really….when you have both "Porky" and "Lechon" in your name…..

And when this fellow greets you at the door…..

The interior hasn't changed much since it was Asian Noodles, with just a steam table added…..

And while your porko-phile senses are usually pleasantly assaulted in many of these "turo-turo" shops, here it was basically….well, nada.

Still, noticing that they sold lechon by the pound ($10/lb), courtesy of our friend pictured above and had two types of sisig in trays…actually there's mention of a third, bangus (milkfish) sisig, but I didn't see it on my visit. Well, I thought I'd hit the promised land and ended up buying a pretty good amount of food starting with a half pound of the lechon.

Sadly, the lechon was suffering from steam table fatigue. Poor mister/Ms piggy above had given his very fleshly life for a sadly dry and bland dish. The skin was hard, though the lechon sauce was fairly decent.

Seeing that I was already ordering pork, I went with the Chicken Sisig and Pancit – a single item combo here is $6. And while it's not quite "Tita's sized" it was a good amount of food.

On the good side, this was nice and moist. Chicken Sisig can end up being quite dry. However, there just wasn't enough of a sour component nor heat and pungency(i.e. onions, which also adds a bit of a textural counter-point) for my taste. Even though I knew it wasn't short on salt, based on my thirst afterwards, I found this strangely bland. I mean really…where's the siling labuyo (bird chili)?

And while the pancit was perfectly cooked it also suffered from lack of flavor.

Still, I had the thought that perhaps this was just an off day and returned for more. This time I simply got a two item combo, passing on the pancit and a ghostly pale palabok, and going with just steamed rice with sisig and chicken adobo. The results were basically the same.

This was a tweener sisig, it didn't go far enough to be sisig Pampanga with the gamey pig head flavors and the chewy and gelatinous textures of ear and tongue. There was basically not enough crunch or porky goodness for this to be standard steam table lechon kawale sisig. Not enough onions, vinegar, and spice. Other than the Chinese sausage, you were pretty much left in a vast greasy wasteland.

The chicken adobo was better, but not by much.

It was on the bland side for my taste with not enough black pepper….

Maybe it's my fauly for expecting too much from a place with both "Porky" and "lechon" in its name. Too bad, because the woman working here is very nice and I so wanted that perfect sisig-a-licious meal. I try them out again in a couple of months, maybe things will be better then.

Porky's Lechon
1430 E Plaza Blvd
National City, CA 91950